picture perfect

The other day Elana and Elias "played" together in Eli's room for about 30 minutes (which is pretty much an eternity in baby/toddler world.

Of course, the second after I took this picture they both started crying and the magic ended.

walk time

Monkey leash, broken spatula, flashin gang signs..... This is how we roll. 

instagram

So I have had instagram envy for a while now. So the other day I was telling Tony that I needed a smart phone so I could have instagram pictures like all of the cool kids, and he was like: "Our iphoto program on the mac has all the instagram features, why don't you just use that."

And I was like: "Oh, well, I guess I'll try them."

So I did. Here are my first attempts at "creativity".

I'm not sure what I think, but it's kind of fun!

Embrace the camera

I haven't embraced the camera for a while now, so here goes:

Almost at the finish line!

On our way home from the race, about two hours later. My face is still red and splotchy. It's ridiculous.

My first 10k

So today I ran my first 10k race. I know to some people 6.2 miles is merely a warmup to their crazy marathon running ways, but to me, this is epic. This is definitely the furthest I have ever run without stopping, and I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to do this. As a favor to everyone, I will go through my glorious race in painful detail. 

I decided to run this 10k (the macon labor day race) about two weeks ago. At this point I was running about 3 miles several times a week, and felt like I needed a challenge to boost my workouts to the next level. See, I can get kind of lazy sometimes, but give me someone to compete against and I will never stop. I slowly increased my running distance each time until I had run 5.5 miles on saturday. I figured if I could run 5 then I could run 6, right? 

The morning of the race came, so we loaded everyone up at 7:45 in the morning to make the drive up to Macon. Of course, Leah picks this morning to want to sleep in. The girl has come into our room every morning for a week at 6:30 am wanting to "snuggle", aka thrash around in bed for 5 minutes and then beg me to get up with her, but not this morning. Whatevs. I was super nervous driving up there. See, I love to compete. I miss competing. I miss the whole athletic challenge of it all, and even though I knew there was no way that I would "place" at this race, I still wanted to do well and not come in last place. 

We got to the starting line and I immediately started scoping out the competition. There were hundreds of runners, many of whom were clearly super serious about running. I heard a couple of older gentlemen talking about all the marathons there were going to run this year, and others saying they just wanted to run this one slow... like an 8 min mile pace. Cause that's real slow. 

I saw this one chick who looked like she was a couple of years younger than me, and she was super in shape. I decided I could totally keep pace with her. So the race started, and I ran right behind her. For like 2 minutes. I'm not sure if she sped up or I slowed down, but she got very far ahead of me very quickly. Rude. I'll bet she didn't have 3 kids in 4 years though. 

Instead I picked a group of gals about my age who were running a pace a little more reasonable, and I managed to keep up with them most of the way. I did pass an elderly man with a prosthetic leg though, so there's that. 

The first two miles were pretty uneventful. I ran a nice easy pace and listened to the awesome playlist on my ipod. Then I started getting a stitch in my side which lasted until about mile 3. This was annoying; I definitely thought I would have to stop and walk. Thanks to my strategically placed music, however, "Eye of the Tiger" started playing and it gave me a great second wind. Seriously, music is the key to running. 

By the time mile 4 came around, and I grabbed that paper cup of water from the super sweet race helpers, took a sip, and threw it on the ground (super fun, btw), I felt great and knew I could finish. Until that stupid hill, that is. Hills suck. But with Emminem blarring through the headphones I powered through, and apparently what goes up must come down, and the rest of the race was way better. 

After a upbeat version of "Oh Love that will Not Let Me Go" (sung by Jered and Katie Mckenna, just fyi), I passed the 6 mile mark, and I brought out the big guns. That's right, I turned my ipod to the most inspirational song of all. The Rocky I them song "gonna fly now" (or something like that.) I'm telling you when that song starts playing I could break out into a dead sprint. I didn't, but I could. 

I'm not going to lie, that last 0.2 mile stretch was pretty awesome. I've got the Rocky song blaring, a huge crowd lining the road cheering me on, and Tony and the kids waving at me from the side. I felt like a freaking champion. 

I crossed the finish line right at 1 hour and 2 minutes, which mean I ran almost exactly at a 10 minute mile pace. This was my goal, so I'm pretty happy with that. Apparently a super pregnant woman finished "way before me", but that's okay. Kudos to her. 

I'm going to say that I am definitely going to do this again, much to my husband's dismay. He has this thing about paying to run.... He has a point, but at least I got a cute shirt!

pictures and captions

So if you haven't noticed I have completely run out of cute post title ideas. Either that, or I'm not trying to think up clever/cute post titles at all.

"Mom!!! Look! I call this my upside down lunges!"

"UUUUUUHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I'm never gonna get to do gymnastics!!!!"

This little girl loves loves loves to swing.

 "Elias, say cheese!"  "Waaaa!!!!!! waaaaaaaaaaaa!" He was super happy, and then the second I lifted up the camera, he started screaming. I swear.

 
"Wiiiiinnnnnnnnggggg!!!! Wiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg!!" (This means swing. Duh.)

 This is our awesome boat that Leah and I made the other day. She totally found all the materials for her. I went into teacher mode and was all like: "what makes a boat float, Leah?". And then I realized that I had no idea what makes a boat float. Still don't. Something about buoyancy and density I think.

 "BOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (He really really loves boats.) He didn't want to help us at all, but then when he saw what we were making he started shrieking BOAT and tried his best to destroy it... in a loving, Lenny sort of way.

 "NO ELI!!!! This is mine and Mommy's special boat!"
"Leah, why don't you hold the boat and get a picture with Elias."
"Okay!"
She then proceeds to choke him into submission. I got my picture though. Priorities.

   Apparently cereal boxes are easy to knock over. Easy by 9 month olds. Some babycage that was.

 "Take a picture of me and my purple baby please!"

In true competitive fashion she states:
"Now I can hold my babies better than you!"

"Oh yeah!!! Well at least I don't fall on my babies! WHAT UP!!"

Look at how innocent he looks right here. Almost like he didn't just slam the laptop shut really really hard.

Leah took this picture. That's why it's so blurry.

This pic needs no caption. I mean come on, how presh is this?