Shredder

Santa (aka Russ' Mom) brought me The 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels for Christmas.

I tried it this morning.

Oh. My.

Reasons The 30 Day Shred is maybe not for me:

1. I don't really care that much about 10% body fat. I just want to fit into my size 10's (don't judge, Size 4's!).
2. I did *maybe* 10 minutes and I feel like I'm going to throw up all those mini Reese's peanut butter cups I ate this morning.
3. It was a workout just to get throught the 2 minutes of jumping jacks.
4. I have never been able to and probably won't ever be able to do a push-up...not even the girl ones.
5. I would rather do all cardio than any strength training...ever.

This is going to be a process.

The Season to be Jolly...

...has come and gone. What happened to this year? It's flown by so fast!

We had a wonderful time with Russ' family for Christmas. Chloe Jo did great on our trip, though it was much shorter this time. It took us 4 hours to get there, but only 3 1/2 coming back due to the weather being better and Chloe Jo slept the whole time.
This is the outfit Russell gave Chloe Jo for Christmas.
It's perfect and so true!

This is Russ' parents tree with all the presents under it. OH MY! We stayed with his brother and his family and we even opened our presents to each other there. I really couldn't believe how many presents there were!

This is Chloe Jo opening a present from Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Bailey. It was a LeapFrog alphabet toy. Does anyone else love LeapFrog as much as I do?

We hadn't seen Russ' parents since Chloe Jo was born so it was nice to get together with them. His dad is a goober!

This is Alli Brooke. She is Josh (Russ' other brother) and Liz's (Josh's wife) little girl. I think Chloe Jo has a strong resemblence to her (and Russ' side in general) and she will probably continue to look like her as she grows.

This is David Wayne (or D.W.). He is the newest member of the family and is Jeremy and Bailey's. He looks just like his Dad and also got that family gene.

This is Josh and Liz's son, Marcus. He is obsessed with Thomas the Train.

Yikes.

We had Christmas with my parents on Sunday. We didn't get to get together with my sister or brother this year since we did that at Thanksgiving so it was just my parents, my nephew (who is staying with my parents for a week) and us.

As if all the toys and clothes she had already opened from us and from Russ' family weren't enough...

She got two big toys from Grampy and G-Jo. Russ and I are really needing that third room now!

I love this picture! Her belly poking through the handles on her toy is so cute!

To top off the holiday we came home and this afternoon Chloe Jo spiked a fever. I thought she was just teething this morning because she had a bad night and woke up cranky and has slept most of the day, but she started feeling warm around lunch time. I called her doctor's office and they gave me some advice so I am trying to get her fever to come down. It's a lowgrade so it's not too concerning at this point. Hopefully she will be feeling better in the morning.

This is such a sad face. There wasn't anything I could do at that point to comfort her so I took a picture instead. She has just been so pitiful today!

Our Christmas!

Russell, Chloe Jo and I had our family Christmas last night after Wednesday evening Bible class. We are going to be traveling today after Russell gets off of work and will be out of town until Saturday evening.

We opened our stockings first.

Russ was super excited to get undies from Santa in his stocking!
Russ and I didn't have very many presents but we sure spoiled Chloe Jo. It was so fun to watch her open her presents!

We gave Chloe Jo her first Cabbage Patch Doll (one made for infants) and she loved it. I'm so excited that she liked it. I hope she will love them as much as I do.

The CPK's name is Johanna (with a hard "h" sound) Sylvia. Chloe Jo was so excited to see what was underneath all that wrapping paper and she was excited to be ripping up the paper!

Russell was also excited to be getting to open up presents.

Chloe Jo entertained herself with the wrapping paper while I opened up some of her new toys.

I was super excited to see Russell open this present from Me!
And his reaction didn't disappoint. He was thrilled to get this Ankiel jersey!
Chloe Jo loved playing in the wrapping paper after we opened everything.
She sure made out well with a lot of new loot!
We even let her play with it for a while before she went to bed (at 10:30!).

This is her favorite toy so far. I think it will help her with her crawling because she sure loves those balls and she goes after them when they roll away.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas and I will update when we get back from our trip!

First and Last Time

I finished yet another crochet project. This is the last one for a while....well, there is this one blanket I've been wanting to try...

