Glow Up in the New Year

Go into the New Year with the Glow Up mindset. I am going to share with you my absolute must have products to feel and look your best.

This daily lineup is unmatched. If you're dealing with bloating, fatigue, dull looking hair or skin this is going to be game changing. Go into the new year feeling and looking your best with these wellness bevys.

These products are made for weightloss and weight management. But just so you know, I did not start using these to lose weight. I am a mom of three kids and was feeling like I was taking care of everyone elses health except mine. I was feeling worn down and depleted by the end of the day and knew I needed to make a change.

A friend introduced me to Arbonne and the rest is history. The company and the mission are unlike any other. You're truly getting the best product ingredients with this daily lineup.

My Core Four

Cleantox Tea

Embrace healthy living from the inside out. This mild, caffeine-free, vegan detox herbal tea is crafted to support the liver and kidneys, the body’s vital detoxifying organs. Infused with the goodness of Milk Thistle, Peppermint, Dandelion, Sweet Fennel, Elder Flower, Nettle Leaf, Parsley, and Licorice, it offers a refreshing flavor that uplifts the spirit. Committed to purity, it contains no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners; free from high fructose corn syrup, dairy, soy, and gluten.

I start every morning with my Cleantox Tea and pair with Energy Fizz for added caffeine. I was the girl who absolutely had to have coffee after rolling out of bed. This wasn't an easy change but after week one I saw a huge difference in my bloating after meals and I haven't turned back.

Essential Meal Protein

Elevate your nutrition with this well-balanced meal replacement that harnesses the power of a superblend of macronutrients. Think chocolate milk shake but with protein. Packed with 24 g of vegan protein containing 9 essential amino acids, plus carbs for energy and healthy fats, this shake empowers you to support a healthy weight and lean physique. Each sip fuels your body with a NEW robust protein blend of Pea, Hemp Seed, Pumpkin Seed, Quinoa, and Rice Protein, satisfying hunger and inspiring your journey. One shake a day helps maintain your weight; two shakes a day guide you towards your weight loss goals! Crafted without artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners; free from high fructose corn syrup, dairy, or soy; and naturally gluten-free, it’s a choice you can feel great about.

My favorite flavor is the coffee and it makes a great proffee (protein coffee).

Greensynergy Elixir

Unlock your Green Gut Glow on the go! Achieve harmony from the inside out with a delicious citrus-flavored shot that combines drinkable smart nutrition and skincare. GreenSynergy Elixir features:

• 13 full-spectrum digestive enzymes to reduce bloat,

• a full serving of fruits and vegetables for nourishing support

• a vegan collagen builder for radiant skin

Crafted without artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners; free from high fructose corn syrup, dairy, and soy. Gluten-free for your peace of mind.

This is the product that changed the game for me. It was the first greens I've ever tried that tasted good and I felt made a difference in my digestion.

Energy Fizz

Energy Fizz Sticks are a vibrant source of naturally derived caffeine from green tea and guarana, offering the uplifting essence of summer days (without the seeds!). Embrace the natural boost you need to power through your day. Whether replacing your morning coffee or providing a revitalizing mid-afternoon lift, simply mix this vegan, low-calorie, effervescent dietary supplement with water. Crafted to elevate energy levels while temporarily alleviating fatigue, promoting alertness, and enhancing cognitive performance, this vegan blend features Ginseng Root, antioxidant Coenzyme Q10, Chromium, and B vitamins (including Riboflavin and Niacin) complemented by the invigorating caffeine from Guarana and Green Tea.

I love to pair it with my greens or drink by itself for a caffeine boost!

How to get started.

To incorporate everything I highly recommend the Daily Essentials Bundle. This will get you a 30 day supply of the Essential Meal Protein, Greensynergy Elixir, and Energy Fizz. Throw in the Cleantox tea to get my Core Four Arbomme Products. You'll be feeling like your best self. Before you checkout sign up as a Preferred Client for $29. This unlocks a year long discount of 20-30% off. There is no autoship or order minimum to sign up for this. Plus with the items in your cart it'll qualify you for free shipping and a free full sized product of your choice.

