Carlsbad Half Marathon

The first of my three half marathons has come and gone. I was dreading race day because I had been sick the week before and I just knew that the race was going to get the best of me. I didn't feel rested well enough, hydrated enough, prepared enough, or anything else. I had done my 10 mile run the day before getting sick, but I still didn't feel good about the race.

Then the race started…

I had to call Lane in the middle of the race to let him know that I was making much better time than we had thought I would! I was ecstatic! The adrenaline of the day was pushing me through like I never thought it could. I made it to the half way point {6.7 miles} with a pace of 9:22 minutes per mile. This is where I found Lane and the kids.

As I ran off, I blew kisses, and had high hopes for the rest of the race.

And then I hit miles 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13…Though I still had a great finish time {2:07:54, 6 minutes faster than last year} I slowed down quite a bit in the second half. My pace for the end of the run was a 9:39 minute mile. If I could have stuck to my first half pace I could have finished in 2-ish minutes faster! Oh well, I can't complain. I'm very proud of myself and for my run time this year!

Next up…La Jolla Half Marathon {that I swore I would never do again!}

De-Lish!

Because I've been running most mornings, my kids have been eating a quick dry cereal while riding in the stroller. Not to mention, I'm not a morning person, so my favorite time to eat a warm breakfast is when we have breakfast for dinner. I saw this picture the other day that TheBabyGuyNYC posted and I knew I had everything to go for it!

{I've recently started following him on Instagram and on Facebook, but have no other affiliations with him. I just think he's funny and full of information about all things baby/kid!}

So he posted this with instructions of baking for 10-15 minutes at 400* after loading each pie crust with butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Simple enough…right?! Heck yeah! It really was that easy. Take a look!

Un-roll the pie crust and cover it with melted butter...

 Cover with cinnamon...

 Then with sugar...

 Re-roll the crust...

 Cut it into slices that are about an inch thick...

 Place on cookie sheet for baking...

 Bake at 400* for 10-15 minutes...

 Put them on plates and devour!

Next time I think I'll make sure I plan ahead and make some sort of icing to top them or for dipping. They were pretty good without the icing, so we didn't lose out on delicious flavor, but they would have been even better with the icing!

Motherhood Is…{3}

The kids and I love getting out for fresh air every day. It's one of the only things that's great about not getting a winter. We've enjoyed having some warmer weather while the rest of the country is suffering through a very brutal winter. No matter how brutal the kids are when we're within the walls of our house, they're usually that much better behaved when we're outside. They love to be outside where we can be loud, run around, and just be crazy!

Sleep Tight

Eden's bed has been done for a while, but I feel like I didn't have great pictures of it all, so I've not posted about it. Now that Eden is getting better about keeping her room clean pictures look a little better! The whole process, beginning to end took me less than 2 weeks. That being said - this is my first "solo" build, and I did a lot of the work when Lane was at work or on the road.

Once I got all the wood home, I unloaded and cut at the same time. That way nothing was stacked into the garage without being cut first. I felt like this was the easiest way for me to make sure I didn't just have a stack of wood in the garage. I organized the pieces in the garage in stacks of the same size so they were easier to count and keep up with.

Sanding the boards took the longest, but I think it's because I wanted the boards smoother than I was able to get them. The first thing I put together was the stairs. Less of the pieces had to be sanded, so it was a great change of pace for me. This was also a step that didn't require more than one set of hands. I was also able to get the platform built mostly on my own. The head and foot boards were a bit tricky because of their size, but I managed to put them together by myself.

stairs and headboard

bottom of the platform and the footboard.

bed rail

To make sure we didn't fall into a lull, I started taking pieces up to Eden's room. Once they were painted, there was no reason to keep them in the garage. Cleanup was easier after the pieces were out of the way.

Now that all the pieces were upstairs we started assembly of the bed. It was more frustrating than it should have been, but we got through it.

Once the bed was completely put together I moved things around in Eden's room. Just a bit. I moved her books out of her closet, and her chalkboard desk out from under her light switch. I moved it all under the bed and platform to encourage a reading nook in her room.

Motherhood Is…{2}

I am getting so bad about keeping this updated! I find myself having less time now that my kids demand less time of me. I thought it would be opposite. The only reason I'm getting time right now is that I'm at the Apple store getting my phone fixed {I dropped it and shattered the screen last night…sad day!} and they have wireless AND iPads to keep my kids entertained. Don't worry, I included that in the group of pictures on here today.

This week we were excited to know that Daddy would be home on Monday because of the MLK weekend, but then got lucky - sort of - that he got to be home Tuesday too! I say sort of because he was at the ER getting fluids and zofran for nausea/vomiting every half hour on Sunday night. When he let work know, they recommended that he not come to work on Tuesday in hopes of keeping the spread of "The Daigle Disease" at bay. So, on Tuesday we were able to get out and get some fresh air and have a picnic for lunch. The kids were excited to show Daddy some of the treasures we've found in the past when we were geocaching together.

We also had the opportunity this week to go to an indoor play place with the playgroup that we attend with Lane's squadron. Last week we had dinner at the food trucks, so Eden was excited to see a play food truck when we walked in. She and Hunter played in the food truck for a long time. She also guided him through a big tube play structure when he got scared. She's a great big sister when she wants to be!

The picture of the 2 kids together on the stairs and Eden looking sad is because I finally got tired of them yelling and screaming at each other. It was a lot of, "Hunter's touching me!" "Mine" "Don't touch that!" happening all at once. From me they were hearing a lot of, "No, that's not yours. You have to share" "Hunter, get off of your sister" "Stop touching that" "Stop screaming" and I was getting nowhere. I finally had enough and I had them sit on the stairs together. Their timer didn't start until they were holding hands. I just wanted them to sit quietly and show each other some compassion.

