Hey, friends — I am super excited for the weekend! We have lots of fun things planned and I’m hoping to squeeze in a few new recipes that I want to try before Monday’s meal post. Are you guys doing anything fun this weekend?
ONE Yes, I know that Frozen was on my last 5 on Friday post, so I’m sorry to repeat. BUT, my children are obsessed. And by obsessed I mean that Sophie wears pink gloves around the house to keep from freezing people, she asked my mom yesterday to make her a cape like Elsa wears and pretty much every day is like living in a show-tune. Josh has forbidden us to play the soundtrack in his car, but as soon as I pick the girls up every afternoon they start yelling out requests. And I have to admit… I may have listened to it a time or two when I was in the car alone. Don’t judge. Well, Sophie wants to BE the ice princess and when I said “Good Morning, Elsa” to her on Tuesday, she seriously beamed. Later that night she was serenading us with her version of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and I couldn’t resist sharing it on Instagram. This is only 1 of about 15 different clips I recorded. She is so dramatic and her facial expressions slay me.
TWO Running is better this week. I did five miles over the weekend and will need to bump it up to eight this weekend to stay on track for the half-marathon next month. Yes, I should be farther along, but my December hiatus + flu pushed me back a few weeks. I figure I need to run 8 this weekend, 9 next weekend, and 11 the next weekend before I start to taper. The good news is it’s getting easier and with cooler temperatures I can sustain my pace and don’t require any breaks to catch my breath. I need everyone to pray for 40* and beautiful for Valentine’s Day weekend!! It was pretty chilly in Alabama this week, so I hit up the treadmill two days. I’m sorry, but 3 miles on the treadmill is rough for me. I don’t know why it hurts so much more than being outside and maybe it’s a mind thing, but I. CAN’T. TAKE. IT. Yesterday, I decided to suck it up and brave a windy 34* and it was actually pretty wonderful. I ran 4.5 miles and stayed right around 9 minutes per mile for the whole run.
THREE I know that we have it better than most when it comes to babysitters. It’s pretty well known that we usually manage to carve out at least two date nights a month without our kids, thanks to my fantastic in-laws. It doesn’t hurt that we don’t have babies and my girls are pretty self-sufficient at this stage in their life. Well, my sister has a six month old and let’s just say it isn’t as easy for her! A few weeks ago, we decided to do a baby swap and it was perfect. We kept Hudson on a Friday night for them to head out for a few hours and then they kept our girls on Saturday night while we ran to dinner. We had such a good time keeping the brother-cousin. There were some dance parties, quite a few fascinating encounters with our dog and some good snuggles. He was also a big fan of being upside down. And the photograph on the right might have given me a momentary twinge of baby fever, but that was quickly eradicated by a diaper change and a little spit up. All kidding aside, he was a dream baby and swapping kids is the perfect way to get out of the house for a few hours. You should try it!
FOUR On a lighter note. Have I ever mentioned it was most definitely the baseball pants that made me fall for my husband? Without a doubt. It’s just unfortunate that I can’t find a photo like this one taken from the visitor’s side! He’s helping K’s husband coach varsity baseball this year and I’ve been informed he’ll be wearing the pants. He knows I’m a fan, so he was pretty quick to point that out. My response was “please, Lord, let them be white” and “do you mind wearing them home?”
FIVE Tomorrow is circus day! My husband is less than thrilled, but my girls have been giddy since Christmas. As always, it is one of their favorite gifts and Nana always gets the best seats. This year the theme is Legends and there is a unicorn on the billboard — how can you go wrong with a unicorn?! Ummm, you can’t. Since everything is always so expensive, and in my experience they sell the same light-up toys every year, we always replace the batteries in the ones we have at home and carry them in. I cannot spend $50 on swords every year and we have quite the selection in our closet. I will be hoping to convince Josh to buy me a snow cone, though. That is my favorite part of the entire experience!
Me & my snow cone, circa 2011 – let’s just ignore the extra 20 pounds I brought with me, mmmkay?
Family photo, circa 2013 – I’m hoping Taz isn’t quite so antsy this year!!