Don't wait until January, get started now and have a head start on your New Year Glow Up.

My kids memory boxes.

I am what I like to call “the family historian”. I journal and record everything in our kids baby books and I am constantly writing in journals. I take tons of photos and videos and am always trying to remember to print them in books. I probably inherited that from my grandma, she was always taking photos and I remember everyone telling her to stop. But now we have all of these amazing photo to look back on. I want that for our family. If you have any desire to log all your special memories I highly recommend looking into Promptly Journals. We have their Childhood History Journal for all three kids and the Love Story journal where I record all of mine and Aarons relationship from dating to marriage. It’s such a special journal it’s “from first kiss to last kiss” chokes me up just thinking about it. I imagine my grandkids one day getting ahold of it and giggling about all of our first moments, seeing imperfections, and following along the special in between moments. This probably seems like a sponsored post but I promise you it is not. Just really passionate about my love for those journals.

Since having our third baby it has become very apparent that I have hardly any system for keeping the special objects that hold memories for us in an organized place. If you follow along on instagram you probably saw the stack of artwork from my kids preschool that I finally organized into a file system. While doing that project I decided I needed a better system for storing each baby book, hospital beanie, childhood journal etc. I did all my Pinterest research and landed on a memory box for the kids. I found these great boxes on Amazon and started loading up all the special items I have set aside over the years. I thought it would be fun to share what is in each of my kids memory boxes. If you have a box let me know what you have in yours!

Sawyer (age 5)

• Baby Book

• Promptly Journal

• Beanie and blanket she received from the hospital when born

• Photo book filled with photos from her first 48 hours

• First birthday invitation

• Sweet Wishes and Advice for Stephanie and Sawyer cards- a baby shower momento

• My baby shower invitations

• Two bows

• Ultrasound photos

• Sleeper we brought Sawyer home in

• Her first lost tooth- I know it seems weird and I swore I would never hold onto teeth but I did. I’ll circle back in a few years and see how I feel about it.

• Disneyland first visit button

Moses ( Age 3)

• Baby Book

• Promptly Journal

• Beanie he received from the hospital when born

• Beanie we brought him home in

• Photo book filled with photos from his 48 hours

• First birthday invitation

• Ultrasound photos

• Sleeper we brought Moses home in

• A bunny lovey he really adored

• My hospital bracelet from when I gave birth

• Disneyland first visit button

Augustine (10 moths)

• Baby Book

• Promptly Journal

• Beanie and onesie he received from the hospital when he was born

• Beanie we brought him home in

• Ultrasound photos

• His hospital bracelet I still need to paste into the baby book

• Disneyland first visit button

I am so glad I finally have a spot for each of their special items. I’m sure I will need upgrade to a larger box someday but I think these are great for where we are at right now. These items are so special to me and it felt only fitting that I had a spot for it all. I actually think I lost sleep while pregnant thinking about losing things from our kids childhood.

Life Lately

It’s me! I am back online talking your ear off again. It’s been… well, years since I have blogged. In fact I actually deactivated my blog for a while. I wasn’t writing and we were in the thick of big transitions. Do people still read blogs? Personally I love reading people’s thoughts. It’s a little daunting trying to figure out where I left off. So I am just going to jump right in and give you some life updates.

Family Update

On June 2, 2021 we welcomed our third baby. Augustine Luke Running is the best little “book end” baby and what we are considering our last baby. He’s the sweetest little guy and is honestly just so happy to be apart of what is happening in the room. He has red hair like his brother and chubby baby cheeks like his sister had.

