LOVE these kids!

My mom asked me to send her some pics of my kids today. I started looking on my computer and I have NOTHING. I haven't had a picture of my kids taken in SO long, its sad! So I whipped out my camera and started snapping some blurry pics with my snap n shoot. Kasey called in the midst of my frustration, and said I could bring the kids to her green belt and she would snap some for me. She has a MUCH nicer camera than I do. Jealous. 20 minutes later we were at the park and 45 minutes later, here are the results.
I LOVE THESE KIDS!

The Toe (or lack thereof)

Thursday was a CRAZY day! I woke up early (yes, 7:30 is pretty stinking early for my lazy butt these days) to start babysitting my friend Becca's cute little Andersen. Around 11:00 the kids were all playing and somehow Reese pulled our bar stool over onto her toe. I didn't think too much of it until I saw all the blood. Too much blood for a small wound. Picked her up and looked to see her toe completely smashed and bleeding more than I've seen either of my kids bleed before. Note: I do NOT do well with blood.

Grabbed a cloth, held it to her toe and started frantically making teary calls. Luckily Kasey lives just 2 miles away. She was here SO fast to watch the kids and I took off with Reese and a large chunk of her toe I'd found on the stool to the ER.

The doctor and I thought we could see her bone, so we she immediately had X-Rays. No bones were broken, but the tissue damage was deep. Imagine starting at the bed of your nail and then cutting diagonally downward toward the tip of your toe. The nail and all.. totally gone! A lot of people asked if we got stitches. Sadly, there was/is nothing to stitch. It's just a big open wound.

The good news is that we saw a Podiatrist yesterday and he said everything should be able to grow back on its own! Today I took her over to my friends, Dave and Alicia (Doctor and pharmacist super-couple who have come to my rescue on more than one occasion) to have them help me unwrap and rewrap her foot. I cannot believe the difference just one day makes! It already looks so much better! I even think I could probably wrap it on my own without passing out next time!

Yesterday Reese decided she was tired of sitting and tired of being carried. She decided to try and walk. The walk quickly turned into a run and the girl is back on her feet! It's so cute to watch because she has to walk on her heel only.

I'm putting pictures below...

WARNING: If you have a weak stomach, dislike gory things, or are eating...stop here! :)

Podiatrist appointment. She was a trooper, but by the end of pulling the gauze off the open wound, Reese was screaming, I was crying, and my mom was teary.

Worst Parade Ever

3rd Marathon under my belt! Hallelujah it's over! :) It was rough, it was fun, and YES, I will definitely do it again!

Here is my usual play by play. I don't expect that anyone actually cares, but when I'm gearing up for #4, I'll love looking back on this, just as I have my other two!

Pre-race night: Had my superstitious pasta dinner with Drew (I have run ONE race since high school without have pasta the night before and the race went horribly!). Got all my gear out and ready and hopped in bed by 9! Maddux came in around 1:30 with a nightmare, high fever, and coughs. Drew was a gem and took him out on the couch after a couple of hours so I could get some much needed sleep.

Morning: Lauren, who I owe OH so very much, picked my friend Cindy and I up and drove us to the light rail station at 6am. It took us right to our starting lines. I had just enough time to wait my turn for the PortaPotty before jumping into my corral (5). Then they announced they would be postponing the start by 15 minutes. 15 minutes later, they postponed it again another 10 minutes!!

Race time:

Mile 1-2: Garmin GPS wasn't working! I pushed start as I crossed the starting line, looked down a few seconds later and my time was working, but not my pace or distance! I fiddled with the dang thing for 1.5 miles before I got it working! I was in panic mode. On the plus side, the distraction got me off to a good, fast start.

Mile 4: Took my first of four salt packets. I've NEVER done this in a race before and omigosh, it made the biggest difference! I was running between 8:35-8:45 pace

Mile 5-9: I don't remember much except my favorite sign on the course -"THIS IS THE WORST PARADE EVER!!" I was still averaging about 8:45.

Mile 10: All of a sudden I got a horrible, horrible sharp pain in my hamstring insertion (right behind the knee). I realized at this point that in my rush to make it to my corral (before the postponements), I had stopped and stretched my hamstring and only took the time to stretch the one side that gives me trouble. Well, idiot me...I stretched the wrong flippin side! Not sure how big of a difference it would have made, but it was really killing me. I was limping. At 10.5, I stopped, laid on the sidewalk, threw my leg up on a light post and stretched it out. The 4:00 pacer passed me while I was down and I was devastated, as it had been my goal to stay in front of them! I had slowed to about 9:15 or 9:20 just because of the pain. My lungs and heart felt great!

Mile 11-16: My body was feeling great! REALLY great, except my #!$@% hamstring. I made promise after promise to Heavenly Father that if I could just finish the race...if the pain could go away until 12:30...etc. Took more salt packets, shot blocks, water, oranges, and Gatorade...not at the same time.

