A runDisney Princess In the Making - Part 1

In January 2014 I saw a post on Instagram by fitnycpamela about the princess half marathon. At that time I was 31 weeks pregnant and already thinking about how I was going to lose the baby weight so this post came at the best time.  

After I had Madison I didn't try to lose baby weight until about 8 months after she was born and at that point I already had bad habits and they were really hard to break, I said to myself I won't let that happen again! I started walking a few days after Beth was born with a specific goal in mind - complete the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February 2015 - w weeks before Beth turns 1. I was giving myself 50 weeks from when she was born to prepare for this race.  

Over the next few days I am going to be sharing my experiences over the past year from the decision to run The Glass Slipper Challenge to crossing the finish line!

Picking A Race

I had the support of my family and both Chris and my parents suggested I complete the Glass Slipper Challenege (a 10k and a half marathon back to back). I was thinking "are you crazy 19.3 miles between 2 days?!". I took a few days and decided I would do it!, and I would do it for a charity! 

Picking a charity was kind of tough, there are so many amazing charities that work with runDisney. I room some time to read all the different mission statements and settled on Noah's Light Foundation. If you haven't checked it out yet please visit my fundraising page there is a few days left to donate and help me reach my goal.

https://www.noahslightfoundation.org/donate/index.php/component/civicrm/?task=civicrm%2Fpcp%2Finfo&reset=1&id=426

Running for such a great charity helped give me the extra inspiration I needed I get my butt in gear and get out there and run! 

Training

I looked into a few different training plans and found Jeff Galloway's plans that runDisney supports and promotes. I tried to follow his plan as much as I could but sometimes life and weather create obstacles! During the summer I was doing great with the plan, but then Mother Nature decided we needed lots of snow and ice this year and that derailed all my training runs. I HATE running on a treadmill at the gym, put a treadmill in my basement and I would be fine but running at the gym is tough. There is so much going on that distracts me and if the person next to me smells or breathes funny or grunts while running .. You can't get away!!! 

Do I have regrets about training and could have have trained better - yes, 100% I have regrets BUT you live and learn. 

Nutrition 

Horrible. My nutrition while training was horrible. I was eating well (most of the time) but I wasn't eating for what I was doing. 

Again a live and learn moment. 

Throughout the year I had lost 20lbs (not including the immediate 15lbs lost when Beth was born), I ran 4 5k races and 1 10k .. It is safe to say I have fallen in love with racing.. Not running.. Racing. I love the competitive aspect that comes with racing. I am not running to come first, I would love to and have a goal to win my age group this year at a race, but I love competing against my self and setting a new PB. 

Having the support of my family and friends this past year has been the biggest factor in all of this. Without them I wouldn't have found time to train, I wouldn't have been able to race Saturday mornings, and I forsure wouldn't have found the motivation to complete this challenge. I ran for a cajolery but I really ran for my health and to show my daughters they can do anything they want! Madison has been a great source of motivation.. She loves seeing my medals, she enjoys cheering for me and looking at race pictures. 

Check back tomorrow for a race recap!

Weekend Round Up

It's been awhile since I have done a weekend round up.. so I figured it's time to get back at it.

This weekend was a fun one (they usually are) but this one was exciting because we got to celebrate the Future Mrs Michael Murray, as well as our normal stuff - ballet, Home Goods, cleaning and general weekend stuff.

We spent Friday evening at our friends house getting to know their new puppy and ordering in pizza, which we haven't done in awhile! It was a great relaxing family night. We are so lucky to have friends that don't mind our little beauties tagging along for dinner!

Saturday morning started out like all Saturdays .. breakfast, coffee and ballet. Madison loves her ballet class and is very excited to be getting ready for her first recital in May! They have already started practicing their routine! It could be a good thing or a bad thing but Home Goods is located in the same shopping center as the dance studio. Usually I can show some restraint and skip it but this weekend something was pulling me in!

