Just me

You know, I am not very good at updating this blog, but when I do, I always talk about how cute G is, and how much I love Neal. While these things are true, I've decided to post about ME today. Here I am:

Okay, that's bud with me, but what can I say? He is in every picture of me now. I know, right? Fine, here's a picture of Neal and me, but then I'm posting about ME!

 Precious, right? I love him. This pic was taken while on our little getaway in Annapolis. Everyone should leave their kids once in a while-- it was AWESOME! Anyway.

Things I absolutely love:

• kiwi ice cream.. I just made some today and it was DELISH!
  
• getting home after a good run
• finding really cute clothes on sale
• the Fun. station on Pandora
• Girls Nights Out
• speaking French/hearing french/teaching French
• dangley earrings
• cookie dough (seriously)
• making photobooks
• clean sheets 

Things that bug:

• worrying I'll see ants when I open the peanut butter jar (shudder)
• the saying "yes, please." I can't really explain why... it's just overdone. Maybe because of pinterest... people always say things like "peanut butter/nutella/rice krispie/brownie/cookie bars? yes, please!" ugh.
• people calling my husband "Nil". It's NEEEEEAL, people. (this is mostly a Utah offense)
• aviator sunglasses on women. Yes, I still love you if you do it, I just don't like the look.
• Ugg boots
• people being late without letting you know. Especially to dinner. 
• the fact that laundry can never be caught up

So yep. That's me. What about you?

May holidays

Hello friends! I never know what to post about, especially if I've already put the pics on facebook.. you know what I'm saying? Anyway, since May is quite a month... I decided to blog about it.
First off, is G's birthday. He had a wonderful birthday! (we think) ;) We threw a little party for him, and it was really fun. Kudos especially to Steve and Stacey for driving all the way from Delaware just for the party! We are loved.

He loves owls!

We heart our friends

Family is the best!

It's hard to look cool with a messy face, but G is totally pulling it off.

My birthday weekend was great. Neal took my birthday off (the best present ever!) and we drove down to Virginia Beach. We used Neal's Marriott points to stay for free, and it was a great weekend. Other than getting sucked into a Time Share presentation... gaaaaaaaah-- a "90 minute no pressure presentation" that turned into a very stressful, shady, 3 hour ordeal.  NEVER AGAIN! The perks (50$ visa giftcard and a weekend stay) might not have even been worth it. Anyway. G loved the beach and was squawking excitedly the entire time. It was awesome. Gideon did try to get a free trip to the ER (croupy wheezing), but we denied him and handled it at our hotel with steam, a humidifier, and a mere 20 panicked phone calls to Dad.

I am very spoiled, and I wouldn't have it any other way. ;)

Nutella cookies for my birthday dessert!

Yes, I ate cookie dough. A lot of it. It was awesome.

G is getting so good at self portraits.

Mother's Day was great! Actually, most of it was spent in the car driving home from the beach. I should have really thought about the fact that a good part of my birthday AND Mother's Day would be spent driving to and from the beach... gaaaaaah. I am grateful for this little buddy every day!

Here is the only surviving picture from our AMAZING anniversary dinner at L'auberge chez François-- DELISH! It was seriously one of the most amazingly delicious meals of my entire life. (We lost the other pictures in the devastating XD card debacle of 2012.... I'm gonna take a sledgehammer to my camera the second I get a new one).

So yeah, May is a pretty great month for us. And by us I mean me. ;)

My sweet one

Seeing all these Mother's Day posts has made me feel very tender about my sweet one, my Gideon. I have always loved babies and kids, (you kind of have to if you teach Kindergarten!) and it came as no surprise when I loved my sweet one more than I could have possibly imagined. What did come as a surprise (other than how long it took to push him out---gaaaaaah) was how natural it all felt. When they placed Gideon on my chest after he was born, I felt a feeling I have never felt before. I felt so full of love, of joy, and of tenderness. All I could do was weep and say to my baby "I love you, I love you" over and over.

