How have I never heard of this place?

Turns out there is a nice little lake with a nice little beach about 20 minutes from here. Why have I never heard of it? Who knows! But I am glad I know about it know.

We turned our “beach” trip into a neighborhood outing and the kids had a blast!

 

BOOM! Here are some photos.

I heart Evin. She is AMAZING! Enough said.

4 years

My baby girl turned 4 today.  

Taylor, you are beautiful, smart, kind, and witty. You have a memory like an elephant. You love to sing, dance, and put on a show. If I don’t hear you, I can normally find you reading, painting, or coloring. You are such a little mommy, always taking care of your baby dolls and helping with Noah. Every night, you love telling daddy all about your day while he lies in bed with you. Your imagination never ceases to amaze me. You can have a 20 minute conversation using crayons.

Last May, Taylor’s cousin had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Since then, she has been asking to go there for her birthday. And last night that is exactly what we did. We ate, gamed it up, and chased Noah around.

However, I think Chuck E. gave me some sort of food poisoning, so he is sort of on my bad side right now.

But it was fun while it lasted. 

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I love excuses to break out baby pools and have fun with friends!

26.2 - Never Again

26.2 is a long way to run. In fact, I would consider it torture. I know some people are “addicted to running”. However, I am just not one of those people.

This past weekend, Mark and I ran the Louisville, KY marathon. We signed up last October, using Christmas money for the race fee and considered the weekend our anniversary present to one another.
What were we thinking? Who would ever think that running 26.2 miles was a good Christmas present and way to spend an anniversary weekend? Crazy people, that’s who!

I had 26.2 miles and 4:05:32 to “think”. And lucky for you, I decided to write it all down. 

• Men have a complete advantage when running. I cannot tell you how many times I saw men disappear behind a building or tree to pee. Not that woman can’t do that, but you have to admit, we are at a disadvantage. 

• Runners are messy. There were cups, gel packets, orange peals, and articles of clothing all throughout the course. Not that I didn't join in the messiness, but why do runners have an excuse to litter?

• Despite the extra energy wasted, I like to dance while running. I am sure I looked a little crazy, but it kept me going. 

• I am an emotional runner. I teared up when Mark left me in his dust at mile 2, when I passed the Christian radio station, when I went through large crowds, and when certain songs came on my iPod.

• Why would anyone ever run 26.2 miles? Seriously, I thought my legs were going to fall off from about mile 22 to 26. It was some intense pain. I just don’t get the appeal. 

• Prayer works! I knew of several people who were praying for me during the race and it got me through some of those rough spots. I also wrote Bible verses on my arms and read through them when I needed a little encouragement. 

• 4 hours is a long time to go without talking to ANYONE. So after the race, I talked Mark’s ear off. Considering he was about to puke, I don’t think he appreciated it. 

• Beer sounded much better than it tasted. Our race bibs had a free beer coupon for after the race. I like beer and I thought it would be a good reward after 26.2 miles. Nope, it was not. 

• I am OLD. After the race, we slept all afternoon, got up, looked around downtown for about 2 hours and then needed another nap.

This first picture was meant to look alot cooler than it actually does. If you look close enough, you can see the verses written on my arms. 

I know I sort of complained alot in this post, but I did get a weekend away with my honey which is better than nothing. And after our second nap on Saturday, we went to a nice dinner and piano bar. So it was not all sweat and tears.

Aunt X 2!

Praising the Lord for our two new nieces both born this past weekend!

Mark's brother and his wife had their second baby, Hazel Mae early on Saturday morning (which I found out about on FB...not cool Chad and Jennie, not cool :)). They live in Ohio, so it will be about one month until we get to meet her.

My brother and his wife also had a little girl this weekend early Sunday morning. Anna Grace was born at only 31 weeks gestation, weighing 2lbs 5oz. My sister-in-law had preeclampsia which caused several complications, resulting in baby Anna being born premature.

Anna has a long road ahead of her, but she is breathing on her own, has minimal oxygen, and got her first little bit of mommy's milk this afternoon. She is a little "firecracker" according to her nurses :)

I was able to go meet her this afternoon and she is a perfect little blessing.

Locks of Love

Taylor has never had a haircut (unless you count the her baby mullet, which I chopped off when she was about 3 months).

We have been wanting to cut her hair for a while, but decided to wait until she had enough to donate to Locks of Love. We showed her the website and talked about what she was going to do. I think she understood it about as much as any three year old could.

And today was the day. We made an appointment, I dropped Noah off at the neighbors, and we headed to the salon.
She looked so big sitting in the chair. I may or may not have teared up. 


When she saw her ponytail of hair, she looked a little shocked, but that quickly wore off. Of course I chocked up a little, but that is to be expected.



I can only imagine what is going through her little head as we hand her hair to her and say "hold this and smile". She probably thought we were a nuts.


Before and After.


Pure cuteness.