Is it Spring Yet?

UGH! I am SO over being cold! Having to start my car 15 minutes before I have to leave, scraping snow and ice off the windows, bundling up from head to toe, bracing myself every time I go outside for the artctic blast...the list goes on. Do you want to live in the North East yet? Didn't think so! Neither do I! This winter has DEFINITELY been colder and we have had way more snow than last year. I thought last year was bad, well this winter and cold feels never ending! I know I said the same thing last winter, but seriously it is a LOT worse this year and I am just so over it! I have been trying to "embrace" it and just deal, not complain (except with Bobby because he hates it too) but I seriously DREAD going outside every single day! There is no sun, it's cloudy and dark all of the time, I am quite literally the palest I have ever been maybe since being born lol

The last week has been the COLDEST weather I have EVER experienced in my life. 8 degrees, with -17 degree windchill/Real Feel. I could barely breathe just walking out to my car! Then the snow came. As if 8 degrees wasn't bad enough, lets toss in some frozen rain on top of it! I seriously PRAY we end up somewhere either SOUTH or somewhere WEST...somewhere WARM! I don't know if I can handle another winter anywhere close to this! I am SO looking forward to summer in Southern California, the sun, the beach, WARMTH, sandals, shorts, t shirts...I will happily toss my boots in the garbage in hopes of NEVER having to put those dang things on my feet again!

Hopefully I am not jinxing myself right now, haha Guess we will find out here in the next couple of months! Cross your fingers for me!

In other HAPPY news, I met my goal! :) I have successfully addressed well over half of our Save the Dates. Bobby had a make-up class Friday night so I took the time and just busted out a ton of our save the dates and now have less than half to complete. Some people are in the middle of moving right now and I don't have their new addresses so I kind of have to wait for them to send theirs out, but I have the majority and can't wait to get this in the mail! I still need to go to the post office and get stamps and stamp the things too, so hopefully I can get those this week, finish addressing, stamp them and get them out next week! New goal! :) Wish me luck!

Friday ALSO marks the end of my first 30 days of P90X! If you haven't checked out my new fitness blog check it out, I will be posting all of my progress on there, I can't wait to see how far I have come in JUST 30 days of eating clean and busting my butt! ;) xoxo

My Goal for the Weekend

I have one goal this weekend, and that is to START ADDRESSING OUR SAVE THE DATES! I keep putting it off, but have also been really busy but this weekend I am setting a goal to at least start working on them! They have been sitting in the box for a few weeks now and we just reached the 7 month mark so it is definitely time to get going on them so I can actually get them out in the next two weeks!

Bobby's big interview is February 12th-14th in Houston and we will be going to DC that weekend as well for his MBA Basketball tournament, so my goal is to have them all mailed off by then! I am  excited for DC! I have been wanting to go and finally get to! Bobby will be flying in from Houston on Friday afternoon so I will be driving with a couple friends early Friday morning to meet and pick him up at the airport. Friday should be the day that we get to do some site seeing so we will have to figure out exactly what we want to do and see while we are there, since we have limited time. I am pretty sure he will be playing basketball most of the day Saturday and Sunday so pretty much Friday is the only day to do stuff.

Anyway, VERY excited to get our save the dates out, VERY excited for DC, and VERY excited and anxious for Bobby's interview in a couple of weeks! :)

Double Trouble

Last week Megan went back to work, so twin duty started! Now my schedule is a lot more hours, but less with my buddy Julia and more with the sisters. Monday's I get to hang with Julia a bit since she is home from school and Megan doesn't work on Monday's so we split the duties between the 3 girls to make it more manageable. One of us usually takes Julia to do something out of the house, or we all just hang out at home, which she usually likes to do. I can't blame her since she did pick up an extra day at school with the new schedule (although she does LOVE her school). Monday's are half days, usually 9-2 and Tuesday through Thursday are EARLY, LONG days with the twins!

The girls just turned 4 months old on the 17th and I can't even believe how big they have gotten! Especially Claudia, she is SUCH a little chunk! I swear they have switched personalities, which is supposedly what a lot of people with twins says happens! The first few months Claudia was the diva baby, fought her naps, always wanted to be held, etc and now it seems that Vaughn has picked up a little of the diva-ness and Claudia is such a happy laid back baby. I think Vaughn just got tired of having to be patient with Claudia and now she wants some extra love that she thinks she missed out on ;) Haha! They really are BOTH such  great babies. They don't cry or get fussy unless they're hungry or tired and they both go down for their naps in their cribs pretty darn easy, swaddle, lay them down and they go to sleep.

They are kind of starting to get on a schedule which is nice! Not all days work out that way, some days, like last Thursday they were on the complete opposite schedule, their naps only overlapped for 1 hour haha Now that was a busy day! I seriously love them though and love my job, but they definitely have put my baby clock on hold! It is a LOT of work and I am definitely not ready for that YET! Maybe after I stop working for them and after the wedding I will get the fever again ;)

Now for some pics (of course!)

Julia is just as fancy as ever

Super V!

Double Tummy Time

Tummy time!

Claudia LOVES her tummy time!

4 months old! 

Only a Couple More to Book!

Vendors that is! We just booked our photo booth, which is something I have ALWAYS wanted to have, but almost gave up on, but Bobby wouldn't let me. (Love him). He knew how much I wanted to have one at our wedding from the very beginning, before we even got engaged and up until last week I was content on not having one until I came across Happy Foto Booth out of Irvine! They just did a NYE wedding at Rancho which was amazing so when I was browsing the pictures I came across them and they actually reached out to me on Facebook because they saw me comment on Rancho's page...meant to be! They also have SUPER reasonable pricing so I couldn't say no! I just keep telling myself I have waited a LONG freakin time for this wedding and we only get one, might as well do exactly what we want if we can...so we are! SO excited!

Now I only have to book hair and make up and Bobby has to talk to and figure out who is actually going to marry us! HA...only probably the most important part of the wedding, leaving it for last ;) OOPS! He better get on it thought because the upcoming months could get very busy and February for sure is going to be, then he goes to India in March! Time is just going to fly and I better not show up on our wedding day with no officiant to marry us gosh dangit! LOL Just kidding, I know that won't happen, but still....he better get on it, I will have to give him another friendly reminder this week ;)

Almost into the 100's already WHAAAA?! So exciting! :)

Save Our Date!

Our save the dates came today!!! Now THAT was an exciting package to get! We had a slight ordeal with our save the dates. We had ordered some from Wedding Paper Divas, and we got them last friday...we weren't impressed and didn't like them so we returned them and ordered our new ones from Minted. LOVE them. We are so happy with them and can't wait to get them out to everyone! My goal is to have them out by the end of the month/beginning of February! Our big day is getting closer!

And omg the coolest thing ever happened yesterday. We had the Travel Channel on in the background and I was doing something on the computer and I glance up and right away recognize the place on tv...it was RANCHO LAS LOMAS our wedding venue! WHAT?! I about flipped, that is NOT something you ever expect to see on tv! It was on a show called Last Resorts, showing amazingly beautiful resorts all over the world and OUR wedding venue made the list! Now that just made my life and made me SOOO happy we picked my dream venue and went with our hearts and even more excited FOR our big day! We are just under 7.5 months! Eek! :)

Thought that was an awesome touch :) 

highly recommend Minted for any stationary!

That's it until I get them sent out ;)

Kicking off 2013!

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope you all have had a great start to the new year, I know I have! Not going out really gave me time to reflect and evaluate my life. I am not usually one to do resolutions, because I think "what's the point". Well this year is different. This year I have a long list, and everything on the list goes hand in hand with each other. So, while I achieve one of the resolutions/goals, I will also be achieving the other ones. Bobby and I got to talking while we were going over our resolutions for the New Year and came up with an idea for me. I really need a hobby, like bad. I find myself being so bored all of the time, especially during the winter here when its snowing and cold outside, so he helped me find one. We got to talking about what I really like to do and blogging came up. Nerdy I know, but I really do enjoy it. So we came up with the idea for me to start a blog specifically about my fitness journey. I have made many resolutions and goals that are fitness related, so why not blog about it. Every aspect. It will not only give me something to do (a hobby), but will also hold me accountable which is key to being successful. I decided to make a new blog that is linked to my current account and it will fittingly be called "Fitness is a Journey". It will basically follow every single aspect of me transitioning my life from a not so fit lifestyle, to a fit, healthy, and happy lifestyle. I am only beginning and have a LOT of learning to do, but I am excited to share the journey with everyone. Please bear with me while I am in the beginning stages of this journey, it isn't going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it!

If you're interested in following my new blog please go to:
http://caseysfitjourney.blogspot.com/

I will definitely still be updating my personal/life blog as well, my new one will just be STRAIGHT fitness and my progress with all of that. :)

Thanks for reading!

Reflecting on 2012, Looking Forward to 2013!

2012 has come and gone, I can hardly believe it! I find myself sitting here thinking of things that happened in 2011 and it feels like it JUST happened this year, but nope! I can not complain about 2012  it has been a year like most; with the good things and the bad things. Thankfully, for us the good has outweighed the bad. Even though the year, overall, has been good to us, 2013 is going to be THE biggest year of our lives for more reasons than one. Before delving into what I wish for the New Year, I want to take a look back on some high lights of 2012 :)

Celebrated 2012! :) 

Best friend pregnant with her 2nd baby girl!

GBF Gala

BlackJack Ball..I LOVED that dress ;)

first trip to NYC

Time Square

Harlow Adriana Epperson is born

ALASKA for baby brother's wedding

Booked our wedding venue! (again)

Back home :)

First trip to Chicago

Vaughn Marie Gabel is born

right along with Claudia Anne Gabel <3

Bobby and I also celebrated our 11 year anniversary together :) I am sure I left out some things, but these were the highlights of my year 2012, the GOOD things! 

I have been waiting for 2013 and now it is finally upon us! It really is going to be the biggest year of mine and Bobby's lives; getting MARRIED, Bobby starting a new career, moving for his career (could be international!), closing yet another chapter of our crazy lives here at Simon, and these are just the things that I KNOW are going to happen. We have such amazing things to look forward to and have quite the ride ahead of us, and I am oh so excited to take it! We are young, in love, and have the world in our hands. This year is going to be the most stressful yet I am sure, but also the most exciting! We will grow from every experience that comes our way. We have some major changes coming, and will face many major decisions; but we will do it together, get through it together, and preservere together as we always do. We don't know what the future holds exactly, but are looking forward to embracing it nonetheless, whatever it may be! 

I don't usually do "resolutions", but this year I decided to make some goals and wishes for myself. Some are fitness and health related, as most people's are, but some are also personal growth resolutions for myself and things I want to work on. I won't share them all, but to name a few:

1. Finish P90X

2. No fast food

3. Embrace each day. Look forward to the future, but don't dwell on it/countdown too much. Enjoy the present! BE PRESENT

4. Don't stress the small stuff

I made quite the list, and I know they say to really focus on one or two, but they all pretty much go hand in hand. 

Tonight I will celebrate the new year with the person I will be on the journey of 2013 with, my best friend, future husband, and love of my life. I wouldn't want to celebrate it any other way.

I hope you all have a wonderful and SAFE New Years Eve! HAPPY 2013! xoxo