Camping and 30 days of habit..

We took the girls camping when they couldn't walk, once, and once when they were just learning. It was probably more frustrating and draining than I had expected. Last year was a Lake Powell trip that while the houseboat moved my nerves were being shredded! So having them be able to walk, listen, and pay attention to certain things was much more exciting! This year we've already gone camping several times and without hesitation they got down and dirty.

The dude's parents took a camper up to Skyline for a few weeks and were kind enough to let us tag along with our motorcycles and kids in tow. The gremlins at first were a little frightened and uncertain of all bugs around the camp ground but eventually learned to ignore it all.

We actually had to go buy jeans for the first time that were slightly too big and allowed for lbs of dirt to leak down their little butt cracks. By the end of every evening they were filthy and generally super tired! I never understood how kids had so much energy! I must have been a little energizer bunny when i was a kid. They spent their days in the dirt, playing with their cousin, riding 4 wheelers, riding their strider bikes up and down a little hill and a little motorcycle ride. 

Surprisingly they didn't enjoy roasted marshmallows at all, they much rather just the regular mallow itself.  But they did love the fire and we had to very often remind them not to run around it. It was so much fun watching the explore and see what things did, testing the waters of nature. I'll be the first to tell you they are professional little squatters. ;)  We are really hoping to get a few more camping trips in this year to a couple new places. 

 As for 30 days of habit...it takes 30 days to start a good habit and only a few days to break one. Today marks that day that I'm throwing myself to the lions and fighting away a huge temptation of mine. Sugar. I've dont it before, around probably the worst time of year, Christmas. This year I'm starting earlier and hoping it sticks. Anyway, here are the few things I'll/we will be changing/starting today:

• No sugar unless natural- as in fruits and other raw foods.
• Keeping a journal - Either blogging for that day or writing in my personal journal. I miss blogging and I want to be able to look back on some details I may not remember one day.
• Telling someone every day something you like or appreciate about them - I have so many people around me that deserve to be told how amazing they are!
• Taking a walk - we may work out occasionally but I think family walks in the evening would be a great way to relieve some stress, talk, and enjoy the world around us as a family.
• Cold showers - I know! It sounds crazy, because trust me, I am the first to turn the heat up to scorching and burn while I shower. But after some research on the matter I want to see the effect it will have. All the benefits of cold showers I feel are things I'm slightly lacking needing in my life. If you'd like to see just a handful of these check it out here. 
• Natural Sleeping pattern - another subject you can find lots of research on. As you know your sleep goes in patterns of deep sleep to..well not deep. Setting a time to sleep and a time to wake ie. 11pm to bed and 7am to wake. Causes you to get too much sleep and is often restless without you even realizing. Research shows that following a sleep only when you're absolutely tired but waking up at a set time causes your body to enter a sleep cycle necessary to keeping your body rested.  

For example, I need to wake up roughly around 7:30am. So the night before I will go to sleep when my mind no longer is able to keep me functioning, eyes wont stay open, good way to test is read a couple pages from a book. For the first night I may end up being up till 1am but I will without a doubt wake at 7:30am. Making sure not to lay there and to, after a couple good stretches, sit up in bed. This may cause me to drag the first couple days as I feel super tired. But in turn that means by the evening I'll be tired enough to go to sleep earlier. Bottom line if you're laying in bed and you cannot fall asleep within 20 minutes, your body is not ready for sleep. Get up, go read, or do something small till you feel tired and certain you can pass out within a short period. Eventually after a few days your body will start a natural sleep patter that will properly assess when and how many hours your need to sleep. Generally keeping your bed time within a 2 hour window and keeping your mind and body at rest the entire night. 

So in ending, I feel like these are all things that can make a positive change in my life. Especially the sleeping since I haven't slept will since the twins were 6 months old. I plan to try and track the differences I feel and see. Possibly do a few blog updates.  As for today, I haven't had a bite of sugar, I took a cold shower that actually felt amazing and woke me up real well after falling asleep a little later than normal but waking at 7:30. So far so good! 

Wordless Wednesday-Pure L.O.L awesomeness!

(Admit it, you laughed <3 )

Versatile Blogger Award

Today I was given The Versatile Blogger award!  

