~happy birthday sweet baby girl~

she's walking!

emse started walking a few weeks ago and has taken off!  man, we love this girl.

rock 'n' roll

in january i accomplished something on my bucket list... well, half of something. i've always wanted to run a marathon, so after esme was born I made it a goal. with my sisters, millie and annie, and my brother-in-law, Rob, we registered for the phoenix rock & roll marathon. they registered to run the full but i decided that the half marathon was a little more realistic for me. i desperately wanted brandon to run with me, but he has terrible knees and decided against it. i was bummed but understood. a week later, for my birthday, brandon surprised me with a registration confirmation that had his name on it. i was beyond excited! unfortunately, in october brandon learned that he would be in equador working with an orphanage during the race. (equador post to come...) again, so disappointed. not only would he not be running with me, he wouldn't even be there to cheer me on. sad. 

the week of the race arrived. i drove down to arizona with my parents and we stayed with my sister annie in their new home. esme was sick with the stomach flu and didn't sleep well, which meant i didn't sleep well either. i was worried that the lack of sleep would effect my race. 

the day before the race we went to the expo and loaded up on the SWAG. that night we slept in a hotel near the start of the race. on race day, we woke up before dawn and drove to the monorail. i said goodbye to annie, millie, and rob and boarded the train by my lonesome, headed to the start of my race. i was so excited to be there. the excitement in the air swept away my lack of sleep and anxiety.

the race itself was one of the best things i've done. you would never know from the pictures, but i really did have a fun time. i had lots of energy (thanks jenni for the honey stingers energy chews) and tried to soak up every moment. as the finish drew close, i felt a tinge of sadness that this would be the end of my journey. my family was at the finish but somehow missed taking a picture. lame. so there are no pictures to prove i finished... but i did. 

my finishing time was 2:05:58.  i was shocked and excited by my time. i guess those energy chews really do work. ;)

annie and millie ran together their entire race and were able to cross the finish together. rob had a great start and was way ahead of a&m but his legs started cramping around mile 20 and he had to slow way down. he still had a great finish time.

one thing i learned through this race, and this is very important, i have GOT to work on my appearance while i run. i looked like crap. i didn't know if i should laugh or cry as i looked through the race pictures. my cheeks sagged like a bull-dog and i looked absolutely miserable. then i looked at my sisters' pictures and again, i didn't know if i should laugh or cry. i'll just let you all see for yourself.

i know. i look awesome.

but they're obviously having a great time!

my personal favorite.

ugh.

nice.

seriously?!

are we starting to see a pattern?

apparently i need to smile a little more... and look for the photographers the next time i run a race.

in november, my family took a trip to disneyworld and took a disney cruise to the bahama's. the trip was amazing, but i must say that traveling has changed quite a bit since little esme joined our family. she did amazingly well during the days, nights were a different story. she hates sleeping anywhere but her own bed. ugh.

{she's got the moves like jagger}

halloween... in december

holy wow, where has time gone. oh well. i still want to document our holiday fun.school fun

family of angry birds

except this little bird isn't a very angry bird

trick or treat
the wolf and little red

~dirty thirty~

it happend, i turned 30. (yes, i'm just getting around to posting it.) to celebrate, i had oral surgery to repair infected bone in my upper jaw. nice. to say the least, it didn't feel like much of a birthday...

but to make up for a pretty lame day, brandon planned a little "dirty thirty" party for my family the following sunday. here are a few pictures of the happy occasion. the best part was that i got to stand back and watch everyone else get filthy dirty.