skirt giveaway...

La vie petite makes DARLING skirts and I have been drooling over them since my sis over at The Mulberry Tree introduced me to these lovelies!!
Well to celebrate the start of the last month of summer is is giving a way your choice of my fav skirt in your choice of red, blue or kelly green!!! Oh, I can't decide which one I want, the red and white or the blue and white.
Click on the picture below to go to the giveaway!!

Easy money into diapers

Over the course of the last six months or so we have gone digital on our movies and don't need the lot of DVD's we had anymore With the exception of all the Disney movies, I collect them and want the hard copy.

We had sold most them to a few different movie stores where we live. But, I still had about 30 of them that I couldn't get rid of and a Seinfeld series I wasn't about to part with for 20 bucks.

Then I read a post from one of my favorite couponing blogs, Couponing to Disney, about trading in your old electronics, movies, video games and more to get extra cash. You can read the post here So, I thought I would give it a try. 

I decided to go with Amazon because I am part of the Subscribe and Save to save 30% on diapers and I could use the credit to buy diapers. I will trade movies I no longer use for diapers I need!

How the 30% discount works is:

that once you sign up for Amazon Mom, you save 15% off diapers and wipes. Then when you sign up for Subscribe and Save, you save another 15%, totaling the 30% discount.

Subscribe and Save is Amazon’s automatic order and delivery program. You order a subscription to an item and it gets automatically delivered to you at intervals you select – every month, 2 months, 3 months, or 6 months. You change the interval or cancel anytime. courtesy of Living Richly on a Budget

Off to Amazon I went!

1. I entered all my movies and a few games in and they were going to give me $129 bucks!! Oh YAY! Sign me up!!

2. I printed off the free shipping label, boxed up the DVDs and dropped it off at my UPS store.

3. Next comes the waiting part...which I am not really good at.

4. Today I checked my email and had one waiting with a break down of how much they gave me for each movie and game. It wasn't exactly as much as they originally quoted me, it was MORE!!!

Yay! Being a nazi about the DVD's paid off. I ended up receiving $134!!!

So here is the break down:

I got $134 for 28 movies 2 wii games and one xbox game {trade in program} remember Seinfeld I metioned earlier? They have me $70 for it!!

I signed up for Amazon Mom

and placed my order through my Subscribe and Save program to get auto shipped and 30% savings

I am receiving a box of 156 size 3 diapers every month for $26 and free 2 day shipping!!! That is $0.17 a diaper!!!

My workouts

I told you last month a little about my weight loss journey.
{read that here}

How far I have come

what I still need to do

This journey started in January.
I had a 6 week old baby,
a 2 year old
and
a 4 year old.

getting little sleep and eating terrible were the norm.
But, it all changed with a decision! That I am ecstatic I made!

I made the decision to

stop eating crappy {I do still slip}

Zumba 3x per week
&
just this month added running 3x per week.

There is one point I want to drive home!
I am a normal SAHM!
I don't claim to be an amazing athlete
{at least anymore}
But, I am blessed with the knowledge of fitness, being a college athlete it was kinda drilled into me.
and the determination and hard work ethic. {thank you Mom and Dad}

I have struggles, there are days I don't want to get up and workout. But, rather stay in bed and cuddle with the hunk of a hubby I have. In those moments of weakness I re-dedicate myself by thinking of the reasons I am doing this...
myself
my husband and children
to be healthy
 THEN

 I hop right out of bed!

Zumba is my love of the moment! It is fun, sassy and kicks my butt!
At the end of June I went to a play date with some new people and I mentioned I wanted to run in our little towns 5k in September. They all had run in it the year before and said I should start running with them. It kinda just fell in my lap {did I just say kinda?, haha yup!}
We meet at 7:30am and run around their block 3 times. Which is just shy of 3 miles!
I was so nervous before my first run. I am by no means a runner. I played softball for crying out loud! I was a sprinter not a long distance runner.
But, I had made up my mind, set a goal and was springing into action.
I am proud to say I did a pretty good job and I kept at it, running T.R.S.
This week we are running MWF and this morning we ran around 4 TIMES!!!

I am excited at how far I have come!

Me and my darling Miss B 7.4.

Next time I will post about how I have changed the way I eat.

bucket list #9

Last one for today!!!

