No Sugar Yet...Except For....

So I always hold out for the first birthday to give the kids their first taste of sugar when they have their birthday cake. With Josiah, it really probably was his first taste of sugar of any kind - I mean ANY kind. Jacob and Callie probably have tasted sugar in some forms, but nothing REAL - like cake, cookies, etc. Actually no - Jacob had an ice cream cone before he was a year. I remember because he DEVOURED it - the cone and all. We were at Dairy Queen with my Mom and I couldn't resist - it was TUTU after all!! Okay, I digress. Back to Callie. I was talking to my Mom this last week about how fun it was going to be to see what Callie does with her cake this week seeing as how it will be her first taste of sugar. I was cleaning up dinner dishes at the time, and Callie had just eaten a PLATEFUL of sweet potato casserole and honey baked ham!! I died laughing - there's probably more sugar in those things than a piece of cake! Oh well...

Head Is Spinning...

Lots to do this week, so my head is spinning. Watching Carter 4 days instead of 3 , Anderson 1 day, Callie's birthday party this week and ALL that entails (making cake & cupcakes, food, goody bags), cleaning house, cooking for 2 new clients, last 2 swimming lessons for the boys, David's car inspection & oil change, hair cut, well baby check up for Callie (2 1/2 hours before her party on Friday...ugh), etc. Just busy, but we'll be fine. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rainy this week, so I've got to get all that done while keeping boys entertained that will be cooped up all week!! UGH!

Miniature Golf & Ice Cream

Getting some practice on the putting green before hitting the course.



Callie was keeping her eye on the ball! :)

We have so much enjoyed having these extra days with David during his spring break. On Thursday, we spent some of the afternoon down at the beach playing in the sand. Friday afternon, we decided to take the kids out to miniature golf!!! It was their first experience and they absolutely loved it!! Jacob did more "guiding" the ball to the hole than swinging, but they had so much fun. Callie was in the backpack on David and she was totally RIVETED!! The weather was beautiful, so I don't know if she was just looking at everything around her or watching the balls or both, but it was such a fun evening. We topped it all off by going for ice cream afterwards - what could be better? :)

The last visit to the Williams Family of 4!!!

Beth & Anthony's house backs up to some woods, and so both nights, the daddies took all the boys on a hike. They had a BLAST!! The second night, they got so adventurous, that Beth had to go pick them up because they ended up so far away (and it was DINNER time!!!) The boys came back filthy and all scratched up, but SOOO happy!
The four boys at one of the parks we went to. (Jacob, Josiah, Harrison, and Jackson)
Miss Beth & Callie - pretty in pink!!!
The boys with their loot after our Easter egg hunt! :)
This was the funniest thing. All week, Callie had a cold and so was not quite as chipper as she normally is. Well, the last night, I had finished feeding Callie and we were getting ready to hit the road and drive back home. She was past her bedtime, but we weren't quite done loading up the car. Anthony came and took her so I could finish packing and the next thing you know, she was BEAMING from ear to ear!!! Apparently he had the magic touch!!

We had a wonderful visit down with Beth and Anthony for a few days at the beginning of our week. Since David had off for spring break, we headed down to NC to see the Williams family for a few days. David volunteered to help Anthony with some painting, so they were VERY productive. Beth & I and the kids, however, just played played played!! The weather was beautiful and we went to a couple different parks. We had a great time, as always, and can't wait to do it again. It was strange though - as we were leaving, it dawned on us all that the next trip we make down to NC will be to visit the Williams family of FIVE most likely!!! It's getting so exciting waiting for Addison to make her arrival!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!

See the bare feet? After going to Target last night to get her white shoes, she LOST one of them somewhere between our house and church this morning!! So she ended up being bare foot after all!!!!
Callie's first egg hunt

This is mostly for my Mom...I promised I would put some pictures up of the kids from Easter today. We miss her soooo much - I know she's coming for Callie's birthday in a few weeks, but we miss Tutu!! So here's some pictures from Easter Sunday! Tons more to post from our small group egg hunt, but I'll let everyone else do that. I've got to go back for a trip to Raleigh in the morning!!!! :)

STILL getting used to this girl stuff...

