Key Westt

I'm alive, I'm alive!! 

Whew!! It has been a whirlwind of a month... but alas, I plan to catch up on our busy busy summer!!! 

Okay.... so I maybe, might have, kinda sorta been pouting about having to leave Key West....  and thats been my "recovery process"

So, I didn't wanna come home!!!! Am I a horrible mama or what?!? I was torn between my babies back home and the place of beauty where we were vacationing. Now... had you offered to fly my babes to me, and we all live happily ever after, I would have been most satisfied!!

But, alas, life beckons and all good things much come to an end.

No more late nights out on the town.

But instead, bedtime at 9.

No more Key Lime Pie pie after every meal.

But instead, back to whole wheat and sugar free.

No more glamorous meals that I would never eat on a normal day.

But instead back to the normal routine of "diet" meals.

No more sleeping in.

But instead back to my little alarm clock named Payton who crawls in bed with me every morning right at 7 AM. (I DID miss that greatly!!!)

We had fun!! Lots of fun. and it was some much needed mama daddy time!!!

and lemme just say that we are so HUGELY blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing company!! We were at a point of having to make a job change 2 years ago, and thats when God threw this job right at us and although we've had ups and downs adjusting to daddy's schedule, the UPS outweigh the downs.

So blessed, so so blessed to be taken care of so greatly... Not only do they take care of their employee, but, knowing the demands the job is on a family, they appreciate his family just as much!!

So, with that, they chose a group of guys that they feel has earned it and sent them and their wives to Key West, FL. No big deal, right?? ;)

We got up bright and early and headed to the airport!!! 

Our first stop was in Dallas

Where our plane was a little delayed and after being up since 3 AM... we were not thrilled about that.

We finally arrived in Key West!!

Our first night there, we had a meet and greet and arrived to this little set up at a pier on the beach. It was beautiful!

Key Lime Pie Ice cream... I kinda OD'ed on the key lime pie....

This was a part of our resort we stayed in.

View in our room

Weird.

Even weirder

I didn't know what was on the other side when Nat told me to put my face in the hole....

The Ladies did a little shopping while the guys were in meetings.

Margaritaville

Part of our resort

One of the nights we had dinner on the beach, followed by a sunset cruise. It was quite wonderful.

The last day there, we had a free day and we went on "The ultimate adventure" Which was a day full of water fun!!

We got on the boat early that morning and headed out....

We had breakfast and lunch on the boat.

First thing after breakfast, we went snorkeling. Which was much more chill than our snorkeling adventure last year on our cruise. We enjoyed it!!

Next up was parasaling. That was the ONLY thing I HAD to do while we were there. Whether I did it alone or with Nat, I was gonna do it before we left.

It was magical. Silly to explain it that way, but it was just sooo peaceful. You're on the boat, music is playing, the sound of the water and the wind.... and then just like that, you're whisked up into complete peace and quiet. Life slows down and the view is just beautiful!! I wish we could have taken pics up there.

amazing!

Next up was Jet Ski's and water toys. I am proud to say that after approximately 20 minutes of my husband doing EVERYTHING he can to throw me off... I won and stayed on that jet ski through the insane ride.... Nat had a few nice slap marks to show for our ride.

After our day, we headed back for a little nap and to get packing..... 

One last margarita at margaritaville........ and one more sleep in........ and one more....

We headed home to our wee little ones.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have approximately 8,000 photos to upload so I can blog again!!!!!!

My Mad.

We're back from Key West and I am in the recovery process before I blog about it... so in the mean time, I need to blog about something we came home to.

In just 2 short months my little baby girl will be 4, and it is showing all over!! Nat and I have both noticed since we've been home how much more mature she is from when we left. Oh my soul, she's like a little breath of fresh air in our everyday-3 kids fussing-refereeing all day- lives. There are still moments she has with her siblings, but she is obeying so well, and just being so dang sweet!! Oh I just love it..... and lets not talk about the fact that I DID just mention she is about to be 4. 

So bittersweet!!! I'm excited to see this little girl bloom into such a prefect little being... but at the same time, 4?!?! How did this happen?? She is thrilled beyond pieces to have a birthday and not a day goes by that she doesn't ask "is it my birthday yet??" Ya, I should not have told her that it was coming up... ;)... and today I made another mistake of asking her what kind of party we should do this year. She (of course) said PRINCESS and went to go get all dressed up in her Princess dress and shoes and told me this was her birthday dress. 

She is funny. 

Loves her life.

Loves to dress up, 

loves to be frilly, pink

and is THE Princess of the house

I love her to pieces and can't imagine my life without my prissy little girl!!!

Random update take 13

Howdy world!!

Well first of all... to add to my previous post, I hit the 20 lb mark and I am soooooooo excited!!! I set a goal and hit it!! I am loving feeling so much better about myself and waking up feeling good instead of like I gained 20 lbs that night. THATs probably my favorite part of this, is waking up feeling AWESOME and not heavy, bloated and fat. 

...and dare I say Im in love with our new van?!? How did I ever have children without the wonderfulness of a van. 

Well, ya, I'm hooked.

My contacts didn't work out, and I am on my second trial pair, and so far they're working so much better than the first pair... and I'm so grateful.

