It’s crazy to think that the year is a day away from being over. I feel like since having kids, time goes by at a different pace than before. People would tell me when I was pregnant with my first, my daughter, to cherish the moments because before I’ll know it, time will fly by. Back then, I thought it was just hogwash and would just smile and nod. But whoa! It’s true!

There are so many things I’m thankful for in 2013. So many things that I can reflect on and call special moments. But, I’m going to slim it down to 13 highlights. In no particular order, well, in chronological order… : )

January: I had signed up for the P.F Chang’s Rock n Roll ½ marathon months before and found out I was pregnant the second time two months before this race. I went back and forth on whether or not I should still run it. I decided, literally the night before, that I’d do it and walk/jog the 13.1 miles. Here I am with my husband and my son 13 weeks in my tummy : )

2. April: My daughter turned ONE this month. I just can’t believer that my little girl is growing up so soon and right before my eyes. She is my little energizer bunny that constantly keeps me on my toes. I
love her.

3. May: This was my last month of work. It was a super hard decision to leave my job and become a stay-at-home-mom. There are times that I still wonder if I did the right thing. I love being with my kids and sharing special moments with them, but I also miss my other kids. I miss reading literature and teaching writing and listening to my students’ stories. I miss my co-workers and the knowledge they shared with me. There is a possibility of me returning this fall; I have yet to decide on what I’ll do.

4. July: Helping to start and being a part a Healthy Moms group has been such a rewarding experience. Every day I post a Daily Check-in with a pump up song where moms check in with their workouts. I love reading what the women are doing and seeing their accomplishments. So many have said that the group has inspired them to change their lives and being even a small part of that gives me chills. I may never meet any of them, but knowing I’m remotely a part of their change makes me so happy.

5. July: Oh my goodness, my son was born this month. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I called my son a chill dude and that’s exactly what he is. He is such a good baby. He’s happy wherever he’s at and whatever he’s doing. He’s just cool.

Seeing him and holding him, I knew our family was complete. We have our beautiful daughter and now our son, we couldn’t be more blessed.

6. September: Having been pregnant for what seemed like two straight years (my kids are 16 months apart), I was extremely antsy to get back on the workout field. At 3 weeks post-partum, I began going to hot yoga and at 6 weeks post baby, I ran my first 5k! It was a slow one, but it felt oh so good!

7. October: I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m pretty obsessed with my husband. I won the lottery with this guy. Our anniversary is in this month and every year we try and do something fun and memorable. Last year, we ran the Bisbee 1000 and this year we took an amazing mini vacation to San Francisco. Any time I think of this trip, I smile. This trip was absolute perfection. Seriously, I could not name or think of one negative thing. It was just perfect.

8. November: Anytime I can run a race with my husband, I get all mushy and excited. We’ve been running our hometown’s Turkey Trot 5K 3 years now and this year we were super excited as I was finally NOT pregnant! Lol! We had goals in our minds as far as how we wanted to do and I was beyond excited at my final time of 25:40. I had been shooting for anything under 27 and boy did I deliver : )

9. December: This was a busy month for me running wise. I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K early December and was just blown away. I honestly think back at this race and can’t believer that I actually did so well. My goal had been to finish in under 1:30 and my final time was 1:25 with a 9:11min/mile pace. !!!!

10. I had a 5K race not too long after and I had a lofty goal of finishing under 25 minutes (I still can’t believe I’m even saying that!) I finished at 25:05 and was sooo close. But I’m so freaking excited that I’m even in that range and that I had gotten 2nd in my age group 😀

11. Christmas this year was so special because it was our first Christmas in our own home. We chose not to travel this year and I’m so glad we didn’t. It was truly something special waking up and seeing my daughter’s eyes light up seeing the gifts under the tree—how did those get there!?!

12. I had a goal to run 5 races, one for each month of my son’s age at the end of the year : ), and I was able to complete that with 3 5Ks, 1 10K, and 1 15K.

Of course another goal was to lose as much baby weight as I could and with the year closing, I am very happy to announce I’m 7 pounds away from pre PRE pregnancy weight!

13. Finally, a highlight of my year has been “meeting” so many people through this blog and other social mediums related to my blog. I was so nervous about starting this but I’m so glad I did. I truly am thankful to my sole sister Salt, as she gave me the push I needed to get started and is a patient helping hand whenever I need it.

—Tell me about your 2013 highlights!!! I’d love to hear them !!