Spring Break Days 1 and 2

Caleb was very much looking forward to Spring Break.  What kid doesn't look forward to a week-long break from school?  He was so excited about all the fun things we were going to do each day, so I had a lot of pressure to make it a super fun week.

Monday was spiky hair day!  The boys both wanted to do their hair different and fun.  It was also Aunt Ariane's birthday, so first we made some birthday cards for her in the morning.

After making cards, we picked up lunch and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park.  We spent the rest of the afternoon playing and having fun! 

We enjoyed putting Bryson in his little bumbo for the first time that night.  He loved it!

Tuesday we headed to the zoo, along with everyone else in the city.  We thought the chilly morning would keep everyone away, but it was crowded!  It warmed up to be a beautiful day in the end, and we had a great time!

Carter playing some African drums

Looking at Ankole cattle

Touching a rhino horn

And of course the carousel!

It was so helpful to have my mom there!  Between Ariane and I having to feed our babies, things would have been really tricky without her!

Bryson at 4 months

Bryson gets so many compliments on his smiles and happy temperament.  He is generally a pretty calm baby and only gets extremely fussy when he's overly tired.  I've gotten a handful of comments that he is the spitting image of Matt and several that say he favors Matt more than me.  I think he just looks like my other boys. :o)

Bryson doesn't take a pacifier very well, which is fine by me.  Carter didn't use a pacifier at all--in some ways it made things more difficult, but I was so grateful that I didn't have to break him of it!  That was so hard for Caleb!  Bryson seems to like to have a pacifier initially when he's going to sleep, but doesn't like it other than that.  Recently he's discovered his fist and his thumb!

At his 4 month doctor's appointment, Bryson weighed 15 lb. 4 oz. which is average (52nd percentile).  [Carter weighed 18 lb. at 4 months!]  Bryson was 25 in. (60th percentile) and his head count was in the 90th percentile.  The pediatrician was concerned about his large head and wants him to come back in a month to remeasure.  They have to watch for swelling of the brain, brain trauma, etc.  He's never hit his head hard, and he's reaching all the appropriate milestones so I'm not concerned.  Ironically enough, Bryson has gotten a handful of compliments on his well-shaped head!

At his appointment, we got permission to start training the little guy to eat.  Here is Bryson's first time eating rice cereal:

He ate the first couple of bites really well, then decided this eating thing was no fun.

Bryson is capable of sleeping through the night because he's done it several times, but I would say about 70% of the time he's still getting up once a night (usually around 3:30-4:30am).  I think it has to do with how well he eats that last feeding of the night.  Sometimes he's so sleepy that I don't think he eats very well.  Hopefully rice cereal will fill up his tummy better to help him make it through the night on a consistent basis.

Overall the boys are enamored with Bryson.  Caleb loves to greet Bryson first thing when he gets home from school.  Carter loves to hold Bryson but has difficulty understanding personal space.  He likes to get right up into Bryson's face and talk loudly to him.  They both can't wait for Bryson to be able to sit up and join them in the bathtub!  And I'm enjoying being a mommy to these three boys!

Month 5: Positive Thoughts

For the month of February for my Happiness Project, I worked on having positive thoughts about other people--no judging, giving the benefit of the doubt, and in general just being more loving.  I was surprised how many times I had to dismiss a judgmental thought from my mind.  This is sad, but it took a conscious effort each day to choose to think positively toward other people and/or situations instead of assuming the worst.  I didn't become perfect by the end of the month, but I made huge strides :o).  The reward of my efforts was I felt happier choosing to have loving thoughts about a person rather than thinking negatively.  Dismissing uncharitable thoughts from my mind will hopefully be a habit that sticks. 

Also this month, I completed indexing 200 names, almost finished turning another year of my blog into a book (just finishing up some editing), I finished the church novel I started in January about having more holiness in my life, and I ran my 5th half marathon!

The visiting teaching message in February inspired my goal for March and my February goal leads into this one nicely.  I want to work on being more friendly.  I didn't realize just how shy I am probably until I married Matt.  He is on the opposite scale of the spectrum than me when it comes to being friendly.  He and I will have discussions all the time where he'll say something to the effect of, "Going up to that person and talking to them is hard for you?  Why?" [said in an incredulous voice].  I've learned a lot from him: he always initiates a conversation with a cashier when checking out of a store; when talking to a cashier or a service person on the phone, he always calls them by their name; he goes out of his way to greet people or say goodbye to them; he is so genuine when he talks to someone and truly listens; and his goal is to brighten everyone's day whom he comes in contact with.  I know I won't be able to cone near his level in just one month, but I'm going to improve from where I'm at and make more of an effort to go out of my way to be friendly.  It's going to be scary for me and will require me to check my inhibitions at the door.

Half Marathon No. 5

I signed up for my 5th half marathon when I was about 8 months pregnant, knowing I'd be four months out from having a baby when I actually ran the race.  I knew it was going to be a stretch to be trained and ready in time, but I also thought it would be a great way to get back in shape quickly!  During my training, I was finally able to get down to running 9-minute miles consistently on my long runs.  (Speed training makes all the difference in the world!)  This in and of itself was a huge accomplishment considering that when I started up running again after Bryson, I was running over ten-minute miles.  (This is my least favorite part about being pregnant: all the hard work of getting in shape previously goes out the window and you start from square one after giving birth.  Totally worth it to have my 3 boys though!)

