Let the good times roll...

I ran my best marathon time ever!! 3:41.25 I missed qualifying for the Boston Marathon by 26 seconds. I needed to get 3:40.59 and under. There's always next time. Kylie has been full of it lately. She loves to dance to music...especially Katy Perry's Firework. She heard it on the Victoria Secret Fashion show at my sister's house and has LOVED it ever since. She loves to get her pretty shoes, or any high heels and pretty dress and dance to "pikerwork." My Mom, Mandy and Jordan were playing soccer at the park with Kylie when she randomly went up to Jordan and told him, "You sweaty. Need to take shower." When I'm at work and just taught a class, she tells me the same thing. She is always asking "Where daddy? Daddy teacher? At work." She answers her question with a question and then an answer. She's a smart little girl. She speaks Portuguese with Jon. It's neat to hear them speak to each other. I can understand what they are saying but not say much back. She counted to 12 all by herself a couple of months ago. She watched an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where they counted a dozen muffins. I guess that's where she learned it. It's nothing big but makes me realize she is really a sponge and pays attention to things. She's quite responsible for a 2 year old. She almost always puts her toys away with out being asked before she gets out another thing, she'll put her shoes on and say "Ready Mommy?"while she waits for me by the door, she can feed herself and stay pretty clean (she always likes to have a napkin), colors quietly by herself and doesn't color the wall or table...anymore, picks out her own outfits to wear and matches pretty good (what can I say, she's 2), and she likes to take a bath, brush her teeth and do many other things by herself. As Kylie says, "I do, myself." What a stubborn child I have. She's really sweet and a stinker all at the same time. She has curly blonde hair, blue eyes and little round nose. She likes to go running with Jon and I and actually run. We went on Saturday and she loved it! She's pretty quick. Maybe she'll be a little athlete! She's tall! She's over the 100% for her age and in the 80% for weight. She's about 35 lbs. After she takes a bath, she says, "Baby, Daddy?" She loves for me to wrap her in a towel and carry her to Jon, like a baby, so he can give her hugs and kisses. She really likes her new Strawberry soap. She was on an anti-bath streak so we decided to get her some new soap. She doesn't like sleeping in her room. She's had a few bad dreams where she says, "Santa scares me." She is actually horrified with Santa Claus and now clowns. She went to her friend Jack's birthday party at Mini Town and saw a clown in the hallway and broke down sobbing and huffing. She was so scared. I felt so bad for her. Now we know not to invite a clown to her next birthday party. Kylie loves to read books. We recently read "Where the Wild Things Are" and she loved it. She goes through phases of having a favorite book and wants me to read it over and over and often times asks, "Read it silly." I like to read her stories in different accents. My favorite is the Spanish accent, like Buzz in Toy Story 3. This is by far her favorite movie. She could watch that thing all day if we let her. For about a month, every night she wanted to read 5 books in the "If you give a mouse a cookie series." We read each one every night. Oh, good times! I know this post is long but thanks for reading! We love and miss all of you!!

Wildhorse 5K and upcoming Marathon

This past weekend, my neighborhood hosted a 5k. I decided to run it with some friends and have fun. My mom came and watched me run which is always so nice. The course ended up being about 3.5 miles instead of 3.1. That's almost a half mile extra which makes a big difference in any race. My friend Aubrey and I ran together. This was our first run together so I was excited. We stuck together the first mile and then we hit a big hill. Aubrey past me up but I kept on pushing and stuck about 10 feet behind her for the next mile. This brings us to about mile 2. I told her we had just 1 mile to go. She probably hates me for saying that because it turns out we had 1.5 miles left to go. I could see the leader of the pack, Mr Ben Manchester, and wanted to stick with him and hopefully catch him at the end. I looked at my watch and decided we should have been done by now so I shouldn't charge ahead because I don't know how much further we had to go. I turned the corner and about 20 feet ahead was the finish line and Ben had already finished before I had the chance to catch him. He's one lucky duck! I finished about 15 seconds behind him. I was really proud of myself. I finished the 3.5 miles in 23 minutes which translates into a 20:24 for the 5k with a 6:34 min pace. I haven't run that fast for a 5k in a long time. I kept redoing the math and just couldn't believe it. I'm training for a full marathon which is 26.2 miles on December 5th in Dallas. While training for this marathon, I have PR'd (personal record) in a half marathon. I ran about 13 miles in 1 hour 47 minutes. That beat my previous race time by about a minute. I've felt really good about my training and hope I can keep it up. I ran 10 today at about the same pace as the half which was 8 min 12 seconds. I'm shooting for about a 3:40 finish time for the marathon and feel confident I can do that. I know that anything is possible when we put our faith and trust in the Lord. If it's important to us, it's important to him. Much love to all!

