How Time Flies!

As E's 2nd birthday approaches, I just can't believe how much he's growing! The first picture was taken last year at his favorite park near Nanny's house. We stopped by there the other day between conference sessions and I grabbed a similar picture, just a year later. Isn't he just so sweet! He's definately out of the baby stage now. He's practically a kid! To think about what he's doing now compared to last year, it's crazy. Last year he was just learning to walk, he was always into everything, lots and lots of teething, he was saying his first words, he wouldn't ever sit still to read, and he loved his binky. This year he is running, jumping, and climbing everywhere, he can talk a lot and tell me exactly what he wants (makes my life so much better!), he can do simple skills like help me pick up and wipe the table, I can tell him no and it actually registers (sometimes), and the list could go on and on. It's amazing to see how quick he is learning and how strong of a little guy he is. I took him to the Little Gym today and the instructor there was commenting at how quick and strong he is and it's true. He is definatley on the go 24/7 and he always needs to be doing something. That's why he's perfect as "Dash" for Halloween. We're headed out to Utah soon so I'm hoping my family will be ready for him...hide your breakables!

Cute Tutus

A friend of mine is starting her own business and she's making all sorts of cute goodies. I'm adding this on my sidebar so go check her stuff out! I just wish I had a girl to put in tutus!!!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yes, today is my birthday! I'm a whole quarter of a century old today. Whoopie! First off we have to start out with my latest win. I just had these delivered on Saturday.

I won a pair of Ryka shoes! They're giving away 50 pairs of shoes and 50 performance tees every single day until October 25!!! Go sign up! I won the MC Run shoes that retail for $90! I just took them out on a run this morning and they were great plus they're cute.

Next, my husband got home earlier than I thought from Utah. He showed up at 2:30 and didn't go to his GMAT class so I got a fun birthday with my hubby. He even showered me with way too many presents! Check them out!
I've been wanting a big Cuisinart for a long time. They're great for salsas, dips, marinades, homemade baby food, pie crusts, shredding cheese, etc. So fun! He also helped replace my Chi since my lovely son damaged my other one when he was about 16 months old and I've been Macguyvering ever since. It seriously takes me forever to use the old one since I have to mess with it so much. Yeah, for a new one! Can you tell my husband loves my straight hair? He also got some extra hair stuff that the girl at the store recommended and he also picked up this cool Martha Stewart recipe divider. It is a little wheel that helps you double, triple, half, and third your recipes easily with exact measurements. Very cool! So all in all it was a very happy birthday and I'm just glad to have my husband home! I think someone else is VERY excited that Ry is home...imagine Ethan saying "CHEESE" really loud as this was taken. He is so funny!

Random Updates

So here's what's going on with all the stuff that's been happening lately. I called and talked to the Target Headquarters people and they sent me a letter from their insurance/claims company that takes care of all their claim items. I'm supposed to be talking with someone soon so we'll see how that goes.

I also talked to the people from Hanes.com about exchanging those items that I won since none of them were E's size. They told me to take it to the nearest Hanes Leggs Bali outlet and they should let me exchange it. So I took my box full of clothing to the outlet on Saturday and after about 30 minutes of talking to supervisor after supervisor blah blah blah, they let me exchange it. I had about $112 of store credit that I had to redeem that day so I was running around trying to find things that my little family needed. Everyone got at least 2 packs of socks, dress socks, undershirts for E, underwear for E (for the blessed day that he's potty trained), nylons and bras for me, and pajamas. I was so incredilby happy! Thank you Hanes!

Ryan went to conference up in Utah this past weekend and ended up leaving his Blackberry in the Mariott Center after the Priesthood session. I've been on the phone all morning talking to the lost and found, head custoidal, Marriott center, Marriott custodial, etc etc. Hopefully someone will find it. If anyone from BYU is out there and wouldn't mind helping me look for it, I would be forever indebted to you! I think the custodial people are trying to get the whole place cleaned before the devotional tomorrow so I think I may hear something today or tomorrow. We'll see. Ry may just have to get a new one, bummer.

E has also been making some progress on the potty. The other day he was about to get in the tub and I tried putting him on the big potty to see what he would do. I told him to go potty and guess what...he went! I was so excited! I let him have a sucker in the tub as his reward. I tried it again the next day and he went again. I always give him a small bowl of M&M's when he goes on the potty. Now he runs to the cupboard and yells "TREAT!" and I say "potty" so he heads to the potty and I get him to go and he gets M&M's. It's just hard because he doesn't know to tell me when he feels like he needs to go potty because I don't think he quite understands that yet. But he will go on command when you put him on there. He had a dry diaper all day yesterday (except after his nap)! I was astonished! I do have to say diapers are a ton more convenient, but if he's willing to give this a go then we'll do it.

So those are my random updates. I'm still waiting on my memory card for my new camera to be delivered so maybe I'll have some sweet pictures to post sometime this week.

Recipe Blog

My friend Kaitlyn and I just started a fun little recipe blog calledHey Mom! What's For Dinner?. We wanted to put together a place that we could post our recipe experiments and share them with our friends. We're going to try to include pictures for each recipe since I'm a big advocate for cookbooks with pictures. That's the only way to do it. Anyway...head over to our new blog and try out our recipes. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know of any sort of recipes you'd like to see or any fun ideas.