I ran this exact race last year and was able to get my personal best of 1:48:05 averaging 8:15-minute miles.  Every single half marathon I have run in the past, I've been able to get a PR (personal record), so I had to accept the fact that this wasn't going to happen this time around.  3 weeks before the race, I ran 13.1 miles in 1:58:00 or 9:01 miles, so my goal was to beat this time.

It was very tricky Saturday morning to work everything out with nursing Bryson.  He is capable of sleeping through the night and has done so in the past, but for the last week he has been waking up once a night again.  I think he's going through a growth spurt.  So I was up at 4 am feeding Bryson, then went back to sleep for an hour before getting up for real to get ready for the race.  We got to the race site at 6:30 am for the 7am start.  I nursed Bryson again then ate some Gel Bloks to get my energy up.  (I wonder how much nursing affects energy during long distance running?)

Carter, Mommy, and Caleb before the race

It was a very cold morning.  I'm not sure the actual temperature, but an online weather site predicted 38 degrees at 7 am and 43 degrees at 9am when I would be finished.  Granted that's not super cold, but it was windy on top of that so we all had to dress snug and warm.  I should have left my hat with Matt before the race because I shed it after mile 1, my gloves came off after mile 4, and my jacket came off around mile 10.  It was annoying to have to carry my hat and gloves the whole time. (I put my gloves in my hat.)

My slowest mile was mile 9 at 9:02, and my fastest mile was mile 13 at 8:16.  I averaged 8:44 miles and finished at 1:54:18.  I was very proud of this time.  The racing atmosphere always helps me push myself harder than I think I'm capable.  I had my fair share of aches and pains though.  Because I had to speed up the training process in order to be ready in time, my hamstrings and gluteals have hurt throughout the training process after my long runs, particularly on the right side.  So today after pushing my body so hard yesterday, I am favoring my right side and limping a bit (as well as all day yesterday).  During mile 12 I noticed my left knee was throbbing, probably because I was starting to pick up the pace quite a bit.  My running curse is that I generally have to stop at least once during my long runs in order to use the bathroom.  I have only completed one race where I didn't have to stop to use the porta potties (super gross!) and that was last year's race where I got my best time ever.  I'm always trying new things to figure out how to solve the issue, but I always plan my long runs close to home so I can stop as needed.  It's so frustrating during a race because the time I cross the finish line is not accurate to what I actually ran.  I'm grateful for the investment into my Garmin a few years back!  Enough about that though.

About to cross the finish line.  I'm sprinting at a 6:41 pace at this point.

We forgot to take pictures immediately after the race.  I had to quickly pick up my shirt and the food they provide for runners, then we dashed home so I could quickly shower and nurse Bryson.

My boys who are so supportive of Mommy and her running.  

Of course my biggest supporter is Matt who sometimes had to go into work early so he could get home a little early or leave late and get home later to accommodate my training schedule.  And race day is always tricky with waking up early and then dealing with the kids while I'm running.  I so appreciate his support even though he thinks running is dumb.  He enjoys running only if he's chasing down a Frisbee. :o)

It meant SO much to me to have my mom there for this race to cheer me on.  It was quite cold and there were tons of people there so parking is tricky and it's hard to actually see the runner you're cheering for--not fun conditions.  When running in a race though, it makes all the difference in the world knowing that someone is cheering for you and will be there at the end!  It definitely helps me push myself harder.  I know Matt appreciated the extra hand with the boys while waiting for me to finish as well.

Road Trip

We made the four hour road trip one way to see our niece get baptized!  We were so excited to be there and celebrate Mckayla's birthday with her.

I did a horrible job taking pictures of our little trip because it takes two of us to take care of our boys!  We need one adult in charge of Carter and one in charge of the baby, which makes picture-taking more difficult.  I did manage to get one shot of the cousins.

Abigail, Olivia, Mckayla

Caleb, Bryson, Carter

Instead of doing 8 1/2 hours of driving in one day, we did it over two days and stopped by Clayton (my brother) and Kara's on the way home.  The boys enjoyed seeing Ellery, and it was fun to attend church with them.  Carter was especially excited to see Aunt Kara and asked every day leading up to our trip if it was time to go to Kara's house yet!

Happy Valentine's Day

My sweet, little Valentine

And some 3 month pictures

(deer in the headlights look)

All dressed and ready for church

Month 4: Improving a Talent

As part of my year-long happiness project for the month of January, I worked on practicing the piano every day for an hour. I loved this goal, and it did indeed make me happy!  It was so nice to have an excuse to play the piano every day when I otherwise would have found more "productive" things to do.  It was difficult some days to fit an hour in, and there were two Saturdays where the day was so busy that I didn't get a chance to practice at all.  There were also a handful of days where I practiced longer than my allotted time because I was enjoying myself so much!  If I couldn't fit it in during the day, I would practice after the kids went to bed when I normally would have watched TV or read a book to wind down the day.  Over the course of the month, I worked up a piano solo which I'm going to play in church, I enjoyed playing through several Broadway musical piano books, and I played through several classical pieces.  This month I relearned just how much I love playing the piano and that making the effort to practice every day lifted my spirits.  I can do with less TV and more piano-playing in my life!  I'm so grateful to my aunt for teaching me how to play and to my mom for pushing me to practice.

Last month I also indexed almost 400 names, I got over halfway through James L. Ferrell's book, The Holy Secret, and I continued to train for my half marathon race on March 2nd.

This month I'm going to work on positive thoughts about other people--no judging, giving the benefit of the doubt, and in general just being more loving.  I also want to finish another year of my blog book. We'll see how it goes. :o)