Construction

This past week has been full of lots of banging, dust and good fun! We have been busy doing our kid's Christmas present. And the contractor doing the work has let me get my hands dirty and help out a little bit and explain things to me. It has been great!

Final touches and stuff like that he won't let me near but I will be putting in the flooring and doing the final paint and such.

We are making a kids cave under the stairs in our basement. we have put a lot of work into our downstairs area. The backyard has a fence around it and we put a patio in for a safe place outside the door. Now we have a fun, kids only play area that Mason already loves! With all this being done I haven't had much time to write. Mason wants to go in and play so I have been trying to keep him occupied and away from all the fun, which has not been an easy feat!

Today I go and buy the paint for the cave and hoping to have that done Saturday morning. So sorry for the lack of posts but man, trying to keep a 3 year old from exploring all the cool tools and mess has been CRAZY!

Easy Homemade Baby Food

~Today's selection is: Oatmeal and Butternut squash. Blended together to give a more runny consistency. Add a small pinch of cinnamon for extra flavor. Just because they are babies doesn't mean they don't like good food!~

I am now in the journey of solid foods for baby Collin! I can't believe that we are already here and I even waited till 6.5 months. Time really does go by more quickly when you have more than 1.

Even though I am a busy mom of 2 boys I am still trying to fit in making baby food. It really is a lot easier than it seems. And a lot less expensive, even buying organic.

First of all I love this book. The Best Homemade Baby Food On The Planet. It is my go to book for this age. It is the first thing I will recommend to other mothers when they ask me what I use! It has EVERYTHING! It goes month by month, what your baby should eat. Talks about the consistency and how to slowly introduce new foods and why. And it has amazing recipes! I have tons of pages dogeared and notes written about how to make it work best for me. It even takes you to 2 years old of yummy recipes! We have used many a recipes and even used the older ones for a family dinner recipe. Veggie "Meat" Balls were pretty tasty!

A lot of stores have pre cut and washed foods available to buy. All the hard work already done. I love going to whole foods and getting the butternut squash chopped up. All I have to do it stick it in a pot and steam it or in some boiling water for just a little bit to cook and soften. Stick it in my blender and warm bam DONE!

Also frozen foods are easy too. I used frozen peas, put them in boiling water to cook for about 3-4 min and blended them up. DONE! How easy is that. I know that Whole Foods has frozen sweet potatoes too and that was Mason's fav so I bought a ton of those for him.

~With the lid off. the cubes are rounded off on the bottom to make removing from the tray. Just close up the tray run under hot water for a little bit and they just slide out!~

You will also need ice cube trays or I have these: Mumi & Bubi Solids Starter Kit. This portions out the food to 1 ounce cubes, that I then stick in a ziplock bag, run under warm water to defrost and it is warmed and ready for Collin to enjoy! All you do is just pour your blended up food into the tray, pop the lid on and stick in the freezer. Once they are frozen transfer them to ziplock freezer bags so that you can make more baby food.

~Peas and butternut squash~

Cost of my homemade baby food: 
Container of Cut and cleaned butter nut squash from Trader Joe's: ~$4
Makes 27 ounces

Jar of Earth's Best Sweet Potatoes: 2.5 ounces:
$.89-.99 per jar.

Helpful hint: Make your own rice or oatmeal cereal for baby! Place 1/2 cup of oatmeal or rice in your blender and place on the highest setting to pulverize it to a fine powder. When cooking I find that it makes it really thick. So I add the cooked rice or oatmeal back to my blender and add more breastmilk or water to thin it out. Easier for baby to enjoy.

JANUARY 2015 first race is going to be...

New Year's Day 5k here in C-ville VA! It is a race recommended for my training program anyhow and I wanted to do it last year but with being pregnant and ice, I didn't run in it. I stayed indoors on the treadmill. But not this year, I will be hoofing it with the rest of them!

Looking for a February race. Need to find out what my mileage for the training program will be in February first to see if it can be a 10k or not!

Know any good races in the central VA area for February???

December Week 1 Recap

As far as training weeks went this is my all time low! I didn't do one single run this week. I know, slap on the wrist bad and I will be paying for it later but I have had my first "injury". It is not from running but it did take a trip to the chiropractor to remedy, for now at least it is much better.

