Dallas Half Marathon!

About 6 weeks before the Dallas Half Marathon, I was talking to a Mom from Presley and Bentley's school and she mentioned she was running int he Dallas Half and asked if I would want to do it. Right away, I said NO WAY. I trained to run the Dallas Half back in 2007 and I got injured and couldn't run it. The most I ran was 9 miles and I decided that anything over 5 miles is a beating on my body. However, I kept thinking about it all day. I hadn't been super happy at the gym lately and I had been running more often. I thought it would be a cool goal, so I decided to sign myself up. Once I paid the money there was no turning back.

Most people train for months. I looked up a training schedule and decided I could fast track the training and fit it into my current workout schedule. It consisted of 3 runs per week. Two short and one long. It also had cross training twice per week and a stretching day and a rest day after the long run. I already trained on Monday and Fridays and did yoga on Saturdays so that was easy. I did my long runs on Tuesdays while the kids were in school and my short runs on Thursday and Saturdays. Between runs there was sickness, Thanksgiving break, and some rainy days. I was also nursing two injuries so cut down on my number of runs the closer the race came. Presley and I went downtown to pick up my race packet. Once I got the bib, I knew it was real.

I rode down to the race with a neighbor so that Mikey could meet me after the race. The weather was in the 50s and raining which I didn't mind. I would much rather run in the cold and rain than hot and humid. I purposely didn't use my running app during the race because I didn't want to put pressure on myself about my time and just wanted to have fun and to finish. A special thanks to my sweet friend Hilary who stood with her kids at mile 8 in the cold and the rain. I was getting so tired and it was just the boost that I needed! Another big thanks to my husband who was standing at the finish line waiting for me! It meant the world to me that you were there!!

So, I did it. I finished a Half Marathon!! 13.1 Miles!! I am so excited that I did it. It is a very cool accomplishment to say that I ran a Half Marathon at 35. It will probably be my one and only, but I can definitely mark it off of my bucket list!!

Thanks to Grammy and Grampy for watching the kids so that Mikey could be with me. The kids made me a fun sign for when I got home.

After the race I had so many emotions. I had so much adrenaline going through my body, yet my physical body was so tired. I thought I would be starving and I wasn't. Running is physical but it is so much more mental. The race was so fun. Despite the weather, there were people cheering on every corner. I feel that it is therapeutic to run by myself. I think because I have so much chaos in my life that it feels good to have some time to myself. Even though I didn't use my running app, the race did track my run. So for those of you that just have to know my time...I finished in 2 hours, 29 minutes and 38 seconds. My time included a bathroom break, walking the water and gatorade stations, giving Hilary a hug and saying hi, and running backwards on mile 12 to someone that injured themselves to make sure they were ok. That will take some creative math to figure out my minutes per mile. I am happy that I finished. I accomplished my goal and am very happy.

Family Pictures 2015

Presley lost her 1st tooth!!!

Big news!! This story is almost as funny as Kiley's 1st tooth story! We didn't even know that Presley had a loose tooth. One night she was messing with the iPad and jumped up and started crying. She said, "Mommy, I broke my tooth" and was holding it in her hand. Once I realized that she lost her tooth I got excited and calmed her down. She was biting the little part of the iPad case to open it to charge it. She felt her tooth and thought she bit off part of the case so she pulled on it and pulled her own tooth out! Once she calmed down, she was super excited and had to FaceTime Marmee and Guy. Then we had to call Grammy and Grampy and she even asked me to send a picture to her teacher!

The Tooth Fairy left big money for the first tooth!! $5!!

Never a dull moment with the Baird's

Another Bentley tantrum...in public....

Presley and Bentley very rarely wear their school shirt on the same day, so I took a picture before they went into school.

This was a picture I took at the end of a shopping trip. The little sign on the back of the seat was completely destroyed and I have a video of Bentley jumping up and down in the cart. So much fun shopping with a 2 year old...

I think I have mentioned before that Presley helps with Kiley's therapy. One day, we didn't have therapy so Presley asked if she could do therapy with Kiley. She packed up some bags of things like the therapists carry and took Kiley up to her room for therapy. She didn't want me to take her picture but I had to.

She came down when they were done and asked me to sign, just like the therapists do. So cute!!

Presley with her class at chapel.

One morning, Presley went out to get in the car to go to the gym and I walked out and she was all strapped in and ready to go. She put a smile on my face.

We celebrated my friend Amy's 40th birthday with a wig party. It was so much fun!

Bentley lined up all of his toys and friends outside of his bedroom one afternoon.

When we were getting ready for family pictures, I wanted to take a picture of Presley's outfit and Kiley got in on the picture too.

Mikey and the kids made me breakfast in bed one Saturday morning...

Bentley still plays outside every day when Presley is in dance. Gretchen gave him a hand-me-down firetruck and he loves it!!

Presley and I were invited to a birthday lunch at American Girl! We had never been. It was so nice. We chose a 3 course meal from the menu ahead of time. Presley got to bring her Bitty Baby. All of the girls and their babies sat at one table and the Mom's sat at another table. We walked around the Bitty Baby section after lunch and Presley was in Heaven!

We ran some errands afterwards. It was fun to spend some time with just the two of us. She was tired out.

I took Bentley to a place by the house for a haircut. He thought the cars were so cool. He kept his foot on the gas almost the entire time. Before....

And after....

He needed to test out the police car too.

I hosted book club. Mike and Connie brought home these big pinecones from Lake Tahoe so I glittered them and used them in my centerpiece!

Bentley came and got in our bed one morning and said, "Mommy, this is super comfortable."

This boy likes anything with wheels. He lined his toys up on the coffee table.

We went to Marmee and Guy's for the night and Bentley need to go potty. My Mom walked into this...

We are still getting Bentley to go potty wherever and whenever to keep his undies dry.

This method has already backfired on me once. We were walking up to the gym and Bentley ran ahead of us. As soon as he got to the door, he pulled his pants down and start peeing right by the door. He still had dry undies!

One Sunday afternoon it was nice out so we let the kids play outside. Mikey wanted to watch football so he brought out the TV, the wireless cable box and his generator and sat and watched the game. It started cooling off so then he brought the space heater out.

I was sitting on a blanket working on teacher gifts and it started getting dark so he brought out a light for me. Man we sure live a rough life...

Last but not least...Daddie got an early Christmas present!!