Friday Favorite!

I thought I'd do a post of some of my favorite things currently or of all time on Fridays. Todays favorite is Clump Crusher Mascara from CoverGirl. I seriously bought this because I had an issue with mascara and honestly didn't think it would work but thought I'd give it a try anyway since it has good reviews and is the only mascara I can find that claims to "crush clumps." Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised that it did do what it says so I will definitely be buying again and again.

Top 10 Favorite Things About SUMMER!

Summer is probably my second favorite season, fall being my favorite of course. Summer definitely has so many exciting activities and the weather is almost always perfect which makes it nice for doing things outdoors. I complied a list of my favorite things about summer that I'm looking forward too!

1. The Weather--I love that it's almost always sunny so this makes it perfect to be outside for everything from swimming to bbqing.

2. Water Activities- from skiing to rafting, swimming, tubing, boating the water is my favorite activity especially when the temps get high. Rafting is probably at the top of my list. This summer we're going to NJ so we'll get some beach time in...so excited!

3. 4th of July--I love this holiday! Not only is the 4th a perfect reason for a BBQ but I love all the patriotism and the red, white & blue.

4. No School---Well I haven't had to really worry about school for the past three years now but I always looked forward to summer because I was ready to be out of school and having fun.

5.  Summer Activities- Boise has so many great free activities to do in the summer, from Eagle Fun Days to Meridian Dairy Days, the Boise Music Festival, Art in the Park, Alive after Five, First Thursday, The Museum Comes to Life and many more that make for a great summer!

6. Everything Outdoors- With summer comes the ability to be out and about, some of my favorite outdoor activities include: walks, leisurely hikes, biking, picnics, bbqs, park time, water water water activities!

7. Camping!- Every summer our family would take a camping trip to Silver Creek which is just North of Crouch, ID, they have a natural hot springs and we absolutely loved everything about Silver Creek. We still try to carry that tradition on and as many of my siblings that can make it each year go. We also would go to Cascade, ID for the Lewis Reunion and Bear Lake, ID for the Brown Reunion (my Mom's side) and both of these trips were camping trips too. So we grew up camping each summer, regardless of what Keith will say about me and camping haha.

8. BIRTHDAYS BIRTHDAYS BIRTHDAYS!- June-August alone there are almost 20 birthdays within my family and two more that will be born this year (one in July and August)! Keith's is next SUNDAY!!! Birthday parties are always fun and summer ones are especially fun. So in our family we're celebrating a birthday almost every week with some weeks that have 2-3!

9. Sleeping Outside-- Summer nights are seriously so perfect for sleeping outside. In our family growing up we did this all the time. You had to race to secure a spot outside "in the middle" because nobody wanted to be on the end. My mom would always bring breakfast outside too and we'd wake up to breakfast outside. It was a fun tradition with so many good memories of telling stories or jokes with the sibs, we try to carry it on still and do it in the summers when we get together at my moms.

10. Imagination-- Since school was out we had to use our imagination as kids to keep ourselves entertained, of course having a ton of other siblings to play with helped a lot too, but we didn't go somewhere every day we had to keep ourselves entertained and get creative. My mom of course still made us do chores, practice Math, Science, Spanish, and a few other subjects but when it was play time we as siblings got creative we did things like; made forts in the downstairs basements, made up dances with my sisters (and niece Chelsea-- candy dance haha!), played vote ( we voted on which games to play like fruit octopus, upset the fruit basket, water game etc.), had parades around the house with various "instruments" and bikes, biked into Eagle (about a 30 min bike ride there)--sometimes just to get the free cookies at Albertsons, haha yah we got that bored sometimes, movie nights, lots of hours spent on Castle Hill ( on the the hill in our backyard we built a little village), made water slides and before we got a small pool yes, we swam in barrels that we would fill with water, water ballon fights, play baseball (since we have enough players for two teams), my mom would have us choose a country and we'd research it and teach each other about it and make food from that country, we'd also do things like science experiments and hands on activities. Oh the endless possibilities of free, fun, creative summer activities you can do right in your own home!

What are you most excited about for summer?

One good thing about being a frequent hotel customer......

Since Keith and I stay at hotels quite often for his job we earn A LOT of hotel rewards. Keith is so kind and gracious and lets me use the hotel points on whatever I want....yes! I usually get Amazon, Walmart,    or Target gift cards, lately it's been Amazon so I can start a book collection for my kids. You would think it would be smarter to just get all the books at the local thrift store right? Well I'm determined to get most if not all the books my siblings and I read and loved as kids. Some are more rare and hard to find at a thrift store but I was at Goodwill last week and found three books that I wanted.....two in particular that were on my list! Score! Anyway....so I've had lots of packages come these last couple weeks and I get so excited to open each book and oh how the memories of childhood flood back into my mind. I want my kids to love books and be excited about them. Here is my loot so far.....

