Merry Christmas

Christmas Cefalo style. We spent pretty much the whole week running around. On the 23rd we visited my parents for my family christmas party. Here are a few pics of the night

One of my favorite things in the world is my moms nativity. I remember as a little girl setting up all of the pieces and imagining myself there.

Brad bugging mom shortly before dinner:)

Dad cutting the amazing ham

Grandma Ball even came for the evening

My mom always goes over the top with the decorations

I tried to get a pic of all my nieces and nephews for my sister Courtney. I wasn't as successful as I thought :P

My family celebrated Jakes birthday that night. As you can see it was a clothing optional event for Nathan. Earlier in the week we celebrated Jakes birthday with his family. They all came over for a Turkey dinner at our house. Sadly I don't have pictures of that night. Bad me.

I can honestly say i don't remember a christmas when my family didn't have extra visitors over for our holiday dinner. I love it. It was also nice to get to talk with Monty's "friend" that is a girl and Josh who I haven't seen since before I was married.

Monty went the extra mile wrapping our gifts...I will say that he did an awesome job with choosing a good gift. Thanks again T-guy.

Nathan really liked the clothing optional policy of the evening.

My favorite part of christmas eve is singing along to the piano as my mom plays christmas songs. Nathan wanted to help.

The Amazing nativity put on the the kids. Nathan was King Herrod that night. He wouldn't participate with the play.

On christmas eve we went over to Jakes parents house. We had a wonderful time with the family. Sadly Nathan wan't feeling well. I didn't get any pics of the evening. We ended up heading home early due to his illness. We ended up making a late night trip to walgreens to get some infant drops. He had a terrible fever that just wouldn't go away.

This is the way our living room looked christmas morning. Sadly I don't have any other pictures due to the fact that it wasn't that pleasant. Nate was still sick. We missed brunch so Nathan could sleep off the fever. We finally got out of the house a little before noon. He was still feeling bad but Courtney was calling from Spain so we wanted to get to my parents.

Christmas night we made a quick trip up to the Gibson family christmas party. Jakes aunt and uncle invite it into their lovely home for a wonderful christmas party every year. We couldn't miss it. We didn't stay long though. Jake at that point wasn't feeling well so we headed home. I have to post the pics I took that evening. His aunt Meredith does such a lovely job decorating her home. She has several christmas trees around the house. Also they pretty much make the most amazing food ever. That is also topped off by yummy cakes from Backers Bakery. If you haven't been there you must.

The Cefalo's dominated the kitchen table with good conversation. I love family parties;)

Yummy food....mmm.

So overall christmas was a little off this year. By the time we got home christmas night I had 2 sick boys. Thankfully we had the chance to enjoy some highlights. Tis the season of family and love. It is a time to remember what this is all about. Heavenly father loved us so much he sent his son. That is what really matters. He has given me the chance to feel just a particle of his love by giving me the wonderful life that I have. I have spent several wonderful days with my boys. I have loved the snow that has kept up cooped up together these past couple of days. For the most part everyone is better and we are just enjoying this wonderful time of year. Merry Christmas!

Lights

With the christmas season in full swing we have started decorating. Sadly in our tiny apartment we don't have room for tree. I am trying to make up for it with christmas lights.

The other night as I was pulling them out Nathan fell in love with them. As my dad would say "there is nothing sweeter than a little boy with christmas in his eyes". Here are a few pics.

It took us a day or so to get the lights up. I needed some help from Jake and Jon. These ones melt my heart.

Nathan and I

So I have come to realize that Nathan looks a lot like me. I have always thought that he looked like Jake but having gone through some baby pictures of myself I think there is a resemblance.

Nathan and is naughty little smirk

Me and my crazy smirk

I just hope he doesn't need the glasses :o)

Healthy Challenge

Every other Thursday I am in charge of a photo group for my ward. Mostly it has been just a few girls every week. They all come over to my house after 8:00 we talk photography and plan a few fun photo outings. That is pretty much it.

