1st Birthday Party Rainbows!

Scarlet turned one this month! I cannot believe it! She is getting big so fast. Almost makes me want one more.....almost :) I decided to do her party in rainbow theme. I had a ton of fun researching this! We had rainbow swirled sugar cookies, rainbow cupcakes, rainbow smash cake, fruit rainbow, colorful veggies, and hamburgers and hotdogs. I made my own decorations..well, I had help from three lovely tweens.

Here is the birthday princess!
I did not make her dress.
I ordered it from my most favorite place
ETSY!

Here are the wonderful girls that helped me!!
Look at those awesome poms!!

Table spread

Fruit rainbow! I added marshmallows for the clouds.

Centerpiece made from skittles and a candle in a mason jar.

The decorations. I wanted the poms to hang from the
ceiling, but we could not get it to work, so we just stuck them
to the wall.

Flowers made from scrapbook paper. A little too time
consuming, but easy to make.

Veggies!

Birthday princess grubbing. I decorated her seat with
some crepe paper (streamers). Simple.

The 12 months of Scarlet. I taped pictures from every month
behind her seat.

Smash Cake! 

Rainbow cupcake! This is probably not the best example.
It doesn't show the red and yellow.

I love doing parties for my kids. It's one of the ways I like to show them how much they mean to me,even if the won't remember it. My mom is the complete opposite of me. She never understands why I go through all the trouble of making decorations and coordinating everything into a theme. It's fun to me. Of course, having this party just a little over a month after we moved in to our new house, proved to be quite stressful. We actually had rain here, so our yard was full of mud, and someone drug mud all over the brand new carpet. When someone comes up to you and says "Now, don't freak out, but...." It's hard not to freak out. I still have 2 mud stains on the carpet. Oh well, part of the party. My son's birthday is 2 months away. I have decided to look for other venues to have it at. Maybe next year, after we have broken in the house a little bit, I will have parties here again.

Aubs

Trying to Conserve Water in a Drought

I'm in West Texas, where there is a very serious drought going on right now. The city I live in has placed some pretty strict watering guidelines. The town has been sectioned off and each section has a specific outdoor watering day. On that day you are allowed to use water outdoors for 2 hours anytime between 6 pm and midnight. If you are caught watering on a day that is not yours, or if are watering the street or sidewalk, you will get some sort of violation ranging from warnings to serious fines. The city has also increased the fee for water usage. If you use more than 10,000 gallons you will be charged an extreme amount of money.
  In light of all this we are trying our hardest to conserve water. Any water left in a cup will not go down the drain. I use that water for my indoor plants. My master bath takes an extra long time for the water to heat up, while I try to shower every other day (for the sake of water conservation, this is very hard for me!) I do wash my face everyday. That was a lot of water just going down the drain. I decided to use my small bucket I had to try and catch some that water. That bucket worked just fine, but it just wasn't big enough. We found this cool flexible tub that we sit in the tub that we don't use. The sink fills my small bucket twice before it gets even remotely warm. I'm able to dump the water into the large flexi tub and at night my husband uses it to water the trees.

We found this flexi tub at Target for only $5.99. That's not a bad price if it helps to save our trees and to conserve water. Every small step helps.

Aubs

In The House!

After all the drama and chaos, we are finally in our new home! It is an amazing feeling. We have been here almost 2 weeks and it still does not feel real. I am so thankful and grateful for MIL and FIL even though I complained the WHOLE time. I really tried to keep my chin up, but it was hard.
 The house doesn't really feel like our own yet, so I have started painting. First room up is Skyler's.

Half of his room will be this awesome bright green. The other half will be a pretty blue. I've painted the green and I will finish up with the blue this weekend. I can't wait for it to be finished. I don't know why, but adding color to the house is making it feel more like home. Here's to the weekend!!

Aubs

Hanging in there.....sorta

Wellll....to be honest, I'm not doing so hot. I should be down almost 10 lbs. according to my goal. I'm a whole pound down from where I started. It's harder than I thought to stay motivated and active. I've been off and on with the menu planning. When I stick to the menu, I do good, I just need to remember that. Easier said then done tho.

