10 little thoughts

1. Ezra loves turtles.  And anything else that moves, crawls, walks, flies, swims, drives, etc.  He is interested in the world around him in a way that's different than Cambria ever was.

he's also got some dirty feetsies.

 2. Don't ever buy this stuff.  I got it a while back to make some vegan carrot cupcakes and couldn't believe how nasty it was.  It wasn't bad in the frosting, but by itself it really tastes terrible.  Plus, I'd rather just eat butter and sugar than all the weird ingredients in this stuff. 

3. Ezra also loves getting into our recycling about 10 times a day.  The boy gets.into.EVERYTHING.

4.  We are officially in that weddings-all-the-time age group.  We've gotten 7 invites this year already! This one is for Erin & Kevin's wedding. So excited for them!!

5. Having one of these can really help you drink more water.  I take mine almost every time I leave the house and find myself filling it up several times a day.

6.  Cambria only wears dresses now.  A few months ago I started letting her pick out her own clothes and recently she's been picking only dresses. She likes to layer them with things that don't match and I love it! Easy way for her to be creative and to express herself.

7.  Buying pieces of clothing that I love has become important to me.  When I {hardly ever} shop I usually ONLY buy clothes on the sale rack and oftentimes settle for things that are the best deal regardless of whether I really love them or not. Recently though I've made a few purchases that aren't necessarily on sale but that I look and feel great in.  It's amazing what a cute dress or skirt can do for your self confidence.

The dress I wore to a wedding this past weekend. LOVE this dress!!  AND I went back to Express yesterday for a price adjustment and made 28 bucks!!! Woo!

8. Chia seeds are amazing.  Have you ever read about their nutritional benefits? I saw a big bag of them at the Savannah Food Co-op and decided to try them on a whim.  A little research later and I'm going to start putting them on everything! Someone else really loves them too...

9. Target got new buggies.  It was a very exciting day.

 10. My children love to dance. Here's proof. 

Amber Teething Necklaces

I recently purchased amber teething necklaces from the birth center for both kids.  Ezra is right in the middle of teething and Cambria is way past it, but the amber is supposed to offer benefits other than just relieving teething symptoms so I figured I'd give it a try for both of them.

"Among other things, amber is a natural analgesic (pain reliever) and anti-inflammatory. When amber is worn on the skin, the warmth of the skin releases trace amounts of healing oils on the skin. Commonly known as "teething jewelry," baltic amber has been a natural and traditional European remedy for teething discomfort for hundreds of years." source

 
Lots of moms I've recently started associating with through cloth diaper groups and a mommy bootcamp fitness class have babies who wear them, so of course I wanted them for mine too :)  It's been great getting to know so many women who are like-minded in their parenting ideas and styles because we are able to discuss things and learn from one another.  Hopefully the necklaces will have some positive effects, but either way, Cambria and Ezra will look cute wearing them!

February in Savannah

I always complain about the weather here in southeast Georgia.  It's unbearably hot and humid in the summer, the summer including May-September.  Literally, you can't go outside for more than a few minutes before you begin sweating.  And then the winters are so so mild.  60's and'70's and NEVER any snow. Yes, there are a FEW days when the temperature doesn't rise about 50 or so, but most days it's on the warmer side.  But recently I had an epiphany.  The weather here in Savannah is horrible in the summer, but it's actually quite nice in the winter.  I'd love to have some freezing cold days with inches and inches of snowfall, but that weather isn't very conducive to enjoying outdoor activities.  And the kids and I are outside almost daily.  So, I've decided to stop complaining and start enjoying the fact that I can take my children outside almost everyday for a solid 6 months.  

And speaking of being outside, on Sunday the city of Savannah had it's annual Super Museum Sunday.  All of the museums and historical sites in the Savannah area were free!  And us peeps in this household love anything that has the word free in it. :)  Of course we used every second of time to squeeze in as much free stuff as possible.

We started on Tybee at the lighthouse.  We thought it would be fun to walk up to the top...but it turned out to be a bust because the lighthouse is under construction. 

So we drove over to the aquarium on Tybee. The aquarium is tiny and it took about 5 minutes to walk through the whole thing, so we hung out on the beach for a little while.

They LOVED the beach.  We need to go more again before it gets hot. 

 

I don't really like the beach, but it was actually really nice in February.

Beach girl.

We then headed to Oatland Island.  Typical us didn't pack a lunch, so we unfortunately had to eat at Sonic. (yeah, kinda gross) Cambria got her first and maybe last kids meal toy with her meal.  After we ate we had a fun time walking around and visiting all the animals.  Oatland Island is a pretty cool place if you've never been.

Ezra's footsie.

Ezra creepin.

Lots of animals!

They passed out in between Oatland Island and the Railroad Museum.

We finished the day with a train ride at the Georgia State Railroad Museum.  We were all exhausted by this point, as you can imagine.  My mom and dad were out visiting museums that day too so we met up with them for the ride.

Ezra's exhaustion is so obvious in the picture.

Same with Cambria in this one.

It was a great day to be outside in 70 degree weather in February.

here's to happiness

I follow this blog, Rockstar Diaries.  Periodically Naomi does these happiness posts that I love, so this time I decided to take part in the happiness.  

So here's 10 things making me terribly happy this week.

1. my freshly painted nails 
2. colorful & clean cloth diapers littering Ezra's floor
3. Cambria's use of the phrase "what the heck" 
4. friendly greetings from strangers while running on the trail
5. Ezra's adorable laughter
6. coke {this makes me feel embarrassed and guilty but most importantly, happy}
7. afternoon visits from my mom
8. the prospect of cooler weather in the near future 
9. my lovely sisters  
10. kisses from every member of my family

So now all you blogging girls have to make happy lists and share.  C'mon, it'll be fun!

