Sundays with Conni

There were some cute Conni moments yesterday at church that I wanted to remember.  Enjoy!

Conni loves to sing.  She's working on reading, but when it is time to sing the hymns, the music moves too fast for her to read/sound out words.  She insists on singing the Sacrament Hymn.  But every week, she sings "I Am a Child of God".  She knows this song so well that she can read along fast enough.  Well, we have yet to sing that as our scheduled hymn!  But, she sings along nice and loud and happy as can be, pleased to be participating.   Gratefully, the people we sit by love it and no one has commented to Conni.  

Yesterday during the speakers' talks, Conni wanted me to help her complete this page from the November 2013 Friend magazine.  You are supposed to list something for each letter of the alphabet that you are thankful for.  The pic is a little blurry, but she came up with each item on her own and was so happy!  I love her joy!

A: animals

B: basketball (2)

C: camping

D: dance

E: eggs

F: family

G: good doctors

H: helping

I: ice cream

J: jammies (specifically her penguin footie jammies)

K: kangaroo

L: lions

M: monkeys

N: names (because our parents chose our names for us)

O: operation game

P: Patti (makes my heart melt!)

Q: quiet time

R: rabbits

S: swimming pools

T: testimony

U: unicorn

V: van of Masons (meaning their RV)

W: water

X: exit

Y: yaks

Z: zippers

A Payoff Moment

I'd like to share a payoff moment.  Some people may see this particular post as bragging.  But I worked hard and I want to share!  Here's my story...

Here's me in April 2012:

As much as I loved the pictures, I didn't really like what I saw in myself.  I knew that I needed to make lifestyle changes, but I couldn't find the motivation to start.  I would take a day here or a day there, and do like 10 minutes of exercise, but I would get discouraged easily.  

In April of 2013, I found my motivation.  (Here's where I share that story.)  The Health and Fitness Challenge I participated in was a real eye opener for me.  (Here's what was expected of me and some of my early results.)  I was pleased to see my body slimming down and the pounds coming off the scale.  I finished the challenge in third place and told myself, "I've learned some great lifestyle habits and I will continue this daily!"  Well, reality hit and I only got in exercise here and there.  I was eating a lot better though.  Then my friend Evelyn introduced me to another challenge group that started the end of September.  

This time around the challenge was a lot harder to keep going.  While I luckily maintained my weight in between - I think I gained three pounds in the four months "off" - the weight didn't start dropping off as quickly this time around.  It was much harder to stay motivated.  I dropped another pants size though, so I think the inches were coming off.  

I chose to enjoy the holidays and not participate in the challenge they did at this time.  I love the treats we have during Christmas and made a conscious choice to eat.  I did however use a lot of self control to watch my portion sizes and make sure I wasn't eating late at night.  

I still hadn't reached my weight goals, so I decided to participate in a third challenge starting January 10th.  I wanted to make sure I got to taste the last of the Christmas treats so I kind of indulged a bit before the challenge started.  Again, however, my maintenance weight thru the holidays was pretty good - I gained five pounds - and this was over Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

This third challenge I convinced my sister Sarah to participate with me.  She was surprised at everything that was expected of us.  She was even more impressed with what I had done the year before.  This time around I didn't get perfect points, and I was frequently having to exercise at night to get my time in.  However the inches were coming off yet again.  I dropped yet another pants size and a shirt size as well.  I lost a total of 6.75 inches overall on this challenge alone.  I started having problems with my knee, and was diagnosed with patella femoral syndrome (but thats for another post).  

I was really happy to see how far I had come with basically six months worth of work.  I am now half the pants size I was in 2012.  I have lost a total of 28 pounds since my starting weight. (Plus the other eight pounds I had to loose twice!)  I am not quite to my goal yet, but I will keep working.  

We had family pictures this weekend and I truly loved what I saw when we got them:

I have to give a ton of credit to my friend Evelyn who started me on this journey.  We went to the zoo together last week and she is still one of my biggest supporters.  We sat and ate M&Ms and shared our successes and failures since we started.  I know I can do this and I am so proud of how far I've come.  I know this is something I will have to work hard to keep up with and maintain, but now that I've done it, I know I can do more.  

