Oh the outfits!

This little spit fire loves to get dressed and comes up with some funky things. I have never had a child that didn't just get dressed in what I laid out for them (at least until 4!) but then came Julia. When I tell her to go get dressed she won't even pick out clothes from her drawers. She ALWAYS picks out pajamas. She wear PJ's 75 percent of the time no matter where we go. She picked out her tutu swimming suit and put pajamas over them when we went to eat lunch at the school with the girls. I have learned that this is a battle not worth fighting. This is what she strolled in wearing this morning:

Things I love about Julia:

1. She loves babies. She always says, "Awwww," when she sees them.

2. She lets me put pig tails in her hair now.

3. She sings the song to the TV show, "Good Luck Charlie" and yells "Seen it! Seen It! Seen it!" when it shows pictures of past episodes.

4. She sings the kidz bop songs in the car or at home out of the blue. "Cause you're amazing, just the way you are." Or "Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars. I could really use a wish right now wish right now...."

5. When the girls aren't getting along she will say, "I'm tired and SICK." "Audwey you listen to me! I mean it!"

6. She loves to let me read her stories.

7. She thinks my ipad is hers.

8. She will tell me she needs to do her homework.

9. When I call her Audrey (which I do frequently) she says, "I'm not Audwey mom. Don't call me Audwey." It's hilarious. She catches me every time.

10. I love her laugh and could tickle her all day. Her spot is her collarbone. Gets her every time.

Favorite Moment

This was a favorite afternoon. Claire and Hallie were invited to an American Girl Tea Party for a friends birthday and Audrey wanted to have one with me.

So I put some glitter and gloss on Audrey, she picked a dress to wear and we just played and watched a movie together. We even brought out the tea set. It was so fun to spend time with her. These are the pictures we took of ourselves! ;)

I love this girl. Love that she always yells my name and runs to me when I come home. Love that she is so sweet with babies and kids younger than her. Love that she has the greatest laugh and doesn't hold back. Love that she is super girly girl but also loves dirt and playing with girls AND boys. Love that she is enjoying school and learning. Just love her. Period. The end.

Public School Here She Comes...

I had to post this picture of Audrey with one of the crafts she made in joy school. Isn't it great? Love it.

Audrey has finished preschool at home and is starting Pre-K at the school in a few short weeks.

I can't believe how much she has grown this past year. She is so much bigger and more mature. She will be 5 in less than 3 months. Wow.

I love you, Audrey. You are one fantastic, fun, friendly, and sweet 4 year old.

Our Star Runner!

Claire participated in a run club this past school year. She loved it and trained for her first 5K. She was so excited.

This is one of her closest friends from school, Leila.

Julia was a great cheerleader, as always.

Claire was such a champ. She was so focused and driven and ran it in 35:44. She finished first in her age group for females. So awesome!

It was so neat to get to run the race with her. We are so proud of you, Claire. YOU ROCK!!!

MS Bike Rider in the House

Zeb did a bike ride for MS and rode over 80 miles. He had lots of fans there!!!

It got a little toasty waiting but definitely worth it.

The headwind at the end was a beating but they made it through.

Zeb is sporting his new horns. He had the old ones taken out and these put in. ;) Just kidding, babe. We are proud of you!!!

Our Little Ballerina!

Hallie had her first dance recital ever in May and loved every second. She was such a sweet litttle ballerina and quite talented if I do say so myself.

I just love my Hallie. She is so sweet. So loving and so tenderhearted.

During the performance she even remembered to look forward and smile instead of watching the teacher on the side of the stage the whole time. Her debut was pretty awesome!

This picture melts my heart. She is Daddy's girl and loved the flowers he bought her. Her face just lit up.
Way to go, Hallie! You are one great dancer!

Oh YEAH!!!

Julia went around the house all day Thursday saying this:

Man she is cute AND potty trained. Ladies and gentleman, we are done with diapers!!!

It's a boy!

