Jennilyn Proulx Giveaway!

Jennilyn Proulx is giving away a free portrait session again this Christmas! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to win this. We haven't had family pictures in a year and a half and I would desperately love for her to do them for us! She does amazing work that I have always enjoyed looking at. If you haven't seen her stuff you should check her out here... http://jproulxphotography.blogspot.com

Halloween!

Maybe someday I will get caught up on blogging.... but for now here is a little bit of our October fun!

Making sugar cookies.... by the time I got them into the oven there was a bite out of every cookie! ha he is just like me!

We also had fun carving pumpkins this year. Kayden mainly cared about putting the bowl on his head. He also refused to touch the pumpkin guts because he hates getting dirty. Crazy kid!

This was his first night of trunk or treating at ISU. He loved all the attention he got... and the candy of course! He was such a cute little pirate!

On Halloween we took him to a couple trick-or-treat things here in town... then we took him to our ward trunk-or-treat. He decided to be camera shy so we didn't end up with too many cute pictures of him. (Please ignore my face pulling skills)

Our finished pumpkins. Mine is on the left and Phil's is the smaller one. Yes I took the big pumpkin this year hehe

The day after Halloween I woke up to find my pumpkins looking like this.... punk kids! Oh well I guess it saved me a trip to the dumpster.

"Most Inspirational"

The past seven months I have been working really hard at becoming more healthy. As some of you know I was involved in a 12 week challenge at my gym to help give me even more motivation. It has been an amazing experience for me. It has completely changed my life in soooo many ways. Also for the record it was about so much more than just losing weight to me. Yes it started out as losing weight but I have gained a lot of other things from it. I am ten times happier, I actually have energy to keep up with my crazy life, I have learned a lot of great knowledge, I have my confidence back, I have met amazing people, and so much more! I love life!

After a month of waiting for judging to be finished, I finally found out the results last Monday. First off the judges went through and picked top three finalists in each category just based off of pictures. In my category of 18-29 year old females I was able to make it through the first round of judging which was exciting. Then they went through and picked a winner in each age group. On Monday I found out that I won my age group.... which feels amazing. There were 10 different age groups/categories. From the ten winners the judges then were to pick a "Most Inspirational" winner. They read essays we wrote and looked at all our numbers of weight/body fat loss and whatnot. Earlier that day my trainer had led me to believe that I hadn't won. I knew that it was a close competition so I knew that I had a chance, but I thought that some of the other essays were probably pretty amazing (which they were). When I went to the celebration to find out who won I honestly wasn't expecting to be the winner. I was freaking out and all nervous because they made us read/summarize our essays in front of everyone and only gave us like a two minute notice. I hate public speaking! Yeah I was a little embarassed... ok a lot embarassed. When they were getting ready to announce the winner my heart was racing like crazy. Finally they called my name! I was completely shocked and super stoked. I have never done anything like this. This is a huge accomplishment for me to win over like 200 people (about 300 signed up in the beginning). It seriously feels awesome to win $3,000 and I have been blessed a number of times throughout this process. Now my stuff is being sent in for national judging.... crazy right?! I don't have any expectations at that level but still I think it's pretty cool.

Here are my stats from the 12 week challenge (not even the real stats of when I actually started losing weight) When I started the challenge I weighed 141 lbs and my body fat was at 27.9%. At the end I weighed in at 118 lbs with my body fat at 15.9%. I lost 7 inches on my waist, 2 inches around my thigh, and 4 inches around my hips.

Also I told some of you that I would post pictures when I got them from the gym. My before pictures are really embarassing so please don't judge!! ha It's way difficult for me to post these! I seriously wasn't going to post them but I know I promised some of you that I would. So here goes...


I just wanna thank everyone who helped and supported me throughout this process. Phil put up with a lot and kept me going when it got difficult. Courtney you were a lifesaver and I appreciated how you helped (you know what I mean lol). Chance, my trainer, had a HUGE impact on this and I couldn't have got here without him teaching me what to do. My family and friends are awesome and I love you all! Thanks! Now I need some new goals... anyone wanna run a half marathon with me this summer?! :)

Life

It's been forever since I have blogged. Sorry if this gets long... I just have a lot of blabbing to do. First off here is an update on life in Chubbuck. One word to describe it is Busy! Phil is always working... and a lot of times when he isn't working I am. The few nights we are both home we have been out shopping and whatnot for Christmas. My whole lifestyle has changed since we moved here. Now I work some nights for Phil to help out at Subway. I wasn't too excited at first, but it has turned out to be not so bad. Sometimes it is hard not to be at home playing with Kayden. When I started I felt like I was neglecting him. At least I still get to spend days and a lot of other nights with him. He is getting so big and he is super fun. I've decided that this stage is one of my favorites so far. He is such a doll! I need to post pictures of him. My camera just broke so I haven't taken too many lately. Luckily I'm getting a new one for Christmas so I will have to post pics soon.

Since moving here I went and got a Gold's Gym membership. Amazing and so worth it!! I love having access to a pool and hot tub when I want, and the daycare is affordable. It even helps that Kayden enjoys going to the daycare. I go to the Gym every morning... unless my trainer tells me that I am not allowed to work out on specific days haha. I have almost developed an obsession with working out. I have even been working on eating better so I can finally get rid of the rest of this baby weight. It's a miracle for me to be eating veggies! haha that is one of the most difficult things for me... along with not eating the super bad but tasty foods (aka chocolate). Since I have been working with my trainer for five weeks (I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging, I'm just proud of what I have been able to accomplish) I have lost 9 lbs and 10% body fat. :) I have lost two inches around my belly and one inch around my hips. I still have a lot of work to get where I want to be, but this is only the beginning.

