60 Day Challenge Update!

A few posts ago I talked about the 60 day challenge Jay and I started when we had around 60 days left til our California vacaton. It's basically just a challenge for myself. I wanted to better me! I've been keeping a "journal" about it. I write down what type of exercising we do that day, and if there are any major things that happen (like Suzannes birthday and our anniversary weekend) so we can take those into account when we have our "weigh ins". Jay mostly started doing this for me, so I could have some support and wasn't trying to be healthier while there were a lot of temptations in the house. So he is doing better than he was, but still not being as strict as I am. We don't really have much junk food in the house. Snacks now usually consist of things like string cheese, veggies and fruits. Every once in awhile a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich ;) I've been doing the Brazil Butt Lift workouts every day, with the exception of this week, I've been sick and the bouncing around was not working with my head that felt like it was going to pop. We've been doing family walks, we hiked on our anniversary weekend, I've been adding jumproping in when I can. It's definately been a journey! My goal was to lose ten pounds, and Jay's was to lose 13 pounds. Today is day 34, so we're a little over halfway done with the "challenge" and as of this morning, I am down 9.5 pounds! At our last weigh in Jay was down 5 pounds. :) I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with this. I'm almost to my goal and we're only a little more than halfway. I won't stop at my goal either though, I'm going to lose as much as I can before we go!

Anniversary Weekend 2012

We didn't have a lot of money to spend this year, and we originally thought of just getting a room in park city and maybe doing the Alpine Slide. Well, after we thought about it more, we decided instead of getting a room for 80-100.00 why not just sleep at home (we moved our mattress into the family room so we at least felt like we werent sleeping in the same old place ;)) and spend that hotel money on doing a few things we've been wanting to do.

So my Aunt Candi and Uncle Cody adore our kids - they have five of their own ranging in age from 5 to 16, who also love them too - and they were gracious enough to take our girls for the weekend! Jay brought the girls up there on Thursday night and we picked them up Sunday.

Friday night when Jay got home from work, I made sure I was pretty much ready so he could shower and throw on some clothes and we could head out. We had a gift card to Applebees so we decided that's where we'd go that night. I LOVE getting dressed up - even though we didn't go anywhere real fancy, I still wanted to get dressed up to go out! So we got all fancy and headed out on the bike to Applebees - after that we went to a few stores to pass a couple hours until The Dark Knight Rises started. Jay has really been wanting to see it, so we decided this weekend was a good opportunity to do so. The movie didn't start until 10:20 and I knew it was almost 3 hours, and in a way I wasn't all that excited to see it especially since it wouldn't be over til 1:30 in the morning and we were getting up kind of early the next day for our hike. I am really glad we saw it though, I REALLY liked it and it didn't seem as long as it was. I recommend it for sure!

Saturday we woke up and while we were getting our things together for the hike, we realized we didn't have a backpack to put everything in, besides Brikayla's new princess backpack she got for school. So we headed to Family Dollar, which luckily opened a little early and we were able to pick one up for 3.00 :) We cruised on the bike down to Timponogos Cave. I was so excited that Jay brought this up when we were thinking of things to do! I have been wanting to go for at least 2 years, we just hadn't made the time for it and I figured since I hadn't been in at least 10 years, and Jay didn't know if he'd ever been, it would be perfect for us to do together. Our hike time was 9:50. We got there with a couple minutes to spare and headed up the mountain! We both knew it was going to be a good hike, we just didn't realize how much. HAHA. After like five minutes both of our calves were killing us. We haven't hiked in a few years so it definately took some getting used to. The views on the hike are amazing! I can't wait to take the girls next year. It is so pretty on your way up! I felt like we were going slow, even though we were passing a few people, but our tour time of the cave was 11:20, we made it to the cave entrance at 10:40 - I guess we were moving faster than I thought ;) So we sat back and relaxed for a minute and watched the squirrels and chipmunks. After a few minutes, Jay decided to ask one of the rangers if there was any way of going through any earlier. So we were lucky enough to go in on the 10:50 tour. *side note: everywhere we went this weekend there was always a crying/fussy/loud baby or young child. It was kind of funny, it didn't bother us because we've all been there, but in a weird way it made me miss my kids and made me happy we were alone all at the same time. Anyway, on our tour there was a family with four kids and then also another group of 7 people, then us. The family with the four kids had the crying baby, the mom was really sweet and stayed at the back of the group so that everyone else could hear the tour guide.

