Happy Mother's Day!

Ya'll, I am truly blessed!  I know the "day to day" of raising young children is very hard and there are many times that I pray for God to give me strength and sometimes an early bedtime.... but there are so many more moments where I just sit back and watch the life and family God has provided me with and I just can't help but think that I am incredibly blessed!  Our two boys are happy and healthy and they have the love of many mothers in their lives.  We are lucky to have Grammy, Grannie, Granny V, Aunt Lindsey, Aunt A, Great Grandma Nancy, Great Grandma Harriet and many best friends that step in and help us parent our children.  We could not do it without the support of these incredible women who have shown me over the years what it means to put others first and love others more than yourself.  I hope to live up to the standards they have set and thank God daily that my family has all of these supportive females in our lives.  Here are some pictures of my blessings.....

Appropriate for Mother's Day, Zander and I were able to fit in some cuddles while baby brother was still napping.

 Also, some other notable things from the weekend.... I completed my first solo half marathon (Linds was at her sister in law's graduation).  I missed her every step of this race! It is just something about a weekly run with my sister that helps me get through the week.  I look up to her as a mother and friend.  She is one of my biggest cheerleaders and ALWAYS has just the right words to say whether it be words of encouragement or to challenge me when I need it most.  Everyone should be so lucky to have that kind of support from a sibling and I am thankful for our friendship daily.  Back to the race though.... I ran it is 1:57:42 (overall pace: 8:59).... a personal best and FINALLY broke a goal that had been set since 2009!  I wanted to break the two hour mark and THREE times I had been in the 2:01 range!  I had some pretty incredible cheerleaders with my boys, daddy, Grammy and Grandpa.  Linds and I are already looking for a race later this year... we have to have one half marathon we do together! It just wasn't the same!

Below are a few pictures I got from the photographer that was out on the course......(I love the third picture below when I am nearing the finish line... you can see Zack swooping up Zander in the background... he had wanted to run with me at the finish and then "chickened out".... I knew I was close to breaking the 2 hour mark and had to just push through!  If you look even further back you can see my mom holding up my "Go Megan" sign.... what a great support group I have!)

Saturday night we took in some local racing with friends!  We had a blast watching the cars go around the quarter mile track at around 70 mph.  It was also fun to see some of the cars from the 1930s hit the track for the final race of the night! 

One of my very best friends stopped by on her way home to visit family.  Since Ginny lives in Kansas, we don't get our boys together as often as we would like but this short visit was perfect to spend a few minutes snuggling each other's kids and letting the boys play together!  It will be so fun to see how these friendships develop as all four boys get older!  I also got to see Ginny's younger sister, Carrie, who just graduated from college.... she is always amazing with my boys!