BCS Half Marathon

I have now officially run a half marathon and am proud to say that I STILL have no desire to run a full marathon!

Michelle flew in from California (and it just so happens that it was the same weekend as Caitlin's birthday!) and my friend Carter flew in from Chicago to run the Bryan/College Station Half Marathon. Our friend Mandy ran it last year and wanted all of us to try to do this together. Unfortunately, Mandy was hurt and couldn't run it but she and Melissa made us signs and cheered for us on the sidelines which was great!

So, after a horrible sprained ankle for me, a move for both of us and not as much training time as either of us had hoped for I think we did very well! We finished the race in 3:02:59, that's including a 10 minute port-o-potty stop at mile 5 1/2(because there were none before this and the line at the start of the race was a mile long...) Michelle did her best at the begining of the race, I did my best in the middle and the last 2 miles killed us both! And we both feel like the last 0.1 mile stretch was way too long to be just a tenth of a mile! But we did it and we crossed at the same time! It was so great to have someone to run it with who dealt with how slow I run and could keep me going in the beginning and I could return the favor in the middle and who didn't get frustrated at the end! I love my sister very much and I'm so glad we did this together. And it was awesome that Carter came and met us at the 13 mile marker and ran to the end with us again! 

So on to training for next year where we will hopefully have a recovered Mandy who can run, Melissa is going to run, Michelle and I will be back to beat our time from this year and hopefully Carter will come back too! And maybe we'll grab a couple more friends to come to town for this race that supports a great charity!

Michelle, Carter and Me about an hour before the start of the race

The front of the shirts we had made...with Mark in the background (by the way, Mark woke up the morning of the race and decided to run it...and he did!)

The back of the shirts we had made...we thought it was genius!

Happy 4th Birthday Caitlin!!

Cait turned 4 today...where has the time gone? Here are a few pictures and I'll add more text later!

Fours years seems like a long time but it feels like it was yesterday that we brought a 5lb Caitlin home from the hospital...where, really, has the time gone? She has grown up so fast and is such a beautiful little girl, inside and out.

She has so many new favorite things like Dora the Explorer and Doc McStuffins. She loves to play pretend and sometimes it takes a minute to figure out what show she's pretending to be in because she likes to jump from one to the other in a split second! She is learning how to play with her little sister and will sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when she starts to cry to calm her down and make her smile again! She loves when family comes to visit and loves to go the the gym with Mommy and Daddy!

I can't wait to see what in store for this next year of her life. She has learned so much this last year! She speaks very well but is still learning how to talk on the phone! She knows how to write her letters but doesn't really like to right now. She get overly excited when she sees a school bus because she wants to ride on it when she "grows bigger!" She misses her friends from preschool and still asks about them often. When asked what something's name is she always says "Sarah" who was her best friend. Makes me kind of sad when I have to tell her that Sarah and Landon won't go to the same school as her because she gets sad. She has made a few friends here and loves when we get to meet with them!

I love her with all my heart and I'm so excited that we got picked to be her family! She makes me smile everyday and I love her fun-loving, sweet, innocent personality!

Happy Birthday Caitlin Amanda!

She got donuts for breakfast, the one with the sprinkles!

Aunt Michelle came to visit too!

Caitlin dancing, such a big girl!

Happy FIRST Birthday, Emily Claire!

 Emily Claire's First Birthday!!

 We were still in the apartment on Emily's birthday so we decided to take her out to Joe Willy's for some good burgers and fried pickles! I got her a birthday cake from Tom Thumb that had pretty flowers on it! I was kind of sad that all of my baking stuff was in storage and I wasn't able to make her a cake but it was a very good store bought cake!!

 At first I wasn't sure she was going to put on a good show because she started out a little slow on the cake! I guess she had filled up on burger and fries but then she got in to it and decided that cake is not so bad after all!

Then she decided that playing "peek-a-boo" was a good idea and that's when it got good! She had cake all over her face and her hair! I'm sure the people were not happy with us when we left because there was quite a mess but we had a good time!

Happy First Birthday sweetheart!

