A bowl full of Lemons

Last week while I was pinning stuff on Pinterest I came across a blog called A Bowl Full of Lemons I absolutely LOVE everything on this blog! It's so full of great ideas and how to's for Organizing, cleaning, creating, and decorating. I just LOVE it! And it has led me to another Challenge! The 21 Day Challenge. It's an organizing challenge and I thought this was such a fun way to get yourself to actually do it! It's so simple. You take a before and after picture of your challenge for the day. The first challenge is Junk Drawer so here is my before picture...of our Junk/Tool Drawer.

Bad I know I had to force it shut and pry it open!

I dumped everything out on the counter then I cleaned out the drawer.

I used BabyGanics The Grime fighter it's an all purpose naturally non toxic household cleaner that smells like lavender :) I got it to use on Zeke's high chair and now I use it everywhere :)

One more time BEFORE...

AND AFTER....

SO MUCH NICER and it only took 5-8mins! :)

So much fun to go on her blog and see her before and after pictures too! Here is the list for the 21 Day Organizing Challenge.

21 DAY ORGANIZING CHALLENGE

• Join the Challenge (at any time)
• Day 1 - Junk Drawer
• Day 2 - Computer Desk
• Day 3 - Tupperware Cabinet
• Day 4 - Linen Closet
• Day 5 - Under kitchen sink
• Day 6 - Dresser Drawers
• Day 7 - The Pantry
• Day 8 - Coat Closet
• Day 9 - Toy organization
• Day 10 - Laundry Room
• Day 11 - The Freezer
• Day 12 - Spice Cabinet
• Day 13 - Medicine Cabinet
• Day 14 - Under bathroom sink
• Day 15 - Medicine/Vitamin Storage
• Day 16 - The Fridge
• Day 17 - The Mail
• Day 18 - Keepsakes
• Day 19 - Master Closet
• Day 20 - Photos
• Day 21 - You pick!

Here's the link to her blog where she cleans out her Junk drawer and guides you through it step by step! http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2011/01/day-1-getting-organized-challenge.html I Love the way she organizes! She containerizes everything! I didn't have any container's on hand today but next time I'm at the dollar store I'm gonna pick some up! I also found some great pins on pinterest on how to make your own cute storage boxes from cardboard and just cover them in fabric or gift wrap! Like these:

cute right? Sounds great to me! upcycle all those diaper boxes and put them to good use! click the picture for the tutorial!

She also has weekly challenges on her blog That I can't WAIT to do! But for now I'm only doing one challenge at a time....ok I'm doing two but you get the point I'm gonna pace myself!

By the way Day 2 of my 30 Day body rocking challenge was great! Ok well it hurt and I was sore from yesterday but it felt so good once I was done. Here was my workout and results!

10 x High Knees & 10 x Mountain Climbers 6 SETS

2 x Squat Jumps & 2 x Push-ups & 1 x Tuck Jumps 5 SETS

Centre to Elbow Jump (L&R) & 2 x leg jumps 10

Clean & Press & Squat & Press & Push Up 8

Tuck Jumps x 5 & ½ Burpee & squat hold x 5 2

Spider Knee Push up & Straight Leg Push Up (L&R) 8

Switch Lunge & Press 13

Side Lunge x 2 & L & R Side Punch & 2 Tuck Jumps 20

10 x Squat & 10 x Squat Jumps 2

Elbow to Knee jumps 10 x each side 3SETS

Wide leg jumps & Push up 15

Speed run did the full50seconds.

I'm lovin' this workout. I'm making a workout binder for myself so I can keep track of everything and so it's there every morning waiting for me to fill in my results for the day! :) And now you'll be hearing from me everyday about how I did with these two challenges. Hope you're as excited as I am!

30 Day Challenge!

Today I started the 30 Day Challenge from BODYROCK.tv and OH BOY is it going to be intense! It already kicked my butt this morning and it was just the fitness test! haha But I am excited to finally whip my butt into shape and this looks like a great (maybe not so great in the moment) way to do it!

Lee's been working out every morning, making up his own work outs and then again at night after work lifting weights. He never ceases to amaze me! He pushes himself so hard he doesn't give in when it starts to burn or gets a little winded that's when he pushes even harder! He is definitely inspiring and my motivation to take control of my body and be stronger and healthier and just feel good. So I found this 30 Day challenge! Lee and his brother Lyman did it with me this morning and you know it's a good workout if it kicks Lee's butt! He is excited to do it. I think we're all excited.

