Time sure does fly by...

I cannot believe it....

Starting next week my little girl...will be going to school all day....

That's right...

ALL DAY...

At Aspen's school the last 4 weeks of the quarter everyone goes to school all day to get them ready for first grade, which I think is great and definitely what will help Aspen out in her transition to First Grade.

I can't believe that my little girl is going to be a First Grader soon...

However, Titus is sure going to be lonely without his big sister around to play with during the day

These two sure do love each other and I know that they are both going to miss each other starting next Monday...

So, if anyone wants to get together and meet us at the zoo, a park, the library...let me know because this little boy of mine...

and his mommy will definitely want to get out and do more things to pass the time!

By the way...

It's another beautiful day here in MN!  I love the sun shining and the PERFECT temperature!  Time to get out and enjoy!

A fun Easter treat!

Found this adorable cupcake and decided to bring it to our family gathering today!

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 cup  boiling water

1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin

1 tub  (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

Few drops food coloring, any color

24   JET-PUFFED Marshmallows

24 JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows

1/4 cup  colored sugar or colored sprinkles

 

PREPARE and bake cake batter as directed on package for 24 cupcakes; cool completely in pan. Pierce cupcakes with wooden skewer or large fork at 1/4-inch intervals. Add boiling water to gelatin mix; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Spoon over cupcakes, adding about 2 tsp. to each. Refrigerate 3 hours.

TINT COOL WHIP with food coloring; spread onto cupcakes.

CUT each large marshmallow crosswise into 5 pieces with clean kitchen shears. Arrange 5 on top of each cupcake to resemble flower. Place 1 miniature marshmallow in center of each. Sprinkle with colored sugar. Keep refrigerated.

God Gave Us So Much

We have many books by Lisa Tawn Bergren including, God Gave us You and God Gave Us Christmas and now we are so glad that we have God Gave Us So Much in our collection.  This truly is a great book for you to read with your children.  

In this book Little Cub is looking for answers and to help him out and help him are Mama, Papa, and Grandpa Bear.  This book focuses on...

God Gave Us The World

 - talking about God's creation, the animals, the seasons, and our great big world

God Gave Us Love

-focusing on how God is love, talking about the different ways to love: between mommy and daddy, parents towards children, friends, etc...and how every time we show love to one another we are sharing His love.  And finally, touching base on there are times that we do not want to love, but to love one another even in those hard times is the right thing.

God Gave Us Heaven

-Little bear wonders what Heaven is like...a question that many of us ask.  A place where we will get to be with Him forever, and that when our life here on Earth is done we will get to be with Him in Heaven.  Really focusing on how wonderful Heaven is and how things on this Earth are not ours, but God's and how we do not bring what we have with us to Heaven.  The part I like is, "Sometimes we think we need stuff, but it's just more weight for us to carry.  Our best stuff doesn't weigh anything at all - stuff like love, family, friends, and faith.  That's where our real blessings are."

Like I said, this is a great book to read with your children, children of any age will enjoy this book!  You will not be disappointed!

Couples Who Pray

 For a long time Zac and I have been trying to find a book about prayer and how we can grow in our prayer life together and this book is one that will do that.  I highly recommend reading "Couples Who Pray" to not only grow in your own individual prayer life, but in your prayer life together.  

This book challenges you to pray together 5 minutes a day for 40 days, not a hard challenge right?  As a result the writers say by doing this "spousal communication will elevate, agreement becomes the norm, satisfaction in lovemaking soars, respect rises, and happiness is a way of life."

What I also love is that the authors have many stories from celebrity couples that share how prayer has changed there lives, some couples include: Pauletta and Denzel Washington, Patsy and Les Clairmont, Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford, Tracie and Scott Hamilton, Luci Swindoll, Kay and Rick Warren, and many others.  

I highly recommend this book if you are looking at a way to be more intimate as a couple and draw closer to your Heavenly Father. 

Could have done better...

This is what I started this week...

I don't know how many of you watch THE BIGGEST LOSER, but I do know that if I were a contestant on that show...I would definitely want Jillian as my trainer. I definitely am one that needs to be pushed and she does a great job of doing that!  

