Elena Baptism

Elena was baptized in April of this year. We had beautiful weather, and all of our friends and family (except those that live out of town) were able to join us and celebrate!

Getting ready

 

Godparents

Avah Kisses

And Brenna hugs

Been a While

I've been told, a couple of times in fact, that I'm a little behind in blogging...this person does have a point though, going on two years. I might have missed a few key things...

I would catch up, but let's face it, that would take entirely too long, and quite honestly, those of you that follow this blog are well aware of the biggest events/changes in our lives over the past two years.

We became a family of five, and welcomed Elena in November. Elena has completed our family so wonderfully and perfectly it was like we were all just waiting for her. The girls LOVE her, and she is totally enamored with them. She's a very happy little girl and is most content as long as she's witht he family.

Nathan and I are now an aunt and uncle! Jessie and Nick welcomed Sage last September (pictures of the cutest nephew in the world coming soon!).

Nathan graduated with honors last May!

And he and I both lost our minds (apparently with not enough to do) and decided to both pursue our masters. We are about halfway through now, and cannot wait to be done! And last, but certainly not least, our village welcomed a TON of new wonderful babies to the mix. We are most definitely outnumbered in our gatherings now, but wouldn't change if for the world!

Butterfly Project

For Sammie's birthday this year she received a butterfly house/project from Uncle Mike and Aunt Rachel.  You get the house, then send away for the caterpillars and transfer them in cocoon phase to the house and wait for them to hatch.

April Randomness

Mr. & Mrs. Kruse

Friends of ours, Vince & Denise, were married in April.  It was a great occasion, and we all had a great time! 

Aren't they adorable?

First Half Marathon

In April this year I did something I never thought I would do, I finished a half marathon.  That's 13.1 miles.  Friends of mine had done it before, and when I took up running, I told them, "that's just not for me", but that was before I'd really caught the bug.  I still can't say that I love running while I'm running, but I love the feeling when I'm done! 

I had hoped to run the whole thing.  I had trained for 14 straight weeks, 4x a week to run the whole thing. 

I did not run the whole thing. 

First thing, I went out faster than my normal pace, second thing, the weather after training those 14 weeks in winter months was 92 degrees that day, third thing, I started to feel a pain in my chest at mile five, started to walk to get my heart rate down and promptly threw up.  The next two miles were a blur and I was sure I wasn't going to finish, but then I got better and did in fact finish. 

My time was not stellar, my pace overall just over a 12 minute mile, but I was thankful that I listened to my body for the second half of the race as I heard they cancelled the full marathon due to the heat, the fact that so many people were collapsing, and they were running out of first, second and third responders. 

Three other friends ran that day as well, we kept each other on target for training, drove together on race day, and celebrated afterwards, extremely thrilled to finish!

Erin - Rachel - Stan - Me

Rachel ran with precious cargo aboard - I'm still in awe!

Me before the mile five fun

Nathan is actually holding me up here, I'm sure of it!

So what did this first half marathon teach me?

That I can do things I never thought I would.

That training is very, very important.

That having friends and family to support you both in the race and on the sidelines is just as important as all the training.

That walking is not an option for the next one.

That I would like for another ribbon around my neck to someday be simply: Marathon.

So, next step?  Next half this October!

Currently in week five of fourteen for training, and going very well.

The Many Shades of Myrtle

This is our very good friend Mike, a.k.a. Myrtle.  He takes this arm wrestling thing very seriously, or he just gets really, really red, you decide...

This is how I looked when Bridget beat me too, like I said, these two are beasts!