I have been searching for the perfect curtains for our living room. I thought when I was least expecting it I would find the perfect ones, and well its true! I did!  The official color is "Mallard Blue", I will call it "tealy blue" (yes I am aware tealy is not a word). I am patiently waiting for my hubby to get home so he can help me hang them! 

The best part is the price.. can you believe it? I am so glad I decided to make a quick stop in Home Goods this weekend. 

 Madison found this beautiful fake orchid and asked for it for her room.. how could I say no? I had my eye on these gorgeous red flowers. 

Sunday we headed to the Garden State to surprise my soon to be sister in law! Her sister planned a beautiful shower! It was such a fun day with games, great food and good friends! Madison is the flower girl and was so excited to be able to help Aunt Krissy open all her gifts!

I had planned to get some great pictures BUT half way there I realized my SD card was still sitting in my computer at home and NOT in the camera in my purse!

I hope you all had an amazing weekend! It is snow day #3 here today so we are doing nothing.. maybe a little packing for our upcoming trip!

11 months

Elizabeth

Weight: approx 15lbs 

Length: 25 2/4inches (from 9 month checkup)

Milestone: Still cruising around and using her walker!

Sleep: Struggled a little this month. Beth had her first ear infection and bronchitis so sleep was tough and one night .. Non exsistant. Thankfully she's feeling better and is back to 11 hours a night in her crib!

Eating: Anything and everything! She loves grilled chicken and sweet potato pancakes.. And just like her sister- regular pancakes

Diapers: size 3s 

Clothing: Fully transitioned into size 9 month!

Mood: Great mood! She is a happy baby, she is really only fussy when she has to go to bed or she's hungry!

Loves:

• Playing with her sisters toys 
• Eating
• Minnie Mouse 
• Taking her sisters toys 

Hates:

• Sitting still 
• Bath time!!! She puts up a good fight every time!! 

Snow day snacks & thoughts.

Somedays I feel like my day is one long drawn out scene from Family guy.. you know the one where Lois is laying in bed and Stewie is trying to get her attention by saying  "Lois, mom,mum. mommy, mama.." and she replies by yelling "WHAT!" only to have Stewie say "Hi" and run away.. well that is how my day feels.

We had our second snow day in 2 weeks yesterday and before I had kids I LOVED snow days! My brothers and I will spend the day skating in our backyard, building forts and snowmen and if we were really lucky some friends would make their way over to our house. Now as a parent I have to give my parents major props for dealing with all 3 of us on a snow day .. any day that matter that we couldn't leave the house because the roads were bad.

Madison is not quite old enough to bundle up and head outside alone yet, but I am already dreaming of that day. The day that I can sit and watch Madison and Elizabeth build forts, throw snowballs and go sledding.. all from the comfort and warmth of my house.

Don't get me wrong I love playing with my kids and I would do anything for them, but when you can't even go to the bathroom without someone knocking on the door or someone yelling "Mom, Beth is in Bailey's water" ; you need a break!

 Our snow days were spent playing play dough, reading books, keeping Beth away from Bailey's water dish, watching Madison practice ballet and laundry, lots of laundry.

Chris was working.. BOTH snow days.. so he misses out on the fun ;)

Yesterday I decided it was time to shake things up in Madison's room! Please excuse the mess in the before photo as my daughter didn't want to clean her room up after 2 hours of quiet play!

I decided to move things around to give her a little more space to play and a little more organization. 

The white shelving piece you see in the bottom left corner is now where her bed USED to be .. and filled with books and a few baskets of toys!

Over all we are happy with the results.. now to think of some fun things to put on her gallery wall above the white shelving unit!

 Finding snacks for Madison is always tough, she is a cookies and Pirate Booty kinda girl.. but she is now on a low fructose diet (fructose intolerant) so snack time is going to get fun. I feel like if I say it's going to be fun it will keep me from stressing over what she can have!

So far her (and my) favorite snack are these adorable peanut butter banana bites! I found them on 

 Katherine Snead's Instagram (if you don't follow her .. you should!). She makes them for her active pre teens so I figured I would give them a shot and they didn't disappoint.

