A great day.

I had a pretty great day today. Here's our Mom's Day fun in Instagrams.

After my morning run someone greeted with a big smiling saying "I put stickers on!". I got a sweet card that had the Agenda for the day listed inside, which was basically do whatever I want day. 

We enjoyed lunch at the Louie's on the lake and then spent some time playing at the lake after, watching sailboats and kayakers on the calm waters, blowing bubbles and kicking her ball. 

This isn't from today but it's making the cut as one of my favorite mom moments these days. She often says "Mama will you hold my hand", when Ryan is driving and I'm riding in the beside her. 

Part of the agenda included some "mommy time" which I interpreted as a pedi and shopping at the mall time. 

Here's the two that made my day special. 

Another recent pic that I love. Being her mom is a blessing I don't even have words for. It was fun to celebrate that today. It is also a tremendous blessing to have the mom I do, I learned so much about how to nurture and love from her. Happy mom's day!

A weekend in the country.

We don't have to go to far, just our the front door to enjoy our weekends in the country. And this weekend sure had a lot of country living to offer. 

Ryan worked hard getting the rest of the landscaping completed and Ava worked hard playing in her new sprinkler:

Living out in the country area now, I do think the sunrise and sunsets are easier to behold. I ran again this morning for the first time since the half. It was an enjoyable two miles despite the humidity, got to take in great sun rise views. Here's our Saturday night sunset, view from our front yard:

Also In the last 24 hours here we have seen a turtle, geese, 4 deer, and 4-ft bull snake that caused quiet a stir. Saturday night, Ryan was working on the anchoring the tree you see pictured below, Ava and I were playing in the front yard. Ryan starts to make a commotion as he notices a 4-ft snake slithering past him he has an ax in hand and tries to get it with but it is fast and crawls right up into the engine of the neighbors van! From here this turns into a two hour ordeal, at one point a neighbor calls the sheriff's office, 3 different officers end up responding (guess its a good sign we live in an area where these 3 officers had nothing better to do than watch all this play out). This all ends after trying a number of tactics to lure out with Ryan finally able to get it out and kill it with the neighbors machete. He stretched it out and took its measurements and pictures to figure out what kind of snake it really was. Doesn't appear it was poisonous from our research thus far.

Less eventful but most memorable to Ava a turtle appeared in the yard today. The rest of the evening out of the blue she would say things like. "Do you think she will come back?" ,"I like the tur-dd-ul" , "Mom do you like the tur-dd-ul"? "Did the tur-dd-ul go back?". I have a feeling we will be hearing about the "tur-dd-ul" for some time to come.

Hope your weekend was great too, whether its the country or the city or somewhere in between...

Pre-Party Fun

A video of Ava figuring out the party blower for the first time...

Party Time!

Also last weekend we had a family party again for Ava this year. We were lucky to get to have some out of town friends join us well and a few other family friends besides our immediate families. We did a purple Elephant theme, it did all come together but was a bit stressful the 24 hours before finishing the cake and other details. (Thanks so much AM and Alicia for your help!) This month was so packed I didn't get to do the prep I had wanted to. So I felt like I was running around like crazy the 24 hours before party time. 

AM helped me make these elephant cookies, we decided to tackle working with Royal icing, which neither of us had done. I tried a homemade batch of cookie dough I made from scratch that didn't bake up well, I had picked up a back up roll of sugar cookie dough at the store just in case. If it was just me I would of cried in frustration and defeat and have just given up at different points but AM helped me continue to re-group and stay the course, each step held a debacle of its own. So I am super proud of these little guys, they turned out pretty good! We learned a lot about royal icing and sugar cookies, but don't think either of us are ready to try again anytime soon!

There is something great about being in a room filled with all the people that dearly love your child and are all big parts of their life. Its my favorite of a birthday party, just taking in all that love. It reminds me of one of my favorite parts of her actual day of birth, all the family and dear friends flooding the room, when she was just brand new to the world.

She loved her bubble stuff, they were some of the biggest hits at the party!

