Shoes

I know that every single parent has done a lot of soul searching in the last week. No one ever wants to have to do this kind of soul searching for this reason, but the reality is it happened. The soul searching is a way of dealing with the unthinkable and trying to wrap our brains around it as best we can. I've failed miserably with making sense of it because quite honestly, there is no SENSE in any of it. NONE. No matter what "reasons" are uncovered there is simply no sense behind this kind of madness. On the Friday that the Sandy Hook Tragedy happened I was getting ready to go to MN and I was just too busy to allow myself to think about it too much. I talked about it with some friends at a Christmas party Friday night and on the drive to MN is when it really sank in. I had way too much time to think and the one image that kept coming back to me was this little pair of sneakers. These are Myles' new shoes. I purchased and took back 2 other pair of shoes before getting these ones because they just didn't seem right. Silly, but true. When he put these little shoes on he was SO EXCITED that they were "Kentucky Blue". The very first thing he did was run a crazy, silly lap around our house and then climb the stairs and jump down with a little air kick in there. They were THE ONES! Now, I'm not much of a crier when it comes to things I read or see on TV and honestly it wasn't until I thought about these little shoes that I lost it. Just lost it.  I bawled thinking about how horrendous it would be to have to go to his school and to see these sweet little shoes and to know that they wouldn't be doing any air kicks off my stairs or to jumping up and down with excitement at the littlest things in life that delight him. I cried at the idea that there were 20 sets of parents whose little babies' shoes would not be sitting at their dinner table that night. It sank in that now that I'm a parent and I "get" how AMAZING life is and what a gift it is, that I can't EVER allow myself to think of my baby harmed or in any other state than their vibrant sweet self. I just can't allow my mind to go to that place so those sweet shoes are the closest I can get.
It really has made me think about my role as a mom. I KNOW that as much as I want to say that I'll cherish every second with my kids I know this isn't realistic.  I'm not perfect and there will be days when I mess up. I don't want to set unrealistic goals for myself so I decided  to make a promise to myself to document my kids' joys even better than I have been. The one thing I find myself doing is "censoring" what pictures I keep because typically I look terrible and I don't want my kids to remember me looking as rough as I really do look. :-) Joys of motherhood right? In the process though I'm forgetting a lot of the really FUN stuff we do. So from now on please accept my apologies for how we look, but we are too busy making sweet memories for me to stop and do my hair and makeup. :-) Here are the first two uncensored pictures....
In the mean time I will be thanking God for the ability to take goofy pictures with my babies and that those sweet Kentucky blue shoes are still running through my house. Thank you God!

Enjoying the best movie night ever!! Natalie sat and watched almost half of the movie and Myles ate his weight in popcorn.

 Maybe the worst picture I've EVER posted of myself, but we were dancing our little hearts out to Christmas music and her face shows just how much fun we were having. I don't want to forget these joyous moments because they seem to fly by was too fast!

Half Marathon

Running with friends is always the best way to run! Sometime ago my sweet friend Adrienne and I were talking about how much we enjoy half marathons. 13.1  miles is long enough that it's a good sized challenge without doing the damage to your body like a full marathon. (Let alone the crazy amount of time it takes to train for a full which neither of us has due to the raising of our little kiddos). We then decided we were going to start running half marathons together with the goal of completing one half marathon in every state in the United States. I am THRILLED with this new challenge and can't wait to start crossing off states. We recently ran our first half together in Nashville with 2 more good friends. I have to say that the week before the race I was NOT happy with my decision because that week was MOVING week! We literally moved into the new house on Wednesday and the race was Saturday. I thought about backing out of the race NUMEROUS times (Sorry Adrienne) but I knew I couldn't let Adrienne down. I went into the race with ABSOLUTELY no expectations and it was the perfect way to run a race. Andrew and I ran the first 8 miles together and had a blast. I haven't ever run that much of a race with someone and it ended up being so much more fun that I expected. Due to some knee issues and Andrew and I split up at mile 8. I can honestly say I spent the next 5 miles doing what I have NEVER done before during a race....I chatted with God. I had my worship music on during the entire race, but until I was running alone it wasn't fully sinking in. I got to have 8  miles to completely clear my head and then another 5 to just be with God. There were literally moments in the race where I wanted to raise my hands up...Being the Catholic raised girl that I am I did not do any hand raising, but who knows what will happen in the next half! It really was one of the best races I've ever run. (I would totally do another one in Nashville, but we need to start crossing off some more states!!) I was tired and sore, but I was reminded OVER AND OVER again that it is a BLESSING to be able to run a half marathon. It is a blessing to have the health that I have to be able to do this. I hate to say  it, but way too often I take that for granted. God reminded me in the best way that day. After all the craziness of our move and everything else we have been going through this was hands down the best therapy I could have ever asked for. Not very often do you get therapy AND a medal!! :-)  I finished the race in under 2 hours which I was pretty excited about and even got to beat my buddy Andrew. I will keep that little win in my back pocket just in case I ever need to use it. :-) I am SO looking forward to where this new journey will take us and all the memories that will be made!! Best friendship EVER!