Texas State Fair

My dad took a half day from work on Friday and took my mom, Ethan, and me to the Texas State Fair. Ry was gone for conference so he had to miss out, too bad for him. I can't believe how hot it was! Oh my goodness! It's the beginning of October and it was 95 degrees for crying out loud! Well, the Texas Fair is one of the largest in the U.S. and I can believe it...there was tons to do! We started out taking Ethan to this "Little Kids Barnyard" where they put together a pretend farm where the kids could be like little farmers. It was so cute! They let you gather eggs, milk a cow, feed the animals, plant seeds, pick vegetables, and drive a tractor.







Then when you're all done you get fake money and they let you redeem it in their "Farmer's General Store." E bought himself a big granola bar, yum. After that we went to the petting zoo. I think was a little intimidated at first, but after a while he was trying to feed all the animals and talking to them.

Now when you go to the fair, you have to enjoy the fair food. Man, the food there was great (even if it wasn't on the boot camp list). Basically they take any food, deep fry it, and serve it. E had a nice big corn dog (shown below).
I had the best fried dill pickles ever!!! I tried sharing them so I wouldn't eat so much. Luckily E was a huge fan of them. He cried when they were all gone! Haha. But the best food of the day was the Texas Fried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. That's right, deep fried cookie dough. It was so stinkin' good! I can't even begin to say how wonderful it tasted. I'm drooling just thinking about it. So if you ever go to the state fair, you have to give that a try!

E lasted about 4 hours there, not too bad at all. We left around 4 to beat rush hour traffic and came home and swam in the pool. I grew up in Ohio and conference weekend never included swimming in the pool, ever! I just watch the people outside at conference and it looks FREEZING there! I'm getting ready for cooler days, but I'm really enjoying our swimming weather.

My Hidden Talent

I was making dinner with a friend tonight and as we were cooking the kids just played in the play room. Well, after dinner my friend's daughter brought me E's harmonica and wanted me to blow on it. Little does anyone know that I know how to play the harmonica. Yeah, me...harmonica?! Go figure. My friend had no idea where the music was coming from and then when she saw me playing the harmonica, she just busted out laughing. The shock on her face was priceless! A similar experience happened 3 or 4 months ago when our Ry and I were driving to the mall. E had his harmonica in the back seat of the car so I pulled it out for him and played my signature song, "Oh, Susanna." Ryan just looked at me in the rear view mirror and said, "Are you serious?! We have been married for almost 5 years and I never knew you played the harmonica?" It was hilarious! He was impressed and a little shocked for some odd reason. Then for the rest of the car ride he tried to figure out all these different songs as he drove us to the mall. Imagine some guy driving down the freeway playing tunes on his harmonica. I still catch Ry trying to figure out songs on it and it gets so annoying that I have to hide the harmonica when he's not looking. Anyway...I just had to share my funny moment tonight.

Young Women in Excellence Olympic Night

Last night I was in charge of putting on the Young Women in Excellence Program. Back in the day, when I was in Young Women we used to do a program with songs, talks, and then we'd all have tables set up with our Personal Progress display items. That's what I did all growing up in Young Women, but here they like to put on big "events" instead of a boring program. Since I'm the new Personal Progress advisor/Secretary they put in charge of it. Oh geez. Luckily one of the counselors was willing to help me out and we tag teamed the whole thing. We decided to do an Olympic theme. It quite a big production, but it was pretty casual so it made the evening fun and relaxing. We had the girls come dressed in their best athletic wear and we decorated the room with the Olympic rings (7 rings in the 7 value colors)and value colored balloons. We made torches to represent each value and the girls carried those in during our opening ceremonies. We sang the Star Spangled Banner and then did the theme and our YW President did a little talk about the YW program. Then I explained all the events that we were doing. Basically we had an event for each value and the girls would earn medals for completing the event(we had the medals tied to the value color). We had a faith walk, a divine nature crossword event, Individual Worth compliment sticker exchange, Knowledge Scattergories game, Choice & Accountability/Integrity Bingo, and Good Works Project Linus event. It turned out really fun and the girls loved it. We had each girl bring 4 things that they've been working on in the different values and had the display tables next to the events so their parents could see what they've been working on. After the events we had closing ceremonies and we recognized the girls that received their medallions and also the girls that completed an entire value. Then one of our counselors had an awesome talk about the YW values and torches it just brought it all together. For refreshments our Mia Maid advisor did Patriotic mini cheesecakes. They turned out so cute. She used silver and gold muffin cups and then made mini cheesecakes with cherry or blueberry topping. All-in-all it turned out to be a pretty good night and it flowed pretty well too. We also invited the new beehives to come since all of their birthdays are in January so we made it a Young Women in Excellence/New Beginnings night. And if you know brand new beehives, YW is so exciting to them and they just eat it all up. I love that! They're so enthusiastic to do things and they're so happy that they get to be in with the big kids and not in Primary anymore. Hopefully one of the counselors will be sending me pictures of the night in the next few days so I'll post those if I get any.

