Happy New Year's Eve

As we are upon the last day of 2012!  I am looking forward to seeing what 2013' brings.   But first we feel that we need to get our "New Year's Resolutions" in order and making sure that we stick with them.  As like (most) the one resolution that tops my list is to "lose weight" Blah, Blah, Blah.... ;)  Well with that still on my list, I have some other resolutions that I want to stick with and conquer!

Please stay tuned as I share my "New Year's Resolutions of 2013".  As for now I hope everyone has a safe and fun time tonight ringing in the new year! 

Happy Blogging,

Julie

A long over-due vacation

Wow!  I can not believe that the last blog that I wrote was in March.  Where did the rest of last school year go and our summer go.  Well let me do a quick re-cap....The kids graduated from 2nd. and 4th. grade!  (boo-hoo, my babies are growing up too fast!)  On the last day of school, Megan recieved a certificate for A Honor Roll for the entire school year! {"Whoop-Whoop"!!!  Chance started his summer baseball, where the team ended in 2nd. for the summer!  Another "Whoop-Whoop"!! 

After baseball season, we took the kids to Sea World and Schliterbaugh - Awesome mini trip!!! We all had a blast.  It was so nice to just "get away" and spend time with one another.

The rest of the summer we just R&R'd at the pool, home and just chilled!  In August, Chancer turned nine years old.  I thought it would be so fun to have his first "big" sleep-over.  OMG!  ( it was pretty fun) but we had a total of 12 boys!  I think that was quite many!  lol!!!!  What most importantly was that Chance had a blast!

School then started and I can't tell you how sad I was to see Megan enter the 5th. grade hall!  I can't believe this will be her last year in ELEM! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!  ;)  She has a great teacher and has a lot of friends that are in her class.  She is having one of the best years, so we are glad at that!  Chance is upstairs now in the 3rd. grade hall and has a great teacher as well!  I can't tell you how proud we are of him, he has just blossomed this year, really coming out of his shell!  So great!!!!

Chance had his first fall season of Kid Pitch, and he did ( and team) so great!  Came out with a semi-final win, which is totally awesome for the team's first year of play with this season!  Megan is now on I-Team in Star Dancer's and is loving it.  They are getting ready to start competitions, which will start at the end of Jan.  They are going to do so good! 

November came around and Megan turned eleven years old...  We took her up to Dallas to shop at the American Girl Store!  I am in total Awe everytime we go!  She loved it and had so much fun and walked out of there with two new dolls, clothes and accessories. 

December has already come and gone and we all had a wonderful Christmas!  We hosted Christmas Eve at our home and my brother hosted Christmas Day at his home.  I love to get together with family!  Means so much!  Santa Claus was so good to the kids, they enjoyed everything that they recieved!  We are truly blessed!

Wow!  There is much more in between that has gone on, but this was a little over-view!  I am excited to start the New Year 2013' with a brand new start on our "Family Blog" with lots of excitement, pictures and fun new weekly posts.

Well until next time...

Happy Blogging,

Julie

It's official

Well.. we have a visitor that came to visit my kiddos this week.... It's name is "FLU" ( not the visitor I or my family was looking forward to)

Monday night we took Megan in to the afterhours clinic as she was really not feeling well and her temp would not break 102' after spending more than a hour there we were told she tested positive for the flu.

Today, Chance woke up really tired, coughing and had a fever of 101, so I decided to take him into our pedi to get checked out and hoping that his was just a cold, but after they did the flu test ( which is not fun) it came back positive as well.

I'm not really sure where we caught this nasty bug, but I am hoping for a quick recovery for them. It's not fun seeing your children not feel good, having bad headaches, high fevers or just not acting themselves.

I have been cleaning everything and we have a new bottle of Lysol on hand that has been sprayed on everything in the house ( even the curtains) I plan on knocking this visitor out fast!

