Happy Times

A few fun pictures from the past month:

Santa

We've been crazy busy around here. We had our two story foyer painted along with the whole upstairs hall (since it was all connected). I finished up the semester and got my grading finished. We've had tons of get togethers and parties, and then xmas shopping, ect. Oh what fun! This past weekend, we headed over to a Cookies with Santa thing that our neighborhood did. While a bit chaotic, it was still good. Some crafts and cookies and trying to talk to Santa.  They had fun except for actually wanting to talk to Santa or sit on his lap!

Sunglasses

I took P to Target one day and she had quite some fun trying on sunglasses and making silly faces:

Then at a bday party we received sunglasses as favors:

And then lastly....how P ate her breakfast this morning (yes those are half-zipped down penguin PJ's):

And because T doesn't want to be left out-how she likes to eat breakfast:

Marathon Training

So back in May, I decided to sign up for the American Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, NC. This race is March 16th. I even convinced my BRF to sign up with me. The summer and fall went by and then a few weeks ago it became time to start training. Right now I am finishing up week 4 of the 18 week plan. I stressed over what kind of plan I was going to choose to train, but in the end I picked the Hanson Brothers plan. Their plan is very different from most plans. I run 6 days a week and the long run caps out at 16 miles. Every Tuesday is intervals, the first half of the plan is 5K of intervals at 5K pace. The second half switches to 10K of intervals at 10K pace. Wednesday's are rest days, Thursdays are marathon pace days, starting out at 5 miles and building to 10, and Sundays are long run days.

I was hesitant about using the plan for a couple reasons, the main one being the mental barrier of only running 16 miles and then having to run 26 on race day. But my sister has used this plan twice and I have read other reviews and people say they actually seem to feel better on race day in those last 6 miles of the marathon. We shall see. So far it is going ok. I am using a hybrid plan between their beginner and their advance plans. But by week 10 I will be completely on the beginner plan.  Goal-sub 3:40 and qualify for Boston for 2015.

I knew I wanted to raise money for a cancer foundation and ended up hearing about this organization VS. Cancer. Founded by a former UNC baseball player who was diagnosed with brain cancer first few months into his freshman year at UNC. What's great about this organization is I was able to pick a local pediatric hospital for half of my funds to go to, and the other half will go to fund national pediatric cancer. I talked with the founder the other day and he has such a great outlook on life and he told me that while he knows cancer research is needed and important, the children who are sitting in the hospital right now need something too. They need hope and by donating the money to local pediatric hospitals, they can implement things for the kids in the hospital to make their lives better.

By the end of our conversation, I had convinced him to run the half marathon at the same race I will be running the full marathon in a life dream he has always had to finish a half marathon.  I am currently trying to raise $2620 for the 26.2 miles I will run come March 16th. Please join me and donate to VS. Cancer.

www.stayclassy.org/lzack

(And what a great domain name....Stay Classy Everyone)

Miscellaneaous Happenings

Our little T riding the bike:

 Rooting for the Hogs even though we are having a terrible year:

It was picture day at school and I totally forgot...they were dressed in their normal "whatever daycare attire" and these were the photos I got back..not too bad!

 And of course my attempt at dressing my kids up for wacky tacky day. But in reality this could be just any normal day of the week in our house (see P's outfit for picture day...tank tops and rain boots naturally)

Halloween 2013

We had a fun Halloween in our new neighborhood. Not nearly as many trick-or-treaters as we were used to from the old neighborhood, but it was still fun.

The morning started off with lots of fun:

Then it was dress up and candy time-Um, don't the kids look excited:

Alright here's a little better:

Our little baby chick:

 And our Pink Princess:

The Cow Train

So we've been to this farm the last two years with P and I took her back this year (and brought along one of her pals). We wanted to all go but T was a little under the weather and we didn't want to push her limits.  They had lots of fun!

How Cute is She

Love this girl:

T-18 Months

T had her 18 month check up last week and we have the following stats:

• Weight 21.4 lbs (I think this was 30th %)
• Height 31 3/4 inches (This was close to 50th%)

They say she seems right on track with things. I'm happy with the weight as she was tracking in the 5-10% range back around a year, so this is a little improvement. She is still pretty petite and small compare to P, and we can tell she just isn't as substantial as P was, but we are making progress. She cut her top and bottom molars in the last couple weeks so she can finally chew stuff which is nice. I've been so paranoid about that because until a couple weeks ago she only had 6 teeth up front. She is a pretty good eater and she has quite the personality. She is talking more and more, will try and repeat whatever we say and is starting to be more independent. She loves to swing and is overall just a very serious child, it is hard to get her to smile. Happy 18 months T!

Beach

We headed to Ocean Isle Beach for a few days a couple weeks ago The weather was absolutely beautiful. Pretty warm and the ocean wasn't too cold either. The girls had a great time, P enjoyed the ocean, body surfing and jumping in the waves with EZ and T loved the water and the sand! I think next summer, when T is just a little bit older the beach is going to be a great place for them!