Happy 1st Birthday Baby Jack!!!

Hello everyone! Hope you enjoy a beautiful weekend!!!

Today I'm happy & I'm sad, and this is because my baby boy turns 1 years old today! I cherish every moment of every stage and I am rewarded with a wonderful little boy. Jack is such a light in all of our lives and is absolutely never crabby. He goes to sleep on a dime, plays with his older brothers, eats almost everything {others are picky eaters}, and is always smiling. Which is a pretty darn cute smile because he has no teeth yet! LOL...So I wanted to take this opportunity and wish Jack a Happy 1st Birthday!!! I hope you have a wonderful celebration and know how much we are blessed to have you belong to us!!! Love you Mr. Smiles!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack at Birth

Jack's 1st Photo Op

Jack's 1 Year Photo Op

Fajita Lettuce Boats

Hey everyone! Happy Monday!

I just wanted to quickly share with you a recipe I created for low calorie fajitas that don't lose any of the flavor!!! Totally delish and filling! I'm on a very strict calories diet and wanted Fajitas for dinner one night. But looking at the packaging, I noticed that the wraps themselves were over 250 calories for 1 serving! YIKERS, I didn't have that many calories left if I wanted to have a bag of popcorn later {priorities I tell ya! LOL}...so what I did was substituted Romaine Lettuce for my Tortilla Wraps. I went from 250 calories to 15 calories! Seriously delish!!!

Hope you enjoy!!!

Fajita Lettuce Wraps

Beef Marinade:

3 Tlb Apple Cider Vinegar

2 Tlb Worcestershire Sauce

3 Tlb Soy Sauce

2 Tlb Spicy Brown Mustard

Fajitas:

15 oz. Beef Round Steak, Marinated

1 Bag 10 Minute Rice

1 Head Romaine Lettuce, Peal off the Leaves for boats

1 Red Pepper, Sliced

1 Green Pepper, Sliced

1 Red Onion, Sliced {Or onion of your choice}

1 Lime, Wedged

2 Tlb Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. Mix vinegar, Worcestershire, soy sauce & mustard all together. Cut steak into thin strips and marinade in sauce for 1 hour in refrigerator.

2. Prepare vegetables, set aside, boil rice.

3. Heat oil over medium heat, add steak and cook 1 minute on each side, remove from pan. Add vegetables to the pan and cook until just wilted. Remove from pan.

4. Remove bag of rice from pot, drain and poor into bowl.

5. Add rice, steak and vegetable medley to a lettuce boat, squeeze lime wedge over tops of 3 Fajita boats, eat and enjoy. Very tasty!!! {Don't skip out on the lime, that for me was my favorite part!!!}

Serves 6 people: 270 calories and 21 g of protein per serving. {8 grams of fat and 30 carbs in case you like to know those numbers as well!!!}

I'm Back!!!

Hey Everyone!

Happy Friday! Wow...I've had a crazy couple of weeks! My computer crashed for a long while, but I'm happy to say that it's back and we are getting re-acquainted with one another! LOL...

Just wanted to quickly share with you all a project the kids and I created for Michael's Birthday!!! They were super fun and make a wonderful addition to our home! I also want to note that I will be selling them on Etsy!!!

Monday-Getting Into Gear!!!

Hello everyone, Happy Monday! Hope you all had a blessed Easter! We really enjoyed the time with our family as well as seeing the Passion Drama at a new church we checked out! Lance & Adam really enjoyed the service and kept asking us questions. It's so nice to see them involved and wanting to learn about our Savior!

Anyways, today is a new day for me because I'm starting my running training for a run I'm doing in August. I have an injury that doesn't allow for me to run, but I received a new brace on Friday from the VA in hopes that I can run again! Started my training with the brace today and it felt good, so hoping that it works out for me!

Also, today starts my new weight loss challenge at Krave in Osakis, MN which focus's on Nutritional Health using Herbalife Products. The program goes 6 weeks, takes before and after measurements and helps you keep on track to meet your goal. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I succeed because I was not happy with the info I was given!!! It said I had a body of a 48 year old at age 30...YIKES! So needless to say, I'm going to do it, I'm going to stick to it, I'm going to embaress myself so I reach my goal and I'm sharing with whomever reads this blog so that I have more accountablitiy than just myself and my Herbalife gal...Keeping the fingers crossed that this is not in vain! LOL

So here are my before pictures and starting information:

Age: 30 Height: 5'2"

Starting Weight: 147.6 lbs

Body Fat: 36.7 {YIKES}

Metabolic Age: 48

Waiste: 32"

Hips: 39"

My goal is to get my body fat down to 27% and my metabolic age down to 30...hoping I get there at the end of my transformation process!!! Then I can brag about how healthy I am and how good I look! LOL...Wish me luck everyone!

Organization: Entry Unit

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday!

This past Sunday, I had pent up energy and went to cleaning. I am in the process of turning my spare room from a stamp catastrophe to a guest bedroom/craft room. I spaced taking a before picture {trust me when I say it was HORRIBLE!}...but did manage to take a picture about an hour into the cleaning process...Will post later in time to give the full effect...but for now, wanted to share my latest accomplishment for spring cleaning!

So Sunday, I was fed up with our PILE of coats, boots, shoes, mittens, hats, pants, sweatshirts, etc. in our entry room from the garage. The room is 26x26' and really isn't used for anything except kids toys and a pool table. No one sees this room except us. So for the past 5 years, we've been laying our stuff in one big pile. No rhyme or reason to the madness. And with 3 boys, it was getting very difficult to find matching shoes or mittens!!!