So we are going to make the next few days while were inside at home a fun one. ( if they are up to it). We are picking out Red Box movies, playing board games, playdough...

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Sickness please go away!

I am ready for the weather to be more consistant, I mean I'm not ready for the 112' weather, but this 50' degrees one day and 80' degrees another is getting ridiculous! We haven't cracked yet, but this weather is making sickness around here.

Sometimes I wonder can a house be "Too Clean", are we using germy gels too much or are we "Lysoling" everything too much? Can being too clean make you get sick more often? Well I'm starting to wonder because we have one that is under the weather right now again. ( It came on around lunch time today) It seems like we can't get rid of these germs.

I dislike it when my children are sick, sometimes there is nothing you can do. I feel helpless sometimes when you go to the Dr. and they say it's viral, no meds! Ugh!!!

Well hopefully this will past very soon! As for now I'm stocked up on orange juice, crackers.

I can not wait till summer and hopefully we will have a summer -free sickness. Let's cross our fingers!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my wonderful husband and to my two precious children!

They make me so happy and I love them to pieces!!! They mean the world to me!!!

Happy Blogging, xoxo

Julie

"Showtime" Dance Competition

Competition yesterday went Awesome!!! The girls performed their routines so great! I don't know what it is with this group of girls, but they really do great together. "Showtime" was the host for this contest and it was held at Rouse High School, here in Leander, so it was nice that it was down the road.

I was proud of Megan on how she performed, since the night before she had started coming down with a bad cold, the runny nose, that just wouldn't stop, it was so stuffy, she could hardly breath, but besides seeing her with kleenex's throughout the day, you wouldn't of known she didn't feel 100%, she danced great and kept her smile from ear to ear, and I think hammed it up even more in the hip hop routine ( that's her fav.)

The girls walked away with some high awards that included:
*Judges Award
*Sweepstakes Award
*Best in Catagory in Pom
*Best in Catagory in Lyrical
*Best in Catagory in Hip Hop
The girls also was awarded GRAND CHAMPIONS FOR ELEMENTARY DANCE TEAM!!!

Us mama's were so proud of all of them!!!

Way to go E-Team Star Dancer's!

Some of the girls before the Lyrical routine
Megan and her "buddy" for the day MaKayla

Star Dancer's E-team with their awards

The Star Dancer's Dance Team ( all teams and directors)

We are looking forward to the next competition that is coming up in two weeks, until then...

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Excited to save for our family vacation

We have been thinking of a place to take our next vacation, and we were thinking of DisneyWorld. The last time we went to Disneyworld, the kids were a bit younger so we thought it was time to go again. But....I have seen another fun idea on commercials and Chad had a friend from work just return from here and he said that they had a lot of fun on their vacation, so we are going to save up for a trip on the......

DISNEY CRUISE

I have been looking it up online to start looking at prices and get ideas on where we would depart from and where to go so we are going to start saving today! The easiest for us would either to depart from Galveston or Florida and when I looked the only times that would be great for us to go is next year in Feb or Mar. when the kids have their school breaks. So that will give us a lot of time to save so we will have a fun time!

We are not ruling out Disneyworld, but we still have plenty of time to decide ( at least by Oct. so we can start booking everything.)

I think either vacation the kids will enjoy and all that matters is that we are together enjoying as a family!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

A proud mamma's moment...

I am so proud of Megan and Chance. They are truly the sweetest kids! How did we get so lucky to have two great kiddos!

They are not only brother and sister, they are the best of friends. Chad and I love that they both get along so so well. It's so great! They hardly have those "brother & sister issues".

We love that they always listen and talk about their days that they have at school, it's so fun listening to them having conversations in the car or at home.

At the end of every night when we have our bedtime stories, Megan always compliments Chance on his reading. So sweet!

