night alone.

i'm in a hotel room. all alone. peace and quiet. some people have champagne while taking a relaxing bath. me? this is how i roll...

yep. that is gatorade. a big one. i'm trying to get hydrated.

tomorrow is the 11th annual oklahoma city memorial marathon. i'm running...again. well, another marathon but this will be my first time to run the full here. i ran the half marathon last year. i almost wish i was running the half this year. the weather is not cooperating. i'm going to wear gloves to start and pray it doesn't rain. just a week ago the weather predicted that it would be hot and sunny. you can't trust the oklahoma weather men. period.

i'm exhausted but set the alarm and a wake up call. my alarm will go off at 4:39 and my call will come in at 4:45 a.m. are you jealous?

i've got my gear laid out so i don't have to think about other things in the morning. this is my outfit, just in case you happen to catch the coverage on tv, you can look for me.

i kid, i kid. tv crews don't hang out to the bitter end. the kenyans finish ungawdly fast and they get all the hype. not fair. or totally fair. i look like i'm dying while i run so i don't want to be on the news anyway. 

but

i will gladly accept thoughts and prayers.

i'm off to bed. as the official website just pointed out, i've only got 7 hours and 14 minutes until the start of the run. 

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.^®

first harvest.

mr. h loves his garden. so far we've had quite the volunteer turnout. he'll decide what he wants to plant this year as soon as he can figure out what all will return from last year.

our first harvest was last weekend.

can you guess what it is?



i'll give you a hint - it was perfect timing bc bunny rabbits love this food.

you guessed carrot, right?

woo hoo!

it is a curly carrot, but still a big carrot. mr. h thinks it was curly bc the soil was not deep enough in our raised garden so he will transplant the others to the ground.

james wanted to check it out. of course we let him.

he ran around like it was a sword. the actual orange part was the handle. the leafy part didn't look near as big in the garden as it does in james' hands. i thought it was going to be gigantic! i think if it hadn't been in the raised bed, it would have been. unfortunately, we didn't wait to feed it to the easter bunny. we ate it minutes after i took these pictures. it was good. all natural and fresh. i hope mr. h keeps the harvests coming.

and i guess you can tell that james still loves his red, cowboy hat. i like it. i think it is cute. and it is even better when he is outside bc it shades his fare complexion. i hate when babies get sunburned. we are always armed with spf 50 and a hat. no sunburn for this guy. no tan either. better safe than sorry.

how great thou art.

happy easter.

my blog friend erin posted this video yesterday. it brought me to tears. i wanted to share as well. pair a great song with carrie's pipes and you've got me hooked. 

ming ming.

if our tv is turned on, there is a good chance that nick jr. is playing. we watch the wonder pets around here.  i think james likes to watch the animals. i think he's moved on to more mature shows like dora, diego and dino dan but we still watch the wonder pets. lenny, tuck and ming ming, too. i have been able to sing that theme song for quite some time. i'm a truly talented mom.

grandma likes the wonder pets too. she bought some stuffed animals for james but unfortunately waylon liked to play with them too. last week she bought a real live ming ming.

james, meet ming ming.

james: for me? really???

yep. james grandma hooked you up this easter.

we better hold them now, while they'll let you and they're still cute. i'm not going to lie - i was nervous. see these sweet little creatures? would james be nice to them? would he squeeze them or drop them? 

luckily, all survived. james was not as gentle as i would have liked but he could have been a lot worse. he did good. those birds are fast. well, fast for james. i mean, i'm sure those sweet birds will run with they see him coming. i don't blame them. i would too. oh and since their last visit, grandma got ming ming a friend. she said he felt left out. they are so cute right now. i wish they would stay blue and pink and little. we wouldn't have fresh eggs but that would be okay with me. only me though. mr. h wants fresh eggs.

eight seconds.

this time of year seems to be so busy. i know i say this every season but it is true. spring is so busy, as i thought fall was busy. this time of year you have yard work, too many things you need to do, too many things you want to do and time you need to just spend breathing in the fresh air and sunshine. before we (oklahomans) know it, it will be too hot to sit outside and play without water and a refreshing pool in sight.

a couple of saturdays ago my sister's family had a dual birthday party for my sister and my nephew. they reserved a local park, got some live music, inflatables and a mechanical bull. yep, you read that right. a mechanical bull. let me tell you, it was perfect. the sun was shining and so many families came out to celebrate.

this was the birthday boy

it was really too windy for candles. he didn't mind.

