I AM Doing This Thing!

Ok, so Jon and I made a goal for ourselves to run a 5K this year! Call us crazy, but it's something that we really want to do. And I KNOW that we can do it!
I started the Couch To 5K program last week and have actually really enjoyed it so far! Last week the program was to warm up for 5 minutes and then run for a minute and walk for 1 1/2 minutes for 20 minutes and then cool down for 5 minutes. I made it! Having never run before I was a little bit nervous as to how it would go.

Today I started the second week which means that I warm up for 5 minutes, run for 1 1/2 minutes and walk for 2 minutes for 20 minutes and then cool down for 5 more minutes. Being new to this whole exercise thing (Sad, I know!), Jon and I figured that I would just do Week 1 again. That way I could get used to it more and the two of us would be at the same point. Well, I am happy to say that when I went to the gym this morning and did Week 1, I really felt like I was ready for Week 2! I was disappointed that I didn't even try. I ended up going back to the gym tonight with Jon and Abby and did Week 2, Day1. And I did it without any trouble! I was quite proud of myself!

I am really excited, right now, about this process! I know there are going to be hard times (Yes, I've looked ahead to future weeks...) but I am committed to finishing this and being able to complete a 5K without walking! Abby is really interested in running too, so I think this could be a great family activity! I would love for my family to do a 5K together! (Well, maybe not Luke. ;))

I have received so much encouragement from friends and family! That sure makes me want to go out and do more! Thank you so much for all of the encouragement!

My prayer right now is that the Lord would continue to give me the motivation to do this and to keep my body healthy and free of injury!

Small Group Breakfast

I love my small group! We all get along great and love to spend time together. Last weekend we got together for breakfast. Boy oh boy did we have breakfast! The menu: Belgian waffles, biscuits and gravy, made to order omelets, bacon, sausage, fruit. Everything was delicious!!
This is our chef, Dennis. He made me an amazing ham and cheese omelet!
This is most of our group. We were missing a few of the guys.
And these are all (well, most of them) of the kids. Plugged in, of course!

We had a great time enjoying breakfast and fellowship! This is such a great group of people that I appreciate so much!

Snow Day #2

Today, in Bartlesville, the high temperature for the day is 59 degrees! 59 degrees in late January? CRAZY!! (The fact that the high for tomorrow is 67 is beside the point...) It's hard to believe that one week ago from today that the kids had a snow day!
Yep, that's right! We got four inches of snow and had a snow day!
Abby couldn't wait to get outside and play in the snow!
This is her snowman creation. :) The snow wasn't very good packing snow and this was the best she could do.
There's nothing better on a cold, snowy day than this! Aaahhhh.....

Bonding Time

Abby received two free tickets from school to go to the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra concert on Saturday night. Jon and I both really wanted to go, but in the end, I thought it would make for a great father/daughter date. That time together is so special!
Here they are ready to go!
It was nice to get to spend time with my boys while Jon and Abby were out. After Luke went to bed Ben and I played some Rummy. Fun!
Always posing!

We all had a great time wherever we were doing whatever we were doing. Those one on one times are so special!

Ben's Empanadas

Ben is taking Spanish this semester at school and the one thing he has been looking forward to for the last few weeks is Food Day. He originally wanted to take salsa since we have discovered the best salsa recipe ever! But, of course, someone already signed up for that. The next thing he thought of was empanadas. Great...I've never made them before. I did a little bit of searching and mixed and matched a few recipes and I think we came up with something good!
First we cut these circles out pie crust dough.
(No, I didn't make it. Pillsbury does a great job!)
Of course, Ben enjoyed playing with the dough.
This is not a snowman, it's a doughman. :)
We filled the the dough with taco seasoned ground turkey and shredded cheese, pressed the edges together, pressed them with a fork and then baked them.
Here is the finished product. They were really good! Everyone here agreed that we need to make them again! You could fill them with anything you want. Jon thought they would be good with chocolate pudding inside. I'm not sure how you would bake them, but how could it be bad? Mmmm, maybe cherry pie filling would work! ??? I see these being made again very soon!

