Merry Christmas!

I know 15 months isn't a crazy important age, but it's when Joshua will be getting more shots, so I figured, it's Christmas time--great time for an update right?

Danny and I are so incredibly amazed EVERY DAY by the things that Joshua is learning! Here's a few fun photos and fun facts from the last 3 months, as told by little J (pictured to your left trying to fit into the rice cooker. The cats must be teaching him tricks...):


As you can tell, I'm quite the artist these days. A few weeks ago, I discovered the art of drawing. My preference is the marker, but momma's not a fan of the marker actually finding it's way onto everything. Clothes, carpet, walls, tile, etc. She doesn't know I was listening, but she said she's got these "white board crayons" for Christmas under the tree. I'm not sure which present they are, but I'll be watching....








Some of my newest skills are relative to climbing. I can now fit inside some extremely small locations. Sometimes I even get stuck going through my toy farm house. It's not a fun feeling guys. Thankfully my mom is super awesome and rescues me quick! 

Speaking of momma, I now speak to her constantly. Sometimes, I just whisper her name for fun..."mommommommommoma" It's pretty great stuff, this language ability. Now if only my "s" words didn't all come out like "sahsa"--yes, I do in fact LOVE salsa and chips. Mexican food is the best thing ever invented. (Beans, beans, the magical fruit anyone? I'm learning well Grandpa.)

I'm getting pretty frustrated with mom and dad for not ALWAYS understanding my baby speak. When I say "buh!" I mean I want to push the garage door button now please! When I say "behr" (which is pretty obvious I think) I want pears. When I sign "more" insistently and point, it means I want whatever is in the general direction--duh! Whenever I bang my hands on the container cupboards, I'm asking for you to open it up and give me free reign with the pots and pans. (you have no say in the matter actually, despite being my parents. love ya guys.)

Food and I have a love hate relationship lately. Sometimes I am totally cool with eating EVERYTHING in sight. Other times, whatever "healthy" stuff mom gives me is just NOT appealing and I'd rather eat animal crackers and drink lots of "mih" (while signing "milk") thank you very much. On this day over here, we made this AWESOME looking gingerbread house. I ate a whole gingerbread guy. And some gummies. It's mom's fault I look like this cuz she never gives me any candy. like ever.... (I've been told I'll thank her for it one day? That day is yet to come)

Oh! I have a new trick! Let's see if you can guess what it is! I pull my ears out. And I bob my head up and down. And if I could just make the sounds come out of my mouth at the same time as doing those two tricksy things, then I'd say "oo! Oo! Ah! Ah!" 

Yeah, monkey's are pretty cool stuff. And the Curious George puppet book with "behlulubes" in it is my favorite book right now. I can make the puppet do if you're happy and you know it and patty cake! Definitely the greatest thing invented. Mom has been trained to read this to me before every nap (almost..she forgets sometimes). 

I went to give a present to my friend Aurora the other day. And I was most displeased to learn momma gave her MY shape sorter! We proceeded to have a shouting match about who was in charge of doing the shapes. (It should have been me cuz I know my shapes so well now, but I was trying to be nice, so I bonked her hard on the head with my head and let her play with the toy too. Mom says it wasn't very nice, but I was just trying to give her boy kisses.) 

Oh and guys! Have you seen the Christmas trees? They're everywhere and there are so many shinies on them! I love to touch the lights and pull off the shiny balls to play with (and sometimes break). 

One of my other favorite Christmas activities was looking at the choo-choos in the neighbor's yard. They were like moving cars! And were totally off limits....so not fair cuz I was dying to touch them and help them zoom around! 

Mom thinks I like firetrucks, so we went with daddy and the scouts to the fire station a few weeks ago. It would have been more fun if she hadn't try to abandon me on the fire truck to take my picture. So not cool mom. 

These crazy parents of mine took me to see a movie a while ago....yeah. that was a  mistake on their part. I liked the big puffy white robot guy for a little while, but really, I just wanted to crawl all over the other people's feet and preferably eat their floor snacks. (Mom has a problem with this for some reason...)