For you makeup lovers I also found Too Faced's Shadow Insurance (eye primer) for $10 on Amazon, it's normally $20 in store (Ulta, Sephora). I was pretty stoked about that purchase. I think it works just as good as Urban Decay's Primer Potion.

Another find I've come to love is Wet n Wild's eyeshadows! I know what you're thinking..."Wet n Wild? What? Are you serious? But it's so cheap!" I know that's the beauty of it! I've read a few makeup blogs that have recommended these shadows and compared them to be dupes of higher end brands like Urban Decay & MAC, so I thought for the price...why not? All of these babies are under $5 and sometimes you can find a sale like I did at Fred Meyer for buy one get one 1/2 off. I've seen them sold at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Fred Meyer, and even Winco down the street from me! The selections at each stores are different. I haven't been disappointed, especially when used with Too Faced's eye primer.  One tip I've found that makes a difference though with eyeshadow is actually using an eyeshadow brush instead of the cheap ones they come with, I like Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman sold at Ulta, they are quality brushes for a great price. My favorite shadows so far are..

I especially love to use creme brulee on bottom lid and layer with nutty on top!

Wet N Wild--Comfort Zone Palatte

Wet N Wild- Walking on Eggshells 

Busy, Busy

Things have been pretty busy here lately. A little over a week ago Keith had surgery on his foot and then four days later we moved and have been trying to settle in and catch up on things- unpacking, cleaning etc. My sister Misti was here for a week between semesters and she was a life saver with helping us pack and move everything. It's finally starting to warm up again, fingers crossed it stays this way for awhile.

 Little Buddy.....
 Carson is starting to talk more and more and it surprises me how well he catches onto and remembers things. He absolutely loves his cousin Brielle since he sees her the most. He loves playing with all of his cousins but at our old apartment we were five minutes from Brielle. There were days he would scream Brielle's name because he missed her so much and wanted to go play with her.When Keith or I would drop him off he wouldn't even say bye or sometimes he would and then just run off with Brielle, a stark contrast to a year ago when he would still cry when we left. He sure will miss being so close, guess we're only about 25 minutes away from her now. He's starting to talk in sentences and copy words we say. It's so exciting to hear him remember something you teach him and then he repeats it randomly hours or days later. He loves his "big" toy Thomas and the "baby" Thomas. He will carry the "baby" thomas toy around with him everywhere. He loves the mole underneath my chin too, kinda weird haha but he tries to feel under everyone else's chin to see if they have one too, and he always has to keep his finger on it at night to help him fall asleep and if I take it off he goes "NO MOLE!" haha Oh man he cracks me up. He's growing up so fast and I love the precious moments where he wants me to read to him, sit on my lap, hold him, play with him, show him pictures or hold my hand. He desperately wants a baby and insists it's going to be a boy, just like daddy says too. He love and adores Keith and when he's gone during the day he's always asking for Dad-dee. He loves skyping with both grandparents since one set is in New Jersey and the other in Peru. He always asks "gpe ganpa" (skype grandpa/grandma) It's so fun to watch him grow and learn and teach us.

 

Thoughts.....
Today and last night (adult session) we had stake conference. Our stake president spoke about strengthening and protecting our families. I also remember several talks in General Conference that mentioned this or that were about this topic. I think it is getting even more important that we strengthen our families with the things we do- fhe, scriptures, prayer, church, quality time together. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared for the things my kids will face in their future but I know only Keith and I can prepare them for those things and it's up to us to teach  and prepare them to make the right choices in an ever growing wicked world. It's exciting to hear that the Lord's work is hastening with the amount of temples being built and the new missionary age change.

 Food...
This is probably the most random post ever but oh well I'm just catching up. So I have a goal for this year and since I got my Vitamix it makes it a bit easier to achieve that goal. I want to eat healthier, to try and cut out processed foods, less fast food, and eat more greens. I've been experimenting with green smoothies and it's been fun because I can get a lot of greens in but the smoothie is actually good and it doesn't take me 20 minutes to chomp on a salad or eat a stalk of broccoli. I even made Keith a huge quart jar today of a green smoothie with spinach, kale, celery, strawberries, mangos and a banana, Carson even took mine away from me and kept drinking it!  So I'll share with you the recipe that I got from green smoothie girl. You can use a regular blender it just won't be as smooth and it's harder on the blender if the fruits are frozen.

