My Little Kiwis

I have to give a big shout-out today to my friend, Jen. While she was in New Zealand, and I was still pregnant with Cameron, she sent us this fantastic package full of New Zealand goodies. Part of that was this adorable little romper for Cameron, and a cute t-shirt for Kendall.

It was such a gorgeously hot day today, that I picked out the romper for Cameron to wear. Then we went to Kendall's room, and I let her pick something out, and I kid you not, the first thing she went to was her New Zealand shirt! The girl is smart, what can I say?

I figured since Cameron is such a chunky monkey, and she might not be able to wear this cute little outfit too much longer, I should get a picture of them both wearing their kiwi attire. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of them together, because once I suggested that, Kendall was out. See, she likes to do things on her own now, and come up with ideas on her own. If mom suggests it, forget about it.





Thanks Jen!

Laguna Playdate - Long Overdue!

Megan and I were on a roll with our Laguna Playdates...that was, until she had Hannah...A YEAR AGO!!!!....and I got pregnant with Cameron. The last time we got togther was last year in February.

That is entirely too long.

But thankfully, Megan emailed me, and we set the date for today. I was so happy! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of all the kiddos together...it's kinda hard when you've got a baby in one hand, the camera in the other hand, and the baby is trying to grab the camera.






But it was a gorgeous day, and the kids had fun, and Megan and I enjoyed what little conversation we could carry without getting interrupted by one of the 4 kids.

She's a Big Girl!

I've finally gotten everything done for Kendall's new room, so I thought I'd post some pictures.







Cameron's in Kendall's old room...I feel like she's getting the short end of the stick, but then I tell myself that she's a baby, and she doesn't know the difference. I did put Cameron's name up and a picture of her, so it felt like I did something for her.

Insanity - Day 3

Okay, so I'm really off to a bad start this time around. Really.

I'm not trying to make excuses, but we have a lot going on this month, and I just don't see me doing this workout 6 days a week! So, I've made a goal for myself to do at least 4 days, and if I do more, I do more.

Sorry, Shaun T, but that's the way it's gotta be!

Okay, I think I totally just made up a new slogan!

Anyways, I just finished with today's workout, and I'm sweating, and I'm hurting. But I feel strong! I did the moving push-ups for the first time today, and did several of them. Also, my knees and ankles haven't been hurting me (knock on wood), so maybe the new kicks are paying off.

So, even though I may not be doing INSANITY the way it's supposed to be done, I'm seeing results, and I'm happy about that.

Insanity - Day 2

Okay, I'm really not off to a good start this second time around. I literally had no time to do my workout yesterday. So, sometime this week, I'm gonna have to make it up...like do one workout first thing in the morning, and another last thing at night. And that really sucks. Because today, I didn't want to finish the one workout! I was seriously strugglin'.

I'm really just not good with time management...I mean, how do I get myself and both girls ready for Bible study, get endless chores done around the house (cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc), eat, shower, rest (because I seriously need a nap), get dinner ready, play with kids...not to mention nursing a baby every few hours, and feed a toddler snacks and drinks throughout the day...and on top of all that, do a workout that lasts about 45 minutes from start to finish? It's not an easy thing to do.

Insanity - I'm Back, Baby!

Okay, after taking a 2 week back, my knee and ankles and tendons are all feeling better, so I decided to start again.

This time, I bought cross-trainers, because a few people said they thought that would make a difference. We'll see!

Anyways, after much arguing with Grant, I've decided to start from the beginning again. I want to do this right, start to finish. Grant thought I should start from where I left off, or at least from the 2nd week. What can I say...I'm stubborn.

So, I did the fit test today. I'll post my results from my first 2 fit tests, and from today's in a separate image.

Here were the results from my first 2 fit tests, which I posted not that long ago...



And here's the results from my test today...



After ALL that peanut butter cake and baklava and not exercising - I did pretty good!! But, I think a lot of that has to do with my muscles not being tired right now. My second fit test I did...I was still so fatigued from my workouts the week before, that it was hard for me.

I'm glad to be back, and ready for the INSANITY!!

A Follow Up to Kendall Speak - Part 1

When I told Kendall we were going to Chick Fil A today, she had the same response that she had in the previous post.

Oh well, it still made my day.

