It's 2am, Stop Jumping on My Head!

Sleeping while traveling with kids is always a challenge, but for some reason with Kacy, it's an even bigger challenge! Once Adilyn actually started sleeping through the night, she was pretty easy to travel with. Now, she's a breeze - she will sleep on the floor, in a bed, on an air mattress, whatever. Kacy on the other hand has always had issues. At home, she's great! You put her in her crib, she is out in a matter of minutes, and very rarely wakes up again until morning. Traveling is another story! I don't know if it's the different environment, the pack 'n play, or sleeping in the same room as us - but she has a really hard time sleeping when we are not at home! Of course, that means that we have a really hard time sleeping, too. :(
I was hoping that when we went up to Fort Worth this weekend, things would go smoothly. That way, I would feel more comfortable when we leave them in a couple weeks for our vacation. Unfortunately, that did not happen! Saturday night, we were all exhausted. I put Kacy down at 8:30ish, and she went out like a light! I had high hopes of getting a great night's sleep, but around 11:30 the crying began. I tried to hold her, rock her, pat her...nothing worked! She kept pushing me away, but then she cried when I put her down. I put her in the bed with us, and she squirmed around and kicked us. I tried to hold her on my chest, and she crawled around on my whole body. By 1:00am, I was so done! I took her in the living room, put a blanket and pillows on the ground and laid down. I was thinking that maybe she just couldn't get comfortable in the bed, so I thought I would give her room to roll around. Well, at that point, she woke completely up! She was clapping, climbing on the furniture, and jumping all over me. She seemed to think it was really funny when she would jump and sit on my head. Nothing about this situation was perfect, but that was probably the most annoying! Around 3:30am, she finally crashed and snuggled into my armpit, all the while my arm was completely falling asleep and my back was cramping up. But dare I move her at this point?!? After about 10 minutes, I figured she was in a pretty deep sleep, so I picked her up. No signs of waking...as I walked down the hall I was trying to decide if I should put her back in the pack 'n play. Instincts kicked in, and said, "No way!" So, I slowly tiptoed into the room, I sank into bed as quietly and motionless as I could...still no signs of waking. Ahhh....relief. I still had a 25 pounder on my chest, but at least I was in a bed. We slept peacefully until 7am, when she woke up again. I guess she was ready for the day to start because she woke up, climbed out of bed, and tried to open the bedroom door. Of course, at that point, she also woke up Adilyn...I knew the battle had been lost. Fortunately, I had the great idea to make Cory get up with them, so at least I got an extra 2 hours of sleep. What a night, a long sleepless night!

Running in Cowtown

Brandon, Dad, Cory, and I all completed the Cowtown 10K on Saturday! It went really well. Brandon and I had wanted to finish in under an hour, but we didn't quite meet our goal. He finished in 1:01, and I finished in 1:03. We still felt good about our race, and we definitely learned a few things in the process. The most annoying part of the whole thing was trying to dodge past all the slow runners. We started in the back of the pack, and we spent the first two miles weaving in and out of all the slow runners and walkers. We still kept a good pace, and it was really fun to run it with him. He just left me for the last 1/2 mile or so to try to reach his goal time. I think if he was on his own, he would have gone a lot faster. :) Cory just decided to run at the last minute, and they both finished with a great time. Dad was thinking that it would take him about 2 hours, but they finished in 1:20! That was much better than they were anticipating. Cory was just glad to participate and finish. I was really proud of him since he had only been running for about two weeks before the race!
My knee felt pretty good. I had a guy tape it with this special Kinesio tape when we were at the convention, and it worked great! It hurt a little during the run, but I had none of the normal pain afterwards! I am thinking about trying to run more now, if that tape keeps working that well. We'll see.
It was so amazing to see the girls waiting for me at the finish line. Kris had them in the stroller, and as I ran up Adilyn yells, "Go Mommy!" So sweet. I love that they see me doing things that are physically demanding, so that they can believe that things like that are possible for them too! One day, I hope to be able to run the 5 or 10K with both of them.

