Lakeshore Shootout and Mercedes Marathon Weekend

Tyler's team was invited to play in a soccer tournament last weekend. Since it was called the Lakeshore Shootout we thought it would be at the fields on Lakeshore Drive. Wrong! They played 3 out of the 4 games at soccerblast near Chelsea and then one game at Spain Park high school. It took 1 1/2 hours to get there on Friday afternoon. The game was supposed to start at 5:30 and the team got there at 5:25! They won that game and then got beat at their 8:30 game at Spain Park.

I didn't make it to the late game because I was running the Superhero 5K at 8 Saturday morning and Huck was ready for bed. It was cold, but I ran my best one yet at 29:04! I was really excited to be under 30 minutes!

 

Tyler had two games Saturday. They won one and lost one so they were 2 and 2 for the tournament. It was so cold Saturday! Luckily we were able to park where we could see the games from the car because it was just too cold to sit out there.

Bella had her last basketball game on Saturday too. Soccer practice starts next week and she is really looking forward to this season. 

We had to get up bright and early Sunday morning because Jason was running the Mercedes half marathon. It was 24 degrees when we got downtown! I bundled the kids up in the stroller and we looked at the fountains and walked around until Jason crossed the finish line. Finley loved the big fountain so we spent most of the time watching it.

Yes, he is fast! He finished better than he thought he would so he was happy with the results. I think he is planning on doing a 50K in May!

My next race is the Perseverance 5K in 2 weeks. Jason and the girls are going to run the 1 mile fun run. Finley is super excited, but I'm not so sure about Bella! Then after that I'm planning on doing a 10K in April. 

My birthday!

My birthday was last Friday. I can't believe another year has already passed and I'm a year older. I had a great day. I got Huck and Finley's pictures made and then we ate with Jason's dad and step-mom at Sumo. We went to Yogurt Mountain for dessert. Jason got me a chocolate cake from Edgar's and it was awesome!
Saturday night we went to my parents house to celebrate my birthday and my dad's birthday (his is the 28th). We had pizza and ice cream cake from Brusters.

                                         3 candles + 1 candle = 31

                                                   Eating at Sumo

Since it's my birthday I thought I would do 5 facts about myself. It was harder than I thought it would be to come with 5 things, but here you are!

1. I love to read. I don't really have the time to right now, but when Huck gets a little bigger I'll be reading again. I like all kinds of books. I've read everything from the Sookie Stackhouse series to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series to the Scarpetta series and everything in between. I think I may have read every book there is about vampires. I like mysteries with women as the main character.  I also loved the Stephanie Plum series. They were hilarious! I don't know that I have a favorite book. I'm going to read Gone Girl as soon as I get a chance. I'm always looking for recommendations, so if you have one send it my way.
  







2. I'm addicted to Coke. It it wasn't absolutely horrible for you with no nutritional value, I would drink it all day everyday. I don't keep it at our house because I will drink it, but when we go out to eat I have to have it and a lot if it!

 3. I love wearing jeans and t-shirts!  In fact, that is pretty much all I wear. I don't go anywhere to dress up and I hate wearing uncomfortable clothes. I will buy other things and they just sit in my closet so I should probably only buy t-shirts! I have a love/hate relationship with jeans because I love them, but I cannot for the life of me find that "perfect" pair. My sister says I buy them to big and that they need to be tight in the store so after you have them on for a bit they stretch out and are comfortable. I guess she is right because they will feel fine in the store and then after I wear them a few hours they are falling off!

4. Candy is my favorite food :) Seriously I would rather eat candy than real food anyday. I'm a little bit picky when it comes to my candy. I like chocolate, but my favorites are smartie suckers, the old Sweettart chicks, ducks, and bunnies (they changed them last year and it really upset me), Valentines day gobstoppers, little yellow laffy taffy, but the big purple laffy taffy, and bleeps which I can't find anywhere now. I will eat pretty much all candy, but these are my favorites.

 5. I'm super cheap...but I have expensive taste! I hate spending money. It stresses me out. When I find something I like I search the internet for the best price or wait until it is on sale. There are really few things that I will pay full price for. I guess because I'm so cheap I have buyers remorse all the time and I end up taking everything back. I have gotten to where I just don't buy anything! I'm not sure how or why this happened because I didn't used to be this way. I guess over time it has become worse.

I had to search through a ton of pictures to find some of me from the last year. I'm usually the one taking the pictures.

Huck is 10 months!

