It's summer so that means family! We've had visitors and life is crazy but we love having family visit and we love traveling to see family. Correction, we love seeing family at the end of traveling. We've been reminded recently of how amazing Jack was at traveling when he was a baby. Penny, not so much. She doesn't stop moving, as many of you are aware. Up and down, wiggling, jiggling, dancing, screaming. She's full of life and energy and planes aren't her thing. Sorry to other passengers. Not so sorry to the passive-aggressive lady sitting behind Steph.

Penny's getting mentally ready for sabotaging the plan ride.

Our summer started in April when Grandma and Grandpa Deekookoo (Jack's nickname for Steph's parents, ask her for details) came to visit for Jack's birthday and we stayed at the Nickelodeon hotel and went to Disney—of course.

Ninja Turtles never looked so good.

We love Disney.

Then, in May, Grandma and Grandpa Marcum joined us for some great fun. One of the highlights was our boating trip on Crystal River. We swam with manatees and saw some dolphins that were wrangling fish next to our boat near the shore. It was pretty incredible.

Jack on the lookout for manatees.

He loved driving the boat.

Pulling Grandma around the neighborhood.

Jack and Penny with Grandma and Grandpa Marcum

At the beginning of June Steph's aunt and uncle, Nettie and Alan Sargent, came and visited with the whole family. There was a bunch of beach-going and we had a blast. That's the second time the Sargents have visited us and we just love having them.

The whole gang at our neighborhood lake.

There was also some big news in the Ellsworth family. Steph's baby sister Brittney married her sweetheart Bret Cardall on June 24th. It was a great day and beautiful wedding. Such an amazing couple and we were so happy to be there with them on their special day.

Bret and Britt Cardall

Steph went to Denver early and wasn't able to be in Florida on Father's day but she didn't miss the opportunity to make me feel really special even if we weren't together. She and Jack Facetimed with me on Sunday morning and sent me on a scavenger hunt that they had set up before they left. I had no idea! Just one of the reasons I love my wife so much–she's extremely thoughtful and takes any opportunity she can to make others feel loved.

We were also able to spend Brynn's first birthday with the family. Brynn is Mike and Lindsey's (Steph's older sister) youngest. She's the sweetest little thing and we were so happy we could be there for her first.

Brynn loved her cake.

And yes, that's another Br name in the family. Brandon, Brian, Bryce, Brynn, Bret and Brittney.

Well, that's a quick update on what's happened lately with us. We can't wait to see even more family members in the fall. Bryant and Bonnie are bringing their kids to Disney and Chris and Julia are joining us for Thanksgiving along with Jordan. Can't wait to see you guys!

Last post-March 8th. That's disappointing. We apologize to the two people that have noticed. Here we go again, though. If you haven't read, we've moved to Florida and we're loving it! We have some great plans for our new house here in Tampa. But before we get started there, let's have a quick update on our lives.

First Jack. What a kid. I'm sure we share our feelings with all you parents; the amazement you feel everyday to watch your child grow and learn. Jack is talking more, saying new words just about daily. It's amazing, the things he soaks up and remembers. We really have to be careful what we say and do. He repeats it all.

Playing at the park. He's such a happy child. (Usually)

Jack has been in swim lessons for a couple of months and LOVES being in the water. Which makes us very happy parents since we love it too. He's great at holding his breath and getting better at paddling under water. He's fearless around the pool which can be scary at times. We have to watch him like a hawk because he'll throw himself in the deep end (or shallow end) at a moment's notice.

He insists he wear his goggles.

He's also a human flashlight. His hair is so blonde it almost glows. And people will ask Steph where he gets his blonde hair and if I was blonde as a child. What? Really? Considering Steph is the only other blonde in our family of three chances are it's from her.

We love swimming together.

Rolling around Disney.

Next, Steph. Zumba and a two-year-old, among a thousand other tasks keep her occupied 25/8. But she takes every day as it comes. She is so caring about our little family and making sure that we are taken care of.

She has an interesting relationship with Zumba. Sometimes it's frustrating, it's always difficult and can be very taxing on her time and energy. She loves it anyway. Kind of like me. She's so good at it and gets amazing compliments that honestly I don't think most instructors EVER get. She's dedicated to teaching and even though at times it can take all of the motivation she has, she sticks with it and puts in the time and effort it requires to be such a good teacher.

Steph is a primary teacher now and she's enjoying it and "her kids". That's what happens when you have such strong motherly instincts. She teaches a group of CTR 6's and is having experiences only a primary teacher can.

So in love.

