Blogilates on YouTube is kicking my booty!

Well folks... I have started working out again!! Whoo hooo!!! I came across this workout video on Pinterest and thought okay, Laura, you REALLY need to start working out again... let's try this video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q7L673i8OY

The gal's name is Cassey Ho and she's super cute. After doing this one video I started looking up other POP Pilates workouts and noticed she had a blog... www.blogilates.com. It is pretty awesome! She has a workout calendar for every day of the month!

This is something I need. I have issues figuring out what videos I'm going to do and when. I never know which videos to do together and how many.... So this is just fabulous for me. Another awesome thing is I have a Blu-Ray player that has its own YouTube channel! And I have an iPhone too! So here's what I do every day....

1. Turn on TV and Blu-Ray player
2. Get the YouTube channel up and running
3. Open the YouTube app on my iPhone and connect to YouTube TV
4. I pull up my handy workout calender in my email (or you can print it off which is easier)
5. I search for the videos on my iPhone and add them to my TV Queue
6. Once I have the videos added I hit play from my phone and it automatically starts on my TV!

1-2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

there will be ads in between the videos... my children have memorized the abreva one :)

One thing I have noticed... If I try to pause or fast forward from my Blu-Ray remote it can cause my Blu-Ray player to "freeze" and not work so well... BUT if I choose to pause or forward on my iPhone it works just fine!

**Also if you do not have a smart phone, but do have a Blu-Ray with YouTube channel... you can search through your Blu-Ray player to do each video... it is ALOT more time consuming though... trying to "type" things in with a remote is soo annoying?! It is much easier to type on my phone.

I am a visual person so these videos work great for me. I'm not a big fan of just looking at the moves on a piece of paper with picture layouts. I like having the actual video in front of me to see how she moves. Cassey also has great tips when doing the moves like keeping your core tight and your shoulders down away from your ears... keeping your back pushed down to the floor etc... I tend to forget these things when I am working out "on my own" and I can really strain my neck if I'm not careful. She knows when to remind you to breathe and relax.

I started working out with the blogilates calendar before Halloween and have managed to work out at least 5 if not 7 days out of the week. Not too shabby right?! Cassey is a very positive gal. She has some funny videos and you can see how she's come a long way from just being a pilates instructor to having her own blog and style and quite cute workout videos. The hilarious thing is Ceej is always like "Let's go downstairs and do your workout, Mommy!" I think he might have a crush on Cassey :). It's either that or he just likes hearing her say "Butt" whenever I'm working on my butt! I can tell its doing something because I am sore ALOT. I can't tell necessarily if I look that much better... but I know I feel better! She also has "clean" eating habits and recipes... but eh I like to eat sugar and what not so I'm just doing the workouts. My genes are doing just fine for me right now keeping "thin" so I'll worry about eating clean when I get old right?! I like my coffee and wine and bacon....

A Star Wars Halloween

Well I didn't think I would be able to top last years' Halloween.....

But I sure had to try! Little Miss M was really making it hard though... She refused to put on the costume! You'd think I was trying to put her in a straight jacket. She finally pulled through (or JDub did anyway!) and she wore it on Halloween :)

Star Wars is kind of a big deal around our household... here's a small glimpse of the random toys I could find around the house... there are tons more..

Thankfully I found Ceej's costume on sale last year after Halloween. And most of Bubba's Darth Vader I already had from Star Wars day at the library a while back...  JDub played along with a $2 vest my mom found at a consignment shop. I found most of mine at consignment as well. I did buy the white leggings from JCPenney b/c well they're cute and I'll wear them!

 

I'd say the most tricky part was trying to figure out how I was going to get the Princess Leia buns... I did just donate 10 inches of my hair so I opted for some yarn buns. I used the only yarn I had... a light brown and a few strands of orange. I wish I would have used a darker brown... but it was the only yarn I had at the time. I used my sock buns and they worked like a charm. Thank goodness for bobby pins and hair spray. All in all it was great Halloween. Oh and I did make Ceej's jet pack too! Out of Coke bottles, some foam and spray paint! Oh and don't forget the duct tape too.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!?

Poke a pumpkin game

So I'm pretty proud of how my poke a pumpkin game turned out!!

I found the idea on Pinterest! I found orange paper cups from Target and glued them to the black foam board with my hot glue gun. The original pin used plastic cups and she mentioned you might have some melting going on... so I opted for the paper cups instead. Then I found some orange tissue paper and cut it up into little squares. I made sure they were a little larger than the cup opening and just put them over the prizes inside with rubber bands. then I had some extra brown fabric and glued it to the board for the stem! I had some cute Halloween stickers to jazz it up a bit. I found a free chalkboard font website to find the lettering as well. I printed the lettering out on regular paper and used a pencil to write over the letters and kind of indent the board,  I used a white crayon (cause those rarely get used anyway right?!) to trace over the indentations.

