Spring...

This has been a WONDERFUL weekend!

Granted, it doesn't take much to impress me...

but still! 

It has been wonderful!

It started with our Friday Family Night. 

I wanted to take the boys to see the movie Jack the Giant Slayer. 

Mark didn't think it was appropriate.

So of course I had to call upon my trusty friend Google to find out exactly what the movie entailed that earned it a PG 13 movie. 

I found an awesome website called kids-in-mind.com. 

It rates things like sexuality, language, violence, etc and then it will even tell you specifically in the movie what happens to earn the score it has received. 

We finally agreed to go and the boys loved it!

It made me laugh and Mark judged it as only so-so but he's hard to impress.

Then Saturday morning, we all got up early for our first race of the year!

It was a small one here in town but it still counts towards my goal of 4 5k's this year.

The boys participated in the fun run also.

They had to run two laps around the paved track only I don't think they listened too well.

They were off like a shot when the whistle blew and Owen sprinted the whole first lap around. He was grinning ear to ear when he came running to the end only to realize that he had to run the lap all over again! 

He was beat and promptly got passed by several others. Caleb had also sprinted it out at first and then realized that pacing yourself is important! 

They were both just glad to be done!

Ice creams all around along with chocolate coins quickly made them eager for the next run.

Then it was my turn!

I am always super nervous before a race but this one was definitely the smallest one I have ever been in so far! Maybe 25 people? 30? Anyway...

it was still a run!

Here I am freezing and trying to listen to the directions for the route - it wouldn't be cool to get lost!

My friend in blue beside me is Donna. She's a kindergarten teacher who recently did a half marathon and her and her husband follow Dave Ramsey as well. She's awesome!

The boys were cheering me on already...

Mark was so sweet and took pictures throughout the race but I must admit to vanity here and just say that this is the only picture that made it through the final edit team!

Because there weren't very many runners, I ended up getting first place for not only my age group but also first place overall for the girls division! Wahoo! That means I won a free long-sleeved Gore Tex shirt that will arrive next week (I had to tell them my size so they could order it). I also won a free backpack and handmade headband. 

That was all well and good but my actual favorite part was all the food the race coordinators had brought in. 

You should have seen the table of food they supplied! 

It was well worth every step I took that day!

In Mark and I's bedroom I have started to hang up my numbers from different races. I want them to go all the way the the floor and around my window on both sides. 

I write down my time, the race, the distance and usually the date. 

It keeps me motivated!

After all the racing (and much eating!), we came home and all got busy outside. 

Mark and I started planning and measuring outside for landscaping projects. 

It is so much fun to dream about how things are going to look!

We planned in fences, flower beds, a fire pit that will someday turn into a pergola with an outdoor fireplace...

The boys got busy too! We gave them the keys to the four wheeler and told them to go pick up rocks in the pasture. Mark has been working hard on it and it smoothing it out so there are no major high or low spots in it. We hope to plant by the end of this month and there are still lots of rocks in it. 

That's why we had children!

They would drive all around, then pick a spot and work hard putting rocks into the dumper. 

Then they would haul the dumper load over by the creek and dump it. 

Then haul balls back to the house so they could report on how well they did!

Here Caleb is saying, 

"I am number 1!"

or 

"We just unloaded our first load!"

Take your pick!

They would take turns driving and also take turns leaving the other brother behind.

I hope your weekend was as WONDERFUL as mine!