....so here it is, 7:30 PM on Saturday night, the night before Easter. I was laying out the kids clothes - the same pink polo shirts & khaki pants for the boys, and an adorable little dress from a friend for Callie. Then it dawned on me - I don't have white shoes for Callie!!! DUH! Easter Sunday = white shoes!! Time to put away the black ones. HELLO!!! David is leading worship at another local church tonight, so as soon as he gets home, it's off to Target I go!!! Probably should get some of those lacy socks too, right? (Although it's going to be cold enough tomorrow for wool tights, I'm sure)!

It's been a fabulous day though. The kids and I have done 2 egg hunts - one with the neighborhood, and one at the local park. The city wide one had pony rides, moon bounces, and crafts which was really fun too. The neighborhood one had the kids make their OWN resurrection eggs, which Josiah LOVED because we have been doing them as a family - so he caught along quickly. We've made our Resurrection cookies and the oven is sealed up (ya'll have seen that recipe right? Meringues basically, and you turn the oven off and tape it up. In the morning, you come look at the cookies, and the middle is HOLLOW - just like the empty tomb! Every step of the recipe has a scripture, etc, etc. ). The boys LOVED that process. I have had so much fun with them this week - even more so than all the Christmas traditions. I think maybe because they are older and are more capable of understanding the story and the meaning. Maybe because you don't have the commercialism to deal with like you do with Christmas. I don't know, but it's been wonderful. Looking forward to a GREAT day of worship tomorrow. Signing off...and heading to Target for Size 4 white shoes soon!!! :)

OFFICIAL Race Pictures

http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?29946692

You can click on the link above and see the "official" pictures taken of me at the race. Most of them are terrible though - keep in mind that while running 13.1 miles (every last step), you are not necessarily looking your most beautiful! Kelli had told me beforehand to smile when I saw the camera guys, but I NEVER saw them!! I was focusing on running the race I suppose. Oh well. There's one picture of me at the beginning as I was trying to take off my black jacket. It was complicated - taking off the jacket, repinning my number on my shirt, etc. The other pictures of me racing at the finish are hilarious because Kelli is right behind me!!! She was taking pictures of me finishing on her camera - so funny.

By the way, Kelli's pictures are coming. We had burned them to a CD at Target before she left, but they had some error on the CD and it ended up being blank. So she's mailed them to me. Be patient!!!

Eggs Done, Bunny Cake in Progress..

This picture was from yesterday's special Easter storytime. The library had a special event for 2-4 year olds. They read some Easter books, made a bunny craft, and then headed outside for an egg hunt. I had signed up Jacob for it, and talked with Josiah about it beforehand. It dawned on me that I could potentially have an issue or potential meltdown if the two didn't get to do something together (you all know how inseparable they are...). I talked with Josiah about how this was something special for Jacob and the other 2 & 3 &4 year olds. He got it immediately - he said "yea, the stories will be for younger kids with not as many words, and the craft will be easy for the younger kids. I'll just help Jacob, and some other time we can do something special only for the 5 year olds." I was so proud of him!!! He handled it GREAT! Oh, and the bathing suits are because we had to go straight from storytime to swimming lessons...I'm sure the moms that had their kids dressed in their Easter outfits and smocked overalls and dresses thought I was a freak!
The boys all decorated our Easter eggs this morning. It was not the most successful "kit" we've ever done, but it was fun. Growing up, we used to always dye the eggs on Saturday night - and we had many an Easter Sunday morning with blue and pink fingers!!!! Remember Kristen?

The bunny cake is made and waiting to be decorated once the boys wake up from their naps. They've already practiced hiding and finding eggs today (even Callie got to enjoy that!) David was roaming around the kitchen earlier whining about how there is no chocolate anywhere. I told him that I bought it two weeks ago to fill the eggs with but have it hidden!!! I'm no dummy!!!

The Lucky Charms are out..vacation has begun!!

I may have already posted this picture, but the kids have really been enjoying doing the Resurrection Eggs this year. This is the first year we've done them - I bought them last year, but felt like the kids were still a bit young. They have really been absorbing the story of Easter this year. It's almost painful for me to be explaining it to them though - I find myself wanting to "soften" it up - not get into the true details of what Christ went through. And then I remind myself that it is truth - and in order to understand the depth of Christ's love for us, the boys need to hear what was sacrificed for them. It's been a great way for them to go through the story though.

