Long weekend

We had a long, enjoyable weekend. On Saturday, Mikayla set up a lemonade stand at a friend's house (by request no less) as part of National Lemonade day. She didn't make much, but had a bunch of fun. Then on Sunday, she had her stand set up at HEB for two hours. She made a considerable amount of money there. Mikayla has decided to donate a portion of her proceeds to her Girl Scout troop and part to her school.

I'll be picking out new running shoes today so that I can start back running again. I've been out for a week, and I really miss it. I just hope the shoes solve the problem. You'd think a week with no running and sore knees would be feeling better. If shoes don't fix it, I'll have to make a doctor appointment and that's just no fun.

Running on hold

It seems my knees do not agree with my shoes. So, I've had to take a break to allow my knees to recover and to pick my new shoes. I go shopping tomorrow! I can't wait to get back to running. I was really enjoying that energy surge after the run.

Couch to 5k

It's been a very long time since I posted. I guess I need to be more on the ball with these things. Oh well, such is life. You can only keep trying.

My sister challenged me to run a 5k with her. If you know me, you know how funny it is to think of me running. Previously, I only ran if someone was chasing me with a knife or if my children were about to be run over/bitten/hurt. Very short sprints and then I thought I would die afterwards.

The Couch to 5k program is a wonderful thing for a person like me. You start very slow. You make slow improvements in stamina and speed along with distance. And at the end of 8 weeks, you're running a solid 30 minutes and building your way to a full 5k (that's 3 miles folks).

When Mikayla (now 8) heard me discussing the program with Brad, she decided she wanted to run as well. So, I have a local running partner. Someone to encourage me and help me through the tough parts. Or so I thought. The first two weeks were full of complaining and more complaining from her. After a quick chat about how staying positive makes it easier, she has turned the corner and is now a good little running partner.

I do have to be flexible with child care for the boys. They're too young to run the program with me, and I can't trust David (2.5) to stay on the playground while I run circles around the park. Thank goodness for neighbors, in-laws, and nephews! With Brad's night schedule, there is at least 1 day a week where Mikayla and I need to run, but Brad isn't here and available to watch the boys.

So far, thanks to wonderful neighbors and an encouraging sister and daughter, I've been able to keep up my every other day pace and work my way through the program. We completed Week 3 day 1 today. The workout is as follows: brisk walk 5 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes. The last 30 seconds of the final 3 minute run were difficult, but I could have done another 30 seconds without dying. And I wasn't huffing and puffing for breath.

With the heat of summer upon us - even though it's only late April- I'm going to have to start getting more creative on my running times. Previously, it's worked out best to run right after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner. However, that's not much fun if it's 90+ outside. I think during the hottest parts of the summer, I'll be running either very early or very late to avoid the worst of the heat and I think I'll time my run so I end at the community pool and can jump in to cool off before walking home to shower!

The stats from today's run: 3,393 steps. 1.5 miles. 28:34 minutes. Average speed of 3.2 mph. Burned 113.3 calories.

Cocoa Snowflakes

Snow Flurries Cocoa Christmas Card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

The story of how I named my babies

Mikayla. My first baby. I so very much wanted to name her Adeline Grace. Brad despised the name. After much debate, we finally decided on Mikayla. With an I not an A. And not Michaela either. But we could NOT decide on a middle name. Brad's step dad finally picked a winner for us. And Mikayla Paige was born at 37 weeks. She has so many nick names it's not even funny. From Kayla, to Mickey, to Crayola. Even Kayla Mae (from Grandpa).

A one month old Mikayla with her G-mom (great-great Grandmother)

Bryson. My first boy! And I so knew he was a boy from the beginning. We weren't really even discussing names seriously as I was only around 16 weeks, but I had the baby name books out and was thumbing through them. One evening while I was in the bathroom (bathing, not going!) I was making fun of the names. Telling Brad we should name our boy Napoleon or Chevy or after some Greek god. And then, I found it. BRYSON. staring at me from the baby book. I KNEW that was his name. And his middle name had to be Lee after his father, his grand mother and several great grandmothers as well. Bryson also has several wonderful nick names. The most interesting of which is Baby Bart.

Bryson in the potty...after attempting to climb it with the lid up!

And then there was David. Our surprise boy whom we were told was a girl. My mother in law had been re-diagnosed with cancer. We knew it would be her last fight. And my grandmother had recently passed away. I wanted to honor both of them in some way, but didn't want to name baby Sally or Lillian. So I worked with just the initials and came up with Lilah Shane. I loved it. My extended family loved it. My husband was coming around. And then, I gave birth to a boy! A at first very healthy little boy, but then a very very sick little boy in need of Life Flight. I was NOT having my unnamed baby fly away from me. I felt the push to give him a name before he flew away. Brad and I settled on David Shane. And even though I did not like David at the time and felt for the first year that David was not his name, he's settling into David nicely. I call him David Shane about 90% of the time. The kids call him David, and my dad, my dad calls him Virgil!

