We Ragnared like Rock Stars!

You know that feeling, when you've been looking forward to something fo SO long, and then it's gone?

Like, the day after Christmas? Or your birthday?

You had SO much fun, but can't help but be a little disappointed that it is over.

Yeah, that's today.

We Ragnared like Rock Stars!

I'm thrilled to be home, safely. I'm thrilled to be hanging with my kids. But this huge thing that I've been looking forward to (and dreading, at the same time) is over.

It is AMAZING that I have narrowed down the pictures to these. In fact, I'll probably post some more down the road, especially once I get some from other's cameras. But, here is a start.

Here are Kendra, Shyla and I before we left. Well, Kendra and I left and Shyla took her daddy home. We had a LOT of stuff!

We drove to Prescott that night (Thursday) and stayed in a hotel. Friday morning, we decorated our van! There were a total of 12 WONDERFUL people on our team, but we were separated into two vans, so most of my pics are just of the 6 people in my van. Again, more pics from the other van hopefully soon!

Anyhow, Van 1 (not my van) started and ran for 6 or so hours. Then, van 2 (mine) met them at an exchange and it was our turn! I was the first runner from our van!

I got off to a rough start. I think I was nervous and not really sure what to expect, so those first 4.2 miles were the roughest of the weekend for me.

Here are Kendra and I after I handed the "baton" to teammate Scott.

Some miles later, Scott handed off to Kendra. This was a MISERABLE leg for her. This is the ONLY picture of her happy, because it is the ONLY picture of her going downhill.

She basically ran up a mountain.

If I had her leg, I probably would have curled up into a ball and started crying. Seriously. It was BAD.

But, luckily, it was Kendra and not me and she powered through like a champ!

After Kendra was Kristin, who then passed it on to Karen. Both of them did awesome, of course!

Jeremy (not my husband, but Jeremy who is married to Tessa who was in Van 1) finished up our first round. I like this picture because of "Mr. Ninja" behind him! ha!

After Jeremy finished, we had a break while Van 1 did their legs again. Then, it was our turn. Again, I started us off, this time with 8 miles. I started at just about midnight. There are no pictures of the night runs because they woudn't have turned out with the reflective vests and headlamps and all. Or, at least, I don't know how to take pics like that.

It was dark. And I ran on the freeway with my headlamp and flashlight and my van of wonderful teammates pulling over every half mile or so to cheer me on and make sure I was ok.

It was crazy hard and crazy fun at the same time.

Sadly, towards the end of Scott's run we were stopped because of an accident up ahead, and diverted a couple of legs down. We don't really know the details, but it sounds like someone was hit by a car. The good news is that it sounds like the person is in stable condition and will be ok. Thank God. The rest of our van couldn't run their second legs and had to wait to the thirds.

So, we got some rest while Van 1 ran their legs, then we were back at it in the morning.

I like this picture of Kristin because I am 95% sure that that is her husband, Scott's hand who is reaching out to give her 5.

Here is Scott handing off to Jeremy, who will now run the LAST leg of Ragnar! As he finished, we all (all 12 of us) ran through the finish line together!

And, Kendra and me with our medal's waiting to eat a well deserved dinner after finishing!

Just some odds and ends:

-At one point we paid $2 to sleep inside an elementary school for an hour or two while we waited to do our nighttime runs. That was one smelly school by the time Ragnar was over, I'm sure.

-There was SO much laughter from our team, and a few tears. I wanted to cry a few times myself.

-Kendra almost got carsick on the way to our first leg. ha!

I definitely can't wait to get and share some of the whole team shots from the weekend!

THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR TAKING GREAT CARE OF LILLY AND ZAC!

and...

THANK YOU FRENCH TOAST MAFIA!

Do you like seafood?

See? Food!

Sorry... couldn't help myself!

"Look how big I'm are!"

One of my favorite lines of Lilly's these days...