the start of the party was during james' nap time. i went out early and mr. h brought him when he woke up. i was mingling with the guests until i looked around and saw this:

my boys are here! and james is wearing his cowboy hate. this is going to be perfect.

all the boys migrated to the mechanical bull. while it looked fun, i personally did not attempt. but someone we know was awfully curious.

once we were told that they could make it safe for james, we had to let him have a turn.

i mean, arm up and all. he was taking notes!

and apparently you have to work to stay on.

eight second? who needs just eight. james is going on forty eight.

we had one happy little cowboy.

until we had an unhappy little cowboy.

zinnia {week 1}

and we have babies!!!

score!!!

james may turn out to be a master gardener. i love fresh flowers and veggies. this could be a sweet deal for dear ol' mom.

the water hose.

after i took away james' zinnia pail, i went inside the house to find a nice spot for it to sit, undisturbed for a while. i'm doing my own thing, you know for a whole two miutes, when i peek out the back door to see this.

i couldn't tell the extent of the damage but i grabbed my camera and went back outside anyway.

the damage, well, it's nothing the washing machine and a bubble bath couldn't fix.

covered. head to toe. and i think i see some mud in his smile. was he eating it? or using the shovel as a spoon? i'm not quite sure but the clean up crew was called in to get to work on this little pigpen.

the clean up crew is aka mr. h and the water hose.

even though the water was cold, james loved it!

james then decided he wanted to take matters into his own hands.

the boy loves the water hose. i'm telling you, this will be a dual purpose game this summer - to entertain james and water the backyard. score.

who knew something we already need to do would be such a hit?

if you can't reach me by cell, i'm playing out back with james and the water hose.

veggie tales pail.

grammie got james a veggie tales flower pot for james. it was so much fun! we got it on saturday and couldn't wait so we planted it on sunday morning.

well, mr. h and james planted it while i took pictures. i still think it counts as a "we" job.

the kit came with seeds and two blocks of compact dirt. i'm sure there is a fancy name for the dirt disks but you get the point. so, we added water and let james get to it.

can you see the piles of mud?  yea, the more it went flying, the more fun this project became.

see? james is in the zone. he is having a blast. i'm just letting him do his thing but trying to not get in his line of fire.

finally the dirt was ready and it was time for the seeds. this kit came with zinnia seeds. i expected it to be a veggie. you know, they are veggie tales but it was a nice surprise. we haven't planted any flowers yet but i love our azaleas and spring flowers.

isn't it just too cute how james is mimicking mr. h? he is such a sponge. and so smart. and no, i'm not bias. he really is and his memory is top notch. this can be very tricky.

next up, time to rake in the seeds with some tlc.

james didn't really want to use tlc. he wanted to play in the dirt. so.... we had to take it away from him.

can you see the look of disgust in his face when mr. h was trying to pry the little rake from his hands? he was not happy and was not going down without a fight. as soon as we distracted him, i snagged the freshly planted zinnias and carried them inside. and put them up high where someones little hands couldn't dig it in when i turn my head.

i hope they bloom.

fingers crossed.

saturday morning scene.

 

with warm weather brings outside time and responsibilities. after my run, the farmers market and a snack, it was time to do work.

the hubs needs to mow so james wanted to mow too. we also played soccer and climbed on the jungle gym. what a fun saturday morning.

we obviously play soccer two ways around here. you see the white blog on the bottom of the picture. that is utah. he loves that ball. he's just wait for the chance to get it back from james.

see? he loves it.

see that dog run on the fence? i'd love to say we were making that dirt a flower garden but utah would trample it. 

see that hole next to utah? that is from the other dog. waylon is trying to find china. 

dogs.

off to a saturday fill with birthday fun!!

happy friday.

does this picture make you smile too???

i hope so.

we picked up these glasses when we went to incredible pizza for valentine's day. i've pretty much been holding them hostage until i could find a time to set up a photo shoot. yesterday after work, i deemed it time.

i grabbed the glasses, attempted to put them on and loured james outside with them. i tried to get him to sit on the deck for some snaps. he actually did good until we got photo bombed by waylon.

james was saying "waylon" and petting him and having a good time. waylon was posing so i just went with it.

i love these two boys.

neither one usually sits still for me to take a picture. maybe those are magic glasses? if so, i'll need to buy reinforcements bc they stretch out and look like they may only last another time or two. as soon as james wasn't looking, i took them back inside and put them up. i'm mean like that. well, i'm not but i just didn't want them to get broken in the first ten minutes of play time. accidentally of course.

i will be spending the weekend with family and sunshine. can it get any better? i think not.

happy friday!!!