Julianna's B-day Visit

For Jules' birthday this year she got a plane ticket to Utah! Yay for me and Mel! We loved getting to have some time with Jules and Dean. We had a pretty low key visit, but still managed to squeeze in fun outings between all the little ones' nap times. 

We took the big boys and the baby boys to a UVU soccer game. This was SO fun! Brad was there writing the game for the paper and we parked ourselves on the sidelines and played with the kids, got plenty of UVU swag and watched the game. The weather was perfect and the boys had a great time. Plus UVU won, so it was a great night!

Another day we took the 3 little boys to the farm while my 3 big kids were all at school. It was a blast to just take our cute boys to see the animals. They all really loved it. Wilson wasn't too sure about the pony ride until the very end. Dean loved it and giggled and smiled the whole time. Jules said he seemed to like it more than the rides at Disneyland. Haha! We also went on the wagon ride, pet the donkey and saw the big horses, chickens and other animals.

One night we snuck away without kids and had a girls night. We went bowling and were silly and had a blast. Plus I bowled an awesome first game! After we bowled we went to JCW's for giant shakes and some more chatting. Love me some sister time!

On Sunday Jules came and brought her stuff to stay at our house for a couple of days before she headed home. It worked out pretty well since Mel and Brad got sick and were housebound those days. Which was sad because we didn't get to play with Mel and Wilson, but good that they had their house to themselves. While Jules was at our house we mostly hung around. Talia did Auntie Jules' makeup, Weston played with Wilson, we played in the water table, and spent Monday evening munching popcorn and watching American Ninja Warrior.

Jules and Dean walked with us over to the little park one day. Dean loved it, but then got sad. He wasn't feeling great that day. Poor guy. He was so cute and fun though! I loved getting to hang with Jules and watch Dean toddle around and play with toys. His favorite was a balloon left from Beckett's birthday decorations. :)

Finally it was time to say goodbye. We packed up and took Jules and Dean to the airport. We are so glad she came and can't wait to see her again!

21 Day Fix (but really 30 days)

September was a big month for Ian and I. We signed up together for a 30 day Beachbody challenge group. The program we used is called the 21 Day Fix with Autumn Calabrese. The program gave us 7 different workouts for each day of the week, plus a meal plan with portion containers and a 30 day supply of Shakeology protein shake mix. Even though the title of the program says 21 days our group did the challenge for 30 days. It was hard, but really great for us to do together. 

I am SO proud of us for completing the challenge without a single missed workout (6 days a week for 4 weeks). Most days we got up at 6am and did our workout together. I loved having Ian to keep me accountable and push me when I did not want to get out of bed. I definitely got stronger throughout the month. By the end I could do almost every move for the full time, which is pretty good considering how I looked the first week or two. lol

Now let's talk about the food. This was really the hardest part by far. I have been consistently active for a few years now. The workouts did push me, but the hardest part was resetting our diet. What I love about the 21 Day Fix meal plan is that you can eat whatever you want to make within your portions and from the list of approved foods. The approved foods are pretty broad, including cheese, oils, dressings, bread, rice, potatoes, lean meats and, of course, fruits and veggies. I like that we could still eat what we wanted. It was most challenging to cut out all the processed food and sugar. We weren't perfect on the meal plan, but we were really good and made a lot of healthy changes. One of my splurges was buying myself an air popcorn popper. The kids love it too! Here are a few of my favorite 21 Day Fix meals that I will be including in our regular rotation of meals.

This was my favorite 21 Day Fix recipe. These enchiladas are delicious, easy and healthy!

Another favorite was this pork carnitas. So delicious. I love being able to cook a whole bunch and freeze bags for a quickie meal another day. I was going to use a pork loin, but ended up finding a package labeled as "carnitas" so I got that instead. Worked great. :)

My favorite breakfast...spinach and feta omelet with chocolate Shakeology.

This meal was amazing. Ian's fabulous grilled chicken with these delicious ricotta, bacon, spinach stuffed peppers, salad and fruit.

 In my opinion dinners were the most difficult to plan. Especially dinners the kids would eat, but we managed with only a few nights of making sandwiches or hot dogs for the kids. :) Thank goodness for Pinterest. I scoured Pinterest for 21 Day Fix recipes and tried a bunch. The ones above were my favorites, but none of them were really bad. Some were just more bland or less of a hit with the kids.

Lunch for me was usually a salad with some kind of protein (grilled chicken or ground turkey), a lettuce wrap (my favorite was a Greek version with grilled chicken, cucumber and feta), or corn tortilla tacos (if I needed some carbs at lunch). Breakfast was almost always Shakeology with either eggs or steel cut oats. We finished up our challenge group the first weekend in October, but we are starting another round next week.

Results. I am not posting our before and after pictures or measurements because I'm still just not that confident about my body in a sports bra, but we did see some good results. I lost 5 pounds and 3 inches. Ian lost 15 pounds and 6 inches. Go team! If you are interested in the program odds are you know someone on Facebook who is a Beachbody coach, but if not I'm happy to refer you to our friends who coached us.

Beckett Turns 3!

September brought a birthday to our house! Beckett turned 3 years old. I can't believe my baby is really really not a baby anymore. Also, I'm pretty sure I will say that every year when he gets older. He's still super adorable and sweet and says the cutest, funniest things. We all adore our sweet Beckett. He had a very fun birthday this year. Started off with some Lucky Charms (aka marshmallows for breakfast) and cards from his big brothers. I was impressed with Davin's drawing of elephants on the card he made for Beckett. Weston made Beck a little coupon book with things like piggy back rides, reading a story, and playing elephants. I pretty much just said yes all day. He watched shows, went to the farm, picked out our lunch (quesadillas from Del Taco), and then had a fun little family party.

The Curnow's joined us for dinner at In N Out. Then we went back to the house to open presents, sing Happy Birthday, and eat birthday donuts. When I asked Beckett what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday he said he didn't want cake. I asked about cupcakes or ice cream but he said he didn't want a treat. Finally I suggested donuts and that was the winner. :) Bonus, I didn't have to make anything! Ian picked up the donuts on his way home from work! Beckett was spoiled with lots of fun gifts from his family. He got lots of How to Train Your Dragon toys, a cute book with his name in it (which he loves and calls his "little boy book"), an alphabet puzzle, new jammies, a couple new shirts, his own football, and some birthday money.

Beckett took his birthday dollars to the dollar store and picked out a pack of dinosaur eggs (those little capsules you put in hot water and they have shaped sponges inside). He was so excited to hatch them himself. He did them one at a time and spent a few hours hatching all of his dino eggs. It was adorable. Love this kid! He also spent some of his birthday money going to the zoo during Fall Break and picking out a giraffe toy in the gift shop.

Being 3 is pretty great. Beckett is pretty much all the way potty trained, is loving his joy school preschool, and is just a really fun kid. He still loves elephants and trains, but really just loves all animals. He keeps a hoard of loveys on his bed and sleeps with no less than 6 at a time right next to him. He loves reading books and going to the farm. He also loves his mommy. Every time I leave Ian says his reaction is pretty sad. He just crumples and gets sad when he finds out mommy isn't home. Gotta get it on video one of these days. Anyway, we couldn't be happier to have Beckett in our family. Happy Birthday buddy!