Kasey's Shower

I hosted a baby shower for cute prego Kasey last week. I told my self a zillion times to take pictures of everything BEFORE it started. But when the first guests arrived and my hair was still wet, food wasn't out, and my table wasn't set up yet...pictures were quickly forgotten. I remembered only after the food was half eaten and the drinks were almost gone. I think it looked a lot cuter before.
Oh well!
Can't wait to meet Baby Vander in just one more month!

Reese would NOT let go of this Butterfinger. And if anyone tried to take it away, there was a full blown meltdown involved. yikes!

Girls Trip

Drew couldn't make it to the marathon (see below for highlights), so Becca, Steph, and I decided to make it a girl's trip instead! We had a ton of fun together.

My car started making a horrendous noise while we were over the Hoover Dam, we made it to pick up my packet with only 25 minutes to spare, got lost in St. George trying to find Olive Garden, got lost in St. George trying to find our hotel, got the car to Big O just before the alternator went out ($535 fix), got stranded after the race because we had to check out of the hotel but the car wasn't done, went to lunch at Cafe Rio with all our luggage in tow, almost ran out of gas on the way to vegas, shopped, ate, shopped, and ate some more, almost ran out of gas on the way home, went the wrong direction for 30 miles, got to the Hoover Dam and then decided to turn around and take a detour when we saw the traffic, enjoyed some 5 hour energy, and laughed non-stop for about 3 days. ADVENTURE would be the perfect word to describe it.

walking in st. george while temporarily stranded

dinner at RASteph modeling one of the beds in Vegas

The Hash- House -a-Go-Go...big menu = even bigger portions

yum yum yum

Marathon- Take 2!

So, my most questionable idea of 2010 has been to run a marathon with only 3.5 months of training time.
Two years ago, I was privileged (not) to run the COLDEST St. George Marathon in it's history. This year I said so many prayers that I wouldn't have to run in the wretched cold again. Well...my prayers were answered. It was the HOTTEST marathon they have had in history. YUCK!

Below are highlights of the race. I attempted to make it positive, but I decided to go with honesty. I am still SO glad I did it! And I'm almost ready to sign up for another!

Race Highlights:

*Got up after only 4 hours of sleep

**Hung out at the starting line alone for a few hours (next time, I'm dragging someone down with me)

*Finished the first 13 miles with a time faster than most of my half marathons!

**Then the 3:50 pacer passed by me

*Eventually the 4:00, 4:10, and 4:20 pacers all ran by

**Ran shoulder to shoulder up Veyo Hill with a guy who was walking at a leisurely pace

*Decided at mile 15 to try some Icy Hot on my calves that were throbbing

** Stopped every 2 miles from then on for Icy Hot from my hamstrings to my ankles

*At mile 23 I could taste the Icy Hot in my mouth- oops! (later read not to apply more than 3
times a day, so 5 times in a few hours may have been a bad idea)

**Favorite sign along the race: "running takes balls, other sports just play with them"

*Favorite t-shirt: "if found on the course, please drag across finish line"

**I high-fived every kid standing along the race with their hand out. Sometimes this meant running from one side of the road to the other very quickly

*Used my inhaler 4 times during the race. I was really worried because I didn't know if there was a limit on acceptable number of uses in a period of time.

**Told myself at mile 18 that I could run at a comfortable pace as long as I picked it up for the last 4 miles

**Told myself at mile 22 that I would just pick up the pace at mile 23 instead

*Convinced myself @ 23 that it was really ok to take another slow mile and REALLY push it for 2

**With only a half a mile to go, my brain and my muscles just didn't want to push it at all. No "pushing" ever happened

*Steph and Becca stood at the finish line holding signs and cheering for me. First signs I've EVER had made in my behalf!

**Found my amazing friends and we agreed to meet in 10 minutes so I could cool down. I sat down to stretch and my tibialis muscle on both legs started to spasm. Then the arch of my foot and then my calf. I was screaming and yelling and pounding the ground with my fist. A nice guy came and helped me for 20 minutes while my legs continued to convince me never to do this again. torture. absolute torture. In the meantime, friends can't find me because I am stuck laying on the ground.

*Walked with said amazing friends back to the lovely motel we were staying at an approximate pace of a quarter mile/hr. Poor friends!

**My time was 4:44, which is 6 minutes slower than last time. Which also means I WILL be running another marathon because I WILL beat my time. Next time- 5+ months to train and praying for NORMAL St. George weather!

the hill of death....Veyo Hill. just when you think it's over...you've got 3 more miles of it!

