Happy Friday!

I actually started writing this post last Friday and never finished it.. Braden has been out of school and we’ve been so busy.  I’m loving the extra time with Adam and the kiddo’s!  We’re running out the door in just a bit to see Frozen, so here’s a quick run down of what we’ve been up to..

I’ve been sewing some!  A friend of mine found this cute running fabric at Joann’s, so I bought some and tried to make pajama shorts.  They didn’t turn out all that great, but I (kind of) learned what I was doing (with a lot of help from my mom).

Since I started, I have made Braden and Adam several pair of pajama pants and even made a Thanksgiving outfit for Mackenzie! It was far from perfect and my turkey was totally crooked, but I think it turned out cute(ish)!

We also got our Christmas lights hung on the house.. that was a fun afternoon project for Adam and Braden.

Braden and I played hooky (well, he did, my boss knew where I was) and spent a random Friday at Disney World.  I let him decide what we did all day and he had a blast.  We left Thursday right after he got out of school, he was so excited to spend the night in a hotel and miss a day of school.  Judge if you want, but he hasn’t missed a single day yet so I was okay with him skipping a day.  We all deserve a break sometimes!

Mackenzie’s school had their annual Christmas show and it was the cutest thing ever.  If watching a bunch of 2-year-olds sing and dance to Christmas shows doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will! And as a side note — what is up with parents and their iPads? Seriously? You’re going to hold your big iPad up in front of a bunch of parents trying to take pictures of their little one, while everyone else is trying to be polite and work around each other? Poo on you! I have that iPad in most of my pictures from the night, yet the 20 other parents that were in front of me are in barely any. So annoying!

We’ve been taking a lot of much-needed naps..

And doing some Christmas shopping.. Braden really wanted to get those for Adam, but unfortunately they didn’t come in his size.  He settled on some Spider-Man boxers instead, haha!

We’ve been watching a lot of our favorite Christmas movies too. Frosty is cute, but Rudolph is still my #1 Christmas movie.

Of course, there’s been some running thrown in, since I have another marathon in something crazy like two weeks.  I did the first three miles of this run pre-dawn with Andrea, then met up with the ZOOMA ladies and some friends for a 10-Mile training run at 1st Place Sports at the Town Center, then did the last seven later that night with Andrea.  Still counts as 20 though, right? Right.

We also had a blast watching the Christmas parade in our neighborhood.  Braden cracked me up running around, dancing like a crazy fool, saying “FREE HOLIDAY CANDY!!”  Adam and I kept trying to tell him that it was Christmas candy but apparently the PC stuff they teach him in school is sticking.  The kids actually caught the parade three times — it came by our house twice (once on the way in our neighborhood, then once on the way out) and again later at my parents house while Adam and I were out picking up a few last minute gifts.

 

We also found out that my cousin Jordan was accepted to med school and will start next fall — we’re super proud of her and Braden had to send her a picture of the two-thumbs-up he was sending her!

And finally, I think I may have the sweetest little boy ever.  I love him to pieces.

So that’s some of what we’ve been up to — busy, busy, busy!  I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and soaking up all of the fun time with your families!  Just a few things..

1.  My original giveaway winner never claimed her prize, so I picked a new one — Lisa Van for following me on twitter!  Lisa, shoot me an email and we’ll get the gift card out to you!

2.  We have another fun ZOOMA event coming up — a happy hour at Mellow Mushroom here in Jax on January 4th.  Let me know if you’d like to attend and I’ll get the details to you!  There’s still time to sign up for the 5k or half too, you can do that here — use code “FLAAMB5 to save 10% on your entry fee!

3.  I have been trying out a new product that I really like and I have a giveaway coming up for it soon!

We have another busy weekend/week coming up — a Christmas party with friends, volunteering at a race for the first time, a New Years Eve wedding.. I am looking forward to it all!

 

Are you taking a lot of time off over the holidays?  What have you been up to?  Any big plans for New Year’s Eve??

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been a little MIA lately — we’ve been busy making lots of wonderful holiday memories. I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!

Coffee Date

When I feel like I need to catch up with my friends, we plan girls nights to get out and try new restaurants or we plan coffee dates.  Basically just time for us to chat and catch up with each other and what has been going on with us.  I love my girls nights and coffee dates, I love how easily the conversation flows and I love hearing about what is going on in their lives.

I’ve seen a few blogs that I read do virtual coffee dates as a way to update on the little things that are going on, that maybe aren’t really worthy of a post on their own.  I sort of do this in the Five Things Friday posts, but sometimes I want to write about random things when it’s not Friday and sometimes I don’t have exactly five things to say.. so, enter the coffee date.