This is for Ceej's preschool Halloween party coming up in a couple weeks. He already busted through one.... that kid has no patience! But it was an easy fix. I hope the kiddos like it!

On another note... I found this cute sweater dress at Goodwill over the weekend... of course JDub has no appreciation for my sense of style... but I thought it was cute!

Preparations for Halloween are coming along! I still have a bit of work to do... and if I can come across some white boots that aren't $50 that would save me some time... but oh well. I can make do with what I have. I just love dressing up! May the force be with you!

FYI I have red hair

So my mom and I were discussing the other day how there are so many stupid people out there?! Ha I know... not exactly a revelation... but still... Almost every outing I take with my children in tow, almost daily; I get asked one little question. A question that makes me cringe. A question that makes me want to punch random strangers in the face.....

And that one question is....... "Where does all that red hair come from?!"

Well guess what folks... I HAVE RED HAIR!! Yes I do! You can try to look at me strangely.... you can try to squint and say "no?!" But here's the deal folks. My hair is red. My children get their red hair FROM ME!! So please stop being idiots and asking where it comes from. You might just catch me in a bad mood and I might spout off. If you're lucky I'll be nice and smile and laugh (instead of rolling my eyes and giving you the evil eye).

I'll admit my hair is not fire-engine red. It was more red when I was younger. And when I am standing next to my children it looks less red. But it is still freaking red OK?! Strawberry-blonde if you will. But us red-heads stand together ok?! We embrace all the shades of "red" that are out there. And we don't hate. You non-red heads need to get it together.

My mother, who is from the south, gets asked (almost daily) "Where are you from?!" She has a southern accent, because well... she was born and raised in the south! She's lived in Iowa for over 20 years... and yet still gets asked that. Again stop being stupid. Maybe you should say "I just love your southern accent" and leave it at that.

So I'm just curious for all you readers out there... what's the number one stupid question that people just can't seem to stop asking you?!

ok... rant over... its been a while :)

30... so that happened?!

Well folks... its official... I'm in my 30's... YIKES! Birthdays just usually come around and I'm like "yea its no dig deal!" But this year was different. I feel really old. There have been more times that I didn't get ID'd this year than in the past. Some days I feel like my body is falling apart! I know I need to work out... but I've been really lazy about it since Miss M was born. I mean carrying around a sack of potatoes all day (aka Miss M) is kind of like a work out right? I'm really starting to question my wardrobe too... Am I too old to be wearing leggings all time?! I think I still look 20ish... so I can pull it off right?

Well my 30th birthday was pretty awesome. I'm not gonna lie... it started out a little rocky; what with Ceej waking up at midnight needing his water. Then again at 12:30 saying the "dust mites" were getting him. Then again at 1:00 with the same thing?! We went out to lunch at my FAVORITE pizza place in town... Zoey's! Which I would usually never do on a Friday (when JDub is working) but hey, I have some great friends that love Zoey's too so we all met there. Honestly, the lawn needed to be mowed to bad; but I refused?! I mean it was my bday after all.

(I actually  made the card on the left for my aunt... but its cute right?!)

 JDub did a FABULOUS job of picking out my new bag and wallet. Super cute right?! I may have sent him a link with the exact purse I wanted... but hey he got it. And I have to give him props for the wallet.. he picked that one out all on his own?! AND I LOVE IT!! If you are looking for a cute new bag you should hit up PurseNality of Marion. You can even shop online if you can't make it into the store! A good friend of mine owns the place and its fabulous!!

Ice cream cake..... its what's for dinner!

The boys had been going to a great VBS all week from 5:45-8:00 so while they were at that... JDub and I got a yummy ice cream cake from Coldstone (yikes that thing was $30?! but delicious) and that was my dinner! I couldn't even finish the whole thing... We stopped at a Redbox and grabbed a couple movies and that was it! A pretty great day if I do say so myself.

You know you're getting old when you ask for a new mop for your birthday.... It's not just any mop.. but a Norwex mop. So far its pretty awesome too. The dry mop is alot like a Swiffer; but you don't have to throw away all the "pads" you just brush it off and wash it and re-use it!? You don't even have to wash it after ever use! With my wood floors I think its going to be great.

I feel pretty good about accomplishing my goal of being 30 and no more babies! (Unless God had some other plans.... I'm just saying my planning for that is all done!) At 30 I am perfectly content staying at home, watching Netflix at night, and having playdates for the kiddos! Most would probably think I'm lame; but I'm okay with that.

