Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Only 5 days until Christmas! I can hardly believe it. I love preparing for Christmas and the older my girls get the more I like to do because they are so excited about it and ready to help. So the stockings are hung, the trees adorned, presents are bought and the cards are sent. Now we are ready to celebrate Christ's birth with our family and friends.

I thought I'd give you a tour of some of our decorations around the house this year:

We have a "family tree" which houses all of our fun, memorable ornaments. Lots of ornaments made by the girls or ones given to us or ones that use to be mine growing up.

Then we have our "formal tree" which is only red and gold ornaments. I've also got bows and holly berry branches in there. And the tree topper is an angel that use to sit on my parents tree when I was growing up.

And we have to have a princess tree!

 

Our elf Charlie, who likes to hang around in a new spot every day.

My new project this year: A hanging wreath chandelier. I'll share later exactly how I made it.

I tried a new "style" of addressing my Christmas cards this year.

And we are so blessed with so many amazing friends and family that I filled up 3 ribbons of cards this year!

 

What I would tell my 16 year old self

What would I tell my 16 year old self if I could go back? There are so many things, where do I even begin?
1. Everything you think is important right now won't even matter in 10 years. Wait, who am I kidding. It won't matter in 2 years!
2. Put God and your family first. There are the only people who will love you unconditionally and always.
3. What you think you want to do with your life will change 180 degrees.
4. Love yourself.
5. You are so much stronger than you think.
6. STAY OUT OF THE SUN or CONTINUOUSLY APPLY SUNSCREEN!!!!!

Ok, so these are just a few of the important things but this last one became very important to me last week. Back in November I went to see my dermatologist for my regularly scheduled appointment to help clear up some sun spots, old acne scars and those pesky fine lines. When I mentioned a mole on my head that my sister had seen and told me to get checked out, she quickly said it was fine but asked if I had any on my back. I thought it was kind of strange she would jump from my head to my back but told her I probably did. (I had a total body check for irregular moles when I started seeing my dermatologist about a year ago so I really didn't expect her to find anything alarming). She looked at my back and immediately said "I see one here that I don't like. I want to take a biopsy of it." So as I sat there talking to my 3 year old and trying to distract her from the needle they were poking into my back (remember, I thought I was just going in to get a refill of my Retin-A to clear up my wrinkles) I was wondering what all of this meant. Surely it was nothing.
 They took the mole out and about 10 days later I got a phone call from the nurse. She said that the cells from my biopsy were VERY abnormal and they wanted to take a larger margin from the area to make sure they got it all. Then she said it wasn't cancerous but very close. Just hearing that ugly c word jolted me a little.
As a teen I was always laying out, going to the beach, "working on my tan", hitting up the tanning beds......whatever I could to get that golden color on my skin. But at that moment when I heard "not cancerous, but very close," being tan didn't seem that important.
So now I'm healing from a large incision on my back with 8 outside stitches and an unknown number of inside stitches and I'm thinking sunscreen is a little more appealing these days! I will constantly be applying it to myself and my daughters and make sure I'm out of the sun as much as possible. It's just not worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I have so much to be thankful for this year! God has truly blessed me beyond what I deserve. With this day of thanks I wanted to share some beautiful pictures I took last month during a very special trip my husband and I went on.

In October my husband and I took a 5 day trip to the Virginia Beach, VA area. We lived there nearly 10 years ago when we first got married and hadn't been back since we moved away in 2003. I was excited to go during the fall so that I could see the leaves changing on the trees and enjoy some cooler weather. We did see some beautiful trees, but unfortunately it was in the 80's the week we went. But we did a little reminiscing and sightseeing and I wanted to share some of my pictures I got of the beautiful fall leaves and scenery.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

These were great statues on the beach in Virginia Beach honoring the military

 Virginia Beach, VA

 This is the spot where we got engaged in the summer of 2002.

Norfolk, VA

This is my family

 This is us:

I'm so happy we were FINALLY able to get our family pictures taken. And this year was so fun because my friend and I decided to take each other's pictures. This saved us a bunch of money and we got some great shots!

