Happy Valentines Day...weekend!

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday by going out to lunch at Chuy's, some window shopping at some of my favorite stores (Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel etc) and then seeing Avatar in Imax! It was a great day together and Avatar was amazing! I am still in disbelief how someone could come up with that! We normally don't do gifts so I was really surprised when John gave me an iPod shuffle! I have a regular iPod but it is huge and really a pain to run with. The shuffle is so small and can just clip onto my shirt! Since I always have pre made running play lists I can upload one and off I go! I can not wait to go for a run with it!

We went to my parent's to pick Peyton up and stayed to watch most of the Vancouver Olympic Opening ceremonies with them and while we were watching came up with the crazy idea that Peyton and I should go up to Vancouver! So...my parents have planned a trip to the Olympics for over a year. They have tickets to events and were leaving this upcoming Friday, the 19th. I was telling my mom how seeing the Olympics in Canada made me miss my family up there (who I haven't seen since our wedding and I haven't been to Vancouver in over 6 years). She looked at me and said, "why don't you come with us?" Well, I didn't give it too much thought because of the craziness of it but when we got home, I brought it up to John and he actually didn't think it was too mad. We looked at the prices for tickets and all the other expenses and then I made sure to look at what Peyton and I could do together since my parents would be busy with events for three days. I saw that the transportation system is amazing and very well prepared for the Olympics and there are tons of Olympic and non Olympic things we could do that would be appropriate for Peyton.

So...Saturday night I booked our flights and we leave this Friday! Craziness! I am so incredibly excited and feel so blessed that I get to see my family in Vancouver! I am so excited and the whole Olympic experience is an added bonus. We are flying in and out of Seattle so we will be spending a short time there as well which is exciting. Remember the last time I visited Seattle? I was 26 weeks pregnant! It is another surreal experience that this time I have a 17 month old and the last time I was huge! Can't wait to show her the original Starbucks store and I found a Children's Museum we could check out if she is not into the whole market experience.

So after booking the flights I started thinking about packing etc and realized that Peyton's coat is really just a Texas coat and since I was very confident that I would not find something in Texas in February...I found one online from LL Bean and ordered it with Express shipping to be here on Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest)! I was really impressed with their Outerwear for kids and need to remember that for next year. We have some friends that gave us a bunch of random clothes earlier in the year that their daughter grew out of and in that stash was some ski pants from LL Bean (which gave me the idea to look there for the coat)! How awesome and convenient is that! It is not that cold there and we won't need them unless we decided go to the mountains but it is nice to have.

I also borrowed a portable DVD player from some friends which saved us from going out and buying one and also is going to help so much! I also went on a search for boots for Peyton. Nothing too heavy duty but something a little better than tennis shoes. I stayed up until midnight Saturday researching where I could possibly find some and went out on Sunday and found one pair in her size in the whole area and I was told when I asked about a bigger size...the only ones in all of Houston! Crazy! I was having a hard time finding stuff online too so I am glad we found those and they were only $10.

We finished up our errands for the trip today and will be having a busy week before we leave Friday. We have to clean up the house, go and exchange money at our bank downtown (normally I ordered it online and they deliver it but it was too late for that), laundry, get everything ready at work for being gone and pack...all before we leave at 6:45 AM Friday morning!

Please pray that we have a good week getting ready and for a safe and smooth trip...did I mention that I am flying up there with my parents but am flying home ALONE with Peyton! So lots of prayer for patience and just a good trip together.

I am so excited!!!!!

Anyone want to run with me?

OFFER TAKEN BY MY FRIEND LAURA! I AM SO EXCITED!

So I want to RUN!

There is a Half Marathon/Marathon coming up March 20-21 in Seabrook which is down the road from us. On the 20th there is the option of running the Half Marathon (which is probably too much for me) or doing a relay (which is perfect). There is a 10k the weekend before but honestly, they don't give out cool stuff like shirts and my favorite thing...a medal!

The event is the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon and I need a partner! Let me know if you are interested or else John might have to do it and when I brought it up last night he looked less than interested!

Finally able to breathe

Literally....I am finally able to breathe! I finally went to the doctor Thursday afternoon and I was diagnosed with an ear infection and severe upper respiratory infection. I was put on some antibiotics and a decongestant which knocked me out. My parents watched Peyton Friday for me and then Saturday and Sunday I rested. I spent such little time with Peyton last week that I changed a diaper on Friday and couldn't remember the last time I changed one! I was so blessed that I could rest last week and even more important was that we spared Peyton from getting sick!

