'Tis the Season

To be jolly.

Another Christmas season is now behind us, yet I still feel that some tasks have been left undone.

The Christmas tree was never 100% decorated although it wasn't noticeable to others.

New ornaments have been added for both girls and I need to take photos to capture those memories for the future.

Finally, we must undo all of our hard work until bringing it out again for Christmas 2012.

Putting all of that aside for a moment, let's take one final glance at our Christmas from this little one's point of view.

This pretty much sums it up. She was all smiles from start to finish despite having no clue what was actually going on.

Happy. Healthy. Blessed.

She was spoiled to her very core with both gifts and love from others.

It was way to much for such a tiny person to soak in at one time

. We are so grateful for where we are in our lives and that we have this little one to share it with.

Merry Christmas!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

The last couple of days have been a true Christmas whirlwind. We are really loving this year since Lauren is actually aware of her surroundings. It makes for good laughs all around.

Last year, we toted her to see Santa while she was totally oblivious to the fact that we were tormenting her poor little soul.

Side note: She wore those same tights today. One thing that hasn't changed much is her size.

This year not so much. She kept giving the poor old guy the side eye while simultaneously curling up her lip in grand fashion. Needless to say she won't be getting any gifts from him this year.

Guess some other darling little girl will be getting a pony huh?

Just a couple of nights before meeting Santa she debuted her career as a performer. You could tell she had not the slightest inkling of stage fright.

Her lack of desire to walk on her own kept her from really running away with the show. This kid is a ham for sure so we can't wait to see future performances.

All ready to climb the stairs for her performance.

Not even 48 hours later, she woke up and decided walking on her own was no longer scary. It literally happened overnight. We have known for weeks she could walk, however until today she had chosen to crawl as her primary mode of transportation.

This morning, it was like she flipped a switch. She went to bed a crawler and woke up a walker.

Showing off her new walking skills after meeting Santa. She was walking all over the place like she had been doing it for months.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

L's 1st Birthday Party....2 Months Later

Last weekend, I was organizing my pictures when I realized I never blogged about her 1st birthday party. Shameful!

We decided to have her party at a local park because their were 100ish people invited. Go big or go home right?

The weather was perfect! All of the kids seemed to enjoy themselves while the adults were probably a little stressed. Or maybe that was just me?

Purple and gold was the theme because next year I probably won't get to decide.

My wonderful friend Christina had used these poms for her daughter's party, so she passed them on to us. She even left them hanging from her ceiling for a couple of months so they would still be puffy.

We had chalk with a little love on the side. This tablecloth was recycled from cousin Sarah's birthday party.

We had gummy bears. The kids really loved these. Cousin Sarah took charge of rationing them out, however she told her mom that I told her that were sugar free so she could have as many as she wanted. Nice try kiddo!

There were bubbles with adorable labels made by yours truly.

A glittery ECU tutu made by Aunt Ashlee! This tutu also made an appearance in her 1 year pictures with Christina.



After playing on the playground, visiting with family and friends, and eating it was time for presents.

And cake! If you are local, this cake came from Sweet Success Bakery. Everyone who tasted it is still talking about this cake. It was amazing!



There were cousins!

And one adorable family.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Just 7 short days after coming away from Savannah with a shiny new PR, I decided it would be wise to run another 1/2 marathon locally with my brother-in-law.

The results were posted just a little bit ago and it is official.

A new PR! Or maybe we should call it a PW?

Either way, by 53 seconds I was able to take my worst 1/2 time and beat it. How is that even possible?

My worst time ever had been held by my 1st 1/2 ever back in 2007. It was 2:49:05. My time on Saturday was 2:49:58.

It was as painful as it sounds.

This was on a course where I had trained EXCEPT I had not trained on the hilly portion in the middle. My ego was slightly inflated so I figure why not right? Bad idea.

The race started off pretty swell but things went downhill (or shall we say uphill) pretty quickly as soon as I hit mile 6.

As soon as I reached the first hill I literally stopped and laughed. This was not going to be good.

It wasn't. 3 miles of hills. I'm not sure what the actual ascent was but my brother-in-law said it was about 400ft. Those my friends were not hills. They were mountains.

Actually, we were running on the mountain bike trails part of which was gravel. Fun times!

Either way, I finished. It took every fiber of my being not to get on the golf cart I saw at the bottom of the hill at mile 9.

Are there any positives? Sure.

• 
  
  I finished.


• 
  
  It was a beautiful run. The entire course was on the greenway which runs along the river and then up through the hills before returning to the greenway to finish. I'd do the race again just because it was so pretty.


• 
  
  By finishing, I can see that I am stronger than I was 4 years ago. My time was worse but I can tell you right now that back then there would not have been a PR race the week before nor would I have been able to finish this race at all. Progress.

As for the rest of the year? I'll run some on my own to try and complete 500 in 2011 but no more races for me.

My goal for the rest of the year is to start integrating some swimming and other cross training to come away with some new PRs next year :)

Bling

This one can be checked off of my 2011 goals.

As I said in the recent post, I knew I was ready both physically and mentally.

The race truly went well from start to finish.

It was a little chilly at the beginning of the race, but I quickly got warm once they released my corral to start.

I'd decided to follow the 4:45 marathon pace group knowing that I could just stick with them until the half marathon split off at mile 11. This would be about a 2:22 1/2 marathon which I still felt would be stretch.

I was able to hang with them until at least mile 6 that I remember but somewhere after that is when I dropped back. I'm thinking it was just before or after mile 7 because I'd lost them by the time I arrived at mile 8.

Miles 6-9 were the toughest for me for some reason. I'm pretty sure I got distracted looking for Steve and Lauren. They never saw me and I never saw them. It was a really crowded race both on and off the course. I'll save this information for a post about the race itself.

By mile 9 I had regained my focus, had taken a Gu on top of my Honey Stingers and was ready to push to the finish. I remember thinking "only 40 more minutes".

After that the course also got more interesting as we headed towards the finish in Forsyth Park.

Around mile 10, I saw the 5 hour marathon pace group beside me and realized that I needed to pick it up if I was going to beat my goal of coming in under 2:30.

I kept pushing to the finish but those last few miles felt long. It wasn't that I was struggling but I was so ready to be at the finish line to celebrate my hard work and the fact that I knew I had already had a huge PR.

There was one last turn followed by 2 rolling hills and then the finish.

Looking at the clock I was pretty sure I'd just barely snuck in under my goal.

Official time: 2:28:15.

I'd rocked Savannah!