What's going on?

I haven't been blogging lately, but it's not for lack of things to chat about. Here's an update:

Rob is still in the Philippines and has been there since the end of September. I've done a pretty good job holding down the fort, if I do say so myself. He's enjoying helping the typhoon victims and they are bracing for a third one heading there tomorrow. Fortunately, he brought his laptop and we can "google" video chat everyday.

I started a new exercise program 3 weeks ago. It's a bootcamp style program with a former NFL football player running it. He's pretty intense. We have a seriously strict eating program with NO oils, bagged or boxed food or sweets (and we drink at least 1 gallon of water a day). Basically I live on fruits, veggies, whole wheat carbs and lean protein. We also work out for 1 hour a day doing crazy stuff (like 1100 sit ups, followed by hundreds of squats with 30 lbs of weight). While his methods are pretty intense the thing I hope to take away from this is that I'm capable of far more than I thought I could and that I understand how much better I can feel without the junk food in my life.

Noah is enjoying kindergarten and I love seeing the new things he learns everyday. Last week he came home and could tell me a bunch of facts about Christopher Columbus. His handwriting is getting better and I'm just impressed at what a conscientious student he is.

Ben and Issy are in preschool and love it. Ben is quite the smarty pants and is starting to sound out words. I'll walk in a room and notice him trying to read something. He's toned down quite a bit and while still loud, he can control his emotions better. Yeah! Well, my life can't totally be easy because now Isabella is crazy. I think it must be a three year old thing. She is such a drama queen and does things the boys never even thought of doing. Just when you think you've got this parenting thing down pat....

Kate is darling and perfect. Never fusses, smiles at anyone who will look her way and sleeps like a champ. I don't know how I got so lucky to have her join our family.

Here are some pics of our recent adventures:

Issy drumming

Issy on drums, Ben on vocals and Noah on lightsaber. They are rocking out to some tunes on Apple TV (what? you've never heard of it? Look it up. It's fabulous).

Hanging out in the laundry basket.

My quilt square. I'm in a group with 20 girls to make an Okinawan memory quilt. Each girl does 20 squares of the same thing (mine is Mt Fuji). Then we get together in 4-5 months and exchange them. Then I have 20 different squares to remind me of my time in Oki that I can bind together. 1 down, 19 more to make....

Kate in all her sweetness.