I'm also cutting out sugar and drinking more water. That's just a personal decision I'm sick of eating like crap! So whenever I have that sugar craving I'm gonna kill it with water or a vegetable or something GOOD for me and I know it will only help improve my results in the end. I'm also going to pick out a super cute bathing suit as a REWARD for myself If I reach the goals and get the results I've set for myself!

I don't know if I'm brave enough to post before pictures of myself but it all depends on how good my after is....we'll see. I'll post pictures of Lee's before and after instead haha You can join the 30Day challenge at any time! Here is the link to day one week one of the very first work out of the 30 Day challenge YOU CAN DO IT! PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY! haha

This is going to be me and Lee after this challenge! haha Ok Lee will look better than that guy But I want to look as lean and toned as that girl :)

Oh, and here are our Fitness Test results for Day 1! Can't wait to compare this to the end Fitness test and see how much I've improved! You had to do as many Squat Jumps (or push ups etc) in 50seconds as you could then there was a 10second break (break was long enough to write down how many you did and get ready for the next exercise) I told you Lee is crazy! Look at his results!

Michelle Lee Lyman

Squat Jumps 30 52 35

Push Ups 25 64 30

Burpee's 14 25 15

High Knees 56 98 57

Switch Lunge's 15 24 15

Tuck Jumps 28 33 12

Straight Abs 40 62 34

Family Fun

A week or so ago I discovered the continuous auto mode on my camera! I also at the time had a $20dollar coupon code for shutterfly so I needed some good family pics to fill my picture frame collage I got for Christmas. Landon Loved taking the pictures! I think he thought it was fun that it flashed everytime it took a picture and it took 10 in a row pretty fast so he thought it was great! lol

Funny Picture

Nice Picture :)

not bad at all with two little kids who usually don't like to look and smile at the camera at the same time! haha

Here's an update on us.

Me: Mostly just staying at home trying to stay on top of the dishes and making sure Landon sits on the potty atleast once every hour. Some days it feels like all I do is sit around waiting for him to go potty! haha He does really well. I'm in a book group and we meet once a month it is so much fun! I'm actually in two book groups one is for church and the other is just a group of us moms it's the best book group ever. We are always getting off topic and laughing it's my once a month girls night and is so much fun haha Next month book group is at my house and I'm excited to try some new recipes. I've Been busy doing Etsy stuff and haven't sold one Valentine shirt yet. Maybe people just aren't thinking about Valentine's day yet... I have a lot of new stuff to post on my Etsy shop but I'm gonna give you the sneek peek first let me know if it sucks haha. Here's my cute little Valentine onesies:

The Latest pictures from my photographer on etsy who photographed my onesie on this cute little guy! :) LOVE sending her my stuff to photograph! Here's some of the new things I've come up with.

I made up my own pattern for a sleep sack. Just like the ones you get from the hospital except without the swaddling. I can make it in any of the fabrics to the right. I've been trying to figure out what to do with all this fleece!

Ribbon flower onesies! These little ribbon flowers are sooo easy and fun to make! And it instantly dresses up the onesie :)

I LOVE these flowers on the gray onesie! My favorite so far!

Here's my little Monster onesie!!! What do you all think? I'm excited to post him to see how well...or maybe not well he sells....I think he's cute. I can do him on any color but this blue turquoise color is my favorite and what I had on hand.

This is my girl version of the monster but I'm not thrilled with it...The little blue guy is way cuter I just can't figure out how to do a cute girl monster yet...I'll keep trying.

Lee: He's been busy working working working. I know it's winter and he's supposed to be slower but he can't stand slowing down. he works out most mornings with his brother then he goes to work. He works at the shop 3 days a week and the other 3 he works in rexburg with is cousin helping him remodel an old house that he is turning into apartments. When he gets home he works out lifting weights with his friend Carson. Then he works on our house. We bought flooring forever ago for our kitchen/dining area and for the entry and lee finally has the time to do it! He laid the entry way tile on Saturday and we ripped up the kitchen flooring and started laying down the new laminate flooring! Yesterday we ripped up all the carpet and padding and are going to start laying more laminate tonight! I'm so excited to not have carpet under my table anymore!!! I can't wait for it to be done and share pictures! Lee is still teaching the 13-14year olds at church and he is struggling to not strangle all the kids in his class this year haha They are a challenge. ok well the two boys are the challenge. The girls are quiet but those boy's are really testing him haha.

