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.

Great Fall Weather!

Saturday morning, I was scheduled to do a 16 mile training run in preparation for the St. Jude Marathon. I was really nervous b/c the 14-miler a few weeks ago was horrible due to 100% humidity and 80 degree temperature. It took me about 2 days for my body to recover and my pride is still sore. I asked Lee's great aunt and my great aunt to pray for us doing our early morning gaunt.

I am proud to say that my trusty running buddy and I were able to complete not only a 16 mile run, but we added an additional 2 miles to finish a total of 18 miles! The colder fall weather made our 4:30AM run easy and breezy! As sick as it sounds, I felt revitalized and great all weekend. Thanks to God for answering all our prayers and extra strength Tylenol for relieving my ankle pain!

Toddler Tales

Funnies from my little ones:

A couple of days ago, Tara Beth came rushing into our bedroom at 5:30AM calling for "daddy". After finally waking, Lee asked what was wrong and Tara Beth announced that she had a big old "booger" on her arm. Confused, Lee asked her again what was wrong and she said "daddy, I had a huge "booger" on my arm!" Lee told her to throw it in the trash and she stated that "she already had!" She then promptly went back to her room and was quickly asleep. I guess it must have been some kind of "booger" to either terrify her or amaze her like that at such an early hour!

Apparently, the older my son gets, the more he is like his father. The other morning I was trying to brush Baz's teeth, but he kept closing his mouth and making noises, so I told him to stop b/c it wasn't funny. He proceeded to make a few more noises and stick out his tongue and then he said "yes Mommy it is to funny!" I couldn't help but laugh at how much that sounded like something Lee would say. I kind of dread what the future might bring!