Starting 2013

     So here comes the end of the year only 51 mins til we all spiral into the next year here in Germany that is. And well needless to say tonight is the night everyone eats the most JUNK and drinks til they feel like puking. We decided that wasn't the way to go. We haven't done anything too wild for New Years in a long time. Yes ringing in a new year is exciting but, who wants to wake up feeling shitty about themselves and hung over? That is really not that way to start a new year.

    So instead we had a healthy dinner of chicken breasts, red potatoes, and pasta. And also started Insanity today. I would like to say that we are not doing that as our resolution. As we have both been working hard to loose weight for the past month too, we chose to do it more for the fact that we didn't wanna have to join the rush of the crowds at the gym of people who ARE making their resolution to loose weight or work out.  But boy I can tell you this next month is going to end in a lot of days where i can barely walk but since we are doing it as a couple we are gonna push ourselves to finish it!!

    So now to the point of this blog. I want to tell you what my true resolutions are!! I have picked two and both are ones that I am not going to fail within the first few months. Who wants to set a goal they are likely to give up on. It really should be worded to make them feel good all year long as long as they are still TRYING.  A good example would be: Instead of saying eat healthier cuz the next time you pick up a soda or pizza your gonna hate yourself. Say something like "Eat more Veggies". This is something tho you may not ALWAYS eat as much as you should, if you are remembering to eat more in general you are still getting somewhere, and don't feel like you failed so you are more likely to continue to try to eat more veggies.

 My Resolutions:

1. Be more Positive: I tend to let the little things make me upset. And than once I am upset I get so negative it probably just turns people away. I plan to look for the good in everything, and do what is best for my family. Stop worrying about what makes others happy.  Also not  get wrapped up in any drama or things I have no control of...I hope that this Resolution will allow me to have a LOT less stress in my life this coming year.

2. Get our finance straight: Now not to say we are always broke but boy would it feel nice to have a bigger savings to be sitting on and not have to worry about if we can afford something we want. We have 2 things we owe money on and I would like to get them all but paid off so that the money we are paying towards them each month can be going into our savings instead. Specially since we live here in Europe I would love to use some of the extra money to travel while we have the chance.

So I feel that both of my Resolutions are easy to achieve throughout the next year. Hopefully you will be able to follow/notice my progress as you follow my blogs. I know I will be using this as a place to talk about how we are doing with our goals. Also have decided the main direction I am going to go with this blog and hopefully starting this new year you will all like it and continue to follow me :)

I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!!! So what are your New Years Resolutions?

9 months and 5 days.

    Well with Kyra turning 9 months on Christmas I didn't really get a chance to do her 9 month progress chart thing until now because well we have been busy and I haven't caught a silent time really where I could sit down ALONE and just write.  So here it is for all of you that enjoy seeing Kyra's progress and all the things she learns each month. It amazes me how such a short increment of time can change one person so much. And honestly it wouldn't be so drastic if I didn't have these to look back on.

Nicknames: Kyra Bug, Squishy, Boo Boo bear.

Clothing Size: 9 months and some 12 months.

Personality: Oh boy is your personality certainly starting to shine through in everything you do. You are chatting and blabbering on about everything. And now have so much sass it is occasionally out of control. Specifically when you are told no about something.

Things I Could Do Without:  You being so hard headed and thinking you can do whatever you want. Than getting a temper when you are told you can't.

Item/Toy We Love The Most: The brainy baby dvd we were given for Christmas. I'm not a huge fan of putting your kid in front of a tv to entertain them as it doesn't do anything to help them learn but there are moments where I need to get something done and knowing she is gonna sit still and not come climb up my legs when I am cooking something hot for example that having her watch that dvd has been a savior.

Item/Toy You Love The Most:  Oh Christmas was good to you, and I'm not sure we have any specific favorites quite yet, tho she does like the new walkers cuz they are way more exciting than the one we were borrowing cuz they make noises. And your new cardboard fort we built you!!

Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Your personality, you just make the funniest faces and respond to everything so enthusiastically!! You even clap when you eat!!

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Walking around the house with the walkers, clapping and singing with mommy. And playing with all the new toys!!

