'Tis the season...

I just love this time of year. Now that I have children I love it even more. I love living Christmas through their eyes. Every year I vow to enjoy it and I'm proud to say that I do! My shopping is completely 100% done. Now I have the rest of the month to make gingerbread houses, look at lights, bake cookies and spend time with my family. Life is good...

A few years ago, both sides of the family made an agreement to buy only for the kids and I have to say...it's been easier. Really, is there anything that we need? If so, we'll just buy it ourselves. Harrison really doesn't NEED anything and all he says he wants is a "black Polar Express train". Well, he's not getting the $250 dollar one, but a much, much, much cheaper one that is indeed black. Will he know the difference?

Brady and Jack love the tree. Everytime they see it they just smile the biggest smiles. They actually don't bother it...just stand there looking at each other and smiling. It's the sweetest thing! They are becoming fast friends, actually all of 3 of them.

I'm just sitting in my quiet house right now, with the tree lit, Christmas music playing, fireplace going and my cookie candle...and am enjoying every minute. As we all know, live the life you want to be living right now....Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving....

We are headed to my parent's house tomorrow morning for Thanksgiving. I am contributing pie, rolls, cranberry sauce and sweet potato casserole. I can't wait to dig in to all the good food!

I actually have 2 photo shoots while I am up there...should be interesting to shoot in a new place! I also have my 15 year high school reunion on Saturday night. I will hopefully have some good stories from that...

The 20 miler is behind me now...tapering has begun. The big marathon is in 2 weeks. 20 miles in 25 degree weather was brutal...the wind was against me most of the time. I hope the marathon isn't that cold.

Here is a picture of my "Brave Little Bear" at his Thanksgiving Feast at school. Have a Happy Thanksgiving...I know we have so much to be thankful for!

Help a girlfriend out!!

My dear friend Jessica has been chosen as a finalist in a "Comfort Food Cooking Contest". Please, please help her out by going here. Jessica is a good friend that now lives in Columbus, OH. She also writes the blog Sweet Peas & Pumpkins, which is where I get a lot of my recipes! We lived in Northern VA at the same time and her and Dan once worked together on Capitol Hill.

She has a very good shot at winning. As of today she was in the lead!! Voting ends on Sunday, so go cast your vote now...

Throwing caution to the wind...

This past Friday we decided last minute to head to Clemson for the game. Imagine that, we were spontaneous!!! We dropped the twins off at my parents in Columbia on Friday, spent the night there and woke up early on Saturday to go to the game. We took Harrison with us and he had a blast!! Our friends from NC were also going along with their children. The kids range in age from 3 to 6-total 5 kids in all. Dan, Harrison and I walked around Clemson a little while, ate lunch downtown, went to the game and met our friends around the 3rd quarter on their side of the stadium. Our side was in the shade and it was pretty chilly! Harrison LOVES Clemson football. I loved being up there. I know I'm biased but it has to be one of the prettiest places around...GO TIGERS! After the game we all went to dinner in downtown Greenville. The kids sat together at one end of the table and the adults at the other. I was so proud of how well-behaved they all were!! It was nice to actually have adult conversation and enjoy dinner with the kids at the same time. One day Brady and Jack will get to participate...

Wholly Guacamole!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE guacamole. Love it!! I love the fresh, authentic, homemade variety. Sometimes however, I just don't have the time to make it. I've been enjoying having mashed avocados on a grilled havarti, turkey and tomato sandwiches lately for lunch. Imagine my excitement when I was in Super Walmart of all places the other day and found these. They are 100 calorie snack packs of guacamole! And they cost 1.88 for a pack of 3. I think that's great considering the time it takes to mash an avocado, not to mention the browning that occurs-GROSS! Granted it doesn't taste so much like guac, more like mashed avocado. Sometimes that's just what I'm looking for. When the pack is gone, then I'm done too. No more overindulging in guacamole. Seriously, sometimes my friends have to tell me to "step away from the guac". I can't get enough! Anyway, go to your nearest grocery store and see if they have this stuff. Sadly, so far I have only found it at Super Walmart-weird, huh?

Miles and miles to go before I sleep...

I haven't talked about the "Training" in a couple of days...mainly because I am ready to get it done. In the last couple of weeks I've done 12, 15, and 16 mile runs. Well, this weekend is my 18 miler and I'm dreading it. It's only 2 more miles than the 16 miler, but I'm doing it alone. The 16 miler alone was long enough, but I don't know how I'm going to get through this 18 miler. Anyone out there have any suggestions to make it go faster? I have about 5 weeks until the actual marathon. My thinking is that by now if I can run 16 miles solo then I can run 26.2 with several hundred people-piece of cake, right?

I seriously could not do this without the unending support of my wonderful husband. Every Saturday while I'm out there pounding the pavement, he's getting the kids dressed and fed, not to mention when I have my runs during the week. He is the most important piece of the puzzle to all of this marathon training.

I get several questions from people about what I'm going to do to celebrate once I'm done...not sure yet, but I'll have to think of something special!?!

Who knows if I'll want to do another marathon after this. My goal has always been to do one, but we'll see if I catch that bug I hear so much about. I wouldn't mind doing Marine Corp one day, since we lived up there for 9 years...most of my adult life so far.

Anyway, been super busy with our photo sessions as of late. It's great, very great...I don't think Blakely and I ever expected to be this busy. We are having a lot of fun with it! Once again, I don't think either of us could do it without our husbands. Which is why they will be having fun at "man day" in our neighborhood this coming Saturday...I'll post about that later.

Happy Halloween 2008!

We had a blast trick or treating last night! I just love our neighborhood-everyone was out on their porches and the atmosphere was so much fun. I made a big batch of chili with the fixins and several of the adults had drinks to share with the parents and candy for the kids. I LOVED Halloween being on a Friday night too. By 9:00 pm everyone was in bed and Dan and I caught up on Entourage. I decided to switch my run to Sunday morning instead of Saturday morning so we could all sleep in...and we all did...until 8:00 am. However, that meant rushing to get out the door in time for Harrison's soccer game. Here are a few pictures from last night. Brady and Jack LOVED getting dressed up. It was so cute to watch them in Harrison's costumes from previous years...Harrison kept yelling "I AM SUPERMAN! I can fly. I'll save you!"