<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11160757/?claim=q2dzn2wzdy7">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

A Princess, Ironman, and Frog

Ok so the title sounds like something from a bad joke but it's just what my mini's dressed up as.

Being that we have two fall birthdays for my oldest two, we chose to celebrate them together.
This year it worked out well because my kids also want a costume party every year for Halloween.
I love Halloween and themes so celebrating all three seemed like a great idea to me.
Oh and it gives me a great excuse to use my skeleton tongs.

 

 

The whole gang

 

Wednesday Addams and Thing on my shoulder

 

 

I'm so glad that even the adults dressed up. Please forgive my Wednesday Addams broodingness. I don't usually do the death stare at the camera but I had to stay in character.

And the lovely cake. Oh I love my kiddos and I usually do an elaborate cake but they wanted to help decorate so there you have it.

 

The kids all had a blast and they want to do it again next year. So this may be a reoccurring event.

 

Do décor your own birthday cakes? Dressing up for Halloween?





Oh For The Love of FALL!

Oh the season of Fall how I love thee. I can wear jeans and sweatshirts and not worry about my muffin top. I can run without wheezing. Fall is by far my favorite season.

But Fall tends to be the busiest in our home. We have 2 mini's with fall birthdays, Halloween, and everyone wants family pictures, and kids pictures done. So it tends to be super crazy, and my house usually looks like the tazmainian devil has gone through it.

This past week I had pictures, pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, and the double birthday party.

After my shoots on Sunday we headed to the Pumpkin Patch to get our pumpkins.
My kids know that they have to appease mom with one pumpkin patch group shots. Much to their chagrin. Yes, they may talk about this years later in therapy...how they were scarred but too bad.

 

 

Now onto the pumpkin carving. We are very non-traditional in the pumpkin carving. We love to pick out a fun stencil or make one. No triangle eyes here.

C is watching very intently

B doesn't like the pumpkin guts

 

We make pumpkin carving easier by laying out a plastic table cloth on our work service. All the guts and goo go on that. Then when we're done we can wrap up the leftover junk and into the garbage it goes or the compost pile but we don't have one.
From start to finish it only took us an hour and a half. Not to shabby.

B's cat

C's Monkey

My Minions and Gru

T's Mario

The Hubs Tree

Clearly we are awesome pumpkin carvers and should receive a medal. This year our carvings were pretty easy compared to the past years. We've had Vanilla Ice, Lionel Richie, Animal, Red from Fraggle Rock just to name a few.

I'm hoping to get the mini's birthday party recap up tomorrow, but we're in for an internet upgrade so I will be MIA for a couple days until that's all settled.

How was your weekend? Any Pumpkin carving awesomeness to report?

10K For Team Triumph

I'm so sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately. Fall is the busiest time of year for me.
I've been doing 3-4 photo shoots on the weekends and with birthday parties to organize it's been chaos. I was going to post last week but hello the good ole internet was down for a week. Thank you hornets that decided making a home in the phone box would be a great idea. Can you tell how awesome I thought that was? Grrrr. I have patience but not so much when things are running slow or not working. Alright so here's the recap of the last two weeks. This maybe my only post as again it's busy busy here at mi casa.

Let's take it back to October 5th. I ran a 5k that would complete my 2013 goal of running a 5K, 10K, 15k, half marathon and full marathon. It was the Pink Pumpkin Race and I met up with my other runner girl Miss J.

 

It was cold and wet and super hilly. Please tell me what spawn of the devil puts a ginormous hill at the end of a race. Jerks. LOL Oh well I was stoked because I PR'ed. Hey I know I'm the captain of team Turtle and I'm fine with that.

 

Sunday I had pictures to take..

 

Flash forward to the following Saturday and I got in another wet run.

What is up with the pucker face. ekk.

 

 

You can't see it to well but the second picture on the left is a rainbow that peeked out before it down poured. Fun fact. I hate running in the rain and never would do it. I guess I'm not so much a fair weather runner anymore. After my run was more pictures, followed by a family function on Sunday.

 

Mini C with my bro...yes we're a family of dorks.

 



Again flash forward to this past Saturday (because that's what my life is like can someone push the slow down button)

This past Saturday I ran in the 10K Africa Hope Run.

I ran the race as part of a team for my Team Triumph.  I've talked about my team triumph before.

You can check it out here .

 

Now I'm not a big preacher in things. I'll comment on something I like but I don't throw it your face. BUT this group of people is amazing. I have never ever felt so uplifted and inspired. They just light this fire in your soul that makes you want to do whatever you can.