Mini Bush Reunion!

This past weekend, Jon's family all got together for his older brother Jeff's baby Eleanor's blessing. It was so much fun to be with everyone. We all had a great time. We rode up to Dallas with Girly (Jon's sister Jessica), and his Mom and Dad. We always enjoy long car rides with them. Thanks guys!!

Mel and her baby girl Eleanor

Our family

Jon and Girly have this thing about height. Girly thinks she is taller than Jon and Jon refuses to let this happen. Who is taller? Maybe Girly should have kept her 5 inch heels on...

Jon, Justin, Jessica, Jeff

So when we all get together, their is always something funny that happens. This time it was a mattress roller coaster!! I didn't try it but it looked like fun. This is like something we always did as kids. We would set the mattress, pillows, blankets and whatever else soft we could find, run down our hallway and flyyy thru the air and crash on all the soft stuff. They sat on the mattress and slid down the stairs. Good times!!

Bush Family 2010

Family's are Forever!!

Family Photo from Nov 2009

These pictures were taken at the Japanese Tea Gardens in downtown San Antonio back in November of 2009. I have been looking everywhere for the CD they were on and finally found it...yeah! Kylie was on the brink of nap time when we took these so she wasn't her usual Smiley Kylie self. I forgot how truely bald she was...how funny! They were taken by our good friend Summer Manchester. Thanks Summer!!

Kylie says her first prayer!

Tonight, as we were about to say family prayer, I asked Jon, "Do you want me to say it?" and then Kylie says, "I say it." I thought, okay, this is good but she probably won't say it. I said a few words and waited a few seconds...then Kylie repeated the last few words of what I said! I was so excited I couldn't think. Jon laughed at me afterwards because I acted like I'd never said a prayer before. I felt so good inside when we finished. I was so proud of Kylie. So if you ever wonder if they are listening and watching ...they are. We love to hold hands in a circle as we say our family prayer. Once we did this, Kylie seemed a little more willing to sit down and be apart of family prayer. What works for your families? What about FHE?

Jon Starts New Job

Its been a long road for Jon and our family to find a great job that he will enjoy and get everyday satisfaction out of. He has a finance degree and wasn't happy in the business world. He decided to take a new route and enter the world of teaching. He is now teaching for Holmes High School in Northside Independent School District, one of the top school districts in Texas. He has made it through the first week and is in high spirits. He is anxious to really get teaching and make a difference in the lives of his students. We are so proud of him. Great job Jon and I love you.

Holmes Huskies

Birthday Girl!

Kylie was nervous and wouldn't blow out her candles. Luckily her friend Bryson helped her. We had some friends over for cake and then went swimming at our neighborhood pool. We all had fun! These pictures are all from her birthday week. I started singing happy birthday a week in advance so she would be ready for her big day. She walked around the house, and still does, singing "Happy, Happy."

Big Balloons from Aunt "Manny" (Mandy)

Opening a present...one of her favorite things, books!

Posing for the camera!

Classic! Love it!!

Loves balloons!

This is a kitty piano from one of my clients "Gramma" Jeanne. Kylie posed, smiled, and said "cheese!"

Kylie was making some funny faces while opening her presents. I think she was excited!

The crinkle noise of the wrapping paper was making her cringe.

She was very particular about opening her presents. She would pull a little paper off, throw it in the trash, pull a little more, throw it away, etc until it was opened. Funny girl...

She only wanted frosting, no cake.

More finger licking fun!

