C25K

So a long time ago I decided that I wanted to be able to run a 5K in the fall.  When I say run I mean run, not do and walk it.  I hadn't done anything about it though. 

Then I told Nate that this was my goal.  What he said was 'there's an app for that' - couch to 5K.

So I got the app.  I was on my phone for awhile while I worked up the motivation to actually start it :)

I did Week 1 Day 1 (5 minute warm-up, 60 seconds running, 90 seconds walking - repeat 8 times, 5 minutes cool-down) on April 21.  I didn't make it.   I only did like the first 3 repetitions.
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Today I did Week 5 Day 1 (5 minute warm-up, three 5 minute runs with 3 minutes of walking between, 5 minute cool-down).  I'm not going to lie, I didn't make it :)  I was running up a HUGE hill though at the end of the last 5 minutes.  No joke I ran up the hill for 1 minute and 10 seconds and was only half way up.  So I stopped with 20 seconds left in that run.  Doesn't matter though because it is a huge improvement from where I started and if I hadn't tried to run up that dang hill I would have made it.

Harper is 4!

My baby turned four Thursday.  Watching her grow from a constantly screaming baby to the girl she is now has given me some of the best moments and some of the hardest.  

Harper is becoming an amazing person.  She is polite, kind and caring.  Sometimes a little too sensitive, the girl definitely shows her emotions.

She took two dance classes this spring and loved them.  Although we rarely got to see dance moves at home, I know that she is learning and getting practice in listening and following directions.

She asked for pierced ears for her birthday, so she got her ears pierced.  She picked out butterfly earrings and did AWESOME!  The look on her face was a little questionable, but no tears were shed and she was (and still is) really excited about her earrings.

I have yet to make her a cake (bad mom here), so maybe I'll get on that.

Choo Choo Ryden's 2!

Apparently I can only plan outdoor parties when the weather doesn't cooperate.

We had Ryden's party last Sunday, and it was the windiest day ever.  I don't have room at my house to have more than like two extra people here so we were planning for the park.  Ummm, not working out so well.  

Windy, not so happy.

Good thing I have amazing friends and we moved the party inside.  I also took NO pictures so good thing that was taken care of too :)  Thanks Audrey!

Did I mention that the boy LOVES trains?  Train cake, train cookies, train presents ... got the theme?  Oh, and an awesome (if I do say so myself) train birthday shirt I made.

 Fun with all of his BFF.

Ryden is 2!

Two years ago Ryden was born.  So much has happened in our lives in those two years, but he is the highlight of most of my days.




The kid LOVES trains.  He can play for hours - HOURS - with a good train set.

He still loves nursing.  He is always ready to go to bed when he knows that he'll get milk.  Who knows when we'll be done with that.  Speaking of bedtime he still has his pacifier at night - another highlight of bedtime.  I know that he shouldn't anymore, but I really don't want to mess with bedtime because 15 minutes of book and nursing, give him his paci and he's in bed for the night (unless of course he loses his paci).

Harper is pretty much awesome.  Unless she's not.  Usually he wants to do everything Harper is doing, but there are times when she drives him nuts!  Like her obsession with giving him a hug and kiss before bed.  It's cute, but he hates it.


Language is still coming.  He's gaining new words and he says a lot more than I (or anyone else) understands.  He definitely has trouble putting sounds together.  He is able to communicate most of what he wants without words.  I have to keep telling myself that words will come.

I can always count on snuggles when I wake him up at 6:00 in the morning.  This time is getting harder because he wants to pick his own clothes and there isn't a train shirt for him to wear everyday :)

It's hard to think that he is officially out of the baby stage and into toddler stage.  He is happy, easy-going, and loving.  I can't imagine what my life would be like without him.

