Wyatt's team lost their first game yesterday. He did well, though, making 2 baskets and playing great defense. It was a very low scoring game. He played 5 out of the 6 "quarters" and was worn out. I have not been good at getting a pic of him shooting a basket. I get too excited when he gets the ball and just have to watch. In this pic they are just getting ready to start a quarter.

Lily's latest obsession----jumping rope. Ever since the movie "Jump In" came out, that's all they have been doing at recess. I guess they have formed jump roping "clubs" and everything. Lily was very happy yesterday that she was able to get through the whole ABC song without messing up. No wonder she doesn't have an ounce of fat on her body--she jump roped all day. I went for about a minute and it about killed me!

Something cool---last night we were playing with Wyatt's 20 questions game and Lily had picked something. Jeff was helping her if she didn't know the answer. It was an animal-I heard her ask him if it layed eggs(answer-no) and also if you could find it in a zoo(answer-yes). I could not figure out what it was. The 20 questions were up and the answer was so strange. It said "soul mate". I was like--wow, Lily it got it so wrong--it says "soul mate". She had no idea what that was and Jeff said--well, actually it's right. What? He said, "Tell mom what it is." She said, "Mommy, it was you!" Wow-kind of blew me away. I thought that was just so cool. How the heck did the game know that? The questions were very generic. It was actually kind of spooky. I was a bit stumped by the laying eggs part though--hopefully she was just being silly!

CALL FROM THE FUTURE

Lily's friend Leia, who recently moved to China, called last night. They had called and left a message while we were out and Lily was so disappointed that she missed it when we got home. We tried them back and got them. It was 8:30 pm Friday night here and 9:30 am Saturday morning there. Weird. The kids thought that was cool. They talked for quite a while. Some of the things they said were so cute-I wish I would have recorded it!

The 3-4 inches of snow we had Saturday night. The kids were so excited.

Lily and Wyatt in their Colts gear. Lily has been wanting a jersey and Jeff told her if they won he would get her one. So, true to his promise, he braved the crowds at Dick's Sporting Goods Monday and got her one. He also picked up an AFC Champions shirt for Wyatt. He said it was worse than Christmas in there! She proudly wore it to school today and informed me that she is wearing it everyday next week.

GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!!!
SUPERBOWL, HERE WE COME!!!

Lily's latest masterpiece from Monart. Tiger done in chalk pastels.

Lily conked out at 5 pm last night after 2 sleepovers in a row! Luckily, she has today to catch up!

Well, Jeff and I both made it through our juice fasting day. It really wasn't bad at all. I lost 3 pounds for a total of 7 after 8 days of the 11 day program. Not too bad and at least a start.

Lily and Anna modeling their pj's. They did a runway show for us.

Lily at the cookie rally doing the cookie stacking game.
Playing twister.
Lily and Meghan doing "the bump".
Lily's troop minus one.
Wyatt and Andrew with twin DS's.

Lily had her Girl Scout cookie rally Thursday. They had a lot of fun.

Friday night, their friends Andrew and Anna(siblings) spent the night.

Lily was excited to sleep in the basement for the first time. It will be Wyatt's turn next time. Lily went with another friend, Emma, to the mall today for lunch and a trip to Build-A-Bear and then to spend the night with her. She will be such a mess tomorrow with 2 sleepovers in a row. Oh well, she'll have Monday to recuperate.

Wyatt had a game today. He did really well. He made a basket and had several rebounds and assists. We won 36-24.

Jeff and I are doing our juice fast today. It's now almost 7 and it has been easier than I thought it would be. I only started feeling hungry about an hour ago.

It's definitely made us realize how much our life centers around food. We feel like we have nothing to do since we can't go out to eat or fix a meal at home. It has been nice not having to worry about what to make or go get.

If we feel as good tomorrow as we are supposed to, we might try to do this every so often.

FAST TRACK UPDATE

Well, I think it's working! The diet, that is. I got on the scale this morning and have lost 6 pounds! Yay! And we have only been doing this for 3 days! The good news is we have been eating very well and not starving ourselves. It's just the combination of foods, I guess. And we haven't even done the juice fast day yet, which is where you are supposed to lose the most weight. Off to work now--more later.

GREAT FIRST BASKETBALL GAME AND SAD GOODBYES

Wyatt had his first basketball game of the season today. We were SO proud of him!! He made 3 baskets--once dribbling the ball all the way down the court and making the shot! It was awesome and a HUGE confidence builder for him! I think this Upward league is going to be so great for him. They make sure that all of the boys play a certain amount of time in each game and really focus on teamwork.
Boo Hoo!! Lily's great friend Liea is moving to China on Monday and her going away party was tonight. Lily was so sad. She will be gone for at least 1 year and a half and possibly even 2 1/2. She is Lily's 4th really good friend to move away since we have lived here. I hate it every time. At least she will be back, but it will be a while.
Here they are giving each other one last hug. Lily will miss her so much.

