Snow day snacks & thoughts.

Somedays I feel like my day is one long drawn out scene from Family guy.. you know the one where Lois is laying in bed and Stewie is trying to get her attention by saying  "Lois, mom,mum. mommy, mama.." and she replies by yelling "WHAT!" only to have Stewie say "Hi" and run away.. well that is how my day feels.

We had our second snow day in 2 weeks yesterday and before I had kids I LOVED snow days! My brothers and I will spend the day skating in our backyard, building forts and snowmen and if we were really lucky some friends would make their way over to our house. Now as a parent I have to give my parents major props for dealing with all 3 of us on a snow day .. any day that matter that we couldn't leave the house because the roads were bad.

Madison is not quite old enough to bundle up and head outside alone yet, but I am already dreaming of that day. The day that I can sit and watch Madison and Elizabeth build forts, throw snowballs and go sledding.. all from the comfort and warmth of my house.

Don't get me wrong I love playing with my kids and I would do anything for them, but when you can't even go to the bathroom without someone knocking on the door or someone yelling "Mom, Beth is in Bailey's water" ; you need a break!

 Our snow days were spent playing play dough, reading books, keeping Beth away from Bailey's water dish, watching Madison practice ballet and laundry, lots of laundry.

Chris was working.. BOTH snow days.. so he misses out on the fun ;)

Yesterday I decided it was time to shake things up in Madison's room! Please excuse the mess in the before photo as my daughter didn't want to clean her room up after 2 hours of quiet play!

I decided to move things around to give her a little more space to play and a little more organization. 

The white shelving piece you see in the bottom left corner is now where her bed USED to be .. and filled with books and a few baskets of toys!

Over all we are happy with the results.. now to think of some fun things to put on her gallery wall above the white shelving unit!

 Finding snacks for Madison is always tough, she is a cookies and Pirate Booty kinda girl.. but she is now on a low fructose diet (fructose intolerant) so snack time is going to get fun. I feel like if I say it's going to be fun it will keep me from stressing over what she can have!

So far her (and my) favorite snack are these adorable peanut butter banana bites! I found them on 

 Katherine Snead's Instagram (if you don't follow her .. you should!). She makes them for her active pre teens so I figured I would give them a shot and they didn't disappoint.

Next time I'm bringing out the Nutella!

All the photos in this post are from my Instagram feel free to check it out and follow! I'm giving you fair warning it's alot of photos of my family :)

As always I'm throwing in a friendly reminder that I am running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend in a little over 2 weeks (YIKES!)! I am still working hard to collect donations for the charity I am running for - Noahs Light Foundation. Please click the link below and help me raise money to find a cure for pediatric cancer.

https://www.noahslightfoundation.org/donate/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/contribute/transact&id=31&pcpId=426&reset=1

Ketchup? No catch up..

Madison thinks is the funniest thing when I say "catch up" she laughs with her horribly fake laugh and holds her belly and says "oh man I don't have any ketchup, silly mama"

So here it is the dreaded blogger catch up. I'm already falling behind on my blogging goals for 2015, but with work, studying and 2 kids and husband things happen. 

Over the past few weeks we have jumped right back into our routine, well most of them, I am struggling hard with getting up at 430 to get to the gym. I blame the weather because most mornings the roads are slick and I don't want to risk it. Speaking of slick roads..

2 weeks ago there was black ice everywhere, accidents up and down the roads and Chris had to get to work. Do I need to say more?

Chris is fine! There was no one else involved in the accident. His beloved truck is heading to the auto grave yard and we are back to 2 cars for a few months until we are ready for another truck. 

You may wonder why we need 3 cars there's only 2 of us... Well we have an SUV which I drive and we take when we go anywhere as a family, and we have a little old (91) beater car for Chris to drive to work and back. The girls DO NOT go in that vehicle it is not safe for them. So having 3 cars is crucial for us especially if Chris is home with 1 of the girls and needs to get out!    Anyways enough with that.