Thanks for letting me share!

The Zoo with Friends

We took advantage of the spring weather and went to the Hogle Zoo with our friends.  Conni loved having someone else to run thru the zoo with!  The animals were active enough that it was fun, and the weather was warm enough to get away with light jackets.  It was a ton of fun to visit with Evelyn (when we weren't trying to keep track of which kid had wandered off or stayed behind).  The kids took great care of each other too.  

The Aquarium

Last night we had the opportunity with my husband's work to tour the soon-to-be-open Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper.  There were lots of empty exhibits, but the exhibits themselves were pretty cool.  There's a lot of potential in this new building.  They did have the penguins, the otters, the sharks, and some other animals there though.  The penguin exhibit is always one of our favorites.  I like that you can see the upstairs if they are out on the rocks (which they were all sleeping on the rocks at the time).  Or you can go down below and watch thru the glass where the swim.  The shark tank was pretty neat - they had an "underwater" tunnel to walk thru with the sharks and other fish swimming above and around you.  After a bit, I started to feel pretty claustrophobic in there so we headed around.  They you could head upstairs and watch the sharks swim too.  The otter habitat was pretty similar to the one at the old building, but the otters were very active so it was a lot of fun.

We are hoping to go back - if the price is right.  I wasn't super pleased how expensive the tickets are, but with our small family we should be able to go a few times.  It was nice to check it all out for free though!

Random Pics

We recently had our hard drive back up die - with lots of family pictures stored only there!  I've learned my lesson!  So, here's a few cute pics to share and keep track of.  Dave is the best dad and I love to find him spending a few minutes one on one with Conni.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In a previous post, you saw our leprechaun trap in the making.  Here's what we caught!

Setting up the trap Sunday night.  Conni left some mini M&Ms as "bait"

 

Isn't she beautiful!

The trail of mini M&Ms...

All ready to see if she caught anything!

"Dad, will you help me in case he tries to run out? You are faster than me."

 The leprechaun took time to build Conni a note and a leprechaun dude out of legos

The one thing Conni wanted most from the leprechaun was for him to paint her nails green.  She got her wish!!!!

Surprises from the leprechaun!

Glow in the dark stars and flowers, Leprechaun book, butterfly painting craft, grow your own shamrock plant, and Rolo candies

  

The leprechaun also left streamers outside Conni's door

And this note on the bathroom mirror:
"Nice Try Conni! Better luck next year!"

We had a ton of fun, and Conni is already building a better trap for next year.  I love to see her mind engineering away.  And I love family traditions!

These Hands are Made for Serving

I was asked to participate in a skit for our ward Relief Society birthday party.  I enjoy doing these things because after being in YW for 10 1/2 years, its hard to stay connected with some of the other sisters in the ward.  I had a ton of fun with some "old" friends and made a new friend too!  

Me, Evelyn, Xylina, Tammy, Rosanne

We had some technical difficulties at the beginning.  And sorry about the weird zooming thing going on half way thru.  But you still get the idea!

Leprechaun Trap

We have a fun tradition where we try each year to catch the Leprechaun.  Conni has been making plans for her trap for a few weeks now.  She was ready for Valentine's Day to be over just so she could work on this.  Here's some shots of what we built this weekend.  Conni designed a Leprechaun Hotel.  In the "room" there is a bed with a blanket and pillow, a desk and a chair, a rug with shamrocks on it, and homework hidden under the bed for the leprechaun to find.  There is a picture on the wall.  Outside there is a door, with a mailbox and a sign so the leprechaun knows who made his nice place. I hope we catch something!!

I learned this weekend that even on a fun simple project like this, Dave is very precise.

Such a cutie! Waiting for dad to finish covering the box

Don't worry - after we took the picture we took the scissors away and I finished cutting for her.  No children were harmed in the making of this trap!

The finished product