I don’t think I ever mentioned this, and I don’t know how I forgot to mention it because I was so darn excited when it happened.. but a post that I wrote is up on the ZOOMA Women’s Race Series blog!  How freaking awesome is that?  It’s all about different ways to survive a tough training cycle.  When I wrote it, I was in the middle of marathon training and struggling.  I’d love to hear what you think about it.  (PS — Don’t forget, we have a lot of fun ZOOMA events coming up, starting this weekend!  There’s still plenty of time to register for the 5k or half, you can use my code, FLAAMB5, to save 10%!)

Last Friday night, we dropped Mackenzie off at my parents house for a few hours and headed to my high school for a football game.  They’re in the playoff’s and I’ve been wanting to take Braden to a game for a while.  We had such a great time, I wasn’t sure if Braden would really get it, but he was asking lots of questions about the game and the rules and really seemed to enjoy it.

It was a REALLY good game — totally back and forth, we’d score, they’d score.  They went into half-time tied and it literally went down to the last second.  Thankfully, Clay won and now they’re off to the state finals in Orlando this Friday!  I’m really toying with the idea of taking the day off to go down and watch.  I’d forgotten how much fun high school football games are.

Do you feel over-scheduled this time of year too, or is it just me?  It’s crazy.  I read an article earlier in the week about how we need to focus on the little things – taking walks, snuggling with the kids, and stop putting so much pressure on ourselves to do everything.  It was a bit of a reality check.  Adam and I try our best to give our kids the best of everything, but it can be so exhausting.  I know sometimes all they really need is a bike ride to the playground, a movie night at home with ice cream.. those little things are big things to them.  I need to work on remembering that.

I finally got a new camera!  I’ve been debating over which one to get for a few months and I finally decided — we got an awesome deal on it too and I’ve been back to snapping pictures like a crazy lady.  This thing is incredible — I took the picture below in our room at night with just a lamp and the TV on.  My old camera would have given me such a dark and grainy image.

I love how B’s all snuggled up in a pile of pillows with his too-small jammies that he loves and his puppy laying there with him.  Sometimes I forget how little he still is.

Did you know I haven’t run at all since the marathon?  What a slacker, right?  I took a week off to recover, I’d planned to go to yoga on Wednesday but it was cancelled (BOO!) and then I got sick.  I have a nasty cough that’s all in my chest so I’m hesitant to run.  I have another marathon though in 4.5 weeks, so I need to get my toosh out the door.  I’m trying to decide what kind of training to do for it.  I think a big part of my problem at Space Coast was that I hadn’t been pushing myself in training runs lately.  I need to get back to doing speed work and tempo runs.  I should probably do one of those tonight.  Thankfully, the weather cooled off a bit.  It’s been so warm here.. blah!

Oh, and one last thing — I drew a winner for the Smoothie King giveaway!  The winner was Natalie Yusko and her winning entry was for liking A Mom on the Run on facebook!  Congratulations, Natalie!  Shoot me an email and I’ll get your prize out to you!  If I don’t hear back from Natalie by Friday at ‘noon, I’ll draw another winner.  I have another great giveaway coming up, hopefully later this week or early  next week.  A company I’m really excited about sent me their product to review and I can’t wait — I just need to get out the door to run so I can try it out and let you know what I think!

 

So, what is going on with you these days?

Are you feeling over scheduled too?  What kind of training are you doing?  Any fun new toys or gadgets?  Have you gone back to your high school since graduating?  I want to hear all about it!

Trimming the Tree

Let’s rewind again, to the Friday after Thanksgiving, the day before we left for Cocoa Beach for the Space Coast Marathon.

Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, we pull out all of our Christmas decorations and watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer while we decorate the tree and house to get ready for the Christmas season.

It is, quite possibly, one of my favorite days of the year.  I love the cozy feeling in our living room once the tree is up, full of ornaments that remind me of so many happy moments from our past.  I love watching the kids get excited over it, and this year they were both able to help with the tree.

This is also the first year that they actually wanted to watch Rudolph (aka the best Christmas movie ever!) with me. We watched it twice, followed by the old version of Frosty the Snowman. Braden skipped the hot apple cider, in favor of hot chocolate, but Mackenzie snuggled up in my lap with her sippy cup full of cider.

Before we had kids, Adam and I had the same tradition, but ended the night with gouda fondue for dinner, followed by dark chocolate hazelnut fondue for dessert. We’ve skipped it for the last few years because it was such a mess with Braden when he was little, and really not all that safe. I’m really hoping that next year we can get back to that tradition, I miss it.

While the night was full of happy thoughts and memories, it was bittersweet. When we pulled out the Christmas decorations, we found Sammy’s stocking, ornaments, and his Santa picture from his second Christmas with us. I still miss our boy so, so much. I know he is in a better place and no longer in pain, but I wish he could be here with us, snuggling and being just a little bit crazy, just like last year.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season so far, surrounded by those that you love.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

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