Ahhh New Years… the begining of falling through on a bunch of goals I want but don’t end up achieving. January can be a pretty depressing month but this year has been different. No it’s not because of my new year’s resolutions (because I didn’t pick any), or because I started to some extreme things to whip myself into shape (because I haven’t), mostly I decided to change some small things and January just so happens to be when I began.

I have felt myself fall short on so many goals again and again and I was getting harder to feel that I was capable of achieving my goals, so in January I asked Neal for a blessing. I felt I needed God’s help to know how to change, after all, God understands me better than I do! (more…)

Without Loosing Your Mind

When I graduated high school my parents decided they wanted to improve their health and lose some weight. I realized I had gained some weight myself after quitting theater and I thought I would support my parents and try to lose a few pounds. While parents bought a diet system package that came with pre-made food, I went and bought some healthy produce and whole grains for me to eat.

The date arrived when we began dieting and I began eating my healthy food. The results I saw astounded me, but to paint a more complete picture, let me give you an idea of what I would eat before I began dieting.

A typical day for me in 2012:

• Breakfast: 16 oz glass of chocolate milk
• Snack: Apple
• Lunch: Chicken nuggets and a shake
• Snack: Avocado
• After school snack: 12 oz of milk with 6 oreos
• Dinner: Homemade casserole with a side of buttery corn (2+ big helpings of each)
• Dessert: Ice cream or milkshake

I was legitimately baffled how it possible that I had gained weight during my senior year, haha! Like, “what? My choices bring consequences?!” Haha! (more…)

Before I begin this article I want to make it clear that is was my journey with breastfeeding. Your story either is or will be different than mine. Breastfeeding may have just clicked for you. Maybe you tried breastfeeding and it didn’t work out. Maybe breastfeeding weirds you out and gives you anxiety. That’s all ok! We are all different women who have had different experiences that have led us to think/act in a certain way. That doesn’t mean our actions are always perfect but we are all doing our best! You do what works for your family and feel confident in the fact that your child is being fed (whether by a bottle or a breast or both)! Let’s try not to be hating if a mom is doing something differently than the way we do it. Ok?

My Breastfeeding Story

I grew up knowing I wanted to breastfeed. My mom always spoke about breastfeeding in the most positive of terms, highlighting the many benefits of breast milk. While I was pregnant with Ariana, I was filled with confident anticipation about breastfeeding. I had been around it since I was little and it always looked so effortless – I was sure I’d be an old pro!

The big day arrived. I breathed (I didn’t even need to push) my beautiful baby out of me and they brought her towards my arms and laid her on my chest. It was the most joyful, beautiful moment. Staring up at my darling husband while holding our little angel.

She was so warm and her smell was somehow familiar. I felt such a high of happiness and accomplishment! A few minutes after she was born she began moving her head looking for something and smacking her lips (oh yeah, that’s the cue) so I held her near my breast, waited till she opened her tiny mouth, brought her to my nipple, and she began to suck. (more…)

a summery taste of Italy

I have been having major cravings for tomatoes recently!!! Every time I get on Pinterest I see 5 new tomato recipes I need to try. Unfortunately for me, my husband had a bad experience with tomatoes several years ago (chunky tomato tacos + a few rounds of the tilt a whirl = no more tomatoes). And although he’s been begging me to go and get some tomatoes for myself, I just don’t dig when we can’t both enjoy something I’ve made.

I saw an avocado caprese salad recipe on Pinterest that looked to die for (here is the link) and since Neal is away this week I knew my time had come. ‘Cause a girl needs some consolation when she can’t snuggle her love :/ (more…)

Amazon Prime is an amazing program and it has saved our family loads of money!!! Especially on diapers, I’ll explain that below but I wanted to let you know a few reasons you ought to sign up tonight!

1. Prime day begins TONIGHT – Prime day is much like black friday only you don’t have to get trampled or flipped off in order to get the deal you want. You just have to get on Amazon’s website and sign up.
2. Your first month is free – um, let me repeat that. Your first month is free (sign up here) so an incredibly intelligent thing to do would be to sign up right now. Get any of the Prime Day deals you want and then cancel your subscription before you have to start paying for it (that is if you don’t want to continue to receive the awesome benefits :).
3. Free shipping is the best – Any Item that has the Prime checkmark on it means that you get free shipping and lots of the time it is next day delivery. Go sign up now!
4. You can save over $200 a year on diapers – amazon has an amazing family program that can give you up to 20% off of diapers (which are already way cheaper than diapers at the store). I would explain it but I feel like this gal does an amazing job at explaining it so I’ll just link to her website, click here.
5. Amazon Video is actually pretty good – They also have ton of movies, TV shows, and kindle books that you get free access to if you are an Amazon Prime member.

There you go,

SIGN UP RIGHT HERE –> Prime Day 2017 – 30 Hours of Deals <–

Heads up: This post contains associate links to Amazon. If you sign up, Amazon might pay me a tiny commission 🙂 but it won’t cost you any more than usual.

And just so you know, I will only ever promote products that I use and love. That’s the Noob Promise of Integrity!