2 + Weeks in the Life 1/8-1/23

So, the Very Bad Thing about not writing a blog post in a couple weeks is you sort of forget everything that happened in that time frame. We had our first snowfall, which the kids have had a great time playing in. Justin went to NYC for four days to scout out drill team performance locations. Justin also had his very first gig with drill team on the 21st. He got to do the narration during a half time show at a basketball game downtown. Justin was very excited and pretty nervous too - which was cute :) He spent a good two hours practicing with me the night before.

Lukas has surprised me constantly with his lego creations. He spells out the letter "L" in legos (which he knows is the first letter of his name), the number "5," and he has created everything from tractors to airports to tow trucks. Legos were seriously the best present ever for him. Devin does not do much with them besides knock them down after Luke has finished a masterpiece. Devin the Destroyer has also taken to screaming "I'm GONNA GET YOU LUKAS!!" and "Here I COME LUKAS!!" Then jumping on, kicking and punching Lukas WWE-style. I feel so bad for my sweet, good-natured Lukas, but he usually does a great job ignoring Devin or defending himself. 

 I have been spending alot of time on my Paleo Cents blog and have experimented with new recipes, including making lard out of the fat from our pastured pig and making homemade soybean-free mayo. We are currently going through a Whole 30 Challenge that eliminates all sugar, grains, legumes and dairy. While it was tough at first, I'm now closing out day 19 and feeling like a million bucks. I go to the Health and Wellness Center at the end to get my body fat percentage change checked and am very excited for that!!

So, that's pretty much all for now :) I will be blogging next Sunday, promise.

Week in the Life 1/1-1/8 Happy New Year!!

We have had a lazy and awesome start to our New Year. The first day was spent just chilling around the house, cooking healthy recipes and thinking about all the things we want to do this year.
We came up with a list like this:

* Do more sightseeing
* Fill up our savings account
* Do a better job with Devin's PT, which includes Justin taking a bigger role
* Lean out (me.. I realized a few days later that this was a really vague resolution, so I changed it to making better eating choices every day and exercising more frequently)
* Compete in the Crossfit Games (Justin later realized he'll be away at camp while this is happening, so he started competing in WOD Club.. more on this later)
* Nighttime potty train Luke and daytime potty train Devin

Justin signed up to compete in WOD Club's open online crossfit competition. He did the first of three workouts three times during this week and pretty much spent the rest of the week checking his standings and watching other competitor's videos. I did suggest that he start studying for his next promotion test which will happen sometime in February.

Devin went back to physical therapy and we used bubbles for the first time to get him to try to pop the bubbles with his toes thus using muscles we've been trying to get him to activate. It was a ton of fun and he's doing well with this. He can definitely do this on his uninjured side and I have hope that he'll be doing it on the injured side soon.

I spent much of the week doing work for a Whole 30 diet challenge, blogging about my eating, and going to our health and wellness center for a weigh-in and body fat percentage check. I am so excited to go back in 30 days. During my visit to the health and wellness center I met a very nice lady who introduced me to the brand new and totally free massage chair. It is set in a room with a tropical painted theme, fountain and music. And it is awesome. Let's just say I can't wait to go back and get my massage on.

Friday I got to see a good friend who just returned from a month-long vacation to her home in Jamaica. This has made me determined to go on some sort of tropical warm weather vacation this year.

This whole week has been unseasonable warm and we've taken advantage of it by hanging at the playground and playing in the backyard. Not many pictures this week, but I hope you all have been enjoying your first week of the New Year. Here's to new beginnings and sticking to those resolutions!!

The Week in Life 12/26-12/31

Our Zebra :)

Luke's VERY TALL McQueen

 Our Week post-Christmas was spent winding down after a bunch of parties and visiting with family. Luke played with his legos pretty much nonstop and was very proud to show off his creations. The animals were joint work with mom and dad, while the very tall McQueen and and an unpictured space ship were all his own ideas.

Giraffe!

We pretty much just played each day and I avoided going anywhere and doing anything like housework or grocery shopping. On Friday the boys and I took the 45 minute drive out towards Chantilly to visit some awesome friends from Germany! The kids played nicely (although separately) and it was great to catch up.

We decided to go to the Air and Space Museum on Saturday since I had been promising Luke that we would go since Thursday. Luke thought the planes were very cool. Devin was very unimpressed and wanted to get out of the stroller, run and destroy things. Devin's new nickname is actually "Destructo Devin" because he is so fond of tearing apart Luke's lego creations. It's funny and I get to hear Luke tell Destructo Devin to stop breaking his legos.

Doing sciency things.

Devin's favorite exhibit was the one with golden arches.

Luke LOVED the "toy" airplanes. He was kind of ADD bouncing from thing to thing.

While this museum had some great historic artifacts it was definitely more for the science/engineering geek. I think I will like the American History museum more. The most interesting thing to me was this quote I found on the wall.

We came home and put the kids to bed, then rang in the New Year by eating popcorn & Cheer Wine and watching The Town (I liked it). This was a WAY better New Year's celebration than last year since it didn't involve Military Police showing up to my house, guns, or Justin giving a statement. Good times. There's a funny story there, but probably not appropriate for the blog. And yea, we were old farts and went to bed at 10:30.


Random Things:
* Luke has started making very colorful pictures and has become much more interested in drawing. He gives light kisses all the time and is really helpful to his little brother. When he's not stealing toys from Devin, Lukas is helping him put on shoes or fix broken toys.

* Devin is a monster. He is go go go and is really rambunctious. Because he was having an awful time falling asleep at night, I decided to try the no-nap experiment. We are on day two.. Neither of the kids has napped and they go right to bed at 7-7:30 without any crying, fussing, rocking or holding. It's working so far. RIP nap time...I actually just shed a tear.