YAY!! Completed the 5K Run Today!!

Today was the 5K run!!! It was AWESOME!!
First I have to say I was very discouraged because I was dreading on waking up so early. The race was at the reliant and started at 8am. Which meant I had to be at Steph's house by 6:15am. Well, first it was 7am than 6:30am than 6:15am, so I basically stopped talking to her till I showed up at her house because every time we spoke she would shave time off which meant less sleep. I did go to bed pretty early that night, but it seems like I woke up every hour - UGH.
Well the dreaded 5:40am came. I have to say that this early in the morning there is NO traffic. I think on a Sunday morning that early it was just me.
I arrived to Steph's house on time!!! Not in the best of moods I might add. Leah got there a few minutes after me. We all piled in Stephs' car and drove down to the reliant. We got there with 30 minutes to spare. Just enough to use the potty and down a "Rock Star" (an energy drink) I never had one in my life. I must say it did give me some energy but I will never drink one again before a race. It definetly didn't do me any good. I felt very bloated.
Running was me, Leah, Steph and Tara. This was my first, Leahs second, Stephs third and I don't know how many Tara has run.
It's weird because the closer it got to take off the nervousness started to set in.
Finally we all took off. There was a descent crowd but not to over crowded. I was not really concerned about time, my real goal was to run the 5K (3.2 miles) non-stop. Which i'm proud to say that I did accomplish my goal. Ran non-stop and completed in 28.27 minutes. My music helped me through half of it. Yes, there is power in music.
There were 2 hills which were not a nice surprise - UGH!
What I found interesting is that there were two water stations where volunteers handed you water if you needed it, but people just threw their cups on the ground. I was not expecting that and had to chuckle because I remember seeing this on TV. So, yes some things do happen in real life.
The biggest relief was when I saw the finish line! You start sprinting towards it and it's such a relief and accomplishment to cross it.
At the end they had all these free give aways, mainly food. There was everything you could think off - Chick Filet, Papa Johns, Pei Wei, Kolache Factory, Randalls, Crepes, Dessert etc..... which was all worth it for me. I didn't eat much just a few samples.
It was great knowing that we ran for a cause - brain cancer research. It was very touching because there were so many people that have or know some one that has been effected by this disease. Anyone can do this race. There were young, old, man, women and children. Hey I got passed up twice by fathers pushing their triplets in a stroller. In the end your time doesn't matter but that you came and did what you signed up for and that is, cross the finish line and support the cause.
This was an amazing experience and I'm looking to my other 5K runs. Hopefully in the fall i'll move up to the 10K runs. I have an amazing group of girls that are my support and we keep each other going.

Hana's 2 Year Check Up

Hana had her 2 year check up. She is a little one!! Hana is 33" tall, which makes her in the 25%. She weighs 24 pounds which is 15% and her head is 49cm round, which is 75%. Basically she's short and thin with a big head.....hahahahahahaha. Just kidding she looks very proportionate. She is predicted to be 5'3" tall in her adult hood. Her attitude more than makes up for her petite size.
We did find out that she has all 4 molars coming in at the same time. This is when I felt really bad she had earaches in both ears. We had no idea. She didn't show any sign of a fever or pulling at her ears. The only thing she did show was being extremely grumpy, but we're used to her being very touchy and grumpy. This was a very bad moment for me. I can't believe my baby has been in pain and I didn't know or do anything about it. There is no worse feeling as a parent than knowing your child was/is in pain and you didn't do anything about it. I'm happy to say that she is fine now.

The Houston Rodeo --- Yeehaww!!

The Houston rodeo comes to Houston every year. This brings some great performers to Houston. It's also great for the food, carnival rides and live stock show. Unfortunately this year I was not able to take my kids to the rodeo. I was planning on it but it just didn't happen. I feel a little guilty and bad because I was fortunate enough to catch two shows this year. None planned, just last minute because friends had tickets.
My first show was Brad Paisley. We went to celebrate Leah's birthday YAY!! It was me, Steph, Leah and Emily. We could all thank Steph for the tickets. Funny that none of us is a huge fan of Brad Paisley. I myself don't really know what he sings. I know I heard some of his songs on the radio but they didn't register. Half way through Emily has this great idea to leave so we did!! We ended up going to midtown and bar hopping. Okay I say bar hopping it was only two bars. That counts right? Anyway we had so much fun!!! I know it's a night i'll remember for a long time.