This was before her birthday. We walked around Toys R Us to see what she liked. She loved this scooter and called it a "cudda." I bought it at Wal-Mart for about $20 less and am saving it for Christmas.

Kylie loves pancakes and strawberries so that's what we had for breakfast.

Playing with her toy car set and eating a sucker.

Admiring her floaties she wears around the house, just in case we go swimming.

Eating at Red Robin for her birthday dinner.

WoW!!

The Fantastic Ms. Kylie just turned 2!! We are so proud of the little person she has become and is becoming. She is such a sweetheart and is very polite. She says please and thank you all the time. She even says "scuse me" after she burps. She loves stickers and coloring with markers. She loves any lip balm, chap stick, or whatever for your lips. She loves reading books together, especially Dr. Seuss. She also likes The Brown Bear and Polar Bear books by Eric Carle. She likes balloons and balls. She's quite the little singer and dancer, too. She loves to snuggle and have hugs and kisses. Swimming is one of her favorite things. She often wears her floaties around the house along with her goggles her Mi-Mi gave her. She enjoys "helping" mom in the kitchen by mixing and adding ingredients. Her favorite foods are almost anything. She's a great little eater and will try almost anything. She loves suckers and will do almost anything for one! It's amazing how much power a sucker can hold! She is talking a lot now and almost said a full sentence. She came up to me out of the blue one day, tapped me on the leg and looked me straight in the eyes and said, "I go poop, in da potty." We've been talking about going in the potty and no, sadly, she didn't actually go but that's okay. It's a work in progress. A few nicknames we have for Kylie are bug, menina (little girl is Portuguese), little (Aunt T calls her this), cutie, punkin (like pumpkin), sweetheart, and monkey. She loves animals. She really likes dogs and cats especially kitties. Her favorite color is "pupul" (purple). She is learning Portuguese from her daddy Jon who went to Brazil on his mission. He has spoken to her in Portuguese since she was born. She understands everything he says and sometimes tries to talk back to him in Portuguese. She likes to say "cheese" for the camera and will even pose a little. We love our little Kylie and are so blessed to have this happy little girl in our lives. She truly is a special daughter of our Heavenly Father. We love you Kylie!

A Couple of Fun Firsts

Kylie's first jet-ski ride

Her first time with the life-jacket to go on the boat

First egg-beater licking!

First backpack, she loves to wear it

First pedicure!

Sisters are the Bestest!!

Tiff, Me and Mandy

(Me and Tiff had 80's shoes but decided flip flops were more comfortable)

My beautiful Mother. . .she looks like she was born in the 80's too!!

Mandy got silly stringed good!

Mandy recently had a birthday and wanted to celebrate it 80's style. Us girls, minus Amy, dressed up in our 80's attire derived mostly from our existing closets . . . sad but true. We had a lot of fun. Mandy has been in Del Rio working as a nanny since January so I really haven't got to see her very much recently. I really miss Mandy a lot. I didn't realize how much we hung out together until she wasn't here anymore. Mandy is so energetic and loving. I love being around her. She is always the life of the party and has such a contagious smile and laugh. I'm really grateful for all my sisters and the special friends they are to me. I have 3 of the best friends ever!! I love my sisters. I'm glad we got to play dress-up and go back to where we all came from . . . the 80's!!

Fiesta San Antonio Missions 10K

Part of living in San Antonio is celebrating Fiesta!! Fiesta San Antonio started in 1891 as a one-parade event and has turned into one of the nation’s premier festivals with more than 100 events. Fiesta is “The Party with a Purpose.” Each event is produced by a nonprofit organization chosen by the Fiesta San Antonio Commission. The funds they raise provide services to San Antonio citizens throughout the year. I chose to participate in Fiesta by running the Missions 10K. The procedes for this event funded the SARR scholorship fund. It was a really great race. The course was along the San Antonio River. It was PORING rain so we really saw the river flowing! I haven't run a cross-country type race in the rain before so it was fun. I ended up doing really well. I won my age group (25-29) and received a sombraro and a medal in honor of my fiesta victory. I love to run and am so happy I have stayed healthy and been able to do well in my past few races. Go Fiesta!!