All about me

Ahh... my life is sweeter and fuller then it has ever been. I do believe the only thing I would change about my life right now would be having my family closer to me. I have moments of feeling sorry, mostly for the boys, that they don't get to see their Grandparents, Uncles & Aunts & cousins over the holidays. Flying back to Pennsylvania will cost us a minimum of $1500 for 4 tickets, and that is IF we get a great deal. It makes it very tough to visit family when you're on a tight budget. Not only that, but Keith just doesn't have the time to take off work! We have discussed the possibility of the boys & I flying back to PA in the summers. But I don't want to attempt that on my own until the boys are older.

I am pretty sure Keith & I are done with having children. At least our own blood children! We have talked about adopting before. But we don't feel like that is something were supposed to do right now. Maybe somewhere down the road? I like to have things planned out, so not knowing what is next in regards to our family is tough! I REALLY don't want to be in my mid to late 30's with a newborn again. I would LOVE to be done with the newborn stage earlier then that. I know that what Jesus has for me is BETTER then what I have for myself. So I will continue to trust him with the size of our family. For the first time in a long time however, I am content with the boys we have and would be perfectly happy to remain a 4 person family.

Of course... I will NEVER tire of holding sweet little babies. The photo on the right is a photo taken last weekend at a friends baby shower. One of my other friends had just had a baby a couple weeks prior to that. The babies name is Samuel and I snatched him up as quickly as I could! I loved the little baby smell, and the little ticking of his heart. It amazes me every time to see a little one like this. God is so good! It is true when the bible says that children are a BLESSING from God. True, every day miracles.

I managed to achieve my goal for 2011. I wanted to run a 5K. I attempted to run a 5K in May. But I messed up my hip one week before the race and wasn't allowed to run it. I was very bummed. The next 5K I signed up for I was given permission to interval run it! I was excited to do that- and I really had no pressure to run it in a certain time, or to be speedy. Interval running is, what it is. :) This past weekend I was able to run the full 5K with out walking or stopping. It was cold. It was wet. It was miserable. BUT... I finished. I didn't walk. And I did it under 30 minutes. You see, the issue now is that I want to beat that time. :) Next 5K is in March which will likely be just as rainy, but possibly not as cold! In the mean time I am running on the treadmill until February. Then I will slowly get my legs back on the pavement. The treadmill is much easier on my hip, so on the "off" season I am going to run on the tready, and do my strength training at the gym. I am praying I can cut a couple minutes off my time! The hills typically get me... but I am going to incorporate hills this February. Hopefully that will help! I also have an 8K and 10K that I want to do in the summer of 2012. Maybe I will attempt a 1/2 marathon. But I'm not yet ready to commit to that madness. We'll see how I do with the 10K and take it from there.

I have also been working on some crafts lately. Thanks to pinterest I am finding loads of ideas of things that I can make! I am going to make my own Christmas cards this year and have been trying my hand at some hand stitching on paper to make my cards pop a bit more. It has been fun! I have been really enjoying making cards and want to continue making them! It's a fun way to show someone that I care.

This weekend I am going to head out to the craft stores and get the paper I need to make my Christmas cards and also to make an advent calendar for Miles. I have lots and lots of fun activities planned for us this year! Were making gingerbread houses for one of our family nights. Were going to make snow to hang in our windows & baking cookies & candy to give to friends! It's going to be so much fun to do this with him this year! I am also going to make a book of what we did with pictures. It will be called our "December" book with each day documented. I think it will be fun to look back on it and see what we did! Perhaps it will be a tradition to make a December book! We'll see!

I adore the holidays!

Busy Busy Busy

Hey ya'll. Yes, I know. It's been awhile! I have found myself to be very busy these days! Between preparing and teaching preschool, managing the house, and raising two little boys, I find very little time to sit down and blog. As a matter of fact, right now I should be organizing my pantry, followed by cleaning out my fridge, followed by cleaning my oven. (It's kitchen cleaning day, can you tell?) But my coffee is getting cold, and if I don't sit down and relax a bit, then I will have to warm it up in the microwave (which also needs to be cleaned) and I just don't think coffee tastes as great coming from the microwave. :) Seriously.

I don't even know when I last wrote to you all. But I know it's been awhile. So I will just update you on the latest and greatest.

Maxwell- Cute little thing... got into a fight with the windowsill... and the windowsill won:

Other then his black eye he has been cranky, teething and pooping up a storm. He is also very expressive and knows exactly what he wants, but doesn't have all the tools he needs yet to tell us! (Like... you know... that little thing called "words.") He signs some things and I am teaching him some more. But it's still tough! I will be happy when he starts talking so we have less whining going on in this house!

He is a sweetheart though. He will stop playing just to come over to me and give me a hug and kiss. And when he hurts himself he wants a kiss smack on his lips regardless of where he hurt himself. Seriously adorable. He melts my heart with his kisses, hugs and affection!

