Swimming with Friends

 

So we have our own pool at our apartment complex, but I'm pretty sure we've visited our friends' apartment's pool more often. Swimming is so much funner with friends! Our apartments neighbor each other and the pools are exactly the same. My friend, Tai, has four children who are besties with my kids, so it's only natural that we spend time together!

 

And no, my kids don't know how to swim yet. I think Hayden would if he had more confidence, but he freaks out when he's in deep water and then splashes around like he's dying. Roman is sort of the same way, but like I mentioned way back in his swimming lesson post, he'd have a smile on his face even if he was drowning. Something about swimming makes that boy so happy! Aubrey is a pro at swimming around with an innertube. We put arm floaties on her and she wasn't so sure anymore of her swimming abilities, but she's probably my bravest in the water!

 

 

 

Check out the slow-motion pictures...jumping (while holding nose, of course) and splashing!

Hayden's a bit more adventurous in his jumping...it's more of a run and jump technique.

 

 

This is one of Aubrey's besties, Railynn.

 

The other bestie, Jocelyn...and I know I spelled this wrong because Tai has made it her personal mission to spell her children's names all unique just to drive me insane :)

 

Amaia...she's my bestie. Isn't she super cute?!

 

Aubrey coming to me after freaking out post-arm-floaties.

 

Activewear Sample!

Oh my gosh, I figured out how to add pictures. I am amazing.

 

Thanks again to Crowdtap and Old Navy I was selected to try out some Old Navy Activewear with Tai. With the new year here, we were excited to get some work out clothes in hopes that it will convince us to keep to our New Year's Resolutions to be healthy.

 

It was no surprise that Tai went straight for the purple jacket. In fact, she was kinda bummed that they didn't have any purple pants, too!

 

 

And...is it any surprise I went for the black and grey combo? I really should branch out and try some more color, but the jacket was so comfy and the pants slimmed me down.

 

 

This is the jacket I got (I think...)

 

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=69873&vid=1&pid=250660082

 

I love the compression feel, I felt so slim in the jacket. It has several pockets and thumb holes to help keep my hands warm.

 

Here are some of my other faves:

 

Boot cut compression pants:

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=69873&vid=1&pid=865679052

 

V-Neck Seamless Tanks:

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=84254&vid=1&pid=329951032

 

Bubble Tanks:

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=53934&vid=1&pid=330705012

 

Shoes...love the funky colors!

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=41581&vid=1&pid=569037032

 

 

Bug Free

I'm really frustrated with blogger right now. The option to add a picture is not working. Ugh. At least this isn't my Disneyland post, right??

I have to share my new favorite thing. Ever.

Zicam Rapid Melts. They are these sweet-tasting (literally) melting tablets that reduce the symptoms of the common cold. Or, in my case, completely get rid of the cold.

I take them at the first sign of the cold - sore throat, sniffles, whatevs. And it works. I usually find these symptoms flare up at night, so I take one of this little miracles and by morning I wake up feeling great!

Every year since Jeremiah and I got married (10 years ago) at least one of us has been to the doctor's office around this time of year for antibiotics due to some sort of strain of something that is killing us. Brochitis, pneumonia, and severe colds are the most common.

This year is the first year EVER that we have not made a trip to the doctor's office yet. Jeremiah takes Zicam when he starts getting a cold, he takes them every 4 hours while he's awake for a few days in a row and the most he's had this year is a little bit of congestion and a lot of sneezing. No coughing or sore throat.

I'm so seriously amazed right now.

Check it out.

Many thanks to Crowdtap and Zicam for letting us try it out this year, we're Zicam's newest fans!

Dress it up

Once again, Crowdtap has seen fit to allow me into one of their sample shares. While I've received jeans and tops and accessories, my favorite is always their dresses. Their dresses are always fit so beautifully on me and are so comfortable all at the same time. And while I think they are a bit pricey (or maybe I'm just cheap) they do have some great sales!

 

The first one I tried on was a stripes long sleeve dress with a belt. It wasn't my favorite. I'm not a huge fan of tight sleeves. However, I liked the belt. Who knew? I've avoided belts on dresses and tunics forever!

 

 

This is actually the one I ended up getting. I loved the color and the fit. It is so comfortable on, usually I end up changing as soon as I get home from work but with this dress on I wear it until bedtime! It's my absolute new favorite dress to wear!

 

Tai picked this dress. It looks so cute with black leggings or black boots. She tried on so many dresses I know it was a hard choice for her! Aubrey had to be in the picture, too. Too bad little girl's dresses aren't included in the sample share, Aubrey found several she wanted!

 

I had to try on one last dress, just to be sure I was making the right choice. I was! This dress was beautiful on the hanger...not so much on me!