For the past week my left foot has been hurting, mainly when I was doing my runs out of town. I have had the worst cramping in my left outside arch of my foot. The only time during the run I didn't have the pain was in UT when I opened up my stride and was running down the mountain that I walked up. So this week I just walked to keep my mileage. But I still feel bad that I didn't get any running in. Saturday morning my wonderful birthday gift from the boys was to let me sleep in till 9:30am, and then I had a baby shower to get to and it was go go go the rest of the day.

I did go to the chiropractor and he said that my foot was majorly out of alignment as was most of my entire body. My right hip was out and my right neck was totally out. I have been in lots of pain for a couple of weeks. Every night on the trip I would carry Mason from the car to the hotel room. It was just too much for my back apparently. (need to do more core too). Also the relaxin has left my system finally and my body is just sticking in bad alignment. So I got my AMAZING adjustment, (I purr when I get cracked, it feels so good!) and I feel like I am brand new again. Tomorrow I will try out running again. If it still hurts off to the running store I go to chat with my running coach and hopefully I can still keep my shoes.

That's the bad. The good from this week. I had my birthday. I normally don't blab about my birthday because it adds one more year to my life but I have decided that I am going to continue to make my birthdays count and make smart choices. Last year, I continued to run while pregnant, amazed me and many people I know that I could actually do that. This year I have made it a goal that I am going to run in a race every single month of 2015. (even if I get pregnant again I will run a race.) I don't want to do 5k's all the time so they will range from 5k-10 milers, and maybe even throw a 1/2 marathon in there. Let's just see what the next few months hold. (I am hoping to do the Disney Wine and Dine in Nov 2015.)

I did get an upgrade to my Kitchen Aid mixer. I had the classic and now I have the professional series drop down bowl mixer and it is AWESOME! I have already put it through the ringer with making my own birthday cupcakes (amazingly yummy), 2 batches of cookies and 2 loaves of bread for the week. (the cookies are for my studio recital later this coming week and I will be good because I still have that diet bet thing going and I will win!)

Collin update: Collin is full on crawling now. He crawls to me anywhere I am. I put him down in my living room and go make breakfast and in a few minutes he is at my feet pawing at them. Even when Matt is holding him and puts him down he will crawl crying to me to hold him because he wants me over daddy. It is totally adorable that he is crawling but very weird. He is so young. He can't even roll over of his own free will yet. He flops over like a fish. Can't get into a sitting position. It is just weird. Also caught him by the stairs and about had a heart attack. Also Mason has learned that he is strong enough to pick up Collin and will fetch him and bring him back to the carpet safe area of the living room. It is very cute. Oh and Collin started solid foods on Monday evening. He loves eating and is so eager!

Mason update: Mason is all things Dinosaurs now. Ever since we got back from our trip, he goes around reading his new dino book that Great Grandma gave him and carrying around his new T-rex and Raptor toys that were also given to him. He talks about dinosaurs all day long too. He even started to refer to Guppy (Grandpa) as Guppy-saurus. (Since Guppy read some dino books to him while we were visiting.) The only thing Dinosaur he doesn't want right now is this awesome blanket that Gummy and Guppy (my mom and dad) got him for his birthday. He calls it his tiger blanket because one of the raptors on it is stripped orange and black and he doesn't see that it is a dinosaur. Oh well. It makes a great blanket for a fort though.

Workout Recap: 
Sunday: rest
Monday: rest (flew back home)
Tuesday: 2 mile walk around neighborhood
Wednesday: 2.5 mile walk around neighborhood
Thursday: 1 mile walk around neighborhood (chiropractor visit later too!)
Friday: rest day. MY BIRTHDAY
Saturday: rest day (slept through alarm for training group)

Total mileage: 5.5 miles walking only

Goals this week:
~Get back into running, hopefully the adjustment fixed things.
~Less walking breaks in my running.
~Cross train more with strength training and cardio on non running days.

My Balancing Act

Let's face it mom's! IT IS HARD to do the dishes, the laundry, work, take the kids on play dates, teach, workout, and find time for ourselves. IT IS HARD! It is a total balancing act. That is why we are often called SUPER MOMS! And the sad truth, all those things have to be done, not always on a daily basis but they eventually have to be done.

Here is my new strategy to keeping myself and house in tip top shape without killing myself: 

1) Laundry. No more single laundry day for me. I have vowed that it is ok to spread laundry day out to 2 or even 3 days a week if I have to. I just can't handle doing a huge amount of laundry. Little piles work for me. 

