Trip to the sandbox!

My lovely family and I had the opportunity to spend a few days with my in-laws and my nephews at Orange Beach. I was hesitant at first to make the trip because of the oil spill, but I was pleased to find that the beaches were oil free and cleaner than ever. Baz could hardly wait to (as he said) play in the sandbox at the beach. Both children loved the sand and had fun running in the shallow waves. I was pleased and shocked that my dear, sweet husband had a good time looking for shells and he actually wore shorts for a change. I didn't run on the beach, but I was committed (crazy) enough to bring my laptop so I could do my P90X workouts on the balcony early each morning. We toured the Gulf Shores Zoo, went go-cart riding and swam in the pool a lot. The only thing we could not do was take a dolphin cruise because the bay was closed.

My baby bumble bee!

Tara Beth had her first dance recital Saturday. As you can, see she was an adorable little bumble bee in Missy Crain's recital. She greatly exceeded my expectations with her performance, because I didn't even expect her to get on the stage. Tara Beth and all her little bee buddies were as cute as pie!

Nothing like a little motivation....

Yesterday evening after I ran 3 miles and rode my bike for about 3 1/2 miles, I decided to attempt some dreaded abdominal work. As I lay on the floor struggling to complete my second set of crunches, my dear little boy said "mommy, what are you doing?" I told him that I was exercising to get rid of my fat belly. He got down on the floor so that my stomach was at his eye level and proceeded to tell me that "yes mommy, you do have a fat belly, you do!" Only he could get away with saying that. I hate to think what would happen if it his been his father who uttered those piercing, but true words!!!

This isn't the first time that Baz has interjected his opinion while I was (as my children say) "taking exercises." One of my favorite workout videos is a Cindy Crawford workout that I used a lot during my high school days. I was trying out the dvd version recently when my children decided to pull their lawn chairs into the living room and watch. After viewing my attempts to emulate Miss Crawford, Baz said in such a sweet and innocent voice "mommy, I want you to look like her". I told him that I bet his daddy wished I looked like her too!

Sometimes pure honesty is refreshing, but sometimes it is not, even if it is from a three year-old!

You know you're a runner when ....

You know you are a TRUE runner if you have to consciously fight the urge to run while wearing dress flats and work clothes during your walk at the park on your lunch break! I will admit that I did jog for just a moment as I passed two ladies pushing strollers on the trail, but from the weird looks they gave me, I figured I needed to stop!

Easter Egg Hunt #1

My two kiddos got to enjoy their first egg hunt of the year on Palm Sunday at the little church I attended as a child. Baz was satisfied with finding one or two eggs, while Tara Beth was a serious egg hunter and did not give up until the last eggs were found. With Baz, it's all about the quality of egg he found (e.g. camo, football design, etc.), but with Tara Beth, it's all about the quanity (e.g. who found the most)!

Changes!!

I found these photos while browsing through my mom's computer files and thought they showed how fast my little ones have grown. Tara Beth previously was a lot larger than her little brother, but now Baz is just about to overtake her in size. Despite the change in size, Baz still knows that his sister is still in charge!

Lions, Tigers and no bears, but OH MY!

These are a few photos from the trip we recently took to the Zoo in Monroe. The tiger was the highlight of the visit, until my nephew took a spill head first into a hole full of ZOO MUD! Yes, the nastiness was as bad as you can imagine. I'm envious of the calmness that my
sister-in-law showed during the ordeal. I would've been a basket case, not just b/c of the funk, but b/c of the lack of wipes, clean clothes, etc. I even apologized for capturing the fall on film, but it will be a priceless memory for him later in life.

Personality Differences

It is amazing how different my two children are, even at the young ages of 3 and 4. Tara Beth is Miss Prissy all the time. She is enjoying her first year of dance class. By the looks of things, I believe (thankfully) she is going to be a lot more graceful than her mother! Her brother is taking after his daddy and is a Mister Fix-it. I am excited by how mechanically oriented he seems to be. The only problem so far is that I never can find a flashlight when I need it because he always takes them to his room to disassemble and examine the parts. At least he is able to put them back together. He just forgets to put them back where he found them. I guess I should be glad that he is not the one interested in learning the fine are of ballet!

Winter Fun!

Just a couple of pictures of my kiddos having fun in the snow. The funny thing is that I had planned for us to take a trip out of town over this President's Day weekend to find some snow for the kids to enjoy, but God just brought the snow to us. Even though it melted as fast as it arrived, my family had a great time building a snow man and riding bikes in the snow!

Not a baby anymore!

It is amazing how fast times passes and how little I realized this truth until I became a mother. Today is my little baby boy's third birthday! It seems like just yesterday that we held our breath as this tiny little fella joined our family and spent time in the NICU at Glenwood. Thankfully his stay in the hospital was brief and by three months there was no signs of his premature (scary) beginning. God really answered many prayers, especially from my husband, for a healthy little boy. A lot of time has passed since by last blog, so I'll give a quick update. My sweetie earned husband of the year for going with me to Memphis for the St. Jude Marathon. He was very supportive (okay, somewhat supportive and enthusiastic) during the trip. He even braved the traffic and cold temps for several hours to cheer for me as I crossed the finish line of the Marathon. The St. Jude Marathon is the best marathon in which I've ever competed. I'm not being funny, even though it was only my second marathon. I'm a changed person as a result of this race. The support from the crowd along the course was phenomenal, but the most impressive part was passing by the St. Jude campus twice during the race and having the pleasure of seeing/hearing cheers from some of the pediatric patients. This race raised several millions of dollars to fund the wonderful care/treatment for patients at St. Jude. I am now so much more conscious of how fortunate I am to have 2 healthy children. Less importantly, I improved my time by a whopping 3 minutes! I was hoping to cut about 30 minutes off my time, but it just didn't happen. This is all for now, but I've got lots of funnies to tell later.