Some of the best entertainment in life is FREE...

Karl and I were left with the boys while Neil and Andy went out on a more than deserved date. Why is it that we get to have all the fun? I think that Braxton has had his eye on this water hose for a long time and finally Karl let him have it...

I don't know who was more fun to watch; Braxton with the hose chasing Karl or Brazos coming back for more and just squealing everytime the water got near!

Karl finally coaxed Braxton into taking a drink from the hose. It only took once. He learns quick. I am so scared for our kids. Braxton and Brazos are going to teach them so many things...Can't say we don't deserve it!

All in all - Fun Times!

We ordered a special turkey for Thanksgiving...

Well, my goal was to loose my first 30 pounds and that would be labeled my baby making goal! I made that back in March. Little did I know that we would be actually making more than just one goal! Of course, it took a total shock on my body for all of this to happen, but it did. I came home one day from work and got completely worked up about one of my ankles being swollen to the point that it hurt to bend it. So, Neil prompted me to make a Dr. appointment. I went the next day thinking that I had a bad circulation problem and well, kind of….

Dr. Tapp wanted to do an extra of my ankle and I asked him if I needed to take any special precautions in case we were pregnant. Karl and I have been trying for a year or so but not to the point where we were stressing. Since December we had been serious about it, but I was more than sure that things would happen on God’s time and His time would be after I got some of the spare tires ran off.

His plan was happening in March and I had no idea. Over the last two years I have been off the pill and taking pregnancy test like they were free. Karl (my loving, tight-wad husband) asked that I didn’t take not one more. He said, “when you are, you’ll know.” So, to be the (acting like) submissive wife I yearn to be, I respected his wishes/demands and Dr. Tapp proceeded with a blood test first. He came back in and said that my white blood count was pretty high and my iron was pretty low. I asked what could make that happen and he simply, calmly replied, probably because your blood test was positive for pregnancy!! I was so surprised I teared up and hugged him! Had no idea!

I proceeded like everything was normal because the first person I was going to see was Lyneil! I have NO game face. So, I spent most of the afternoon downstairs. Karl and I had volunteered to keep the boys while Lyneil and Andy went on a date that evening. So, after a stop to Target, I left Karl at the supper table with two messy boys and went downstairs to get him a little gift. He had it figured out when I left to run downstairs….NO game face.

We are 12 weeks and so excited. Lyneil has helped me pick out some really great stuff at garage sales and I am getting in change everything mode! Life is great and Karl is giddy!

I had to make a trip to the sonogram room early but everything turned out perfect. We heard the heartbeat and all is well!

Here are the pictures from 3 weeks ago.

Cousin Kanyon - The Fighter

Jaymie and Kory had premature twins at week 25 last Sunday. Kanyon is pressing on and strenghthening daily. Jayde went to be with her loving, Heavenly Father. We rejoice that He knows our limitations and can see what we need as individuals.

If you have not been able to visit their site, we need prayers. Please visit the Phillips site and pray for them and we ask that you pass this request along to as many as you know.

If you have not checked the Phillips Phamily blog in while let me tell you some good news~Kanyon is doing good!! Praise God!! I am so glad that he is doing well. His lungs are holding up right now and they have started giving him Jaymie's milk. Over the past 24 hours he has been stable and is processing and digesting the milk very well. Thank you God for wonderful news.
Please continue to pray for Kanyon, Jaymie, and Kory as they all need our prayers right now.Also, Please pray for Jay and Gay, Clint and Rachel, and Clay and Maurine as they all could use some strength.

Thanks for all the prayers so far - it is working!

Ice hockey anyone?

Have I told you lately how much I love being an aunt…I missed all four of them for the long week that they were all gone, but I really missed those boys! Church was much less active and coming home wasn’t the same. We are glad that they are back safe and sound and they had a blast in Texas. One of the best things about being an aunt is that we can let things like this happen and no one ever thinks different!



While the Beck’s were visiting Texas, Micah and Jennifer came up from Paris to spend a couple of days with us. Karl and I have not made the time to spend with them since we left college, so it was great being up here away from everything. It was nice not to have to share our time with anyone else….so selfish!




Micah, Jennifer and I got to go and see our first live hockey game. That was exciting. I would love to go and do that again. It is so fast paced and aggressive. I loved it! Amy had told me how much fun they are and she is right, they are a blast. This was old school for Karl but it was nice to have him to explain all of the rules!


Here are some pictures of our event. We had really good seats. We were on the 6th row even though my camera looks as if it should tell a different story.

I don’t know that I have any “normal” pictures of Micah. Then again, not many Zant’s I know fit in the “normal” status!

My favorite man in the world. Isn’t he a hunny? I love being married to this guy!

The Big “30”…

It has finally hit. One of my first main goals was to make it to 30 and I have completed that task. I was so excited that I called all my family and let them know! I have shed the last 2.5 pounds to make a perfect round number of -30 on the scale!

I only lost 5 pounds this week, but I feel 30 pounds lighter just as of today. Funny how that is! For loosing 20 pounds, Karl bought me 20 long stem roses. I didn’t expect to hit my 30 # goal this week, so it caught us both off guard. I wittingly asked Karl what we were going to do and he suggested going out to eat.

