A Trip to the Zoo

One of the perks of Powers working with the Police Department are free passes to the Zoo! Birmingham has a great zoo! Lots to see but not so big that you can't see most everything in a few hours. Renny spent her spring break with us and I promised we'd do something fun before she left... seeing that she spent the entire week watching movies while I worked. Bless her heart. She is such a good sport. The best really. She's always A-Ok with just chilling out. I love that about her!

Our last trip to the zoo was in 2008....

 And here she is now. Can you believe how much she's grown?! I can't believe it! I remember this day like it was yesterday. Time flies. 

 I love this fair skinned baby girl! She is her momma's child for sure!!

 We all loved these sweet turtles! You have to focus in, but the turtle on the right has his hand on the left turtles back! Like he's consoling him! It was really cute!

 Top 10 ugliest animals I've ever seen. Terrifying up close. Claws like daggers. Yesh. 

 My sweet family! I am so blessed!

 Being bossy! 'That way!'

 London was officially tired by this point! She just plopped her head down right there and rested! The 'Mingo's' were probably her favorite though! She's still talking about them!

 my precious, angel, bucket headed children...

More pictures to come that are on my phone but I'm running out of time... maybe I'll get the rest up tonight! I do have to brag on the world's greatest step daughter before I sign out though. She is AMAZING. Sunday before she came, I met with my 'girls' (long standing bible study group). I said "I wish someone would just come in my house and magically clean everything one day while I'm out." I might have been suffering from a house that was owning me. Anywho, VOILA~!!! In comes Renny. Her darling self would pick up and clean house every night while I put the baby to bed, cook breakfast muffins for our ams, bathe the baby, help me cook, play with London because she's a great big sister... she helped with EVERYTHING. I love every hair on this darling child's head. I can't count her a blessing enough. She fills me up.

Super Quick Post

Work is busy but I didn't want to get behind on my blogging!!

I don't know the story behind it, but one of Barry's friends is an Senator. Newt Gingrich came in to town to spend the day campaigning with him and Barry was able to stop by and meet Ole' Newt! Then... he went and voted for someone else.

Other cuteness from our week... 

London is potty training. Yesterday we got stuck in an AWFUL traffic jam. As in drove 1.5 miles in an hour and 15 minutes. While sitting there, London started saying her stomach hurt and she needed to poo poo. Cue panic. I was asking if she could hold it and she pointed over into the grassy field beside us and told me to drive and 'just drive ober there!' :) 

She also found a boo boo on her leg and started screaming, "mommy!! Why you do that?!?!' Ha! 

Saturdays.. my darling favorite day of the week! 18 solid hours with this crazy kid!

 Love when she wakes up, crawls in bed with me, and asks to 'get under the cubbers' (covers)

 Picture from her day care teacher today! I love our daycare! They have so much fun!!

Renny is in town with us this week! I have yet to get any blog worthy pics, but Im working on it! PROMISE!! 

Also, not to brag, but Im 3 FOR 3 on cooking awesome meals this week! Hooray! This is on the heels of a week where I threw everything I cooked away immediately because of the insane grossness, so I was due some lovin' from the oven. If you want some fast, easy, good, cheap recipes, email me and Ill share!! 

Love you all! Have a great day!

My dear friend, Kristine, called me around 6 months ago and asked if I'd be interested in running a half marathon with her in Florida in a few months. I didn't even think about it and said absolutely. Well one thing led to another and this past weekend a group of around 24 girls headed to beautiful Seaside, Florida for a girls weekend/run. It was nothing short of therapy for the soul. It's been along time since I went on a girls trip. I have laughed and laughed remembering how silly we all were! We all went shopping and you have never heard more 'ohhhhs and ahhhs' and 'this would look GREAT on you's' streaming from the dressing rooms! It was so fun!

The group I was with arrived Friday night and went to Red Bar restaurant, which was wonderful!

Saturday was the most rainy day I have ever seen. We woke up bright and early.. being mostly all moms, you know... and it was raining. 18 hours later? Still steady raining. So what do you do while at the beach in a down pour??? SHOP!! We were all wet rats but left with wonderful bags of goodies as a reward for braving the rain!

We went to the registration area to pick up our race gear and I was just utterly astounded. If you've never been to seaside, stick that on your bucket list right now! It was unbelievable! Beautiful, quaint, lovely, picturesque. Even in a monsoon, it was darling. We were a little worried though, because by mid afternoon, most everything was beginning to sink underwater. The amphitheater was a lake. It wasn't looking hopeful. 

However, when we woke up Sunday morning, the sky was clear and cold. Things were beginning to look up!! Here is most of our group pre-race...

 Lauren, my training partner, who KILLED it! I am so proud of her! I have loved spending the last 6 months of Saturday mornings with her! She's such a doll!

 Early am start finish line

Here I am goobing out at the last half mile! Race cheerleaders are a LIFESAVER!! They are so encouraging! I was trying to get the finish line crowd to cheer for us because they, of all the groups, were quiet as mice! The groups along the way were awesome! I finished in 2 hrs flat. I was glad with that! It was comfortable, easy, and 4 minutes better than my last half. Next year, sub 2 hours. 

 The amphitheater lake I was telling you about? Here she is, 12 hours later, dry as a bone. 

And the grey, awful Saturday skies? They couldn't have been any brighter blue. God is good and gracious. May I never forget. 

A little taste of darling Seaside, Fl. The ATM. 

 and post office 

 and beach... pictures shared by my dear friend Katy. My poor aching toes never even saw the sand!! Katy had quite the view though!

 And my favorite site on the way home from the beach. I wonder who said 'YES!!! That is the PERFECT name for our restaurant!' 

I spoke with my mom the week before the race and promised her that I had no interest in training every year. Consider this a promise broken. This weekend went down in the books and I can't wait for next year. I already have my mind set... based on the amazing prayer sweet Kristine prayed over all of us before we started our run... 

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty!' 

Amen! Thank you gracious God for filling my life with friends that build me into someone better than I am. Thank you for 15 girls who accepted the challenge. Thank you for safety. Thank you for this new community of sisters that will forever hold this memory in our safe keeping!

2 Year Stats

We had London's 2 year check up yesterday and she did great! Our doctor is so nice. If anyone's looking for a pediatrician, I've got your guy. We love him! He was very proud of her speech and potty training and said hopefully we won't see him again for another year! He said it was time to go to the dentist... i think he was saying that to me also... but we'll ALL get to that soon enough!

London is  2'11" tall and is projected to be 5'10" at full height!
She weights 28 whopping pounds and was just under the 75% on all of her growth charts.

Here are some cute pictures from our past few weeks. I probably have 30 adorable naked pictures and videos but again, not putting that on here! I'll leave it with this- we have a dancer on our hands and watching her shake her little naked bum is awesome!!