My First Shred

When doing Juice Plus I decided to get even healthier by participating in the Shred 10. For 10 Days I make sure I'm taking my capsules, eating healthy, enjoying the shakes and ridding myself of some bad habits.

I took a paleo outlook on my clean eating. My first day I was frantic it was starting and I wasn't prepared like I should be because I was traveling to see family for Easter.

My friend and and I were both starting the shred together, so we decided to meet for lunch and figure out what we would be doing for the next few days. I told her I would make us some chicken and sweet potatoes.

I put some chicken with coconut oil on one side of my crock pot and sweet potatoes cut up with some coconut oil in an aluminum foil bowl and cooked it on low overnight. It was ready to go in the morning. I put it in two containers, packed us some carrots and hard boiled eggs for snacks and headed off to work drinking my coconut milk and vanilla complete shake.

We looked at recipes and determined what we would like to eat, and need to get from the store to be successful!

Juice Plus

I wanted to share my new adventure to get my family healthy! I've been struggling to get Mabry to eat healthy and tired of her only consuming "Kid Food". I decided to reach out to my friend and ask her about getting Mabry on Juice Plus gummies. After talking with her I have decided to not only get Mabry on it, but get me and Jeff on it as well... and decided to be a consultant. Mabry is old enough to participate in the Children's Health Study, so with my order I can get Mabry's free. She let me know how it can help with allergies and I am constantly struggling with sinus infections and tired of taking pills and going to urgent care every other month, so this seemed like a natural and better alternative to relieve some of my daily struggle.

I am ready to start a journey and take healthy back in my life. I'll be sharing some info and doing a Shred 10 program starting on April 2. If anyone is interested please ask questions and let's get healthy together! I'll be sharing some videos to give help you understand Juice Plus better.

https://amyearl.juiceplus.com/us/en

12 weeks

Mabry is the size of a lime. After seeing our little one, I am trying to find new ways to deal with my nauseousness, luckily my coworkers know that I am pregnant, so when they see me make a weird face or walk away quickly they can guess what's going on with me. Until I find the cure, I'll continue to carry plastic bags, saltines and my water cup around everywhere I go! I've added lemon water, cranberry flavored ginger ale and 7 up to my list of beverages to calm my stomach.

Our first ultrasound

As Friday approached Jeff and I were really excited to see our little baby for the first time. Mainly because this will make it feel real and give us that confirmation there is an actual baby growing inside of me. This appointment also meant we could share our secret with everyone, finally! When we arrived for our appointment we were in for quite a surprise...our moms and my sister were waiting for us when we walked in the room. They had drove up from St. Louis and beat us to the appointment to surprise us and see their first grandchild's ultrasound. When we walked into the room I thought I was getting punked because a camera was flashing. I instantly thought to myself, this is a sick joke to play, I thought I was pregnant. It took a moment to realize that my mom, sister and Jeff's mom were standing there. I of course started crying.

This little baby is going to be so loved. We can't wait to meet you Mabry!

So excited to post our news on Facebook and share our wonderful news. We posted:
First came love, then came marriage, and in August we'll be pushing a baby carriage!

11 weeks

Mabry is the size of a peanut. I'm still feeling nauseous all day, but I can't wait to see our ultrasound this week!

10 weeks

As we roll into the 10th week of our pregnancy we celebrated my birthday. I turned 28 and this was my last birthday without a child...other than the fact that I am with child. We made the journey back to St. Louis to meet up with our family. Our family went to Pasta House for dinner, it's my favorite and we do not have one in the town I live in which makes it difficult since I was craving pasta con broccoli. After dinner we went back to Jeff's mom's house for cake. It was another special Barbie cake, this year she is pregnant like me!

For my birthday I also wanted to go to the Cardinal's Winter Warm Up which happened to fall on my birthday weekend. Our main goal of going was to get John Mabry's autograph for our little Mabry. We were successful! We are building up quite the collection for our little one.

Week of January 21st Mabry is the size of a cocktail shrimp. Feeling pretty good other than a little sickness. I'm eating a lot of crackers and drinking a ton of water.

9 weeks

Now that our family knows and we met with the doctor we started our Weekly Chalkboard photos to track the belly progress. I'm really excited to see how much I grow over the next few months. Oh and as for the name we are naming him or her Mabry. When Jeff and I first started dating in college back at the age of 21 we decided our first born would be named Mabry...after the great baseball player, John Mabry (Jeff's favorite player). We can't wait to see which one of our middle names will win if she will be Mabry Lynn after me or if he will be Mabry Kristofer after Jeff.

Ready to share our news...

After we met with the doctor for our 8 week check up we were going to back home to visit our families and see our friend's band play. We figured this would be the perfect opportunity to let the ones closest to us know that we are pregnant and due in August. I had envisioned getting an ultrasound and seeing the baby at our first appointment, but apparently you have to wait until 12 weeks to get one.

