Let's Go To the Beach, Beach {Weekend in Pictures}

This is truly the life. 
There are times I'm homesick; I'm not exactly sure where home is anymore (I mean geographically).
Home to me is wherever these three and my babies' daddy is :)  
When I'm with them life is good and everything makes sense.  
South Carolina makes sense.
We are loving OUR favorite part of South Carolina.  
We made a whole weekend of the beach…..

 The kiddos enjoyed building sandcastles and the small waves crashing against them sending them into a giggle fit.

 I love their laughter.

      Also…..

I love Popcorn & Pickles, the duo are even tastier on the beach :)

 The waves began to pickup, my husband and our 12 year old didn't want to miss out on them.  

I thought it was best if the littles sat those waves out…. 

 After such a lovely day at the beach we decided to keep the fun going and went to a local seafood restaurant.  

Let's just say this was our first and last visit.  

Sorry for the poor picture quality it was dark in there. 

Sunday Funday

This Sunday was Blessing of the Fleet, I wanted to go but I was out voted, which was okay with me because… beach.

Notice the littles are now wearing lifejackets. Paranoia much…

More sandcastles….

 Sunday, we ate dinner on the beach.  Dinner was much better on the beach than the-restaurant-that-shall-remain-nameless.  

My heart was truly filled with sunshine all weekend.

How was your weekend?

{Update} Congrats la Familia Jimenez #LaFamiliaDeHoy #Ad #LatinaBloggers

*I am a proud member of Latina Bloggers Connect.  Latina Bloggers Connect has chosen me along with other Latina bloggers to share the “La Familia De Hoy” campaign.  This is a sponsored post on behalf of the Johnson & Johnson & Latina Bloggers Connect collaboration.  Trust that my own thoughts and opinions are shared below.  

This past November, I had the pleasure of introducing three families who were up for consideration to be Johnson & Johnson's La Famalia de Hoy spokes-family.  
In December, Johnson & Johnson Family of Consumer Companies revealed the Jiménez family as LA FAMILIA DE HOY™. Juan, Biviana and their three children: Elisa, Diego and Benicio are a modern, active, multicultural family – representative of all the values that Hispanics relate to and care about.

Healthy Essentials Presenta LA FAMILIA DE HOY™: http://on.fb.me/1euJbVW

Although, all the families were delightful, I found many similarities between my family and the Jimenez family, which is why I elected them! 
I could not be happier for such a lovely family. Congratulations Familia Jimenez!

Reading about the Jimenez family and their closeness to their extended family made me think of living in Texas, and being surrounded by family, Sunday BBQs, and family game nights.  We no longer live close to our extended family, in spite of that we have modern technology to bring us together.

Another similarity my family and the Jimenez family share, the passion for being active and playing outside.  While excellent grades and school come first, we think it's important to have the kids playing a sport or doing something to keep them moving. The Jimenez Family gathers together for weekend BBQ’s or going to Juan’s boys’ soccer games.  

The Jimenez family is a soccer family; right now the AOK family is a softball, lacrosse, and baseball family {soon we'll be a basketball family too}.

All three of my children enjoy playing sports.  I enjoy watching them play sports. As much as I love watching them play ball-- I worry.  When I see a ball coming to close to my babies, a slide that didn't work out just right, a fall, or stumble; I tremble.

Thankfully minor scrapes and bruises are mendable.  Neosporin and Band-Aids are essential here in my home.  

My husband wouldn't allow us to not have Neosporin in this house, he's been an enthusiast for years.  Neosporin heals wounds four days faster than a bandage alone.  Since, I'm a germaphobe I appreciate that Neosporin provides 24-hour infection protection. 

Unfortunately, Neosporin cannot takeaway my trembles and fears of a ball hitting the kids, but at least I can rest a little more easy knowing Band-Aid & Neosporin together can help our family heal a bit sooner.

P.S. I'm the loud cheering mama in the stands, are you?

Congrats again, to the Jimenez family!!!

A Wordy {Wordless} Wednesday: My Weekend.

I just love my weekends with my family...

I thought for WW, I'd share my weekend with you.

1. Snuggles with my furbaby

2. Disney surprises for my babies; getting them ready for Disney :)

3. Free trip to Kohls. I had enough Kohls cash to walk away with over $100 worth of free goodies!

4. Friday Night, Pizza Night.  The kiddos made naan pizza; hubby & I kept it Paleo. 

We watched Disney movies, of course :)

5. Mailed it! I finally sent out my #SpringPolishSwap! 

Check back for the linky & giveaway April 10th

6. Smooching this man all weekend while testing out my new lipstick.

7. My new lipstick was sent to me from Influesnter and guess what, did you guess? 

I'm kind of liking having some color on my lips.

