New Inspiration

I'm not sure if anyone even looks at this blog anymore! I know I have posted in FOREVER! Life has a way of changing and we have gone through several changes in the past two years.  I am now a mother of three beautiful children and my husband finally graduated and has a real job! Life is pretty awesome at the moment and I really couldn't ask for more.  

A few weeks ago I started a new blog to document a new journey that I am taking.  It's called "Athletically Impaired" 

Here is just a little bit about my new blog and what I have been sharing! 

I am not an athlete.  I am just an everyday stay-at-home mom who wants to be physically fit. I have never played sports or even been a regular gym goer. I guess I am just lucky that I have been able to maintain a healthy weight, because heaven knows I love food.  Since I haven't really had a major weight problem, (if you don't count 3 pregnancies) I haven't seen the use in actually doing physical exercise.  Yes, there have been times when I could have lost a few pounds, but honestly I have always felt pretty healthy.  I am a mother of three and spend most my day chasing around three kids, which turns out to be a lot of exercise! But it's not the type of exercise that really gets you physically fit.

{My Family}

I started this blog on kind of on a whim.  I thought that if I actually started a blog to document this journey I am taking, then I would hold myself more accountable and actually achieve my goals.  

So far it's working.  When I started this blog (about 2 months ago), I was out of shape and definitely had some leftover baby weight to lose.

 As of July 4, 2013 I ran my first 5k and have already signed up to run a 10k in August.  I have never thought that I could actually be a runner.  I couldn't even complete running a mile in high school.  I honestly don't know why I started to run.  One day I just told my husband that I was going to try to run all the way down our street to our stop sign.  It's about a half mile in distance and I honestly didn't think I would be able to do it. But I did.  I ran the whole way, and the rest is history.

{My first race}

 I've caught the running fever.  When I began this journey, I didn't go into it thinking I was going to take up running.  It was actually quite the opposite really.  I went into it wanting to do mostly strength training.  I never would have imagined that I would actually enjoy running.  

I have now given this fever to my husband and he is now training with me to run our first 10k together. It is so great to have someone that supports you fully in everything that you do.  My husband is that person and he is always motivating me to do better!

This hasn't been an easy process, it actually kind of sucks sometimes.  

Every single day I have to make a decision to "show up and train hard." Sometimes it is extremely difficult to make that decision.  

Somedays I want to be lazy and do nothing. 

 Somedays I would rather eat a pint of ice cream than do another squat or push-up. 

Somedays I would just like to give up.  

But I don't.  Every single day I show up.  Not only physically, but mentally.  I don't want to be the person I was before.  I want to be strong, I want to be healthy, I want to be a better me.  It's hard.  It can really suck. But it is so rewarding! I have never felt better! I have never felt in more control of my life.  I feel awesome, and because of those feelings, I always make the decision to show up the next day.  To try harder than the day before, to push myself more. 

If you want to follow or read more you can visit my new blog:

Athletically Impaired

Fruit Kabobs and Congrats Banner

Over the weekend we had a party for the hubby to celebrate his graduation! 

It turned out great.  I didn't have time to do everything that I wanted to, but I did make a few homemade things for his party. 

For the centerpieces I made Fruit Kabobs and put them in mason jars with a homemade tag.  Loved how they turned out, plus they are edible! So everyone got to enjoy them. :)

I also made a quick banner for the party as well and I like how it turned out! 

I have decided that it's really hard to make manly things.  I tried to keep it as simple as possible. 

That's pretty much as far as I went for the party...nothing too fancy.  If only I had more time!  

I am packing up all of my craft stuff for the move, so that means no crafting for a couple weeks. :( 

We have been so busy! I don't think our lives are going to slow down for a while.  I like being busy, but I could really use a break! :) 

It's My Birthday--and my new favorite cake.

It's my birthday today! Wahoo! :) 

To celebrate I wanted to share this scrumptious recipe with you.

If you like birthday cake. 

You'll love this cake. 

Tres Leches Cake.  Recipe from The Pioneer Woman. (who i absolutely adore)

Make it.

Trust me, you won't regret it. 

*I may or may not have made it twice over the weekend and probably had more than 4 pieces. 

Starting a New Endeavor...and other news...

I am not sure if you've noticed, but I have been kind of absent from crafting for a bit.   

Well,  the reason being is that I am focusing on my photography.  

