Cameron is one!!

It still feels like we just brought Cami home from the hospital not that long ago so it was hard for me to believe my baby is already 1!  Time really flies by these days.
The past 3 and a half years of my life since becoming a Mommy has been the happiest, most joyful times in my life and most meaningful!  Mother's Day is coming up and I always reflect on my life as a Mom and how different it is than before motherhood.  Once becoming a Mom there is no turning back to before, there is only life after motherhood and I feel like the luckiest Momma of 2 sweet boys that have fulfilled my life and given me a whole new meaning and purpose! 
It is funny how I think the second time around as a Mom has been like night and day.  I have really grown into my role in motherhood and it feels so natural to me now verse starting out as a new Mom when Cory was born and not knowing what I was supposed to do and feeling shocked that they let me take him home from the hospital....I seriously told John "wow we get to keep him" lol.  Maybe Cameron is easier because I am more relaxed and just go with the flow this time around or maybe his personality is just very mild by nature.  I would want a house full of kids if they were all like Cami.  He has the sweetest, happiest disposition and it is very rare that he gets mad or upset. People tell me how his smile lights up a room and his eyes shine and he radiates happiness around him.
My boys have taught me about life and what is important.  Slow down.  Feel.  Be.  I learn from them everyday!  I appreciate their love, honesty, innocents and presence and I have come to find out things that matter most to them is my love, hugs and kisses and my presence, not my presents.  They teach me to live in the moment, with no hurry in the world.  They take their time, they stop and smell the roses, chase after bugs and dance to the beat of their own drum.  Teaching me along the way to enjoy the ‘little things’ that are truly the big things through the eyes of a child. :)They are indeed the best gifts I have ever received and I thank God for letting me be their Mommy!


Happy Mother's Day on Sunday to all you Mommy's out there.  Especially mine who is the most amazing Mother and best fried a girl can have. 

Year in Review!

In feb/mar, we worked on getting the nursery all ready for bringing home baby!  Took a complete transformation from pink wall to grey/white stripes and neutral colors with pops of yellow.

On April 21st, baby Cameron Alexander was born!  I couldn't fathom loving another baby as much as I loved Cory but the day he was born realized there your love for your kids does not divide but only multiplies!  He has brought so much love into our family and we felt complete once we brought him home with our little family of 4!  I'm so happy to have 2 boys, brothers, best friends for life!  Couldn't imagine life any other way!


May 12th, John and I celebrated our 8th anniversary together!  He is truly my best friend, best husband and best Daddy all wrapped up in one.  So happy we met running on the track at WKU 12 years ago.  

1st of June, we signed up to run in the Memphis Marathon and had 6 months to train for it.  I loved getting back into running shape but unfortunately due to bad weather/ice storm the marathon this December was cancelled!  Luckily we got to transfer our money to run in the Country Music Marathon next April so we will look forward to that!  It wasn't a big loss because even though we trained, it is still good for my body, mind so I don't feel like it was a loss in any way.

August - went on a family weekend vacation with the family at Lake Cumberland. 

In Sept, we had officially bought and closed on our Florida house that John's parents are renting.  Got a steal of a deal and they are loving the house!  Visited his parents for a week and went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. Cory turned 3 yrs old on the 9th and I won my first post pregnancy race..the Michael Brent 5K. 

In October we went to Gallrein Farms with friends Kalyn & Ray and Avery for pumpkin picking.  We also went to WKU for a little reunion with the RA's John worked with at our old living hall PFT and we celebrated with a Halloween party at Bill and Camellia's from church and the kids got to dress up & go on a hay ride where they had candy stops around their neighborhood. 

November 21st - my 31st birthday and we bought a van!  One thing about John and I is that we like a good deal and don't like to buy anything we can't afford.  We got a nice deal on a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country Touring minivan, paid for it in cash and have luckily been able to be debt free since we got married, with only debt now being our house payment.  We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house this month as well!

