Sunday, February 24, 2013

Fun at the zoo!

Some of our best friends, Josh and Catie, are visiting us this weekend.  They got here Friday afternoon. Since it was my birthday we went to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Mamacitas. Yesterday morning we went to the zoo.  The boys are having a blast together!  

 Gus and Josh checking out the bears

 Charlie just hung out in the stroller but he had a great time


 My big boy and me
 Robby and Gus watching the ducks

 Since we told them they had to hold a hand if they got out of their strollers, they decided to hold each other's hand.  So precious!


 Robby checking out the crocodile
 The mommies



 We hardly ever get a picture of all four of us!  
 He loved the birds!

 Pretty worn out after a long morning!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

What I'm loving right now

I always enjoy when bloggers post about things they are using that they love.  When Robby was first born I really loved reading about baby/mommy things people enjoyed (or didn't enjoy - sometimes that's more helpful!).  Then after Charlie was born, I really enjoyed reading about workout tips, calorie counting apps, and over all fitness advice and things people were using to get healthy.  Now, I'm obsessed with beauty things - makeup, hair, clothes - I love it all!  So here are some products I've purchased recently that I love and think you will too!



Maybelline Highlighting Concealer
-This stuff is amazing!  After you apply your bronzer and blush, just swipe this under your eyes and along your nose (kind of make a triangle with one corner being almost to your tear duct, one corner being your nostril, and one corner being the outer corner of your eye) then blend.  It hides those horrible dark circles I have but it also brightens my face so I instantly look refreshed and alert.  Love this stuff!  The Nude shade is pretty much universally flattering.

Urban Decay Naked2 Palette
-I am absolutely obsessed with this eye shadow palette.  There are so many combinations of colors you can do to make different looks.  I love to create a smokey eye for the evenings or just a natural look for every day.  I had several gift cards that I used towards this purchase so I didn't have to pay the total out of pocket but I would definitely have paid it all.  It is well worth the money. I got it at the beginning of December and it looks like I haven't even touched it even though I have used it every single day since I used it.  As soon as I got it, I started scouring the internet for tutorials on different looks.  I have about 7 or 8 looks written down and I keep it in my makeup bag so I can follow the steps for looks I know will turn out great.  But sometimes I just make something up as I'm going.  I might have to do a post about the different looks I have.

Suddenly Skinny Tank Top
-Maybe it's just me, but ever since I had my boys, I wear a tank top under almost everything.  I just feel more pulled in and put together.  I think having the boys so close together, my skin might never be as taut as before.  Also, I didn't get any stretch marks anywhere on my body except for four above each of my hip bones.  So if I'm wearing a shirt, even if though it's long enough to cover everything, and I bend or reach for one of the boys and my shirt comes up on my side, I get really self conscious about them.  Anyway, I had been using just regular cotton tank tops from an outlet store but they were starting to fall apart.  I started the search for some new ones but I couldn't find any that I really liked.  They just didn't fit like my old ones that I loved.  I finally decided to look in the shapewear section at Target and that is where I found the Suddenly Skinny tank top.  It's not super restricting but it holds me in and just looks like a regular tank top.  It also doesn't roll up on the bottom, which is super nice.  The price is really good, too, since it's about what I would have paid for a nice regular tank top.  I will say, this does not make you look 10 pounds lighter and cause you to be 2 sizes smaller, it just smoothes things out a bit.

Old Navy Rockstar Skinny Jeans
-It took me quite a while to jump on the skinny jean wagon but I finally did and I'm leading the caravan!  I love how they are so slimming (believe it or not!).  I have a few that are more fitted around the calves and ankles that I wear with boots and some that are a little looser and I wear those with flats or sandals.  I will say, each color fits differently because they have a different percentage of spandex in them, so you might want to make sure you try them on in a store before you get them.  But they are on sale for only $19 online right now if you know what size you would be!

And lastly, Maskcara Blog.  This girl is so fun and I love her hair and makeup tips and tutorials.  Her mommy makeup post changed my whole makeup world!  So simple and fast.  Who knew I could get away with not wearing any foundation at all yet still look great?!  She lists everything she uses and most of the things you can get at a drugstore or wm or target.  She is where I found out about the highlighting concealer and her explanation of how to apply it might make a lot more sense than mine did!

So tell me, what are some of your favorite products or blogs right now?  I love to try new things, especially when my friends have already tried and love them!

Also, if you're interested in someone else's favorite things, go on over to Whitney's blog and enter to win some of her favorite lotion!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Monday, February 18, 2013

A Trip to the Fire Station!

My Moms Club that I'm a part of had a little field trip to the fire station yesterday. Since a lot of the dads were off work several of them went, so Tim tagged along with us! Robby was do excited to see the fire trucks. He talked about them the entire 25 minute drive, then when we got there he was pretty shy about it all. I got some cute pictures though!



Daddy with his boys!


Pointing to the fire trucks as the doors were raising


There they are!





Fireman Charlie!


Fireman Robby!





Charlie really wanted to see what was in there. He would not let go of the window!








I love this picture!


This was precious because Tim squatted down in the grass and Robby immediately had up squat down, too! :-)





Trying out the fire hose! Really, Tim just wanted to try it out and used Robby as an excuse!



We had a fun morning! I'm glad Tim got to enjoy it with us!

Granola Bars

For about a month now, I've been making our granola bars.  I got this recipe from my sister-in-law who found it a little while back.  They are so good!  We don't usually buy granola bars because they are high in calories and generally don't fill us up so we eat two or five before we realize if we eat anymore we won't have any left and we still aren't satisfied!  The great thing about these is you can control what you put in them (which is something I've had to start watching since going gluten-free) and they really are filling!  Tim and I eat one for breakfast most days.  Also, they are a nice little treat for dessert without being too horrible for you.  They are just sweet enough to take the edge off of a craving.  Here is the source of the recipe.  I only tweaked it a bit, so I want to make sure I give full credit to her. (I don't follow her blog or anything, she seems a bit extreme on some things, so I'm not condoning all of her writings, FYI).

Ingredients:
(disregard the vanilla in the picture, I don't use vanilla)
4 cups quick oats
2 cups rice cereal
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
Combine the oats and cereal in a very large bowl.
In a saucepan, melt the butter, honey, brown sugar, and peanut butter over medium heat. (A little tip: when measuring sticky things like honey and peanut butter, run your measuring cup under hot water for 30-60 seconds before scooping the ingredient.  When you go to pour it out, it will slide right out and you won't have to scrape it.)
Once it is all melted and the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and add the vanilla.
Pour hot mixture over the oats and cereal and stir.  It gets really thick, so it's actually more of pressing it all together with a spatula.
After thoroughly mixed, press the mixture down into a parchment paper lined jelly pan.

Start by pushing it against one end of the pan then push down to thin out the bars.
At this point, I put them in the refrigerator for a while, but you can just let them cool on the counter.  After they have cooled down, I like to add some chocolate chips to the top.
Push them down into the bars, then I refrigerate them longer.  After they are hardened, cut them into bars.  I usually get about 15 out of one batch.  You can make them whatever size you want.  I store them in a bag in the fridge to easily grab them when we want them.