Update

We have had an event filled few weeks. Lots of activities and recitals and wrapping up the school year. It is all very interesting. It makes me feel the entire range of emotions. I'm happy and sad it's over. I'm nervous and excited for the summer. I need to focus on the positive. It makes me feel like I need to have my game face on for not going insane with no structure, which is what I planned and what I wanted. I am doubting that decision now. It will be great.

Ashley is just a stellar girl all around. She did awesome in the first grade and is just amazing. She is so smart and has such an amazing memory and gift for learning. She created all sorts of projects this year and we were able to sort through all of these as well as her kindergarten and pre-K projects into well labeled file folders in boxes. A large task that was so fun to accomplish. We loved watching her abilities grow over the 3 years, as well as see her interests change. She made so many beautiful cards and projects this year. She learned about electricity, the westward expansion, the human body, and made animal habitats, and many other things. She grew so much this year. She looks like a grown up girl, which is so strange. She is almost 7. She got her ears pierced, which was very exciting and scary. She handles stress like I do. She grits her teeth and takes it and then was shaking afterwards. She was very proud. She does a great job taking care of her ears alone and I have no involvement. What a great age to have ears pierced. She finished ballet and soccer, which I have pictures of somewhere, and is taking off for the summer.

Katelyn is Katelyn. It just sums her up. She is a total energetic joyful person one moment and in tears screaming the next. And then bounces right back. She never dwells on anything or holds a grudge. I love that about her. She had a great pre-school end of year program where she sang songs and acted in a play. She was very brave. She still won't look Miss Amy in the eyes. She loves Miss Amy. She wrote that I love to shop for salad and that I watch Oprah on TV. Her favorite thing to do is garden with me. She had a fantastic time planting our flowers out front and in getting the garden ready and planting seeds. She and Ashley earned lots of money picking up the dirt from the aerator (spelling?). I gave them a penny for each one. Katelyn earned almost 4 dollars and Ashley earned 7. They promptly spent it. Katelyn is finishing ballet this weekend with her recital and had her last gymnastics class today. She will start team again in the fall, but this was the last summer of her life she can take off, assuming she becomes an elite olympian at 12 like they want her to:) Not holding our breath on that one. She has come such a long way though, it's been fun to see. She was the only one in class to accomplish a handstand press up and she landed her cartwheel on the high skinny beam today so she gets to have her ears pierced tonight. She is excited and scared. See the theme?

Justin is growing into such a big boy. He is by far my most challenging child right now, but just so darn cute too. He just needs my attention at all times and finds ways to get it if I am not giving it to him, and in inappropriate ways. He goes to the pediatric dentist tomorrow for sedation and to get his mouth fixed. He's excited. He might not be so excited when he realizes he can't eat breakfast in the morning. He is awesome at riding on his Thomas two wheeler with training wheels. He rides to the park and back, which is a full mile. He loved music time with Miss Betsy and is anxious to see Miss Amy next year for pre-school. He is DYING to have his ears pierced. Should I let him?

Mia is 19 months and I am no longer concerned about her speech. She says all sorts of things like screaming "wait" at me anytime I get too far ahead. She says hold me, bubbles, binky, baby, vroom (for the motorcycle), ear, eye, nose, button, head, pancake, cookie, candy, fish, bird, dog, out, and plenty more. She is just fine. She has a need for candy only I can understand. She pesters me all day long for cookies and candy. She loves to ride bikes, play trains, and be included in whatever the big kids are doing. She dances to do as I'm doing and loves to swing and jump (two more words she says). She is fun.

Hans and I are well. I had a little bit of a health scare last week, but it's resolving. These kind of things remind me of what incredible friends and family I have. So many people were willing to help me out. I had people cleaning my bathroom (gross), bringing me dinner, and Melanie kept my kids and Jeff even came over at 1 in the morning. I got some sort of intestinal virus that reduced me to blood from both ends (too much info?) and an ER visit. They rehydrated me and admitted me (all Hans could see were $$ signs at this point) and ran some tests. Then I was sent home and had a colonoscopy two days later. I didn't eat for four full days and most of the fifth. I looked pathetic. So far they think I have an autoimmune thing called celiac disease which means I can't eat anything with gluten in it. I find out next week if I need to have the scope down my stomach to small intestine to confirm. It's all very exciting and I am trying the gluten diet to see if it helps my troubled tummy. I am 4 days trying it, but I accidentally ate some gluten in a box of crispix, which I don't even like. I only bought them because I thought they were gluten free, but after I ate them and my stomach hurt, as always, I discovered they have malt flavoring, which is made from barley. I would have rather had gluten in chocolate chip cookies. It left me feeling like gluten is more likely my problem, since I was skeptical to this point, and anxious to find out.

