Sunday, August 29, 2010

Happy 8 Month Birthday Macy!!!

We have been super busy these last few days. My sister moved out of her condo and into my parent's house. This is awesome news since she has renters in there now, and will be away much of the next 6 months (sob). Kates has lots of work coming up and it makes sense to stay with Mom and Dad during the short weeks she is home and still keep her place as an investment. Macy and I helped her finish moving Thursday, and then unpacked her. We've been helping Mom and Dad with projects the last two days and I have to say by today I really wanted a day of rest!

I am officially on my way back down the scale. After all my trips recently, and the fair and the family reunion, I was ready to start eating healthy and watching my calorie intake. It was hard to get to the point of no more excuses!!!! Katie gave me her old iphone and told me about a free app on there called Lose It! and I love it. It is super easy to use, you log all your food and exercise and since Tuesday I've lost 5 lbs. Not kidding folks. That probably tells you how much I was eating to maintain my weight, but I am very encouraged and feel back in control which is a very good thing. I have a goal weight in mind, but decided to try this plan for 5 weeks: Log every calorie and stay within my "budget." No dessert- meaning cookies, candy, cake, ice cream etc. No eating after 7 PM. This has budged already since our days are still long here and Gabe doesn't get home until 7 and I eat dinner with him sometimes at that time so I've sort of changed that rule to no eating after dinner. So far, I am very happy and I will re-evaluate in about 4 more weeks and add in something else and maybe change the rules and time frame around. I'll keep you posted since the blog is a great way to stay accountable even if I'm the only one reading it!
Today Macy and I went to church and then followed the rest of the family over to my Grandpa and Grammy's for lunch. Katie and Mom hauled out the OLD highchair that every grandchild/great-grandchild has sat in for ages and Macy had lunch with us! She mostly enjoyed slamming her favorite measuring cup against the metal and hearing it bang so loud we all got migraines, but she also enjoyed looking at her reflection in the tray. :)
Mid-bang.

This outfit was hilarious. A first-time wear from my dear friend Kara. I added the headband from Mom and the shoes from Kates and she was a stylin' little girl for church!
At Mom's later she was trying to climb in the toy basket. She would ignore the toys and just play and play and play with this basket! I kept calling her Moses. She is so much fun. I love this stage. Today out of the blue she started saying, "Oh." Macy actually sat up yesterday for about a minute by herself (a first) and is army crawling like crazy. She even gets up like she's going to crawl for real, and rocks back and forth.

Macy is a reflection of God's love for me. I just know it. She is so precious and my heart overflows with the love I hold for her every single day. We are so thankful for her in our lives!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Bryce's Birthday!

Since we were all together, we celebrated Bryce's birthday a week early before he and Heidi went back to CA. Mom (and Bryce) made sandwiches and soup for lunch and we all hung out while Heidi showed off her balloon skills for Gabe.
She made a dog for him on a leash. :)
A corsage for Kates...and Macy...and Mom!



A fish on a fishing pole for me!
And a shark. Macy LOVED the balloons and how everyone was playing with her.

Happy 26th, Bryce!!! Love the candle, it's all Mom could find! Ha!


The Balloon Twister!

Fun Fact about Heidi Myers. She is a Balloon Twister. That is her job. For now, that is! She is getting her Master's in Education and hopes to be an 8th grade history teacher someday soon, but until then works in a Rainforest Cafe in LA twisting balloons for people. When I heard this from Bryce, I requested she bring her stash to the reunion so the kids could have some fun.
She gave us the preview after the hilarity of Family Feud and made my Uncle Pat a turtle, Heidi Gale a giraffe, and The Little Mermaid for me. It was incredible!

The next morning after breakfast, she broke out the apron and took requests from everyone. The kids were so excited!!! Here they are, watching the first masterpiece which was a spiderman for Luke to match his jammies.


Luke was so proud of his Spiderman!!!
Abbie got a butterfly wand.
She loved it!
Heidi made a princess crown for Ellie.
Annie got a flower!
This is a good picture to capture the feeling in the room...craziness!!!! It was such a blast and Heidi was so good with all those kids.
Luke scored and got a sword!!!
My cousin Jed is a 6th grade teacher and was duly impressed with Heidi's skills. :)
Here is my cousin Tara in the middle with Tiffany on her right and Kaitlyn on her left.
Ellie loved her crown and gave Heidi kisses. :)
Heidi made Bryce a shark!





Macy got a monkey in a tree!