This is a biggie.... We love that they have the best of manners when we are out at resturants or anywhere... We have gotten so many compliments from other people ( some older people, which I love) saying how well behaved our kids are. The other day, we were in the hair salon and their was this mom with two boys that were acting out and she stating to her boys " Look at those kids, look how they are not playing around, they are sitting nice and still" It made me proud that Megan and Chance know how to act in public places. :)

They both make us so proud with everything that they do, school, extra activities, but it how they act towards each other and how they know how to behave when we are out and about makes us so proud of them! I know it makes me smile and makes me realize that we so far have done a great job as parents.

We love them to pieces! I know that their brother and sister relationship is going to grow even bigger and bigger!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Chance got to Meet The Austin Toros!

Chance plays basketball for Neighborhood Sports League during our winter months, so as being a member of Neighborhood Sports he was allowed to attend a free basketball clinic hosted by the Austin Toros Baseketball players - Super cool! When we asked him if he wanted to go, he said YES!

It was held this past Sunday at Cedar Park Middle School. They had a great turn out, so many players from the league. Three of his own teammates on his basketball team now came, so that was a lot of fun for Chance to know a few boys there.

The Toros taught the boys some "drills" and they practiced them. The clinic was only a hour but Chance had a lot of fun. Afterwards, they lined all the boys up so they could get the Austin Toro's autographs if they wanted. Chance and his buddies jumped right in line, they signed their basketball and they also signed a little Toro's basketball flyer.

It was a fun Sunday afternoon!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Winter Dance Competition a S-U-C-C-E-S-S

Before I start going on with this post, I want to warn you about the picture "overload" :)

If you didn't know, Megan is on the Star Dancer's Dance Team, there are 3 levels and she is on the Elementary Team. She is having a blast! This is her 2nd. year on the team and she has just grown so much as a dancer. We love to watch her dance! It's amazing!!!

This past Saturday, we had our 1st. competition of the season. ( We will have 3 more - we are so excited!)

This was the "Winter Dance Classic" hosted by the Leander Bluebelle ( my alumni, can I get a shout out..."Woo Hoo" Lol) at LHS. It was a full day event ( as all of them are) We arrived dressed in makeup, hair and in first costume ( hip hop) at 8 am. We were there a little over 11 hours, but it was worth every minute!

(Please excuse my pictures as they are out of order...)

Our girls did not perform their first dance - Hip Hop routine until in noon hour. We had lunch in the cafeteria about 11ish and then headed back to the dressing room at 11:30 for freshing up and warm up. While the girls went with Ms. Sadia to warm up, us mommies headed into the gym to (try, as it was Packed!) get a seat.

Now it was time, we could see our girls "on deck" eeeehhhh, I always get butterflys for them. I don't know why. lol As the dance before them ended our girls caught ready to enter the floor. We all started cheering for them. Our favorite saying for them is "Sparkle Girls" They love it!

Let me just say, they looked so freaking adorable in their hip hop outfit. As the song started "Lil' Miss Swagger" and the girls caught their attitude going with the dance, the crowd went wild, they loved it. OMG, they rocked that dance, they all did so good. Megan made me so proud, she is just a sweet little girl that loves to smile, and just seeing her out there with her little pucker lips and her sassy face ( that fits the dance of course) looked so cute! I loved it!

Next up, was Lyrical. We had about a hour in between this dance and the previous to get ready to fix makeup and hair. I love this lyrical outfit, its so flowy and I love the color blue. So pretty! It was time for them to go get ready to practice and warm up, so again we headed back to the gym to get our seats to watch this dance.

The girls came onto the floor and danced so beautifully to this lyrical routine. It is such a pretty dance. They all did a wonderful job!

The last dance was a pom routine to "Let's Mambo". Again we had a hour to freshen up, re-do hair and have them practice and warm up. This dance is so fun. Megan loves to dance with poms. It's a crowd pleaser for sure.

This dance we had platforms for the girls to each have a turn in the dance at some point to get on so that was a lot of fun. They all did so good! The crowd loved it. All the different color poms looked so pretty out on the floor too.

