Memorable Easter

I could not resist posting this picture. We had a pretty normal Easter overall today except that something funny/awesome happened for church. Every parent has ideas of how they would like their child to be or act. One of my things is that I (Josh) want our girls to be silly, have fun and to be themselves. I also think it would be great for them not to fill pressured to conform to ways of acting that don't really matter or don't make sense. I am kind of a rebel on things so it is not surprising that I want them to act like me. So when Esther begged to wear her Russian looking leopard print hat for Easter (the holiday where we celebrate Jesus resurrection by dressing kids in extra fancy new clothes to go to church and hunting eggs brought by bunnies) we said sure, why not. I know at the very least we made a great family memory today, the day Esther wore a leopard print hat to church for Easter, and that makes me really happy. I am willing to bet that in 10-20 years when we are reminiscing about all the years that have gone by we will still remember the time Esther wore a silly hat on Easter instead of not remembering Easter 2013 as anything special. 

Happy Faces

Esther has been having some amazing after sleep hair recently. It is awesome. This is my new favorite picture of her, amazing hair and silly face

And we can't leave out Clara who is always up for hamming it up.

A Mulligan and Being Realistic

I ran another race.  Actually, I have run two races since my last post about running. A couple weeks ago, I ran a 5k in Fayetteville and it did not turn out well.  I am not sure what happened, but I have lots of theories.  I felt terrible running that day almost from the very start. I think the main problem is that it was more of a cross country race running on grass, in and out of trees, through mud, etc.  I did not know it would be that way and was not prepared for that. Whatever the reason (or excuse),  my time turned out worse than my previous 5k and that was very frustrating. I knew from training that I was better.  I was so frustrated that I thought about stopping this racing experiment.  After giving it some time,  I decided to take a mulligan on that race and sign up for another race in March just to see if that race really was a fluke or if I was not improving.  My goal in doing this running experiment was to keep improving until I reach my goal and if I am not improving I might as well stop.
So I signed up for another race in March which was today up in Bentonville.  In my delusions of grandeur I had hoped to run around a 21 minute 5k in March.  But I got knocked back down to earth and realized that now that I am in shape, I am not going to see the big improvements in time like I did between my first and second races.  The race today was cold, 37 degrees at race time.  I improved my time which is what I am looking for in the very least from race to race. My time was 22 minutes and 18 seconds.  That is only a 42 second improvement over my last race but it is improvement so I will take it.  I will say that it is getting harder to keep this thing going.  It was kind of exciting at first but now it is starting to wear on me.  There are a lot of days that I have a hard time making myself train. And, it is hard sometimes to keep pushing myself and motivating myself to get better.

"I'm a Razorback"

Yesterday, Esther got to experience her first Razorback game. I obtained a couple tickets to the baseball game yesterday so I could take her. I figured baseball would be a good one because it is pretty low key, you sit pretty close to the action, and there is space to run around while daddy can still watch the game. It was a middle of the day game and a no name team so there would not be many people there for her to disturb if she decided to run around/have a tantrum. I was not sure if she would like it or not or how long she would last but I thought it was worth a try to see how she did.  She did pretty good for a 2.75 year old.  She lasted 2-3  innings although she mostly played in the fun chairs that fold up on her own.  She did watch some of the game and would clap when everyone else clapped.  She would make comments like "he did good throwing that ball", and "he's running",  "They're playing the Razorback song".  She also enjoyed seeing the cheerleaders dance on the dugout and she loved seeing the razorback mascot but only from afar. When he came close she was a little frightened so he kept his distance. She also really really wanted to go down on the field with the players. After a couple innings she was getting bored so we got a snack...popcorn, which I don't think she had ever had before (as some of you know we are a little protective about what food we give the girls).  She did not want to try it at first but after I kept eating it she gave it a try and really liked it.  I also offered her a sip of my soda (another first for her) but she said she did not want it and I definitely was not going to push that. She lasted another inning or two in the stands while eating a snack.  After that she was done sitting so we went a walked around the covered area and then out in the grassy area in outfield for another inning or so. She probably would have walked around longer but daddy was getting tired of just walking around and not watching the game so we we left.  Overall it was a pretty good experience, no meltdowns and she had fun. But I think she is still a little young to be very excited about actually watching the game or sitting there for a long time. 

 

Tiny Dancers

We all know that toddlers can be a little difficult and hard to get along with. And we know that sisters sometimes fight and get on each others nerves. Put them together and you have our girls.....toddler sisters. It can be very challenging at times. But that is not what this post is about.  Our girls have lots of fun together too. They play, laugh, and giggle together. Esther loves to help her sister and recently has started holding her hand when we are walking places. And Clara wants nothing more than to be around her sister and do what she is doing. Clara hates to not be with Esther and they are so excited to see each other in the mornings after they wake up.

We listen to lots of music around our house. If you randomly showed up at our house, 9 out of 10 times there will probably be music on. Lately, right before going to bed at night, Esther and Clara have been having a little dance party. The most requested song by Esther is "I Like to Move It, Move It" by Will.I.Am. Well, last night another good dance song came on our Pandora 90's station..."All Star" by Smash Mouth, and we got a pretty good video clip of the dance party.

Kids with Kids

It is that time of the year again......it's baby goat season.  We started having babies about three weeks ago and currently have 6 babies, 3 girls and 3 boys.  They are really cute and fun. The girls are really excited about them but more in the theory than in practice.  They pet them for about 2 seconds and then they are done but they are always excited to go see them. Feel free to come see them sometime.