Hans is his usual supportive self. He's training for a triathlon in denver on June 6th. And by training I mean he swam twice, biked twice, and ran once or twice. He calls himself a triathlete now but it is mainly because it bugs me:) I was debating doing the olympic tri in August, but I'm not so sure now. I have been hiking the incline, which I love, and running with a friend three days a week, so that may be enough for my little, tired body!

So that is my lengthy update. Pictures to follow~

To see a sampling of our professional photo shoot click here http://rachaelsphotography.blogspot.com/

Justin

I just wanted to remember something cute Justin said to me last Sunday evening. As I was tucking him in he said, "Mom, I will need to buy boots to wear in heaven. Let's go to target and buy the Lightning McQueen boots." I asked him what he meant. He said, "I saw a picture of Jesus at Church and he was in the snow." Very cute. He likes the picture of Jesus on the clouds and everything is white. He is sure it's snow.

He also has many cavities and his teeth have started bothering him when he eats. He goes to the pediatric dentist next week, but he told me on Monday as I was tucking him in for bed, "Mom, Jesus will fix my teeth when I'm in heaven." He has become interested in Jesus and the location of heaven. I love to see his heart opening up and his mind expanding.

I love my kids. It's moments like those that make the chaos worth it.

26.2

This is my running log. You may feel like you ran 26.2 if you make it through all of this rambling...

Miles that is. I ran 26.2 miles. I do like crazy (see older posts). It was awesome. We started out early early so that my dad, sister, and nephew could get to the 6 am bike start. They biked the marathon course. Then I waited with my brother in law who was running the half marathon for the 7 am start. I realized right before the race started that my chip had fallen off already so I had to hurry and change my bib and chip and made it to the start line as they started counting down to the start. And we were off! I felt so great. I ran past Hans on the first two pictures at mile 15 feeling amazing. I was at a little faster then an 8 minute mile average. I ran the first half of the marathon faster then I ran the Moab half marathon or Maui half marathon. I was feeling THAT good. So nice. Then at mile 21, which you see above, I hit a wall. I've run my fair share of halfs. I thought I had the hit the proverbial wall before. Not so much. I smashed into that wall at mile 21. I felt like I was running through water. So strange. I felt like I was running so slowly. Painfully slowly, but when the mile markers passed I realized I was only at a 9 minute mile. I was so happy to see Hans at mile 21 and ditch the fuel belt. It was freeing. I did start hyperventilating, but worked it out. Miles 21 to 25 were mostly uphill with one big hill. But when I hit mile 25 I was able to sprint it out. I saw Hans' parents during that last mile, which was fun and the crowds were cheering as I ran through gateway, which was an adrenaline push as well. My mom was at the finish and so was Hans. I was grateful to have my mom's sweater at the finish since I'd thrown all my layers off along the course. I missed my goal by 33 seconds. I'm not as upset as I would have thought for how competetive I am. At mile 21 I had a realization that if I just finished running, that was an accomplishment in itself. I'm just so time/pace oriented. So I ended at 3:41:33. So I guessed I missed Boston by 34 seconds. I had mixed feelings about it - Grateful to not have to run Boston next April mainly, but disappointed too. If I had known how close I was I could have pulled it off. So I may run one more that is not so hilly and see how I do. Except now I am limping around. I'm not sure it is worth it. I did have a runners high for so long. I felt like I could do anything. It is an amazing feeling. Go for a run! You'll see what I mean. The only frustrating thing about the course was the crazy amount of half marathoners and the way the course was mapped out. They had the full marathon course merge back in with the half at mile 6 and they were at their mile 5, which meant I was suddenly trying to weave through the slower half marathoners. And there were a lot of them. I couldn't believe the amount of people. I love the energy of that. I am totally pleased with myself about the marathon. I feel legit as a runner. I am trying to figure out how to get back into running now. I tried running last week, which was dumb. My body just wants to sleep and eat. I ran a 5 mile race today in Garden of the Gods with Melanie and my knee gave out several times. I think it's ITB. I need to take a rest, but I love being in marathon shape. I'm just not sure how long I can maintain it. Now I am onto the next race on labor day. My goal is to take at least second place. Lofty goals.