It Was the Best of Times

Okay, after a day like yesterday, I needed something good to happen. I went to boot camp early this morning and had an "arms" day. My arms were like noodles today and we stepped up the cardio so we're now doing sprints or some sort of running after every station these days. I got home, got ready for the day, and read my e-mails all before E woke up. Hallelujah! We got our day going and I was so tired I just crashed on the couch while E ate his breakfast. I actually fell asleep while he ate. Of course I was cleaning up Kix for the next 10 minutes, but that sleep was priceless! We took my broken pot back to Pier 1 and got a new one and we also took our receipt into Children's place since she charged me for an extra pair of jeans that I didn't buy. Can you believe I bought 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of windbreaker pants, 1 pair of sweat pants, 1 sweat shirt, and 7 shirts for $65! Crazy!
I got home and made sure the vase wasn't going to fall over and shatter on me and that Ethan stays as far away from it as possible. No more balls in the living room! As I was getting lunch together the Fed Ex man came and dropped off this huge box on my door step. I was expecting my camera and memory card to come later this week so I knew it wasn't that so I had no clue what it could be. It was all addressed to me and it said it was from New York. I was like, "What the heck is this?" I was honestly scared that it was a bomb or something. I grabbed a knife and opened it as far away from me as possible just in case. I'm so ridiculous sometimes. Well, come to find out, I won a Hanes "Back to School Giveaway"! The box was filled with Boys and Girls clothes. It had 3 packs of girls undies, 4 packs of boys boxers, 3 pairs of cute leggings, a shirt, 2 sweatshirts, a girl's shirt, and a pack of boys undershirts.

Unfortunately no one in our house is a kids size 6 or 10 so I called up the Hanes people to see if I could exchange them for E's size. She told me to just take it to the outlet and they'd let me switch it for his size All this stuff retails for over $125 so I am thrilled! My niece will be receiving the cute leggings, but everything else will be exchanged so E can get some socks, undershirts, and underwear (for the day that he's potty trained). What a happy day!
It gets even better, my camera came! I haven't opened the box yet since I was in the middle of writing this post when the UPS guy came. I can't wait to get started on figuring it all out.
Today is a much better day. I got to go to boot camp, my vase is now in one piece, I have $125 to use at Hanes for E, my camera just arrived, and my E is actually taking a nap.

It Was the Worst of Times

Yesterday was such a weird and awful day. Please bear with me as I explain the madness that went on yesterday. First off, I got a lovely wake up call at 5:00am from my little E who decided to wake up early and not go back to bed. I wake up at 4:45am enough these days that I didn't want to get up early on a "non-boot camp" day!!! So I had an early start on my cleaning day, oh joy. Well, usually I run in the morning and then clean while I'm sweaty and gross. But since I was so tired, I didn't run. Not good, but I did clean my house.

Well, a few days back I bought these really cute slipper socks from Target.

Featured in Exhibit A
Well, after 1 hour of wearing these lovely slippers, they started to unravel and got a big hole in them. Bummer.

Exhibit B

So I put the slippers on top of my dresser so I could take them back to Target after the weekend. Okay, now back to my weird Monday...So as I'm cleaning the house I go to grab the slippers to put them in a bag to take to Target. When I pick them up I realize to my horror that they left these terrible round, black marks on my dresser!

Exhibit C

The black marks came from the little black treads that help grip the floor so you don't slide on it.

Exhibit D


I quickly started rubbing it to see if it would come off, but it didn't. So I grabbed my trusty Mr. Clean sponges since you all know that they can get out anything. Well, I got out what I could but it was worse than I thought. Not only did the slippers make big black marks on my dresser, it left divots in the shape of those marks all over. So even if I got out all the black stuff, I'd still have round holes all over the top of my dresser! I was furious! I didn't expect to purchase a pair of $4.99 slippers so it could ruin my $499 dresser!!!! Oh my goodness. So after E's nap I marched myself down to Target to see what could be done. They gave me my money back and then I filed an incident report with the manager. He was really cool about and said that someone from headquarters would be calling me this week. We'll just have to see what happens. Ugh!!!
Well, the day doesn't stop there. I headed over to Bed, Bath, & Beyond to go look at some decorative boxes to put our DVDs in and as I'm looking at them all crouched in the corner all the boxes fell on me! I was so embarrassed and it actually really hurt. It was one of those typical klutzy "Brit" moments and the employee there saw it happen and asked if I was okay. I felt like such a nerd and of course E thought it was hilarious and was giggling in his stroller. So I moved on to check out Pier 1. I really wanted to get a big vase for our living room and found one that I really liked so I bought that and went on down to get some sweet deals from Children's Place. Long sleeve shirts for $2!! Hello!
Okay, I got home, left E in his car seat so I could unload the car without him getting into things and so I could lug the huge vase into the house. I get everything inside and put the vase in the perfect spot in my living room and then go out to the garage to go get E. On my way in I hear a huge crash and then see my brand new vase on the carpet, smashed into 1,000 pieces. I don't even know what the heck happened! No one was even in the room and it just fell over! At that point I just sat on the floor and bawled. What could I do? At this point I should have taken a picture of the aftermath, but I was just so sick over the whole thing that I couldn't remind myself of what happened. So I called up the girl at Pier 1 and told her what happened. She was soooo nice and I have to give props to Pier 1...she told me to bring in the biggest piece and my receipt and she would give me another, free of charge. Bless this kind, wonderful woman! I will be writing Pier 1 a very nice letter and I will be visiting them for further purchases. Stay tuned for today's "Best of Times" section. After all, things could only go up from there.

