His First Train Ride

Ok, well maybe it wasn't an Amtrak, but it was a little train at a local town fair and he loved it. Since he can say the word "choo choo" and associate it with a train, this experience made his day. He held on for dear life but you could tell he had a great time.



He also got to see some farm animals up close in the FFA building. Unfortunately this is a picture after we left the barn, when he wanted to go and visit the older kids washing the cattle.



Being the typical mom, I wanted to get a picture at every opportunity. So when I saw this, I just had to do it. Luckily there weren't many of these spots to stop at.



He also got goodies like a balloon, a taste of fried cookie dough and cheese fries. And in the end he ended up being one tired little man.

Romp in the Park 5K

I did it!! I completed another 5K this year and I'm proud of myself. My time isn't as good as I wanted it to be, but I'm working on it and hopefully it will get better. Today was beautiful with temps in the low 70's and it was sunny. It was a perfect morning for a run. My hubby and little guy came out to cheer me on, which was wonderful and such a relief to see when I got to the finish line. I have one more later on this year and we'll see if I can sneak another one in during October.

It's That Time of the Year Again

And so it begins, that time of year when the boys suit up, the fans crowd the stands, and I make a small visit to the field and then go home with my little one. That's right it's football season. Or I should say that the high school season has kicked off tonight and once again I am sitting at home on Friday night, while my little guy snoozes away in his crib. The hubby, well he's doing his job, standing on the sidelines, prepared for any medical emergency that may arise. He is an athletic trainer for a high school and he's busy. But it gives me alone time with Scotty that I really cherish but on the other side it takes away from cuddling time with the hubby.

Anyway, I must share that we had a great summer. We have made trips to local festivals and the Illinois State Fair. We've watched parades and petted horses. Scotty has gotten to play at a children's museum and run around in a football helmet. The little guy has gotten so big and to date says around 17 words (that we can understand). Some days it's hard to realize how much he has grown and in so many different ways. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings for this little guy.

As for me, I got a promotion at work (finally) and I'm trying to stay up on my running. I took two weeks off for some much needed rest. But I'm back in the swing of things and I have two 5Ks coming up that I am very excited about. I started a class through work and I'm about ready to start the next session. The hubby is doing well with his courses too. I hope to keep up with it all.

Catching a Smile

Lately in my attempts to take pictures of my little guy I find that he always looks like I have surprised him. Surely this isn't the case but all of these pictures seem to tell it differently.

Ahh...wait a minute, here is a picture of a smile.

I'm Hungry

In the past few weeks my hubby and I began a partial South Beach diet. You know the kind...you do really well until there is an event such as July 4th and then you give it up for a day and from then on it seems to go downhill. This pretty much explains how we usually end up on our diet adventures. This time doesn't seem to be as bad.

The 4th got in the way with some not so healthy beverage choices but other then that we have been successfully keeping the carbs down. I've lost 7 lbs total in two weeks and I am excited about it. The fit of some of my clothes is fantastic and not so tight. The one downfall of this diet was week one. There is such a restriction in the type of food you can have that I felt like I was starving. I bypassed goodies at work for carrots and cauliflower. But this also encouraged me to look at what I was eating and how truly bad it was for me.

I currently play softball on Monday nights, which helps with the new training program I am planning to start this week. I have another 5K that I have my eyes set on at the end of July.

Also...kudos to my little brother for finishing 90th out of 235 in the Lakeside Triathlon this past weekend. He very impressive, especially for a first time triathlete.

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Sunsets

Where Have We Been?

What a great question. And all I can say is here but very we've been busy. Let's see where can I start....... well my hubby is done with work until August. He does provide AT coverage for summer camps at the high school but that is generally in the morning. Scott has a new sitter for the morning hours and then goes home with daddy in the afternoon.

I turned the big 30 on June 16th. My husband made me a dinner of steak tacos and bought me a pair of Ugg sandals that I had wanted. My co-workers helped me celebrate at work by bringing in yummy treats, decorating my desk and tying balloons to my desk. My husband, brother, sister-in-law and two other friends joined me in Milwaukee on the weekend of June 4th for a brewery boat tour and some night-time fun. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend the brewery boat tour. It takes you to three microbreweries along the river and you get to tour their facility along with drinking beer.

The morning of June 5th, before taking off to Milwaukee, I completed my first 5k of the year. I did just fine for the fact that I was never able to fully complete the Couch to 5K program. I was slightly off my time from 4 years prior which really just means I have some work to do. Which brings me to my new cell phone. After using a very simple phone for the last two years I got an IPhone. It's not the new IPhone 4, but it works all the same. I am really excited to use some of its features including mapping my run and possibly downloading the Couch to 5K. I plan on signing up for another 5K which is in July very soon.

