Blocker Boys On the Go!

     I know I have been totally slacking over here.  So this post will be a run down of what is happening in our world.  We have been totally busy doing an array of different things.

     Since my last post on my birthday we have been of course tackling the normal everyday life.  We are contemplating what to do if hubby is on the ship for Christmas.  This is a huge discussion that we both sat down and talked about.  I was actually amazed by a few responses we got when people were informed of the upcoming decision.  I got several questions related to the stability of our marriage.  Really we are fine I love hubby to death, and this is just one more thing that military families have to cope with.

     With the looming holidays and no daddy/hubby we are moving all of the holidays up this year.  So this coming weekend will be busy at our house.  We will be having K2's first birthday party and Christmas all on the same day.  We will wake up as a family pretending it is Christmas morning.  Then we will roll into the first birthday festivities.  There will be tons of food and fun to be had by all.  Of course no one has RSVP'd to little man's birthday so it may just be a family event.  I think the sister-in-law and her family will be coming, but they just decided not to RSVP based on the you know we are coming rule.

     I have been following my work out schedule everyday, and I am stoked to see the results in the mirror.  Next weekend is also a measurement weekend for my fitness goals.  It will be exciting to see how much progress I have made.  I did step on the scale for my 30th birthday, and was happy with that result.  Just since I have started my Insanity program I am down 5.5 pounds.  Since I have started eating healthy, and increasing my fitness I am down a whopping 16 pounds.  The measurements will just be icing on the cake since I can already see results in the mirror.

     I think hubby is getting on board with health and fitness improvement since the Navy is evaluating him for high blood pressure.  In his defense he does work in a high stress environment, but he also has some bad habits that are not good for his blood pressure.  Hopefully he will stick with it, and reach a goal while feeling better for doing it. 

     As for the kids K1 is in love with talking on the phone, and playing all the game apps that are on my cell phone.  K2 is coming into his own little world, and trying his best to walk.  Both of the boys are into anything they can reach.  Being a good big brother also includes giving the little man anything he can not reach on his own. 

     Let me know how your family is preparing for the holidays.  What will you be doing that is special this year?  Do you have a tradition that you share with your children each year?

     You can check out my health and fitness journey at Healthy Family Fitness.

     Today I had a very productive day!  It all started when the pesky alarm went off.  Some days I just hate the alarm.  The alarm will never be my friend! Anyway hubby got up and off to work on time so it all worked out.  I smashed snooze a few times, and then I got up to workout!

     Work out complete, I fed the boys a good breakfast, and sent out some text.  A time was confirmed for our rendezvous with sister-in-law, and the niece. Quick shower, and I got the boys dressed in their special clothes for the meet up.  <---- Loving the suspense right there I know.  I have to make sure you read to the bottom.  Load every one into the van with the needed accessories, and we hit the road.

     After driving about an hour to our secret location we had to wake up K2 since the little guy napped all the way there.  There was also a little clothing tweaking to do.  I did not fully dress K2 because I did not want to have drool all over his outfit.  So we arrived , and waited on sister-in-law and niece to join us.

     Our super secret destination?  Visiting Santa at the Yankee Candle flagship store.  To my surprise K1 walked right up, and asked to sit in his lap.  Although he does not know you ask Santa for presents he had a good time.  K2 is right in the middle of that mommy attachment phase.  He was not in love with the idea of talking to a stranger, but he got over it and we have some good pictures.  Little miss princess my niece was another story.  She decided she would have nothing to so with Santa.  So we gave up, and were picking up the boy when she decided it was her turn.  So she jumped up in Santa's lap with K1 and we got a few more pictures.  We had planned to get the 3 of them, but at least we got some good pictures.

So we rounded up the kiddos, and headed to the door to go get something to eat.  On the way out there is a large snowman with a bench.  Trying for one more photo op with out the stranger Santa we piled the kids on the bench.  K2 was not letting go of his bottle so it is in all the pictures with the snowman.  Still there were a few good shots taken.

