Laguna Hills Half

Dear Kate and Riley,
Another Memorial Day, another Laguna Hills Half Marathon! I'm liking our little tradition of running this one with all the girls. We had a first timer, a baby come back, a few PR's, and an injury overcome. It was a good race for everyone!

This race made me happy. I beat my personal best by 10 full minutes! I ran this race in 2 hours and 15 seconds. I was very pleased with that and VERY thankful to Sara who stuck with me the whole time and who really pushed me the last few miles when I wanted to slow down and forget my goal. I really realized how far I'd come. The first half I ever ran took me 2 hours and 45 min. So I have come a long, long way. I'm so grateful for the girls I run with and how much they have pushed me to do things I didn't think I could do!

me and Sara

me, Barbara, Sara, Laura

Zach did NOT want to be in a picture

This kid, never gets to escape the stroller!

Love,
mom

Brady Update

Dear Kate and Riley,
I think it's been too long since we had a general Brady update. At his 15 month appt (he's now 16 months) he had finally reached the 20 pound mark. A whopping 7th percentile for weight but holding strong in the 70th percentile for height. We'll take it. Doc said to feed him lots of healthy fats. Problem is he just doesn't like to eat much of anything. I'd say on a general day he usually eats a good breakfast and then only a few bites of lunch and/or dinner. He's not a big milk drinker either. But, they aren't worried about him so I won't be either!

Brady has been a combination of so much fun and love and SO much trouble lately. He knows what he wants and he will either find a way to get it or scream like he's about to die. I'm shocked at the things he'll think up in order to climb higher and farther and to reach things I didn't think he could!

Brady LOVES to be chased and thinks it is SO funny when he can make someone (usually me or Zach) mad about something. He does the cutest squeal and runs away but is constantly looking back to make sure you are chasing him.

He is getting a few more words and can say-- mom, dad, Bella, Zach, ball, cheese, hot, more (mo), that and truck.

He LOVES following Zach around and doing anything Zach does. It kills him that he can't ride the razor scooter and he is constantly trying to. I know he just watches brother whiz around on it and wants to do it so bad!

He also loves his binkie and blankie and is determined to have both with him all the time. He's a little Linus with that blanket always trailing behind him.

Has to be just like brother! Drink with a straw at his favorite place-- In-N-Out

Snuggling with blankie

Always climbing!

Into mischief!

Love,
Mom

Swimming Lessons

Dear Kate and Riley,
Zach has been taking swimming lessons for a while at Swim Venture. He has been making good progress this year but we decided we needed to take it a notch up from our once a week lessons and do more of a "blitz". So we signed him up for 2 weeks with Ms. Barbara with a couple of his buddies. He LOVED being with his buddies and still asks all the time when he can go back. He made good progress at his lessons and is quite the little fish these days! He loves swimming and is pretty independent at this point, diving for rings and swimming across the pool!

Waiting for his buddy, Jack

I had to resort to desperate measures with this one-- fruit loops!

Noah and Zach

Little fish

on the "new" steps with Noah

Love,
mom

Uncle Bret's Visit

Dear Kate and Riley,
After BYU got out for the summer Uncle Bret had some time to kill. He had about a month until his river guide gig started in Jackson and spending it all in Wisconsin just didn't sound super fun. So he decided to come out here for a little visit. Some day we'll have a spot for him other than the living room floor but we decided that compared to Mexico our accommodations were not too bad!

Bret really got thrown in to things as I had to work quite a bit and as soon as he got here (literally hours from when we picked him up!) he got the job of Uncle Bret-- babysitter. He even changed his very first diaper. He put it on backwards, but we set him straight and we're confident Aunt Jenny will give him plenty more practice in the coming year!

I didn't take many pictures but we did spend a day at the zoo which was fun. Zach loved having Uncle Bret around and I appreciated the extra hands and free babysitting although I'm not sure he'll be rushing back any time soon.

the boys were excited for the zoo

Watching the orangutans

Zach was a little unsure of being that close to the lion, it was pretty cool that he was sleeping so close to the glass!

Brady was in to practicing his "jumping." He never really leaves the ground but it's pretty cute.

unsure of the petting zoo

We hope Uncle Bret will come back soon.

Love,
mom

Easter Sunday

Dear Kate and Riley,
OK, how many posts did it take for us to get to Easter itself? The boys looked adorable and of course I got no cute pictures. The Easter Bunny came and thankfully kept things low key although there was still too much candy consumed.

The Easter Bunny brought airplanes which Zach has been asking for for a long time!

Brady got some airplanes too

A book to practice letters and numbers, great idea for church except that he wrote on his Easter outfit with the marker before church even started

I don't even want to think about how many jelly beans he ate before breakfast!

my favorite pic of Brady

or maybe it's this one

What most of my pics looked like

it was overcast but apparently pretty bright still!


one with dad--still squinting!

and mom got in on the fun

Love,
Mom

More Easter

Dear Kate and Riley,
I will catch up here one of these days, hopefully before all the summer fun and vacations start!

On Sat. evening we dyed eggs. Zach was more in to it this year but we still managed to make a mess. I didn't even attempt including Brady, poor kid, we waited until he was in bed.



Love,
mom