LiAR Beauty Favorites {Week One}

LiAR Beauty Favorites {Week One}

February 14, 2018 by · Leave a Comment

We are often asked what our favorite Beautycounter product is and why. We are going to take the next couple of weeks to tell you about our hands down, absolute favorite!

We both have the same answer… the Cleansing Balm and here is why!
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This jar is amazing and we say worth every single penny! Here are just a few things that you can do with this one product:

  1.       Face wash
  2.       Makeup remover
  3.       Night cream
  4.       Leave on for 10 minutes and give your skin a radiance boost
  5.       Highlights over your makeup
  6.       Alleviate dry elbows, hands, feet, knees
  7.       Reduce minor skin irritations
  8.       Ease an itchy pregnant belly
  9.       Windburn prevention
  10.       Sunburn peeling prevention
  11.       Dark spot treatment
  12.       Spot Rosacea/Acne treatment
  13.       Safe for babies and kids for dry skin, rashes, small burns, eczema and chapped cheeks!

We are sure there are more but this is just a few reasons we love it so much.

The best part about the Cleansing Balm jar as well is that it will last you forever. We aren’t kidding – this jar should last you 6 months or even longer. One of the fabulous things about all of the Beautycounter products is that a little goes a long way. A pea size dollop of the Cleansing Balm can cover your entire face. It melts with the warmth of your hands as you apply it and pushes the product even further!

We will be back next week to break down for you exactly what is in the Cleansing Balm that makes it so great!

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Where We Talk about Running

Where We Talk about Running

February 1, 2018 by · Leave a Comment

Do Teal and Beth even run anymore?!

That is such a great question and a valid question!

We do!

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Beth is almost 11 months in and Teal is 7 months in to this whole two kid situation. It was such an adjustment with workouts having one kid and, well, it’s even more of that with two kids. But we haven’t given up on our workouts.

We are both breastfeeding mamas and that is an added complication to the baby plus workout routine. Especially as the needs for breastfeeding continue to change throughout the first year of life for these little guys. Thankfully for the past few years we have run with a good friend regularly and she is so key in our continuing to run efforts.

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Sadly enough it’s one weekend she mets Teal for a run and the next weekend it works for Beth to run with her. We are both just doing the best we can with what we are working with and thankfully what we are working with happen to be two super cute babies!

How do you find the balance between working out and mom life?
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WE ARE BACK!

WE ARE BACK!

November 13, 2017 by · Leave a Comment

Just like the title says…….We are back!

Maybe you already know, but if you didn’t we have each had another baby boy this year and since we last blogged!

We are adjusting to our new normals as mothers of tow. Working out slash running is once again a part of our lives, however, it looks a lot different than when we had one kid.

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But can we all agree that a happy mom is very important so bring on the workouts!?

In a giant leap of faith we have decided to dream big for us and our families by joining with other women who want change. What is that change you ask?

We are happy to announce we have joined Beautycounter.

If we are being real, 2017 has ben a very bittersweet year that has brought new levels of sadness neither one of us has ever known. Each of us has had either a parent or a close friend battle cancer this year which has really renewed a desire in both of us to clean up our lives as much as possible. For most people this begins with one aspect of their life and expands from there. Personally, for both of this stage one was food and even more so by our recent completion of Whole30 in October (more on that in a different post). The second stage for both of us was switching over household cleaners to less toxic ingredients and now we are officially switching our beauty products.

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A pic of our older dudes in case you forgot what they look like ;)

A pic of our older dudes in case you forgot what they look like 😉

We are passionate about this change for us personally, our immediate families, extended families, our friends and anyone willing to listen. With cancer hitting home to both of us this year we want to do all that we can to eliminate cancer causing ingredients from even coming in contact with touching our skin and that is where Beautycounter comes in for us.

Beautycounter not only wants to empower people to change their lives with better beauty products but by also getting out there and fighting change legislation in our country that severely outdated.

All of this to say, 2017 has thrown us a lot of curveballs but we are doing all that we can do to reclaim this year and make something GREAT of it!

Filed Under: Beautycounter, Goals
Lane & Miles’ First Christmas

Lane & Miles’ First Christmas

January 6, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

Happy New Year! Wow, 2015 already?

We kind of purposefully and not so purposefully took some blogging time off in December to really enjoy our first Christmas with our babies.  Having our boys for the holidays really made the magic of Christmas come back!

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We decorated Christmas cookies together with the boys.

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We visited Santa together.

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We found one set of the Dallas Big letters all festive for Christmas.

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We decorated the boys with lights and packages…you know all things Christmas!

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And just enjoyed being with family.

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Lane and Miles….in their Christmas jammies! 🙂

Here’s to a 2015 full of running, time with our boys (both the babies and our husbands) and new adventures as families of three!

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Tour of Lane’s Nursery

Tour of Lane’s Nursery

December 5, 2014 by · 2 Comments

OK, so I will confess, I probably looked at Pinterest way too much while pregnant trying to figure out what I wanted to do for Lane’s nursery and it ended up just being a visual in all the things I did not want. I knew for sure that I did not want a “theme.” I didn’t want a theme because really there aren’t any out there that I totally love, although I am sure if I left it up to my husband we would have ended up with something Star Wars, but I didn’t, so we don’t.  I went more with colors and chose grey, navy, and small pops of orange.

I knew I wanted something other than white for the furniture but didn’t want cherry wood or something else like that. I came across the crib at a store in Frisco that has actually since gone out of business. It is a dark grey color. This crib was actually set up for a girl and I loved it so in my head it was a smart decision just in case it ever gets used again for another crib.

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The bedding I found randomly online at The Land of Nod. It does have whales which almost went against my no theme policy, but I decided that because it was the only thing whale it was ok. The patterns were more what I was going for. The back of the comforter is striped with the colors I wanted. I also picked up the polka dot sheets as well from Land of Nod.

The artwork above the bed was stuff we already had at home. My husband collects art from an artist named Jay Ryan out of Chicago. I picked a few prints that I liked and bought cheap frames from Michael’s.

The dressers are from World Market. I was worried about finding a color that matched the crib and I wanted to buy adult furniture. I ran across these one night and left the store with them. They are almost a perfect match. Not that it had to be but this worked out great. The small one serves as the changing table.

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The curtains I really wanted cost about $200 bucks a pair so I went with these thin striped grey ones from Ikea for $20 and tied them back with the bunting my friend Rebekah made! She added a little bit of orange to it as well!

I didn’t want a rocker, or rocking chair, or one of those crazy expensive chairs that moved. I just got a classic mens looking chair that I actually found at Home Depot. My thought here again was for something he could use later in life. I added a small floor poof in front! The prints behind the chair actually came from my kitchen; we made the switch after I decided to get the whale bedding. These are from Jay Ryan’s Blue Planet series and are actually some of my favorites that we have!

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I decided to play with patterns again and got this Herringbone rug from Urban Outfitters. I thought it was a good change from chevron but still a cool pattern. They actually have really good priced rugs in many styles!

The shelf was hard. I went with this industrial looking one, again with the future in mind! Right now there is not much on there but I figured it will fill with books and toys later!

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For a panoramic view of Lane’s nursery click here!

Dressers: World Market,  Whitley Collection

Rug: Urban Outfitters, Herringbone Handmade rug in navy

Striped Lamp: Target

Bedding and changing cover: Land of Nod, Make a Splash Crib bedding

Chair: Home Depot

Curtains: Ikea

Prints: Jay Ryan

Shelf: Wayfair, Woodland Imports metal and wood shelf

 

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Baby H’s Mustache Shower

Baby H’s Mustache Shower

December 2, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Back in May my close friends and sisters threw a baby shower for Baby H….or should I say Miles now? 🙂  I think it’s kind of fun that this post has taken so long to get up because there is a fun VERY newborn picture of Lane included in this post.

My sister told me afterwards she hoped it was OK that they did a mustache theme because she’s always wanted to throw a party with that theme but hadn’t had an opportunity yet.  Is it OK? Are you kidding, I still haven’t moved past the mustache trend so I absolutely loved it!!  But let’s be real out of this group ANYTHING they would have done I would have loved because they are all so darn creative.  One of them probably has better pictures on an actual camera, but you’ll have to deal with my cell phone pictures for this post.

The morning of the shower I was naturally trying to fit ALL of the errands in that I possibly could.  I was playing it by ear on what route I would take to get to the shower location as my options were highway or smaller roads.  The highway option is probably 85% of the time a bad option because this particular highway is rarely without traffic. I had really no wiggle room to get to the shower and needed everything to line up juuust the way I needed it to including the traffic. HA!  Well this happened…..

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Which caused me to be forty-five minutes late to my own baby shower. FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES.  I was so embarrassed!  I had held it together until I walked up to the front porch of Bitner’s house and could hear everyone inside and the waterworks just started flowing.  I text messaged my sister and told her I hadn’t made it in yet because I couldn’t stop crying (yay, pregnancy hormones!!) and she and my friend, Rebekah, came out.  I found out that several other people had made it there late as well due to a wreck that happened at my exact exit I needed to take which ultimately only made me feel slightly better.

The shower was perfect from all the decorations to the food and all the friends and family – just everything was perfect!  I don’t have pictures that show ALL of the decorations, but some you’ll see in a later post. 🙂

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Of course the invitation was designed by KateOGroup which is my sister’s company!  This is where I take the opportunity to boast about my sister who started her own small business of graphic and website design just to name a little of what she does. That means she can create any invitation from baby shower to wedding and even does other items like table tents, cupcake toppers, etc.! Kate currently has over forty holiday cards listed in the store on her website. She competes with companies like Shutterfly and Minted for business with her holiday cards, but the difference with Kate is she can customize anything for you!  Teal and I both get our holiday cards from her each year and would love for you to do the same!  Maybe you need holiday greeting cards that require no picture, well, she has those too! Use code: LIAR20 to get 20% off your order. 🙂PicMonkey Collage

They really thought of everything! My SIL sewed the mustache bags on the left and put mini wine bottles in them as a shower favor.

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My sister made the diaper cake and of course, my SIL sewed cute little mustache baby shoes as the cake topper!

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In our circle of friends we believe that adult beverages are a must at any an all showers even if the person the shower is for can’t actually partake. May you already figured that out with the shower favor.

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Rebekah sewed the bunting in the mimosa bar picture which is now hanging proudly in Miles’ nursery!

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My three best friends and I all had baby boys over the span of 10.5 months and so we took our first picture of all of the boys together at my shower even though Miles was still on the inside. 🙂

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Look at how little Lane is!!

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With all the hostesses! I am so lucky to have each and every one of them in my life! Seriously, I am and now Miles is lucky that they will always be apart of his life.

I’d also like to say a BIG thank you to Teal and Bitner.  This shower was not long AT ALL after Lane was born and it means the world to me that she didn’t kill me for that! 🙂  This shower was also not that long after Bitner’s wedding which I know was a lot of stress and he put a lot of work into that and then not only hosted the shower with the rest of the girls but also had the shower at his house!  And Lindsay, Tiffany, Kate, Mandy and Rebekah thank you for everything!  Y’all throw one hell of a shower and think of everything!

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Social Media + Babies

Social Media + Babies

October 23, 2014 by · 2 Comments

Before our babies actually made it to the outside we had some reservations about social media and how to handle that aspect of life for a baby.  We have heard the range of things to do from numerous sources ranging from “you don’t need to worry, everyone does it” to “your child should never be on the internet.” We knew that neither one of those extremes really worked for us, mainly because we are active on social media, have a blog, and also use it to stay connected to friends and distant relatives, and then the free for all, is just all not for us. We want/wanted to be smart about how we put our kids out there to the world and really believe that balance is a good idea.  We want to be protective but at the same time balanced and we hope in the end we are making the best decision. This world is scary but it’s also fabulous at the same time.

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We also are just putting this out there as another “option” for people to look at and we are by no means judging the ways other people choose to use social media with their kids. We are huge on the “to each their own” idea. You have your kid and make the decisions you want. We know that many probably don’t even agree with what we are doing.  This is just what we decided and we realize that it won’t be what you do and that is OK!

This is our thought process and some of the decisions we have made with our husbands and family:

          1. We didn’t and won’t say their names on the internet, yet. We did this for a couple of reasons. One, babies have their identities stolen a lot and we felt that was safer just to not have it openly out there, especially the full names and also much easier stolen when the birth date is attached, until we are able to teach them about using social media. As adults, or kids who have been taught, we think that is a different story, but as babies, they have no say.  Second, we want them to know the difference between people that really know them and are “safe” and people who might just know them from the internet. They will have a “social media” name for that reason.  Baby P is referred to as Lane and Baby H is referred to as Miles on our blog. Thank you Runner’s World magazine for the “running friendly” baby names!IMG_8028IMG_8025
          2. We will always listen to our instincts. If we are uncomfortable about something that someone posts or says, we will let them know and/or delete it ourselves. Luckily the social media avenues allow you control like that.
          3. We plan to be conservative and not excessive. We don’t want anything out there that might embarrass our babies in the future and we don’t want to send out every last thing they do. We think there is a huge difference between – posting every single picture and milestone, to just posting an update to brighten someone’s day, connect with family, share a funny story, or just the comfort of “community” when it comes to posting about your baby. Plus who doesn’t want to see a super cute baby picture in the madness and depressing crap that we see on Facebook and Instagram all the time? We like babies more than we like crappy political posts! Balance!!
          4. We will put ourselves in our babies’ shoes when it comes to posting anything. Would you want to later read about every detail of medical decisions, poopie diapers, spit up, or how crazy sleep deprived your parents were because you would not stop crying, later on in life?… probably not! So we won’t do it.
          5.  We also thinks it’s important to just be safe as opposed to sorry! A picture, a check in, a post, is just not worth it if you think it will later cause an issue or put you or your baby at risk! Pretty much along those same lines as when people post they will be out of town for a week… Probably not a good idea to tell the world your house will be empty. Just be safe!