I have been super busy taking pictures lately and editing! 

Who knew that editing pictures took so much time! 

I really love it.  I am still a beginner, but I learn something new almost everyday.  

I am constantly coming up with new ideas and learning new techniques. 

I started another blog just for my photography that showcases the photo shoots that I have done.  

It also has information on pricing and contact information.   

But, I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures I have taken in the last few weeks.  

These next few pictures are engagement pictures that I did for my sister.  

My favorite subject is still my kiddos! I love taking their pictures and this is my most recent one of Charlie. 

I have also done a few family photo shoots! This is one of my most recent families that I did pictures for. 

If you are in the Utah County area and are interested in booking a shoot with me, email me 

 [email protected]

Or you can visit my blog for more information. 

Onto other news...

I love the summer. 

Especially this summer. 

My hubby has officially graduated...YAY! 

But, he hasn't found a job yet...(boo....)

Since he has been home more we have gotten to spend so much time together and with our kids.  I don't think I have seen him this much since we were dating!

We try to do something fun everyday with the kids and that means I have less time to blog.  Which I am OK with.  So I have decided to cut back a little.  

We are also going to be moving at the end of July and that will definitely hinder the crafting/blogging a bit.  

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer! :)

Our Weekend!

I was lazy and I didn't get the {Picture a Day} post for voting this week.  So instead I thought I would post my two favorite pictures from my weekend. 

We went to Art City Days Parade and I made the kids matching outfits. (tutorial to come)

I decided to take some pre-parade pictures and these were my two favorites!

Charlie loves to play on the grass and pull it out! I love his cute facial expressions. 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Check these out!

I intended to do these features on Friday, but when blogger was having all of it's issues, I didn't have time to get these up.  

So I just wanted to share a few highlights from last week's linky party.

These chocolate covered oreos look so pretty, not to mention delicious! :)

{It's Always a Party at the Parkers}

These boston cream pie cupcakes look divine! 

{A Pretty Life in the Suburbs}

Love this princess and the frog themed birthday party! 

{Nothing But Country}

I am loving the mason jar trend.  I especially love these painted mason jars! So shabby chic!

{Liz Marie}

I have been in a serious funk lately and unfortunately blogging has been the last thing that I have wanted to do.

Our family is going through a lot of changes and will be going through a lot of changes in the months to come and my stress level has been through the roof.  

So that is why my blogging and crafting has been lacking lately.  

Hopefully, I will get out of this rut and back to regular crafting soon! :) 

Hope you all have a wonderful monday. 

XOXO

Real Life.

I posted this on my personal blog, and thought I would share it with you. 

All I wanted for Mother's Day was a picture with my kids. 

Well, as you can see they had other plans. 

Hannah decided to throw a tantrum.

Charlie was laughing at his sister.

And I am clenching my teeth and silently yelling at Brandon to take the damn picture. 

When I was going through the pictures, I was kind of disappointed that they didn't turn out better.  

I then realized that:

This is real life. 

My life.

I may not have a perfect life, but I have the life I always wanted.

What I've Realized After Having Two Kids...

I love being a Mom.

It has brought many blessings and 

so much joy into my life.

But, there are things

 that will never be the same.

My hips. 

They have become quite large. 

Not sure, if they will ever go back 

to what they once were. 

My stomach.

If you have had any children 

you know what I'm talking about.

Dates

Not sure when the last time

 the hubby and I went on a date.

A real date.

Like going to see a movie, 

or going out to dinner alone.

Sleep.

Oh how I long to just lay in bed

ALL DAY LONG

Just for one day. 

And watch netflix 

or read a book.

These are just some of the things that I have realized have changed after having kids.

I have also realized that,

I love being a mom

I am okay with the fact

that my hips will never be the same.

The stretch marks on my stomach 

are reminders of the two bundle of joys

I carried for 9 months.

I miss going out with the hubby,

but I love spending the weekends

having pajama parties and

playing games with our kids.

 I do love my sleep,

but I also love the mornings when

we all snuggle in bed and watch cartoons

all morning long.

Today, I am going to live more positively

Spend more time with my family

Take advantage of being a stay at home mom.

I am going to live in the moment

I don't want to miss out on these moments.

I don't want to take advantage of the time I get to spend with my kids. 

I am going to make new memories,

go on new adventures,

and live life. 

My Easter Weekend!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend! 

