Top 10 reasons we love our Easter tradition

It's Monday night, and we're all still recovering from our annual Easter weekend extravaganza with the cousins Strand. It is always a blast, and this year was no different. Laura had a meeting on Friday morning, so they couldn't arrive on Thursday night like they usually do. But, we were all super excited for Laura, Chris and Penny to get here when they could. As an added bonus, Aunt Amber and Tom decided to come up from Texas for Easter, too. So, we had family all around. It was great. Molly told me before everyone arrived that she was sure Saturday was going to be the best day of her life because she got to see Penny, Aunt Amber and everyone!

Amber and Tom got to town first, so all the Laffertys came to our house for dinner on Friday night. We hung out and waited for the Strands to arrive. They got here around 7, then the girls kind of stared at each other for a while until they got used to each other again. It didn't take too long, then they were running around, playing and laughing.

Being in a new house, we actually had a guest room for Laura and Chris to stay in. Previous years, we've stuck them in the basement. (Sorry guys!) But, when we were making up the guest room, which had a twin bed and trundle, we realized the only sheets we had for the bed were Dora the Explorer sheets from Charlotte. Whoops. (Sorry again, guys!)

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to the Easter Egg 5K. This year was gorgeous weather, and the girls were all excited to run the Lil Bunny Fun Run. Unfortunately, it was 1 hour after the start of the 5K, and Penny was terrified they were going to miss it, so she worried and bugged Laura about it the entire time Cory and I were running. Amber came and ran, too. She's becoming quite the runner down in Texas.

Amber, Cory and Me. You might notice a 1st place medal around my neck ...

Hanging with the Easter Bunny while we were running.

Look at my speedy girl!

Just about one of the best pictures ever.

Dashing like a Diva

I've been behind on blogging. Clearly. I'm trying to catch up.

For the past couple years, I've run in the Diva Dash 5K. It's a really fun, all-girls race close to our house. Think pink, pink and tutus, and you have a picture of what the race is all about. So, when my friend Jackie sent out a message seeing if anyone wanted to join a team, I immediately signed up.

Because it's a women's only race, and they have prize money, there are some fast runners. I had no hope of winning anything, but was just going to go out and see how fast I could go. I've been working on my speed a lot over the winter, so I was just curious.

They have a Lil' Princess Fun Run for the girls, too. My girls love receiving a tiara and medal as they cross the finish line, so they were all on board with running this race again this year. And, yes, Charlotte picked out my running outfit. When I laid the girls' clothes out the night before, she decided I also needed to wear my pink race shirt, black under shirt, black pants and tutu skirt. So, I made her happy.

Cory and the girls and I get to the race, and I'm about to get out of the car when I realize that I've forgotten my bib and timing chip at home. *facepalm*  Now, unfortunately, this is not the first time I have done this. I really think I need to start exercising my brain and memory muscles in addition to my quads and hamstrings. But, good husband that he was, Cory left me there to do a warm-up mile with Anne and Kelli and headed back to pick up my stuff. I felt like an idiot and was also very glad that I have a very nice husband.

Me, Anne, Kelli and Jackie before the race started. And, after Cory delivered my bib and timing chip.

We lined up in the starting corral and before I knew it, the race gun went off. Unfortunately, I did not have my music going. I quickly flipped my iPod onto the first thing I could get. That was a Freakanomics podcast. Hmmm, I love listening to those while I'm driving around town to preschool or gymnastics, and even when I'm doing a long run. But sprinting in a race? Nope. So, after about a half mile, I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to fumble with my iPod to find music. Thankfully, I found my running fast playlist. Ahhh, much better.

Because this race is fairly close to my house and is on roads that I've run on all the time, I knew the course. This is great. And, not so great. I knew where I was headed, but I also knew the giant hill that was waiting for me in mile 3. I hate that hill up 119th. I always have. Blech. But, after 2 miles of sprinting, I just had to power through. Head down, arms pumping, I made it up.

I had no idea where I was in terms of the overall race, but I thought I was doing ok. I was hoping to PR. So, when I saw a 22:something on the finish line clock, I was bummed. My PR was 21:57. Oh well, I'd run hard. It had had hills. I got a cool medal.

About to cross the finish line. Not my most attractive picture, but I like that both my feet are in the air.

With the girls after I finished.

I stuck around close to the finish line to find Cory and the girls, then what do you know, I see Anne crossing the finish line in record time. A new PR for her! WooHoo for her!

After we finished, we took a cute picture with the backdrop.

New House!

Whoa! It's been a while since I updated. Crap. Where have I been? What's been going on? Why have I been delinquent on posting?

Well ... drumroll, please ... get excited ... are you ready? ... Alright, here goes: I have been moving. Not moving as in dancing, but moving as in packing up our entire house and moving all our crap, ahem, stuff to a new location. Now, it's not the only reason that I've been incredibly far behind on updating the blog, but it's the reason I'll blame.

Here's the story:

Cory and I moved into our old house in October of 2003 when we were but wee babes and had been married for less than two years. We had almost no furniture, and I didn't really know my true decorating style yet. But, I did love our house. Fast-forward 10 years and two kids: I still loved a lot about our house (memories of bringing my babies home and them taking their first steps chief among the things I loved), but we were bursting at the seams.

Bringing Molly home to our house in 2007. (Eeek, and I thought I didn't get swollen while pregnant!)

We've always loved entertaining and having parties at our house (see all the parties on the party page), but, oh boy, our house was getting progressively smaller as our parties kept getting bigger. I guess that happens when you keep adding kids and the kids keep growing.

So, every once in a while, I would get an itch and start searching the internet for a new house. The problem was, I loved our neighborhood and neighbors a lot. I was willing to put up with a lot in our tiny house to stay in our neighborhood. But, then my BRF (best running friend) Sarah moved away. It had been so convenient to have another running stay-at-home mom to two girls living right across the street. When she moved, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started looking in earnest.

That's when I came across the listing for our new house. It had previously been foreclosed, but then had been flipped. Originally, Cory and I thought we might want a fixer upper. He had a lot of experience and contacts after fixing up so many rentals. But, then we fell in love. Yes, with a house.

We had some back-and-forth, but ended up getting it (obviously), and gained possession the week before Thanksgiving. We thought we might have a lot of time to move slowly and get everything ready. But, then we found the perfect people to rent our old house, and they needed to be in before December. That meant turning on our supersonic speed moving skills. It was insane.

But, we made it.

Our new house!

And, of course, I had already agreed to host my faith club's annual Christmas dinner before anything about the move happened. I decided to keep the date and use it as a deadline of sorts for myself to get our house semi-ready. I had about three weeks to do it.