We have a Walker!!

Brynn finally decided to walk on Friday.. I guess she knew I had been bad mouthing her on here. It is the cutest thing ever.. which I am sure every parent feels that way when their child starts to walk. She looks like a little drunk person walking. She gets so excited that she still falls forward some but for the most part she gets around the house on her own. Now I am sure the real fun begins!

We had a nice weekend. We went to Loogootee. Josh hadn't seen Phillip and Amber's house yet so we went down and spent the weekend hanging out with them and Pete and Ashley. We ran 9 miles on Saturday morning.. my mom rode her bike again and gave us water. Thanks mom!!

I have a friend from work coming over today. She is on maternity leave right now so I haven't seen much of her lately. She has two adorable little girls so they are coming over today. I am excited to sit and visit, especially since the weather is bad outside.

I have been in cleaning mode lately. I have been cleaning out all our closets.. they were pretty bad. I feel alot more organized now. I still have a ways to go to be where I want to be but at least I am making progress.

Our Baby is 1!

Brynn turned one on July 14th.. I can't believe it. Where has the year gone. We celebrated by having a 1st birthday party on July 11th. We had a cookout at our house and she was surrounded by so much love from family and friends. She is one blessed little girl. We call her our little peanut, so my sister-in-law Jana made her birthday cake in the shape of a peanut and decorated it so so cute. I know, I need to post pictures.. I never upload them any more to the computer.. hopefully soon!! Brynn loved eating the cake and loved playing with all her new toys.

We flew to NY on July 15th and spent 5 days with Kristine, Lincoln and Lincoln.. it was so much fun. We went to the new Yankee stadium while we were there.. it was an adult only day which was so nice to get a break other than going to work. It was so cool to go into the city to the game and see the old stadium as well. Most of the other time we just boated and relaxed. It was so nice and we did not want to return to work.

Brynn is being stubborn as ever. She will walk all over the place if you let her hang onto your hand.. she just has to be holding your pinkie finger but the minute you let go of her hand she freaks out. Who knows when she will start to walk on her own!

This past weekend my cousin Jason and his long time girlfriend Casey got married. They had been dating for 12 years so of course everyone was so excited that they finally took the plunge. They are honeymooning in the Bahamas this week.. wish I was there too.

Other than that I have been training hard core for my 1/2 marathon on September 12th.. I have to run 9 miles on Saturday. I did 8 last Saturday.. my mom was so sweet and rode her bike and brought me water along my route.. I couldn't have made it without water.. not in this humidity. I will be glad when the race is over. I am hoping to improve my time from the one in Indy and then be done with the races for awhile.. maybe just do some 5k races along the way.

Football season is right around the corner. I always have mixed emotions about that. It is something that Josh absolutely loves and that I enjoy.. I just hate being gone every weekend in the fall and never getting to experience anything else. The best part is getting to see family and friends every weekend that come.. now that I enjoy!

Hope everyone is well.. I can't believe it has been a month since I posted last.. I hope you all didn't give up on me!!

Refocusing!

It has been along time since I have written. Alot has happened since I wrote last and I just feel like I could write forever but I will try and minimize what I say.

On a very sad note my best friend's dad passed away a few weeks ago. It was so sad and my heart goes out to her and her family. They have been dealing with a lot this part 4 years and I hope now they are able to find peace with the situation and start healing... it has been a long road for all of them!

Brynn turned 11 months since I wrote last.. she still isn't off and running yet but getting closer everyday. Her 1st birthday is July 14th so we have been busy planning her 1st birthday party. I am so excited to see her eat the cake and icing.. I am sure it will be a mess but well worth it. We are going Friday to get her 1 year pictures taken. We are meeting the photographer at the zoo so I am so excited to see what kind of shots we can get. We are finally getting a family picture taken. I haven't had hardly any pictures taken with her since she has been born. I know I will regret that one day but I wanted to lose more of the baby weight before I got a bunch of pictures taken but I figured it is her 1st birthday that we should get a family picture taken.