 

This is the dress I got (http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=86263&vid=1&pid=330134022)  but in a more wine/purple color, not this bright purple...although I do like that one too!

 

Thank you again Old Navy and Crowdtap for an amazing sample share!

The Writing on the Wall

After living in New Mexico for a year, in which the boys have attended Petroglyph Elementary, and passing the Petroglyph National Park signs daily on my commute to work, we decided it was high time we actually visited these "petroglyphs". It's like living in San Fransico and not seeing the Golden Gate Bridge...or New York City and not seeing the Statue of Liberty or Seattle and not seeing the Space Needle....

 

Ok, so not that dramatic, but they were still cool. And in Albuquerque we sometimes find ourselves a bit desperate for entertainment.

 

We went to the information cabin to find out which trail we should take. While we were looking forward to something big and exciting, Aubrey complains if she has to walk from the car to the house so we knew we couldn't do anything strenuous.

 

Here we are the beginning of the trail.

 

While we didn't take pictures of everything we saw, we did take quite a few. This first one is a lizard playing ping pong. Who knew they had ping pong back then?! :)

 



 

What I can only guess is a map?

 

Jeremiah got a kick out of this one. The world's first drawn sad face.

 

See. You can still see the trail head and Aubrey is already asking for something to drink.

The view from the beginning of the hike. It was a beautiful day.

 

The boys LOVED the hike. They were always in front and loved to climb on the rocks. They gave us a heart attack a few times because the rocks they chose to climb on happened to be part of a small cliff...just big enough to break their heads open.

 

At this point I was literally holding her hand to keep her moving. But she was a good sport and trucked along...until we started our descent, at that point Jeremiah and I took turns holding her. What a princess.

 

Aubrey and I hung out while the boys went up a little further with Jeremiah. I think they could have spent most of the day there playing around and climbing on things. I don't know if they even stopped to look at any of the actual petroglyphs, although I hear that our hike was one of the smaller hikes. We need to give Aubrey a 5-hour energy drink next time and try a bigger hike :) In her defense, though, it was hot, but it wasn't more than a 1/4-mile up and 1/4-mile down. But she's cute so we don't complain.

A Transylvania Halloween Party!

Thanks (yet again!) to Crowdtap, I was able to throw a party for my kids and their friends.

 

But not just any party. A Hotel Transylvania Halloween party!

 

My kids have seen the preview dozens of times and can't wait for it to be available at the Dollar Movies (because let's be honest, we're too poor to go to the regular theater these days!). The second best thing I could do for them was to throw them a party, right?

 

I'm really not always that creative at party-planning. And that is why I am so thankful for my Pinterest account. I found such cute ideas, most of which required time and money, both of which are in limited supply, but it did get my creative juice flowing :)

 

Want some monster juice? Witch's brew? Goblin blood? The kids came up with several names for these drinks. I love how easy they were. Green koolaid poured into clear plastic cups with perma-scowls on them!

 

 

Love the cupcake holder? Dollar store! The pumpkins were set out so the kids could color on them.

 

See all those cobwebs in the background? When was the last time I dusted?! :)

Who doesn't love worms in dirt, especially when they taste exactly like pudding, Oreos, and gummy worms?!

 

I just can't get over the dollar store cupcake holder. Unbelievably cute. The cupcakes weren't that bad either :)

Amaia was a little creeped out by all our Halloween banter. So what if I pretended I was a zombie and tried to eat her arm?!

 



The kids watched an extended sneak peek of the movie and then a Shrek Halloween cartoon, just to keep the scariness alive.

 



 

While the kids watched the show and played the Hotel Transylvania games online, we prepared for the following:

 

Want to feel brains?! I mean...ramen noodles?!?!

 

This was my favorite...as long as the kids didn't smell it. Chunky salsa = vomit.

 

Yeah...I still look at chunky salsa with a bit of hesitation.

 

Peeled grapes as eyeballs. None of the kids guessed this one.

 

The most convincing? A peeled tomato apparently feels very much like a heart. Our EMT friend said so himself :)

 

Check out these looks of disgust...

 

Our next activity was cupcake decorating. We had different color frostings, sprinkles, and M&Ms to decorate with.

 

 

Once the kids were done decorating, we added monster "eyes" - Dum Dum suckers with a peach ring wrapped around it.

 

And then, because we hadn't done enough, we colored pumpkins. I decided not to carve or paint because of the mess factor and the age of most of the kids (5 or under) but washable markers were awesome! If they messed up or changed their mind a baby wipe quickly cleaned off the pumpkin and the kids could start over. Hayden, Roman, and Aubrey continued to work on their pumpkins for several hours the next day!

 

Each kid was sent home with their colored pumpkin and a packet of Hotel Transylvania coloring pages!