Well, after the last routine was performed it was almost 3 p.m. and awards wasn't until 6:30p.m. so the girls had a lot of time to relax, sit in the stands as a team and watch all the dances from different studios.

That is one thing about dance competitions, it is a full all day event, but Megan loves it as well as I.

It was a lot of fun watching the other studios dance, watching solos, duets and seeing all the different dances that were chorographed.

Right before they were going to announce the awards they have all the dancers come to the middle of the gym and they turn on music and they all dance. It was so fun watching Megan just get out there and let loose. So so cute!!! After the competition was over my friend Laura and I took Megan and her daughter and two other girls from the team to Rosa's Cafe for dinner. It was after 9:30p.m. and we were all hungry so it was nice to get something to eat and just relax. A lot of the Star Dancer's were there too so the girls got to sit and eat and hang out. It was a lot of fun!

Awards time.... All of the Star Dancers, E, I and J teams placed awesome at the competition!!! Here is what our Elementary team came home with.

-1st. place Pom routine
-1st. place Hip Hop routine
-1st. place Lyrical routine
-Audience Appeal for judges choice for Hip Hop routine
-Outstanding Showmanship for Pom and Hip Hop routines
-Outstanding Presentation for Hip Hop routines
-Overall Academic Award for Elementary Team with a grade point average of 95%

We were so proud of Megan and to the Star Dancer E-Team! Awesome job girls for the first competition of the season!

We can not wait for the next competition that will be here in two weeks!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

I'm back....

My computer has been to the doctor and is feeling better... So get ready for some exciting blogs!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Our computer caught a "bug"

Sorry I've been "out of pocket", but our computer caught the flu virus and has been down! :(

So.......we are getting back up to running again, so hopefully I will get my pictures back organized and will get back to blogging very soon!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

No comment.... :)

Happy Blogging,

Julie

TEXAS in January

Can I get a "YEE HAW" for our 78' temp. today in January. Talk about beautiful weather we are having. Loving every bit of it.

So glad I live in Texas!!!!!

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Wordless Wednesday

My Mom...

I ran across this little poem that I thought fit my mom perfectly. If I could have one wish, I would love to just talk to my mom one more time. I miss her so much. I miss her seeing the kids. I miss her phone calls, her sleepovers with the kids, her card games with all of us. I miss it all! I know she is watching us from up above! I know she is keeping a eye on us. She was the best mom and Grandma!!!

Loving her and missing her!!!! xoxo

Happy Blogging,

Julie

The Big "36"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME....

Today I turned 36 years old! I have had a great birthday "week".

Last Monday my sweet friends took me out to dinner and desert afterwards. It was so much fun! We went to Logan's Roadhouse and I was blessed with the waiters letting everyone in the resturant know it was my birthday and ending it with a big "yee haw" (It was fun!)

Chad surprised me on Thursday while I was working and brought me flowers ( they are beautiful) and lunch. It was so sweet, I loved it!!!

I was spoiled again and celebrated my day yesterday with my family at Jardin Del Rey for dinner. Yummy!!!

I have had a great birthday . Today we just all relaxed and enjoyed time at home all together, we played games, watched movies. Megan and Chance helped Chad make me breakfast - yummy cinnammon rolls and orange juice. It was nice to sleep in a little too.. :)

Today was great and I am looking forward to my next birthday! :)

Happy Blogging,

Julie

All Time Favorite

I LOVE our kiddos to pieces. They are the best! Their smiles and giggles just melt my heart! They are just the sweetest!

LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!

A All About Me

How much do you really know about someone? I thought it would be fun to list a few fun "facts" about myself that some of you may not know about me.

ALL ABOUT ME....

*My house has to be in "ship shape" order before I leave to go anywhere...( I'm a clean freak!)

*Cannot stand elevators

*My favorite breakfast food is Donuts!

*My favorite shows are REALITY SHOWS! ( I love drama).. I know, it's crazy.