Miles- This child is becoming more and more of a little man every day! He learned just this morning how to make his bed! He gets himself dressed and is pretty self sufficient. It is great to see him learning all these new things. But is also tough on me to see him growing up right before my eyes! He is getting over a cold right now and has been kind of miserable. But hopefully were on the tale end of that! Recently we went to the Seattle Car Show and Miles has his eyes set on this yellow car. He was very excited to see it up close!

He also decided to give us the peace sign in front of several cars. :) It was awesome.

I guess I will end with this. I love my little mister. He brings me more joy then I can express in words. See????

And my sweet husband Keith. He is awesome. The best husband and best father to my boys. I love him more and more every day!!! I am so incredibly blessed by him. He is my sunshine.

Tomorrow... a post on what I have been up to. :)

It's been awhile!

Wow! Sorry, it has been awhile since I last wrote! I like to try and write at least once a week! But I see it has been a whole month since I last wrote! It's not for lack of content, that's for sure!

Since I last write to you the following things have happened:

The Ellen show started up again. She's hilarious.

Steve Jobs died. I almost shed a tear. But I managed to hold it together. Just made me so sad that he didn't beat cancer. Too many people battling and losing to this awful disease.

I learned how to make an infiniti scarf using old t-shirts that I had laying around the house.

We had a not so welcome house guest by the name of "that stupid mouse is making noise again at 1am." We think we caught the thing, or at least injured it enough that it doesn't want to come back. I like to think that the thing looked like this...

Maxwell started walking! And... he falls a lot. And not this little light fall either. The child either falls with a thump or face plants into the pavement. We've had our share of scrapes and bruises on this child over the past month. Check out his busted up lip!

And a cute one of him walking:

We went to a pumpking patch with some friends- that was a lot of fun! '

And Keith and Miles went on a boat ride!

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary!

This past weekend Keith & I celebrated 10 years of marriage! It is shocking how much has changed! How much WE have changed! I am so thankful that Keith & I have grown TOGETHER as we matured. We married very young! He was 20 & I had just turned 21 2 weeks before our wedding! Jesus grace has been all over us as we figured out what it meant to be married, & to love each other no matter what!

I pray that the next 10 years are better then the first 10! And that is a lot to ask because the first 10 were absolutely amazing and beautiful!

Keith organized our anniversary date & he did an awesome job! We went into Seattle & ate at The Melting Pot! Man oh man... is that restaurant amazing! I absolutely loved it! After that we stayed overnight at The Maxwell Hotel. (Fitting huh?) On Saturday morning we didn't get out of bed until 9:00, we went out for breakfast, and by 11:00 we were back in the hotel room, back in bed, watching The Food Network! We don't have cable, so this was a fun thing to do! We had to check out at 1pm, so we laid in bed until 12:45, checked out & headed home to our wonderful boys. (I missed them!) It was fun, relaxing and very much needed!

And just for fun, here are some photos from the past year! 2010-2011 has been good to us!

Thanksgiving 2010

Christmas 2o10!

Winter 2011

Spring 2011

Easter 2011

Summer 2011

Camping August 2011

Septmeber 2011- 10 years!

Fall City Farms- Photos

We went to Fall City Farms a couple days ago with some friends. It was Maxwell's first time experiencing the farm. He went last year, but he was only 3 months old. But this year I let him crawl around and play in the dirt. He loved love loved it! Typically when we play outside he stays close to me, and crawls all over me, and tries to get my camera and phone. I was beginning to worry that he would become one of those kids that I had to FORCE out the doors to play. But after this experience, I think he might like the dirt just as much as Miles does!

Well, he at least likes to EAT the dirt. :)

Happenings

Sometimes life just down right gets crazy!

Last week, and this past weekend has been one of those time! And this week is shaping up to be similar.

Saturday was my 31st birthday! I wasn't feeling 100% but the day was relaxed and good anyhow! Keith sent me off on my own to shop for fall boots. I found a great pair of boots and a couple other things! After the kiddos went to bed we made a yummy shrimp & pasta dinner and settled in for a movie. I ended up falling asleep about 3 seconds into the movie. For those of you who know me well, know that this isn't all that uncommon for me! I remember when Keith & I were dating I would fall asleep in the movie theatres and it would drive Keith crazy! (Money, NOT well spent! Ha ha ha!) So I told him that if he wants to take me to the movies, it's better to take me a movie that starts no later then 7pm and a matinee is an even better idea.

It was a fun an relaxed day and I am thankful to have a hubby who knows exactly what I need and want! Oh- and a shout out to Keith too. He cleaned the bathrooms while I was gone! Isn't he awesome?!? I say YES!

This morning I had some good news at my physical therapy appointment! My therapist told me I can do a 10 minute, 30 second interval run. (Which is basically, running the whole time) and if my hip feels good after that run then my next run I am allowed to run up to 3 miles with out stopping! I am super excited and suspect my hip will be just fine. It has been feeling really well for the past couple weeks!

This weekend Maxwell turned 15 months old! I can't believe my stinky butt is getting so big.

The photo to the right is Max & I on Sunday. He is such a handsome man isn't he? (See above.)

This morning I took the boys on a walk. Miles rode his bike and Max was just happy to get out of the house!

Seriously people. I have the cutest boys ever.