Her hair is getting so long, and look at that drool!!! She has been working on her 2 top teeth forever, you can see and feel them they just won't break through :S

Hard to believe that in 3 short months my baby girl is gonna be a toddler and no doubt before than she will be walking all over the house!! This week we have her 9 month pictures and I am really excited about them! I'll be posting those is a week or two so keep an eye out for that blog. Also in the coming weeks, NOT JUST BECAUSE OF NEW YEARS, I will be doing updates on my workouts. I am starting Insanity starting tomorrow and I know it is gonna rock my world. I am doing the working out to reach my 12 month pp goal. It just happens to line up with the beginning of the year. I will also have a blog soon about new years!! Haha well probably tomorrow. Thanks everyone for following my blog and this Christmas season the amount of views was more than i ever expected. And now I can tell which things you like most so I will be trying to bring you blogs that excite my viewers!!! Can't wait to hear from you all. And if there is something you would like to hear more about feel free to message me: johannessabrina@gmail.com

The end of Christmas!

      I am sorry that the last few days of the 25 days of Christmas kinda fell apart. I just got really distracted by the fact Dustin was off work and we had a lot of great family time. We are still gonna be really lucky for the next week or two with him having very little work time. Kyra is sure loving having him home more often. Although sadly we will be having to say goodbye to him in February for a few months, including over both Kyra and I's birthdays :( Guess we better get our fill now while we can.

     But back to Christmas. Since I slacked on the last couple day I'll just do one big blog about the fun Christmas activities the day before and on Christmas!! It was a really awesome Christmas and having children really does make the holiday magic come back!!

       First thing we did was make cookies for Santa, lets just say don't try this with a 9 month old. That really just turned into a huge mess of flour EVERYWHERE! But I think she had fun playing in the mess anyways, that is until she started rubbing her eyes! Needless to say we ended up doing the rest letting her play on the ground. The cookies don't look the greatest as we were rushing to get them done and get her into a bath before she spread the flour all over the entire house.

       We let them all cool over night so we could worry about frosting them the next day during a nap time for baby Kyra! And it worked out great. Again we are far from professionals and a lot of our cookies look like 3 year old's frosted them. But here are a few of my favorites :)

     Then they were ready to put out for Santa to eat :) Here is Kyra putting them out...or well trying to eat them.

    
       Christmas morning came with a lot of excitement from us more than anything, after doing a bit of cuddling in bed just the three of us talking and playing we got up to see what Santa had brought. I set her down and the first thing she saw was the tie dye bear from her uncle Shane. She went straight for it and started loving on it! I knew she would love it! Than it was on to all the other toys, here are some pictures of her opening them up.

     After spending all morning playing with all the new toys, it was time to start cooking dinner so we would be ready to eat when the neighbors came up! Dustin made the turkey and totally rocked it, he got creative and it was probably the juiciest turkey EVER!!! I am so excited for him to make it again sometime! And I made mashed potatoes in the crock-pot that turned out Amazing far better than the batch I made for thanksgiving! There was a few other sides and of course pie. It was over all a great dinner and the company of GREAT friends just made it that much better. I must say this was the best Christmas in 3 years. Having a baby makes Christmas way more magical!

Post baby weight loss

        It seems impossible when you look at how big my belly was at just 36 weeks pregnant and to think I still had 5 weeks after that. But within 2 weeks after her birth I had lost all the weight I had gained during the pregnancy.  At 6 weeks after birth I took a picture to show that all though the weight was gone what was still left was sitting in really gross spots and you can tell I was very uncomfortable in my skin.

      My ultimate goal weight is 145 and after the birth I was down to 165. So I set to working out as soon as my doctor gave me to the go ahead. I have had a few days where I pushed myself really hard but for the most part I just tried to be very active by starting a walking group and getting out as much as possible all summer and fall. And in doing that my body feels so healthy and I have made it down to 155 a weight I haven't seen in years. Although my core is still squishy from how much stretching it had to do to hold my little 10 lb 12 oz baby.

     My goal is to reach my UGW by the time she turns 1 year. That is 10 lbs to go in 3.5 months I think it is possible as long as I push myself to eat right and workout more often!! But even if I were to end up just getting really toned and in shape I would be happy with that also!!!  So stay tuned to see how the rest of my journey goes!!

Sweet and Salty

    We are narrowing down the 25 days of Christmas. Really happy to say that it feels like it has been a very successful month for my blog. I thank you all for following along and hope I have gained a few regular followers for the future of my blog.

     Seeing as there is only 3 days until Christmas it is time to start BAKING!!! I love to bake and more than anything LOVE to munch on all the junk. Way to become obese in the last couple weeks of the year! But if we didn't do this who would want to make their goal for the new year to be to loose weight?

