December Happenings

Thought I would update the blog with some fun things we've been up to recently. I'll start with a picture of our house. First time we've hung lights outside in awhile. 

 Last Wednesday night we visited Tanglewood park to see their lights. It was really neat, and we all enjoyed it. I loved that you get to stay in your car and drive through to see the light displays. I wasn't expecting much, but I was really impressed.

Chloe loved it too. We let her out of the car seat while in the park so she could see the lights. She kept  saying "Hi!" to all the light displays.

Saturday we were suppose to take Chloe to see Santa at Old Salem. Clarke ended up getting really sick, so he couldn't go. My dad was in town visiting so we took Chloe. To say she was less than impressed is an understatement. She was so not into it.

We saw a cute little puppet show first. Chloe wasn't sure what to think. She sat through the whole thing intrigued. After they had sugar cookies, which I think was her favorite part of the trip.

Chloe did love seeing all the cute decorations.

Then we went to see Santa, and I couldn't get a smile out of her.

 Of course she started screaming and even when I tried to sit down with her (which worked last year) she was not having it. And below is the best picture we got, ha!

Out attempt to get a cute picture on the bridge like last year, but once again she wasn't having it.

I'll end with a cute picture of Chloe right before church yesterday. :)

Cookies!

This past weekend we headed down to Raleigh to bake some cookies with Aunt Melanie. Chloe loved  it. 

I think tasting the finished product was her favorite part. This was a fun little weekend trip to see some family during the holidays. Glad we got away and got to bake some cookies!

Christmas Decorations

I thought I would post some pictures of our Christmas decorations this year on the blog. Last year we were in the middle of a move so this is the first time I've decorated this house. I was thinking how a lot of my close friends and family in Richmond won't be able to see them, so here's the next best thing. 

This is on our kitchen counter. The tree was mine when I was little. The handprint of Chloe's we made today, it's on the stump from our Christmas tree. 

Here's a shot of our dinning room. Love the red sparkly trees, forgot I had them until I took them out of the box this year.

Here's our Christmas tree, it's our biggest one yet. Oh, and ignore that cat stuffed animal, not part of the Christmas decorations, just a little girl who is obsessed with cats like me. 

Here's a close up shot of the shelves. Got the print here, it was a free printable. 

Chloe absolutely loves her nativity. She is all about babies, mommies and daddies right now, so she loves the baby Jesus and Joseph and Mary. Here's our nativity.

In our front room I hung our Moravian star so you can see it from the outside.

Hope you enjoyed the little Christmas tour of our house! 

Mistletoe Half Marathon

Confession: I've been living in Winston for about a year and a half and I had never run in a local race. 

I've trained here, ran through many different routes through downtown, Salem Lake, Buena Vista, the Muddy Creek Greenway and all around my neighborhood. But never an official race, and I felt like I just needed to. With training for the half I couldn't get around to running a summer or fall race so I decided to do Mistletoe. It's a fun, smaller local half that everyone is always talking about. I thought since I already did the training for Richmond why not? 

 I was excited. Until I saw the forecast, 80% chance of rain. The high was 58 so I thought at least it won't be cold. But, the rain held off. Around mile 4 it started drizzling, and it did off and on the entire race. Since it wasn't super cold it felt fine. I was so glad because although the course is hilly it goes through some of my favorite parts of Winston and I got to enjoy it. We had fun along the way because we ran this race with the premise of not caring about our times. We treated it like a training run. We always joke on longer training runs that we deserve a medal, so we finally got one.

After the race we tried a new restaurant, and it was so good. Chloe's just like her parents, she loved the chips and salsa. 

And just for fun I put this collage together. This was my third half of the year, it's been a good year of racing! 

Christmas Tree Hunt

The day after Thanksgiving we headed up the mountains to cut our own Christmas Tree. It was so much fun. I've always thought it would be neat to cut down your own tree, and I'm so glad we got to do it.

It was so beautiful up there. The county where we were grows the most Christmas trees in the whole state of North Carolina, there were trees everywhere and it smelled amazing. 

Chloe enjoyed seeing all the trees and being up in the mountains. It had snowed the day before and she loved seeing all the snow. It was such a fun day, so glad we got to go!

Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope y'all enjoyed your Thanksgiving with family and friends, and have plenty to be thankful for. We celebrated here in North Carolina.

My in laws came down, and yesterday we went to the Children's Museum. Chloe made a turkey/ indian head dress and she actually wore it. She looked quite adorable!