We ventured down to D-town last weekend to visit my mom and to hang out with my dad for father's day. Scott had a blast as my mom took him around the farm on the golf cart. He thought it was great. In fact my dad came up to visit us this weekend for the first time since we moved. We spent the morning at my brother's house which was nice because he has air conditioning and we don't. However, the AC man is coming next week to install a central air unit for us. We decided when we had the house built that we didn't want to pay $4500.00 for AC. It would have been included in our mortgage but it just seemed really high. So needless to say we are paying significantly less for this unit and I really can't wait.

Scotty is growing like a weed. Running around and talking all the time. He loves being outside, in fact we bought a bike trailer and he has a great time we when go on family bike rides. We bought a little pool for him and he isn't to keen on getting in it quite yet. But it sure is fun getting him to try. He can say dog, ball, yes, and I on a rarity he repeats other words.

I'm sure there is so much more that I have forgotten about. I hopefully will try to keep up a little more on my blogging as being a slacker isn't much fun.

C25K: Week 6

When I agreed to run in a 5K in June, I thought I had lots of time to prepare. What I didn't take into account was the horrible allergy issues that I would encounter along the way. The high pollen count has delayed my training but I'm getting there. I am 3 weeks behind on the training and when it comes time for the race I will only be on week 8.



But after tonight's run I feel good. I feel like I could have kept on going. I'm not sure if it was the weather or if it was my beagle girl, Shiloh that I decided to take with me since my Ipod wasn't charged. She did a great job keeping up with me, but I must say by the end she was trotting behind me instead of pulling me. Miss Shiloh was great company and I think she may become my new running partner. Pushing my baby boy in his stroller is great fun but I need to get my training done before I am going to add him back into my runs.

Party Time and Some Pictures

Due to my lack of blogging I am having to play catch-up today. So here we go....Scott's first birthday party was on May 2nd and it was great. It was our first time having visitors at our house, other then our parents. I believe we had around 25 friends and family that came and you could tell that Scott could tell that it was his party. He had so much fun chasing his cousins around and licking his cake. I made an Elmo cake and he wasn't quite for sure what to do. So he put his hands on it and then tried to lick it. Despite the fact that he was pink from the Elmo cake afterwards, it was a lot of fun.

This year I celebrated my second Mother's Day. Last year Scott was a mere 2 weeks old so I was still excited from his entrance into the world. So this year we joined my brother and sister-in-law, my mom and her boyfriend, and my sister-in-laws parents at the horse track. They had gone last year and had a good time so we decided to go with them this year. At first I wasn't for sure how it would work out having a 12 month old at a horse track. Needless to say we had to keep him busy. With walking around, checking out the horses, and going to the petting zoo area, Scotty seemed to have a good time. He even picked a winning horse for one race....he picked the wrong horses for the next two. It was a lot of fun and I think it will be fun to make it a tradition.





And finally we got Scott's one year pictures back from our photographer and they are fantastic. Mary from Emme Elle Photography is amazing and does such great work. I had to share some of the pictures here.

My Baby is One!!

This past Friday on April 30th my little guy officially turned one year old. I truly can't believe that a year has gone by. People will tell you that you should take it all in and appreciate each moment because it goes by so fast, we these people are right. I swear it feels like the day we brought him home from the hospital. While waiting for the nurse to check us out we were trying to figure out the baby carrier. Once we had that figured out we were ready to go. And now here I am watching my baby walking, running around outside, eating adult food like he has done it for the past entire year. It really hit me the other day at work. I was showing a co-worker his one-year pictures and she said he really looks like a toddler now. She pointed at his pictures that I have all over my desk and said just look at him. I did and I realized at that point that he was only going to get bigger and that every moment with him is special. One day he won't bring me a book to read to him instead he will yell bye as he is running out the door to meet up with his friends.

He went to his one year doctor's appointment today and weighed in at 20 lbs and is 30.2 inches tall. Our doctor said that he is doing great and to continue the transition to whole milk. He enjoys whole milk, so once the last of the formula is gone that's what he is getting. We also had a birthday party for the little guy this past Sunday and once I have those pictures downloaded I will share.

No matter what this kid will always be my baby, whether he is 6'7" or 30 years old. I love him so much and I can't wait to watch him continue to grow into a fantastic young man.

1st Year Photo Session....Check!

Who knew there was so much to do when a baby turns the big age of 1. There is the doctor's visit (scheduled for the week after his birthday), the big party of family and friends (scheduled for two days after his birthday) and the pictures, which we had done today. I found Mary Long of Emme Elle Photography, who specializes in taking pictures of children and I found her on Facebook. She lives in our area so I scheduled an appointment for Scott, and to have a family picture taken.