After we went to say goodbye to the Szabo family, we went to dinner and to do our big grocery shop. It has become our new thing to go all together on a weekend night to the nice new Kroger to do our big shop. I found this new diet we are trying and had to find lots of new and different ingredients. It's called The Fast Track Detox Diet.
I'm not one for fad diets, but this one seemed very sensible to me and is really just lean meats and veggies along with a day of juice fasting to detox your body. Jeff is doing it with me too. We'll see how it goes. I'll tell you, healthy food definitely costs more!! I had to get several of the items in the health food section. I'm looking forward to trying it. I think we will feel so much better.
I'll let you know how it goes!

FRANKENMUTH

Part of the outside of our hotel.It is huge-this is just the lobby and conference center part-the rooms are in different sections.

A crazy game in the Family Fun Center arcade where you jump at a certain time to get a jackpot.
This is at Zehnder's restaurant. They had some really unique decorations.

Lily playing in one of the pools.

A life size nativity scene in town. The whole town is decked out in Christmas decorations with many really unique ones. We were glad they hadn't taken them down yet.

This is a view from our balcony of the covered bridge you have to cross to get to the hotel.

Lily in the waterfall pool.
The hotel has a full size mini golf course inside--it was a really nice one, too with waterfalls and hills.
Wyatt loves mini golf.
Jeff was bragging about being the Whack-a-Mole champ with the game high score----that is til I came along and beat it--ha!
They had 2 pool tables--and Wyatt loved playing. I would love to have one in our basement. I forgot how much fun it is!

Wyatt and Lily under the huge REAL Christmas tree in the main lobby.
On our balcony-the view of the town and water was great!
Lily at one of the pools.
They had a play area-Lily liked the slide because it was super fast!
Munching her many tickets. We found a game that spit out at least 50 each time!

We had a great time on out trip to Frankenmuth, MI. The kids were in heaven in the hotel's HUGE arcade(over 100 games!), 5 swimming pools and mini golf course! It was a kid haven! We managed to get out and do some shopping at the huge outlet mall! We found some really great deals! I think after Christmas may be the time to outlet mall shop--with some of the stores having 50% off!! There is a Gap clearance center(different from an outlet) that was going out of business. I got a preemie baby outfit for Lily's Bitty Baby for 12 cents!! We went back the next day because they were getting in one last truckload of stuff and the place was so packed, I walked right back out! I love to shop and I love me some bargains---but I am just not into that competitive, knock down, drag out shopping. I glanced at this lady's stuff she had in a box on the floor(people had at least 50-100 items in boxes) and she about bit my head off that THOSE were ALL hers!! Not my idea of fun!! Oh, and we found an awesome new tree topper at the huge Christmas store there, too! It's a giant light up, beaded star that we all love! We also had some really great food---our last hurrah before our healthy eating starts---Jeff and I are determined to get our extra weight off!!

Now we have 3 days before school starts back and a totally full schedule for next week that I'm already dreading!! Oh well, I guess it will be kind of nice to get back into a routine---hectic as it may be!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! and Christmas, ct'd.

Well-really didn't want this pic to end up first. Oh, well. My mom got Lily these Only Hearts Club dolls for Christmas and she loves them. I think they are probably her favorite thing she got all together. Here she has them all tucked in for the night with their pets, etc.
Lily in her new U.K. pj's. They say Kentucky Girl.

I got the new Super Scrabble game for my mom since we play Scrabble all the time when I'm there. We played it twice, each game lasting 3 hours!! Here is our board after our second 3 hour game. We were up til midnight(my mom, my brother and I) playing!
Lily with Jeff's mom----her Mimi.
I got Wyatt to get in on a picture with her too.
Wyatt and Lily with their Great Grandmother, Jeff's Granny. She is 87 years old and still going strong!
My mom gave Wyatt Hot Pockets. He thought it was hilarious!

Jeff, my dad and my brother, Steve playing Wyatt's new game called Chairs. They played this game over and over. You have to stack the chairs so they don't fall. They got it a couple of times.
Playing with their new stuff.
Wyatt and Lily with their cousins Max and Ellie.
Lily and Ellie.
Steve playing Uno with Lily. Wyatt is , of course, playing with his DS.

This is at Chuck E Cheese after Christmas with friends Emma, Savannah and Trevor.
Kentucky sunset.
Lily has become an expert wrapper. She actually wrapped all the extended family gifts this year and she does an excellent job. It's SO nice to have help with that job!
My mom's usual mountain of gifts.

Well, NOW I think I can officially say Christmas is over. We got back from Kentucky last night where we had 3 more Christmases and 2 birthdays with our families. The kids got way too much, as usual and loved spending time with family.

We have today to regroup and are headed off to Frankenmuth, MI for a couple of fun days before school starts back.

This time we are staying at the Bavarian Inn Lodge. We're just gonna relax, let the kids swim and shop a little. The kids want to do another horse and carriage ride, too and we are hoping they still have all of the Christmas decorations up. Frankenmuth is known for its elaborate holiday decorating since the largest Christmas store in the world is located there. We will, of course, have to eat at Zhender's, my favorite!

Happy New Year everyone!!!