Pre-race....No injuries and ready to go!

Enjoying our post race pizza and hardware! (Yes we even dressed alike by accident!! Pretty sure we looked like the Bobsie twins!)

Post-Race 3 injuries but proud of our accomplishment.

Race 1 done!! Looking forward to SO many more with such an amazing woman!! Have I mentioned Adrienne is doing all this while conquering her diabetes!! Can you say ROCK STAR!!

1 Year Difference!

I meant to put these pictures in the one year old post and realized I forgot so here they are. I LOVE being able to compare how much things change in 1 year and this is the perfect example of that. Both pictures were taken by my super talented sister-in-law Amanda.

 Here is a picture we took when I was 30 weeks pregnant and had NO IDEA the sweet little peanut I was carrying. 

And here is a picture of us 1 year later. Love it!!

New House

Finally I have pictures of our house uploaded and ready to share!!! We are truly LOVING this house more than we ever imagined. Having the extra room that the basement adds has been such a blessing. It's been so fun because we thought we would have issues with this or that and really we simply love it! I will be posting pictures of the house with us and all our stuff in it here soon and will be ready for decorating suggestions from ANYONE who is willing to help out!! Although the house seems pretty dated it's been amazing to see how much it has transformed with just a little bit of paint. Such a contrast to the work that was needed in our old house.

Here is the kitchen which is open to the living room

 

A view of the living room from the kitchen.

Our "retro" (ie OLD) oven!! No worries it DID fit our 21lb turkey in it this year!

Dining room

Play room/sitting room

Guest bedroom

Myles and Ty's room..Perfect color for them!

LOVE the view in the boys' room..

Natalie's room. Good view, but not the amazing big window like the boys have.

Kids' bathroom

Master Bedroom

"Dressing Room"

Master Bathroom

Our first meal in the new house was of course some whales for snack!!

Natalie's Birthday Pary

HELLO FRIENDS!! I am happy to report that I am back on the ball and ready to get caught back up on the blog. I really feel like if I don't document this stuff I won't remember it because time flies so fast with little one around and I am so tired with all the craziness. Hope you enjoy!

So a sad thing happened when I went to download the pictures from Natalie's birthday party....All the good ones were gone from my camera card....I thought I had downloaded them, but apparently I haven't or at least I can't find them on my computer...UGH...Here are the ones I did find but none of them were the really good ones. I guess I just need to get over it. It was a wonderful day filled with friends and family and the weather was AMAZING. We couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate out little Bitty turning ONE!!

 

Because I just love to compare how much they have grown and changed....

Our Sweet Baby Girl!!

 Classy is how I would say this picture turned out,wouldn't you?

 It thought I would struggle finding a cake to make for her birthday, but this one was a for sure winner considering she is a tiny monkey.
Here are all of the pictures from the morning of her birthday and her first time eating a cupcake. She was a champ and obviously had been practicing it in her head! It was funny too because both Myles and Ty cried when we sang happy birthday to them on their 1st birthday, but Natalie did not. The spotlight does not bother her apparently. 

Checking out the new number.

This look is priceless! Is that for ME??

I better grab it quickly before she takes it away!

Really? You want me to touch it?

Ok....Not as bad as I thought....

Let's give this a try..

Yes this was a good choice...

Let's go big or go home people!

 This is AWESOME!!

Yeah, I'm awesome at this.