Jason and Kelli came to visit a few weekends ago. It was so nice to visit with them. We hadn't seen them since March.. three months is a long time for us to go without seeing them. We went to Bob and Linda's for a Father's day feast on Saturday and then Linda kept Brynn so we could hang out with Jason and Kelli. You can tell we have all aged.. we were kid less and still at home in bed by midnight. It was so nice to hang out and catch up though.

Last weekend Josh and I had date night. It ended up being with two other couples but it was great nonetheless. We went to dinner at this nice little place in Paris, IL in the middle of a cornfield but it was amazing. It was the best filet I have ever eaten. Sunday we tried to take Brynn swimming at Suzanne's mother-in-laws but she wasn't having any part of that.. so we packed everything up to be there for 1/2 hour to turn right back around and come home.

This weekend is the 4th of July. We are both working all weekend.. what fun, right? My parents are keeping Brynn. My dad is super excited because he Hans't seen her in over a month.. so at least they will enjoy her.

I need to get refocused.. I set some resolutions at the beginning of the year and I need to regain my focus and get back on track. We were doing soo good about going to church and have missed quite a bit lately.

I also need to start reading more and watching less TV. Any good suggestions??

Everyone have a happy and safe 4th of July!!

Spoiled!!

Josh and I have talked alot lately about what a good baby Brynn has been.. in the beginning it was pretty rough because she was colicky, but after the 1st 8-12 weeks she has been so good. We will go full days without her crying at all about anything. I guess we didn't realize how lucky we really were until more recently other people have been telling us how good she is. I am not trying to be one of those parents who thinks their child can do no wrong, because I know that isn't the truth. I am just spoiled in the fact that we got such a good baby the 1st time around. Plus, she is a great sleeper, it is 9 am and she is still sleeping. I was able to get up and run on the treadmill and get my kitchen cleaned before she even wakes up today. I think this is a trap though, our next child will probably be a living tear!

Am I crazy?

So I have decided to run another mini marathon in Terre Haute in September. I figured it is the only way to hold me accountable and make me workout. I haven't done hardly anything since the Indianapolis one so I think the only way I will continue running is if I sign up for another. I convinced my sister to do it too.. she will be home that weekend for a Colts game on Sunday so we will run it together Saturday morning. I think Sarah is doing it with me again and possibly Suzanne(Brynn's babysitter) so if anyone else is interested let me know.

I picked Kristine and LL up Wednesday night after work in Carmel. They flew in earlier that day and I picked them up at one of her friends house. We headed to Loogootee for a busy weekend. Thursday my dad watched Brynn and LL while us ladies went to Vincennes to get mani/pedicures with my cousin before her wedding. It was alot of fun.. there were about 30 people there. Then Friday my friend Jill and her little girl Mara came over to my parents house. My parents had gotten a new swing set delivered and we had a baby pool and Elmo sprinkler set up. The kids had a blast. Brynn was like a little fish in the pool.. she loved it. I had to keep reapplying sunscreen because she didn't want to get out. Saturday was the wedding. It was a Catholic wedding so it was a long ceremony.. I was worried sick about how Brynn would do but she was very well behaved.. I just kept feeding her snacks the whole time to keep her occupied. Bob and Linda took her for the night after the wedding. If she had been walking we would have taken her to the reception but she isn't quite there yet so they took her for the night. Sunday we had LL's 2nd birthday party at my parents. I can't believe he is two. It was nice to get to celebrate with him.. since last year I was big and pregnant and didn't get to.

This week has just been trying to get things back in order.. it is always hard after being gone for a long weekend. Brynn has been sleeping a ton the past two days. I think the weekend caught up with her and I think finally she might be getting another tooth.

This weekend Josh is doing a 40 mile bike race Saturday morning and then later that day we are going to Jocelyn's 1st birthday party, which mean Brynn's is right around the corner. I can't believe it and can't hardly talk about it without tearing up.