Happy Halloween Season!

I just love October and Halloween! Now that it's October I can decorate my house with all my Halloween stuff. While I was going through pictures I found this Halloween picture on my computer. This was me 2 years ago when I was pregnant with E, I was huge (it was the day before my due date). Anyway...go check out 5 Minutes for Mom to check out their Cyber Baby Shower. They have some really cute stuff on there.

Boot Camp Week 3 and Camera

So I just completed Week 3 of boot camp. I'm over half way there!!! This week for homework we've been doing a water flush. We have to drink 50oz of water in an hour in the morning and then 50oz for the rest of the day for 3 days. I have been visiting the bathroom a ton! But it's weird how funny it makes you feel. Maybe it's just all in my head. We've also turned up the intensity again. We've started isolating muscle groups now so we'll work one day on just legs and the next day we'll work on arms. Today was a leg day and I feel like I'm walking on noodles. We did lots of squats, lunges, running, and band work. Tuesday we did arms and I could barely wash my hair and when I tried to Ethan in his car seat, I almost dropped him. It's getting better though. I'm definitely noticing a difference in my muscle tone these days. I don't think I've had arms this defined in all my life! I've loved boot camp so much that I signed up for another camp which I'll start when I get back from Utah. Yeah! Anyway...I also made my big camera purchase. I went with the Canon Rebel XT. It should come in the next few days so I'm definitely looking forward to the UPS truck coming my way. I wrote a special note to myself on the "gift note". It says, "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear Brittany, Happy Birthday to me!" Isn't it sad when you have to buy your own birthday presents? For whatever reason I hate that, but at least I'm getting what I wanted.

"Dash"

E got his Halloween costume on Monday and it looks so good! I was very impressed with the quality of it. I bought it off ofDisneyShopping.com. The costume is made out of great fabric and has elastic in the arms and legs so it fits really well on him (and it will for quite awhile). It even came with some fun accessories like shoe covers, gloves, and a mask. The other Dash costumes that I looked at in the stores basically looked like pajamas with a cheap mask. Boring! Not only does it look great, it was at a pretty good price. So if you're looking for a good costume buy one off there. My mom and I got him into his costume the other day and here are a few snapshots.

On My Doorstep

I got home late last night from a fun day with my mom and there was a nice big box on my front step! I could hear it just calling my name. It was from an awesome giveaway from the Pinks and Blues Girls' website! So this is what I won...


I won an awesome diaper bag from Skip Hop and it retails for about $88! Not only did I get a great diaper bag, but it was filled with the goodies too. There was a little flower doll, Victoria's Secret Appletini body lotion, and a fun "mommy" book. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I'm so excited about my new diaper bag! I only have one diaper bag and it's the one that I got at my baby shower. It has done a lot of good, but I always wanted another one to "change things up." How exciting! Thank you Pinks and Blues!!! P.S. I don't know why my pictures look like they're chopped off. Ever since I changed my template, my pictures have been screwy. Sorry.

The Votes Have Been Tallied...

And it's a tie between #2 and #5. So thanks for the input everyone, now it's up to me to figure out which one it will be!

Updated Blog Photo

My cousin Toni totally hooked me up with some head shots to put on my blog profile. I can't decide which one I want to use first. I will probably use all of them at one time or another to change things up, but let me know which one you like. Which one would be best for my profile?
#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Leave a comment and let me know which one captures my blog personality the best. Of course, be sure to go check out Toni's photography website! She has some awesome stuff on there. Thanks Toni!!!

Look What I Won!

You have to check this out! I entered a contest of a fellow blogger,Bethany, who was doing a giveaway to kick off her Etsy shop, Love, September . She was giving away a beautiful changing pad. Her shop also has other items like those diaper pouches that I love, tutus, and changing pads. Well, I was chosen as the lucky winner of the changing pad and it just got here yesterday. I just have to say that I love it and it will be so nice for Ethan and especially nice when we have another baby (no, I'm not pregnant). The bad has such a cute design and the lining is so nice! It's nice and long so Ethan won't be half off the thing when I'm changing him. Plus, it folds up really cute and fits right into my diaper bag. I'm so thrilled to win! Go check out here stuff! Thanks Bethany!

Exercise Bootcamp Week 2

Week 2 is kicking my trash! The intensity has been turned up a few notches. We are now doing more reps, heavier weights, more cardio, and pushing ourselves to the limit. Our coach told us we burned at least 700 calories this morning! I don't think I have sweated (is that a word?) so hard in my whole life like I did today. It has been crazy, but the funny thing is...I love it! I feel so good (even though I'm a little sore). We're also working on our eating and I have been trying really hard to do good. I've been right on track for the past 2 weeks so I'm feeling good about my choices. I try to have fresh, healthy foods, but also allow myself some indulgence as long as it fits into my calorie intake. The funny thing I haven't really been craving chocolate like I thought I would. I have been totally wanting cinnamon rolls! What?! Not even the nice kind you get at the mall, just the can kind. I have a few calories to spare this evening so I popped a can of cinnamon rolls in the oven. Yum! Ahhh...the simple pleasures of life!