2) 30 min workouts are KEY! Sometimes I can't make it to the gym. If Mason or Collin show signs of sickness they turn us away. And this week is one of them. Mace is snotting all over the place and frankly I threw my back out on Monday coming back from vacation and I need to see my chiropractor to put me back together again. I have been hurting like crazy. So this week has been in home 30 min workouts. Thank you 21 day fix! You are my new best friend! 

3) Little bit here and a little bit there. Can't clean the whole house in one day, no problem. Do 1 room at a time. Maybe 2. That way it gets done. Daily is the kitchen and I try to add another room on to that to clean. It needs it anyways. 

4) Take time for me. Without the kiddos! This is a daily task that if I don't do, I go crazy. And this is separate from working out. Or around the same time. But I HAVE TO HAVE MOMMY QUIET TIME or I am a witch by the end of the day! 

5) Reality. The reality is, that somedays none of this will happen. Kids won't sleep. Your house could look like a pigsty why someone comes over. Laundry piles up, dishes are overflowing and there are crumbs on the counter and table from last nights dinner and it is already 6pm time to make dinner again. IT IS OK! Life happens. Poop happens. Great thing about the day is that there is always another one the next day. 

DO NOT COMPARE yourself to someone else. Because often we see other people and think that they just have it all together but seriously, they have bad days too. Like right now, Collin is screaming his head off at me because he wants me to pick him up, but I made it a goal to get a blog post in. This is my me time. And it is ok, because in about 2 minutes I will pick him up, tell him I love him and he will be ever so happy! And Mason is cuddling with him anyhow right now. It is super cute! 

You are doing a great job mom! Biggest advice I can give any mom out there. TAKE TIME FOR YOU! Seriously! You will thank me later. If you need a 30 min workout let me know and I will hook you up. Need advice on how to do Mommy quiet time. Send me an email! Let's chat! I might not have it all together everyday but I sure do try! 

November Week 3 & 4 Recaps

November has come and gone and I feel like I was gone for most of November. I love being able to work from home. My studio takes a week off for Thanksgiving so we went on a BIG trip!

We first went to PHX to visit with some family. My dad took Mason and Matt to the Walking with Dinosaurs Live Show and Mason loved it! He came home and told me all about the triceratops breaking his horn. Which we have turned into a lesson about not pushing others. So overtime Mason pushed someone we would talk about how the two triceratops were pushing each other and then one of the horns broke. Mason likes to add in that the one with the broken horn needs to go to the horn doctor. Very cute! We ate plenty of Mexican food, had 2 awesome Thanksgivings and I got to run in PHX! I haven't done that since I was a kid!

Then we went to Utah for a family reunion on Matt's side of the family. We were celebrating his grandfathers 91st birthday and the 65th wedding anniversary of his grandma and grandpa. 7 of the 8 children were there with their spouses, 25 grandkids with their spouses and 40+ great grandkids. It was quite the gathering. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and on Friday I premiered my 3rd composition I just recently completed.

Saturday we visited my grandma and grandpa and a ton of my cousins on my mom's side showed up too! I haven't seen them in so long, but thanks to Facebook we have been able to keep in touch and watch each others families grow!

Sunday we visited my other grandma and she got Mason some more dinosaur toys which he is carrying around with him everywhere, even sleeping with them. The flights there, there and back weren't too bad. Just one major meltdown because I had to wake Mason up but that was it. I am so thankful that we were able to see as many of the family as we could. Such a blessing.

As far as workouts, yeah not as good as it should have been. We had scheduling conflicts. It really turned out to be, either I ran or Matt worked out. Which kinda sucks because I got the short end of the stick but oh well. Time to get back on it!

Workout Recap:
11/16: rest
11/17: 1.86 miles- 30 min total. 1.25 timed.
11/18: rest
11/19: 2.76 miles- 45 min total. 1.5 timed.
11/20: rest
11/21: rest
11/22: flight
11/23: 2.08 miles- Run in PHX- 32:18 min. 15:32 min/mile- make up run for long run the day before.
11/24: rest
11/25: PHX Zoo. Walked around
11/26: rest
11/27: rest
11/28: rest
11/29: 2.58 miles - Run in UT- 40:39 min. 15:45 min/mile. Uphill the first 1.25 miles. Then downhill for the rest.

Week 3 Milage: 4.62 miles
Week 4 Mileage: 4.66 miles

Too many rest days for sure. But it is what it is. And it was a holiday so now I am back into it!

Insane!

