2017 Recap

Well I can’t believe that in a few days we will say goodbye to 2017! I feel like the year just started.

I thought it would be fun to do a quick recap of the year we have had.

January- We found out that Kyle made the promotion and that we would be moving to Kansas.

February- E and I spent Valentine's Day in Florida! With Kyle working so much it was nice to stay busy.

March- I submitted my thesis for grad school and officially graduated with my Masters in Psychology! It was such a huge relief to be done. 

April- We spent Easter in Florida. We were lucky that Kyle had a long weekend so we jumped at the chance to drive down and spent it with family. It was so fun experiencing E's 1st Easter.

May- My sister and I flew to Disneyland to run the pixie Dust Challenge! What an unforgettable experience that was. Running a 10k and half marathon back to back was no small feat.

We also spent Memorial Day in Florida and took E to the beach for the first time! Beach days with family were definitely one of my favorite things.

June- We said goodbye to Fort Polk and started a new adventure in Fort Leavenworth. 

July- I joined a workout group called Stroller Strong Moms and it became a huge part of my life and fitness journey. The friendships I’ve gained from it have been amazing. This photo is from one of my first classes.

August- Kyle and I were able to have a night out for his Commandant's Reception. It was nice to get the chance to meet his classmates and see where he spends his days.

We also took E to her first concert! It was a hit.

September- Family flew into town and together with friends we celebrated our precious E’s 1st Birthday! It was such a fun party and we were so thankful that family made the effort to be there.

October- I ran the Kansas City Half Marathon and PR’d my time by 15 minutes. It was an awesome feeling!

We also celebrated our first real Halloween with E! She carried her bucket around everywhere for every single event we went to. She was so happy.

November- Kyle and I ran our 100th race and it was pretty amazing! A huge milestone that we will never forget. 

I got to see Waitress live in Kansas City with friends.

We also kept our tradition of going to at least one tree lighting!

We also celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and it was really nice!

December- We were able to drive to Florida and spend a week with my family for Christmas. It was so fun spending that time together. Seeing E soak up all of the love and attention from everyone was the best. She was a happy girl especially getting to play with her cousins. We played games, ate lots of food, hung out, saw Christmas light, went shopping, and just enjoyed the time together! It was the best!

Needless to say it was a pretty awesome 2017 but we are so excited to see what 2018 has in store of us!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a very safe New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Well, we made it to Florida to begin our Christmas vacation! It's so good to be here with family. We are already enjoying our time together. It was amazing seeing the kiddos play.

I don't have plans to blog again until after we get home next week but I might check in if I have the time. I will be back though to do a year in review.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Weekend In Review

Hello Monday!!! I can't believe we are officially one week away from Christmas. How did that happen? 

We enjoyed a pretty busy weekend which is never a bad thing.

On Friday, Kyle got home a bit later than normal but we were able to enjoy a late night fire with neighbors and it was really nice to just be able to relax and decompress after a busy week. 

Saturday morning I was up at 6:30 to join a few friends (and fellow SLAM moms) for a long run. It was nice to get out and enjoy the chilly but clear weather. It was a nice moderately paced 10 miles. I would love to start doing this every Saturday morning with friends, it was such a great way to start the day. 

After I got home, we all got dressed and headed to the cemetery on post for the Wreaths Across America event. This was the first time we have ever volunteered for it and I'm so glad we did. It was a truly humbling experience seeing over 1,500 people dedicating their time to laying these wreaths.

This is definitely something that we want to continue doing as E grows up. It is important to raise her to respect and honor those who have given so much. 

Afterwards we had brunch with one of Kyle's classmates and her husband. It was nice to chat with them and enjoy a good meal. 

We had just enough time to get home and put E down for a quick nap before we headed off to the city. We had reservations for the Kansas City Southern Train experience. It's a train at Union Station that is decorated for Christmas that you get to walk through and also a chance to get a photo with Santa. 

E wasn't quite sure about Santa but she didn't cry so we call that a win. It was a 

It was free and we are so glad we were able to go. 

Sunday morning I went to a SLAM Ugly Sweater Scavenger Hunt event. Kyle and E were going to come but he wasn't feel that great so they opted to stay home. We got broken up into two teams and we had a list of things that we had to find and take photos with. The entire team had to be in the photos so I had a trusty selfie stick to help with that. It was such a blast!

This was one: take a photo with a reindeer. Mission accomplished haha.

We started at about 10:10 and had until 11am to find everything and meet back in the designated spot. The first team to make it back by 11 with all of the photos completed would win. My team was pretty amazing and we made it back first, completing everything including the bonus ones.

We were happy winners with our peppermint patty medals! 

The other team was not so happy. ha!

Despite who won or lost we had an awesome time!! We are hoping to do another one in the spring.

The day ended with a trip to IKEA with a friend and LOTS of laundry haha! We are preparing to our holiday trip and I swear the laundry doesn't end. 