Neal and I often compare the first few days home from the hospital with Gideon to our honeymoon. Everything felt so wonderful, so full of love, so perfectly meant to be, and so natural. Our house was full of love--more than we ever thought possible. I waited and waited for everything to "hit me" and cause me to totally freak out, but it never happened. Granted, Gideon may be the easiest baby in the history of the world, which I know helped me out SO MUCH in feeling like a natural Mother, instead of a sleep deprived zombie. Those first few days and weeks, I just felt so full of love for my sweet one; my cup runneth over. In the months that have passed, I still feel that same love, and I know it will only intensify. My dad wrote me a letter for my birthday, and in it he said "it tickles me to hear you talk about Gideon" and my mom has also mentioned how sweet it is to everyone that I am so enamored of my baby boy. I can't help myself-- I have so much love for him it spills out in everything I say!

The fact that I know I will feel these same feelings for another baby is enough to make me want to have another one, as crazy as that seems right now. Although, if it also takes me 2 hours to push out baby #2, we're done. ;) Happy Mother's Day to all-- past, present and future mothers!

Family in DC!

My mama, baby sista, and niece came out to DC to visit, and we had a BLAST! They stayed for 8 days, and it wasn't long enough! Because we all have babies, it was a more laid back visit, which was awesome.

Hanging out at the Air and Space Museum

For some reason, Gideon screamed every time someone else tried to hold him-- it wasn't just Mom, although, she did get the brunt of it-- such a stinker!

 Love my family!

 Hanging out in Georgetown with the stroller posse

 Mom biked to the MLK memorial-- we opted for the lazy option of driving downtown

 Sigh... I miss them already!

The butterfly pavilion at the National History Museum--as you can see, one landed right on Mom's head! Lucy was unimpressed.

 Gideon loved going on a boat tour....

He loved the boat so much, he even allowed himself to be held by Marmie without screaming his head off! A National River Cruise miracle! It was a truly wonderful week with good times had by all. We love having visitors in town-- hint, hint. Luckily Trent already got this memo:

Hooray for Utah people in DC! 

Who does G love more?

I think the pics speak for themselves!

;)

Our New Place

So, people have been asking for pictures of our new place. Honestly, it's usually not clean enough to take pictures of-- judge if you will. Gideon can dump out all his toys, pull all of the dvds/books of the bookcases, and empty out the end table drawers before I can even turn the camera on...see???

kind of depressing, really. Although I am sad to be living in a complex, (as opposed to a neighborhood) it is SOOO nice to have, you know, a bedroom. Yes, we gave Gideon our room in our old place, and it was totally worth it. BUUUUUT it's nice to have more rooms! Space wise, our new place is only 150 square feet bigger. But instead of one giant room and a bedroom, there are many rooms. It's a cute little 2 bed/2 bath condo in Oakton, Virginia. And yes, having 2 bathrooms is just as amazing as I dreamed it would be!

Here is our living room. It's nice and spacious, and I LOVE having a "sunroom" which you can see in the pic (between the 2 sets of sliding glass doors) to keep our jogging stroller, bike, etc. instead of having them in our living room.

This is our kitchen and breakfast nook. I love it! Off to the left is our washer/dryer, a utility/storage closet, and a pantry. I love having a pantry! The oven, fridge, sink, microwave, and tile are all brand new. Oh, and the carpet is brand new. Honestly, the things that AREN'T brand new, are pretty old, but at least some stuff is new!

Here is our "dining room," which as you can see, is not being used for that purpose. You can also see a utility/storage closet, as well as "Gideon's" bathroom. My friend came over the other day and asked if she could use "his Majesty's bathroom." haha. There is a linen closet across from the utility/storage closet.

Here you can see the... wait.... what is that? A HALLWAY!?!?! yes, I was very excited excited to have a hallway! (Again, in case you forgot, our last place was like a studio with a bedroom.) The bedroom you can see in to at the end of the hall is our room.

Here is Gideon's room. I got Alphabet wall stickers and I absolutely love them!!!

A close up-- kind of washed out, but you can see the cute letters!

Here is our room-- it's quite large, although you can't really tell. Also crazy about this picture is that our super expensive and classy curtains just look like a sheet tucked into the blinds-- weird..... We also have a walk-in closet and a bathroom. I LOVE having a bathroom in our room! (For those of you who know me well, you can see why having a bathroom so close is very convenient for me!)

