Im pretty sure he was a fan of so much more though. I can't wait to see his growth in 1st grade!
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Kindergarten Graduation
Im pretty sure he was a fan of so much more though. I can't wait to see his growth in 1st grade!
Summer Kickoff in Vail!
We decided to kick off the summer in Vail, Co for a fun long weekend. It was a fun filled weekend where we got spoiled in the life of luxury at the Ritz Carlton-absolutly GORGEOUS! It was in between seasons up there so it was nice and quiet- the snow bunnies weren't there anymore and the summer crowd hadn't been there yet!
My parents joined us up there and it was a fun time of walking the shops, relaxing, playing some cribbage that Kevin and I won 3/1 at and then we celebrated Luke belated birthday by going to the Cars3 movie launch.
I don't think Ive ever seen Luke more excited! He got to see life-sized models of the Lightening McQueen and the other stars of the movies, play some games, and even got to see a sneak peak of the movie! It was a fun day for sure!
Spring Break,Road Trip, Sun, and Family
When we got to Arizona we got to spend time with Kevin's sister Sheri and her family. Eliza was in heaven being able to play with other little girls! It was a lot of fun to see the cousins interact with each other. After spending a fun couple days in Gilbert area we drove up to our old stomping grounds of where our relationship began and stayed with Kevin's mom up in Peoria. it was a lot of fun going to our old date spots, driving past our old townhouse where we brought Luke home to, and of course enjoying the yummy food that we can't get back in Laramie.We had a great big family gathering, with most of Kevin's siblings andGrandparents. It was so wonderful seeing them, laughing, playing games and just enjoying each others company!
Where Did The Last SIX YEARS Go?
Its crazy to think that Luke turned six this year! I remeber hold my "little" 9lb-er for the first time like it was yesterday...now he's in school, making friends, being fine being away from his beloved "moo moo", and is a proud big brother!
Luke has always been my happy little man. He was such an easy going baby and still today is just as happy-go-lucky. He, like most six year olds doesn't have a filter and will say whatever is on his mind and give you his life story. He can name every car that is in a parking lot, has a special love for Ford Mustangs. Luke makes everyone smile around him and cares for everyone he meets.
Luke has always been my happy little man. He was such an easy going baby and still today is just as happy-go-lucky. He, like most six year olds doesn't have a filter and will say whatever is on his mind and give you his life story. He can name every car that is in a parking lot, has a special love for Ford Mustangs. Luke makes everyone smile around him and cares for everyone he meets.
Happy 6th Birthday Luke, we are so proud of who you are becoming!
Sunday, February 5, 2017
...Just a mom-trying to be healthy...
***DISCLAIMER: I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not here to promote any "fad diets." I'm simply just a mom, trying to be healthy.(PLEASE read the entire post, most questions will be answered with in this post!)
So...like most American's eating healthy has always been a challenge for my husband and I. We like most families live busy lives and didn't help that neither of us grew up in really healthy families. We had developed some pretty unhealthy habits with food the first couple years in our marriage. We knew something needed to change!
What I've learned-PLANNING IS THE KEY!!
So we started with planning our dinners out, at first it was just planning any old meals, then we switched to healthy meals. This post talks about my meal planning process: http://biasfamilyest2010.blogspot.com/2015/04/monthly-menu-planning-101.htm
--->If you want to overhaul your ENTIRE way of eating-meaning you want ALL meals to be healthy-take it from me-TAKE BABY STEPS! **DONT GO COLD TURKEY** Start with one meal/day.
Where did I get my healthy dinner ideas...Pinterest! (what did we do before Pinterest?) Now, I will share with you all my recipes that I've hunted for-but I encourage you to find recipes that work for you and your family. My healthy dinner board:http://pin.it/LGFSjim
Now, like I said take baby steps, why...If you want to eat healthier as a lifestyle and not just a s fad for 2 months...you need to break old habits and make new ones. With that being said we just did healthy dinners and "normal" eating for our other meals for about 6moths to a year. Then we moved on to breakfasts.
