Happy New Year 2012!

Well 2011 has come and gone and I am jumping on the resolution band wagon. What better time to have a fresh start and change some bad habbits? I realize that I have neglected my blog, so I'm going to do a better job of that (unofficial resolution) and try to blog weekly of my progress. 

Here is a list of my goals for 2012:

1) To be a better Christian

I plan on focusing more of my life to God, his word, & living through him.

2) Be a better wife, daughter, sister, friend, etc.

In the last year, I feel as if I have neglected so many of the loved ones in my life and I want to do better with spending time, phone calls, cards, remembering birthdays & special moments, sending texts....I NEED to do this.

3) Loosing 30 lbs.

I have set myself a goal to eat healthier & exercise to reach my perfect weight.  I have thought long and hard and I have challenged myself to loose 30 lbs before my 25th birthday. I have so many reasons for deciding to do this.

• My Health-I don't want to be skinny, just healthy.
• My husband-every hubby loves a smoking hot wife! haha!
• My dream for a baby-I know God knows when the time is right to bless us with a baby and I have pledged to be ready for this. I want to be in the best possible shape and ready to provide my baby with a healthy environment to be brought into.
• My best friend's wedding.  One of my very best friends from college, Lauren, is engaged and will be getting married this fall. I want to look and feel great at her wedding!
• To revamp my closet-there are so many clothes & shoes I have that I have dreamed about fitting (back) into. With a few life changes, some of these cute dresses, jeans, & shoes will bring back all of those old warm fuzzies when I put them on. I can't wait for that feeling of putting on my "skinny jeans" & them being a little big :)

4) Saving money & paying off a few things

5) Making investments in our new house

There are so many things I want to do better with this year, but only time will tell if I accomplish all these goals on my list for 2012.  The first three goals WILL happen.  The other two, well, I'm going to try my best!  Whatever changes I make, I know they will be positive and that's what I'm looking for. 

I will blog every Monday to keep you updated with my weight loss progress. Since today is Monday, I will give  a brief starter of what my plan is.  I've been scanning the internet for ideas and inspiration for food, exercise, & success stories.  After all of this deliberation, I have decided not to do some fad diet, pills, crazy workout plan, or anything of that sort. I'm loosing it the old fashioned way.  I'm watching my calories, fats, & carbs.  I'm eating healtier foods.  I'm challenging myself to drink 8 glasses of water every day.  I'm still keeping diet coke (I have to keep something sinful to trick myself into thinking I'm cheating!).  But, I will only drink 1 dt. coke per day. I'm cutting back! I'm weighing every week-Monday morning to be precise.  I will post my progress each week. I'm joining a gym here in town probably next week. I'm taking this week just to get in the habbit of starting to eat healthy. Maybe I'll loose a couple of pounds this week just watching what I eat. We will see.

Over the holidays, I have gained a solid 5 lbs.  :( Very depressing because my goal was to maintain. I had lost almost 15 lbs after we moved to Magnolia with just watching what I ate and getting active, so I really wanted to keep that off. It's pretty disheartening to have lost the first battle, but I plan to win the war!  I am hoping this week I can loose a few of those 5 lbs I gained and start fresh next Monday with working out and working towards the goal.  Hopefully I will have good news to report next Monday! Please keep me in your prayers through all of my resolutions. After this incredibly long post, it's time for my mid-morning snack.  I'm eating unsweetened applesauce (30 calories) with a glass of water.

 But...what I'm really craving is a powdered & chocolate covered mini donut.

This is going to be a long 4 months!

Happy New Year!

I'm a little behind with our Christmas post, but we just finished up our last Christmas last night. We celebrated Christmas eve at home & then spent Christmas Day with my dad's family.  The day after, we had our huge Clark Christmas at our house with Jason's family (which you will see in the pics why we call it the "huge" Clark Christmas!) Last night we celebrated with my mom's side of the family.  Here are a few of the pics I took to share our Christmas with you all...