Ethan's Halloween Costume

Well, I've been shopping around for a cute Halloween costume or costume idea for awhile for Ethan. When I was looking into actually making a costume I found that by the time I bought the pattern, fabric, thread, zippers, etc it was way more expensive than a store bought costume. So back to the drawing board. Well, lately Ethan has loved the baby off the Incredibles movie. I think the Incredibles is a little violent for a little 2 year old so I've just been letting him watch the parts with the baby and with Edna since those are his two favorite characters. So I found a really cute Dash costume online so this is what he's going to be for Halloween this year. I found a 2 great promotional codes going on where I got free shipping and 15% off my entire order. After tax and everything the costume was about $20. Not too bad. We'll see how it fits once it gets here. It will be one of Ethan's birthday presents so don't tell him. I'm just hoping it's not one of those costumes that he will want to wear everyday of his life and never take it off.

Update on the Binky Saga

So I never told you guys anything since the first week of no binky. So here's what happened. Well, Ethan had been climbing out of his crib 2 weeks before I took away his binky. It was never a problem because I would lay him in his crib for nap time/bedtime, cork him, and he was out. Well, when the binky went away he would just keep climbing out of his crib and would cry and knock on the door for us to let him out. I couldn't keep him in and he'd end up sleeping on the floor by the door with his fingers underneath the door. You have to understand that the kid is seriously a monkey. I wish I would have gotten a video of him climbing out, but he seriously wraps his feet around the spindles and shimmies down like it's nothing. I got so fed up that next day that I disassembled the entire crib and put his crib mattress on the floor so he could at least get back in bed if he needed. Well, he never liked his crib mattress on the floor too much and he'd end up just sleeping by the door all the time and we'd just lay him on his mattress when we'd go to bed. Well, my parents had a spare twin mattress that they let us borrow until we get his bed in January. Ever since that day he has been a lot better about his bed. He loved the fact that his "Nanny" brought him a new big boy bed and that it's so big and fun to show everyone. I also gave him a special "Diego" blanket that he can only have at nap time/bedtime. His blanket along with lots of stories has helped out a lot. He cries when I leave him, but he doesn't fall asleep by the door anymore. He's learned to fall asleep without his binky and fall asleep on his bed. Hallelujah! It's just a normal part of life now. I don't ever have to worry about a binky when we go anywhere for nap time or bedtime or when we travel. It's so nice. I'm headed out to Utah in a few weeks and now we have 2 items that we don't have to pack. A port-a-crib and a binky. Yeah!!! He's getting to be such a big boy and he talks so much these days. It's so funny because he really tries to annunciate the words that he knows. I'm keeping track of all his words and right now he's up to 110. Pretty crazy, huh? Well, enjoy these funny pictures that Ry took the other night.

Which Camera Should I Get?

Okay all you photographers out there...I need your help. I've asked a few of my friends and I've narrowed it down to 3: Nikon D40, Nikon D40x, or Canon Rebel XTI. Which one? Do I pay the extra money for more fancy stuff or do I just stick with the basics and get a nice camera? I just don't know! This is my birthday gift to myself so I'm pooling all my birthday money to get it. I'm wanting to go get it in the next few weeks so I need some help! Please keep in mind that I am very very amatuer when it comes to photography and I'm trying to upgrade my 3.2 megapixel purse camera to something nicer. I guess I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my money if I go all out since I won't know what the heck half of the "fancy stuff" will do. I just want a great camera that will give me great quality picture and I won't have to know how to do too much to get it. I'm sure I could figure things out. I'm just wondering if it's worth it.

Bring a Friend to Boot Camp Day

This is the field were it all happens and skinny jean dreams come true!


Well, today is Saturday so boot camp didn't start until 6:30 this morning, not 5:15. I enjoyed the extra hour of sleep!!! I invited my friend Kaitlyn to join me this morning and she actually took me up on my offer. So fun! We got there when it was still dark and actually got to watch the sunrise as we worked out. That was a first for me! So we started out with stretching and then squats/run/frog jumps on the football field. We had to start with 10 squats then run 50 yards then do 10 frog jumps then run back. Then go to 9 squats, run, 9 frog jumps. All the way down to 8. By then we were all warmed up and little winded and we started right on our stations. There was a twist on our stations today, we had less stations, but we had to sprint in between each station. We had to do left stationary lunges, run, suicides, run, shoulder press, run, mountain climbers, run, squat/run/frog jump, run, medicine ball sit ups, break, right leg lunges, run, push ups/run/push ups, break, hammer press, run, tricep/push up combo, run, tire run, break, tricep with bands, run. I was beat by then!!! Next we did 25 throw downs and started Fartlek training. I know that sounds really weird, but it was named after some guy named Fartlek and I'd like to give him a piece of my mind!!! We walked/jogged for 30 seconds and then our coach would blow the whistle and then we would have to sprint as hard as we could for 30 seconds we did this for 3 minutes straight. I had never done anything like that before and my legs were en fuego! After that we did abs, stretched, and did our buddy info. I was so impressed at how well Kaitlyn did! My goodness! She kept right up with everyone the entire time. I so wish she could come with me in the mornings!!! So here are 2 pictures from today. They are both AFTER our entire workout (it is always dark out on weekdays) and we are hot, sweaty, and looking beautiful. I'm especially in love with my hot pink work out pants. They are the bomb! Don't we look super strong?!

