Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas in Washington with my family this year. We had a blast! Here are some pictures of our trip:

Our letter to Santa

 

 

The only day it snowed was Christmas. It was old news to me,
since I live in Idaho, but my brother and sister
were pretty excited to have a white Christmas!

 

Ben can't wait to go home and hook this up! Thanks mom and dad!
 

Now that Christmas is over, we can start counting down to the next big event:

 



 

56 days to go!

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Home Sweet Home

We've moved! We LOVE our new place. As soon as we found out about the baby we knew our choices were to move or put the baby in the closet. So now we are in a great two-bedroom townhouse that we absolutely love! But don't take my word for it, here are some pictures:

Sorry this one is a little dark. This is our dining room.

 

This is one of my favorite parts! The walk-in pantry.

Ben's "office" and soon-to-be nursery. Notice our awesome bassinet (thanks mom!).
 I think it looks like a picnic basket.

I left out pictures of bathroom #2 (boring) and our bedroom because I didn't feel like making the bed since it's 8:00 at night and I didn't want to show everyone our unmade bed.

In other news, Ben went back to school last week. He is extremely busy and I don't see him nearly as often, but we are both quite happy that he is getting closer to being done! I started a different job (with the same company) that I like WAY more. Things are good! We find out if our little peanut is a boy or a girl on October 4. Waiting is so hard!

In case you haven't heard...

Baby Rawlinson is due February 21, 2013

Two Year Anniversary!

Tuesday was our second wedding anniversary. I had to work all day so we didn't really plan to do much to celebrate. I should have known that my sweet, creative husband would have something up his sleeve. Remember this? And this? Well here is another surprise to add to the list. 

While I was at work Ben sent me a text message asking me to check the mail when I got home. I thought this was a little weird, because I always check the mail when I get home. I asked if his legs were broken and he said he was feeling too lazy to walk down the stairs. I didn't really think anything of it. On my way home I got another message reminding me to check the mail. Now I knew something was going on. If he needed to check the mail that badly he would have just done it himself. In the mailbox I found an envelope containing this:

If you click on the picture it will get bigger

I've never been to New York City, so Ben brought New York City to me! He put so much thought into everything. Once again, he moved all the furniture around so it looked different. Ben even turned on his old Baseball video game and had a Mets vs. Yankees game playing in the background. Here are some photos:

Bobby Flay was supposed to give us a cooking lesson but he couldn't make it.

Frank Sinatra played as we cooked.

It turned out really yummy even without Bobby's help!

For our evening entertainment we took a walk around "Central Park," which was really the local nature park. We saw two snakes while we were walking. I would have taken pictures, but I was running away too fast. Back at home, I got to choose to go to a movie or see a Broadway play. Ben found all of the movies we had that were set in New York. 

My favorite part of the evening was exchanging gifts. I love mine! Isn't this the coolest thing ever? It's a pillow.

I was a little more practical with my gift and got him an apron. He cooks all the time and he is a little messy. I've already had to wash it once. 

Thanks for making our Anniversary memorable, Ben! I love you!

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

I know it has been several months since I've posted. I was just waiting for noteworthy things to happen to write about! As soon as things started happening I tried to write, but Ben changed the email address associated with our blog and didn't tell me (still love you dear). But I'm back!

In July we took a trip to Washington to see my brother. He came home from his LDS Mission to Belém, Brazil on July 25th. To learn more about what our missionaries do, click here. My mom was a tiny bit happy...

(Sorry about the balloons in the way)

He has been home for a couple weeks now and I'm not sure if my mom has let go of him yet. All our local relatives came to greet him at the airport.

I wonder what the other people at the airport were thinking...we made quite a scene!

After a week in Washington, Ben flew to Oklahoma to visit his family while I stayed with my parents for another week. He got to meet our 6 month old niece Brooke.

While he was gone, I went with my parents and siblings to a Seattle Mariners game. It reminded me of pretty much every vacation we ever took when I was growing up. We went to Seattle at least 1-2 times a year.

As horrible as the Mariners are, they actually won the game! We had so much fun. We drove home after the game and arrived home at 2:00 a.m. We spent the rest of the week talking and playing games and trying to help Cody catch up on all the movies he missed over the last two years!

Now we're back in Idaho and back to work. More updates to come...

Touchdown!

It's football season! What's that, you say? Football doesn't start until the fall? Wrong. For the first time ever, BYU-Idaho is having a spring football season. Ben is coaching...again (no surprise there). This is his third season as a head coach. 

I think it's funny that he carries around a bright pink clipboard, but he tells me it's not pink, it's fluorescent. Same thing, if you ask me. I was happy to hear football would be going on in the spring. I thought, "Oh yay, I can sit at the games and not freeze my buns off." Boy, was I mistaken. Last week I wore a sweatshirt, coat, gloves, two pairs of socks, and two blankets and I was STILL a popsicle when I got home. 

Ben's team struggles. I won't say they're bad, because I know there are some guys with talent, but they haven't won a game yet this season. 

There's my cute little coach! Only 4 more game and then I will no longer be a "football widow," as my grandma calls it!

Laundry

Ben went back to school this week! Spring semester started on Tuesday. After three months of being at home all day and taking only a few online classes, he has felt a little overloaded this first week. I'm not surprised, he's enrolled in 8 classes! Here is a conversation from yesterday:

Ben: Did you do this laundry on purpose?
Me: No, I accidentally dropped all the clothes in there with soap and turned it on without realizing it.

