This is a HUGE deal around here, but especially in New Orleans, LA!

Our family from New Orleans kicks the Mardi Gras celebration off back in the summer!  

...Yea, it is THAT planned out!

The floats in New Orleans are bigger and better, 

but I'd say we have a pretty good celebration here near Galveston, TX! 

 Anyway, it makes for a very fun time and the kids love catching beads!  

We'll have to take plenty of pictures and enjoy LOTS of King Cake for ya too!  My mom is fortunate enough to attend our cousin's parade in New Orleans, so I'll make sure and have her take pictures there too!

Mardi Gras 2011 in Galveston, TX

Have you ever been to a Mardi Gras celebration?  If not, you're missing out!  

SO.MUCH.FUN!  

Seriously, LOTS of fun!!!

Dip DELICIOUSNESS?

We're going to a Super Bowl Party on Sunday and I have a super cute football bowl to use for a exciting dip...only problem is that I don't have a great dip to prepare :-(  

Any suggestions? 

 I can look on Pinterest, but I hate making a dip that I've never tried before!

What's your favorite party dip?  I'd love some great suggestions!

And I'm happy to report that Justin seems to be feeling MUCH better, still just battling the runny nose and cough, but here's hoping a few more days of rest will help him bounce back to his normal self soon!

my poor baby boy...

the one in our family hit hardest with the sniffles...

 i mean, he fell asleep with his DS in hand so you know it must be BAD...

and he also fell asleep on Dixie too...

We sure hope he gets to feeling MUCH better soon, because although Mommy is sure taking advantage of all of the snuggling and cuddling, she's missing her wild and crazy littlest man and it's just not fun watching him be SO miserable and not-so-full-of-energy like I'm used to!

Ugh to allergies...

We have been so excited to finally be in our new neighborhood, playing outside and meeting our neighbors,  but now because of all of THIS park fun,

We're all sneezing, coughing, have runny noses, scratchy throats and sinus headaches...

and our poor little man is dealing with his wheezing with the weather changes :-(  

Here's hoping the McClellen's get to feeling better soon!

some FUN and exciting things to share...

First of all, I am SUPER excited to announce that I have been asked to co-host the Take It From Me's very popular, Welcome Wednesday blog hop!  I have participated in their hop for over a year now, met some great fellow bloggers and learned some great tools for making blogging a success!  I will definitely keep you posted on this exciting journey for BOTH of my blogs!  Woohoo!

If you haven't checked it out, go here ,link up and hop around!!

As for our Anniversary dinner at Eddy V's...it was PERFECT!  Thanks to my aunt for suggesting this restaurant.  It was elegant, delicious and SO perfect for celebrating my birthday and our anniversary!  For our meal, I had the Fuji Apple Salad, Sea bass with lemon and garlic!  And since it was a special occasion, we splurged on coffee and dessert!  Yum!  This was our table when we arrived...

And look who's back home??!  Dixie!  She is a yellow lab, almost 10 years old.  She was a gift to my hubby, when we were dating, for his birthday!  She's a sweet dog and has adjusted pretty well so far!

...and here's our house!  

We are very excited and happy to be moved and almost settled in!

One of the highlights of the house for the boys is this TUB! 

 Ha!  They think it's hilarious to turn up the bubbles and go crazy!  Silly boys :-)

My newly created, "M" wall!  What do ya think?  Totally inspired by Pinterest, of course!

and finally our restored breakfast table by Robin @ Restored Designs!  She does amazing work!  

She lives near our new house, so I'm happy to call her my new neighbor and friend. 

 She might have that perfect piece just for you too, so be sure and check it out HERE!

we're back!

I think The McClellen's win the award for trying to 

CRAM a whole lotta milestones into a few, short weeks!

Let's break it down, shall we?

1. Celebrate our seven year anniversary 1/15/12

2. Get the keys to our new, forever home 1/14/12

3. Complete our first half marathon 1/15/12

4. Move into our home 1/16/12

5. Celebrate my 32nd birthday 1/21/12

6. and finally to end the CHAOS, we managed to take the boys to MONSTER JAM!!!

We didn't know until we arrived, but we had FRONT ROW SEATS! 

 The boys were super excited and screamed every time a truck flipped!  It was pretty cool!