I'm happy to look back ob this week's pictures to see that it was a week filled with more happy/smiling moments compared to sad and unhappy moments.

Motherhood Is…{1}

I know I've slacked on my posts about motherhood since the new year. With the start of the new year I had to decide the route I wanted to take with it. This year I want to watch my kids grow together. They've started playing so well together - in addition to pushing each other's buttons every now and then. Ok, ok, they push buttons more often than they play together! This is why I want to capture their moments together throughout the year. I'm going to do my best to capture moments of them in the good, bad, funny, and interesting times.

Not to start off on such a downer, but this was one of my favorite moments when we were all so sick last week.

She wanted to cuddle him to make sure he was feeling alright. She made sure I knew that he had fallen asleep, and then she cuddled right into him before giving him a kiss.

24 Hours

Lane went on the road early last week and some friends {who are also husband-less} decided we should trade dinner duties while it was just us and the kids. Last Wednesday night we went to a friends house for a delicious dinner. Thursday morning she called us and let us know that she and her younger son had a stomach bug. Friday was a good day for us. Saturday I went for a long run and had a bit of a belly ache that afternoon. I thought it was just because I had some energy boosters during my run.

Fast forward to Saturday night/Sunday morning at 1:30…Hunter started waking up and was just fussy. I went in to check on him and he was laying in vomit. Again at 3:00, more vomit. After stripping his bed for the second time in the middle of the night I set him up in my bed. That way I didn't have to get up, and I didn't have to change his sheets again - I didn't have any other sheets for his bed!

Hunter threw up twice more before 5:30. Life was miserable and I think between 1:30 and 6:00 {when I finally gave up and got up for the day} I only slept for an hour total. The final straw was when he insisted on sitting at the foot of my bed and barfed on my comforter. That meant that I had my king size comforter and sheets, 2 sets of twin sheets, Hunter's comforter, plus all of the pillows involved to wash.

Since everything had to be washed on the sanitary cycle and was taking 2 hours to wash, plus dry time, I got to work. I gave Hunter a banana and some pedialite and propped him up in a chair to watch tv.

Once Eden woke up, I told her that the chair was the "germ chair" and that I didn't want her in it. We turned on a movie and watched something to keep the kids occupied. I should have known that something was up with Eden because she didn't want to eat her cereal that morning. I didn't want my coffee…please! I don't ever not want my coffee!

Eventually Hunter fell asleep as the movie ended. Eden snuggled her way into the "germ chair" but I couldn't resist.

I took Hunter up to his room so he could hopefully get some peaceful sleep to make up for his rough morning. Eden sat at the table and played with her rubber stamps while I sat in the "germ chair" and wondered how much longer the day was going to last. One time that I was quickly walking to the bathroom Eden announced that she needed the bucket, so I tossed her the bucket on my way to the bathroom. Talk about a terrible mom feeling! When she finally got sick I couldn't even be there for her. And even after I was done and I came out to check on her, it had to be in passing because Hunter was upstairs screaming.

Luckily, the vomit was over by dinner time. The entire day, the kids and I combined only finished a sleeve of saltine crackers and half a jug of pedialyte. I was so excited to see bedtime come! Monday we made sure to stay clear of other people, but we had to get out of the house. We headed out to go for a flat hike/walk.

I was so thankful to have great friends who helped take care of us on Sunday! People were constantly checking in on us to make sure we were ok. Someone brought us pedialyte, crackers, and clorox wipes and another friend brought us more crackers, ginger ale, bananas, and each of the kids a toy car to help distract them from feeling so crummy! Without having another adult here to help out it was nice to have  some support. Oh. My. Goodness! I am SO glad Sunday has come and gone, it was a terrible 24 hours for us!

New Year's Eve

This year to ring in the new year we kept things low key and fun. We went to a friends house, let the kids run loose, and the adults played games - Apples to Apples and Taboo. So much fun! I've always wanted our kids to be big enough to "celebrate" New Year's Eve with us, and I was excited to have fun with them this year. 

Each hour brought on a new activity. The activities were inside a balloon, so the kids got to pop the balloons on the hour to find out what they got to do that hour. 

At 6:00 the kids got to "paint" with shaving cream! I took our cookie sheets to our friend's house, so most of it {for a little while} was on the cookie sheets. The kids loved this! It also turned out to be a great lead-in to getting them into their pjs!

At 7:00 the kids got to play balloon volley ball in the hall way. They had fun trying to keep the balloon off the ground. For the little kids I turned it into a bit of a listening game too. I had them hit the balloon, but only if I said their name first. Hunter wasn't interested. He's hated balloons ever since he popped one in the car one day.

At 8:00 the kids got to have a dance party. They loved being able to get crazy! This was our last balloon, because living on the west coast, we let the kids celebrate with juice at 9:00 {East Coast NYE for the kids!!!}

Hunter did wake back up at midnight and wanted more juice. I'm not sure that he was really awake, but he got to toast with us one more time. At midnight Eden and Lane were cuddled up on the couch - she just barely missed midnight! - and Hunter was still trying to be awake. I couldn't believe that the adults made it to see the ball drop! I was proud of us for staying up. But then again, Apples to Apples and Taboo are great fun.

Dressing Up

I was excited to hear that Santa's Elves were going to be making this gem to be delivered on Christmas Eve. I saw the plans online and knew that I needed to put the itch in Santa's ear for a great gift for Eden.

 The elves added hooks on the side to hold accessories.

 And a bucket on the other side to make sure that the small things don't get lost.

 Around the top, there's a lip so the hats, tiaras, wands, and swords don't fall off.

I was so excited that the dress up closet turned out as well as it did! The elves told me that it was so easy to make. Start to finish {buying the lumbar and everything} took just a few hours!