I just found out about this twelve week challenge they do at the gym starting in January. You do a before picture and an after, and basically the person that has the biggest difference in the twelve weeks wins. I hear it can get pretty competitive. They have different age divisions that you enter in to win a smaller amount of money, and then I think they have a winner out of everyone. I would be in the 18-30 age group. I am still debating on whether I should do it or not... I want to cuz I wanna win, but at the same time I am scared to try my hardest and still not win. That would be difficult for me for some odd reason. I'm also nervous cuz my super awesome trainer just moved away a couple days ago. He set me up to go with another guy, but it's still hard to get all comfortable and set just to feel like I'm starting new with someone else. I really think I'm gonna do this challenge but I am pretty much hounding the trainers and my husband about whether I can really do it or not. haha I am needing people to tell me I can really do it. Seriously I am constantly asking people if I could even stand a chance. Especially if I have to compete against men. I swear men can get results easier than women! haha I just need to get the confidence and go with it! I won't lie I was scared to even start training with a Personal trainer. haha it didn't help that my personal trainer is like this pro MMA fighter, has taught people in the military how to do hand to hand combat, and has a rep for his clients needing an extra sweat towel. Also his last name is Hell.... seriously as if that's not enough to scare a person! Now that I just gone with it and actually tried I've learned that there was no reason to be nervous. I love having a trainer and if I were rich would have one perminently lol! I just wish I could get to the point where I feel confident going into this competition and working with Mitch (old trainer) a little from long distance and starting with my new trainer. It's not really even a big deal, but I wanna try to win for some reason. I dunno. Maybe any of you that know me and my personality can tell me if I can really do it... lol I sound pathetic I know.

Anyways Christmas is soooo soon! Hopefully all of you have happy holidays! Maybe I will get to see some of you while I am in Star Valley for a short period of time. :) Merry Christmas everyone!

We finally moved!

We have officially moved to Chubbuck! We have known that it would possibly happen for a while now, but we have had to keep it quiet for business reasons. We were also waiting on Phil's boss to give us the date for when it would be best for us to move. At first I wasn't too excited to move to Pocatello because it has always seemed more run down and nasty. This was from just driving through rather than actually driving around the area. We searched options of places to live and found the perfect place. We are still close to the mall, wal-mart, and other awesome places. It took me a while to get excited but now that we are here I'm looking forward to it. Anywhere we go shopping the people have been super nice and seem more talkative. Much better customer service than in Idaho Falls. A lot of the people seem pretty genuine here. It almost has more of a small town feel about it too! We have been here less than a week and I am already liking it!

So far Phil has been super busy with work, and I have been trying to get everything unpacked. Kayden was a huge help throughout the whole packing process... some boxes I had to repack 10 or 20 times. haha I thought that maybe the unpacking would be easier, but now he just throws everything back in boxes. It's been quite exhausting. Anytime I get something put away and all organized, he takes everything out and organizes it in some other room. It's super cute but wow!


(Ignore the clip in his hair... haha. He doesn't usually have accessories in his hair. This was a few days before I got to trim his hair and I felt bad with it constantly in his eyes. At least it's not too girly like a pink clip or flower ;)


I stole some pictures of the outside of our apartment off the internet and here they are. As soon as I get everything unpacked I will post more pictures of the inside... I am almost completely finished! :)

Star Valley

A few weeks ago I went to Star Valley for Dustin and Whitney's reception. Whitney was gorgeous of course! Who would have guessed that they were going to get married?! Crazy! I am super happy for both of them!

While in Star Valley, Kayden and I went to a parade to watch my sister Krystal with the dance team. This was Kayden's first parade and he didn't really know what to think. He had also just woken up and was still groggy. Sitting next to Grandpa earned this little boy tons of candy. Luckily they weren't spraying much water or else he would have been soaked too. All the Jr. High and High School kids always go for my dad.

Skyler and Josh thought they were funny moving their chairs into the middle of the road for when the parade came back on the opposite side. My dad even got all excited and went out there! I've decided that boys never really grow up.

After the reception we hurried back to Afton just in time for the Durby. It was a blast. Here is Kayden enjoying the show with Grandpa.

Look at this guy's number... hehe I thought it was funny.

This was the smallest car in it and he was a trooper. I know he won one round but I can't remember if he won the final round or not. He was the most smashed up too! It's no fun when the winner is one of the cars that doesn't hit others much.

Birthday Boy

On August 5th Kayden turned one. I can't believe he is that old already! He loved opening his presents and playing with all his new toys. We didn't do anything too big since it really didn't matter that much to him. Here are a few pictures of him having a blast.

He loved the candle on his cake and kept trying to stick his fingers in the flame. Then we tried to get him just to dig into his cake, but he refused. He doesn't like getting way too dirty. Silly kid. I think I've pampered him too much... So we ended up giving him a spoon. Funny thing about this is that anytime in the past I've tried to get him to feed himself with a spoon he acts like he can't do it. With his cake he picks the spoon right up and starts feeding himself like he's done it a million times before! This little stinker is too smart! He pretends that he can't do things so that we will just do them for him. Oh and by the way since eating his cake he hasn't tried to feed himself with a spoon... go figure. I guess I will have to give him sweets more often so he will eat using a spoon, without my help! It's the same with his sippy cup and walking. I have to refuse to help him with his cup for him just to do it himself. With walking he used to take 6 or so steps at a time without any help. Now he refuses to do it unless he is pushing something around or one of us is holding one of his hands! That's okay... We still love our stubborn little guy!! He has brought us much joy this past year and we wouldn't trade him for the world! He really is a sweetheart :)