Loving Life and Los Angeles

LOVING LIFE...

Kate ran her first race! She was the fastest girl (if that really means anything at this age) and she did a great job!



We spend most of our time outside playing...in water!! It is sooo hot!

Some very dear friends of ours became parents to a precious baby girl! We can't get enough of baby Noelle and take every chance we can to love on her!


LOVING LOS ANGELES...

Then Kate and I hopped on an airplane and took off for Los Angeles leaving Jason and Whit at home.

To visit our dear friends the Glazes. Their little girl Graham was Kate's first real little friend and it makes me smile that they still love each other soooooo much even though we now live on opposite ends of the United States.

Can't forget about Noelle and Piper. I am so very grateful for this friendship!

We went hiking...

Put our toes in the Pacific Ocean...

Rode our first Ferris Wheel...

Rode bikes down the beach...
...and so much more that by the end of each day we were pooped!

Then just a week later Jason stayed home with the kids and let me go on a girls trip to the beach! The four of us have been friends for 20+ years. Needless to say we had an amazing time and enjoyed every second we were away. But I am pretty sure all our husbands were glad to see us come home...playing Mr. Mom they found was not as easy as it seems!

Happy First Birthday Whit!!!

Because of the storms that came through here we just now got back our internet (not complaining though). However, I missed posting this on Whit's birthday which was last Wednesday.

Whit has been such a joy and I can hardly believe an entire year has passed. I fee like the theme the Lord has had for my life since becoming a parent is that He will make something beautiful. Trusting Him to take my brokeness as a parent to make something beautiful in me and my children. I am thankful for how He has blessed my family and today I am thankful for my sweet baby boy who is ONE!

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Easter Pictures for a GREAT Cause

An old friend of mine from high school and her husband are adopting a sweet little girl named Zoey from South Korea. To help raise money for the adoption, Lauren is taking pictures of kids this next weekend and she is using a REAL LIVE bunny. I think the pictures came out so cute! If you are interested in her taking your children's pictures I would encourage you to contact her. Its $30 minimum for 30 minutes but obviously all money goes to the adoption so you can always give more if you like!

Here is her information if you are interested!

Lauren Bush

laurenkb@gmail.com

612-3163

*Whit's Baptism pictures below in another post

Whit's Baptism

What a sweet time with family and friends. This is a time with both my children where 1. I am thankful that we have a God who loves us 2. parenting is not hopeless because we serve a big God 3. what in the world have we gotten ourself into with raising children??

Kate had no idea that this wasn't all about her. She called out from the stage to our neighbors she saw...she waved back to everyone when the congragation raised their hands...and she was most concerned that Whit got his outfit wet! But listen, it could have been way worse...at least she was cute about all of it.

Horses

The other week was so beautiful we basically did everything outside but sleep! Jason was in town most of the week as well so we took a lot of family walks in afternoon. There are three horses that live just about a mile from our house. Kate LOVES to go and feed the horses!

We even let our first child come along too! Lucy was in heaven, as she doesn't go on many walks anymore unfortunately.

Beach March 2011

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We spent spring break at the beach this year. It has been a long time since we have been at the beach during a peak time so to see all that traffic and all those high school and college kids was pretty entertaining and a bit loud and obnoxious too. But nonetheless we had a blast! Jason was in Miami for work so Bry offered to wrangle kids with me and I so appreciated her!

The Big 3-0

Jason and I both turn the big 3-0 this month. His birthday was last Saturday and mine is next week...so in honor of our birthdays I just threw both of us a birthday party! I just wanted it to be some laid back fun with some of our friends and it definitely was!
These guys we have known for forever! Half of them actually helped build our back deck so it was only right that we finally had a party where we got to sit out there and enjoy it! Two of my sweetest friendships. I am thankful for Kim and Lisa and the long lasting friendship we share!

Ashley takes the friend of the year award. She offered to make our birthday cake and I then asked for a three tiered cake and she was willing to make me one. Then when I came to my senses I realized I didn't need a three tiered cake but just the fact that she would have done that for me makes her the best!! But we all still enjoyed Ashley Macs strawberry cake!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband. And don't worry I am not letting my birthday pass without some noise...I turn 30 on March 30th....its my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Always Playing Catch Up

We are a little behind on technology over here at the Brantley casa! I believe that our hand-me-down lap top is a little outdated on software because it won't open or pull up anything anymore including our own blog! So I am finally getting around to updating the blog from Jason's computer. So here is our life over the last month or more....WARNING, this could be long and in no chronological order.

