Valentines Day 2012

For Valentines Day I wanted to get an updated picture of the kids for Taber since the one on his desk is a year old and Cam has changed a little since then. : )

It took several attempts and a fair amount of bribing but I managed to get some decent shots with all 3 of them looking. This is the one I framed for Taber.  I know I'm biased but man my kids are cute! : )

This one was my second favorite. Cam's smile isn't as cute but I love Brinley's little tongue sticking out.

The girls were great models. Teya still thinks the head tilt is the ultimate picture pose so now she's got Brinley doing it too.

Cuteness to the maximus 

Love this one of Brinley. She has the sweetest face.

Teya's just darling too.

And Cam... Well Cam didn't really care for the photoshoot ; )

The girls and I snuck out to the garage in the morning and decorated Taber's car for work. I traced their hands and they wrote their names. He loved it so much he kept it on there for a few days because he said people were nicer to him on his commute : )

Later in the afternoon we got a special delivery from the flower shop. Taber sent roses for me and spring bouquets for the girls.

They were so excited to get their own flowers.  

 A+ to my man for making all three of his girls feel special ; )

And we tried to make him feel special too with his favorite treat, chocolate dipped strawberries.

After work Taber picked up take out from Olive Garden and we just had a nice low key evening in with the family.  It was a sweet day with all my little sweethearts. : )

The #1 reason my kids love the weekends...

Is This Guy

He loves being a Dad, and the girls think he's awesome at it. 

Last Sunday he woke up early and made them pancakes.

bonus points for cool shapes

and for letting the girls help too.

After church I laid down to take a nap and when I woke up I found this:

Maybe if I set up tents in the living room the girls would think I was cool too... : )

They were all inside, cuddled up, watching a movie.

And getting hyper.

No wonder they're always asking when Daddy will be home. He's a pretty cool guy. : )

Skinny Recipes from my new favorite site

So I recently stumbled across Skinnykitchen.com and I'm LOVING all the healthy and delicious recipes on there!  Thought I'd share a few of my favorites because they are just so awesome : )

CPK's original BBQ chopped chicken Salad Make Skinny

Click HERE for recipe

In Taber's world, you can NEVER have too much BBQ sauce, so this salad has quickly become his all time favorite.  For dressing I used Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and Nancy's skinny Ranch Dressing (found HERE)  SOOOOO GOOOD!!

We've also tried it with tortilla chips (she recommends using reduced fat chips but I couldn't find any so we just used a few to keep it lower calorie. Anyway, this salad is AMAZING. You should seriously make it for dinner, tonight. : )

Skinnyfied Chicken Pad Thai

for Recipe click HERE

Sorry my picture didn't come out as pretty for this one but it is another huge winner and I love how simple the recipe is. You don't need any crazy ingredients and it just tastes so light and zingy!

Cheeseburger in Paradise Skinny Soup

For Recipe click HERE

I know the title sounds kind of weird, and I'll admit, I thought the concept was strange at first, (putting ketchup and pickles on your soup?) But it was actually super delish and I made some for my friend's family and they loved it too! So yeah, this one is easy to make and a fun way to eat a "cheeseburger" : )

Low Carb Chicken Lettuce Wraps

For recipe click HERE   

                                                                  

Okay so this one has been by far the biggest hit at our house. Some of the ingredients are things I don't usually have around (like sesame oil and hoisin sauce) but now that I have them in my cupboards these are so easy to whip up and my whole family is CRAZY about them!

The kids have a hard time wrapping them in lettuce so I just combine the chicken mixture with brown rice and they chow it down.

Even Cam scarfs this stuff!

