A little spaghetti, and a mommy party

Friday night: the night of the boy scout spaghetti dinner.

I am grateful for good people. This spaghetti dinner is a big deal every year. They are the boy scouts from our ward. The Young Women help out too. Each year, the boys and girls in the ward get one fund raiser to pay for the years events. I don't know what the boys use their money for but my young women use theirs to pay for girls camp.

I went with my family. Aren't they so cute?

The dinner is 20 dollars a family but the big money maker is the bakery auction. We have a lot of talent and these are some of the cakes donated by the boy scouts and some of the adults in the ward.

This one went for 525.00 and then was donated back and went again for a little over 400.00. The people were so generous.

This one was made by one of our Young Women's leaders. It went for 400.00. Todd wanted to open this chest and see what else was in it so bad. He didn't understand the whole decorated cake concept.

Aaron and I paid 40.00 for a little white sheet cake with chocolate frosting. It was fun to throw out bids and help out the youth. I made cinnamon rolls that went for 100.00. Can you believe it? $100.00 for 9 cinnamon rolls (and I even put the frosting on them when they were still too warm and it melted a little so they didn't even look really great).

We really enjoyed the good food. Spaghetti, bread sticks, salad and a piece of cake.

Todd chillaxin until the auction.

My boys.

Cole loving his dad. He clung to him all night.

After the dinner, Aaron left to go out with the boys. He and 4 of his buddies went to a cabin for the night and today they are snow machining in the mountains. So, last night, since Daddy was gone, we had a "Mommy party" where we watched movies, ate our 40.00 cake and we all slept in Mommy's room. Brooklyn on the floor next to me and ...

Todd right next to me. (He is my super cuddler and doesn't move around as much as Brooklyn). Cole slept in his crib, but I don't think he minded missing the movie and sleeping with Mom. He will get his chance. :)

We are excited to have Daddy come home tonight. We love him very much and miss him when he is gone.

We are also super grateful for the people who generously bought items at the auction last night. Thanks!

Valentines day.. and then some

Look at my beautiful flowers. Aaron surprised me with them. He brought them home on his lunch break. I told him I didn't need anything and was really surprised when he came in with them.
We had a quiet Valentines Day. Sent the kids to a sitter and 5:30 and then Aaron and I made pink waffles for dinner and watched the movie Courageous (really, really good). It was actually a lot of fun to have a little us time at home.

Saturdays are our wood cutting days. Right now the weather is really cold, 28 below zero one morning last week, and so we bundle up the kids and they haul wood in to me to stack next to the fire place while Aaron cuts those frozen logs (next year we will have more cut BEFORE it snows and freezes). It is our family job we do every week. Then we have hot chocolate and a snack. The day we took the pictures, we had warm brownies and hot chocolate.

The down side to having an older sister is that Cole gets to wear all her pink snow gear. We had some for Todd when he was little but have collected some hand me downs when Brooklyn was born that were a lot better and warmer. Poor Cole. Doesn't he look cute in that pink and white hat and those pink snow pants??
I wanted to add this picture. This was from the indoor triathlon a couple weeks ago. I didn't post the picture because I didn't like the way I looked. But why not show it off. We took 2nd in the the pair category. We both did everything, swim, bike and run, and they took the best times. Good thing I had Aaron. I only beat him in the swimming. So, this is me. 41 pounds down. My pants are a size 12 but they are obviously too big (hooray!)
I started losing weight because I didn't like the way I looked. It is amazing how much I love the way I feel now. I am in the young womens at church and I love that I can keep up with the kids. Last weekend we had a Valentines Dance and Aaron and I danced our gutts out. We didn't sit down the whole night. We taught the kids some Polka and the Waltz and the two step and some swing. It was fast moving and I was pooped at the end of the night but we kept up. About a month ago, we had an activity where we played games in the gym. We played this game where you lay on the floor in twos. Shoulder to shoulder. Two people are standing and one is trying to tag the other. The only way to be saved is to lay down on the floor next to someone and then their partner they were laying by gets up and runs from the person who is it. It was SO much fun. I had bruised on my knees and elbows and hips the next day. But I loved it and I was the only leader (man and woman) who played the whole time. The weight loss has been great but I love being physically fit.

I am shooting for a 10K in May and another in September. I have 12 lbs to lose to hit my goal weight. I have never felt so good.