5 Months

Here is an update for my growing girl:

*weighs about 14 lbs, according to my less-than-accurate bathroom scale
*is finally rolling all over the place. gone are the days of laying her on the bed while i get ready
*tries to grab her bottle and hold it herself
*still nursing like a champ
*can find her pacie and put it in on her own most of the time (yay!!!!!!!!!)
*talks and screams like a girl (loud and NONstop)
*smiles at absolutely anyone that will give her a second of attention
*adores her brother
*turns her crib soother on and off by kicking the button

*puts all things directly in her mouth

this month's goal: take more pictures! I don't have any good pics of her this last month! sad!!! :(

The Bat Cave

Today my mom and I spent the day transforming Maddux's room into his "BatCave". As he would say..."TaDA!!!!"


before...

during...
AFTER...
we have a few more small things to add, but this is a hefty transformation for one day.

Most people go to bed, lay their head down and wait to fall asleep. NOT Maddux. He doesn't have the patience to just lay there. So, instead...he runs around his room jumping and playing until he uses the very last of his energy and then just passes out wherever he might be at that moment.

4 months

4 months = a lot of fun!

Reese has become so fun and interactive this last month!

*She giggles, squeals, and jabbers.
*She absolutely adores Maddux and smiles at the very sight of him.
*She holds on to toys and shoves everything in her mouth.
*She ALWAYS pulls her blankie over her face to fall asleep - freaks. me. out.
*She sleeps through the night (8:30-7:30)

*Weighs 13 pounds, 12 ounces, which is 50th percentile
*Is 25 inches long, which is the 90th percentile!

One of those days...

I think it's safe to say every mom has "those" days. Yesterday was one of mine. Nothing super explosive, just work calls starting at 6:45am, whiny kids, dumped goldfish piles, massive to do list on which nothing gets accomplished, a two year old shoving his sauce covered hand into the last purified glass of water I could muster out of the dispenser.
Just one of THOSE days.

I was counting down the minutes for Drew to walk in the door and save me from a near-meltdown. Instead my phone rang and he called asking if he could to go to a Dbacks game after work. I thought I hid my disappointment well when I told him to go ahead and go. Instead, he called his mom to babysit, drove home, picked me up and we went to the game together. We got sweet box seats with the servers who take your order and wait on you. Thank you LifeLock and Thank you to Drew for making my day SO much better!
I LOVE my husband!

Labor Day Weekend

We tried to make the best of living on the face of the sun (it's still 102 here) for our Labor Day weekend. Here are a few pictures of what we did to keep us busy...

My grandparents got me this piano when I was about 8 years old. It was an antique even then, but I am so excited to finally be able to have it in my own house! We had it moved yesterday and Maddux may have been as excited as I was! Let's just hope that when he has lessons, he retains a LOT more than I did.
Having this here is a reminder of how badly I practiced growing up and how well I do NOT play now.

Remember THIS?

I decided it would be fun to do it again because:

1) It would help me lose the baby weight
2) It'd jump start me back into my favorite (and only) hobby
3) Training would be my "me time"
4) I wanted to beat my previous time

I may have been wrong because:

1) Even with 20 miles/week right now, there are 8 pounds just clinging to my body for dear life!
2) I'm exhausted chasing a 2 year old and tending to a 3 month old as it is! Those extra miles aren't helping the prob
3) My "me time" is at 5:45am and my long runs are followed by a not-so-relaxing bath shared with a 2 year old and 9 plastic dinosaurs. :)
4) I will NOT be beating my previous time. My goal for now is survival.

To be more upbeat, I just read through my blog from the first time I ran it and it got me REALLY excited again.

SO....49 days..16 hours...53 minutes...32 seconds till the start of round 2!

3 months

My baby is 3 months today! It's crazy how fast time is flying and how quickly she is growing up already!

*Reese weighs about 11.8 pounds
*She has outgrown her first round of clothes and now wears 0-3 month.
*She loves to suck on her hands.
*She smiles at everything (Maddux, mommy, daddy, lamps, fans, toys, etc).
*Her favorite toy is her Lamaze Giraffe and she gets a huge open mouth smile when she looks at it's eyes.
*She poops a LOT.
*She wakes up only once a night (4am-give or take 10 mins).
*She will only use ugly green hospital pacifiers and refuses to suck on a "cute" one, even though I try every day!
*She has a very strong neck and looks around and everything.
*She still insists on being bounced to fall asleep. It's a bit of a nightmare! (suggestions???)
*She has a few rolls on her legs. This is so fun because Maddux has NEVER had a roll of baby fat. We call her our chunky monkey! :)
*She is in the top 50 for the Baby Idol contest, you can click HERE to vote for her!!

Future Photographer

What do you think? Does Maddux have a future in photography?

This is what happens when I'm not watching and he finds my camera! :)