Sunday, April 29, 2012

My First 5K!

This morning I ran my first 5K in the OKC Memorial Run - "We Run to Remember" with my good friend, Tracy Norris. It was hard but so much fun! The run was downtown & began right by the Memorial. I've heard that at least 25K people participated! Wow! I've been doing the Couch to 5K program since January & I NEVER dreamed I would do any sort of running event. Running has never been my favorite form of exercise. We ran it in 40 minutes & we were so proud of ourselves! We plan on doing another one together! Unfortunately I only have blurry phone pics :( 
 Waiting to start - 6:30am - People as far as the eye could see & the new Devon Tower in the background! 
We're ready! Let's do this!

 Almost to the FINISH!!! Once we saw the finish line we sprinted to the end!

I love my medal with the Survivor Tree on it - a beautiful reminder of all who served, suffered & lost on April 19, 1995. 

Our Soccer Star!

 1. M about to score his first of 2 goals this game! 2. The little boy to the left of him is named Brayden. He is the coach's son - Andy & Coach Buckingham have agreed that he & Michael play really well together so we're going to keep them on the same team next year! 3. M has really improved in being aggressive & going after the ball! 4. Yes, they blew up this large green dino DURING the game - you can only imagine how distracted the little 5 year olds were - so funny!

Michael is really enjoying soccer & has improved so much since he started in March. Yesterday BB & Papa drove up to watch him play! He was SO excited to have them there! Andy made me laugh - originally he told me he would coach in a few years, when M is a little older. But he is now the assistant coach :-) And he's already agreed to continue next year!

Such a BIG Girl!

We are so proud of Kate! She is doing AWESOME with using the potty! We had tried potty training last fall - she did well but then really regressed, to the point that we decided to put everything away & revisit potty training later - later as in late May or early June after our schedule slowed down a bit. But a little over a week ago, I was getting her dressed for the day & she told me she wanted to wear big girl panties. I decided to run with it! And I'm so glad I did - she knew she was ready! Friday & Saturday were fine with just a few accidents. Since Sunday she's only had 2 accidents & has been dry all night since Monday! YAY! I am one happy Mommy! On Tuesday evening we took her to Toys R Us because she had finished her potty chart - she picked out a Minnie doll. Now Minnie has been with her at all times! 
We also turned her crib into a toddler bed last weekend. She's tested the limits on getting out of bed a few times - During nap time earlier in the week I didn't hear her talking anymore so I peeked in her room to make sure she was asleep - ha! She wasn't in her bed & I noticed her closet door was shut with the light on. I opened the door & she was sitting down with all her "friends" lined up around her - "Hi Mommy! I'm playing!" She wasn't too happy with me for making her get back in bed :-)

This Week

 The weather was beautiful this week! Perfect for lunch on the patio! 
 How could I have forgotten how MESSY this stage is! This boy LOVES to eat!! I think he would just eat & eat & eat if we didn't stop him! So far his favorites seem to be: avacado (as you can tell from the pic!), banana, yogurt, sweet potato & scrambled eggs. He cries when he's done with these foods & we don't offer him more! Quite funny :-) On Monday of this week I decided to take formula & bottles away cold turkey. I did this with M & with K - seemed much easier to me than slowly weaning. He is doing really well. He doesn't seem to like milk as much as Kate did, but he will drink it & he's doing well with the sippy cup! 
 I was folding laundry & M said, "Mommy, I want to help you fold laundry!" Music to my ears!! He folded that entire stack of dishtowels all by himself, along with most of his clothes! He did such a good job & I was so proud of him! I will cherish this time until helping Mommy do laundry is no longer fun to him :-)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

David is 11 Months Old! 4-11-12



He really reminds me of Michael in this pic! 
David is such a happy 11 month old! He has 4 teeth. He is starting to wave & clap a little bit. His favorite activity seems to be crawling around the house & trying to keep up with M & K. He loves to eat & does a really good job at making a mess :-) He seems to really dislike having his face & hands cleaned up though! He is constantly on the move - I had to trap him with my feet to get the photo above. 

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Photos 2012

PERFECT day for Easter photos! 
 David's First Easter!
David-10mo; Michael-5yrs; Kate 2 1/2yrs
 LOVE this one - I just wish David was in it :)
 Happy girl!
 David wearing the cute bow tie that Aunt Amanda sent. He was done by this point :(
 Twirling like a princess - She is wearing her Easter dress from last year because I love it so much - so glad it fit her 2 yrs!!
 I will have to do another photo shoot with the bow ties sometime soon!
~sweet childhood~


Easter 2012

We've had a wonderful Easter weekend. The best part - Andy got home on Friday after being gone for 2 weeks!! We were all SO glad to have him back :) On Saturday afternoon the kids had a lot of fun at our neighborhood egg hunt - 800 eggs & at least 30 kids!! Perfect weather! After the egg hunt we went to Easter service at our church (Life Church OKC - we've been attending since January) - The music & the message were amazing!  

 This morning Andy read us the Easter story & we finished hiding & finding the kids' Resurrection Eggs. I tried a new recipe for brunch - Oven-baked Orange French Toast - Yummy!
 The kids were so excited to open their Easter goodies.
 Thanks to Mommom, Aunt Fran & Aunt Amanda/Uncle Matt for providing the Easter goodies :-) I guess I have been in survival mode for the last few weeks & Easter really snuck up on me this year!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Carrie's Visit

Carrie & her kids - Luke, Claire & Cora, came to visit last week while Andy is out of town. We had a fun, busy time :) 6 kids ~ 6 & under!! Luke & Michael had tons of fun drawing, building cities & playing Legos together. We went to the neighborhood playground for a picnic. On Saturday Carrie & I had three glorious hours of time without kids (except sweet baby Cora came along :) - we went shopping at Loft, DSW, Target & ate at Saturn Grill.  I'm so thankful for my sweet friend & for her efforts to come visit -- I know it's a lot of work to travel with 3 kids!! It's also so fun to watch our kids becoming friends - Michael was really disappointed that Luke had to leave. On Sunday morning he told me, "Mommy, I'm still really sad that Luke left."

Monday, April 2, 2012

Kindergarten Registration

Last Wednesday I registered my baby for Kindergarten. Where does time go?! We are really excited about Washington Irving Elementary - He will start Friday, August 17th & I'm sure it will take some time to adjust to the 5 days a week, 8:25 to 3:15 schedule! Every time we drive by the school Michael tells me, "I am so excited to start Kindergarten!"