Then we happened upon these beautiful flowers that someone had planted in a potted garden. Is that what you call a garden that is all pots? A potted garden? I don't know. But you get what I mean right? Anyhow- aren't the colors just amazing???

The boys really loved the flowers too! Maxwell wanted to pull at them and eat them. But I managed to keep him far enough away from them so he could just BARELY touch them. He didn't seem to mind though!

Washer Necklace

Last night some friends of mine got together for a ladies craft night. It is always so nice sitting around, chatting, doing something crafty and getting good quality girl time.

This particular night we made washer necklaces. I found the idea on pinterest and one of my friends saw that I had pinned it and thought that would be a fun idea for the craft night! So I did a little research and found that it is really easy and would be lots of fun!

The tutorial on how to make a washer necklace is here.

Here are the necklaces that I made!

They literally took 5 minutes to make and the possibilities are endless!

I will definitely be making these again!!!

First 5K

I had the FUN and pleasure of running my first 5K with a bunch of friends from church. If you live in the Seattle area and do not have a church home, you should check out Blue Sky! It happens to be one of the coolest, awesomest churches I have ever been a part of!

Anyhow- I only got a little nervous about the race the morning of the race. I guess there wasn't any pressure because I had to interval run the race. My physical therapist wanted me to walk the event. But he knew that I wouldn't be able to contain myself and gave me the go-ahead to interval run. I ran 3 minutes and walked 1 minute through the whole 3.1 mile course.

The course was a combination of road, trail & grass. There was mostly trail, which I didn't mind so much except for the fact that I almost twisted my ankles a few times.

I (unlike some of my friends) thought the weather was perfect, sunny, warm (not too hot) and wonderful for running. It would have been brutal to run this course in the heat of the day yesterday. But at 8:30am I found it rather comfortable!

I shot out of the gate with a pretty good pace. I looked back at my friends a few times (the ones who were also interval running it, the ones who were not interval running it were well ahead of me!) When I stopped my initial 3 minute run and started walking they were a pretty good distance away, so I kept on keeping on. I did have a goal in mind. (Under 35 minutes.) But I had no idea if that was realistic or not.

This course was described as "rolling hills" and that is exactly what it was. The hills just so happened to fall on my running section of the interval. I walked many of the down hills. (Boo)

When I saw a sign that said "2" I thought "hmmm... if this is mile 2, then I am making pretty good time!" If this means I have 2 miles to go, then I am SLOW! Thankfully it meant that I only had 1.1 miles to go and my time was better then I anticipated! I made it in 33.32!

My goal for what should have been my first 5K in May was for 27 minutes. This will again become my goal for my next 5K which I hope to run either this winter or next spring.

And to note, my hip is feeling great today! I am surprised that it is holding up so well! I am very excited about the fact that it feels great and pray that this means I will be able to increase my intervals and mileage over the next few months!

Here's the crew! I am number 313 in the dark blue shirt. And in case you're an "Office" fan. My shirt has the following on it: (Which is totally appropriate for a day such as this day)

And here is the Blue Sky Team:

Maxwell

Please don't judge me by thinking that my Maxwell is the absolute cutest little 14 1/2 month old on the planet. I mean... look at his face, and his frizzy yellow hair and his big brown eyes... and those cheeks! By goodness gracious, those cheeks! I chomp on them all the time, giving him the slobber-iest kisses ever on the planet. One day he won't let me do that, so I have to get it in while I can!

Maxwell is turning into quite the little toddler these days. He still isn't walking (not that I mind at all, and he seems to not be in a rush either!) But he is standing up like a champ, with out holding on to anything, and he goes from sitting to standing, and standing to sitting with out any help.

I try every once in awhile (ok, like a bazillion times a day to be honest) to get him to walk to me. But he thinks it's a game. He will either lunge forward and face plant into either A) Me or B) the floor. Or he will look at you with a little sparkle in his eye, pretend that he's going to walk to you, and then fall to the floor and crawl over to you while snorting... it's really cute, and I can't help but laugh! I suppose that is why he keeps doing it!

This past weekend Maxwell decided he wanted to say "Veggie Tales." I authenticated his "veggie tales" words by having him say it for a few friends.

I didn't want to be one of those Moms that is like

"hey, my kid can say supercalafragalisticexbealadoshesh"

and then my kid says "goo goo gah gah"

and I'm like "did you hear it?"

And my friends nod their heads and say "yeah!"

but in their minds their thinking I am lost my mind!

So.... I had a couple of my friend listen, and they said that he did in deed say, Veggie Tales. It is cute, and amazing... and a little bizarre since the only other words he has are "Mama" "Dada" "Ada" (Which means all done) and "ma" (with means more.) And only reason I know that ada and ma mean more and all done is because he signs them to me and says them at the same time.

ANYHOW... the other bizarre thing that he does is hum the tune to the Veggie Tales them song. Not the whole song, but the part where they say "Veggie Tales" like 4 times in a row.

As a matter of fact, he was up at 2am last night practicing.

(Please note, the photos in this post were brought to you by Jennifer McCully.)

The end.