     We had a fun lunch at Olive Garden which was full of old people.  All the grandmas in the restaurant had a good time watching the kids.  I managed to eat pretty well, and only had the salad with vegetable soup, and half of sister-in-law's grilled chicken sandwhich.

     Then we split ways, and the boys and I headed to a friend's house so she could sample Shakeology! We tried the Chocolate Shakeology with mint extract.  I love that one and think it taste like Girl Scout Thin Mints.  If you are new to my health and fitness journey check out these post.

My Coach Application is Approved and Jumping in With Both Feet

Still looking for more information?  Check out my fitness blog Healthy Family Fitness  Be sure to leave a comment with what made your day productive.  Maybe it was nothing, but think hard.  There was something important that got done today.  Even if it was just regular old house work.  It needed to get done, and you were productive. Pictures from our visit with Santa will be here soon. 

     I know this is scary news, but the winter season is coming with all of its holidays. Holidays bring gifts.  If you have kids they will inevitably receive toys.  Now I have been informed that no self respecting grandparent would not send a toy as a gift.  Believe me we have received plenty of toys from grandparents.  We even get toys for random visits through out the year silly grandparents.  In general my kids have so many toys they will never be able to play with them all!

     So beginning this week we will start the massive toy culling at our house.  The toy collection must face a major reduction before the gifts start arriving.  Also in the realms of gift giving we will be getting ready for K2's first birthday next month.  Just one more opportunity for more toys to come in to our house.the amount of toys we keep will be based on what can fit in the allotted space in the boys room.  Currently we have toys in the living room, and the boys bedroom which is driving my crazy.

     I will admit I do have a weakness for books.  My boys love to go through their books and look at the pictures.  I hope this carries on as they grow up.  We are one of those crazy families with no cable or satellite television.  We do get Netflix, but are cutting way back on our TV watching.  My weakness here would be the Disney movies. So with those two weaknesses I think bookshelves should solve the problem.  I will just have to limit us to the number of books and movies that will fit on the shelves.

     The dreaded Happy meal toys.  I have to say we do get fast food kids meals on occasion, and they come with the pesky toys.  I do keep a few of the small noise free toys in my purse for out and about play time.  I can't even count the number of times these little toys have gotten us through the check out line and into the car quietly.So our happy meal toys will be reduced down to the few toys that live in my purse.

     Stuffed animals.  We receive a few a year.  thankfully we only have one box right now.  However due to downsizing, and up coming holidays we are looking to get to half of a box.  The plan is to go to the box and remove the bottom layer.  Most of the time my boys will only play with a stuffed animal for a few second, and then it goes flying across the room.  Both boys have two or three stuffed animals that you will see them play with on a regular basis.  So we will be keeping the toys that are visibly used every few days.

     Moving on to the bigger toys.  We have two toys that basically do the same thing.  you drop balls in one spot and watch them go down a track.  At the end this triggers music to play.  My theory is to get rid of the bigger one.  This should make room for the totally awesome train set that I found on sale earlier this year for my toddler.  My fear with the train set is all the pieces of track.  I have devised a plan already.  Upon emptying one of our cubes that currently gets occupied by happy meal toys and other miscellaneous small toys the track will be stored in there.  I plan to find a smaller box to keep all of the engines and car in separately.

     After all the culling is complete my plan will enter step two.  All toys will be cleaned and move to the garage.  Then a by appointment sale will be listed on craigslist.  I really do not want to clear and entire Saturday for a yard sales that is my solution. I will schedule a few appointments from Friday evening until Sunday evening.  I can schedule the appointments around things I know we nee to get done as a family.  On Monday what ever is not sold will be taking a trip down to the local charity donation box.

     On another note I am happy to report that our clothes clean out is going well.  All of the kids clothes have been separated and stored accordingly.  All of K1's clothes that were to small are in space bags awaiting K2 to grow in to them.  All the the things that K2 out grew are in the laundry basket awaiting their division into boxes for Thred UP listing. For more about Thred UP please see our post Clearing Out the Kids Clothes.