Meet the 2nd male in the fish family....Herbie

Now for the story:

Audrey got a fish from a birthday party the morning we picked up my mom. They pleaded with me to let them keep it and and I caved. Since my mom knows and loves fish, we knew it was a perfect outing to do with Gram. We went to the pet store and bought all we needed for a fish. They decided on a name...Sunny. They girls were sooo excited. When the kids ran in the door ready to give Sunny a better home they found he was belly up. I guess goldfish need filters.

On Sunday my mom printed a sheet out with Beta Fish Facts and Claire and Hallie learned all out Beta Fish. My mom even did a quiz (my girls love stuff like that) and they studied (so cute) ;) On the way to school the next day they were spouting fish facts to Audrey Bird as we carpooled to school. I loved hearing little bits of the conversation. "Their water is room temperature...about 77 degrees." "The males have big and colorful fins, not the females." I love those girls and my mom.

For FHE we went back to the pet store and bought a beta fish (they seem to have a longer life expectancy). When we were leaving we saw another family we knew. They were getting a beta fish too. Their daughter had been also been to the party. And they also had a dead goldfish. I love it.

Julia LOVES saying hi to Herbie. The girls love him. They love that they have a pet. They love to feed him. They love to watch him while they eat dinner...and lunch...and breakfast. I will say that I successfully changed the water after she left and the fish is still alive. I think the 14 day money back for death guarantee is passing but the girls don't need to know that.

Welcome to the family, Herbie!

Visitors...and celebrities!

My mom was a genius and booked a foreign language conference in Fort worth the weekend before her Spring Break. We picked her up when the conference was over and got to spend the whole week with her. Then Grandpa flew in and we got to spend time with both of them!!!

The girls counted down the days and were beyond excited to see them. Gram and Grandpa were celebrities for the week. Who gets to sit by Granpa at dinner? Who gets to sit by Gram in the car? Who gets to read a book with Grandpa? Who's bracelet is Gram making? The girls were constantly aware of who's turn was next.

My mom was scheduled every day with things to do with the girls. She was a trooper! My parents ate lunch at the school with the girls. My mom served the 3rd grade classes on around the world day. The girls took turns having one on one with my parents and enjoyed every second. I even got to go get my hair done!

Bass pro, Children's Museum, Latin food, Mexican food, date night, Costco ice cream, Sam Moon, early out days from school and work, books, American Girl store, Cadbury Mini Egg cookies, green smoothies, walks and time at the park, books, visits downtown, Zeb's office, Castle episodes, making earrings, cuddling and lots of hugs sums up our week with Gram and Grandpa. We had so much fun with them!

The battery died a few days before they left so my mom has those pictures. We had such a great week and many tears were shed after dropping them off. We love you, Mom and Dad. Thanks for coming. Can't wait til next time.

My Baby is 2!!!

This little angel of ours is already 2! I can't believe it. She has so much energy she could run a half marathon herself!

Some of the things we love about Julia:

The way she says, "I lu you," when she goes to bed (and all throughout the day for that matter).

As soon as my driver door shuts after getting in the car and the keys are in the ignition, Julia is yelling, "buckle mommy, buckle," until I am clicked in.

Every time she is sitting at the table and you walk in the room she says, "by you," She wants you to sit by her. Love it.

She is saying sentences and talking like crazy.

She says cupcake, coop cake...it's adorable.

Love that she hasn't tried to climb out of her crib!

She pulls the goofiest faces I have ever seen. She is such a character.

Things we could do without, but love her all the same:

That she learned how to open doors with child locks on them 12 hours after I put them on.

That she throws her food on the floor faster than you can blink and likes to smash food in her hands as well. There is always a LOT of clean up at meal time.

That she is into everything and moves from place to place destroying things.

That she is growing up too fast.

But with a smile like this she melts our hearts.

On her birthday, after sneaking 2 cupcakes while I wasn't looking and finding her toy in my room before I wrapped it, we sang to Julia. A few days later we did a family party with Josh and Carol and Eric and Cindy. (Pics to come.) She was so cute when we sang to her. She just grinned from ear to ear!!!

She was quite the little pro at blowing out her candles.

