Birthday Weekend Happenings

This past weekend, we celebrated my birthday with family and had a blast. Now that Brayden is in the picture, this seriously was one of my best birthdays ever!

It all began on Friday morning when my husband brought Cracker Barrel home for breakfast!

YUM! There was so much food, I saved half of the french toast for another day!

Friday night, my parents cooked dinner - my FAVORITE....roast, rice&gravy, and corn! YUM!

My poor Mickey...I'm NOT an artist, ok? :)

I haven't had my mom's roast in ages and it was SO good!

We also had my favorite cake - chocolate with PB icing. It's amazing!! I do wish those numbers weren't continuing to climb... *sigh....

On Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early for a run with my running buddy, Heather. The weather was drizzly with some clouds but we could see the sun peeking through. (More about my run on Friday.)

I also had family pictures planned, so Heather and I cut the run short and I dashed home to shower and fix my hair. As we were leaving for family pictures at 8:30 that morning, the bottom fell out of the sky and it began to POUR down rain. I know you know it's been raining daily here for the past two weeks, but it's always raining in the afternoons - one of the main reasons I chose a morning time for our session. Oh well, the joke was on me because guess what? At 5 p.m., the sun was shining.

The session was rescheduled to next week in the afternoon, so I'm crossing my fingers all goes well.

Since we were all dressed up and lookin fancy, we decided to stop by a local diner for breakfast on our way home! It was delicious!

Jason also surprised me with birthday flowers! :)

On Saturday night, we had a dinner celebration at Jason's parent's house! 

I love love love the "Celebrate" plate. Oh yes, and the tablecloth - if it's your birthday, you sign the tablecloth! It's fun to look back and read who all has signed it over the years!

Time for cake...again!

On Saturday night, Brayden and I wore our baseball PJ's to sleep in honor of Brayden's first Astros game the following day!

Y'all, he absolutely BLEW MY MIND on how well he did at the game! I'll share more about his first Astros game in another post. But for now....

It's the cutest little Astros fan you ever did see! :)

Overall, the weekend was amazing and was made even more special by family and friends! I hope you had a good one, too!

Happy New Year 2014

As we say goodbye to 2013 and hello to a brand new 2014, I wish you all happiness, peace, prosperity, and many many miles out on the track/road/trails – where ever your running journey may take you!





Last night, Jason and I celebrated the beginning of the New Year at a friend’s house. We had gumbo, potato salad, and lots of dessert!



These delicious oreo truffles were a huge hit! I found this recipe on pinterest yesterday and they were SO easy to make!

Speaking of dessert, now that the holidays are over, I’m making it a goal to tone down on my sugar consumption. I have most everything stored away and out of sight. Having things out of sight and out of mind really helps with the temptation!



Also, the Capturing December photo challenge is over! If you missed out, you can see all of the pictures on my Instagram. January begins a new photo a day challenge with Team runDisney friends. If you’re interested in participating, leave a comment and I’ll get the link to you!

I want to take a moment to thank you guys for all you’ve put into my life this past year. Your unending support and encouragement has meant the world to me and I cannot thank you enough. I am so thankful for all of the new friendships I’ve made, those I’ve met in person through various expos/races, and those I will meet real soon! Y’all are the best, I truly mean that!  Thanks for being a part of my life this past year and thanks for allowing me to be a part of yours!

Here’s to 2014 - a year filled with new adventures, excitement, and lots of happy trails!

How did you spend your New Years Eve? Have you made any goals for this upcoming year?