It's the Holiday Season...

Ashby Family Fitness Challenge

We have been discussing the possibility of having a family fitness challenge and would like every one's opinions. We thought it would be fun to encourage each other to improve our overall fitness as opposed to just weight loss. Each person interested (this could include Ian & Mason) would send in $10 which would be saved in the pot. We could either start January 1st or to help out the travelers of the family a good start might be Monday, January 5th. Here are our ideas to earn points which will need to be called into Mom at the start of each month and then they will be posted on the blog to give a little added encouragement to the stragglers. We thought it would even out the challenge by having some ways to earn a few bonus points. At the end of the contest the winner gets all the money. If there should be a tie it can be divided evenly. If you forget to call in your points within a few days you will not get the points that month!

1 point for each day you participate in at least 30 minutes of exercise.
1 bonus point for participating in a fitness event during the month.
1 bonus point for losing 5 pounds.
1 bonus point for recording all the food you eat during the month.

Please give us your comments about our ideas and any other suggestions you might have to make the challenge fun and successful. Send your ideas in as to how long to make the challenge and we will vote on the official rules including how long to have the challenge last.

Good luck in achieving your fitness goals and may the BEST Ashby win!!!!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree on Friday night, but didn't have time to decorate it until Sunday. The boys were very excited. It definatly doesn't feel like Christmas without the Tree. I also love that we get a real tree. It makes my whole house smell like Christmas. Ilove it.

By the way, do you like our star? Ian mad our star this year. I think he did an excelent job!

Early Christmas

On Wednesday we had a little early Christmas. We decided to let Reagan open his Christmas presents that were too big to fit in the suitcase. After opening the presents we went to Belton Lake to look at the lights. We had a pretty fun evening. Reagan did have to inform us that the lights were NOT beautiful. They were handsome like him.

He got his first little bike. He likes it but he is just big enough to reach the pedals. Good thing he had a growth spurt. He has only been able to ride on it once. He tried to ride it to the mailbox and back but it was too cold. He rode it most of the way there but Abe had to push the bike back because Reagan was freezing.

He also got a backpack with a sleeping bag, flashlight and water bottle in it. He was very excited about this present. He had to try it out immediately. He also wanted us to take him camping right then.

He loves to carry around his new backpack and doesn't want to take it off.


One time while I was getting Benson ready Reagan had to go to the bathroom. He must of had an accident because when I came back out with Benson I saw Reagan standing in front of the TV wearing his backpack but no clothes. (Sorry I didn't take any pictures of it!!!)

After begging me enough I was finally convinced to take out the tent so Reagan could pretend he was camping.

Jill Might Need A New Husband

I think I proved yesterday that Jill got the short end of the stick as far as our marriage goes. I realized yesterday that the 10 or so items I checked out from the library were a couple weeks overdue (incurring a late-fee of $19), so I hurried to the library to drop them off before going to scouts. I ran into the library, but left the car running so it would be a little warmer when I returned. A warm car doesn't do you all that much good when your keys are locked inside. Jill had to drop what she was doing and come rescue me so I could go to scouts. When I got home from scouts, I parked the car in the garage. I guess I was thinking so much about not locking my keys in the car that I left the headlights on. Now our battery is dead, and I had to take Jill's car to work this morning. Jill's sister came over to help her jump the car in the zero degree weather we are having. Jill got a little impatient with me when I laughed at her while she was standing in the snow and cold, talking to me on her cell phone, and asking questions like "now, where does the red one go?" I thought about asking her to make sure the snow is shoveled off the driveway by the time I get home, but I'm a little smarter than that.

It's almost Christmas

This week I decided it was time to decorate the house for Christmas. It took a couple of days but we got up both of the Christmas trees. I decorated the first tree which is in the living room. Isn't it lovely? Then we invited the little kids over to decorate the upstairs tree.


Everyone was so excited. Blake wasn't sure what to do at first.

Claire wanted to be one of the "big kids" and put the decorations up high on the tree.

Mason did his part and decorated the back side of the tree so it would look nice.

Ian was in charge of putting the decorations on the very top of the tree.

Finally Blake got excited and did his part in making our tree look extra nice.

This is what the bottom of the tree looks like.
Which tree do you think would win the best decorated tree? Notice that we have some presents under the tree. We almost have one less. Blake came in ran over and got a present and said "this is my favorite" and then he sat down and started to open it. I told him it wasn't Christmas yet and he had to wait. He replied, "PLEASE" and then he started to cry. Sorry Ashleigh, one of your presents isn't quite as pretty as it was a couple of days ago.

