So Proud!

Well, we got the news today that we have been waiting for! 

Kyle has been selected for promotion to Major! 

I am so damn proud of him and all of the hard work he has put in the last 10 years in the Army. He is an amazing officer who puts the needs of soldiers before his own. He is a natural born leader and takes his job very seriously. He loves what he does and he does it because he wants to.

(this is an old photo but gosh I love it)

We will find out tomorrow where we will be moving to in June and we are so excited for this next adventure.

Goals for 2017

Every year I make it a point to focus on goals rather than resolutions. I find it much easier to achieve what I want to without feeling that there is added pressure. To me resolutions tend to get thrown to the side whereas goals are something that you should strive to complete.

I tend to limit how many goals I focus on because I do not want to be overwhelmed. 

Here is what I am focusing on this year:

*Finances. I rarely discuss finances on my blog but I figured I would break my own rule for the sake of this post. Kyle and I have always been pretty good with money and we do our best to not spend frivolously. We only have 2 pieces a debt, a small credit card and my car payment. Our goal this year is to pay off my car, we bought it last March and would love to have it paid off my the end of the year. With my plan this year which includes putting our entire tax return towards that loan and continuing to make additional principle payments we can successfully have my card paid off in December. Which would be 2 1/2 years early. In addition to that we will continue monthly transfers into savings as well as E's college account. 

*Health. While I do run on a regular basis I need to get back into my healthier eating habits. I don't eat terribly but I tend to skip meals and that is not good (believe me I know). I am going to start planning my breakfasts and lunches in advance so I have no excuse to not eat. 

*Be More Present. As we all know we live in a world where technology is such a huge part of our every day lives however it shouldn't have to be. I want to make it a point to have at least 2 hours daily where technology is not involved. I want to be present and focus on my family as well as myself. E is already growing too fast and I don't want to miss a moment.

*Declutter. With a move happening this year some major decluttering needs to happens. We have so much stuff that we don't use and it's getting out of control. We have a rule that if we haven't used something in 3 months it gets donated or tossed. I will begin this process this weekend and I can't wait!

I'm excited for attack these goals this year and make 2017 amazing!

Family Time

I am so glad that we were able to spend 7 days in Florida with my family. It has been amazing being only 7 hours away from them, being able to have that quality time together is wonderful.

 

We arrived on Monday and opened Christmas gifts, the kids were all spoiled and it was great seeing them so happy. We actually didn't take any pictures because we were just enjoying the moments. Celebrating E's 1st Christmas with family was priceless.

My sister and I were able to have a girls day on Tuesday. We drove to Panama City, had lunch, and did some shopping. It was so much fun to have that time together because we don't get to do it very often. We may or may not have spent way too much at Target haha but it was fun.

Wednesday, my Dad took us all out to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse in Pensacola. He loves doing this for Christmas and it has become a tradition the last few years. E even got a taste of mashed potatoes, she is a fan haha.

On Thursday my Dad and Kyle went shooting. My sisters neighbor took them out to his brothers house so they could shoot the arsenal of weapons that my Dad has haha. They had a great time and I was happy that they were able to spend that time together.

Friday, my sister had to work so we decided to take Kylie and Grayson out for the day. My Dad offered to watch E so we took them to lunch at Olive Garden and then to go Go-Karting. We had such a blast with them and we even hit up the arcade where they had a blast. We love having that time with them. That night we headed over to the neighbors house for a fun get together.

Saturday was NYE so we had a small BBQ with my sisters neighbors. We ate a lot of yummy food, played Cards Against Humanity and actually stayed up to ring in the New Year. Well, E went to bed but the rest of us stayed up. (Oh and before anyone asks yes that is an urn on the table, my Mom wanted to play cards :) )

Sunday was mostly a relaxed day we went bowling in the afternoon and then decided to take some family photos. We have not had a photo of all of us done in a very long time!

I love how it turned out!

I am definitely grateful for this time with family! I will certainly miss it when the time comes to move.

4 months!

Happy 2017! Can't wait to share a recap of our awesome trip to Florida but that will have to wait until later this week.

Let's talk about how our sweet baby girl is already 4 months old! I can't believe it. Time has flown by and it really has been so amazing. She is our little chunky monkey, she weighed 13lbs at a doctors appointment 2 weeks ago. She has her 4 month shots tomorrow and I'm dreading it.

Her personality has been in full bloom this month and it's hilarious. She loves to laugh and giggle, and will smile at everyone. She is reaching for everything (including mommy's hair), loves her Sophie giraffe, and pretty much everything goes in her mouth. She loves swatting at her toys in her bouncer and this trip to Florida really got her interested in her cousins. They loved making her laugh.

She is starting to enjoy tummy time because has figured out how to roll from stomach to back and she is so happy about that. She even scoots herself sideways and it's the cutest thing.