Christmas Eve

Here is all 20 of Maci's hair bows that Santa brought her. Aren't they too cute?!

Wiley got to come inside on Christmas eve to open his presents. He got an angry birds frisby (which is already torn up by the way) & a football toy!

Maci & her sock monkey toy that Santa brought her.

Mommy & Maci Opening our presents from daddy!

Maci loves her new hair brush her daddy got her!

My big gift from Jason. Look at that gorgeous wrapping! 

But....

Don't be fooled....

This was the back! haha! He gets an honorable mention in wrapping...

All my prezzies from my sweet hubby!

Christmas Day

Jason & Maci after Christmas morning church

Christmas night, we even had a special visitor-Scottie Page. He came all the way to Las Vegas with us when we got married. We had a great time catching up with him.

The Clark Christmas (Dec 26th)

Here's just a snapshot of all of the gifts we had at our Clark Christmas-and there were no kids! It was out of control! lol 

More Prezzies

I even made Maci her own doggie biscuit shaped like a bone.

She loved it!

Family Christmas Pic

Here is Maci & Wiley's cousin Maggie in her new sweater dress.

The White Christmas-Dec 30th

Garet with his dirty santa gift-that I wound up getting. So cute!

Peyton & Maci

The White fam came to visit us. We were patiently awaiting dirty santa.

Austen got glasses. He was very excited about those.

My sis & her fam.

Getting ready to play our favorite game, left, right center.

Shelling out the dough!

Dad won the first round. Here he is with all his cash! He looks a little excited huh?

Maci was Jason's good luck charm. Needless to say, niether one of us won.

Passing money back & forth

Roll off! The game intensifies...

 Round Two winner is.....

Peyton!



All in all, we had a fabulous 2nd Christmas together.  Most importantly, we had another year with family & had two wonderful new additions, Maci & Wiley.  We feel so blessed to have had a wonderful 2011 and can't wait to see what all God has in store for us in 2012.  I have a feeling this will be our best year yet!

I'll be posting soon about my new years resolution.  What are some of your New Years resolutions?

4th of July Weekend...

This has been a wild weekend!  I have been every where from Hot Springs to Dallas in the last three days. 

Friday, I started out by going to see my cousin Bailey dance in the Miss Arkansas Outstanding Teen Pageant.  Her dance group from Little Rock were invited to entertain during the preliminaries and for the final night and I must say they were amazing as always! As soon as we got there, we found out Bailey had been sick and wasn't feeling well, but she battled through it and put on a great show.

Also, our family friend Jill sang as part of the entertainment and did great too! I hate we missed the big finale Saturday night.

Here's a pic of Bailey & Jill backstage at the Pageant that Ceil posted on Facebook.  Aren't they gorgeous! We love them and I was proud to be there to support them!

I had the honor of fixing Bailey's hair for the show (with a little coaching from my Aunt!) I think it turned out great for my first time with "dancing hair"! lol

My Aunt Rita putting the finishing touches on Bailey's do! (Okay I'm not quite a professional yet....) & working on her makeup & eye dazzle!

Here's the final product!!! My gorgeous cousin has transformed from sick dancer to..... gorgeous sick dancer!

Mom & Bailey

Me & Bailey stopped for a picture at the Hotel. 

Then it was on to Dallas for a family trip to the Ball game.  Rangers vs. Marlins! Needless to say they lost :(  But we had a great time!  Me & J just had to get a picture before the game started. And yes....we were just as hott as we looked!

Pre-game fun!

We had GREAT seats.  4th row, lower level, 3rd baseline.

I told you they were awesome! This is with no zoom!

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend! I was even able to squeeze in a little bit of shopping at Ikea, Francescas, Tj Maxx-Homegoods, Sam Moon, & Charming Charlie. Also we ate at In-&-Out Burger...so good!  So I was happy!

Today Jason started his new job at Magnolia.  We move in 2 1/2 weeks and my house is a wreck.  I'm not stressed....I'm just busy! Words cannot express how ready I am for July 22nd!---Moving day!!!