Moses started preschool and goes three days a week. So far he is loving it. Through him starting school we came to the conclusion we need to get him evaluated for speech. He’s not like crazy behind but there are some big challenges he faces daily when it comes to communication. What people don’t say enough to you as a mom is that each kid can be different in every way. After being evaluated by a speech language pathologist he now goes to a speech therapy once a week. Let me tell you, being in a meeting as someone you’ve met once read off all the things your child can’t do is a hard moment.

Sawyer is now in pre-K and starts big time kindergarten next year! She's currently on the waitlist for two schools and I'm trying not to lose sleep over it. She has her first wiggly tooth and adult tooth growing right behind it. I am full of emotions knowing the first tooth to come out is the first tooth she cut. Maybe it’s because we are in the midst of teething with our youngest, but this just feels like one of those “don’t blink” moments. She was my first baby and we worked hard on those baby teeth. I spent so many moments bouncing and consoling her as she cried from teething. Now one by one they’re going to come out and I get to go back to consoling her as we help coach her through tugging them out.

Work Update

For the past three years I have been working part time from home doing social media for a Stockton based company. Last month my position was eliminated and I now am in the thick of a job hunt. The job market is insane right now. So many people are hiring and twice as many people are applying. I have been applying for *gulp* full-time jobs. Ideally working remote so I can be home for after school hours. But I have applied for some that are in office and hybrid. Looking for work clothes after spending the past five years mainly wearing jeans and leggings was oddly satisfying. I also felt incredibly out of place in the blazer section of a store.

Home Update

I think the last time I blogged we were still living in Stockton, CA. We are now living in Visalia, CA which is located in the the south central valley of California. We are close to the Sequoia National Park and we can easily drive up to the river during the summer months to cool off. We are just itching to purchase a home and are pretty much as ready. Once I land a job we will be able to get a grasp on when we will actually buy. For now I am just dreaming on Pinterest.

If you made it this far thank you for sticking around! I was reminded last week that you just need to show up on social media to be successful. Not saying I’m going to be the next big blog, but I would like to get better at creative writing and continue to work on skills I have developed over the years. So here I am, showing up.

Snow Day

We decided to take a last minute trip to the snow over the weekend. Not super prepared and definitely forgot to pack lunches. Moses wore his sisters pink gloves and we definitely lack snow clothes in our family. It was the best day. Sawyer had so much fun throwing snow at all of us and we built a silly looking short snow man. Sawyer didn’t have the heart to leave the carrot nose there so she grabbed it and took it home with her. We are so lucky to be living so close to the Sequoia National Park and I can’t wait to visit again in the Summer. We finished off our day by eating pizza at home. Enjoy our “home video” and some photos from our day! 2020 I can’t wait to see what you bring for our family.

Apple Hill

Apple Hill in Placerville, CA is a must during the autumn! The Central Valley is a strange place in the Fall and tends to lack the autumn colors so this place is a great escape and is less the 2 hours from where we live. This time around we went with a few friends and only made two stops! Less time in the car and more time outside makes for happier kiddos. We stopped at High Hill Ranch and Delfino Farms.

High Hill Ranch

We spent nearly two hours at High Hill Ranch. It was so much fun for the kids. Sawyer saw the pony’s and immediately wanted to partake. So we paid the $8 and let her do the pony rides. She sang the theme song to Spirit and pet her new friend Bandit. High Hill has amazing donuts and treats. I may have bought six donuts so I could save a few for the following morning.

Delfino Farms

Delfino Farms is so beautiful and relaxing. It’s placed on top of a hill and has incredible views. We grabbed some hard cider, some food and had a picnic outside. Delfino Farms Blackberry Hard Cider is incredible. It almost has a sparkling rose taste. They also have mouth watering tri-top sandwhiches and I’m still dreaming about it. You can purchase massive sized pies to take home and go for a nature walk. It’s definitely a stop on the Apple Hill map I will do again.

Butterfly Parade | Pacific Grove

The Butterfly Parade in Pacific Grove, CA is one of my favorite things to do in October. This is only our third year attending and we love it! When my family moved to Pacific Grove a few years ago we originally attended because it happened to be taking place during our trip and my nephews would be walking in the parade. Ever since, it’s been a must each season.