Kendall Speak - Part 1

I always look forward to Megan's post about the things Joey says...they never fail to make me crack up.

Well, this isn't really funny, and it's not even like she said a whole lot, but it made my day, so I thought I'd share.

Like I said earlier, my friend is visiting, and the last couple of days, we've been doing a lot of stuff. Since it was the weekend, Grant was kind enough to stay behind and keep Kendall, but since I'm a nursing mom, Cameron went with us.

Well, last night after we got home, Grant was in the middle of putting Kendall to bed - which is what he normally does, but he suggested that since I hadn't been spent a lot of time with Kendall over the last couple of days, that I should finish. So when I made it up to her room, Grant told her that I'd finish reading to her. Her reply...

"Yes....Yes....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Yes! Yes!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!"

Needless to say, that melted my little heart.

I'm Famous!!

Okay, I'm a little excited right now, so some of this might not make sense...

My friend, Stephanie, is in town visiting. We went to Hollywood today, to see what we could see with all the Oscars stuff going on.

We were able to see a couple of people from E!, like Giuliana Rancic, and Ryan Seacrest, and Ben Lyons.

I called Ben's name out (I mean, who knows him....me. I do), and kind of waved Cameron's hands at him. He imitated her, and waved back, and then the next thing I know, he turned back around to us and waved to get our attention, and took a picture of us.

I had the bright idea to check his twitter feed to see if he posted the picture, AND HE DID!!! We're the ones waving. :)

So, if you click on this link, you can see his twitter post and the picture of us.

http://www.celebritytweet.com/link.php?s=http://tweetphoto.com/13518136

Pigless Piggy Bank

Cameron got a piggy bank from someone. Kendall really took a liking to that little bank, so I've had my eye out for one.

Then, after making tons of granola, I had an empty cannister of oats, and I thought I could maybe turn that into a piggy bank for Kendall. I had scrapbooking papers left over from a project I did for her room, so I used those papers and modge-podged them onto the cannister.

I'm happy with how it turned out, and it's really one of the first original ideas I've had, I think. Although, when I said that to Grant, he was quick to point out that piggy banks had, in fact, already been thought of.

I Had To...

I had no choice.

It wasn't my fault, though.

If Susie hadn't said anything on her Facebook about it, I would've never known.

Because, even though I link to Bakerella, I never go there, because it's a danger zone for me.

But I went there, and saw it, and was helpless to it's peanut-buttery-chocolatey-goodness.

I mean, can't you just see the moistness in it?



You can, right?

It's the buttermilk, people. The buttermilk.

Insanity, what?

I'm so weak.

You can tell where I spend my time...

This was the conversation Kendall and I just had while I was cleaning our bathroom:

Kendall, pointing to the bathtub: Kendall's bath?

Me: Yes, that's Kendall's bath.

Kendall: Kendall's bath toys?

Me: Yes, those are Kendall's bath toys.

Kendall: Target?

Me: No, they didn't come from Target, they came from a different store.

Kendall: Joann's?

So there you have it folks. In Kendall's mind, everything comes from either Target or Joann's. Grant's gonna love this.

Yummy Granola

A few days ago, my friend Andrea posted a recipe for granola bars. They sounded so good, I tried them out that same day, and I've made them every day since!!

Here's the recipe she posted:

2 1/2 c. Old Fashioned or Quick Oats
1/2 c. Rice Krispy Cereal
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. coconut
1/4 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together. Stir until well combined. I used my hands to get it thoroughly mixed. Press into a 9x13 pan. (For thicker bars use a 8x8 pan.) Using the bottom of a flat metal measuring cup, gently press down to flatten and evenly smooth out the mixture. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and score into bars. Once completely cool cut into bars.

I cut mine into four rows of five since they will be served to little hands, but if you want to make these regular granola bar size you can cut them into three rows of five. Make sense?

For variety try adding:
Raisins
Marshmallows
Mini M&Ms
Dried fruit

recipe from Amy at Serving Pink Lemonade

So, her son is allergic to nuts and eggs. Since we're not, I decided to change up the recipe a bit.

2 cups of oats
1/2 cup (maybe more) of plain Joe's O's (Cheerio's)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup of natural peanut butter
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

The directions stay the same

They're a little crumbly, but they taste so good! I love how quick and easy it is to make.