You Won't Believe This

Okay, so I was making dinner for the sister missionaries last night and into the kitchen walks Ethan without pants or a diaper on. He came in and said "Potty" so I turned and ran him to the bathroom. Meanwhile, I had chicken about to burn on the stove and roasted pears ready to come out of the oven and my child was diaperless in the bathroom. What's a mother to do? So I sat him on the potty, ran to the kitchen to take out the pears, turn off the chicken, and grab a diaper from Ethan's room. By the time I got back Ethan had gone potty in the potty!!! I couldn't believe my eyes! He didn't even get it on the floor! So we did the celebration dance and he got lots of praise and I grabbed him his special "potty" treats (a few M&M's). Of course this had to happen 2 minutes before everyone came for dinner, but we somehow managed to get almost everything done before they got here. I was stunned that he could even hold it long enough to run to the bathroom! What am I going to do with this kid?

Exercise Boot Camp Week 1...continued

Yesterday I did all my homework and worked out for over 45 minutes. Go me! I am super sore everywhere and I can feel it when I sit, when I stand, when I lift Ethan, anytime. My 4:45 wake up call was kind of hard this morning. I got up, ate, and was out the door jamming to some great IPod tunes. They worked us out pretty good today. We warmed up around the track and stretched out and then it was down to business. We did frog jumps and ran the football field. Then they did our baseline of how many sit ups we could do in a full minute and that meant flat on the ground then coming up so your elbow touch your knees. I could only do 28, I was dying by 45 seconds. Then we did as many push ups as we could in 1 minutes. I did 30 modified (on my knees) push ups. Again, dying by 45 seconds. Then we did a quick lap around the track to get our time. After that we broke up into our stations and we had 12 stations for 2 minutes today: suicides, jump rope, squats, walking lunges, shoulder press, chest press, right arm jab, left arm jab, cone hops, medicine ball lifts, tricep dips, and tire run. After that we had to sprint the width of the football field and then come back to start abs. At this point I had drank my entire 30 oz water bottle, I was sweating profusely, and I felt like a big blob of Jell-o. We did our abs, finished our stretching, and were off for the day to begin. My arms were crazy sore and I could barely even shampoo my hair when I got home. The funny thing is that even though I hurt really bad and I worked really hard, I've got a lot more energy to do things. Don't get me wrong, I am tired, but I'm not lethargic. Does that make sense? My body feels tired, but I'm more alert. Ethan's friend came over to play for the morning so his mom could have some fun by herself and the boys had lots of fun. Now E's taking a nap and I'm getting things together for dinner. I have the sister missionaries coming over for dinner tonight. We're having grilled chicken with a roasted pear and blue cheese salad. Very yummy and nice and healthy (we're going light on the blue cheese). Oh and by the way, Saturday is "Bring a Friend to Boot camp" day so I'm extending an invitation to all that are interested in joining me for some boot camp fun.

My Book is Here!!!

The UPS man just dropped off my blog book today! That was fast! I finished up the book over Labor Day weekend and it's already here! I am really impressed by the quality of the book. It's pretty much like one of those nice "coffee table" books that you pick up at Barnes and Noble. The pictures turned out great and are very clear and the print/fonts look good too. I never thought that I would ever be able to have a hard copy of my whole blog. I used to print off the text each month and put it in sheet protectors and stash it away in a scrapbook. Just in case for some horrible reason my blogger would crash and my blog would be lost forever. Now I have all my pictures and text bound in a beautiful book for everyone to check it out. The book contains March 2006-August 2007 so it ended up being a little under 200 pages. Not too much, but just enough I think. I plan on slurping my blog every year now. I just have to say I'm very impressed and very excited! Here are some pictures of it, sorry they don't even do it justice.

