Girls on the Go

Saedi turned 3 months yesterday...already! She's cooing all the time, and still delightful as ever. Just this week she's become a power kicker and seems discontent about staying in one place. She can rotate herself on the crib mattress and push up to a standing position on my knees. Bit by bit she's getting stronger!

Ellie continues to be extremely talkative & jabbers constantly. She is non-stop energy. Sometimes to wear her out I'll stand on the deck and time her running from the deck to her tree house, up the ladder, around the tree 3 times, back down the ladder, and returning to the deck. It helps.

Ellie has also become quite sly:

Story #1: Just the other day she was poking her finger in her ice cream cone. Riley told her to stop putter her fingers in her ice cream. Ellie replied by poking her thumb in the ice cream and saying, "I'm not putting my finger in my ice cream...it's my thumb."

Story#2" "I want a juice box, Daddy."

"No,Ellie. Juice boxes are only for the playground."

"Daddy, I wanna go to the playground."

What will tomorrow bring?

I Did It!!!

Before Riley deployed in October we made a list of goals we wanted to accomplish over the next eight months. One of my top goals was to complete Nashville's Country Music Half-Marathon.

I wasn't able to do much running during this pregnancy with Saedi, but when Saedi turned 4 weeks, I started running again whenever I had a chance (2-3 times a week). At that time, I felt like completing 13.2 miles was too big of a feat, and I almost gave up on my goal.

Miraculously, Riley came home early from Iraq, and that allowed me to commit to a training plan & run more because he could watch the girlies. Also, my friend, Kristen committed to watching the girls for me once a week during my long runs. That said, with God's grace & everyone's encouragement I decided to register 2 weeks ago.

After 8 weeks of running, I'm happy to say that not only did I run the entire half-marathon on Saturday (Apr 26), but I ran faster per mile than I had trained. I finished in 2:15:57. I came in 4,516 for the women and 9,338 overall. What blows my mind is that the fastest marathon runner (a man from Kenya) finished in 2:14:27...that's faster than my half-marathon time. Amazing what the human body can do!!!

If you'd like to read more about Nashville's Country Music Marathon, check out www.cmmarathon.com. There were more than 30,000 walkers/runners and it was definitely the most crowded race I've done. It was wonderful having bands playing throughout the race and tons of people cheering the entire time. Thank you Riley for cheering with our daughters and being so supportive. Thanks, Nat, for letting us use your rain cover for the stroller! The rain stopped just before the start of the race, and it was cloudy and cool for the entire race...perfect!

The Amazing Treehouse

Look at our new treehouse! I am so very proud of my husband that I want to boast about this amazing tree house / tree fort that he built for the girls. He's never built anything before, and always claimed he "wasn't handy;" however, I think that his first attempt at building has been more than a success. After working on it for two full Saturdays, & the both of us jumping up and down on it, we deemed it safe enough for the girlies. Needless to say, Ellie adores her new hide-out. And although it is making our battle of the "mine's" (it's mine...it's mine) even more difficult, it's worth it seeing Ellie run around the tree singing, "Ring Around the Rosie"...until she collapses from dizziness.

Blogger Bandwagon

So, I've decided to join the blogger bandwagon for a few reasons:
1. Easy way for friends, and especially distant family to stay connected with our everyday happenings.
2. A good way for me to calendar our family events.
3. Keeps me reflecting, articulating, and writing.

And the name. Well, our family chose spirited for a trio of reasons:
1. Spirited: We're full of life as Ellie is enjoying the "twos" & our family is happily growing.
2. Spirited: We'd like to promise funny, quirky, heartfelt, writing (at least my best attempt).
3. Spirited: Wanted a way to express our spiritual thoughts and encourage spiritual growth.

Until the next entry...
Michelle