Date Night

Brian and I don't go out that often and most of the time I am okay with that.  We really do enjoy and take advantage of the times we do get to go out.  The other weekend our friends had their annual Christmas party.  Really genius if you ask me, having a party after the holidays means they don't have to compete with any other parties.

This gave me a great excuse to get out of my sweat pants for the night.  Brian wasn't too thrilled about taking pictures of us, but it is a goal of mine to get more pictures of myself with my children.

 

Now that Aubrey is crawling, most of the time if we are just hanging out around the house, she is jut in onesies.  We have wood floors and it is still too difficult for her to crawl without slipping on the floors with pants on.  And when her little gets get cold, we just slip a pair of Liam Legs on her.

Liam, however, gets to choose his own clothes and in the process is a lot like me choosing comfort over fashion and often ends up in sweats.

Celebrate Date Night with us.  Get $1 off your Liam Legs in the month of February by using coupon code datenight

2014: New Year New You

As a public school teacher I have often encountered parents dressed inappropriately for bringing their children to school.  I always told myself, because conversations with yourself are the best, I would not take my children to school in my pajamas. 

This was very difficult with Liam starting school right after I had just had a baby.  Although I have never went in my pajamas, I am not sure my yoga pants and sweats are that much better. 

It might seem small, but one of my goals for this year is to get dressed.  Staying at home, it has been far too easy to spend the day in workout clothes or sweats.  But there is something about putting on clothes, maybe a little bit of makeup, that makes one feel human.

 

And, really, it doesn't take that much effort.  Most days my children are better dressed than I am, which probably won't change, but at least I can look like I belong with them!

 

Thank you Katie at For Lauren and Lauren for motivating me to get dressed.

 

2014: Its My Year

So after Christmas my mom and I snuck out and got a pedicure.  My polish was called: Its My Year.

 

Not my usual look, but it felt right. 
Last year my word of the year was purpose.  I feel really good about my year last year.  I worked hard to find purpose, I am continuing on finding purpose.  This year I am taking purpose a step further.  My word this year; Strength.

Strength will mean lots of different things to me this year.  One thing I will work on is physical strength.  I have signed up to run another marathon in April and training has started.  I have ran everyday this year so far, and plan to continue. 

I have also taken on the 30 day ab challenge.  I will need that physical strength in my core that make it 26.2 miles.

 

Its going to be a lot of work, but I can do it.  

2013: A Year End Review

Its been real 2013 but its time for you to go!  My word for 2013 was purpose.  I set out to find some purpose in my life.  I am still working on that.  I love my family, I am getting my health and body back after having a baby.  I still have more purpose to work on in the New Year.

We started January off with the big announcement we were adding to our family.  I wasn't exactly enjoying pregnancy at this point (did I enjoy it at all this time?) definitely wasn't fun feeling hungover when I couldn't even taste the delicious beverages!  It had been a journey for us to get to this point, we were beyond excited.

But what goes up must come down and January had the worst ending when we had to say goodbye to my dad.  He may have been my step-dad who I tried to get rid of at everyturn when he first came into the picture, but the man kinda grew on you.  He was so great to our family and we miss him everyday.  It gives me so much joy to hear Liam talk about him, but I know those memories will fad for him and Aubrey will never know him.

 

February was spent daydreaming about our new baby.  Will Liam have a brother or a sister?  How can we decorate the nursery?  We took Liam to the doctor with us when we had the ultrasound.  I was a bit nervous, he really wanted a sister, how would he handle the news if he learns Baby Fudge is a boy?  Luckily we didn't need to find out, Liam was ecstatic to be getting a baby sister!

We also had a fun snow day. It doesn't happen often around these parts, but it was an experience for Liam.

 

I love March.  Liam's birthday, warmer weather.

 

This year we planned Liam's birthday party at the park.  We had a pirate party... unfortunately it snowed.  We still went but it was cold and Liam was not interested in playing.  But I think his friends had fun... like I said snow is unusual here, I can't believe it happened twice in one year, so its an experience.

 

Of course the next week it was 79 degrees outside.

 

Baby Fudge got a name.  I continued to grow, as did she.  

We celebrated Easter.

And Liam got his hearing aides.  Oy! Those things are EXPENSIVE!  Not just for the devices but his ears grow so quickly we are continuously in getting new ear molds made.  And the darn devices have "broke" several times, luckily it hasn't been our fault so we haven't paid to have them fixed.

I was apparently really busy growing a baby in April, because I didn't write much.  Sorry!

 

May was spent at doctors appointments and celebrating Liam being 2 years cancer free!  His doctor called this year one of the biggest milestones for him, 2 years cancer free!  Its amazing how much he has been through in his short life.