Baby Mohawks were making me terrible happy this time last year. I can't believe how much she's GROWN.

I'm training for a marathon.

 

Remember the list I made on my birthday? One of the things I put on that list was "run a marathon." I've dreamed of running one for so long, but always felt like it was out of my reach, too hard for ME, more running than I could handle. In high school, when I ran cross-country, the longest distance we ever had to run was 4 or 5 miles.  Cross-country started in August and if you're at all familiar with the type of weather we experience here in Georgia you know that our 3:30 practice time nearly killed all of us.  90+ degrees with almost no shade...yeah.  So I think my high school running days really gave me a solid running foundation.

Throughout college I would go through phases where I would run as seldom as once every 3 or 4 weeks to as often as 2 or 3 times a week.  I never fell out of the habit.  And during both my pregnancies I continued to run until my 20's weeks.  Running has always been a pleasure for me.  I end my runs feeling invigorated and powerful and THOSE emotions remind me of giving birth {something else I love}.  Intense and painful and completely individual, I love that, the intense and individual part, not the painful part. Yes, there have been some horribly difficult runs throughout the years, but those are the runs that have made me stronger.  I'm a competitor at heart and love the thrill of running.

Kyle and I {and CammyB} running on the trail next to the river at our apartment.

My sister ran her half-marathon in March and after reading her post about her experience I became inspired and a bit jealous to be honest.  She ran 13.1 miles with hardly any training! I was so proud of her!  And all I could think about was how I wanted to start running again {remember I had a baby in February :P} So we all signed up for the Peachtree 10k and after running and competing with all those people I got some serious runner's itch.  With the Rock n' Roll Marathon series coming to Savannah on November 5th I knew I had to do it.  So I signed up for the half-marathon, just in case my training didn't go as planned.  After a few weeks of training I started to feel like I wanted to make the commitment and about that time I also found TEAM FREEMAN, a cause I am so excited about running for! More on the details about all that later.. 

After doing a little bit of research on the internet I found Hal Higdon's 16-week Novice 1 training program I wanted to follow.  And so far everything is going awesome!  I'm running longer distances than I've ever run and I'm starting to eat more than I've eaten in a long time,  It's been tricky trying to find time for all my runs, but Kyle and my mom have been a great help.  If I didn't have the support from Kyle I would never be able to commit to something like this, I'm so very thankful for him!  Here's a copy of my training plan.  I'm hoping for continued motivation and no injuries in the weeks to come.  I will update again soon with more details!

**I'm currently on week 6**

Marathon Training Schedule: Novice 1

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	Rest	6	cross
2	Rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	Rest	7	cross
3	Rest	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	Rest	5	cross
4	Rest	3 m run	4 m run	3 m run	Rest	9	cross
5	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	10	cross
6	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	7	cross
7	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	12	cross
8	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon
9	Rest	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	10	cross
10	Rest	3 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	15	cross
11	Rest	4 m run	8 m run	4 m run	Rest	16	cross
12	Rest	4 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	12	cross
13	Rest	4 m run	9 m run	5 m run	Rest	18	cross
14	Rest	5 m run	9 m run	5 m run	Rest	14	cross
15	Rest	5 m run	10 m run	5 m run	Rest	20	cross
16	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	4 m run	Rest	12	cross
17	Rest	4 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	8	cross
18	Rest	3 m run	4 m run	2 m run	Rest	Rest	Marathon

Where I'm Happy

Some days I want to live a chic life in NYC. 

Eat at amazing restaurants. 

Ride the subway everywhere.

Experience all the creativity and life the city has to offer.

And then some days I want to live on a farm.

Have animals to take care of and love.

Create a garden that requires lots of hard work and sweat. 

Nothing but nature and wholesome living.

But then I realize that wherever I am in this life, if I'm with my family, I'm home, and I'm happy.

4th of July Running

This year, we celebrated the 4th of July by doing the typical stuff, plus something new.  Since the 4th was on a Monday, our town had their fireworks celebration on Saturday the 2nd.  The festival was sorta lame and seemed very.....country, to put it nicely.  But we live in a small town in southeast GA so what can you expect?  Cambria LOVED the fireworks, and I just enjoyed watching her watch them.  Ever since that night she'll randomly say "fire-works BOOOOOOOM!!!" It's precious. 

trying to convince Cam to get her face painted...did not work

we love that boy.  yes, I'll say it 1000x

me and my man

they're big because they're the CUTEST COUPLE EVER

watching the fireworks

little sisters

Kyle's skills

On Sunday we headed up to Atlanta for a short visit with Ashley and Phillip.  We made the trip because Kyle, Ashley and myself participated in the 2011 Peachtree Road Race this year.  It's the world's largest 10k that Atlanta hosts each year on the 4th of July.  We ran through downtown Atlanta on Peachtree St.  It was an awesome run and there were so many people.   

Phillip's grandpa Grigory, the sweetest man

mama with her {3} babies

My stats according to my Nike+. Time 57'52" Pace 8'44" Distance 6.62mi.  I think the difference in distance has to do with where on the road I actually ran.

proud to be DONE

GRRRRR.  Btw, Ashley is about 18 weeks pregnant, GO HER!

the finish line. the people just didn't stop coming!

creeeeeeeeper in the background

The race was a total blast and I was so pumped up before and after.  I get such a "runners high" when I run in a race like that.  We hope to make it our new tradition every 4th!  My parent's came up and watched Ezra and Cambria and I was so thankful they did that for us.  Thanks mom and dad!! :) 

***Over 55,000 people participated in the race this year.  I came in at #9506! See here.****