It was given to me by the awesome Amber over at Mommy Life Is A Great Life {s.a.h.m.}.  She has a beautiful little family and great little blog, check her out.  Thank you Amber for awarding this to me! :)

For this award I get to tell you 7 random things about myself and award 7 other bloggers!

7 Random Things

1. I have probably tried every single sport/activity out there since I was little.  You name it, I bet you my mom and dad signed me up and I gave it a shot for a few weeks then stopped.  :p  The only thing I've really stuck with as a constant would be soccer, motorcycles, and snowboarding.  
2. I was offered a scholarship to BYU for soccer in 11th grade.  
3. I suffer from clinical depression on top of ADD.  I choose not to take medications and use hobbies, friends and family to be my reason for getting me through and controlling it myself.  Like everyone else I have off days, but in general I am able to fight and handle it daily.  Love and Life is my drug.  =)
4. I'm obsessed with the Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl their lead singer.  You can never bash my hero!
5. I laugh when I'm in physical pain.
6. I bite my nails regularly.
7. I cannot sleep on my back. The only time I have is because I forced to after my C-Section.  It makes me feel claustrophobic,  a little backwards right?  I don't know why but I get this feeling that the ceiling or someone is going to come down on me and smother me...hahah, I don't know.

7 Other Bloggers

In no particular order because I totally love them all!

1. Ashley from The Shine Project
2. Lissa from Me and Mr. C
3. Deanna from Delirious Rhapsody
4. Renee from Adventure of a New Mom
5. Ashley from Hudson's Happenings
6. Kelli from Chronicles of She
7. Victoria from Recording the Journey 

When you get the Versatile Blogger award

Thank the person who gave you the award and link it back to their blog in your post. Tell seven things about yourself and award seven recently discovered bloggers and contact the bloggers to let them know they received the Versatile Blogger Award.

Birthday Fun

Yesterday was my birthday, it was the year we celebrated me turning 23 for the 2nd time.  

I also joined a new club, it's called "23 Forever".  Like it?  You're welcome to join! :)

Hey! It's a valid club and I don't care what anybody says, I can embrace aging without embracing my number! 

(Just 4 of my 8 awesome balloons!)

Honestly it was such a fun day!  The night before I got my hair did, maybe someday you'll see how awesome it is.  Although nothing really changed just added some accessory.

I spent the night before at a slumber party with the rugby team, where we had a ball and stayed up till all hours of the morning.  I ended up coming home around 6am though so that I would have time to get ready for the day.  9am and we had a lovely breakfast at Mimi's Cafe, who doesn't love that place?  So good.

After that we just hung out at the parents relaxing.

The girls loved seeing balloons for the first time.  Specially Ms. K, she just wanted to hold onto em.

Ms. O was a little more interested in the decorated weight, hehe.

What did I get for my awesomest birthday?

Thanks to all my family pitching in, I LOVE YOU GUYS, they got together and helped me get this!!

(can you tell I'm like hyperventilating with excitement?!...well you should)

*Jumps up and down*  Yay!  Now I don't have to use my iPhone to document the girls and our lives!

The package came with 2 lenses and a great carrying bag.  All I can say the 2hrs of waiting for it to charge the battery was the longest 2 hours of the year!

(Thanks Dad, Mom, Neal, and Austin) 

As we waited to go out to dinner with Austin's family I was able to mess around just a little bit with the new addition to the family, haha.

Isn't he a doll?  ❤

This is what happens when you leave the room and your husband gets a hold of the camera..Food gets captured! 

This last one of K was from clear across the room with the 55-250 lens...awesome

Anyway, sorry!  We just have never had a good camera and now we do and it's so fun to play with.  I'm not an amazing photographer but I'm loving playing around with it and seeing what it can do. :)

Yes, so, we went out to eat at Applebees with his parents and it was soooo good.  I love that place!  It was great to sit, eat and relax with them.  The girls tried some celery for the first time and made the silliest faces!  We all ended up taking most our food home we got so stuffed.  

His parents were so so awesome and gave us a FREE date night!  All expenses paid for dinner and movie :)  

(Thank you Chris and Kathy! Love you guys)

We sent the girls off home with his mom and headed to see Paul.

