Winter Blues

Well, it's hit me. I want to be somewhere else. No offense Jack Frost, but I'd really prefer to be somewhere warm and tropical. I wouldn't mind dropping by to visit Amanda in Florida for a week or two if it didn't cost so much. Its that time of year when I just crave that warm summer sun. COME BACK! Sigh. :o)


Christmas Wii time before the black death hit.


Christmas Jammies


The rest of our Christmas break...all of us (except Macie) got the black death for a whole week until finally we found a doctor Friday morning. Wow. Thank heavens for antibiotics!


On a different note:
Last night I was at Zumba, and forgot I had left my water bottle in the hall. After class, I was so happy to see it I grabbed the bottle and chugged. The cool refreshing water was so good! Except the last gulp...which tasted kind of salty, and had a bit of a crunch. I looked inside my aluminum water bottle and found a mostly eaten string cheese, and wrapper in my drink! SICK! I think I must have loaned it to a child earlier that day (hopefully the cheese wasn't any older than that). It took a great deal of effort to get all the pieces out of that narrow top.
I've learned my lesson. Always look inside the bottle before taking a drink.

Favorite Random Comments

Aleia will say some of the funnest things in the car randomly.
Here was my favorite today:

"Mom, Heavenly Father is a pretty great guy, isn't he."

And here are some others:
"Wow. The whole world is SO different."

"Mom! There's boogers stuck in my teeth."

Matt and Aleia talking:

M: if you eat all your dinner I'll read you a book afterwords!
A: Ok!
M: What will you give me if I eat all MY dinner?
A: " A kick in the pants"

Livin the LIfe

Blogs are so interesting you know? A place where anyone can find out everything about you, without ever having to disclose of themselves. Such a wierd concept.
All seems to be well here.
Matt: is still working 2 jobs, but managing it remarkably well- coming home on time from work, and getting family time before the girls go down. He's also working with the 11 year olds in church, and with scouts. Go scouts!
Dixie: is teaching 3 aerobics classes during the week, 2 zumba and 1 yoga. Today's Zumba was so AWESOME! The energy was so high! And shauferring Aleia to Preschool 3 days a week, twice a day.
Aleia: is growing up so much! She is now in the stage of life where she'll go off to friends houses (by herself) That was a big adjustment when we moved here! There is always a friend to play with, and she LOVES that.
Macie: Loves to dance (still. I thought she would get out of that phase, but she hasn't yet). She loves going to "boomba" (Zumba) and loves to play with the neighbors too (if she's in the mood- otherwise she'll tell them to "go away") Her speech has really increased the last 4 months. She and Aleia also play really well together now. They giggle and laugh, and have a lot of fun.
That's us. Hope you are all well too!
Dixie

HI Everyone!

Hello Everyone!

It's been a long time. I just want to give a few highlights from the past few months.

Matt and I have had a fun and busy summer. Matt's been working two full-time jobs (in the same company, until they can find a replacement for one of them) and has seriously been working all hours of the day. But after deadlines, we'll head out somewhere and go have some fun. We've been able to go play with some friends in Kamas, go to family reunions, see lot's of family that we don't normally see, and have some fun adventures.

Kamas at the house with Matt and Amanda Colemans' family

For the fourth of July we went up to Tremonton and spent time with my sister. The kids loved being with their awesome cousins. We loved it up there. They even let us get away for our aniversary. It is beautiful up there.

This past weekend the kids spent the night with grandma and grandpa so we enjoyed motorcyle rides, tried our hand at some mountain biking, and ran millions of errands in Orem. Whew!

Most of all, we're happy we have each other. And are greatful to be living out here. It is so peaceful and quiet away from everything. I love the smell of the fields, and the majestic mountains every where I look. Most of all, people are just friendly. It's nice.

Macie turned 2! She is an awesome little singer. Loves ambulances, cars, ants, barbie, and dancing.

Aleia has made quite a few friends on our street, and spends a good part of the day house hopping to different friends houses.