In our household Kevin is in charge of our breakfast because it allows me to get our kiddo ready and off to school-that may change later on but for now thats how we role. So both Kevin and I do CrossFit on a daily basis thus breakfast has become an important meal for us to keep us going after a hard workout. Our breakfasts include a lot of protein/fiber-eggs, turkey sausage/bacon, and potatoes. We don't have any recipes for breakfast-my hubby does a lot of making stuff up-ie: homemade hash browns, omelettes, potato skillet (potato, spices, bell peppers), a banana and peanut butter smoothie (using PB2 instead of peanut butter). So once again we mastered breakfast for 6 months-1 year....so at this point we now have healthy dinners and breakfasts habits going on.
Now for lunches...I HATE LUNCH! Scratch that-I USED TO HATE lunch time! We were horrible at lunches...Im not a fan of eating leftovers (they just dont taste the same), so we would do boring sandwiches or play the "what do you want...I don't know , what do you want" game 'til one of would say "you know what sounds good....a yummy_______(fill in the blank) from__________ (fill in the blank)." SOOOO the time came to mastering our lunches....this is the meal I dreaded the most mastering.
I started at first by doing what I do for dinners and wrote on a calendar what we were having for said day...but that plan failed. I would either forget to prep what we needed for lunches or our daily duties of parent/spouse/student/employee would get in the way-so I started thinking of a plan B to go about doing our lunches...AND I FOUND THE GOLDEN TICKET!
PRE-MAKING LUNCHES is amazing, and its already made so what other option do you have than to eat it!
SOOOO...every Sunday is our meal prepping day. I say OUR because my hubby and I do it TOGETHER! (I love spending time cooking with my hubby and doing this lifestyle change together is SOOOO nice) I made up a menu per-say of 7 balanced meals for lunches...
I looked around for some containers that I could put our lunches and found some AMAZING ones on Amazon that are perfect for meal planning/portion controlling. (https://www.amazon.com/Freshware-15-Piece-3-Compartments-Bento-Lunch/dp/B01GH5KQLO/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1486341465&sr=1-7&keywords=food+prep+containers)
So how long does this take...about a total of 2 hours. What we do is, first thing in the morning-is get out all our frozen meats to defrost-we do frozen bc its cheaper. Kevin then starts the brown rice that we have as a side for a lot of our meals- 1cup of brown rice is sufficient for us 2 for a week. If I need to cook the pork roast for our Mexican Pork Bowls- I'll start that in my crockpot (1 roast lasts for 3 weeks...I'll just put it in a zip lock and put it in my freezer and take it out when I need it for the next weeks meal prepping). The real fun doesn't happen till when we get home from church.
By the afternoon all our meat is defrosted and ready for the next step, we marinate chicken and salmon in teriyaki. Then its time to fire up our grill...While kevin is grilling Im working on the other sides. I do use frozen veggies for some of our sides-we live in Wyoming and fresh veggies in the winter is hard to come by. For our brown rice- I got a big bag of rice that we use , then theres frozen veggie mix, canned black beans, and a mexi-corn mix. By the time the grilling is done, any fresh veggies that Im using are done and its put together the meals time!
We've been doing this for 3 weeks now-and I must say I LOVE THIS!!! Its so nice to have healthy lunches already made AND its good quality food!!! There are several options that you can choose from- so its not like a boring sandwich everyday-WOO HOO! Both my hubby and I have seen a difference with changing the way we eat. Remember, this is how we do it-my way is not the only way type of a thing- this is just what works for us. I like knowing that with this we're getting all the needed fruits, veggies and protein in our day. Im not looking for a quick fix- diet pills (no offense to anyone on them) and all that junk that contains oober amounts of caffeine just so you can eat a slice of pizza....yuck, just eat a balanced diet and exercise-it still allows you to eat some good stuff without feeling bad about it-we still have a treat or unhealthy food and feel so much better about it because we KNOW we've planned ahead to make a cheat day or what not possible. MODERATION IN ALL THINGS-no one should deprive themselves, just be smart about it- you want ice cream-no big, just have a smaller bowl then the cereal bowl you're used to.