Seriously such a funny movie, we were literally LOLing the entire time.  Then again we find some pretty stupid things funny, so. ;)

There are also some pretty great movies I'm excited to see coming out.  Just hope we get more time to see them. Such is life with kids, yes? 

To say the least it was a very fun birthday and I loved every minute of it, despite only having 2 hours of sleep!  

Thanks again to all those who entered the Giveaway and I hope to host more in the future!

Hope everyone had is having a wonderful weekend! 

 Back to the grind tomorrow. ❤

Awkward & Awesome Thursday

So I've seen quite a few bloggers who do this Thursday tradish and I thought I would go ahead and give it a little try. :)

(Via)

Awkward-

• Attempting to show off some teeth and then proceeding to get bit, hard.
• People thinking when I call the girls "Gremlins" or "little monsters" it's because they annoy me or I'm not a good mother...
• Stepping into the school restroom to find an ink line on your nose..thanks person who I was just speaking with for telling me. :P
• Simply that awkward silence between people who no longer have anything to say to one another.

Awesome-

• walking into the nursery and having 2 smiling faces waiting for you
• Ms. K screaming so loud she scares herself
• knowing how awesome this coming summer will be
• fitting into a swimsuit again, properly 
• the amazing new people who have decided to join in reading my crazy thoughts
• finally this AWESOME AMAZING Giveaway everyone should be sure to check out HERE  (ends Saturday March 19th)

Hoping everyone is having a great St. Patty's day!  Are you wearing green and eating green? Wow..there are soo many green things we could be doing!

Amazing Monday Giveaway

Alright ladies and gents!  We all know how much us women love love love feeling pampered! I mean, I know I do!  Specially while being a mom and having NO time for myself, there is nothing like feeling as though I just stepped out of the spa, all while in the comforts of my own home.  :) 

So why not get some nifty new products for free?!

Thanks to an up and coming sponsor we have this great giveaway for everyone.

Here is the loot!

The winner will receive:

Nu Skin's - Polishing Peel Skin Refinisher

Along with:

One Contouring Lip Gloss

In your choice of-

Toasted Bronze

Tender Beige

Sweet Pink

Sparkling Wine

Or Crystal Clear

How To Enter:

(Counts as one comment)

-Be follower of Me and You, Plus Two

-Comment with your favorite thing you like to do to pamper yourself

Extra Entries:

(separate comments each entry)

-Blog or Tweet about the giveaway (leaving a link or twit account in comment)

-Follow @HettyA on Twitter

-Follow @AdamsNuSkin on Twitter HERE 

If you simply would like to browse other awesome skin care products and much more! Head on over HERE and check it all out!  There are some things I cannot wait to try myself :)

If you would like an even better spankin' deal of 30% off EVERYTHING you buy, simply become a preferred buyer by sending the following deets to my e-mail addy (top right of blog), and I'll pass it on to set you up with a preferred account to log in with right away!

(ATTENTION: All information sent to me will remain private and not solicited to any one business or persons.  All information will be used simply for the making of your Preferred Buyer Login.)

-First and last name

-Mailing address

-Phone Number

-E-mail Address

-Password (for your login)

-Password hint  (ex: password: Sally Hint: my dog)

Winner of the contest will be announced on my happy happy birthday Saturday, March 19th!

Good luck everyone!  Spread the word! 

Most of all-

~ Have a great Monday! ~

❤

This week

It's been a week since I left for CA, since I'm back and have finally had some time to catch up with things- Here is how our week has gone:

Monday- Was spent recouping.  Luckily there was no practice so sleep, eat, so on were involved in my day. Also having to study for an Astronomy test that I wasn't extremely excited for.  

Tuesday- Was a day of testing..literally. I had the Astronomy test at 8:30am ( I got a B on it, I'm pleased).  My synthesis paper on adoption within China, due by 2:30pm.  Then spent the afternoon  studying for an Art History test that I needed to take by the end of the night.  By 5pm I felt confident enough to attempt the test.  By 7pm I was finally headed home.  Roughly 10hrs at school was not my ideal day.

