Wordless Wendnesday......

Who doesn't love a great Giveaway!

Check out this cute little blog for a fun make-up giveaway! Enter to win. Good Luck!
http://www.unnecessarydrama.net/2009/09/my-elf-studiomineral-giveaway.html

These Girls are seriously spoiled!

The building is pretty much complete for the Equine Riding Arena at MiMi and PaPa's house:

This is were the girls will be riding horses for years to come:

" It's Shake 'n' Bake and I helped".

Tonight was a real treat............ Kayla decided she wanted to help with dinner. The outcome was pretty sucessful! Here are the pictures to prove this (Dinner= delicious pork steaks with Praire Dust seasoning from Lone Star, "fresh" sweet corn from the Farmer's Market, some noodles that Kayla made & some Tomatoes from Di Di's garden!). Paige and Daddy were on "Clean Up Crew".

working on the noodles.

Good Night my Loves...........

Nik

burdens

Life is full of them, burdens that is. Heavy burdens that are sometimes hard to cope with. For the last couple of months I've had overwhelming anxiety and I let these burdens take over my life. I have always considered myself the eternal optimist. You know.....the glass is half full, there is always a bright side to everything. Lately, that whole eternal part is fading. I have such a heavy weight in my chest for things that would have fluttered by in my past. I miss that girl, and I know the people I love miss her too. I don't want her to get so far out of my reach that it affects my relationships, but at the same time I don't know how to coax her back and push away this negative person that I feel I am becoming. Sometimes it helps to do this blog, in fact, in this blog world that I have entered, I see others struggling with everyday burdens. I read how they relate to my situations and how they struggle at times to find resolve in sometimes unresolvable journeys. The older you get, the more complex life becomes. I guess it does not help that the world we are living in just seems to be more and more depressing everyday. I am such a product of what media and television and technology has created, and this is something I am not proud of at all. I want to be better, I want to live simpler, I want to ignore the negativity that resonates from my TV. But, I want to see the season finale of True Blood and see what celebrities are doing and wearing all at the same time. I want to wear recycled clothing, I want to bake from scratch and have my own garden. But again, I want my recycled clothes to come from expensive shops like poorpitifulpearl.com and I want to go out to eat and pay too much. Where does the happy medium fit in here? Today I emailed my husband about what a terrible day I am having and how under appreciated I am for the hard work that I do at my job and I write to him: Sometimes life is too hard for me, when did I stop being the optimist? I want her back, and I know everyone in my life does too. This is not me, who writes that kind of stuff? I read the Nie Nie Dialogues at http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ and she motivates me to see the positive in life. My problems seem insignificant to others, but they are my problems and they are important to me. She has an amazing life and and amazing struggle of survival that sends me to the moon and back when I read her story! I guess we learn to take things one day at a time. We have to learn to teach our children that life is full of ups and downs (whether we are down or not). Life is too short to wear our worries on our sleeve and to Hell with these burdens. I am going to try to be the best Nikki I can be for my family, my loved one's and most importantly for ME!

Great Giveaway for the Kiddos!

http://suzysunshine-suzy.blogspot.com/2009/09/natural-art-supplies-giveaway.html
Come visit this fun blog and enter to win this coloring set! Super fun!

Time to get moving.....

I am ready for fall to start, but the only problem I am facing at this point is the dreaded "baby weight" still hanging around. After my first pregnancy I had no problem losing the weight, it seemed to just disappear after a pretty short time. I did go up one whole dress size, but that was okay with me. I looked at it as an opportunity to do a little wardrobe revamp and I could still squeeze into most of my favorite pieces. Fast forward to pregnancy number two and things are not quite as simple. Now don't get me wrong, my efforts to lose the weight are nothing to write a cheer about, but I have barely lost any weight since Paige was born (NINE MONTHS AGO!!!!) and I'm at my breaking point. As the fall weather is right around the corner, I started to go through my pre-Paige winter clothes and they are like 2 whole dress sizes down from my weight now.........UGG! I have never in my life experienced this problem. Growing up I was teased for being the skinny girl and now I long to have that 12 year old boy frame back. Okay, so not quite that far. But, for goodness sake there has to be some medium! No pun intended, but I am tired of buying the size large. The worst part about finding the motivation to actually do something and stop complaining is my body image is HIGH. WTF! I don't feel uncomfortable in my skin, so I am having a hard time commiting to the new workout plan. So, I have found a new motivation. For those who know me, I am a shop-aholic and love nothing more than buying clothes for myself and the girls. This year, instead of going out and getting all new clothes in size "BIG" I am going to treat myself to................FITNESS! I know I will be energized, less stressed, positive, healthier and best of all I am going to lose this weight that does not belong on my body. I will fit into those size 8 jeans again. I will wear those cute little tops that make my now post baby belly make people say, "are you having another one?". Note to those people, unless you are sure....DON"T ASK> For the last 3 weeks I have been extremely diligent about exercise. I have started to walk, run, bike and strength train for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. I am writing this blog as a reminder to myself that this is a goal, a goal that can be achieved and will be achieved. Maybe by putting it out there, cyberspace can also hold me accountable. So next time you see me grabbing for the bottle of ranch to pour on my pizza, FOR God's SAKE.......STOP ME! I have to say my favorite, yet hardest exercise right now is biking. I take the girls along and do about 4 miles at a time (maybe more when I am ready). They are a heavy load those girls:

Kayla, Paige thanks for giving Mommy that extra little push (or pull in this case) on my ride. I love you both!