I just wanted to mention something about eating habits- for a week, I challenge you to take a serious look at what you're eating and why...is it to fuel your body, is it because you're bored, stressed, emotional...Im a bored eater. I eat when Im bored. So to change that habit I needed to be aware of when I thought I was hungry and ask myself..."are you hungry or bored?" I also used to catch myself eating late at night...again..why am I eating...To change these habits I've done 2 things:
1. pre-made snacks:
-these are healthy snacks that I have also prepped on Sunday so when I reach for a snack its a healthy choice. These include: sliced apples, yogurt, celery/carrots, grapes, whole wheat crackers, HEALTHY beef jerky, PLAIN popcorn, yogurt covered raisins and almonds
-Also we keep a water pitcher full of water on our table at all times-drinking water instead of snacking helps when you're bored too
2. For the late night snacks:
-GO TO BED! Part of being healthy is not eating super late and getting good sleep. If you're catching yourself eating late at night its most likely because you're bored. Just like your kids (if you have them)-give yourself a bed time, those with iPhones did you know theres a bed time alarm? If you have any smart phone and you have issues with this-set an alarm...at such-such time you go to bed. If you HAVE to stay up late, put a sign on your fridge..."kitchen closes at such-such time" also turn off your lights in the kitchen- this helps you mentally know that its CLOSED! ALSO- one other thing, if you look at you're food as more of a fuel for your body instead of an indulgence you're meals should be full of more stuff that not only keeps you healthy BUT also keeps you full!
Any Questions?
So...like most American's eating healthy has always been a challenge for my husband and I. We like most families live busy lives and didn't help that neither of us grew up in really healthy families. We had developed some pretty unhealthy habits with food the first couple years in our marriage. We knew something needed to change!
What I've learned-PLANNING IS THE KEY!!
So we started with planning our dinners out, at first it was just planning any old meals, then we switched to healthy meals. This post talks about my meal planning process: http://biasfamilyest2010.blogspot.com/2015/04/monthly-menu-planning-101.htm
--->If you want to overhaul your ENTIRE way of eating-meaning you want ALL meals to be healthy-take it from me-TAKE BABY STEPS! **DONT GO COLD TURKEY** Start with one meal/day.
Where did I get my healthy dinner ideas...Pinterest! (what did we do before Pinterest?) Now, I will share with you all my recipes that I've hunted for-but I encourage you to find recipes that work for you and your family. My healthy dinner board:http://pin.it/LGFSjim
Now, like I said take baby steps, why...If you want to eat healthier as a lifestyle and not just a s fad for 2 months...you need to break old habits and make new ones. With that being said we just did healthy dinners and "normal" eating for our other meals for about 6moths to a year. Then we moved on to breakfasts.
In our household Kevin is in charge of our breakfast because it allows me to get our kiddo ready and off to school-that may change later on but for now thats how we role. So both Kevin and I do CrossFit on a daily basis thus breakfast has become an important meal for us to keep us going after a hard workout. Our breakfasts include a lot of protein/fiber-eggs, turkey sausage/bacon, and potatoes. We don't have any recipes for breakfast-my hubby does a lot of making stuff up-ie: homemade hash browns, omelettes, potato skillet (potato, spices, bell peppers), a banana and peanut butter smoothie (using PB2 instead of peanut butter). So once again we mastered breakfast for 6 months-1 year....so at this point we now have healthy dinners and breakfasts habits going on.
Now for lunches...I HATE LUNCH! Scratch that-I USED TO HATE lunch time! We were horrible at lunches...Im not a fan of eating leftovers (they just dont taste the same), so we would do boring sandwiches or play the "what do you want...I don't know , what do you want" game 'til one of would say "you know what sounds good....a yummy_______(fill in the blank) from__________ (fill in the blank)." SOOOO the time came to mastering our lunches....this is the meal I dreaded the most mastering.
I started at first by doing what I do for dinners and wrote on a calendar what we were having for said day...but that plan failed. I would either forget to prep what we needed for lunches or our daily duties of parent/spouse/student/employee would get in the way-so I started thinking of a plan B to go about doing our lunches...AND I FOUND THE GOLDEN TICKET!