My second trip to the rodeo was to see Gary Allen. I really like Gary Allen's music - "Nothing on but the radio" is one of my favorites. I was very excited to see him and he put on a great show.
I do have to say that the traffic around the reliant center sucks! It took us hours to get to our tiel lot. I think we learned our lesson and are going to park and ride next time. We went with Liz and Mike who are two incredible people. We had lots of fun with them.

Hana and Ricky's Spring Break 2009 Zoo Trip

I know Melvin is somewhere in there!!

Me and the kiddos


Elephant


Cotton candy - extremely messy - would not recommend it


All the kids with their cotton candy - my two are the messy ones!!


Ricky and Logan. This pic is too funny because right before it they were fighting and when we asked them to take a picture they posed.


Tiger - I don't think we saw Alex, the tiger. He was hiding out.


Hana petting a goat.

Marty the zebra - well his backside is all I could get.

This spring break Leah and I decided to take the kids to the zoo. I have Hana and Ricky and Leah has Addison and Logan. They are all the same age. We knew it was going to be extremely busy due to Spring Break and the beautiful weather. The zoo is about a 45 minute drive in flowing traffic. We left our part of town by 9 am and couldn't of timed it better. No traffic and we even had great parking at the zoo. We were extremely glad that the zoo was not crowded at this time. The kids had a terrific time. It was Hana's first time, I think she liked the monkeys the best. Ricky was pointing out all the animals from Madagascar. We saw Marty, Melvin, Alex I don't think we ever saw Gloria...hmmm I wonder where she was? We had lunch there and than the kids had cotton candy. Let me just tell you that cotton candy may look nice and fluffy in the bag but it's a total disaster once out side of the bag. I think we were wiping it off their fingers and faces for days. At least I was of my kids but Leah has the cleanest kids so they were fine. The kids loved the petting zoo. Hana wanted to touch every animals nose... don't know maybe she has a nose thing. Other than losing our kids for a little bit the trip was a success and due to Leah it was perfect timing. When we left it was a zoo!! No punt intended.

Hana's 2 Year Birthday Party!!

Hana turned two on March 19, 2009, so of course we had to have a birthday party for her. She had it at Basels gymnastics and it was awesome. Some of her closest friends came to help her celebrate. All the kids had so much fun. Oh, I can't forget I think some of the men had more fun than the children. It was definitely a fun day. The theme was Tinkerbell. Hana is so petite so the theme fit. The best thing is I hardly had to do anything. Basels was great in doing it all.
Hana is so ready to start gymnastics, she loved it all and was so good at everything. Okay as good as a two year old could be. She really didn't have any fear doing all the stunts.






Hana digging into her cake and sobert



Hana blowing her candle out - or starring at it -


Tinkerbell birthday cake


Hana hanging from the rings


Hana swinging just like Tarzan


Hana hanging again


Ricky and Aiden having a blast in the foam pit


Hana jumping


Dad and Hana having fun in the foam pit


The girls at the party


Ricky showing us his strength


Vlady and Ricky


Ricky

Babysitters and Ricky

It is amazing how different my child, Ricky acts with a babysitter. He actually listens and behaves. Wow!!
Last night my sister, Vlady babysat Hana and Ricky II so Ricky and I could go to the rodeo with some friends and see Gary Allen ( He was awesome).
We got home late - Sorry Vlady!! But there were a few interesting details/stories that happened when we were gone. First of all Ricky ate his dinner. I bet he did not complain one time - go figure and they went to bed with out a hitch - UGH!! I think Vlady needs to come to my house every night and do bed time duties!
Some of the cute things Ricky did ask Vlady are:
Teta (means aunt in Czech) when are you going to have kids? Of course Vlady said she doesn't know. Ricky's response was ask God for them. He said that God has lots of children and he gives them to people who just ask for them. He has no idea how God delivers them though.
How innocent and pure is this?!
It came down to cleaning their room - Ricky said he doesn't clean because it's boring and that mom (which is me) cleans. He told Vlady that if he doesn't listen to me ask him to clean his room and just ignore me that eventually i'll do it. But he'll help the babysitter.
What a booger!! Now that I know his little game i'll just have to play right back.......

