The last couple of days have been very good family time. While we can’t do all the things we would like to be doing there is still so much fun to be had. I am really hoping that 2021 is a return to our normal holiday traditions and we will appreciate them all that much more.

On Wednesday I woke up early to get a few miles in on the treadmill. Nothing new here.

While I was running I was thinking a lot about 2021 and if we would be able to race again. It would be fun to actually plan some adventures.

I have a credit for my registration for the 2020 race that was cancelled. But the 50 requires a lottery and I am not sure if I will be guaranteed a spot…..and if I will be up for a 50 in July, in Oregon. It’s hard to make any big plans when it’s very unclear what 2021 will look like.

After my run I took the kiddos to grab a couple things at the store, they talked me into getting them yogurt covered pretzels, they are big fans!

Seeing this photo reminds me that I really need to clean out the inside of our car, kids are beasts.

After the store we hit up the sledding hill. I was determined to make up for our failure of a day (fall down 7 times, get up 8). And this time we had a great time.

I love seeing them happy and playing together.

We enjoyed our time outside, soaking up the sun and fresh air.

We spent the rest of the day doing school lessons, napping, lunch etc.

Cory made yummy taco salads for dinner.

I was very excited after putting the kids down for the night I got my new computer delivered and transferred everything over from my old computer.

On Thanksgiving we started cooking right away, two pies and full traditional meal takes a lot of time!

My parents came over to play outside for awhile and we sent them home with some pie for them to enjoy with their meal. We didn’t get to see my bother but made sure to save him a plate.

We made our way to a playground for a little while before dinner time.

We tried to get cute pictures of the kids for the grandparents.

Emmy was just not having it so it was a very 2020 Thanksgiving picture.

We tried……

Things went up hill from there, the kids liked diner and loved the pie.

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The best part was cuddling and watching a Christmas movie.

It was a good day.

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How was your Thanksgiving?

Are you planning for any races for 2021?

This year has been difficult in so many ways. We won’t be sharing a meal with our families or spending time with friends. But there is still so much to be thankful for.

On top of my list of things to be thankful for is my little family. I feel so lucky to be Cannon and Emerald’s mom. And while it’s not for the best reason I have been enjoying my extra time with them. And with Cory working at home we are getting more quality time with him.

We plan to have the full Thanksgiving meal at home and enjoying all the things we do have to be grateful for.

I feel like there is so much to be hopeful for in the coming future. It feels like brighter days are coming.

Our plan is to spend the day cooking together, running a turkey trot around our neighborhood (probably with a playground break) and a little time visiting with my parents outside. We are so lucky to live only two mies from them and still get to see them in safe ways. I really feel for families who haven’t been able to see each other in almost a year or more.

Then we will spend our evening eating traditional Thanksgiving food and really counting our blessings.

Lastly I am so so thankful for our health care workers. Risking their lives to save ours. Leaving their families to serve when they are needed.

My hope is that everyone has the best day they can, that you get some yummy food and that you have things to focus on and be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We woke up this morning to some fresh pretty snow. I love snow this time of year the best because it looks so pretty against the Christmas lights.

I swear I will run outside again one day….but today was not that day.

We decided to do art class this morning and the kids painted ornaments for Grandma and Grandpa.

They were so cute painting but they loved mixing the paint to the ornaments ended up mostly black. Note to self, next time don’t include the black!

After painting a friend texted to see if we were up to going to the sledding hill. I hustled to get all the things ready and was so excited to see a few of our friends (outside, masked and social distanced of course).

It was one of the worst mom fails ever. Cannon was having a great time sledding but something happened for Emerald and she lost her mind. She normally loves sledding but she was not having it. Then Cannon accidentally plowed into a friend on his sled. We only made it 20 minutes before calling it and heading home. If there is snow still tomorrow maybe we will try again.

After our sledding fail we made lunch and we enjoyed cuddles before nap time. Putting Emmy down for her nap is one of my biggest joys in life. She is so sweet and cuddly as she falls asleep.

