Molly........

Molly is 1 1/2 and at such a fun, fun age! She does the funniest things and is really into exploring everything. She's also learning how to throw fits, but I guess that just comes with the territory!

Just chilling out enjoying a banana! 

This wasn't so fun....she did not want to be shopping at "mal-mart" that day and protested by laying down on the floor. Fun times! 

She likes to take her diaper off.......

Lucy turned around for the picture so of course, Molly had to turn around. Monkey see, monkey do!

I got out this pot to find a piece of hard, molded string cheese in it. We imagine this came form Molly. :)

Little Girl Rooms

I love Lucy and Molly's bedrooms! To me they just say "little girl lives here," especially Lucy's room. I decorated both rooms while pregnant with each, and have made changes here and there. I've more so made changes to Lucy's room, given that we put her in a big-girl bed and moved out her changing table before Molly was born. I love the purple in her room and I love that she has a poster of Daniel Tiger and Mickey Mouse and his gang on her walls. I think that is just funny.

The rooms don't stay perfectly clean and they don't look like a picture out of Pottery Barn kids, but that's what I love about them! I want to let Lucy and Molly be little girls and decorate their rooms and dress them as such. I've seem some little girl rooms (like toddler age rooms) that look more like an adult room in how they're decorated. There's nothing wrong with that at all, it's just a personal choice. But for me, I'll put a Daniel Tiger or Mickey Mouse poster on their wall any day, even if it doesn't match or go with the rest of the room. It makes my girls happy, and that's all that matters!

The purple room is Lucy's and the pink room is Molly's.

Hours...Days In My Chairs

It occurred to me one night while putting Molly to bed that I have spent several hours in her rocking chair and in Lucy's rocking chair, either reading to them or rocking them to sleep. I thought about it more and realized that I should probably think about it more in terms of DAYS than hours! All of the time I spent nursing Lucy in her chair, putting her to sleep at nap and bedtime, and the same with Molly, I'm sure the hours quickly added up to days...possibly even months!

I'm happy to have spent all that time in the chairs and wouldn't trade it for anything. And I am very thankful that both chairs are comfy! Lucy's chair is actually my Mom's glider that she let us "borrow." It's blue so I put a purple quilt over it that came from one of Ross' grandmas. The quilt matched Lucy's crib bedding and wall color perfectly. Added plus! It's a great chair, however, I can't tell you how many times I wished it reclined! There were so, so many times I could hardly stay awake while rocking Lucy and all I could think about was how nice it would be to recline! Before Molly was born, I told Ross countless times that for our second child we were getting a rocker/recliner for the baby's room! And we did just that!

Molly's chair is a comfy rocker/recliner that has gotten lots of good use the 1 1/2 years we've had it. I've spent lots of time sleeping in that chair, too, either during a nap time or overnight! I love how it rocks and absolutely love how it reclines. It's spacious, too, as both girls can sit in it with me. And, did I mention it reclines?! :) I tell any first-time, pregnant lady I know that they need to get a rocker/recliner for their nursery. It is sooo worth it!

Get Down!

Molly loves to climb on everything and has discovered how to climb up on our kitchen chairs. We tell her to "get down" whenever we see her standing on the chairs. One day I found her standing on the chair and telling herself to "get down." It was so funny! She says it so forcefully, too, as if she's mimicing us. What a little ham!

Just Me

I love my husband very much and I love my kids very much, too. There isn't anything I'd change about them. Ross is a great, great guy and husband. He's kind, caring, considerate, helpful, loving, a wonderful father, a hard worker, and countless other adjectives I could use to describe him. I love being married to him. We get along well and have fun together. As I said to him before we started dating...I enjoy your company. His reply to me was...It doesn't matter what we're doing really, I just enjoy being with you.That still stands true today.

And I love Lucy and Molly so much. They are just the best little kids ever. Lucy is so full of life and energy and is so much fun. She can be challenging at times, given that she's three years old, but really for the most part, she is a very good little girl. Molly is the perfect mix of happy and calm. She is my little cuddle bug and is so sweet. She is her daddy's daughter in that overall, she just likes to chill and relax, but does have her high-energy times, too.

I get to stay home with my kids each day and don't have to send them to daycare and deal with the stress of working full time and keeping things running at home. I get paid to workout and then get to hang out with girlfriends on MWF after working out. I have a nice, spacious house. I have a great family and friends. I really have nothing to complain about in life, but realized something the other day.......

I used to run A LOT before having kids. I ran three full marathons (26.2 miles) and maybe nine half marathons (13.1 miles). I was on a regular running schedule of 4-5 miles three times a week with various friends. I enjoyed running, and although getting up early (5;30am) and getting tired earlier at night wasn't always fun, it was worth it. I felt good, didn't feel guilty for eating more sweets than I should, and also loved being outside in the early mornings. Since having kids I haven't been on any kind of a running schedule and I miss that. It's hard with kids not always sleeping all night and quite honestly I've been lazy! It's just so much easier to turn off my alarm and roll over to another hour or so of sleep in the morning instead of getting up to go run.

I'm now teaching an hour-long class at 5:15am on Tuesday and Thursdays and this past Tuesday I decided to go for a two-mile run after class. Although it was a short run and I was kind of tired from just having done my class, I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the run! I realized that for the 22 minutes of that run, I was just me. Just Libby. I wasn't a wife. I wasn't a mom. I wasn't any other role that I fall into each day. I was just me. Just me out doing something that I really enjoy and that is good for me in so many ways other than a physical way. It was great! I really hope to get back into it and enjoy just being me more often.

What can you do to be "just you?"

Preschool Clothes

A few weeks ago Lucy decided that one day she needed to wear a baseball hat (which she never wears) to preschool, and the next day she needed to wear a stocking cap, scarf, and gloves to preschool. I thought whatever, it wasn't worth the fight to me and I figured she would take them off as soon as the got to school. I'm pretty sure she took off the baseball hat right away, but it was a different story for the winter gear.

When Lucy got in the car after preschool, she had on her hat and scarf, but no gloves. I laughed to myself thinking, how funny that she put them on before going home. Her teacher brought her to my car and told me that her gloves were in her bag. I asked if she wore the hat the whole day. She said yes, she wore the hat, scarf, and gloves the whole morning, but she did have to take the gloves off to eat lunch. I laughed so hard at this! I love Lucy and all the funny, funny things she does! I hope that stays with her for the rest of her life.

Your Sister Is NOT A Stool

One night we were playing with Lucy and Molly in our family room. Molly was crawling on the floor between the couch and ottoman and Lucy was trying to get on the couch. Molly was in her way, so Lucy proceeded to put her foot on Molly's back to try and use her as a step stool to get to the couch. We saw this happening and stopped Lucy as soon as we could, so as to not hurt Molly. We laughed after we heard ourselves saying, "Lucy, Molly is your sister, not a stool." Oh my!

My First Mud Run

I did a 5K mud run a few weeks ago with some friends from the gym and had a really fun time! It was a 5K (3.1 miles) run with mud pits throughout the course and obstacles such as climbing up and over 8' walls, climbing up and over and running through tires, running back and forth through a giant mud pit, and other things like that.

I was a bit worried about the mud and getting it in my face, eye, etc., but it really wasn't bad at all. And I could have bypassed one of the mud areas if I wanted to. I had a great time and look forward to doing it again next year!

Silver Dollar City Family Fun!

Last Friday Ross took the day off of work and we met his parents at Silver Dollar City to spend the day there. We had a great time! The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't bad at all, too. We rode the butterflies, frogs, and caterpillars, the carousel, swings, and a new ride, too. It was such a fun day!