Little Lila, Big Girl

I know, I know. It's been forever! I've been so busy with everything! Some updates on our little girls and the things she's doing. She is so crazy!

I've just noticed a bunch of little things in the past few weeks that she has been doing and I can't help but crack up at her. She learns so much, so fast. She now sings along with songs on the tv and has certain dance moves for songs we sing in the car. She knows I'm impressed because she looks at me and cracks up when she's doing it, like "Mom, you didn't know I could do this, did you?".

She is also repeating everything and saying please and thank you. We are quite proud of that. She tells me "I'm done", "all gone", "candy", and much more.

Just last night she said two things that just cracked me up. We were on a bike ride and Neil was walking his bike to the gas station to fill up the tires an we took a different route for a block. While we weren't with him she said "daddy, are you?". I couldn't believe it. We never taught her this. She had to have learned it from daycare or on TV. Then, not an hour later she was playing with her chalk and put them through a hole in the steps of her slide. The she stuck her head through and said "I see you". I was dying! Again, we never taught her this. It's just so funny how much they learn so fast and easy!

This weekend is marathon weekend! I'm blogging from my phone now on the way down to Nashville. I'm excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. Wish me luck. Hopefully my next blog will be an update on how the marathon went!

Love My Husband

Today is my sweet husband's birthday. Now he is as old as I am. Lol Poor guy had to work Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, and tomorrow night as well.

I made him a birthday lunch, surprised him with his family showing up at church and joining us for lunch, and really just had a great day.

Lila and I are now enjoying the evening. We went on a bike ride, played out in the yard, swung on the swing set, and now she is making a mess in the bathtub! Splash splash splash! Crazy girl.

For Valentine's day this year I made Neil a little gift pack with an envelope to open each month. We're supposed to have a date night each month! It's important to have time to ourselves , not always as a family. Well, we've been so busy that we haven't even done ANY of the date nights yet. How awful is that!? We sat down yesterday and decided when our dates were gonna happen. I'm excited to share what was on the envelopes! I think you'll like them. I know he does so far!

The day has finally come!

I'm getting and iPhone!  I'm getting an iPhone!

Ok, so I may be acting like a child, but I'm dying here.  I have wanting an iPhone since they came out and my friend Kara got one for Christmas the first year they were released!  I seriously almost considered switching to AT&T at one point then realized their service is shit here, so I sucked it up and waited to Verizon to get it.  Rumors were everywhere!  Verizon was getting the iPhone.  HA...they've ben saying that for years and we still don't have it.  I'm just going to renew my contract and call their bluff...and that I did.  Well 2 months later, here it came and I had my Droid.  I'm not gonna complain, I liked my phone a lot...until I had to get it replaced 4 times.  Thankfully now, they've let me upgrade a little early and it's in the mail.  I should get it tomorrow.

In other news, I tended to my garden today.  Leveled it out a little planted some more flowers, trimmed down my rose bush.  I thought I'd done enough to my rose bush until Grandma Jane came over and pretty much halved it again!  LOL  I was freaking out at the beautiful blooms that she cut off.  I have to say though, it looks so much better.

We also dug up a big shrub that was in our front yard.  It blocked a lot of the front porch and it really wasn't that pretty of a shrub anyway, so we just dug it out.  We are so happy that we did it too.  It looks so much better.  I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow or the next day.  I think you'll agree.

Well the 4 day weekend for this girl end tonight.  I've gotta get to bed so I can get enough sleep to get to work tomorrow!  Too bad I didn't win the mega millions a couple weeks ago......

18 Months - Lila Jane

I have to admit, I WANT to blog, but I can't think of anything to blog about right now.  Of course, there's always Lila, but I usually like to throw some other topics in there too.  I guess I'll talk about Miss Brat.  She has been having sleeping troubles these last couple weeks.  It has been taking about and hour to get her down and then she gets up multiple times in the night.  Then, surprise surprise, when it's time to get up and got to daycare, she's still tired.  Imagine that.  Sometimes it's 10:00 before I can get her to fall asleep.  No wonder she's tired.  Last night we decided to start the bedtime routine earlier.  She was asleep by 8:45, but then up for about 3 hours at 2:00.  I don't know what's wrong with her.  I take her back to bed and rub or pat her back to sleep, but she's up 20 minutes later.  We have pulled her up in bed with us, but she just tosses and turns, rolls, whines, cries...I'm not sure if she's in pain or what.  Growth spurt?  Teeth?  I'm at a loss, but something has to give.

She has also gotten pretty brave these days.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

These aren't my highest or most dangerous heels, but let's just go ahead and say that this girl loves shoes and it could end up being a problem.  :) 

By the time this pic snapped she was already on her way back down from full out standing on the scooter, hands in the air, waving like she was in a parade.  So far, we've managed to not have to make any visits to the ER.  LOL

Lila has also been participating in potty time.  She has a princess seat that goes on our potty and every night after her bath she sits on the potty and we try to do something.  Honestly, I'm just trying to get her used to sitting on the potty so when then time comes that she IS fully ready, that part is covered.  She has peed in the potty a couple times, but no poop yet.  She poops in the morning about the same time everyday and this is when she's at daycare so it's hard for me get her to poop on the potty.  I have a four day weekend this weekend so we may try it out this weekend.  We'll see.  She loves Elmo and Elmos pee pees and poo poos in the potty and this is her addicted to Elmo so maybe Elmo can convince her as well.

Girls Night!

It's girls night tonight! I'm sooooo excited! I'm going to dinner with my girls that I've been friends with since I was a wee TOT and we are gonna have so much fun. We haven't gotten together in so long so it's gonna be one of those nights. LOL! 

I'm sure we'll be THAT table in the restaurant that no one wants to sit by because we are so loud and obnoxious. Yep...that's us! And we love it!  I got my nails did today and I painted my toes. This needed to be done so bad.

This occasion also means drinks and gossip! Except for one my besties, Ash, who has a little munchkin on the way. She is graciously driving us. The key at this point is to always have a friend who is pregnant, but still wants to have fun. That way you always have a driver. :) Just kiddin' Ash. You know we love ya!

I will update this post later with a pic of my girls! Tons of fun here!  Stay tuned!

Stuff...

This week started out ok, but yuck...Neil got sick with a stomach bug, then I got sick with a stomach bug, then Lila woke up from a nap SCREAMING yesterday.  I think her canines are starting to come in.  A little ibuprofen later and she ended up being fine.  I hate teething.  Have I mentioned that before.

Many of you know that I have a BodyBugg and I love it.  Well yesterday, I purchased a Nike+ Sportband.  This device will do everything I need for my runs.  And there is no subscription to the Nike+ website, like there is to the BodyBugg website.  Right now when I go for my runs, I wear my BodyBugg and take my phone to track my mileage with an app called MiCoach by Adidas.  I love the app, but it's a lot of gear to wear when going on a 20 mile run.  I'm hoping the calorie counter on the Nike+ Sportband will be as accurate as the BodyBugg, but if it's not, I think I'll still be happy.  I honestly just wear the BodyBugg to count my calories burned for curiosity, not to lose weight...I'm not trying to lose weight.  I'll be sure to let you know how I like the Nike+ Sportband!

Update on the "healthy eating" in the Atkins household....BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!  Well, we've been sick this week, what do you expect?  Also since Tuesday, I have not taken my Skinnygirl Daily packets.  Again, I've been sick.  I'm hoping to drink/eat one at lunch today.  We'll see how my stomach feels.

I started reading "The Hunger Games" last night on my friend Sarah's Kindle.  1. I love the Kindle....I think I need one, seriously.  2. I couldn't hardly put it down.  I read 4 chapters last night (a lot for me; I'm a slow reader).  I read while Lila was watching TV, while she was taking a bath, while I was rocking her to sleep, and when I got in bed.  It wasn't until my eyes started crossing from being so tired that I put the book down and hit the sack.  It has such an intriguing story line.  I can't wait to finish it.  Book review to come!

So Blessed

I wasn't really sure what I was going to write about today, so it's really just gonna be a little bit of everything that is on my mind.

This morning, Lila and I slept in until almost 10:00.  It felt sooooo good.  I have to admit that I woke up about 9:30 and pretty much just watched her sleep for 30 minutes.  I never get tired of watching her.  Sometimes I can't even focus on a television show because all I do is watch her her play or study something to figure out how it works or scream and cheer at the basketball game that's on the TV at the time.  She never ceases to amaze me...in the best way possible.

I had a 16 miler today that I have to say I've been dreading this week.  I don't know why, but I just didn't want to do it.  My body has been feeling very tired and weak the last couple weeks and I'm not sure if it's fully recovering from the long runs I've done in the past month.  I am hoping and praying that it tells me what to do and when is enough.  That being said, I hope that "enough" can wait until April 28th.

I know sometimes we get caught up in the chaos of life, but today, even with my iPod blaring in my eardrums, it was so apparent to me that God was with me.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  A lot warmer than it has been for my long runs, 40 degrees warmer than my last one to be exact, and I was kinda scared how the weather was gonna affect me.  Thankfully I made it through with little pain today.  God even knew when I was getting pretty warm and gave me a cool shower for about 3 minutes.  :)  All I could do was smile.

For those of you who don't know (shame on you), we are in the midst of MARCH MADNESS!!!!  One of my favorite times of the year, aside from my birthday and Christmas.  LOL  My bracket is still in ok shape even though Duke and Mizzou both got upset.  I'm at a good place with my teams right now.  Here is a look at my bracket as of now.  Not too bad.

Update on my Skinnygirl Daily packets.  I'm still loving them.  I think they are starting to affect my bowels a bit more, but I do think they are working, cleansing the bad out.  I'm wondering if that has something to do with why I've been feeling a little different.  Maybe my body is used to the toxins (how sad is that) and now it's just trying to get used to working without them.  Of course that's how it should be.  Today I mixed my packet in a smoothie that I created myself.  It's a pretty simple smoothie, but it was delicious.

Lindsey's Skinnygirl Smoothie

About a cup of V-8 Fusion Juice of your choice - I used Strawberry Banana
About 6-8 (hell who knows, maybe more) frozen strawberries (you can use fresh, but be sure to add more ice if you do so)
1 banana
Handful of ice cubes (if you have ginormous hands, a little less than a handful)
Tad of Apple juice
Skinnygirl Daily Cleanse and Restore packet

I tossed the V-8 juice, strawberries, banana all together, topped it off with a little apple juice and got to blending.  Then I checked the consistency.  It was a little runny so I added the ice cubes.  Add more than I did if you like your smoothie thicker.  I like to drink it out of a straw so this worked for me.  Once it was all blended to my standards, I added the packet, blended once more for good measure and voila a smoothie.  How easy is that?

Now Lila is taking a much needed nap.  Perhaps tonight we'll venture over to Carbondale to find some cute material to make some burp cloths and bibs for a baby shower tomorrow.  Who knows what the night will bring us!