First Day of Boot Camp

So it's 8:00 and I've already showered, had breakfast, got Ethan ready, and picked up my house. I don't think that has happened since I've had a baby! Wow! I owe it all to the fact that I woke up at 4:45 this morning to go to boot camp. I ate a banana with a little bit of peanut butter first thing and got ready. I left around 5:15 when it was still really dark outside (It took me back to those days that I worked night shift in L&D). It was really nice a cool outside due to all the rain we got yesterday so it was perfect weather to workout. I could see how it would be really really bad if it was hot and muggy. When I got there they had us walk a lap around the track and then jog a lap. Once everyone got there we all stretched out and then started our station workout. There were 10 stations that had different sorts of exercises like suicides, squats, lunges, shoulder press, triceps, quick step kick box jab right arm, quick step kick box jab left arm, tire run, mountain climbers/push ups, inclined squats. We broke up into groups of 3 and we all worked out at each station for a full 2 minutes. My workout partner made sure I was doing them properly and she said it best, "are there flames coming out of my triceps? Because they are en fuego!!!" Some of those stations were really hard to do for a full 2 minutes. I thought I was going to die. Then we did an Indian run where we broke up into 4 groups and formed 4 lines. Then we ran around the track in line and passed a ring from the front to the back. Then the person in the back had to sprint to the front and start it over again. We did this for a full lap. Next we worked on abs. We did it with a partner where you lay down and they throw your legs down and you have to lift them back up. After we did a medicine ball pass in a circle with the full group and it was super hard! To end it all we stretched and recovered and cleaned up our stations. We had a few people throw up, but luckily I was not one of them. I actually felt pretty good. By the time I drove out of the parking lot my arms felt like Jell-o and I had a hard time just turning the steering wheel. I know I will be sore tomorrow, but I'll just have to get back out there and do my own workout for homework. I think I'm going to take Ethan out in the jogger. I've got another I-tunes card so I'm thinking of downloading some good workout songs. Do you guys have any suggestions?

Exercise Bootcamp Begins!

So there's a girl in my ward that teaches at an exercise bootcamp and her sister heads up the whole bootcamp organization. Well, I found out they were starting a new session in September so I decided to sign up. It's at 5:15 am - 6:15 am every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for 5 weeks (early, I know!!!). It's perfect timing since Ry's jobs aren't out of town right now so he'll be home in the mornings in case Ethan needs him. E usually doesn't wake up until 7 so it shouldn't be a big deal and I may even be able to get ready by myself in the morning before Ethan wakes up!

Anyway...Saturday we had our inital bootcamp meeting. We started out getting weighed, measured, and then hooked up to electrodes for body fat and I have to say I was worse than I thought. Yikes! I definitely have my work cut out for me. After we all got measured we met our coaches and went over some info. They want us to eat 200 calories 1/2-1 hour before camp so that means that I need to wake up around 4:15-4:45 just so I can eat for bootcamp!!! We need to workout 2-3 times per week for at least 30-45 minutes in addition to our bootcamp workouts. Since nutrition goes hand in hand with exercise, we have a registered dietician that works with us during the camp. We have a speical calorie counter website that we document all our meals and turn in our food and exercise journal every Monday. We also have "bootcamp buddies" that we help each other stay motivated and be sure we're both doing the program. Well, if either of us don't turn in our homework then we both have to run laps after camp. Our coaches basically told us that it's pretty normal to throw up after workouts the first week since our bodies aren't used to working out that hard. Just about that time I was thinking, "What have I signed up for?!" I'm hoping I won't die and that I'll at least be able to function during the day. We'll see. At least there are a few other girls in my ward that will be suffering with me. Our first workout starts on Tuesday so I'm going to enjoy my last two days of lazy, unsore moments. Wish me luck!

Baby Swim Lessons to the Extreme!

My Aunt Leslie sent me an e-mail with this link last night. It's about teaching your infant or toddler to survive if they ever fell into a pool or any other "aquatic environment." At first I was totally anxious watching the baby in the pool, but what if that ever happened to Ethan? Oh my goodness! I wish he knew how to do that. Go check out the opening video and tell me what you think.

New Blog on the Sidebar

Here's a new website that is fun to visit. Check it out, it's called Mod Mom.

Recipe Box Tip

Here is my cooking tip for the day. Do you have a recipe box? Is it jammed with random papers and recipe cards, disorganized, and just annoying to look through? My recipe box was like that and so was my mom's. My mom had over 25 years of recipes that she collected. Her box was bursting at the seams with recipes and it took forever to find what you were looking for. Her recipe box was so full that it spilled over into her main cookbook. She had random recipe cards and newspaper clippings stuck inside her book. One day I decided to do something about it and came up with this great idea. I started going through our boxes with my mom and we organized them by category and then we threw out anything that wasn't good or something we wouldn't even make. Then I went through and typed up every card, paper, napkin, or clipping that had a recipe on it. So after about a month of typing everyday I organized everything into sections and then printed off 2 copies, one for me and one for my mom. I used the clear sheet protectors to put the pages in so we could easily add more pages and change around the order. Plus, it makes it more conducive for cooking since you can wipe your pages off.
I put everything in a 3 ring binder with pockets and wrapped it up for her birthday last year. My mom still has her box with all the original recipes in her cookbook cupboard, but I made a more user friendly version of all our favorite recipes which ended up being a little over 100 pages!!! Of course I benefited from all this since I got a copy too and I use it all the time. I also love the fact that my cookbook is also on my computer so when a friend needs a recipe I can just copy and paste it into an e-mail and send it out. I also get a lot of recipes from the Internet so I can just print it off and add it to my book or just paste it to a new document and add any other new recipes that I have. Anyway...I hope this tip helps and go out there and get that box organized!!!

Skillet Lasagna Recipe

This recipe is for Lori since she's been wanting good recipes with cheap and simple ingredients so here it is. Of course it is from America's Test Kitchen website so you know it's good. I especially love to use fresh basil from my garden! I made it one night with Kaitlyn when our husbands weren't home and I think she'll vouch for me that it's a good recipe.