 (at one point his food was on a plate, I promise, he just likes to dump it all on his tray and chuck the plate across the room before he really can dig in. : )

Anyway, just wanted to share this awesome site for anyone who is looking for healthy recipes that don't compromise on flavor : )

Three Things Thursday

1) I busted my knee today

It happened so quick, I was getting out of my car and I slipped and fell and my knee slammed hard into a metal rod. It hurt so bad my eyes welled up with tears and I couldn't stand up for a minute. I rolled up my pants to look at it and right away it was bruised and swollen and throbbing with pain. If I wasn't at the peak of marathon training, this would just be one of those annoying things that make you feel clumsy. However, with a 19 miler on deck tomorrow I'm kind of freaking out and hoping it doesn't end up being a huge set back. The swelling has gone down but it's still super sore and hurts when I bend it all the way or go up and down the stairs. I've been icing it all day so I'm going to try to run on it tomorrow and see how it goes. So so frustrating : (

2) Dance parties = best workout ever

Tonight the Draschils came up and the boys went to the Celitcs game while the girls stayed home and had a dance party. We blasted music and the kids went nutso while Melinda and I busted out our raddest moves. My knee definitely held me back but I still broke a sweat and burned me some calories. Here's a sweet sampling of our dance workout from last time they came up before Christmas. I think we're going to make dance parties a mandatory tradition every time we get together : ) (also, even though I look like a spaz in the video, in my mind I was totally rockin' it! )



 3) Teya Discovered Fatbooth on my phone. Good times : )

Four

I know blog surveys are like so 5 years ago but I don't even care. I'm in the mood for an old school blog survey and you better believe I'm going to be tagging some people at the end! So here we go, all the answers come in 4's.

4 things I'm obsessed with lately:
1) The Biggest Loser. Holy cow! I watch it on hulu every time I run. I finished season 12 and all the episodes so far from season 13 so now I'm going back and watching season 10. It's so inspiring!
2) Twitter: My sister Rachel has THE BEST twitter feed (if you're into politics and Mitt Romney ; ) I love getting on there during the debates or election nights and seeing all the awesome stuff she tweets and retweets. It is so entertaining and actually quite informative! (if you want to follow her btw her twitter name is hwinfojunkie)
3) Panera fat free poppy seed dressing. Only 15 calories per 2 Tbs serving! I love it!
4) Skinnykitchen.com-I will have to do a separate post about the recipes I've been making from this site because it is amazing. Everything is so delish and all low fat and low-cal!

4 things I'm good at: (this one is kind of hard because no one likes to be all braggy about themselves but it's good to recognize our strengths so here goes :)

1) Making my husband and kids laugh and feel loved and special.

2) Seeing the good in other people and helping them see it in themselves

3) Speaking in public 

4) Pushing myself out of my comfort zone to try new things or reach new heights in things I already do.

4 things I'm looking forward to this year:
1) Cam going into nursery at church! Right now we spend all of church chasing that wiggly worm around the halls since he's too disruptive to bring to class. 5 more months and we'll finally be able to hear the lessons again!
2) Performing in the Savior of the World. It's really starting to come together and I just can't wait for people to see it!
3) The Uda family reunion this summer! I miss my family so so much and I can't wait to hang out with them in July.
4) GIRLS CAMP!!! I recently got called as one of the Stake assistant camp directors so I get to go to girls camp all week in August! I'm going to be in charge of the 1st years and I can't wait! Camp RULES!

4 foods I eat the most:
1) Oatmeal. I eat it for breakfast every morning. I like to add almonds and bananas and a tiny bit of brown sugar. so good.
2) Greek yogurt. Strawberry banana is my favorite
3) Emerald breakfast on the Go S'mores nut blend. It's pretty much a treat but I like to tell myself it's a healthy snack.
4) Chicken. I always keep a giant bag of frozen chicken breasts from Costco on hand and that's pretty much what I use all month to make dinner with.

4 things I want to teach my kids:
1) That beauty really and truly does come from within.
2) To have a good work ethic and a love and appreciate for hard work.
3) To be compassionate to others.
4) To know that they are children of God, to follow His teachings and to live their lives in a way that would please Him.