In other news, I posted my very first item to Etsy today. I'm pretty excited about it. I hope it gets some action. Ok here is the link http://www.etsy.com/listing/82633531/falling-for-fall-yarn-wapped-wreath and a pic...

Did I say excited? I meant nervous! Ok, both! Seriously, it would be awesome to sell something that I made. I've sold items on Ebay before, but it's completely different when it's something you spent time on creating. Eeeee! Wish me luck!

Aubs

Gotta Stay Motivated!

Ok, so I'm bummed right now. I didn't lose any weight this week, in fact I gained  .5 lbs. I didn't track at all last week. I know how important it is to keep track of everything you eat while trying to lose weight, and I just proved it to myself once again. As soon as I'm done updating, it's off to track what I had for breakfast.
 I also have not yet done my menu plan for the week. Geez, I'm definitely not off to a great start! Last week I tried 2 new recipes~ Tex Mex Pizza and the Hashbrown Casserole. Both of them were delicious. I knew the Hashbrown Casserole would be good, just by the ingredients. The Tex Mex Pizza, I was a little worried about. I used the leftover burrito meat, some salsa, and shredded pepper jack cheese all on a thin crust Pillsbury pizza dough. I put tortilla chips on top for the last 5 minutes in the oven to get them extra crispy! It really turned out well.
 Since I am so far behind today, I'm going to stop my rambling, and get to work.

Menu Plan August 8th thru 13th

I weighed myself today and I have lost 1.2 lbs. since last week. I was hoping for closer to 2 lbs. since we were at Rock the Desert Friday and Saturday, but I'm still happy that it's a minus and not a plus! I'm still keeping a food log. I did pretty well at that except during the weekend.  This week I'm posting my meal plan for the week.

Monday~ Sandwiches and chips. I know it's not exciting or anything, but I like to have sandwiches for supper once a week. It's a good light meal, especially with the Summer heat.
Tuesday~ Ground Beef and Potato Burritos
Wednesday~Homemade Chicken Nuggets w/not homemade mac n cheese and a steamer veggie mix
Thursday~ Hashbrown Casserole~ this is a new recipe for us to try  from Recipe.com magazine. I'll make a steamer veggie for a side
Friday~ Tex~Mex pizza~ also a recipe I haven't tried yet from the Recipe.com magazine.
Saturday~ Chicken Avocado Tostados on the grill~ another recipe from the same magazine.

I'm linking this post to I'm an Organizing Junkie's Monday Menu Plan.

My Goal!

This is my first post on my new blog, and I'm about to reveal one of the most embarassing things about myself...I'm overweight, in fact, according to my parents Wii Fit, I'm considered obese! Yikes! I hate that word, and I definitely hate admitting that I'm part of the huge percentage of people who are obese. I'm going to be 30 in six months ( Oh, dang! I just admitted two embarassing things about myself in my first post!). I've decided today is the day I'm going to start making some changes. My goal is to lose 30 lbs. by the time I turn 30. That's about 5 lbs. a  month.
 The plan~ I've dieted  more than once, so I'm going to take what I learned and what I know worked for me from those experiences. I'm going to keep a food journal and meal plan. My food journal is going to be kept on the website http://caloriecount.about.com/ . I'm going to try and post my meal plan on this blog. I'm not following any fad diet or anything. I'm just going to eat less. I'm breastfeeding, so it's important for me to still eat enough calories to keep a good milk supply. In the future I would like to add an actual workout routine to my plan, but for now the activity is going to be playing with my 3 year old, the Wii, and Kinect.
 I've already weighed myself today. I also plan on taking some measurements. I don't know which one is more painful! I plan on weighing myself at least once a week and taking measurements once a month. I want to reduce my weight, my size, and my bmi. I'm excited and scared at the same time! I just need to stay as motivated as I am today.
 Game on!


Aubs