Some people have asked why a butterfly parade? Well, each October the Monarch butterfly’s migrate to Pacific Grove! So for the weeks leading up to it the town celebrates and they “welcome” the butterflies with the parade and bazaar. It has a small town feel and has a lot of Gilmore Girls Stars Hollow feels. If you know me you know I’m a big fan. It’s also just a lot of fun to see Sawyer dress up in her butterfly wings and run around with her cousins.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

If you read my Fall Bucket list post you saw that one of those items were making Halloween cookies! This is one of Sawyer’s favorite activities. It’s pretty messy but it’s worth it. I usually let her pour the ingredients and I always crack the eggs. Because, well, gross. For the cookies I always buy the Betty Crocker mix and we found these really cute pumpkin and ghost cookie cutters at Target. My favorite part of sugar cookies is the frosting. I like to do homemade frosting because if I use the store bought frosting it tends to be so sugary my teeth hurt. I like to add some food coloring to the frosting and only needed to use orange this time around because the recipe for homemade frosting is a white color when finished. Finished off the cookies with eye ball candies!

Frosting Recipe:

1 Cup Powder Suger

2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup

2 Tablespoons of Milk*

1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

*Keep adding a little milk until you get the consistency you like.

Halloween Costume Ideas | Little Adventures

It’s safe to say I start planning Halloween outfits months before October. This year has been especially fun and challenging because I have a very opinionated and imaginative almost 3 year old. Long gone are the days I get to choose her outfits let alone her Halloween costume. However, Moses I still get to choose for him. Keep reading to see a sneak peak at his costume this year. This year I decided to put together costume ideas for those who don’t plan ahead and need a little help in the imagination department. I’m excited to be partnering with Little Adventures for this post. Be sure to enter the giveaway on my instagram to win $50 to their shop!

Butterfly

These wings are an all time favorite in our home. It was a no brainer they would make it into our Halloween costume line up. We will be wearing these in early October for a butterfly parade in Pacific Grove, CA. We made the antenna’s out of a black headband and black pipe-cleaners. This is an easy yet adorable last min costume.

Rapunzel

We watch Tangled multiple times a week and it was a no brainer to put flowers in Sawyer’s hair when she asked to be Rapunzel for Halloween. I was so excited to find this dress from Little Adventures. We found some affordable faux flowers at Hobby Lobby and placed them in her braid to make things more magical. The final touch is a sauce pan from our cabinet because of course that’s Rapunzel “weapon” of choice. I would recommend wearing sandals but for this photo Sawyer requested no shoes since that’s what Rapunzel does. Thanks for that Disney.

Mouseketeer

Mouseketeer was my number one “go to” last minute costume in college. It’s so easy! Just fund a cute skirt, white T-shirt, and a pair of mickey ears. Since Sawyer wanted to wear her Cat& Jack sparkle skirt I decided it was only appropriate for her checkered Vans to make the cut for this costume. So we are going with a 1990 Mouseketeer look. You know, the Brittany Spears and Justin Timerlake era of Disney Channel.

Jasmine

This year we decided on Jasmine! After lots of deliberation we landed on this idea when we realized Moses would make the perfect Rajah, Jasmine’s best friend and protector. We found his costume at Target. He actually really loves his costume and I am so happy because I wouldn’t have had him wear it if he was miserable. My husband was on board with this idea as long as I could find a Jasmine costume that wasn’t showing her stomach like in the movie. That’s when I found this Arabian Princess costume from Little Adventures. It’s perfect. What I love about this company is that their costumes are actually dress up clothes and are made to play in and can be washed. We are for sure having her wear gold sparkly flats for Halloween instead of the gold boots she insisted on for this photo.

So there you have it! Four costume ideas to help spark your creativity or to use for your own kiddos. Don’t forget to head over to my instagram page for a chance to win $50 to Little Adventures.