I got to spend it with my favorite people.

I am so blessed to have such an amazing family!

I love Easter and I love celebrating Easter with my family.   

I'm not sure if most of you know, but I am a Mormon and we celebrate Easter by remembering Jesus Christ. 

My sister shared this video yesterday and I loved it so much, I thought I would share it with you.

Enjoy. 

Cooking Fail

I am embarrassed to admit that I actually burned something.  

I mean really burned it.

Meaning it was completely INEDIBLE. 

This is what happens to your pan when you burn rice. 

This is the pan after it's been scrubbed, soaked, scrubbed, boiled, soaked, and scrubbed some more.

Pretty sure I ruined it. 

I still have the pan in hopes that maybe I can still salvage it. 

Any ideas on how to clean it?

Random Projects...

Hope you all had a great weekend.  I spent mine just relaxing and spending time with my family.  

I did work on a few random projects.

I decided I need to add a little color to my house.  

My house is seriously lacking in the "COLOR" department.   I have never loved bright colors, I really prefer more neutralized colors.  I am trying to get out of my comfort zone and create more things with color! 

So I just made a simple frame with one of my favorite quotes inside.  

I just added a few fabric rosettes to finish it off.  Nothing too fancy. :)

I like it, but it doesn't match anything inside my house.  :) So I am still wondering where I am going to put it. 

The other thing I did over the weekend is restock our food storage.  

I ended up buying some large bins for our flour and sugar storage and just put some vinyl on them.  

Yeah, if you are looking close enough you will see that they are very crooked.  :) 


Linking to these parties!

**If you haven't voted for your favorite picture of the week go here.

**If you haven't checked out Friday's linky party go here. 

You're Kidding......Right?

This is what we woke up to on Sunday.  

Pretty sure I jinxed myself when I said, "It's beginning to look like SPRING around here."

It went from 70 degrees and sunny to this in a matter of 24 hours. 

The only upside, I got some amazing pictures of my sister and her fiance! 

I guess this is Utah weather for ya! :)

A new blog....

Not sure what I was thinking, but I decided to start a new blog.

I'm sure most of you have heard of blogs that do "a picture a day" 

Well, I decided to start one. 

You can read all about it here.

Hope you all have a great day!

*i know i will---grey's anatomy is finally back on! :)

My little safari man and buttons!

  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  

 I had a great weekend, but I do have to say that daylight savings is already kicking my butt!  

Whoever decided that this would be a great idea, did NOT have kids.  (just saying)

Anyways, I will stop complaining about this darn time change and get onto what I was really going to talk about. :)

Charlie has a build-a-bear that is dressed like a "safari" bear.  Well, Hannah decided to undress the bear the other day and she never put his clothes back on. 

I saw the clothes sitting on the floor and thought, wow those might fit Charlie. :)

They did.  

Sort of.

They may be a little tight.

I could not control my laughter.  So I took a picture.

The hubby, well he thought I crossed the line.

My rebuttal: "at least they weren't girl clothes."

Charlie was NOT happy about the whole situation.  

He would rather be naked.

Now onto the buttons.

I made  3 different buttons. 

They are all on my sidebar, so feel free to grab one. :)

<center><a href=" http://www.inspiringcreationsblog.com/"><img border="0" src=" http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd99/linzaliz15/fridayfavorites.jpg" /></a></center>

If you've been featured, here is your button. 

<center><a href=" http://www.inspiringcreationsblog.com/"><img border="0" src=" http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd99/linzaliz15/featured.jpg" /></a></center>

If you just love me so much you want to have my button on your sidebar. Grab this button. 

<center><a href=" http://www.inspiringcreationsblog.com/"><img border="0" src=" http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd99/linzaliz15/ICButton-2.jpg" /></a></center>
Oh, and you may need to update your google reader with my new domain.  So here it is:
http://www.inspiringcreationsblog.com/

I own a piece of blogland.

I finally bought a piece of the internet. 

I don't know why, but it is exciting to "own" your blog domain.

I just wanted to let everyone know that it will be switching within the next three days and that it should just redirect to the new name.


 New name is : 


http://www.inspiringcreationsblog.com/

If you have a blog list, I am pretty sure that you will need to update it with the correct address.  I will remind everyone when I know it has switched over for sure.  