All it takes, is all you got.

Today was the day, 5 months ago, I made a new years resolution to check off another bucket list item this year: Run a half marathon. I had run just a few 5ks prior this is commitment. It seemed like running 13 miles was an impossible task which is exactly what made the whole journey appealing in a scary, exciting, can-I-ready-do-this? kind of way. 

So first thing I did after I had asserted this seemingly lofty goal? Write it down. I think the research is that you are 70% more likely to reach a goal if you write it down. So I thought I better write this down in a big way, I wrote it on my bathroom mirror where I had to be reminded daily for the first few months what laid before me. Then I started reading and researching training recommendations online. I came across an interesting article on running. It said ask yourself why you want to run, I thought "to be more healthy and fit" then it said go deeper than that first answer and you will find the real reason and knowing this reason is the key to reaching your goal and making the most of the journey. So for those first weeks of running I would think a lot while I was running, what is my "deeper" reason. 

As the runs progressed I realized I liked training outside much more than the treadmill. My favorite place to run was the lake and I started doing my long runs on Sundays. Some runs were hard and some actually became enjoyable. I would look forward to that time by myself, being the only one that pushed myself or was easy on myself. It was a beautiful time of self reflection, deeper pondering and prayer. It was a very mild winter and perfect for training. 


I ran a 10K at the beginning of March and it was HARD. Thinking about doubling that honestly seemed discouraging at the time. It was just after this time that AM and I started doing our long training together. This helped tremendously to feel like this was still a possible goal. I would start to look forward to those runs again in new ways as we would spend that time reflecting, challenging and validating one another on not only our running but also on the rest of our lives. We would end those runs with celebrating our success, confirming our running plan for the week and saying a prayer. During the week we would message one another to keep each other posted on our running commitments.  
The mutual support was much needed and for sure the best running strategy move I made.

So my "deeper reason". After much reflection, I arrived there. Being now a 30 something year old wife, mother, daughter, sister, Aunt, grand daughter, friend, therapist, manager, church member... I am where most women find themselves starting this season of adult life, giving so much of myself in so many roles. While I feel I am fulfilling my purpose in these roles and find much joy and fulfillment in them, I also wanted to strip them away for at brief amounts of time and really connect with the adult me, to know her better as just her, and in doing so find ways to ensure I don't lose myself in the giving. Knowing myself better helps me make better decisions, when guided by prayer, that make the giving purposeful and thoughtful and that keep it in part a filling up kind-of-thing instead of just an emptying out kind-of-thing. A favorite running quote of mine is "All it takes, is all you got". I wanted to know what "I got" and what that ment for this next phase of life.

So this morning I saw the fulfillment of that 5 month ago commitment. Waking at 4:30 and making my way to down town. Along with thousands of others, I lined up with eager anticipation.

We ran the streets of our beloved city. We remembered our collective reason along with all our thousands of individual reasons. The experience was part pain and part joy, which are usually the best and most authentic of human experiences we have when those two things come together at the same time. We did give it all we got. Mission was accomplished... In more ways than one.

Dear Ava,

Dear Ava,

I think I will continue the tradition of writing you a letter on your birthday each year. As I look through my favorite pictures of you over this past year, its clear just how much you've transformed again this year.  Its hard to explain from a mom's perspective just how fast and slow it is all at the same time. These days you are so funny, curious and sweet. We can have little conversations now and I love getting to know what's in that little head of yours. 

Your dad and I have an ongoing friendly fight. I say you look like him but inside your just like me. He says your like him all the way through. I see me in your quiet side that waits first in new situations, in the way you like to observe before jumping in and how sweet and kind you are and your dad says he sees your strength, independence and determination and just knows your a blue print of him. I'm glad you have all of that, either way I think we both agree you're the best of us.

and there are those moments still where you are so clearly one of us or the other. Just this week daddy was teaching you how to blow bubbles in the bath, You were doing so great he called me in to see you. You got pretty confident and stuck our nose down too far and got a bit choked up. I expected tears and avoidance following that but waited for you to have your own response, with teary eyes from the coughing you simply said "woa" and went back for more, learning from that already how to do better at it. That is so the fearlessness of your dad and such a great way to go about life! 