During nap I threw stuff in the crock-pot for dinner. Crock pot dinners are great for nights that I teach so that dinner is ready without the rush.

When Emmy got up we played in trampoline and waited for Cory to get off of work.

After dinner I got ready to teach my statistics class, one of the perks of teaching online is that I can sit with wool socks on and a blanket around my legs. I will admit to wearing a button down shirt over sweat pants because I can.

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What are your favorite slow cooker recipes?

Anyone else working from home in only half professional clothes? I do always wear pants…..just because it’s not worth the risk 😉

Monday morning started with an early 4:30 AM alarm so I can get some coffee in and get 4 miles in on the treadmill. I did a slight progression run as I woke up while running and it felt good to speed up.

Then I got the family up and made breakfast.

I feel like I don’t have enough go to breakfast options. This is a staple for us, both kids like mushrooms so I added some baby portobellos to our eggs.

I took a quick shower before Cory “went” to work and came out to this cute scene, they love to read books together.

We spent the morning driving to a Target that was much further away than our normal Target. There was a great sale on a cute Frozen toy that I really wanted to get Emmy and this was the closest store that had it (on sale!). We also found a bunch of DVDs for the car that were less than $3 each! Worth the trip =)

Our car has a DVD system that we use on road trips.

After lunch the kiddos and I made cookies, Cannon’s favorite cookies are Grinch Cookies .

I had two amazing helpers/taste testers.

After we were done with cookies Cory was done with work, so he took the kids to go ride bikes.

Cannon loves to help pull the wagon to the park where there is a flat place to ride. Our street and driveway are too steep for learning to ride bikes.

They met a Great Dane that they wanted to bring home.

I stayed home so I could clean up the kitchen from our cookies but I fell asleep on the couch with a headache (whoops)! At least my headache was gone when I woke up.

We did veggie burgers for dinner then put the kiddos to bed. Later I read my email and found one from Cannon’s school inviting us to a (virtual) open house and countdown to Kindergarten.

I know it’s good for him to grow up and for him to learn and become more independent but I am just so sad thinking of him going to school for a full day. I try to remind myself that he loves school but I will always see him as my little baby.

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What are your favorite breakfasts?

Any tips for surviving sending your first off to Kindergarten? This isn’t until August but I am trying to prepare myself!

Way back in September I started a run streak in hopes of running every day for the rest of the year…exactly 100 days. I started on September 22 and failed on November 11. I let the streak fail when we learned that Cannon had been exposed to Covid-19 then fell sick. I was dealing with a lot of anxiety while waiting for his test results. It felt like with the timing that it couldn’t NOT be Covid. I was worried about how sick we might get and if we had passed it to anyone else (his results came back six days later negative for Covid). At the time my body and mind needed a break and I took it. I looked back in my Training Peaks account and I ran every day from September 22 to November 11th which is exactly 50 days. It was definitely not planned but at least it feels like a nice round number to end on.

But I always believe it is best to get right back up and try again. I have been able to do a couple 50 day run streaks now so I am going to keep trying for that 100 days streak! 100 days from now is in March, that seems to far away! If you are interested in trying your own streak Runners World does a holiday run streak from Thanksgiving to New Years. So fun to keep moving during the holidays with the hashtag #RWRunSteak.

I started my streak over with an easy three miles on the treadmill, it’s always a good idea to ease back into these things.

Cannon was my cheering section as usual, I love how supportive he is (Emmy was napping)

The basement playroom is the perfect place for him to hang out while I run on the treadmill.

Cory was climbing on the roof of the house putting up Christmas lights. Our neighborhood is doing a “light up the night” campaign and encouraging residents to put up lights early so we can enjoy the season longer.

The kids and I joined him later to “help”

At four Cannon actually is helpful….at two Emmy is mostly trouble, but she sure is cute!

Then it was time for hot chocolate for the kids and coffee for the adults.

