Our Weekend

We had a pretty low key weekend.  Saturday consisted of grocery store, playing, naps & FINALLY finishing our membership classes at our church.  There are 4 classes you have to take.  We took the first three either last July or August I think....it's been so long we can't remember, but we finally made it to the 4th class this month.  We're official now! lol

On Sunday, we went back to church for the regular service.

And this little stinker refused to take a picture....

I'll be trying again when she wears this dress!  I'm in love with this Noah's Ark dress.  She had a Noah's Ark dress when she was a baby too and it was a favorite then as well!

After lunch and nap, we decided to go down to a local park.  It's 1/2 mile from our house.  First, let me just say...running with a stroller and 30 pound child is SO much harder than running alone.  That 1/2 mile (which is mainly one big hill) felt like 2 miles!  At least it was fast on the way home since we got to go downhill!

Unfortunately, the playground at the park is for older kids.  I believe the sign said 5-12 year olds.  There weren't any slides or swings.  It was like a big place for kids to exercise, which is great!  It was just unfortunate that they didn't also make an area for the little ones.

In addition to the playground, basketball court & sand volleyball court, there were several stations set up for exercising.  This was a station for dips.  There was also one for step ups, sit ups, etc.



Hopefully we'll get a lot of use out of our new neighborhood park!  And so far....it doesn't seem to be packed, which is nice!

Growing up...

Conversation I we had at bedtime...

Olivia: well, I'm growing up!
Me: I don't want you to grow up!
Olivia: well, I have to grow up...to be like you!

Are you kidding me?!?! Melted my heart! Man, I love this girl! She then proceeded to tell me how she was going to cook and drive...and how I was going to ride in the car seat.

I'll be sure to remind her when she is 13 that at one time...she wanted to be like me!

Why am I even doing this?!?!

I'm going to try to avoid putting too much fitness/weight loss/recipe info on this blog, as I really like to dedicate this one to our precious Olivia :)

I've started a new one....to keep myself busy...cause you know, I don't have a 3 year old, a job, a husband or anything like that to take care of! LOL

http://tessasfitnessjourney.blogspot.com/

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Fort Worth Zoo Run 5K

On Saturday, I ran the FW Zoo Run 5K with Deborah and Tari (friends/ co-workers from Citi).   I was really excited about this race....mainly cause I wanted to beat my time from the Cowtown 5K.  I know for a fact I've improved in the past couple of months.  I run faster on a daily basis.  At the time of the Cowtown, I averaged about a 10:30 min/mile.  I now average about a 9:30 min/mile.  So I just KNEW that I was going to be able to improve my 5k time by at least a couple of minutes.

The Zoo run consisted of a 10K timed race, a 5K timed race, a 5K fun run and a 1 mile fun run.

The 10K was coming to an end about the time we got there and the 1 mile fun run had started.  I just ASSUMED that the 5K timed and the 5K fun run would be 2 different races.  Well...you know what happens when you assume.  Turns out, both 5K races were running together.  I'm still VERY confused as to why you had to specify which you were running if you were in fact going to be running the exact same race!

So, needless to say there were tons of walkers.  Tons of strollers.  Tons of children.  Tons of people in my way! LOL (not really lauging...but trying to not be annoyed!)

I literally spent the first half of the race dodging people (proof below).  It was ridiculous.

Needless to say, I didn't beat my time.  In fact, I finished 4 seconds slower.

Would I do it again?  Sure....but I would do it for fun...and not to beat a personal record!  Lesson learned!

BEFORE THE RACE
(Deborah, Me, Tari)

AFTER THE RACE

I realize nobody else reading this could care less, but I want to keep record of my races/progress.  I'm considering starting a weight loss/fitness blog to document my efforts, although I would probably only have like 1 reader!

Anyway....here's the path.  You can see the star and finish were at the same spot.  The red/orange are where I ran the slowest.  The green/yellow were faster.  Towards the end (in the green), I was running at a 7:21 pace!  But at the start...and halfway thru, it was as high as 11:16....SO frustrating!  Half the race was literally thru the zoo....and those paths just are not large enough for that many people to run at once!  And by the time you were done dodging everyone, you had exhausted so much energy, you didn't have a lot left to power thru to the end!

MY RACE STATS
(so I can track my progress....cause I'm super competitive with myself like that!)

Time:  28:32

116th girl to finish (1691 total) - top 6.8%

378th to finish overall (2661 total) - top 14%

16th in my age group to finish (248) - top 6.4%

Would LOVE to finish in top 10% overall.....and top 5% of gender/age.....maybe next time!



Hidden Falls

Jason mentioned the other day about a hidden waterfall in Fort Worth. Apparently it's something few people know about, and something that even the city didn't really know about until 2-3 years ago.  Who knows how much of that is true, but it is for sure on property that used to be part of the air force base, so I guess there is reason to believe that few people knew about it.

I'm just throwing this pic in....cause I'm in love with this color on Olivia.  I saw this dress a couple of years ago in Castles & Crowns, but I sure hated the $70 price tag.  It has crosses in the smocking, and I just think it is so sweet. Well, I found it last year at a consignment sale for $20.  Score! It's in perfect condition.  I bet it had been worn and washed once...twice at the most!   I'm always buying ahead and sticking things back in the closet.  I love love love a deal on children's clothing!

Back to the waterfall....so after church yesterday, we rushed home and changed clothes and headed out to find this hidden treasure.

Olivia was so excited.  She couldn't wait to get to that waterfall.

After about a 5-10 minute walk, we came upon it.