Madison is back to ballet and is getting ready for her spring recital! 

We are busy planning Elizabeth's 1st birthday, seriously when did that happen? It has gone by so much faster this time!

We are dealing with ear infections, chest infections and nasty coughs in the Murray house.. Thankfully both girls co-operate (most times) and don't fight with me while taking their nebulizer treatments!

As for my fitness journey.. I'm still working on it! Since January 1st I've lost 4lbs. Look for a fitness post this Friday :) 

We just spent the night in a blizzard warning, which turned out to be the blizzard that never was, but we've got lots of snow! 

Hope you all have a great day!

Xo's 

10 months

Elizabeth 

Weight: 14lbs 15oz (from 9 month checkup)

Length: 25 2/4inches (from 9 month checkup)

Milestone: Beth is cruising around all the furniture and even letting go!

Sleep: We spent the last week fighting with Beth at bed time. She would scream for hours if in her crib. We decided she needs to nap earlier in the day so she is exhausted come 730. 

Eating: Anything and everything! She is still eating some baby food but we've introduced solid foods (pancakes, waffles, frozen blueberry, pasta) she loves picking up the food herself!

Diapers: Finishing up with the 2's and moving onto size 3!

Clothing: Fully transitioned into size 9 month!

Mood: Great mood! She is a happy baby, she is really only fussy when she has to go to bed or she's hungry!

Loves:

• Food
• Standing 
• Cruising 
• Taking her sisters toys 

Hates:

• Sitting still 
• Being put to bed
• Bath time- really doesn't like having to sit down! She wants to stand. 

Protein Coffee

I've had a few questions about the "Protein Coffee" I have posted about on my Instagram, so I thought I would share with you all how I make my coffee in the morning

Arbonne Protein (Vanilla or Chocolate), Almond Breeze Vanilla (unsweetened) and Coffee

I brew one cup (big) coffee into a Nutribullet cup.

Add 1 Scoop of protein of your choice (contact me to order Arbonne Protein)

Mix in Nutribullet or other blender

Add Almond milk (1/2 cup), sometimes I will heat and froth the Almond milk to make it more like a latte.

This is the perfect pick me up and post workout drink in the morning! 

Enjoy :)

Our Holiday in Pictures

Every year Chris's firehouse in the city hold a christmas party and all the kids get a special present from Santa! This was the first year that Madison actually sat on the ground with the other kids and got her present by her self.

My brother's Ryan & Brett and Emily (Ryan's girlfriend) came down to visit us before Christmas, we had originally planned a day in the city without the girls, but after baby-sitting plans fell through we took the girls with us! They were great! Madison was so excited about the train ride and seeing the "big giant tree"

Our First Family Photo at Rockefeller Center

Might be hard to believe but I am the oldest.

You saw in yesterdays post our christmas didn't go as planned, so I am lacking in photos from the day.  I did manage to snap a few of the girls opening presents at Chris' parents house.

Our New Years Eve was very low key, we originally planned to head to Chris' cousins house but decided to stay home and keep it simple. Our neighbors invited us over a kids New Years, so we headed over there and at 9 all the kids did a big countdown and there was a massive balloon drop! Madison had so much fun!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and have a happy and healthy New Year!

xo's

Another year has come and gone..

Well here we are New Years Eve, 2014 is quickly winding down and 2015 is slowly rolling in. 

First off I realize I haven't done a Christmas Post yet (sorry) Christmas really wasn't all that earth shattering. It was very low key. Madison was battling a nasty cold (still is) and I wasn't feeling like myself and that lovely lovely stomach bug decided it would make its self at home in our house. 

As for tonight we are planning a low key evening at home with the girls. If we make it to see the ball drop it will be a miracle. Chris and I both really need a good nights sleep. 

Last year I shared my goals for 2014, you can find the post here.
I am so happy I completed all my goals (except finishing my personal training cert. still working on that one).