She is the only 2 year old we have had that has been excited about getting clothes for presents. It was so fun to watch her open them.

Please note that these pants were not what I had on her that day. I am not color blind. She spilled all over herself just before we started the pics and zeb grabbed those....aren't they great? ;)

The toy she already knew about. She is such a ham.

A picture with all my girls together, while smiling, is hard to get. But this will do!

The girls were so excited to celebrate Julia. We love you, JULES!!!!!!

Amazing!

I have been told by 5 people in the last few days that I am "slacking" on my blogging. So, I am committing to be better. Right here. Right now.

With no further adieu, here was my weekend.

I ran in my first half marathon race! I trained with a friend, Kristal, but she wasn't able to run with me (she is doing the Big D half next month). I hit a wall a few weeks ago during my 11 mile run that was a beating. I had a stiff neck for 2 weeks. But I was determined to run. Hoping it would go well. Well is an understatement. The race was amazing.

We drove to Longview and spent the night with friends of ours from law school. It was so great to see them!!!! Zeb and Julia slept at Devin and Jana's and I slept with the older 3 at Chad and Lacey's. I had a hard time sleeping. I kept thinking, "What if I hit a wall?" "What if the hills are too big?"

Zeb woke up at 5:00 on Saturday morning (unbeknownst to me), where he bought posters to paint. Jana said it was a very sweet sight to see Zeb painting me signs in the wee hours of the morning.

Zeb dropped me off at the race and I stretched and waited for it to start. As the race started there were people passing me right and left. I kept telling myself to go at the pace I planned and not follow the crowd and go too fast. As people kept passing me I thought, "I'm going to be the last one!" But I didn't care. I knew what I could run at and I was going to finish. The hills were big but I felt great. I kept the pace I wanted and kept going.

As I passed different people I could see spectators holding signs. It was so fun. By the time I got to mile 8 I saw a little family off to the side with posters. I thought, "That is so cute. Look at those little kids." As I got closer I looked over and realized, "Those are my kids. That's MY family!!!!" I almost started sobbing right there. My throat was burning and I knew I had to keep it together. But at that moment feeling the love and support from my husband, children, and friends was the most amazing feeling.

They had come to cheer me on. Boy I was on cloud nine.

Then at mile 10 they surprised me again. It was so awesome. The girls made the posters this time. Hallie's said, "You go girl, I mean Mom! I love you!" Claire's said, "You're running mountains. Keep going!!!" It was so great.

People were stopping to walk. The hills made some people underprepared. Some people started out too fast. Some people were just speed demons and finished in an hour and 10 minutes (what is that, a 5 minute mile??? wow). I had so much energy that the whole run was enjoyable. I felt great the whole time.

And I never had to go to the bathroom. Not once. For me, that is THE BIGGEST MIRACLE!!! Sorry, TMI. But I felt SOOOOO blessed.

I sprinted around the track and finished my first half marathon. My time was 2:13. Right what I was shooting for!

And of course, had the best cheerleaders there to cheer me on.

I can't even describe what a great experience this was for me. I am so grateful. I had so many friends bring me gatorade, socks, energy bars and more to wish me good luck. I never would have been able to train without Michelle here to help watch the kids. And I am so glad my friend up the street asked me to train with her.

I have always wondered why on earth anyone would EVER want to run for so long. Now I know. It's the accomplishment that you feel when you finish something you have worked so hard for. You work and train so hard and you don't give up.

I gained insight while training for this race that I have been searching for. I was on a 6 mile run a few weeks ago. At mile 5 with lots of hills, side aches, a bad back, and being so sore I knew I still had a mile left. I was so exhausted but I had to finish. I wasn't going to quit. I told myself over and over, "You can do this. You can do this." In that moment it hit me. Training for a race is like motherhood and life. If you tell yourself you can't do it you won't. Or you will and it will be miserable. It's all about our attitude. Some days in life are not so good. Other days are better. But during the journey it's up to us to tell ourselves we can do it. Because WE CAN do it!!!

I did it! I finished! Wow I am blessed!