On the road again....

Matt and I have been trying/talking/planning/trying to find time each day to get a run in.

But it has been hard....until recently....

My friend Annie, (we ran against each other in college, she is VERY fast, and then we coached together at Life) lives 1 mile from us, but our schedules have not quite matched up...

For the last almost 4 years straight, I have not been getting up for the day on my own, but rather waiting for the baby/toddler to wake up and need to nurse.

Well Maleah has dropped that morning feeding and now gets up between 8 and 8:30!

Okay, that happened in April.....but I was too afraid to run before I nursed her in the morning.

I wanted to be sure I had enough food for her....something that has never been an issue for me, but you always hear stories/have friends who deal with it....so I could be next, if I am not careful!

(Like being careful has anything to do with it.)

I decided to try it....get up at 5:50 to run with Annie at 6, and then Matt could walk the dog and run afterwards....

And it worked! Maleah ate just fine!

And I LOVE starting the day with a run!

AND it feels so good knowing that Matt still gets his morning workout time too.

It also feels so good to "be a runner" again.

It took us almost 4 years to figure out how to workout with kids, but we did it! :)

The Playroom!

Here is our "new" space.

There is something so nice about having all the toys in this room.

Not that they don't bring the toys out, but at night, when they are in bed, Matt and I can sit in the living room and not see any toys.

And I love how they CAN see all their toys in this room.

Reese plays with so many more of them now.

This is the not yet done dress up area. I plan to make this as a "dressing room" and hang it in the corner. Also not sure if/where to add some hooks for the dress up clothes.

Here is the "problem" corner.

The treadmill needs to stay....not sure how to hide it or make it look better....

Ideas? (Thanks for the ones from yesterday!)

This is my favorite part....the toy organizer.

It is from ikea....well from CL for about 1/4 the price of ikea.

My hubby drove to Seattle, took it apart, carried it down apartment stairs to our car, then put it back together here at home...all on the same day!

And all so we could kick him out of the office and make it a playroom!

He is quite the guy! :)

We are enjoying this new room so much!

New Office

Here is our new set up. It is working out really well.

We sold the old desk on CL for $75 and got the new desk and chair for $25!

(Thanks to Grammie and Gramps and Kami for a great yard sale find!)

I like the book shelves next to the desk....just wish I had another shelf for above the printer....maybe someday, but for now it works fine.

Our problem area is the the right of the desk.....

The back of our sideboard now shows.....

Any thoughts?

It is nice to be using a room that we never used before!

Backyard water play

We have FINALLY been having some HOT days!

So after lunch we head out to play in the pool.

My favorite game is to throw the basketball in the pool and splash Reese.

She says this is NOT her favorite game. (Yea right.)

Maleah loves to watch her sister doing water play.

But she is not so content any more to just sit and watch....she wants to move!

"Hey mom...like my smile?"

"Hey mom, while sister distracts you with her beauty, I'll eat some grass! Yummy!"

We are so glad the warmer weather is here!

Family beach day

It has been hard to get beach time this year, due to weather and a morning napper....but we have (finally) found a way to make it work!

After church, Reese and Matt head to the beach and Maleah and I go home for morning naps. (Yes, I nap too!)

Then after the nap, we join them for about an hour together!

Maleah LOVES the beach! She loves exploring the sand and she LOVES the water!

Reese also loves all things beach...especially getting totally sandy.

And she loves it when we call her "sandy Mandy".

We tell her stories of her aunt who hated ANY sand to touch her at all..... and she just does not understand! ;)

So very grateful to have this place for the girls to make memories!

Thanks Grammie and Gramps!

What we have been growing this summer

Our garden and our girls!

Reese has grown to be 3 1/2 feet tall. She is starting school in about 3 weeks. And she is sooooo very ready!

Maleah is as tall now (9 months) as Reese was at a year! And Reese was 90% at a year.....so we have some growing girls on our hands.

(Daddy was the same height he is now in 8th grade, so maybe they are growing like him.)

And our little garden.

Our neighbors have a GREAT garden and Reese loves to go and eat their snap peas.

So we decided to give it a try....so far things are still growing! :)

The first row is mini pumpkins that should be ready by the end of October.

