Mother's Day 2014

I am so incredibly blessed to be a mother to my wonderful kiddos! 

God knew exactly what my heart has always prayed for and needed!

Being a mom is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I will ever accomplish!

Right now the boys are 5 and 7, soon to be 8 years old! And we are teaching lots and lots of manners, prayers, and love!

They were so incredibly good to me this weekend!

I feel like I can be a great mom because I had a wonderful example growing up! My parents put my brother and myself above anything and everything that they had going on! Not in a silver spoon kind of way but in a "your my main priority and I love you" kind of way!

My parents were the first to praise our successes no matter how big or small. They were always proud of us and told us how much they loved us!

They made time for family time which included playing games at night, eating dinner together, praying together and just being "present" in our lives!

A big thanks to this woman for all the sacrifices she has made for her children!

Mom- I'm forever thankful, and I love you!

My wonderful husband and kiddos had these downstairs waiting for me when I woke up Sunday morning!

Such beautiful flowers and a very sweet card!

Ee made me a book, all about me

He even colored her hair red like mine!

BC made me me a potted plant at his Mommy and Me Tea, at school!

They had cookies and punch for us mothers. Such a sweet idea!

We ended our evening with me cooking million dollar spaghetti, lasagna, salad and homemade garlic bread! It was a wonderful way to celebrate both my mom and mother in law!

Both are very special ladies to me!

Derby Day Celebrations

We love, love, love to have fun on Derby Day! 

I have never been to the Derby but I did go to the Oaks Day Races when I was 8 months pregnant. Great timing! Ha. 

Last year we had a Derby party! I love to throw a fun party, but this year the hubs had to work so it didn't seem right to celebrate without him!

So we just had my mom over, I made several appetizers, we had sausage balls, queso and chips, cornbread salad, garlic dip and veggies, cheese and crackers. My youngest came in and I had every spread out on our bar, and he said but mom no one is coming but us. We have a lot of party food!

It was fun to explain to him that we can celebrate when it's just us!

Here is our Derby pot!

And they are off!!!

And the winner is 

California Chrome!

It was a fun evening. I drew the winner. We've always had a Derby pot as far back as I can remember!!

A fun day! I missed the hubs, but boys had fun and Presley is the boys friend and he came over and drew a horse and watched too!

11 pounds down

I am right on target for losing 16 pounds before vacation! I've lost 11 pounds so far so it is very doable! 

It really is all about time and food prep for me, I have to make it a priority!

I've been eating yummy things like this:

Cottage cheese salad! This is 1/2 cup of cottage cheese for 110 cals and I add in cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and salt and pepper! This is super filling!

This is a 300 calorie lunch! 1 cup of Lima beans for 220 calories and corn on the cob is 90-100 calories depending on size.  I use calorie free spray butter an salt and pepper!

Mexican food is our favorite! The meal above around 325 cals an I also had a fajita burrito. I wanted a lil something else after this so I got a small tortilla for 100 cals and I boiled down strips of peppers and onion and filled the tortilla with peppers, lettuce, salsa, and a lil of the sour cream above! That was a filling 425 calories!

After I was "violated" at the doctor yesterday, (that's what my dad would always say when he had a procedure)

My procedure was borderline outpatient surgery but the dr thought he could successfully do everything in the procedure room. And he did! He is a great doctor! 

I treated myself to a lil shopping! I NEVER shop for myself. EVER!  Several reasons for that, A-money doesn't grow on trees, B- it's more fun to buy for the kids, and C-if I'm being honest most stuff that is size 16 or larger just isn't as cute as the Aero clothes or the cute brand name stuff! 

I'm now in all size 14's. a week ago I had to try on 14's. not all fit, now they all fit. I was at old navy yesterday and I tried on a size 12, they buttoned and zipped and looked fine to wear out in public!

I LOVED this outfit! The shorts were 3 inches which is too short for my chunky thighs! I did buy the shirt!

I'm really sad I didn't buy this dress! I may see if Nana will buy it for me for my bday! I didn't realize it looked so good until I pondered it all night!

I also got a cute bandana print shirt at old navy, and two pair of 5 inch shorts!

I did go ahead and buy the size 14's, they were a lil big. I hope I don't regret not buying the size 12's!

My wardrobe in the past has always been, athletic shorts and tee shirts, well now that is over! Cute clothes here I come!!!

Cleaning the garage

I'm holding up my end of the 40 bags of 

Spring cleaning!

So I'm counting both these boxes as 3 bags each. You really can't tell that I made much of a dent in the garage. We have alot of big ride on toys for the boys and lots and lots of junk. We've been married almost 9 years so we have accumulated alot of stuff!

We also had a lil fun In the heat with a water balloon toss!

The neighbor kid came to play too. Lots of fun!

I've been doing great logging my food this week. I've been under cals and have been exercising like crazy!

This meal was 400 calories!

And tonight's meal was around 450 calories. Not bad at all. This picture is missing the fajita burrito made!

I loaded the Nike app again tonight!