Wanted to let you guys know about the newest release and I know you will love it! Ever heard of Insanity??? I know you have! Everyone has! How would you like to meet it's evil sibling! Just kidding, it's not evil but it will push you to the MAX! It is Insanity to the next level.

What is Maxing out?  To Max Out means to stop or fail for the first time in the workout.  It's really truly not about getting through all 30 minutes.  It's about going as hard as you can for as long as you can, until you MAX OUT.  Write down the time take a break, and then you want to jump back into the workout.  If you stay committed and push to your max you will add more time each week with the workouts!  

MAXING OUT IS A GOOD THING!!!

Awesome points of interest! 

~ONLY 30 MIN LONG! Each workout is only 30 minutes. The point is to push yourself during the 30 minutes to your MAX point and you need to take a break!

~Modifier viewable on EVERY SINGLE MOVE! Need help with a move, or hit your max and need to rest a bit, follow the modifier!

~Do not have to be a graduate of Insanity to do Insanity Max: 30.

~150 NEW MOVES.

~No equipment needed. Just using your body weight!

If you are interested in Insanity Max:30 or joining my Fit Christmas Private Support group fill out the form below and I will contact you within 24 hours!

Finally Home

Hey everyone! Sorry I have been MIA for the past week. We have been traveling all over the country for Thanksgiving and we have finally made it back home TONIGHT! I will have 2 weeks worth of recaps up on Wednesday. I just need a day to get everything written up and all!

I am back on eating well starting tomorrow. No more excuses with being on vacation and yummy holiday treats. I am part of a diet bet group this month and I AM GOING TO WIN! (be one of the winners!) So here we go. Hope you are ready for the wild ride that is going to be taking place over the next month!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

QOTD: Have you ever been part of a competition to lose weight that involved money??? and What ware you doing this month to stay motivated to lose weight and not have I WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT as your first item on your New Year's resolution list? 

Friday's Five

What a week it has been! I love Thanksgiving! I have had limited internet connection/time at the hotel that has the internet so I haven't been writing as much as I have wanted. We have been out enjoying a TON of family time. Leaving early and staying out super late! And let me say that the kiddos have been such great sports and AMAZING!

~How Mason slept on the plane!~

Today I wanted to let you know what my favorite 5 things are from this week! Why not, it is Thanksgiving!

1. FAMILY- How can this not be first?!? We have had so much family time. It has been amazing! I am so thankful that my kids have this chance, especially Mason now since he is old enough to really have fun and start remembering. I love seeing my kids with their Grandparents. How Mason loves his Guppy! And loves to talk to his Gummy! Going to the Zoo, seeing Dinosaurs and so on! It has just been so much fun playing and spending time with everyone we saw!

~Mason went to the Walking with Dinosaurs show with Guppy and Matt the day we got in and found this AWESOME poster with his FAV super hero, Captain America!~

2. Mexican Food- I miss real Mexican Food! Charlottesville is great and has amazing different food choices to pick from but Mexican food is not one of them. Enjoyed going to our favorite Mexican restaurant while in town. (and my fav cafe too! but it isn't Mexican food at all!)

3. Mountains- I forgot how beautiful real mountains are! They are seriously majestic. Love them!

4. Thanksgiving- I love Turkey Day! The food, feast, would actually be more correct. Had quite the gathering yesterday with Matt's family for a potluck Thanksgiving. And the food was great! Tried super hard to eat right, filled half my plate with salad but man the sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows) was AMAZING!

5. Arizona and Utah- I finally admitted to Matt how I do actually miss living in the valley of the sun. It is beautiful. The different types of flowers and some that are the same as in VA. I had fun on my run last Saturday naming the plants that I know. And of course the weather was AMAZING! Utah- I forgot how beautiful this place is. The mountains are all snow capped and it is quite beautiful. And the roads are so WIDE! It's the little things people!

The Road Not Taken

You guys! YOU HAVE TO READ this blog post by my friend and fellow Blogger Jen! She is amazing and I kid you not I was balling my eyes out reading her amazing race recap! She is an elite runner and someone I look up to and admire so much because of her hard work and dedication. She ran the New York City Marathon at 6 months postpartum and it didn't go quite as planned and 2 week later she decided THE NIGHT BEFORE to run a local marathon and KICKED IT'S BUTT!

Such an amazing story about not giving up and listening to your body. Please read this! Don't forget to give her a shout out in the comments too!

http://www.runnerstrials.com/2014/11/16/charlotte-thunder-road-marathon-2014-race-recap/