Fresh baked loaves and Easter outfits

One of the things I really enjoy making for my family is homemade bread. A friend of mine from church taught me how to make it from scratch back when I was waiting for Joshua to make his entrance into the world. I was past my due date and had already finished working and each day felt like it was just dragging by! Melissa invited me over one afternoon and taught me her AMAZING recipe for whole wheat bread and it is still my favorite recipe almost 4 years later :) I feel like each time I make it, I do it just a little bit better. We invested in a wheat grinder this past year, so I'm able to use freshly ground wheat now, which makes the bread even better! This weekend, I tried a new method for forming my loaves and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! David was so impressed that he decided to make a photographic record of them (if you don't know David, he is quite possibly the biggest bread fan you'll EVER meet!)

My mom bought Leah a special Easter dress and Joshua a special Easter shirt and vest, so I thought she might appreciate some pictures of the kids all dressed up!

Although Leah is not demonstrating proper

modesty in this shot (ha!), I love seeing her

chubby little legs here :) And I love Joshua's

forced, giant smile that he gave his begging,

pleading mother ;)

Not the best group picture ever, but I couldn't

help posting it because Leah is SO dang cute

in this candid shot!

I think this one is my very favorite :)

I don't know if you can see the tear coming

down Leah's cheek in this one, but she was

upset about something (who knows what?)

But her big brown eyes and chubby little

arms and sweet little face were all just

too precious to keep me from sharing it.

**Happy Easter to you all! We're so grateful

for the atonement and resurrection of our

Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity it

provides us to repent and eventually return

to live with our Father in Heaven, and be with

these sweet, precious children forever.**

Fire Station Visit!

Let me start off by saying it is a GIANT bummer to snap a few pictures, only to realize that your camera battery has then died! So here is my one decent picture from our field trip to the fire station today:

Our learning unit this week was on firefighters, and we learned a lot! We checked out 15 different books from the library and learned all about firemen, fire trucks, fire stations, all kinds of equipment, and what firefighters do during their shifts. We learned lots of new vocabulary words, and did more practice with reading, writing, matching, sorting, math/numbers, among other things. I love seeing Joshua light up with the excitement of learning new things! The big take-home message this week, according to Joshua, was "Firefighters help keep people safe!"

He told this to the firefighters we met today at Garner Fire Station 2 and they thought that was pretty great :) George gave us a tour and showed us all the different vehicles and equipment they have there at the station. Leah made friends with a female EMS worker there who thought Leah was the cutest little thing she'd ever seen (obviously Leah was on her best behavior at the time). It is so fun each week to see in person all the things we've learned about from books and activities, and we're really grateful to live in such a friendly community with many people and places willing to let us visit and learn!

Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon

The big day finally came! On April 1, I ran in the Raleigh Rocks half-marathon. This is the first race I've run since before getting pregnant with Joshua more than 4 years ago, and my second half-marathon. The first one was back in grad school with my friend Amanda and I can honestly say that I didn't do a great job of training seriously for it. So this was a big deal for me! I trained and cross-trained and worked my butt off for this race, so by the morning of the race, I felt as prepared as I could be...and I was pretty excited and nervous too.

My goal was to run it in 1:50 or less, which would be around an 8:25 pace. I ended up finishing in 1:45:59 according to my chip time, which put me around an 8:05 pace--and I finished 6th in my age group (30-34) out of 118 girls, and in the top 15% overall. SO exciting! I realize that I am not built like a "typical" runner, and I've got short little legs trying to keep up with other runners who have much longer, leaner legs, so I'm really proud that I was able to finish with this time.

I actually ran the first 9-10 miles at around a 7:50-7:55 pace, but those last few miles were BRUTAL. I definitely feel like the half-marathon distance is the longest I feel motivated to run...I highly doubt you'll see any full marathons in my future, and I'm totally okay with that! I'll stick to 13.1 or less :)

My mom and dad were in town this weekend, and it

was great to have them join David, Joshua, and Leah

at the finish line to cheer me on--imagining their smiling

faces helped me get through those last tough miles.

They had flowers and a sign for me, and David gave me

the sweetest card at the car, along with a "13.1" magnet

for the back of our minivan :)

I'm really excited to have worked hard

towards a goal like this and reached it.

I think I'd like to make it a personal goal

to run a half-marathon each spring and

fall, and some 5Ks and 10Ks in between.

It is so good for me to have something

like running to keep me physically

and mentally challenged, especially as

a stay-at-home mom. I hope that as

Joshua & Leah get older, they'll see what

I do and know that they can set goals, work

hard, and reach them too!

Farm Animal Days!