My poor L was not feeling well all day so we nearly called off the photo shoot. But she woke up from a nap around 3 and said she felt great and wanted to take her picture so we rushed to get ready and to the park to take them before it got dark. By the time we got there she was feverish again, had chills and was not feeling well at all. But she was a trooper and squeezed in a few smiles and I think we got some good ones. Bless her heart though, you can tell she doesn't feel well.

So here are a few of my favorites:

My Running History

Let me start off by saying Happy Veteran's Day! I am a proud Marine veteran's wife as well as granddaughter, Navy daughter, Army niece and I'm surrounded with numerous other veteran's that I am so proud of. Without these men and women sacrificing so much for our country, we would all live quite different lives. So make sure you thank a veteran today and every day!

And on this day last year (11.11.11) I ran my first race. It was a Veteran's Day 11k race.

 

I had such a great time and it hooked me even more on running. I am now preparing for my first half marathon.....something I NEVER thought I'd be doing! Let me start with my story on how I got running in the first place:

About 4 years ago my husband ran his first marathon. Then after my second daughter was born (3 years ago) he was still running nearly every day after work. I made the comment one day after a rough day at home with 2 young children that "it must be nice to come home from work, eat dinner and then go on a stress relieving run." Remember: I had a baby and a 3 year old and it was "one of those days" so please don't judge me for my harsh comment!

Anyways, so my hubby (sarcastically) replied that any time I wanted to go running I could, but he bet me I couldn't do it. He knew I hated running, but to me that was beside the point. I just wanted a few minutes to myself where I could breathe and think without someone pulling on me, crying for me or needing something.

On a side note, I've never been a runner. As mentioned before, I HATED running. I've always been pretty active though. I played t-ball and softball from the time I was 5 to 8th grade and then was a cheerleader from 7th grade to 12th grade. But I remember when I was a cheerleader and we'd have to run laps around the track and I would be one of the last ones finished because it was hard and wasn't something I enjoyed.

So anyways, the next night after dinner I went running. And it felt good! And the next night I went again. We started going on family runs every night with both girls in the runner jogger and I was running so often that I overdid it and my knees started hurting so bad I could barely walk. At this point I was probably only running a mile a day, but I did it every day and wasn't giving my knees a break. So I realized I was going to have to go every other day if I wanted to save my knees.

I quickly became addicted though. Once I got good running shoes and focused on proper breathing it became easy. I never knew running could be FUN! It has now been about 2 years since that "bet" my husband made with and I have never been more healthy, happy and stress free (most of the time). If I ever get stressed, a good run usually takes it away.

I've been  running 2-4 miles, 2-3 times a week. It is a good amount that keeps me active, fills my addiction but doesn't take away too much of my "free time". Now that I am in training mode for my half marathon in January I'm having to step it up a little. I am so excited for this half marathon though. It is a bucket list item that I can't wait to check off! For those of you thinking about starting to run or have been trying to run but its just not working for you the Couch to 5K program is a great starting point. Or if you're lucky enough to be in an area where there is a Soul 2 Soul group, join now! The original group was started by some friends of mine and its a great Christian environment full of love, encouragement and helpful runners with great advice to get you on the right running path.

I thought I would share with you my Half Marathon Training Schedule if you're looking to get to that point sometime.

 

Week 1 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – Hill repeats
Long Run - 5 miles
Week 2 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles up-tempo, 1 mile cool down
Long Run -  8 miles
Week 3 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – 4 X 600 meters (0.37 miles)
Long Run - 5 miles
Week 4 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – Fartlek on flat for 35 minutes (This is an interval type training)
Long Run - 9 miles
Week 5 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – Hill repeats
Long Run - 5 miles
Week 6 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles up-tempo, 1 mile cool down
Long Run - 10 miles
Week 7 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – 5 X 500 meters (0.31 miles)
Long Run -  5 miles
Week 8 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – Fartlek on flat 40 minutes
Long Run - 11 miles
Week 9 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – Hill repeats
Long Run - 5 miles
Week 10 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles up-tempo, 1 mile cool down
Long Run - 12 miles
Week 11 - Run #1 – 3 or 4 miles
Run #2 – 6 X 600 meters (0.37 miles)
Long Run - 7 or 8 miles
Week 12 - Run #1 – 3 easy
Run #2 – None or 2 miles easy
Long Run - RACE