 

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Liberty by the Lake 2014

Liberty by the Lake 2014

October 21, 2014 by · 1 Comment

Soooo you are pretty used to us being super behind in our race recap so here is our race from JULY!! Whoops!

Liberty by the Lake is a super small local race that we got turned on to by our runner friend Michelle! She hosts a Fourth of July Waffle eating party at her house directly following the race. Who doesn’t love waffles and these are cooked by the lovely and super talented Chef EK?!

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We are also a little sentimental about this race because last year we watched our friend Brian run all the way to the race from his house, run the 10k and kill it, and then run to MK’s house, and then home! He was kind of a running badass.

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We wanted to squeeze this race in but it was going to be rather interesting. This was Baby P’s first race on the outside and only a week after Teal was cleared to actually run again from her C-section. Beth was also still running at a good 36 weeks pregnant!

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Teal had not yet really mastered getting out of the door by a set time and this was really the first time she was going to try and figure out how to nurse an 8 week old, run a race, and get back to nurse him again within a 2 hour window. Let’s just say it was rather interesting! We both got to the race separately and with enough time to check in and find our friends! We managed to squeeze in a few pictures with our favorite runners before the race started.

Thanks, Mama C, for letting us steal this picture from you!

Thanks, Mama C, for letting us steal this picture from you!

We set out for the 5k and just decided to be super conservative about the “race.” Teal pushed Baby P in the stroller! We basically ran that entire thing, minus a few “insert the pacifier” stops and a small water break at about 2 miles! Baby P survived his first race on the outside with flying colors! Teal was super nervous to take him out and actually run a race but he did awesome!! Beth was still seriously doing awesome and still running with Baby H already at 36 weeks.

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Teal and Baby P

It was then off to our Fourth of July celebrations! Beth headed over for waffles and Teal to her granny’s to watch the neighborhood Fourth of July parade. You can definitely say that this year’s Liberty by the Lake was a little more “low key” than last year but nice to see friends and celebrate! 🙂

Finally a picture of MK in the post! Thanks for letting us steal this pic from you too!

Finally a picture of MK in the post! Thanks for letting us steal this pic from you too!

Waffle Party attendees

Waffle Party attendees

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Wounded Warrior 2014

Wounded Warrior 2014

October 9, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Ok, so if you saw yesterday’s post you might be thinking, huh?! Well, we migrated over to our own self-hosted site quite awhile ago, but we still get so many inquires about Advocare over on our old site we thought we’d make it abundantly clear over there we are operating over HERE!

And now we shall take you back into time to four months ago! 🙂  Sorry for all life flashbacks, but we want to keep a record here of our races and what not so back to June when Beth was still pregnant……

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For the past three years I have run the Wounded Warrior 10K each June and really love this race even though usually it is super toasty outside.  We are talking about June in Texas here. But I didn’t want to miss out on running Wounded Warrior for my fourth year in a row although I’m pretty sure no one would have minded if I said I’m pregnant I’m out this year.

why yes I did take a pre race care selfie :D

why yes I did take a pre race care selfie 🙂

We actually had a WAY cooler summer this year so I was hoping for some great race day weather!  As it turns out it actually was raining that morning and the race was delayed due to lightning and so by the time we did all get out there to run it sure was humid.  I was going to take it easier out there and do lots of listening to my body.  About 1.5 miles in I had some round ligament pain and had to stop to walk.  Of course I had lots of people around me checking on me to make sure I was ok.  Such sweet people!

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Luckily, my friend, Cassie, out there let me tag-a-long with her on the course and we did a nice run/walk combo to get through the 10K.  I’m so glad that I did still commit to running this race.  The heat was my biggest fear about keeping up with running.  This is probably the least exciting race recap, but if you made it through this then THANKS!

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And I shall leave you with this picture because it’s funny! 🙂

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hashtag pregnant jokes

 

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Wordless Wednesday No. 51

Wordless Wednesday No. 51

August 13, 2014 by · 1 Comment

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