Some Holiday Pictures

These were some beautiful pictures that my brother took over the holidays...He is such a great photographer!

Pre-Bedtime Sillies

Kacy has gotten pretty fiesty all of a sudden. She doesn't want to get dressed in the mornings, which is quite annoying. I keep trying to tell her that she needs to stop fighting because I will always win that battle, unfortunately, she is not getting the message! She is also goes on a crying binge between the time we get home and the time we eat. It's awesome because of course, that is when we are trying to cook. She cries when I hold her, she cries when I give her milk in a cup she doesn't want, she cries when I put her down, she pretty much cries over anything. It's hard because I want her to be happy, and I can't figure out what is bugging her. After we eat dinner and take our baths, she becomes a totally different kid. Of course as I am writing this, it seems obvious...she is just hungry, right? Wrong, she does this even if I give her a snack. I think it comes down to the fact that she wants attention, attention that I can't give her at that moment. Sweet girl...
Although those times when she is crying can get pretty stressful, she makes me forget it all when she gets silly after her bath. That girl becomes a total giggle machine! Everything is funny, she dances, she wears silly shoes, and becomes my absolute favorite shade of Kacy.
I look so forward to those last 45 minutes that I have with her every day. I will endure all the screams and fits during the day, just to have those last few moments of laughter to end our day.

From Candles and Quiet Nights to Suckers and Stickers!

Of course our entire life has changed since we have had kids. No more rock climbing, no more wakeboarding, no more going out to eat...That sounds really negative, but when I say that things have changed, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have changed for the worse. Rock climbing has changed into being climbed on by two little giggle monster. Wakeboarding has turned into swinging kids around and doing crazy tricks on the bed. Going out to eat has become throwing the healthiest food together in the shortest amount of time possible, so I can actually get quality time with my little ones. I love having kids. Even in the moments when they are driving me crazy, I love having them in my life!

All that being said, every now and then there is a moment when I look around with a smile, and think "Is this really my life?!?!" Last night was Valentine's Day. I come home to Cory on the phone motioning for me to go inside (he had gotten a surprise on a conference call). I go inside and both girls were fighting over an open marker. They were both screaming and grabbing. I realize that they were supposed to be signing my Valentine's card. Then I see roses that were just thrown on the counter obviously there was not time to put them in a vase. How romantic, right? :)

Kacy and Adilyn both had red suckers in their mouths with red sticky sucker juice all over their faces and hands! I figured the red sucker juice was better if we went outside with it...boy was I wrong! Everything the girls touched stuck to their hands. Dirt, pine needles, etc. It was a mess. After playing outside for a bit, we went inside to cook dinner. We ate our lovely spaghetti dinner with warmed up chicken patties...our version of chicken parmagiana. Noodles were everywhere, as they always are when kids eat noodles. Another mess. Then, after dinner Adilyn got out all of her Valentine's stickers and proceeded to put them all over me and all over Cory and all over Kacy. It was sticker chaos! We played in the house for the rest of the night, dancing and being silly. As I looked around at my family with stickers and noodle pieces all over them, I couldn't have been happier. I would trade candlelight dinners and soft music for this madness any day! :)

Some Adilyn Quotes

I was telling Adilyn the other day that it might snow. She asked me, "How does snow work?" I explained to her that when it rains and it gets really cold the rain freezes and turns to snow. She replied in a very dreamy voice, "Oh, that's magical..."

Cory told her that her hair was getting so long the other day. She said, "Yeah, it's just like Tangled." and she flipped it up like a model.

Her teacher told me that she was squirming around a lot that day during circle time. When she asked her what she was doing, she replied, "I'm exercising."

In a very rare moment where both kids were playing and entertained, I sat down in Cory's lap. Not a minute later Adilyn looked over at me and giggled saying, "Mama, why are you in Daddy's lap, that's silly!"

She sat down in our recliner and her legs went out farther than they normally did. She screamed, "I'm growing!" Then a few minutes later she said, "Mom, why am I growing? Am I ever going to stop?"

