Marathon

Brad ran his first (and last?!) marathon this past weekend. It was the hottest day of the year so far, so that can pretty much tell you how it went for him. REALLY tough, but also pretty cool that he did it!!! He ran with his friend, Jake, who he trained with. Hopefully we'll get some better pics from the race because mine are lame. So here's one of him resting right after his finish:

Clarky-poo

This little boy lights up our lives. This first three are with his Auntie Erin, visiting us for a few days!

County Fair

Two weeks ago we went to the county fair in Huntsville with Grandma and Boppa and the cousins! The kids went on every ride they could. Soren loved everything and kept trying to go on those barf-inducing ones. He'd run up and get in line or ASK the mullet-and-missing-teeth ride operator if he could go on. He still talks about the bumper cars.

Family pictures!

We got some professional photos done at a park near here. It was QUITE a task with especially the boys, as you can well imagine :-) . But here they are. I can't decide which of these first two I like best...




Clark would NOT look up from those leaves, he took like 10 of them, all with us yelling and hooting to get him to look up.

I honestly don't know how the photographer got this one of Soren.He was messing around the WHOLE time.

Fun in the Sun

It's cold again, but last week had a few gorgeous days. So we took advantage---Soren helped wash the cars, an activity he would have gladly participated in for the entire day.


Isabelle and Cora ran in a Fun Run, sponsored by the local high school's track team. It was a 2K (1.2 miles) race for K-2 (and others for older kids). They were so excited to do it, I was especially impressed that Cora wanted to do it, since she hasn't expressed interest in running before and this was her first race. Isabelle came in 2nd for the girls and Cora came in 21st. Both were so proud of themselves and really did well. I loved hearing Cora say, "Daddy will be so proud of me because I was 21." He wasn't there because he was in his own race too!! He went up to Dallas to run a half marathon with some friends.

Soren

Soren has occupied much of our energies as of late. Well, let's be honest, for the last year or so. And that would go for anyone in this family during the span of 18 months-3 years. But he is such an enthusiastic and good little boy. He was having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep through the night for awhile and we were using all sorts of ineffective, desperate methods (like, letting him fall asleep while watching a movie in his bed! Or letting him watch more of a movie when he woke up at 2am to get him back to sleep!). He was also having issues with the wall by his bed, like he was afraid of a smudge or anything that looked like dirt (or a spider?) on his wall, so for awhile he was sleeping on the floor or with the bed in the middle of the room. SO, I finally made some big changes all at once. I took out the tv., got him some Thomas the Train appliques to put on his wall and a little rocket night light. I had recently also bought real bedding (he had these little blankets barely covering him for awhile!!), so everything was all situated and fun (and I did it with him, he helped stick the trains on the wall, etc). He was SO excited about his room when we were finished. We went back to having a consistent routine, reading two books, saying prayers, singing a song while having his back scratched, then goodnight. He now for the most part stays in his bed and sleeps through the night again. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! It's funny how we let things drag on because we're too tired or out of it to just buckle down and make the change or come up with a plan or routine. It takes effort, but much less in the long run compared to the exhausted attempts at 3am and the progressive loss of sanity that ensues... Now on to a bunch of other unorganized household and ineffective parenting stuff....