my Kylah

 A few nights ago after her bath, Kylah really wanted me to straighten her hair. So we blow dried it and used the straightener, and made it straight. She looked pretty cute! We love her curly hair, but it was also fun to see her with straight hair for a change.

It's so long!

We have had about 3 softball practices so far. Kylah is loving it, and I am really enjoying coaching these little girls.

How cute is this little softball player?!

On Tuesday, Kylah woke up in the morning saying her neck hurt. After making sure she wasn't sick or had a stiff neck from something else, I realized she had a little crick in her neck. She wanted to call her daddy to see if he could make it better for her. So, we loaded up and headed to daddy's office where he did a little physical therapy on her. She was the cutest patient ever. She laid so still and let Joe work on her neck. And she said her pain was a lot better after!

weekend with friends

 John and Elisa came to visit us this past weekend. Johnny and Joe grew up together in Kansas. Johnny was an usher in our wedding, and their sweet little boy (who is now 15!! gasp!!) was the ring bearer in our wedding.

Anyway, they came down to hang out with us for the weekend. They left their four kids in the care of grandparents and headed our way. (We decided that next time they should bring their kids to play with ours, but this time they wanted a little break.) :)

We did a lot of watching basketball on TV, eating and relaxing. It was awesome.

These three actually went running on Saturday together (someone had to stay back and watch the kids!) Plus, they are all training for a half marathon so they needed to get a run in.

Once Norah got over her initial shyness (which lasted all of about 2 minutes...), she was best friends with Miss Lisa and Mr./Uncle John (she could never remember whether he was Mr. John or Uncle John.) It was adorable how much she wanted to be with them. And they were so sweet to her.

And that's all of the pictures I have for the entire weekend. Lisa and I decided we must have been too relaxed to take any pictures!

Such a fun weekend. We will have to do it again soon!

my Norah

 Norah is my little sidekick these days. It's just me and her on my days off, since Joey and Kylah are in school. Norah likes to be right by my side (unless Dora's on...). She is a lot like Joey was in that she always wants someone to play with her. (Kylah, on the other hand, could play by herself for hours.) But, I really enjoy my time with her, and if I need to get stuff done around the house, I just give her jobs to do with me!

She loves playing outside, so we try to get out there as much as possible. She looks so cute in this picture!

 And she loves to put makeup on. Thankfully, she tried to put on her own play-lipstick and not mine. Didn't she do a good job?! (and even though it is not even close to summer yet, she wears sundresses anytime we will let her.)

catch

 We had some after-bath fun the other night. Joe was throwing a big bouncy ball at the kids while they were trying to catch it. Seems simple, but they were loving it!

Kylah has pretty good hands. (She's ready for t-ball!)

Joey tends to close his eyes when he catches. We'll have to work on that before baseball starts...

And Norah completely missed. (She actually can catch really well, but I love the look on her face here!)

 We have been enjoying a couple weeks of not being very busy at night, which we have really enjoyed. Softball and baseball are starting, so it will be crazy for a while soon!

1st grade musical

 Last week Joey had his 1st grade musical. It was a cute little musical, and Joey was pretty excited to show us his songs and motions. I loves the rainbow colors! (Joey is wearing red and is in the very top row. Can you see him?)

 He had this cute smile on his face the whole time he was doing his actions. I love it!

Wacky Wednesday

This is actually a week late, but since it's Wednesday, we'll go with it.

Last week was Dr. Seuss week at Joey and Kylah's school. Wednesday was, of course, Wacky Wednesday. Joey and Kylah had fun wearing wacky clothes and hair. I thought they looked pretty cute!!

Big news!

 No, no. What big news were you thinking I was going to give?! We are done with that old baby thing!!

Our big news these days involve things like: Kylah riding her bike with no training wheels! Whoo hoo! Now that's exciting stuff! :)

She has been asking to try to ride her bike with no training wheels for a while now, but since she's not the most confident of riders even with her training wheels on, we didn't think she was ready. This past Saturday was a really nice day, and Joe took the girls up to the flat track to ride bikes. Kylah asked if she could try, and Joe was all for it. She did great! I don't think she's quite ready for trails and turns yet, but for her first time she did awesome! She was so proud of herself!

While Joe was with the girls, Joey and I took a nice long bike ride on the trails around our house. It's fun to ride bikes with him now, because he can go for a long time (with water breaks, of course.) At the end of our bike ride we ended up at the track with Joe and the girls so we could see Kylah riding with no training wheels. Such a fun Saturday!

lunch at school

Norah and I went to eat lunch with Kylah the other day. Kylah loves seeing us in the cafeteria, and Norah feels like such a big girl sitting at the table with Kylah.

Having lunch with the kids at school is so much easier now than it was last year when Norah was not even 2. I'd end up chasing her all over the cafeteria at times! But she was so little and cute!

last gymnastics class

Kylah had her last gymnastics class last week. She has loved doing gymnastics, but she wants to try some other sports now. She will be starting softball (t-ball) in a few weeks, and is so excited. Her little friend Kennedy has been doing gymnastics with her this year, and they have loved being in class together. Good thing Kennedy is going to play t-ball with Kylah too!

around the house

 I love having the girls brush my hair (when they are gentle...). We decided to have a little hair brushing train. :)

 Joe laid down to use the foam roller on his quads, and Norah jumped right on his back thinking it was a good place to rest. A little added weight always helps with foam rolling!

