Surviving Winter

Yep, I've been seriously slacking. Possibly worse than ever. Oops....what can I say? It's winter. with a toddler. in an apartment. and I'm pregnant. I used to enjoy winter. I'm not really sure when it changed, but I'm not that person anymore. I want hot days filled with playing and running outside. But, alas, we live in Colorado so that's not to be for a while. I really shouldn't complain, because this winter hasn't been all that bad. But I'm still anxious to get outside! In the mean time, here's a sample of what we do to burn energy and keep active lately. 

We went to the Aquarium a few weeks ago.

 Asher was much more into the aquarium than he was last spring.

 We play a lot of play-dough and he's all about it!


A few weeks ago we discovered a great place called Monkey Business. It's a great indoor play area, and we go a few times a week.

Asher also took swim lessons for the past two months. He absolutely loved it, and has learned a ton!
Hopefully, I'll keep up on the blog more now, but at least you know a little of what we've been up to!

2012 In Pictures

I love doing this post every year. It's so fun to look back on our year and see all we've done and everywhere we've been!

January:

This was a pretty chill month, but our little man started being more and more mobile! Funny, we thought he was hard to keep up with then!

February:

 It was finally warm enough for Asher and I to start putting our BOB to good use!

March:

 We moved out of West Virginia and spent the month in Missouri with our family. Asher and Elijah became fast and inseparable friends!

April:

 We (as in, Chris) decided it was time to cut off Asher's long locks.

 Then we celebrated Easter with our handsome big man!

May:

 We explored some of the great parks around our new home state of Colorado!

June:

 Our little guy turned 1! I still can't believe it's gone by so fast!

July:

 We celebrated the 4th of July in Missouri.

 And spent lots of time at the sprinkler park nearby.

August:

 This was another quiet month, but Asher started his 'cheese' face and we couldn't get enough!

September:

 We went back to Missouri for Asher's first ring bearer gig. He may not have walked down the aisle alone, but he looked pretty darn handsome!

October:

 I checked off a bucket list item and ran my first half!

Asher dressed as a tiger and went trick or treating at the zoo.

November:

 Once again, we headed to Missouri for Thanksgiving with the family. And we made the big announcement that Asher would be a big brother in July!

December:

We ended the year with lots of family time and Christmas celebrations.

2012 saw us moving across the country, our little man became a toddler, and we decided to grow our family by one more!! It was a fantastic year! We're eagerly embracing and looking forward to 2013 and all it has to bring!

Free Christmas Presents Anyone??

As a stay at home mom, I pride myself on saving us money in anyway possible. Thanks to all the discount sites and reward programs out there, I'm pretty successful at getting things super cheap or even free!! We're all starting to buy Christmas presents and plan for the upcoming holidays, so I thought I would share some of my favorite sites!

swagbucks: This site rewards you for doing different activities like using their search engine, taking surveys, and watching short videos. I mostly use their search engine, and it will randomly reward swagbucks. You can redeem your swagbucks for tons of different gift cards and even products. The best bang for your buck is the $5 amazon gift card, which is what I always use. Since we live 2 states a way, amazon is where we buy tons of stuff and use the free shipping to get it home!!

 zulily: I'm in love with this site!! It's a daily deal site for moms, kids, and household items. They post new deals every morning at 8am (central time). The items are limited quantity and only on for a limited amount of time. This is where I get most of my cloth diapers for half price. Also, where I got Asher's awesome rocking horse monkey that he loves so much!!


totsy: This site is just like zulily, except they often post deals morning and night. I don't find quite as many things that I can't live without here as zulily. However, it's still a great place to find awesome deals.

shopkick: This is actually an app for your iphone. It's my newest find and I absolutely LOVE it! All you have to do is open the app when you go into different stores and it will automatically give you 'kicks' just for being there. You can also get more kicks by scanning various items in the store. Then you can use your 'kicks' for tons of different gift cards. I've already earned $22 in Target gift cards and I've been using it for less than a month!

Well now you know all (most) of my secrets!! It can be so addicting to save money (said the nerdy stay at home mom)!! I'd greatly appreciate if you use my links above, as I would get the referral (so, I'm also shamelessly self-promoting)!

Trick or Treating at the Zoo

We're really not that big on Halloween, but we decided to head to the zoo this weekend for trick or treating. We're zoo members, so it was a fun, free way to get out of the house. I think Asher fit right in at the zoo!

 The indoor aquarium is one of his favorite parts-specifically the huge turtle.

 Taking a turn driving...or so he thinks!

 Seriously, how is he already a little toddler, fitting in with the other kids!!

Of course we had to get his picture with the real tiger!!

We had a blast and the weather was perfect! The zoo gave out candy (which I've been eating...ugh!) and one booth even gave out 100% fruit rollup that I didn't know about. Which was a great find, since I rarely give him sugar! We didn't trick or treat yesterday since Chris and I really don't need more candy to eat! Our little tiger was in bed by 7 and we watched Killer Klowns From Outerspace! All in All a good night!

No Idea Why He's Always Bruised....

Boulder Half Marathon

Sunday morning was a pretty big deal for me- my first Half Marathon! Running a half has been a  goal of mine for a while. However, there really weren't many races, if any, in West Virginia. Luckily, there's no shortage of races in Colorado!! My friend Erin has helped me train and I couldn't have done it without her!! (This would be my amazing friend adopting from Africa...Check out her blog here to see how you can support them!)

 Hanging out waiting for his momma to run by!

 Seriously, check out that view!!! It was a beautiful run!

Asher missed his momma during the run!

In some ways the race was easier than I expected, and in some harder. During the run I didn't think I'd want to run another half, but when it was done and over it seems doable to do it again! Erin joined me for the last 6 miles, which really helped to have her push me. My time was 2hrs 15min...slower than I had hoped, but not bad for my first! Now I start training for the spring half!

Starting Him Out Right!