We had pit passes to "meet" the trucks and drives before the show and we HAD to stand in line for EVERY truck...as you can see by the autographs on their shirts!  I have better pics on my big camera, so I'll share those as soon as I find my camera case in one of these boxes!  Ha!

It was little man's first visit to Monster Jam and he LOVED it!  

He stayed awake and excited until Grave Digger ended the show at 10:30!  

Woo, it was a late night but totally worth it :-)

And finally tonight, Daddy and I will be able to have our date night to celebrate our belated anniversary and my birthday!  We plan on going somewhere nice, 

so I better get dressed and unpack some boxes before we go!

and a few other things...

Guess who will be coming home?  Dixie!  She is our yellow lab that has lived with my mom since we moved to this house.  Now that we are moving into our larger, forever home...she's FINALLY coming home too!

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous about all of the shedding, but the boys are BEYOND excited to have Dixie back home with us!  They love dogs and it's about time that we had her back in the family!

and in other exciting news...look what came in the mail yesterday!!!

If you can see what it is?!  Disney Cruise Line confirmation packet!  Yep, we'll be heading on the Disney Cruise soon and we are VERY excited.  I have never been on a cruise and to be honest, my mom talked us into it.  Hopefully it is as much fun as people say and with the Italian cruise line sinking recently, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely TERRIFIED.  Ha!  Oh well, as Goofy and Mickey say...BON VOYAGE!!!  

home sweet home...almost!

The movers will be here at 9am tomorrow morning.  We have had the keys to our new home since Saturday at 3pm!  We have been making trips over there to unload boxes and get things in order!  We are SO excited that tomorrow will be our first night in the house!  Very exciting!  Tomorrow will also be the day that I attempt my first run, post race!  Yikes!  Lots going on in our lives, but promise to post many pictures VERY soon!

13.1- YEA BABY!!!

Well, we did it!  13.1 miles-DONE!

My time, 2hrs 46 min.

Brandon's time, 1hrs. 49 min.

Just some pre-race photos I wanted to share...MUCH more to come!  I was a nervous wreck, I think we all were.  The adrenaline was insane and my heart was beating out of my chest!  Crazy.  I am not going to lie, I'm in some pain and I'm covered in Theragesic.  My shoulder hurts the worst, so I must have been really tense from all of the nerves!  It's 8:15, on our seven year anniversary and Brandon and I are both in bed!  Ha!  Guess you know that means we're POOPED!  Brandon, Christine and I all accomplished something we never thought possible!  We pushed ourselves, and although I struggled on a lot of the course, I DID IT. That's what matters.  I crossed that finish line with tears streaming down my face...what a feeling!

SO nervous...

because today is the Aramco Houston Half Marathon!

  My first half marathon.  My husband's first half marathon.  It's also our 7 year anniversary! 

 I am awake and it's 2:50a.m and I am TOTALLY running on nerves!  I'm anxious, excited, terrified, proud, and so many other emotions wrapped into one!

The Olympic Trials took place yesterday and being there as those elite athletes crossed the finish line was AMAZING.

 I've trained hard, probably could have trained A LOT harder.  My boys trained along with me and pushed me along the way!  After all, they are our motivation.  We will show them that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.  They can do anything they put their minds to.  Look where Mommy and Daddy started...overweight, unhealthy and back then, probably could not run a mile if you paid them.  And now 13.1?  CRAZY.

This is what the boys looked like after our last run two days ago!  Woohoo...they were POOPED!

So, all that's left to do is prepare, drink my cup of coffee, calm myself down...and get dressed in my race day outfit!  Yikes.  Is this day really here?  Woohoo.  

As I cross that finish line, so many emotions will be going through me.  Happiness and determination is what will bring me there.  

I will push myself for all of those times in my life where I had little or no self-confidence, those times where I felt alone or afraid, those times where I felt helpless before I lost the weight and gained my life back, I will push for all of those people needing to find encouragement to start THEIR journey, I will push for my boys, I will push for my husband, but most importantly for myself-to know that I've set a goal and REACHED that goal!  Bring It On!

Here we come, baby!

BUSY doing nothing!

Well of course we have things that we "should" be doing while Daddy's at work!  Like packing, cleaning, learning, reading, cooking, doing laundry, but for now we'd rather...

 PLAY and BE SILLY!!

Yep, we can keep ourselves entertained for hours with silly things like this!  Taking pictures of ourselves, dancing in the living room, playing chase, and telling make believe stories!  

