Once E finished working on Christmas Eve, we headed down to College Station to spend some time with both sides of the family. We celebrated with E's family on Christmas Eve night but I didn't get many pictures because Belle was a bit fussy. She was ready for bed. Christmas morning, we woke up and did Santa and presents at my parents house. As you can see, Annabelle was a big fan of one of her presents.


Her Christmas jammies were compliments of E's mom, and they are some of my favorite yet. Who doesn't love a giggly candy cane?


All the girls got sunglasses from my parents so of course we had to do a photo op. Aunt Brookey and Belle definitely know how to work it for the camera. Combination duck face and binky face for the win!



The day after Christmas, we headed down to Houston for the Texas Bowl. E works in the business office at The University of Texas so it was a work/play trip. Well, a little work for him, all play for Belle and I.

We totally lucked out because my amazing Uncle Brady who lives in DC was in town visiting his brother in Katy. Neil and Brady came and met us for lunch to catch up and see Belle. She was a big fan of her Uncle Brady as you can tell!


The first night of bowl festivities was probably my favorite. The bowl hosted a rodeo where the two teams competed against each other in rodeo inspired events such has chalk branding, hay bale tosses, and of course a good 'ol dance competition. Watching the teams compete was hilarious and UT won, which was a bonus. After the rodeo, we all got to each delicious BBQ.



Don't let Belle's face fool you in this picture, she had a blast!



The next day, E had to work in the morning and then he took his girls out to lunch. That evening, we got to visit the Houston Zoo Tour of Lights. I had never been to the Houston Zoo, and although we didn't see that many animals since they were put up for the night, the lights were AMAZING! I loved being able to walk through the park all lit up versus driving through Christmas lights. Belle was absolutely mesmerized by all the lights and sat happily in her baby back pack for most of the trip. She started to get a little antsy when we stopped for dinner, but considering it was past her bed time, she did great!




After a quick nap for Belle, we headed off for some bowling. This bowling alley was unlike any bowling alley I have been to before. They had huge projector screens behind every lane showing football games, more food set out than we could ever eat, wii bowling, and comfy couches for lounging on while you watched your team bowl. Belle was a great cheerleader for our team!




I think the best part about the whole trip was how much time we got to spend with Dad! Belle loved having a personal entertainer 24/7. E can always make her crack up and keep her happy even when she is a little fussy or bored. Having so much quality time with dad was amazing!


Monday, December 29th was game day and Annabelle was more than ready! Or at least she looked more than ready!



She probably has more football apparel than most boys do. Girls can love football too!


We were so lucky to get to ride over in one of the team buses so we didn't have to deal with traffic or parking. In fact, Belle thought the whole trip was very relaxing!


She was a little upset dad did not get her an All Access pass. I tried to explain to her that her cuteness would distract the players on the field, but she wasn't having it. :)



She did get to sneak down onto the field before the game to hang out with dad for a bit. There was way too much going on for her to be bothered with posing for pictures!





Since we got to the game about 2 hours early, she was pooped and ready for a nap by the first quarter. Luckily, her head phones make napping in a loud stadium a cinch!



Tuesday, Dad was in charge of babysitting while Mom went to workout. We can all see how that worked out. Hahaha!


We headed home Tuesday afternoon and spent New Year's Eve and New Year's day just hanging out at home and recovering. Belle also fully broke in all of her Christmas presents.



It was the perfect end to a wonderful baby filled year! I can't even begin to describe how incredibly blessed I feel to have such a loving, fun, and caring family. The holidays really remind you that simple family time is one of the greatest gifts of all. I hope you all had an amazing holiday season!

What was your favorite part of the holidays?

In health!

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Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Ours was wonderful! Full of family, football, long runs, housework, and reading! We started off the weekend with some fun Halloween activities at the studio. If you missed Annabelle's first Halloween write up, it's worth checking out if I do say so myself. She was pretty darn cute! Once E got home, we headed down to College Station for the Aggie game. E, his dad, and his cousin Robert went to the game while Annabelle and I hung out with my folks for the day. The Aggies won, but it wasn't very convincing. :( We of course spent the rest of Saturday watching all the other football games on TV.

I woke up Sunday morning ready for my long run for the week. It was 45 degrees outside and absolutely beautiful. My legs and hips felt great until about mile 6 when my hips really started yelling at me, but I was able to push through. Overall, it was a great run, and I am really happy with how my training is going so far!