This year I have a few goals again :)
1. Run 9+1 to qualify for the 2016 NYC Marathon
2. Run one race every month
3. Take a kid free vacation
4. Get to the beach more this summer
5. Finish our laundry room
6. Paint our 2 bathrooms
7. Paint the basement and decorate the spareroom
8. Blog MORE!
9. Learn to sew with my new sewing machine
10. Teach Madison how to write her name
11. Teach Elizabeth how to swim (with a life jacket of course)
12. Continue my fitness journey.
13. Monthly date nights with Chris doing something different and fun (bowling, go karts etc)
14. Read a new book every months
15. Be happy, worry less and complain less

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years!
I'll be back tomorrow with some pictures  :)

Gigabody Review & Giveaway!

A few weeks ago you might remember mementioning Gigabody and a future giveaway for it. well the time is here :)

 Gigabody is a website that provides amazing workout videos.. anywhere! You can workout from any room in your house,  a hotel, outside wherever you want whenever you want as long as you can connect to the internet!

Gigabody was created is a small company started by Valerie Lanard, she fell in love with fitness after joining an office Biggest Loser contest in 2010. She quit the gym, was doing smaller more frequent workouts and found it tough to find workout dvds to keep her from getting bored. She wanted to find videos online without having to dig through amateur videos to find the best ones.. the Gigabody site was soon born!

Here's how it works. You sign up for a monthly membership ($8.99/month) with a 14 day trial period that you can cancel at anytime! After you register you are asked to create a short profile, you then browse the videos to find the ones you want to try! Hovering over the video will give you a brief description of the video, the equipment needed as well as the intensity, length and what others have rated the video. You have many search options as you can search by the length of the video, intensity, style or collection. There are 8 instructors (all women) that lead the videos. All the instructors are great and very motivating! 

Once you complete the workout you are encouraged to rate the video, it seems that Gigabody really values their customers opinions and takes it all into consideration to make the videos better! Gigabody also keeps track of the videos you have complete as well as any you favored. It is really nice to have that info stored because you can always go back and see if you've done the workout before and if so, if you liked it or not. 

I tend to go through stages when it comes to workout videos, some weeks I love them other weeks I can't stand the thought of watching someone on my iPad and working out in my basement while I see the hundreds of other things I could be doing. I do think that they are a great option for anyone who doesn't enjoy going to the gym, someone who travels alot or someone that is busy and can't find time to get a long workout in.

For this review I tried a few different videos the main video I used was the Plateau Breaker. It was a great workout to do on days that I wasn't able to make it to the gym. I found it really hard to get through same of the videos.. mainly because I don't enjoy working out at home. I enjoy being at the gym, seeing other people and being motivated by the others there. When I did the Gigabody workouts I felt great after, I got a great workout and I still had time to get other things done after, unlike going to the gym which also includes the 15 min drive each way.

Will I continue to use my Gigabody membership? Yes, because my husband works shift work and I can't always make it to the gym with our daughters. I would totally recommend this to people, especially moms! Moms are busy and most of the time can only fit a workout in when kids are sleeping, this site is perfect for that! I worked out at 5am and at 10pm and both times found exactly what I needed! 

Pro’s

• Ability to workout whenever and where ever you want! Just sign on and go!
• Low cost & 14 day trial period
• Variety of videos to work different body parts
• Ability to chose the length, intensity, rating and body part 

Con’s

• If you accidently leave a page you can't start where you left off.
• I found they sent way to many emails recommending videos. I already get 50+ emails a day between work, family, friends, bills and junk so this just added to that I honestly stopped reading them.
• Geared towards women, my husband has no interest.

Giveaway time! Gigabody is offer one of my readers one month free membership. Just enter the rafflecopter below. Giveaway will be open through this weekend. I will select a winner and email them next week. 

enter this rafflecopter to win :) I will email the winner by Saturday Decemeber 20th.

Disclaimer – I received two months free membership for this review through my ambassadorship with SweatPink. All opinions stated in this post are my own