The caves were even more awesome than I remember! If you haven't been, or it's just been awhile, I highly recommend going! I know the girls will love it when we go! I love all the different colors and textures and think it's amazing that most of it is created by earth - water, wind, different things like nickel, iron etc can turn the formations different colors. The floors are all completely wet, each door to a new room has to be shut before you open the next to avoid wind howling through the cave. It really is amazing! So we were nearing the end of the tour, only about five minutes left and we were standing in one of the rooms looking at some of the formations that the ranger was telling us about. The next 60 seconds were slow motion/the fastest 60 seconds ever. We hear a flashlight hit the ground, the rangers eyes bug out of his head, a guy jump over the railing down about 6 feet and then a little girls cries/screams and then the woman with the now sleeping baby yelling to Jay to take her baby and she shoves the baby into Jays arms. Their little girl, who was about 2 or 3 had slipped off the edge down about 6 feet and was wedged between two rocks face down. My heart dropped! It was so scary to witness! A man from the other group of 7 had jumped over first, then the girls Dad and they were trying to get her up to safety. She was screaming and crying so loud. When the man touched the girls ribs, she screamed so loud. They got her unwedged and up to the cave floor, and the assistant ranger took the family out to meet some of the other rangers. The rest of us continued the tour, although I couldn't really concentrate after what just happened. We headed down the mountain after the tour and stopped to talk to some rangers about half way down, we asked if the girl was ok, and they had no idea what we were talking about. We told them what happened and one of the rangers said if it would have been really serious, they would have radioed them, so that gave us a little relief. After a couple more minutes on the trail, we ran into the Mom and the 3 other kids, and asked how she was. She told us she had a cut by her eye, she pinched her fingers and probably has bruised ribs. At the bottom, we found the Dad and the little girl and they were reading some books, and the little girl had some pretzels and was all smiles. I am so glad that she was ok! Definately a scary experience with a good outcome! Even though we had that scare, I'm really glad we went, it was a lot of fun and a great thing to experience with my babe! After the hike, we headed to Subway for some lunch then home to get showered and ready for the rest of our day. We headed up to Park City around 2 to go on the Alpine Slide. The line was kind of long, but it moved rather quick. We got put on the ski lift with a man and his probably 18 month/ 2 year old. (Enter crying child #2) The first half or so the kid was fine, he loved looking around at everything, but after that he was done. He was crying and saying that he wanted to get off and everything the Dad tried to distract him with, just didn't work. I felt bad for the guy! We made it up and once we were off the lift, the boy was all smiles :) We hadn't been on it since we were dating and I forgot how fun it is! It was a blast! Around 5 we headed to Baja Cantina - our FAVORITE place to eat. If you like mexican food, you need to try it! I love it! We have gone there for our last three anniversaries now :) This was where we encountered crying baby #3 haha. She wasn't too bad though, she was probably only 3 or 4 months old and was so cute! She just fussed a little bit, wasn't even really crying.

After dinner we headed to the outlet malls to look around, we each ended up getting a shirt and just having a good time shopping without worrying about any little ones ;) The ride back down the canyon was a little cold at first but by the time we were down to the valley, we were dying of heat. We ended up going to Leatherbys and sharing Amy's Hot Fudge Brownie. Definately a weakness of ours!

Sunday we got to sleep in with no interruptions! Woohoo! We headed to IHOP for brunch and right after we ordered, some people were seated at the table next to us and I wasn't really paying much attention, but then Jay typed in to his phone and slid it across the table to me so I could read it "It's the crying baby" at first I didn't know what he was talking about, but then I looked over and saw that there was a couple with a little boy about a year old sitting next to us. I thought it was quite funny, but the little boy was actually really good :) After brunch we hung out for awhile, went home and took a nap then headed to pick up our girls!

"60 Day Challenge"

So back in March or so, I got the Brazil Butt Lift DVD's and started working out and eating a little better. I did really well for about a month, then my friend wanted to try out the DVD's. while they weren't in my posession, I lost all motiviation :( I still kept off the few pounds I had lost, but I didn't lose anymore. I tried doing my Turbo Jam DVD's, but it just wasn't the same. I was doing everything on my own and my motivation had vanished.
Well, a few weeks ago, we had 61 days til we leave for California. So I asked Jay if he would try to eat healthier, eat less, and work out a little with me so I could have someone to keep me motivated. I was so happy that he agreed! So that night we went out and bought some groceries - ALL healthy food - no candy or bad snacks. If you know Jay, you know that's pretty crazy :) That first week we did eat our healthy things, but also we didn't take it too seriously - we did start going on family walks, which I've always wanted to do, but we never made the time for it. We didn't do that well that week though, I ate a lot of stuff that afterward I was bummed about. Our Sunday weigh in came around, and Jay had lost 5 pounds, but I had gained 2 oz's. I was bummed! It seriously kicked my butt into gear! That next week, I did really well on eating fewer calories, little snacks/meals every 2 or 3 hours. I worked out a lot more than I had that first week (Brazil Butt Lift, elliptical, walking) and it paid off - I was down 4 pounds! It may sound silly, but even those 4 pounds, I felt like my clothes fit a little looser, I was extatic! It kept up my motivation, and even though Jay isn't doing this as much as I am, it feels good that he's by my side :) I'm not cutting out all goodies or anything like that. Just like Aug 7 was Suzannes birthday, so we went to Leatherby's for dinner! I ate a chicken finger basket, then Jay and I shared ice cream, but between breakfast and lunch that day, I had only had about 400 calories, so I didn't mind going crazy for a night! Last week I lost another 4.5 pounds! So, in the last 2 weeks I have lost 8.5 pounds and it makes me so excited! My goal for our 60 days was to lose 10 pounds, I'm almost there and we're not even half way done with our 60 days. I'm going to keep going and see how much I can lose by the time we go! I feel so good, have more energy and I love going on walks with my family!