PRE-MAKING LUNCHES is amazing, and its already made so what other option do you have than to eat it!
SOOOO...every Sunday is our meal prepping day. I say OUR because my hubby and I do it TOGETHER! (I love spending time cooking with my hubby and doing this lifestyle change together is SOOOO nice) I made up a menu per-say of 7 balanced meals for lunches...
I looked around for some containers that I could put our lunches and found some AMAZING ones on Amazon that are perfect for meal planning/portion controlling. (https://www.amazon.com/Freshware-15-Piece-3-Compartments-Bento-Lunch/dp/B01GH5KQLO/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1486341465&sr=1-7&keywords=food+prep+containers)
So how long does this take...about a total of 2 hours. What we do is, first thing in the morning-is get out all our frozen meats to defrost-we do frozen bc its cheaper. Kevin then starts the brown rice that we have as a side for a lot of our meals- 1cup of brown rice is sufficient for us 2 for a week. If I need to cook the pork roast for our Mexican Pork Bowls- I'll start that in my crockpot (1 roast lasts for 3 weeks...I'll just put it in a zip lock and put it in my freezer and take it out when I need it for the next weeks meal prepping). The real fun doesn't happen till when we get home from church.
By the afternoon all our meat is defrosted and ready for the next step, we marinate chicken and salmon in teriyaki. Then its time to fire up our grill...While kevin is grilling Im working on the other sides. I do use frozen veggies for some of our sides-we live in Wyoming and fresh veggies in the winter is hard to come by. For our brown rice- I got a big bag of rice that we use , then theres frozen veggie mix, canned black beans, and a mexi-corn mix. By the time the grilling is done, any fresh veggies that Im using are done and its put together the meals time!
We've been doing this for 3 weeks now-and I must say I LOVE THIS!!! Its so nice to have healthy lunches already made AND its good quality food!!! There are several options that you can choose from- so its not like a boring sandwich everyday-WOO HOO! Both my hubby and I have seen a difference with changing the way we eat. Remember, this is how we do it-my way is not the only way type of a thing- this is just what works for us. I like knowing that with this we're getting all the needed fruits, veggies and protein in our day. Im not looking for a quick fix- diet pills (no offense to anyone on them) and all that junk that contains oober amounts of caffeine just so you can eat a slice of pizza....yuck, just eat a balanced diet and exercise-it still allows you to eat some good stuff without feeling bad about it-we still have a treat or unhealthy food and feel so much better about it because we KNOW we've planned ahead to make a cheat day or what not possible. MODERATION IN ALL THINGS-no one should deprive themselves, just be smart about it- you want ice cream-no big, just have a smaller bowl then the cereal bowl you're used to.I just wanted to mention something about eating habits- for a week, I challenge you to take a serious look at what you're eating and why...is it to fuel your body, is it because you're bored, stressed, emotional...Im a bored eater. I eat when Im bored. So to change that habit I needed to be aware of when I thought I was hungry and ask myself..."are you hungry or bored?" I also used to catch myself eating late at night...again..why am I eating...To change these habits I've done 2 things:
1. pre-made snacks:
-these are healthy snacks that I have also prepped on Sunday so when I reach for a snack its a healthy choice. These include: sliced apples, yogurt, celery/carrots, grapes, whole wheat crackers, HEALTHY beef jerky, PLAIN popcorn, yogurt covered raisins and almonds
-Also we keep a water pitcher full of water on our table at all times-drinking water instead of snacking helps when you're bored too
2. For the late night snacks:
-GO TO BED! Part of being healthy is not eating super late and getting good sleep. If you're catching yourself eating late at night its most likely because you're bored. Just like your kids (if you have them)-give yourself a bed time, those with iPhones did you know theres a bed time alarm? If you have any smart phone and you have issues with this-set an alarm...at such-such time you go to bed. If you HAVE to stay up late, put a sign on your fridge..."kitchen closes at such-such time" also turn off your lights in the kitchen- this helps you mentally know that its CLOSED! ALSO- one other thing, if you look at you're food as more of a fuel for your body instead of an indulgence you're meals should be full of more stuff that not only keeps you healthy BUT also keeps you full!