Huck is 10 months today. We spent the day at Alabama Oral and Facial Surgery. Tyler had to have two teeth pulled and the impacted teeth exposed so they could put brackets on them so they can be pulled down. Sounds pretty terrible doesn't it! He was pretty confused when we got to the car. He asked me "what just happened?", and I told him he got his teeth pulled. He said "the world is so weird right now"!

Huck's 9th month was full of first. He was actually still 8 months when he took his first steps, but he started walking all the time right after he turned 9 months.  He loves to walk! He just walks around the house picking up things and then throwing them down when he sees something else he wants to inspect. It is so freaking cute! He also learned how to stand up from a sitting position by himself, he can clap now, he says dada (after saying mama for 3 months!), he can climb the steps, open every cabinet and drawer, blow kisses, and jump on the bed! He also just got in his two bottom teeth! And he pooped on the carpet and stepped in it! He LOVES being naked! LOVES IT! He walks around and pulls at his junk(boys are so gross) and is just in heaven. Everytime I change his diaper it is a fight to get a clean one on him. As soon as I pull the dirty one off he is rolling over and trying to walk off. Sometimes I just let him be naked for a while. He has only peed on the floor once and that was the hardwood floor so I just mopped it up, no big deal. Poop in the carpet is a different story!

He is still not a great eater. Some days he will eat a pretty good amount and other days he hardly eats anything at all. He still nurses a lot so I guess he is getting full from that. I know that "food before one is just for fun", but my other kids were eating a lot more than him at this age. I think his favorite food is ice cream :)

He is a much happier baby since he started walking. He is still an awful, terrible sleeper. He had a fever virus a couple of weeks ago and he was up every 30 minutes 3 nights in a row. When he is not sick he will usually wakes every 1 or 1 1/2 hours. I have books to read about helping him sleep better, but I just haven't made time to sit down and read them. It's my fault because I always nursed him to sleep or put him in the Ergo and walked him around so if he wakes up he can't go back to sleep on his own. The doctor told me at his 9 month check up to move him to his room and let him cry. She said that is the only way he will learn to go to sleep on his own. That is just so hard to do!

I'm looking forward to this month. I can't wait to see what new things he learns and gets into. I'm hoping he will continue to be a happier and more content baby.

His 1st birthday is only 2 months away! That is sure to be a super emotional day.

                                                Sweet Sugar!

                                                    Love this face!

                                                     "Bella-let me go!"

                                                             Bed head

                                                  Making a mess in the shower

                                                       41 weeks old

                                              Not feeling great in this one

                                      Photo courtesy of Finley Carter

                                        Helping Finley open her presents!

                                      He loves when he can get Finley's cup!

 Trying to take his clothes off. He might be a streaker when he grows up!

Blogging

So I took and unintentional break from blogging. I love doing it and some people like to read it, but every time I would sit down to blog I would get half way through and I would have to get up to do something else and just never finish the post. I'm really mad at myself because I wanted to do a post once a month about Huck and all the holidays, but it just didn't happen this year.

I hope to post at least once a week. This blog is basically my scrapbook of all the stuff we do and I want to keep it up. Once of my friends told me this is how she scrapbooks and there is actually a company that prints your blog into a book!

Last week was pretty awful. Huck picked up a fever virus and was miserable for most of the week. The bright spot of the week was Tyler making the varsity soccer team at Gardendale High School. He had tryouts Tuesday and Wednesday. He was really nervous and so was I, but he texted me Thursday morning and told me he made it and I was thrilled! He is one of two freshman and I heard from a coach that was there that Tyler did really well at tryouts. We are really looking forward to the games this year and watching Tyler grow and improve.

Bella had two basketball games over the weekend. They lost one and won one. We also signed her up for spring soccer. She is really looking forward to playing with her team again.

Huck is walking all over the place and it is pretty much the cutest thing ever! We got him some shoes last weekend for him to wear when we are out since he wants to get down all the time. He is not crazy about them and really doesn't like to walk with them on. He tries his best to take them off!

The Red Nose Run

I have tried on and off to start running again since Huck was about three months old. I finally decided in December that I needed to get serious and sign up for a race so I would have to get out and train. Tyler had been running too getting ready for the spring soccer season so we decided to run the Red Nose Run in Homewood.

I haven't ran a 5K since I ran the See Jane Run 5K when we lived in California. My time at that one was 34:01. Here is my post about it.