I also wanted to let everyone know that I updated all of my buttons. And will post them all when the domain switches over! :)

Friday Favorites linky party is still up, (just scroll down a post) so link up your latest projects! :)

Photography...and thoughts on word verification.

As I have mentioned before I am in a photography class right now and we had to take portrait pictures for our assignment.  We do everything in black and white film, but I decided to whip out my digital camera and snap a few shots of Hannah. 

I LOVE how this picture turned out.  She was running in the picture and I was panning my camera at the same time so it looks like she's running but the image is still clear.  

I am loving my photography class.  Now that I know what I'm doing, I look back at all the pictures I have taken of my crafts and have realized that I did NOT know how to take a picture! 

My photography skills are way better now, and it helps that I have a point and shoot camera.  

*If you are guilty of using the "automatic" feature in your camera then you need to learn how to use that camera! I'm telling you it will make all the difference in your photos if you just learn the basics! :)  

Now onto a completely different subject.  

 I will be the first to say that I HATE typing in word verification. I have had word verification on my blog since I started it.  I have tried to take it off a few times, but I always get spam comments and it drives me crazy. 

Well I decided to try it agin, and I have already gotten 4 spam comments in a span of 24 hours. I feel like a person is more likely to comment more on my blog if they don't have to type in word verification, but I am so annoyed with all the spam!

  So what are your thoughts on the subject? 

I am in need of some advice.

I am in need of some advice.

Advice concerning a little someone in my life.

She's going through a "stage"

let's just say, I dislike no, LOATHE this stage.

It is slowly driving me insane. :)

Okay, so she's 3 1/2 and she has the attitude of a 16 year old! I'm not even kidding.

Her new "word" is "seriously mom?" Does it really start this soon? My little baby seems to have turned into a teenager over night.

Okay, so I am exaggerating a bit.

The hubs and I have talked about doing a reward chart, or implementing some kind of rewards system for good behavior.

I have googled rewards charts, behavior charts, and anything in-between.

It is overwhelming. There are so many different systems, charts, and websites that I have no idea where to begin.

So I need your advice.

What works for your family?

What type of reward system do you use?

Any advice would help.

A New Name...

So, I was blog hopping the other day and I came to a blog that has the same Linky party name as mine. I DID NOT realize this and I'm sad to say that she had it first! I was thinking I was so clever thinking of that name, but apparently someone thought of it first!

So I am changing it to "Friday Favorites" I think I like this a little better anyways, so I just thought I would let you know so I didn't confuse you when I posted the linky party on Friday. :)

Oh, and I will have a new blog button and all that good stuff soon. So stay tuned.

Speaking of favorites, I just found my new FAVORITE thing.

I LOVE cadburry eggs, I always buy more than a few bags each Easter, but when I was at the store the other day I found THESE:

Are you kidding me? Have I just been in the dark, or are these new?

I LOVE dark chocolate.

It is so much better than milk chocolate.

I had the intention of sharing these delightful chocolates, but when I tasted one I immediately hid them.

My hubby has begged me to tell him where they, but I have kept tight lipped and am NOT going to budge.

Am I being selfish?

I don't think so. :)

Speaking of hair.....which hair color do you like better?

Since I can remember I have been coloring my hair.

I HATE my natural color. It's ugly.

I have mentioned before that my sister does hair and so I am always doing something new with my color. I always go back and forth with a rich brown color or more of a very light brown with blonde highlights.

This is my current color. I just did this about 2 weeks ago and I like it, but I haven't been this dark for a very long time. So it has taken some time to get used to it.

This picture was taken 2 years ago. I went really light and short. I have never had shorter hair than this and I really liked it at the time, but it forced me to actually do my hair because it was too short for a pony tail. :)

This was the day my hubby proposed to me! He prefers my hair this way, but I think it looks like I have stripes. I like the length of my hair here, but for the life of me I CAN'T grow my hair out. It's like impossible. I had super long hair in high school, then I chopped it off, from that point forward I have never been able to grow it out longer than this picture!

So what one do you like the best?

Which hair style do you like better?

Okay, I need you all to help me settle a dispute I'm having with the hubby. Charlie has enough hair now that we can actually style it. Well the hubby HATES when I spike his hair into a faux hawk. He would much rather it be combed to the side or not have it done at all.

So I need your opinions:

Spiked up

Or combed to the side

So I am leaving it up to you guys. Tell me which one you like better!