She's so excited to have moved "up" a classroom at school. She and Aubrey are together now and she is doing just great!

Ragnar time!

Oh boy. It is time. Ragnar.

Have I told you about Ragnar? I think I have. But let me recap:

12 of us are crazy enough to have rented two vans with the goal of running a relay race from Prescott to Phoenix. Over 200 miles.

We'll each run three legs of the race.

It's supposed to rain. A lot. And be cold. Very cold.

And I'm very, VERY, excited.

Why? Maybe I'm a little crazy. But, it's not like anything I've ever done before. And, even if I do a terrible job, I like to push my limits a little.

I'm a little proud of that aspect of myself.

Still, I'm nervous. About the running and the weather, sure. But mostly about how much I'm going to miss these two faces:

So... here I go! Wish us luck!

Oh, and don't worry, I have a few little gems set up to post while I'm gone!

The aftermath.

This was Lilly at about 3pm after her birthday party! She was OUT!

That evening, she opened a couple of last presents. This was from Grandma and Grandpa Yager! I love her face here...

And even moreso here! She was so excited to get a very pretty dress and a bathtime Dora! THANK YOU grandma and grandpa Yager!

FLASHBACK to last year! My babies were still babies then!

(Will I be saying the same thing next year?)

And, a little further... 2 years ago!

I hope I'm taking enough pictures, and enjoying the little moments enough!

ADDITIONAL: I am so lucky to have great friends. Especially great friends who also love pictures and blogs! My great friend Natalie just completed THIS POST (Mom, actually click here on the words "this post"), which you have to check out! For one thing, Lilly is one of the stars of her post. Another thing, she just does a great blog in general, and it's worth checking out. Go ahead. Do it. I'll wait.....

Pretty great, huh?

Lilly's 3rd Birthday Party!

I'm watching Lilly play with her new toys while Zac naps. The house is picked up and quiet. There are leftovers in the fridge.
My little girl has had her 3rd birthday party.

Today was a whirlwind! Last night Jer came home after work sick, and he didn't feel much better this morning. I got up early to make Peanut Butter and Jelly Scones, and luckily the kids slept in a bit so I had a good start on them.

Lilly woke up EXCITED! Here she is waiting for her friends to arrive.
The party would start 2 hours later.

We had decided on a 9:30 am party, so we planed a waffle bar and other breakfasty items. Stevie is the king of the waffles!

And, yep, that's the same "Carlos" shirt he was wearing last night.
Why? Because I asked him to wear it again.

Why? Because it makes me chuckle. Thanks Stevie for humoring me!

The food was ready! We had our complete waffle bar along with sausages, PB&J scones and the ladybug cookies! Yum!

Zac was ready to party. And eat.

Lilly, Aubrey, and Soren eating at her little table. It ended up being a nice enough day to eat and play outside.

Cake time! Isn't she beautiful?

She made a wish and blew out the candle!

The squeal she let out when someone said it was time for presents was likely heard around the world!

So many presents! Our family and friends are so generous!

Lilly was generous with hugs, as was Spencer! This little guy loves a good hug!

Awwwww!

We played one party game - pin the bracelet on the Dora!

Here is a collage of the contestants!







Turns out, everyone won a prize. Except Natalie, I don't think you got a prize! I owe you one!

Wow. She is three. I have a three year old. BABY Lilly is ... 3.

Wow.

Thanks again to all who attended or even sent birthday wishes!

A very special 20th!

As you all know, the 20th of every month is special.
Three of the twelve months are even more special. February, May, and December.

Lilly is officially three years old today.

There are some things about Lilly at age three that I want to remember forever. She is creative and has an imagination. Most days, I have to call her something completely different, like Dora, or baby puppy, or mommy. She has lots of real friends and lots of imaginary friends. She is relatively rational - I can explain things to her and, even if she doesn't like it, she will usually go with it. Unless she's tired, then all bets are off.
She can tell me stories about her day, and listen to mine.
She tells me she loves me, and to have sweet dreams, and to "eat beans" (Kendra used to say that instead of "sweet dreams," whereas Lilly says both.)
She makes jokes and laughs and laughs at them.
She is kind, and loving, and funny, and independent. She is my little girl.

