It's Fall Y'all...

It's Fall. And I love living in the Midwest this time of year. The leaves changing. The boots and sweaters coming back into rotation. Birthdays. Tailgating. Halloween. All of it. I love it.

We have celebrated this little girl's birthday about three times...

 Complete with Ken & Barbie singing her happy birthday

Sisters snuggle sometimes...

My early riser

Lots of baking - with a very large zucchini

Halloween festivities start. Izzy was proud of this mask she made as school. The teachers even commented on how symmetrical all of her stickers were. Budding artist?

We conquered some serious house tasks this past weekend. Mike re-landscaped our mulch beds and Izzy & I planted some mums. Then we made two frame collage walls upstairs. This took a little time as I wanted to plan it out with templates first (which included where the nail holes were so as to avoid measuring of any kind).

Love how it turned out. We also did one in the girls' hallways with white frames and all pictures from when the girls were babies.

Mike and Jason have been brewing up some delicious (and seriously strong) beer. This one is a double IPA...give them a few weeks before you want to come over and pop the top on one of these bad boys.

We celebrated this little guy's birthday on Saturday...

And we took a long walk along the Monon last night. It's beautiful this time of year and the girls loved running (and being pulled via wagon).

Happy Fall Ya'll

Cinco de Izzy

Our little Izzy turned 5 last weekend. I can hardly believe five years have passed since she made Mikey and I a mommy and a daddy. She gave us the best gift…parenthood.

Five years ago on her birthday it was 90+ degrees. In October. It was marathon Sunday in Chicago and they called off the race when our buddy was in the middle of running it…it was that hot! So when Izzy asks me to tell her the story of the day she was born I always start it out with how unseasonably hot it was.

The story begins with how long we waited for her to arrive. Years before she was born we longed for and dreamed of her. And when we found out we were pregnant with her we cried tears of joy and couldn't wait to meet her.

I then fast forward to her kicking, hiccuping and growing in my belly until one day I woke up and just knew it was time to meet her! I explain in detail the story of us going to the hospital and pushing her out on the second push. How Izzy cried when she was born into this world (she loves hearing the crying). How the doctor placed her on my chest and I just stared at her crying. Until my sister Kim said, “Well say hi to her!” My heart was bursting with so much love that I was rendered speechless.

We tell Izzy everyone she met that day and who held her and how many visitors she had. At this point she just wants me to start over again from the beginning. It’s so sweet to see her eyes widen at certain parts as she is just amazed as I was when it was all unfolding.

Love that she wants to know her story…as I love reliving it.

Days like today when I hear of a friend’s cousin who is going through egg retrieval for her first IVF I am reminded of the long road we traveled  And it makes my heart ache. For this gal. For us. For anyone that has to go through infertility. Allowing my mind to revisit that time hurts so much. The anticipation of what’s to come, the hope that maybe this time it will work, the devastation when months of preparing was all for not. But then the elation when it all finally did work; our little miracle Izzy was conceived in a petri dish in a lab on Meridian Street. Then she was returned to me to incubate her for 10 months until we met her on October 7^th, 2007 and our lives were changed forever.

Five years ago our Izzy entered our lives and our hearts and we celebrated her with a huge party…

Bounce houses galore!

Laney and Izzy with their friend Audrey

Do you think Izzy liked being the center of attention?

Buggy can play just as rough as the big kids!

These three little boys are some of Izzy's best buds: Caleb, Luke, Greysen

Thirteen kiddos celebrated

Monkey Joe even made a special appearance!

Birthday girl!

Best buddy Sammy Fred

Took forever to get them all into one picture

Daddy Jeff with Maggie

Izzy scored some major loot and was in heaven being the center of attention (shocker).

Besties!

Happy Birthday sweet Izzy girl!

Little of this, little of that...

Not really much to blog about but wanted to share some pictures. This past weekend we stayed home as Mikey has been sick and quite simply we enjoyed having the down time. No plans. Just relaxing. And lots of snuggling.

The Ryder Cup was on all weekend (and Mike attended a practice with clients last week in Chicago) and Mike was starting to feel better...so he decided to hit some balls. In our front yard. Into the old horse field. As I've mentioned before, our neighborhood used to be a very large (330 acres) horse farm owned by the family of Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. There were two tracks for training/running the horses and our street is part of the inner track. We are the last house built on our street and it'll be that way for another year or so. In the meantime, Mike is clearly taking advantage of the wide open space. Hitting balls. Little girls running after them. Why wouldn't you?

Can you see a little Buggy peeking through?

Mike and I also got the itch to start hanging more decor. I have been collecting plates over the last year with visions to hang them on a wall...and my idea came to fruition with the help of my handyman Mike.

It took some time planning out where I wanted everything to go (placement, measuring, et al). Then more time to prep the plates with the wall hangers. Once they were all hung I was more than happy with the final product. I wanted it to look very unplanned (even though it took forever to actually plan it) and I think we succeeded in that.

Truth be told, the smallest oval plate popped off within an hour of completion. We were just standing in the kitchen and POP off it went. I'm now in search of a miniature sized plate to replace the fallen soldier. Sigh.

My dad and step-mom were in town for a night last week on their way down to French Lick and they shared just a few of the professional pictures from their anniversary party. Love them...

My 92 year old Grandfather Keel

Colorful group we are

And this picture of Izzy and I? It truly captures my love for her. Both of my girls are big time snugglers and nuzzlers. Let me tell you, I take it all in and can't get enough. I know there will be a day when there won't be this level of intimacy in our daily lives. I tell Izzy every day that she'll never be too big for me to snuggle her even though I know that time will come. So in the meantime? I take all I can get. And bask in every eskimo kiss, neck nuzzle and smooch fest the girls offer. Because this picture is how I want to remember my girls' love...always. Be still, my heart.