Estes Park

I forgot what a great date rollerskating makes. Aren't they cute couples? I prefer them dating Hans for awhile though:)

We had a fun vacation to Estes Park. It's in the Rocky Mountain National Forest and absolutely beautiful. We did a family weekend at the YMCA compound there. It feels like the commune on Lost, if anyone has seen that show. Everyone that works there lives and eats there too. Once I got over the creepy feeling of that, I enjoyed it. We went with Sonntags, friends from dental school who now live in Pueblo. They have 4 boys that match up with our 4 kids. It's fun. We like those guys. We got up to the place on Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning. In that time we:

1. Rollerskated

2. Ate a lot of meals at the compound all you can eat buffet place

3. Rode on ponies

4. Mini-golfed

5. Swam twice

6. Did an Easter egg hunt

7. Roasted marshmallows and made smores

8. Attended the Sunday Easter "Son"rise service

9. Spent a lot of time in the main clubhouse thing doing Easter crafts

10. Enjoyed finding Easter baskets

When we looked at all the pictures on Saturday at 3 we couldn't believe the amount of stuff we had done. It was crazy. We like crazy, apparently.

Easter Package

We love packages at our house. Grandma Heath sent an Easter package with skirts she'd made and white shirts. She did an amazing job considering she called me 4-5 times asking for waist measurements and I never got around to calling her back. (See older posts for what I was doing and why it was impossible for me to think about measuring waists). She also sent cadbury mini eggs, which Mia is holding, but don't let her fool you, I did all the eating of those. This package was timely. It made me feel like it was Easter. I hadn't done anything about it yet. This jumpstarted FHE lessons, easter egg coloring, egg hunts, egging other people's houses, and just general Easter-ness. So thanks Grandma!!!

Happy Moments

We had our happy moments too. They are cute kids.

Our Freak Show

I overheard Ashley explaining to a friend what happened to Mia and heard her saying that Mia looked like a freak show. She got that from me. I need to watch what I say and how I say it. She is always watching me. Today she told Justin to watch out since I was in a bad mood. It's true I was. This happaned while Mia was under Hans' care. She was riding on her bike and Hans thought to himself, "wow, she is going fast" not thinking that an 18 month old shouldn't be riding down a hill alone on a bike. This was the result. She cried for an hour straight drooling blood on me. Poor girl. She looks pathetic.

Sick April

Justin and Mia were sick a lot in April. Both had terrible ear infections and fevers among other things. For Mia, it was her 9th ear infection, which led to us doing tubes while in SLC. They could get us in much quicker, which I realized later was because the ENT is a friend of my dads and somehow convinced the surgical center to open just for us while we were there. So nice. It all went smoothly. She had what he called glue ear, meaning she couldn't really hear out of that ear and he had to suction out the thick stuff behind her ear drum. Pleasant, isn't it? She was hysterical when they took her from me, but it only took 5 minutes. She woke up asking for Katelyn and pancakes. The ENT said she is speech delayed due to not being able to hear during a critical speech development age. She is definately behind my other children in speech leading me to say stuff like I will just need to love her more. The surgery was only 2 weeks ago today and she has already picked up a ton of new words and started linking 2 words together at a time. My others could speak in sentences by now, but I think she will catch up quickly. She still calls Hans Mommy, which amuses me. She calls me mine.

So the point of this post was not the tubes. It was that I spent April carrying Justin around in one arm and Mia around in the other. The downside to having two babies. It was exhausting physically and emotionally. Mia didn't stop screaming for the entire month. And that made Justin needier, poor guy. And the girls didn't get any of me because by the time Justin and Mia were happy, I was totally done. So for those of you contemplating 4 children in 5 years and 3 months, please listen to me. DON'T DO IT!!!

Justin's Birthday Party

Justin is REALLY into Lightning McQueen. All he wanted for his birthday was the Lightning McQueen cake from Target. So we got one. The last one, actually. We had lightning hats, plates, cups, napkins, cake, and presents. My present to Justin was the cake. He had some of his friends over and completely enjoyed himself. He talks about having another lightning party often.

What you have to look forward to...

I am behind on my blogging. This is why: Last year April was slightly (okay, a lot) depressing for a variety of reasons, mainly because I expected Spring to be here. In Colorado Springs, however, Spring starts more at the end of June. So we decided to make April busy with trips. It was a little crazy, but here we are in May, so close to June. I am happy about that too. So with that said, here is a list of things I need to blog about and you can wait anxiously for me to catch up on my posts.

1. Justin's 3rd birthday party.
2. Pictures of us in Arches in Moab.
3. Pictures and journaling about our trip to Estes Park with Sonntags.
4. Easter egg hunts and Easter.
5. Mia's tube surgery.
6. Our trip to SLC.
7. Running the marathon.
8. Mia turning 18 months old (and she still weighs 18 pounds!).
9. Our trip to Breckenridge (just got home Wednesday).
10. Our fabulous photo shoot at Fox run park for the new mailer.
11. Garden of the Gods 5 mile race (on Saturday, just planning ahead).

So that, my friends, is what you have to look forward to.