reading material.

oh, do i feel the pressure to upload, edit and post all of my precious pictures from the past few days... but i'm not giving in.

we've had an incredibly merry christmas, spending it with friends, family and loved ones... but i'm just not ready to say goodbye yet. let me savor one last drop of this christmas season.

so... instead of spending countless hours tonight on the computer with my oh-so-cute photos, the hubbs and i are going to settle down in our brand new pajamas and watch his new blu.ray movie (that i'm embarrassed to say is the hangover and even more embarrassed that i bought it for him). we're going to sip hot chocolate and eat the last of the popcorn tin. and while i snuggle up (in my new hot pink snuggie) with my hubby for the last of this christmas evening, i will have lots of reading to do... grown-up reading. merry christmas ya'll.

obsessed.

i am not a gamer. i repeat: i am not a gamer.

however, we won a wii at the hubbs's office party a few weeks ago, and we got mario kart to go along with it.

let's put it nicely. i have an obsessive need to win at this game.

the problem is that no one will play with me. (a.k.a. jeff won't play with me). he thinks it's a stupid game and it doesn't make sense to him that you can throw turtles, you can bomb your opponent, and you can get struck by lightening. he hates that it's totally random when you get your 'weapons'. mostly, he hates that there is no skill involved.

can you say, 'he really hates that you're better at the game than him, becky!'?!?

ha. anyone with me?

battle-wound.

i had my first battle-wound today. my legs literally felt like lead today as i was running... and i definitely tripped over something (i really have no idea what, could it possibly have been my own foot???) and rolled my ankle then scraped my knee!!! ugh!!! the worst part was that it was right at the beginning of my run! oh well, i guess i'm one.tough.cookie. i kept running. for 2 1/2 more miles!!! (i actually didn't realize i was bleeding until i stopped). i'm sure there are many more to come. please tell me i'm not the only one who has fallen over their own two feet!!

while he was sleeping....

i made these cute and easy christmas cookies.

simple as pie:

melt white chocolate.
dip one end of a nutter butter in chocolate.
coat in red sugar sprinkles.
'glue' white chocolate chip on top of red sugar with melted chocolate.
use mini-chocolate chips (or raisins or whatever) for the eyes. red hots, red m&m's, red anything will do for the nose.

let cool completely.
re-melt white chocolate.
dip other end of nutter butter in chocolate for beard.
let cool.

and that's that. brady is about to wake up to a 'nanta' snack. hehe.

merry monday.

last minute gifts???

is anyone in need of some last minute christmas gifts????

if you are, i have a box full of these adorable cookbooks that some girlfriends and i put together! over 200 pages of tried and true recipes! better yet, they're only $13 and all of the proceeds go to the prestonwood pregnancy center, specifically the mobile sonogram units.

let me know if you're interested!! (p.s. they would make good 'new year's gifts' too - thanks for the idea, kendra!)

let's be honest.

this week did not exactly live up to my expectations.

i had so many fun things planned. i have been stocking up on paint, glitter, glue sticks, markers, and construction paper for weeks {ok, maybe not that long} in preparation for this week. my kitchen table has a stack of baking chocolate, powdered sugar and sprinkles just begging to be used. i had caught up on all of my laundry and household chores so that i could just 'enjoy the season' this week.

well... like many other times in life, things did not go as planned. the hubbs came down with a nasty cold last weekend. i so didn't want to get it... but on tuesday afternoon i started feeling an itch in my chest and by wednesday morning, i was rendered useless. ugh. jeff's truck 'took it's last breath' on wednesday night. sad, but true. brady woke up friday morning with a nasty cough and has now gone hoarse. {it's precious to hear him talk with such a soft voice though}.

needless to say, we did not get get much crafting done. nor baking. nor shopping. nor did we have much 'christmas fun' like i had hoped this week. oh well, there's always next week.

SO......

in an effort to do something christamsy this week, i was determined that i would be brave enough to make a gingerbread house with the bug. man, did we have fun. i was prepared for a huge mess in the kitchen, but it wasn't too bad. he pretty much caught on halfway through.... but he definitely put EVERY piece of candy in his mouth before putting it on the house. so cute. i'm surprised he's asleep with all of the sugar he ate. hehe.

the gumdrops were his favorite.

we ended up with twizzlers all over the 'yard'.

sticky hands.

brady did the entire back of the house.
{i did the roof... before i gave up on trying to have it look pretty}

pajama playdate.

ashley, anna lou and graham had us over for a pajama playdate today. it was so incredibly nice outside that we had to get some outdoor play in before it gets cold again tomorrow. ashley had a fun craft set up for us when we got there and homemade broccoli cheese soup. yummmmy. thanks ash!

sweet anna was showing off in the baby swing. so sweet.

b. loves playing with strollers, shopping carts or whatever else little girls push around!

anna was 'pushing' brady on the swing. ummm... can you say, "precious"??

the kiddos.... i don't know why my pics are grainy...

on the handle of anna's shopping cart was her purse. brady swung it over his arm like he knew exactly what he was doing. we were all getting a big kick out of him walking around with the purse... and alternating pushing the stroller and pushing the shopping cart...

ummmm....

are there really only 10 shopping days until christmas? (i don't shop on christmas eve!!!)

i better get cracking!

amazon.com here i come!

a milestone.

so... for a few weeks, i've been 'pre-training'.

for what? you may ask.

well.... with the encouragement of a sweet friend of mine... i've decided to run (okay jog. let's be honest - i just want to finish...) the rock 'n' roll half marathon on sunday, march 14, 2010. so.... since i've never.ever.ever run before, i've been trying hard to get up to a comfortable 3 miles. i've been comfortably at 2 for a while. hey, i've done 2.5, 2.75 and even 2.9... but i just couldn't seem to get to 3... mentally i had a block. i couldn't do it, how would i EVER get to 13.2????????

well....


i did it.... on saturday.



with the help of that same sweet friend.

even though she can run WAY faster than me, and even though she was running in the white rock relay the very next day, she challenged me one week ago to sign up for the frisco frosty 5K and run with her. (okay, so really, she'd be running with me.)

(here we are before the race)

this is the mass chaos before the race.

this is some weird chick who had on a unitard. (did i mention it was 40 degrees, cloudy and raining? oh yeah. i think that adds on a mile or two, right?)

not only did i do it, but i finished in 34:30... way sooner than i thought i would. (if you are a runner, you know this is not fast... it's just fast for me.) i'd been running right at a 12 min. mile and this put me at an average pace of 10:51. can i get a woo-hoo? no? is it just me that is excited?!

here we are, about to cross the finish line - and yup, that's a smile on my face!

ummmm.... go ahead and click on the picture below to make it larger. yeah. that's my calf muscle. wow.... i look like a body builder, don't i? from the knee below, of course.

if you think you see a teary-eyed me, you're right. i'm honest enough to admit that i was proud of myself.

after our run (some people may consider it a jog)... we all went to the original pancake house to enjoy some breakfast. yummmmy. b. had a great day.... donuts with daddy and mr. joshy for breakfast, and then pancakes, fruit and chocolate milk for a mid-morning snack. his tummy couldn't have been more full.


be on the look out for more running updates. ha. i just registered for a 10K in january... and i think a few of my mommy friends are going to be running with me... right? (i'll let them tell you who they are before i steal their thunder!)

can i get a woo-hoo?