So sweet

Kinda don't want to even lay him down. He just is so sweet to hold.

Marathon

Everyone has their bucket list right. You know things you want to do sometime in your lifetime. Well one of mine is to run a marathon. I mean a FULL MARATHON. Yep 26.2 miles. I have now completed two half marathons (one before kids and one after 2 kids) and while that feels amazing there is still something inside me that wants to be able to say I've run a full marathon.

I figured that since I just came off my training for a half marathon, I'm not pregnant, I'm not nursing, and don't plan to be pregnant anytime soon that now is my best shot. Plus I still have some post baby weight that I would really like to shed.

Well...here's the hard part. Time. I went online and found the details for the race in October here in KC. I found a training schedule. But ugh! It calls for 4 runs a week. The smallest of which is 4 miles. I'm a distance runner and love that but I'm SLOW SLOW SLOW. I usually average about 11-12 minute miles. So four miles takes me a minimum of 44 minutes without warm up or cool down and a shower after because I'm so drenched in sweat.

So everyone says run in the morning. I've faced the facts and that just isn't me. I'm not a morning person in any way. Even the thought of getting up before the kids makes me groan! And Ben is still waking up about once a night so that discourages me even further. But finding time during the day to do it is almost impossible as well.

So hmmm. I'm trying to motivate myself. Trying to just do it since I know that I want to have the end result. I tried the schedule 2 weeks ago and got 3 of the 4 runs in. Last week I lost all motivation and hurt my back so I didn't run at all. This week I started again.

I ran my 4 miles today. It was interrupted by Ben waking up from his nap and needing to use the bathroom at about 3.75 miles. But I got back on each time and finished it.

I'm going to try to blog about it hoping that will keep me focused and give a little more accountability. We'll see. Don't judge me if I give up! :) But I will try!

Bathtime together

The kids have been taking baths together for a while. But normally I
clean them both and take Ben right out. Tonight I decided to let them
play for a while together.

Ben got his second hair cut tonight. It was way harder than the first.
He has more hair now and is so much more squirmy. I used the clippers
instead of scissors. Not sure that I got it all even. I may need to
touch it up tomorrow when James is home to help. But for tonight it
had to be good enough because he wasn't having it anymore.

Here's some fun pictures of them in the bath together. I LOVE my kids!!!

Crafty or handy

I want to be crafty. I feel like just goofing off and makin fun things
today. However James comes back in town tomorrow so I need to get
stuff done around the house instead. :(

First off being handy. We broke the handle on our downstairs toilet so
here comes Mrs.Fix It!

Pushing Ben

Sariah really wanted to push Ben on our walk tonight. I let her for a
little while but then had to take over since she is still too small to
really steer it. But it was watching her try.

Side by Side

I really love to get pictures of the kids together.  Although that rarely actually can happen with Ben being so squirmy and Sariah being so ummm independent?? 

 

So I was going for an updated side by side comparison. 

 

Ben was more than happy to oblige-

Sariah not so much…

Just as a point of reference here is the one I did in January:

Party in the AM

Ben decided we should have a party in the am. About 2:30 am to be
exact. Downed an 8 oz cereal bottle, made a poopy diaper, and then
wanted to stay up and hang out.

Seriously?

No blogging allowed

So that isn't entirely true, but lately life has just taken precedence. I haven't really made time to sit down and blog. But I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things starting with this post. We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll actually post everyday until I get caught up.

For now a little note about camp will have to do.

I was blessed to be able to go to my church's girl's camp all last week. I have the best family ever and my mom and mother in law (mostly Jackie) volunteered to watch my kiddos while James was at work.

Camp is an interesting phenomenon. I didn't really like camp as a youth. I came from a very small ward and was always a bit lonely at camp. No one else was my age so during many of the activities I was with girls I didn't know. On top of that I was super shy when I was younger. But as an adult I have come to LOVE girls camp. Trust me I'm still not that into camping or the great outdoors, but there is just a special energy there that I don't find anywhere else.

It is a time to be away from the world. To feel the Spirit of the Lord and be able to reconnect with yourself. I see these girls (ages 12-18). And they are amazing! They have so many challenges yet they have such strong testimonies of their Savior. They know that they are loved and that they are daughters of a Heavenly Father.

It has inspired me and rejuvenated me to be better. A better wife, mother, daughter, etc. I am thankful for the chance I had to serve. To be able to stop focusing on myself and my worries, and truly see all my blessings.

As much as I joke that I went to camp because I was friends with the camp director, I truly know that it was just what I needed at this time in my life.