First Day of School

It's hard to believe, but we have officially entered the school years. Gone are the days where I could plan my day however I wanted. I now have to work around my little boys class schedule. Although he's already 5, we decided to put him in pre-k this year in order to give him the best chance of success in school. If he had gone full term, he technically wouldn't be in kindergarten until next year anyway.

Below are a few pictures of him at his school. It was an interesting first day. Because he is attending a private school, his class size is pretty small. When the teacher walked them out it was just him and 4 other girls. He said some kids didn't make it today, so I'm hoping at least one other boy will be in his class. If not, he will get some good practice talking to girls. He had a blast and his teacher said he was very eager to help.

It was a challenge trying to squeeze some naps in for the girls since he is in the afternoon class. Heidi absolutely refused to nap. I finally just let her fuss on her play mat so I could get some things done. After a while she got quiet and when I checked on her she had fallen asleep. Poor girl got so tuckered out she fell asleep on the floor. Hopefully we can get used to the new schedule quickly.

P90X

90 days ago we embarked on an exercise journey called P90X.  Essentially, the program is an hour a day of intense working out, rotating between weight lifting and cardio. We stuck with it for the most part, but life got in the way every now and then, especially with three children and a busy summer! We exercised at night after putting the kids to bed. Even though the workouts were grueling at times, we both enjoyed pushing ourselves and spending the quality time together. We took some Day 1 and Day 90 photos (posted boldly below for the world to see). We're both happy with our results but plan on starting a second round soon to try to get in even better shape.

Our Personal Testimonials
Jessica - I started P90X 4 weeks after Heidi was born.  Initially I was only going along with it to try to motivate Brian and had no intention of doing the full program.  After the first week, however, I found it wasn't as hard to motivate myself as I had thought it would be and became excited with the prospect of getting back in shape or possibly better shape than I was pre-pregnancy.

I had some challenges for at least the first 4 to 6 weeks as my body was still healing from Heidi's delivery.  I had to modify or stop short in order to not do damage and wasn't even able to attempt the ab workout until the second phase.  I also didn't diet in any way because I didn't want to affect my milk supply.  I think I would have had better results if I would have allowed more healing time, but I'm still happy with the outcome.

I wish I would have taken measurements and done the pre-test, but I figured since I was in post pregnancy shape they wouldn't really be true results anyway.  Sadly, I don't have any before and after stats to compare other than weight.  I started at 134 and am now 122, but I was always more focused on my shape rather than weight.  I'm the size I want to be and look forward to toning up even more.

Brian - I was motivated to get back in shape shortly after Heidi was born. Pregnant Jessica = more take out meals and more home-baked goodies around the house, so it's easy for me to pack on extra pounds during those 9 months. I didn't go "hard core" and restrict my diet or load up on supplements, but I still got halfway decent results:

• Total weight loss of 12 lbs which puts me down to 170 (I had to buy a new belt I lost so many inches on my waist!) - as we start the next round, I'll be focusing more on bulking up so I'm not that concerned with my actual weight number.
• Obviously, you get stronger over the course of the 90 days. I started the program barely able to do an unassisted pull-up, but now I can knock out double digit reps on the spot.
• I'm not very flexible but I noticed large improvements in my flexibility, probably due to all those downward dogs in yoga. 
• We didn't take any pictures of my legs, but I gained a significant amount of muscle in my quads.
• Getting a 6-pack is my main goal for our next round!!

A night and a day in Seattle

It was another date weekend for me and Brian. On Friday night we went to see Barcelona at the Triple Door in Seattle. It's another unique concert venue located under the Wild Ginger restaurant. Everyone is seated in tables and booths with full dinner and drink service the entire time. It was an awesome concert. It also so happens that Barcelona is made up of three guys from SPU. They were a grade or two below Brian, but we were still able to look them up. If you went to SPU, grab your SPUD and look up Brian Fennell, Chris Bristol, and Rhett Stonelake. Pretty cool.

On Saturday we ventured back to Seattle for The Amazing Ring Race, a scavenger hunt sponsored by EE Robbins with a $15,000 ring as the grand prize. We ran and walked all over downtown following clues texted to our phones and texting back answers to the riddles to get the next clue. Each answered riddle earned points. We probably walked and ran at least 6 miles and earned a total of 34 points. We talked to a few people at the end who had earned points in the teens. We thought we had a small chance until we talked to a pair (riding bikes) who had 74 points. Yikes! Once we knew we had no chance to win, we skipped the award party and went home with nothing but a great experience and some free shirts. It was exhausting, but lots of fun. If they have it next year we are definitely using scooters or bikes.

Too Cute

I don't know what I'm doing

I'm not sure what's going on with my blog at the moment. I am not all that great at blog designing and I've been messing with it a bit. Now its all messed up. Please forgive the horrible appearance until I can figure out what I am doing.

Group Shot

The other day I decided to put a silly bow in Heidi's hair and take some pictures. Lately she has been much better at giving good smiles for the camera.

It didn't take long before the other two jumped in. These were the most successful shots of the 15 or so I took. It is not easy to get all three of them looking at the camera and not making a crazy face :)

Our little boy is getting big

It's hard to believe, but Benjamin is now 5 years old. His birthday was on the 6th. We started the day with a fancy breakfast of eggs and waffles with strawberries and cream. Then we went outside and put together his new playhouse from Grandma and pa Jorgenson. He and Lacey spent the rest of the morning outside playing.

Benjamin got to choose what to do for lunch, and he decided that he would like to meet Auntie Corrin and the cousins at McDonalds. He enjoyed a Happy Meal, playing in the PlayPlace with Liam and Esther, and making a mess with an ice cream

They obviously played hard cause he took a good nap after we got home. That night Brian took him out to see a movie. They were planning on seeing Toy Story 3, but it was messed up so they saw Despicable Me instead. Both had a good time.

The next day we had a fun joint party planned with his cousin Jacob at Silver Lake Beach. The park has a large swim area and the biggest play structure I've ever seen. Too bad it was one of the coldest summer days possible. It was maybe 60 degrees, windy and even a little rainy. We made the best of it though.

This was as close to swimming as the kids got.

Silly Lacey playing with Auntie Becki's sunglasses...they were not needed since the sun refused to show itself.

This was the first time I didn't make a cake for one of the kids' birthdays. I felt a little guilty, but Benjamin could care less. He liked the Transformer cake just fine.

No one was quite prepared for the cold. Heidi needed some extra snuggles from Auntie Corrin while the kids played.

Uncle Jeff was nice enough to help all the boys go across the monkey bars.

When we couldn't stand the cold anymore, it was back home to play with the new toys. Here Benjamin is playing with his Leapster. We quickly realized that time limits needed to be set on this one, otherwise he would play all day.

He requested this one all on his own. We were proud of his educational gift choice. He loves asking about all the countries and continents. Overall it was a fun birthday weekend.