3 things you need to survive January

Here are the three things that have been keeping me sane during this cold month of January...

1. Exercise TV - Comcast On Demand

I especially like Jillian Michaels, Bigger Loser with Bob, and most of the A List body workouts.

2. Fruit Smoothies

My sister introduced these to me. They taste good and are very healthy for you! It inlcudes a fruit, veggie, and dairy serving just in one drink. And if you are doing weight watchers, they only count for 4 points. It totally fills you up too! Here is the recipe:

1 cup frozen berries (i buy the BIG bag from costco)

1 light yoplait yogurt (any flavor)

1/2 cup apple juice

1/2 cup water

2 1/2 cups of spinach (BIG bag of fresh spinach from costco)

Mix all on a blender and DRINK!

3. Girl's Night Out

Every woman needs to have some time away with their girlfriends. I am lucky to have so many fun girls to hang out with from church and in my neighborhood.

Holland & Horses

My little bug (our nickname for Holland) loves horses. I mean REALLY loves them. She will make the cutest, highest pitched, ear piercing horse noise. It is the funniest thing you have ever heard. She hardly ever plays with her horses with out making these loud neighs. If you are lucky she will gallop around the house pretending to be a horse on her hind legs with her hands motioning circling about in front of her. The other morning she woke up early and wanted to go play with her toys. I decided to stay in bed and catch some more ZZZZs. Next thing I know, she has all of her horses on the side of my bed, right next to my face and she is whispering her horsie noises. I guess she wanted to play and be next to me too.

Heat Wave

Today it was 34 degrees and sunny. Tomorrow is suppose to be 36 degrees and sunny. I was telling Ryan how excited I was about the warm weather...he said, "Oh yeah, we are having a heat wave!"

Whatever, it is much warmer than -27 (with the wind chill) like it was last week!

That hurts...

I was mad at Ethan the other day and I scolded him in my "motherly tone". He went off crying because that is what he has been doing lately. So a few minutes later I went to check in on him....

ME: Why are you sad?

ETHAN: My ears hurt

ME: Why do your ears hurt?

ETHAN: Mommy's too loud

So, I take it Ethan does not like it if I yell at him.

Hey Rachie, Its Your Birthday!

I turned 32 this year. It was a fabulous birthday too! First, my sister, Amber came to visit me. It was a total surprise too. This is how it went....Ryan said he was going to go shopping for my birthday present...he came home and asked me if I want to open my b-day present early. I said, not really. But he told me to go up stairs so he could bring my present in the house. I gave him a bunch of crap, like ' I will just close my eyes or go into the office...do I really need to go upstairs?' So i finally go upstairs because he is getting annoyed at me. When I cam downstairs, Amber and Mason were standing in front of me! I kept hugging her because I could not believe she was really in Chicago! It was the best birthday present! For those of you who know my family, Amber is Ryan's sister...but I love her so much she has moved up status to sister. We had the best time while she was here. We visited about 8 Targets while she was here. It was a total blizzard on my actual birthday but that did not stop us from shopping til we dropped. The twins were thrilled to play with Macey moo for 6 whole days! You can read about it in more detail, here.

We spent way too much time on facebook. We were looking up old boyfriends, grade school friends, and people Ryan used to have crushes on in high school. We also mangaged to lip sync a few songs by MilliVanill and Poison.

(Amber, Khania, Amy, Karrie, Me, Lindsay, and Jenn)
We had a party at "pinstripes" with all my friends. We played bocce and chatted all night long. I am not sure if you can see Amber there, because she is hiding!

I needed help blowing out all those candles....it took a few breaths.

I received so many phone calls, gifts, and emails from all my friends and family. I felt completely loved! AND This man is the love of my life. He totally spoiled me on birthday. I constantly tell him that I was not spoiled until I married him. It is all his fault! I love this guy to pieces!

Mom, Look!

On the way home a few days ago we passed our local GAP and Holland (in her cutesy voice) said, "Aww, look at those cute shirts!"

Is she my girl or what?

Party of the Year

They were little troopers...stayed awake until 12:01 am

Happy New Year!