Walking in a winter wonderland

Well, it finally happened – after almost 3 years we actually got snow (and boy did we get a lot of it!)  On Sunday the weather man forecasted 1 inch starting after 3 but by the time we left church at 1:15 there was at least 4 inches on the ground (note to self: wearing Birkenstock clogs to church on a day when its supposed to snow = not a good idea).  Unfortunately, that meant a 3.5 hour ride home for us:(  Then again, early Tuesday morning they skys opened up again.  This snow was much more exciting because:

a. we were all home and able to enjoy it falling without needing to drive anywhere or do anything

b. Andrew got to work from home

c. Since it was still daylight,  Parker got to play a bit in the snow (I’m not sure she found this quiet as exciting as I did)

d.  this cooped up momma finally got a little exercise in shoveling the snow (we can talk about my severe lack of workouts later, ok?)

e.  The roads were plowed and clear by late afternoon, so Parker and I were able to run off for a quick Starbucks date with my sisters so Andrew could have the house to himself for a conference call

f. I got a bunch of Christmas shopping done (online of course)

g.  This snow still looks pretty

h. (I totally almost labeled this one 9 and then realized I wasn’t counting – epic fail) The dogs love the snow and have been playing outside for hours = exhausted pups

i.  Everyone off of school means rapid fire group texts

Did you get snow where you live?

What do you like to do on snow days?

Favorite christmas Song?

The three best friends that anyone could have

Parks has 2 new best friends. Well not exactly new, but newly best. They eat together, share food, snuggle and wrestle together. They also provide her with more entertainment than any one or thing else. They are her pups. Check it out:

We’re working on being gentle with our pups, but they (especially chase, our normal pain in the butt) are so patient and sweet with Parkie while she learns. And I can’t say he minds the extra attention

Plus they’ve been waiting for a third best friend for their pack for some time now, it’s so fun to see their friendship develop!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving!  After an amazing 8 mile run this morning, my day has been spent doing a crazy amount of cooking, with a beach walk and some much needed down time.  I thought about doing a list of things I’m thankful for (since I totally am not together enough to post one thing every day for the entire month of November) but I’m not feeling it today, plus you all like pictures better so I figured I’d share some pictures of things I’m thankful for (obviously not all-inclusive, you can’t take a picture of everything!)  Hope you have an awesome Thanksgiving!

Fun fact Friday

It’s Friday! At least for another hour and a half or so. And I can honestly say it’s been a great Friday so far. So, time for a random string of fun facts!

1. Someone is teething (finally!) I got my first tooth at 8 months and it seems this little one is following suit(she’ll be 8 months in 2 days). The runny nose started yesterday and when I noticed the drooling this morning, I checked and found a little bump forming:) thankfully, she hasn’t been very cranky, just a little bit extra chewy. And her fav chew toy of the day – her big toe haha.

2. Yesterday, we got our new furnace and ac installed. I had to be at church, so my mother in law stayed at the house while they did the install. She got bored, and decided to clean the house:) apparently is much more fun to clean someone else’s house than your own? Either way I’m not complaining – it was totally amazing to not have a cleaning project to take care of today…

3. Someone is obsessed with organic matter – sticks, leaves etc. if she gets her hands on it it’s going in her mouth, and you better but try to take it away…

(Photo credit plum speckled photography

)

4. I ate 4 of these cookies today. In less than 10 minutes. Still amazing.

5. We decided on a Christmas card picture. Can’t wait to order and send these out!

6. Did I share this picture with you before? At the end of the photo shoot for my moms birthday, Parker ate a rose petal. Which ended up making her spit up all over me. And this beautiful picture was taken. Probably the most accurate representation of the past 8 months.

7. This girl loves selfies. Oh dear.

8. I finished “Allegiant”. Still can’t decide how I feel about it. Definitely had a hard time putting it down, but still trying to process the ending…

9. This is the oldest photo on my phone. From the night we got chaser a little over 4 years ago. Can’t believe this goober has been with us that long. While he drives me crazy almost every day, I can’t imagine life without him

10. In 5 days, Ill be watching this

. Absolutely can’t wait.

what are your thanksgiving plans?

What is the first photo on your phone?

Food your obsessed with right now?

Weekly Highlights

This one trying to shove a million veggie sticks in her mouth all at the same time.

These cookies. I picked up a bag of peanut butter and milk chocolate chips this week and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Now my cookies are usually pretty good, but these were he best I’ve ever had – definitely try these chips. Ahmazing

Two quick runs. Life got in the way this week and running just didn’t work out. I managed to squeeze in a quick one on Friday (I had exactly 15 minutes otherwise we wouldn’t make it in time for Starbucks holiday buy one get one). It wasn’t long, but it felt good to be speedy again.

Tired pups. Our fence was FINALLY finished this week (it’s been a long process) and we can now leave them our without worrying. They love spending hours outside nosing around in the yard. And I love how tired they are when they are done!

Old family photos.

New family photos! I’ll share more with you tomorrow, still having too much fun going through them right now:)

what was one of you week highlights? What are you looking forward to this week?