I did make it out Saturday morning to our church's Valentine Making Party! We had invited Granny and Papa so we all went up to the church and made Valentine's with Peyton. She LOVED the glitter. Now...if Granny and Papa weren't with us I probably would have not shown her the glitter knowing the mess that she would make but they were and they showed her! If anything it reminded me to lighten up and have fun because really did it matter that much that she had glitter in her hair, no! We made four or five Valentines and it was just nice to see her doing such big girl things like using stamps, glitter, stickers. I love it! What was even more cool was that three years ago John and I volunteered at the Valentine Making Party and now here we are with our own little one! Pretty cool!

After the party we went to Lowe's to look around at outdoor stuff since once it finally stops freezing around here we have serious work on our backyard. Our poor plants all look awful from all of the random freezes despite being covered. I think there was one night it dropped down close to freezing and I forgot to cover them and they just had it.

After our trip to Lowe's I was pretty much exhausted so I slept most of Saturday and then Sunday until a Super Bowl party at our friends. I unfortunately didn't get to watch most of the game or the commercials since Peyton really wanted way more attention than normal from her parents so we actually ended up leaving early. I have managed to watch a couple online since but not all of them.

Monday I went and worked out with Fitt Life Fitness and it was a great but a hard workout! I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but I have started with a personal trainer twice a week. I have a gym membership but I hate going because I have no idea what I am doing. So, I ran...but that didn't achieve the toning that I wanted post pregnancy. So, some friends have gone to Fit Life Fitness and have had amazing results. She is very encouraging and provides a detailed diet plan and is helping me tone etc. The only down side is that I am not supposed to be running. In order to build muscle I need to stop running for a little while because essentially I was not eating enough to sustain my running and then my body was storing fat because I didn't eat enough...long and complicated but I trust her opinion. Well, after a month of no runnig I told her I was going crazy so I can run one day a week for a reasonable distance...four miles for now! When I asked to do a 10k in March she didn't think that was reasonable so we will see. Anyways...I am so excited to see my body changing (small changes right now)! Also what makes this even better is that Peyton loves going with me because there is a huge play area for her and she loves to imitate me working out. Since I am the only one in the gym during my time she is allowed to come out and be near me if she wants and she always does the curls or other stuff with this small plastic toy weights while I am doing it. It is amusing!

Finally, today I made it back to work and caught up on most everything which was great!

....No Shoes...No Service

So this mild sickness I started feeling on Monday has turned into a full blown, leave me on the couch sick! I know that I am pretty much a baby when it comes to being sick and I really don't handle it all but this time I have really been beat up by this. Tuesday I stayed home from work and sent Peyton to school, Wednesday my parents watched Peyton in the morning and John came home early and then today I am home again from work and Peyton is at school. I have a doctors appointment in an hour so hopefully I can get some good medicine to kick this.

Anyways...John took Peyton for me to school this morning. He wanted me to be able to sleep in and one of car's (the one he drives to work) had a flat tire so he had to wait for them to open anyways. Since I pretty much handle school completely, John was asking me what to make sure to bring etc. he was fine until I said he had to dress her and then he looked scared. He got some paper and started writing down everything that she needed to wear and bring.

Well, they got out the door and to school (I don't know what she is wearing so I don't know how successful it was) and while I was making lunch I saw his piece of paper and started laughing....


Notice the last two items...socks and shoes...I didn't tell him socks and shoes because I assumed that those were a given but I guess he wanted to make sure he didn't forget anything. Got to love dads!!

Daddy Loves Us

Today Peyton and I woke up and I am feel sick! I have a very sore throat, stuffed up nose and just feeling icky. Peyton is fine and has been amazing all morning playing by herself, cuddling with mommy and just being very sweet. I adore her!

Well, later in the morning she decided she wanted to check and see if there was any laundry to be done (she loves doing laundry among other chores) and she found a sweet note from Daddy! It said how much he loved her and how he appreciated her helping mommy out! She was so interested in the note and after I read it to her several times she would sit there and read it out loud in her own language. She is so cute!


Later on I found three notes to me from John which were all very sweet and appreciated!

A great start to our week...minus me being sick!