When we arrived back home we stopped at Jeff's mom's house and called his sister to come over. We also had arranged for my parents to come and pick us up there so we could all ride together to see my friend's band. When we pulled up we went in and Jeff gave his mom flowers and said well we wanted to tell you you are going to be a grandma. She was super excited and we both started crying. Next up was Jeff's sister and her husband. They were really excited as well. The funniest was when my parents showed up. My dad came to the door and I said, can you get mom and tell her to come in. She was in the back of the car and not really wanting to have to crawl out to come in, but did anyways. When she walked in finally I started to say well we have some news...she looks at Jeff's sister and said Yay! You are pregnant. I start shouting at this point hello over here...We are pregnant! You are going to be a grandma! She started crying and then we all started crying again. We are having the first grandchild on both sides, so the mom's were very emotional and happy. Later I asked my mom why she thought I would be the one to tell them that they were pregnant. She just laughed and said normally you can't keep a secret so I didn't think it was you. However, my dad picked up on it at Christmas and knew I was pregnant when I was drinking water instead of a glass of wine like everyone else.

My dad and me

With my friend Tammy, who's band was playing that night ...and a closed eye shot of my Mom

Me, our friend Jared, Hubby Jeff and my Dad

Merry Christmas!

Tucker and Bo doing a great job keeping the new family member a secret

Being one of the most difficult secrets to keep, our dogs did a great job during Christmas when we went home. I took this photo because I plan on doing the weekly chalkboard photos and thought a great way to start our pregnancy off is to make the secret announcement from the excited big brothers Tucker and Bo. They are They are a little unsure of how it is going to work with mom and dad giving all the attention to a little baby, but I'm sure we can figure out how to make our family of four grow into a family of five!

As a side note, it was hilarious to have people actually ask if I was pregnant while we were home or how cute I looked holding a baby. The best one was when we showed a baby outfit to my grandma and she was like is there something your not telling me? My dad rubbed my stomach and said oh didn't you see on Facebook Amy's pregnant. Jeff and I about lost it laughing. We had to explain that the outfit was for Jeff's cousin who just had a baby and we would let her know before anything was posted on the interwebs.

Me and my little sister on Christmas Eve at our  PJ Party!

Me and my hubby keeping our Christmas Present a secret!

Guess What???

We're expecting!

After being about a week late I decided to use the one test I had in the house on December 18th and see if my dream of being a mom was about to come true. Almost instantly I knew we had a winner. At that point I did a little hmm is this really happening? Am I ready for this...well it's too late it's happening. How do I tell my hubby? What is he going to say? Do I do something cute and tell him or... Oh let's just go tell him! So I quietly walked into our bedroom with the lights still off where he was still sleeping, crawled into bed and said hey so umm we're pregnant. He said congrats and I knew he needed some time to process everything so I got up and continued to do my morning routine of getting ready for work. When he came upstairs after his shower and I was like well we did it and he responded with my favorite line ever I'm A Man!

Now the part about keeping this pregnancy a secret is going to be tough. I called our doctors office hoping to get an appointment, you can't get in until 8 weeks ugh seriously? So if you remember we found out on December 18...right before Christmas. So now the hard part is do we tell our parents or wait? It could be the best Christmas present ever, but being worried that something could happen we decided to keep it to ourselves until we get to see this little bundle of joy and get confirmation from our doctor that everything is ok and we are in the clear.

We are so excited for this next chapter in our lives. Stay tuned for updates on our little one!

9 Months of Laundry Soap? Yes, Please!

So I've been noticing all the pins on Pinterest for homemade laundry soap and after my friend and bridesmaid, Megan said it was amazing, I went out and bought the ingredients to make it. She said she added the Downy Unstopables to make it smell even better and have the fabric softener. Here is what I used tonight to make it... it took me a little over an hour to make it because I kept running in the living room to watch the CMA's.


Supplies:

• A mop bucket or large container
  
• Plastic bag to line the bucket
  
• Grader
  
• 4lb box of Borax (12 oz)
  
• 4 lbs of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
  
• Oxi Clean 4lbs (I bought the 5lb tub and have 1 lb left over)
  
• 3lb 7 oz box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
  
• 3 bars of Fels-Naptha
  
• 2 (13.2 oz) containers of Downy Unstopables (I used Fresh Scent-teal lid)
  

I found everything in the laundry section except the baking soda, I had to go to the baking aisle for that and bought 2 2lb boxes
Line your bucket with plastic bag

Open up the Fels-Naptha bars and grate them in a large bowl, it will look like shredded cheese. I cut them in half to grate easier, note to self buy a grater. I had to use the grater on my salad spinner :) Don't even bother trying a blender FAIL! I saw some people used food processors to grate the Fels-Naptha, but I don't have one of those.

Layer all ingredients in the bucket and mix as you go. This helped keep the ingredients proportioned properly. (I used one container of Downy Unstopables during this first mix)

I bought the large apothecary jar at Walmart for $10 and a 2 tablespoon coffee scoop for $1.67, however you could use the cap from the Downy Unstopables.