Wednesday- Was a much better day.  Spent the morning relaxing and cleaning things up, finally.  12pm was a girls lunch date with a neighborhood friend and her adorable 2 year old at Zupas, one of my all time favorite Soup, Sandwich and Salad places! Ordering a Yucatan Chipolte Salad and Lobster Bisque soup I was in heaven!  ---seriously, try them out!---

Although the girls have sat in their high chairs at home I have yet to sit them in ones at restaurants, so today was the day we tried.

Can you not help but laugh at Kenzington's(left) hair? :p

Luckily they were angels and just spent the time people watching as Eisley Rain (adorable name, no?!) fed K some bread from the rolls.

(my kids are huge!! Will they stop growing?!)

A nice luncheon out was what us girls needed before heading off to practice.

Thursday-  School, yet again.  With an early start and out the door, I was happy to find that it was a simple day of learning.  No stresses as I sipped my warm Vanilla Chocolate Mocha and watched some Netflix in one of the cafeterias.

Later that afternoon while picking up the girls from their Grandma's I came to find out there were going to be famous and on our local news. :) 

Finally getting home, we had to feed the girls and head to the mall.  A special someones birthday is this month and I needed to get some shopping done!  

All I can say is this was just a perfect night out with my little family!  

The mall was vacant, the smell from the pretzel shop sucked us in and we enjoyed some bites.  We strolled the stores and watched as the girls desperately tried to stay awake to take it all in.  

Soon after many complaints from the hungry, starving man walking next to me, we chose to go across the way to Texas Roadhouse...and you'll never guess who we saw!

Have you guessed it yet? Didn't think so! (you facebook people don't count!)

That's right Jerry Sloan former coach of the Utah Jazz.  As we were walking in he couldn't help but ogle over the twins, then as we proceeded to enter Austin insisted it was him.  I just shrugged, saying "who knows." :p Can you tell I'm a basketball fan?  

Sure enough as we were being seated at our booth they let us know just moments before Jerry Sloan was sitting in the exact spot and how excited they all were. 

After a few moments of "how awesome is that" we were settled and ordered some amazing dinner, steak cutlets with mushroom sauce and a side of potatoes! MMMMmmm.  I will honestly tell you I have never been treated so great at a restaurant till last night.  The people there were being soo amazing.  Even after Austin turned away his dinner choice, picky thing ;).  

The girls even after eating were insisting they ate along with us and we fed them some rolls and decided to have them give lime a try..

It was HILARIOUS!  Even the waiters had to stop and watch.  

(forgive my horrible laugh and how dark but you can kind of catch O flinching at the taste)

Perfect.

That's the only word I need to use for yesterday.

It's made me sit and think, as I be a couch bug today, about how excited I am for this coming year.  People are trying new things, going new places, and we are some of those people!

So as for today - Friday- not much will be happening besides sending out a birthday gift, icing down my knee and playing with the little gremlins.  Tomorrow is a home game against SUU.  Hoping for some nice weather.

Everyone stay safe, have fun and

~ Have a Happy Weekend ~

❤

Weekend Recap

I think I've finally caught up...well with every thing and every class except one.  I'll get to that later.  Anyway-  The weekend was crazy!  Filled with long drives, sun, beach, injuries, laughter, tears..I could go on. 

As you know I left Thursday night, but I don't know if we want to even consider it Thursday night since it wasn't till 12:30am on Friday morning that we finally hit the road.  None the less we made it on our way.  Surprisingly the ride there wasn't too bad, did I sleep?  Nope, not really.  Maybe for a total of 50minutes.  

We made it to San Diego at around 9am giving us till 3pm to kill time.  So, what do you do in a beach town, with nothing to do, and lots of girls...hit the beach!  We headed to Ocean Beach, where before even getting out of the car most girls were undressing and getting their swim suits on.  I on the other hand was FREEZING.  It was sunny, but the wind chill made it feel like a fridge.  Eventually I caved.  

The beach was beautiful.  The sand was a deep golden brown, soft and moist between my toes.  I could smell the ocean as I listened to the waves crashing in the distance.  It was impossible not to relax and enjoy the amazing weather and scenery.  

Here are some pictures from that day-

This seagull was stalking us, he probably circles the blankets 3 times!

