These 2!

{This is just a picture post!} Rowen and Isla are just the sweetest littles!! I am overjoyed everyday that they are mine and am extremely happy that I get to be their mommy! 

1/2 Marathon & A Tennessee Waltz

Saturday was the BIG DAY! It was the Country Music Marathon and 1/2 Marathon! I couldn't hardly sleep Friday night. My nerves and excitement were to thank for that. I woke up at 5:15am. We left the house about an hour later. Brent dropped me off close to the start and then he and Isla headed to a coffee shop that was on the course at around mile 7. Rowen stayed with my parents Friday night. I have only run this 1/2 marathon before so I have no others to compare this one to but the amount of runners was insane. I think I heard someone say there were more than 30,000 participants! I met my 2 sister in laws and one of my brother in laws in corral 25. We got to chat for about an hour before we even reached the starting line!! Yep, the first group of people started at 7am and we crossed the starting line around 7:45-7:50am. I texted Brent when we were about to start running and he later told me right after I texted him, he got an alert on his phone saying that the winner was close to finishing..haha! 

{Me-April-Kelli}

I decided that I would stick with Kelli for as long as I could! I felt great up until mile 8 but my hips started tightening up as I was approaching mile 9. I had to slow down around mile 8 and lost Kelli at that point.

{Brent took these around mile 7-7 1/2}

 I pushed through the tightness but it was just getting worse and then calf cramps entered. I started walking really fast at mile 10 and ran/walked mile 10-12. I finished strong by running mile 13! I predicted that I would finish in about 3 hours and finished at exactly 3 hours. 

{Easley's, Kegley's, and Moseley's all representing!}

Hey, we all finished and I consider that a huge accomplishment! If I run it next year, I will NOT be 4 months post having a baby and will train more than just 6 weeks! It was fun(minus the tightness/cramping)and the day was just gorgeous. 

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So most people, including myself would have taken the rest of the day to recovery, lounge around, try not to exert any more energy than they had to...that wasn't the case for me. I rested for about an hour and then had to get ready for our black tie event, A Tennessee Waltz. It's a fundraiser for the state museum and is quite a swanky affair. My legs were screaming at me the whole time that I was getting ready and I literally walked around the house at turtle speed saying "ohhhh ohhhh ouch" a lot!! I rallied it up though and got fancy along with my handsome husband and off we went. 

We went to a pre Waltz party at Brent's work downtown and then headed over to the Waltz after that. I didn't take any pictures at the Waltz! I always take pictures at things we go to and I tried to think back to why I didn't pull out my phone to take a pic once and then it hit me...I was thinking pretty much the whole night that my legs were going to detach from my body and I pretty much focused the whole time on how much my body hurt!! Never again will I run in a half marathon before a big night!! It was an exceptionally nice evening and we had a good time. 

Isla at 4 months

Sweet Isla girl turned 4 months on April 5th. 4 months?! I can't believe she is already 4 months and close to turning 5 months in a little over a week! I feel like time is passing by much quicker than it did with Rowen {sniff sniff}. 

She had her 4 month check up a few weeks ago. I love appointments. I just like hearing all the stats, hearing that she's healthy, etc... etc...

At 4 months, you are quite a bit smaller than your brother was at this age. You are long and lean :) You eat every 4 1/2-5 hours and are still a great eater. We haven't started cereal or fruits/veggies yet. Cereal will probably start at 5 months and fruits/veggies will come at 6 months. 

You can roll from belly to tummy. You think rolling is funny and always flash us smiles when you flip over and see us looking at you! You love your play gym and swat at the toys that hang from the top. You love toys that jingle and toys that crunch. You also love to lay on your gym and just listen and listen to noises in the room whether it be your brother talking or us playing. Speaking of your brother, you love him so much already!! If you are ever crying( which isn't very often )he can ALWAYS get you to stop just by looking at you. I think you really like his cute little voice he uses when he talks to you. You two are going to be best buddies. 

You started sleeping through the night around 2 months and are still sleeping that well. You usually go to bed around 7:30/8pm and don't wake up till around 7/7:30am. There is the occasional wake up around 5 or 6 but I just put your paci back in and you quickly go back to sleep. You take a long nap in the morning. After eating and playing for about 30-45 minutes in the morning, you take a 3-3 1/2 hour nap. That's when I get to spend lots of one on one time with your brother! 

You chew and suck on your fingers all the time. I occasionally check your gums to see if I can see any white spots or swelling but nothing so far. It's so cute when babies get little teeth but I'm not ready for that yet! I love your little gummy smile. You are constantly smiling! You are one very very happy baby! Brent and I have been so blessed with 2 healthy happy babies. 

I love watching your relationship with your brother grow already. He often holds your hand when you are sitting beside him. It makes my heart swell and gives me warm fuzzies! It's quite sweet. You love sitting by him while he's watching tv or sitting with him in his room while he reads books. Speaking of books, you love to be read to. I love watching your eyes get big while you look at the pictures. We have started buying you girly books sweet sister. I know you don't want to hear about trucks and trains the rest of your life! 

I can't believe you can already sit in your Bumbo! You love sitting in your seat and playing with your rattles. You also love when Rowen sits with you and talks to you while you play. We haven't tried the jumper yet but we will try that out soon! 

We love you sweet girl and can't imagine life without you! You are such a joy to be around and that cute smile of yours is contagious. You are already full of life and that makes this momma so happy!