Family Picture Preview

It's that time of year again for the annual family photo. Its one of my favorite things. I love looking back over the years to see how our family has changed and grown. This year I decided to do something a little different. My friend and I swapped our "amateur" photography skills and took each other's family photos. We went to our local park and community "garden" and got some great shots. Here is a little sneak peek. Let me know what you think.

Happy Halloween!

We made it through Halloween and all of it's festivities. But that only means Thanksgiving and (gasp!) Christmas are just around the corner!! While I LOVE this time of year, it means lots of parties, eating and presents to buy. But lets not get ahead of ourselves yet.......lets get back to Halloween.

My husband's birthday is the day before Halloween so we had our 2nd Annual Halloween/Birthday party on October 20th. Its always a lot of fun! We co-host it with our friends/neighbors whose husband has an October birthday too. This year we went as 80's Rock Stars.

We found hubby's wig ($16) at a Halloween costume store, along with the tattoo sleeve ($5) and then added some ripped jeans a black T shirt and one of my black running headbands. We spent a total of $21 for his outfit.

And my outfit, believe it or not, was FREE!! That's the best kind right?!?! My friend had a relative give her a bunch of unwanted clothes and she didn't want this GORGEOUS dress (I mean, don't we all still own one of these? I couldn't figure out why she didn't want it!). I took it, knowing it would be a great 80's costume. I paired it with some black leggings, black pumps, LOTS of blue eye shadow and of course a side ponytail.

My husband has a love of all things 80's so he was happy when I told him my costume ideas. I think it all came together pretty well and we had a great time at the party!

The first Halloween festivity the girls had was Trunk-or-Treat at L's school. For this one they decided they wanted to both be princesses.

If you've never been to a Trunk-or-Treat before it is usually in a big parking lot and people decorate their trunks and you go through the parking lot collecting candy from the different cars. Its a great idea and makes it easy and fun!

They also has a snack stand and bouncy house, which the girls LOVED!



Next up was L's class party. Her school won't let them have Halloween parties so her friend hosted it at her house. All but 3 kids from her class were there, plus parents, siblings and her teacher so we had a house full!

This party required another costume change.

L wore her original costume idea: A black cat. I wore this costume when I was 2 or 3 I think, which is why it is a short sleeve/shorts outfit on her.
And K wanted to wear her costume from last year: Minnie Mouse

 

I love this picture of her. She looks so sweet and innocent. Little do you know, looks can be deceiving! She is also known as our Texas Tornado!

Halloween Day we finally got our pumpkin carved. The girls LOVED digging out the "goo".

 L wanted to label her pumpkin. I guess she wanted to stake her claim or make sure everyone knew how hard her and her sister worked on making a Jack-O-Lantern.

 Then it was time to get ready for Trick-Or-Treating. K went with her original Halloween costume: Sleeping Beauty.

 L decided to go with Rapunzel again, but we added a cool blond wig this time.

 Here are our little Trick-Or-Treating Princesses.

 And here's the family ready to go!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Now on to Thanksgiving!

Witches, Pumpkins and Frankenstein

Just a few pictures of some of my favorite things we're making at Kitty Kate and Lily Lane Kids for Halloween this year.

 

Her shirt says "Would a Bad Witch Wear Shoes This Fabulous?" It describes her perfectly! A little ornery with a serious shoe obsession! :)

 

These have been really popular and my girls can't wait to Trick or Treat with their personalized buckets.

 

Here is another design I did for someone else.

 

I can't wait to post pictures of us all in our Halloween costumes. My husband and I are dressing up this weekend for our 2nd Annual Halloween/Birthday Bash we co-host with our friends.

 

Then of course the girls will be dressed up to trick-or-treat!