The pier had this little cafe just to the side, the food smelled more than amazing but no one would eat there with me. :p  We sat for a while watching the surfers and I longed to be down there with them despite the cold conditions.  

After a bit we all decided to walk the little shops and see what things we could find.  I loved the feel of the different culture compared to home.  People were talking to complete strangers, others sat freely sipping on drinks and reading in the sun, beach bums danced in the sand or played their guitar with a trusty dog by their side.  Speaking of dogs, they were everywhere, and everyone had one!  It made me wish I could have brought ours to play in the surf. 

There were so many cute and fun things I wanted to buy if only I had all the money in the world!!  The restaurants called you in, the surf shops beckoned to you with their music, and the tiny coffee shops stopped you in your tracks with the smell of freshly made mocha's.

Soon enough it was time to check into the motel.  Of course there was no time to sleep there, it was off to the pool within minutes of setting down our bags.  The hot tub was the highlight and the challenge was to pack as many girls in as to make it overflow.  We won. :)

After a simple Taco Bell dinner and some goofing around we all hit the hay.  We had an early start at the tournament Saturday, our first game being at 8am.  I missed my family and wished I could kiss them goodnight but I couldn't wait for morning, that wasn't enough to keep me awake.  I was out....

Early wake up call at 6am and we were fed and out the door on our way to the Olympic Center.  Along the way it was hard not to notice how beautiful this place was.  Green hills, homes tucked away in the most adorable places, blue sky and fresh air as the sun lighted the way.  I think I fell in love! :p

I'm not sure if many of you have seen this Olympic Center...all I have to say is that I was in heaven!  And one picture explains it all..

There were 3 of these babies ranging in size spread out all over.  I will admit it was used that day at least for BMX, but I couldn't help but picture my dirt bike and I rounding the track.

Our first game was agains the Aggies a little piece of home to start out the day.  

We tied.  

As the day went on the sun got hotter and we all were getting more and more organized.  We were starting to show we were a team.  Injuries came and went, yelling and arguments were happening here and there, mostly towards the other teams. We had 4 games for the day each consisting of 2 20minutes halves.  

My 2nd game ever to play in was our 2nd game of the day.  I played the last half as a back wing.  As soon as you hit the field the adrenaline sets in..you can't even think straight all you know is you need to keep who ever has that ball away from your end of the field..by any means necessary. 

I was scared..I wont lie.  I've yet to master the ways of tackling and hadn't yet gotten the ball during an active play...well it finally happened.  I got the ball and it was my turn to gain some yards.  The defense that was in front of me was a girl just about my size but her muscle tone made it apparent that she had been doing this for some time.  I ran.  Within a few yards she was on me, but she missed.  She hadn't gotten a full tackle and was hanging onto my shirt, trying with all her might to pull me down.  No one else was in sight so I saw my chance.  She was like a fly, and she was coming with me if she liked it or not.  I grabbed her arm, picked her up slightly and ran forward.  Within moments, maybe 5yrds she had backup and I was down. My knee was hurt, but the adrenaline kept me going.  I couldn't help but laugh as we repositioned at how silly that was.  We slowly gained more and more, and made a try.  

Within minutes it was over and we had won.  

It didn't stop there.  Our third game was much the same.  Our 4th game came and we were tired, sun burnt, and ready for a relaxing time at the pool.  But that didn't hinder our play. 

This team looked rough.  They were larger, and had some older players that you could tell were well experienced.  Our team had some injuries so us rookies were put in for the full game.  It was dirty, their team was rough and made little effort in showing remorse at any injuries.  Through it all we were dominating, before the end of the first half we were ahead and showed no signs of us stopping there.  My highlight, playing back wing again, was receiving a kick from the opposing team and sprinting my hardest only to be tackled feet from the try line....so close!  Not moments later we scored again. 

By the end we were at least 10-15 points ahead.

Bruised and burned we all were excited about the amazing team effort we had made for the day.

3 wins and 1 tie.  We were tied for 1st.  

Sunday was the day, the day it all counted.  Unfortunately the fire was gone and people were ready to go home.  Arguments and bad moral showed it's ugly face Sunday morning as many girls instead of preparing left for the beach before the games..not to mention half the team was late to warm up.  It just wasn't the best day. Causing a loss, a large amount of injuries and anger.  

