Spring Training 2011

While the girls were at Universal visiting Barney, the boys went to see the RedSox take on the Braves in a Spring Training game!

Big Papi!

I heard Noah was excited when he saw David Ortiz because he always chooses to be him in the "Home Run Derby" on PS3 :)  He recognized his number!

We're fortunate that the Braves play their Spring Training games at Wide World of Sports which is pretty close to us.  Since we don't have a professional baseball team close by, this is our only opportunity to see the RedSox without traveling.

I thought the Braves logo in the middle of the Mickey ears was a cute touch!

Jon Lester...impressed Daddy?!

My little RedSox fan!

A video game set up @ the ballpark - does it get any better?!

Looks like the boys had just as much fun as the girls did!

miscellany monday

{en}

Best.Boppy.Cover.Ever

I picked this up for my friend, Brooke, and took it to the hospital when I met baby Brayden on Friday.  Brooke sent me a text (at 4:00 this morning...bless her heart!) telling me she's in love with it.  That's the common sentiment among everyone I know who has used it.  I love anything chamois from Pottery Barn Kids.  I wish they made chamois sheets that would fit our bed :)

{to}

Speaking of Pottery Barn Kids, Noah, Noelle and Emma turned a quick trip into the store into an outing last week.

Who would have thought shopping could be so fun?!

{tre}

Noah still has several Lego sets from Christmas that haven't been opened.  That's a pretty sure sign that he received too many gifts.  I forget what he did but I rewarded him with a new Lego set (or busted into the Christmas stash...however you want to look at it!) that he quickly went to town on.  I love how much he loves Legos.  I feel like they are so good for his development and he amazes me with how good he is at following the instructions.

My future engineer :)

{fire}

Speaking of Legos, we were at Downtown Disney last week for lunch and just had to stop in the Lego store.  I'm usually not the best at saying no to the kids but I held my ground considering the stockpile of brand new Lego sets sitting at home.  It helped that Noah wanted a set that he already had because "Mommy, you ruined it by putting it with all my other Legos and now I don't know how to put it back together again".

We were super impressed by the Lego Woody!

{fem}

Uncle Kyle's Barney DVD is finally packaged up and ready to go in the mail.  It's only been a little over two weeks since I planned to send it.  That's actually not bad timing for me these days.  I also have a baby gift to get in the mail for a baby who was born in February.  That timing is a little less impressive for me.  I just can't keep up.  I hope it really is the thought that counts.  I'm thoughtful...I just fail on execution right now!

{seks}

We finally have some rain today.  It hasn't rained in more than two weeks.  I don't really want to go out anywhere today...nor do I need to...but I want to wear my rain boots.  Maybe I'll wear them to get the mail :)

{syv}

Last night, I was about to run to the store when Rob asked me if I had done my "Publix deals" yet this week since he knows I enjoy looking at the iheartpublix site and getting a good deal on groceries.  It's getting harder and harder to find the time and something has to give so I was just going to shelve any deals this week in the interest of actually having food in the pantry/fridge.  His question prompted me to take the extra 15 minutes to check the site and print a few coupons.  It literally saved me $15!  My time is valuable to me but I'd also prefer to keep $15 in my wallet for stuff I was planning to buy anyway so it's a trade-off :)  I'm definitely not queen-coupon-clipper but iheartpublix is awesome!

Welcome to the World, Brayden!!

I am so excited!!  My sweet friend, Brooke, just gave birth to her first child about an hour and a half ago (after 26 hours of labor!) :)

I stopped by to see her at around the 24 hour mark and was so glad I did!  I was going to wait and go to the hospital after he was born but I was really glad I decided to go twice as we had a really good chat, just the two of us.

I love this girl dearly!

I snagged a picture off facebook but I'll have my own later this afternoon!  I can't wait to hold this precious baby boy!

Welcome to the world, Brayden Andrew!!

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.

I'm Healed!!!

Yesterday, I had my final visit with the orthopedic surgeon because he declared my tibia fully healed! This was not the news I was expecting but I'm obviously so excited! I had taken a few days off from running until I saw him because I was feeling a lot of pain in my ankle but he took an x-ray of it and it's in perfect shape. At this point, he feels like any and all pain is related to my quad muscle lacking endurance. I need to focus on building up my quad strength...sounds fun!

I decided to celebrate my good news with a five-mile run :)  I pushed myself pretty hard to see what my leg is capable of.  My goal was five miles in 55:00 since I've been averaging around an eleven minute mile since I started running again.  I was shocked to see my finishing time when five miles were up!

49:15!!!

To put it in perspective for myself, I scrolled back to find any five mile runs that I did prior to my accident.  I had two saved...

