It's a...

GIRL!! 

We are having a sweet little baby girl! She is perfect and beautiful and I don't think I could love her any more. We are thrilled beyond belief. I always knew she was a girl but knowing for real is such a great feeling. I cannot wait to hold my little girl in my arms but for now I am excited to start planning her nursery and buying her lots of cute outfits and hair bows!

I always knew it!

My beautiful baby girl

Her sweet tiny foot

Love that little face

I already love shopping for her and 

I am finding little girl outfits so hard to resist!

Picking out nursery colors and planning is so much fun! 

Mint green, navy (it looks dark in this photo), peach and gray

Recently

Currently I'm 18 weeks and overall feeling really good. Some days are better than others but I really can't complain and I'm excited for what's to come!

Random, 18 week outtake 

I ran 10 miles the past two weekends and feeling good. I'm hoping to run 12 miles (and the longest I intend to run until the half marathon) this weekend. Would like to maintain between 8-12 miles as my long run mileage. I took my first spin class and enjoyed it. I was able to go my own pace and rest when I needed but it makes me feel stronger and hope it will help with my return. I'm still adjusting to my rapidly changing body and suddenly having a real pregnant belly. It's very fun but I am constantly in awe of how quickly the changes happen!

I'm tired a lot but luckily I seem to have the 2nd trimester energy because I'm feeling more normal most of the time. I try to get things done when I can and not feel guilty when I lay around and sleep. I have lately been incredibly lacking any motivation to clean, organize or decorate which is definitely slowing down the finishing phase of our remodel. Hopefully I'll have more energy for this project soon because I know I'll want to have it done before June!

16 weeks

I'm currently stressing and obsessing about my plan for 2013 memory keeping for our family. I've looked at a lot of different ideas and narrowed down to two different methods. If you know me at all then you know I have to have consistency in my projects and I'm a huge perfectionist. I can't start anything unless I'm certain things are right...which is why I haven't started this project yet :) Hopefully I'll have my photos organized digitally by the end of this week (a huge 2013 goal) and I can start to tackle this project.

17 weeks

Totally random, I just thought they were cute

I'm eating ALOT, struggling to cook all our meals at home and tending to eat out more, but trying new things to expand baby's palate (Indian food last weekend!) For the first time in weeks I planned a weekly menu and put it up on our chalkboard. Until now it seemed that I didn't have the energy to take on this usual weekly task.

Cravings:

16 Weeks: ranch dressing and veggies, ketchup and fries and pasta with alfredo sauce

17 Weeks: hint of lime potato chips, chocolate ice cream

18 Weeks: Food in general but really anything spicy and pizza

18 weeks

I am REALLY looking forward to tomorrow and finding out what we are having. I think this is the third most anticipated and waited for day, third only behind the day I saw those two pink lines and the day I finally hold our little babe in my arms! I'm so excited about planning our little one's nursery and beginning to talk about names and getting to do some shopping! I can't wait to share if we'll be buying hair bows or bow ties in the future :)

Running with Baby

I get a lot of questions about my running now that I'm pregnant so I thought I'd talk about my opinions on running while pregnant. First and foremost, YES, I am most definitely still running and plan to continue until the day I go into labor! My doctor supports my plan and encourages me to continue running, however if he ever does tell me for the health and safety of my baby or myself then I will absolutely stop running. Hopefully that won't happen.

Running is certainly different and definitely harder, however I still love and need running in my life! Exercise is not harmful for baby and can only benefit mom for both labor and the task of carrying a little one for nine months. I plan to do everything I can to be strong and healthy throughout these times. I've heard some people say that you shouldn't get your heart rate higher than a certain point. While it's certainly different for every woman, my doctor has told me that there is no need to worry about being above/below a certain number, but just being aware of my body and knowing when I'm feeling good and when I've pushed too hard. I've always been very aware of how my body feels while running and done a lot of my pacing by feel. It's no different now, which is great!

