RAWR-ing Good Time!

Great day! We celebrated Nate's 5th birthday with family and friends today. We were suppose to celebrate at the park as we have past years...but when weather reports showed chances of rain all week with cool temperatures we decided to move it inside. So, mommy has been quite busy all week thinking/preparing activities for the kiddos to do at our home. I think fun was had by all, but man mommy is ready for a bubble bath, some dessert, and to put my feet up for the evening ;)

We had a dinosaur themed bash. Thank goodness for Pinterest and all the wonderful posts and ideas!

 

 

 

Our famous photo wall we made out of construction paper. Yeah, it took a few minutes (many!) to prepare.

 

 

Dinosaur bones

 

Dinosaur eggs

For Herbivores

 

Decoration details :)

 

Outside on the door

(made with buttons)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've become more about details...

 

 

 

Roar! (yep, dinosaur feet)

 

Balloons are so fun!

 

 

Dinosaur craft time

 

I want to do crafts too!

 

Pin the horn on the dinosaur

 

 

 

Photo wall fun-look at all of those dinosaurs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade cookie/whipped cream with dinosaur sprinkles, of course ;)

 

 

 

Not quite as pretty as Pinterest pictures, but we scooped ice cream, put a spoon stick in it and then rolled it in sprinkles. Clever idea I think, made it easy!

 

Yay for parties! Nate's actual birthday is on the 11th. He'll be so excited to have (yet) some more fun ;)

 

New Year, New Beginnings : Becoming "Real"

I think we have a few little resolutions going around for the new year, but our biggest one revolves around food. Generally, we're all eating healthier. Josh has done a real good job incorporating a lot more vegetables in his diet and has eliminated a large part of carbs from his meals. When I saw him starting to make those changes, it got me thinking about wanting to make a diet overhaul for everyone. I had just started looking at things in our pantry, in the fridge, and realized how much processed stuff we had.

So, as of the beginning of the year, I've started to throw stuff out. I've started to try and buy most things Organic because I believe that at the least, the ingredients are healthier. I'm trying (though on the slower side) to start making more things from scratch. I'm studying up on how to read and understand labels better. I'm trying to buy/make more "real" things as opposed to processed, incorporating more vegetables and fruit into our meals. I'm also trying to get the kids into those things :p (which brings me into that I at least feel better about buying organic snacks for them to eat if I can't get them to touch a bell pepper!) Along with the kids I'm trying to up our intake of water.

While I'd like us to try and be healthy and eat "real" most of the time, this isn't to say I'm going to freak out over ordering a pizza or eating out. I still don't believe in deprivation ;) I want my kids to get from this that eating healthy is good and important, but it's still ok to treat yourself every now and then.

Along the same lines, I'm glad my kids see me being active running/working out. Some days Nate does my Jillian Michaels DVD workouts with me! I want them to see that as being important too. So I have also been trying to work out most days of the week- whatever the day allows me to do (gym,run, DVD)

On top of working out and whipping our diet in better shape, I'm also working on getting ready for Nate's birthday party! Holy cow! In less than a month I'm going to have a five year old. Five years as a SAHM. And you know? Most days it is the best job :)

Ho Ho Holiday and Snowy Ventures

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Ours was overall good with a few twists ;) The biggest twist being that Nate got croup (wasn't too bad) but he passed it/or conveniently little brother got it just in time for Christmas. And this time, it was BAD. We spent Christmas Eve night up with Aaron, trying to relax him and getting him to breathe followed by taking him then to urgent care Christmas morning. I was SO glad they gave us steroids! After taking it even once we saw a difference in the way Aaron was breathing and acting. So...a little bit of a damper on Christmas. We opened gifts as a family finally late morning and then Aaron and daddy spent the rest of the day at home while I visited with my family.

 

 

Could it be what I asked Santa for?

Loving his LeapPad 2!

 

We had already planned a visit up north to Flagstaff to play in the snow, so Josh and Nate went up while Aaron and I stayed put to recouperate (I also was sick with a sinus/ear infection). Nate had an awesome time, I'm so glad we didn't cancel it!

 

Walking in a winter wonderland

Weee!

 

Polar Express train

 

Night view of Flagstaff from Lowell Observatory

 

Huge telescope

 

Seeing Jupiter and stars

 

 

 

Happy New Year! We wish you all a very healthy and happy 2013!

 

The Big 3-0!

It happened- I turned 30 this past week. Gray hair showed up just in time! (and luckily I must have known as I conveniently had a high-lighting hair appointment scheduled on my birthday)

Josh had the day off and took care of the kids the morning of while I went on a coffee date with myself (weeee!) We had lunch before I spent most of the afternoon at the spa. That night my parents kindly watched the kids while hubby and I went out to a nice dinner and movie (it hasn't been just the two of us on my birthday since before Nate was born!) It was a wonderful day and so nice to hear from so many friends and family for the special celebration!

The following day we went out to lunch with my family and close friends. There was a bit of a French theme going on...we went to a French cafe and I brought along some special cupcakes for dessert ;)

 

Gang's all here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But of course ;)

 

There's always smiles and giggles when Pap-Pap is around

 

 

 

Thank you again for all the celebratory wishes! It's been a fun last week.