My Journey to 26.2

A guest post from my husband Joe regarding his recent marathon:

"This is not really a story about running as much as it is what I have learned over these last 4 months of training.  It has been amazing to see the parallels between running long distances and my relationship with Christ.  I want to write this down not only so I can remember this incredible journey that I went on, but more importantly so I can look back and remember this point in my life.  Just like in the Old Testament, an Ebeneezer stone was an example of a symbolic event that would help Israel recall to mind the faithfulness and power of God.  That is what this marathon was for me and I want to remember it as such.

I have been on a roller coaster over this last year in regards to my walk with Christ.  I am a born again Christian, and have been since I was 5 years old.  I believe that Christ died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day, and without this precious gift I would spend an eternity apart from Christ.  Having said that, over the last year and a half I have just felt "blah" in regards to my walk with Christ.  I was not very passionate about anything in regards to Christ.  I was going to church, but deep inside I was just there.  I didn't want to feel that way, but I didn't know how to change that.  I could see it in the way I handled things.  I was not very patient with my kids, quick to judge others, not eager and quick to help those in need,  and quick to think to myself, "why am I putting so much effort into going to church and does it even really matter?"  I know the answer to that question....yes it does matter and it is important to be involved in a gospel teaching church, to help others, to love as Christ loves, and to be patient,  but I couldn't figure out out how to change my attitude in regards to things like that (amongst other things).

Here are the things I learned during this training process:

• As a follower of Christ, nothing that happens in your life is an accident
•  18 weeks ago I began training for a marathon.  At first it was all about running.  I am a pretty disciplined person (for the most part) and when I put my mind to something I am typically "all in".  I ran 4 times a week and cross trained once.  It was a lot initially, but once I settled into my training program it was just something I did.   It became very apparent to me about 6 weeks ago that for me this was more than just training for a marathon. As I ran I began to just "listen" to God's voice.  I wasn't quite sure what I was listening for, but it is amazing what happened when I stopped trying to figure out what to do and just "listened".  What started out as just "training for a marathon" turned into a life changing experience with Christ.  God knew I needed this way before I did, and it was no accident at this point in my life that God lead me to do this even though I didn't realize it was his leading.
• God loves me more than I will ever imagine
• I had a goal in mind and that was to run 26.2 miles.  I had a training program that I followed and it didn't matter how cold, windy, rainy, snowy it was I had to find a way to get my miles in.  People thought I was crazy when I told them I was going to run 8 miles when it was 10 degrees outside, but I knew that is what it was going to take to reach my goal of not only finishing the marathon but doing the best I could.  I pursued those 26.2 miles with all my might.  About 6 weeks out from my race it hit me that just like I am chasing 26.2 miles God is constantly chasing and pursuing me in that same aggressive fashion.  No matter how far I stray, what crazy thoughts I think, how far away from him I feel like I am, he loves me no less.  As much as I wanted nice weather for my race, the weather that day was horrible: rainy and cold. I think it pounded home the fact that no matter what I have in front of me God is going to chase after me, just like I continued on in my race even though the conditions were less than ideal.  God will filter through all the junk in our lives if we just let him. I don't think I will ever grasp that concept of how much God loves me. 
• Living for Christ is not easy
• There was nothing easy about finishing my race.  The beginning was easy, I even ran a faster split for the first half of my race than the half marathon I ran last year in Bentonville, and this time I had another 13.1 miles to run.  But as I continued on it got harder and harder to keep going.  At mile 19 I had to stop for a few seconds and stretch my hamstrings because they were tightening up.  I hit my wall at mile 22.  I stopped again to fill my bottles up with water (I told myself i couldn't fill up my bottles while I was running, but I knew that I just needed to walk for a few seconds).  I stopped again around mile 24 and walked for a few more seconds before I had to climb a big hill.  Once I hit that wall it was all I could do to keep my feet moving.  But all that didn't matter; what mattered was that I finished the race.  When I got to mile 26.1 I saw my family (Michelle, my kids, Jeff, James, Brianna, Courtney, Aunt Kris).  Once I saw them it was all the extra push I needed to finish the race strong.  It is the same in my walk with Christ.  Even when I hit a wall in my spiritual life, all I have to do is keep my eyes on Him.  There are going to be ups and downs, times when I feel like I am being a great ambassador for Christ, and times when I feel like I am not worthy to even be called a Christian.  But God doesn't care about all that, he just wants me to finish the race.  He knows I am not perfect.  If I were perfect he wouldn't have had to send his son to die on the cross for me.  He wants me to chase after him and do my best.