Blogging break

Hi blog, it's been awhile but I haven't forgotten about you.  I just hate posting without pictures and my camera is broken and I'm a little slow with technology and haven't take time to figure out how to upload pictures from my phone.  These are just excuses I'll try to make a better effort going forward :)

Snow angel

Today was a snow day!  Harper woke up and I opened the door to show her the snow.  The look on her face was priceless, pure awe and excitement.

I didn't really prepare well for a snow day though because I didn't really think it would happen.  My plan was to bake, but I forgot to think about the whole list and we didn't have any eggs.  We made some shortbread cookies and gingerbread cookies, neither of which required eggs but did require rolling and cutting (yuck).

Harper got to play in the snow while I scooped the driveway (I'm also fortunate to have great neighbors who finished the last half of my driveway for me).  Tonight she wanted to make a snow angel, so she did!  She was so excited.

Ryden at 18 months

Ryden officially turned 1 1/2 last Monday.  He is growing up so fast.

He loves cars and his blanket. 





















We're still breastfeeding, but he's going to be gone all week so maybe not anymore :(.

Harper is A-MAZ-ING.




















He says hi and bye.  That's it.  Sometimes things sound like dog, ball, book, but only because he's pointing while he's saying it.  LEARN SOME WORDS!

He could play with blocks all day.
















Bedtime is SO easy, but he still wakes up one or two times a night to nurse.

He's a little obsessed with plungers (gross I know).

He would be outside all the time if he could.

Pretty much, he's the coolest 18 month kid I know :)

Leaf Hunt

Last weekend we went on a leaf hunt.

I had this brilliant idea because the leaves are such pretty colors right now.  I'm pretty sure that when I was little, I would draw red, orange, and yellow leaves for fall, but I really thought they just dried up, turned brown and fell off the tree.  Getting Harper to really see all those colors seemed like a good idea.

So I made a list of the things we needed to look for on our leaf hunt.

We headed out on a walk toward the park.

We found lots of leaves.

And other fall nature things.

Then we played at the park.

When we got home, Harper took all of the leaves we found and made a picture.

We will definitely do this again.  As they get older we will definitely identify the types of trees that our leaves come from and learn why leaves turn color and I'm sure that I'll think of more things they will need to learn.  These poor kids with a Biology teacher for a mom.

Weekends

I love weekends!  I like my job, most days, but weekends I get to spend with my kids.  Sometimes they frustrate me, sometimes I have a short temper and snap at them, but I love them all the time.

Last weekend, we went to Touch-A-Truck at a local church.  I thought the kids would totally be into it.  However, I forgot that Harper is ridiculously shy in new situations.  There was a bounce house there though that she HAD to do, wouldn't do anything else until she jumped.  We did get to move past that and this is the point where Ryden discovered the little cars while Harper got some cotton candy.


We really need to get some toy cars.

















The kids did art too!  I found this idea on Pinterest but I failed to think through the fact that my kids are not perfectionists (yet) and wouldn't want to just put their handprints on the tree.  They still turned out pretty cute.

She wanted to be in the picture.  Goofball.

We also went to the pumpkin patch and did not get any pumpkins.  Grandma and Grandpa have supplied us with pumpkins this year.  But we had lots of fun.  Thanks to Audrey for taking pictures ... I wish I had a nice camera.

 Grandma and Grandpa have also supplied us with copious amounts of squash which I have been baking into all sorts of things.  I've made a couple batches of 'pumpkin' bread and this weekend made some pumpkin gingersnap cookies.  

I made some delicious glazed muffins too.  I'm addicted to Pinterest . . .

My favorite

I have a favorite child . . . it is not Harper.  Okay, that's a horrible thing to say, but she has been so difficult lately I definitely prefer Ryden.

She screams, cries, and hits me when something doesn't go her way.  He does this too, but he's 17 months old so it's more understanding.

She refuses to take naps, go to bed at night, sleep in her own bed, etc.  Ryden nurses, gives Harper a hug lays in his bed with his pacifier and goes to sleep, at 7:30.  Granted he wakes up every couple hours but it's a routine.