Next time I'm bringing out the Nutella!

All the photos in this post are from my Instagram feel free to check it out and follow! I'm giving you fair warning it's alot of photos of my family :)

As always I'm throwing in a friendly reminder that I am running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend in a little over 2 weeks (YIKES!)! I am still working hard to collect donations for the charity I am running for - Noahs Light Foundation. Please click the link below and help me raise money to find a cure for pediatric cancer.

https://www.noahslightfoundation.org/donate/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/contribute/transact&id=31&pcpId=426&reset=1

Ketchup? No catch up..

Madison thinks is the funniest thing when I say "catch up" she laughs with her horribly fake laugh and holds her belly and says "oh man I don't have any ketchup, silly mama"

So here it is the dreaded blogger catch up. I'm already falling behind on my blogging goals for 2015, but with work, studying and 2 kids and husband things happen. 

Over the past few weeks we have jumped right back into our routine, well most of them, I am struggling hard with getting up at 430 to get to the gym. I blame the weather because most mornings the roads are slick and I don't want to risk it. Speaking of slick roads..

2 weeks ago there was black ice everywhere, accidents up and down the roads and Chris had to get to work. Do I need to say more?

Chris is fine! There was no one else involved in the accident. His beloved truck is heading to the auto grave yard and we are back to 2 cars for a few months until we are ready for another truck. 

You may wonder why we need 3 cars there's only 2 of us... Well we have an SUV which I drive and we take when we go anywhere as a family, and we have a little old (91) beater car for Chris to drive to work and back. The girls DO NOT go in that vehicle it is not safe for them. So having 3 cars is crucial for us especially if Chris is home with 1 of the girls and needs to get out!    Anyways enough with that.

Madison is back to ballet and is getting ready for her spring recital! 

We are busy planning Elizabeth's 1st birthday, seriously when did that happen? It has gone by so much faster this time!

We are dealing with ear infections, chest infections and nasty coughs in the Murray house.. Thankfully both girls co-operate (most times) and don't fight with me while taking their nebulizer treatments!

As for my fitness journey.. I'm still working on it! Since January 1st I've lost 4lbs. Look for a fitness post this Friday :) 

We just spent the night in a blizzard warning, which turned out to be the blizzard that never was, but we've got lots of snow! 

Hope you all have a great day!

Xo's 

10 months

Elizabeth 

Weight: 14lbs 15oz (from 9 month checkup)

Length: 25 2/4inches (from 9 month checkup)

Milestone: Beth is cruising around all the furniture and even letting go!

Sleep: We spent the last week fighting with Beth at bed time. She would scream for hours if in her crib. We decided she needs to nap earlier in the day so she is exhausted come 730. 

Eating: Anything and everything! She is still eating some baby food but we've introduced solid foods (pancakes, waffles, frozen blueberry, pasta) she loves picking up the food herself!

Diapers: Finishing up with the 2's and moving onto size 3!

Clothing: Fully transitioned into size 9 month!

Mood: Great mood! She is a happy baby, she is really only fussy when she has to go to bed or she's hungry!

Loves:

• Food
• Standing 
• Cruising 
• Taking her sisters toys 

Hates:

• Sitting still 
• Being put to bed
• Bath time- really doesn't like having to sit down! She wants to stand. 

Protein Coffee

I've had a few questions about the "Protein Coffee" I have posted about on my Instagram, so I thought I would share with you all how I make my coffee in the morning

Arbonne Protein (Vanilla or Chocolate), Almond Breeze Vanilla (unsweetened) and Coffee

I brew one cup (big) coffee into a Nutribullet cup.

Add 1 Scoop of protein of your choice (contact me to order Arbonne Protein)

Mix in Nutribullet or other blender

Add Almond milk (1/2 cup), sometimes I will heat and froth the Almond milk to make it more like a latte.

This is the perfect pick me up and post workout drink in the morning! 

Enjoy :)