Nat and I are heading to San Angelo on Saturday... where we will drop off our offspring and on Monday, get on an airplane (don't ask me how I feel about getting on an airplane and leaving my babies... just don't

ask.) and fly to Dallas then fly to Miami, Fl. then fly to Key West, Fl. 

Eeeek... I am slightly excited. 

It is a trip for work... and Nat will be in meetings a couple of the days... but this mama will be free and on a beach for a few days.

Pray for my soul. I survived last year, leaving them for even longer to go on a cruise.... I still can't decided whats worse, leaving my babies to go on a boat, to another country... or leaving them to go on an airplane.....

and by this, yes, I do mean which one would I be more likely to die on. 

Yes, I think the absolute worst about any situation in life... its a gift. ;)

Prayers appreciated!!!

We headed to Angelo this past weekend for a family reunion. I've been a naughty mom with taking pics. So Not much for ya.... Sorry.

we've been really obsessed with bike riding lately.. so much so that we finally got Payton a big girl bike!! She finally mastered sissy's bike and now they're quite the bike riding duo. I love it!!

and lastly, on a more serious note, not to go into great detail, I'm having a polyp removed from my uterus in June... so also asking for prayers for that endeavor!!! 

Oh, and P.S. This is officially my 400th post!

Just thought you'd wanna know.

ch-ch-ch-ch-canges.

So.... as the title states, we've had some pretty big changes goin on around the house. I mean HUGE!! Well, huge mostly just for me!!

- I've been convicted.... and it seems like its ALL around me. Everywhere I look....

Healthy this.

Healthy that.

Blah, blah, blah, right?? 

Something that I deeply struggle with is food. I slightly, really, REALLY like food.... and not good food. Gimme the bad stuff!

There I said it.

and its kind of embarrassing, to be an overweight girl, saying such a thing. Kinda like its embarrassing to eat in front of other people when you're overweight because you (I) feel like everyone is looking and judging your (my) size. 

Knowing I had to make a change, I prayerfully went in this with hopes to make a drastic lifestyle change... and I am proud to say that 2 weeks in, I have lost 12 lbs... and only with help from the Almighty have I lost my cravings for sugar!! Its been a neat transformation and one that I am thankful for!!

-Another really HUGE change for me, and something I said I'd never do is get contacts!! After all, my glasses define who I am, right?? Or so I thought. My deepest fear in life is someone seeing me without glasses on and thinking I look "weird"... like I thought so many times when I was a young, naive girl seeing someone without their glasses on. So I said I would never get contacts!!! 

Well, Nat has a work trip to FL next month... and I just so happen will be able to tag along... 

and, well, 

FL = beach... 

beach = no glasses.

 No glasses= a blind Mara. 

Get it?? 

So I  don't wanna be walking around the beach, squinting trying my best to make things out. So I thought what the heck, I'll give it a try.... still can't tell you EXACTLY how I feel about them... only that I'm still not comfortable sporting the no glasses look. I will get there tho. :)

and another thing that I said I'd NEVER do is drive one of these:

and, as you see... it is parked in front of our house now. ;) 

We've talked a new vehicle for a long time now. Many, many months. We've even looked out of town on several occasions... but we were just never on the same page. We didn't agree on price. Didn't agree on make/model. There was just always something in the way of knowing that this was the right thing to do. 

Regardless of our disagreement, we knew we had to do something different gas wise. The suburban, God bless it, was and always will be my vehicle of choice in life... but 13 miles to the gallon when anything and everything is automatically 30 miles away... it was just becoming an ordeal.... especially at the pump!!

Well, lo and behold, at the time when it wasn't on my mind, and we weren't looking, I was leaving a friends house the other day and drove by the little car lot here in town and I saw this pretty maroon van. I came home and told Nat about it.... although a van definitely wasn't on the top of my new vehicle list.. I still had this particular van on my mind... so we decided we'd go look at it after supper. Simply from peeking in the windows, and seeing the outside, we both just loved it. 

I came home loving it, but at the same time having hesitations towards driving a mini van. After awhile I settled on, -well if this even works out, Its not like a VAN doesn't suit my lifestyle right?? Duh, like the only thing I'm missing in my mommy hood is the minivan. ;) 

As He always does when the timing is right, everything went super smooth and we drove off the lot the next day in this pretty little thang. I'm definitely excited about getting better gas mileage and not worrying every time I drive about the gas I'm using... and lets face it, NO vehicle beats the wonderful convenience of a van when you have little ones.

Exciting things!!!

We are SO blessed.

The Outside World

I know that many, many, many mama's out there are loving this Spring weather. I remember that feeling when winter hit and there was officially no more playing outside... and thinking oh no, life is over. But, alas, spring has arrived and we are back to the outside world.

I have desperately waited for the girls to learn how to really ride their bikes good so that we could venture away from our little slab driveway, and actually RIDE more than just circles. Huge thanks to my dad for having a tad more patience than me when helping them learn to pedal correctly. I had all but given up on trying to get them to pedal forward.

We headed to the park the other day and rode for hours!! 

I also took the opportunity to get my camera out and try to get a few good pics of them.

oh yes, he did.

Little man was DONE for before we even got a chance to play at the park!! He grabbed his daddy and held on until we got to the car!! It was sweet. He kept saying "home" "home." He has become such a home body lately and often tells us he wants to go home when were away, and he's not happy.

We've lived with our garage door open, and all the outside toys strewn all over our front yard!!

I love spring time!!!!