Plus, Ryden he's just so nice.  He gives kisses and hugs on demand.  He's happy and smiley.  Tonight he wanted to build with MegaBlocs so came and touched my leg, went over to the tub, repeat until I caught on and opened the tub for him.  Someone else, dumped out the entire tub and made a hazard in the house.  I told Ryden to pick up the blocks and he jumped right in.  Harper picked up zero blocks.

I know that she will grow out of this phase (at least I hope so) and that he will most likely move into it.  For now though, Ryden gets the loving, caring mom and Harper gets the annoyed, crabby mom.

Iowa State Fair

I wrote this tiny post almost three weeks ago, but because I'm too ridiculous to upload pictures from my phone it has taken me this long to just post without pictures.  Follow me on Instagram to see pictures @beckyfinck




This weekend we went to the Iowa State Fair with my whole family.

Harper was so excited to go.  Her 'I'm still sleepy' turned into perky and wide awake when she realized it was fair day and not a school/daycare day.

She got to eat her hot dog on a stick that she was promised.  She got to see the butter cow which she said was her favorite thing.  And she went on her first ride ever!

Then she got to stay in a hotel and go swimming.  How much fun was her weekend?

It was fun, but I HATE being gone all weekend and going into the first full week of school has been exhausting.

Butterfly parade

Yay for fun free things!

This morning went to the band parade.  We parked away and walked, too bad I didn't plan very well and we didn't have stroller.  Harper did awesome though, she walked there and back without complaining or asking to be carried once.

Then we got to listen to some fun music.  Both kids loved it, even though we missed the beginning since we had to walk so far.










To follow, we went to the monarch watch on campus and got to check out some caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies.  

What are those butterflies doing?

Harper even held a butterfly.  I didn't think she would and it was questionable, but she mustered up enough courage to do it.

This one is almost there . . . the other one has a few more days.

To top it off we got to bring home two chrysalis.  Harper is pretty excited about HER butterfly.

A little more about my day

I remembered today why I went back to HP.  The kids that stopped in today just to say hi and that they miss my class are the reason.  They might not always be well behaved or make you think that they appreciate anything you're doing but they really are good kids.

On a completely unrelated note, Ryden has taken to 'hiding' when he poops.  Harper never did this and I'm taking it as a sign that we can start potty training soon.  :)

A little about my day

Today was the first real day of school.  After yesterday's run through with the freshmen I was left thinking 'Why did I decide to do this again?!?'  However, today went much more smoothly and I remembered that the kids CAN be awesome.  There was a group of boys in one hour that were causing all sorts of problems and I remembered the beginning of the year last year and a group of girls who were so proud that they had made a teacher cry in elementary.  That group of girls became some of my favorite students.  I just have to remember that the first impression isn't always the right one, for better or worse.

The transition for me and the kids into the school routine again hasn't been too rough.  It has been a week and the kids are still struggling to get up in the morning, I, of course, am doing GREAT waking up at 5:30 everyday (heavy on the sarcasm).  Ryden is getting crabby as the days go on and he gets farther behind on sleep.

I will say that not having to pump during the day is making things SO much easier.  Not having to wash the bottles and pump parts every day before making supper is awesome too.  Leaving the house in the morning without having to get bottles is another bonus.  All around, extremely happy that the pumping phase is over even though we're still breastfeeding.

Crossing my fingers for a good year!

All the Grandmas

The other day, Harper informed me that she doesn't have two Grandma's.  She has 'this many' (holding up three fingers).  I asked her who her three Grandma's were and she told me 'dad's parents, my Grandma that lives on a rocky road and Grandma Clayton'.  Well Grandma Clayton is really her Great Grandma and she has three other Great Grandmas but she sees Great Grandma Clayton far more than her other Great Grandmas.

I have also realized while looking for pictures of Harper with her Grandmas, that we need to take more pictures of them.