Other adventures from this month include a birthday bash for my friend Linus, and going to lunch with the aunts and uncles after their last day of school. Chick fil a chicken nuggets are my favorite! 

Aunt Jenna definitely has top status in my life right now. She's my best friend (besides mom, dad, grandma, grandma, grandpa, grandpa, and grandpa, Lincoln, Natalie, oh and the cats!)

As you can see, I'm still quite the red head. Combing my hair with mom's brush is a really strange sensation. But we take selfies after. Which I think is fun mostly cuz I get to look at myself in the mirror AND the phone at the same time!! Check me out!

Hello? Are you there? I mostly say "Ahhh? uhhhh?" but mom and dad are great at playing my game of answering the phone. They have now graduated to advanced phone talking status.

They actually scored a few points at the ward Christmas party for letting me drink from a big boy cup and eat my rolls on a fork.





But they lost those points and dropped into the negatives on my radar later than night.



I think the next pic is self explanatory.

Clearly I did not enjoy that strange man in red and white. I was WAY more interested in the toys he had stashed near his big ol' chair!

Mom usually earns points back on a daily basis by taking me to the park to go down the slides. I hold hands now. I've graduated from going down backwards. That's for babies.


Bikes and cars are "oom ooms" so mom is expected to interpret these sounds accordingly. That one's pretty obvious. I get the credit there for communicating the best!




Despite all the craziness of being 1, learning to walk, talk, and do a million other things to try to be an independent kinda guy, mostly I am loving and kind and extremely observant. Mom and dad say i'm super handsome and strong and talented all the time. I plan to be a drummer, a cellist, and a pianist all at once. Oh and I'll be a great swimmer when I'm not afraid of the water on my head in the shower....

PS: We're trying to move to a new house so I can grow up big with baby brothers and sisters (no Mom doesn't have a baby in her tummy yet--I've checked!-- but I'm getting eager for a sibling so she better work on that......). I have to pick up my toys now to keep the house clean for people to look at. Lame. I see some birds outside, and a wagon to push, so I'm gonna go play now!


I'll now blow you a big giant kiss bye bye! --Joshua

Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Petersons

Anyone want to be stronger and healthier? I did. Here's how I did it! :)

All of us have had the moments, whether we're in the middle of them now, or they are a thing of the past, where we think to ourselves: I wish I was able to fit into those jeans; I wish I could exercise more often; I wish I could stop eating sugar and snacking so much. I wish I didn't feel so depressed all the time; I wish I felt sexy again; I wish I wish I wish. We've all had them. 

What if I could tell you I found out that all of those wishes were possible after I was willing to put in some time, hard work, and good effort? 

I've had a lot of friends ask me what I've been doing to get into such great shape post baby. 

Well let me tell you: 

Back in the start of September, I saw a post on a friend's facebook account asking if anyone would be interested in learning to live a better lifestyle, eat better foods, and likely gain muscle tone and endurance out of it. I was SO interested, so naturally, I asked for more information. She proceeded to tell me about this awesome program called the 21 Day Fix, which was created by Autumn Calabrese, a mother of two kids, as well as a Beach Body instructor, coach, and model. I'll admit, I was skeptical. This couldn't really produce THOSE kind of results right? 

I did my research. I looked at blogs (http://soreyfitness.com/fitness/21-day-fix-autumn-calabrese/    http://thefithousewife.com/success-stories/) of a person my friend (Noelle Briggs, now my upline coach in Beach Body) new personally who had had success with this program. Don't get me wrong, by September, I was honestly feeling really great about myself. I was maybe 10 pounds max away from pre-baby weight, but I had worked hard to exercise and eat well and had seen enough results to be content. But I LOVE learning, so the more I learned about the 21 day fix, the more intrigued I became. I decided it couldn't hurt to try it (there is a 30 day money back guarantee on all BeachBody programs) and if it didn't do what I wanted, then I'd send it back, no questions asked. 