Update!

So I was thinking it had only been a few months since my last update on my girls, but it turns out it was clear back in October. My how time flies!!

Brikayla just celebrated her half birthday - can't believe she's 5 1/2! She will be starting school the end of this month which she is soo excited about! We've been going on family walks a lot lately and everytime we say it's time for a walk, she asks if we can walk to HER school. She's proud to call it that. She's going to be in all day kindergarten which I am excited about :) It will be great! She of course knows all her alphabet, and knows a lot of the sounds each letter makes as well. She can count to 100, has been doing small math equations and things like that, she is a little smarty!
She LOVED being in dance class! She was one of the best ones in her dance class when they had their summer recital. Not gonna lie, I cried when she was up there dancing. It was so awesome to see, I was so proud of her! During the month of July she also did princess dance camp which she loved as well!
Brikayla still loves to sing - she catches on really quickly to the words in a song. After a few times hearing it, she knows all the words. She is shy though, if you pay attention to her singing, so when you're listening, you can't look at her or she stops ;)
She and Rylee love to play house, sometimes one of them is a dog, and the other is the owner, most the time though, one is the mom and the other is the daughter. They even have names they use when they play - Brikayla is 'Sara' and Rylee is 'Nyla' and they really stick to it each time they play, it is quite hilarious!
Jay built the girls a playhouse in our back yard which they have just loved to have. They play house out there, bring out their pillow pets, they have pots/pans/food out there to cook meals etc. It is so much fun to have! My hubby is pretty talented!
Brikayla is still really outgoing, she makes friends everywhere and that is one thing I am excited for her to go to school for. I'm excited to see all the friends she makes, all the fun things she learns and the excitement she has for new things.
One thing she can't stop talking about is California! She is soo excited to go to Disneyland mostly, but she's excited for it all. Everyday she takes one piece of our Minnie countdown, she really can't wait! She's a little apprehensive though too, telling us she doesn't want to go on Tower of Terror or the Haunted Mansion, like she did last time, but I keep explaining to her that she's older now and it won't be so scary. We'll see how it goes when she goes on them again :)
I was watching a show the other day about this cute little girl Kenadi, who has Primordial Dwarfism (sp?). She is 7 years old, but is obviously much smaller than the average 7 year old. Well, Brikayla is 5.5 and taller than the average 7 year old! She is 46 inches tall! It's crazy. She wears size 13 or 1 shoes already. She's just like Jay!

Rylee is getting way too big too! She will be 3 next month! Crazy!! She asked for a Minnie Mouse birthday party this year, she is pretty much obsessed lately! We've started planning her party and I know it will be lots of fun!
She had tumbling class this summer and she had so much fun! She listened pretty well to the teacher, could do most everything that was asked of her and was so proud when her teacher told her she had big muscles. lol. She came right home and told Jay. :)
Rylee talks really well. She's pretty easy to understand for her age for the most part. There are a few things she doesn't pronounce quite right and it is just my most favorite thing! The best is "noo nacks" (fruit snacks). She also says "peep" instead of keep. Just like today. She was sitting at the table eating cereal and out of nowhere says "Mom, I want to peep my hair like this. I don't want a haircut, I just want to peep it long." I love it! Instead of picture, she says "shichure" which I love. She also uses a "sh" sound instead of her J's and a few other letters just like in "schichure" She calls our friends Josh and Erica "Shosh and America or Ayka".
Rylee's favorite thing to eat hands down are noo nacks.
Rylee loves to color, play outside, workout with me and play learning games on my kindle. She knows her alphabet, can count to 20 or more depending on the day and loves learning new things. It is so funny when Suzanne tries to say something is a different color and she corrects her. For example, awhile back Suzanne was saying that a pink balloon was blue, and Rylee would say, "no, it's pink!" and they went back and forth a few times with blue or pink, blue or pink and finally Rylee said "No, Grandma, it is pink, you need to learn your colors!" She is a feisty one! Definately little miss Sassy!
Rylee can't wait to go to Disneyland either, she is so excited about seeing Minnie! I'm a little nervous though, because when we were at Chick Fil A a month or so ago, the person in the cow costume was there and she FREAKED out hysterically - hopefully Minnie is a different story! ;) I'm hoping Rylee will grow four inches in the next month (ok, I know it's never going to happen) But I can hope right? haha. She definately takes after me in the height department! She's only 36 inches, and a lot of the bigger rides you have to be 40 inches to ride, maybe tall shoes and big hair will work?! :)
Rylee is much less outgoing, especially at first. She's really shy just like I am. Jay and I were talking about it the other day, and Brikayla really is just like him, and Rylee just like me. It's crazy how much they are total opposite but so much the same at the same time.
I love these girls so much. It is so fun watching them grow and develop. They are amazing little girls and they bring us so much happiness!!!
A few pictures from the last few months: