It Begins.....

Me, Amanda, and Christina

At least I finished smiling!

My sweet husband was there to cheer for

me and take this flattering pics of me

Many of you know I once was a runner.......a long, long time ago! I ran long distance races in high school and college.....sadly, my body isn't the same. I began running again this past January to "get in shape" - since I will have no more children, I knew it was time to tone up again. If you want to feel your age - run! I have made it to running 4 miles every time, but because my body is old, I can't run every day - I have to run every other day. My sister friend, Christina, began running and asked me to go with her one day- this led to us planning our racing career. Our big goal is to run the Princess 1/2 Marathon next February at Disney World. We plan to do a bunch of 5k's and half marathons until then to "practice"! I usually go for my runs at night when Rhyne is able to watch the kids. My kids were sad at first that on those nights I would not be able to do the Bible story/prayer with them before bed - I explained that if mom didn't practice, we couldn't go to Disney World for my race! Now the kids say, "Mom, go run so we can go to Disney!"! This weekend was my first official race. I ran in the Viking 5k in Greenwood today. I did ok - I wanted to do better, but I have not be able to run in the past 2 weeks due to 2 sinus migraines. I think I did good considering the hiatus. I ran three miles in 30 mins. I did learn a lesson, I shouldn't drink red wine the night before the race - this made me dehydrated and I threw up half way during the race! Lesson learned!!!! All this to say, I am glad I finished the race and look forward to improving and making it to 13.1 miles!!

Surprise trip to Birmingham

Making Thomas laugh

AP wasn't looking and Thomas finally

got to investigate what that bag was

Modeling for Thomas

Poor Laura Beth, she has 30 pics on

her camera b/c Ann Phelps kept saying

"take one more"

AP taught him peek a boo around the pole

LB and SE

Sarah Elizabeth, Ann Phelps, and I made a surprise trip to see Laura Beth (and Harris and Thomas) in Birmingham yesterday. I teamed with Harris to get her to Birmingham where SE, AP, and I surprised her! Ann Phelps loved being the oldest kid there, she had fun making Thomas laugh and teaching him how to run around the lamp post at the mall!!

Little Mommy

Ann Phelps has been raising her babies a lot lately! She takes them to the movies, to the ballet, to the grocery store, and she is even potty training them! The other day she was telling one of them to be quiet because she was praying! She is truly all girl - a year ago I never thought she would be girly, but it has changed for sure!! In the picture above, Ann Phelps explains that she served each of her babies fruit loops for snack time! It sort of looks like dog food piles, but she assured me Clara and Alice would eat it when they got through using the restroom! Love my little girl!!!

Phineas and Ferb

I took the boys to see Phineas and Ferb LIVE today. We went with the Jackson family. Don't feel sorry for Ann Phelps, she got to see Cinderella two weeks ago! Grandmother bought us the tickets - Pap and Dee Dee let the boys do "chores" around their house last week to have spending money for the $15 snow cones and $20 souvenirs!

Spring Break '12

Happy Birthday, DeeDee!

Happy Birthday, NelNoo!

Climbing trees

This Deere has been running since

Will was almost 2 years old!!

Love roasting hot dogs and smores!

messy marshmallows

wearing green for St. Pat's Day

Love playing with Boots

"Dee Dee, the fire is too hot for me."

I had this Buzz in my collection of Beanie Babies - I

never dreamed I would have a little boy who would love

Buzz so much!!

Dirty faces and messy hair

This was a hot Spring Break- had to cool off with

popsicles!

riding Bones

It is tuff being the big brother

*Maybe next time MarMoo will feel better and have a pregnancy glow so she will

let me include her in the pictures!!

Once again we retreated to our favorite adventure place for Spring Break! Dee Dee and Pap's in the country - so fun! The kids had fun at Grandmother and Pop's last weekend, then we headed to Acona to finish out Spring Break. I have fun just watching the kids run wild and free! We also celebrated NelNoo (Eleanor) and Dee Dee's birthdays too! Now we are home, getting ready for the down hill slide until May!

Redemption

I posted an entry way back in 2008 about my epic failure of pancake cooking. Well, today I have redeemed myself! I made gluten free pancakes and they turned out beautifully and were all gone by three hungry kids, I might add!

*to see the picture from 2008 click here:Rhyne's the Cook

Giving it up...

Back in high school and college, I was a collector of Beanie Babies - yes, I admit it! I wasn't a crazy collector - I didn't pay more than $25 for one (it was the Princess Di memorial bear). My Mom has been wanting me to clean the BB's out for some time now. Finally, an opportunity came up this week for me not only to clean them out, but make children happy.......our church is sponsoring a mission trip to Peru in June and they sent a notice out asking for (of all things) BEANIE BABIES!!! They will pass the beanie babies out to the kids in Peru!! Because my stack of boxes at my parents' is never-ending, I was stuck in a small space digging for the beanie babies - I think I got all of them - I got tired of digging! The final count was 98 (give or take) and I left the ones that were in protective containers - just to have as a memory! My kids begged for some - I let them each pick 2 (I will be able to get them back when the "new" wears off)! Of course, AP needed three because she believed all the puppies needed to be together! On a side note, it was fun to give Ann Phelps my cabbage patch kids and horse figures to play with!!

First half not so good.....

I will not be posting pictures of our first half of Spring Break - unless you want to see Will recuperating from the flu! Rhyne and I went out of town Friday to Memphis to celebrate Eleanor's surprise bday party. By the time Sunday came, the decision was made that Will was really sick. I thought when he started being sickly on Thursday, it was a gluten issue - I never thought it could be the flu! We made an ER trip to UMC because his fever was high and he couldn't keep anything down. I was shocked he had the flu - we got the flu shots this year after all! But two kids in his class had the flu last week also!? A few good things (if there is a good thing about the flu)- the doctors said he was over the worst, he didn't have to stay in the hospital for hydration, and the other 2 have shown no signs of being contaminated! So we just got to Dee Dee and Pap's house to celebrate the rest of our Spring Break and hopefully I will have pictures of happy kids/mom to post later!!

Mother Goose Parade

Definitely the cutest costume

Peter Piper

Will's teacher (Mrs. McDade) was Mother Goose

some of the teachers as the little piggies

The kindergarten classes at FPDS had a Mother Goose Parade this morning. Each kindergartner dressed like a nursery rhyme character. Will was Peter Piper!

Will's Crown #3

Today Will received his 3rd crown for Catechism memory work!! What a blessing!

Cinderella Ballet

One of the many pictures of AP

"balleting" (as she says it)

She told me not to hold on to her

Shopping at Highland Village - she

wanted to pose next to the pretty flowers

balleting next to the flowers

In front of the clock at Cinderella

MarMoo with the fairy godmother

Since MarMoo is pregnant, we had to have a REAL

snack afterwards - Beagle Bagel (and yes, it's a girls'

day so she is drinking a diet coke)

Ann Phelps, MarMoo, and I went to the Cinderella ballet today. It was such a fun girls' day! The boys hung out with Rhyne and went to see "The Lorax" - one interesting incident, Ben didn't make it to the potty in time (my guess is he told Rhyne he had to go and Rhyne told him to wait- Rhyne didn't realize that when Ben says he has to go it is usually already to the critical point)!