The year 2013 ended quite splendidly. I did indeed run a half-marathon and established my current record time of 1:55, which was at my goal of sub-2 hours. I also finished the year with well over 500 miles run and neared 100 total runs. This year I did not run as much (just shy of 400 miles) nor did I run the DSM half but I hope to run another at some point and possibly (gulp) a full marathon. Much training is needed, of course. I did, however, continue to improve my road race times, setting a new personal record in the 10K at 45:52 (previous best was 47:04) and I improved my 5K time to 21:25, which is about the fastest time I've run since high school days. We'll see what next year brings though I'm not sure how much faster I can truly go.
At the end of last year too we announced that we were expecting our fourth child, a boy, due in late April. Without delay, Leo Michael (left) arrived on April 26th of this year and is already nearly 8 mos. old. He is a happy guy, especially during the day, but he's been a difficult sleeper as of late. Still, he is a good boy.
The other kids are doing well. BellaRose (right) turned 6 this year and has been involved in two homeschool co-ops for Kindergarten. Its probably too early to tell but already she shows a great deal of talent for the arts, which isn't too surprising as both her mom and dad have skills in those arenas. And as is the case for nearly all young kids right now, she is obsessed with Disney's Frozen, mostly Elsa. We spend ample amounts of time playing with, drawing and discussing all manner of things Elsa related. This too has rubbed off onto her siblings.
Our second girl, Finch (left) 2 years, as stated above, is also obsessed with Frozen. She has taken to liking Anna, though she confuses the characters for each other so its hard to tell where her allegiance lay. She is a funny girl and very talkative for her age. Finch plays well with both her big sister and big brother, Jude, but can often but heads.
Jude (right) is nearing his fourth birthday (February) and aside from liking Frozen (not the full degree that his sister do) he is more into all things superhero, Star Wars, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He reminds me of me on a daily basis as he is most often suckered into playing Frozen but only relents if one of his characters--Optimus Prime, Spider Man, etc.--can come along.Elizabeth is doing quite well this year too. She transitioned from her job at Ge-Angelo's restaurant in town, taking a brief hiatus from work, and finally got on first as a hostesss then as a server at The Cafe in Ames. She works evening shifts a few nights a week so I am able to get off work early enough for her to head into work so we can avoid childcare. In June of this year Elizabeth, Leo and I traveled to Las Vegas to attend a friend's wedding. Leo did great on the trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. There was plenty to do and see for sure and we definitely would like to return again soon!
My job is going quite well too, as I approach my four year anniversary there (which is pretty long for a company only in its sixth year). In March of this year I took on a role as online community manager, which has been great thus far. I even got the opportunity to go to Orlando for my work's annual user conference where I presented a few courses to our customers. It was a great time and I even got to spend a night at Universal Studios!
That, for the most part, has been our year. There's been the usual ups and downs but such is the organized chaos that is our daily life with four little ones. As we near Christmas, we are looking forward to celebrating with our kids and spending time with our extended families. We hope to see many of you soon and hope that you too had an enjoyable year. All the best this past year and here's to a happy 2015!
