self-affirmation

As for other news that is over 2 months overdue....

I ran a 10K and loved it.

That's an action shot of me and Kim approaching the finish line. I know I look like I was walking, but I promise, that is a run. I finished the race in about an hour, which was exactly what I hoped for. If I hadn't found out I was pregnant a week before, I probably would have pushed myself a little harder and won first place. Ha.

Either way, Kyle was proud of me. He will probably make me edit this out, but I remember that he told me at the finish line that he almost cried when he saw me running. Awwww.

I was proud of myself too. There's something so empowering about having a goal and then working hard and achieving it. Our family motto, borrowed from Dale Murphy, is "we can do hard things". It felt good to do something hard. As a mother, sometimes I feel like all I do is dishes and diapers and dinosaurs. So it is refreshing to get an reminder that I can do other hard things too.

(me and my mother friends who ran together)

It is kind of funny to remember that on the night before and the morning of the race, I felt sickeningly nervous. Funny because those feelings are not too dissimilar from my reaction of the recent ultrasound findings! It builds my confidence that things that make me nervous and seem hard really do end up to be a pleasure. Including raising girls, I assume.

Thanks for your votes of confidence. I'm feeling 90% less nervous and I can definitely live with that. :) Bring on the girl.

It's a....

....Baby! (for those of you who don't know I'm pregnant)

.....Girl! (if you want to get more specific)

I went to the doctor for my Ultrasound one week ago, and found out the big news. Not that it was a surprise to Noah or Jake. They have been convinced for weeks that it is a girl. Before the ultrasound I tried to prepare them for a potential shock if we saw boy parts instead...but Noah was adamant that it was a baby girl in there. He was happy to tell us afterwards: "See!? I told ya!" Kyle was instantly thrilled, and he is ready to figure out the experience of fathering a girl. As for me, I was surprised at the intensity of apprehension that I felt when I found out we've got a daughter on the way. But I have had seven days to adjust to the idea, and now I am nothing but happy. Well, ok. I'd be lying if I didn't say there are still some anxious flutters left in the mix! I know mothers are supposed to worry about kids. But something about mothering a girl seems so...scary. Without detailing all the specifics, I'll leave it at that. Because like I said, the excitement is coming and starting to replace some of those nerves. Probably the turning point was when I remembered that children start out as babies. Sweet, tiny, lovable babies. And this time I can dress mine up like a doll. What could be scary about that? Right??

(Feel free to leave a reassuring comment of the things you love about mothering your little girl!)

State Baseball Tournament

We headed up north for the high school state tournament.

We made a family vacation out of it, since they just kept winning. We ended up staying for about 4 nights and enjoying every minute. Noah especially thought hotel life was pretty posh.

He said he wanted to live in that big house forever. The breakfasts every morning were his favorite. As for Jake, he loved the pool, and recklessly threw himself into the water over and over again.

We also got together with some old friends from college: Laura, Megan, and Ella and their families. It was fun to get all the kids together and to see how much our lives have changed since our days at BYU.

We also found time for a family trip to the Hogle Zoo.

We heard they were having a dinosaur exhibit, and thought it sounded right up our alley.

It was. The boys were in heaven.

Who cares about the animals? Noah sure didn't. He ran from dinosaur to dinosaur, ignoring the animal life he passed on his dino hunt.

Here we are, a happy little tourist family. We had a great trip, even though the Warriors didn't end up taking state. (they were so close though!) We did get a good vacation out of it, thanks SCHS baseball program!