Yesterday we had a late start and it took time for people to get here. This allowed for some fun chat time...which is usually happens anyway :) Well my friend Angie was saying how she wanted to try and stay healthy and maybe even lose weight through the holiday season. So we threw around ideas for a while about what we might do. We are all mommies and all probably need to shed a few extra pounds.

We had a hard time deciding what to do nothing really seemed appropriate with the holidays. Because if we went to extreme we would give in during the feast fest we call Christmas. Also we wanted a little incentive but all of us are students so we don't have much to offer. It was after a while of talking that I remembered something my sister Courtney did last year. It was the Healthy Challenge. It is not determined on how much weight you lose. It is just a point system of making healthy choices in you daily life. Courtney had sent me a copy in my email so I looked it up. We all thought it was reasonable and decided that we would try and do this through the holiday season and report after the holidays on Jan 7th.

The real challenge is a 12 week challenge where there is a money prize. Everyone donates some money to participate and the person who has the most points at the end of the 12 weeks wins. There might be a couple of winners but if you get a big enough group there is still incentive. As I said my friends and I are just doing it until Jan 7th. We made the decision for us that whoever looses has to be our subject for our photo group during a photo session. We seem to run short of volunteers. We would like to Start it again after the holidays with a big group. If you want to participate let me know. We want to start it on the 8th of January. Just so you know what you are in for these are the rules. They really aren't unreasonable and I think this is better than any weight loss plan. This is just trying to live a healthier life.

Here is the 'official' set of rules for the challenge.

There are a total of 8 points possible for each day and a total of 56 for the week.

Here are the points:

1 point for getting 7 hours of sleep. This does not have to be consecutive. If you don't get seven during the night you can take a nap during the day to make your total of seven hours.

1 point for drinking 64. oz. of water each day. 32 oz. need to be plain water but the other 32 can have Crystal lite or some other additive.

1 point for no carbonation each day. Nothing carbonated.

1 point for exercising 30 minutes a day. This does not have to be consecutive, just a total of 30 min. Sundays are a free day for exercise so you get the point regardless.

1 point for not eating any sweets. No candy, cookies, cake etc.

1 point for not making any un-healthy food choices each day. No fries, chips, crackers etc. Whole grain crackers and baked chips are okay.

1 point for not eating after 8:30 every night. If you get home and have not had dinner and it is 8:20, go ahead and eat dinner, just don't eat anything after that.

1 point for eating 5 serving of fruits and or veggies every day. 8oz. of fruit juice counts as a serving. 1 piece of fruit or about 1/2 cup of veggies equals a serving. 2 cups of leafy greens like lettuce equal one serving. v-8 actually counts as 2 servings!!! That is an easy way to get them!!!! You will notice that you do feel better if you actually eat fresh fruit and veggies but dried are okay.

Note: Each week we each get three 'flex' points. These can be usedto make up for a point if you lost one or to treat yourself tosomething yummy. If you use one of these points during the day you can violate that rule throughout the day. You can not carry these points over from week to weekso use them or lose them!!!!

We also get three 'free' days throughout the challenge. On the freedays you do not have to do any of the things to earn points but you getthe eight anyway. These days come in very handy so try to bestrategic. You may also need them if you get sick.

Facebook

Alright so I may as well explain about Facebook. For those that know me well you know that I have an additive personality. When I love something I really love it. Facebook has been really fun and I pretty much check it all of the time. It has also been a useful resource for my business. I have just felt that it is something that I don't need. I have been thinking about this for a long time and it was hard to do. So I decided to make it quick and painless.

I have plenty for things to keep me busy. Such as my sweet baby, my fantastic husband, and a business. I found that facebook pretty much took me away from those things. I found myself checking my friends status and surfing through pictures while my husband sat alone watching TV on the couch.

I am not saying that I wont ever join again. I love catch up with people and seeing what is happening in peoples lives. Please try to keep in touch. Feel free to comment and give me your updates though your blogs. I already ready many of them. I might be going from one evil to another but my thought it is better than having 2. I enjoy blog surfing but I don't seem to do it as much.

On a funny note. This is how I found Nathan during his nap yesterday. Notice the bear legs underneath him. I laughed so stinking hard.