When I found out when the NC State Farm Animal Days were scheduled for this year, I planned for that to be our field trip for our learning unit on farm animals. All the materials for this week were based on the book "Ask Mr. Bear," which I had never heard of before, but Joshua loved it! We did reading, handwriting, math, rhyming words, sorting, matching, and other activities, all using different farm animals...so by Friday, Joshua was really excited to go see all the animals in person. David took a half-day so he could come with us, so it was a whole family field trip and we had such a good time! And honestly, without David there, I would probably have not gotten a single picture taken, so big thanks to him for toting the camera around!

The kids loved the big cows...and Joshua

enjoyed climbing up high to see!

I'm sure I was saying something extremely

fascinating (please insert sarcasm here!)

LOVE this picture of Leah!

Watching the kids see new things

and seeing their faces light up makes

everything so fun :)

I think we were looking at the dairy calves here

Joshua was counting the sheep...the little lambs

were SO adorable!

See! Adorable :)

Leah liked petting the baby goat.

I love how David gets a great shot

of my gray hair in this picture...

but I will say, I saw a lady about 20 years

older than me at the library recently

and she had long curly hair like mine but

it was all gray and she looked GORGEOUS!

So, if that is what my future holds, so be it :)

Those big, beautiful brown eyes melt my heart.

Now this shot needs some explaining,

since you can clearly see that Joshua is

wearing an NC State shirt. It was a hand-me-down

from one of David's coworkers Ashley (who is

AWESOME and has given us so many

great clothes for Joshua as her son has

outgrown them!) and Joshua chose to wear

it today since we were going to an NC State

event...but please notice the hat he chose

to wear with it. The boy has his allegiances

in the right places, so don't you worry about that!

He LOVED the chocolate ice cream...so much so

that he ate his cup AND his daddy's cup, so David

just shared with Leah :)

She didn't want to sit in her stroller, but we

couldn't just have her running around while we

ate our ice cream, so David figured out a

compromise :) And as you can tell, she seemed

perfectly content...silly girl!

My little pigtailed finger-sucking sassy girl

(who, by the way, tried to pick up multiple

baby chicks by their heads...she's a bit

rough and tumble, so Mommy had to come

to the chicks' rescue and save them from

this heavy-handed yet adorable toddler)

Best Family Portrait EVER!

Joshua drew a picture of our family today...he drew everyone and labeled all of us by himself.

Cutest family portrait ever...

by the cutest artist ever, too!

Bulls and Horses in the same week!

Last week, when we heard that Wool E. Bull, the mascot for the Durham Bulls baseball team, would be at our local Moe's restaurant on the same night that kids eat free, we knew we had to go! The kids loved meeting him and playing a few games that he brought. Plus, who doesn't like dinner at Moe's?

Leah decided that Wool E. Bull's baseball

card was a good after-dinner snack :)

My friend Jenny has a horse that she rides

locally and since our learning unit this week

was about cowboys, she invited us to come

meet Lucky! She even brought a cowboy

hat for Joshua to wear :)

The kids loved looking around the horse farm

and they both wanted their picture taken on

this big Ford tractor--isn't she the cutest

pigtailed tractor driver ever?!

"Forget posing for a picture, Mommy--

let's take this thing for a spin!"

Joshua didn't want to give me a real smile,

so this was the best I could get. We're so glad

Jenny could help us bring our learning unit

to life last week--it was so great to see so

many of the things we've been reading

and learning about!

Pigtails and Policemen

Leah's hair is getting pretty long these days and I have been enjoying putting her hair in pigtails, since it is the only thing I can do with her hair that she can't pull out (she's not a fan of headbands or barrettes). I think they are adorable and go along well with her sassy attitude :)

It was either hand her the cell phone to distract her,

or she was getting down from that chair and

running away! Isn't it sad that this is the best

shot I could get of her pigtails?!

And since I was snapping pics of Leah,

Joshua wanted to smile for one of his own.

I absolutely LOVE that smile!

***

Now that Joshua has gotten pretty good with his writing and reading, I decided to make it more interesting for him (and me!) by using these weekly learning units I found online. I absolutely love the talented people who create things and share them online for others to use for free! Each unit is on a different topic and covers writing, reading, math, patterns, puzzles, and other activities, as well as a suggestion of books to check out from the library that cover the same subject. For our first week, Joshua chose the unit on police officers. He's loving the books and printable activities! We are fortunate to have a few Garner police officers that attend church with us, and I asked one of them if he'd be willing to let us meet up with him one day while he was working so Joshua could see him in uniform and get a tour of the police car.

Officer Kevan Anderson and Joshua posing in front

of the police car...Kevan was SO patient and sweet

with Joshua! We got to see a lot of the things we

have been learning about: uniform, badge, handcuffs,

flashlight, two-way radio, flashing lights, siren, and

police cruiser.

Joshua can be really shy with new people and

new things, and Kevan was great with him. He gave

Joshua a cool pencil and a sticker badge, and Joshua

gave him a thank you card he had made the day

before and some cookies I made as a thank you.

What a fun way to start our new learning time!