Our weekend :: Wichita, 1/2 marathon, family time!

This past weekend we headed down to Wichita for Sean to run in his 2nd 1/2 marathon. We stayed Friday night with Kevin and Kelci and I took Kamben's 2nd birthday pictures! The next morning, Sean , I and the kids did a little shopping and then went down to get his race packet! 

The morning of the race we saw them for the first time about a 1/2 mile from the start! There were over 1400 racers and so we figured the start would be crazy, especially with 4 kids!  So I never got a pre-race picture of Sean since he left quite a bit earlier than us!

Friday before we left for Wichita - Lyla and I made a poster for him! She was pretty happy! I wish I could have gotten a close up because on the poster was flowers and a picture of sean which included spiky hair! :)

Kevin ran about 7 miles with him! This is them about a 1/2 mile into it! They ran up and gave the kids high fives which made them pretty happy! We also got a few comments on how cute the kiddos were with their sign! :)

This was about Mile 11 I believe!  Running and smiling! We saw him 2 other times before this but I didn't bring my camera with me! Kelci and I were a little busy hurrying around getting the kiddos in and out of their car seats and looking for the guys!

This picture made me cry after I saw it on my camera! He is such a good daddy and uncle! The kiddos loved when he did this!

And the finish!  I did get to see him finish but just barely. Cohen & I ran up ahead of Kevin and Kelci and the kids and just as I stopped and reached into the stroller for the camera I saw him running by! He said he picked it up a few notches in the last mile or two and so I wasn't quite expecting him yet!  So I just barely got him crossing the finish line. His time was 1:45:55 which was a PR for him, even with not being 100% from his ACL surgery! He placed 164th out of 1438! He did amazing! He also placed 24th our of 108 in his age division.

Our friend Kim also competed in it and this was her first 1/2 and she did incredible too!

Our little family! Everyone is looking so I consider that a success!

Pretty proud of this guy! He always strives for his best and is so dedicated when he puts his mind to it! Love you!

This was our attempt at a group picture! Timer fail! :)

Daddy and his biggest fans!

And these are all from my phone! Saturday afternoon we went to the zoo! It was stinking hot at almost 100 degrees! Crazy May weather! But we all had a good time!

And this was the best group shot! :)

Such a good weekend! And... drumroll... I'm going to start training to run it next year! Hopefully in 12 months I get do it! :)

My 30th :: andrea ::

So I'm a big birthday type of gal. I love em'! Doesn't matter the age, but I just love them! From the planning to executing - they are so fun! So with me turning 30th - I wanted to do something big but with three kids, Sean's new job and other things, it didn't pan out! Lyla is taking after me in the birthday planning department. She was talking to me about it and told me she wanted to buy me a necklace from Wal-mart, pink polka dot balloons, pink napkins and blue cups. She also wanted unicorns, stars and hearts on my cake with pink icing! :)  Well I kept making sure Sean was on top of things because normally he doesn't care about birthdays, but he did good this year. He played it off like he didn't do anything and kept forgetting! 

Instead he woke me up at 7 and told me he had a surprise massage planned for me at 745 and that he took the whole day off (instead of a 1/2 like we had planned).  After my massage, we met up at the center and worked out together.  Afterwards we went home, ate lunch and left for Salina. I've been running for a few months and wanted a good pair of running shoes so we went to the Salina running company and I got fitted and picked out a new pair of shoes. We then went to a few other places to shop and I got a new workout bag and weightlifting gloves - both of which I wanted! 

After that we headed to Dimaru for din din with Ty and Kay and Harper! 

Then Sean had another surprise and my parents showed up! I had talked to my dad earlier in the day and he mentioned something about a lot of surprises on my birthday so I asked Sean earlier in the day if my parents were coming but he played it off really good and say no! But it was nice to have them there as well!  Sushi is my favorite so of course I had to have that on my birthday! :)  

And that was my 30th! My favorite part was my cake! Sean had Lyla draw me a happy birthday picture and then our cake lady put it on the cake! It was perfect!  I also got a necklace from walmart that Lyla picked out with Sean's help (he told me she kept wanting to pick me out belly button rings).

It was a perfect little day! Thank you Sean for planning it all and making me feel special! Love you!!

Stella Monroe :: 6 months ::

 It is SO hard to believe that it has been 1/2 a year since you were born! You apparently love to grow up as you won't stop and you seem to be doing things faster than your sibs ever did! Please slow down! 

