A Weekend To Remember

When many years have passed and I reflect back on my life, I know that this weekend will be one I'll remember for a long time. No, nothing spectacular or extraordinary happened, but it was the little things I got to appreciate and enjoy and I know I'll cherish those moments forever.

A little back story - around Christmas, Brayden hit a crazy growth spurt and not only did he grow physically, he also grew cognitively by leaps and bounds. My soft-spoken kid who didn't really begin talking until right before he turned 2 is now a chatter box who doesn't stop and I seriously love it. He's putting more and more phrases together, counting up a storm, and he even memorized his first scripture verse which completely melts my heart.

I wish I could stop time and everything right here, just the way it is right now, because in exactly two short months, my sweet little boy will be a three year old! 

So this weekend, we enjoyed the weather, playing outside, swinging "high" to our hearts content, riding our little Mickey 4 wheeler, and simply just being together - with Brayden chattering away the entire time. No deadlines, no projects, no to do lists - it's weekends like this that do a heart good.

He even slept in on Saturday morning which afforded me the opportunity to run four miles solo. Jason was home but working nights, so I checked in on Brayden every mile or so and once he started stirring, I got him up and he joined me for the final two miles of the run!

During nap time, I even managed to complete a project for my YouTube channel that I've been rolling over and over again in my mind for a long time and I LOVE the way it turned out! I've wanted to have true opening credits for my videos for a while now and I finally completed that project on Saturday.

Throughout the weekend, I also finalized the ideas in my mind for my Princess Half Marathon outfits and can't wait to share them with you guys!

Speaking of Princess and runDisney, I listened to these guys a LOT over the weekend and boy did it just get me even more and more excited for our upcoming Disney trip!

If you don't listen to Joyful Miles then you need to! They are a wealth of runDisney knowledge and will seriously bring a smile to your face!

Last but not least, if you'd like to check out the project for YouTube I mentioned earlier, check out these videos below! Yes, I'm WAY behind on our August cruise recaps, but better late than never, right? :)

I hope you're having a great start to your week! Happy Tuesday! :)

Weekend Happenings

It's been a while since I shared a weekend recap here on the blog, and this past weekend was a pretty amazing one over here...so here we go!

Our weekend began on Friday evening at my mother-in-law's house for her birthday party! We had a great time celebrating with her and our family! Brayden also LOVES his cousins! It's so cute to watch them interact!

On Saturday morning, we attempted a re-take of Brayden's 2 year old pictures. Originally, the date for his session was cancelled due to rain. Instead, it was "added on" to his Easter session (for no extra charge). Well, home skillet was NOT in the mood for pictures that day which means we only got maybe one or two good shots. (He ended up taking a four hour nap that afternoon, so I think that was his issue.)

So, Jason and I set out on Saturday morning with Brayden for a little adventure of our own. He was a MUCH happier little dude that morning (back to his normal self) and we were able to capture several great shots of my little guy! Yay!

During nap time, I set out on a quest to pressure wash everything! During this time, the back deck, the entire back porch, as well as parts of the house were cleaned and I'm loving it! Everything feels so nice and refreshed now! We do have to replace a few boards on the deck and I will need to re-stain it but other than that, the majority of the backyard work is complete!

After nap time, we ate dinner then we enjoyed our first sno balls of the season!!

I had "The Little Mermaid" which is definitely a favorite and SO good!

Such a great day with my family!

The sunset that evening was gorgeous, too!

On Sunday morning, we headed to church. While driving there, this popped up in my instagram feed...

Funny, right? It was taken last Sunday! The story behind the photo? I said, "Smile! You're on Instagram" and he was like "Huh??" Too funny!

On Sunday afternoon, Brayden decided to be a nap rebel so Jason and I took turns doing things we needed to do while watching mr no nap. I took that opportunity to pressure wash the front porch as well as the side walk and apart from the awning around the rest of the house, my pressure washing duties are almost complete!

For a little while, Brayden was playing quietly with his toys, then I heard a lot of giggling. I couldn't figure out what he was doing so when I walked over to him, I saw this....

As soon as he looked up and saw me, he said "Uhoh!"