Then there's me. Just hoping I can continue to fool my company into thinking I have an idea of what I'm doing just so I can keep working with them. Such an amazing opportunity. Great people, great fun but plenty of work too.

I have a shop! My childhood dream was to have a shop of my own when I grew up. And even though I don't feel grown up, I have one anyway. We have a second garage where I've set up my collection of tools; and I love it! It's not extremely pleasant in the summer heat and humidity but I spend time in there anyway. Florida summers won't even keep me from building stuff.

I'm serving in the Elder's Quorum and have really enjoyed getting to know people and making lifelong friends.

I love my family, I love my job and I love Florida. We're so blessed to be having this experience. We miss our families every day but know that we are where we should be.

Soon we'll be posting pics and updates on our house! We've been in our house for almost a year now and have done a few things to make it ours. We also have some (biggish) plans that we hope to get to very soon.  Keep an eye out.

So I started this post a long time ago, and I'm just getting around to posting it.

Back in October, our lives started to feel normal. After buying our home in January, it took us a while to make it our home and feel like we fit in the neighborhood.  We finally had a routine and we were happy.  Then our lives changed drastically. And it happened very quickly. I feel like I'm on the Bachelor when I say this, but this has been such an adventure!

For those of you who want to know about the adventure, tune in! I'm including all details so we can remember it all some day. This all started with Brandon being contacted by a friend he went to school with. He mentioned he had a friend who was hiring a Creative Director, and said it was a great opportunity. Brandon seriously LOVED his job in Utah and wasn't interested, but he decided to go ahead and see what it was all about. He ended up having his first phone interview that evening. From there, he had two more interviews with the VP of the company and then an interview with the President of the company. A few days later he was offered the job! It all seemed too good to be true. The job offered an increase in Brandon's salary, a promotion from Creative Director to VP of Creative, ownership in the company, and performance bonuses every year. We went to the temple and both received the overwhelming feeling that we needed to go to Florida. We still have no clue why, but we feel like we are meant to be in Florida. So we accepted the job and Brandon started two days later. He started working from home, and actually just had his first day in the office at the end of January.

We listed our house for sale the first weekend in November (the weekend after Brandon started his job) and booked flights for the following Thursday to go look for a house in Tampa.

We decided to have a garage sale that weekend as well. We realized that we had a TON of items to sell and it would possibly be one of our last warm Saturdays to do it. So Friday night we literally raided our houses to collect everything we wanted to sell. And it was a success! We sold a lot and made more than we expected.

On Monday morning, we had someone come look at our house and they put an offer on it by noon! We countered to our original asking price, and within 24 hours, we were in contract! Is this real life?!

Our "spider house" halloween decorations

We flew to Tampa that Thursday. We met my parents at the airport in Denver and dropped off Jack to stay with them. He is a lovely travel companion. 

He always has to ride on top of the suitcase, and climb on everything!

We gave them his suitcase, gave him huge hugs and kisses, and continued onto our next flight to Tampa. It was so weird for me to not fly with Jack. It was my first time not flying with him since he was born. We've been on over 30 flights together and I just don't know how to do it without him!

We arrived in Tampa around 7 at night and we were exhausted! We got our rental car, then headed to the grocery store to get snacks for the rest of the week.

Waiting for our rental car.

Our fuel and fortune for the house hunting. It was a LONG weekend.

We saw some awesome houses, and some not so awesome houses. And then we saw some houses that would have been awesome but they decided to cover the entire thing in this gross orange tile. I could not live with that.

Orange tile? No thanks.

High class for sure.

We really liked this one neighborhood and kept comparing all other houses to it. It was closer to Brandon's work, it was gated, it had an AMAZING pool and splash park for Jack, and a playground a block away. It seemed perfect. But they had no inventory homes. We would have to build and it wouldn't be ready until April or May. The lot was great. It felt like a mix between Florida and Idaho.

I would NEVER complain about living here. Seriously gorgeous.

We ended up looking at about 50 houses. I looked all day Friday with our realtor, then Brandon joined us for all day Saturday. Then I looked some more on Monday and I left Tuesday. It seriously was exhausting!

Each one of these papers is a house we looked at.

We fell in love with one house. It was a bank owned and it was seriously a rockin' good deal. More than we wanted to spend but we were willing to pay for it. But we didn't get it. We found out after I had left Florida, so we had to rethink what we really wanted.

 

While in Florida we ate out a lot.  This trip started our "eating out" phase which lasted pretty much 3 months. UGH.

 

Brandon's co-workers were all down there that weekend too, so we got to meet them and relate over this huge transition in our lives.