It's crazy, I'm usually a Burt's Bee kind of girl, but I think I may just like this bright Rimmel Moisture Renew color.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  

It's HUMP DAY, we're almost there again!

Road Trip to Disney {Must Haves on the Road}

I've been on plenty of road trips and if you don't remember, I moved my family down from the 'burbs of Chicagoland to South Carolina via a Road Trip.

We stopped in Louisville Kentucky, I totally still need to blog about that.

This is how we roll.  

I pack a small cooler with ice and items that need to be kept cold:

Water

Juice

Veggies

Fruit

Sliced meats

Ranch Dressing snack packs

Guacamole snack packs

I usually get a veggie platter from Whole Foods and deconstruct it, placing veggies in baggies. 

To ensure the kiddos don't make a huge mess I pack containers for them to use with separate compartments.

In a big beach bag I put all the dry goodies: 

Skinny Pop

PopChips

Peanut Butter or Almond Butter packets {Justin's}

Dried Fruit

Trail mix

I will either buy an array or make an array of trail mix.  

Whole Foods, has an amazingly yummy coffee bean trail mix, seriously, you have to try it.

Also, in the big beach bag:

paper towel

hand sanitizer

Boogie Wipes

Kleenex

Band-Aids {because you never know if there will be a coloring book paper cut}

(Source)

To keep the kiddos busy, we're bringing along:

Disney Coloring books, yes, Star Wars is now Disney!

The girls have doodle books; I think these will come in handy.  

We are also packing a few of our Disney movies to get them ready. 

Luckily, we have iPads therefore we can also load our Disney movies to the iPads versus needing to pack too many DVDS.  

The kids also have games to play on the iPads.  
DON'T FORGET THE CHARGERS & CAR CHARGER.

HEADPHONES, these are important because I have three kiddos, they don't want to always watch or hear what the other is playing. 

We also like to play road trip games such as Road Trip Bingo. 

I found this link  to Disney quizzes, which I plan to use on our trip.

And of course to get through the drive Mama & Papa need plenty of Starbucks-- don't forget to load your card.

I admit it, I'm a junkie.

14 Loves

14 things I love. 14 things that make me happy.  

There are so many more things, but here are 14…

in no particular order.

1. Spending time with my best friend everyday.

2. Going to my kiddos' 101 sporting events :)

3. Seeing my kiddos create.

4. The smiles on my kiddos' faces when they accomplish something huge.

5. Proud moments. The moment when a kiddo rises against ignorance and chooses love.

6. Capturing sweet moments, to have forever, stuck in time.

7. Coffee. Beach. {The two together is a pretty damn AWESOME DAY}

8. My fur baby drives me crazy but he can turn any frown upside down.

9. My babies! My babies fill my heart with so much love.  They make this heart run….

10. Imagination.  Seeing my babies' imaginations in play + exploration.

11. I love my bloggy friends.  You all make me so happy.

12. How I Meet Your Mother dates with My Hubby. We're Netflix lovers.

13. Blogging.  Blogging has become such a happy piece of me.

14. Being married to a caring man, who holds hands, kisses boo-boos, teaches lessons, gives hugs, shows encouragement, provides more than a home, who embraces each one of us here, and who showers me with tons of love everyday…

This life is sooooo good. 

I'm loved, and I love.

Love you!

Check out this Dad's Invention>> @TheAryaBall #Kickstarter

I'm excited to introduce you to Babak's invention the AryaBall.  The AryaBall is a 5-in-1 Sports Ball that Babak created to get his kids outside and playing… 

How does it work?

Where can you get one? Currently you can find  ArayBall on Kickstarter.  ArayBall has been a self-funded project untill now.  If you would like to support Babak go check out his Kickstarter.
I think this is a great idea, especially for those days at the park when you don't want to unload your whole garage ;)
What do you think? I was not paid, nor did I receive a product… I just wanted to share another parent's invention.   I'm glad Babak is trying to get kiddos active and sharing family time.

12 Years.

12 years. 12 years of happiness. 12 years of love. 12 years of smiles & laughs. 12 wonderful, amazing, fun years with this sweet young lady. 

I am proud and honored to be this sweet, caring, and bighearted little woman's Mommy.  

Happy Birthday m'love! 

5 Reasons Why I'm LOVING Make-Ahead Freezer Meals

This past Sunday before the big game {Super Bowl}, I, along with my kitchen helpers prepared over 12+ meals.  (Super Big Thank You to Mr. AOK, he was a HUGE help ♡)

I wish I would've taken more pictures… I only have ONE! 
Next time I do this I will take more pictures, share tips, and  recipes ;)

I spent around $275 on mainly organic veggies & meat, plus ingredients, freezer bags, and foil casserole dishes. 