The race started at 7:15 so I had to get up at 5:45. I woke Tyler up at 6:00 and told him we were leaving at 6:30 and to get dressed. I couldn't find any safety pins to pin my bib on (I should have looked in the race bag because there were plenty in there!) and so we were a few minutes late heading down to the car. Jason was putting the kids in the car and I yelled at Tyler to come on. I stopped for a second and listened and heard the shower running! What was he doing?! By this time it is like 6:40 and we should have been on the way there. I yelled and told him to hurry up we had to go now or we were going to miss the race. He got out to the car at 6:44 and said he was confused and thought it was a school day! With Jason driving we got to Homewood by 7:00 and jumped out of the car to go to the start line.

The race started and I felt pretty good. It is always really bunched up at the beginning and so I ran a little faster to get out of the crowd. Tyler ran off and left me, but I felt like I was doing alright until I got to this huge hill. It was really more like a mountain! I got up and back down it and after a few more minutes saw Tyler. I caught up with him and then passed him. I wasn't trying to, but I was keeping the same pace and he was getting slower.  I ran around the corner in downtown Homewood and Jason and the kids were there cheering for us. I started running faster because I knew the finish line was close. As I am about to cross the finish line someone tapped me on the shoulder, I turn my head and Tyler passes me and finishes a millisecond before me! Our time ended up being the exact same, but he just finished one spot ahead of me. He is a total butthead! Our official time was 31:14! I have never ran that fast in my life! It's still not fast compared to other people, but it is fast for me.

 Huck is trying to get away from Ronald McDonald!

My goal for this year is to run a race every month, get faster and run longer distances. I have already signed up for the Mercedes Super Hero 5K in February and I'm going to do the Rumpshaker 5K in March. I hope to do a 10K in April, but we will have to see how that goes! I ran 4 miles on Sunday and felt pretty good so hopefully I can add two more by April. I would love to have someone to run with so if anyone is interested let me know! Jason runs off and leaves me and Tyler is starting soccer so he won't be running at home anymore.

Finley is 3!

We celebrated Finley's third birthday on Saturday, January 12th with a princess party. We had family over for snacks, ice cream cake, and presents. She got a ton of stuff and has been playing nonstop with all of her new toys. She also had a blast playing with her cousins.

January 13th is her actual birthday and she woke up ready to play with her new toys!

Finley is an amazing little girl. She is smart, free spirited, independent, loves to play, loves her siblings, hilarious, and sweet. Huck is so lucky to have her as a big sister and she is one of the best I have ever seen. She has fun no matter where she is and she says things everyday that crack us up. She is so full of life and I can't wait to see what this next year with her will bring.

  

Birthdays are always bittersweet for me. I love celebrating another year in their lives and watching as they grow and change. But I also get a little sad. They are little for such a short period of time and it just goes by too fast. I remember everything about the night Finley was born and there is just no way that it happened three years ago! I remember her crying for two hours every single night her first three months of life when we were in Arizona. I remember her learning to crawl and walk when we lived in Nevada. I remember celebrating her first birthday in California. I just wish I could slow things down a little bit.

 

Happy birthday, Finley! I love you so much!

Huck is 6 months old!

I'm a little late posting this, but better late than never!

Huck weighed 16 pounds and 4 ounces and was 27 inches long at his 6 month check-up.

He has been sitting up on his own for about a month now. He is so close to crawling. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but just can't figure out how to get started. He is army crawling and can get pretty much wherever he wants doing that. He is a huge mama's boy. If he doesn't see me he is fine, but once he does he fusses until I pick him up. He is even worse than Finley was and I didn't think that was possible. He HATES baby food. We just started last weekend, but so far he gags when I put it in his mouth. I think I may take a break for a week and then try again. He still nurses every 2-3 hours. He is still not sleeping well. Some nights are better than others, but most nights he wakes up at least once per hour. I read something the other day that said the fun kids don't sleep a lot!

We tell him all the time he is lucky he is so cute or we would throw him away! He is getting better and if he turns out to be as happy as Finley all the fussing will be worth it. He still likes to be worn a lot so he is in the Ergo several times a day. His "witching hour" is around 5 so I just put him in the Ergo and get done what needs to be done. 

I really need to go through his stuff and put away all the newborn things, but it is so hard. Every time I think about it I want to cry! There are days when I'm ready for him to be more independent and entertain himself and then there are days where I want him to go back to that little 8 pound baby with dark hair that was so very sweet.

 Now he takes a bath in the regular tub because he is to hard to hold onto in this one!

                                      Asleep in the ERGO!

                                            Best friends!

 He looks so guilty in this picture, like I caught him doing something he is not supposed to do!

                                                 Practicing crawling

                                             Delicious foot!