  

When looking for houses, we saw a lot of lizards, bugs, and even a snake! This one jumped out of the bushes and made me scream like a little girl!

We skyped every night with Jack. It hurt my heart to see him on the screen and not be able to hold him.

 

In Colorado, Jack went to his first movie with the grandparents. Apparently he sat through the whole thing and loved it!

I left and flew to Colorado and stayed with my parents while Brandon was still in Tampa. I flew to Denver all alone and that was the weirdest thing. Just me, a suitcase, and a purse!

I had the sweetest reunion with Jack in Colorado. He got all giddy and excited and grabbed me and held on for a long time! It made me never want to leave him again!

I celebrated my birthday with my family in Colorado. Twice. It was yummy!

Then we all headed back to Utah as a family. When we got home, it didn't feel like our home anymore. It felt uncomfortable. It felt like it wasn't ours. It felt like it was a temporary place we were staying. We prematurely sold our kitchen table and chairs in the yard sale, so we had nowhere to sit or eat. Right before we went to Tampa, we also installed a brand new, huge and nice sink we purchased before we knew about the job. We couldn't return it, so we installed it anyways. We were both so bummed we wouldn't get to keep the awesome sink! But when we got back, we were both totally fine leaving it too. These two things made us realize that we were ready to move.

Our beautiful and expensive new sink

Our tiny table that I oddly miss.

The next few weeks flew by, so stay tuned for more!

I've been asked a lot lately what I've been doing to lose weight, so I thought I would share info on our blog to help anyone out that is interested. I don't usually talk about myself like this, so this is awkward for me. But if it motivated someone else to get up and get healthy, then it's worth it.

Let's start off with a little bit of History 101 on Steph's past :) Some might want to skip this section, and by all means, go ahead.

I have never been a thin person. I'm naturally "big boned" as some say. (And I am a true believer of that saying.) I have been very thin at points in my life, but it was never done healthily. I would crash diet and sometimes eat a very small amount of calories during the day. Please don't try this! It doesn't work.  For about 4 years of my life, my profession revolved around my appearance, and I did everything I could think of to be in top-notch shape. But then I realized that during those 4 years, I was very unhappy. So I stopped trying to be thin and rid myself of those appearance-based jobs.  I became happier and life was good. But then I got pregnant. And I gained 40 pounds. In my eyes, I was enormous. And my self-confidence went down the drain.  I tried to lose weight, but it just didn't happen. This is when I realized all my crash dieting from that time period actually damaged my body and it has never been the same. It's much harder for me to lose weight now that for others. My body automatically goes into starvation mode when I cut calories and it tends to hold on to everything I eat.  With all that said, I knew I needed to make healthy changes to my daily food intake, and to my lifestyle. I needed to lose weight in a healthy way. I put my foot down and prepared myself for a long journey. 

Now to give you some uplifting news, here are my results.

The RESULTS:

Important Note #1:   I'VE LOST 20 POUNDS!!!!

-It's kind of sad to think that I had 20 pounds to lose, but I don't focus on that. I LOST 20 POUNDS!!! 20 pounds was my goal, and I finally reached it.  The first month I lost 10 pounds. The second month I lost 4 pounds. And the third month I've lost 6 pounds. 

In three months:
I have lost 20 pounds
I have gone down two sizes in pants (almost 3!)
I have gone down two bra sizes.
I have gone down half a size in shoes (crazy I know)
I have gone down one size in shirts.
 
Important Note #2: I have been dieting for 13 1/2 weeks. That's a total of 3 months.

Now for the DETAILS:

I've been on a diet for the past 13 weeks. And it doesn't even seem like I'm on a diet anymore. When I started this, I was told that same thing and it angered me. How could anyone say they didn't feel like they were dieting?!  But now I understand. I've made lifetime changes, and they are here to stay. So I'm very used to the "new" way that I eat, and it doesn't seem like a diet.

My diet is technically called Carb Rotating. It's very simple to follow, and allows you to make it your own diet to make it work just for you.

But my weight loss is not 100% contributed to eating healthy. I have been very active as well. I work out on average 5 times a week. I try to go 6 times a week, but sometime life gets too busy.  If you want details on what workouts I do exactly, then keep reading!

I try to do cardio and weight training every other day. (Key note: the more muscle you have, the less cardio you have to do to burn calories. You're body will just do it on its own.. exciting!) And I am not a very good motivator for myself at the gym. I get lazy and make up excuses why I can quit early. So I go to classes at the gym. It forces me to get out of the house, it forces me to work out for an entire hour, and it forces me to keep going. Now that's motivation! Plus they have daycare which means uninterrupted workouts!