We have grass now! (It looks better than it does in this picture, this one was taken 4th of July weekend.)

Things haven't been all roses. In fact, this past month, for me at least, it seemed like the furnace of affliction was burning mighty hot. But we are trying to do the things that bring us joy, looking for the good all around us, and trusting that God is in charge. It helps.

Hope you all are doing well!

Dixie

Tribute to Aleia

Aleia turned four in February and I wanted to do a little spotlight on her. Time just passes way too quickly sometimes. So, here it is now.

Aleia's favorites:

• food: ice cream
• animal: horse
• family and friends
• movies
• books
• one-on-one time

Aleia is very quick-witted. I'm always amazed what comes out of her mouth. "Grandma, I have to eat my boogers because my mom and dad don't feed me enough".

Or "MOM! My heart is in HEAVEN!"

One thing I love about Aleia is the friendship she has with her sister Macie. She loves to play and laugh with her. And when Macie is sad, she'll usually help her calm down and be happy.

I'm also impressed by how quickly she picks up words, songs, phrases, etc. She learns very quickly auditorily, and can repeat a song a few weeks later that she heard once or twice.

Aleia is a great friend, and is very good at maintaining close relationships with her family members. We feel very grateful to have her as part of our family. :o)

Just about finished!

The house should be done in one week! That's almost 2 months ahead of schedule! We have an awesome builder. So far, everything has turned out better than I expected. Heres some pictures of the fun!

So, the floors are all in, the cabinets are pretty much all in. They just need to hang doors, put cover plates on outlets and heating ducts, hang bathroom mirrors, and a few other small things. We forgot to take a picture of the outside. It looks AWESOME! It's actually not the color I previously posted. And thank heavens, it looks a lot better than that first color. Whew.

We met some more neighbors. I can't wait to be a part of that neighborhood. They seem really really cool. I'm excited that the moms out there don't work. Most of them are home with their kids. Yea! Friends! And we discovered there are 16 girls Macies age in the ward. NO BOYS. Crazy. One more week. Then we can close. :o))

Yes, It's grey. Man. I never thought the color of a house would be such a stressful thing. And you know what? I'm glad it's not brown. I told Matt, I really don't want anything that is the shade mud, dirt, or poo. Not that those colors are bad on houses! There are some beautiful homes that color. There just seems to be nothing but brown where we are moving to. I just wanted to look at something a little bit different. And well, I got it! Stone grey. I can't begin to tell you how much I've worried about our outside house colors. You know? There's a lot of pressure for it to be nice.

• Your neighbors might not like you if they don't like your house color.
• You don't want to depreciate home values in your neighborhood by making an ugly house.
• Oh, by the way, the builder's model home is 2 doors down. He wants it to be a nice neighborhood to show off the best of his work (which by the way, they have done amazing work on this house).
• It's the first of this model he's built, so he asked if he could send people out to look at it periodically. (no pressure right?)

We went to look at it today with the garage doors on it, and you know? I love they grey. I have no regrets. Go grey! Thanks Matt, for putting up with all of this! (PS. what is the correct spelling for grey/gray? Wikepedia said either one works. Anyone know for sure?

More House Updates

As for updates, when Matt was there a couple of days ago they were putting the texture on the ceiling and prepping the outside for stucco. It should be all done in a month! Wahoo!


This is the house in preperation for stucco. Yea!


Here is the front room

Here's one of the bedrooms (south facing)

The Calm Before the Storm

We had a nice morning, so all the neighbors were outside. I love it when that happens. The weatherman was right though, we definitely got snow in the afternoon. Here are some pictures of why I have loved where we live.

Upstairs Neigbors
Kid pow wow

I love this smile!

Their little table. Smart thinking Aleia!

Emily and cute kids

House is coming along!

The view from upstairs

How it looked last Sunday (Feb 28th)...

