We had our last day of school on Friday, May 28th and the girls had so much fun. They both LOVE school. Ainsley will be in first grade next year and Madison in third grade. I cannot believe it. Ainsley will miss Mrs. Tipton and Madison will miss Mrs. Keeton. I am so grateful they had such amazing teachers.
As the school year came to an end, the days started going by really fast. I will try to catch up with a few posts. We celebrated Ainsley's birthday on May 28th. She is 6 years old. She brings so much joy and energy to our family. We went to Red Robin with Ben's family and had so much fun watching her face as the waiters sang happy birthday to her and gave her a huge ice cream sundae. She was in heaven. Here are some pictures of our girl growing up. We love you Ainsley!
Here is a cute letter I got from Madison. She did it at school and filled in the blanks about me.
Saturday, May 8th was Madison's 8th birthday and her Baptism. It was a perfect day. We woke up to beautiful sunshine and got ready for a day of celebration. She had a beautiful dress from Grandma and Grandpa Brown; a beautiful bracelet from Grandma and Grandpa Blevins; a beautiful necklace from Uncle Doug and Aunt Michelle;a CTR ring from Mom and Dad and to top it all off, she received a beautiful white headband from Uncle Jason and Aunt Chrissie. She was all ready for her day.
Here she is showing her new CTR ring.
Ainsley was very excited for her sister.
Three generations on the Blevins side of the family.
Three generations on the Brown side of the family.
We had amazing food. What is a celebration without food?
I cannot believe I have an 8 year old!
This was on my friend's facebook page and it made me laugh. I hope it can bring a smile to some of your faces as well. Happy Mother's Day everyone!!!
This morning was the Parkway 1/2 Marathon. I slept horrible last night. I took plenty of Aspirin this morning. I could not believe I was doing this!!! To think back to a year and a half ago in January 2009... I felt like I needed to make a change. I felt like I could be healthier and happier and I decided to start to work out more and diet. I had no idea the change that would happen.
I started on the treadmill doing 1 mile before my group exercise classes. I remember the first time was a 14 minute mile. I was exhausted. Before long I was able to do 2 miles to push myself farther, then 3. A little over 3 months later, I was down 40 pounds and felt better than I ever had before.
As some friends started training for this half marathon I still thought they were crazy but I wanted to see what I could do. The next think I knew, I was running 10 miles with them and feeling okay! I signed up to do the run and was so excited. At least I was...until today. I started the run and seriously thought at one point, "How did I get here? I hate running!!! I thought people that did this were crazy!" Well, this morning I was one of them.
I felt great until mile 10 and then wanted it all over very quickly. My legs were not allowing me to go as fast as I wanted to but I honestly kept saying, "You can do it. You will be so mad at yourself if you stop. Just finish. Baby steps." After many more baby steps, I got to the end and saw Logan on Ben's shoulders and my girls were there to give me high fives. It was awesome to see them. It was fun to see everyone finish. I felt like I was watching Biggest Loser with all the supportive families there watching us.
What a great memory to have and an accomplishment. I am glad I did it and even more glad to be done with it! I will post more pictures as I get them from my friends. Thank you, all of you, that cheered me on from afar. I really appreciated the support.
BEFORE THE RACE:
