Summer Bucket List: Complete!

It may officially be Fall, but our summer bucket list is now complete!  We had so much fun doing this as a family!  Our final 2 remaining letters were W and R - water balloons and random acts of kindness.

I'm going to start by telling you about our water balloons because they were a total flop.  I bought some of those easy to fill ones and they just would not break!!  No matter how hard we threw them at each other, the only way we could get them to break was to throw them on the ground by our feet. On the very last one Aria finally got one that broke when it hit me!  I will know next time not to get those types of balloons.  Oh well!  We had fun trying!

For the first part of our random acts of kindness, we made fall survival kits to pass out to college students.  We filled them with pencils, fun pens, highlighters, candy, post-it notes, tissue, and gift cards for coffee at 1541 Pastries and Coffee. 

Also included in our kits was a card showing that we did our random acts of kindness in honor of a young lady named Emma Ivanovsky.  Emma died tragically in a tractor accident last year at the age of 15, and though I do not know her personally, just learning about her beautiful and generous heart has had such an impact on me. Please take some time visit A Gift From Emma and read her story. 

We had a total of 4 survival kits, and the college students she gave them to were just so sweet! 

For the 2nd part of our random acts of kindness, Aria passed out play packs with colors, stickers, and a coloring book. So as we walked through the mall today, she found 3 different children to give them out to.  She gets such joy out of giving gifts to others and I love watching her excitement as she makes someone else smile!

We can't wait until next summer to do our bucket list again!

Summer Bucket List: C, P, Y

Over the last few weeks we've been working to finish up the activities on our summer bucket list. We did 3 of our last 5 - Camp in a tent, Play date with a school friend, and Yard sale.

Jason set up a tent in our living room for Aria to sleep in. She thought it was so great!  I was skeptical that she would actually sleep in it all night, but she proved me wrong!  She was just so cute!  She would probably love going on a real camping trip. We may have to add that to our bucket list next summer!

Aria has been asking for a long time to have her school friends, Sophie and Zoey, over to play.  They were not able to come at the same time, so we had 2 different play dates.  I forgot to take pictures of the first one, but these sweet girls had so much fun!

We had a yard (garage) sale at mom and dad's house a few weeks ago.  Aria was quite the sales person.  In the first photo you can see her in the background talking someone in to buying one of her dresses.  She loved talking to all of the people who came and went.  I wish I would have gotten a picture, but Aria was walking around giving away pictures she colored.  I gave her 1/4 of a poster board to decorate and when she finished, she came up to me and asked for a piece of tape. The next thing I noticed she was taping it to a man's hand!  He was such a good sport and walked around with it on and even left still wearing it!

Just two activities left on our bucket list which we will definitely have completed within the week! I guess it's about time since it is officially fall!

Results from the Diet Bet Challenge

I just realized I never posted my results from the Diet Bet Challenge I did!  The challenge was to lose 4% of my body weight in 4 weeks.  To join the challenge you bet $30 and if you meet your goal you have the chance to take home more than you originally put in.  I am happy to say I met my goal with a few ounces to spare, dropping a total of 6.2lbs.  I took home a total of $47.99 - an increase of $17.99.

I learned 2 things from this challenge.

1. This Diet Bet thing is a lot of fun!  I like the fact that you are only competing against yourself.  You either meet your goal or you don't.

2.  I'm not really ready to tackle losing this baby weight just yet.  Since I'm still feeding Quentin it was a bit difficult to try to cut out calories.  I was able to set aside time to walk and spend a little time in the gym, but being exhausted from lack of sleep meant that I was pushing myself more than I probably should at this time.  I also saw a decrease in my milk supply which made me a bit nervous since I plan on feeding Q for 3 more months.

Since I ended the diet bet I have not been working out and I have not been eating overly healthy, so when I stepped on the scale today I fully expected to have gained some of my weight back.  I was shocked to see that I actually lost weight, weighing in at 139.4.

I made one change that I think has played a big part.  For years now, our eat out budget has been $50 for 2 weeks.  Ask me how many times we've stayed within that budget.  Yep, pretty much never.  We usually end up using our entertainment and miscellaneous money on it too.  I decided I was pretty tired of eating out and wasting money on eating out, so we are now strictly staying within that budget.

This has caused us to be very selective on when we eat out, where, and what we get when we are there.  We usually try to spend no more than $10-$15 per meal out so now we are sharing meals.  This means that we aren't over eating and are usually drinking water.  This has been working out really well for the past 4 weeks and I think has played a big part in helping me to keep the weight I lost for the challenge off.

Below are my before and after pictures.  Not too bad and they definitely make me excited to hit the ground running in just a few months!

Summer Bucket List: Day Trippin' to Waco

On Saturday we decided to make a trip to Waco to go to the Cameron Park Zoo.  I had heard so many wonderful things about it so I decided this would be a good zoo to go to for the letter Z on our bucket list.

We arrived at 9am when the zoo opened so we never ran into a large crowd.  The weather was perfect and both kids had a blast.  Aria got to feed a giraffe which she really enjoyed.  I loved watching Quentin just take it all in. It is so fun watching babies see something for the first time.  

After the zoo, we went over to Cameron Park for the letter H - Have a picnic!  I wanted to avoid going out to eat for lunch on our trip and so we packed up an ice chest full of sandwiches, chips, and fruit.  I was so glad we did!  It was a beautiful day and we all really enjoyed eating lunch outside

The letter I on our list was Ice Cream.  We enjoy going out for ice cream as a family, so I knew that when we decided to complete this one, I wanted us to go somewhere outside of our typical places.  So when I found Heritage Creamery in Waco, I knew we had to stop there before heading home.  This place was so good and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping here!

Waco really has a lot of neat places to explore (words I never thought I would say)!  If you are ever looking for a place to take a quick day trip, I think you would really enjoy all that Waco has to offer.

Summer Bucket List: Game Night!!

On Friday night we decided to check Game Night off of our bucket list.  We enjoyed a very relaxing evening at home which was a nice change of pace considering we are always on the go.

We started with a nice game of Sorry!

Then on to the always popular Candyland.

And a competitive game of Monopoly.

And finally, a modified came of Uno.

Game nights are awesome because they are free and Aria has the chance to practice her sportsmanship.  She has gotten really good at being excited for others when they win.....as long as she can win at least one game. :)  We are still working on that, but baby steps!

Summer Bucket List: Volunteering at the iHouse Market

One of my favorite ministries at our church is the iHouse.  This wonderful ministry welcomes international students who come to study at Texas A&M and organizes all kinds of events to help get them settled into the states - conversation clusters, pot lucks, Texas style cookouts, camping trips, etc.  Jason and I really enjoyed being involved with this group before we had Aria, and after she came, life got more than a little busy so we haven't spent as much time with the group. :) I have made some of the most wonderful friends from all over the world through our involvement with the iHouse.

The iHouse Market is a free furniture giveaway for new international students.  It is so much fun getting to make new friends and help them pick out furniture for their new homes!  Since the letter V on our summer bucket list was Volunteer, I knew this would be the PERFECT event for Aria!  My heart was so happy watching her help with moving furniture, talking to the students, and learning about cultures from all over the world.  She served with such a happy heart!

On Friday we went to the church to help move furniture from the storage unit to the church building.  She loved hanging out with the college students from the AFC!

On Saturday, we arrived to the church bright and early and Aria was so excited!

We immediately met some awesome guys from India, Ayush and Atul! Aria even got to accompany them to their house to help deliver the furniture.  They were so incredibly sweet to her and invited her to have some special treats from India.  I felt so humbled by their kindness. Here we are trying to welcome them to Texas and they so graciously shared a piece of their home with us.

We also met a wonderful family from Mexico and Aria had a blast playing with their son.  They played with the basketball and raced up and down the hallway of church.

What a wonderful day!  I am so thankful for the new friendships we made and loved to watch Aria totally in her element.

Summer Bucket List: Q, U, A, L

This past week Jason's parents were in town and we had specially reserved several of our bucket list activities for while they were here.

Q was for Quality time with Nanny and Opa!  The kids had a lot of fun with their grandparents and as an added bonus, their cousin Hunter got to come down and visit as well!  We had ice cream, cooked out, and spent lots of time watching Disney movies! 

Our activity for U was to go to U-Paint-It!  Aria picked out a unicorn and made sure with the staff at U-Paint-It that it would be "okay to mix the colors."

The letter A was to complete an Art Project (though I'm pretty sure Aria permanently lives in an art project).

Nanny brought supplies to make tie dye shirts.  Aria had so much fun making the various designs and I was surprised at how easy tie dying really is.  Quentin enjoyed sitting back and watching while munching on a baby mum mum.

We also visited the Library which was nice because we haven't been since before Quentin was born.  We all picked out books and even joined the summer reading club.

We had such a fun time with Nanny, Opa, and Hunter and miss them already!

Diet Bet

Has anyone ever heard of the website DietBet.com?  Jamie Eason posted that she was hosting a challenge so I thought I'd take a look.  Basically in this challenge you wager $30 and the goal is to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks.  If you are successful, you have the opportunity to earn more than your initial buy in.  

I'm doing another challenge at the same time with a great group of girls at work so when I saw this I thought it would be a good time to double up on challenges to keep me motivated.  I'm definitely taking the slow and steady approach to weight loss since Quentin is not yet 1, but I wanted to do something to get me going in the right direction.

I didn't realize when I was signing up that I'd have to submit my weigh-in within 4 hours of registering. Of course our scale broke a few weeks ago, so when the count down clock showed this, I immediately sent Jason to Walmart to get a new one....at 10:30 pm...on Sunday night.  He was really pleased with me.  Did you know that scales at Walmart are actually in the tools section?  Yeah, no one at Walmart knew either.

So when you weigh-in you have to submit 2 pictures.  One full body of yourself standing on the scale and one of the scale's readout with your weigh-in word.  This is definitely the heaviest I've ever been and I can tell that it is taking a toll on my body.  I am eager to lose a lot of weight and just overall feel better in my skin again, but I know that I can't move too quickly.

So here we go!  

Starting weight - 146.8 lbs
Challenge began - 7/18/16
Goal weight - 140.9 lbs (5.9 lbs)
Challenge ends - 8/14/16

Summer Bucket List: OK!

Last weekend we went on our annual trip to the beach house that my Aunt Nelda and Uncle Dennis rent each summer. I absolutely love this time with my aunt, uncle, cousins and their families. We didn't grow up in the same city as any other family, so I love the opportunity to make precious memories with them.

Now that we have 2 kids of our own in the mix, we don't get the same level of relaxation, but we definitely enjoy watching the kids have a blast.

The letter O on our bucket list was Ocean. Aria seemed so fearless running into the water which was equal parts scary and exciting! I'm glad to see some of her fears melt away the older she gets. I'm not sure that Quentin was as wild about the beach but he still had s lot of fun on the trip.

The ferry ride over to Bolivar

Both kids absolutely loved playing with their cousin Zachary! He was so sweet to them!

Q enjoyed sitting on the porch admiring the view

Ken taught Aria how to play Cribbage.  She tried to teach me but I'm pretty sure something was lost in transition.

Little cuties!

Always have to get ice cream from the ice cream truck.  Now that I have kids, I can totally blame my obsession on them and no one will know the difference. :)

We also completed the letter K on our list - Kites. Jason worked hard to put Aria's kite together and she flew it for about as long as it took for me to take these pictures. So of course it was well worth the cost.

I sure love my family!!