So I set off to organize the chaos that was the entry...Here is a midway through pictures, because again, I forgot to take the before because I was in such a flurry!!! And also, here is the after. I took an old metal shelving unit that was in my stamp room and moved it to be my new entryway organizer!!! Very frugal in my opinion because I'm reusing a system I didn't need anymore, also reused 3 wicker baskets! So total cost is $0! LOL...Organized 72 pair of shoes, sandals, boots and slippers; 12 hoodies; 14 winter jackets; 4 snowpants/suites; 11 hats, 4 scarves, 13 pairs of mittens, and a partridge in a pair tree! LOL...

Hope you find it useful...if not, thanks for letting me think you do! Woot woot!

Family Time: Spring Mini Vacation

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!

Wow, what a fun and busy weekend! Our weekend was 4 days long. Took a trip with the family to stay at a Hotel/Waterpark in Brainerd, MN. BEAUTIFUL Country up there. Only about an hour from here, but enough vacation when traveling with 3 young boys. We weren't able to get outside at all because it rained the entire time we were there, but we did enjoy lots of games and activities. We were comped 80 tokens to play in the arcade. Lance & I tried our best to win tickets for some small prizes to take home while Adam & Daddy didn't do anything but ride the Thomas ride! Needless to say, Adam was in "Heaven"!We spent a lot of time shopping and eating as well as a lot of time enjoying the waterpark itself. Out of the 3 Waterpark Hotels in the Brainerd/Baxter area, the Holiday Inn is by far the best when traveling with children. Especially children under 42". Lance was able to ride the slides with an adult, swim the canals and the big pool and run around on the children's park. This is also best for smaller children because it is 0" all around so you don't have to worry about not watching them in case of "accidents"...The slide is also perfect for smaller children and every 30 minutes, they have a bucket that dumps all over the waiting bystanders on the ground...

Adam after going down the slide with daddy!

Adam waiting for daddy & Lance to come down the waterslide!

Lance waiting for daddy & Adam to come down the waterslide!

GIANT water bucket that would spill onto the waiting crowd below every 30 minutes. A warning bell goes off for 5 minutes so you can stop whatever you are doing and make it over to the bucket dumping! So fun!

Lance after the dumping of the water!

Baby Jack does not enjoy water like his older brothers. He just hung out in the stroller, mostly trying not to get wet and trying to take a snooze...

Lance putting his swimming lessons to the test in the deap waters of the "big boy" pool! {On a side note, Lance past 6 levels of swim lessons in only 3 months! What a fabulous accomplishment! Mom & Dad are so proud!}

I'm not a walking spokesperson, I just really enjoy mini vacations with my family, and since we enjoy outdoors as well as waterparks, we most likely end up in Brainerd sooner or later so have come to favor the Holiday Inn.

But, by the time we got home, all the kiddos and adults needed to catch up on some sleep and get things put back in order. Good thing we came home Saturday so we had some time to recoup before back to the work week!

Anyways, hope you all have a wonderful day!

Feeling Blessed...God is good.

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! It is chilly, windy, cloudy and feels like spring outside. So even though I am not able to let the kiddos play outside, we are still enjoying the day.

I went on a date night with the Hubs last night. It was wonderful! We rarely get to go out and enjoy ourselves because we don't have many people able to watch our children when we do go. But last night, I was able to reel in my friend Kelly to come sit with the kids. She is a saint, and we are so grateful to have her in our lives! Not just for a baby sitter, but she is rapidly becoming a very close friend and we just met in October. So needless to say, her offering to watch the kids for FREE so Michael and I could go out was absolutely fantabulous! {However, I did sneak a Happy Easter & Spring card into her purse from the kids with a $20 in it...I knew she wouldn't take it otherwise! LOL}...

This picture was taken 4 years ago...I sadly realized when going through my pictures that Michael and I don't have any pictures together, AND we don't have pictures of each other seprately...needless to say, I'm making a resolution to change that...Here is my handsome Michael. Inside and out, this man is so amazing...can't believe God gave him to me! WOW...just in awe daily. In case you aren't jealous of me already, I'll just throw in there that he also does dishes, laundry, bathing of the kiddos, yard work, watches the kids, plays with the kids, dotes on me, AND finds time to shoot his bow and exercise daily...how he does it, I'll never know, but am so grateful for all he does for me and our family...I'm so in love with this man and can't express enough how blessed I am...

So on our date, Michael and I went to Taco Johns for Taco Tuesday! He had 3 hardshells, I had a fish taco, we split a potato ole and drank water. Total bill: $5.32...Then we went to the movie 21 Jump Street with Tatum Channing and Jonah Hill...Tuesday night is cheap night {$6.50 each ticket} and ordered a #1 which includes a large pop and a large popcorn and Michael had to get his Skittles, {Total Concession Bill: $10.00}...Spending time laughing till my sides hurt with the Hubs while not-so-secretly drooling over Tatum Channing...PRICELESS!!!

Even though I love spending time at home with my wonderful family, it feels good to get out on a date...but I did miss the kiddos while we were gone! Here are some reason's why!!!

I'm so thankful and so blessed to have a friend who loves children and doesn't mind looking after them every once in a while. I'm also so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that makes me smile throughout the day when I think of him, which is pretty often because I'm constantly calling him at his work and getting him into trouble just to tell him something new the kids did that afternoon!!! I'm so thankful and blessed that my children have a crush on my friend Kelly so that they are nice to her and listen when she tells them it is bedtime! LOL...Most of all, I'm just feeling blessed.

God is good and every day he is with me, is a day I feel blessed...