For dinner we made clam chowder and enjoyed time together. The world feels smaller right now but I am just so grateful it is full of these amazing humans!

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Tell me something you are doing to make the season brighter!

Please watch this:

I want to thank all of the health care workers out there still fighting for our lives while risking theirs. I hope we remember the sacrifices they are all making and we make our own to keep each other safe. Be a human worth fighting for.

Today was a pretty good day for us, the kids and I got up early and started the day by watching The Grinch.

I was not originally a fan of this new version but now I think it’s the best. I love slow weekend mornings with the kids.

Cory was up late putting together a surprise for the kiddos so we let him sleep in. Once he was up we were ready to surprise the kids.

We decided to go ahead and give the kids the trampoline we bought for them. With the new restrictions, home learning and everything we thought they needed something fun to add to our play space. They have been jumping on everything lately so this was needed. They loved it and it was so fun to see them enjoying it.

After playing on the trampoline for a while we cleaned up and played before lunch and naps. Cory kindly changed the oil in my car during nap time and put our snow tires on. We are ready for winter!

After nap time we went to a playground for the first time in weeks. Emmy still has some cold symptoms so we made sure to go to a playground that was empty. The kids were SO excited to go!

We had a great time, I really hope we can still enjoy playgrounds as winter rolls in and Covid numbers continue to rise.

It was a beautiful afternoon!

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I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and hanging in there!

Tell me something fun you did this weekend!

Our quarantine is finally over, hooray! The actual time went by quickly because the 14 days we needed to quarantine included the time we didn’t know. Cannon was exposed to Covid 19 on Friday the 6th, We didn’t find out about it until the evening of Wednesday the 11th. So even though we weren’t in quarantine during the time we didn’t know, it still counts towards the 14 days. Because Colorado is in such a bad place we won’t be doing much more anyway but it will be nice to visit playgrounds, run outside and going to Costco!

I started the day off with the morning line up with the kiddos.

Cory has a lot to do at work and has been up late working so we have been letting him sleep in and hanging out just the three of us in the mornings.

Cannon had his last day of online school before Thanksgiving break, they have the entire week off.

Hunphry stayed on neighborhood watch while we were in school. When asked what he was thankful for Cannon said his Mommy and his puppy {love}.

I started gathering holiday recipes, and getting things ready for Thanksgiving. I had the table set up for Christmas because we don’t normally have Thanksgiving here but now I think I should do something festive.

During nap time I ran to Costco to get food for next week. Cory had me freaked out that we might not be able to get a turkey but we were able to get one!

I also grabbed this gingerbread house as something fun to do together.

Cory and the kids went to ride bikes while I made dinner, I can’t wait until it’s safe for Cannon to go to bike camp.

After dinner and bedtime, I worked on the kids wish list for Santa. I really hope he brings them these personalized chairs, they are so cute!

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I saw an advertisement for WHOOP online and it seems really interesting.

It’s a wrist device you wear 24/7 and it tracks your recovery levels and helps you train smarter. Instead of buying the device outright you get a monthly membership. I think it seems really interesting, but I am a HUGE data geek!

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What is on your Christmas list?

Would you use the WHOOP?

Quarantine day 9, we are feeling ready to go to playgrounds and Costco when our quarantine is officially over tomorrow. (but that’s about all we will be adding back in). Our County has gone to level red for Covid which means we are at the level of community spread. We are not in complete lock down yet but if things don’t turn around we will be soon.

With level red covid spread personal gatherings are prohibited. So that means family Thanksgiving is cancelled. We were on the fence about if we felt it was safe to celebrate with family but now it has been decided for us. We missed last years Thanksgiving because we had the stomach flu. At least this year we will be able to make a turkey dinner at home for the four of us so that is at least an upgrade. But it’s sad to think that Emmy hasn’t been able to share a Thanksgiving with family since she was seven months old and Cannon was just two.

A lot has changed since then.

Cannon has been doing so well in online school that he earned his favorite treat, a cake pop!