This was a crazy week for us and make ahead freezer meals saved the week!

1. We had dentist and doctors appointments, plus impromptu costume making, so having meals in the freezer to pop in the slow cooker or in a pan was such a huge help!

2. This was my first time ever preparing make-before meals in bulk and although I picked up extras for the week... I kind of goofed and forgot to get enough stuff for lunches.  However, with the freezer meals I was able to make rollover meals for the kiddos' lunches and my hubby's lunch too.  I made chicken & black bean quesidillas, shredded pork & guacamole pita pockets with lettuce and of course packed-up leftover soup.

3. Make ahead MEATBALLS! I've made make ahead meatballs before because of the whole Paleo thing; for easy dinner & lunches this is perfect.  Again, I forgot about the lunch stuff :-/
I popped 10 meatballs in the oven for the kiddos while they ate breakfast and in about 10-15 minutes>> they had their main course for lunch.  I always have Newman's or Whole Foods Pasta sauce on hand, so I put a little in a separate container for dipping.

4. Veggies! Everyday this week my kiddos have consumed veggies...and plenty of them! As much as I am a healthy food nut, somedays... I slack on the veggies :(

Every meal I've made has had tons of veg. The meatballs have  veggies in them too.

5. I'm sick ☹

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw my frowny-sick-face-selfie. 

I'm so glad I had these meals to help out.  When you're sick it's nice to have soup… right? Thankfully, I had all the fixin's for Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup (minus the rice).  I had the veggies and precooked meat frozen ahead, next I just had to pour the pantry ingredients into the pot {broth, crushed tomatoes, and sauce}, and in about 15-20 minutes dinner was done!

Bonus:Yesterday my husband cooked the prepared chicken stir fry ☺

With lacrosse & softball season coming up I think sticking to freezer meals will be quite beneficial. 
Do you freeze ahead too? 

La Familia de Hoy… Today's Family.

I am a proud member of Latina Bloggers Connect.  Latina Bloggers Connect has chosen me along with other Latina bloggers to share “La Familia De Hoy” Campaign.  This is a sponsored post, trust that my own thoughts are shared below.  The links provided are those given to me  for the Johnson & Johnson and Latina Bloggers Connect collaboration.  Johnson & Johnson along with Univision.com wants you to vote for your favorite family to become the 2014 Johnson & Johnson  spokesfamily.

La Familia De Hoy.. Today’s Family

This past Thursday many of us sat around the table with our families and laughed as food was gobbled up.   My Thanksgiving was quite different, however spent with mi familia.  We drove miles across America to our new home, South Carolina.  We sang Christmas songs as loud as we could as we drove through snowcapped mountains and wide open spaces.  Our Thanksgiving dinner came late Thanksgiving night as we headed into our corporate housing, the only thing open, a Waffle House.  We gratefully ate our Thanksgiving day meal as a family safe in our new home for the time being.

Although, we were not with our extended family stretched across America we still were connected, we were able to talk and send pictures via our smart phones.  Appreciatively  today although families may be separated by distance technology can bring a family together.

My Vote….

Reading about the families selected for the Johnson & Johnson and Univision “La Familia De Hoy” Campaign, I was touched by the Jimenez family and their close-knit family.  I love that even in today’s fast paced world they are a family connected by love, sports, and proximity to their extended family.  I was reminded of family barbecues back in Texas.  Reading their story I could hear the lively get togethers just like I had back in Texas.  Along, with being a close family that all live literally in each other’s backyard, I love that the family is active.  

The Jimenez children all love to play and enjoy sports, and the eldest Jimenez child Elisa {11 years old} is an Honor Roll Student, which is important to me.  I love a family that plays together, as well as encourages educational greatness.  

Okay, they also have a bulldog {Nut}… and you all know I’m a sucker for a smushy face.  Nut, is a nut when it comes to soccer!  Nut gets out there in the backyard and joins in on family soccer games.  That's a win!

The three Jimenez brothers have kept their families close, and still give back to their community.  The oldest of the Jimenez brothers Juan {featured above with his family} has shared his heart...helping with Habitat for Humanity, Boy Scouts, and coaching soccer. A giving heart is happy heart!

Your Vote...

The Jimenz family sounds like a fun-loving family, right?  The other families up for the honor of 2014 Johnson & Johnson spokesfamily are pretty awesome too.

Go check out the families and vote for your favorite family!

“La Familia de Hoy” voting site: http://bit.ly/1jkwdJi