My loving, supportive husband, who has been backing me the whole way, took me out to eat. We went to a Chinese Buffet.
I had three plates of food.
Three servings of rice,
8 sushi,
4 won-tons,
a piece of broccoli,
sweet and sour chicken,
braded chicken,
stuffed crab and
3 crab cakes.
To drink I had 4 refills of Dr. Pepper!

Now, if you know my husband at all, you know that all of this is a lie. If I had gone by myself this may have been the case closer to home than I want to even think…But, my wonderful husband took me to Joe’s Crab Shack (almost as bad). He was in the mood for seafood and I had the baked Tilapia with veggies. We haven’t been in a long time and it was time for some crabby fun!

I thought that it would be fun to go around the house and pick up things that I would not blink twice at eating before starting WW and see what added up to 30 pounds. The not so funny thing is, it didn’t take long to find enough food. I very quickly went way over. But, here is a picture of some of my favorite foods that I have either given up or eat in much smaller quantities that the total weight sum came to 30 pounds.




Code Red was one of my favorite drinks that I “had to have” to work a 36 hour shift at Kinko’s. It didn’t help that our coke machine was stocked full of them all of the time. Milk, I love milk and cheese. Butter popcorn, I am a huge sucker for movie popcorn. Karl hates it and I love it. Dangerous for me. I will eat and eat and eat! Rice crispy snacks. These little devils have taken the place of potato chips or ice cream sandwich and or some other chocolate. The best thing about them is they are individually wrapped and they are just sweet enough to kick the craving. Speaking of chocolate, I have had a heart to heart with most of my chocolates and we have come to an agreement that my face doesn’t like the effects of it and we use it sparingly…dark chocolate is my favorite and it is harder to find. Then there is the VAT of whatever you want! Did I mention Dr. Peppers. I love to go to Sonic and get a 32 oz. Cherry Dr. Pepper. I can do that still, it just costs me 7 of my 28 points that I get in a day. Proportions and eating smart is not easy and definitely not fun all of the time, but the outcomes have been great for Lyneil and I! We are making life and WW work for us!! So, now it's Diet Dr. Pepper or Water.

So, here is my 30 pounds of food that I have shed. Thanks to Lyneil for cooking good, healthy things for us and to Karl and my family for being such a great encouragement. My next goal is 30 more pounds! I have a huge present for my 80 pound goal. Thank you Karl for the inspiration!

And then there were 2...

We officially have the house to ourselves!!!!

My thoughtat, exactly...

It is way too quiet here and this may just be the thing to make me crazy...The Beck Family has migrated for the Spring Break Time and we are left here by our lonesome.

We have a busy weekend planned as usual and we will keep trudging on, although it will be so hard to come home to a quiet house. I don’t even have my own kids yet and I already hate empty nest syndrome.
My boss has coaxed me into an X’treme Body Makeover. It is going to be 10 weeks of 6 day a week workouts…Think I’m crazy yet? I do! We are going to work out M, W, and F from 5:45 – 6:30 AM and then T & R at 5:00 PM and Saturday at 8:00 AM. I better come out looking like a whole new person. My boss asked me if I would support her in this and of course I said I would. I didn’t know her means of support were to be there and endure the pain with her physically. So, I have suckered Neil into doing it with us! Ha!! No sense in going through this pain alone, I might as well take her with me, right?

We start April 2nd. I am pumped. Lyneil and I have been going to Curves but not as much or as regularly as we wanted. I am hoping to get a set schedule, direction from this 10 week program so that I can make good habits come from it. 21 days makes a habit….I am praying that 70 days makes a lifetime of habits.

Braxton has the tools and he is ready to measure our success!

We are going to be the cutest Tupperware ladies you have ever seen…It may take us a bit to get there but our goals have been set and we are glaring down the path of success! I am pumped.

I will post pictures of the two of us before and after…maybe an in between….we’ll see!

Updates from up Norh...

Well, I got to go and visit San Antonio. It was a nice change of weather. I left Des Moines in 22º and arrived at 8:00 PM in San Antonio in 62º! I was set! Three wonderful ladies from the church came and picked me up. We were able to go and chill out with some coffee and us time. Saturday we had our Ladies Day. We had huge turn out and we were pumped about it. I stayed with the Yager’s and I am so thankful that Karl and I have them in our lives.
They are Air Force and soon will be moving to Illinois. We will be 6 hours away rather than 17!!!! I am super excited about that. They have two little boys (4 & 6 yrs) and a sophomore in HS. Such wonderful people!

Not much other news than that! Lyneil and I are now Tupperware Saleswomen. If you need any or want to have a catalog party, let us know. We ship and can/will travel!

On other notes. Lyneil and I came home from having lunch with our husbands at McDonalds and Braxton sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor and started pulling his shoes off. Lyneil looked down at him and this is what she noticed...


Can you tell from the picture that his right foot still has a shoe on it (hence the shoelace) and the right shoe is actually sitting beside him. Hmmm. I wonder why he is rubbing his left foot as if it were hurting? Could it be that his MOM put his shoes on the wrong feet?
We have to laugh on account of going nuts sometimes....I love being an aunt! Poor Braxton. If only we had noticed earlier that his momma needed a nap today....

Love to all! Stay Warm…