December was filled with parties...our church xmas party, an ornament party, a secret santa party with the kids from church, and we had a get together with my family over at our house to open gifts.  Santa came and brought the kiddos lots of new toys and Cory got to play in the snow and build a gigantic snow man.
Since I am terrible at printing pics, I want to start doing a yearbook with all my favorite pics in a photo book.  This was a great year and I'm sure there were many more great memories but these are some from my year.


 

Cam at 5 months!

My baby will already be 7 months in a couple days so this is a catch up by pictures post to keep him documented.  Here is my little man's pics at 5 months.  He's already quite the little ham for the camera. 

 

 

 

Beach Dreamin'

 

His little girlfriend Michaela!

 

 

 

 

 

The Underdog!

Hi, I'm Kristen, a stay at home Momma to 2 boys and have a little addiction to..... RUNNING.  Funny how when I very first started up this blog, it was going to be mostly about running hence the title "love on the run" :)  Well let's just say having kiddos takes up most of my time and my little blog ended up being all about them!  But here on out I would like to talk running, my training plan, my favorite running products, marathons I've done, tips or things that inspire me.  So I thought I'd do a little running recap and I hope to catch up on Cameron's monthly post soon (5 & 6 months!)  Can't believe my baby is 6 months old already!  I am going to separate by tabs family post, running post and home decorating post.  I like to dabble in interior design and may post things occasionally about decorating/organizing but most days I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get things done let alone blog about them with 2 little ones running around the house, so I may do a house tour post eventually.  It is like a juggling act for John and I to both get trained for our upcoming marathon with a baby and 3 year old to care for as well.  Anyway I wanted to do a little post on my running journey!

Well it started back in elementary that I knew I loved to run!  I think it was 4th and 5th grade P.E. class when I used to beat every boy and girl in sprints and knew this is something I had a talent for.  I had a natural knack for sprinting and went on to run track in middle and high school and did pretty well, got a few state medals, got a few college letters interested but picked the college that didn't seem to notice.  So I walked on to the WKU track team in hopes of proving myself to the coach that I could be a contender.  My dream was lost when I realized the program was mainly about the distance running and seemed to have less interest in the sprinters.  There were only a few sprinters even on the team and we were given a workout of the day to do on our own.  Didn't work out for me to have little to no structure and to not have anyone to push me in practice.  Excuses yep, but this is what made me really want to dive into distance running when I knew I would never be the next Jackie Joyner-Kersey.  I joined the Army ROTC program at WKU sophomore year and distance running became a requirement, I also quit the college track team that year.  I did cross country back in high school and when I started I was totally the slowest on the team!  My goal for my first 5K race was to do it all without walking.  Distance running did not come natural at all...in fact at the time I hated it and only did it to better my track seasons!  I ended up slowly improving in cross country to be up in the top 3 or 4 of the team by my senior year and gained a respect and a love realationship for distance running as well.  Fast forward to graduating college and starting my Army 4-year career, 2 Iraq deployments and miles and miles of running and I was happy as a lar even in a foreign land.  I think running truly makes me happy!  I would run 50 miles a week and was determined that when I get back to the states I would want my hubby (also a runner) and I to do a marathon in all 50 states!  So now I am out of the Army and have done marathons in two in Hawaii and one in Cleveland and have one coming up this Dec...the Memphis Marathon.  I am currently a run-aholic!  Even though I may be more type B personality wise, when it comes to my running, type A is totally in effect.  I started a training program several months ago and must get in my run 6 days a week to feel normal and refreshed.  When I start something like this, I hold myself accountable and obsess about getting the mileage in and will do it in the rain, freezing cold, windy days, at night or whatever it takes!  Even though some days I feel slow as a turtle on my training runs, I think this is what puts me ahead of the crowd and makes me appear to be a great runner when in fact it doesn't come easy!