We were driving to the store the other day, and she was on a pretend phone. She said, "Yes, I will get milk, juice, and bread. Okay, Husband talk to you later." I asked her who her husband was and she said Jack, who is a boy in her class. I said, "Oh, you are going to marry Jack from school." She said, "No, Mom, it's another Jack."

I was trying to get everyone ready to go up to the hospital to visit Holly and her new baby, Connor. Adilyn wanted to make Connor a card, and as we were making the card, she started saying that she wanted a baby brother. I tried to explain to her that we couldn't just get a baby brother. She started to cry and say, "But I really want one. I really want one bad!" I told her that we probably wouldn't have anymore babies in our family. She said, "But we can just take one from the hospital. They have a lot there!"

Silly Phone Pics!

I love, love, love that my girls are silly! I have seen some kids that are so serious and seem to almost get nervous to have fun and be goofy. My little ones are not that way at all, and I love it! I noticed the other day that I have lots of wrinkles, and I attribute it completely to smiling and laughing daily with my kiddos! It has nothing to do with years of sun damage... :)

Here is Kacy in the car with a styrofoam beard. I had given her a cup in the car. I looked back a few minutes later to see her with styrofoam all over her and a huge grin on her face!


Adilyn loves playing games on my phone. Her favorite games are the dress up games. Here is one of her masterpieces!


Adilyn wanted to "shoot guns like Daddy" at the gameroom. She was so proud of herself!

She was getting ready for the Minnesota snow. Cory was in Minnesota for work, and he had shown her all the snow that was on the ground. She got my scarf and Cory's slippers, and she said, "I'm ready for the Minnesoty snow!" Yes, she says "Minnesoty."

This one I blame on Cory. I went for a run, and I came back to Adilyn in the washing maching and Kacy in the dryer. Nothing like playing safe!

No matter how frustrated I get at times, how annoying my life can get - these sweet little faces can make always me laugh in an instant!

I love making fun memories with them, and I look forward to many more to come!

The No Snow Snow Day and Other Chaos

Some weeks are more hectic than others, but this one was a crazy one! All I can say is, thank goodness Cory was home! The first thing that happened was on Monday when Holly called us up to say that she was going to the hospital because she thought she might be in labor. Cory and Adilyn went to get Callie while Kacy and I stayed here. It was actually pretty awesome to have some evening time alone with Kacy. I never realize how little time that I spend with my little one! Anyway, Callie got here and we played for a bit, then gave her a bath. It was hilarious becaues I could tell that she knew that things were not normal, but she totally went with it. She was a trooper! The morning was funny, too. She just fell right in with our routine, just one more girl to get dressed and one more ponytail to put in. :) Here is a picture of them before they all loaded up to go to school. Holly ended up getting sent home from the hospital, but she had her sweet little baby boy, Connor on Wedesday.

That day a wicked cold front moved in. The temperature went from 60's on Monday to the 20's on Tuesday night. We knew it was coming in, and we thought we were prepared for it. Unfortunately, we woke up on Wednesday morning with no water. Our pipes had frozen! It was interesting trying to get ready with no water. I got some water from water bottles, heated it up in the stove, and washed my hair in the sink. Cory got up to try to fix things, and as my hair was dripping wet - the power goes out! Yeah, this just got way easier...

Anyway, things went okay, I went to work. Cory let the girls sleep in, and when he went to take them to school, he arrived only to find out that the power was out there, too. He decided to keep them with him for the day. There were "rolling blackouts" all day long around Texas, but they finally stopped in the evening. The next day was Thursday, and that was when the weather was supposed to get bad. All the schools decided to close because it was supposed to snow during the night. Holly had delivered little Connor, so we decided to go visit her in the hospital that night. Adilyn and Kacy were very intrigued by all the little babies, and by how tiny Connor was.

