my little flower girl

helen made her debut as a flower girl last weekend at my brother's wedding! she did a great job!

marathon - mile by mile

well, even though it's been a month since i finished my marathon... i'm posting a few pictures and a recap of the mile per mile time. you can see as the race goes on... my per mile time gets a little slower :) looking back - i definitely hit the famous 'marathon wall' at mile 23 :) so awesome to finish my 11th marathon!!

mile 1 - 7:51

mile 2 - 7:54

mile 3 - 8:04

mile 4 - 8:22

mile 5 - 7:54

mile 6 - 8:23

mile 7 - 8:35

mile 8 - 8:04

mile 9 - 8:22

mile 10 - 8:22

mile 11 and 12 (missed the mile marker!) - 17:46

mile 13 - 9:49

mile 14 - 8:38

mile 15 - 9:09

mile 16 - 9:11

mile 17 - 10:02

mile 18 - 9:38

mile 19 - 10:28

mile 20 - 10:02

mile 21 - 11:08

mile 22 - 11:24

mile 23 - 11:49 (whew - i think i could have walked faster for that mile!)

mile 24 - 11:30

mile 25 - 11:01

mile 26 - 10:24

mile 0.2 - 3:42 (got held up at the finish with my kids who ran across the finish line with me! - worth every minute though!)

total - 4 hours 7 min

average per mile - 9:31

preschool graduation

last friday, graham graduated from preschool! i can't believe he'll be off to kindergarten in the fall....... i'm stocking up on kleenex for first day of school september :)

for ms gina

ms gina (graham's teacher) missed the preschool graduation last friday because she had a bad case of strep throat. the kids made this video for her :)

Blood Donation

Today, I donated blood for the first time!!!! I am NOT a big fan of needles, blood, etc!.... but I donated today in honor of a friend of mine who almost lost her life after giving birth to her daughter last year. As a mom, it hit really close to home for me - so since my church was hosting a blood drive - I thought I would try to donate. I got a little nervous (ok - REALLY nervous) when they labeled up about 5 bags... I'm thinking to myself - will I have to fill all those bags???? I was too scared to look or even ask someone.... after all I just had to fill 1 bag (which could save 3 lives!!!) - I never did ask what the other bags were for :)

Mother's Day

October 20, 2003 - I offically became a mom! Boy have things changed since then! Today, I was thinking back to some of the crazy things that I did as a first time mom.....some of those things have definitely changed with the addition of our 3rd child. But one thing that remains the same, I am so blessed to be a mom of 3 beautiful children!!! Sometimes it's not an easy job, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Now - I'm off to give them their nighttime kiss and whisper the words that I say to each one of them every night "Goodnight, Sweet Pea - I love you!"

tortilla pizza

i saw this idea in the newspaper - it was definitely a hit with the whole family tonight and SUPER easy!!

tortilla shells (i used the smaller ones and made each person their own pizza)
pizza sauce
pizza cheese
favorite toppings

i baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350