Making The Cut

Jay and I recently started a fitness and diet program by Jillian Michaels, the former trainer from The Biggest Loser... we purchased her book, Making The Cut, and started the plan last week. It designed to give you lean, toned muscles. We had to take several different tests (which taught us more about our bodies than we've ever known!!) to find out what kind of "oxidizer" our bodies are. Based on our type, there are seperate diet plans to follow. Luckily, we both fell into the same category! We also had to determine how many calories our daily diet would need to sustain us throughout our immensly intense workouts, and both of our caloric allowances were surprisingly high. The fitness plan is a combination of strength and circuit training. I feel as if we are training for the olympics....it's so incredibly hard! It's definitley not for everbody. There is not one day that passes where I feel like it's completely kicked my butt...but in less than a week I've already lost and inch around my waist, so I guess it's working! We stay on the plan for 30 days and then create a weekly routine to follow, so the intensity of the training will not always be this hard....but we are loving the results and how our bodies have reacted. It's such a great challenge to see how far you can push your body. Our kitchen is literally a rainbow of colors, we have tomatoes, apples, pears, mangos, red peppers, avocados, limes, lemons, eggplant, squash, and bananas on our counter right now...I love it! The meals have been delicous and full of nutrients, vitamins, and anti-oxidants. So that's what we've been up to lately...

We are also planning an Anniversary trip for sometime this spring or summer (whenever our work schedule allows it) so that has been the topic our our conversations and it's been fun to begin the planning! stay tuned for more details!

National Champs!

I knew they could do it! I'm happy to report (for those of you who don't follow college football, watch the news, watch t.v., go on the internet, read the paper, or do anything at all) that the Gators took home the National title! They played an amazing game, both ups and downs... but pulled through at the end to beat the Oklahoma Sooners. I'm sure our neighbors wondered what all the noise was last night....celebration! We had a great time watching the game. My Grandpa's brother went to University of Florida and was the kicker for the Gators, and his other brother attended Florida State so you can imagine the rivarly in our family....and the calls made rubbing it in today!

It's finally Friday!! Tonight we are hanging out with our gang..it's been far too long since we have all gotten together. Things have been so busy for us!! So we are looking forward to hanging out, relaxing, and catching up with everyone. Not sure what we are going to do yet but it's bound to be wild and crazy! Have a blessed weekend everyone <3

Go Gators!!

Ok so, my Vikings let me down...I had such high hopes! but the Gators are still going strong and we are looking forward to cheering them on come Thursday night. My family is originally from Florida so we are die-hard fans... orange and blue is in our blood! My Grandpa attended the University of Florida and that's where it all began. We've even converted Jay as a fan! Every year my Grandpa flys down to Florida for their biggest match-up in the Swamp. I've never been, but he calls me every year from the game and it sounds like quite an experience. Anyways, we're headed to my Mom's house on Thursday night and I'm sure it will very intense...my family is obsessively into football. I can't wait! Tebow's going to take us all the way! Here are a couple pictures of their quarterback (Tim Tebow) Every game he always has Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things Through Christ who strengthens me" written on his face. As my Grandma says it, "He's such a nice young man!" Pull us through Tebow!

2009...Our time to shine :)

Happy New Year!!! I can't believe how fast this year came and went. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was walking down the aisle! I guess that's what happens when you are enjoying life...time flies. I am so excited for a new year and a new beginning. This year I am most looking forward to our annual family trip to the North Shore. Last year was the first (and only!) time we missed it, because we were on our way to our Honeymoon...which was way worth it, but never again will we miss it! It's usually one of the major highlights of our year. We are also very excited to celebrate out first Anniversary!! Once again, we had an amazing Christmas at Bunny and Papa's full of love, laughter, games, good food and great company. Our family flew up from Jacksonville and we had the best time visiting with them, and the rest of the family. We drove back down before New Years Eve so we could spend the day with my cousin Louise before she flew home. It was the best way to spend our evening. We played games, had yummy champaigne, ordered pizza and went to see the movie Australia (awesome movie!!) It was really nice to have a relaxed and low-key night after the whirlwind of all the holidays. I really enjoy and treasure my time spent with Louise, and Justin as well. She is one incredible girl. We had fun shooting a winter session...she is destined to be famous one day :) After I upload/edit the pictures I will post a few. Jay left this morning for his yearly ski trip with his college guys, and I have work off tomorrow...so I am excited to have some time to myself to get some things done around the house. I'm also excited to relax and do some reading!! He won't be home until late Sunday night, so I'll have to uphold our weekly tradition of watching the Vikings on Sundays alone.....GO VIKES! For now I am off to start some laundry and unpack after a fantastic New Years...I hope everyone's year was a blessed as ours was, and the new year brings you more happiness than the last.

Justin's ride

Ok so these pictures are too dark because we took them the night we got home but it's a shiny black Izuzu!!! I'll try to get some better pictures but these will have to do for now.

New Years Resolution....

This year my New Years Resolution is to keep our blog updated! We've been so bad about finding time to sit down and keep in touch with everyone because we've have been so busy...but we need to do a better job. Everyone keeps reminding me that we ARE interesting and people want to know more about our lives, especially our families...so we will make a point to try and get on here every week with updates. Let's see, the last time we blogged was Thanksgiving so we have so much to share and this is going to be one long post! We celebrated Christmas with Jenni early this year and had a little party at her house. We made a yummy dinner and then went ice skating in downtown St. Paul....on a very snowy night! We had fun running around in Rice Park. Here are a few pictures from our night.

Soon after this night, I bought Justin a new car! He is now a proud owner of an Izuzu Rodeo, a black SUV...he loves it and it gets better gas mileage than his old car so he is happy :) That was a relief because we went back and fourth about what to do and finally made a decision. I'll post some pictures of that too. On December 11th, I got Jay tickets to see a private concert by Missy Higgins, Eric Hutchinson (my favorite), and his favorite band OAR. The concert was held at the Varsity Theatre in St. Paul and there were about 100 people there....it was awesome! We stood in the front row and had an amazing time together. Aaaaaaand I got to meet Eric, so I was really excited. It was a night of great music, dancing, and fun!

Thanksgiving

This year we headed down to Missouri for Thanksgiving at Justin's Grandma's home. It was a wonderful long weekend full of family and many friendly faces. At times, we had over 30 people there! Her house was definetly packed, and we had a great time visiting with everyone...what a wonderful family I married into! On Friday, some of us got up and went out in the wee hours of the morning for black Friday shopping....and man was it worth it! We got some great deals. The rest of the family helped around the house. They live on a "farm" so there is always work to do. Some of the family built a retaining wall along the side of the house and raked and burned leaves on her huge property to prepare for winter. The weather was beautiful! It reached 60 degrees and was a nice change from our chilly weather here at home. Justin's Grandma is an amazing cook and our meals were delicious. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade stuffing, real cranberries, green beans, jello salads, homemade bread, homemade apricot jam & apple butter, chicken breast and yummy beef brisket, to name a few! She also made homemade sweet rolls, pumpkin and apple pies. And then there was Joker. The favorite game of the Feldkamp family! we played and played and played until it was almost morning some nights. We had a great time sitting and talking with one another and enjoying the company. We were sad to leave on Sunday! It was a successful trip :)