Pretty as a Princess (and a fairy)

So here's Halloween...2 weeks late. Ummm, sorry 'bout that.

Florida Fun...Abridged

We've been home from Florida for about 4 days now, but to give you a glimpse of what life's been like, let's just say: I haven't even unpacked all our stuff yet. And for me, that is VERY rare and really saying something. Things have been busy getting ready for Halloween and at the gym for me, so this post has been a long time coming and will be brief considering I still have like 3 other posts in the works right now! Suffice it to say that Florida was awesome and we had a great time spending the week with my family. My parents rented a house near Disney World that had a pool and pretty much spent all of our time either at the parks, or in the pool.

Jenna's FAVORITE part of the trip (even better than the princesses) was taking this picture with Shamu. She has since informed me of a couple things: 1. She is going to be a Shamu trainer. 2. This is the coolest picture I could ever take and that the princess pictures are cool, but not quite as cool as this one. 3. Shamu is her best friend and she cries daily about missing him dearly.

The whole crew (minus Matt and Brooke) on Splash Mountain. Jenna's favorite rides at Disney World were Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. She's an adrenaline junkie just like me! Yeah! Matt hates those kind of rides.

This would be the "second rate" photography session with Jenna and the princesses. She was actually the only little kid there when we went to see them, so she got to pretty much just hang around and talk with them for about 10 minutes.

Getting ready for Mickey's 3D show, which was really awesome by the way.

The Barf Maker. I did NOT participate.

Brooke: Not in the mood!

Matt and I loved taking the girls to Disney World and Sea World. The rest of my family is obviously beyond the age when they really care to go to those places (until they have kids of their own), but they were good sports and went along with us to help with the girls and see them have a good time. I love getting away and having fun on vacation. I come from a family where, even when money was tight, I can still remember us taking family vacations and trips to this place or that. Matt's family was similar. They all have these hysterical and vivid memories of family vacations they took and how much fun (or sometimes not so much fun!) that they had. I guess it all depends on what you choose to spend your money on, but for me, I'd much rather go places and do things, than have things. (Actually, I'd really prefer both, but if I had to choose just one...)

Jenna at the Pumpkin Patch

So I'd like to pretend like I took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch and picked pumpkins and had a great day, but in actuality, Jenna went with her preschool and a friend of mine took these pictures for me! I actually would have gone, but it just so happened to be today...the same day we are leaving for Disney World and I just had too many things to do to spend the morning at the pumpkin patch. Anyway, Jenna had a great time and it was actually really nice weather too.

That being said, we are leaving for Disney in T minus 3 hours and counting...so I better go do those million things I was talking about.

STEP launch Breast Cancer Fundraiser

North Launch Team: Cindy, Kelie, Cori and Lisa

Saturday was the launch of the newest BODYSTEP release and since it's also Breast Cancer Awareness month, we did a fundraiser/launch and it was really awesome! I'd like to give myself a few props and mention that the pink ribbon shoe laces were my idea! :)

Also, in case you were wondering....Yes I do have children and Okay, sure, I'll post something about them one of these days. ;)

PUMP Training

Many of you know I have a slight addiction to the gym, specifically Les Mills programs. Anyway, I've been certified and teaching STEP for 1 year now and I absolutely love it. I found out about a month ago that they were going to be having a PUMP training come to Columbia (where I live) and I just couldn't resist getting trained and certified in that also. PUMP is weight/resistance training for every muscle in your body. If you've never PUMPed before, one thing is certain, you will be SOOOO sore the day after your first class, no doubt about it. Anyway, PUMP training was 9 hours a day for 3 days and it was intense and very physically exhausting.

Some highlights include:

• The PUMP challenge: which was essentially a fun 2 hour period where we had to lift 2-3 times what we would normally lift in a class. This was after we had already done about 4 hours of weight lifting. Anyway, the hardest was trying to over head press 90 pounds overhead for 5 minutes straight, I really thought I might die.
• Me realizing that while I really really like PUMP, I'm a STEP girl through and through.
• Our awesome national trainer Becky (in the white above) who came in to train our group.
• Me losing my voice and pretty much sounding like a frog for the whole last day and beyond.
• Me gaining 5 pounds over the course of the 3 days....umm, how is that possible!??!!

There's nothing that compares to an awesome Les Mills class. It gives me this natural high that is like nothing else, it's even better than diet Pepsi, and for me, that's sayin' something. I'm glad PUMP training is over, but I'm really glad I went and pushed myself and challenged myself to do something more and keep improving. Hopefully someday I'll be as awesome as these great instructors that I look up to!

Everything really IS bigger in Texas

So by a seriously LUCKY series of events, Matt and I got the incredible opportunity to get tickets...let me rephrase that....FREE tickets, to the sold out BYU v. OU game in the Dallas Cowboys brand spankin' new football monstrosity. My sister texted me on Wednesday, "Hey, my boss offered me tickets to the BYU v. OU game...you and Matt should go!" Me: "FETCH YES!" After that, all that was left was a series of text messages, concluding with the ever so sweet, "The Cougar has landed" text that I sent when UPS delivered our tickets at 9am the day we were leaving for Dallas! SWEETNESS! We drove through the night Friday night and pulled into Dallas at 7am Saturday morning. We did some stuff around Dallas and Fort Worth...yada yada, blah, blah...then it was GAME TIME!I would say the Cougar fans were about 1 out of 20. Let's just say, the blue stood out amongst all the red! Biggest jumbo-tron ever. Seriously. It goes from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line (I think). Talk about a flat screen!

We had great seat, right at the front of the second level. This place was so huge it had like 5 levels of seating! I felt so bad for the people up on the highest level, talk about nose bleeds, this place probably had a different climate up there.

There is no way to describe the sheer state of euphoria we were in the entire game long. We were sitting right in the midst of the BYU section, so we were surrounded by True Blue Cougar fans who were just as amped up as we were. We yelled and cheered and screamed for 3 and half hours, and when it was all over, the entire BYU section didn't leave, we stayed there, screaming, singing and cheering for another 20 minutes after the team had left the field. The OU fans, however, practically ran for the doors. I've never seen such a mass exodus of Red all at once!Finishing up the Haka Dance!We're finally starting to settle down a bit, at least enough to snap a couple pictures! We had such a great time and Matt and I both agree that this was the best BYU game we've ever been to. It may not have been the highest scoring game, but BYU came to play and they played well! We couldn't have been more proud of our alma mater. When the team was running into the locker room at half time, QB Max Hall was yelling, "We're gunna win this! We're gunna win this!" and that's exactly what Matt and I were thinking, "Oh my gosh! I think we could actually win this!" What a great experience this whole thing was! We're SUPER grateful to Nikki for the tickets and for my mom and Matt's sister Missy for watching our girls so we could go! All I can say is, WAY TO GO COUGS! Now keep it up, alright?

Fall...ish Cake

Made this for a party tonight. It's supposed to be fall colors but my red looks more like pink...oh well, I like pink, orange and yellow too. If you know someone that needs a cake made...send them my way, I might be gettin' in the biz for realsies.