Naptime Antics

For some reason Luke has been very difficult at naptime. I really don't think that he is outgrowing his naps, because it is very obvious that he still needs them, Once he falls asleep he takes a great nap. It's just the staying in bed and going to sleep part that is the problem. It is funny that he even knows to be really quiet so that it sounds like he is sleeping.
I went to check on him the other day and found this:
Actually, he was still chewing one of several Hershey Kisses that he got into. (Maybe this will teach Ben to keep his candy put away out of Luke's reach.) This picture came after I wiped most of the chocolate off of his face. Can you still see the ring around the lips? I wasn't thrilled.
The remains of the Hershey Kisses. (Apparently he didn't know to hide the evidence.)
Chocolate in the bed...Nice!
This scared me when I saw it! I thought it was pills that he had found somewhere! (Don't worry, they are all up out of reach.) Luke found a Pez dispenser and emptied it all on the floor. Lovely!

I really wasn't thrilled about the whole situation, but I couldn't help but laugh! See, there's a reason God makes our little ones so cute!

Christmas Craftiness

I have a super crafty friend! I mean, she's really creative! Well, she was the inspiration for my Christmas craft. For some reason, people think I am crafty. HA!! Nope, not really. I keep telling them, "I'm not crafty, but I can follow directions really well." My friend, Deborah, would argue with me and just say I'm being "dramatic", but I can't tell you how many times I had to call her and ask her how to do something or what measurements to use or what paint to use and all kinds of other things. Aside from all of that, I am THRILLED with how all of these gifts turned out! I am sure I will be making plenty more in the future!
Of course, before we could really begin, Luke had to play with the wood!
The first recipients...They liked it!
Mom loved hers too!So glad I chose "FAITH" for the Hodnett's! I love this one!
And, of course, I had to make one for myself!

I loved making all of these gifts for Christmas! As I was making each one it was great to spend that time thinking about the person that it was for. I love making crafts and I can't wait to make more!

SNOW DAY!!

Oklahoma is so different than Michigan. I remember when I was growing up that we had to have something like twelve inches of snow (Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit...) before they would give us a snow day. I know Oklahoma gets the ice that Michigan didn't, but it always shocks me when my kids get a snow day and there is very little snow on the ground. The snow day was good and it was nice to get to do nothing for the day. Ben and Abby couldn't wait to go out and play in the snow. I wouldn't let them go out until Luke went down for a nap, because I didn't really want him to go out. I know, I'm mean, but there is no keeping hats and gloves on that boy! As soon as Luke was down, Ben and Abby were out the door.

They are ready to brave the cold!

Rolling down the (very small) hill and making snow angels are always fun! It makes me happy to see them playing. As they get older, the tend to think that playing is for little kids. It makes me sad that they are growing up so fast!
I love the icicles!
Snowballs!
Again, happy to see my boy playing!
There's nothing better after playing in the snow than some delicious hot chocolate! :)

Lucas & His Trains

Look at this boy...
It's pretty clear to see that he LOVES his trains!

Jon's Facial Hair Experiment

This is an odd post!

I'm really not much of a fan of facial hair. Jon tends to stay pretty clean shaven. (To be very honest, Grief men don't grow facial hair very quickly. :)) This year over his Christmas break from work he decided that he wanted to just let it grow. I figured it couldn't be that bad. How full could it get? I was pretty surprised! It grew pretty quick and turned from prickly to soft. Check it out!
Look at that! Jon has a beard!
This is the most facial hair I have ever seen on Jon!
He couldn't take it any longer! He shaved on Sunday morning!
(He actually got tired of it before I did!)
Here's my clean shaven man!
I love him either way, but I like this so much better!
Isn't he so manly? :)

Christmas/New Year's With The Grief's

On New Year's Eve, Jon's whole family came down for a visit. As you know, his parents, Ken and Jeanie, live in Kansas. His brother and his family live in Virginia, so we really don't get to see them very often. We decided that we would celebrate Christmas with everyone together instead of shipping gifts. It was so fun to see everyone and have Christmas all over again!
Luke loves his pillow pet! So cute!
Brother bonding!
When we all lived near each other we loved to play games together, so it was great to hang out at the table and play a game! We even let a few kids join in!
Waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. The nice thing about living in the central time zone is that the ball actually drops at 11:00pm local time! We could watch the ball drop and then call it a night. But we didn't! We waited up until midnight and watched it again.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)
Three beautiful Grief girls!
The cousins were all happy to just be together!
All of the Grief's!

We had a great time all being together! It stinks to live so far away from all of our families! The good thing is that when we all get to see each other, it makes the time that much sweeter!