Scott was a star!! He was so happy and excited to be there. We took a family picture in our Chicago Cubs jerseys and the little guy paraded around with some baseballs and a bat. Mary got a kick out of him and kept saying how good he was. I'm sure her job can be challenging when you have a little one that doesn't want to cooperate. Scooty also took some pictures in a dressier outfit, some overall shorts, and then in his diaper. We attempted the smash cake picture but I must say my child was not all that enthused with his cake. I have no idea where he got that trait from because I love cake.

Mary did a great job and I highly recommend her when you need some great pictures of your kids. In a week I'll have pictures to share. Now it's on to preparing for the big party....

C25K: Week 3 and Horrible Allergies

I started week three of the C25K this week. Monday was good but then yesterday I hit a wall. It's these allergy issues that I can get rid of. When will this stop?? It was hard to catch my breath. I felt like I was running in place but somehow managed to pick up the pace and end pretty well. My actual pace has gotten better and tomorrow I am going out without pushing the little guy in the jogging stroller. Hopefully that will increase my pace even more and hopefully my allergies will get better soon.

Check out some pictures of me and Scotty getting ready for our jog!

Adventures in Cake Making

My cousin Kim got married this past weekend and I made her cake.....that's right everyone I made her cake. First let me say that her wedding was delightful. It was very simple and sweet since it was both Kim and Joe's second marriage. So when she was planning the big day she mentioned that Joe was going to make the wedding cake. I thought to myself...why would he want to do that when he has plenty of other things to do on his wedding day. So I offered, as my wedding gift, to make the cake. She, of course, said yes!




So after months of non-planning the time came. I took Thursday and Friday off from work in order to work on the cake. I was told very little about the cake: heart shaped, blue, and 100-125 people. So that's what I did...I made a cake for a little over 100 people that was heart-shaped and included blue accents. The final result was great (at least that is what I was told) but it was the process that became annoying.

I bought almost the perfect amount of supplies. I started baking on Thursday morning and I was plowing right through until the incident.



I had just put the crumb layer of icing on the bottom layer of the white cake when my baby boy woke up from his afternoon nap. I pushed the two layers of cake to what I thought was the middle of the table and went to get him. A diaper change later and I came to find my older beagle craning his neck to eat as much of the white cake as he could. As you can see he took such a big chunk out of the cake I had to remake the white cake. I must say Ted Beagle is one lucky beagle, because I really could have tossed him out on his beagle rear-end and not cared one bit.



This in turn caused a delay in everything. By Thursday night I was exhausted and my back and feet hurt. So my wonderful hubby offered to stay up with me to make the white cake and he made the icing for me on Friday morning. Once we got down to my mom's house icing the cake went pretty smoothly. We delivered the cake on Saturday morning and from then it was out of my hands.

The lesson learned from this experience was that detailed cake making is difficult, always put your cake near the back of your kitchen counter, beware of counter surfing beagles, and take some time before you attempt to make another.....at least a few weeks.

Wordless Wednesday - Can We Go Outside?

I'm Back at It and A Baby in a Pot

Since I've more or less recovered from my allergy attack the past two weeks I have been back at my C25K program. On the advice of my athletic trainer husband I am starting over at week 2. It's not exactly where I wanted to start again but it works. I ran this past weekend and since I had the day off today I ventured out this afternoon. In fact I took Scott in his jogging stroller this time. I wasn't quite for sure how it would work out but I wasn't too far off my pace which is great! Scotty loved the ride and the change of scenery. Hopefully this is something I can continue with and it may even help my training.

My mom brought my husband a cooking pot for the kitchen. Well let's just say because it sat around on the floor for a few days Scott thought he would have fun with it.

Happy Easter!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday today, no matter how you celebrated. My mom came up on Thursday and has spent the long weekend with us. We went and had manicures and pedicures and did a little shopping. I got a dress to wear to my cousins wedding, which I am going to start on my cake making for that really soon. My hubby and my mom's boyfriend put up a screen door for our front door, which helps create some air flow during these wonderfully warm days. We went to my brother's house for ribs on Friday night and it is always good to see him and my sister-in-law. Then we had lunch with my mom, her boyfriend and my mother-in-law today and mmmmm it was tasty. Ham, 3 cheese mac & cheese, and homemade cheddar garlic biscuits were all very yummy and enjoyed by all.

I have a few pictures from the weekend, of course of my baby boy. He got his first Easter basket from his grandma with all sorts of goodies in it. He also got a tent in the shape of a castle. Is it possible for an 11 month old to be spoiled??