I love the mind of a 4 year old, only if I knew the thought process ....hmmmmmmmm.......

Happy 2nd Birthday Hana!!

Our beautiful baby girl, Hana turned 2 today. It's going by so fast it seems just like yesterday we brought her home. She was such a great baby, very happy. These 2 years have flown by and it's incredible watching her turn into a little girl.




Hana at 2 years



Hana at 1 year


Hana a few weeks old


Dear Hana,
You have blessed our lives tremendously. Your brother, Ricky and you are the best gifts we could have ever been given from God. Having you two we have everything. You are our true happiness.
These two years we have watched you grow from a helpless baby to a firecracker of a girl. It's amazing how you have your own personality and opinions at such a young age. You make us laugh every day with your personality and strong character. You're only two but we could not be more proud of you. We never knew it was possible to love someone as much as we love you. You're an incredible little girl that one day will be an amazing woman.
Happy Birthday !
Love,
Mom and Dad

Hana and Ricky's Photo Shoot

On March 7, 2009 we did Hana and Ricky's photo shoot. I do this every year with the kids. One to get great pictures of them and two to see how they grow each year. A friend of mine Susie is working on becoming a photographer, so she was perfect and she also needed my kids for her gallery. A picture perfect set up! We picked Collins park. I was a little unsure because I did this location last year, so I did not want the same pictures, just the kids looking older. We decided that 4pm would work perfect. Hana would have a great nap and she would be happy as pie - Right? NOT EXACTLY. She had a very late nap. She actually had to be woken up and dressed to be on time for her photo shoot. She was not happy. Another ordeal with her was that she didn't want to wear any other shoes than her new "Nike" tennis shoes even though she had a brand new pair of sandals. Did she care? Not really. She was set on wearing the tennis shoes with her beautiful dress.
Ricky on the other hand was set on taking every picture with Dr. Seuss even though we discussed he would only be in one picture. So you see the session already to a bad start. Little did Susie know this at the time. During the session my kids were so misbehaved to Ricky not listening and Hana's temper tantrums. It was every parents night mare. Susie on the other hand was amazing and it didn't bother her at all. She just put her longer zoom lense on the camera and shot them in action. I was just going for at least 5 good pictures. Susie the miracle worker she is provided many amazing pictures. They caught the childrens character and mood that day. If you know me than you know i'm not a fan of studio pictures because I don't like the stageing effect. I love when someon can catch my kids character. Also editing is a huge part of it. In studio they don't edit. Susie did a fantastic job editing and cropping. Below are some samples of the Awesome pictures.
Oh, Hanas tennis shoes were not in the pictures but one and some of the best pictures were taken on a pile of dirt - go figure???!!!!

Corpus Christi Trip

Early March 2009 we went to Corpus Christi to visit my parents and have a little get away. Oh, we also went because my husband, Ricky spent an arm and a leg on some WEC tickets. We were 8 rows back - YA BABY!! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Extremely long, but entertaining at times. The music was incredible and definitely pumped you up. The other days were great relaxing days. Of course it's always worth going down for my dads Czech cooking - so yummy!!! The weather was perfect and the kids loved playing at the beach. Especially Hana when you mentioned the beach to her she would get right up and pull you towards the door. The kids spent hours each day playing in the sand. The beach was perfect. I would never go in the water this early in the year but there were some people swimming - CRAZY!! Oh, lets not forget the old man who had a thong on - very entertaining................... Below are some pictures of our trip:

Run For The Rose

On March 29, 2009 I will be running a 5K Marathon. I never thought I would enter a marathon, but have decided to give it a try. You never know one day I will be running the 10K, maybe even a full marathon. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. The goal is to run the whole marathon with out stopping.

The marathon is for an extremely good cause. It's for the research of brain cancer. I feel great knowing that I am running for a cause.

You ask what kind of training I have had? Well, in running not much. For many years I have been doing many cardiovascular classes which I believe give me the indurance I need. For the past month I have been running and have really surprised myself. I do not care for running but every time I run further than I have before or with out stopping I feel great about myself. It's a high in itself.

I also have an amazing support group that will be running the marathon with me. Even though everyone will be at their own pace, it's great knowing that we're in it together.

If you would like to join in this incredible cause it's not to late to sign up. They also offer a 1K family walk. Just visit http://www.runfortherose.com/?id=1 and register.