Blurp

Austin brought home a book from school yesturday with pictures of all the kids in his class. With each picture was a little information about each child. The last thing on the page was a sentence that the child obviously finished. It said "I love" ... and then the teacher wrote in what the child said. These were common answers: oreos, pizza, dogs, my toys. Austins said, "I love playing with my brother." Made me smile!

Kia Ora

I did it! I attended my first Les Mills Training this past weekend. It was ... well, words can't really describe how it was. I got there at Noon on Friday with absolutely no idea what to expect. As I walked into the gym I saw what was obviously my class sitting awkardly in one corner waiting for what ever insructions we were going to get. I instantly did what everyone does in that situation and scanned the people. There were the two "cute" girls who's clothes matched. The nice looking, obviously people person, little ball of muscle whom I only assued would be our instructor (I was right) & the guys, there were only two of them. Then a lot of other women who seemed to be waiting just as I was. I noticed right off the bat that I clearly missed the memo about wearing red and black. I learned later that red, black & gray are the Bodypump colors but I had no idea that was the case going into this weekend.

We headed upstairs into what soon became "our home" and set our stuff down. I am naturally a shy person so I stuck to myself and watched as the bouncy, athletic people traveled around the room and got to know each other. The first people to introduce themselves to me were the two matching girls, Jen and Allie and they truly were very very nice! Before too long our instructor, Maria Long had us all in a circle and was teaching us about the history of Les Mills. It was originated in New Zealand and was influenced by the Maori people. She explained some of the Maori traditions and then we as a group got to practice one. One by one, in an organized manner we all looked straight into the eyes of these strangers, butted heads and said "Kia Ora" which literally means be well/ be healthy. Yeah, a little awkard staring into the eyes of complete strangers & then butting heads. But it did exactly what our instructor wanted it to do. It broke down that wall that each of us had placed around us. Weather we knew it or not it was there when we walked into the gym and was gone by the time the head butts were done. And the rest of the weekend we became a family, a tribe. We are tribe Dallas!

We did it through group games, Bodypump classes, extreme challenges, drawing pictures, watching motivational videos, watching videos of ourselves, eating together and much more. Through each of these we learned a little bit more about how to better our teaching. Weather it be through the coreography, the tone of our voice or by creating fitness magic everything we did tied back into making each of us the best we can be!

We did just what a family does, we helped one another! We taught each other technique, we helped each other with timing and choreography. Basically we encouraged each other to do our best and supported each other when we were having a hard time. We were trully happy for the other person when they did their best. There was no feelings of competition!

Now that the weekend is over I get to continue my Bodypump journey. It's time for me to set up my team teaching and get 100% ready for me to film my video! Even though it will take a lot of work and a lot of determination I am so "pumped" to get moving! Kia Ora Everyone!

"Snacker"

A couple weeks ago we went on a beaustiful house boat with Jaren's family and Austin caught, killed and ate his very first fish! A little history to this. Last summer Austin asked if we could go fishing so we went and bought all the stuff and took him fishing. His interest in fishing has not died down since then but taken has grown. So needless to say we took the fishing gear on this trip. Well since day one he has wanted to catch & eat a fish. That happenned this trip and the thing was SO WEIRD for me to watch!

After he caught it there was absolutly no emotional attachment to that fish what so ever. In fact he named it "Snacker" becuase he was about to eat it for his snack (it was tiny and the final outcome produced about an ounce of meat). He walked with his Dad, Grandpa and Unlce over to the shore where they then cut off the fish's head, all this time Austin was not at all bothered by it! He watched with excitement as they cooked it and asked his Grandma to please cut up a lemon to squeeze on it. Here are the pictures of the him actually eating his fish! I died laughing when I saw them!

Here is anxiously awating his "snack"!

You can never have too much lemon juice on your fish!

Fisrt Bite!

Austin exact words were "That was ... Lemon!"

I LOVE his face in this picture! It looks like were forcing this upon him, he looks like he may vomit any second but he voluntarily kept eating all on his own! He WAS going to finish that "snacker"!

Ugh! High Five from Dad!

Just a typical day with the kiddos!

Today Amy invited us to go to lunch with her. Why not? Chili's was feeding kids for free if you ordered an entree so we tagged along. Amy & I were in some clothes we threw on after the pool. Our hair was still in the process of drying. Pretty much no make-up but overall we were having a good time. Towards the end of the meal all three kids started to dance and sing on the bench. They were standing up, shaking their arms, jumping, yelling! Pretty soon they were wrestling! On and off the bench, rolling into the isle! As much as Amy & I tried to calm them and get them so sit it just wasn't working! But they looked so stinkin' cute! Couldn't the people in the resteraunt see that? I looked across the isle at the ladies sitting next to us. Their table was clean! Their hair and make up was done! They were wearing cute clothes! I nodded to Amy and said, "Look, that'll be us in a couple years when all our kids are in school!" But for now I am so happy they aren't. I have watched most of my friends send their children to school this year and I feel so blessed to have Austin home with me for one more year. Every day I try and remind myself that this time will soon be gone. I am excited to see what this fall and winter have in store for us!

Like I said, our hair was still in the drying process. Here we are in all our glory trying to turn wild savages into decent human beings! LOL! That was a joke!