Thanks for all the bday wishes! I am blessed!

Another Dinosaur Birthday Party!

Ceej is four?! Here are a few pics from his recent Dinosaur party....

Dino Pinata... full of lego sets!!

Lawn Twister... all though it was a large scale for the kiddos...

Dino excavating... of course one dino did lose a limb..... 

The birthday boy "whacking the pinata" as he called it.

My 3-D dino cake!

Poor thing didn't make it all day... the weather was so beautiful it melted his head right off!

"Dino" egg hunt (it was Easter afterall)

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather!! While the adults were hiding the eggs I made sure to go through my resurrection eggs and focus on Jesus for a bit. I mean it was Easter... Ceej didn't need the whole spotlight. 

We did lots of fun things... like Dino excavating. I bought some cheap, small dinos and froze them in little cups. Then I let the kids hack away at them with some little wooden axes. Ceej is big on destroying things! I knew he'd love that... Then I made the giant pinata! I filled it with a few Lego sets and kept them in the bags thinking that would help us not lose any pieces... but we did anyway... oh well! the adults had to finally step in b/c that thing was indestructible! I had the dino cut out of cardboard from making the pinata and thought it would be cute to do lawn twister... but with dino shapes! Well the idea was good... but the scale was way to large for the kiddos to participate.... now I know! And we had a "dino" egg hunt as well. All in all I think all the kiddos had a good time. I was sad my dino cake lost his head about halfway through the party... but eh... he tasted good!

Happy 4th birthday Ceej.... you sure are one of a kind!

Look Whoos One!

Oh my... my little girl is 1 now!? I know I know... everyone says it... but it's soo true! Time passes by so quickly. I can hardly believe she is 1! I kept it pretty low key this birthday. I made a few things though!

I found this bead pattern on Pinterest! Owl key-chains for the kiddos.

having extra cardboard on hand was great!

I used crepe paper streamers to create this.

I bought the cute scrap paper from Michael's and created the banner. If you look closely you can see on the "L" I tried using Elmer's glue... BAD IDEA! It made it all wrinkly... so I switched to a glue stick for the rest of the letters. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with black letters... but it worked out ok. I was able to cut 3 large triangles from each 12x12 piece o paper.

I made some cute owls and took a bunch of white tinsel and strung it up for the background! Buying all of that tinsel after Christmas was a steal.

Miss M really enjoyed her cake! :) I think it was the butter-cream frosting that she enjoyed the most. She was surprising cleaner than the boys after their first cake encounters.... I didn't even have to change her outfit after she ate it!?

I'm working on preparations for the next bday celebration! Ceej wants dinosaurs... so since I've already had one dino bday... it shouldn't be too hard to do another right?!

Spring break 2014 Kansas City, MO Legoland

Well we survived our first road trip as a family this past week! Since Bubba was on spring break we decided to make a little trip to Kansas City, MO for Legoland!! That was the main attraction... we also hit up Sea Life (which is right next door to Legoland) and the Kansas City Zoo.

Here are some details I wish I would have known before going!

LEGOLAND

All these pictures are from the "mini-city" inside Legoland. This was a big attraction for my boys ages 5 and 4 at the time. They had several displays to look at. Wizard of Oz was Bubba's favorite! Not only did they have these displays to look at but most of them were interactive. You could push buttons throughout to activate something! They had cars racing around a racetrack. Music played at a concert (complete with disco lights). A crane that you could operate, and even a boat "floating" in a little river! Bubba's favorite was making Dorothy's house lift up and away in the tornado...

Ceej really enjoyed racing the cars and making the witch melt! When you pushed a button she screamed and said "I'm melting, I'm melting!" and dissolved into a puddle. LOL

RIDES

Along with Mini-land they had a couple rides. The first one was my favorite! You were riding along in a little car of sorts with guns ready to shoot bad things that came your way.... like rats, and bats... and they had large screens with animated bad guys to shoot as well. The guns had little laser pointers so you could see where you were shooting. They took your picture on the ride and you even got to see your score at the end. Keep in mind that if you have small children (like Miss M who is not yet 1 year old) you will NOT be able to have her ride on your lap. The kids must be able to sit up on there own w/o a seatbelt. JDub missed out on the ride, having to stay with Miss M. 

The other ride was Merlin's something or other... Children must be 3 feet in order to ride accompanied by an adult. Otherwise if your child is 4 feet or taller they can ride by themselves. So once again JDub missed out b/c he had to stay with the baby. We probably could have taken turns... but the lines were quite long when we were leaving!