Mile 16: Best part of my entire race!! My unofficial coach, running-mom, and new friend Jenny Lynn jumped in with me and started pushing me along. She suggested that I take the two IB Profin I had in my belt (duh! Seriously!? I couldn't think of that one on my own!? I'm so dumb!) to help my hamstring.

Mile 17-20: Hamstring pain gone. Finally I could give it my all and catch the 4:00 pacer! Jenny coaches and says, wait till mile 20...so glad! I enjoyed these two miles and started high 5-ing the kids and spectators. I was feeling great! Jenny: "Stop high 5-ing the dang kids and save your energy!!!". Yes ma'am. ;) I told her how much I loved high 5-ing people and so she said she would do the honors for me...and she did! She hit everyone with their hand out! That's love! Did I mention I was feeling GREAT?

Mile 20: Starting to inch closer to the 4:00 pacer. We decide if we speed up, just a bit, to 8:55 I could catch them and finish under 4! Piece of CAKE! All I have is a 10k left. Jenny kept saying "Turkey trot! Turkey trot! That's all we have left is the turkey trot!"

Mile 21: WALL!!!!!!!!! Sprinting as fast as my legs will move, everything I've got, surely I'm running an 8:30 and going to pass the girl in the dang tutu I'm trying to catch. Oh...nope...9:30...darn!

Mile 21-25: So over it. It seriously took every ounce of motivation that I could muster to put one foot in front of the other. And who the heck put a HILL at mile 24 anyway?!!? If Jenny wasn't right next to me, I would have walked. For sure. Tutu girl and 4:00 pacer are inching farther and farther from view and I finally realize I have to let go of that goal. DANGIT! More salt, ShotBlocks, and GU.

Mile 26: Hamstring decides to make an untimely comeback. Owie. But it doesn't last for long and my adrenaline starts to pick up as the streets start filling with spectators and loud cheering! I started to get a little emotional and soaked it all in. All of a sudden it was all worth it! THIS is why I run. THIS is why I do this! Jenny bailed off right after the 26 mile mark. My mom, Drew, Maddux and Reese were on the side cheering me in! I could see the clock displaying the gun time and it said 4:03. I was pretty sure I crossed the start about 4 minutes after the gun, so maybe I had a chance at being under 4. Maybe!!

26.2: I SPRINTED in as fast as I could (this time I actually got moving to a 7:30 pace!) Since my watch didn't' work for 1.5 miles, I wasn't sure if I'd made it or not! The finish line was bliss. I kinda felt like a rock star when they read my name out as I crossed! ;)

Grabbed my medal, runner's blanket, banana, bagel, JambaJuice, got some pics taken, and went out to search for my family.
Drew ran over and hugged me and said, "Good job honey! I'm SO proud of you! 4:01:30!!! Good job!!" AAAAAHHHH!!!! I missed it by 1 minute and 30 seconds! Oh well. I'm totally thrilled because I improved my time by 37 minutes and I missed a few runs from being massively sick and in the ER. So, I can't complain.

I'm so grateful for my family and friends because I totally would have quit training and/or the race if it weren't' for them!

PS- I'm sore as heck right now.

A few iphone snapshots until the official race pics come out...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

This is how Reese felt about the fireworks we did for New Years Eve. She hid in the garage, hugging the car the entire time. Any of them that made loud popping noises brought her to tears.

Maddux, on the other hand, was in little boy heaven! The louder the better! We had to draw a line for him to stand behind because he wanted up in the action with Daddy.

I don't understand the excitement of these snake things. But the boys love them...

For the record, I was asleep on the couch by 9:30. Now THAT'S that's my kind of celebrating! :)

Happy Birthday Maddux

Maddux requested a Lego birthday party, and Legos are exactly what he got. Good gosh, I've never seen a kid so small with so many Legos! The sad thing is, he doesn't know how to put them together yet, so Daddy has been building Legos for hours!
This kid is loved!

Happy 4th Birthday Maddux!

The Best Christmas Ever

CHRISTMAS EVE

My favorite Christmas Eve tradition is making gift bags for the homeless. We fill the bags and then drive them around and deliver them. This year we had a really great experience!

watching Elf and eating snacks...

CHRISTMAS DAY

Off to Church...

Big present from Mommy and Daddy...

Then to mom and dad's house for evening celebrating...

Reese found Vander's present a little early...

This was such an amazing Christmas because Maddux was SO into it. He was ecstatic from the second he woke up. In fact, he was SO excited, that I couldn't get a picture of him that wasn't completely blurry! Hence, the lack in pictures of Maddux this year. Sad.

Preschool Christmas Program

Maddux started at Bright Beginning's Preschool this year (and if you ever ask him who he will marry, it is Miss Jenny, his teacher). They had the absolute cutest Christmas Program and it was to die for.

Here are a couple of videos. There is one more, but it won't upload. I will try again soon!
I apologize for the horrific video skills. I was giggling so hard that my hand was shaking out of control. But you get the idea...MAJOR cuteness!