The boys REALLY enjoyed decorating their own buckets this year!! I got some of those foam sticker things, and they went crazy!!!

this picture doesn't do them justice. Jacob's is completely covered all around with flowers & ladybugs. Josiah's was very specifically designed, and he did mostly words around his bucket. His bucket says "easter", "jesus", "god", and "cross". How I love seeing this tender hearted boy love Jesus.

It has been such a fun day today!!! I finally feel like we're almost on vacation now! The week started out pretty busy. I was still recovering from the race (yesterday my legs finally felt NORMAL again), and was watching Carter the first 3 days instead of M, W, F like normal. Anyways, it just was busy. Today though, I feel like we've started our vacation!!! One of our vacation rites is that the boys get to eat Lucky Charms for breakfast - all THREE of them were so excited this morning to see it out! David has off tomorrow and all next week, but the fun has definitely started! We decorated our easter buckets today (it's much more practical for us to use buckets that we can dig in the sand with all summer than use fru-fru baskets that are useless to the boys), and we have a special Easter storytime today too. Tomorrow we'll dye our Easter eggs and make our bunny cake. I love all these fun traditions!!! It's been just a really fun, family day!

Soft Pants

Jacob totally cracks me up. I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but am just now getting around to it. He has been insisting on wearing only his "soft pants". I've finally figured out that this means he prefers his sweatpants to jeans. Today has been a nice, warm day, so I was going to put out a tshirt and jeans for him, but he balked at the jeans and went to get his "soft pants". I guess he takes after me - I can't blame him! :)

The race was AWESOME!!!!

Here I am - once it was all over!!! After the race, after a great lunch, and a WONDERFUL hot shower!!! See my medal??? I'll be wearing it everywhere I go this week!
Kelli bought me this shirt on Saturday. I LOVE it! It says "13.1 miles...been there, run that! (I may actually wear this shirt all week too, so brace yourselves!) Kelli got a shirt that said "running is cheaper than therapy". So funny - and true!
I loved this shirt too!!!
Me, Kelli, and my kids (that were hungry after the expo and ready to go to lunch...)
Josiah and Jacob with their signs that they made on Saturday for me. Josiah's sign says "run Mommy run". It was so precious - Jacob had drawn circles on his and colored the letters. (Do you see how dark it was that morning? The sun didn't rise until between Miles 2 and 3 - and yet there was my sweet husband and wonderful kids cheering me on! (it helped that I bought poptarts for them to have that morning!)
The boys and Kelli as we were waiting for lunch. Jacob was wearing my medal. Look at how cute my sister is - she and I wore matching visors that day. It helped us find each other in the crowds - she had the cutest St Patty's day stickers on her cheeks. She was the BEST!

First of all, thanks to ALL of you for being such HUGE encouragers to me over these last several months. To train for something like this takes a HUGE committment and sort of takes over your life. David and the kids made a sacrifice to support me in this, and I am so thankful for all that they did. Kelli was a FABULOUS trainer, and to all my friends that cheered me on over these last several months - you're the BEST! Okay, so here's the update!!!

The race was awesome! I RAN (yes, I ran the WHOLE thing) A HALF MARATHON!!! 13.1 MILES - unbelievable. I felt so good and so strong, and really enjoyed the whole experience. Kelli took most all of the pictures, so as soon as I get them from her, I'll post the REAL pictures from the whole weekend. She was an incredible spectator - hanging out of taxi cabs to take my picture, cheering SO loud with signs and posters, running alongside of me at the finish - she was great. David wins husband of the year for getting himself and 3 kids up at 6 AM on Sunday to get down to the race to be able to see me and still get back to church at 8:00 AM. I saw them at Mile 2 and it was WONDERFUL! My muscles are a little tight today - I was definitely MAJOR sore yesterday when I finished - but I feel so good and strong! A huge accomplishment. I even beat my own personal goal. When I first registered, my guess at how long it would take me was 2:45 (two HOURS 45 minutes). A few months into training, I was picking up speed and realized I may be able to do it faster. My new goal became 2:15, but knew that with my foot injury a few weeks back and the cold that I had last week, that may not happen. I kept telling myself that just to run strong and FINISH is huge in itself. But I had a great race, and was able to finish in 2:13. It was awesome. So many more things to say, but I'll leave it at that as not to bore the rest of you. Anyone that wants to know more can certainly ask and I'll be HAPPY to tell more - it was great and I can't wait to do it again!!! I'll post more pictures once I get them from Kelli! :)

Lost in the Shuffle...

