Punching

One of the gifts that we got for Eli, Josh and Morgan were their own punching gloves.  Naturally the boys had to try them out once we were home.

SNOW STORM!

Thursday morning we awoke to 10 inches of snow.  Morgan and I went out and started shoveling. One neighbor is disabled and the other is in her 80's, so we cleared their driveways as well. Our snowblower wouldn't work most of the time because the snow was too heavy and thick.

When our kids got too cold we sent them inside. Then, not wanting to leave them unattended I went and asked our elderly neighbor if she would be willing to sit with them while we cleared the snow.  I have to admit, I kind of ambushed her. How can she say no when we are clearing her driveway?

LOTS of snow. 

Eli and Josh did have both Thursday and Friday out of school, so we did not have to worry about driving in the craziness.

At the Lasleys!

Friday after Morgan got done with work we headed down to Chillicothe.  Shannon & Kyle were home from Idaho and Ginny was back from BYU-Provo.

E & J playing games with Aunt Shannon 

Sledding

Even though Chillicothe only got 2 inches of snow the kids were able to find a hill to sled down.

Eli,  going down the hill. 

Eli 

Pete, Anne, Guy and Oma 

Josh

Josh and the make-shift sled 

The sled was made from a piece of pallet plastic and a rope.  Not bad at all.

Emily and Oma 

Melissa, Josh, Henry, Pete and Emily

WHITE ELEPHANT PARTY!

Sunday we had a White Elephant party. It was a lot of fun. Morgan ended up with a beautiful flamingo, Josh got a marshmallow gun, Noelle got a Wreck it Ralph Book, Eli got a owl, and I got a portable grille.

Kyle got the gift that I brought (although I forgot to get a picture of it). It was a cookie jar shaped as a policeman. If you lifted up the lid, the cop would blink his eyes, and move his mouth and say

"Stop. Step away from the cookie jar."

Eli was told that his owl was a Great Horned Owl, so he named him Horny

Noelle and Anne, wishing they were outside. 

Time for Christmas!

We did presents and such on Christmas Eve this year. It is actually a Lasley tradition, in order to make Christmas a more mellow day where we can focus on family and the True meaning of Christmas. This year we also did it so that Shannon and Kyle could participate before they went to visit his family in Manchester.


First we opened stockings. Eli and Josh got toothbrushes, candy and soda pop.  Noelle got toothbrushes and a set of keys.

After stockings we had to wait around a bit to talk to Uncle Dan in Honduras who is serving a mission. He was a little late calling on Skype so the kids hang out in the hammock in the basement.

Presents!

Noelle got a stroller from Oma and a baby doll from Mom and Dad

Anne got this fun twisting toy from Oma, and shared it with Noelle for a bit. 

Santa!

Yesterday Santa Claus came to visit us!  The kids were so excited to have him with us. He surprised each of the kids with an early Christmas present.

Noelle was just standing in front of Santa with her hands out, waiting for her gift. She was mostly patient, since she was the last one to get a present.

Josh and Eli with Santa!

Noelle let Santa pick her up and she just cuddled into his side.   It was very cute. 

Morgan got to sit on Santa's lap too. He was a pretty good boy this year. 

Eli the King

Sorrow

Can I just say that I started crying when I heard about the shooting at the Connecticut elementary school. I am having a hard time getting over it. I don't know all of the facts, as obviously there is very little being said about the whole thing yet.

I had heard that a gunmen walked into a Kindergarten classroom and just started shooting. One news thing said that 26 people have died, another puts it at close to 20 with 10 of those being children. I cannot imagine what those parents and teachers must be going through right now.

I immediately pictured Eli in his 1st grade classroom and how vulnerable he would be. Just watching someone shoot and kill the students around your, it must have been terrible.

I admit that one of the first things that came into my mind was how the school was a Gun-Free zone. I knew that none of the teachers or administrators at the school had anything with which they could stop the attacker.

I don't know what the answer is. But children should never have to go through that. Part of me is glad that the gunman is dead, part of me thinks he shot himself after he came what he did to do, and part of me wishes that we could know why. As if knowing why would suddenly allow us to find a way to stop this from ever happening again.

My prayers go out to those families.

Health

I try to get all of my exercising done before the kids get up in the morning. Noelle especially loves to try and climb on me when I am doing push-ups or anything else on the floor. Although sometimes she will 'exercise' with me, which is pretty fun to see.  Eli and Josh like to get in on the action too.

Noelle has got her leg up doing a leg lift too. She is also Grunting with exertion.

I have also been following along with the Lifetime Wellness Challenge. It is awesome and I would recommend it to anyone looking to lose weight or just get healthier.  I am thinking of officially doing the challenge again in January.

Anyway, this is my After shot from this past 8-week challenge. I was following a maintenance track after reaching my goal weight of 140 pounds. I was able to maintain my weight the whole time, although I did reach a new all-time low of 138, but that was a 1 day thing.

My personal goal during this challenge was to maintain my weight and to try a new exercise video every week. I did that, even though some weeks it was a struggle to want to do something new. I learned that I love Jillian Michaels because her work outs don't talk down to you and they work whether you are a brand-new beginner, or someone who has been doing them for a while.

I also learned that it is important to start with the most basic instruction of Tae-Bo. I had a beginner tape, but not the instructional video and it was difficult not knowing how to properly do the moves.

My reward for reaching my goal is to take Morgan out to see Les Miserables in the theater. I am thinking of making him go Christmas day, right when it opens. Then again, I hate to make people work on Christmas so I'll probably do it a different day.

Now that the challenge is over I want to train for a Triathlon. I found one that will be May 4th in Waverly and I really want to do it. It has an indoor swim of 300m, a 15-mile bike ride and then a 5K run. I've done long bike rides before, and I have run a practice 5K, so swimming is the only part that I am concerned about....other than putting all three activities together. I think it will be a lot of fun though and I look forward to the challenge. 

Morgan has been doing the challenge as well. He is looking good!

Decorating for Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas. This year it didn't really feel like it was time because we hadn't had any snow.   Here are some pictures of decorating for Christmas, and just hanging out.

Sweet Noelle and her crazy hair. 

Noelle and Josh wrestling on the chair. 

Morgan and I were given this cross-stitch by his 2nd cousin Doris. 

Noelle has so much fun playing with the blocks, that we can't stop ourselves from taking pictures of her.

She's saying "Cheese"

Morgan had to do a lot of work to get the lights on our Christmas tree working, but they looked great once he finished.

The kids had fun putting the decorations on the tree.

Window Projects

Normally Morgan and I don't have any window treatments in our living room. We like having as much natural light as possible. However, now that it is cold and dark so early I wanted to put some curtains up. But I'm pretty cheap, so this is how I did it.


1. I used the old curtains that used to hang in the house.

2. I bought tension rods to put the curtains on.

3.  I sewed a strip for the tension rod to go through.  The curtains had a weird way to be connected and I threw all of its old pieces away. I needed a new way.

4. The first curtain was too heavy for the tension rod (it went all the way down to the floor). So I cut off  about two feet from it to lighten the load.

This is before the curtain was cut. 

5. I did a quick, roll-over sew to make the bottom nice and smooth, although it isn't straight or anything.


6. I put up all of the curtains and this is the finished product!

I think it looks pretty good. The dusty pink works fine with our green walls, and this is only going to up during the winter months.