4 things I'd do if I was a billionaire:
1) Buy a culdesac of houses for all my family so my udaville dream can come true!
2) Build my house with an indoor jungle gym for the kids, a training gym with treadmills and spin bikes for me and Taber, an outdoor racing track so we can do speed work, a laundry mat so I can get all my laundry done at once, and a computer room with an iMac for every person in the family, including Cam. (Hey if we're gonna dream, let's dream big!)
3) Hire Curtis Stone to be my personal chef and cook my family dinner every night.
4) Hire a a live in maid. : )

4 People I tag to do this survey:
1) Wendy C
2) Tara M
3) Becky P
4) Naomi H- And anyone else who wants to do it!

Three Things Thursday

1) Sometimes I just really miss my family...

99.9% of the time I'm a "bloom where you're planted" kind of girl. I have loved living all over the country and feel like my life has been blessed and enriched by the people I've met and the experiences I've had living far away. But then there's that .01% of the time, like last night, when I just really miss my family and wish more than anything that I lived closer to them. Growing up, my brothers and sisters were my best friends. I talked to my parents about everything. I just always thought my kids would grow up close to their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. It's hard being far away.

That being said, most of the time I am super happy with where we're at and have the best network of friends and adopted family you could ask for, but I still have days where my dream is for me and my parents and brothers and sisters to all live in the same culdesac on Udaville lane. : )

2) Milk and ice cream every night, because I can : )

So I am on a 30 day + streak of eating a bowl of ice cream every night before I go to bed. Hey, there are perks to training for a marathon! Lots of extra calories to eat : ) Anyway, the Draschils taught us this yummy trick to pour a little milk on top. The milk freezes on the cold ice cream and creates an icy crusty shell that is DEE-LICOUS! Highly recommend : )

3) Cam thinks I'm hilarious

This kid is so good for my ego because he thinks everything I do is hilarious. The other day I started blowing cheerios at him and he was busting up. Here are 28 seconds of Cam giggles (and sorry if this video drives you crazy because you can't wipe the stray piece of oatmeal off his lip, haha! should've thought of that before I started filming : )

Snapshots from the latest happenings....

This may be the last time Teya's pretty smile looks like this because both of those front teeth are wiggly jiggly and I'm guessing in a few days she'll be 2 dollars richer and rockin' a spacious gap in that smile.

The other day Brinley and I gave each other mani-pedis and did a little photoshoot while Teya was at school and Cam was napping. Love me some one on one Brinley time : )

  I think her favorite part was hamming it up for the camera. Such a funny girl : )

Lately I've been so busy that I feel like I haven't been very social, so last week I invited a bunch of the ladies over for lunch and it was awesome eating good food and having some girly chat time.

 Cam wanted in on the picture taking ; )

And on Saturday we went to a fundraising dinner for our friend Rob who is running the Boston marathon as a charity runner. His wife Darby is an AMAZING cook and she made an incredible dinner and then held a live auction to raise more money from her homemade desserts.

Here is a sampling of the goods for sale. Cheesecake, German Chocolate cake, Raspberry Vanilla cake, Coconut Cake, Apple tart, apricot crisp, peanut butter ice cream pie, and triple sin brownies all HOMEMADE FROM SCRATCH. Some of of these babies were going for $25-$30 a piece, and well worth it!

We snagged some coconut pie, a brownie, and a slice of this heavenly creation. I was glad we had both run an 18 miler beforehand, made me feel a little less guilty about eating 3 super rich desserts in one night : )

Fitting it all in...

