Melinda Smith Shoot

This makes 3 years I've been blessed to have the amazing Melinda Smith do a photo shoot with my kiddos. I always love her work and wish I could pay her more(cause she hardly charges anything for these mini sessions!). She is worth every penny of her normal charge but I always wait for her spring mini sessions to come around cause we are admittedly poor. The time slot is only 20 minutes or so but she always captures priceless photos that we love. Thank you Mindy!! There are more but these are all I could load up to blogger for now. Which are your faves?? I need to decide which prints to get for our living room wall. Hmmmmm.....

Easter Sunday

I've always celebrated Easter as a Christian but this year I have studied the life of Jesus Christ more than ever before and so this Easter is especially meaningful to me. The details of Christ's final hours and death are painful to consider. The beauty of Easter, however, is that His death was not the end and Sunday did come. Christ's resurrection fills me with hope and deep gratitude for the gift that we will each receive; that though we will all die, we will also live again. I can't wait for the day I can give Grandpa Don another hug and a slug on the arm. I find peace in 1 Corinthians 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." I hope everyone enjoyed a beautiful Easter weekend. We certainly did and even though we had fun with egg hunts and candy, we still focused on Easter as a celebration of Christ's resurrection and what a beautiful gift that is.

My beautiful family before church

Back home and somehow found some candy

Dress survived church!! The last
2 times she has worn it the front has
been torn.

Have to get a silly one in

So my AWESOME friend Sha fixed this dress right up.
It was torn badly in two places and she just glued
on this strip of flowers. It's like a new dress and
even CUTER than before!! Sha, you really are a
catch - so glad I caught you as a friend. ;)

While she was busting out her craft skills she whipped up this flower
clip for Ryanna's hair. Is there anything you can't do Mrs. Neilson?!?!
Ryanna wouldn't take it out all weekend. She kept saying "I'm just
like Kenna!!" Too bad your mom isn't as cool as Kenna's. ;)

Since I am on a love fest about Sha I better add that she whipped up a complete Easter dinner of ham, roast, potatoes, gravy, and a special sugar free treat for me. Seriously, how did I get so lucky to have such a talented, generous, and true friend?? Just to top it off I have to say in all seriousness I just love ya Sha. Thanks for all you do for me and my family. :)

Saturday Afternoon Egg Hunt

We decided to do another little egg hunt for the the kids at Brian's office. I'll tell you what was on the kid's minds: Candy! Candy! Candy!




The race is on with Ryanna's buddy Malachi

Another buddy Dylan got in on the action

Quinten had no interest in the picture - only cracking those eggs open.




Thanks to the Baumgartens we had already dyed eggs for the kids to
decorate with stickers. Thanks guys! Right after this she bit the top
 off shell and all. Didn't seem to phase her....

 

Saturday Morning Egg Hunt

Our fab friends the Wardles (who also just this moment happened to drop off amazing banana cake for our Sunday dessert) hosted an egg hunt on Saturday morning. Last Thursday Ryanna was invited to an Easter party at her buddy Benson's house but had to miss it because of some less than acceptable behavior at the library. So since then she had been desperate to attend an Easter party. Thanks Tara, Andrew, and Tayson for inviting us!!

1 egg down....

I make this look good....

add a few rocks....

Isn't Kate's hair the cutest?? She's such a sweetheart.



When we first got to their house Ryanna was "shy"
Once the hunt began she was right at home :)



Oooooo what did you get??



The spoils - num num num!

Hurricane Quinten

The look in his eye. The milk in his hair. Meet Hurricane Quinten.

I came home from a run on Friday and Quinten was sitting on the kitchen table. He'd dumped an entire box of Cheerios onto the table and had filled up a cup of water in the bathroom where there is a stool and drizzled the water over the giant pile of O's. He had found a spoon, clean or dirty I couldn't tell you, and went about eating his massively satisfying breakfast. The massively satisfied grin on his face said it all. Hurricane Quinten strikes again!!

ps - dad was asleep on the couch...........

