Climbing...again

I can't baby proof this house enough for Bristol!  She looked so cute trying to look out the window this morning.  I'm pretty sure she was saying "ouside" which I translate to mean "outside". 

Cooking

Tyler loves to cook.  His specialty is breakfast.  He really enjoys making yellow pancakes (our name for a family favorite oven baked pancake), waffles and breakfast sandwiches with eggs.  He made chocolate chip waffles this morning.  I thought I'd let Bristol have some.  What a mess!  She had to go straight to the tub when she was finished!  Tyler is such a good boy and a huge help!  I'm so grateful for him and his sweet little spirit!  The other day we were running late in the morning and I was trying to finish getting lunches packed.  The phone rang and it was a mom of a friend of Tyler's.  The kids really needed to get out the door, but I didn't have their lunches ready.  I couldn't get off the phone!  Tyler came in and noticed I was needing help and without even being asked he finished chopping the strawberries and getting everything in the lunch boxes.  I feel so blessed to have such a sweet boy!

Weather Game

Every morning at 7:45am EST, Tyler calls papa to play the weather game.  It is 5:45am MST for papa.  I don't have a clue why anyone wants to be woken up at the crack of dawn by the phone to play a weather game.  But, my dad loves it (I'm assuming).  If it were me, I'd tell Tyler to call back in a couple hours!  They pick cities anywhere in the U.S. and guess what the current temperature is.  Whoever guesses the closest is the winner.  They play this all.the.time.  Tyler's favorite city is International Falls, MN, I have no idea why.  Tyler is such a little weather man.  He can't go a morning without checking the weather forecast for us and all the cities our family lives in.  He is constantly updating me on weather conditions.  He loves the weather channel.  We have started calling him Ty-merryweather. 
Maybe he'll be a meteorologist when he grows up!

Easter Sunday

I saw the kids for just a little bit Sunday morning before I headed off to BodyCombat training.  Tj did a good job at getting Bristol ready - especially her hair!  I should have had Brena get her dress approved by me before I left.  Oh well. 

 Tyler's pants are too short again - I swear that kid is growing like a weed!!

Happy Easter!  I'm so grateful to know that our Savior died for me and my sins!  That he was resurrected and someday I will be too.  It is such a comfort to know that death is not the end!  I can't imagine not having my family for eternity.

After church Tj had a little egg hunt for the kids.  He is such a good daddy.  I fail miserably at doing holidays up! 

BodyCombat 59 Initial Training

I LOVE BodyCombat.  I have been taking it for about 4 years.  I had some world class instructors down in Florida, and they inspired me!  They were the best instructors I have ever had.  I decided it was time I became an instructor too!  I have my BodyPump certification already, so why not another Les Mills program??  BodyCombat 59 is awesome.  I love all the music so much.  Training was April 19-20 at Virginia Tech.  That was wonderful because we live across the street - no commute at all!  For BodyPump I had to drive about an hour, which still isn't too bad.  Our trainer for BC was Leslie Ann Quillen.  She is awesome.  I learned so much.  We spent so much time on coaching which will not only help me with BC, but with BP too.  We started at 8am Saturday morning.  Leslie Ann taught the master class the entire way through.  It's been a couple years since I've done an entire hour of BC - I didn't know if I'd be able to do it!  It was rough!  And, I had just had a terrible stomach virus Wednesday and Thursday and I really didn't feel well.  But, I made it.  After the master class we got right into learning.

 We learned all about technique, coaching, and more.  It was so informative.  We also presented our first track that afternoon and got feed back on it.   I knew ahead of time I was going to be teaching tracks 4 & and 5. 

Sunday morning we started right at 8am again.  We started off with Super Hero jeopardy.  It was so much fun and our team won!  I won the bonus question which was to name one of the fighters in the UFC fight the night before.  That was our homework for Saturday night - to watch the UFC fight on FOX.  I had never watched a UFC fight before - I'm hooked!

I was sad I missed Easter Sunday with my family.  But, I didn't really have a choice.  You have to attend training to certify and the trainings are always a Saturday and Sunday.  Right after our jeopardy game we presented our second tracks and got feedback on them.  Then we had more training and information.  We had a Combat challenge that afternoon.  It really was a challenge!  I loved how much time we got to spend working on our form and technique for the hooks, jabs, and kicks.  Very helpful.  Then before I knew it, we presented our second track for the second time, and it was all over!  It went too fast.  We waited in the room while Leslie Ann was in the hall and called people out to give them their final grades.  I passed with a 3/3 - the highest pass.  I felt so good when I walked out to her and right away she said to me "you are really good at this."  That made all the self-doubt, worry and thinking I wasn't good enough go away.  To have a master trainer tell you that, well that's some high praise!