Heidi was a hit to say the least. She gave me her card and said she will travel for parties!!!!! :)

Family Feud!!!!

We left at 9:30 AM on Friday for the Shea Family Reunion at Heidi's house in Wenatchee. Macy was a champ for the trip (what's new?) and we made pretty good time. Dad, Mom, Katie, Heidi- (Bryce's Heidi), Bryce, Macy and I joined Grammy, Grandpa, Fred, Ginnie, Dan, Kim, Kolby, Juniper, Larry, Kevin, Sharon, Craig, Jed, KC, Heidi, Andy, Jake, Luke, Annie, Abbie, Ellie, Pat, Lisa, Tara, her friends Kaitlyn and Tiffany and Eli. It was a large group!!!!

Each family took a meal and made it and cleaned it up which worked pretty good. We didn't do too much Friday, the highlight was playing the game "Apples to Apples" when all the kids went to bed and we laughed our guts out. That game is awesome. Definitely something I want to play again with all my cousins at Christmas!

Saturday was a pool day and the boys went and played golf. That night, we played the funniest game ever. My Aunt Sharon and Cousin Heidi had got Family Feud online and had the entire game planned out and plenty of people wanted to play.

For those of you who don't know, playing "Fast Money" is one of my life-long dreams. I'm horrible under pressure, but still want to play that game before I die. :)
This was the set-up. We started our dry run with teams of 5 and worked up to teams of 6. We had to name our family each round (favorites were The Gugenhiemers, Dunder Bunnies, John Deeres, Van 'O Sheas...) and had a different team captain for each game.

I was pretty bad all around. The first question out the gate when I was captain was, "Name something in your house besides a clock or watch that tells time." My answer? "Sundial." Seriously. That got the game started and we were pretty much hysterical for the next 2 hours.
Sharon was the host, Heidi the scorekeeper and board-woman and nearly the whole family played at least one game.
Some highlights...
One question was, "Besides clothes, name something you wear every day." Katie said, "Jewelry," which was an answer, then my Grammy said... "Earrings! No, sorry, you took my answer!" Thought for a minute... then said, "A Necklace!!!!"

The first round Mom and Ginnie played fast money.


Sharon kept trying to put her arm around Mom before fast money like the real host and Mom would say, "Don't touch me! I gotta concentrate!"

And... They won $20,000.00!!!!!

The next round Katie got to play fast money with KC.

And... They won too!





Towards the end, KC took over as host so Sharon could play. She was up and the question was, "Name a quiet animal." My Aunt Sharon said, "Possum!" Then, my cousin Larry said, "Bat." It was an ongoing joke after that with Jed saying, "Ok, kids, I want you to do your work and I expect you all to be just like quiet little bats." We were dying.
This pic was taken after Larry guessed a bat... We were all saying, "Good answer!!!" :)

Then came the best part of the night. Bryce and Heidi were on the same team, which won, and they were both up for fast money. Heidi was super nervous...



but, she ended up winning, and had guessed every single number 1 answer which meant she had won all 200 points by herself! We were going to quit when my Aunt Lisa said we shouldn't tell Bryce and make up some questions for him and pretend Heidi hadn't won.

Bryce came in and asked how many points he still had to win. We said 188, Heidi only got 12. Fun fact about my brother, he is incredibly competitive. His face above is real. He is thinking, "Are you kidding me? My girlfriend got twelve points?"

And so the fun began. KC explains the rules, timer will start after I read the first question, and started...

KC: Where did John Deere get it's name?
Bryce: Tractors
KC: Name a Lunar Lake
Bryce: Saturn
KC: Something with 3 wings
Bryce: An airplane
KC: What is your favorite insurance?
Bryce: Allstate
Here is where Bryce says, "Those are the hardest questions I have EVER heard." And we all LOST IT. Dying laughing, hysterical. KC didn't break once, and Bryce took it hook, line and sinker. It was so so funny.

Craig and Sharon were watching the real Family Feud once when this thing really happened and he remembered the question about Lunar Lakes and I guess the guy on the show KNEW the correct answer (The Sea of Tranquility, a lake on the moon). KC made the rest up, but it was so classic. We talked later and what would have made it even funnier would have been when he said airplane to buzz him.

It was the funniest night I've had in a long time and got me thinking too bad you can't bottle up hysterical laughter and sell it, you would make a million. It's so rare to laugh so hard you can't breathe. Thanks for that, Hougans. I'll always remember it!!!