Birthdays

Brynli and Wyatt's birthdays are 1 day apart, so they always get to share a birthday celebration. Brynli thinks it is great that her birthday is 1 day after her dad's, and I think Wyatt likes it too. I can't believe that my little Brynli is 7 years old. Wow how time flies. I won't say how old Wyatt is, but Brynli was a great present for his 30th birthday.

Here are some pictures of our celebration at Grandma's house. Notice the darling cake that Melanie made. She is so talented and all my kids are so excited to see what she is going to do next.

 Here Brynli is opening her presents from Grandma & Grandpa. She was so excited to get a password journal. I guess that makes her feel really big.

 Here are some pictures of our birthday celebration at home. Poor Brynli was sick on her birthday. She was trying to pretend that she wasn't too bad, but I could tell that she really didn't feel good. She still wanted to open her presents and go get ice cream. 

 Brynli went ice skating at one of her friends parties about a month ago and ever since then she has wanted to go ice skating for her birthday. She wanted to just go as a family. All the kids were super excited because they have all wanted to go ice skating all winter long. They all had a great time. By the end of the night they could all skate unassisted. Sadie was pretty excited about that. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I stayed outside the glass and watched with Aubrey and I sent Kamryn in with my camera. I am glad for the 3 pictures that I did get. And I am glad that everyone had such a good time. I just wish it didn't have to be so cold.

Wyatt and I went for a snowmobile ride for his birthday. It had been awhile since I had been snowmobiling. I forgot how fun it is. I'm sure Wyatt gets a better ride when he goes with the boys, but we still had a great time. Sorry, no pictures, we were too busy riding. 

January

January usually comes and goes with no pictures taken, and not really anything much happening. At least compared to December, January seems like a very slow month.  This year I decided to document what we did in January. I had to go back to my calendar and see what we did, because I didn't take many pictures.

First of all I started this Get Fit Challenge at the beginning of January.  In this challenge there are 4 teams with 9 or 10 on each team. Each person earns points each day for their team by eating plenty of fruits & vegetables, drinking lots of water, exercising, not eating sweets, not eating after nine, and supporting one another as a group. We also have extra challenges each week that we can earn points for and we earn points for any weight that we may lose. We do get one day each week that we don't count points, so we can eat whatever we like. This really is what makes it possible for me to go the rest of the week without ice cream or other treats. Knowing I can have them at least once a week. It has been a lot of fun and a good motivator for me to be more healthy. I've done pretty good with it, and it seems like I feel a lot better as I eat more healthy and exercise regularly. I've lost a little weight, but not as much as I would like too. But being healthy is really my goal, not weight loss.

One event that we did in January that I actually got pictures of was Cub Scout Pack Meeting. Derek was awarded his Bobcat badge in January. He earned it quite awhile ago, but with the Pinewood Derby, and the holidays they didn't give out awards until this pack meeting.                                                                                                                                            

The middle of January we had a fun surprise visit from my mom & dad and Jodi & Keyli. My mom & dad had been trying to come out to Vernal since Aubrey's birthday in December, but the weather was either not good, or they had other things going on. Vernal gets so cold in the winter and they really didn't want to come out here and freeze, or drive when it was storming. They finally made it out and they brought Jodi and Keyli with them. It was a lot of fun having them here. The kids absolutely loved it. Keyli rolled over for the first time while they were here. It was fun to see her, even if her daddy missed it.  I didn't even take very many pictures of their visit. I do have a couple to share thanks in part to Jodi.

Here are all the girls in their pj's.

Aubrey thought it was pretty fun to sit in Keyli's bouncer and play.

I don't have any other pictures, but we did a few more things in January.  Kamryn and Wyatt went on the Klondike Scout Camp. It doesn't sound very fun to me to camp in the middle of winter, but I guess they had a good time and they didn't freeze too much (even if they had, I don't think they would have admitted it).  The boys also took a trip to the slopes to go snowboarding and a trip up the mountain with the snowmobiles, and of course had a great time on both occasions. The whole family went to a ward pinewood derby. Anyone who wanted to could enter a car. Each of our kids, except Aubrey, entered a car. There wasn't a whole lot of people there, but the Mansfields swept the competition. Our 4 cars took the first four places. The kids all thought it was great and had a lot of fun. Derek and Brynli started indoor soccer last month and Wyatt and I got to go to a Peter Breinholt concert. We saw him in concert when we were in college, and I really like his music, so I was pretty excited that he came to Vernal, and excited to be able to get away for an evening a go on a date with my husband. So we really did have a pretty good January.