I hope you all had a great weekend! 

Running in 2018

One of the things I always look forward to in a new year is the new events that we get to run! Since we only have about 6 months left in Kansas, we are going to be checking off some fun events.

Here is what we already have planned for 2018.

1. Battle of the Bean 5k

Kyle is excited about this one because the finisher prize is a coffee mug. However, he is Team Coffee and I'm Team Cocoa. It looks to be a fun event to kick off 2018.

2. Kickoff 5k

This one happens on Super Bowl Sunday. We couldn't think of a better way to spend the morning than running. It's an excuse to indulge in all the yummy game day food.

3. Sweetheart Run 10k

I love a good 10k race and this one I have heard is amazing! A local running company (KC Running Company) organizes most events and they are always the best. 

4. The Storybook Run 5k

I think this is the one that I am most excited about. They encourage you to dress up as your favorite storybook character for the event. I am still figuring out what we will dress up as but I can't wait.

5. St. Patrick's Day 4 Miler

We always love a good theme race and what a better day to run than St. Patrick's Day. A few friends of mine ran this last year and had a blast. I knew we had to add it to the list.

6. Great Plains 10k

This event occurs in 3 different locations to include Kansas City. It is one of the most popular events in the Spring and I didn't want to leave here without doing it.

7. Brew to Brew Relay

This is a 44.4 mile event that can be done solo or with a team. You can have up to a 10 person team to complete it. As of right now a group of us from SLAM will compete and Kyle will compete with members of his small group. Individuals will run from Kansas City, MO to Lawrence, KS. 

8. Heartland 39.3 Challenge

This is the event that has me the most nervous, haha. That's saying a lot because there aren't many things that make me nervous. For this event we will be running 3 half marathons in 5 weeks. Rock the Parkway Half, Garmin Half, and the Running with the Cows Half. We completed the Heartland 30k series this year so we figured why not complete the 39.3 mile challenge.

All of this will be leading up to Chicago Marathon on October 7th. These will be vital training miles as well as fun. Speaking of the marathon for those that are interested I am still actively fundraising for Homes for Our Troops. Feel free to share my page and lets get the word out about this amazing organization. Homes for Our Troops Fundraiser

Here is to an active 2018!

Weekend Wrap-up

I feel like I haven't been as committed to blogging lately. I find myself lacking things to do talk about and to be honest it seems to happen around the holidays. Hopefully I'll find my groove again, I do have some posts ready to publish so at least I can keep some content coming.

We found out late Thursday night that Kyle didn't get accepted into the school that he wanted. Was he disappointed? Absolutely. It's hard seeing your spouse want something so much only to be told no. So what does that mean?! It means that we will be on the move again next summer. Kyle is actively working right now to (hopefully)get us back to Fort Bragg. He want to be back in an Airborne (jumping out of airplanes) unit. I love the area and we have friends there so I'm on board 100%. 

Neither one of us really wanted to be in the house on Friday so we packed E up, roamed around Target and had dinner at Red Robin. An Oreo milkshake and beer did help the disappointment.

 On Saturday, we attended a birthday party for a friend's son. It was at a bounce place, which was really cool. E enjoyed running around and seeing all the kids. Kyle and I also played a heated game of air hockey haha. 

Afterwards we headed home so I could get ready for a cookie party that I was co-hosting with my friend, Lauren. It was a fun afternoon with friends and we all went home with lots of cookies. I'll be eating them for days.

Sunday, we were supposed to be up bright and early for a Jingle Bell 5k. However, none of us got much sleep. Poor E was up most of the night with what seems to be the beginning of a cold. I knew it was bound to happen. We finally got her back down to sleep at 6am and we both crashed. She was up for good 2 hours later haha. Oh well. We had breakfast and decided to go for a family run instead. It was relatively warm so it made that 4.5 miles go by quickly. E is always happy when we go running as is evident by her yelling "PUPPY!" everytime she sees a dog haha. 

We spent the rest of the day working on laundry and cleaning up around the house. 

I'm in countdown mode for our trip to Florida for Christmas. I can't wait for us to be with my family and celebrate the holidays together. 

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Christmas Card 2017

Every year I always look forward to putting together our Christmas card. It is something that I have always done and it's just a great punctuation to the year. I always include a brief overview of what has happened in the year. I do that because not all of our family and friends are on social media. I feel like it brings a personal element to the card.

First, let's take a look down memory lane of some of my favorites. 

I was excited this year because we had Christmas themed photo taken and I knew that I wanted to use them for our card. My friend, Liz, is a brilliant photographer and she always captures the best images. Emma and Fishy are not fans of being held most of the time so I have to capture their photos separately, which is fine by them haha.

I am happy to introduce our 2017 Christmas Card!

I was able to put an image on the back and this is one of my favorites.

She was more than happy to take pictures as long as she could eat cookies. Thank you, Walgreens!

Do you send out Christmas cards? If so, have you sent them out yet?