Next are baby carrots....not sure how to tell when we should pick them....

And finally we did some snap peas.

It has been a fun family project this summer! Hopefully we will get to eat some of it too! :)

A girl and her dog

Maleah loves Sebbers....Sebbers is a patient old (13!) doggie.

Most often she is content to just be near him, checking him out.

Waiting to see if she can "score" a doggie kiss.

He is such a good dog to the babies...after all he has been through this before....

Snuggles

After naptime snuggles with Daddy to welcome him home from a hard day at work.

Maleah was enjoying it more than Reese.

None the less Daddy was feeling very loved. :)

Let's have a chat

After seeing the Cinderella play, Reese insists on dressing as Cinderella EVERYDAY. For the most part it is great, she wants to clean, be kind and sweet because that is what Cinderella does of course. But she thinks that I know nothing about Cinderella. Only Daddy can understand Cinderella...after all he is the one who took her to the play. So she likes to have "chats" with Daddy about these things. He is very patient with her and is doing a wonderful job helping her process. Oh and in case you did not know, apparently prince charming has brown eyes, because that is the same color as Daddy's eyes. Pretty sweet! :)

9 month photo shoot

Am I 6 months?

Oh, nope, got it now, I AM 9 months!

9 months is tasty! (Just like 8 months was.)

If you put it right here, I promise I will leave it alone.

You don't believe me? I am shocked!

See, standing helps me not want that marker so much...see how serious I am about these pictures now?

9 months old today!

Yea for 9 months! This month Maleah's personality started to really come out. She says Dada and looks for him. She crys when her sister leaves the room. She has a serious face she makes, usually for Daddy, some game (flirting) she does with him. She finally started (yesterday) putting puffs in her mouth herself. She can clap and sign more and I think she is signing doggy. She is closer to crawling and can roll so fast. She gets her legs up and scoots from time to time but not often. She is no longer happy sitting and playing. She wants to explore and gets frustrated when her body won't do what she wants it to.



She still has "stranger danger" but it is getting better. She LOVES kids now, especially babies her size. Maleah got to have her friend Kaylie over for dinner. These girls will be great friends...after all, they are only 48 hours apart in age!



She likes "reading" and will pick up a book, and make sweet sounds like she is reading it. It is very cute.



She has almost cut her top two teeth, we hope to see them very soon, her gums are so swollen!



She is into pointing now and points at everything. She almost has waving down, she can do it from time to time, but she is clearly still processing how it is done.

Three more months and she is a year! Yikes!

Visiting Daddy at work

Every once in a while, we bring Daddy lunch at work. Reese insisted that she and Maleah wear matching dresses and take a picture with Daddy. So we did. Reese loves to visit the office to see Daddy of course...and go on a hunt for candy...which there always is around. The people who work there are always so friendly and excited to see the girls, makes it for a fun trip for all of us.

Her first play

Last Friday Reese went to see Cinderella with Daddy. This was her first time going to a play. She was VERY nervous! At first mention of the date plan, Reese begged Daddy not to take her, she did NOT want to see the mean lady. So the next morning we role played, and talked a lot about pretend verses real. Worked out to be a good morning for me, I got to boss "Cinderella" around to clean the house. :) After playing that morning, Reese decided she wanted to try it. Matt says she held his hand tight the whole play. She came home talking all about it....and is still talking about it, asking questions and processing the whole experience.

And she says she would like to see another play. Which makes Daddy oh so happy. He loves going to plays (I do not) and so he is very glad to have a partner to go with him.

My Loves

Reese almost 4 (Yikes!), Maleah almost 9 months (Yea!), and Daddy can now round up to 40! :)

Changing things around

MY lack of blogging is due to two things:
1) Aunt Kami takes all the pictures now...must get them from her soon! :)
2) The front living room is becoming the office (we never used that space, only on Christmas morning) the office is becoming the "playroom" and the toy closet is becoming the art closet.

I am moving things around to use our space better, get the toys within reach to be safe for Maleah and for fun! I have been wanting to make a playroom for a while. So we are in process, the house is a mess and we are having fun, well at least I am and Matt is obliging me. So you see, we will blog again soon. :)