Active Summer

Travis and I consider ourselves to be pretty active people. We enjoy exercising and staying getting fit. Travis just recently finished his two month membership at a CrossFit gym. We found a steal of a deal on Group On. I wish we could afford to keep sending him there at full price. It made him so incredible happy. He'd come home all excited and tell me (in detail) the workout he did that day. Wow. I respect CrossFitters. Intense stuff!

So now that he finished that, he wanted to maintain what he worked so hard to get. So we "shopped" around and decided to join the YMCA. They have financial assistance and can adjust the membership fee to fit your family's income. Yes please! We were so blessed for them to be able to work with us to find a fee that was financially possible for us. So we started going to the YMCA this week. 

Travis and I tried a H.I.I.T. workout on Monday, I did Zumba (for the first time) on Tuesday, and Travis trained with a one-on-one personal trainer (included in the membership) on Wednesday. Thursday, we took advantage of their pools. Hailey loved "swimming"! Joining the YMCA was the perfect choice for our family. And they have free babysitting! We're eager and excited to do more with their equipment, classes, and eventually swim lessons (for Hailey). 

Another way we're staying active is our bike rides. Every weekend we go on a long bike ride. We love being outside, with the wind blowing through our hair. (Well, my hair. Travis doesn't have much hair for the wind to blow through.) And it's quality family time!

I've noticed a tremendous difference in how I feel about myself when I work out. Both mentally and physically. When I'm active every day, I feel like I'm doing something for myself. I put SO MUCH time and energy into making my daughter's and husband's lives happy, that sometimes (a lot of the time) I don't give myself enough "me" time. Working out definitely gives me the boost I need to keep chugging along. And my body thanks me too! I feel so much better when I get my workout in. I'm noticing little changes as I stick to my daily workouts. I'm getting stronger and I'm loving the changes. 

I'm thankful that I have an active husband that pushes me (in a good way) to do what's best for my body. It's not always easy. Most of the time I'd rather stay home and sit on the couch eating ice cream. But I'm creating habits that will continue throughout the rest of my life. And hopefully carry on in my kids' lives as well. It's so important to be active to keep your mind, body, and spirit happy. 

I hope you're not reading this thinking I'm bragging or telling you what to do. I just wanted to share what's important to my family and what we love to do together.

Here's to a healthy and happy summer!

Father's Day 2014

I had been planning Travis' Father's Day for a few months. Travis always goes above and beyond for me, and usually I give him something dinky and sentimental. So this year I decided to treat him to something extra special because he works so incredibly hard for our family. 

If you know Travis, you know that he loves Arkansas. Well, maybe you don't know that, but now you do. I found some cheap(ish) tickets to an Arkansas game this fall. The seats are in the bloody nose section because we can't afford much more than that. But we'll be at the game! This is one of the first times I was able to keep a secret (for months!) so I had to film his reaction. I wish it was a little more over the top. I was wanting tears and then kissing my feet, but I guess this will do. ;)

Of course I had to include something dinky and sentimental, so I made him a frame of Hailey's picture. 

And then a couple different t-shirts.

 ^^I included hot wheels cars with the shirt above because it has a track on the back. It doubles as a back scratch when Hailey plays with cars on it. 

And here are some more pictures we took to get one to frame. 

  

This is what most of the experience was like...

I even had to get in on the action to try and convince Hailey to hold the sign.

 

We are so grateful for Travis. He does so much for our family. He's a loving, (mostly) patient, silly, and hardworking father and husband. We love him to the moon and back.

Hailey's 15 Month Update

My daughter turned ONE three months ago. How is this happening? Time is FLYING by. And three months is a big difference in toddler time. She is learning every day and surprises me with the things she says and does. 

At Hailey's 15 month check up she was 18.15 pounds (15th percentile), 29 3/4 inches long (25th percentile), and her head was 18 inches (50th percentile). Okay, I have a really bad memory and those percentiles are my best guesses trying to remember what the doctor said. She got three shots at this last check up. Her poor legs were so sore for dayyys. Check out those bandaids below. :(

The words she can say up to now are:

-Mama and Dadda

-Baw (ball)

-MO! (no)

-Dant Du (thank you)

I wu ___ (I love you) <<she usually misses the you part.

-Eye (clear as day)

-Sue (shoe)

-Yeah! (usually with her arms up)

-Yay! (usually with clapping)

-Uh oh

-Wow

-Hi

That's all I can think of now. But there's probably a couple I'm missing.

The animal sounds she can make are dog, cow, monkey, lion, and sometimes bird.

She has six teeth. Four on top, two on the bottom.

Her favorite toys right now are her doll house ($3 from a garage sale),

 Her slide (also $3 from a garage sale),

And anything that resembles jewelry. 

Hailey has been without the binky (days and nights) for over a month now. I'd be lying if I said it was easy. 

But luckily she doesn't mind using this play mushroom as a replacement. (Actually only did this that one time.)

 She's constantly begging to eat at the table. So I've thought about getting a booster seat so she can eat there instead of her highchair.

 She's started to put diapers on her babies and stuffed animals. It's pretty dang cute.

 She now has this little attitude (more like a big one) that's pretty adorable. It's hard to control our laughter as we try and teach her to be nice.

She started hitting (yay...), so we're working on that. And I apologize if she ever hits you or your children. We're a work in progress.

She loves playing peekaboo. And has now combined that with "where's Hailey". 

We love Hailey. She keeps life so interesting. She's such a special and sweet spirit and definitely a spit fire at the same time. She's growing and learning so fast.