Family Fun - Bike Riding

We didn't really have a family night last night. The kids had friends over for a late night and Brian was at work helping a buyer so we had to do something together today. The kids all now have new bikes and none of them have flat tires yet! This afternoon we went on a bike ride together. Kylie rode in the carrier on the back of my bike and we did a loop around the neighborhood. Riding a bike it makes it really obvious why our neighborhood is called Bloomington Hills. Yeah for healthy family fun!

Saturday Date Night

Today for our weekly date we went and played tennis for an hour. It was a great workout and lots of fun. I won 1 match and Brian won about 13. I've got an awful backhand and he can get me nearly everytime! After our games he helped me work on my backhand. Maybe I'll do better next time!

Fit Friday

It's a good thing it is Fit Friday. After all the cake I ate last night I need to have a great day today! I'm off to a slow start but as soon as I get the kids off to school in a few minutes I'll start working out. I need to come up with a good book to read while on the treadmill today because I've got a lot of time to put in!

Happy 11th Birthday Bryce

Happy Birthday Bryce!
My morning started with a run to Wal-Mart to buy treats for Bryce's class. We had absolutely no junk in the house and there was nothing he could take to give to his class as his birthday treat.

After school we headed out to buy ice cream, rent some movies and then hit Wendy's for dinner.

Bryce hates to smile for pictures. He told me today he likes me to take them while he is eating because then he doesn't have to smile!

We had a slight problem with the birthday cake... Bryce wanted chocolate buttermilk cake (so yummy and it killed my healthy living point total for the day but that is another story). You frost it and eat it hot out of the oven. The candles melted and wouldn't stay up.

We had to put them back up and then scoop out all the melted wax once he blew his candles out.Make a Wish!

After eating at Wendy's Brian and Bryce headed to Wal-Mart to spend his birthday money. He ended up with a bike, a dartboard and a new Pokemon game.

Happy Birthday Bryce! We love you and are so glad you have been in our home for the past 11 years. Thanks for bringing so much joy to us!

Bradley - The Hero!

Today was the Hero Hunt Assembly at School. Bradley won this month award for Goals and Self Improvement: for being able to try new things, working your best to learn or do something and feeling fears, but not allowing them to control you.

His teacher wrote: Brad is an outstanding student. He has worked especially hard in math, and has become a great little mathematician. Brad has also really improved in writing. He always adds details in his stories. Keep up the good work!

Thankful Thursday

5 heathly kids
Mrs. Anderson as Brett's math teacher
Clean clothes
Filtered water
Warm showers
Safe neighborhood
LDS teachers at my kids school
Computers
Good parents
Hard working husband
Ateonement
Joseph Smith
Temples
Book of Mormon
Cell phones
Blogs
Warm Blankets

Though None Go With Me

Confession: I love sappy, sentimental, heartwarming movies. I stayed up way too late last night watching one of them. About 9:00 Brian and I started a movie. We were just going to watch the first 45 minutes of it then go to bed. But it was really good we stayed up to watch all of it. It was a great movie with a great message. There is so much garbage out there to watch it was wonderful to watch something clean and uplifting. Totally worth watching and I highly recommend it. It's a hallmark movie but they currently have it in Redboxs.

Field Trip to the Police Station

Arielle, Kim, Megan, Kylee, Annie, Sydney, Victoria, Baylee, Lexee, Rachel & Bradley ready to go on the tour. For Activity Days today we took the girls to the Police Station for a tour. Now half of them want to be police women or dispatchers when the turn 21. The girls were fabulous. I've taken a smaller group of scouts on the same tour before and the girls were definitely calmer! We had a VIP give us a brief tour of the station. The coolest and most freaky thing was when an officer showed us his taser. The noise it made freaked out a couple of the kids. They also thought it was cool that the dispatchers had 5 computer screens.

Off to a Great Start - Tackle It Tuesday

I actually rolled myself out of bed at 5:35 this morning to workout. Kids are off to school and I'm ready to tackle my day! I've decide to tackle the downstairs hallway today. Home to lots of junk. Bradley's clothes drawers are out of control and the other side of the hallway is fully of empty drawers and lots of junk. If I get ambitious I'll also go through Kim's drawers. She has too many clothes to fit in her 4 drawer dresser and I need to figure out a better solution so she can keep her clothes organized and off the floor!

This afternoon I have an activity day's field trip to the police station.