     Well yesterday we had the final give away and sadly like they all have kind of been no one seemed interested except a select few. Which is sad because I thought maybe I would continue to do crafts and give them away but may not.

     The winner as there was only one entry again was Micah Howell....her letter to Santa was absolutely adorable!! And I know she will get everything she wants for Christmas from the old man. Now to find out what is going to be filling up that adorable little snow man!

It looks like Rudolf!!!

    I hadn't made these amazing little treats in a couple years but they are always a hit! Pretzel melts!! They are pretzels with Hershey Kisses and Peanut butter M&M's! Very easy to make also.

Pretzel Melts

Ingredients:

Bag of Pretzels

Bag of M&M's

2 bags of Hershey's Kisses

Preheat oven to 170*

On a cookie sheet lay out a layer of Pretzels

Place a Hershey Kiss on each Pretzel

Place in oven for 4-6 mins I find going the full 6 is best but keep an eye out you don't want them to completely melt you want them to stay in their normal shape but be soft. Than the next step you have to be quick about.

Push the M&M's down into the kiss

Put on cooling racks in the fridge

 Now ENJOY!!!

More Snowmen!!

      It's the final give away day. I hate to say this but it's gonna be for local people here in Wiesbaden just for the fact it would be difficult to ship without the treats going stale.

   


     On Pinterest my favorite craft ideas are those of things that are being up-cycled to make something new. I had seen some snowmen made out of similar things to the puffs container I chose to use like coffee creamer bottles. But I decided since we go through puffs like its no ones buisness around here it would be easiest for me to obtain enough of these to give to neighbors and friends by Christmas time.

        This craft was so simple it doesn't even need a tutorial. Find a snowman shaped container that is already white or that you can paint white. Than paint on eyes, mouth, nose, buttons, and tie on a scarf!!! They turned out super cute!!!

      To win this prize today, of a snow man filled with the treats I make tomorrow, you need to comment on this post or on the link on Facebook with your letter to Santa. Winner will be chosen at random again. So lets see those letters, I know its been years since you wrote one so be creative.

They remind me of bowling pins!!

Wrapping up Memories

    


      Well it is finally close enough to Christmas that I decided it was time to wrap the presents so we could have them under the tree to look at until Christmas. We don't have a ton because we decided to keep it simple as we don't need to have 100's of toys around the house, I think only having a few here and there helps her stimulate her imagination and learn to play more creatively. And we always limit our gift giving to each other to only 3 items, and than stocking stuffers!

     If you have had a chance to look around you will see there are so many cute and creative ways to wrap presents!!! We keep it simple with just paper, pre-made bows, and some ribbon here and there! I kind of figure it is all going to get ripped up and thrown away so whats the point of using more expensive wrapping? It does sure look nice tho.

I am obsessed with this paper!!

Big box little bow!

      I think the process of wrapping the gifts at least for us is almost more fun than unwrapping, we always sit on the floor together and watch a show together as we wrap presents.  And last night it certainly ended up in a Kong fu fight with the empty wrapper tubes!! We are such Children. And I love sitting around together getting excited about how Kyra is gonna get for each gift as she opens them!!

     But for those of you are interested in wrapping gifts more creatively here are some great examples of how to make your Presents look super fancy!

I love the wood paper!!!

Burlap and twine! My cousin Jaimee should do this it matches her tree!!!

Chrismas Lights

       Well I want you to all know that I went out to take pictures for you guys of all the lights around town....and well frankly we didn't find anything that great to show you. So I took to the web to find some really phenomenal pictures of people with true Christmas Spirit!!!

     As a child going out the week around Christmas to drive around and look at Christmas lights was one of my all time favorite activities! If you were to spend even 5 mins with my grandfather around this time a year you would be bound to hear the story about me when I was like 4-6 some where around there when we went driving around town. I guess I was so excited about Christmas and all the pretty lights I was singing "Happy Day to me" to the happy birthday song the whole time we drove around. Well needless to say I still LOVE to go look at the lights.

    Although we have found out here and in Hawaii this isn't really something people do. As we had quite some challenge trying to find any houses that are very decorated. I love to see the neighborhoods in Colorado and Nebraska that go all out. Even have block contests for best decorations, that is always the coolest thing to see. If only everyone had this kind of Christmas Spirit.

   My favorite Christmas lights are the simple ones with beautiful colors, and the people who put them in the tree's in their yards also. And of course the icicle ones they are awesome.

 
But don't get me wrong lights CAN be over done like the below pictures!