We have her well check set up for September, because that's when they could get us in! I guess with all the back to school physicals they had no well check appointments available in August so I have no stats to pass along but I should soon!

Way Past Time for an UPDATE!!

Hello family and friends! We have had a lot going on in our lives lately! First of all we FINALLY got into our new house...we had several "hiccups" as they were called and it left the four of us living in the efficency apartment that Sean got at the begining of this journey for 3 weeks instead of the 10 days we thought originally...but we finally got in to sign papers on August 3rd! 

 

 Emily had had a lot of changes in her little life too! She turned ONE on August 2nd, we had dinner out at a local burger joint, Joe Willy's, and celebrated with Grandpa and Mandy and her friend Melissa! Pictures of the birthday to follow! She now has 4 teeth and working on getting some more! The biggest thing that has changed for her is that she learned how to walk!! For about 2 weeks now she has been a walker and she just keeps getting better and better! She doesn't even try to crawl any more! Next thing will be to learn to walk with shoes...we will see how she likes having shoes on her feet!

 Caitlin hasn't had as much as Emily going on but she is enjoying staying home with us. It's nice to be able to spend some more time with her! We have a season pass to the Dallas Zoo, which she loves! And now that it's getting cooler we will go more frequently! She is in love with her new room:  it's pink (and I mean it's PINK!!) with brown polka-dots. We have a swim park in our subdivision and she loves to go "swimming" and is learning a lot about being in the water! Hopefully we can get her some swimming lessons soon!

This is our new house! We now have a guest room...so come visit us! We are very happy with the house and the neighborhood! We have two kids parks within a block from the house and the swim park s up the street about 2 miles but it's very nice too! We live on a golf course, which neither of us plays golf, but it makes for some pretty scenery.

Sean likes his new job and will be training for a while longer. We are trying to find out what there is to do here, which we are learning is a lot! We are trying to get things settled down at the house so we can get out and make some new friends! There are still a lot of boxes that need to be unpacked but that will happen in time! Maybe this time next year there will be no boxes, haha!

A Lot of Changes Going On!

So we are officially out of Waco now! We sold our house and closed on it July 20th! It was great to not have it on the market for long! Now we are living in "Daddy's Clubhouse" in Garland. It's an efficiency so space is very limited with 4 people (two of whom require a lot of stuff!!) but we are making it! We should be in our new house next week some time hopefully by Wednesday!

Emily will turn ONE next Thursday! I can't believe it's been a year already! She's absolutely adorable and keeps us on our toes! She's a climber, jumper, and almost trying to be a walker! She's standing on her own for a long time and will even bend down to pick something up and stand up again without falling! She's taken a couple of "steps" too!

For living in such a small space they have done a great job! They are playing well together too! Emily adores Caitlin and Cait loves to share with Emmy! This makes things so much easier! But we will all be ready to have our own spaces!!

A Little Time with Our Friends

Happy Birthday America! Today we spent the day at the zoo with two of Cait's best friends, Sarah and Landon, and their Mommies. It was so much fun watching them play together! They kept running through the zoo holding hands and just laughed and had a blast! We went to lunch afterwards and they didn't want to leave! The Mommies had a good time too! I really like Sarah and Landon's mothers! They were a blast to get to know a little better! I'm hoping we can get these kids together again even after we move but I know how hard that is! Here's to hoping though!

Eleven Months Old

Emily turned 11 months old on Monday! She is growing so fast! I can't believe she is almost a year old already. She is still such a good baby! She is a pro at couch cruising these days but still prefers to crawl. She's tried to take a couple of steps but they've really been lunges and falls toward where she wants to go! Shell get it one day! For now, I'm ok with the crawling! She is in the process of learning that she can crawl to another room when I leave...mostly she sits there and cries until I go coax her back to me! She is going through a separation anxiety phase but that seems to be getting a little better too! She is also trying to get more teeth! She only has the two bottom ones still but she eats like a champ! She is such a happy little girl and we are so blessed to have her in our lives!

A New Journey

On June 11th, Sean started a new job with Southwest Transplant Alliance. This job is in Dallas....this means that we are moving to somewhere around Dallas! We are very excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to start this new journey!