The important thing to remember when I talk about running while pregnant is that I ran ALOT before I was pregnant and I was a fairly good and experienced runner. So, while it may seem to a non-runner that I'm running a crazy amount while pregnant, the reality is that I've cut WAAAAY back. It's all relative to what I did before! No speed work, tempo runs or pacing on long runs. I run by feel and I don't stress about pace. If it feels hard I slow down or walk. I try to run 3-4 times per week for a total of about 15-20 miles, sometimes less. My average marathon pace before pregnancy was 8 min/mile or faster. I couldn't imagine maintaining that pace for half a mile now! I'm averaging anywhere between 9:45-11 min/miles now, even on short runs. I'm ok with a run being only 20 minutes (that was a warmup before!) My heart rate stays pretty even but if I feel like I'm breathing hard I stop for a walk and stretch break.

Have I mentioned that I love knowing I ran marathon #10 with a baby on board? Even though I didn't know I was pregnant yet, looking back on that marathon makes me smile. And, I'm really convinced that's why I bombed the last 6 miles...ugh, not my finest running moment. I guess I'll never know if I was ready to run the pace I was running and baby made things hard at the end or I wasn't conditioned enough to maintain the pace for longer than 20 miles. Oh well...either way things worked out just perfect. I still managed a 3:29, qualified for Boston again (and hope to run in 2014) and I've got a little one on the way. Perfect!

While 2013 is certainly going to be different than most years, I still have goals and plans for my running. During pregnancy my goals are to run strong and maintain my weekly mileage while staying injury free. I'm challenging myself to include stretching and using the foam roller as part of my daily routine as well as keeping up weights and core workouts a few times a week to stay strong. Since it's winter (and WAY to cold to ride outside) I have also set the goal to attend at least one spin class per week. I'm honestly not very motivated to swim so we'll see if I can ever get excited about getting to the pool. My goals postpartum are to return to running both healthy and motivated. While I know I'll be eager to get back out there I have set the goal of being patient with myself and allow my body to dictate the pace of my return, plus I want to find a healthy balance in my life with a little one. Once I am back to a regular running routine again I hope to train for a FUN marathon in the fall while enjoying running with baby and then start training hard in hopes of a marathon PR in 2014.

2013 Goals

Every year I like to set goals for myself, both personally and professionally. Below are my goals from 2012. I feel fairly good about what I was able to accomplish this past year, but definitely didn't get to everything on the list. 2012 was a great year but I know that 2013 is going to be the best yet! I'm very much looking forward to what this year has in store, most especially the arrival of our little one, but I have many things I would like to do to prepare our lives and just to make myself a better person before June. I feel a little overwhelmed squeezing in all of my 2013 goals (plus the leftovers from 2012) into barely 6 months, but I'm excited for the challenge. Hopefully putting my goals out there will help me to stick with them! 

My GOALS 2012

Become more focused with work and my business

Blog twice a week on a regular basis

Avoid "death by hard drive" of my personal photography
Spend more time (whether in person or on the phone) with friends - don't allow my great relationships with friends to fall away

Allow myself to learn more and grow; don't be afraid to take risks and do scary things to grow
Continue working towards confidence in my own personal style of photography and confidence in myself and my abilities as a photographer

*I feel like these I did not complete or I need to continue working on in the new year. 

Warren Home Renovation 2012: make the house I live in feel like OUR HOME

*As of today we are about 95% finished with our home remodel. I LOVE IT!!

Find and attend a conference or learning opportunity to grow myself and my business (WPPI Conference)
*I'm attending WPPI 2012
Run a sub-3:30 marathon
*I ran 3:29:35 at the Houston Marathon, January 15, 2012
Enjoy every moment (even the mile 25 moments) of running the Boston Marathon for the first time

*I loved every minute, even the post-marathon insane chafing! I can't wait to run again in 2014!

*Yay way to go!!

RUN HAPPY!

BE HAPPY!

