2nd half marathon...and the marathon of life!

an entire month ago i did my 2nd half marathon with 2 of my girl friends and it went great!my time was 2 hrs. 17 min. not amazing, but i did it! i think i have run once since, i have been enjoying the break from running ;) however life has felt crazy since then, it really has been busy! here's a catchup:

clint moved into a new office in portland, something bigger and newly remodeled. we really love it! we also moved into a bigger house that will better accomodate the fam. we love our new place (still renting, portland area's housing market is terrible right now and we are waiting out buying anything). we also have my brother jared, 17 yrs old, who just moved in with us and will be with us through his senior year. (now i have 3 kids!) but its great having some extra help around here! no, really its great just having him...but he is helpful! mows the lawn, helps with the kids, clint and i go see late movies whenever we want now...love it! this weekend i have a face painting booth at our towns "Robin Hood Festival," Sherwood has one every year & it is a blast! so far so good, one more day to go! in the mean time clint is in san fransisco leaving me to deal on my own & jared is on a campout. i basically have my other facepainters running the booth while i play with the kids, not so bad!but now, hopefully we can just slow down & enjoy the summer! yes people the sun is finally out in oregon! more pics to come soon!

5-year-anniversary in mexico!

clint and i took a 5-year-anniversary trip to puerto villarta, mexico & stayed at paradise village resort! same place we went on our honeymoon! it really was SO SO SO nice to have no kids, no obligations for 1 full week...and we ate that up for all it was worth! we played a lot, lounged a lot, and slept a lot... we swam in a swimming pool with trained dolphins, clint scuba dived for the first time, i snorkled, we visited FAD (more details below), ate at hole-in-the-wall taco stands (and helped make the food), lounged at the beach, lived it up at the spa, ate awesome dinners on the beach (where the big crabs almost got me), took a "rythms of the night" excursion, and enjoyed being together! after taking the first real vacation since our honeymoon, we are decided that we are buying a time share ASAP at paradise village! we love that place and mexico is our kind of place...the people, the language, the food, the energy, we just love it!

i really am the luckiest woman alive to be married to this wonderful man! clint, the last 5 years have truly been the best 5 years of my life. to make it even better you are my best friend! you have helped me grow in so many ways that i never thought possible. there is no one i trust more than you. i look up to you and admire you more than anyone i have met. my heart is dedicated to you and our lives together, for eternity. i can't believe it has been 5 years already...and i am so blessed to live such a rich, fulfilling life, with you...this is a life that is SO worth living...everyday in every way! I LOVE U!

scuba, snorkling, & dolphins!

clint went snorkling for the first time in mexico! i snorkled, because i failed training...seriously, after 4 minutes under the water i jumped out ready to pass out & started balling...if you are clausterphobic you can't scuba, now i know!i was actually really relieved, because i really did not want to go...i was just doing it for clint!

so i snorkled, saw the MOST beautiful fish, (so did clint while scuba diving), we visited an untouched beach which was very pretty! the entertainment was great on the boat of course & on the way back we were surrounded by wild dolpins! hundreds of them surrounded our boat; they stopped so we could take pictures and see them. the dolphins were doing flips and just following out boat, like they were playing with us for about 15 minutes. they are super friendly things!

families of the dump

while in mexico we visited families of the dump (FAD), they are literally families that live in the dump in puerto villarta! we were able to help the FAD organization one day by bringing water, breakfast, visiting, and clint was even able to adjust one woman who came into their office in pain that day. it was really a touching and eye-opening experience to see how bad off some live, but wonderful to see what FAD has done to help. i enjoyed visiting with the kids the most (love kids!) especially the preschool. those children were so sweet and hugged us the moment we walked in...we will be back to visit again! if anyone is interested, you can sponsor a child's education for $250/year, that is how they fund the school they have created; and the only way they recieved their education.

cierra 18 months

cierra is 18 months! nursery, sleeping through the night (finally), and getting out of the "baby" phase...keeps me on my toes constantly..that has not changed! carly is the best big sister and loves to show cierra the ropes.

cirque de soleil: kooza

clint's office took everyone out to see cirque de soleil: kooza, last wed night...our first show with cirque de soleil & it was awesome! i have to admit the "dumb" clowns also gave a good show, they were hillarious! can't wait to see another one!

the tulip fields

every year there is a tulip festival, when the tulips are all out. this was our first year, and they were beautiful...the girls loved the flowers...while carly picked a few and admired their beauty, cierra crushed every one she could get her hand on & played in the mud! it looks like a great day but we caught the flowers in between rain & hail which was going on just a half hour before! we are learning in oregon (yes, it took some time) that life cant stop for the rain, just put on some rain boots and jackets and go anyways. glad we did!

carly is a "big girl"

carly has been able to write & spell her name VERY well since january, yes i am a proud mommy! she does so well kinesthetically, with her writing, drawing etc... and she is very proud of herself as well!

she also got her "big girl bike" and loves riding it everywhere, even to the store and through target ;)

pink dresses

whats cuter then cute spring dresses on your 2 little girls! i love these girls to death!