Anyway, I am a believer in the fact that there are just some things that don't need to be crocheted. Like underwear. And neck ties. And baby onesies. Clothes also are on my list (except maybe jackets). Anyway, so I found a pattern for a cute top and wanted to make it for Christmas. It turned out okay.
I should have used a much thinner yarn so it wouldn't make me look like Shamu.
And for whatever reason, the seam in the back turned out diagonal. I have no idea how that happened and it looks awful!

This is the first and last time I crochet clothing!

P.S. My hair is wet in these pictures, not dirty!

Snore Baby

Chloe Jo has taken to snoring just like her Papa. You may have to turn your volume up to hear it. It's too cute!!! It's not cute when Papa does it, though!

Road Trip!

This weekend has been crazy! We left before 7:00 a.m. on Saturday to drive 10 hours for Russ to try-out at a congregation for their preaching position. Chloe Jo did really great the whole time. She only cried for the last 45 minutes coming back home! She did sleep a lot on the road, but slept all night so I can't complain. So what did we do to keep ourselves entertained on a 10 hour road trip?

1. I took lots of pictures.

2. I sang a few songs.

3. Chloe Jo stared at me while I sang a few songs.

4. I took video of myself.

5. We saw funny billboards.

One billboard said "And God so loved Memphis. John 3:16" I don't think Memphis is actually mentioned by name in that verse!

Another said "Booze it and lost it." I think they just made a grammatical error...but, they are from the south so who knows!

6. We went sight-seeing. This actually turned out 10 hour drive into a 12 hour drive on the way back.

This capitol building was quite beautiful with it's marble and stained glass. And of course it was decorated for Christmas. I've never had the pleasure of being in a capitol building around Christmas time.
We had a good trip and really enjoyed the area we went to and the congregation we worshipped with. Hopefully they felt the same about us!

19 Kids Too Many???

Ever since Josie Duggar was born, the family has been on my mind. Little Josie, who is #19 for the Duggars, was delivered 3 months prematurely at 1 pound 6 ounces. She is in stable condition, but with an infant that small, things can change in the blink of an eye. I feel horrible for Josie, but I am also mystified at Jim Bob and Michelle's reasoning in having 19 children. They say that they want the Lord to decide and that they will accept as many blessings as He sees fit to give them. The thing is, though, that they've missed part of the big picture. The Lord also blessed us with the skills to reason and the ability to choose. As in, if you have many children and you are now considered AMA (advanced maternal age), maybe you should not have any more. Do they even consider the risks or do they just blindly follow the delusion that God wants them to risk Michelle's health and the health of future children in order to bless them? I don't really see the logic in this course of action or thinking. God gave us reasoning skills and we should not just ignore the. My reasoning and logic say this:

1. A woman's body is designed to have babies (though some of us continue to struggle with even having one or two), but a woman's body is not designed to have 19!

2. After having 13 babies by the age of 35 (which is the starting age of AMA), you should probably quit having babies because of the rise in health risks for you and your babies.

3. Since Josie was delivered due to pre-eclampsia, the risk of Michelle having pre-eclampsia again is very high. Plus, add into the equation that she is 43, her risk is even higher.

4. The risk of prematurety, down syndrome and other birth defects gets higher the older a woman gets.

5. Pre-eclampsia ranks #1 in reasons for maternal deaths.

These are only a few of the reasons that I believe it isn't good for a woman to have 19 babies. The list above doesn't take into consideration that, essentially, the older kids are raising the younger kids because Jim Bob and Michelle won't quit. There isn't enough of the two of them to give each child the attention they need from their parents. Some of the children could grow to resent them because of their choice in havin so many children. Plus, if all of the children have just 5 children of their own, they will have 95 grandchildren. This also means that these 95 grandchildren aren't going to be getting the one on one attention they need from that set of grandparents. I think what they are choosing to do is just sad.

Although, I must give them kuddos for their children being well behaved and for the fact that they can support their brood.

Also, I don't think that a woman who was never able to have a child or who isn't done building their family should just stop trying because they reach AMA. I just think it's selfish of the Duggars since they already had 13 children by that time.

One more thing: If their reasoning to not use birth control is religious, I respect that, but their are other ways to prevent pregnancy then the common methods (i.e. the pill, IUDs, etc.).

Cutie Patootie!