No. 9 bike ride

 My little B's LOVED! The bike trailer!!!

I was excited lil' B was big enough to ride in it! 

My big man was more than happy to ride his big boy bike. Maybe it was a right of passage to grow out of riding in the trailer. 

We are working on street safety and he is doing a really good job! 

This particular bike ride we rode up to the city park, had a little snack and let the kids play. 

Have I mentioned I love summer in SE Idaho!?! 

Well, it is AMAZING!!

bucket list #25

No. 25 on our bucket list...

**Fireworks!!!**

Ok, so this is technically at the Parade that morning.

But, we were having too much fun playing dominoes, eating, running around, playing by the river...to take any pic's that evening. 

Besides, all my children have clean faces, the girls are still wearing their bows and we even got a smile out of lil' B!!!

We had such an awesome 4th of July! 

{we missed my Dad, he was sick and couldn't come play} 

Living in Idaho Falls we are quite spoiled by Melaleuca {find out about them here} who puts on the Freedom Celebration every year. 

I bet you didn't know they have the largest fireworks display this side of the Mississippi!?!

I will let you in on a little secret...

I didn't know that either until I moved here! 

it is a pretty awesome way to celebrate the birth of our Country! 

My favorite part is the Patriotic music they play on one of the radio stations that is synced to the fireworks. 

bucket list #3

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you? 

You can come too, too, too! 

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

No. 3 on our summer bucket list

 Our annual zoo pass expired at the end of June so we made quite a few trips.

One of the things I like about our small zoo is we can see all the exhibits in a few hours, more like an hour and a half. :)

But, with my small kiddos it is just the right amount of time! 

Summer Bucket List

I have seen these all over blogland and loved the idea so much I decided to do one for our little family.

I started off by having a brainstorming session of what we want to have on our list and we came up with 50 activities.These are the ones we came up with...

1. Build a foRt
2. mAKe homEmAde iCe creAm
3. gO to The zOo
4. sEe Cars 2
5. tAke a picNic To tHe laKe
6. go SwiMmiNg
7. plAy On thE sLip n' Slide
8. buiLd sAnd caStles
9. go For a biKe riDe
10. spEnd aFterNoon at pArk
11. gEt a Pizza
12. plAy kiCk baLL
13. go To cRaterS of tHe MooN
14. fEed thE ducKs
15. mAke hOmeMade buBbles
16. ruN thRouGh thE spriNklers
17. maKe biRd feeDers
18. fingEr pAinT
19. plAy sidEwalK cHalk
20. pUt on A plAy
21. havE sleeP oVer iN backyard
22. plAy Tag wiTh neigHbor kids
23. hAve a BBQ
24. plAy flaShligHt tag
25. waTch fiReworKs
26. eAt Reed's Dairy iCe crEam
27. waTch trAins pAss by pArk
28. rOll plAy
29. go to trAin musEum
30. stAy in oUr pj's All dAy
31. rIde sPeed Train in SLCdel
32. dO a sErviCe ProJect
33. dAy trIp to JackSon
34. riDe Fast tRain in UT
35. mAke SidewAlk cHalk Paint
36. go to dRive iN
37. take A natUre wAlk
38. mAke cooKies for a fRiend
39. plaNt sOme floWers
40. pAint wiTh waTer coLors
41. plAy hoUse
42. TemPle viSitor cenTer
43. ChucKars gAme
44. RigBy lakE
45. Day in W. YelloWstoNe
46. slEep oVer wiTh a friEnd
47. P&B taKe piCs & mAke bOok
48. haVe wAter bAlloon fiGht
49. heaRt attAck somEones houSe
50. plAy dUck Duck goOse

  

This is a pic of the first one I came up with. I thought it looked too cluttered so I re did it. 

I had a poster sized frame that wasn't being used. 

So, I took some scrapbook paper and attached it to the cardboard the frame had. This ensured I had it the right size. 

Next I went to word pad and typed up each activity and printed it out. 

Cut them down to size and pasted them to the scrapbook paper with a glue stick. 

Put the cardboard back in the frame and hung it on the wall. 

Now as we do each activity I take a few pics and we cross it off the board. 

I will post about each of the activities as they happen. 

Which we already have a handful we have done. So, I have some catch up to do.