Chloe enjoyed Thanksgiving and all the prep that went into it, like licking the beater from the chocolate pie filling.

This was my first time hosting Thanksgiving. My in laws were here, and my good friend Kelli and her family came over too. Chloe loved having her bff Olivia here.

They spent most of the time playing in the pantry though. Thanksgiving with 2 toddlers was very busy, but really fun. Chloe's favorites this year were the rolls. mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. I tried to get more pictures but we were so busy cooking and keeping up with Chloe.

Feeling truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. Being away from Richmond and my family there was hard this year. But, having good friends and family here made it good, and for that I'm thankful. 

Chloe Conversations

Since I started blogging years ago I've always read cute posts about funny things people's children say. And since Chloe is getting to be chatty, well chatty in the sense she is saying more real words, I thought I should start documenting some of my favorite cute things she says. So here goes the first installment of Chloe conversations!

We were watching Daniel Tiger after dinner tonight and I realized Chloe had had a bowel movement. I asked "Chloe did you go poopy?" I see her thinking and I know she hates diaper changes so she points to her cat stuffed animal and says "the cat, she poopy."

Trying to blame it on the cat, well played Chloe, well played. 

Richmond Half 2014

This past Saturday I ran in my favorite race, The Richmond Half Marathon. I love this race for so many reasons, and my third time (including the full from 2011) was just as great as before. So here you have it: Richmond 2014 race recap!

That morning it was cold. It was 28 degrees when we started and about 38 when we finished. I had my throw away hat, gloves, hoodie so I was set. I didn't want a repeat of last year where I almost missed the start and couldn't find parking so I had Clarke drop me off by 6. It was dark out but the start was busy and I was excited. Most of my teammates where staying at the Marriott so a bunch of us hung out in our head coach's room until 6:45. We headed to the lobby for a team photo, then it was off to the start and y'all I couldn't contain myself. Someone asked if it was my first half because I was so excited. I said "no, I just love this race, lol." 

The first 2 miles I was definitely warming up. Once we hit Boulevard I threw off my hat and hoodie and was finally feeling like I got my stride down. I ran the first 10k with Debra, my pace group's coach, and it worked out well because we paced each other and I really like starting the race with someone. Once we got to Bryan Park and hit the 10k timer I knew I was on track for my goal time. My family was in the park cheering me on and I loved seeing them. Just that 2 seconds of them cheering for you makes such a difference and it gave me the boost I needed to get through the last hill of the race. 

Once you leave the park it's through the Pope Arch and into the neighborhood of Bellevue. So many people cheering! Mile 11 two of my closest friends were cheering me on and I kept looking for them. I kept telling myself "just keep this pace, and you'll do it, just keep this pace." I was running about a 10 minute mile then, although when I looked back at my Garmin it said mile 11 was a 9 minute mile. At mile 12 I checked my time, 2hrs 5 minutes. If I could keep running a 10 minute mile then I could do a 2:15 half. 

When I started training back in August I hoped to break 2:20. It seemed almost too far fetched though, but as training went on and I got stronger and gained more confidence I knew I could do it. My pace from Tuesday night speed work and the Yasso 800s made me think maybe I could even do a 2:15 half. 

The last half mile of this race I gave it my all. I was heaving like never before and the down hill finish I kept thinking "just don't fall." I crossed the finish line and looked at my Garmin:

I did it! I've never been one to really care about my time, but it felt so good to do it. This was my first race where I really pushed myself, where I really dug deep those last few miles and pushed through. 

I met up with other teammates after and we snapped some photos. Then I needed pizza. I've decided pizza is my favorite post race food, so I headed to get my free slice. 

 Chloe was not into taking pictures at first. Even though I was exhausted I couldn't wait to give her a hug. Seriously my family is the best for taking such good care of her while I run. 

Met up with Rachel and Emily afterwards. I said on Instagram how I'm thankful for these girls, they got me addicted to running years ago. Ran with me when I could barely run one mile, told me I could be a distance runner and kept me going. Love this picture of us. 

Tonight we had our team celebration to end training. Our head coach talked about being proud of our training, and I really am. I'm proud of those early Saturday runs, and those 2 loops around Salem Lake in the cold rain and running all the way up Brookstown. I'm just as proud for making it through training as I am of my PR. I've said it before but training with Fleet Feet on the hills here has made me such a stronger runner. I'm thankful for the friends I've made and the running community here in Winston. 

So there's my race recap for Richmond. Another great race in my hometown!