Click. 

I ordered, and I waited for my challenge pack to come. When it did, I was excited! And then I started reading. And feeling overwhelmed. All my anxiety came rushing back and I worried that I just wasn't the type of person who could do this. I had meal planned before, but this called for attention to detail that I'd never paid attention to before--different food groups, finding foods that would measure correctly in the containers, no processed ANYTHING, etc. 

But since my challenge group hadn't actually started, and wouldn't start for another week, I decided I could start and do a "trial week" by myself. I would try to stick to the meal plan and exercises, but I wouldn't let myself get down if I made a mistake or couldn't do it one day. 

Here is a brief overview of the program, called the 21 DAY FIX: 

http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/21-day-fix-simple-fitness-eating.do?e=289045 

Before 1st Challenge

Week one went better than I could have imagined, even in the midst of planning Joshua's first birthday party--with treats....lol. 

Before 1st Challenge

My only regret is that my before and after photos don't show the before I started even the "trial week"

AFTER 1st Challenge

AFTER 1st Challenge

September 28th, I took my own before and after photos. Mostly cuz I was embarrassed to ask Danny to take them for me, cuz I was worried he thought I was silly for wanting to do a program from home and jump and run around the house like a lunatic. (it's not that bad, but my exaggeration side of the brain took over at that point.) So excuse the lack of photography skills in my first set of pics. Cuz I took pics before and after the first challenge. 

Before 2nd Challenge

Dec. 2nd, 2014 POST 2 Challenges (42 days)

After my first 21 day fix challenge, I had lost a total of 9.5 inches throughout my arms, chest, waist, hips, and thighs. I was shocked to say the least, and I felt SO much stronger, more able to do the things I wanted to do, and because of that, I wanted to see what would happen after another 21 days. This next 21 days I wasn't nearly as strict--I ate out and had birthday treats 3-4 times. ;)  

Before 2nd Challenge

Dec. 2nd, 2014 POST 2 Challenges (42 days)

So I took AGAIN starting at the beginning of November, and this is where I didn't loose as many inches, but I toned up. A LOT more than I could have expected. My after picture is actually from TODAY, so it's my current results from keeping up on my exercise, nutrition, etc. (please excuse my odd expressions...)

Since October 20,2014, I've lost an additional 4-5 pounds, and an additional 4 inches! (I don't know why the pics don't quite match....weird stuff happened going from phone to computer...)

Dec. 2nd, 2014 POST 2 Challenges (42 days)

Before 2nd Challenge

Lessons learned: you get out of something what you put into it. When I had  my Shakeology (ask me about that), when I did my workouts, and ate all my food--it's kinda a lot--I saw results. I can do pushups (real ones ladies) for 45 seconds straight, I can plank for a minute no sweat, I can hold my 25 pound baby in one arm and not feel like my back is gonna die, I can DO so much more because I put in the time and effort to MEAL PLAN and EXERCISE. (Pinterest is AMAZING by the way.)

My pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/swimwriter312/21day-fixclean-eating/

SO! What does this mean for you? Well, I think it means it's possible, post baby to have your abs back, and for me, the final process of toning up (still going) has taken nearly 60 days. And i don't want to stop. I don't want to be like insane exercise momma. But that's the beauty of the 21 Day Fix. I DID NOT exercise like crazy. I did a 30 minute workout video provided in the plan each day. 30 Minutes and an eating plan to follow to change those eating habits in just 21 days? Heck yes. I'll be doing this when I'm pregnant, cuz it's low impact; I'll be doing this to kickstart myself after the holidays; and I'll be doing other fantastic programs all from home, without the added stress of child care at the gym--cuz that stresses me out. 

Bye bye 2014....

What I wanna know is are you in? Who wants to do this with me starting January 5th, 2015?????????? I'll be your coach and I promise, you won't regret it! 

"When you're tired of starting over, STOP giving up!"-Autumn Calabrese

If you plan to order this program, please use this site! 

www.beachbodycoach.com/SWIMWRITER312