This week my goal was to do this dvd everyday.  I did both level 1 and level 2 over the course of the week; however, I did miss my workout both Thursday and Friday...ugh!  No excuses...it's back into it today!  What I like about this workout is it's about 20 minutes of warm up, cardio, strength, abs, and cool down and just in those 20 minutes I get a great workout and I can definitely feel it the next morning (which lets me know that I am doing the workouts correctly).  

I really want to start running; however, the running shoes that I do have, have a lot of mileage on them (they are the shoes that I trained in for the half marathon and also ran the marathon in).  So it is time I buy new shoes and I am hoping to do that within the next week or so, then with this BEAUTIFUL MN weather, I will definitely be running outside!  

Want to know something else?  

I gave up CAFFEINE...you may be saying to yourself..."Why would I ever do something like that?"  This is definitely not something permanent, but it is definitely something that I am going to do for awhile.  Lately I have just been over indulging in both pop and coffee and having way more migraines than usual, so I am trying to see if giving this up it will help.  So far it has been 6 days, and I am feeling great!  I have had a migraine this week, but that was due to my time of the month (if you know what I mean) so will see how the rest of the month goes...I will definitely keep you posted.

I also gave up SWEETS...I have done this before and I will admit that it is crazy, but one of the reasons I do this is to just get me to not snack as much and to just eat more fruits and veggies rather than the sweets.  Again, this is not a permanent thing, but for the time being it is definitely what I am going to do.  

On a side note...

Would any of you like to run in the RACE FOR THE CURE with me?  This year I have put together a team called TEAM TARA...my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer just this past November and I am happy to say that she is now CANCER FREE because of early detection.  This year on Mother's Day, May 8th, we are participating in the 5K run and there is also a 5K walk  and if you are interested please let me know! 

FINALLY getting my butt in gear...

Over the weekend I went to an event put on by Prior Fat Girl and it was definitely what I needed to get my butt in gear.  My friend Misty invited me and at first I did not know what to expect but what I liked about it was that we went around the room, introduced ourselves, and then shared what we hope to do this summer...however, what that turned into was every women shared about there life, how much weight they had lost, what inspires them, etc...  Every woman in that room had a story to share and continues to write there story and continue to have goals and what I took from what everyone said was, no matter what, I can do this!  NO MORE EXCUSES!  It's time to get my butt in gear!

As many of you know a couple years ago I took up running.  Never in a million years did I ever think that I would ever run a 5K and then my friend Misty invited me to run in the Turkey Day 5K and let me tell you, that was just the beginning.  I LOVED running that race, LOVED seeing my husband cheer me, and achieving a goal of mine to finish and to finish well! 

 My journey did not stop there...that May I ran the Race for the Cure 5K and what a different race that was and one that I will always sign up to run in.  The purpose for this run was to raise awareness about breast cancer and raise money to continue the research in one day finding a cure for breast cancer, and as many of you know...breast cancer hit home this year as my sister was diagnosed and because of early detection she is now CANCER FREE!  This year in 2011 I will be running in honor of my sister with family and friends and I cannot wait.  

After a few 5K's behind me I then took the LEAP of faith and signed up to run in the World Vision half marathon...and what a challenge to take on.  Not only physically, but mentally.  There were many days that I would have to deal with I can't do this, but then I would have to push through that and say that I can do it!  With just that little switch from I can't to I can...what a difference that made in all of my runs!  I had so many friends and family standing by me, supporting and encouraging me, and in the end it paid off and I was able to finish a goal that I never ever thought would have been possible.  When I finished the half marathon I told myself NEVER AGAIN...but who knows what the future holds...

Here is where I confess something...

After my all the running I did for training, and after completing the running in the half marathon...I had no desire to run.  To be honest, I just did not feel the push to well, push myself.  I had nothing to work towards...my goal was complete...what was next?  My running became less and less and my workouts in general were decreasing.  This is hard to admit to you all, but that is what I need to do to again, get my butt in gear.  

This feeling of neglect...NO MORE!  

I am going to get my butt back into gear...no matter what I will do exercise Monday through Friday and this blog will hold me accountable.  No matter what I post from now on, I will always end with and update on how I am doing with my workouts and as well as how I am doing with my eating habits.  This is what I need to do and from now on rather than saying, Why...I am going to say Why not!  No more excuses!

It is definitely not going to be easy, but I know that I can do it!

The Pajama Diaries

Saw this today in our Sunday morning newspaper...