Landon: He's been potty training for several weeks now and hardly has any accidents anymore. He still doesn't tell me before he goes potty that he needs to go he just goes and sits on his potty and does it. Which is fine but it makes me nervous for going out anywhere for very long cuz he'll usually just say NO if I ask him if he needs to use the potty. Hopefully he'll catch on to telling me when he needs to go so we can go out places more often without him wearing a diaper. We've done short trips with him with his "mater pants" (haha that's what he calls his big boy underwear. We bought him Cars undies and he LOVES them. He loves Mater so there called his mater pants.) But we haven't done any long trips yet. Landon is the pickiest eater alive. All he wants to eat is PBJ's and oatmeal. He won't even try different foods it's driving us insane. And he doesn't like other kid foods either. He won't eat hot dogs or mac and cheese or grilled cheese. UGH!

Zeke: He is crawling like crazy and he is fast now too. He's starting to walk with the furniture now too and likes to walk around while holding onto your fingers. He thinks he's such a big boy it's hilarious. He's still such a happy easy going baby I love it. He wants to eat ALL the time. It doesn't matter if I just fed him solid food or a big bottle, if we have food he wants it! Maybe he won't be such a picky eater like Landon! Let's cross our fingers. I can't believe he'll be one in like a month and a half! Time goes by WAY too fast.

Some Christmas Photos

Here are some of our Christmas pictures. Better lat than never haha

Our Christmas tree :)

Our Christmas card wall. I had more show up after I took this picture but didn't take another pic...oh well

Typical landon and zeke haha Landon is always "hugging" zeke and then tipping over with him so he can roll on the ground with him. Needless to say Zeke most of the time doesn't like it.

Their cute Christmas shirts I made :)

HAPPY FIRST CHRISTMAS ZEKE!!!

Matching Jammies!

Christmas morning opening stockings!

Happy Christmas Morning! haha

Daddy and Zeke after Church in front of the Christmas tree at Robert (lee's bro) and Kandice's

Our family Christmas picture

One of my many attempts and trying to get a picture of these two in their cute christmas church outfits....*SIGH* boys....

In spokane for our 2nd Christmas! Zeke and Auntie Steph! gotta love that purple!!!

Zeke and Landon in the Christmas mess at GG and Popa's They sure did get spoiled.

Zeke and Thalia. He just loved that little kitty and so did Landon!

Potty Training!

We are starting to Potty Train Landon. And let me tell you it's a lot less scarier then I feared and I am soooo glad! He has been so good! We were at walmart and I was playing with the idea of maybe trying to start potty training him so I was looking at all the potties and oh my are they're a lot of options! We ended up getting this cute little Royal Potty that plays "royal music" when he goes potty on it! It's heat censored so sometimes when he poo's it misses the sensors at the bottom and I have to wiggle the potty for him so it will play the song hahaha.

Cute little potty huh?! It also folds down into a stool adn you can take the white seat off and put it on a big toilet! Great deal since I was looking at buying a little seat for our big toilet and a stool anyways!

He's done really well so far! It's only been like 2 days! we started Tuesday night and it's now Thursday afternoon. The first night we had it he wanted to watch cars 2 and sit on his potty so we took it to the living room and as he was watching his movie he peed on the potty!!! He was so excited! then later that night was running around with out any bottoms on and no diaper and he had an accident on my pillow (of course! haha) he said Uh Oh and had the saddest little voice and said Sorry Pillow! and then he ran out of the room as I was cleaning it up and Lee was cleaning our room and then Landon came running back saying Daddy See! Come 'ere! He took lee's hand and pulled him over to his potty and he had pooped!!! In his potty! All by himself!!!! I was shocked! And sooo excited! we praised him and Lee took him to the store to get some ice cream! I told Landon he could have some Ice Cream if he pooped in the potty! of course when he pooped the grocery store had just closed and so had the frost top drive in but luckily Big Juds was still open (burger place! Famous for there 1lb burger! It's huge!) so Landon got his reward! If Big Juds wasn't open it would have been a gas station slushy for his reward. lol

