Playing Catch-up

I hate not having Internet because I get behind in blogging things, pictures and what we've been up to. And then it takes me forever to catch up, and I have to leave out uninteresting things that I'm sure ya'll don't really care about, like what I've been sewing lately. hahaha. aWe spent Thanksgiving at my sister Megan's house in Eastern Washington, which was fun, especially since it was a surprise, no one really knew we were coming until the last minute. And almost everyone was there, minus two siblings and their families. My sister just bought this enormous beautiful house, here are some really great pictures of it.










James really loved their dog, and followed it around everywhere. The dog wasn't thrilled though about having his tail pulled and would try to escape.



It's a black lab mix with I think collie, it was the most chill dog which was good since hyper dogs make me nervous, and usually labs are very hyper, at least the ones I've met. We went and saw the city lights,





and then the next day drove up to my parents house less than 2 hours north in Idaho. It was a beautiful drive through the Pelouse Hills where one of Stephens survivalist idols lives, so now we have to live there.




Stephen and I went on a Santa Cruise to the North Pole in Couer D'Alene together which was fun, especially since it was free, thanks to Rod my bro-in-law. Our Christmas was low-key, meaning just the three of us.





We made cookies for our neighbors, and some gingerbread houses for us. See how well they turned out.



James was so sick over the holidays, but we survived. Another year passed in which we didn't send out Christmas cards, but, we will be sending out Valentine's Cards to family, with pictures we had taken of James about 7 months ago (finally!). Here is what our Christmas card picture would have looked like. (BTW, I made that 1950's-ish dress.)

January not much went on, some family came out, and that was nice. Stephen took his aviation test to become a helicopter pilot and did very well. Now he just wants to retake his Physical Test to get a better score, and we'll be pretty much done with the Army thing. Finally. We just got onto Stephen's work health insurance and so technically we can start trying to have more kids. The goal before Christmas was to lose 5 more pounds before trying for baby #2, instead I gained like 3 pounds, (from mid-Novenber to early January, ha!) so I'm debating whether to try and lose 8 pounds which seems pretty much impossible for me. I'm exercising and staying within my calorie recommendation, according to this calorie counting weight loss thing I joined on the internet, which is free. So, I don't quite get what I'm not doing. I want to join weight watchers which is probably more affective, but we're on a really tight budget now. I also wish I could run but my knees aren't that great, and since bad knees runs in my family (example, my sister had both knees and both hips replaced and my mom has had one knee replaced) and so I'm trying to take it easy. Instead I make up for it by going at a pretty high incline on my treadmill, which burns a pretty good amount of calories. Should I just get over myself and have another baby, or should I try and lose 8 pounds first? Decisions, decisions...