Fire

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It's finally cold enough to have a fire in our fireplace.  The boys were so excited!  I added in some copper coated pine cones for some blue and green colors too.  Can you feel the warmth?

New Inflatable

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As many of you know, we have an inflatable for nearly every holiday.  But, we didn't have a Valentine's Day one.  Each year I look and don't see any local and don't really like what I find online either.  This year that was kindof the case too but Johnny really wanted this teddy bear, so I ordered it.  Johnny is my technology boy, and he likes to set them up and operate them (flip the power strip and make sure they come up straight) each day.  He said he was really missing the Christmas ones.  He said it just wasn't right we didn't have one for Valentine's Day.  How could I resist?

Johnny Drawing Wall-E and Eve

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Johnny decided he needed to draw at his orthodontist appointment yesterday.  He drew Wall-E and Eve and then some other robots.  The ladies in the office were quite charmed by him.  Gotta love a well behaved kid (at least right then) with such a wonderful smile.

Change of Possession (Joey's Basketball Game)

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Joey is right in front of the scoreboard.  His coach did a 4 in 4 out of the 9 kids he had to fill the 5 slots on the floor, and Joey saw plenty of playing time.  His coach is trying to groom him to play center because of his height, but Joey isn't getting as many of the rebounds yet that a typical center would.  He seemed to have fun.  Unfortunately, his team lost.

I shot 175 basketball pics on Saturday, and that's about all I've shot in the past 4 or 5 days.  I've started spring cleaning, gray January days aren't that bright and interesting, and a couple of other excuses too;-)

More pics from Joey's game are here.

Johnny (#8) Basketball Game

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Only 5 players showed up for Johnny's game, so he played the entire time.  Basketball is new to him, and we're working with him on how to 'want' the ball and how to stay focused.  Johnny's teammate, Nicco (?sp) is jumping up for the ball in this shot (pink on his sneakers).  Nicco was the best shot on the floor for Johnny's team during this game...a joy to watch.

More pics of Johnny's game are here.

Triangle Expressway

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You can read more about the Triangle Expressway here. The third phase opened in December, and Donnie and I took the entire Expressway today on the way to a doctor's appointment.  Notice no cars.  With approx. a $5 fee to go from Holly Springs NC 55 Bypass to I40 near 147, folks aren't in a rush to use it.  However, it was probably 10 minutes faster and we were running a bit late today.  Using the Expressway caught us up.

Zip!

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Donnie got each of the boys a Fitbit Zip for Christmas.  What is a Zip you ask?  It's a pedometer that measures steps, distance, and calories burned.  It automatically syncs via your iPhone or computer and hopefully soon your Android phone.  You can compete with friends that have other Fitbit devices.

Pictured is an inverted image of Joey showing off a day this past weekend when he got over 10K steps.  He had a basketball game that day which got him over 5K and motivated him to really push himself up to 10K.  10K is the default goal, but you can change the goal.

Donnie and I each have a Fitbit One.  The One also tracks sleep and stairs climbed.  It is a bit smaller and recharges via a cable  (unfortunately proprietary instead of USB) instead of needing a new battery every six months or so like the Zip.  The One lights up so you can read it in the dark too.  The Zip does not.

Fitbit also announced a Flex wristband today too.

Whichever Fitbit you use, you'll like some of the handy integration and graphs on their website.  For example, here's a graph showing my steps over the last 30 days.

We also have the Aria scale.  The scale connects to the Wi-Fi to report your weight each time you weigh.  After an initial set-up, and with all 4 of us having weights that vary enough, it knows us each day and correctly tracks and graphs all our weights.

Our family would recommend any of these devices.  I keep up with making sure they don't get washed.  The boys are eager to wear them.  Donnie and I really think they help keep us moving.