Jason prepared me to not expect the Hawaiian waterfalls we saw last summer. LOL. And he was right....but it's still a pretty neat area of natural water in the middle of a busy city.   I bet it's really neat after a rainfall.

When we were putting Olivia to bed last night, I asked her if she had fun seeing the waterfall.

Her response:  Yeah, but I was just SO hot. 

I cracked up.  Then she started laughing, but I don't think she had a clue why I was laughing!  It was about 70-72 degrees when we were there yesterday.  Not exactly HOT by Texas standards.  My poor baby just doesn't know what the months ahead have in store for us!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Me: Olivia, what are you doing?

Olivia: Just making a rocketship.

Me: Oh. Huh. Well, ok!

I'm amazed daily at the things she knows that I'm not aware she knows!

It's kind of hard to tell from this picture, but she lined up 2 chairs and a stool. She also had a blanket that she kept trying to do something with...not sure what. Her baby was apparently a;sp going with her on her adventure!

More Bluebonnets

A couple/three weeks ago on my way home from work, I received a text from the girl that took Olivia's birthday pictures. She said she'd be in the bluebonnet field by our church at 6:30 and wanted to take Olivia's pics....for free.  Couldn't really pass that up...so I grabbed a healthy fast food dinner for her, made her eat really fast, then gave her a quick "bath" in the sink, threw a dress and bow on her and off we went!

This girl just kills me.  The instant she saw Stephanie, she was like "CHEESE!".  She didn't once question if there were snakes or bugs or bees in those flowers.  She just performed when asked.  Most smiles were a little on the fake side, but it is still amazing what they'll do for others!

This smile is super fake but still pretty cute.  Love her.

Happy Birthday to Jason!

Today is Jason's 33rd birthday!

We don't really have much planned....other than church this morning and dinner tonight, but Olivia doesn't think it's a birthday without balloons and streamers, so we decorated a little for him!   Now she keeps asking where his cake is (except she calls birthday cake..."birthday"....she leaves out the cake part, so it makes it somewhat difficult to decipher what she's talking about.  LOL).  Anyway, she wants to make him a cake, so maybe we'll tackle that this afternoon!  I attempted a recipe I found on Pinterest for oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies, and well, they were a major fail.  It's the thought that counts, right?!

Happy Birthday Jason!  We love you!

Sleepy Birthday Girl

Happy 5th Birthday to our first baby Gracie!

(she was not in the mood to be photographed today...obviously!)



Easter Weekend

On Saturday, we took Olivia up to the country club to see if she would sit in the bunny's lap.....FAIL. It took us about 10-15 minutes (not exaggerating here) to get her to even stand close enough to the bunny to be in the same frame for a picture! I didn't get to snap one since I was busy bribing convincing her to stand by the bunny, so we'll have to wait for the photographer to provide it to us! I think he may have gotten a decent one.

Thanks for the bunny purse Nana....we have gotten a lot of compliments...and she has carried it everywhere.  She kept saying "It's Easter Day.  I need my Easter purse".

This girl LOVES to ride the horses (ponies).  She isn't a bit scared....hops right on....but don't bring that bunny anywhere near her!

Loved the train (I don't think the kids next to her were quite as excited about it)

We woke up Easter morning to find that the big scary bunny had left a few goodies in our house for her.

A couple of pre-church pictures.  I struggled all day to get Olivia to give me a genuine smile!

After church, we had lunch at the country club with Gram E & Papa/Papo (we aren't sure exactly what his name is...it changes regularly), Deanna, Griffin & Michael.  The Easter bunny made an appearance at lunch as well, but once again, she didn't want anything to do with her.

Love this llittle smile.  She loved opening all the eggs to see what's inside.  At home, the Easter bunny just brought money. At Gram E's, the Easter bunny mainly brought her LOTS of CANDY!  Bad bad Gram E  Bunny! :)

The grown kids and older grandkids (ok, so everyone except Olivia), had their own egg hunt.  This is an annual tradition that was suppose to not happen this year, but of course, my MIL doesn't know how to do things mildly!  lol.  We're thankful though!

Our church service was great.  They had cardboard testimonies that brought tears to my eyes (and probably most eyes in the room).  It's amazing the things God can do for you if you just let him.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

First Mani/Pedi

I was off on Good Friday, as Olivia's daycare was closed. Since my feet have pretty much been abandoned since last summer, I wanted to go get pedicures....and since Olivia couldn't go to daycare, she got her nails painted as well.   We paint them all the time at home, but she's never had a professional paint them.  She was VERY interested in what all they were doing to our feet.  We kept having to explain that as you get old, your feet aren't as soft as when you are three!

Love those little toes.

Egg Hunt

Our church held their Easter EGGstravaganza this past Saturday, so off we went to the egg hunt!

Someone was way too shy to take a picture.

FAKE FAKE FAKE smile but still totally cute, right?!

Waiting to get on the other side of that gate so she could get her eggs

Ignore the frizz please :)

Since the egg hunt was in the morning and it was really humid, there was quite a bit of dew on the ground. Olivia did NOT like the grass getting stuck to the eggs.  They were deemed "dirty" and she would throw them back on the ground.  The candy apparently wasn't worth having dirty eggs.

They also had bounce houses.  Olivia usually isn't into them and is scared, but she did (finally) slide down a slide.

LOVED the pony ride.  She isn't a bit scared of those ponies!

There were ENORMOUS bunnies in the petting zoo, as well as the tiniest little pigs (which I failed to get a picture of.  They were adorable!).