My two little dancing queens

And this little girly will be turning FIVE in just a few days. Can you stand it?!?! I cannot. We've had a daily countdown going for a few weeks. And we're ready to rock this weekend in celebration of Miss Izzy Lou!

Let the games begin...

I tried something completely out of my comfort zone last weekend. I was scared. Scared of failing. Scared of looking like a fool. Scared of losing. But what I learned? We grow from stepping outside of our comfort zone. We get stronger for doing things that are hard. And guess what? I survived. And thrived. And loved every minute of it.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I started CrossFit just a few months ago. It started as a way to cross train for my running races. As the summer progressed my running turned into a cross train for my Cross Fit classes. Funny how the tables have turned. Anyway, we have several coaches from different CF gyms that come to us at work to train us. A few of them approached us 6 weeks back and urged us to enter a local amateur team competition (read: Junior Varsity level IMO). There were two guys and two of us girls that reluctantly agreed. Scared out of our minds but excited about the opportunity.

Three of us changed our diets (Paleo) to enhance our performance. But all four of us started working out 5 days a week in preparation. We ramped up our weights and intensity and then tapered, similar to marathon training. All of us entered taper madness last week where doubts crept into our minds and the nerves set in. Luckily I work with some amazing people that helped lift my spirits (I'd say about 90% of my division also CFs so they knew what we were in for). Some words of encouragement...

Our teammate is the FL's graphic designer so he created a logo and had tees and tanks printed for us and our friends at work who were coming to spectate.

My best girls (team Perfect Strangers) sent me flowers on Friday that had me in tears...

These girls know exactly when I need them most. They build me up. They are there when I fall. They are my net. They are what true friends are made of.

And this girl? Oh my. Friday night I'm heading to bed and I see this on IG...my best friend sporting my team shirt. And she works out at a different gym than I do...a gym that placed #2 at the competition. Yet she wore my team's shirt. Now that is a best friend.

We had to be downtown at 7am for check-in and a briefing on the day's events. It was called the CrossFit Naptown Bracket Buster and there was a winner's and a loser's bracket. Double elimination style. If you won the loser's bracket you would have had 10 workouts; if you won the winner's bracket you would have had 6 workouts. Our very first workout was for seeding. There were 16 teams. We just didn't want to be seeded last. That was our only goal.

Team CF Finish Line: Kristi, Clint, Marcus and me before our first WOD

WOD (workout of the day) #1: 11 minutes AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of 60 jump-over burpees over partner holding 6" leg lift, then 60 alternating box jumps while partner is holding #25 plate above head.

Results? We killed it. We were seeded 9th out of 16 teams and we were thrilled.

The second WOD was 4 x 800 sprints. Each team member had to run a 1/2 mile then hand off to next partner. We crushed this one; thankfully we've been doing speed workouts all summer. Win #1. We weren't expecting to win any. Score! Our spirits were lifted and we were thrilled with our performance. Our team time for the 2 total miles was 11:50. That's a sub 6:00 mile. Insert tooting horn.

Just as our spirits were lifted we saw our competition for WOD#3 was the #1 seed. Well here we go. Instead of being deflated, we came up with the game plan/mindset that if we knew we were going against the best team there that we shouldn't kill ourselves on this WOD. Rather, take it slow and focus on form. Don't stress about winning or losing because we knew we didn't have a chance. Just treat this as a regular workout. WOD#3 was 2 rounds for time of 20 partner deadlifts of #205 for girls and #295 for guys then 30 hand release push ups. Kristi and I have been practicing our deadlift form and were proud of ourselves for doing the first 20 unbroken. The 2nd 20 weren't so hot but it's baby steps, right?

The guys crushed it. They truly have come a long way since February and I'm so proud of them. Plus, they carried our team in the next WOD so I'm going to praise them for a long time coming!

We had to remove weight from the guys load...

So focused

Kristi is 2 inches taller than I am so instead of shrugging at the top I put on my running shoes for an extra lift. Look at all my weight in my heels...so proud!

So we lost WOD#3 and knew we would. On to WOD#4: 100 #14 wall balls, 100 backwards jump ropes (random?!), 100 kettle bell squats and 100 calorie row. We know the guys are amazing at wall balls and rowing, so our strategy was for Kristi and I to do minimal work at those two. I did a lot of backwards jumping (who knew I had this skill?) and a lot of the squats. But truly, the guys carried us through this one. Even with all of their hard work we still lost. But just by 3 calories (and the team we were against only beat us at the rowing...they had a former Olympic rower on their team...totally fair match-up).

We were bummed we lost but and that we were done competing for the day...that is until we saw WOD#5. Let's just say it  was intense and Kristi and I would not have fared well (read: we saved ourselves some embarrassment). Our team stayed the remainder of the day to watch the entire competition and it was FUN! We saw all of our coaches and many friends throughout the day...I'd say about 15 of our co-workers cheered us on, most of our families and many of our friends.

Meghan and Jaime represented the Perfect Strangers (worlds are colliding and I love it!)

Coach Jared with us after we were done

Mikey brought the girls...and let's just say Izzy loved it! Especially the jump rope portion. There is a program that Cross Fit has for kids and I'd love to see the Littles attempt to learn a burpee. Would be so stinkin' cute!

Hugs from Izzy & Laney after we finished. Meant so much to me to have them there. Izzy told Kristi she much prefers watching mommy at CF versus a marathon. Sister, you're preachin' to the choir!

We left with a long list of skills we need to work on and a renewed excitement for CrossFit. Already the team has written down goals for the next 3 months! We had our first workout back at it today and we're all very sore. But not too sore to keep on keepin' on. Love this about CF vs. marathons; post-marathon I'm burned out ... but post CF competition I am chomping at the bit to get back into the gym and get better, faster, stronger!