Currently, Sean has an apartment in Dallas and the girls and I are staying in Robinson until the house sells...this has been A LOT of work but I know in the end it'll all be worth it! We worked on cleaning the house a lot before Sean left for Dallas and I've been waking up earlier every morning to clean up in each room before taking the girls to daycare and going to work...this has sucked! The first week, last week, the house was on the market we had someone look at it almost every day and the nothing Sunday to yesterday (Tuesday). Last night out realtor called and said we had an offer on the house and I found out this morning they accepted our counter offer and we are in the 10 day period where they can back out with no penalty....so we wait!

I will be putting in my 2 weeks notice after the 10 days are up and we will be homeless for a little bit, except for the efficiency in Dallas do we are probably going to head to Kansas for a bit because we have been informed that it usually takes about 45 days to buy a house....we will see what happens but in the meantime we are moving and will be out of the Waco area towards the end of July!

Emily is 10 months old...and then some!

I'm behind and I know it! Sorry! Our family has had a lot going on lately! But most importantly, our Emily Claire turned 10 months old! I cannot believe how fast this first year is going by! She is such a happy baby! She has two teeth, both of the bottom front, and has learned how to crawl very fast and has started to "couch cruise" this month. Last week she started standing on her own for a few seconds and she is getting a lot better at balancing! I'm fairly certain she took her first real step last night too but stepped into me to catch herself but you gotta start somewhere! It won't be long before she is running all over the house!

On Your Mark...

Get set...Go....I think we've got a runner on our hands!

The Whole Family

 We got a picture of us too!

Aunt Michelle, Colin, Caitlin, Aunt Barbara, Gillian, Emily, and Uncle Sean

I really thought my dad was in this last picture but I guess he was still taking pictures too! We did get some of him with the grandkids, I'll have to see if he can send me some to put up here!

Trading Places

 Aunt Michelle with Caitlin and Emily

 She's not used to having kids that cuddle but I think she did a great job! :-)

 Aunt Barbara with Gillian and Uncle Sean with Colin

Gillian and Uncle Sean scream and Aunt Barbara and Colin just smile!

3/4ths of the Johanningsmeier's

We missed having Ben come with the family for this visit but what could he do...he wasn't even in the country! Next time though! Well we did get some very cute pictures of the other 3/4's of the J-14 clan!

 Everybody scream...ok, just Michelle then!

 Michelle and the most adorable nephew in the world!

Michelle and her "mini-me!" What a beautiful little girl Gillian is!

Gillian and Colin

Gillian and Colin were very good at posing for pictures! They are so cute and we were so very glad to have them stay with us while they were here! It made for some interesting living arrangements but we made it all work! Like I said before, Cait and Gigi stayed in Cait's room, well Colin had some trouble in the pack-n-play that was set up in our bedroom so we ended up putting him in Emily's crib and then Emily slept in our room. They all slept great after we made that change!

Caitlin and Gillian

Caitlin was SO excited when she found out that Gillian was coming to visit! She had already decided that Gigi would stay in her room and wear one of her "pretty dress nightgowns!" Well, luckily for everyone, this plan actually worked! We were all a little nervous how this was going to pan out but Gillian and Caitlin went to sleep every night after we put them to bed with almost no trouble, and slept through the night. Gillian woke up the first morning crying a little for her mommy but after I reminded her that she was at our house and her mommy was coming back she was just fine! And after that, no more tearful mornings!

 These girls were so silly together!

 They really did have a great time together!

You wouldn't have been able to tell they hadn't seen eachother in over a year! It was wonderful watching them play together!

Emily and Colin

All Together at Last!

For the first time ever, and it only took 9 months, the cousins were all together! Michelle, Gillian, Colin and my dad drove from Kansas to see us for a few days this past weekend. We took the oportunity to take some pictures of them together! Thanks Mandy for coming in to visit and for taking these wonderful pictures of our gorgeous kiddos!

Caitlin (3), Emily (9 months), Colin (13 months), Gillian (3)

How cute are they!