 

We continued to celebrate Liam being cancer free with Cancer Survivor Day.  Just look at how much he has grown! 

 

Brian was also celebrated for Father's Day.  I cannot put into words what a great father he really is.  Liam has so much fun with him.  They are constantly wrestling and running circles in the house.  Each morning when Liam wakes up he is disappointed to hear Daddy went to work.

Liam started swim lessons this month.  It was a rough start, but he has came SO FAR!

And I got some sewing done.  I LOVE making these carseat covers, they are so convenient, I never take Aubrey's off her seat.



Difficult from the day she was conceived, Aubrey made her appearance 3 weeks early and light on the pounds. 

But as we were busy celebrating, our dear friends were receiving life changing news.  Keep fighting John Ryan!

 





 

As we adjusted to life as a family of 4 I found myself very reflecting and emotional.  Crying over Liam's hair. but in my defense it is unruly!  and it was so adorable before we cut it!  I have been refusing to cut it again in an effort for the length to weigh it down... Lets just say Brian hasn't enjoyed this idea.

 

I also started "running" in August.  I did not start off with anything impressive to me and had to keep telling myself 'you just had a baby', but it was time for me to get out of the house and work on ME.  This was not easy to do with 2 children, still isn't!

I spent September spreading Awareness.  Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

Liam

John Ryan

Drew

Nolan

 

And I had some fun sewing for the upcoming holidays.

 



 In October we did a lot of traveling (a lot for having a 3 month old).  First we went to MI, Brian and I went to a football game and the kids got in a lot of family time!  Then we were off to Atlanta for Brian's sister's engagement party.

 

The best season of all made its appearance in November.  And Liam got to spend plenty of time outside with his father.  They just love doing lawn work together :)



 Then the end of the year finally arrived.  We spent so much time getting ready for the holidays.

  Liam learned the true meaning of Christmas in preschool.  It was so cute listening to him tell the story of Mary and Joseph.  Unfortunately a stomach bug also passed through our house.  And ended with an eventful trip to Michigan for ICEmas.

c a
The icestorm caused a lot of problems for people, leaving some without power for 7 days!  Luckily we were only without power at woman's house for about 2.5 days.
 

Marathon Training Update {1}

So last week started my training for the Rock n Roll Raleigh marathon.

Marathon running began for me in 2008.

I have always struggled a bit with depression and was having a particularly low period in 2007/2008. My doctor suggested I start exercising more, so like any sane, reasonable person I signed up to run a marathon.

It was a phenomenal experience for me. I met so many great people and each week was a huge accomplishment. So I came home after the Rock n Roll San Diego marathon and immediately signed up for Chicago.

 

After Chicago I took a break from racing but continued with marathon running through coaching with Team in Training.

My break from running was then extended when I had Liam and life just got in the way. I am so excited to be back running. I went for a nice run with the Team on Saturday and I can't wait to wake up early and spend my Saturdays with them again. Okay maybe not the wake up early part. Yeah definitely not the wake up early part.

I'm still working on my training schedule.  For the runs I planned out to follow Hal Higdon's intermediate 2 program, but also wanted to add some cross training in the form of P90x.  Here is where I am at.  I will adjust next month if necessary.

Lets hope I stick to this plan while we are in the tundra of Michigan next week.

Poor Neglected Blog

Oh Hi!  There you are!

I have been so tired, and honestly haven't felt too inspired to write.

Here is what we have been up to.

Last Friday and Saturday LCF Threadz went to Marketplace.

 I was so busy for the 2 weeks prior, sewing, making super cute Thanksgiving shirts...  But we didn't do so well there.  It just wasn't very busy at all.  So if you know anyone in need of Thanksgiving onesies still, I have several already made!

I have been on the move!
Running has made a dramatic return to my priority list.

 

two other fun things that go with running.  I won 2 games of Dietbet last month and won $80! and also lost 6.6 pounds!  GO me!  I'll spare you my before and after pictures, they are both quite humiliating... maybe after this next round.

 

plusalso I am running another Marathon!  Rock n Roll Raleigh.  I had been telling Brian about how I wanted to sign up for race, motivate myself to keep up with the running so when a friend mentioned signing up for this race I knew I had to!

                                         



Now onto my little monsters

 

We have a great Halloween.  Liam was a dinosaur.  We didn't technically dress up Aubrey, but I put a fleece jacket on her from Great Grandma and everyone thought she was a cow, so WIN.

 



Aubrey is really becoming a happy little girl, a month ago I would have never called her a happy baby, but now all you have to do is talk to her and she will smile.

 

Liam is a character like always.  You can't help but laugh at him and his imagination.  "I've never transformed into a dog before"  What 3 year old using the word transform, and now it is part of his everyday vocabulary as he transforms into different creatures.