Yes, uhoh indeed! This kid cracks me up.

We really did have an amazing weekend and apart from not getting a run in (my own fault), I wouldn't change a thing!

How was your weekend? Did you participate in any St. Patty's day events?

Weekend Fun!

Hello Monday...we meet again!

The weekends always seem to go by so quickly, especially when a lot of fun events took place!

When the Astros World Series parade was announced for Houston on Friday at 2 p.m., I debated every in an out and up and down way for me to attend. Unfortunately, even though I had a half day of work on Friday, there was no way I would make it to Houston and into downtown to catch the parade. Instead, I watched live feeds from my cell phone! I was sad to not be there along with the projected millions of Astros fans, but oh well...it was really neat to see the live stream!

On Saturday morning, we were up very bright and early to attend a Princess & Superhero breakfast. A local dance club was hosting this as a fundraiser and we thought it would be fun to take Brayden!

He was super iffy about the superheros. He did give them a high five but didn't really want to....

The princesses, however....

He was enamored with these ladies, especially Sleeping Beauty's dress. We thought it would be funny to have a picture made with him in the middle of all of them. I'm sure he's going to be mad at me one day for this but for now, it's adorable.

Another trip we almost made was to WDW. I was initially supposed to be there this weekend anyway to surprise a friend running her first runDisney event but with the hurricane/cruise cancellation and rescheduling, this trip didn't work out. THEN the World Series parade was announced for Magic Kingdom on Saturday and we debated dropping all of our previous plans to attend, but there was just way too much going on this weekend. So again, I watched this one as live stream from my house!

After nap time, we went over to a local park that just opened this weekend. It's SO nice and a decent size for our small town and Brayden LOVED IT.

Yes, I'm aware that it's November and yes, it was in the 40's last weekend...but not this weekend! We had high's in the upper 80's here this weekend which was perfect for an afternoon at the splash pad.  He loved playing in the splash pad and didn't want to get out!

He also loved these new swings as well as another little play area where he could turn knobs and push buttons to his heart's content. In all, it was an amazing afternoon!

We arrived early at church on Sunday to drop Jason off for orchestra practice, so instead of waiting around for an hour and a half for service to start, Brayden and I went to Target to check out their Christmas collection!

He LOVED the trees with blinky lights!

Sunday night's service was very special for me as four young ladies I've worked with for a while now earned achievements in our Wednesday night program. They've all worked very hard for years and have come very far! It was a really special honor for them!

I hope everyone who ran Wine & Dine had a lot of fun this weekend! Seeing all of the social media posts and stories made me even more excited for January! Dopey, here I come!

How was your weekend? Anything exciting happen?

Weekend Recap - Birthdays, Family Time, & Yummy Food!

Although this past weekend had a lot going on, I didn't plan much of it and just decided to go with the flow and see what happened! It was so much fun!

For starters, my sinus episode did not get better, it got worse and by Saturday morning, I couldn't breathe through my nose. A little sudafed helped somewhat, but needless to say, I decided not to run at all. I am feeling a little better this morning but I have a doctor appointment this afternoon after work, so we shall see what he has to say.

On Friday afternoon, I took Brayden in for another haircut. His hair grows so dang fast and he had his 18 month pictures scheduled for the following day!

My dad's birthday is this week, so we celebrated with my brother and his wife on Friday night.

I had to laugh at Brayden's fortune!

Happy birthday, Poppy!

Brayden's fall pictures/18 month pictures took place on Saturday morning. He was in a super happy mood and did SO well! We also took the pictures at an antique store that's owned by Jason's uncle & his wife.  The old cars and props were perfect for the images...I can't wait to see how they turned out!

This cracked me up - he was supposed to be taking his Saturday afternoon nap, so when I heard the sounds of his baby piano on the monitor, I knew something was up! Apparently he decided that his toys were way more fun than a nap.

Once he fell asleep, I left him in Jason's care and headed to a local build-your-own salad place for lunch with my sister in law. It was such a gorgeous day, we sat outside to eat!

After lunch, we walked next door for coffee at PJ's and sat outside again! It really was a lovely afternoon!

