5K

I did it. Something I've always thought, "someday I'll do that...". I signed up for a 5K next month. A few of my girlfriends are doing it, too. I started "training" last week. This morning I just didn't want to. I thought, "I'll just do it tonight," knowing full well how much I despise working out in the evening. Once I got the kids in bed my desire was even less than it was this morning, but since I've committed to doing the race, I ran anyway. And I went much farther than I was even supposed to. I walked/ran the whole 3.1 miles! And I did it in 39:15 minutes. I'm hoping to shave at least 5-7 minutes off my time by race day when hopefully I can run the whole thing.
The reason I'm writing this, though (on my iPod for that matter), is so I can look back and remember how amazingly proud I am that I did something hard but so good for myself and how fantastic that makes me feel. Going to bed without doing it would have made me feel pretty crappy. Oh how I hope I can remember this feeling. I have never really been a runner, but I am determined to become one.

Easter Cuties

This year, the Easter Bunny brought the kids new church clothes. The boys all got suits and Sydney got a new dress in her favorite color. She was so excited it was modest enough that she didn't even need to wear a little white tee shirt with it. It's hard to find little girls' dresses with sleeves...but that good old Easter Bunny came through!  I never bought the older boys suits when they were little, and what a mistake that was!  Jakey was just killing me in this little 3-button number...he said he looked like Daddy and now he could go to work like Daddy (which we thought was funny since Tim never wears a suit to work...).

And don't even get me started on Little Miss--she LOVES purple and was so excited to see this dress on Easter morning! 

Here's our little stud, Ryan looking oh-so-dapper.  Can't believe he'll be 12 in 2 1/2 months!!!

And of course, Brandon, the teenager.  I had to tell him to show me some teeth in this picture--he thinks he's too cool to smile wide.  But those teeth are too nice not to show off. :)

Here they are all together.  The difference in heights is pretty funny.  Our kids are pretty spread out age-wise, but it's been perfect for us.  Love them all so much and wish they would stop growing!!!

Ball Girl

Little Girl started basketball this year...in February, to be exact.  Our school district didn't have a regular basketball season (LAME!!!), so we put her in another league.  Good news: 3 of her friends from our "old" ward (more info to come in a later post...) are also on her team.  Bad news:  this basketball schedule is interfering/overlapping with her softball team, which started about 2 weeks ago.  Such is life.

She has had a really fun time.  Her game face is pretty awesome.  She has played 2 games so far, and in the first one she surprised us all and made 2 baskets...no baskets in game #2.  She is pretty short to be a basketball player, but she gets to be the point guard and gets to handle the ball a lot, which she likes. Instead of paying for team pictures, I just had Tim take some for me with my camera, so she's only with her good friends in these pictures (Ellie, Sydney, Ashlyn, and Kylee).

Go Angels!!!

Playing catch-up

In other news, I have vowed to make this the week that I catch up on blogging.  I only had 3 posts for the year before the one earlier today...lame!  So I'm hoping to get at least one done per day, highlighting some of the fun we've been having lately.  Hoping...

The resemblance continues...

When Ryan was little, he was obsessed with trains.  He had this train sweater that he loved, and we had his pictures taken in it.  Well, as luck would have it, I actually found that old train sweater a couple months ago, and put Jake in it to take some pictures.  Here are the side-by-sides.  Jake saw the pictures of Ryan on the counter and said, "Look, it's me!"  He was a little sad when I told him, "No, that's Ryan."  They continue to look so similar!  We apparently have 2 molds--the Brandon mold and the Ryan mold, repeated in Sydney and Jake, respectively.  What's crazy is that their personalities are so similar as well.  Jake is so much like Ryan is/was, and the same can be said for Brandon and Sydney.  Weird.

Jake is staying blonde longer than Ryan did.  They are almost exactly the same age in these pictures, and Ryan's hair is slightly darker.  Other than that slight difference, they are basically twins separated by 8 years.  So glad I kept that sweater!