Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We've had a wonderful Christmas spent with family! Hope you enjoy your Christmas and have a Happy New Year! I spent my Christmas Eve morning at a core class at the Y, and I spent my Christmas morning trying to get out of bed (haha). I am so sore, but we are enjoying it regardless. Ryker is having a great first Christmas too! I'll post pics of the stockings and presents later! :) Here is our Christmas card and Christmas letter from this year! :)

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! 2011 has been a wonderful year for us!

As most of you know, we welcomed our first child Ryker Thomas into our family on March 18th. It has been such a delight to have him in our family. He is so much fun and is growing way too fast! He is a very social and happy baby. He loves all people. He started crawling in October and is quite the active little guy. We wouldn’t be surprised if he is walking before the new year. J

Cynthia finished her student teaching and graduated from BYU-Idaho in April. She started working part-time at the Children’s Education Center at the YMCA in Beverly in July and is having fun putting her degree to use. She is in the Enrichment Committee in Relief Society and is enjoying getting to know sisters in the ward. She ran her first race, the Wild Turkey 5 Mile Race, on Thanksgiving Day in Salem. Other than working three hours a day, she is busy being a mom (and wife) and is thoroughly enjoying it!

Joe started working for Biogen in Cambridge at the beginning of June. He is enjoying it. We are fortunate enough to have an aunt and uncle who commute there, so he is able to carpool with them, which is nice. He is the Assistant Ward Mission Leader in our ward and loves doing missionary work. He is currently looking into starting a Master’s program, but is still unsure of what he would like to go into. Although his 12 hour shifts can be rigorous, he enjoys his many days off with his family. He is having a blast being a Dad!

We recently had the privilege of helping our ward out in a community service project. We collected food and personal hygiene items for homeless people. This experience has really helped us get into the spirit of Christmas! Service is an amazing thing!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

The Gebhardt’s

John 14:18 “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

Food for Thought

Last night as I was laying in bed, I found myself thinking about macaroni and cheese. Why, you ask? I have absolutely no idea. The kids in the Toddler lab had it for lunch yesterday at work, but I see kids eating it all the time at lunch. I don't even like mac n cheese that much! It brought me back to a letter I got in October (on Benji's birthday, actually). It reads:

"Dear Cynthia Gebhardt,
Enclosed is a copy of your recent labs. Your total cholesterol and LDL or "bad" cholesterol is elevated which gives you an elevated coronary risk. The recommendation is regular exercise, weight loss and a diet low in saturated fat. Please work on these lifestyle changes and I would like to recheck fasting labwork again in 6 months. All other tests were within normal or acceptable limits. Please set up this lab visit and call the office with any questions. Take care."

Back in September I had to get a physical for work, and the nurse wanted me to get some blood work done after fasting 12 hours. That was the letter I received.
Guys, my LDL cholesterol was 146! That is so bad! It is expected to be under 100, recently changed from under 120 or something like that. Joe's mom said that she has never seen someone with it that high, and Joe's mom and sister have had problems with cholesterol in the past. My mother-in-law suggested that perhaps it's genetics because honestly I wasn't eating that bad, and I was exercising a little bit and trying to lose weight. Well, neither of my parents have high cholesterol, so what is up with me?

Oh, and the part where it says, "Please work on these lifestyle changes..." How do they even know what kind of lifestyle habits I have? What if I was already doing all those things?!

Cheese is BAD for your cholesterol. So, I was thinking perhaps maybe I was craving the cheesy mac n cheese because of my cholesterol perhaps? Well, at least my HDL cholesterol is within "normal or acceptable limits."

I guess I'll have to keep exercising like crazy and eating extremely healthy!

Ryker is 9 Months!

Ryker turned 9 months last Sunday. He is such a fun and sweet boy! At the doctor's on Tuesday, he weighed 23.5 pounds (89th percentile) and he was 30 inches long (between 75-85 percentile). He said his head is a good size, which isn't surprising...Joe and I have pretty big heads. LOL. Right now he is enjoying everything. He just wants to explore everything (especially things he shouldn,t) like the wood stove and the heaters and cords. He has such a cute and sweet personality, we love it! He can say "more" ("mo") when he wants more food. And we think he says "Hi" because when he sees someone he smiles and says "ha" We just pretend like he is saying "Hi," anyways. Oh, we just love him, we do! :)

My two favorite Handsome Boys!

I like this pic because you can see his curls in the back. :)

"NOM NOM!"