"Everyone is an athlete. But some of us are in training and some of us are not"   -George Sheehan

"During long slow distance training, you should think of yourself as a thoroughbred disguised as a plow horse. No need to give yourself away by running fast."-Marty Liquori

What running does for me?
Running just gives me a deeper purpose and connection to something bigger than myself.  It makes me such a happier person like it is my happy pill everyday.  Of course my kids/family time make me most happy but running is like my "me time", and the washing machine of my mind.  It lets me escape, clear my head and just think about things that I may not have time to think about during the days.  I guess when it comes to distance running, I've always felt like the "underdog" just trying to keep up but coming out on top due to hard work, dedication and commitment. 
I never thought I would be able to even run a marathon and in my second attempt in Honolulu(where we were stationed in the Army), I ran in 3hr 32min in Honolulu which was a Boston qualifier time.  I do believe that "strength doesn't come from what you can do, it comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't". Ricky Rogers

Before I started my new running program a couple months ago, I had been a total lazy runner.  I was preggo early this year for one, but this whole year I just ran when I felt like it and no more than 2 or 3 miles at a time.  It just didn't feel important to me with everything else going on but something has felt missing in my life and running was the key to re-discovering myself  in a way.  I think this is a good analogy on not just running but can be applied to life:  "No one is born a perfect runner. And none of us will become one. But through incremental steps, we become better runners.. And that's the beauty of our sport: there are no shortcuts, nothing is given to us; we earn every mile and we earn every result."  Pete Magill

Lastly this is total me :)

 

"Some runs you will feel unstoppable, some runs you will feel defeated, but every run you will become stronger! "Your only limit is you! Being a real runner has nothing to do with how fast you are, and everything with how hard you are willing to work." ~unknown

 

Each one of us has a fire in our hearts for something.  It's our goal in life to find it and to keep it.  So glad I am back on track!

 

 

I linked up with Running Bloggers.com

http://runningbloggers.com/the-fitness-friday-linkup-15/

 

 

 

Cameron 4 months!

Wow it has been 7 weeks ago that I updated about my baby boy!  Since John is out of town in Washington D.C. at his yearly school for 2 weeks of training, I actually have some time to catch up on this blog since I don't have my movie partner to hang out with now in the evenings.  The weekly letters are going to be too hard to keep up with so I will do a monthly check-in now!  The months are flying by and my baby will be 5 months in just 5 more days! 

Here is what he's been up to the past month!

100th Day celebration!

100 days old. In Korea it is custom to celebrate the babies 100th day and we did this for Cory in the same outfit so we did the same for Cam.

Loves his jumperoo!

Cameron is a Nana's boy!

Cool shades...lol

 

1st trip to Lake Cumberland!

At the cabin by the lake!

My little cutie

He loves to jump! 

 

4 months old!

 

Trying on his Halloween costume....my little shark!

Shark!

 

Cory always loves to get in Cameron's crib with him!

 

Happy Boy!

1st trip to Florida!

 

One easy going baby!

 

 

About You:

 

-Weight: 17 pounds (81st percentile)

 

-Height: 26 inches (85th percentile)

 

-Health:  You have been a healthy, happy boy!

 

-Sleep:  You go down at 8:30pm and wake at 6am for a feeding then right back to sleep until 8am!

 

-Routine:  After you wake at 8 or 8:30am we play for a bit and you take a nap again around 10 for an hour or so then play more until about 2pm and you nap about an 1& 1/2 hrs. then you are up until I get you ready for bed. You love to still be swaddled at night and your favorite activities are eating, jumping in the jumperoo, chewing on your fingers, sitting in the bumbo seat, watching your brother and being close to Momma!

 

-Clothing size: You can wear some 6 month still but are mostly in 6-9 month!

 

-Diaper size: Still in 2 but need to move to 3's soon.

 

-Diet:  Exclusively breastfed.  I started Cory at 4 months with the rice cereal in hopes he'd sleep longer but since Cam sleeps great at night regardless... I am going to wait until 6 months since I recently read that some studies show babies who breastfeed exclusive 6 months have less allergies, sickness, etc.  May or may not be true but no need to rush so I will hold off on the solids until the 6 month mark. 

 

-Toys:  You love to chew on everything now...especially Sophie the giraffe and teething rings, you like the exersaucer and anything you can grab and hold onto. 

 

-Milestones:  Went on your first long road trip, rolled over stomach-to-back and back-to-stomach

 

-Eye color: You still have blue eyes...I am waiting for them to turn brown but who knows...so far they are blue like Momma's!