I think something is off with my Garmin calorie calculator. All of the sudden it just became really random with how many calorie it says I've burned. I remember looking down at mile four, and it said I had only burned 122 calories. Geezee, I hope not. It's the distance tracker that I really wear it for, but it's nice to have an estimate of how many calories I've burned during a run. I'll have to see if E can fix it for me.

Training Plan: November 3rd - November 9th
Monday: Metobolic conditioning workout, teach barre
Tuesday: 4 mile run, teach Pilates & Barre
Wednesday: teach barre & Pilates
Thursday: 3 mile run, teach Pilates & Barre
Friday: teach Barre 2x's
Saturday: 9 mile run
Sunday: rest

This morning I did a quick but so not easy metabolic conditioning workout geared to quickly overload the muscles and spike the heart rate. You might associate this kind of workout with HIIT (high intensity interval training) or CrossFit. I listed to an interview with a well known trainer and integrative physician, Jade Teta this weekend and learned more about the science behind this type of workout. Although it was super basic and only took 20 minutes, my arms were literally still shaking 3 hours after I finished. This type of workout not only burns calories during your workout, but afterwards as well thanks to a spike in your metabolic rate and your body working to repair the damage done to your muscle tissue during the workout. I could go into all the details here but that would make for one VERY long post, so let's just say, it kicked my butt with only 4 simple exercises. I do plan on doing more posts on the science behind these types of workouts in the future!

This is the workout Jade suggested trying during the interview.

Back To Basics Metabolic Conditioning Workout
12 Push-ups
12 Squats (I used 20 lb dumbbells in each hand)
12 Rows (I used a heavy piece of resistance tubing, but you could use dumbbells)
12 Overhead shoulder presses.

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

What makes this workout so hard is that you are trying to keep moving continuously from one exercise to the next with essentially no rest . Once you reach a point you can't do another rep, you rest until you have recovered enough to start again. In the CrossFit world they call this workout an AMRAP (as many reps as possible). I wasn't keeping track very closely, but I think I finished about 7-8 rounds in 20 minutes. Boy was I pooped. I'll tell you what though, if you are in a time crunch, this type of workout is the way to go.


After my workout, I quickly grabbed some breakfast before Annabelle woke up. I scrambled up 3 eggs with some turkey sausage and served it with a side of roasted sweet potatoes I made last night. It was delicious!


Once I scarfed down breakfast, it was time to play with the tiny human. She woke up in a great mood and ready to play! We had to do a quick photo shoot right away because I just love this precious onesie! My friend Erin gave it to her, and I've just been waiting for her to grow into it. :)



What a ham! I'm off to do a little work before Belle wakes up from her nap. I hope you all have a great day!

How was your weekend?

If you only have 20 minutes to workout, what do you do?

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Howdy friends,

Ok, so E really isn't that old, but he did celebrate another amazing year of life on Friday! E is probably the least fussy person when it comes to birthdays. All he really wanted was cake balls. Anytime I asked him what he wanted as a gift, he would say nothing. Grrrrr so frustrating! Despite his best efforts to let his birthday slip by unnoticed, I managed to think of a few things to get him.

One of E's college roommates was getting married in Fort Worth this weekend, so we quickly opened presents and headed towards the big city.

We stayed with E's grandmother Friday night so we could slip in a quick visit while we were in the area. On Saturday morning, I got up early and went for a nice power walk around the neighborhood with some walking lunges thrown in for good measure. My IT band is not loving running at the moment.

After visiting with family, we headed towards Fort Worth to watch the Aggies Beat The Hell Out Of Vanderbilt with the rest of the bridal party at 11:15am. Luckily, the Aggies did just that and finished in time for us to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was held at a botanical garden outside of Fort Worth, and was absolutely gorgeous. The ceremony was outside, and luckily, the rain held off until we all got inside for the reception!



Doesn't my hubby look handsome in a suite? The wedding was so much fun and so pretty! We had a great time catching up with friends and dancing until our feet hurt. I don't have too many pictures of the actually wedding or reception because it was pretty dark and they didn't turn out very well.

The wedding ended at 10:00pm and we headed back to Fort Worth. We arrived back at the hotel around 11:00pm and E found out that due to a rain delay, they second half of the UT vs. TCU game was just starting. So what did we do? Throw on some clothes and head to the game of course!

Since there had been a 3 hour rain delay, most people had left so they were letting anyone in for free! We literally walked right into the stadium and parked it in prime seating right on the 40 yard line!