I haven't been the best at keeping you all posted on how our house is coming. That's because they are going so fast I can't keep up! Since I last blogged, our house has been framed, it now has windows, outside doors, a roof, the garages, showers, baths, heating, plumbing, electric, and I think the sheetrock is going in monday. Goodness! They are cruising! This house could be done in four weeks! (I wouldn't mind!) So, there's the update. It is so neat to see the progress every day. We are counting our blessings we've had such great weather the past few weeks, so they can work so quickly!

oh, cool story about Sunday. We drove out to see the home, and right when we got out there, Aleia had to go to the bathroom. So we knocked on the neighbor's door, and she said, "Oh yeah, you're dixie right?" She knew who I was! (Appartently it's a tight knit neighborhood) And her husbands name is Matt too. They are a VERY cool family. Apparently there are a lot of girls Aleia's age. I'm excited to get to know the people around us. Jackie (the neighbor) said people were really down to earth out there. Yea!

Kristi Approved Seminar

Hey,
My mom and I are going to have a Kristi Approved Live the Life seminar in Lehi at her school March 1 at 4pm. Is anyone interested in comming? She will talk about the program, and answer any questions, and then the books, protein powder, etc will all be there to purchase. If you are allready a member, you could come and say hi!

Family Home Evening

Dad was teaching the lesson, and asked Aleia

" When Jesus Christ is not on the earth, who does he send for us so we can still be happy?"

and Aleia, without batting an eye says promptly

"Kids!"

How wet our Foundation :o)

Yipee! They just got started pouring the foundation after I drove up with some hot cookies and a "Thank You". I didn't realize how many cement trucks it takes to put up a house. They started with one... then another pulled in, and suddenly there are four more parked on the street. Crazy. The weather's been perfect. Couldn't ask for a better temp! So, after the foundation sets for a week, then supposedly it goes up SUPER quick. I don't know if my girls can handle the drive out there every day, but I'd sure love to see how it goes up. I can't believe it's really happening. Yahoo!!!

Finally Getting a House

So, many of you already know this, Matt and I are finally getting a house! Yea!!!!! We will be building and are very excited. We have been waiting for this day FOREVER. (And we'll have to wait a little longer until it's built.) Honestly? It doesn't seem real. I don't think it will seem real until we are moving in. But we are so excited to know where we are going to be for the next part of our life. Life's pretty good right now.

Live the Life Promotion

Hey~ I know some of you have been wanting to try the 'Live the Life' Program. http://kristiapproved.com/live

There is a promotion going on:

Starting this coming Monday Feb 1st and ending Feb 7th, we are doing a big "promo" for our NEW UPGRADED LIVE THE LIFE program. We took all our members suggestions on how to make it even better and then did just that...made it better. It has all kinds of awesome new stuff on the menu, dinner options, grocery list, and even changed up the workouts to be much better and more time efficient. We're also adding some neat accountability reporting features to help you out even more with the results you report back each week.
What's the "promo" you ask? (good question)
For anyone who signs up during this week of Feb 1st - Feb 7th will get their first 4 weeks of our Elite membership for FREE: (the new LIVE THE LIFE program upgrades start Feb 1st) That's a $20 value for FREE!

If you have been interested, this would be a great time to do it. She has never lowered her prices. I think it's been a great program for my family. I love how I feel being in control of myself, and how confident I finaly feel about my body.
Here's the Link for the Men's program: http://kristiapproved.com/for-
And Here's for the Women: http://kristiapproved.com/for-

There is also a 7 day challenge you can try for free!
Here's the link for the FREE "Seven Day Challenge"

http://kristiapproved.com/seve

Try it! You will be SO glad you did.

Girls are great

I've been really trying to slow down and just enjoy life, (now that christmas is over...Man Santa creates stress). And I've really become fond of the little moments, like my girls giggling on the floor and rolling around in their new Christmas Pajamas...

or watching them snuggle up to dad for a story.

Normally we hurry home from the gym, but yesterday I let Macie walk too, and we all enjoyed the silence of the newly falling snow...Macie and Aleia listened to it crunch under their feet, and tasted the cool feathery flakes on their lips and faces, and as I looked up into their bright excited eyes, I found a moment of true happiness.