To be an angel you are suppose to raise $100, this money covers your registration and the rest of the money goes towards the equipment, captain registrations, etc. This is an 100% non-profit organization, unlike some non-profits that keep a cut for "expenses and fees". This organization gives everything back and everyone is a volunteer, nobody gets paid with money to be a part of this group.  Anyway, my personal goal was to raise $300 for them. I sent out my email to my family, and posted on facebook. Within the first 5 min I was at $200. When I checked last Thursday I was past my goal. I had raised $305 for my Team Triumph. I am not usually at a loss for words but I was truly humbled by those that donated and supported me and my goals.

 

Now onto the good stuff....race day.

We (Hide-a-key, BB, & me) got up and had to be there for 7, race was at 7:50). It was super cold, and the forecast was predicting snow. ekkk already I like 50's, thank you very much.

It ended up being really sunny and no wind at all.

 

We helped set up, sign Johnny shirt and took some pic's.

Jacob and Me

Jacob, Me, Hide-a-Key

 

 

 

 

 

Each captain is given a shirt and the angels sign it for them, so they always have a reminder of their angels for that race. Jacob was our training captain. He was a volunteer helper for the day.

So we got our Captains in their strollers and started off to the finish line.

 

 

 

It was a beautiful morning. Chilly, yes but the sun was super bright. All our captains were very excited to doing the race. We got to start 10 min before everyone else so we could spread out a bit.  We started off faster than what I'm used to and I tried my best to keep up but by mile 3 I was exhausted and having issues with my breathing, but being the great team mates that they are BB, and HAK slowed down the pace so I was able to keep going. Our captain  made sure we were hooked up with some tunes while running, as well as gum and tissues.  I thought it was really great that once the other runners caught up with us that most of them ran past and said "Great job", You're looking great", etc., to Johnny. This was Johnny's race. That's the thing about most runners. They are always encouraging others.

 

We were coming up to mile 5 and kept asking Johnny if he wanted to run. He was very hesitant and kept saying in a little bit. When we reached mile marker 6 we all said, "Ok bud you can do this we'll be there helping you." Reluctantly, Johnny got up out of the stroller to run the last .2 miles of the race.

I'm yelling go Johnny...so please excuse the akward picture.

 

Poor little guy had to stop twice. Looking at Johnny you would think he's a normal kid. He can walk, talk and function, but he has CP in his hips which makes it very difficult to run. He's a trooper. He finished the race and we were all so proud and had tears in our eyes.

 

Post race Photo

 

What a great race!!! I'm so proud of our team. I'm sad that we're done with our group till March. Darn you WI snow. Ha!

 

 

So that's my little re-cap. Sorry I've been MIA, and this week looks like it's not slowing down, but I'll be back next week with a re-cap on the mini's birthday party.

 







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Love, Birthdays, Goals, and SO WHAT!!!

This past Friday I celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss with my husband. Now to say it's been all rainbows, glitter, and unicorns I would be telling you a lie. It's been chalk full of ups and downs, but we've gotten through it. 3 kids, two businesses, and a little trip to crazy town and we're still standing together strong. I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else and to say he's my best friend is an understatement because he's so much more.

He hates pictures (Dec 2012)

We celebrated in style, at home, sans children for the whole weekend. Thanks mom! It was great to be like it was before we had all this responsibility in our lives. Here's to many more:)

Yesterday was the oldest of the mini's birthday. I still remember the long process of her entering this world. To say her birth was easy is a huge understatement. She took 19 hours of hell and is still as stubborn as hell. She takes her sweet time to do things but her heart makes up for it all.
Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Birthday Outfit

 

Alright it's October and since I'm late to the party here are my Goals for the month

 

OCTOBER GOALS

Maybe if I put them out there I'll actually stick to them

 

Sundays-Rest

Mondays-Chalene Extreme (am) / Run (pm)

Tuesdays- Chalene Extreme (am)

Wednedays-Chalene Extreme (am)/Run (pm)

Thursdays-Chalene Extreme (am)

Fridays-Yoga (am)

Saturday - Long Run (am)

 

So there it is for the workouts and my goal is to eat within my calories.

Since I'm done marathon training for now (did you catch that) it's time to work on getting this hot mess express toned and to my goal weight. I'm going to see how it goes this month and then re-evaluate in November.

Now on to SO WHAT WEDNESDAY........

 

SO WHAT IF: I posted this late. Birthday burger and cake called my name first.

 

I was suppose to get up early to start my routine and I didn't because my kids decided that being awake all night was way more fun. Insert lots of MIO energy this am to wake up.

 

I'm loving Miley Cyrus's new song Wrecking Ball. I makes me say "eff" you haters.

 

I'm counting down the days to see my fav's in Chi-town, along with fast forward to April when I get visit with another fav.

 

I'm already thinking about another marathon.....yes once you catch the bug you have it. I'm not sure what the husband thinks but maybe I'll have a year to convince him:)

 

I'm runner obsessed, can't help it. It's my drug.

 

And that's it my peeps. Make today a great one and if not just say: SO WHAT!!