She is a bit of a night owl and will go to bed around 11pm (which is fine by me because I stay up to work on school) and sleep until 8-9am. She is still a champ on long road trips, we have perfected our set-up, which means I ride in the back with her to keep her entertained.

She is only really angry when she is hungry, but I don't blame her one bit.

She is such a joy and even with the hard and stressful times being a parent is so worth it!

Year In Review!

What a year 2016 has been! It has been by far the best year of our lives! Let's take a walk down memory lane.

January:

We celebrated sweet Emma's 12th birthday. She has been with me her whole life and I love her so.

February:

I spent a week in Florida with our niece and nephew because my sister went away for work. It was such a fun time with them. 

 March:

We found out that we would be having a precious baby girl! To celebrate we bought a new car. Such an amazing day. 

The kids came to spend their spring break and Easter with us. It was the best!

April:

We ran a color run 5k on post! It was so fun watching the kids have such a great time.

We also took the kiddos to Monster Jam, it was awesome! 

We went to Florida to celebrate Kyle's birthday and he got the best gift from my sister and the kids. He got to pet and feed a sloth. :)

May:

My Dad came to visit and spent 2 weeks with us. Since Kyle was busy with work he helped me finish a few projects around the house.

 June:

We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary at a beautiful restaurant in town! Hard to believe the kiddos from 6th grade history class are married all these years later.

We had our maternity photos done and they came out perfect! This is definitely one of my favorites.

Kyle's parents came to visit and it was so great to spend time with them.

July:

We spent 4th of July in Florida, went hung out at the beach, had a BBQ, and celebrated Kylie and Grayson's birthdays at a water park.

I also ran my last race before E came at 34 weeks!

August:

We celebrated Fishy's 8th birthday! He is such a silly kitty.

This was my due date month and was so ready to meet our baby girl. I finally went into the hospital on August 31st.

 September:

Our precious blessing and miracle, Emersyn Kay, was born on September 1st! The absolute best gift we could have ever received.

My family came to visit and meet our sweet girl. It was wonderful having them here.

October:

Kyle's Mom came to visit and it was a great time.

We celebrated E's first Halloween and our little ninja turtle had a great time.

November:

We headed to Florida to see family and run our first half marathon since E was born and it was amazing.

We also took this trip as a chance to celebrate Lisa and Kylie's birthdays!

My Dad came to spend Thanksgiving with us and we took him out to run a turkey trot with us.

December:

We had a night out to ourselves and went to the OPS Group Ball.

We celebrated E's 1st Christmas and went down to Florida to ring in the New Year!

What an amazing 2016 it was! We spent a ton of time with family and welcomed our rainbow baby! 

I hope you all had an amazing 2016 and here is to an even better 2017!

**We will finally find out on January 10th if Kyle will be getting promoted, woo!**

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I can't believe that Christmas is now only 2 days away! We will be spending Christmas day at home and then we will venture down to Florida to spend a week with my family to celebrate the holidays. 

I hope that however you are celebrating the holiday that you are surrounded by family, friends, love, and joy. I will be taking a few days off next week from blogging but I do plan on ending the year with a year in review!

We are so excited that we get to celebrate with this precious miracle.

Also, please remember the service members that are not able to be home with their loved ones. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

My Thoughts

See this trail right here?! This is the trail I go to when I need to clear my head and knock out marathon training miles. It's so calming.

As I was running on Tuesday, I realized that I am only 5 1/2 weeks away from running my 2nd marathon (Rock n Roll New Orleans, woo!) and the panic/excitement began to set in. Then the doubt began to creep in as well. I have had several people tell me that I am crazy for attempting this with having had a baby only 5 months prior to the race. I have thought to myself, am I biting off more than I can chew? Am I not giving myself enough time to truly recover? 

But then I realized that I don't NEED to run this race, I WANT to. I want to challenge myself, I want to know that I have trained enough to make it to the finish line. Of course anything can happen on race day and no matter what happens I will walk away with a sense of pride not only for that day but for the journey that has gotten me to that point. 

Another thing that has been creeping into my mind is jealousy. Jealousy of those women who had babies around the same time that I did and who are already back in their pre-pregnancy clothes. I know that sounds petty but I've had moments where I think gosh what am I doing wrong. Then I realize that I'm not doing anything wrong, my body has changed. I also feel that society places unfair expectations on women to look a certain way and to bounce back from pregnancy the next day. I housed and grew a human for 9 months, my body will never be the same. I will carry weight differently and my hips are wider, but I have to remember that how I see myself is more important than how others see me. I have started focusing on being strong/fit versus being thin. I know this is all a mental thing for me and I am focusing on me rather than worrying about others,  it's all a work in progress. :)

I am stronger than I give myself credit for and I'll keep pushing forward accomplishing things that others think I can't.

Have a great day!