Eggs, Bunnies, and tons of Candy...oh my! {Easter 2014}

We had a great Easter weekend! Rowen's Easter egg hunting actually began the weekend before. Our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt on the 12th. It was fun to watch him get excited about gathering those eggs. Everytime he grabbed an egg, he wanted to check and see what was in it before grabbing another one. haha. 

{before the hunt}

{proud of his full basket}

{showing Isla his eggs and our family of 4}

This past Saturday morning was the egg hunt at our church. There were bouncy houses, face painting, yummy food, and a visit from the Easter bunny! It was a lot of fun and a great time to fellowship with other members. 

He got an Easter egg painted on his face! 

{enjoying the bouncey house}

{huntin' for eggs}

{the bunny visited the kids on the playground}

And she also had a little Easter set-up inside...

{This pic is so cute! Isla was asleep.}

Sunday morning service was a good one. I got a little choked up during a few songs just thinking about what that day might have been like. What a wonderful day.

Easter basket goodies!

I'm linking up with Darci and Sarah today! Darci blogs over at the good life and Sarah blogs at Our Journey and they are both hosting a fun Easter basket blog hop! 

 Make sure to join in on the fun!! Link up your Easter basket whenever you have it ready and hop around and check out others' baskets!! 

Rowen has some fun stuff coming his way! From top right( clockwise )"

his basket with all the goodies, a Monsters Inc. puzzle book, a butterfly net, Melissa & Doug sticker pad w/over 500 stickers, Toy Story magna doodle w/book, bunny ears, Melissa & Doug vehicle coloring pad, and a Melissa & Doug ocean critters puzzle. 

I love the 2 sweet books I picked out for Isla. Our house is filled with tons of boy books right now so it was fun to find a few girly books for our sweet girl! That elephant lovie is super soft and it's so cute. The bug rattle was actually Rowen's and he loved it so I figured we could pass it down to Isla to see if she'll love it like her brother did. She also got bunny ears and you can never have too many of those linky rings. 

I'm so excited for them to wake up Easter morning and see their baskets waiting on them. Well, yea, mainly Rowen since Isla will have no clue what's going on!! It will be a great start to Easter!

::Life Lately::

Spring is definitely here and I couldn't be happier!! It has been so warm for the past couple weeks so we have been spending a lot of our time outside. 

We have used up a box of sidewalk chalk and a bottle of bubbles in the past week and a half! I think I love bubbles just as much as Rowen does. We need to get a bubble machine! 

Rowen loves the water hose and always wants to water the plants whenever we go outside. Last week the plants needed a drink so I let him do the watering...

He was beyond excited. Love that sweet smile! 

Isla is growing and thriving and getting cuter every single day. She is such a burst of sunshine in our lives and her sweet smile is contagious! 

She had her first selfie last week :)

{love those squishy cheeks}

We have been going to the park that's near our house a couple times a week. Rowen enjoys playing with other kids that are there and throwing rocks in the creek.

We headed to the park yesterday and as soon as Row jumped out of the car he started screaming with excitement. The park was filled with the white puffy dandelion flowers. We call them "magic" flowers. He loves to collect them and then blow the puffy part off. We literally spent a whole hour collecting them and then blowing all the wispy flowers off. 


2 Fridays ago, Brent and I went out for a date night. It was nice to spend time together...just the 2 of us. We started with Barry's Bootcamp! And then we went to a new restaurant called Josephine. It was really tasty and the atmosphere was nice. 

We have some really fun things coming up that I can't wait to talk about( an Easter egg hunt, 1/2 marathon, and a black tie event )! But next up is Isla at 4 months!

A little bit of training

I decided a few months ago that I was going to run the 1/2 marathon here in Nashville! I ran it while I was pregnant with Rowen 3 years ago and had a lot of fun but haven't run it since. I'm glad I didn't sign up last year because it poured during the race and I hate running in the rain. I can't stand my feet being wet in tennis shoes...ugh!

 Since the marathon is in 2 weeks, I figured I should do some training to prepare for it. I don't usually train for races. I just go and run them and I always do fine. I'm a runner and have been for many years. But this time I really wanted to do some light training so I started 4 weeks ago by just getting 2 and 3 mile runs under my belt. I'm only 4 months out from having Isla and have only been exercising for about 3 months now. 

They weren't challenging but I needed to do a few of those runs before I bumped up my mileage. 2 weeks ago I set out for a 3 miler and ran 4 and 1/2 instead. It felt really good.

Last Sunday I was suppose to run 5 miles but really wanted to go a bit farther b/c I was feeling really good. I got in a 6 mile run! My legs were pretty tight and tired the day after but the soreness left pretty quickly. 

I love using the Map My Run app when I go for my runs. It tracks distance, times your miles, and even lets you know when you hit a mile, 2 miles, etc...I can listen to music too. When the gal needs to inform me of something( usually what mile I have reached and the time ), the music pauses while she talks and then resumes when she is done. 

There have been moments during my runs when I have wanted to walk but I tell myself NO and keep on running! It IS a mind game. I can do whatever it is if I tell myself that I can but that's not to say that my legs really do get tired on those long runs. I'm planning on running 5 miles tonight and then on Sunday I need to get in a 7 mile run. Fingers crossed that I'll be feeling good tonight and Sunday!!