I mixed and transferred the mix from the bucket into my jar, I added my second container of Downy Unstopables as it went into to the jar.

They say you only need to use 2 tablespoons per load. We went with 4 tablespoons to be on the safe and clean side.

Here is my final product, I had chalk and chalk labels left over from the wedding so I added it to the front and wrote Soap on it. Jeff is in there doing laundry now...yes, my husband does laundry! I'm a lucky lady ;) I'll let you know how it works!

Cost from Walmart:

• Borax $3.38
  
• Arm & Hammer Baking Soda $2.48
  
• Oxi Clean $9.47
  
• Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda $3.24
  
• Fels-Naptha (3 bars @ .97 each) $2.91
  
• 2 Downy Unstopables ($6.97 each) $13.94
  
• Total Cost without coupons: $35.42
  

*UPDATE- We have been using it and actually used 2 scoops (4 tbs) because we weren't sure the 2 tbs would cut it and I must admit the laundry smells really good and looks the same as it did before when we did laundry...clean! The fresh smell actually went through our house and it was like an instant air freshener. I think we will be doing laundry a lot to keep our house smelling so fresh and good. Happy Laundry Day!

My hanger and a few choice words

I have made all the hangers for the gifts except for mine. I had every hopes of it saying Mrs. Earl...however no matter how many times I tried I couldn't get the E to look right so after scratching myself up, throwing wire on the ground and muttering a few choice words I was about to give up until I decided to write Mrs. Squirrel. Good thing my husband to be has a nickname, because I now have a hanger!





*photos courtesy of our fabulous photograher Stephen's Photography

Wedding Party Gifts

After weeks of rolling fabric and burlap into roses, bending wire into names and gluing everything together, the bridesmaids gifts are complete. I had my mom embroider everyone's names onto a tote bag which held their hanger and clutch. I made these for all 10 bridesmaids, my 2 flower girls, my mom, mother-in-law and myself.


We ordered initial belt buckles for the guys through Larry's Boots in Columbia, MO. We ordered them for our 10 groomsman, 2 ushers, my dad, 2 grandpa's, uncle and officiant. I forgot to take a picture of them before Jeff wrapped them up along with a plain white handkerchief to help with the heat.

For the flower girls I found these cute Barbie bags to put their coloring books and crayons, Barbie toothbrush, snack container, mirror, brush and embroidered bag with the personalized hanger.

For the ring bearer we gave him his belt, vest, coloring book, crayons, little trucks and an army guy.

I had handkerchiefs embroidered for my mom, dad, Jeff's mom and Jeff. Designs by Gloria on Etsy was wonderful to work with, she even shipped me a handkerchief with my name and wedding date in blue so I would have one. I'm planning on framing mine and Jeff's after the wedding. Here are my proofs... I didn't get to take pictures before wrapping these either. I did Jeff and my dad's in brown wording with pink design and for my mom and Fran's I did pink wording with brown design.

I love drinking out of Mason Jars!

My glass of choice? ...sorry I just took a sip of lemonade out of my mason jar ;)
Yes, a mason jar and that is what I wanted to have everyone drink out of at our wedding reception. Who seriously orders 400 mason jars? Oh we do! ...and they aren't the tiny ones either. They are the 32 oz Quart sized.

My labels are all cut and ready to be stuck on... here we go. Oh but there's more, not only are we putting the chalkboard label, but my mom has cut out pink and brown fabric squares to put on the lids to embrace my pink and brown color scheme.

I think they look great and everyone will enjoy filling these bad boys up to the brim and not have to worry about making quick trips to the bar or bringing back to cups of beer to last them for a few minutes. After attending all these weddings, I'm starting to pay attention to people's comments and concerns.

We ordered chalk and pink and white striped straws to help decorate the mason jars.

  

*Here are some photo's taken by our guests from the wedding

Too cute to not be the Ring bearer

Like I mentioned in my flower girl post, after seeing Daniel standing next to Addison, I knew he had to be the ring bearer. We originally weren't going to have one, but he is just too precious to pass up.


I found this adorable little boys vintage vest to match Jeff's suede vest he will be wearing. The vest was rush shipped to arrive before the wedding as we are getting close to the wire Amy from Rootsdown was extremely helpful and very sweet to help us ship quickly.

I found a belt on Cavender's website to go along with the theme of the groomsman's gifts belt buckles. I couldn't find an intial one like the other guys, but we found a cut cowboy one.

Daniel's mom, Mallory, who I also have to give a major THANK YOU to, found him brown cowboy boots, a cream shirt and jeans to wear. Mallory has been my liaison when we needed info on the flower girls.

He is going to be adorable. This is his first wedding he is in, and he's 2 so we can only hope he puts on a good show. If he's anything like my brother was when he was a ring bearer, he won't even make it down the aisle. I think the kids are adorable especially when they do the unpredictable in the ceremony.