It was a little chilly, but still really fun. The Longhorns even won, so that made it even better! We headed back to the hotel around 12:45pm and passed out. I woke up early enough to squeeze in a quick workout at the hotel gym before we headed home.

Once we got home it was time for grocery shopping and lots of laundry. Overall, it was a super successful weekend!

What was the highlight of your weekend?

In health,

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Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We headed down to College Station for the Texas A&M vs Auburn game at Kyle field. Unfortunately, the Aggies lost, but it was a hard hard fought game. Even though the game was a little disappointing, we still had a great time hanging out with some of our friends that came in for the weekend!

On our way down to the game, we had to make a stop at Buc-ees!

My amazing girlfriend, Jenny, from college came down for the game. Jenny and I taught together at Texas A&M. She is now physical therapist in Fort Worth so I don't get to see her as much as I'd like. Needless to say, I was super pumped to spend the weekend with her on our old stomping grounds!



E's friend from work, Cameron, also came with us to the game. He's and Auburn fan, but we still let him sleep in the house after the game.




Both E and I woke up on Saturday with scratchy throats and stopped up noses, but nothing would stand between us and our Aggie football. However, by the time the game was over, E and I were feeling worse and Cameron's throat was starting to hurt as well. Never good! We all headed home and spent the rest of the evening on the coach watching football and sipping throat coat tea. Things weren't much better on Sunday, and we all decided to head home early in order to get some rest.

I woke up feeling a bit better this morning but still not 100%. After my 9:45am Pilates class the endorphins had kicked in so I decided to take advantage of them and head to the gym for a light light workout. I stuck with two upper body circuits and a light cardio session on the treadmill. It's still pretty hard to breathe so any form of vigorous cardio was out of the question.



I made it through the workout, but I definitely felt weaker than normal. Time for some more hot tea and maybe a nap before my next class. I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

What did you do this weekend?

In health,

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Happy Happy Friday Friends!

Wow, this week has flown by and it is football time again! We are headed to College Station this weekend to watch the Aggies Beat The Hell Out Of Auburn. Whoop! What are you up to this weekend?

I told you yesterday that fall has arrived in Austin, and I am loving it! The wonderful weather inspired the name for this total body HIIT workout. Study after study have shown the benefits of working at a high intensity for a shorter amount of time so this workout puts those studies into practice with a high intensity cardio segment and a high intensity strength circuit. I did this yesterday evening and I am definitely feeling it in my legs today!

For the strength circuit, choose a weight that is challenging by rep 8 and almost impossible to finish rep 12. You want to move quickly from one exercise to the next with little to no rest until you complete the entire circuit. You can take a moment to rest at the end before you begin your next round! Enjoy!

Exercise Breakdown:

Kettlebell clean and press

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Start with legs slightly wider than hip distance apart holding kettlebell in one hand. Lower down into a squat position. Perform and upright row bringing the kettlebell to your shoulder and straightening the legs. Flip the kettlebell behind the wrist and press overhead keeping the knees slightly bent and using them to propel the dumbbell overhead. Bring kettlbell back down to the shoulder, flip the grip back to an upright row position, and lower the kettlbell in between legs.

Side lunge with a shoulder press



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Start with the dumbbell in the right hand with feet together. Step out with left leg and lower into a side lunge reaching the dumbbell towards your left foot and sitting your weight back into your heels. Press off of your left foot to come back up to standing and press the dumbbell overhead. Repeat 12x's on one leg and then switch sides.

Squat with a bicep curl

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Begin with feet hip distance apart and dumbbells by your side. Lower down into a squat like you are setting down to large suite cases. Press our of your squat and curl dumbbells towards shoulder to perform a bicep curl.

Skull crusher with leg extension

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Lie down on your back with your arms extended up over your shoulders like in picture c. Bend elbows bringing dumbbells down towards your ears keeping your elbows over your shoulder. Straighten the arms back up to the starting position. The picture above shows a basic skull crusher. If you would like to add a little core work, you can add in a leg extension. Begin by bringing your legs up to a table top position. As your elbows bend, extend your legs out to a 45 degree angle. As you straighten your arms back to your starting position, bring your legs back into table top position. Make sure your back does not arch up off of the mat as you extend the legs.

Mountain Climbers

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Begin in a plank position with shoulders directly over your wrists. Pull your knee in towards your chest keeping a flat back. Return foot to starting position. Perform 20 reps on each leg.

There you have it! You should be dripping with sweat and feeling the burn by now. Enjoy!

I hope everyone as a great weekend.

In health,

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