You weigh 14 lb 10 oz and you are 25 3/4 inches tall! You are in the 50th percentage for both of those!

- You are wearing 3-6 months and will be for a while I bet! Size 1/2 shoes!

- You are in size 2 diapers!

- You sleep about 11- 11 1/2 hours at night.

- You nap about 3 times a day. Anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours!

- You nurse about every 3 hours, sometimes more in the evenings!

- You have started using a sippy cup and get the idea!

- Food wise, you just aren't into it. You like to put food in your mouth and like baby puffs. But baby food just isn't cutting it for ya! Practice, practice, practice.

- You biggest milestone was getting your first tooth just a few days before you were 6 months. Since then you have gotten another (bottom two front).

- You can scoot and roll - and will scoot anywhere except forward. You are also a spinning machine!

- You can get up on your hands and knees and rock!  You move your legs like crazy but can't figure out your arms yet! Which is JUST fine by me. Momma is NOT ready for another mobile child in the house.

- You sit great for minutes at a time! 

- No baby sounds yet!

- You have found your voice even more than before and can be quite loud!

- Your jumperoo is still is your best friend if you are in a good mood!

-  Speaking of moods - you are still a happy baby majority of the time. But lately you have wanted to be held 24/7 and if we dare think about setting you down, you cry or scream. The second we pick you up, all smiles. Stinker.

- You like sitting in your highchair and "eating" with us!

- You probably love your brother more than your sister at this point! He can make you laugh and smile the most! Though sister is a close second!

- You are constantly move and have strong little legs! You like to go.go.go.

- You've started reaching for people!

- You like to grab everything and put it directly in your mouth!

- You wake up super happy from naps and it is pretty easy to make you smile! Just smiling at you makes you smile!

- No stranger danger yet but out of everything, momma is your favorite. And I am just fine with that!

- Evenings are definitely your worst time of day! You think life can be pretty rough if we don't entertain you for every second!

- Your night time routine is to nurse and then top you off with a bottle! You normally go to bed awake, stick your thumb in your mouth, and away to night night land you go!

Happy 1/2 birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Mr. Max :: 3 years later ::

 On March 31st - Max would have been 3! It's so crazy to think 3 years as has passed!  I still (and will never forget) his birthday. I was in bed when I got the call from Kevin at 7! Hour later Lyla and I were out the door! Couple of hours later, he was here! Being pregnant with Cohen at the time, I was super excited to find out that "Max" was a boy (they didn't find out and just nicknamed the baby Max). I was excited for Cohen to have a buddy to play with! Even though he isn't here, it's important to me that my kiddos remember him in some way. Last year we put his balloons on his grave, this year we let them go in our yard! Lyla knew exactly why we were doing it and said that little boys love balloons in heaven! So with that, Happy Birthday, Max! 

March happenings

The month of March brought on 2 kiddos with ear infections, potty training success (for the most part) and cousin get togethers!

Stells practicing her sitting!  

This day we had a cousin fun day! We went out to eat and then headed to the pool in Russell for swimming.  After we got back I had to run to a photo session but Sean sent me a video of the kids sleeping. They were worn out. These pictures are from when I got back.

And yes. Cohen. This kid. He loves his sisters shoes!

At the beginning of the month we tried some applesauce with Stella but she still has her tongue thrust so it wasn't really a success so we waited a few more weeks.  But she liked playing with the spoon and Sean's airplane noises!

Lyla has been big into tea parties and this is her normal set up! :)

And Miss Stella, just a happy little thing!

Cohen is pretty much potty trained. He does good everywhere but at the Center - where we workout. He likes to poop his pants there for some reason. But other than that, we just have a few accidents here and there (mostly #2). So I'm pretty happy! Only 1 kiddo in diapers is nice! Hard to believe that in about 2 years we will be done with diapers!

Stella had an ear infection at her 4 month appt and in March she still had fluid behind her ears but thankfully it was clear. But then 2 weeks later, Cohen was jealous of Stella's ear and thought he should have ear infections too!  Thankfully, they are both better and the ears are good - for now!

In March we also had Lyla's preschool round up! It is SO hard to believe that she will be going to preschool everyday for 2 1/2 hours. When she did 3 year preschool she only went 3 times a week so it was a nice little break, but everyday seems crazy. And now that means everyday I'm going to have to get up early - boo!