Now to learn the entire release and get fully certified!

Easter Bunny

After the kids went to bed Friday night, I noticed Brenalee had taped a note to the counter for the Easter Bunny.  That kid cracks me up! 

Saturday morning, the kids woke up and saw the Easter Bunny had come.  Unfortunately, he forgot Bristol.  Oh well, she'll never remember.

Houston, we have a climber!

I don't think Tyler or Brenalee ever climbed like Bristol.  She is unstoppable!  Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do with this child.  I originally put this heavy box of train tracks in front of the door with all the DVDs in it, because she is constantly pulling ALL the DVDs out.  So, I thought that heavy box would stop her.  WRONG!  She just pushed it across the floor to the bench, so she could climb on top of the box, to climb on top of the bench.  Where she was going after that, I don't know.  This child is killing me!

BodyPump 89 Release!

Our Monday morning BodyPump instructor moved and asked me to take over his class!  I was so excited!  Monday morning is the best time to teach, I think.  I love it.  We launched the new release this morning and I asked if anyone wanted to dress up as superheroes with me.  We had a blast.  We tried to get our members to dress up.  Only one girl did - she wore a Batman shirt.  Everyone told us they loved the costumes.
Our signs to get everyone excited!

 Me, Jon, Laura, Martha and Sarah

 Triceps!

 Biceps!

 Flex Break!

BodyPump Groundworks

A couple other instructors from the gym and I decided to attend a Les Mills Groundworks training for BodyPump.  Laurie and I presented in BodyPump and Jon presented in BodyStep.  The day started early, we had about an hour drive ahead of us.  Check-in was at 8:30, and we wanted to be there in plenty of time.  It was held at the Roanoke Athletic Club - it was huge!  Our little gym in Blacksburg is so small.  We walked into the room and all the steps were already set up for us.  I was impressed there was a table off to the side with snacks!  Cliff Bars, bananas, trail mix, waters, and granola bars.  I've only been to one Les Mills training before, and there were no snacks there.  So, this was a nice surprise!  The day started off with BodyPump. We did the express class with the master trainer.  He was amazing of course.  Then we spent a lot of time looking in the mirror while he told us what position we were to be perfecting.  Lots of practice on squat position, dead rows, bicep rows, and more.  It was great to go through all of that again with a master trainer!  Then the presentations started.  There were 5 of us presenting in BodyPump.  I was last.  I did BP89 squats.  We knew from signing up that we would not teach the entire track, and that the feedback was given in front of everyone.  So you had to be ok with that if you wanted to present.  I didn't mind - I wanted feedback!  I need to work on my coaching layers.  I have been spending hours on that this last week trying to script and put things where they need to be.  It's tough!  After BodyPump we did BodyStep.  I am not certified in that, so I just took the master class and then sat out the rest of it.  After that we had a mini lesson on how to become better instructors.  It was great, I learned a lot.  My favorite part was the description of how when we came in this morning, we didn't know we were doing things wrong, now we were aware that we were and it might sting a bit.  I guess I feel kind of like I'm going through some growing pains with my instructing.  I know now what to practice on to be better, but it's stings a little.  It was nice to know that everyone had things to work on!  After the lesson, it was BodyAttack time.  The trainer for attack was amazing!  I wish we had Attack at our gym.  I am not certified to teach it either, so I sat out after the master class.  Last class of the day was BodyJam.  Now, I am NO dancer.  I have no rhythm, at all.  I was planning on just sitting this entire thing out.  But, the trainer wouldn't allow that - oh no!  He made me get up and participate.  Ugh, I hated the entire thing.  I hid in the back and looked like a complete idiot.  Oh well.  It was a great day.  I wish there were more trainings to attend!

Ducks

Last spring we had a duck couple who loved hanging out in our pool.  Well, they are back!  They were in the front yard today and Bristol was screaming at them, so I took her out there so she could see them.  She promptly started chasing them while Brenalee tried to feed them bread.  They weren't too fond of Bristol...

 I love the look on her face in this one - it kind of captures her excitement at chasing these things!

  

This video is great, but be forewarned - I thought I had hit the stop button at the end.  I didn't.  So, don't watch that part or you might get sick!