Ginger bread houses

I still feel the need to go in chronological order and wanted to talk about Christmas and our month of December.


A friend of mine decided it would be fun to decorate Ginger bread houses. We got together one Saturday morning and worked on our creations. It was a lot harder than it looks. They kept falling apart. Luckily I was smart enough to make the kids out of graham crackers.

The best part was eating the treats. Here Parker is already eating the "decorations" and it is barely finished.


It took some time to make the dough and then to roll and cut out shapes. Then we didn't have stiff enough icing to keep them together. My friend's family actually uses caulk. They don't lick their fingers while glueing I guess.

There was no way that mine was going to support a traditional roof, so I had a solar roof. How cool is that? An environmentally friendly ginger bread house.
Of course Stanely wanted get involved with the late night baking when I was preparing my walls. He left an autogragh.

Then there was the question of how to transport this home. As I was trying to put the lid on my cake transporter I smooshed it and had to reglue it again. It crashed shortly after I got home. when the kids asked to eat the candy I was sure, what ever. I was frustrated with my ginger bread house. Next year I am sticking to graham crackers or buying the kit.

My friend Lora worked and worked on hers. I went back at a later time to got a picture of the finished result.

Great Wolf Lodge

In the beginning of December, Jim's company treated us to a weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. It was celebration for the Energycap having record level sales. There was a brief meeting that Jim had to attend, otherwise he was ours to hang out with.


I had never stayed in a resort, but I could definitely get used to something like that. They had entertainment going on most of the time. So you know at night when you want to do something, but there is nothing to do, this place had it all. And you didn't even have to leave the hotel to do any of it.

I was really excited to go to an indoor water park and wondered about stripping down to a bathing suit in December, but the place is kept pretty warm. Kind of reminds you of those rain forests I have been to in a museum.

The Poconos is about 3 hours from us. We decided to cut out trip in half by going a 2 hours the night before and then getting there somewhat early on Sat morning. Parker was very excited to be staying in a hotel. The hotel had an exercise room and I took the boys down to run out some of their energy while I did a little excercise. We did not go swimming that night because we didn't want to deal with wet suits.

Parker was so excited to wear his bathing suit that he wore that day to drive to the resort. We arrived around 11 am. The prime time for check out from the night before. The place was packed. Once we were checked in we could access the water park.

Jim's work picked up the tab for our meals. The food was yummy. Although I had to sign to slip for lunch and with a tip it came to over $55. Dinner and breakfast were served buffet style with several choices to pick from. My favorite was the pasta station. I even went back for seconds. In the morning the pasta station was replaced with an omelet station. The picture below is of the dining area.



The water park is really geared for kids. There were a ton of things for kids to do and a handful of rides for adults. The rides for the adults were enough for me. After a spinning a few times I had had enough. I used to love this sort of thing, but after having babies I get a head ache all too soon. I guess then I can concentrate on my boys having a fun time instead. Parker had a blast. Preston is not quite the water loving boy that Parker is. He tended to be Daddy's boy. He would do the lazy river. I tired to take in the kiddie area and as soon as we entered the water the life guards closed it down due to someone having an accident.



The rooms were spectactular. The kids had bunk beds with their own tv. They thought this was great and so did I. Did I mention the night before we had an awful time getting them to sleep. They were so excited to be in hotel. And we had to go to bed when they did because they wouldn't sleep with any distractions. At least here I could watch my own tv show.


Did I mention that my wrist band that got me into the water park had a chip in it that unlocked our room? How cool is that?

When it was time to leave the next morning, we were all tired and rested in the car on the way back home as Jim drove us. What a fun weekend!

What is Parker doing?

Parker can sure find ways to get into mischief. When it gets quiet that is the que to go and see what is going on.

He dumped out oatmeal and then jumped on it here.

My Mom had come up to help me clean up and then he destoyed it all. So frustrating. Yes I did make him help clean it up.


So you may not know this, but I like to sleep. I am not a morning person, but sometimes Parker is. He has been known to get into mischief while I am sleeping.

The following are things that I have woken up to find.

He moisturized Preston.
and himself.

He has emptied countless boxes of Kleenexes. I thought of buying him his own box to pull out all the tissues, but feared he would then think it is ok to pull out all the tissues.
He has eaten various sweets. He always is kind enough to share with his brother. This is a cake left over from our cake decorating class. He has gotten into chocolate chips and brown sugar to name a few.This is our stove hood. It was secured by 4 screws that you slide into a groove to hold it into place. I keep treats upbove the stove in these cupboards. He was climbing up to get something and the stove hood came down.
Sometimes Jim pulls me out of bed when he leaves for work and Parker is up and ready to take on the world. A lot of good this did.


And here is Parker taking a self portrait.

My Weight Watchers Experience

So early last spring my clothes started to get a little snug. In the past 4 years I had been pregnant or breastfeeding and turned 30 during that time. I was either going to have to buy new clothes or do something about it. I had tried "dieting" on my own and exercising on my own, but could never lose weight. My Mom and Sister in law had done Weight Watchers and it worked for them. So I told Jim we were joining together and looked up on line where the nearest center was. We had 1 last week of eating anything and everything we wanted. I remember my first weigh in day eating all kinds of candy.



When I got on the scales, I was heavier than I expected. No wonder my clothes were tight. They gave me a book with point values for different foods. We stayed for the meeting and short a instructional period of how to eat healthy, portion size, and making better food choices. I read all the literature they gave me and started writing down what I was eating.

At first I was hungry and then I learned to make better choices, oatmeal will fill you up longer than a bowl of cereal. Portion size, it is amazing how much one thinks a serving size is until you measure it out. I stayed with in my point allowance and started losing weight. The program really worked.

I think I had this imaginary number in my head of what my weight should be, however I got to a point that I kept hovering around a different number. I think my body was trying to tell me something. It took a while for me to accept that having babies and getting older changed my body. I don't think I will ever get into those size 6 Gap jeans in my closet. I am ok with that now. I feel better about myself and even feel better physically.

At my best I lost 20 pounds. They reward you with stickers and I love that they don't take your stickers away if you gain some of the weight back!

I decided on my goal weight and was already there. I kept thinking I could lose 5 more, but I could maintain where I was and be happy and satisfied.

Some of the changes I have made:

• I eat oatmeal for breakfast
• I eat more fruits and vegatables
• If I crave something sweet, I have a piece of fruit first or a sugar free drink
• If I have the munchies, I munch on popcorn or carrot sticks
• I make my own salad dressing
• I have discovered WW snacks or 100 calorie packs
• I eat Frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, and I can find all the frozen yogurt places to eat at
  

I still have my weaknesses and try to limit myself. So if I buy M & Ms, it is the small bag for $0.70 rather than the medium size bag at Wal-mart for $2.99. I allow myself to spurlge after weighing in, this usually consists of some candy, cold cereal and milk. I have had to cut back on my milk consumption. I prefer 2%, so I only drink 1 glass a day.

The Birthday girls

I share a birthday with my Grandma Belva. So when we can we celebrate together. This year was no different. I spent the weekend with my family celebrating life and eating good food. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
My Mom got out the reigniting candles. Jim thought is was payback time for the year I did this to him. It was good for a laugh.

The day before I dressed like a babe, because I was the birthday girl and I get to do what I want. I actually miss getting dressed up. Sometimes I do it and Parker asks where I am going and I tell him I like wearing skirts or nice clothes. I just tend to get dirty so I don't wear them very often. We took some fun family pictures.