Graham Family: Farewell, 2012!

Here we are, the first day of 2013 nearly over. Does anyone else get nostalgic as New Years approaches? I start thinking about everything that has happened in the past year, how quickly things change and children grow..... I get a bit sad but then get excited for what is to come. Especially since in just over 3 weeks we leave for Disneyland!!

But, since I use my blog books as a diary/ family photo album/ baby book of sorts, there I wanted to do a quick recap post.

And one very important thing that I forgot to blog about this fall was Luca being Invested into Beavers! He loves Beavers and always has so much fun! He even enjoyed the bottle drive and selling Christmas Trees! ;)

Here are a few photos of his Investment ceremony in October:

I also realize I forgot to post an update on the weight loss challenge that I was doing. It ended on December 15th and it went really well. I got into the habit of going to the gym 4x a week and Chris and I actually began to almost like eating carb free. We both lost weight (he refuses to actually weigh himself so doesn't know how much but I can tell he's lost)- I lost about 17 pounds in total and since eating over Christmas without counting calories, Ive managed to only gain about 3 back. I'm looking forward to getting back into good eating habits and exercising again now that Christmas is over!

But, I digress. the challenge.... I started out really strong- with a good lead. At the mid point I was leading with a loss of 7% of my weight and the second place competitor was at 4%. I did get a bit over confident and allowed myself a few cheats, which I shouldn't have. With a week to go, I heard that the second place girl had moved up to first with a 9% loss. I was at about 8%. So, that last week, I really worked hard and when weigh in day came, ultimately I was thrilled that I had lost 17 pounds but was anxiously waiting to hear if I would win.

This photo is (left) at Thanksgiving in October and (right) half way through the challenge.

Finally, after everyone had weighed in, a text came.....

I didn't win.

But, I didn't lose, either!

In some incredible way, we managed to tie to 1000th of a percent! Both of us lost 9.389%, so we split the winnings and each got $200. I knew it was going ot be close, but had no idea just how close it would end up being. Wow!

I'm really proud of myself and most importantly, I think that Chris and I are really in a good position to make a lifestyle change- a real change in how and what we eat as well as our activity level. I feel great, my clothes fit (or are too big! Yay!) and ultimately, its important to both of us to be as healthy as we can be to be good examples to our boys and to be able to enjoy many activities with them!