The Girls' 1st Race!

Fitness is a large part of my life. It has been for the past 10 years or so when I lost almost 40 pounds!

I would love to pass along to our girls the love of exercise and teach them to love being healthy and physically active.  

{Note: I do NOT want to teach my kids that being "SKINNY" equates to being healthy. I will probably never be skinny/model thin and that is perfectly fine with me!}

So, when the girls' gym coach told us about the Red Nose Race, we signed up right away! Our city had a hugely popular adult marathon and some local businesses sponsored a smaller race for the kids to participate in the same weekend. 

 Warming up before the race. It was a cool morning, but turned out to be a nice, fall day!

 Elle at the starting line.

 Our family:)

 My husband ran with Ce Ce and I ran with Em. For some reason, she didn't feel like running with the bigger kids.

 Elle crossing the finish!

Our little athletes:-)

What ways do you incorporate fitness into your lives?

We would LOVE to hear about it!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Helping Others

Matthew 5:16 

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." 

This is one of my favorite Bible verses!  It really speaks to the reasons WHY we, as Christians, are to perform good works. NOT for our own personal gain or glory, but so that GOD may be glorified!!!

This weekend, our family participated in a 2-mile walk to raise money and awareness about Juvenile Diabetes. We put it on our Fall Fun Festivities List, and are so happy to have been able to complete this event!

  Friends of ours have a daughter the same age as our oldest with Type 1 Diabetes. It is life-changing. We chose to participate in this walk in honor of them and we had a really fun time doing it:)!

 There were LOTS of people involved and the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS for a midwestern fall day!

 Me, with a local news anchor.

 We had so much fun on this huge slide:)

 Our sweet love, Ce Ce, having an apple. I just praise God for our children and pray for their health daily.

 It was such a gorgeous day,we decided to spend it at the park after the walk.

 It was the perfect day! Our girls learned what it means to really help others and we had such a wonderful feeling being with so many others who shared a common goal. We are praying for our friends and all children with diabetes. We hope you will join in the effort. Please check out The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's website for more info!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Summer Fun!!

We have been experiencing summer-like weather a lot lately, so our family has been taking every chance to get outside and enjoy it! We always are looking for fun and frugal ways to teach our girls new things and expose them to new adventures!

Playing in the park.

 At the annual Kids' Festival in our town.

 Our neighborhood walking trail. We take Nature Walks as much as the weather allows for.

 The girls LOVE looking for branches that look like letters:)

 Elle having Em check her heartbeat to see how much faster it is beating after running for a bit.

We found some caterpillars and the girls had to feed them, lol.

 Ce Ce is going to be a nature lover, too:)

 Drawing a welcome home chalk design for Daddy.

 Elle worked on classifying the leaves we collected and comparing them to her nature book on leaves.

 Face painting at an annual festival here in town.

 The girls picked out some popcorn at the market.

 Our family enjoys eating outside when the weather is nice. You will always find us with a big snack bag full of water, fruits and veggies. Our girls eat a lot of food!

 Enjoying the rainbow popcorn.

 Dancing to the live musicians--they were good!!

 Another free festival our city sponsored at a new park!

 Our children's science museum had a huge tent set up with tons of educational activities for the kids. They had a ball!!!!

 On the merry-go-round/carousel.

 Helping "Grandpa" in the garden. My mother-in-law just got married to him a few months ago:)

 Ce Ce definitely got my thunder thighs, lol:)

 Our town had a "Cruise-In" and Strawberry Festival. 

We were enjoying some fresh strawberries and cream.

 In our local historical society.

 So funny, we use Fels-Naptha soap to make our own laundry detergent. The girls thought it was funny.

 They recognized the old washboard right away:)

 Remember these, lol?

 We loved looking at all of the cool cars!

 It was really a lovely evening!

Looking forward to lots more summer fun!!