and then, there was that one time...

driving to mobile / yay rain / multiple failed attempts to facetime with our littles

fresh seafood eating / tons of atmosphere / it's getting real

walking to the start line / mobile behind us / done

... that we drove to Mobile to run in a 5k. yep, true story. a couple of months back, i was bragging on myself on facebook for running twice in one day – once before work and once during lunch. (although, looking back, i'm sure it was more of a walk than run, but that's neither here nor there at this point.) anyway, my friend hollie called me out on it and said that jeremy and i should drive down to Mobile to do a race with her.

and we agreed.

um, what? really, who are we with this running stuff? and i'm sort of afraid to admit it, but all the runners are right; running is addictive. i kind of love it. so last weekend we drove down to Mobile in the rain. with the possibility of rain the next morning for the race. i think enough people must've prayed for the rain to hold off, because it totally did. what didn't hold off? omg, the humidity. geez louise, guys. jeremy and i were completely mentally prepared for this race. we were not prepared for the gulf/bay air.

we knew we weren't quite ready to run the whole race. our goal was to finish in 40-45 minutes. not a bad goal for our first 5k, right? we typically walk 0.2 miles and then run the next 0.8 to complete a full mile. the first run was difficult... but the second run was where it got me. i told jeremy i had to walk. concerned, he asked what hurt. my response? "um, nothing really. i just can't breathe."

but we pushed through. we did walk a little more than we thought we would need to. but we finished strong. and when we were coming down the last little bit of road, i could see the finish line and the timer. and it said that i better pick up my pace if we wanted to complete the race in our goal time. i'm proud to say that jeremy and i came in at 44:09 and 44:10, respectively. not too shabby!

we have another 5k coming up on april 27. it's a local race (so local friends, you should sign up!). it's also benefitting some of our dear friends' new foundation, so even more incentive to come join us. and i promise, you can walk too. just sign up. now. (hollie, this means you. ha!)

a little wordless wednesday. blowing bubbles edition.

ok, a few words. i want to cut the nugget's hair so badly because it flips into his eyes. i actually took scissors to it myself a couple of weeks ago just so it wouldn't hang in his eyes anymore. and i was pretty much determined to cut it short like Cayden's. until i saw what this cutie looks like with a ball cap on with his hair flipping everywhere. it's seriously adorable. sigh. decisions, decisions.

happy dancer tells me to sit

little man's vocabulary is really starting to pick up. and it's fun when he starts jabbering things and we can actually pick words out of it. his most recent favorite is sit! sit! generally he says this when he wants one of us to pick him up to sit in our laps. sometimes he'll just randomly tell us "SIT!" and that's just fine too. when dancing is involved though, it's about a billion times cuter. and add in the fact that he's only wearing a diaper and the cuteness meter is on overload for sure.

(oh, and we got a new rug. i've been eyeing this rug at ikea for forever. and now it's ours. and i kind of love it.)

cayden's convos

last weekend at church after cayden sprinted to climb the stairs to the stage...
me: you really were in a hurry to get on the stage this morning. maybe you'll be a performer when you grow up.
cayden (very serious): no. i'm going to be spiderman.

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while we were trying to clean house last weekend...
cayden: daddy, this house is dirty. we needa buy a new one with a pool.

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after discovering an eye booger...

cayden: i had a baby yellow rock in my eye.

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while getting jammies on one night for bed...

me: you have the skinniest legs! you have your daddy's legs!

cayden: no, i have my own legs!

did someone say spaghetti?

one would think the littlest allen would have some italian blood in him. & perhaps he does somewhere along the line. because this little dude? if we put anything remotely italian in front of him, he will eat for days. if it's a pasta dish? even better. we always have to remove his shirt and it's most definitely a guaranteed bath night when spaghetti is for dinner. i promise that we do offer him a fork, and we always choose a pasta that's easy for our littles to handle (corkscrew was the choice this time 'round), but it seems to go in so much better (and faster!) with chubby little hands. enjoy that pasta little man; mama and daddy for sure enjoy watching you eat it!

cayden: 3 years, 9 months and 17 days old

it's not often that we get one on one time with the boys. perhaps that's something we should try to change, but for now, when we get to sneak in that time, it's pretty special. on saturday, the boys took simultaneous naps, but cayden woke earlier than sawyer. after peeking in at sawyer still completely passed out in the same position he was put in the bed, we knew it would be a little bit before he would make an appearance.

the weather was beautiful this weekend, so jeremy and i encouraged cayden to put on his shoes so we could go outside to play. his "playground" had been severely neglected through the winter. he ran out to it, started climbing the ladder and then promptly climbed back down because there was a bug on it. you would think an almost four year old boy would be okay with bugs being on his swingset, but he's a little finicky in that sense.

change of plans. grab his dump truck and let him play in the dirt/mud in the empty lot next to us. win! he loved rolling his truck through the dirt and picking up sticks and whatnot. he quickly lost interest though because of the black gnats that were swarming around our heads.

second change of plans. skateboard! we have got to get this child some knee and elbow pads sometime soon so that he can really try it out. for the moment, he's happy letting jeremy hold his hand while he tries to gain his balance and footing. this mama gets a little nervous, but love seeing the little boy emerge.

we wrapped up our playtime and went back inside. we were greeted by a 20 month old with a screwdriver in each hand and a smile on his face...

oh, and someone else got a new toy this weekend. the big boy of the family likes his toys too...

dr. seuss

this week at school has been all about dr. seuss. the doctor happens to have a great birthday, too. i mean, not that i'm biased or anything. but i completely am, seeing as how we share the same birthday. but anyway, we have a love for dr. seuss at our house. i'm not really sure how many books we even have. and not until yesterday did cayden realize that some of his favorite books were dr. seuss. it was neat to see him put all that together.

earlier in the week, the kiddos were supposed to dress like Thing 1 or Thing 2. we totally slacked. we dug out his alabama football jersey that had a number 1 on it. it was also red. done. (and here's probably where i shouldn't mention that the jersey is about two sizes too small.) creative, right? except no. with that in the back of my head, i couldn't let cayden go to school on "dress like the cat in the hat" day without something creative going on. 

red bow tie. the cat in the hat always wears a red bow tie. i can make that, right? and i did. and instead of making a neck loop, i just attached it to his tshirt. he wasn't real sure of what to make of it this morning at first. once i slipped it over his head, he got this big smile on his face and seemed proud to be dressed like the cat in the hat. and me? i was proud that i dug out some materials and had a short date with my sewing machine. perhaps i'll just start making some more things now. and that feels good.