I started going to Zumba classes and WOW!!! It's an amazing workout. Literally every strand of hair on my head is soaked when I get done. That may sound gross to you, but it sounds motivating to me! haha. I also rotate Zumba with either Pump (weight training class) or R.I.P.P.E.D (weight training intervals combined with cardio intervals) classes. Once in a while after a Zumba class I will go lift for a bit on my own, but once again, I'm not too successful on my own! Zumba has transformed working out for me to being fun and motivating rather than awful, unbearable, and slow. In fact, I got certified to be an instructor for Zumba and just love it!

For those of you who are totally bored, I thought I would give you some photos to just show you the weight I've lost. I took official before and after photos, but those are for my eyes only :)  here are some random pictures of me before.

BEFORE

March 2012 (3 weeks prior to beginning of diet)

August 2011

March 2012

August 2011

 AFTER (These were taken 3 weeks ago, when I was 3 pounds from my goal)

Jeans I wore in March (picture above)

Jeans I wore in March

 

 

 

 

 

A tank top I wore regularly before weight loss.

Today (after 2 back to back Zumba classes.. don't judge how nasty I look.)

 Now a combined before and after.. do you see a difference?

Before                                            After

Now if you want more details on the carb rotating diet, you can continue reading here:

The basics of Carb Rotating:

One day I would eat a high number of carbs. (Around 250)
The next day I would eat a low number of carbs. (Around 50)
The next day I would eat no carbs.
Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat!
Then once a week, I would allow myself to have a meal off which consisted of whatever I wanted!

Carb Rotating in Details:

My cousin mentioned this diet to me, so I googled carb rotating and didn't really find that much information. I found the basics as I mentioned above, and I've kind of made it my own diet. There were a few ways to do the rotating that I found, but I chose to follow the one with the ability to eat one meal off a week.

Dieting and eating is completely emotional for me. At first when I started this diet, it was very difficult to watch people eat really yummy food when I couldn't have any of it. I would get frustrated. But that's why the one meal off is so good! I would see that yummy food, or if I was craving some type of food that week, I would look forward to eating it later on that week. So instead of dwelling on not being able to eat the ice cream at all, I would look forward to eating ice cream that weekend. I work well with things to look forward to (ie: vacations!).  Just make sure your day off in one week isn't too close to the next weeks day off. For instance, if Saturday is your day off for week one, don't have a Monday be your day off with week two. Let your body have time to adjust.  When you eat healthy, then all of a sudden eat unhealthy food, your body isn't used to it. So it makes your body work harder to process it. It boosts your metabolism and actually does positive things instead of negative. Try not to stuff yourself silly. You'll just end up stretching out your stomach and it won't benefit you when you're extremely hungry the next few days. And remember NEVER to have your meal off on a no carb day. It is best to have it on a high carb day. If I know I have an event coming up that I want to have as my meal off, I will sometimes switch around my days during the week so that meal will be on a high carb day. Just make sure you have all three of your days spaced out. Don't have high carb, low carb, high carb, low carb for instance.

There are a few things I feel are important to mention:
1. The key to this diet is eating healthy. When you eat carbs, they need to be healthy carbs. I only eat sprouted wheat bread. It isn't processed, so there's no preservatives being put in my body. I never eat chips, or crackers, or cookies. I only eat lean meat (turkey burgers, or 98% lean ground beef, tilapia, chicken, or sirloin steaks, or freshly sliced deli meat).
2. Be cautious of nutrition value in everything that you're eating. For instance, beans and corn and all fruit have carbs in it. These things you CANNOT eat on your no carb day. Don't eat russet potatoes (eat sweet potatoes or even red potatoes). Eat as little sugar as you can. Reduce the amount of salt you intake and when you do consume salt, only use Real Salt. Switch up the type of carbs you have. Eat nuts, fruits, veggies, beans, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and brown rice.
3. Measure everything you eat. Once you get the hang of things you don't have to measure each time, but measure so you know exactly how much you're eating in every meal.
4. Eat 6 times a day, approximately every 2 hours. But these are small meals. For me, I eat a total of 1200 calories a day, so I eat six 200 calorie meals a day.
5. Eat protein in each meal. I've heard people say it's bad to eat too much protein. But if you're active, it's not!
6. Work out! Get off your butt! A 5-10 minute run probably won't give you the results you want. Push yourself. My thing is going to classes at the gym so I am "in the zone," and someone is pushing me so I won't quit. I try to workout anywhere between 4 to 6 times a week. 4 times a week is when I have a busy week.. or a sick kid who always wants to be held!
7. Drink lots of water. I was addicted to Diet Coke since Jack was born. I had a really bad experience with my epidural during labor, and had spinal headaches. The only thing I found to cure some of the pain was Diet Coke. So I quickly became addicted. I quit drinking pop, but water tasted so gross! So I started to drink Crystal Light Pure (naturally sweetened) to help the transition.
8. Do cardio AND weight lifting. The more muscle mass your body has, the less cardio you have to do. I rotate days of pure cardio and lifting. For instance, Monday, Wednesday, Friday I will do Zumba (or go running), and Tuesday and Thursday I will either go to a RIPPED or Power Pump class. Saturday I will do a workout video, the elliptical and stair stepper, Zumba, or go on a run.
9. Don't eat too much dairy. Limit the amount of yogurt and cheese you have.
10. Don't get frustrated if you don't see pounds falling off. At first your body need to adjust. It also is changing, so it will take a while to see those changes. I remember losing one pound the first week and getting frustrated. Also remember muscle weighs more than fat. So you are possibly replacing fat with muscle and it will weigh more. So even though the scale doesn't say you have lost wieght, I am sure your body looks and feels smaller.