Insanity Hiatus

Well, my knee is still really giving me problems. So I think it's best to take a break from Insanity until it gets better.

You have no idea how disappointed I am right now. I don't really have the best track record for following through with things, but this time, I was really doing it, and was really dedicated. So, it's sucks that something like this is forcing me to stop.

I'm going to keep up the diet - well, maybe not eating 5 times a day, but at least just the healthy aspect of the diet - and maybe just do ab and arm exercises on my own for now.

Insanity - Day 17

Well, what can I say...I think I'm falling apart. My right knee still hurts and is swollen, my right ankle hurts, and my achilles tendons are tight. Because of the shape of my knee today, I only did the Cardio Abs workout, instead of doing that with the Pure Cardio. Even on the Cardio Abs, I couldn't do all the exercises, if it involved my knee too much. Don't worry, though, I can still feel the burn in my abs.

More craftiness

Right around the new year, we got this great table and chairs set from Ikea. I had seen an idea online about covering the fiberboard table top and chair tops in oilcloth. So today, I found some cute oilcloth, and while the girls were taking their naps, I put it all together. I'm really happy with how it all turned out!



By the way, those crayons on the table...the twistables...those are the best crayons ever. No more pieces of crayon paper laying around, no more broken crayons. I love them.

Insanity - Day 16

I just finished Day 16. I'm tired. I don't know what else to say...

Except that my knee had been hurting me all day today, but I was so busy with stuff, I didn't really think to look at it. Then right before I did my workout, I saw that it was a little swollen. Grant suggested that I just do the ab workout alone today, but I decided to try the workout that was on the schedule, and see if my knee bothered me. It really didn't, so I just went ahead with it. It only bothered me on the switch kicks, so I did more mountain climbers in place of those.

Crafts Revisited

Last week, I mentioned that I had a lot of crafts going on at the same time. Well, I finally finished them all! Here's a picture of the things I made for my friend, who just had her first baby. Her last name is Fox, so they're going with that theme for the nursery in greens and browns. And it matches my blog layout!



And here's just some attempted-artsy pictures of the same things.




So, that's 2 burp cloths, a little blanket, and a painted canvas with a vinyl rub-on of a fox.

The pictures for the other crafty things are coming. Those are for Kendall's new big girl bedroom, and the room is not completely done yet. So I'll post pictures of the room as a whole. Stay tuned...

Insanity - Day 15

Today was the Fit Test, which is what you do on the very first day of INSANITY. You do this every couple of weeks to see how you're progressing. So here's my results for the first fit test and the second one:



So, I've definitely made progress...it was cool to see how much. The next fit test is on Day 36, and I'm guessing I'll see quite a bit more.

Insanity - Day 13

I can't believe I've made it through two weeks of this stuff! I'm pretty proud of myself.

Today was tough. It was one of the harder workouts (Pure Cardio) AND an additional workout (Cardio Abs). All in all, it was just about an hour of working out. I took a few minutes in between to rest a bit, but it was hard.

Grant did the workout with me today - both of them. He knew how hard it was by just watching me all those other times, but he got to feel it this time. Kendall also did a little with us, too. And Cami did some yoga poses at the end. It was a real family event.

To completely change the subject, some or most of you have already heard about this, but my brother was in a pretty serious motorcycle accident earlier today. With a lot of recovery, he's going to be fine, but we thought at first he broke his back. Turns out he has two compressed fractures, and both of his arms and hands are broken.

The way I understand it, he was doing his weekly ride with his motorcycle/dirtbike buddies. They were on some trails that they've done plenty of times before, so they were familiar with it. Apparently, a tree had fallen and was kind of covered. Tony wasn't able to avoid it in time. He was knocked out and woke up either in the ambulance or the emergency room, I'm not sure which one.

Anyways, he's much better off than he could've been. I was even able to talk to him, and Grant's dad got a little video of Tony talking and giving the thumbs up. I was really glad I could talk to him, and really glad to see him on the video. He won't need surgery on his back, but he will have surgery on his arms/hands, in fact, he might be in surgery right now. The doctor said he should be out of the hospital in a couple of days.

I appreciate everyone's prayers, and please keep them coming.