Gone, but not forgotten...

After 9 years of love, we recently sold our Mazda Protege. It was a sad day for all of us, but necessary. What I didn't realize, however, was how attached our Karina was to it, until today...

Karina: "Is the Mazda going to be home today?"

Julie: "Umm, no Honey. Remember, we sold that to someone else a little while ago? Daddy just drives the blue car now."

Karina: "But I want to see it. Is that new guy washing it?"

Julie: "I am not sure. Probably."

Karina: "But is he? Does he have a Daddy to keep it clean when crumbs get off his food because he needs to or it will be not so happy there."

Julie: "I'm sure he is taking care of it. We really don't need to worry about it anymore."

Karina: "Oh. (Pauses deep in thought.) So can we go see it today after nap? I am not going to worry it. I want to see it for a little minute."

A Fun Christmas Present

We were the beneficiaries of a Wii Fit for Christmas. We just got it today, and it's been both a fun and hilarious experience getting used to this device. You can do all sorts of fun games on it, including skiing, ski jumping, soccer activities, and more. Plus it has great exercise routines designed to help you get into shape, from cardio to stretching (Yoga) to strength.


The funniest part by far has been the Yoga. I, Mark, was trying out each of the activities and was actually doing pretty well. The system was even complimenting me with applause and "great job" on a few activities.


That is... until I tried the Yoga position called "tree." Here's a picture of what it's supposed to look like:



but if you can imagine my ungraceful self trying to 1) make this pose, and then 2) hold this pose for 30 seconds... yikes! Needless to say, Julie was all but rolling on the floor laughing at me. My nice little system trainer was no longer doling out praise, but instead saying things like, "you're a little shaky, aren't you?" and "did I notice that you just put your other foot down?" and "hmm... I think we need to practice that a little more."


It's been a blast and it's actually pretty cool, but if I'm not careful Julie might snap a picture of me looking like a fool upload it onto the blog. I'm sure it'll be coming soon. The kids love it, too, and Jadyn has quickly picked up on it especially quickly - mastering the skiing and ski jump activities.

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

Best friends

Everyone needs that best friend to hang out with, especially when you are too sick to do anything but lay around. For as much trouble as Molly gives us, she is redeeming herself a little bit today by being just what our Jadyn is needing. Pretty cute!

More snow...

Once again, we got the treat of waking up to beautiful snow today! This is what we see out our back windows. I love living next to the woods!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the new year a bit early last night along with all the east coasterners. We had 4 other couples over with their kids for a fun night of hanging out and relaxing together. Amazingly enough, all the kids actually made it with energy until the big celebration started at 9 pm. Lots of friends, food, noise, good conversations and laughter...a great way to bring in the new year! Do you notice any similarities between the balloon and anything else in this picture? :o)