Robyn's green smoothie template recipe

2 1/2 c filtered water
1/2 tsp stevia (natural sweetner found at grocery store) or 1/4 c agave nectar
1/4 whole lemon ( I didn't add this time cuz I didn't have one on hand)
2-3 TB flax oil (again don't have any need to go get some)

gradually add until briefly pureed
3/4 to 1 lb raw washed greens- spinach, kale, chard, collards, avocado, cabbage, or celery
puree the greens mixture for 90 sec

gradually add fruit until the container is full
banana, strawberries, pears, peaches, apples, mangos etc

One more recipe I tried today and loved is a quick dip that you can eat with bananas or apples or whatever fruit, I preferred bananas but whatever you have is good too!

Creamy Peanut Butter Dip* -one 5.3 ounce container of  greek vanilla yogurt ( I buy my yogurt in the big containers so I just added it to taste) -2 tbsp peanut butter - 1/2 tbsp honey -1/8 teaspoon cinnamon Makes four 2 tbsp servings (66 cals)

Givens!

Growing up every spring break we took our annual trip to Givens Hot Springs in Marsing, Idaho. Many memories have been made at Givens-- from the lizards grave, the old train, riding in the back of the truck on the way there, Kirk's dominos, licorice ropes and our chicken dinner that mom always made. I hadn't been here since high school so I felt pretty nostalgic when I walked in. I love things that remind me of my childhood and even though this hot springs is pretty old I want to make it a spring break tradition for my kids too.

All the grandkids that were there--Brynlee, Skylee, Carson, Brielle, Jace, Alexa, Tristan, Brecka

"Lizard's grave" in marsing

We went into Marsing afterwards so the boys could go fishing whiile we relaxed and the kids played near the river. It turned out to be a perfect day!

Makeup Geek

So I have this makeup fetish---I love to try out new makeup products, watch tutorials online, and Ulta is my second home (haha). I love Ulta more than Sephora because they have coupons frequently and they do the point system like Sephora for products bought but their gifts with the points redeemed are much better and there are more options. Anyway.... so I found this site through pinterest that I love! I love it because she does tutorials and not only has posts about the high end makeup but also her favorite drugstore makeup and she even has her own makeup store. I still buy from Ulta though because it's like five minutes from my apartment, I don't have to pay shipping and I always have a coupon on hand with me so I save like $3.50-$5.00 every time I go. I've tried several of her drugstore recommendations including her favorite NYX blush (peach)-- which is found at Ulta and I love everything I've tried that she's recommended. So take a look at her site if you're looking to try some new makeup products.

One more thing...just wanted to rave about BB cream! I love it! I got a sample of L'Oreal's BB Cream from Ulta and I loved it so I had to buy some! I switch off between that and my foundation but I use the BB Cream more because it's so quick to apply and I love anything quick these days. I know almost every brand has a BB Cream out it seems and I want to try more of them but for now I'll stick with L'Oreal.

Life Lately.....

February was full of birthday parties, a funeral, getting sick, getting a haircut, shopping, trips to the library, cousin playdates and sleepovers, Valentine's Day (without my hubby :( but with my little man), craft nights, movie nights with my bro and his girlfriend (the only names carson says repeatedly besides mommy and daddy are Kirk and Holly), trying new recipes from pinterest, the weather finally warming up and a long trip to Spanish Fork to visit my brother and his family, then Rexburg, then finally to Bozeman, MT. Here's a few pics of our February fun.

Here's a pic of my new hair---just trimmed it and added layers. Best part of the haircut--it was free with all my Ulta points! I was going to post a before pic but I decided against it because my hair looked pretty scary/frizzy since it wasn't straightened yet.

Kirk and Brecka at Pizza Hut. We took three of my sis's kids out to Wahooz Fun Zone, then Pizza Hut, then over to another sister's house for a movie night with banana splits then had a sleepover!

Kirk and his girlyfriend Holly

Alexa and Holly

Kirk Brecka, Tristan enjoyin their drinks

Waitin' for out pizza

Sleepover with the cousins

Visting Carson's cousins Hailey and Katy in Spanish Fork

Checking out Blickenstaff's in Provo

Hailey and Katy in their mini cooper

Carson wasn't happy about taking pictures

some random pics....I got a new decal I put above our bed and I love it!

Craft night with Holly....made this for my sis for her birthday in February

Although March always seems like one of the longest months to me and it's never warm enough I'm just excited for Spring to be around the corner!