The Whidden Family: Finally time to slow down...

Yes! I am alive! I can't believe I haven't updated in over two weeks! I honestly just have not had time. I usually update this blog every Sunday evening. The past two weekends have had me very busy. Two weekends ago, I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday at a training with the teachers & staff of OCA. They use a school-wide program called PECS for all children who are nonverbal or who have difficulty speaking or using language. So many children there use this system. It involves teaching them how to use pictures to communicate. The girls have been using them for a while at the school, but I wasn't really sure of the correct way to do it at home. As we all know, children do things one way at home and another way at school. It's much easier for us to know what the girls want because we just know. At school, they have to use their pictures to convey what they want or need. There are different stages of this system.

Anyway, I was invited to attend this teacher training because both Reese and Paige use PECS. Reese is in Phase 4 while Paige is still in Phase 1. It was such an informative training, and I'm so glad I went. It was definitely time well spent, and we have been working on this at home. I'm so thankful they asked me to attend...who knows how long the girls will be using these pictures.

Since I was out all weekend, I spent the next week catching up on everything I usually do on the weekends. By the time Sunday night rolled around, I just didn't have much to post. Then....fast forward to last weekend. I was in Lakeland all weekend long at another training. This one was for a new class I'm going to be teaching in the near future at the gym. It's called Body Pump and it's awesome! If you've ever done Pump it Up at the Y, it's the same thing. We can legally call it Body Pump now because the Y has purchased the license from Les Mills. It's basically a weight lifting class that focuses on the Rep Effect...lifting lighter weights with higher reps. The end result is long & lean muscles, and of course, strength. I passed the class part of the training...now I have to teach for a bit and then send in a video of myself teaching to get full certification. It was a tough weekend...LOTS of weight training. I was VERY sore the next day....and the next day. But I continued with my normal workout schedule, and I even ran six miles on Wednesday instead of my usual five! Go me!

Needless to say, last Sunday was a very long day, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted. I hadn't really taken many pictures of the girls because I was just so busy. This weekend was much more relaxed, and I got a lot more done. Now I can finally catch up on here!

Here are the pictures I do have from the past few weeks...

Silly Reese just being cute :)

Silly Paige just being cute :)

More silly cuteness....and morning hair!

Cute randoms of Reese...man, I take a lot of pics of these girls in their jammies! You can really see her permanent tooth coming in. It's kind of crooked, but it's still cute!