*I love scary movies

*I do not like seafood!

*My favorite resturant is Papasitos!

*I could eat Mexican food everytime we eat out.

*I just recently started liking Chinese food

*I rarely say curse words. (I think I said one once when I broke my toe...)

*I am a very shy ( until you get to know me)

*Me and my best friend ( since Kindergarten) both married "Chads"

*I raced BMX bikes when I was younger and I was named #1 girl in Austin ( in my division)

*I was 2nd. runner -up in the Miss Leander pagent my senior year in H.S.

Well...these are just a few things that you may not know about me. I would like to see some of your "All About Me". It's kindof fun learning new things about friends.

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Wordless Wednesday

One Week Down....

Well today was the day..."WEIGH IN DAY" I have decided that every Monday will be when I weigh in. I used to step on the scale everyday, and I would just get so discouraged. Honestly, going through the days this past week, I haven't missed the scale, and when I woke up this morning ( I always weigh right when I get up) I was anxious to see what I had accomplished.

Before I let you know how much I have lost in one week, let me refresh your memory on how I am doing it.

*Watching what I eat. - NOT DIETING, no counting, no counting calories, just watching what I consume all day. I have been drinking LOTS more water also!

*1-2 miles on my treadmill

* Exercise videos ( Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shed and The Biggest Loser Challenge)

*Limiting Fast food

*Getting more sleep ( I know this isn't exercise, but this does help)

This past week, I have been feeling better. I know doing this on my OWN will take more time then doing Weight Watchers, Slim Fast or any other form of diets, but I will know that I did it on my OWN and hopefully the weight will stay off.

Ok... here it is... I have lost FOUR POUNDS!!!!

I think my first week has gone pretty good and I am looking to losing more this week.

Happy Blogging,

Julie

All Time Favorite

I L-O-V-E to look on Pinterest... I have found so many fun ideas from crafts, clothing ideas, reciepes and much much more! On my page I have re-pinned over 1100 pins.

If you haven't heard of it or haven't been on it, I'd suggest you look it up, but please beware you will not want to get off... it's addicting!!!!! :)

If you want to check my page or just Pinterest itself, you can look at the side of my blog and click on the red box that says "follow me on Pinterest". Trust me, it's so much fun!!!! You will love it too!!!

Megan's 10 year well-check up/ ENT Follow-up

Today Megan had her 10 year old well check up appt. For the first time ever, we were 2 months behind on her check up. What happened was ( because I need to tell you why I was so late getting her in) that she was sick with strep throat 2x's after her birthday and when you are sick they will not do a well check so we kept having to push it back, so now that she is all better and feeling good today was the day-January 6. The Doctor understood and remembered that we were in and out the past couple of months and that she just had surgery for her tonsils and adenoids so she said it was fine, so I felt better. :) ( I'm a worry wart lol)

Her check up went very well. The best part of her appt today was no immunizations and when there are no immunizations we have a very happy girl!!!

Megan's 10 year old well check update:

Weight - 61 lbs

Height - 52 in.

The Doctor gave her a hearing test and she had perfect hearing. She said that Megan looked great and everything that we are doing is good... the foods we are eating ( fruit, veggies, milk intake, hrs of sleep, etc...)

She also said that her ears, throat looked great, but when she did look into her eyes, she noticed that she had a stye in her left eye, so she gave us a prescription for a antibotic to help get rid of that.

Yesterday, Megan had her ENT follow up appt. The Doctor said that everything was looking great and everything was healing like it should. We were so happy to know that it was all healing good. Megan is finally starting to eat more solids. She still can not eat oranges, they still "sting" her throat, but other than that she is doing much better.

Both well check ups had great reports!!!

Until next year till the next well check ups...

Happy Blogging,

Julie

She is tough, but I am hanging in there....