Callie took her first steps last Thursday night!! In all of the crazines of race weekend, I'm just NOW posting about it, but I didn't want her to get totally overlooked!! We had Sandi & her kids over for dinner while her husband was out of town, so she was my witness!! Callie took 3 steps towards me, and then sort of launched herself into my lap. The next day, she did it with each of the boys - they LOVED it!! Jacob and Josiah thought it was so funny that she was trying to walk towards them! We'll see how quickly this takes off! This picture of her is actually from last night. We were eating fried chicken and macaroni & cheese (it's SO nice to done with training!) at my request, and Callie is just like her momma and LOVES macaroni & cheese! :) Doesn't she look cute with her 3 little teeth (and the macaroni in her hair?)

Only 3 more days...

...the countdown has definitely begun! Race day is Sunday, and I'm really starting to get nervous about things. Today was my LAST run before the marathon, and it was so weird! I weighed myself today (Thursday is always weigh-in day for me), and I've officially lost 44 pounds training for this - crazy, isn't it? the weather has been beautiful this week, and hopefully should stay nice this weekend as well. I've got my most favorite running clothes ready to wear - very comfortable, not supposed to wear anything new - only the comfortable, broken in clothes, so I think I'm good. The kids and I went down to the beach this afternoon to play and I seriously got heart palpitations as I was driving up to the boardwalk. I just kept thinking "in 3 more days, I'll be running along this course!" Then as I was parking the stroller before going down onto the sand, I was taking my socks & shoes off to leave up in the stroller. I was still in my running shoes, and as I was leaving them in the stroller, I thought "what if someone takes my stroller? My shoes for the race are in there and I would be up the creek!" Not concerned about the fact that my diaper bag, wallet, and keys are in there. But that my running shoes are in there! Crazy! I have a "runner girl" magnet on my car that Courtney sent to me (HAVE to take a picture of it - it's the CUTEST!) , and my sister is arriving tomorrow night!!! It's very exciting, but I'm getting nervous!!! I'm going to go on the website and look at the course now....

Boys Weekend

Josiah and David made the X-Wing Fighter from Star Wars out of Kid K'nex (i just LOVE these things - coolest building toy!)

This was a wood model that he painted, sanded, and glued together. I found these little kits from $1 at Michaels and put them in the boys' stockings. What a find!

I finally told Josiah the other day that Aunt Kelli is coming to see us on Friday. He of course was so excited, and then asked WHY she was coming. I told him about my race and he asked if I was going to run really long like she did when we saw her race. The next question was if Aunt Kelli is coming to take care of them during my race. I told him that she was coming to help me, and that Daddy was going to bring them to see me at the beginning before they go to church. At this point, Josiah got REALLY excited and asked me to take a VERY long time at my race so that they could have a BOYS WEEKEND with Daddy!! It was so cute - that's what we called it back in February when Callie & I went to Williamsburg for my Mom's birthday. Apparently the boys LOVED it!! So funny. Anyways, these pictures are from their dad with David on Saturday - I had an all day women's ministry meeting at church, so they had a BOYS Saturday with Dad instead of the whole weekend! :)

Swimming Lessons

Classic - Josiah doing as he's told, and Jacob is in his own world...