After all, we must all cherish these moments the MOST :-)

some INDOOR camping FUN

With only a few more days until our move and our half marathon, we've been finding ways around the house to stay busy!  Of course we've been packing A LOT.  We've lived here for over four years, so you can imagine how much stuff we've managed to accumulate!  Too much! But after this move, we don't plan on moving for a LONG, LONG time...it's our "home": the one where we will raise the boys, have family over, host Thanksgiving, Christmas and much more! Plus, we'll be getting our dog back!  Ha, she's lived with my mother for four years, while we lived here and we're ready to have her back!  She'll have a huge yard, and lots of space indoors to roam around!  She's a yellow lab and her name is Dixie, so we'll have many memories to make with her too!  The boys are MOST excited about her coming home!

So in keeping busy, my husband taught Jake how to ride his bike WITHOUT training wheels! I was screaming and whistling in the road, once he got the hang of it!  Can you tell I'm one, proud Momma?!  Ha!

and we've been playing in THIS...

We've had an indoor camping trip before, but it was really fun this time because our house is pretty much EMPTY!  Nothing to get in the way of this big 'ol tent!  The boys actually fell asleep in here, but it did take them until after 10pm, but it was still fun!  We had the Coleman lantern, we told stories, read books and played Angry Birds on Jake's iTouch!  So fun!  I guess in the future, we'll actually have to camp OUTSIDE, but for now, our indoor camping trips will have to do!  

Your Houston News: featuring my husband and I

Picture: My husband and I "fake" running for the photographer! Check out our little man in his sunglasses! HILARIOUS :-)
I was asked a few weeks ago if we'd be interested in a feature about our running journey, leading up to the half marathon. I was very excited to share our story, and I wanted to share the link with all of you!


League City couple hope to inspire others to be more active - Your Houston News: News:: Some couples play bridge. Others enjoy gardening together. But
for exercise-enthusiast Marissa McClellen, running is the tie that
binds in her…

Are ya ready for some football?!

Well, we are definitely excited today!  Our very own, Houston Texans have their VERY first playoff game!  Let's hope that they pull off a WIN!  Houston fans are certainly excited.  Our neighborhood is pumped up too, flying their Houston Texans flags, grilling, boiling crawfish and having watch parties!  We are hanging out at the house, but we are having family over and the boys have been playing outside since early this morning!  

GO HOUSTON TEXANS!!!  

and with more exciting, football news!  

My husband and I graduated college from SHSU-Sam Houston State University and they are in the National Championship!  Playing RIGHT NOW and leading the game so far, so 

GO BEARKATS!!!

What are your weekend plans?  Hopefully there's lots of family fun planned for you and your family too!

Have a great weekend!  Only SEVEN days until our first half marathon AND our seven year anniversary! Needless to say, we are getting VERY excited!  

2011 in iPhone pics!

2011 was definitely a great year with lots of changes...instead of the traditional recap, I thought I'd try to only use iPhone pics, since I seemed to forget my "real" camera for many of these special moments!

Justin gave up the Binky!

Justin's first movie...Cars 2.

4th of July 2011

several Jellystone trips!

Jake was a ring bearer in cousin, Britney's wedding!

Justin fell into the fire pit at Artesian Lakes, ER photo from his poor burns :(

I stood in my dear friend, Ashlyn's wedding!

There's the beautiful Mrs. Baker!

Daddy and Jake raced TOGETHER!  Jake's first 1K and Daddy's 5K, amazing finish!

Fall 2011

Halloween 2011

Justin's first black eye, from playing too rough with big brother :(

The boys first Houston Texans football game!  So fun!

Mommy and Daddy have been training for their first half marathon!

LOTS of visits with cousins!

our last Christmas in this house, we are moving VERY soon!

Mommy fit back into her old jeans!  WOOHOO!!!

our cousin, Bailey was born!

Jake's first Bumper Car experience and he LOVED it!

Jake spent a lot of 2011 working on those muscles!!!  Pretty awesome, right?!  ha!

...and finally Justin's first visit to Chuck E Cheese and although he doesn't like the mouse, he sure LOVES the arcade!  Ha!

Looking back through phone pics can be really funny and bring back more memories than you think!  I wish I was able to figure out how to upload the videos on my phone, those will have you laughing for hours!

Here's hoping I remember my "real" camera more often in 2012, but I still love phone pics, I just can't help it!