I fall in love with you in so many new ways as you grow. I still love your petite frame and delicate features. Your pretty brown eyes regularly get comments from others. You are still so much fun to dress each day and now the added bonus of doing your beautiful brown hair too. 

I love also that you love to snuggle with me and be rocked daily. I know one day you will be grown and I will so miss this part. I recently read about this mom who is now a grandma, sometimes she dreams at night her children are still tiny like you and she wakes up a bit sad to the reality that they are full grown with kids of their own. That's really resonated with me and I think of that sometimes when we are rocking, trying to soak up every bit of that precious moment. 

I do love the balance we strike most days at this stage with your independent play and the way you still need us too.

You have friends now! There's a whole great little group of kids your age at church as you were part of quite a baby boom. You go to mother's day out on Fridays sometimes at church. I ask you on those mornings if you want to go play with friends and you repeat over and over with a big smile, "Go play with friends".

Of course since we spend so much time with Isabella I can tell she already has a special place in your heart. Your eyes light up to see her. Recently you two have been into trading your shoes with one another as soon as you are together. You love to give her hugs, kisses and pats on the back. If she cries you go over, tilt your head to the side and pat her back and say "Its okay Iz" in the sweetest little voice. She's pretty into you to, She enthusiastically greets you whenever you are reunited running towards you and joyfully saying your name over and over. Friendship is one of God's richest blessings and I'm so glad you are already knowing that joy at this tender age.

Another favorite person of yours is Aunt Amy, you talk about her often, sometimes want me to call her on the phone, ask me where she is. You even declared at one point this year that one of our kitchen chairs is  Aunt Amy's. You go spend Saturday afternoons with her, here and there. Your also pretty wild about your cousins, Chloe and Allie and their dogs. Out of the blue you will bring them up and ask me where they are. When I tell you we are going to be seeing them, you will ask me about them throughout the day. I am so glad you have a close bond with them and I am also so excited for baby girl cousin that is due this summer that you will be close to in age!

As I reflect on this past year I come to the same simple conclusion that this journey of parenting continues to have its challenges at times that change as your grow but so often it seems insignificant compared to the reward and fulfillment of getting to be your mama. So happy second birthday sweet girl! Buckle your belt, this next year holds big things for you! the phasing out of the paci, a change to a big girl bed and potty training to name a few. Can't wait to share more of the big the small and everything in between. Love you!

Happy Birthday 2 you!

Despite all of us finishing up getting over colds we did our best to celebrate her big day this year with a family day! We started off the festivities with surrounding her by balloons while she slept. Once she was up and around we had a pancake breakfast at home followed by an impromptu dance party. 

Ryan got to feeling bad so he slept, while Ava and I played with her new play dough set she got from us and then qw worked on the play room for the rest of the morning. Thankfully he felt better once he woke up and so we decide on Italian for lunch, her fav eats are bread and pasta so Carino's had plenty of both to please this girl. They found out it was her birthday and she even got this cake and ice cream on the house.

She started falling asleep as we were leaving so we decided to go do nap time at the house before venturing out further. In the evening we went to the mall to eat dinner, ride some rides and do a "Build -A-Bear".

Her she is picking out which one she wants:

She picked out a heart put in the stuffing:

She was not sure about this bath business:

She loved all the clothing options and even found a few she'd like to try on: 

But once I saw the baby carrier, I knew which accessory she would want to take home.

Tried to sneak a quick picture with her since I was the photographer most of the day:

She's didn't have a name for her dog/bear when we did the birth certificate at the end so Ryan named him Fuzzy, today she told me once his name was baby Todd (after a baby at our church that she just loves!) but by mid day his name was Thomas and then at bedtime it was back to Fuzzy. Can't believe she's 2!