It’s pretty nice that Cannon’s favorite treat is from Starbucks so Cory and I can get a treat for ourselves as well. Emmy got a pink cake pop, I got a chestnut praline latte and Cory got a peppermint mocha. We dropped Cory’s coffee off at the home office then drove to the library. We are loving the curbside pick-up and drive through drop off so we can still borrow books!

I am way late to the party but I finally figured out the Starbucks points deal, now that they opened a Starbucks about a mile from our house with a drive through we are in trouble….

After school and our library visit it was time for lunch and nap. I made the kids PB&J sandwiches….I really need some more lunch ideas! Maybe I will try some of Amber’s Bento Box Ideas.

25 healthy lunch box ideas (for kids)

After naps we went for a walk, I pushed them in the stroller while they ate snacks

Then they ran back while I tried to keep up.

On nights that I teach I want something super easy and fast for dinner.

Everything here is from Costco and cooks up super fast!

Then it was time to teach and for Cory to take over kids duty.

After class I wrote up a gift list for kids 2-4, I combined Cannon and Emerald’s list this year as they are playing with mostly the same things.

Gift Guide For 2-4 Year Old Girls & Boys

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What are your Thanksgiving plans?

It’s that time of year to start thinking about gifts for our favorite little people!

We have and love many of the items listed below and some are on their list this year.

Tricycle – We have two trikes that the kids ride around inside and love to race!

Sharper Image Remote Control RC Cars – This is a great starter RC car, both kids love it, the large tires make it less of a problem when it runs into furniture. It also just flips over and keeps going, no frustration!

Little Tikes 7 foot Trampoline – The kids will be getting this trampoline this year. They love to jump so much I can’t wait to see them use it.

Magna-Tiles Set – Both Cannon and Emmy love playing with these sets.

Kids Fire Tablet – We have had ours for a couple years now and they are amazing for travel. The kids drop them all the time and the case has kept them safe. We like to watch movies and play educational games on them.

Ikea Table – We love and use this little table all the time. It’s great for crafts, coloring and eating lunch. I feel like Emmy spills less when she is at a table that is her size.

Toddler Chair – These are on our list this year too, I just think they are so cute!

Vtech go go Train – This train is so fun for little ones, both Cannon and Emerald love the set we have. This one has Mickey and friends.

Skip Hop Backpack – We have had a skip hop backpacks for years, they have held up well and are cute. Emmy loves to keep all her treasures in hers.

Step2 Roller Coaster – We have had this roller coaster for three years, it still looks new and the kids still love to play on it. It’s a huge hit when friends come over to play.

Ikea Kitchen – I love how simple and modern this play kitchen is.

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What is on your kids list this year?

Quarantine day 8, and things are not that exciting around here. The best news is that it has been really warm and sunny here so at least we aren’t stuck inside. We are still trying to spend more time outside, we aren’t going to make 1000 hours outside this year but we are going to do our best so just be out MORE.

I have been trying to let the kids have more unstructured time outside. Cannon doesn’t have school on Wednesdays so we spent a lot of time in the backyard.

Snacks are better eaten in the backyard!

It was even warm enough to get the water table out.

And open the windows in the house, fresh air is the best!

I am so so proud of Cannon, he has had to give up so much this year but always shows up everyday with a smile on his face. Emmy has lost out on experiences too but at two I feel like she doesn’t notice as much.

I think she is happy to have more time with Cannon. She is going to be devastated when Cannon starts going to school full time.

We had veggie burgers for dinner (we try to have meat free days at least once a week) and I went to bed not long after putting the kids down. I have been tired this week, probably fighting the cold Cannon has and just needed more rest.

Lynzy at Lynzy&Co has a gift guide based on the idea that we should be outside all year. She also has other great resources and is really cute and fun to follow!

Holiday Gift Guide | No Such Thing As Bad Weather

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Have you been enjoying time outside?

What is weather like where you are? I don’t think 70 degree days in November are normal for Colorado.