Oh, Ben. Get some more sleep.

Yummy!

Today I made these little beauties:

They were the easiest and possibly the most delicious cookies ever. I like to call them "Caramel Surprises." Well, I do now because I just made that up. They are actually called Rolo Cookies. Here is the recipe:

1 box Devil's Food Cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 package Rolo's (I used the mini ones so I didn't have to unwrap anything)

powdered sugar (optional)

Mix cake mix, eggs and oil in bowl. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around a Rolo. Only use enough dough to cover the Rolo so it can spread its goodness throughout the whole cookie. If you want, and I highly recommend doing this, roll each ball in powdered sugar. 

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

This recipe is definitely going in my cookbook. I can't believe I had never heard of them until now! If you haven't tried them yet, make them. Do it now. You will thank me later. 

WEEK 8: Biggest Winner is Done!

Tonight the BYU-Idaho Biggest Winner program ended.   It was a great experience these past eight weeks.  I enjoyed getting to know my teammates, working hard, finding my inner athlete again, and just establishing a daily lifestyle of eating healthy and exercising.    This evening was the closing ceremonies for the program.  It was a fun night.  Here are some highlights from the evening.  

We ate a small soup and salad for dinner.

Two contestants from the reality TV Biggest Loser came to speak to us.   Moses and Kaylee from season 11 were there to talk about their weight loss journey.  After the program we were able take a picture with them and we talked to Moses for a little bit before we headed home.

Next the program handed out awards for the winning team.  They also awarded the biggest weight loss for a  guy and girl.   Well the winning team was.... My Team.    The Biggest Winner for the guys was..... ME.    I lost the most weight among the guys.   The official weight was 255.8.  It was a 26.7 weight loss for the program.   I won some prizes. I won a back pack, a water bottle, and a crock-pot.  I also received a biggest winner shirt.

Here are my before and after shots for the program.  When I started the program I weighed in at 282.  I ended at about 255.

Before:

After:

The Biggest Winner program was just a catalyst for my weight loss.   This is not the end but the beginning of living a healthy life.   It feels good to have lost the weight that I did.  I plan on getting down to 210.  I'm only 45 pounds from my goal weight.  The one thing that I have learned is that to live a healthy lifestyle needs to become a top priority.  I look forward to a healthier life.  

Week 6&7: 5K and 30 pounds

It's me, Ben again.   This is another update for the Biggest Winner Program.  The past two weeks, I have training myself to do a 5K.   During the training, I lost some more weight.   So far in this program I have lost about 30 pounds.  It feels nice to lose this much weight.

I feel healthier and have a lot more energy.   I have noticed that I can do certain exercises longer and with more reps.     Saturday was our challenge for the Biggest Winner Program.  It was a 5K.  The route followed the parameter of campus.   The first half of the 5K consisted of a really steep hill to the top of campus.   The second half of the route was all downhill.

I did finish the 5K.   I finished the route in about 31:00 minutes.   It was awesome.   It was great to push myself to the end.  Every time I wanted to stop,  I encouraged myself to keep going and keep moving. It was great to see how much better shape I was in.   

This following week is the last week of the program.  My goal is to lose 10 more pounds by the end of the week.  I want my ending goal weight next Monday to be 245.  I look forward to a continued weight loss after the program ends.   It is an exciting adventure but well worth the journey to a healthier body.   

WEEK 5: A Minute to Win it Challenge!

This week was a good week for exercising.   The one thing that I have been enjoying the past two weeks is running.   Two or three days this week,  I have ran/ jogged 3 miles.   It feels good to put the headphones in the ears and just run to the beat of the music.

My goal with running in the future is to participate in a marathon by next summer.  But this year, I have a focus to  slim down while training by running.  I love running!

Saturday, March 3,  I had a team challenge with my Biggest Winner Team.   The program called it a "minute to win it" challenge. Here is what we did:

Warm-up: Each team ran a mile.

1. 1 minute of high knees
2. 1 minute of push-ups
3. 1 minute of sit-ups
4. 1 minute of jumping jacks
5. 1 minute of lunges
6. 3 minutes of crab walking
7. 5 minutes of running lines in the basketball court
8. 1:minute of squats
9. 1:minute of squat jumps
10. 3 minutes of a balloon race: This consisted of interlocking arms with a partner and holding a balloon by using the back and no hands.

After we did each exercise challenge, we did one minute of jumping jacks, push-ups, squats, high knees, and situps.  I don't know which team won the challenge but I know that I got a good workout in.  I was exhausted afterwards.

The Biggest Winner Program has been a blessing in my life.   The ability to lose weight and eat right is helping my body to be healthy in the future. 

Weeks 3 & 4: Working Hard and Losing Weight

It's me, Ben, I'm back again just to update on the blog.   Its been a month since the program started.    During the month of February,  I have lost a total of 20 pounds.

The great thing about losing weight is being able to fit into clothes that I could not fit in before.  My clothes seem to fit better on me.

Saturday was the first time in a long time that I did the bench press and hang clean.   I haven't lifted a bar since my high school football playing days.   It was fun to pump the iron again.

This program of the Biggest Winner is the best.   I am enjoying the exercising and eating right.   The combination of the two makes for good weight loss.   March is coming up and my goal for the end of the month is to sit at 240.