Just Like Dad

On Saturday I was making lunch when Reagan came riding in on his car. While I wasn't paying attention Reagan put his underpants on by himself. They were on backwards and inside out. He also managed to put his shoes on the wrong feet. He waved at me and said "Bye mommy, I love you, miss you got to go work with team." He then started driving his car into the garage. He was all ready to go to work just like his daddy. I had to remind him it was too cold to go outside without pants.

Sea World

We decided to spend Saturday at Sea World as a family. Right now Sea World is doing a Christmas theme so all the shows were done with Christmas music and the people would wear Santa hats. It was a lot of fun. Reagan enjoyed seeing all the characters dressed up and sitting on Santa's lap. Reagan has grown a couple inches since we went last time. So not only does this mean Reagan needs new pants. It also means that Reagan is now tall enough to ride on the Shamu roller coaster. He loved it. After making it halfway through the line Reagan started to cry and said "I want to ride on the Shamu train." He stopped crying as soon as I explained to him that we were in line to get on the train.

Reagan sitting on Santa's lap.


Reagan hugging the Penguin. He loved this character.


Our whole family at Sea World

Mason's Bad Day

Mason has had a rough day. He missed his end of the year soccer party while he was in Utah with Jill. He cried and cried because he wanted to go to his party. He finally cheered up a little bit when we told him his coach still got him a trophy. So Jill took him to his coaches house to pick up the trophy. Mason got home and was so proud. He was carrying the trophy all over the place, dancing in that way that only Mason can. Then the trophy slipped out of his hands, fell on the hardwood floor, and shattered into pieces . . . . Mason is one sad little boy . . .

Photoshop

I've been having fun making things with photoshop lately. I made these and printed them as 8x10's to hang in Reagan's room.

FHE

We had a fun Family home evening. We started out at our Grandma Shaffers house and raked her leaves. It was a good service project for the Boys! We got to end the day by making and eating DOUGHNUTS. The boys had a lot of fun making the doughnuts, but even more eating them.

Fantastic Runners

Ian and John ran a 5K this past weekend. It was Ian's first 3 mile race. He was very excited and could hardly hold still before the race. He was quite tired after the race, but he has a good excuse. I don't know many 8 year olds that can run a 5K in 27 min. He was 18th place over all. John was 3rd place over all. There were a little more than 200 people who participated in the race. I am very proud of my Boys. They did AWESOME!

All is well at our house

The shooting at Fort Hood was contained on Fort Hood and we are home safe and sound. We had an early release and the shooting occurred about the same time that we got out of school. Still awaiting any news from our friends, neighbors, and members of our ward. This is making things quite interesting here in Killeen....

All 9 of the Killeen Independent School District schools on post were on lockdown until 8pm. Boy I am glad that I am not at one of those campuses with those little kids. I can only imagine the excitement from the teachers to stay with the kids for an extra 6.5 hours.

Shooter is alive and in stable condition.....

Benson

I brought Benson in to get his picture taken a few weeks ago. These are the pictures that I ordered.

Our Halloween

We had a fun Halloween at our place. Friday night we went to our ward Trunk or Treat and Saturday we took the boys Trick or Treating. Reagan thought Trick or Treating was the coolest thing ever. He wouldn't let us take him home. He loved that every house he went to people gave him candy. There was tons of kids trick or treating in our neighborhood that made it fun. At most of the houses people sat in lawn chairs in their drive way and handed out candy. It was a neat way to see all the neighbors. People were so generous with their candy they would give Reagan a handful of candy bars. At one house the people put the bowl in front of Reagan and told him to grab as much as he wanted. The bowl was mainly full of chocolate. Reagan looked in the bowl for awhile and then decided to take one dum dum. The man looked at him laughed and threw some more candy in his pumpkin. He got way too much candy. His pumpkin was completely full and he wanted us to help him hold his pumpkin.

Here is a picture of our cute banana.


Reagan had to sneak in this picture.


A picture of our cute little monkey.


The monkey and his banana.


Reagan was one silly monkey.


Abe said this is the only banana worth having.


Reagan sorted out all his candy into categories. Now I have to figure out how to keep Reagan out of all the candy.