Big Ole Honkin Catch Up: Party 3 - Lyla's 4th Birthday

This year we decided to have Lyla's birthday party at the house. This was actually our first time to have her party at the house. For about a month I had been asking Lyla who she wanted to invite to her party. She named off a few of the usual friends and a couple of her pre-school friends, but she was very adamant that she didn't want any boys! A lot of our friends have boys and they have always been invited to Lyla's birthday parties, but Andy and I felt that it was important to honor her request. As Lyla's birthday party approached I did tell a few of my friends with boys why their sons weren't invited this year. They were all totally find with it and probably didn't need the explination, but it made me feel better.

Two of my friends had done cookie decorating parties and we decided to steal the idea. (Both of their daughters have December birthdays so it was something fun to do inside). Lyla loves to help in the kitchen and I thought her friends would have fun decorating cookies. Not to mention it was a take home party favor! I like that. My dad was so wonderful and once again made the cookies and icing (from scratch). He also made her cake! Gotta love a dad that loves to bake, because with the crazy April I had there was no time to do any of that!

Lyla did not want a pinata but did want a jump house. So we rented a pink and purple princess jump house. The day that it arrived she decided she wanted to red and blue jump house. Too bad girlie...once you make a decision and mommy places the order it's set in stone!

Lyla had a sweet gathering of friends. They had a blast jumping and decorating. It was a revolving door of girls at the kitchen table or out in the front yard. Watching girls open presents at this age just cracks me up. All the girls get as close to Lyla (or whoever the present opener is) as they can to see what's inside. They are all excited to be a part of the present opening process, handing her presents, squealing with delight....it's so much fun to watch.

Andy and my dad set up a stage complete with a large mirror in Lyla's room for her birthday. She loves to sing and dance and since she has a large room Andy figured it would be a fun thing for her. We got her a karaoke machine to go along with it. Once that was opened all the girls were crowded in Lyla's room taking turns singing and dancing. These girls had a blast!

Lyla's actual birthday fell on a preschool day so Lyla got to take cookies and be honored at school. I left work early that day so I could pick her up and spend some quality time together. Lyla asked me if she could drive home from school. When I told her no, she responded, "but I'm four!!!!" She also thought that she no longer would need a babysitter. For months all the talk was, "when I'm 4......" Poor girl was so excited about turning 4, but nothing real big happens at 4.

Big Ole Honkin' Catch Up: Part 2 - Spring Break Colorado Style

In late January Andy decided he really wanted to take a family trip for Spring Break. My husband who is not afraid to ask for anything called up his high school buddy, Abe, if we could use his home in Colorado for a week. To my surprise, Abe said absolutely! He has a beautiful home just outside of Fairplay and was more than willing to let us stay there for the week. So we started making plans, borrowing ski clothes and getting ready.

I was taking my dance team to Houston for contest the weekend leading up to spring break. Thankfully my sweet administrator was willing to ride back with the girls so Andy, Lyla and I could get on the road. We drove the 17 hours, making a stop in Amarillo both ways. Lyla did great on the drive! She didn't sleep much, but for the most part was very easy to entertain. This was Lyla's first time to see moutains or snow! We were so excited for her to be able to experience it all.





(We ran into the cast of West Side Story along the way).

Abe's house is at the top of a very large mountain. Colorado had just had a huge blizzard days before we arrived leaving the mountain covered in snow. We almost didn't get up the mountain. Thankfully, Abe met us at the bottom a had us follow him on a different route to get to the house. His home was beautiful!! A perfect 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 story house. We could only get in and out from the garage because the snow stood 3-4 feet at each door. The blanket of white was breathtaking!!!

After a restful night, we made plans to go skiing in Breckenridge. We had a later start because I was suffering from a migraine. I've been to Colorado several times, but Abe's house was a little over 10,000 ft elevation. That's the highest I've ever been for an extended time and it sure was getting to me. We finally made it out to go rent Lyla's skis. Now let me just tell you that Lyla had been talking for weeks about skiing (even though she had no clue what that meant). Knowing my cautious daughter, I was prepared for her to not take to skiing. She completely fell apart in the rental shop. Bawling her eyes out just trying on the boots. She begged us to not take her skiing. "Please don't make me go Mommy. Let the boys go and we'll stay home." It was quite dramatic. We finally arrived at the ski lodge in Breckenridge. After another breakdown just getting out of the car I told Andy that Lyla and I would stay at the lodge and him and Abe could ski. I wanted Lyla to get accustomed to the snow and watch skiing. It took about 2 hours for her to even touch the snow and even longer to walk on it. Oh my cautious child!

The next day we headed out to Arapahoe Basin. It was a little farther of a drive, but a heck of a lot cheaper than Breckendridge. We booked Lyla for ski school so I could ski. Once again she bawled and clung to my leg, but finally let go. Andy and I enjoyed a couple hours of skiing. When we came back to pick Lyla up she was playing with her instructor and the other little girl in her group. I asked when she finally stopped crying. Her instructor replied, "20 minutes ago." It was a 3 hour class!!! That poor instructor. She said she got her skis on, but wouldn't even go up the magic carpet. At least she was playing in the snow! The rest of the afternoon Andy and I took turns skiing and playing with Lyla. She made snow angels, snow balls, and finally rode the magic carpet with me. We are hoping her next experience will be better.