Jason's grandfather and sister will be celebrating birthdays this upcoming week too, so we had dinner with them at a local Seafood restaurant on Saturday night! I had the shrimp and crab gumbo and it was SO good!

Happy birthday, grandpa!

Sunday was very low key, with a trip to church, lunch after, and taking care of a few odds and ends around the house that evening. Breakfast began with Mickey waffles and coffee, and I reminded myself that it wouldn't be much longer before I was eating Mickey waffles every day for breakfast! YES!

On Sunday evening, I had the opportunity to record a podcast with Relay for Life! I recently served on a 5K work group initiative where we created a Relay 5K packet on how to put a 5K together from start to finish, so they had me on to discuss our work. I was honored they asked if I would be on their podcast!

The rest of the weekend was spent getting things together for our upcoming vacay. I can't wait!!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Happy Monday!

Jamaica Me Crazy & College Football & Movies!

9/11 - a day that will remain in the hearts and minds of Americans for eternity. It's hard to believe it's already been 16 years! Where were you? I was a sophomore in college, driving to class. I remember sitting in nutrition, unable to focus at all, looking at the world through completely different eyes. What a sad sad day. Let us never forget.
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For a weekend that was supposed to be spent out at sea that wasn't, it actually turned out to be a pretty decent weekend!

On Thursday afternoon after work, Jason and I were invited to the annual American Cancer Society's Jamaica Me Crazy event. We didn't have tickets initially since we weren't supposed to be in town, so being invited at the last minute was a fun surprise! This would have been my first event to miss in years so I was happy it all worked out!

Totally nerd alert here - but I was so excited to see that the colors used at this year's event were my wedding colors (teal and pink)!

When you can't physically be out in the Caribbean on a cruise ship as planned, you take out some of your pre-packed dress clothing and attend a Caribbean themed event instead!

The food was AMAZING as always.

So was the dessert! YUM!

It was so much fun spending the evening with my friends and parents! Can't wait for next year!

On Saturday morning, I woke up to amazing weather and headed out for a long run. I'll share more on my long run in a later post this week!

After the run, Jason and I made breakfast.

Again, I'm sure you can see a theme here...we pretty much decided to do as many Disney-like things we could this weekend!

This turned into more of a "brunch" since we were eating closer to 11 p.m.

Jason's parents were also gracious enough to watch Brayden for part of the day, since they were supposed to have him anyway! 

One of the things we were saving for the cruise ship was movie watching. We didn't go see Guardians, Cars 3, or Spider-Man in theaters with hopes they would be available on the ship. Well, we decided to Red Box Guardians 2 and watch with our surround sound that we hardly ever get to use! We also blacked out as many windows as possible and loaded up on the snacks! No, we didn't eat ALL of that in one sitting! (I bought the Ghirardelli chocolates because they reminded me of Disney Springs and the Pineapple Fanta reminded me of Club Cool in Epcot!) 

After the movie, we met up with Jason's parent's in town and picked up Brayden for his first football game of the season! Our hometown college team is the Cowboys, so Brayden was decked out in Wranglers and Cowboy boots! :)

He did REALLY well for the first part of the game but started getting restless closer to half time. Our team was winning, so after half time and watching the band, we decided to leave. (They ended up winning in the end!)

On Sunday morning, we went to church and had lunch afterwards with my parents.

Brayden fell asleep on the way home and he seems to transfer really well from the car seat into his bed....so once he was sound asleep, I began the fall decorating process! I was going to wait until we returned home from the cruise but since that didn't happen, I decided with the gorgeous weather all weekend, I might as well!

Fall is one of my favorite times of year!

We spent the remainder of the evening in the pool! Perfect end to a great weekend!

For the record, my comments about a cancelled cruise are seriously tongue in cheek. I know Disney made the right decision and I'm not upset at all. Yes, I'm sad we didn't get to go on our cruise for now, but I feel worse for the people on those poor islands who had their homes destroyed by Hurricane Irma. 

So there you have it - for a weekend that started off with cancelled plans and ended with a lot of fun, I'd say it was a success!

How was your weekend? Any fun plans?