Sayonara 2013!

 

This year has been a big one!

January was long a dreary, mainly because Utah was dumped with more snow then ever. I’m thinking 2014 might top it.. but I became a Top health and fitness blogger!

In February, Brent and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary and remodeled our kitchen. We painted our cabinets and laid hard wood floor! It was our first big remodel and it was just as hard as I thought it would be.

In March we went to Moab and hiked to delicate Arch with two, TWO year olds.

In May, I ran wit a bunch of crazy girls across the Grand Canyon in one day.

 

I also attended Blend Retreat for the first time and got to meet a bunch of amazing blogger chicks! (This is a horrible pic.)

In June I turned 27, ran a half marathon and then in July I ran another with my cousins and the twins turned 3!

August I tried paddle boarding for the first time and fell in love!

In September I ran my fastest Half marathon at the Big Cottonwood Half, we went to Boston to visit family and also ran my only marathon of the year.

September was packed with a ton of trail runs! I did these throughout the summer but we hit the trails as much as we could before the snow hit!

 

I also ran the Red Rock Relay!

In November I got my first nephew on my side of the family!

Also wrapped up a my kids classes for the year! I love working with these kids and can’t wait for classes to start again in a few weeks!

In December, Baylee and Tanner both sat on santas lap and didn’t scream for the first time. Miss Bee also had her very first dance concert!

It was an amazing year and I can’t wait to see what 2014 holds in store for us!

What was the highlight of YOUR year?

Getting Out and Living Life.

 

What a weekend! I have been totally MIA for awhile.. I have been enjoying time with family and completely unplugged. It has been pretty great. I recommend it to you all every once and awhile.

Last week I went with a bunch of friends snowshoeing. It was so fun and I look forward to more outsider adventures! If you are local feel free to join the club!

It was a beautiful day!

This weekend we went to Boise to visit my Grandparents. We had a great time, hanging out, playing games, going to movies and just relaxing.

On Saturday we went to a place called Freak alley. If you follow me on instagram you have already seen these pictures, but I think they are so cool, I’m going to show them again.

The art work and creativity was just amazing. I love this kind of stuff! The guy in the bottom right corner of the picture above is made out of mirrors! Seriously amazing!

Tanners favorite was the lego man obviously!

It was fun to walk around the alley and take pics of everything. If you are ever in the Boise area go check it out!

Before heading home Sunday we stopped by the Boise temple for a short walk about. It was so cold Sunday!

Back to regular blogging this week!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

The new year is coming!!

Do you have any specific goals for the new year??

Please share!

Christmas in a Nutshell.

We had an amazing Christmas this year. Our Christmas eve was busy and full of family.

Brent’s mom holds a Mexican Christmas eve party each year. We have enchiladas, tacos, beans, and of course chips and salsa.

 

I got some baby love from my sweet new nephew.

All the cousins made our traditional Christmas. I’m always surprised with the amount of creativity each year.  Most of the sleighs had rockets connected to them. Ha!

It is also tradition to do a pinata on Christmas eve. My MIL is building a new house so we were able to get out of the snow this year and go for it inside.

After Christmas eve at Brent’s mothers party we headed to my mom’s side of the family. I am so happy that my sisters and I are able to still have this party every year. I know my mom would want it that way and she is missed at every one.

It is my families tradition to have crab every year! I LOVE this tradition. Mainly because I love CRAB!

After dinner we play a pictionary and “what’s in the stocking” game before opening presents.

Its pretty funny to guess everything and gets a little crazy at times.

Christmas morning came and it was nothing but smiles from these kiddos.

After enjoying the early morning at our house we headed over to my Dads for Christmas Breakfast. We had German Pancakes, fruit and egg nog.

 

We had an amazing Christmas, celebrating our savior and spending time with our loved ones. I don’t think it could have been more perfect. It goes by so quickly, I really tried to savor every moment of the day.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas?

What is your favorite family tradition?

Merry Christmas Eve

I hope you are all enjoying Christmas eve today! Step away from the computer and spending time with your friends and family.

I just wanted to swing in really quick and tell you all how important you are to me. Thank you for being so supportive of this little blog. Each comment really means the world to me.

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Merry Christmas you filthy animals.