And used it for my evening walk! I walked 1.06 miles in 19 mins. Not fast but burned another 107 cals!!

I wanted to post it but it tells my exact location/route that I walked. So that's not happening!

Tonight is Chicago Fire! I'm excited about a new episode tonight! Which means tomorrow is re-run night. Lol

A date night!

The hubs and I were able to get away for 2.5 hours last month for a date! That's very exciting for us, because one on one time for us happens about 3 times a year!

It's sad we don't get out more, it really is! 

We don't have free sitters, so that doesn't help, so once we pay 20-25 bucks for 2 hours then go out to eat somewhere nice we are out about 75 bucks for the night!

But believe me it's worth it! We get to have adult time and feel more refreshed when we come home!

Look at my hot hubs on our last date!

I think we still make a cute couple 13 years later!

I also had one of these!

I forgot to ask for a frozen one, but this one on the rocks, didn't disappoint!

It was a very fun night!

I'm hoping for a date night soon, hey if I'm lucky we might get away with having one date night a month this year!

That would be so nice!

I'd love to go to the Melting pot! We've been once and drained our life savings! And we just ordered dessert! It was over 20 bucks for one order of desserts with milk chocolate fondue! It was great and romantic! I'm not normally a fancy kind of girl, but I like that I can go from the baseball field as a coach to my kids straight into a black dress and heels for a fancy dinner!

I totally didn't make my diet goal ;(

I'm blaming the nasty weather, stress at work, and whatever else I can find to blame it on! I'm quitting the gym, and buying my own elliptical! 

Hopefully this week! Come on tax money!!

I also went to the store and stocked up on diet foods for this week!

I'm getting ready to head to the kitchen now to roast a sweet potato and steam broccoli for tomorrow!

Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend! The hubs was off work, kids were great in church! Dinner at the inlaws went well!

This year we hosted an Easter party at our house and dyed eggs with friends and had cookies, then an egg hunt too!

I think everyone had fun! And I got to catch up on girl time with Sarah and Crystal!

This is the outfit I went with for Bre!

I did choose to buy him a peach colored short instead of this one. I would say the one pictures above is more of a melon color. But I wanted his shirt to match EE's! 

I got the shirts at Abercrombie kids, but bought EE's a month prior before I had started thinking about Easter! Luckily when I went back they still had one for Bre!

They looked adorable as always and we had some family pics by the pond at church! Thanks Lori for doing such a great job! 

The sun was out so some of the pictures have too many shadows but I got a great one of the boys and a good one of me and the hubs! Just not a great family picture!

I'm hoping when we get to Florida my friend Beth will snap a few family pics for us!

I would love a huge one over our couch! 

I even had the chance to decorate the DR, but half of my Easter decor is missing! ;( we will find it I hope!

It doesn't look too bad considering I decorated 3 days before Easter!

I'm doing great in my diet so far! I've been walking two miles at work on my lunch and breaks and have been jogging another 2 miles at home in the evenings. Not every night but I did it 3-4 times last week! 

I will post some of what I'm eating soon!

Here is a pic of me jogging on the track!

The hubs and I did squeeze in a date night this month! So that means we only missed March! This is huge for us! In the past we might have gone on 3 dates a year! I didn't have many sitters I trusted to watch both kids and since my dad has died I don't have his help anymore either!

This is a picture from tonight's date! 

We can't get a good picture for anything. Ugh

I'm not looking at the camera an my arm is all weird! Brandon is taller then me, but in this picture he is making me look like I'm six inches taller then him!

Maybe we will shoot for a good picture for our May date!

Thanks for a fun night Crittenden and Frost family! Always a good time!

I've lost 7 pounds so far! My goal is 16 more pounds before vacation! It was really hard to pass up Chili's chips and salsa but I did it! Ha!

Long break

Gosh I really need to catch up!

I fell off the diet wagon! Not even sure why or how now that it's been 3 months later! I'm guessing a really busy life that I love!!!

Back in Jan, I said I wanted to do a date night once a month with the hubs! We accomplished that in Jan and Feb, however we didn't get a chance to get away in March!

Here is a picture of our Jan date!

We had such a fun night out!

Look what I ordered!

Oh my goodness! It was great! I never treat myself to a seven dollar margarita, but it was worth every penny!

Feb's date was to Chili's, we had a great time that night too! I'm sad we missed our March date and April isn't looking great, but maybe we can squeeze in something fun!

March was my dad's birthday. So hard to believe he has been gone a year already! We sent balloons to Heaven for him!

Lately I've been working on "40 bags of spring cleaning" I'm trying to get rid of 40 bags of clutter. I've done pretty good so far! I've got rid of about 8 bags so far! 

We are in full swing of baseball and we love every minute of it! Both boys are playing this year! EE has already hit his first HOMERUN! And Bre got two hits with no tee the first game! 

I'm back to dieting. My wonderful hubs bought me a elliptical and spent the afternoon putting it together! It's nice, just a little stiff! I just need to work up my speed and time on it!

Here's to hoping the next post isn't another 3 months from now!