BUY TICKETS ONLINE

I am soooo glad I pre-ordered tickets online. We did a packaged deal with Sea Life and Legoland together for our family of 5. Since we had ordered our tickets online we were able to go to a separate ticket line when they opened up at 10:00 am. Keep in mind we were going on a Wednesday... you would think it wouldn't have been that busy... but it was during spring break... After waiting roughly 45 minutes in line we were finally able to get inside... while the other "general admission" people were still waiting in line. 

Go early! Legoland was so awesome the first hour we were there. It wasn't crowded... we had the place to ourselves pretty much... then the crowds came?! It was shoulder to shoulder in there. They didn't check my bags for anything... and I did have a couple snacks.. but man I wish I would have brought a lunch in there! I was not impressed with the food available (and it was expensive of course). Once you enter Legoland... if you leave you CAN'T go back in!? 

They also had a tube and Playstation like area. The boys were only able to go in there once. They really wanted to go again but it was so crowded and the line was very long. 

Legoland had a 4D movie playing every 15 minutes. It was kind of a nice quiet break. Bubba ended up going in once with me and once with JDub. There was a classroom area where a man (boy really... he looked young!) was teaching the kids some techniques and you were able to build a little building (and buy it for $5). Bubba really enjoyed that... Ceej and I were waiting in line for a ride at that time. I don't think he would have liked that very much though. Those boys are so different!

Legoland also had a cupcake station/kitchen if you will. Ceej really enjoyed that area... and he was sharing it with most of the girls there. They also had a "stage" area with kareoke and a microphone inside with the cupcakes.

Sea Life

Then we headed to our car for more snacks... then onto Sea Life! That place was pretty dead. But we liked that! Bubba's favorite part was the trivia questions. They had a scratch ticket with 10 different questions. You had to get a coin and scratch off the right answer. If it had a check-mark you were right! Then at the end you turned your ticket in to get a medal for getting all the trivia right. All the answers were written on the walls around the building. Bubba loved reading the questions and finding the answers. And of course getting money to scratch the right answer!

They had some pretty cool aquariums in there... a nice tunnel to go under and see sharks floating above your head... They didn't have flash photography so I didn't bring my nice camera in. I could have turned the flash off but we decided to fore-go the stroller so I was carrying a baby the entire time!

They also had a smaller tube/ playstation area. There's was less busy and no one was manning the gate so you could go in and out if you wanted. The boys loved playing on that and it was alot easier to see them than the LegoLand one. The gift shops were in the same area connected with a line down the middle. The thing about Sea Life if you could come and go as you please... 

Overall I'd say buying the joint ticket was a good idea... we definitely spent more time in LegoLand than Sea Life... but it was a nice quiet time after the chaos of LegoLand!

I would recommend LegoLand for smaller children... there were a few older kids... like ages 10 and up... but I'd say its better for ages 8 on down :) I could see the older ones being annoyed with all the little kids around.

Kansas City Zoo

I was not very impressed with the Zoo... I was however impressed with the 70 degree weather we had that day! We were going to go to Union Station... but with the weather being so great (and seeing how when we got back to Iowa it was snowing.....) we wanted to be outside!

All the water fountains were still closed from winter.... therefor there was NO WHERE to get a drink. Pretty pitiful. I think they had one concession stand... maybe two... open for the day. And seeing as how there were so many people (everyone else had the same idea as me.... wanting to be outside on a gorgeous day) the lines were insane. Thankfully I had brought in the boys water bottles (with filters) so we filled them up in the bathrooms along the way. Even the vending machines were all sold out! I found a Diet Dr. Pepper in one... otherwise they were all out. And any other "stands" to buy food were not being manned by anyone. That zoo is huge...and we didn't see anyone working... I think we ran into a group of 5 employees just standing there.. and one other random worker... otherwise we didn't see any staff the entire time. 

I know it was the beginning of spring... but really they could have made alot more money that day if they would have had some other concessions open. Everyone was constantly stopping at a vending machine and then getting disappointed when they saw the "sold out" scroll across. 

Residence Inn

We ended up staying in Independence, MO, outside of Kansas City in terms of the hotel. The boys absolutely loved the pool! And we pretty much had it to ourselves which was nice. The staff was very nice and friendly. Even when I made 2 huge messes... they were nice enough to clean them up and not get mad at me! I spilled cheerios everywhere.... and then my coffee one morning... I couldn't even blame it on the kids!

They had complimentary breakfast, and they even had dinner there Tues-Thurs nights! That was a nice little bonus :). We ended up checking out late (with no problems) on Friday just so the boys could swim again.

All in all we had a fabulous spring break.... I'm so glad we chose Missouri over Chicago Legoland..... it was much warmer!!