Our 1st bike ride of the year

John had the day off so we decided that we would try biking again with Soph. When she was younger she hated biking with us.

 We had to adjust her straps since she has gotten so much bigger than the last time we went biking. Soph has never liked wearing socks and shoes, she always wants them off and now can take them off by herself. So we decided that we would only have her wear her socks just in case we lost them on the trail.

Here she is trying to take off her helmet. She still hates riding! She cried on the way back and we did end up losing her socks. Thankfully those are cheaper than a new pair of shoes!

Magnus on the other hand loves riding. He especially likes passing me!

There's this big rock at the end of our ride that he likes to jump off of. Such glee from something so simple!

Showing Love/Helping

One of the things that John and I strive in parenting is to have our children see that we are constantly helping people in need whether it be financial help, making a meal, or whatever else we can do. So a friend of ours in our homeschool group was moving into a new place and needed help painting a few rooms. So we dropped Soph off at my mom's and went to work.

Isn't he so handsome? It just makes me love him so much more when I see him do stuff like this because when we were first married, John would never have done this. I am so thankful for the change that's in him. 

This is what happens when you paint in tight quarters and try to squeeze by without ruining the paint. You end up ruining your pants instead!

I found Magnus and his friend in the laundry room eating Doritos after they had had enough of painting. They are so cute!

Mrs. Grossman Sticker Factory

We took a field trip to the sticker factory in Petaluma the other day and we had a great time. It's $3.00 per person, which you get that amount in a coupon to use if you spend $20.00 or more. We weren't allowed to bring our cameras onto their floor where you get a tour of, so this is all we have. We came away with plenty of free stickers that they gave out during the tour. We had to watch a 20 mins. video in the beginning, which I didn't think we would be able to finish because of Soph. She did great though, both of them did actually.  

 After the tour they led us into a conference room where we got a postcard and some more stickers for us to create a postcard and send it to their company mascot. Magnus decided to make one for his grandparents instead.

 That's what these two did while Magnus and I were working hard creating masterpieces!

 Soph loved their company mascot. Even though it's a card board cut out, she was still amazed and thrilled!

This is her on the way back home. Obviously she was happy with the trip!

Miss Lucy's Lemonade

Magnus had a sample of this the other day after my bible study and was hooked. Since it was a warm day anyways, we decided to make some of our own. Our lemon tree has not produced fruit yet so we had to get our lemons from the store. This didn't taste or smell as good as Miss Lucy's. Grow your own meyer lemons everyone!!!

                           Look how hard he is working to juice the lemon!

 Did I mention this boy loves the taste of lemons? His Grandma got him started on drinking lemon water since he was a youngen and now he can't stop!

Delicious! Here's the recipe:

1 lemon sliced
1 1/2 C of sugar
2 C of lemon juice (about 10 lemons)
7 C of water

Take the sliced lemon and add the sugar in a pitcher. Mash the heck out of it, until the sugar and lemon are in love. Add the 2 c of lemon juice, swirl, add the water, swirl again and done! There will be the leftover rinds and such from the sliced lemon-that's okay. It adds such a yummy aroma from the oils released from the rind. I hope you like it too!

A drawing by Magnus

I wanted to share with you a drawing that Magnus made for me for Christmas. I just totally cracked up when he gave me the explanation as to why the one stick figure has lines coming out of him.

There's me with my crazy hair, him, Soph, and the man with the lines coming out of him would be John. He has lines coming out of him because he is hairy-just like Daddy! So funny! The things that cannot escape the eyes of children!

Hobo Bag for Soldier Men

Magnus loves playing with his soldiers. He likes to line them up and put them in inconspicuous places so then the soldiers are ready for attack at any moment. But when he is done playing with them, they lay all over the floor until I come around and step on them by accident. I guess he was waiting to ambush me! Needless to say ouchy for my poor feet. So I figured he needs to have something to put them in. So I saw this tutorial and  made one for him.

There's more of them than that!

Toss them in the bag....

And presto! A nice place for everything. Now my feet will thank you!

Happy I Month Exercise Anniversary to Me

Whoo-Hoo! Yippee! Hooray! Jumping for joy! A lot of hard work, sweat and tears have passed by this month. Along with a little whining. Okay a lot. Sometimes. Like I mentioned before I'm seeing some changes to my body, but no weight loss. Somedays I am okay with that and other days I get discouraged because I have worked so hard and want to see the numbers on the scale change. Thankfully the latter are far and few. I am seeing physical results though. Good results! I can go longer on the exercise machines and can be on a higher resistance level. So something is changing. Sometimes I look at where I need to be physically and it is daunting, but then I have to remember to take it one day at a time.

I am so blessed that I have so many people that are supportive to me getting this done. My mom has watched the kids many times so I can go running, we've had other people babysit, and most of all, the kids, especially Magnus. They are happy to be in the stroller when we run/walk around the neighborhood. He even gets out and runs with us!

I leave you now with a picture of my favorite exercise machine. This thing makes me feel like I am floating on air-most times. One of the best things we've purchased.