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Super Excited

So I have been wanting a bike trailer so that I can pull Brynn behind me on my bike. I have been doing research for a while now and couldn't believe how expensive they can be.. but today I took the plunge and made the purchase and I should have it by the end of next week.. I can't wait. I got a great deal on it and justified it even more because it can be used as a jogging stroller too. Brynn is going to be traveling in style.. I will post pictures once I get it.

I am watching the Big Ten baseball tournament on TV right now. My cousin Matt is a freshmen at IU and is on the baseball team and he got his 1st collegiate start tonight. I am so excited and nervous.. I can't imagine how his parents feel. I never thought I would say this but "Go IU!"

New Found Respect

I knew my mom was remarkable growing up, but I don't think I knew how much until I had a child of my own and still working full time(well 30 hours counts). I don't see how she did it with 4 kids. I ask Josh all the time how his mom did it with twins. It just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.. I feel like I am scrambling alot of time to get the necessities done and have to let the other things slide. Josh thinks I am crazy 1/2 the time, but I think he has always thought that and has nothing to do with having a baby now.

Last weekend Josh and I had a three day weekend off together.. it was so nice. It has been a long time since we have done that and not been going out of town.. we loved every second of it. Friday we got alot of stuff done outside. We cleaned out the gutters, well it isn't fair to see we, I should say he and my dad cleaned out the gutters, pulled weeds, and washed the windows. All things you hate to do but have to be done. That night we went over to Dan and Sarah's and they grilled out for us.. it was nice to hang out and watch Brynn and Olivia play. They are so cute together.. Olivia is motherly to Brynn, it is so sweet to watch her bring her juice or her pacifier.

Saturday morning we ran a 5k race. It was at the Feline Rescue Center in Centerpoint. It was really cool and crazy to think that something like that exists in this part of IN. The cats were beautiful. It was a pretty tough run because I had taken time off since the mini to let my legs rest, I didn't taper down like I was supposed to so basically I was running that after not running at all for two weeks but for me I did good. I finished right under 30 minutes and Josh finished at 22:30.. pretty sad that he finished 7 minutes ahead of me in a 3.1 mile race but I was trying my hardest. Now I am contemplating running the mini marathon in Terre Haute on September 12th. I am trying to convince my sister to do it with me.. she will be home that weekend for the Colts game on Sunday so I told her we should do it.. anyone else interested?

Later that day I went to my great-aunts 50th wedding anniversary celebration. I took Brynn because my mom loves to show her off.. it made me realize how hard she is to contain at some place like that where she can't crawl around. She is so close to walking.. I am hoping it happens soon. I know everyone says then you are chasing them even more but at least she can walk around and tired herself.. but I can't let her crawl around at a place like that.. she will get stepped on. It was nice to see cousins I haven't seen forever. It made me really miss my grandma and grandpa though.. I feel like they would have been the life of the party if they were there. It was sad to see them in their later years in life because I feel like they were robbed of so much when they had their strokes and couldn't get around as well, but they used to be social butterflies. Big family things like that always make me miss them that much more.

Sunday we had a cookout at our house for two of the rph I work with.. one is pregnant and the other ones wife is pregnant. We had about 30 people here.. lots of kids. It was so fun to see them all play together. I love having people over. I stress til they get here making everything is set up and if I have enough food or not and if the house is clean enough.. then I stress when they leave about cleaning everything up.. but I love every minute they are here.

Wednesday night after work Brynn and I went to watch Bailey graduate from pre-school. I can't believe she is old enough for that. She looked pretty darn cute.. it was so funny to watch all those kids sing their songs and recite their pledges.

I am off the next two days and then work Sunday. Not to much going on over the weekend.. I know alot of people get super excited about holiday weekends but unfortunately we work alot of them so it doesn't mean too much to us.

Before I go.. I just have new found respect for all of you mothers out there.. I love every minute of being a mom but I just don't think I have figured out how to balance everything yet. I shouldn't complain because I only have 1 child and a great support system around.