I'm also happy to say that Neal's HIDEOUS gnome has been banished to the patio. (I was hoping it would get "lost" in the move, but I was out of town, and Neal's movers weren't easily bribed on this front.)

We have plenty of room for guests-- come on out and see it for yourselves! And now, I shall leave you with another reason to come out to the DC area:

GORGEOUS! Wish you were here!!!

Luck o' the Irish-- Irish Sprint 10k

Okay readers, I know that 10k isn't that far to most of you, but humor me....

In January, my friend Dani posted on facebook, asking if anyone wanted to do a St. Patrick's day 10k with her. I have always been good about working out, and run 2.5-3 miles almost every day for the last couple of years (taking time off before and after G, of course), but I've never been good at pushing myself. If I felt extra tired, I would just start walking because, you know, at least I'm still getting exercise. So when I saw this post about a 10k, I thought that might motivate me to push myself. I decided that I would do it, and also that I wouldn't walk at all, and I registered. My crazy hardcore runner friend Amylee created a training schedule for me, and I didn't miss a single training run-- even when I was on vacation. I started to feel proud of myself almost immediately--I was now running at least 3.5 miles a day, pushing Gideon, and it didn't feel any harder that when I would go 2.5-3. I went on my long runs on Saturdays, and although my longest scheduled run was 5.5 miles, I ended up running 6.2 (10k) on my last training run just because I felt so good! In a sense I was slightly disappointed that the race day wouldn't be THE farthest I'd ever run, but on the other hand, I was glad to know that I could for sure do it.

The day before the race, I realized I could look at the course description, and when I did, I grew slightly concerned to see words like "long uphill", "trail", and "uphill to cross the finish line"-- there aren't a lot of hills by us, and even less trails. I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to run the entire time-- which I know isn't a huge deal, but to me, it would have been a fail! Oh, and sorry that this is TMI, but I also happened to start my first period in 20 months the day before the race as well... thaaaaaaaaanks for that, body.

Now, on to the race. We all drove down to Prince William Forest Park together in the wee hours of the morning. I was feeling ready at this point, and pretty excited! Dani and I donned our Shamrock headbands, and got ready to rock. Dani was in an earlier wave than I, which I was pretty okay with, since I know she's about twice as fast as I am anyway. I started out feeling great-- the race energy is super fun! Suddenly, I realized we were starting the "long uphill" trail running portion of the race, which got old quickly and lasted a MILE!!! I was positive that I had simply missed the 3 mile marker, because surely, I had gone three miles! I was sure I would see a mile marker 4 at any second--even telling myself the race people probably deliberately didn't put out the 3 mile marker, so you would be extra relieved to see mile 4 marker. Unfortunately, around a bend I saw the 3 mile marker. My heart sank to see it-- I was struggling at three miles!!! Luckily, the course flattened out and before I knew it, I saw the 4 mile marker. I felt great again until about 5.7 miles because the last half mile was steep trail incline again. I was tired, but there was NO way I was gonna wimp out so close to the end. I was praying to finish strong, and indeed I did! My friend Dani was waiting for me at the finish, which was encouraging. Neal couldn't make his way down to the actual finish line with the stroller because it was too steep and rocky, which made me a little sad (okay, okay, and annoyed), but I was still glad he was there to support me and cheer me on, even if I was already done with the race by the time I saw him and baby G.

My official time was 1:17:05 which is slooooooow, I know, but I am very pleased with it because when I ran the 10k a couple of weeks ago, it took me 1:15-- so if steep, mile long hills and trail running only adds 2 minutes, that's fine by me! My new goal is to run 10 miles by my birthday (May 11th) and now I want to run another 10k faster! It was so much fun to race, and I really do feel proud of myself!!! It's so nice to set a goal and achieve it! Plus, when I called my sister Cali to ask her if she thought I could run a 10k that was 6 weeks away, she assured me I could "run/walk it", so I'm glad I was able to prove her wrong!!! ;)

Okay, thank you for humoring me and letting me feel like 10k is a long enough distance to blog about.... you are all great!