Oh my dog does that too…

Before I had Parker, there were times when people would describe something their child did and I would think “my dog does that!” It only took a few funny looks to realize I shouldn’t say that out loud. I have to say now that I have my own child, I totally don’t understand.

Honestly, every day I find more and more things they have in common (they do say the longer we have our dogs the more we become alike right?). Just a few examples:

She could just have finished eating and yet every time she’ll go straight for the dog bowl to steal their food.

They both love the dishwasher. (One for the good crumbs and the other to bang on the dishes). As soon as I open it, they both come running.

They both love Sophie the Giraffe. When we moved into our house, we couldn’t find Sophie. I looked everywhere I assumed we had left her at church or she had fallen out of the diaper bag somewhere. Turns out Sophie was at my in-laws with the dogs(they stayed there while we settled in). My mother in law was using Sophie to get Chase to come inside the house (he’s literally the worst at coming in when you call him) and it worked every time. Now that he’s with us. He searches the house for Sophie every chance he gets.

They chew on everything. I’ve actually caught them sharing dog toys. One of the dogs will be chewing on something, Parker will grab it from them and chew on it and at the first opportunity, they grab it back and chew on it (germs are good right?)

Most of the time I have no idea what they are talking about. Sometimes I can figure out why the dog is barking or what Parker is yelling about but most of the time I have no idea what they’re saying. Note: major difference is that Parker’s talking is pretty cute, whereas the dogs barking- not so much…

So those of you without dogs probably don’t understand this post or how I could possibly compare my daughter to my pups. Let me just say, I don’t think my daughter is the same as my dogs- I just find their current similarities amusing, I hope you do too?

Do you have dogs? What sorts of goofy things do they do?

Fun Fact Friday

Well it’s been a crazy few days around here. But before the day is over I thought I’d share some fun facts!

1. My lululemon stuff came today. I can’t wait to wear it. Actually I couldn’t wait so I already have some of it on, even though I’m totally not running right now (or will tonight). It’s amazing. I love birthday gift cards.

2. These two have even extra snuggly today. It’s like they can’t get enough- I can’t say I hate it.

3. Got this little one her own water bottle just like mama. I think she’s a fan.

4. The other day I left the cabinet open. Guess who crawled in? She had a lot of fun chilling in this spot.

5. I haven’t gotten to run much this week. I’m hoping tomorrow and Sunday will be different:)

6. In other news, we found out that we need a new furnace today. On the bright side of things our ac died in August so now we can get them replaced at the same time. On the other side- ouch…

7. I took the laundry upstairs only to turn around and see this

I think we’re in trouble

8. I picked up the book “Allegiant” the other day with a target gift card. Can’t wait to read the end of this series – when I finally get a chance to pick up the book;)

9. Andrew is the worst and best person to watch tv with. I love watching tv with him, but he also talks a lot-which drives me crazy (totally one of my biggest pet peeves). Even so I think I’ll keep him;)

10. I can’t wait till Thanksgiving. Easily my favorite holiday. Only 20 more days!!

Phew, made it in just under the wire. I’m
off to bed before Parks wakes up!
—————————

What’s your favorite holiday?

Biggest pet peeve?

Well she’s ambitious…

Lately, I’ve been getting a number of “well that’s very ambitious…” (read: she’s totally crazy) comments.  I guess I like to live in the wild side since I:

• run with a baby jogger.  I don’t just run with my baby, I try to run at a decent pace (I’m still working on getting back up to speed) and I run anywhere and everywhere I can with her.  I love not only how strong I feel after completing a run while pushing that stroller, but also that I am getting the opportunity to share my love of running with my daughter.  She absolutely loves going on runs, and I hope it’ll stay that way!  Plus it’s always nice to have a running partner:)

• walk my dogs.  On second thought, this one might be a little crazy.  I try to walk the dogs in the afternoon when Parker and I are home.  Which means I strap my baby to my back (love my Ergo carrier!) and leash up my two slightly large dogs (who may or may not weigh more than I do…)  They’re not always the best behaved, but we’ve done pretty well so far and they need to get out of the house (as do I!)

(I’d totally post a picture of this, because I think you’d enjoy it but I kinda have my hands full haha – instead you’ll have to deal with this cute picture of them snuggling)

• use cloth diapers.  (Which I absolutely love!)  #1 They’re way cuter than disposable, #2 They don’t end up in a landfill and #3 I can’t even start on how much money we’re saving every month.  Add the savings of  using cloth wipes (they smell good, are larger than disposable, and don’t contain any harsh chemicals) and you’ve got one happy baby

• am still breastfeeding. Somehow, I’ve managed to have 3 cases of mastitis (don’t google it unless you want to be slightly disturbed) but just know it’s not pleasant. But we’ve stuck with it and are still going strong:)
• would love to have a few more kids. I come from a large family – the oldest of 6 and loved every most minutes of it. Granted I’m not ready to have 16 and counting, but I’d love to have 4!

I’m sure people think I’m crazy for a lot more reasons (I’m overly competitive, a total brand freak and love the song “roar” by Katy Perry to name a few). What do you do that other people find just a little bit “ambitious”?