I write these things down so that I can be encouraged the next time I hit a low point in my christian walk.  To remember what God has done for me, where he has brought me from and how much he loves me.  Also, maybe someone who is reading this can relate to the feelings that I was having and can know that it's ok.  Regardless of how we feel, God still loves us more than we can ever comprehend and will continue to chase after us and at some point he will catch us.  All I know is that I had a strong urging in my spirit to put this into writing and share it with as many people as would read it."

snow day....again

 Well, Monday and Tuesday of this week were Snow days #12 and #13. CRAZY! Yes, we live in Northwest Arkansas. Although, that is most likely why we have had so many snow days...because NWA is not prepared for snow. The philosophy is to pretty much wait until it melts. Normally NWA gets a big snow maybe once a winter, but this year we have gotten hit multiple times. The kids have loved it, but I'm not sure they realize that they actually have to make up the missed school days...

We had Audrey spend the night at our house on Monday night since there was no school on Tuesday. The girls had fun doing each others' makeup. It was pretty cute to see what they did to each other...and a little scary... :)  I ended up doing both of their makeup, and they both looked adorable (and entirely too old!)

The kids are always up for going out and playing in the snow. I'm glad they're all old enough that I don't necessarily have to go out with them unless I want to! Joey usually helps Norah if she gets stuck in a drift. :)

The kids were back to school today, and we are hoping and praying that we don't get any more snow this year. Bring on spring!!

The Marathon

 We headed to Little Rock last Friday for Joe's marathon. This is the first marathon Joe has ever ran, so we were all pretty excited for him. He has trained for months, and he was ready.

Since Joe's brothers, Jeff and James, live in Hot Springs (only 45 minutes from Little Rock), we stayed with them Friday night and hung out on Saturday.

Saturday the weather was beautiful. It was cloudy but almost 60, and the kids were able to play outside with long sleeves or jackets on (not so much on Sunday...)

We stayed with James and Brianna this time. The kids enjoyed playing Pass the Pigs with Aunt Brianna (amongst many other fun games!) We were so grateful that James and Brianna let all three of our kids spend the night at their house on Saturday night so Joe and I could head to the hotel in Little Rock. Impressive for someone with no kids to be willing to take on THREE kids! Our kids loved getting to stay with Uncle James and Aunt Brianna!

Joe slept well the night before his race, and got up bright and early Sunday morning. I got up as well and got ready to cheer Joe on. Since I didn't have the kids with me until the end of the race, I was able to stop at a few points along the race route to cheer on Joe.

Here he is; ready to go!

Remember how I mentioned that Saturday was perfect weather?! Well, it was horrible weather on Sunday, the day of the race. It started around 55 degrees and rainy, and rapidly got colder. By the end of the race it was not even 40 degrees and the wind chill must have been about 30. And rainy. I was freezing cold, and I had an umbrella! I can't even imagine how cold Joe was! 

Anyway, I caught him at mile 1, 6, 8, and 12.5. After that I wasn't able to see him until the end because of the way the course was. He was looking pretty positive each time I saw him (He said his wall came around mile 20 when he could no longer feel his hands or his legs...)

The rest of Joe's cheering squad arrived during the race. (A HUGE thanks to Brianna and Courtney who both helped me cut out all the letters for all these shirts to iron them on!)

It was so sweet of everyone to brave the rain and cold to cheer Joe on at the end. (Jeff, Courtney, James, Brianna, Aunt Kris, Samuel (Aunt Kris' best friend's son). They were awesome!  And it was so nice to have them all there to help with my kiddos as well!

Here is Joe right before the finish. I think his face sums up how he was feeling. I think he was pretty delirious by this point. Joey was a little concerned that his daddy was hurt, but I assured him that he wasn't really hurt, so much as it just hurts to run 26 miles!! We were so proud of him. 3:40:18 was his official time. Super impressive! (They actually had to cancel the marathon shortly after Joe finished because of lightning and the horrible conditions. I felt so bad for all those other runner who were out in that weather and then didn't even get to finish!)

We headed back to the hotel so Joe could take a warm shower. Right after the race Joe said, "I am NEVER doing that again!" I smiled and told him I'm pretty sure running a marathon is a little like delivering a baby (with no epidural...): right after you do it you say you will NEVER do that again, and then slowly the horribleness of it fades and you start to think just maybe you could do it one more time... (Sure enough, two days later and he's already talking about doing one in the future...)

Joe's lips were literally blue, and I had to make him go sit in the warm shower until his lips starting pinking up again.

Since the weather was rapidly deteriorating, we ate quick with the rest of the family and headed back to Bentonville. Bentonville was already getting hit with ice and snow, so we weren't sure we were going to make it all the way back home. We were going to try to make it at least to Fort Smith, but about 45 minutes south of Fort Smith the rain started to turn into sleet, and all of a sudden we saw NINE cars in the ditch in the span of just a few miles. We weren't willing to risk it and stopped at the next exit. We found a hotel with a hot tub and indoor pool and after stopping at Walmart for swimsuits, we checked in.

The kids were pumped that we were staying in a hotel and that they got to swim. It was nice to relax together and not be in a hurry to get anywhere. We swam that evening and the next morning before going home too. The hotel turned out to be really nice and we really enjoyed our time stranded there!

Packed up and ready to head home. The roads were much better on the way home (at least the right lane was pretty clear!)