This morning we got our workout in at GPP! The Christmas Eve workout at GPP is one of my favorites of the year!

12 workouts of Christmas!

It was especially fun today because my SIL’s and BIL all came and worked out with us. Kenny and Lori is who we visted in Boston a few months ago and Janey is practically my neighbor. She has been coming to GPP for the last year or so. Working out with the fam is fun! 

We had Christmas with my FIL and his wife. Here is a pic of the chaos with Santa!!

I of course have to post this pic of my nephew that my sister sent me this morning.

If you have a newborn, stick them in a stocking. It is the cutest thing ever. Yes?

Merry Christmas to all!

xoxo

Getting Swole and Having Fun

 

Happy Weekend! I hope you are all having a great weekend so far! I procrastinated some shopping so spent most of Friday shopping and will have to venture back out to wrap it all up on Monday.

It is a proven fact I can’t buy stocking stuffers and not use or eat them till Christmas.. I think I’ve bought stuff twice already.. oops.

Friday, I started my morning at work and got my workout in afterward. This workout at GPP was HARD. It involved power cleans and jerks. My two favorite Olympic movements. Sometimes I think, if I wasn’t such a lover of running I could compete in lifting competitions. Well, after a lot more focus and practice.

After the workout, I wanted to see if I could break my PR for the jerk. I put on #145 and I failed twice, I was about to call it a day and my trainer just told me to walk away and take a good break before trying it again. I was pretty tired after doing 30 jerks with #115, 30 power cleans, and 30 power clean and jerks…

This is #115 jerks. 

When I came back to the bar. I got #145 up!

No pic.. because I hate to inconvenience people to take a picture, and I seem to not get it when I know people are watching. 

After the GPP workout I went to get a few miles in on the treadmill in the cardio cinema while the twins were in preschool.

I only had time for 4 miles because I had a lunch date with a friend that I haven’t seen forever! We went to plates and palates, I got my normal shrimp and spinach salad! I really don’t think you can go wrong with anything there! Everything is really good!

When I picked up the kids we came home and had craft time. I love doing craft time with my kids and they seem to really enjoy and learn from it. Although, it can get really messy sometimes I know that they love it so it makes the time cleaning up worth it.

Unfortunately, Tanner had caught a fever and we spent the rest of the night cuddling on the couch. I hate when my kids get sick.. It is so sad, but Tanner is one tough sick kid. Every time we asked if he was okay, he said he was okay. What a stud. 

Saturday, I taught a pump class and ran 3 miles on the treadmill. I am SO sore from Friday,my back was literally swollen.. and pump about killed me. Ha! I was hoping to get 5 miles in, but I knew when I started I wasn’t going to finish. My body was tired and sore, I finished 3 barely… and got out of the gym.

It has been snowing here non-stop! I love having a white Christmas! Just not loving all the slick roads..

We had my extended side of the Hale family party on Saturday, Tanner still wasn’t feeling well so Brent went first for the dinner and I went to the second half… aka the fun half.

Buddy the elf was there to play games (my dad).

My dad has dressed up as buddy the last couple of years and puts on quite the show. I love that man.  He always has some fun games up his sleeve too.

This game my uncles wore reindeer antlers and had a stick in their mouth with a string and red ball on the end. The objective of the game was to flip the ball and get it to stick to your nose, that was covered with vaseline without using your hands. It was pretty funny to watch all of them try and do it!

The second game, my cousins had to assemble the nerf guns and shoot ornaments off tables.

Another game was the classic panty hose game.. There are balls on the end of each leg of the panty hose and you had to put them over your head and swing it back and forth. First one to knock over the bottles wins! My brother Jamison won!

After games, it was time for SANTA!

Bee was pretty excited about it! It is pretty fun to see all the kids sitting in front of santa. Most of the kids are all grandkids kids! We are definatley growing quickly each year!

I love that my family is so close and so supportive of each other.

My Aunt had set up a fun “photo booth” with costumes and we all could dress up and take a photo op.

I had some fun with my sisters and brothers.

What a fun party!

We have one of Brent’s parties today too!

I love Christmas, I want this time to slow down because I feel like it ends to quickly! We are going to soak in all the time I have with family this week.

What are your Christmas traditions?

Do you run in the snow or “hibernate.” ?