Happy Thanksgiving!

Ready to roll

After the race

A little late but Happy Thanksgiving nonetheless! Although Sophie did not get to enjoy Turkey and all the sides this year, she enjoyed her carrots and being with family (not to mention not having to go to daycare for 2 days). Thanksgiving morning we woke up and participated in the Turkey Day Wobble Gobble in Downtown Charleston (5k race). This was my first year running it and it was a good race, big turn out for being Thanksgiving morning. My time was 31:15, almost a minute and a half down from my Race for the Cure time. Whew! Now the big one is coming up in January, the 10k, Riverfront Race Festival.

Here are some pictures from the race. I have more from Thanksgiving to post, just trying to find time to do it. Sophie caught a little bit of a cold Friday so she's been a bit under the weather. Poor thing, coughing but she doesn't really have a runny nose. Hopefully she's on the mend, we have a busy 2 weeks coming up, out of town this weekend and next weekend.

The "Ruff" Life of Wylie

So we just put Sophie to bed and walked into this bonus room to see this:

Pathetic isn't it?

5 Month Update

Wow, can't believe that my little baby girl is 5 months old!! I'll probably keep saying that every month but it boggles my mind how fast they grow. We've mastered eating! So far we've introduced cereal, sweet potatoes, green beans and squash. She loves them all! Even the Oatmeal! Next up is peas, then carrots, then we're moving onto the fruit. Let's see, Sophie can sit up by herself, for the most part. I can take my hands off of her for about a minute before she starts to wobble around. Give another week or two and she'll be sitting all on her own, although her favorite thing to do still is to lay on her back and kick her feet. Teething. The teething has really picked up within the last couple of weeks. I have a feeling she'll be cutting a tooth really soon. Sleeping. She's sleeping about 9 hours a night. With the teething she gets a little restless but then again she may just take after me. I have a hard time staying asleep throughout the night. Usually all we have to do is put her pacifier back in and she goes right back out. Might have to come up with a new solution once it's time to wean her from the pacifier......

Next week is her first Thanksgiving and her Aunt Maegan is going to take some photos of her. Christmas is coming and I have barely shopped. Yikes! I need to get on it big time!

Balsamic-Rosemary Marinade

I found this marinade recipe on Williams Sonoma website. I used this marinade with chicken breasts and broiled them in the oven (we were supposed to grill but ran out of propane...right Ricky?). Nevertheless, they turned out very juicy and yummy. I served with mashed potatoes (yukon gold potatoes are the only way to go), a salad and whole wheat yeast rolls. Pretty darn good meal!

Ingredients:
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbs. soy sauce
4 1/2 tsp. firmly packed golden brown sugar
3/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary
5 garlic cloves, chopped

Directions:
In a food processor, combine the vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, brown sugar and pepper and pulse until blended. With the motor running, drop the rosemary and garlic through the feed tube and continue to process until fairly smooth.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I just realized that I haven't posted anything since November 1st! I'm such a slacker! It's been a very busy month so far and with the Holiday's approaching, it's going to be even busier. Lots of traveling coming up.


So let's start off with news on Ms. Sophie. We've made some major progress in the solid food department. She's gone from hating oatmeal to tolerating it well. Last weekend we started her on cereal twice a day (for about a month she only got it in the evenings). I was a little nervous with daycare feeding her cereal because she put up such a fight. Lord and behold that girl ate every bit of cereal! So this week we started her on sweet potatoes and she LOVES them. Eats those bad boys up! So we've made some real progress with solid foods this week. I'm so proud of her, she even opens her mouth for the spoon instead of us kind of "forcing" the spoon in her mouth. Now tonight we start.....Green Beans!! Oh and just this morning I was "waving" bye bye to Sophie and she was mimicking my hand motion. I thought that was the coolest thing yet!

I'm still very serious about doing a half marathon next year. I've been running a lot since the Race for the Cure. Well a lot may not be defined as others would define it, but for working and taking care of a 5 month old, I've been running a lot. About 3 times a week right now. I am starting to force myself up during the week, at 4:30, to hit the gym. It's hard but once I get out of bed and get to the gym, I feel great. I have a "training" schedule set up for myself. It's based on 12 weeks but since I have a year, I'm going at my own pace until the beginning of next year. Then I'm really going to kick it into high gear. I'm running a 10k in January so I basically have to double what I currently run, which is 3.5 miles. Sounds hard but I'm up for the challenge. The biggest challenge is not the running, but organizing my week to make time to run. Luckily Sophie has been sleeping so good these last few weeks.

So my running schedule is as follows:

Thanksgiving Day - Turkey Day Gobble Wobble (5k)
January 17th - Riverfront Race Festival (10k) Yikes!
Febuary 6th - Save the Light (5k)
March 13th - Flowertown Festival Run (5k)
March 27th - Cooper River Bridge Run (10k)
April 10th - Fun Sun Run in Murrell's Inlet (5k)

The goal is to try to run a race a month to keep myself in check. Not so sure about the summer months. If there's one thing I despise is running in the heat. I've had heat exhaustion before and it was not fun. So we'll have to see how I'm doing at that point. I've got my running partner, Pam, to keep me motivated! Very excited.

Ricky is working hard and trying to get deals. With the whole economy downfall, having a baby, paying for daycare, it's been tough. We want to try to sell our house next year and move to where I'll have a better commute to work. I'm trying to stay positive but it's difficult to do so. I don't like where we live in relation to where I work. It's an awful drive and I get home so late. Staying home is not an option so I have to make due, which is fine, but I would love to move from Summerville.

Overall we're all doing great! I will take some pictures of Sophie really soon, I promise!

Halloween Stanley Style

Happy Halloween! We spent Sophie's first Halloween in Stanley. NC with my family. We got into town Saturday morning and went to the pumpkin patch, went on a hayride and took a bunch of pictures with the pumpkins. Went home and relaxed for a while. Amy made a wonderful dinner and then it was off to get ready for trick-or-treating! Garrett was a ghost and Sophie was a bumble bee. They were so stinking cute! Amy's neighborhood was INSANE!! There were kids everywhere and they had trick-or-treaters till about 9:00. Whew! Overall Sophie did fantastic while we were out. She even got a few pieces of candy :) Little girl was so tired after her big day. We can't wait till next year when she'll be older and walking.