We went to Vail Pride Day today, a big community event in Vail. Then, we came home and napped, then out to dinner at Risky Business.
Me and my kids. Happiness.

3 years old and 14 months old, respectively.

The Forgacs crew, with Shyla coming in at 9 months old. Not sure how old baby Carlos is on Stevie's shirt.

And my folks. Dad thought we looked like tourists taking so many pictures at dinner.

Happy, HAPPY birthday sweet Lilly!

On another note, Ragnar is getting frighteningly close! We had a packing party last night to go over details and get together a lot of our gear. I took a few pics, but some just turned out funky. These two, however, turned out totally blogable.

Andy sitting creepily close to Kristen.

Scott sporting the reflective vest (yep, it works) while Brian nerds it up on the computer.

It is going to be a long, fun, and painful 36ish hours!

3 days, I mean years, ago...

Feels like just 3 days ago, but it was actually 3 years ago today that I woke up thinking maybe... just maybe... I was going to finally have this baby.

Finally.

Lilly Helen wouldn't actually be born until the next morning.

February 20, 2007. Best. Day. Ever.

February 19, 2007, however... little rough.

Regardless, my amazing, smart, sweet and beautiful little girl turns three tomorrow. There will be LOTS of pictures and LOTS of stories.

But, for today, she is going to school with cupcakes. Pink and Purple, because she has been wanting pink and purple birthday cupcakes for at least four months. (Since Aubrey's birthday party, for those of you with good memories).

And, on Sunday, we'll have the first birthday party where the guests are actually HER friends rather than only ours.

I ended up home for a couple hours during the day today, because Zac was sick :( While he was sleeping, I put together these ladybug cookies for Lilly's party. I had kinda wanted to make them, but didn't know if I would have time.

Not a great pic, and they are still on the yucky foil, but pretty cute, huh?

Anyhow, definitely more to come this weekend... it is a big weekend all the way around.

Can't believe she's gonna be 3...

FlashFORWARD!

What a day it has been!
This morning, we got up and got ready to go!
How did I end up with two, tiny, teenagers? Look at these kids! HA! This is where the title of this post came from... I'm totally picturing these kiddos as a bit bigger with slightly (yeah, yeah, I'm dreaming) bigger attitudes.



As cute as these pics are, I don't want my little babies to grow up too fast!
Ahhh, well....
Next, I asked them to pose for a picture. Both kids, looking at the camera, oh so sweet...


And then they thought I looked away. I SWEAR I didn't stage this. As soon as I snapped the pic, Lilly went back to "texting" (ok, she's just playing, but it looks like that) and Zac went immediately back to manhandling furnature.

I took Zac over to my mom, who watched him today, so we could take Lilly to the mall for EAR PIERCING!
She has wanted it but we wanted to wait until she was old enough to understand it and not pull on her ears (since we missed the boat on getting them done when she was a baby). She was so excited! Here she is, walking in with daddy.

We got her in the chair, and she was so excited! They couldn't do both ears at the same time, so we were worried about how (and IF) ear two would go.

Marking the ears - she started getting nervous here.

So, camera went into the purse and Lilly held both of our hands for the piercing.

Ear one... OUCH! We had a little whine and a look of surprise (ok, ok, mixed with "how can you let this happen"... but I swear we had told her that it would be loud and hurt for a minute!). The lady whipped out her mirror and showed Lilly the earing, which immediately gave her the motivation she needed for ear two.

Ear two ... WHEW, DONE! Lilly didn't seem as hurt as this one, I think because she realized that it was OVER.
Here she is, showing off her new earings and her lollipop! So proud!

I am so proud of my little girl!