Just Another Manic Monday....(whoa uh oh)

Mondays are very fun days at our house.  With Kenny getting through his last year in school, he's still waiting tables at Maddox which means he gets Sundays and Mondays off.  Well, Sundays are the sabbath so we enjoy each others company then but on Monday, we normally try to do something fun out and about.

Today, we decided to take Princess Paizli to see the new movie "Turbo". We were a little hesitant because we never know if she'll get fussy or squirmy.  She LOVED it!  She watched maybe 3/4 of it and the last little bit, she fell asleep snuggling me.  BONUS!!  But really friends, it is a super cute show.  My favorite line from the show was "No dream is too big and nobody is too small". Really cute and good moral to the story.

Then we stuffed Cait, Justin (Caits BF), and Coult into our car and if you've seen our car, that means we had to stuff one of them into our trunk.  Praying that we wouldn't get pulled over, we went for a Costa Vida run.

Another fun thing that happened today was that I redid a filing cabinet so that I could organize some of my sewing fabric and tools.  Here's a before and after...

Before

After!!

Can you say drab to FAB?? :-)

It was a jam packed day full of fun.  While everyone dreads Mondays, I wish everyday was Monday. 

As for a nutrition and exercise update...day 1 of my lifestyle change was a success!  I ate superbly, went out for an almost 4 mile run and even skipped having any treats at the theater. Success!!

Here's to New Beginnings!

Family, fitness, fun and other goals...

We just got back from a mini vaca/camping trip to Emigration Canyon (close to Bear Lake). On this 3 day excursion, I learned two things.
1: Getting sick during a vaca tends to ruin that days activities.  This indeed happened to me.  We had planned to go through Minnetonca Cave that day and I got so violently ill with the dizzies, nausea, body aches, and fever that I originally thought I was dehydrated.  I tried to push through and with teeth chattering and body shaking (it was 40 degrees in there) I braved the first 100 feet of this cave. Meanwhile, Kenny was hauling Princess P in a backpack. She decided to be EXTRA princessy that day and continually shout shrilly that entire time.  Rather than put the rest of our group and tour leader through that excruciating pain of listening to her, Kenny volunteered to turn back and me, being the walking zombie Popsicle that I was, turned back as well.  Sad Panda.  
2: Bear Lake is GORGEOUS!!  I may sound like this sheltered little child, but I was soooo excited to see such a beautiful sandy beach and turquoise infused water.  We quickly got P ready in her swimming attire and went waiting in the water. I failed to mention that this day was a particularly cool day with lots of grey clouds above.  Within 15 minutes of us being there, I look down to see my baby girl and her lips were purple.  It was chilly, but once we got her in some long pants and a hoodie (great beach apparel in July, right?) we played forever in the sand and turned Kenny into a merman.  Fun stuff huh?
Here's a couple pix of our much needed vaca.  It's always so hard to come home from those.

Now...onto some serious biz.  For the past year, I have been seeing a physical trainer to lose the baby weight.  With the exception of maybe 4 lbs, I have been right back to where I was pre-preggo. 
 Reasonable? Yes.  
Am I happy with it? No!
The last few months, I've half heartedly been committed to the process and haven't been seeing results that I've wanted to see.  Why? Because there's always a morning that needs to be slept in or a class that I need to teach that is already too early before adding a workout in before classes.  And then there's always the junk food junky in me that says, "eh....I'll have just one.  One won't make a difference" (10 minutes......AND COOKIES later). And then I wonder why I'm not toning up.  DOY!! 
So this is going to not only be a journal about my family and the fun,crazy times we have, but also a brutally honest nutrition and exercise tracking outlet as well.  Hopefully there will be a great 'before' and 'after' difference.  (Correction: there WILL be a great difference!! Positive thinking right?). I know that mental is more than half the fight.  
I CAN DO THIS!!
Any positive thoughts, comments, prayers will indeed be appreciated.
And with that, I bid you all adieu with a pic of the 5 mile Dam Race that Kenny, Princess P, and mwua finished about a week ago.

Here's to accountability and brutal honesty!

New Years and New Beginnings

Happy New Year to all my friends and bloggers out there!  2012 was by far one of the best years of my life as we welcomed in the tiniest bundle of joy into our family.  We can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for our little family as we still get to enjoy some of our little Princess's "1sts".  

Here are some fun pics of us at my family's New Years Eve hooah.

 Even though little P is so horribly sick, fighting for every breath she takes, she is such a social bug that she still cracked a few smiles for everyone at the party.

 

Cute cousins.  Easton and Paizli wearing their Monster bibs that I made for them.  Refer to my "Craft" page.

 

 Me and miss P enjoying everyone's company before Kenny came back from his snowboarding trip.

 

Oh buddy...my sister, Nicole is trying to teach her 3 year old to walk around saying "I'm a honey badger.  Honey badger don't care" haha So funny!  Enjoy.

 

And even though this was taken on Sunday while we sat in a clinic for 4 hours (yes that's right folks, 4 hours) to have a doctor check Paizli for RSV, I still thought it was cute enough to share.  Please pray for her that she'll get better.  She tested negative but still struggles unmercifully to breathe through all the wheezing and the doctors won't do hardly anything for little babies.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and hope that you all can keep your resolutions year round!

Happy New Years everyone!

Loves!

-Nat-

The Reason for the Season...

Ok...so I thought I'd give this whole blogging thing a try.  I have always wanted to blog but feel like I would need to start from the beginning of forever.  "I was born on Sept 1, 1988 on a cold autumn night"  First off, September is still BLAZING hot and I figure that I'll never blog if I do that.  What better time to start than the present right? 

This Christmas break has been immensely needed!  I have needed a break for the sake of creativity as well as needing time to play with the Princess P and Kenny (refer to the about me section).  Half way through this break and I can say it is a S.U.C.C.E.S.S.!!  Here have been some of the highlights thus far...

Princess P and Easy G having chicken fights on top of the brother in laws on Christmas Eve (guess that's how they choose to work off some of that good ol' Christmas Eve turkey and stuffing)

 

Princess P's overly extravagant Christmas Eve PJ's. (Thank you FAO Schwartz) 

 

Next, let's not forget all the Christmas shopping that was done with some of my favorite people!!  Me and my beautiful little sister Caitlin.

 Then, we got adventurous with a spontaneous snow day on my parents hill to the side of their house. This included some rushed phone calls to Shopko and Walmart in search of a small enough snow suit for the Princess.  This indeed will be a cherished memory.  Princess P's first snow day.  (Pardon me in all my man-li-ness.  I don't have my own snow gear.  This would be Kenny's)

 You know that P is really tickled pink when she scrunches up her nose.  Oh that little one has me and daddy wrapped around her pinky.

 Followed by me and P going off to Aubrey's (family friend...might as well be one of my sisters, though) bridal shower.  It was a girl night that was much needed.  Dad stayed home to have a sports center night (he doesn't get too many of those while the estrogen is in the house)

 These have been some of our highlights thus far into our Christmas break but of all these memories cherished...Having our first Christmas together with Paizli as a part of our household has been one to remember.  Although, we enjoyed watching her sweet little face light up when she saw her ladybug pillow pet and such other toys, I couldn't help but to feel so humble and blessed to have my little family *healthy**happy**and mine for eternity* We are truly blessed to have been entrusted by our Heavenly Father with such a sweet spirit as hers.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

-Natalie