Abe and Lyla became best buds. He was so good with her. He would ask her questions, play with her. He was so patient. He even tried to teach her the cardinal directions. That was entertaining. Abe is a radiologist and was on call his last night. He had a few scans come in and showed them to Lyla. She thought that was the coolist. Abe left after our day at A-Basin. We were sad to see him go, but excited to spend some time just the 3 of us.

On our last day, we drove into Breckenridge to shop and hit up a little kid park where we could sled. We pulled up to the park and once again Lyla wanted no part of it. I guess the one day at A-Basin was enough snow for her. We did ride the gondola and enjoyed walking through the town.

The next morning we packed up and made our 2 day trek back home. It was hard to leave the peaceful mountain. And especially hard to drive back in to the Texas heat! We are so grateful for Abe's generosity to our family. We are hoping to make our spring break with Abe a tradition. Andy and I would love to watch Lyla grow up knowing how to ski, something I didn't get to do. And maybe I'll eventually make it off the greens....but probably not! My daughter gets her cautious nature from her mother!

D-Now and Ziva

In December Andy informed me that him and Lyla had decided that we needed a dog. Andy is a dog lover. While I like animals, I prefer them at other people's houses. I'm just not one of those people who gushes over animals...of any kind. Andy and I had Emma, the miniature dachshund for a couple years (until she fell in love with our neighbors and moved with them). Then we had Tank...the great Dane for  about 4 months until the dog hair and dinosaur sized crying got to be too much. Especially since Lyla was still so small. My house had been joyfully pet free for a couple years. However, being the great wife and mother than I am (hahaha) I gave in. On Valentine's Day Lyla and I went to pick up Ziva, a small lab mix, from some friends who were moving and couldn't keep her. Ziva was 1.5 at the time and kennel/potty trained. She took to our sweet little family quickly and Lyla and Andy are totally in love! While I don't love the dog hair that is EVERYWHERE, I do love that Ziva makes my family happy and is a great dog!

That same weekend we were a host family for a our church youth conference, D-Now (Disciple Now). FBC, along with a couple other churches, put on a youth conference every February for the local youth. Families open their homes to be "host families" for the kids for the weekend. Usually D-Now falls during one of my competitions, but this year it was on a free weekend. Andy and I signed up for girls as we really wanted Lyla to be around Godly young women. And not to mention our house is a girly one....Andy is the only male. We ended up with 11 8th grade girls! Andy became fearful of the all "hair flipping". I seriously thought he was about to check into a hotel for the weekend. But he perservered. It was an awesome experience. We got to attend the worship and large groups which was AWESOME! Nothing like several hundred middle and high school students worshiping the LORD. Our house was filled. We had an air mattress in Andy's office, two in the living room and two in Lyla's bed room. Each couch was slept on and Lyla and Ziva slept in our room. Lyla stayed up playing with the girls each night until at least midnight. In fact, she cried the last morning because her "friends" were leaving. She loved having a mass sleep over for the weekend! It was such an honor to feed these girls, spend some time talking about our savior and laughing and their youthfulness. Our two college students who were the leaders for this group were amazing and sweet and just a joy to be around. It was a wonderful experience that I hope to do again. God certainly used our tiny little home in a big way and I think we were all changed for the better because of it!

Big Ole Honkin' Catch Up: Part 1 - Half Marathon

Wow! It's been 6 months since my last blog. Obviously I am not too good at keeping up with this. I've been thinking about blogging for a while, but I'm not going to lie....with it being so long, I've been a bit intimidated to even start! So here we go. It might take me a few posts, but there are just things that I want to document more for myself than for the hope that people are reading about my busy/but mundane life. ;)

In January I ran my first half-marathon!!!

Shortly after the 5K I ran in October, I decided I wanted to run a half-marathon. I figured I could train/prepare for a year and run the Rock-N-Roll in November 2013. However, I started talking to some running friends who insisted that if I was already up to 5 miles that I could easily get to 13.1 and long before November of next year. So I started a running plan on runkeeper app and started looking for a half-marathon to run. I decided on the Herothon in San Antonio in late January. My friend Misty was suppose to run it with me, but she had to back out at the last minute due to some family health issues.

Andy was a huge help in my training. I would run 2 short runs during the week and one long run on the weekends. Once my long runs go up to 7-9 miles I really needed help. He would drop me off places so I could run home, bring me water and a fiber bar when I needed it and sometimes pick me up when I couldn't make it another step.

I started having knee problems once my miles increased. I went to my school athletic trainer (perks of teaching on a high school campus and working alongside the athletic program). He gave me some hip and lower abdominal excerises to do to increase stength in those areas and take the pressure off my knees. However, my left knee was still killing me. Sometimes to the point of tears. I went back to him....2 weeks before the race and told him, "I don't care what you or I have to do. I have paid for this race and trained for this race so I'm running it. Just tell me how to get through it!" He thinks I have a tilted knee cap and so the constant motion of running aggrevates it. He suggested a knee brace and told me to rest my knee until the race.