Feeling Better and 11 Months Old Today

So after spending two days at home, coughing, feeling exhausted and finding out that I probably have seasonal allergies I am finally feeling better. Which is great news because now I can get back to being myself and I can get back to my running. I was out of breath going up the stairs so I knew something was up and with at least some sort of diagnosis and prescription I can at least get moving. There are so many things to get caught up on that I plan on blogging about the rest of the week.



But I do want to mention that my baby boy is 11 months today. I really can't believe that this time last year he was still in my belly. He is getting so big. He is walking, trying to talk, and eating the food that my husband and I eat. Now it's time to start planning the first birthday party.

C25K: Week 3 Day 1 and my Wonderful Hubby

Yesterday I completed week 3 day 1 of the Couch to 5K program. My hubby taped my ankles before work and I had my new shoes I felt great while having the beginning effects of a cold. While it doesn't seem that far so far I know that it will only be time before I can go farther or longer.

My other issue I have a horrible cold and definitely felt the effects of it last night and this morning. I felt awful so my wonderful husband took care of me. He's made sure that I went to bed early, that I had food to eat and plenty of liquids. He even went and got me medicine this morning. I am so lucky to have such a great hubby that loves me so much.



I also want to say Congrats to my friend Tracy who is expecting in September. I've known Tracy since freshman year of high school and she is a very dear friend. She has a little boy Drew that just turned 1 in November and a very nice husband Jess. She is a wonderful mom and I know she is very excited about her new bun in the oven.

My Baby Boy Took His First Steps and I Have Nothing to Show for It

My little guy took his first steps yesterday!! Oh how excited I am as he is so cute when he tries to walk. It is so funny how these little ones attempt new things; it's like they just decide one day that they are going to do something and then they just do it. No ifs, ands or buts about it....they just start doing it. Scotty is so cute; it's almost like a little dance that he does and then he gets going and PLOP he's back down on his rear. Along with the walking he has become so much more vocal and making new sounds. Time has flown by with this little guy and it's only going to get better.

So now for the part about where I have nothing to show for it. I was able to catch a little part of the walking on our camcorder but I haven't quite figured out how to get the videos to the computer and then to the blog. And my camera is in the shop for the fourth time at Best Buy. The first time my camera broke was my fault as I dropped it on the ceramic tile floor in our apartment but from then on the lens always just breaks. This last time there was a faint line across the lens which showed up on the pictures. We picked it up last week and before we got home realized that they made the camera worse. It was completely blurry. So this time the Geek Squad guy said that it was a "lemon" and I would get a replacement. The issue: Best Buy has this tendency to not call us when they say they are going to. My camera sat for two days this last time until my husband called to see where the camera was. This time they were supposed to be calling and sending emails along the way. They haven't done either.

I really just want my camera back to document the excitement that has been going on here and that will continue to go on. Until then I will try to get my video loaded up so I can share one of the most exciting things that I will ever witness: my baby boy walking for the first time.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy St. Patrick's Day from my Little Leprechaun

C25K, Cake and Beautiful Weather

As I previously had blogged my brother said that he would go to my birthday party if I ran in a 5K with him that morning (I have a feeling he would go even if I didn't run). Well I have officially begun my training. I started the Couch to 5K running program to get started. I started Week 2 Day 1 this afternoon and I seem to have my breathing under control. It's my ankles that are bothering me. I know the following: I need new shoes (desperately) and I have horrible ankles. My dear athletic trainer hubby has offered to tape my loose ankles for me every morning. I'm hoping they start to feel better once my body gets used to jogging again. And I signed up for the 5K along with my brother, so now there is no looking back as I've spent the money and I'm not going to waste it :)

Oh the wedding cake.....I have a few weeks left before my cousin's wedding. Why oh why did I even consider making the cake. I have requested the two days off before the wedding to prepare and now I am working on the ingredients. I plan on doing at least one more test run on the icing before the big day too. This process has definitely made me rethink my future decisions to make a wedding cake.

The temperature has been awesome lately. I would love to say the weather has been perfect, but the rain has hindered some fun outside time with the little guy. But when the sun has shown itself I have loved it. I truly can't wait for summer....which reminds me I am going to play softball this spring!!! I was asked if I wanted to play on a coed rec league and after thinking about it I said yes. I haven't played softball in close to 10 years....in fact the last time I played I got to play the US Olympic team before they went on to play at the Olympics in 2000. It will truly be an experience this spring.

Here are some cell phone pictures of our weather and one of the little guy!! (My camera is in the shop AGAIN.)