One of Kate's teachers was out at the Mercedes race watching her son when she saw me come by and took pictures of me. I thought that was so sweet and she actually got a lot of good ones. I am proud of this picture because this is mile 12.5 and I am still smiling!
My sweet friend Ashley McMakin cooked a fabulous Valentines dinner for us. It was a sweet night of fellowship with dear friends and scrumptious food and NO KIDS!

Kate is quite the diva. Back in January when it snowed she so wanted to go out and play but then hated when she would get snow on her shoes or gloves! Cutest part was when she saw the snow she lit up and yelled "mommy its christmas!"

This little fella was all smiles in the snow!

Clearly I am objective, but could he be any cuter?

Kate dresses up like a princess almost everyday! Then she proceeds to sing about her being a princess... its always entertaining around here.

My mom and I took Kate to the circus when it came in town. Kate was in awe and it was really cute to watch. My mom offered to buy Kate a toy and of course Kate picked the $25 wand!!

We went up to visit my brother Michael and his family while they are living in the north GA mountains. After the roadtrip up I thought we would never travel with the kids again... I think we had crying 3.5 of the 4 hours we were in the car! But we had a blast and laughed more then I had in a long time. And the kids had a blast chasing each other and playing all day.

I am still spending most of my time running as I had so much fun at the Mercedes race that now we have a group of girls heading to Nashville in April to run the Country Music Half Marathon. I also have cleaned off the dust on my sewing machine and have been sewing some bubbles for Whit and dresses for Kate for spring/summer. And the weather has been so beautiful that the majority of our afternoons are spent outside playing with all the neighborhood kids.

UPDATE: Most of you know that over a year ago Kate potty trained. But pooping has continued to be an issue for us. These past six months I knew she understood and was so frustrated with her when she couldn't keep her panties clean or she would go so frequently to the potty that it was annoying/inconvienent. I finally hit my breaking point and took her to the doctor. As I sat there and cried and told him that if he told me that all I needed to do was take away something she cherised I was going to scream. I told him that it had to be something more. So the doctor ordered an x-ray of her tummy and it came back that she is so full of poop its not even funny. Her little intestines and colon are so backed up that we are having to go see a pediatric GI to figure out how to best "clean her out." So poor thing has been like this for who knows how long and I feel horrible now about getting so mad when the whole time she couldn't control it. The doctor said until she gets this fixed there is no possible way that she could be successful with potty training. We are just glad to have answers and be working our way to a solution!

13.1 Miles

After running 13.1 miles yesterday I am more then pleased with my time!!!
2 hours 3 minutes 11 seconds
9:25/mile pace

My goals were to run the entire 13.1 miles and to finish with a pace under 10 minute/mile. I accomplished both!!

Lisa and I have been friends for over 25 years. So it was really fun when I talked her into training for a half marathon with me. However it ended up being that she was the motivator to keep going and actually reach this goal I had. So after training for months together and meeting at 6am in 20 degree weather we finally accomplished our goal yesterday at the Mercedes Half Marathon!

Lisa is a faster runner then I am but for whatever reason I was able to pick it up at the end of the half marathon and Lisa and I eneded up finishing together. It was fun to think that we trained all the this time together and then we got to finish together.

Jason, Kate, my parents, and my good friend Kristen came out to support me and it meant so much! It was an absolutely beautiful day and the race was so much fun that I am signing up for Nashville's Country Music Half Marathon in April!!

Tomorrow is the big day...

Tomorrow is the big day!! I will wake up way earlier then I have in months and head downtown to run my first half marathon! My friend Lisa and I have been training for months and now finally we will go out and run 13 miles. For whatever reason I am a little nervous but the reality is whether I run it all or walk it all I will have gone 13 miles and that is an accomplishment in itself.

So I will be back to let you know how it goes and will hopefully have some pictures where I won't look like I am dying!! I also am so behind on posting, so maybe I will get some pictures up of the snow, the circus, dinner with friends and so much more!