My almost two year old, mischievous David!

Just so you know...

Sometimes it is easier to bribe a 23 month old with cake at 8:30am that it is to pack him up to run the older kids to vacation Bible school.

Tempered glass WILL shatter into roughly a million tiny little pieces at the hands of a 23 month old.

Getting up at 5am leads to a cranky 7 year old around 5pm.

My niece is a LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY girl. She's leaving for a two week educational trip to AUSTRALIA tomorrow!

Sour cream also works as hair gel. See?


Four year old boys derive immense joy from sending themselves to the moon.


And even though she's seven and knows everything there ever was, is or will be to know.. she still plays with her food.

Black Friday Contests at Vanilla Joy

There are lots of Black Friday giveaways at Vanilla Joy. I get lots of extra entries for cool prizes when I do a blog post. Of course, I'm a sucker for all things free. So you get to read my "coming out of blogger blackhole" post about this free prize.

Vanilla Joy posts about topics like Craft Room Organization and Creative Date Ideas. She features Obaji Skin Care and Scrapbooking Furniture. She even talks about Teaching Baby Sign Language!

Vanilla Joy! Lots of cool ideas. Awesome Black Friday prizes!

just updating...

Well I finished the half-finished pants in my previous post last week. I started a new pair today. Let's all guess how long it takes me to finish them...

On other subjects: I've got a meeting set up with Early Childhood Intervention for an "intake meeting" for David. Basically, the first meeting is a bunch of paperwork. After that meeting, they'll process the paperwork and set up another meeting where several therapists will come and test David in lots of different areas to see if he needs or qualifies for any services. I'm mostly concerned about his lack of eating skills and just want to make sure nothing is wrong.

David also has a dental appointment the first week of August. He has some severe decay on his top four teeth. I have no idea where it came from. Two months ago, there was a little discolored area on one of his top teeth. Today, that tooth is very obviously diseased and the other three are as well. I just hope we'll be able to work out some sort of payment plan with the dentist as I know this is not going to be a cheap fix. More than likely, it will require all 4 teeth being capped while under general anesthesia at the local hospital. And since David is not yet one, I'll probably spring for WHITE caps instead of the ugly silver ones. I mean, he'll have these darn things for up to 6 years!

Mikayla is bored out of her mind with summer break. All of her friends are gone on vacations and she does not enjoy playing with her brothers!

Bryson is a busy little boy. Growing, exploring and destroying.

Well, David is up. Off again.

Half-Finished Cable Longies

Cable Longies Shipwrecked, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

My first pair of cable pants for David! These are pair one of a planned six-pair wardrobe for winter. Currently, only one leg is complete. Of course, they are unwashed, and unblocked, so they look a bit wonky, but I couldn't wait to share!

Thanks so much to Kine from Norway (a lady I know from a private message board) for sending me the wool for these! I knew right away that THESE were the pants for this wool. I'm so glad that they're turning out just the way I visioned!

I'm a photo of the day failure..

Well. It didn't last long. I tried. I did. But honestly, by the end of the day (that's around midnight for me), I've realized I haven't taken pictures for like the past 3 days. Sad, isn't it. I hope you all enjoyed all the pictures though. I'll try to keep up once a week posts. I can probably handle that.

Hubs POTD 14

Hubs POTD 14, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

The man who picked POTD 13. Yup. That's him.

Cake Wreck POTD 13

Cake Wreck POTD 13, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

The Birthday cake my husband willingly picked out. And he didn't get why I laughed the ENTIRE time. Talk about cake wreckage, my dears! The cracked icing. The bleeding food color. The random pick placement!

Riding with the Dog POTD 12

Riding with the Dog POTD 12, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

Sometimes the mistakes are better POTD 11

Sometimes the mistakes are better POTD 11, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

POTD Day 10

IMG_3106, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

Clearly avocado is delicious!

POTD Day 9

IMG_3101, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

Well.. This is the time I remembered to take the photo of the day. Whoops!

I hate toilets [POTD Day 8]

Ugh. Toilets.., originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

I hate toilets. They stink if there are any men in the house. No matter how much you clean, urine seeps into the little crevices and makes them reek. Borrowed my sister-in-laws steam cleaner thingy to try to salvage said toilet. It's better, but still reeks. If only I could convince the men to use the toilet sitting down.

Driving to my sisters [POTD Day 7]

Driving, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

Driving my kids to my sister's house. She actually volunteered to watch my older two for FOUR consecutive nights! God bless her!

A dirty little addiction [POTD Day 6]

The Shoe Chewer, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

She wishes her brother was a sister! [POTD DAY 5]

Bryson, originally uploaded by amandassnyder.

but sometimes just dressing him up like one will do. Mikayla "pinked" Bryson up. Complete with pink Webkinz poodle and polka dot high heels. Bryson loved it as much as Mikayla did!