Turkey Day 2014 and Recap of SJMMW {St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend}

We traveled to South Florida to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Naples this year. We had a blast and we were extremely excited we could extend our normal trip this year. We got lots of family time, caught up with old friends, and relaxed!

Traveling with a baby is just normal territory for us now! We have a routine and can easily breeze through security. I would like to think I could post a blog of all the tips on how to travel with a baby or toddler! BUT, let's just face it.... traveling with kids is hard. Away are the days of relaxing, sleeping, or reading on a flight. Now we spend every second entertaining E so she doesn't disrupt others' relaxing, sleeping, and reading. My biggest advice is to bring LOTS of snacks!! I love to share and give other families new to flying advice but I think it's one of those things you just have to do and figure it out as you go!

It was fun to pull up to mom and dad's and see the house all lit up {Florida Style!}

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! Dad was in charge of the "trash can" turkey! If interested click here to see how this is done! It's delicious but Dad said the most important thing is to have cooperating weather. And NO that is NOT a used trash can. Shannon and Cory did an excellent job with the rest. Mom was  a huge help and I did everyone a favor and stayed out of the kitchen. I was in charge of the table setting! Naturally! 

After dinner, Evan Lilly and Yaya went to go get whipped cream for our dessert (we knew we would forget something!) They were gone for quite sometime and came back with whipped cream and lots of Frozen goodies, including an Elsa dress, Ana dress, and slippers!

Thanks to Yaya and Pa! We had a fun adult night out and my friend Kaitlyn came to see me from Tampa. We had a blast!!

Sneaking Evan Lilly off to the beach to look for seashells!

Heading home was a bit stressful! Our first flight had mechanical issues so we had to deplane and board another flight. However, we missed our connection! So in the end we flew out of Ft. Lauderdale, stopped in St. Louis, flew to Chicago, deplaned and boarded another delayed flight to Memphis. We were suppose to be home at 4 pm. We got home at 2 am. We were exhausted!!!!! This is a picture of E when we were all still happy!

We got back to town Tuesday night (really Wednesday morning) and started gearing up for the St. Jude Half Marathon on Saturday. On Friday we went to the Expo....

 And Saturday morning we laced up our shoes and took on the 13.1!! It is always such an amazing experience running this race. If you are a runner, I highly recommend you add this to your race to do list.

And last but not least, a big shout out to my brother who couldn't be with us on Thanksgiving. He was in Utah on a mountain and I can't wait to see him soon!

Wrapping up FALL!

Well, what do you know I am playing catch up again?!?!? But, at least I am catching up. I wish I could be one of those moms who seems to be on top of everything, but let's face it.... I'm not. This may surprise some of you because I am the queen of Instagram and often that may LOOK like we have it together, but notice I said "look" :) Sometimes I do a pretty good job and other times I feel like I am treading water. I received another note from Evan Lilly's school to send in a family picture. I have been asked to do this since September! BUT, I already have her Christmas pj's at the house ready to be wrapped and YES, they are monogrammed. So, some things I can check off my list and others still remain there. Today, I can check off Halloween blog (along with other fall activities because I waited too long)!

Wrapping up FALL...... I know some people hate going straight from Halloween to Christmas but I absolutely LOVE it! I feel bad for Thanksgiving but let's face it, Christmas, especially with the little ones, is such a fun time of year! So, I am wrapping up our fall festivities today and moving on..... Mainly, because it's a rainy day and I figured this would be a great time to start the Christmas decor, and I like to have it up before we go out of town for Thanksgiving.

( Although, I did think this was funny :)

Back in October we went to our church fall carnival! It was a little too old for E but she loved playing on the playground.

We have had some pretty awesome weather here in the South and we were able to get some great mornings in at the park by our house. This is changing quickly as our lows are in the 20's this week!! Brrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Halloween was a huge success! Evan Lilly's costume was absolutely adorable and she had so much fun trick or treating on tiger lane. Unfortunately, we didn't stay for the game because that was our first big cold front and of course it hit us on Halloween night! I got her bag from Whimsical Stiches on Etsy. It turned out so cute! The price was great and the shop owner was wonderful to work with. I will definitely order from her again :) 

Since we got home early, we passed out candy to trick or treaters. It went fast but E had fun!

We have had lots of fun dinners out, trips to the mall, and raced in the True Blue 5k.

Evan Lilly did not want to be held for a family pic. I don't think she liked everyone looking at her!

Yesterday, we went to lunch with the Byroms, our dear friends from Alabama. We had a fun lunch at Aldo's and the kids were absolutely great.

Now on to our Christmas decor!!!! Chris doesn't know this is happening yet! YIKES! Hopefully, he'll be as excited as me! Hehehe Evan Lilly is already making her list.