We went to sleep that night in hopes of waking up to snow. Unfortunately, we woke up and looked outside to clear roads! Bummer! I turned the tv on and realized that it didn't snow, it just iced over all the bridges. No fun snow to play in! We stayed inside all day - playing dress up, making Valentines, pretending to be princesses, etc, etc...It was a fun day, but a long day!
Saturday was nicer weather, so we got out a little bit - this is a picture of Adilyn wearing a helmet and a hat in the car. She wanted to wear it to be "safe". I didn't know I was that scary of a driver!

We had been looking for a prince for our dollhouse, and we finally found one at Walmart when we went shopping Saturday! Adilyn was worried about what he would wear. He only came to uswith a bathing suit. It took her a long time to decide - should it be the blue dress (because blue is a boy color) or the pink pants (because boys wear pants). You can tell by the picture, she decided the pants were better.

Finally, Sunday was a restful day - a long park trip with the Griffins, and then home to watch the Super Bowl. The girls were all ready to watch some football on the couch! That lasted about as long as it took to get the picture, then they were back to running around and being silly. Their favorite part was dancing during the half-time show. I must admit, it was my favorite part, too! :)

The Old Knee Injury Comes Back to Haunt Me

I have been running off and on for about 5 years now. Never anything too serious. A couple times a week for two to three miles, but this year I decided to expand my running dreams. I decided I was going to train for a 1/2 marathon. I knew many people who had done one before, and it seemed like an easy enough goal for me. While we were in Austin for Dad's 60th birthday, Brandon and I talked about it and we decided to run the Cowtown 1/2 Marathon in February. When I told Dad the next morning what we had decided, he said that he wanted to do it, too. I was very surprised because he always hated running, but it sounded like a great goal for us all to do together. A family of non-runners, running a 1/2 marathon together...sounded like a great plan! We each got our own little running program going, and everything was going great. Dad got up to 6 miles, and I was right behind him. Brandon was doing great, too. Then Dad hurt his foot, then my knee started bothering me. Suddenly, our dreams were looking like they were going to be much harder to acheive than we originally planned. I went to the doctor, and he told me that my knee had the wear and tear of someone in their late 40s. Great, so now I not only have wrinkles like someone in their 40s, but I also have a 40 year old knee! He told me that I would have to have a new knee at some point in my life. The more miles and wear I put on it now, the sooner I would have to have it replaced. He told me that I might as well keep running because it will only get more difficult as I get older, so I decided to just go for it. Unfortunately when I ran over 4 miles, I could barely walk down the stairs the next day. My worst fear was that it would get to be where I could not even do my normal 2-3 miles runs! After feeling slightly disappointed, but trying to be logical, I decided to go down to the 10K. Brandon and Dad were okay with that, so we are on for our fun family day of running 6.2 miles! I am looking forward to it. I still wish that I was doing the 1/2, and I feel a little bit like a wimp for giving up. I know that I could have fought through the pain, blah, blah, blah - but at what cost? We will run the 10K, enjoy ourselves, accomplish a goal, and still be able to walk the next day. :) Sounds good to me!

Can I Get Some Privacy?

I will be glad when the day comes that I can go to the bathroom with nobody on my lap, or asking me for milk, or just simply talking to me. I love my girls, and I love being able to spend as much time with them as possible, but goodness gracious! Can I get a little alone time at least in the restroom? :) My favorite part is that they love to close the door, so we can all be cozy in there together. Our master bathroom has the tiniest little toliet room...it's no fun to be crammed up in their with the three of us. Oh well, maybe one day I will be able to be alone when nature calls...

Nothing's Sweeter Than...

A few of my favorite things about being a mom...
*Little one year old arms hugging you tight around your neck.
*Snuggles on a cold winter morning.
*Answering life's biggest questions from the littlest thinkers. (Why do people only get old and not get younger? or Does a car's light come on when it knows that it's dark?)
*Watching your little ones be brave.
*Hearing your kids repeat things that you say all the time.
*Listening to them sing little songs to themselves.
*Hearing the sound sweet sisters giggling and finding their own fun.
*The look on their face when they see you pick them up from school, so excited and happy!