Pony Express 5k

This is one of my favorite races.

It's little and it's basic, but it's local (the start is 3mi from our house) and it's fast!  It was the first running race I did (my first actual race was a tri), which adds sentiment to it.  And it's my PR race.

It's held the first weekend in June during Pony Express Days-our city celebration.
Which means that this year it was held 3 days after my due date.
Which means that for me it wasn't happening.

I mentioned a few months back that for Valentine's Day Aaron agreed to run it for me since I would either be past due or have just delivered.  The man knows me well enough to know that this made an awesome gift.  For runners married to non-runners, you understand.

Thankfully I didn't fall into the past due category, and had a squishy little 8 day old bundle of love when Pony Express rolled around this year.

Though Aaron's Couch to 5k plans were derailed by some still undetermined mystery health issue that landed him in the hospital and then brought him the pleasure of being scoped from every possible angle and was capped off with a camera swallow, and then he was fulfilling his capstone hours working in the PICU overnight and on weekends, I assumed he'd just walk most of it.
But he said he would run it, so run he did!

At all of the races sponsored by or benefitting The Cupcake Charity, someone runs as a cupcake. Usually it's one of the cute little tiny runner ladies.  This time it was James.  Awesome.  Complete with the hat since it was Pony Express days and all.

(this was long after he finished, he's one of the speedy locals)

The Chik-fil-a cows were there to help keep the other kids entertained.

Malia was the first one in for our family, hitting her sub-30 goal!

She was just a little bit excited about that.

Shortly after that Alaina came blowing in.

She has a killer finish.

And then came Taylor...

As the girls were cheering him in he yelled "Leave me alone!!"

Ah, feel the love.

And then came my love around that last corner.

Still running!

I'm so excited that he was able to run the whole thing!

Then Dallin finished up for our family.  The kids were excited to run him in.

My FIVE runners!!  Way to represent!

I did get that little inner tug of wishing I was out there racing, but it was tempered by the 8 day old bundle strapped to my chest.  Not to mention that it's about time I was the one welcoming people across the finish line since they've been so good at doing it for me.  It was so fun to cheer them in!
(yes, I did get a little emotional, but baby was only a week old so I can blame hormones, right?)

And thanks to a fabulous runner friend who knows that a picture of the whole family at an event is pretty much unheard of, a shot of the whole herd.

When you squish them in close together with two in a stroller and one strapped to me, nine kids doesn't look like that many!
Oh my word, I have NINE kids.

Dear Self,

Stop Comparing.  


You are not who you used to be.  
You did just have a baby.

It's ok that most of your pants don't fit.
It's ok that you're tired.
It's ok that  ten minute miles wear you out after 3ish miles.  

It won't always be that way.

So stop comparing yourself to where you were a couple of months ago.  Sure, you may have been very pregnant and still running longer and faster than now, but you weren't recovering from giving birth.  That really does take a lot out of you.  You forget that every time, but it's true.

And by all means stop comparing yourself to where you were a year ago.  Back then your baby was nearly a year old, not nearly a month old.  There had been months and months of work to get to that point, remember that.  Don't think about what the number on the tag on your pants was, or what the number on the scale was.  Don't think about what your pace was, or what the distance on your long runs was.  There is no marathon on the schedule this year.

You'll get back there.  Really.  But remember it's not an overnight thing.  You're doing just fine, just be patient.

Go ahead and consider it a productive day today even if all you do is feed your baby and hang out with your kids.

Now go love on that baby as much as you can.  She didn't get the memo that she wasn't supposed to grow so quickly.

We made it

Eyelashes

I swear they get longer every day.

Double Take

A nibbled-on chip...

Dark spots on the floor....

Minor panic.

This could mean something very unpleasant.

Mice.

Or it could mean that the kids have raided the pantry and left a trail of chips and chocolate sprinkles scattered around the kitchen floor.

Today I am grateful that the kids got in the sprinkles.  

On the road with company

Since walking is all that happened for the past two weeks, it's been nice to have an amazing view.
In the form of my company.

Sometimes being pushed along,

 (with Sam up front along for the ride)

Sometimes wrapped up against me.

Love snuggling that sweet little body!

I even got Aaron out with me a couple of times, and a few of the other kids have rotated through.
Good company = better walk.

Two weeks, three weeks....

Yeah, I know, still a little behind.
She's now already three weeks.
Ohmyword.

We had her official two week checkup on Monday (2wks 3days), and I was a little relieved to see that my scale must be a bit heavy.  When I had her on the scale with me last Friday when she hit two weeks she weighed in at 8lbs even.  Uh...you know that whole 'babies should regain their birth weight by two weeks' thing?  Yeah.  She was 6lb 7oz at birth!  8lbs?!?
Her weigh in at the dr appointment showed her at 7lb 7oz, which while still an amazing gain at 2wks old for some reason seems much more ok than 8lbs already.  (not to mention the fact that if my scale is a little heavy it means I weigh a little tiny bit less too!)  I know they grow quickly but that was a little too quickly for me!  At the rate she's going though, we should hit 8lbs by next week.  Wow.  Don't get me wrong-I am thrilled that she is eating well and gaining well, especially when we've had a couple of babies that have had a rough start with nursing and gaining.  But I would be totally ok if she maybe slowed down just a teeny tiny bit.