Disclaimer

Ok, so my sister gave me flack for posting pictures on facebook where i'm not completely covered.

• First of all, I have to say that it took a lot of guts to hit "post" on that.
• Second of all, given the context of the note, (which she may not have read) I figure that a picture can speak louder than words. No one would take health advice from a fatty. They are just not credible!

And now motive: honestly? I've done weight watchers, I've tried Jessica Seinfields "Deceptively Delicious recipies, I've tried to encorporate a Medeteranean diet, I've tried a lot of things to be 'healthy". I've always excercized...ALWAYS. But this is the first time, where I learned exactly what to eat so I wouldn't have cravings. I know exactly how much food is enough,and I know how to adjust it for all of my family members specific needs.

Now, I don't feel guilty eating, or feeling full. I enjoy my food, and don't beat myself up over not making it to the gym. I don't exercize as hard, and I know that I'll be just fine! 90% of how we look is what we eat. I read all the tips on how to be healthy from magazines, and just smile because I'm allready doing all the things they say! It's all included in the Live the Life program. I never knew how to encorporate all the tips and ideas before. "eat more fish, eat some nuts, add citrus...etc etc etc." But now, it's just part of who I am.

Lastly, my heart hurts when I hear of people starting up diets and joining programs. Because unless we are taught how to eat to maintain horomone levels and insulin, we all will give in to "emotional eating". Kristi teaches all of those things. It just makes so much sense! So, I hope no one was offended by my unmodest pictures. I stand by my reasoning.

My "Live the Life" Experience

So, I don't normally publicize these kinds of things unless people ask. But this has been so life changing for me, I realy wan't everyone to try it out! I can't think of anything but good that can come from this, so I'm going to go out on a limb a little bit.

A few months ago I was frustrated because I was going to the gym religiously and ate healthy and wasn't getting the results I wanted. I found a program called Live the Life, iv'e been able to loose the weight, and keep it off. I'm so much happier! And I know that it's ok if I don't get my workout in. Live the life gives you 12 weeks of meal plans and workouts and tells you exactly what and how to eat, with the grocery list and everything. The workouts are simple enough to do at home. And not only does she teach you positive life changing habbits, but tells you exactly what is best to eat at fast food joints, or restaurants, and it realy is a lifestyle...not a yoyo diet.

I've been able to loose 13 pounds on Live the Life, and have continued the lifestyle for six months now. I honestly can't think of living any other way. Honestly I think the biggest change that I've made is a mental change. I'm a lot more positive in my mind. Not just with eating or working out, but with everything. I used to beat myself up over things, but now I can get over things a lot easier. I don't dwell on my mistakes as much, and I am a lot better at positive self talk.

Some other benefits have been :

• I'm more confident in myself
• my family is eating healthier
• the girls really like the food.
• I don't have to spend all day at the gym now, or plan my life around aerobics classes
• I've even been able to cut grocery spending.
• I usually spend around $60-65 a week on groceries for our family.
• Matt's lost 20 pounds just from the diet part alone.
• My mom just started too, she says she's lost 12 pounds the first 4 weeks, and I think the hardest part for her is eating all the food. Darn! ( I have no problem eating a lot of food):o)

I know a lot of people may be looking for a lifestyle change for the new year. So, if you are interested, check out Kristi's website, or I'd be happy to talk your ear off about it :o) So if you are interested, here are some links. Here's for Men: https://kristiapproved.infusionsoft.com/go/ltlmens/dixistix/ Here's for Women: https://kristiapproved.infusionsoft.com/go/ltlwomens/dixistix and here's a little bit more about it: https://kristiapproved.infusionsoft.com/go/ltlgneral/dixistix/

Before After

Before After

The-Christmas-Spirit

The-Christmas-Spirit

Coast Pictures

Ok, I pulled these pictures off of Matt's facebook page. At least it's something!

Pacific Beach

Grandpa was giving out rides to cute girls

A walk thanksgiving Morning around Leonards 'neighborhood'.