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shed has been part of my workout plan that I started this week. I walk my two miles, do my own ab exercises and I have arm bands from when I was in "Strollerfit" when the kids were babies that I use and then I end the evening with Jillian.

I do have to admit, that she is a toughie! I mean, seriously the video is only 20 minutes and I am barely hanging on by a thread at the end, I guess I am THAT OUT OF SHAPE, but at least I am doing it right??? Hopefully by next week it will start getting easier and I won't be thinking in my head " Am I done yet?" :)

But...... I do have to say, even though it's only been a week, I do feel better. I have been watching my calorie in-take and drinking more water ( drinking water was a biggie for me).

I am only going to weigh on Mondays so I am anxious to see how I am doing.

I am looking forward to more workouts with Jillian and looking forward to seeing my results in the coming months.

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Wordless Wednesday

My Hangover 2 review...

Well here it is...Chad and I watched the movie last night and I have to say it had some funny parts in it. The guys in the movie are still hilarious, but the movie reminded me of the first one. the same plot if you know what I mean. I think they could of changed it up quite a bit. There was one main diffence ( and I won't tell you, incase you haven't seen it, I don't want to ruin it) and I wish they wouldn't of changed it and would of stayed with the previous.

I guess I should of suspected being a "part two" it would of been this way. I give it a...

THUMBS DOWN
I liked the first one much better.
Happy Blogging,

Julie

A Redbox movie that I have been waiting for...

One of my favorite movies is Hangover. I have seen that movie many many times and everytime I watch it it still cracks me up. Those guys are hilarious in that show! When I found out that their was a Hangover 2, I could not wait to see it. ( honestly I can't believe I did not see it in the theater, but anywho..)

When I saw that it was coming out on Redbox I could not wait for it! -yes I get excited over the small things :) - Well today it was the day that it came out and Chad reserved it for me. Woo Hoo! I am so excited and looking forward to watching it this evening ( of course after the munchins go to sleep) Hopefully this one will be just as funny as the first one.

I will post tomorrow morning on whether I liked it or not. Look for a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Until tomorrow....

Happy Blogging,

Julie

Tomorrow starts the new healthier me...

Tomorrow will be the start of a healthier me, I have put me together a exercise log on my computer. I have a new spiral that I am going to use to start writing down all the foods that I eat and I am ready to get started...

I do not want to say that I am on a "DIET", I just want to change my lifestyle to make it more healthier. I think I do eat ok ( I mean I don't pig out), but I know 100% that I could eat a lot better. My one flaw ( I guess you could call it) is that I do not exercise that much. Actually I take that back, I do walk on my treadmill quite a bit, but obvisouly it is doing much good. ( haven't seen the results that I would like to see)

I need more variety and putting together my exercise log, I will be able to track it and to make sure I am hitting all areas.

I do believe logging all my exercises and having a food journal will help me, not only see how much I am doing, or do I need to add more and seeing what foods I am eating and keeping track of how much ( calories) will help me achieve my goals.

Before I would start "dieting" I would say I have till this time to weigh this much, well lets face it that doesn't work ( for me anyways) I either get there, or I don't make it and then I'm frustrated with myself, or if I'm close I don't eat much so I can make that goal, or like any diet, it all comes back. So this time I want to do it right, or at least what feels right to me.


Normally I would say I'm not doing this for anybody other than myself, but actually that is a lie. I am doing it for someone.... My family!!! I want to be healthier for my wonderful husband and children! They are so important to me and they mean the world to me!!!

I will tell ya a secret though.... I would love to purchase me a pair of "MISS ME" jeans. I just love them, but am not wanting to spend $ 100 on a pair of jeans for this body yet, so I am hoping to be sporting those jeans one day. I would like to lose about 20 lbs - this would get me to be "normal" on my BMI calculator, but when I do get down that much this bootie is getting in a pair of expensive jeans. ( I mean a girl's gotta treat herself right??) :)

Here's to a new and healthy year for this momma!

Happy Blogging,

Julie