Yippee! Kaia is three!

Our little gremlin turned 3 years old yesterday, and we celebrated Friday night with her birthday buddy, Lathen, who was born four days before Kaia. We had dinner with some of their nursery friends at Lathen's house. The party was fun and simple, and we avoided any meltdowns until we arrived home afterwards.

We are really hoping that 3 is better than 2 was for Kaia: her health, her behavior, her sleep, her happiness (our sanity). When she is cute and happy (yes, let's focus on that), she is SO stinkin' cute and happy. She LOVES all things Elsa and Anna from Frozen and there is nothing cuter than her rocking out to all the songs. She belts out the words, and twirls and twists around the living room. The other super cute thing about her right now is her praying. She always says, "We bless that we will not have any nightmares," even if it's our morning prayer or a prayer on our food. She also still blesses that Daddy will feel better, even though he hasn't been sick for a few weeks. She plays SO well on her own, but really loves to play with her sister. She lights up when I tell her Zoey doesn't have school and gets to stay at home to play. Similarly, she REALLY wants to BE just like her sister: 5 years old, long hair, in Kindergarten, etc. al. She simply idolizes her big sis. Lastly, she can be super helpful and cute when she wants to be, and we feel like we're in a phase with our little family where we can go out and do more activities without stressing over naps and diaper changes and the like. Oh, and she LOVES her owl hat Aunt Lolly made. And by loves, I mean she wears it pretty much everywhere, including to bed. Good thing it is so super cute on her!

Happy birthday, littlest one. We love you to the moon and back.

Race Day #1

Partly because of this brutal winter (that is still lingering) Brian and I decided we were going to make very conscious decisions about being more active as a family this spring and summer. First item of activity? We registered for a 7 race series all around beautiful Bucks County. For the next four months we will be running one or two races a month, trying to beat our times from the previous race. 

Today was our first race, and it was 28 degrees outside... brrr! I think we were both a little nervous before the race, not to mention FREEZING cold.

Zoey ran the one mile fun run all by herself! (Well, with Daddy pushing Kaia in the stroller and panting way behind her.) She did awesome, and loved seeing friends from school and the community. I love this little girl!

I ran the 5k, my first in eight years, and ran the slowest time of my life. BUT, as I keep telling Zoey, we are really racing ourselves. SO, next race, we try to beat ourselves. (And, I did not come in dead last, which was a real possibility.)

This HUGE American flag greeted us at the finish line and, I am not embarrassed to admit, I got emotional. Just full of gratitude for my country, my family, and my health. I might run super slow, but my body is healthy enough to run and that is really something to not take for granted.

It was an awesome morning with my family, being cold and healthy together. We're looking forward to our next race later this month.

GO RUN!