Big Boy

Keegan is already 6 weeks old and growing so fast...



I took Keegan to his 1 month check at the beginning of the week and he weighed in at 10 pounds 12 ounces and measured 22 1/4 inches long. I'm trying to take in every growing moment seeing that he may be our last baby. Keegan can now keep eye contact and turn his head when we talk to him. He's also our smiliest baby yet, and really enjoys being held. We are so glad to have Keegan in our family.

Breaking the Habit

Ellary is fed up with nap time...This is what she thinks about it!


So today I snuggled Ellary up in her bed for her late morning nap. She smiled. She waved goodbye. She blew kisses as I waved to her from her doorway. I thought maybe, just maybe, she'd take a nap today. Then about twenty minutes later I heard the pitter patter of little feet upon the floor above my head as I cleaned the kitchen. I let Ella play for about an hour before her infamous "moooooore?" echoed from her room. "More" is her word for everything. This time it meant "out". Boy, did she have a surprise waiting for me when I got to the top of the stairs. Look what I found-a plethora of blankets, toys, books, diapers and yes...that is a sticker stuck to her forehead and that blue, long bag that you see on the left side of the picture draping over the baby gate is a Diaper Genie bag. She managed to dismantle even that!

Okay, Ellary. I get your point. Your little smile melts my heart but it doesn't mean you'll be forgoing nap time and be getting your way any time soon!

Kris' Post: Tour de Ashland

On December 5th I ran in the Tour de Ashland, which is a half-marathon hosted by a small city (Ashland, OH) about 220 miles from East Lansing. The whole family drove down Friday night after the Ward Christmas Party (where we sang Silent Night). I trained pretty hard for this half-marathon and I met my goal pace...so I thought. It was interesting that I was using my very old GPS watch (Forerunner 201 for those of you who are wondering) and either the watch was a bit off or I took some wide turns around most of the turns in the race. According to my watch I was under the 8:25 pace that I had set out to achieve (the watch said I ran at 8:21 pace - even though I forgot to stop it until 15 seconds after the race and I was reaching for a banana - see the watch log below). However, it turns out that my watch said I ran 13.3 miles, which it factored in with my time.


When you put my official time of 1:50:45 under scrutiny (for a 13.1 mile race) it is actually 8:28 pace. Bummer. I am pretty sure that because I wasn't careful to run the shortest distance around every corner I probably did run about 13.3 miles and thus I did meet my goal in terms of pace. But that is not what the race results will show. See them here if you are interested.

Anyway, I am pretty happy about my pace because the course was SO hilly. Man I was worried when I drove into the town of Ashland and saw that this place was not flat like most of Ohio (at least the parts I had been to before this). Training in flat East Lansing, MI was not much preparation for what I saw here. Yet, I still met my goal (in my eyes). I guess I will have to try again next year with concerted effort to take the turns tight (and maybe even a new watch). Here are some pics from the race.

Here is the start of the race.


Mile 8 - Girls cheering me on.


Finish line with the family. It was freezing!!!


Here is the Google map of Ashland, OH with my GPS data overlayed on it. Click on it for a closer look.

If anyone is interested here are the individual laps for the race for me (note I forgot to hit the lap button on mile 6 so there are only 12 laps for a 13 mile race).