My special daughter

Lately everything has been "special" to Ryanna. Several times a day I hear, "But mom that is very special to me." This is usually in response to being told to put a certain toy or object she knows she shouldn't be playing with away. She has always had the ability to express herself through words, facial expressions, and emotions you can feel across the room. My words are inadequate, however, to express how truly special this little girl is to me. She has a deep beauty that I am blessed to be surrounded by. She loves openly and lives with a determined attitude. Her sweet love and acceptance of others along with her natural ability to think things through for herself are her crowning attributes. I feel so privelaged to be Ryanna's mother and to have a front row seat to her life. I know this is going to be an exciting ride!

Tonight she and her daddy are "camping" in the garage. He made her a bed in a little tent and she is thrilled by the great adventure of it. That is so our little Ryanna. 

PS- more pictures to come from our Easter shoot with the amazing Mindy Smith

Short version: I did a little baby triathlon today. 250 yard swim, 8 mile bike, 3 mile run. My only goal was to not stop at any time or walk during the run and I did it. Why did I do it? Well I've never really made my health a priority. This year I decided it was time to change that and eat a healthy balanced diet and by exercising 6 days a week. Thanks to some supportive friends(GO TEAM 4) and surprisingly my own determination I'm going strong. This triathlon was a lesson for me and as an example to my kiddos; of how hard work and consistency pay off and that being healthy for health's sake is worth it!!

Minutes before I was in the water "swimming"

See the 2 on my arm?

Final moments on the bike

Starting the run followed by my biggest fans :)
Bri said Q was calling for me

poor lil guy finally gave up

Crossing the finish line. See my medal?? I guess they
wanted everyone to feel special ;)

Mommy did it!

Long version: I was planning on writing about the last four months but I'm going to have to save that for later. I'll just stick with my experience today. If I decide to do a tri again I want to be able to go back and read about this experience. Well let's just get right down to business. THE SWIM: Near drowning would probably be a better description. Sure I took swimming lessons as a kid so I was probably about 10 the last time I swam a single lap and I'm sure I was below average. So a month ago my sweet and amazing friend Tari convinced me to get in the pool with her for a refresher course. It went pretty good. She said she had seen worse. So between that lesson and the swim today I've been in the pool praciticing about once a week. Well about 10 minutes before the race I found out the pool was 25 yards in length not 50 yards. Obviously my sense of distance is no good and the 2 lifeguards I asked a month ago were misinformed. So the idea of swimming twice as far made me nervous and it just didn't go well while I thrashed along in the water. Ugh. THE BIKE: This I enjoyed and knew that I would. The first 4 miles were uphill and I was passed by probably 5 or 6 pros. They were seriously impressive. The last 4 miles were downhill which is obviously a great relief while biking. I would love to invest in a road bike in the future. I just put on my classical music/MoTab/show tunes and enjoy the ride. Not much else to say about the bike.
THE RUN: Transitioning from the bike to running is killer. My legs felt like they were 500 pounds a piece. First mile I had evil thoughts. "noone will know if I walk for just a few minutes, loosen up my legs." "this was a stupid idea, running is for psychos and criminals" "Pump It?? Easy for you to say Black Eyed Peas. My legs feel like they are full of rocks!" Like I said, that transition from bike to run is killer but after about a mile I got my running legs back and felt good. Good for me is when your legs may be feeling it and I may have a side ache but I'm good with the pain and dare say enjoying the burn(for a limited time, not in the marothoner pain loving way;).

The best part of the day for me was Ryanna's excitement. I want her to know that having a real, womanly body is a beautiful gift from God. Feeling like a real woman has nothing to do with the scale or a dress size. I hope she sees that I exercise to be healthy, accepting my body the exact way that it is.

WHAT THE KIDS WERE UP TO WHILE MOM WAS MOVIN':

Happiness is a park PART 2

Happiness is a park

Our Q boy is 2!



He knew just what to do when the candle blowing moment arrived



Leap Frog Tag books from Mommy and Daddy



Dinosaurs from sister



Trains from Grandma and Grandpa Scoffield



Chocolate cake and trains - life can't get any better!



Dino riding on train = cool!



But what could make this even better??



Train carrying dinosaur running over dinosaur = AWESOME!!!



Toys he picked out from Grandma Baldwin.
Baseball!!!