Allow God to guide my life and accept His presence more in my life

Cook more new recipes and try more new ingredients all with the goal of eating healthfully and wholesome foods to strengthen our bodies
Cook more asian influenced meals on a regular basis
Eat and think of food in a more body-conscious way, consider food as a fuel for my health

*These are goals that I will continue to work on throughout 2013 since they are ongoing

My GOALS 2013

STRONG: my word of the year

ORGANIZATION

  -The house

    -Set things up so that I can maintain what I do. Create living systems that are realistic for who we are as a family.

    -Closet/Office/Kitchen/Living/Nursery

  -Photos:

    -Create an organized system for photographs so that I feel better shooting more but can DO more with my photos

    -Print and display photos on a more regular basis

  -De-clutter

  -Create routine and systems

GETTING THINGS DONE

  -Set goals

  -Get stuff done

  -Follow up

  -Make things happen

HOME

  -Finish the remodel and decorate the house

  -Photograph the results of the remodel and new decorations and share here. 

  -Host a party for friends to see all our hard work and the results!

BABY

Prepare:

  -Read and learn about what is to come

  -Plan photography and life documentation for baby

  -Prepare, paint and design nursery

  -Plan for baby gear/purchases

ME 

  -Read two books a month - combination of business and fun books

PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

  -52 Week photo project 

  -Do something creative with photography every week that is just for me and not client related

  -Shoot more film

  -Document life and start working on a scrapbook/memory book system: whether it be an album or a plan for    creating blurb-style books each month/year

RUNNING

-Continue happy and safely running during pregnancy. While I won't be setting any time goals for my running this year I want to maintain running throughout my pregnancy, keep my body strong and healthy and return to running even stronger for the second half of the year. 

Goals during pregnancy:

  -Maintain steady weekly mileage

  -Stay injury free

  -Make stretching (and even yoga...gasp!) a part of my regular workout routine

  -Enjoy running and be ok with my new speed

  -Run the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon

Goals postpartum:

  -Run strong

  -Be patient with my body and my return if it is not as fast as I imagined

  -Learn to balance my new baby priorities with running

  -Enjoy running with baby

  -Run 30 miles for my 30th birthday on September 14th

  -Run a marathon in fall/winter 2013 for FUN

  -Start training hard in the fall with the goal of new PRs and a spring marathon in 2014

MY BUSINESS

Overall branding of my business for 2013 to take HWP to a new level, this includes:

  -Website, blog, logo redesign

  -New paper products

  -Creating a cohesive vision for my company that includes a mission statement

  -Spend time thinking about what makes my business unique and special, what I like and who I am as a business owner so I can start conveying that in my brand

  -Organizational systems within my business that will make my life easier

  -Create a workflow

  -Offer more to clients in 2013

  -Narrow down my focus and put my efforts there

  -Continue shooting for me and staying creative

Oh Baby!

I've been trying to start this post a hundred times and just never have the right words to say. Finally, I realized I would never know the perfect way to talk about our exciting news so I'm just going to say it. 

We're having a baby!  

We found out mid-October and it's been amazing ever since! I'm so incredibly happy and excited. These ultrasound photos were taken at my 13 week appointment; it was so wonderful to see my little one bouncing around in there looking great. I can't even describe the love I already feel for this little one!

 I had a run a marathon the week before we found out, so I thought nothing of it when I was a couple days late and my tiredness was appropriately attributed to running a fast marathon. I finally decided to take a test. Seeing those two lines was such a shock; I couldn't even believe it at first! 

We are having a BABY and baby has already ran a marathon, pretty cool!

I was really nervous the first few weeks until we got to see our little bean in there. The next few weeks passed in a blur of exhaustion and nausea. It's incredible how quickly my body has changed as this little one grows inside me! I'm happy to still be running, although much slower and fewer miles per week, but I feel good continuing to exercise and I know it's good! I'm now 15 weeks, our little one is the size of a naval orange and growing quickly and so am I! I can't believe the changes my body is going through.

We are looking forward to many fun weeks and months ahead on this wonderful journey. In just a few short weeks we will find out the gender and hopefully soon I will feel some movement, I cannot wait! After a long absence here on this blog, I plan to update regularly and share how things are going along the way.