ETA: Boy does the hallway look better now! I took some of the empty plastic drawers and moved them into Kim's closet and put some of her clothes in them. Now there is finally a place for all her clothes. And look at all the empty shelf space I have. I have been dejunking so much I have lots of empty space now!

Slow Start Monday - Maintain It Monday

Kim is home sick today. The day is starting off really slow. I've got part of my workout done while Kim laid on the couch near me. The other kids are off to school the boys, Brian & I did have breakfast together. Time to kick it in gear and get moving! I'm staring with a small manageable list:

Finish my workout - treadmill & abs workout
Dishes, counters, table & kitchen floor
Fold Laundry
Clean 3 bathrooms

I'm going to see how long it takes me to finish those tasks and reevaluate what I need to do for the rest of my day. It may be I just need to sit and hold Kim.

ETA: Kim's feeling fine. Thankfully. I got my list done and then made permission slips & a flyer for our activity day's field trip tomorrow and took them around to be signed. It's now after 3 and I am going to go read my scriptures and relax for a few minutes until the kids get home.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday
B- Fried Eggs & Sausage
D- Turkey Soup

Tuesday
B- Pancakes
D- Creamy Italian Chicken

Wednesday
B- French Toast
D- Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Thursday - Bryce's 11th Birthday
B- Pancake Puff
D- Wendys

Friday
B-Scrambled Eggs
D- Pizza

Saturday
B- Waffles
L- Left overs or soup
D- Potato Soup

Sunday
B- Fast Sunday
L- Cream Peas & Tuna
D- Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

21 Days to Make a Habit...

So is there any truth to that statement. My mom used to say it something like 21 days to make a habit and only 1 day to break it.
I've decided every 3 or 4 weeks I am going to review my goals, recommit to them and adjust them as needed. This is a post mainly just for me.

Family Goals
Read the Book of Mormon together as a family in 1 year. So far were kicking butt on this goal. Today we will read 1 Nephi chapter 17, well the first part of it anyway. We are also reading a section out of For The Strength Of Youth each day.

Have Family Prayer Together Every Morning and Night. We're doing well on this one too. Weekends are harder but we're doing great on weekdays.

Have a Lesson Each Week During Family Home Evening. Check! Here is a funny thing. We were reading an article in the friend a couple weeks ago for our lesson. At the end of the page it said.... To be continuted. Huh? Never had that happen while reading the Friend. When the February friend arrived this week Bradley was excited and said now we can hear the end of the story.

Family Fun Night each week.
We've reinstituted our family fun night. We've friends over to join us twice this month. I think the kids enjoy these nights.

Eat Dinner & Breakfast Together
Again we do well on week days. Weekends seem to be harder.

Bedtimes
We've actually pushed bedtime earlier. It had been they had to be downstairs and quiet by 9:30 and now it is 9:00. I've been getting up too early to have the kids up any later than that. I've been reading a great book that talked about Parent Hour. At 9:00 the kids have to be out of the way for parent hour where mom and dad have alone time. Great idea!

Media
Really struggling with this one! We have 4 computers all networked together and most days after school I have half the neighborhood at my home and a bunch of boys in the office playing on the computers. So between computer time and TV I know my kids are spending over 2 hours a day on media. I just listened to a great talk by John Bytheway called Turn Off the TV and Get a Life. I'm committed to do better in this area.

Chores
Some days we work first than play... I'm going to try to be better at making that EVERYDAY we work first then play. It's easier to just do things myself sometimes but that doesn't help them learn.

Personal Goals
Have a Perfect Year = kneeling prayers every morning and night & read my scriptures everyday - been doing good on this one so far. It's probably the single most important things I've done. There is a lot of truth to putting first things first and if you do other things will fall into place and you'll have time for them.
Attend the Temple at least once every month - Brian and I went to ward temple night.
Read the Ensign cover to cover each month - I've read Januarys and will finish February's today or tomorrow. I'm staring to really love the Ensign!
Be early to church each week - Thanks to Brett having to be to church half an hour early to set up chairs we are doing really well on this one.
Read at least 52 books - I've upped this goal to at least 100 books this year!
Get on top of and stay on top of the house by making sure the kids are doing their chores & I am keeping up with my "Tackle it" goals/projects each day - Struggling here a little. I can never seem to keep it clean for long. And there is always more laundry, more dishes, more clutter... it never ends.
Keep my body healthy by maintaining my weight, eating healthy and exercising, remain motivated by working with friends to meet my goal - Doing great on this one.
Keep in touch with extended family & friends through blogging, letters, emails and phone calls - I could definately be better here. I did write my grandma and I do keep up with my blog but I'm lacking in the other areas.
Make time to Be Still & Ponder each day - I struggle to find quiet time and to take the time to just think and ponder.
Get in the habit of listening to uplifting music each day by turning on LDS radio, a CD or itunes each day - I've done this somedays. On other days I've been trying to listen to audio CDs of church talks.
Be a better mother & wife by spending quality one on one time with my children & husband regularly & not raising my voice so the spirit can be in our home - Stuggling but working on it. Brian & I have been going on our weekly date but I need to take more one on one time with the kids and work on speaking to them in a better tone.
Focus on the good & don't judge others - Doing my best.

