Monday

I know, really thought out title huh. I couldn't think of anything good.

Well, I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Ours turned out to be very low key and relaxing. 
We did have 3 soccer games scheduled for Saturday morning immediately followed by a pizza party for one of the teams.  Then I was supposed to leave the party early to head to a celebration of life, a memorial service for a friend of mines daughter. 
But instead of all that chaos it rained. 
 I love the rain, especially when it makes our lives slow down.  Instead of a morning filled with soccer and feelings of being rushed for me to get to the memorial service we were able to hang out in our pajamas. 
Here are the kids building a Lego town in their pjs while I enjoy my coffee. 

 

I was able to go for a run in between the downpours, it was beautiful weather. 

And since I had time I actually did my hair and spent time picking out a nice outfit to wear to the ceremony. 

Of course, once I was all "done up" I went to get in the car and somehow managed to fall out flat on my back. 

I swear, it must have been hysterical to see. 

 Luckily I didn't really hurt anything, I have a small scrape on my ankle and a bruise on my elbow but nothing major. 

 I was wearing heals, a denim pencil skirt and a black shirt, I realize I probably should have taken a picture since I finally wore something other then yoga pants and a t-shirt but I wasn't feeling all that great in the outfit so decided not to document it.  

Anyway, back to the awesome fall, I drive a big SUV that has running boards along the side, I was talking on the phone to my sister and knew that I was climbing in the car very awkwardly due to wearing heals and a skirt, see the problems that occur from wearing only yoga pants all the time I am not use to functioning in a skirt. 

 Well, the running boards were wet from the rain and my heels don't have good grip anyway. 

 I stepped on the running board and as soon as I put all my weight on that foot to get in I slipped, my feet went up over my head and I landed flat on my back next to the car. 

 I couldn't do anything but laugh, Jordan came running over and said, "what happened?! Did you fall?" 

Gotta love five year olds, no I didn't fall, I just felt like laying on the wet ground in my nice clothes with my butt hanging out to the world. 

Luckily for me only two cars drove by as I was still laying there trying to figure out if I was indeed ok. 

Jon came over to see if I was ok, then asked if I needed help up cause um you are wearing a skirt.

I guess he didn't like me flashing the whole neighborhood. 

Jon and Jordan dusted me off and I left for the life celebration, which was a beautiful ceremony where I cried my eyes out, the young girl who went to be with Jesus was only 19 and was prepared to go so she had very clearly written out her desires for her ceremony. 

One of the things she wanted was for her dad to walk her down the isle since he now wouldn't have the privilege. 

 I was balling before he even entered the room. 

Precious.

 

 

Sunday was just as laid back, Melinda, my sister in law, and I went for a run on a trail close to my house. 

 It was so much fun!

We ran 3.25 miles and then did some stairs because we felt so good after. 

I don't know what it is but I feel like I have so much more in me when I run on a trail vs. a street. 

After the run I ate back my calories burned took the kids to McDonald's for breakfast, a new one opened right next to our house and they have $1 pancakes through the month of February. 

I let the kids play on the playground for a LONG time, they needed to get rid of some energy. 

We hung out at home playing in the rain for the rest of the day, oh we also walked to the park by our house and played on that playground. 

All around it was a very nice weekend.

How was your weekend? 

 

Have you stopped by Laura's blog and entered in her giveaway yet?

 

Ooh...I am so excited to find out who won Lora's ginormous giveaway!!!

 

 

This little guy also got to turn around in the car this weekend, he LOVES facing forward and I love being able to see him. 

 

It's on!!!

My husband, Jon, has always been able to run circles around me.

When we were in high school his sister and I used to go running every morning, one day he came with us and actually ran circles around us talking the whole time while we were dying.

Anyway, on Saturday my new running shoes came in the mail.
 

Woohoo!!
 

I was so excited, I of course promptly put them on and started showing him, his sister (the same one I still run with), and my mom how fast my new shoes make me go.

 Picture me running full speed from the kitchen down the hall and back just like a little four year old does when showing someone how fast their shoes make them go.

Well my husband made some smart ass remark to witch I responded that he better watch out or I might invite him running with me and then leave him in the dust.
One thing lead to another and I ended up challenging him to a race.
 The race will be held on the first Saturday of 2014, yep, I have a full year to train for this race and you better believe I will kick his butt!
 

He has always been one of those people built to run, he can do no training WHATSOEVER then go run a 5k in 24 minutes, it is one thing I hate am jealous about him.

 A sweet note from our past, before either of us had a car he used to run the 3.5 miles from his house to mine to hang out then would run home, sweet.

Back to the race, we are trying to come up with a good name for it, I had thought maybe the honey race cause it is going to be so sweet to leave my honey in the dust.

 Ehh. 
I don't love it.
 Do you have any ideas? 

Cause you know we are going to be referring to this race all year long.

 I will beat him, you better believe it.

  Plus we need something to call it cause it has been coming up a lot.

 Funny story.

Last night I looked outside and see Jon running, FAST across the backyard carrying a huge log.
 I opened the door to go tease him about training for the big race.
  But I stepped out, slipped on a stupid hammer that my son had been playing with and fell flat on my ass!
 It hurt like hell!
 Once I figured out that Ben, yes I was holding baby Ben when I fell, once I figured out that we were both fine I still made fun of him about his "training."
 Which of course didn't quite have the impact I had envisioned since I was saying it from the ground. He responded with some comment about how I better get used to seeing him from that angle cause I am going to be on my knees crying, he is going to beat me so bad.
 I don't know, I guess you had to be there.
 I have a huge bruise on my arm where I hit the door frame, I tried to take a picture but it didn't show how swollen it is.
The neighbors are even all revved up for the race.  They have an 18 year old son that Jon occasionally goes running with, well I told them about the race yesterday and how I was going to beat Jon by a gazillion minutes and he didn't even hesitate, he said, "oh, Jon is going to let you win by that much huh?"
 I couldn't believe it, this quite nerdy kid just hit me with that one, oh it is so on.
 Now I have to beat him to prove it to everyone, so watch out Jonny boy. 
I'm coming for you.

So everyone better go ahead and mark your calenders for the great race. 
(that name doesn't work either, I need to think of something better)
 

Our weekend full of Christmas Time

It is officially Christmas time in our house. 

 Jon finally cut down our Christmas tree.

Isn't she a beaut?!

 

 

I know, sort of a charlie brown Christmas lookin tree.

You see when we moved into our house a little over a year ago there were two pine trees in the yard.

Now I know some people love pine trees but I don't.

They shed pine needless everywhere plus I am allergic to them, the smell gives me the worst migraines, I take my meds the entire month that we have a Christmas tree.

It is horrible but worth it to my husband for my kids to have a real Christmas tree, I grew up having fake since they have given me migraines since I was 14 but the hubs always had real.

The trees were also in the way of where we are planning on placing a wall next year.

 

Anyway, he cut our tree down from the yard and when you do this the end product ends up looking like a charlie brown Christmas tree.

It is pretty silly but using it as our Christmas tree makes us feel a little better about cutting down a perfectly good tree.

We decorated tonight and the girls loved it, William could have cared less and the baby fell asleep. 

Putting ornaments on the tree is one of my favorite things.

 I love the memories each one holds. 

 

 We watched the Muppet's Christmas Carol while decorating, I had never seen this movie before, Jon loves it, I guess his family used to watch it every year so he wanted to pass that tradition on to our kids.

 It's ok, but that spirit of Christmas past is CREEPY, am I the only one who thinks that?

All together it was a fun evening.

 

Here is the tree all lit up and decorated. I love creating traditions/memories with my family.

Sorry, I could have taken better pics but I was being lazy.

 

The rest of our weekend was very chill. 

 

The kids soccer games were canceled due to rain.

That was wonderful, amazing, best news ever a bummer.

 

My sister and the kids came into town again, I swear I have seen more of them since they supposedly moved to Phoenix then I ever did when they lived here. 

 

I started my 10k training today, I am excited for my first official run tomorrow, I don't know why 2.5 miles is nothing.

 

WOW

 

I really just said 2.5 miles is nothing, me, I could hardly walk that a couple months ago, that is amazing!

Oops, it is Wednesday: weigh in day

Apparently, last week got away from me, I haven't blogged anything since last weeks weigh in.  I didn't mean to do that, oh well, I guess I will do a quick recap of my week.  Just because I am sure that you are all wondering what I have been doing. ;)

 

Thanksgiving was good, lunch at the in laws and dinner with my family, yep, two big meals in one day.  They were both super delicious, especially the desserts!  Except I only got one tiny slice of my favorite French Silk pie, which makes me sad but it payed off on the scale. 

 

Friday was my daughter, Rexy's 3rd birthday.  I can't believe that she is 3 already, I know everyone says it but time really does go by way to quickly.  We celebrated her birthday on Thanksgiving with each meal, she loved/hated all of the attention.  She was so excited to sing happy birthday but she didn't realize that we would all be singing it while staring at her with crazy happy faces.  She of course burst into tears, it was adorable. 

 

Black Friday happened, I am a big black Friday shopper.  We went all night long, I loved it but I think that my mom and my sister and I have decided that next year we are going to go back to getting up at like 3 am to start instead of staying up all night.  One reason being that JC Penny is one of our favorite stores and they haven't lost all morals, so they still open at 6 am Friday morning.  Which I like except since we went all night we ended up with two hours to kill before JCP (that's what the cool kids call it) opened.  Keeping ourselves awake those two hours was hard, we are old!!

It was still an awesome shopping time, I am almost finished with our Christmas shopping.  Woohoo!

 

The weekend was very relaxing, just played with family and got some little stuff done around the house.  I don't think that I have ever mentioned that we live in a construction zone, I think that is going to need its own post. 

 

Back to school for the kids and regular life for me on Monday.  I did really well last week with the Pile On The Miles, last weeks total was 15 miles, it felt great.  I am going to have to get in around 20 miles this week to make my 50 mile goal but I am determined. 

 

And lastly, my weigh in. 

 

I am happy to report that even after consuming two Thanksgiving day meals and all of the left overs I am still down.  All that running/walking paid off.  I weighed in this morning at 171.8.  I love this loosing streak!  Hope it continues, I love it when I move the number in the tens column, that's right, the tens column, can you tell I have a second grader.  =)

 

Loved reading about everyone else's thanksgiving!

Monday Monday

It is Monday!

I am really looking forward to this week, I love Thanksgiving

 

I love family time, being together doing nothing but enjoying each others company, letting the kids play, and eating, of course eating. 

 

I also LOVE shopping! 

 I am one of those die hard, crazy black Friday shoppers.  I love it!

I look forward to it every year, except I really don't like that the stores are opening late on Thursday night now instead of 4 am Friday morning.  They did this last year too and it just sucks.  When the stores open in the morning you know everyone who is there is all about the deals and crazy like you.  But now that the stores are opening on Thursday night regular people are getting in the way.  It is so frustrating!  I really hate it, I will see how this year goes with the stores being open on Thursday but I think the thrill of the deal may have been killed for me by the stores changing things up.  Sad. 

I had a great weekend, we didn't really do much.  The kids both had soccer games Saturday and soccer pictures on Sunday.  I got in two 4.5 mile runs and I felt great, I really want to find the time to do that at least three times a week, it is just hard with the kids and my husbands schedule.  I am going to work on that this week.  Also this weekend something wonderful happened, someone told me that I look like I am lost weight. Yippee!!!  It is so rewarding when others start to notice. 

 
Also, I got my hair cut, here are some before and afters just for fun.

Shorter with bangs, still not sure if I love the bangs but my hair is extremely thick so I love it being shorter and lighter. 

My future pianist

My baby bugger loves to play the piano.  I find him standing on his tippy toes reaching up to play almost every day.  I haven't been able to get a picture of him all stretched out reaching as far as he can but I am trying and am sure to get it captured soon.  He always has the most adorable face of determination and excitement.  His biggest sister is always eager to help him be able to play easier, I found him up on a chair playing. 

 

Isn't he the cutest pianist



Can't get enough

I can't get enough of this baby!

 

He is adorable!

 

He will be 9 months this weekend, it has gone by too quickly. He is going to be walking running everywhere before I know it. He has the sweetest personality, I love it!  God could not have given me a more perfect fourth child, He definitely knew what He was doing when He placed this babe in our family. My Benjamin baby steals the heart of  pretty much everyone he meets. We are having dinner at my dads house tonight to celebrate my sister being sworn in to the Arizona state bar, that's right my sister is amazing! She completed law school while still being an incredible mother to three young children.  She rocks, except that she just moved to Phoenix, that part about her sort of stinks.  

 

 Anyway, while in my dads jungle, that is what all the grand kids call his backyard because it actually has grass and greenery, I snapped these picture of little Benny chasing me down for a kiss.  Sorry they are such cruddy quality, I took them with my crappy phone.

 

 Prepare for your hearts to be stolen.

 

 

 

I don't know what it is about a baby in a hoody jacket but it melts my heart.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Change

My sister excepted a position as a law clerk in Phoenix today.  I find myself sad but excited for her.  And jealous, jealous of the change that their family is getting to go through.  I don't know why but I have been craving change lately.  We have a great life and everything is good right now but there is something inside me that is yearning for change.  I can't explain it exactly.  I can't even really understand it myself.  I just feel unsettled, like there is something else for us.  I have been praying about it a lot. I don't know.  We have a nice house, it is completely torn apart still but slowly getting put back together, maybe I am just wanting a complete home, but I don't think so.  I love our house and am excited to be transforming it ourselves.  I would be sad to move.  I love the kids school but find myself thinking maybe I should switch them to the one in our neighborhood, we could walk to school, save money on gas, but the kids school has a great community of Christians which is awesome in a public school.  Plus the Spanish program they are in is great, they are learning so much and being bilingual is such an asset now a days.  Our church is wonderful, I definitely feel like that is where God wants us right now. 

 

I don't know, maybe it is just that I am jealous.  But it feels so much deeper then that.  I don't know, maybe God is preparing my heart for something.  Maybe it will be something minuscule.  But maybe not.  Maybe there is some big change coming up.