AdvoCare

Drew and I have been looking for products that would help me lose the weight I have desired and help him gain muscle and definition. We just finished the AdvoCare 24 day challenge and were both amazed by our results. Drew lost 9 pounds that he didn't know he had and gained muscle. He has received definition that no other product has given him. I have lost 7 inches and have more energy than I have ever had. I use to feel drained by mid-afternoon and now I still feel energized long after the kids go to bed. We are so excited to continue seeing results the AdvoCare products can offer us.

School

Drew got an e-mail from ASU saying he got accepted to the Marriage and Family Therapy program!!! I am so excited and happy for him. He will be starting school in August. We are ready and super excited to get started on this next step in our lives.

One day of success!

I am so proud of Dade right now. We have been working on potty training for the past year with no success. Yesterday we went to the mall to walk around and I asked Dade if he wanted to try wearing a pull-up. Usually pull-ups are just like diapers to him so it was more just for fun. As soon as we got to the mall we went to the family bathroom which has a little toilet for kids. Dade is not a big fan of big toilets and will only use his own potty at home. So with a little coercing I convinced him to try to go potty on the little toilet, which he did. After that we went to the play area and to my surprise he came up to me and told me he had to go potty, and he did so 3 or 4 more times before we left. Today when he got up I told him he could either go without a diaper or wear a pull-up, he told me he wanted to wear underwear. We have tried this a few times before again without success but I let him wear underwear. We went all day without any accidents! I am hoping we are finally making progress.

CAKES!!!

I wanted a way to show my cakes without using our family blog so I have created a new blog just for my cakes. The blog is alyssa-sweetdelights.blogspot.com. I also have a link to it under my Blogs I Like. I posted a lot of cakes on there so be sure to go to older posts to see them all.

Crazy times

Things have been a little crazy with Drew starting his new job, getting Zoey and celebrating Dade's birthday. Drew's new job is going really well. He just heard back from ASU the other day and has an interview for the Masters program in March. Please keep him in your prayers.

We have had Zoey for 4 weeks now and she has already gained 6 pounds in those 4 weeks. She is growing so fast and has a lot of energy. The boys love taking her to the park and playing with her. She has been a joy (and a challenge) for our family.

  The boys playing with Zoey after we brought her home.

 

 Dade playing with Zoey at the park

 Some pictures of Zoey a few days ago already getting a lot bigger.

 Dade just turned 3 on the 13th and had his birthday party the fallowing Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa Raley and Grandma and Grandpa Pease were there and Courtney and Tavia surprised us by coming that weekend. Dade was so excited about his presents that he kept asking if he could open them about every 5 minutes. He wanted a Thomas the Train theme (again) for his party so he got a lot of Thomas toys and a play tool set that is Dade and Landen's favorite. I made Dade a Thomas 3D cake. It was my first time sculpting a cake so it didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but not bad for my first time. I still can't believe Dade is already 3; time has gone by so fast. He is growing so much and is already 3 feet tall. He is opening up a lot more and talking all the time. He use to be so quiet but now he is quite the copy cat and likes to do and say whatever Landen does.

 Dade opening his presents.

 His Thomas the Train cake.

We have been looking for a house and "thought" we found one. This house was everything we had been looking for so we put an offer on it. It had been on the market for 5 days and already had 7 offers. They ended up going with another offer. We were pretty disappointed and have had a hard time liking any of the other houses we see now but we are still looking no matter how discouraging it is.

Here are some recent pictures of the boys.

 

 Drew and Landen playing soccer.

Drew has been doing really good with the camera. Here are some pictures he took of our family and of the boys.

 This one of the boys I took.

A new addition to the family!

We are getting a dog! My cousins dog had puppies and when we saw the pictures of them we fell in love and decided to get one. Their  mom is a German Shepard mix and their dad is a Brindle colored Boxer. We went to see them on Friday but it was late and they were sleepy so we didn't really get to play with them much. We had two puppies we were trying to decide between. I took the boys over to my Aunt's today to make our decision. So meet Zoey:

Christmas 2011

I am blogging late about Christmas but I finally decided to get it done. We had a really nice Christmas with my parents. The boys got a lot of presents. Landen asked Santa for Optimus-prime and blue shoes and Dade asked for Bumblebee. They were very excited to see that Santa got them what they wanted. I really had a lot of fun this year with Landen since it was the first time he really got into Christmas and Santa. It was nice being able to spend Christmas with family especially because this was the first year in four years we were able to.

 Looking at all the presents

 Dade loves Thomas the Train

 very cool binoculars

 art set

Dade got a Spencer (from Thomas and Friends) and was very excited about it!

Drew started the Academy on January 2nd so he is just starting his 3rd week and has 4 more to go. It is nice for things to finally be moving along. I am only working on Saturdays now and love it. It is really nice being home with the boys again. I really missed spending this much time with them. Even though I would prefer to spend Saturdays with Drew it is still nice to get out of the house one day a week.