Well we're 3 weeks into play practice and 10 weeks into marathon training and it's definitely taking some creative juggling to fit it all in.  Luckily some good things have fallen into place to make it possible. Like our awesome neighbor who has offered to come over on Friday nights and watch the kids for free while we have play practice. She's this sweet college girl who I'm sure could use the babysitting money, but she won't charge us since we're doing a church activity. I honestly almost cried when she told us that. Such a blessing : )

So this is kind of how the weekends go:

Friday afternoons I swap with a friend or get a babysitter so I can do my long run. Last week it was 17 miles so we're talking close to 3 hours of running. I usually get home around 4 and then I have a couple hours to stretch, shower, recover, make dinner, and get ready for play practice. Play practice is from 7-9:30, so we get home close to 10pm, then Taber sets out all his stuff for his long run and we go to bed.

Saturday mornings Taber wakes up around 4:20am to get his long run in. Last week he knocked out 17 miles all before 8am!! He is the man! While he's running I work on getting everything together to entertain and feed the kids for 4 hours during rehearsal. We bring the pack and play, baby monitor, blankets, booster seat, baby food, bottles, extra clothes and diapers for Cam, and toys, DVD players, coloring books, snacks and lunches for the girls. 

Sometimes we even bring their bikes so they can cruise around in the gym. 

The girls do great during rehearsal. They just play with their stuff and the other kids whose parents are in the play. Cam is a different story. He requires a lot more work, especially because he needs naps and diaper changes and someone to spoon feed him his meals.  Taber and I usually take turns juggling him since we've only been working on music, but once we start blocking I think some of the young women in the play are going to be on Cam duty since we'll be needed on stage.
(I really just wish I could fly the Grandmas out for a few months! I'm sure they'd love being on Cam duty!)

After play practice it takes us forever to round up all our stuff (we seriously bring half our household) Then we get home around 2 and we are so wasted from long runs and rehearsals and late nights and early mornings that we barely have enough energy to drag everything in the house and crash.

Not a lot of housework happens over the weekends. 

(Sorry Mom, I swear it all gets cleaned up by Monday!)

After play practice nothing sounds better than a nap, but the kids are such good sports about all this that we really try to do something fun in the afternoon.

Last weekend it snowed, so after rehearsal Taber took the girls outside to play in it. 

He was going to take them to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D too, but when it was time to come in and get ready for the movie they were having too much fun and chose to stay home and keep playing instead. 

I know all this makes from some crazy weekends but I really love what we are doing. The spirit has been so strong in some of the rehearsals that more than once I've had to wipe away tears. The music and the script are amazing and working on them has helped me to focus more on the Savior in my daily life.  I play the CD with the music all the time and the girls are even starting to sing the songs.  It's the best having our home filled with such beautiful music. I love it, and I'm so glad we're making the effort to fit it all in : )

Three Things Thursday

So one of the blogs I read does this Three Things Thursday deal where every Thursday they post about 3 random things. And even though Thursday is almost over, I'm going to be a copy cat and do it too. Here are my 3 things in no particular order:

1) The last Christmas decorations standing:

I put away all the Christmas decorations the day after New Year's but I still can't bring myself to take down everyone's Christmas cards. Seeing the faces of so many people I love, smiling at me every time I walk by just gives me the warm fuzzies. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us one! They really do warm my heart. : )  One more week, then I swear I'll take them down : )

2) Fun with Jenga

We got the girls Jenga for Christmas and I'm impressed with all the ways they use it to entertain themselves.

They love building domino type structures to knock over

And they love testing their ability to concentrate and hold still while Taber builds towers on their foreheads.

Brinley is the absolute champion of Jenga meditation. While Teya squirms and giggles, Brinley holds still as stone and lets her mind go to her "happy place" (When Taber asked her what her happy place was she said, "Chuck E Cheese." ; )

3) An Unusually warm winter

Besides one random snowstorm in October, his has been an incredibly mild winter. We didn't get any snow until last week and even that has melted.  I know Teya is upset that she hasn't been able to play in the snow and Taber is itching to build another igloo, but I certainly don't mind that the kids can still play outside on the trampoline in January.

(also if you're wondering about their pink eyelids, they were having a playdate and decided to give themselves makeovers, hence the pink eyeshadow : )