a quick question

so has anyone else who's been pregnant before had the distinct feeling that your baby is about to fall out while you're, say... blowing your nose? or maybe while pushing your poop out?

just wondering.

maybe it's time for some kegels.

we're having...

a boy!

crazy huh? i guess ben and i are just meant to have little dudes. i sure love our little guys, though, so what could be better than to have another? he looks really healthy and is measuring right at 18 weeks.

details

thanks for all the conrats you guys! so i'm 17 weeks along and i have an ultrasound scheduled for this wednesday the 27th. hopefully we'll have a cooperative babe that day so we can find out the gender. we are hoping for a girl, but we're pretty partial to darling, little boys... so, of course, we'll be elated either way. my due date is january 28. kadin's birthday is january 21 so they'll be almost exactly 3 years apart.

as for the half marathon i ran.... i was 5 1/2 weeks along at that point and it was the weekend before i started getting tired, sick, nauseous, etc. if i ran it a week later, it wouldn't have gone so well. :) i'm running another half marathon this weekend and i assure you that it will probably take me a good 15 minutes longer to finish this one. but i'm grateful that i've been able to continue running and push through my yucky, sick weeks... i have my running buddies to thank for that. running has helped me to feel better, though. on the days that i didn't get a run in, i felt MUCH more pukey. but i'm feeling pretty good now. YES!

i never took pictures of myself pregnant with my first two babies, so i decided that i'm going to take a picture of my budding belly every month this time around. here's 4 months along:

take a gander at kadin's "special" shirt

see whitney run

on may 31 i ran the all women's "see jane run" 1/2 marathon in alameda with a couple of cute girlies, maren and kristen. it was an absolutely perfect running day in every sense of the word. it was nice and cool outside... it was a fast, flat course with a fantastic view of san fran and the golden gate across the bay from us... and best of all, i felt incredible. i love those kind of runs. i just wanted to post a sub-2 hour race and i did just that, finishing in 1:56:35. note to self: screaming and waving while running by does not make for a good picture.

the victorious finishers. kristen on the left, maren in the middle.

santa cruz sweet santa cruz

it's a long standing tradition for our family to camp at new brighton beach near santa cruz over memorial day weekend every year. this year was as fabulous as ever... lots of catching up with old friends, tons of beach time, a visit to the monterey bay aquarium and, of course, gobs of yummy food and campfires galore. we took lots of pictures of the kiddos. they're the good lookin' ones anyway...

joel and kadin snuggling together on their air mattress.
jellyfish.
checking out the hammerheads.
"i'm a whale mom!"
tearing it up on the longboard.
best brothers... with a hammer.
cutie pie boys.

oh yeah

anybody else watch the americans upset the french relay team in the mens 4x100 meter freestyle swim last night?!! absolutely incredible. it was almost midnight and i was jumping up and down and screaming at the top of my lungs with my kids sleeping in the next room. man, i love the olympics. you HAVE to watch the replay here.

catch up

i have been the worst blogger lately. i'm lucky if i get two posts a month in. so, in the next week or two i'm going to try to post all the stuff we've been up to over the last few months. let's start with the los altos hills pathways 10k that ben and i and some friends of ours ran on may 10. this was seriously the hardest race i have EVER run... and i think that includes any of the marathons i've finished. well, maybe not THAT hard, but take a look at the elevation profile:
ya, seriously psycho. ben totally rocked it. he finished in 46:27 and got 1st place in his age division and seventh place overall! now we have this trophy on our dresser that literally looks like they nailed 2 blocks of wood together. that's brook, kaylynn's boyfriend, with ben. he finished third in his age group. he luckily ended up with a nice medal instead of a trophy that looks like a... well, you know.
as for myself, i wanted to get under an hour and i did it just barely coming in at 59:54. that's about seven minutes slower than my fastest 10k time, but i'm just happy i finished alive. thanks to lindsey, who kept me going on those crazy hills... and for e-mailing me her pictures from the race as ben and i, once again, forgot our camera. here's some shots of all of us loco runners after we finished.

the girls
the boys
all of us
afterwards, we all met at hobee's for a delicious, high calorie breakfast. if you ever run across a hobee's in california, i suggest the blueberry coffee cake. divine. it was a totally fun morning.

up tomorrow (or the day after)... santa cruz camping bliss!

giveaway

click this to enter to win this:

totally darling. good luck to you and good luck to me! :)

ummm...

so this morning, we're sitting in church and kadin starts singing, "bow chica wow-wow, bow chica wow-wow..." ben and i couldn't stop laughing. nice songs we teach our kids, huh?

and proof that kadin is seriously one of the sweetest kids around (usually)... i was laying on the couch today after church and kadin climbs up and says,

"do you want your bwankie on, mommy?"

"yes! that is so nice of you, kadin!"

"here you go, mommy."

he throws the blanket that we keep on the back of the couch on me still folded up. as i'm unfolding it and throwing it over myself he says,

"there you go. is that good?"

geez, i just wanted to kiss him.