The fabulously inconsistent measurement of length shows she has shrunk an inch from the day she was born.  That ranks right up there with the amusement factor of the baby that somehow gained 2 inches from birth to a one week check.  Good thing that's not a critical number!

She is doing fabulously, sleeping well most nights (5-6hr stretch?  yes please!), and getting cuter by the day.  She is strong as can be.  It took Sam so long to be able to really support his head well that it's a little crazy to see her picking it up and looking around so much.  And I'm going to pretend that she wasn't actually moving around when she was on her tummy the other day.

She's lost that funny newborn look.
The tiny diapers are starting to get a little snug.
The bird legs are chunking up.
*sigh*

Bird Legs

A sneek peek

Thanks to a fabulous photographer, we got some completely heart melting pictures despite the fact that Emily was less than cooperative for this little event.

I watched for a few days to figure out when she was most sleepy so we could time it just right.  So of course she wasn't sleepy the afternoon we finally scheduled it.  But Niki pulled it off!

We got a few moments with her dozing...

And she even caught the sleep smile!

Love.

(for more check out Niki's website here)

School is out! First Day to Last Day Pics

A lot changed over the past 9 months!

(aside from the obvious)

Aug 23, 2011

May 31, 2012

We finally got everyone in the same place for 90 seconds to get them lined up.
It only took an hour and a half and ridiculous amounts of drama to get that picture.
You don't want to know.

The journey back

I'm in the process of trying to put all of those weekly belly pictures together so I can watch the progression from this:

to this:

Good thing I kept the lighting consistent, huh?  whoops.  In the future I'll try not to be so lazy and actually edit photos instead of posting them sooc.  In the meantime feel free to appreciate the inconsistent, bit too dark, outlet in the corner of the picture fabulousness that rivals my finger over the camera photos.

Now that baby's here, I'm also in the process of trying to get back to where I started from.
That first picture is actually at 10wks pregnant, so I'd be thrilled to get back to 10wks past where I started from!
Oy.
I'm trying to pretend that knowing how much work it will take doesn't scare me.

I am pleasantly surprised at how well my abs held up through this one.  Not thrilled with the number on the scale-I am NOT one of those people who loses all the weight in the first month-but that's ok.  Once I can get back to running (less than a week!), I know I will start to see it budge a little.
I promised Aaron, just like last time, that I would wait three weeks before trying to run again.
You'd think this would be easier than it was last time because I got to run literally until the day I delivered this time around.  Last time I was done running 4weeks before baby arrived.  That means that last time around I was off for 7 weeks, whereas this time I only have 3 weeks of really being off.

Can someone explain how it is that I'm more antsy to get back out there this time?
But let's be honest, when that day of freedom to run again rolls around in a few days, it's going to kill me to be more than a few feet away from this little creature.

*sigh*

True to last time around, I'm mapping the journey back to abs.  Unlike last time I'm hoping to do better at taking pictures regularly.  Aiming for weekly like I did in the buildup to the big belly...we'll see how diligent I am.

So far?

One week:

 Two weeks:

After taking one full week to rest (as much as you can when you have 9 kids and a hubby with a demanding schedule), I started back with walks at one week.  I have been able to up my pace considerably, going from a 17min/mile 2 mile walk the first day back out to just over a 14min/mile 4 mile walk a week later.  Yesterday I attempted Pilates again (ab separation was minimal, just one finger width apart which means I'm good to go!), pleased with how my body responded, amazed at how much oblique strength is lost during pregnancy.  I also started venturing back toward the daily dose of pushups, and though I'm not up for the real thing yet I was able to knock out 5 sets of 20 "girl" pushups.  I'll take it.

Looking forward to a run this weekend, and hopefully a few good races by the end of the summer or early fall!

Old enough to drive

Not any of my children yet.  Thank goodness.

Do you realize how close that is for me though?  Hello!!  My oldest child will be old enough to get her learner's permit in less than a year and a half.
Oh my word.

So what's old enough to drive?

Aaron and I.
No, not us, US.


Last Tuesday, June 5th marked 16 years since our first date.

16 years from the first time I held his hand.
16 years from the butterflies.
16 years from me falling off a log while we were hiking.  Right after we'd discussed the fact that I had competed on my school's gymnastics team, and did best on....yep, that's right, beam.  Nice. (he still thinks I fell on purpose.  I still feel stupid that he thinks I would do that on purpose.)
16 years from that moment...when we knew it was something different.

Which also means that last week on June 6th we marked the day after our first date, the day that he showed up in the morning at my door to apologize to my parents for keeping me out too late (yes I got in trouble).
16 years from when I answered the door in PJs with mussed up hair and spit dried to my face (I figured it was a neighbor.  Apparently I also figured they knew me well enough that I didn't care how I appeared at the door).
16 years from me shutting the door in his face after I saw it was him and realized how I looked.
16 years from me reopening the door and after he asked if he could speak to my dad I uttered the beautiful words "Do you have a death wish?!"
16 years from him actually apologizing to my dad for keeping me out late, then leaving, followed by my dad laughing and asking me "did you know you have spit dried to your face?"

The last first date.
The best first date ever.

Yes, I still drool in my sleep.