50:53 on 9/1/10 - just two weeks before the accident

52:10 on 6/28/10 (I'm sure the extra few minutes were compliments of the disgusting humidity in June!)

It's pretty amazing how resilient the human body can be and what a lot of determination can achieve.  I just need to work on finding a balance with my running so it doesn't interfere with much more important things.  I need this time for my sanity but it's so hard to find the time!

Mommy-Daughter Day!

I can't believe it took me an entire week to post these pictures!  Better late than never...I never did get around to finishing my Christmas posts...

Last Wednesday, Daddy and Noah went to a Spring Training game so Noelle and I (read: Noelle) decided to go to Universal for the morning and see her favorite guy besides her Daddy and brother - Barney! 

When we got to the park, it was so super crowded and we missed the first Barney show by literally two minutes :(  I asked nicely (read: begged) them to let us in so we wouldn't have to wait another hour but it wasn't happening.

Oh well, it gave us the chance to do other things...

...like take pictures with the Barney fountain

...and play in Barney's Backyard

...and do a little shopping in the Barney store

...and take pictures with the big man himself

...and eat cotton candy

...and find a little empty playground that we had never seen before

 That hour passed really quickly, actually! 

It was finally time to put my stellar photography skills to work!

I simply cannot take indoor pictures without a flash and I didn't want to break the rules of no flash photography.

This is a tad better...

After the Barney show, we headed back home. I love having the luxury of visiting the parks in small doses :)

miscellany monday

{en}

For those to whom much is given, much is required.
Luke 12:48

This week's application is blood donation. I haven't donated since my accident as my body probably wouldn't have appreciated more blood being drained.  I feel almost back to normal at this point, though, so I'm going to try to go one day this week.  It's pretty simple - I've been given my health so I am passing on some of my healthy blood to those in need.  If you're healthy and you've never donated, you should consider it!

{to}

Our little fashionista...

Don't you just love how she matches her pajamas and shoes?!

{tre}

Disgusting...

I am thankful that I don't go into my office every day as it is a long, expensive commute!  I'm also thankful that my Highlander is a V4 and not a V6.  I don't ever want to trade it in as they don't make them with a V4 engine anymore and I love my car.  Our Pilot on the other hand...not so good on gas...

{fire}

Our summer temps have arrived :(  Surprisingly, Noelle really did need some warm weather clothes so I got to go shopping with a legitimate reason!  It's so much more fun to buy her clothes than Noah.  I'm in love with the new Gymboree lines and was excited to see some of my favorite lines from last year in the outlets.  I was at the outlets for a different purpose but just peeked in and almost squealed when I saw some of them last night!  I refrained from buying much so I can go back with Daddy who likes to buy her clothes too :)

{fem}

 I've got a bunch of stuff I want to post about but no time to do it.  It'll just have to be this way until I figure out how to fit everything I want to do into the day.  As it is, I only get a couple of hours of sleep a night and that needs to change.  We've been having fun, though!

Here We Grow!!

The cat is out of the bag :)

I am so happy to announce that my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first child in September!  I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT!  I don't know how I'm going to wait six more months to meet this baby!

Aunt Erin posted all about it on her blog and I snagged this picture!

After a few years of difficult circumstances, our family is so happy to be receiving positive news :)  We are so blessed!! 

St. Patrick's Day Marshmallows - FAIL!

Well, I attempted to make these yesterday:

{via}

Step one was finding caramel chips.  I went to Publix, Target and Joann's before finally giving up and settling for individually wrapped caramels ;)

Those were fun to unwrap, especially at 10:00 at night!

Now I make chocolate-covered marshmallows fairly regularly.  I have it down to a science.

Adding caramel to the mix totally threw off my game!  They ended up looking pretty ridiculous!  These were an experiment and I'm glad I didn't plan to make these for Noah's class because I was too frustrated to make more than a handful!

Instead, for his class, I made individual marshmallows (I'm sure the kids' parents will appreciate less than more!) and just coated them in chocolate and St. Patrick's Day sprinkles.  Super easy!

Add a green ribbon and viola!

Twenty marshmallows later, my job was done!

I should have just stopped there.  I don't think I'll ever attempt the caramel again!

{semi} wordless wednesday

Sunday afternoon on our favorite playground...

While we were there, I was thinking about how we've been taking Noah to this same playground since he was a baby.  I need to better organize his baby pictures since it took me forever to find this picture!  Here is Noah on the same playground when he was about eight months old:

So sad how quickly five years have passed...

Noelle and I are off to Universal to see Barney...what fun!  Happy Wednesday!