Any Questions?
Friday, June 10, 2016
ALOHA! (*Warning-picture overload*
The trip that we had been looking forward to for a year FINALLY came! We were fortunate enough to go to Maui for a week! It was an AMAZING week of fun,sun, and best of all RELAXATION! Some people may think we were a little crazy for taking the kiddos with us, but it was great having them with us!
Traveling to Hawaii from Laramie is an adventure in itself! We first had to drive 6 hours to Salt Lake City, then the next day- a two hour flight to LAX and after a couple hour layover-a FIVE hour and FORTY minute flight to Maui! To say we were ready to be there after all that was an understatement! The kids traveled pretty well considering! It was great to see friendly faces when we landed, my parents met us there.
The time change was something for us to get used to- its 4 hours EARLIER in Maui than in Laramie, so I was always up early-but so was my mom. Every morning we took a walk together and if any of the kiddos were up, they would join. (Kevin finished school/finals a week earlier, so I tried to let him catch up on a semisters worth of sleep as much as he could.) On our morning walks we would walk to Whalers Village and do some window shopping in all the fun swanky stores-Eliza may have been introduced to Louis Vuitton-gotta teach them young-right? ; )Our mornings were spent pool side most days- the kids LOVED it! The report we stayed at was super family friendly, so it was fun watching the kiddos
One day we went to explore a little town that was on the way to Road to Hana (no, we didn't venture that!). It was such a cute little town and after we went to a near by beach to let the kids explore the ocean and beach a little bit-they had soon much fun waiting in the ocean and having the waves crash their feet and feeling their toes in the sand. We realized though why people just stay at the resort...SAND EVERYWHERE in the poor rental car!
While we were there I wanted to do something special for Kevin's birthday. (We weren't actually in Hawaii on "the" day, but his actual birthday was spent getting home from Utah on our way home.) After searching for the perfect gift I decided I wanted to give him a memory...not a "thing" he would get rid of in a few years after using it. Decided to go a little BIG...drumroll please....A HELICOPTER TOUR OF THE WATERFALLS ON THE ISLAND!I wont lie I was a little freaked to go...but I knew it would be worth it and I knew it would be something he can't do at home. IT WAS AMAZING! I wish everyone could get the opportunity to do it...its too worth the money! It was so amazing to see these massive waterfalls up close. The best part is that it had rained the previous day, so the waterfalls were super full and had a ton of little ones that only run after rainfall.
Kevin and I also decided to try something else new while in Maui-Paddle Boarding. It was too much harder then it looked, but an AMAZING adventure. Its one of those things that require you not think of how to do it, just to do it-which I'm not the best at, but I finally was able to get up and stay up. Kevin was a pro, he got up right away! I will say, the times I spent on my knees instead of standing up did pay off-the ocean was soon clear you could see all the fish and corals under you, I even got to see a Sea Turtle swim right under me!
It was a FABULOUS week- we couldn't ask for a better time! There are too many pictures for me to choose to post, so heres a few more great moments!
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Luke is growing up...tear
WHOLY COW-Luke is going into Kindergarten!?! WHAT? Those who know me well, know that Im not one of those women who cry often and gets too emotional about things. I'm officially, one of "those" Moms-you know, the ones that get teary eyed over their kids accomplishments- yes, I got a little emotional over the fact that Luke is officially done with Preschool! Our baby boy is now a little man-he's going to be going to school ALL day soon (which of course has its blessings)!
Luke really bloomed this last year in Preschool-he was a little sponge, soaking EVERYTHING UP! He wasn't the only one that learned something though. Luke taught his teachers too this year, not about number or anything like that... about CARS! Yup, Luke's love for cars goes beyond love-its an OBSESSION! At his graduation, Luke's teachers commented that they now know more car brands then they had at beginning of the year, thanks to Luke. : )
I know this emotional "mom moment" is bitter sweet. I know that the next chapter will be so exciting for our little man!
Thats our goof ball of a kiddo!
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