Bloodgusher 5K Race

I ran my second 5k race today and won 1st place overall female with a time of 23:10. I had hoped for under 25 minutes, so I surprised myself! The weather was mid-40s, overcast, with little to no wind. It may not have been great weather for the spectators, but it was perfect for running. I started off in the top 20-30 runners and decided to just try to pass up the women one by one. I stayed neck and neck with 2 of them for awhile which helped motivate me to maintain my pace. As we came up on 2 miles, I saw that there were fewer than 10 people left ahead of me, 2 of them women. I was able to pass the last one during the last 3/4 mile. I was hurting towards the finish but stuck it out. There will be another 5K in Midland in mid-April, and I might even do one in Big Spring in 2 weeks. I also plan to begin training for a 10K in the fall.

Morgan Sings the Alphabet

Of course, Morgan has been saying the alphabet for quite awhile now. But just recently, he started getting excited about singing. Now he sings the ABC about a hundred times a day. Next time won't you sing with him?

Easter Weekend

Now for my second post today... We enjoyed a visit from both sides of the family this weekend. Jan and Kate dropped in on Friday afternoon for a 24-hr visit. We had good conversation and went to Taco Villa for lunch. But try as we might, we could not get the kids to look at the camera, much less smile for a picture! On Saturday afternoon, the Motz family arrived, minus Nathan (he's in Germany so I guess we'll overlook it this time). Mom, the girls, and I worked Saturday night to prepare Easter breakfast and lunch. Easter Sunday turned out to be a dismal day of cold and rain, so all pictures were taken inside for the second year in a row. Morgan discovered Easter candy this year, and it was an experience he will not soon forget! In fact, we may have permanently ruined him. The excitement of his first egg hunt was greatly diminished by the fact that he found no additional candy inside. Sorry Morgan. Emma was radiant in her peach silk dress and matching headband. But she was under the weather due to the emergence of her second tooth, so she laid around most of the day.

Misc. Recent Cuteness

I'll be doing a double post today to catch up. The first is just some recent shots taken of the kids with their Daddy and playing on their own. Both of them love the backyard. Emma consumes more than her fair share of grass as she watches Daddy and Morgan play. She has also been doing well in playpen time lately, starting to show an interest in looking through books. Morgan has been doing some more "schoolwork", lining up objects on a line from left to right. He's very proud of his abilities.


Get that out of your mouth!



Playpen time

Morgan's activity

Haleigh's Senior Pictures

My sisters have had me gainfully employed of late as their photographer. On my most recent trip to Abilene, I took about a hundred of Haleigh at the "scrap yard". We had fun with all the props out there. Here are some of the best shots.

Trip to Abilene/Paris

Matt spent a few days this past weekend in Austin for the SXSW festival. Since his parents were on a fabulous vacation in Rome, I decided not to take the kids to Austin. We went to Abilene and also made a brief side trip to Paris. The kids had a great time, especially at the park and the zoo.

They also got plenty of books...



All the Motz kids

Shannon took some photos in Paris. Here's one of them...

Emma enjoyed Memaw C's cooking utensils.



Both kids were laughing at theirMemaw making faces behind me...

The Abilene Zoo has an amazing park. Morgan has never had so much fun!



He tried to feed the animals...

...while Emma busily poked her fingers into the cracks.





Pepaw met us there and we watched the ducks.



It was Emma's first trip to the zoo and she was very interested in everything.

She got a little scared when the giraffe's tongue came out.

She's a Peach!

We finally had Emma's 9 month portraits done at Sears today, even though she turned 9 months a couple weeks ago. Of course, she was great in pretty much every pose. She really loves the camera- and the feeling is apparently mutual, wouldn't you agree?