I LOVE swimming lessons! I always loved them as a kid, and Josiah has always had SO much fun with them too! We've always done them right at the beginning of summer, but this year I decided to do it in the spring to help get some of the wiggles out untl the weather is warmer (it's been BEAUTIFUL this week though!) Anyways, it's Jacob's first time getting to take them, because they have to be 3. At first, he told me didn't want to go because he was afraid he would sink (random - never said that before), but was so excited to hear he would get to be in the same class as Josiah. I didn't know how it would work out, but it's been FAB! There are 3 other little girls in their class - 1 is on the same level as Josiah - swims great, but working on strokes, endurance, etc. One of the other girls is TERRIFIED of water, and the other little girl is about where Jacob is - can swim on her own, but just a little bit. Their teacher is great - Miss Ashley does WONDERFUL with the kids and is able to challenge the bigger kids, while still teaching the younger ones the fundamentals. It's been VERY fun - Callie's VERY frustrated that she doesn't get to get in too! :) We LOVE to swim!

Showering Beth!

Last Sunday, my friend Beth (& her sweet family) came into town for the weekend. Her sisters gave her a baby shower on Sunday and it was so much fun!! She is SO excited for little Addison Grace to make her arrival in May, and so are we!!! Beth has had so much fun getting to know the pink side of life now, as she has only known boys!! Callie and I are trying to teach her as much as we can! :) So here are some cute pictures from the shower - it was VERY fun!

Blog Book

Click on my friend Courtney's blog to see her entry from today. There is a website that will make a book from your blog (you can do each year) and she just got hers in the mail. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!! This sounds like a GREAT idea!!! (And would have saved Sue how many reams of paper and how many ink cartridges after trying to print her own?!?!?!)

Consignment Sale Countdown!!!

It's like the best week of the year - my race AND the big semi-annual children's consignment sale!!! So here I am, almost midnight (which is VERY much past my bedtime), but I've finally finished tagging all my items for the sale. The drop off is Tuesday (which we are VERY excited about here in the Schrodt house, because I've had 85 items just sitting in my office - has made children frustrated, husband frustrated, etc - so glad to be getting rid of this stuff!!), and then I get to shop on Wednesday. Yippee - it's going to be GREAT!!!!

Getting Antsy....

...Just went on the Shamrock website to check out some things about the race. Today was the first day that I was really ANTSY - it's coming so soon and I'm so excited!!! My cold is better today, but I was forbidden from running (it's normally my off day, but I was so excited to be feeling better and wanted to so badly!) so I just did cardio and weights. I tried the new special Gatorade Endurance formula that they will be serving on race day - apparently the important thing is to do nothing new on race day - don't wear anything new, do anything different, eat the same stuff, drink the same stuff. It's okay - not my favorite, but oh well. Saw on the website what Carb-Boom flavors they'll be giving on the course - never tried those before, so I may have to skip them!! I'm starting to get bummed that the race is on a Sunday and that David and the kids won't see me finish (I'm dragging them out at 7 AM so they can see me start before having to head to church), but getting so excited that Kelli is coming to be spectator extraordinaire!!! Also getting nervous about the fact that I have to run the half-marathon without my IPOD!!! It's poor race etiquette, Kelli says. I've never run that long without my music, so it should be interesting...stay tuned...

Eating my words

Okay, Kelli & Courtney....for how long did I tell you that I was emphatically NOT a runner? Well, it's time to eat my words. I AM!!! It has been a long week and half - I hurt my foot shortly after I did my 12 miles, and wasn't able to run for almost a week. At this point in my training, it was SO frustrating - worried I wasn't going to be able to run the race, worried I was going to lose everything I'd worked so hard for. This last Tuesday, I was finally able to run again, but was dealing with a cold. It made the run SO hard - had to stop twice to BREATHE...felt like I had just started again!! My "trainers" told me that it was just from the cold, not to worry, get my rest, etc, etc. I had to take yesterday off to rest, but today was able to do my 6.2 and it felt SO good! I was about 2-3 minutes slower than I normally am, but it just felt sooo good to be out there running again!! The race is a week from Sunday, and it's getting VERY exciting! :) So yes, I'm ready to declare that I AM a runner! :)

Okay, okay...

...so maybe it is a crazy idea. But I enjoyed everyone's feedback....maybe I won't try this one. I think that it just sounds so good (potentially) because I'm nearing the end of my training!!!! We're having our dear friends over for dinner tonight, and although we're having "breakfast" for dinner, we won't be serving "the Brunch Burger"!!! Not this time anyways!! :)