Half way through June..

Already half way through June! Where has this year gone! 

This weekend was our first official weekend of Summer Vacation! School ended on Wednesday for Madison, and Thursday for me!

It blows my mind that Madison only has 1 more year left of preschool before she ventures off the kindergarten and Beth starts preschool!

Catching you guys up on everything over the past month would take forever, so here is the quick run down.

Beth is now 15 months, weighing in at 18lbs and just barely hanging onto the chart! She has become a very chatty little girl! 

Madison finished the 3's program and is looking forward to her second summer of camp!

Mommy is also looking forward to camp because Madison is going all day, which means lots of mommy and Beth time! Chris has been working hard and enjoying softball.

The girls and I try to make as many of his softball games as we can, Madison loves going because there is a nice park for her to play at.

If this past weekend is any indication of how our summer will be I should stock up on sunscreen, and make lots of room on my camera! We went to the Bronx Zoo friday with 2 of my friends and their sons, Saturday was spent at Community Day and we finished off the weekend on Pop's boat!

We have lots of fun things planned for the girls over the summer including some beach trips, Sesame Place and some awesome outdoor activities in the back yard!

I can't wait to share them with all of you!

xo's

Mother's Day Weekend

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and were spoiled by your spouses and little ones :)

Our weekend was a busy one, as usual! I was at Home Depot at the lovely hour of 6 am on Saturday morning to get the flowers for my mother in law's and the girl's godmother's gifts. I found a cute flower pot on pinterest that had children's foot prints on them as butterflies and I thought it was the cutest thing! We did the foot prints on Wednesday but I waited to plant to flowers. Everyone loved them!

Do you know who goes to Home Depot at 6 am on Saturday morning? Men doing their weekend projects and mom's who take every chance they can to run errands without their children. On the plus side I was home from Home Depot and Stop and Shop and coffee by 730 am and was ready to take on the day!

We spent the afternoon at a local varsity softball game and then headed over to my in-laws for our Mother's Day BBQ. It was a beautiful day filled with family and a special gift for Madison! Mike (Chris' brother) gave Madison her flower girl gift... a Barbie jeep! Madison was so excited and wanted to drive it home! 

Sunday was Mother's Day! Both girls actually slept by 7, which isn't normal in this house. They actually slept til 745! We started the day by heading over the local park for the Mother's Day 5k. I ran the same race last year, it was my first 5k ever so this year my goal was to beat my previous time (38:20) and I was also secretly hoping to place in the top 3 in my age group. 

It was so humid but I gave it my all! I did beat my previous time.. this years time was 33:25! The hills slowed me down but thats ok! I came 5th in my age group.. also fine! I am so happy with my improvement over the past year. I went from never running to running a 1/2 marathon and numerous 5k races! I am already looking forward to next weekend for The Running Goddess 5K!!!

After the race Madison and I headed for mani/pedi's followed by brunch at a local southern restaurant that we have all fallen in love with! 

It was the perfect Mother's Day!  I am so lucky to be a mom to the 2 most amazing little beauties (yes I am biased) in the world. 

... Ooops!

Well it has been over a month since I last posted .. I had been doing so well. Sorry!

Anyways if you have been following my instagram (kimmurray36) you have probably seen we have been so busy over the last month with weddings, baby showers and just life!

I will do my best to catch you guys up on whats going on here but this post might just be a bunch of photos.

In April my brother in law Mike got married!! Madison was Krissy's flower girl and she did an amazing job! The aisle at the church was really long, so we were all a little nervous for her.. but she did it and was super cute :) Chris was the best man, and I must say he killed his speech!

At the end of April we hosted a Baby Q for our good friends Kristin & Lance. We are so excited and can't wait to meet Lucas *hopefully soon*.

We have been so lucky with the weather the past few weeks, besides a few days of rain it has been really nice! We have enjoyed every minute of it! The girls have been playing outside everyday and Beth, who is now walking everywhere, is loving it! She is so interested in all the new outdoor toys.

We made it to the local carnival last week where Madison met up with a few of her friends with school! She had a blast! Last year she was still a little to small for most of the rides but this year she was the right size for all the smaller ones! She even tried the Dragon Coaster... but that ended after one go around because she was screaming so much, the man was nice enough to stop the ride and let her off!  

Oh well.. try again next year!

One of the most exciting parts about the last week was Madison's first dance recital!! She rocked it! If she was nervous she did a great job at hiding it. Sunday morning she woke up and was ready for her "big day".  Her entire group did a wonderful job, no meltdowns = winning!

We are so proud of our little lady and all the hard work she put in to learn her dance!

 Check back soon.. I promise it won't be a month between posts!

Strawberries + Yogurt....

Growing up every year we would sell MacMillans cookie dough and muffin dough to raise money for our school. My favorite was the Strawberry Yogurt Muffin dough.. yes the dough. I liked the muffins but I would sneak spoonfuls of the dough when my mom wasn't looking.

The other day while grocery shopping I came across Strawberry Yogurt muffins in the grocery store, so I picked them up for the girls to try and they LOVED them. It brought me right back to my obsession over them!

I decided to try to make a healthier version then the ones I found in the store. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour

3/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

2 eggs lightly beaten

1/2 cup of fat free plain yogurt

1/4 cup of butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups of fresh or frozen strawberries coarsely chopped

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the first four ingredients. 

2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. 

3. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. 

4. Fold in strawberries.

5. Fill muffin cups coated with cooking spray or lined with paper liners two-thirds full. Bake at 375° for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

 Yield: 1 dozen full size or 36 mini

We are huge fans of mini muffins in our house because they are the perfect size for the girls and they are easy to pack in lunches or to grab when we are running out! I prefer the mini muffins to help with my sweet tooth. I get the little bit of sweetness without over indulging.

