Family Pictures

What I love about Mia

Mia is one energetic little girl. I love the joy and excitement she brings to our family. She makes us all laugh. The older kids love playing with her and teaching her new things. She is a great playmate for them since she will happily do whatever they want her to. She loves being a part of things. She is so tiny still, but doesn't let that slow her down at all. She weighs in at 24 lbs. and is still wearing 24 month sized clothing. I want her to start gymnastics, but she is too nervous to not have me in there with her. She is dying to take ballet. She wears her pink swimming suit that looks like a ballet costume everywhere. I have to rip it off of her to wash it. If she can't wear the swimming suit she changes into her purple leotard. She loves to be pretty. I bought her a really frilly skirt and leggings from Costco that look like a tutu. She wears it over her swimming suit. She wore her princess Halloween costume over her swimming suit as well. She loves her black princess shoes and won't wear anything else. She loves friends. She is obsessed with Taylor and Brynlee. She does pre-school with Taylor and asks me all of the time if she can play with Taylor. She loves her. She does playdates with Brynlee and goes to church with her as well. She worries constantly that Brynlee might not like her dress she is wearing for church. It is very strange. Brynlee has done nothing to foster this (they are 3, after all), but Mia is consumed with the fear that she may wear the wrong thing. Ashley and Katelyn were never like this. They still let me pick out what they wear. It is a normal morning for me to have a major tantrum over what she is wearing. She will wear 3 things - her frilly skirt, her swimming suit, or her tutu. She will wear 1 shirt. She is particular. She loves singing, swinging on the playground, eating candy, and taking showers. I love her freckles. I love Mia.

Ready for Church

Mia was sleeping. She would rather take a nap then go to nursery. You can't tell from these pictures, but these dresses sparkle. They look so cute. I wish they would have had one in Mia's size so she could match.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch in Black Forest with the Conleys. It was a great time. I love that the weather this fall has been so beautiful. They did two tractor rides, mazes, hay climbs, pumpkin picking, petting zoo, and slides. I love having cousins close. I will be terribly sad when they move.

Mia's Party

Mia needed to have a birthday party this year. She had some cute friends come over dressed in ballerina outfits. We danced, ate cake, opened presents, and busted open a princess pinata. It was a busy day for her birthday and she was exhausted by the end of it. We went to little biggs in the morning, came home and had her party, then went to dinner at pizza time with a few families to celebrate. It was a great day.

More Mia

It really is hard to believe that my baby is 3. She has added so much to our family. We love her. When I get the energy I will write more about this beautiful girl. Here she is at 0, 1, 2, and 3.

Mia is 3

More details to come about my beautiful, lively, and most perfect 3 year old.

More St. George Fun

We had a great mini-vacation to St. George. The kids have had a lot of these this summer. We stayed with my parents in a really nice house in an active older adult community. Hans is sold on it. He wants to move there when we're old enough. We got a killer deal on the house (especially since my parents paid for it), and had access to a golf cart that was parked in the garage. The kids rode around on that all over the place. We got to St. George late Thursday night. Friday we swam, went for a walk, flew kites, and just let the kids play. Saturday I ran and the kids were nice enough to cheer me on. Sunday we drove home. It was great! I want to do it again.

Boston or bust

On Saturday I ran the St. George Marathon. I had a great time. The picture of me running is at mile 23. I was still feeling strong. I'm pretty proud of that. I was worried about my knee since two weeks earlier my IT band gave out. After several trips to the physical therapist and only a couple runs I was worried about the pain being too intense to finish. It hurt at 1.4 miles every run. Hans, under the direction of the PT, taped my knee. I wore my band. I loaded up on ibuprofen. I stressed about which pace group to start with. My mind was trying to tell me that I couldn't run 26.2 miles fast. I listened and started with the slower group. After 2 miles, I thought - Hey, I'm feeling good. This feels slow. So I tried to catch the faster pace group. At mile 3 my knee started to hurt. Really bad. So I took another very large dose of ibuprofen and decided that if it still hurt at mile 10 I would stop. At mile 5, I thought - I'm going to have to stop at 10...it hurts. It feels like someone is stabbing a knife into the side of my knee. I'm not exaggerating. But then the race started to go uphill. Very uphill. From 7-12, in fact, it was mostly uphill. My knee doesn't hurt when I run uphill. So by mile 10, I told myself I could make it to 15. At mile 15 I ran to the aid station where a nice volunteer quickly rubbed my IT band with bengay. He did it fast. Then I just focused on my knee burning from bengay until mile 17 where I did it again. By now I only had 9 miles left. I decided to go for it. I felt great. I ran fast. I did not get passed by a single person from mile 12-26.2 but I passed a lot of people. I like passing people. It's good for my head. At 21 miles I saw my parents. They took my fuel belt from me and my mom poured water on me. This race was hot. In fact, it was the hottest start temperature they've ever had for the race. At mile 23 I saw my family. I was able to smile and wave. And from mile 23 on I had people cheering me on. I was feeling pretty darn awesome. Then I hit the wall at mile 25. The last 1.2 miles felt like torture, but I finished. 3:32. That's an 8:06 pace. I think that is incredible all on its own, but especially considering the heat and my knee. I about fell over at the finish line. I ate a popsicle and watched people pass out and get wheeled out on stretchers to ambulances. It feels good to be surrounded by 7,400 other like minded people. I was grateful to still be relatively okay. I did feel like I was going to throw up for about 2 full days after the race, but luckily that has passed. So, overall, I finished 50th in my age group and 156th for women, which puts me in the top 6% of the race. Now I want to run the Boston marathon. I ran fast enough to qualify. I just hope my knee holds up. It is Wednesday today and I am still limping around. The race is in April. I can't believe that I am actually excited to run another 26.2 miles. It's the 4 months of training that doesn't sound appealing. I love race day.