So anyways potty training is going well. Yesterday he had a couple pee accidents but he went straight to his potty when he needed to poo!!! I'd much rather be cleaning pee then poo! He know associates poo with Ice Cream which is kinda funny! He'll poo in his little potty and then point at it proudly and say Ice Cream Ice Cream!!! hahaha

I'm so glad he's caught on so well and so fast! tomorrow I'm going to try just letting him drink juices and soda and see if we can't get the peeing on the potty thing down! Since soda seems to run straight through little kids we'll see if it helps! I think I need a better reward for peeing. I was using marshmallow or chocolate chips but it's hasn't caught his interest like the ice cream has! well wish me luck! Any tips and tricks are appreciated! haha

Exciting News!

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!!!

Ok so technically I'm already an aunt with Lee's brothers kids but NOW I'll really be an official Auntie cuz my brother Marc and his Girlfriend Lauren are having a BABY GIRL!!!! They Just found out Tuesday what they're having and I'm soooo excited!!! I'm beyond thrilled to have a baby girl to spoil!

Here is her profile! Can't wait for her to make her arrival in June!!!!

Christmas and New years

Christmas was great this year! We stayed Christmas weekend at Lee's brother's house in Rexburg it was squished but so much fun! The brothers played video games all weekend (something lee doesn't get to do very often) and there was lots of good food! Since Christmas was on Sunday we woke up and did stockings and then got ready for church at 9am When we got back at 10ish we dove into presents :) Sunday night we had a ham dinner and it was sooo good! We didn't have a huge Christmas this year because I was spoiled earlier around Thanksgiving! Here were my early Christmas presents!!!

NEW FRIDGE!!! ANNND....

MATCHING DISHWASHER!!!

I seriously loooove doing the dishes now! and going grocery shopping so I can put food in the new fridge! They're both amazing!!! They work sooo well! We got these on a black friday sale and got them both for suuuper good deal both of them together were less then the original price of the fridge!!! My favorite part about the fridge is that it filters out the nitrates in our water and tastes good!!! We've been drinking alot more water now and it's so nice! The dishwasher is pretty much amazing no more washing all my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher! :) And I can fit all the dishes in my sink in my dishwasher at once! It holds a TON! And the hidden controls on the dishwasher are sooo nice! now landon can't push buttons and turn knobs anymore!!!

This was a Christmas present for myself with my Etsy money.

ABSOLUTELY LOOOOOVE MY NEW CAMERA!!!!! It does everything and make anything and everything look so good! The first day I got it I just went around the house taking pictures of everything it was so great! haha Love this camera! it has more functions than i know what to do with right now but I'm excited to learn and actually have a functioning camera again! I can now take my own newborn photos and family pictures and be able to print them off in whatever size I like! Sooo excited to do family pictures again! hopefully soon! haha

Ok so now that you think I'm spoiled rotten here's the rest of what we did after Christmas.

Monday we decided to race home and pack up everything and head out to my parent's house a day early! I was excited to go a day early and surprise my mom who was expecting us Tuesday! We defintely surprised her! She opened the door and didn't realize at first who we were and then when it clicked she was VERY excited! :) we succeeded in surprising her for sure! she didn't even have all our christmas presents wrapped haha which was ok with us. It was mostly Christmas for the boys this year anyways since they bought us our wood stove in october! The boys of course were spoiled! (I'll post all my Christmas pictures in the next post. I need to go through them and resize them all so I can post them on here!)

My cousin that just got back from her Mission was home and it was good to see her! Our families had a dinner together one night and had lots of good food and then the next day steph got sick and then I got sick! Thanks Tawny! haha nah we love you anyways. I just missed out on getting to see all my friends. Oh well. New years eve I was still kinda pukey feeling but tons better so we we just went to the movies with the giftcards my mom gave us in our stockings and saw Breaking Dawn!!! I'd been dying to see it ever since it came out and hadn't gotten to see it yet! and it was great of course! :) we went to the late movie at 9:30 my mom watched the kids and we got hom just in time to watch the last part of the new years eve count down and see the ball drop and get my new years kiss! :) Can't believe it's already 2012!!! crazy! I've got a lot of goals for this year and can't wait to start crossing them off my list!