Safe to say these are a hit with the little ones and with mommy too!

Beth Turns One

Wow!

Almost a month ago this little one that gave me a run for my money in the last few months of pregnancy turned 1!!

The past year went by so fast, she is not walking yet but she has taken a few steps here and there, the most being 3 in a row. She is doing things on her own terms and that is how its been since I was pregnant! We had a scare around 32 weeks that she had stopped growing and after some steroid shots and a little bit of rest the girl shot up 2lbs and made her grand entrance!

We celebrated Madison's first birthday in 2012 with a cake smash photo shoot, here is my favorite shot from that shoot!

So of course I couldn't pass it up this time around! 

I went into the shoot thinking that Elizabeth would love it and would smash the cake to pieces.. boy was I wrong. She hated it! She didn't like the texture of the icing.. but our amazing photographer Francesca from Little Whimsies Photography did an amazing job at calming her down and getting some great shots!! 

I am so happy to be able to share these with you, as you have watched her grow from being "baby Murray #2" with all my pregnancy updates to her own monthly updates and now a happy, determined little girl FULL of personality!

She also looks a lot like her big sister.

So here you go! Enjoy :)

 This gold chain was all that would keep her happy after the touched the cake!

 And finally my personal favorite of all the photos, as mean as that may be. 

Get to know me

I have been blogging for almost 3 years now, crazy! I thought it would be fun to do a 21 questions type post!  Enjoy!

1. Are you named after anyone? I remember my mom telling me Kimberley is one she mentioned along with other soap opera names.. Kim Brady from Days Of Our Lives and my dad liked it! My middle name Jay is for my maternal grandfather. I take great pride in being named after him. I an proud to have passed that name down to the daughter.

2. When was the last time you cried? I cried at 3am Saturday morning when Beth had a hundred and 103.7° Fever and wouldn't stop shaking. I was crying because I felt so helpless. Thankfully she is fever free now!

3. Do you have kids? Yes.. 2!

4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Of course!! But, I would be sure to bring coffee if I visited before 9am :)

5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yes, not as much as I used to.. Which is good!

6. Will you ever bungee-jump? No, had I been asked that 10 years ago my answer would have been hell yes! Maybe when the girls are bigger and if they want to I would go with them but not at the moment. 

7. What’s your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cheerios!

8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Eyes.. Which then makes me look at their nose and if it's straight or not.  I blame it on the fact I had a small curve in my nose that bugged me but other people would say they couldn't see. 

9. What is your eye colour? Blue/ Green

10. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy movies please!

11. Favorite smells? Bacon!! And my moms chocolate chip cookies!

12. Summer or winter? Summer .. I like being able to walk and be outside and of course the beach and pool and bbqs. 

13. Computer or television? Computer because I can watch TV on my computer if I need to. 

14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? The Canary Islands in 2005. 

15. Do you have any special talents? I can knit if that counts!!

16. Where were you born? Canada!!

17. What are your hobbies? Reading, blogging, running and anything with my family.

18. Do you have any pets? Yes a 5 year old lab mix that we adopted right before our honeymoon

19. Favorite movie? Top Gun and The Breakfast Club.

20. Do you have any siblings? Yes… 2 younger brothers 

21. What did you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to be a journalist, I would never have guessed I would be working at a preschool!!

Well there you have it a few things about me!

Jammin' nails

A few weeks ago I was contacted by on Instagram by Chelley Schoeller, (@Michelleschoellerjam)  a Jamberry Consultant. I am someone who LOVES having her nails done, going to the nail salon is my "me" time and over the last few years I have perfected my skills. 

I had heard of Jamberry before and actually follow a few other consultants on Instagram but Chelley was the first to reach out to me, so we started chatting and decided I would test out the nail wraps and post about it and we would do a give away!!! 

I couldn't have picked a better week to test them out if I tried. The wraps were put to the test between making play dough and slime at school to bathing, washing dishes, giving the girls baths and even our dog!!

The nails arrived in this adorable envelope that immediately got my attention and I ripped right into it!

In the envelope I found directions, a cuticle pusher, a nail file, a rice bag, alcohol sheets, a sample and the manicure wraps in Serendipity! 

It was a Saturday night and Chris was working so as soon as the girls went to bed I got to work! 

Since I had just had a manicure the previous week I really didn't need to file or cut my nails so it made the process a little easier. 

The entire application process took me about 20min because I took my time and really made sure the wraps were the correct size and no bubbles formed!

I was very impressed with the final product, so impressed I decided to take a bath see how well they held up! 

If I had painted my nails with regular nail polish there was no way I could do that!

 

Working at a preschool and having 2 little girls I am constantly washing my hands! Getting paint off them, scraping playdough out from under my nails, playing with sand and just everyday stuff.. And at the end of the week my nails looked just as good as they did at the start!!! 

I wore the wraps a total of 8 days, the only reason I didn't keep them on was because I get bored easily and was ready for a change! They were easy to remove BUT what shocked me the most was there was NO damage to my nails!  

They remind me of a gel/ shellac mania cute because they last 2 weeks and they take zero time to dry. If you have ever had gel/ shellac you have seen the damage they can do. It was so nice to see my nails nice and strong!

I am definatly ordering more wraps for myself and for Madison and YOU CAN TOO!!! Click the link below to place an order for my show! 

http://chelleyschoe.jamberrynails.net/party/?uid=e03ea686-71b9-4ac2-8dd2-6d0628357e89

 

The exciting part - every person that orders is entered into a draw to win 1 of these 2 accent nail sets!!

(winner will be contacted by email in 2 when the show closes).

Any questions contact Chelley - michelleschoellerjam@gmail.com