Skillet Lasagna
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
Water enough to make four cups combined with tomatoes
1 TBLS olive oil
1 medium onion minced
Table salt
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1 pound ground beef (I like Italian sausage)
10 curly edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2 inch lengths
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus 2 additional TBLS
Ground black pepper
1 c. ricotta cheese
3 TBL chopped fresh basil

1. Pour tomatoes with their juices into 1 quart liquid measuring cup. Add water until mixture measures 1 quart
2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add ground meat and cook, breaking apart meat, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes
3. Scatter pasta over meat but do not stir. Pour diced tomatoes with juices and tomato sauce over pasta. Cover and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until past is tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Remove skillet from heat and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Dot with heaping TBLS ricotta, cover and let stand off heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and remaining 2 TBLS Parmesan. Serve.

The first time you make this it may take you a little over 45 minutes to do it all, but I've got it down to a science now and I can make it in about 30. This is also a great meal for leftovers.

Look What I Can Do!!!

Here is a video clip of Ethan doing his morning flashcards. Right now we're learning to identify all sorts of things. Whenever he sees something he always wants to know what it is, what noise it makes, and what you call it. Then whenever he sees that thing again he'll repeat what he learns. It's so funny. I'll be in the store and not even notice something and then all of a sudden he'll start naming things and pointing or making noises. It is so cute! I picked up some flashcards that teach kids their letters since they have great pictures of simple things that Ethan can learn.

He has loved all the praise and "choo choo" stickers that he gets when he's finished. Check out the video of "flashcard time." He was making a cheesy face in front of the camera since he thought I was taking his picture. My favorite thing he does is when we get to the frog picture and he does his "ribbet" sound. So funny! Anyway...I am so proud of Ethan these days. He has really been learning a lot and you can tell that he truly pays attention to everything around him even if I don't know it. He's so smart and so sweet. I love my little Ethan! I can't even believe he will be 2 soon!

Labor Day Weekend

Sorry that this post is a little late. With all the blog slurping, it's been hard to do other stuff on the computer. So here's what we did this weekend... Ry's parents invited the whole family over to have a "Night of Alaska" since they just got back from there last week. All the kids swam and the guys had swim contests. Ethan has been loving his floaties lately. He can totally swim around the whole pool without anyone holding him (he has someone with him in the pool at all times though). He does so well and has even started putting his face in the water to blow bubbles. Way to go Ethan!


After all the swimming festivities, we all got to eat Alaskan Halibut with all the fixings. Yummy! And Grandma made salmon shaped sugar cookies for all the kids to decorate. Papa helped Ethan decorate his all fancy and then he shoved it all in his mouth and asked for more.
While the kids watched a movie about Alaska, I got to check out Suzy's digital scrap booking stuff. Oh my gosh how cute!!! Maybe someday, maybe someday.

Monday we all went down to my parents for the holiday. My mom and I hit the Labor Day sales with Ethan while the guys watched football. I found some super cute shoes for the Fall and I am so excited to wear them! We all met up later at Toys-r-us to let Ethan wander the store. I wanted to see what kinds of things interested him so I could get some birthday ideas. I loved to see what he picked. First he hung around the trains and made all the train noises. Then he just wandered around a few of the shelves randomly pushing buttons to see what stuff did. Then when he headed down the boy aisles he immediately fell in love with all the Home Depot pretend play stuff. There was a whole workbench that he really liked, a chain saw, and a drill. Help us all! Last of all and his most favorite was a trike. He sort of understood the pedals, but it had an attachment that let you push AND steer him. Some of the trikes there only let you push, not steer. I can just picture him cruising around the neighborhood on a little red trike. How cute would that be! Anyway...after the toy store we had a big cookout and then Ethan donned the floaties once again to swim in the pool. I am so surprised how much the little guy gets around the pool. He seriously swam the whole pool length by himself and then propelled his little body back to me. It's incredible. Good thing it tires him out for a great nap, right?! Yeah, in the car...booo. He did got to bed early. Thank goodness.

And Baby Makes 3 is on the Press!

I finished everything up on my blog book and sent it to the printers to finish it up. I am so excited! I ended up with a little over 200 pages and it cost me $50! Wow! I never thought I could scrapbook for that cheap! I have no idea how long it actually takes to print the whole thing and be sent to me, but I will be anxiously waiting for it. I'll let you guys how it all turns out.

Slurping and Photography

Okay so I have basically finished my book now! It's taken up some of my weekend, but nothing too overwhelming. It is so amazing to me that I could basically scrapbook Ethan's first 2 years in 2 days. Yeah!!! My Aunt Suzy was showing me some pretty sweet digital scrap booking stuff yesterday so maybe I'll dabble in that too sometime. What too fun! I think I'm going to order my book tomorrow once I finish my final little touches.

By the way...I can't believe I haven't posted this yet, but I'm adding a new link to my sidebar. It's my cousin Toni's photography website. She is way awesome at what she does and if you're in the area she'd love some business. I think we're going to try to do some head shots for my profile picture sometime soon so I don't continue to look like a geek on my blog. So check out Toni's site! You'll love it!