Bribery... We'll it works...

Am I a bad mother to bride my Kylie to go to Sunbeams?

Today's bribe? Cupcakes with green & purple frosting.

It worked. She went to class. So after church we made cupcakes. A much better treat than last week because I can easily resist cupcakes. Chocolate cookies from last week were not something I wanted to resist. So 4 weeks of Sunbeams down. Hopefully soon bribes won't be required anymore.

100+ Books in 2009

I'm going to read at least 100 books in 2009. They have to be chapter books (no picture books). I can read them or listen to an unabridged audio. There I set it as a goal, said it now I have to do it!

I'm tracking all the books I read on Goodreads.com It's a great site, come check it out! As I finish a book that qualifies I'll add it to the list on my blog.

Date Night

Brian & I have been trying to go on a weekly date. Although we find it easier to go out in the afternoons most of the time.
Today we went to Olive Garden for a late lunch. We had a $25 gift card so we could eat for free! Free is good especially in this Real Estate market. But what do you eat at Olive Garden that doesn't have white sugar or flour? Not much! I did enjoy my Chicken Caesar Salad with no croutons and dressing on the side. Brian got my favorite... Fettuccine Alfredo!

Afterwards we rented the movie Eagle Eye and came home and watched it on our Clear Play DVD player. I love our clearplay DVD player. It cleans up all the sex, language and graphic violence. If you don't have one you should get one! Seriously they are so worth it. We enjoyed the movie. There was obviously a lot of language cut out and I don't know what else we might have missed due to editing but what we saw was good.

Family Fun Night

It's Friday which means Family Fun Night at the Habels. Brian rented the movie City of Ember for us to watch tonight. I just finished the 4 books in the series and Brian knew I enjoyed the books so he rented it for us to watch tonight. And as a treat for everyone but me I bought ice cream.
The movie didn't do very well in the box office but I'm still excited to see how they adapted the book into a movie.

If Life Were Easy It Wouldn't Be Hard....

I have upped my goal from reading 52 books to reading 100 books this year. I'm well on my way as I just finished my 8th book so far this year. And I must say it was fabulous. I LOVE SHERI DEW! This is a great book and so full of eternal truths and hope. Go read it if you haven't already!

Fit Friday

If it wasn't Fit Friday I would not have got 4 exercise points today! I was so tired I opted to sleep in this morning instead of waking up at 5:45 to workout. I had to volunteer in Kim's class today so here it is noon and I'm just finishing my workout. But I did it. Going for my 12 points today! Thanks Yoga for the inspiration.

Hooray! Bryce Gets His Arrow Of Light

We have been so blessed to have great scout leaders for Bryce! Thanks Marianne for getting him through Webelos!

This is the last pack meeting for the Habel family for a while. It's been 6 straight years of pack meeting and we get a 10 month break until Bradley turns 8 in December.

Bryce receiving his awards

Arrow of Light Time.

Congratulations Bryce we are so proud of you!

Great work Bryce!

With his Arrow of Light Plaque.

A huge indoor "snowball" fight to end the evening.

Thwart It Thursday

I'm tired today. I could barely make it through my workout this morning. I stopped twice to rest because I felt like puking and I wasn't working out very hard? It's hard to get to bed early enough to get enough sleep by 5:45 am when the alarm goes off!

I'm going to run errands and go shopping today but still want to thwart something on my house so I've decided to clean up one side of the garage. It's home to all the kids sports equipment and outdoor toys and it is in disarray. It is supposed to rain today so I'm hoping to be working in the garage while it is raining outside so I can enjoy the rain.
So here is the after pictures:

And no rain so far today :-(