Let me know if your interested in recipes, tricks, or any more details. I want to help in any way!

Thanks for reading.

With all the house stuff we've been doing around here, we felt like we needed a little "us" time.

So we headed to Vegas for a quick, cheapish vacation. We call it the "your baby just turned one-moon." Get it? Anyways, we left Jack home with my mom and my older sister Lindsey who both so kindly flew out to Utah to stay at our house with our baby while we went and basked in the sun. Awesome.   We joined Leslie and Mike McCabe, two of our bestest friends. I grew up in Colorado with both Leslie and Mike. Leslie and I met the summer before 3rd grade and have been best friends ever since. Mike and I have been really good friends since high school! Leslie and Mike both went to school with Brandon at BYU-I, so they are one of the few friends couples that we both know and LOVE!

We stayed at hotel called Tahiti Village. It was just south of the strip and this infamous sign. So most of you can probably locate it. I recommend it. 

It had a lazy river, a pool with a sandy beach, and really nice rooms (they could probably use an update in decor though! ha). We stayed in a huge suite that had its own kitchen and two separate rooms and bathrooms. Perfect for us!

View of the lazy river from above.

Awesome pool.

We spent most of our days sitting right here... next to the lazy river. Listening to music, catching some UV rays, and reading some literature. It was relaxing and I wish I could do it everyday.

We spent our evenings eating at different restaurants on the strip and walking around aimlessly up and down the strip. People watching is my favorite thing to do there!

                                            

We acted like tourists and stopped to take pictures. I know, I know, weird.

I bet you can't guess where I'm at?!

                              

Cosmopolitan Hotel

                                     

                                

Aria Hotel

                                           

The boys needed a moment.

Yes, we often match. No, it's not on purpose.

                                      

We ate at this pizza place called Hidden Pizza. It's literally hidden. It's not advertized, has no signs, nothing. It's in a long hallway inside the Cosmo Hotel.. but it was amazing!

We were going to go to a show one night, but we all decided we would rather go shopping instead. And it was a GREAT choice! Brandon and I realized we both have never been shopping since we met. We've purchased a shirt here or there when absolutely needed, but other than that, we've been sporting 5 year old wardrobes... and it was obvious.

So we checked out the 3 story H&M store in Caesars Palace. It was huge! And very overwhelming.

Leslie and I in front of H&M.

Brandon discovered this awesome wetsuit like shirt. We made him try it on. But for some odd reason he didn't end up getting it.

The clothes I got for the price of a show ticket! Shirts, capris, a skirt, workout top and bottoms, and a swimsuit!

Brandon's clothes. Lots of shirts, tank tops, shorts, and a bathing suit (not pictured). And he still has more left over in his budget!

It was a short trip, and I was sad to leave, but was so happy to see my baby! The way home was the longest drive ever. But it seemed like Jack was perfectly happy without us. He got spoiled....

He got to eat an entire cupcake.

He got to eat blueberries with his pajamas on.

He got to eat an ice cream cone!

He got to have a shaved ice!

He loves an audience.

He helped Grandma in the kitchen.

He got to wear big boy shoes... Air Force Ones!

 And he got to play peek-a-boo as much as he wanted! (video )

 No we're counting down the days until we go to Mexico as a family in August! We can't wait to spend everyday together.. WITH Jack.. hanging out on the beach!

Anyone else traveling this summer?