Hey, why not wrestle in the middle of the resteraunt isle!

Here they are! Don't worry, I didn't creepily take this photo without their permission. I asked first and they were fine with it! See what I mean? Clean table! Nicely put together with clothes and make-up! Look nice don't they?

Family Home Evenings

A while back we had a short little side lesson in RS about FHE. A mom whose kids were all older got up and talked about how she made it work and why it's important. It was the exact thing I needed at that time. My lessons up until that point had been WAY TOO LONG and my kids never paid attention. It was kind of hit and miss cause I hated forcing them into something that just turned out to be a fight. But she gave me such wonderfula divice and it has completely changed our FHE's. She said your lesson, actual doctrinal lesson should be as long in minutes as your youngest child. So since Caleb is 2 our lessons are right around two minutes long. We usually follow it up with a song or a game or both but the bottom line is my kids now like FHE, I like it. I feel as though most nights they take something away from it.

A couple weeks ago I did a lesson on a testimony tower. I got three blocks that stacked nicely and I tried to battle my way through the most unproductive FHE lesson as of yet. While I tried explaing that our testimony is built on Prayer, Serivce and Scripture Study the boys fought over the blocks and ended up in tears. I gave up, got some more blocks and decided that although this week was a flop there was always next week.

A day or two later Austin came and got me to show me this...


It was his own testimony tower! He went through and told me what each one meant.
Bottom: He knows the church is true
Bridge: Heavenly Father is really there
Middle Orange: Jesus is really there
Green: The Holy Ghost is really t
Purple: H ecan talk to Heavenly Father through prayer
Blue: I don't remember(dang it)
Left Orange: Jesus will come again
Right orange: Satan is really there

It really made me happy to see that the effort I have been putting into our lessons are working!

On a nother note we played this game a while back and the boys loved it. You may want to try it, so easy and fun!

Happy Birthday Dear Sally!

For those of you who don't know we have a very important member of the family who I may have forgotten to mention in previous posts. Sally! She is Austin's pet, stuffed turtle. And a while ago Austin informed me that it was Sally's birthday and we needed to have a party. So a party is exactly what we had!

The start of the gunny sack race! Caleb was so cute because he didn't know how to use the sack so he just wrapped it around him like a towel!

Tate won the gunny sack race

Austin taking a swing at the pinyata.

Eli looking cute as ever!

All the kids waiting their turn to pin the tail on the donkey

A dizy Tate!

Caleb pinning on his tail!

All the kids were so CUTE! They all knew they were there for Sally's party and thei made sure to include her in everything! Anytime we went from one activity to the next they were all concerned that someone would leave Sally and she would misss out on all the fun. So they made sure she got her cake!

A good old game of Duck Duck Goose!

Caleb being chased by Tate in their game of Duck Duck Goose

Tate making sure to include Sally in the game!

All the kids that came out to celebrate Sally's birthday! Thanks guys. I think Sally will remember it for years to come!

Excited? Nervous?

Both! After I graduated BYU I got my "dream job" ... managing pools! I know it's not anything super amazing or life-changing but it was what I wanted to do until I had kids. Infact if you would have asked me when I was at BYU what I wanted to do, my answer would have been, "graduate and manage pools until my husband (whoever that is) is done with school." That went exactly as planned and my three years of running the pools, lifeguard programs, swim lessons and water asrobics for the YMCA of Central Texas may possibly be some of the best memories I will have. But when the time came to be done I felt ready to be done. I was incredibly happy that I got do exactly what I wanted but I was ready to move on, to stay home and raise my kids.

Five years later ... I have a different feeling. What on earth am I going to do all day while my kids are in school? Now keep in mind that Austin isn't even in Kindergarten yet but still I wonder this alot. Work full time? Absolutley not! I want to be home when my kids get home from school. I want to chaperone their field trips, I want to attend soccer games and maybe even be the little league coach. So full time was out of the question. Well part time? What could I do? Starbucks? Target? Maybe even the Library? Those all sounded boring to me and besides that I wanted something tnat required growth, learning! Photography? I could learn all about it...be the best! Take professional pictures for people and master photoshop! I kind of liked this idea, even begged for photoshop for Christmas one year(and got it) but I never really learned to love it. So I decided to turn to what I have been secretly wanting to do for a really long time now! Branch out and teach more group x classes other than just spin!

This is perfect for me! So very very perfect! I get excited just thinking about it! This way I can do all the things with my kids I still want to do, I will be there when they get home from school. I can still host their classroom parties, I can be the little league coach and go on the field trips. But there's more to it than that. I love it! I have a passion for exercising! I so often wonder what happens to people as they age that makes it so they no longer enjoy moving their bodies? I am so excited to share my energy with other people. So I have registered for my first Les Mills Training!



There is a huge part of me that is nervous for this. What if I can't lift heavy enough weights at the training? What if I can't get the beat to the music right? What if my form is wrong? What if I go through the whole training and then mess up on the video I send in(yes you have to send in a video of you teaching before you can get the certification)? It's all very scary to me but I think thats part of what makes it exciting. I have found what I am looking for, something I'm excited about but will also challenge me. Something to help me grow! And on September 16th I will be there in my work out clothes ready to be challenegd, ready to sweat and ready to have a good time!