Happy Birthday Payton!

We celebrated Payton's birthday tonight. This little girl was so excited about her party. I think her brother might have been a little more excited than she was about the party. They had a lot of fun playing, jumping, running and basically just bouncing around for 2 hours followed by a sugar high from cake and ice cream.  But the fun is not over. Tomorrow Payton will receive her first manicure and pedicure and possible facial! It is at a local nail shop just for kids. Should be lots of fun!

3.

The big day is coming.  We are in birthday prep mode.  Cupcakes made for class. DONE. Gift bags filled for party. DONE. T-shirt made by momma for party. DONE. Gifts bought. DONE. Gifts wrapped? Oh, crap... not done! Cake ordered. DONE.
My baby girl about to turn the big 3?! Not sure I'm ready for this... even though sometimes it sounds like she is already 10.  Our little 'pooh' is such a big girl and has an amazing personality with a smile and a laugh that can melt your heart.

She was all hands-on helping me every step of the way tonight...

Half-Marathon.

It's out there. April 3. I'm going for it. The Talladega Half-Marathon.

I've always wanted to run in a marathon. So first step is to train for a half-marathon and see how I do. Problem? It's cold and winter. This native Floridian doesn't do cold weather very well, especially when it comes to running in it. So here I am running upwards of 60+ laps around our high school gym.  Fun times. I'm not a treadmill runner either. I love running outside. So this weather is really killing me. I'm really, really hoping for some warmer temps soon.  Like last weekend, 68-70 on Saturday and Sunday... perfect!!! Problem with Alabama weather... you never know what you are gonna get. Tornados, rain, sleet, ice, snow, sun... we got it all!! 

Back to the running... I've logged over 32 miles so far.  I'm almost to the end of my week 2 training schedule.  I'm really starting to feel the benefits. I've always ran... just 2-3 miles... usually all I had time for. But now I'm really challenging myself out of my comfort running zone and I like it.  I've gotten faster already. I'm excited.  I actually look forward to my running days!

Weekends

We love weekends around here.  That means time to play, relax, be together and have fun! We could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend in January than we just had. I've even got our screen door open as I'm typing this.  Crazy to think that just a couple of weeks ago we had 4 inches of snow on the ground and today it's almost 70.

Friends.

We were all so excited to have some very special guests come over last night.  One of my very best friends from college and her two adorable girls came over to play! It was such a blast watching the kids play together.  We really hope they get to do it more often! ;)

Amy and Bella

 Madison fixing up the dollhouse...

 RJ and Bella - they had a ball together!

 I wonder what kind of conversations these two will have?

 The whole gang trying to settle down for some movie time and popcorn.

100.

The 100th day of school was celebrated this week at RJ's school. The kindegarten classes were assigned a big homework project. They were to collect 100 of something and then create a unique way to display the collection. We decided on Skittles. Easy to collect and count. We tossed around several ideas, but decided on a baseball field! RJ was excited about the whole process and led the way during the entire project. He was excited to share his creation with his class.

First step: sorting out the colors

Next step: Counting out all the colors

 

Next step: Coloring the front page of project

 Last step: gluing down all 100 Skittles!

Before and After.

The fireplace mantle project is about 95% done! We just have some touch up work to do in the corners. I am so pleased with the transformation. It definitely adds some color appeal to our so neutral living room. Here are the pictures:

Before

After I was hesitant for just a second once we started painting, but I'm so glad we tried this. Who knows what we will tackle next!