Race Day: Andy and Lyla got up with me at 5AM to eat breakfast and head out to downtown SA. The race started at 7AM. At this point I hadn't run more than 10 miles in my training, but everyone told me if I could run 10 by myself I could run 13.1 at the race. So off I went. Setting a steady pace and looking forward to seeing my cheering section along the route. The nice thing about technology is Andy could call me to encourage me along the way and find out where I was and let me know where I would see them next. The first 3 miles were a breeze. I was thinking, "this is easy! I'm so doing this again!" Then mile 5 hit and my knee started hurting a little. Downhill is always the worst. However, at a moment when I was really struggling I looked up to see "I can do all things through Christ" on the back of another runner's shirt! Thank you Lord, just what I needed. Andy called and said him and Lyla were at the bottom of the hill at about 5.5. Seeing their faces was just what I needed. Gave them both a kiss and a hug and continued on my way.

At 6.5 I saw my parents...signs, cow bells and all! My school athletic trainer was working the med tent at 8.2 so after the encouragement from my parents I set my goal for seeing Scott. He came running up alongside me, asked about my knee (which was feeling a little numb at this point....7 miles was real pain), gave me some encouragement and sent me on my way. Andy called to say him and Lyla were at the 9 mile marker...Yay just what I needed. This is where little goals were a big help. Andy and Lyla handed me water at mile 9, my parents were at mile 10 (with a protein bar), Andy and Lyla made it to mile 11 and because this was a loop I saw my parents again before mile 12. And then it was the last stretch. It was hard, I was tired, but I had a goal to run the whole thing and do it in under 2:30. Luckily there were pace keeperes along the way so if I kept the girl with the 2:30 sign behind me then I was good. The last little half mile was up hill...seriously!!! I came running in to cheers and finished in 2:28:09! WooHoo!! Met my goal!

It was a great experience. The training part was the worst, but the reward was AWESOME!!! I've kept up with my running although my longest distance since that race has only been 6 miles. But I've got to listen to my knee which still hurts frequently. I probably should get it looked at, but my two athletic

trainers at school have said the only thing a doctor could do is surgery and I'm not willing to do that! I plan on running the Rock-N-Roll half this coming November. I've heard it's a blast with music and huge crowds. I can't wait.









Upcoming Blog Posts: Spring Break, Lyla's 4th birthday, Lyla's dance recital, Summer Fun

Lyla Lately

I haven't done a Lyla lately in a while, but I constantly think of things that I want to blog about. Mainly just so I have record of the crazy things she says and does. Lyla's vocabulary and dialogue amaze me everyday. I really think it blossomed over the Christmas holidays, or maybe that's when I was home long enough to truly notice. She puts together sentences, carries on conversations, understands more words and concepts than I was prepared for. It really is a lot of fun to talk to her and listen to what she did that day, what she's thinking about, etc. I absolutely love listening to her play make-believe. She comes up with the craziest scenarios. Not to mention seeing what she picks up from the world around her. She certainly asks, "why" a lot. I try to not let it get to me because I know she is just trying to understand, but wow...sometimes I just want to limit the number of why questions in one car ride. It's very interesting trying to explain to her big issues.

For instance, the other day we saw a car getting pulled over and she thought the car was in an accident. I tried to explain that he was getting in trouble for driving to fast which then led to why. So I continued to explain that he was going to get a ticket which then led to "then what". It was a long and complicated conversation, but not as much as last night when she asked if my sister's ex-boyfriend died. Yep! We are driving away from my parent's house after seeing Autumn and her new boyfriend (who we had met before) and Lyla asks, "Did Joe die?" No honey. "Then why doesn't he come with Auti anymore?" Well, they broke up. "What does that mean?" This turned into trying to explain dating, marriage, oh lordly it was a crazy car ride.

Here's just a few little Lyla quirky things..
- She calls her stuffed animals puppets. Always has and I hope she always will.
- She loves to play make-believe. She has imaginary babies and one friend/baby named Lega (no idea where she came up with this name, but Lega has been around for about 6 months).
- She has become quite the little biker. She loves to be outside and ride her bike. She is fast!
- She's almost 4 and still hates to get her hair washed. I don't think the child will ever put her face in the water. Hope she learns to like sunbathing.

- She FINALLY likes to play in the sand. This means mommy just might make it back to the beach sometime soon!
- Lyla loves to talk about how "big"she will be when she turns 4. And she will say things like, "remember when I was little....when I was 2." Whenever she talks about what she has done or will do it's always tied to age.
- She will change clothes 10 times a day if we let her. She needs a new outfit for going outside, dancing, eating, just because. She is all girl all the time!


Over all she still enjoys preschool although she did try to get out of it the other day. She told me she was "sicky" because she had a cough so she couldn't go to school. Silly girl! She had coughed twice that day!

I sure do love this sweet girl and all the craziness that she inspires.