In all honestly I wasn't too upset, odd I know.  I learned a lot this weekend, about the game, about myself, and much more.  I showed the team my potential and it didn't go unnoticed.  I had fun at the beach, meeting new people, getting to know my team.  Despite missing my family, I loved this weekend.

We showed that we can be a great team and accomplish more than we ever thought.   

It was time to head home.  It was nice knowing that evening I would be in my own bed and able to see the faces of my life again.  :)  

With out many complaints, I left San Diego with 2 new shirts, new shorts, a new sun burn, some bruises, a new appreciation for beach life, and a sense of happiness to be part of a team again. 

OH happy day!

It came! It came!! I'm sure you read not too far back I won an amazin' giveaway!  Well it came in the mail yesterday!

*Jumps with joy*

I was so excited I had to try it on.

(Ignore bad lighting and horrible iPhone photos, ha ❦)

It's from Chrissy's shop at Whimsical Poppysmic.

She was such a doll through the whole process checking to make sure I got it in time and that I liked it.

It came all wrapped up in the most adorable wrapping.  Oh and meet my new little friend too..

Absolutely love it and want to say Thank you Chrissy for the great gift! :)  

Everyone should pop on over to her shop and check out her cute goodies!

Well I'm off to do more homework and spend some time with my little family. 

Busy busy week ahead!

Everyone have a great Stressless Sunday!

I'm no chef

I'm going to be honest here, I'm not a chef by any means.  I don't cook and choose not to learn, despite the many many cook books my mother has given me over the years.  That's bad I know!  One day I'm going to have to stray from this and actually learn some recipes.  On the other hand I love to bake.  I'm sure all you girls out there remember those Easy Bake Ovens!?  Oh boy did I love mine!  I love dough soo much I would end up eating most of it before it was baked! But mostly I love baking because some of my best memories with my mom when I was little was helping her make cookies or cinnamon rolls. 

(By the way, I'm not bias or anything but my moms cinnamon rolls are WAY better than anyone else!)

In the future I really truly hope to make those memories with the twins.  Teach them the ways of eating dough and playing in the flour!  

I just love that items are at the tips of our fingers these days thanks to the interweb!  I was just browsing and came across some really great cooking/baking items for kids:

The Kitchen Helper-

This is something I totally wish I had now!  The Bakers Hat (ages 3-8)-

The Apron (You know your kiddies will look awesome in this, for girls of course ;)  )-

Or for the Boys (or girls too I guess)-

Now, I think my 2nd favorite part about baking with my mom was rolling the dough through the flour!  So much fun! Then cutting them out into crazy shapes!

Accessories-

Cookie Cutters (my favorites I've found)-

Well....You get the picture!  I'm excited!  It's going to give me some great reasons to get the girls interested in baking and having fun while making a huge mess!!

It's so hard not to anticipate the future and what great things are to come!  

*yawn* What a day!

It has been a long tiring day!  Woke up at 6am to leave for our first Rugby game today at SUU!  Boy was it freeeeeezing!  20 degrees with snow and wind...yes..I couldn't feel my toes, or face, or hands, or eyeballs.

Sadly after a long drive there and freezing to death we didn't win, BUT we made them bleed and let them know this new team with tiny players can show them who's boss!  GO UVU RUGBY!

The drive back was FUN :) we played the iPod game where someone would pick a song on the iPod, you'd put the headphones in and turned it up so loud you could only hear the music and not yourself..then you sang....LOUD!! LOL It was hilarious!  I strongly suggest this to people who have a long drive ahead of them and nothing to do!

Best part of the day!?

Coming home checking my blogger and finding out that I won my first giveaway!!!  From this adorable shop Whimsical Poppysmic!  that was shown to me by this awesome blogger Nicole from Sounds of Laughter Shades of Life.

This is my new prize!!

YAYAY!  I can't wait! :)  Thank you again Nicole!  And I will probably be purchasing from Chrissy's shop in the near future for more of her cute stuffs!

Anyway, it's been a great day and now it's time to retire by watching a movie, eating some otter pops, icing my legs and falling asleep. 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!