antioxidants {and} antibiotics

**all of the pictures were taken on my cell phone.....and i was SO not taking the time to edit such "quality" photography!! ;)  **

this past wednesday austin and i took the kids up to our one-day-future-homesite to plant some trees, blueberry bushes, and grape vines.  we purchased 16 acres of gorgeous countryside about 2 years ago and we've been waiting for the right time to start our house build.  while waiting, austin's been working on the property to spruce things up.  one thing he wanted were some blueberry bushes. 

now, the kids were all about the planting o'greenery, but clearly hannah and i were the VIP tree planters....what with all of our self portraits and "airplane rides".  but let's face it....i have a black thumb.  if you want something green to grow....it's probably best if i have as little to do with the process as possible ;)

they also got to run around, climb trees, and "help" dig holes for the new tree and the new bushes.  chandler, who is austin's resident helper at all times, was DYING to get to use the shovel.  i am documenting this occasion to show my boy one day when he's griping and moaning about having to dig umpteen post holes.  ;) 

despite the setback of having three overly eager helpers and one wife who insisted on slowing up progress by getting the aforementioned helpers to pose for pictures....they eventually were successful in transplanting the folioge from pot to ground. 

so, one day we will hopefully be able to shoo the kids out into the yard where they will be met with a plethora of yummy snack options!! 

whilst the planting time was just barrels of fun, we were about to be hit by the third of three sick kids.  you see, chandler's fever hit the friday prior, ava's hit the following monday, and looming just an hour from planting time.....hannah's fever was about to rear it's ugly head. 

so, our lives are currently revolving around antibiotic rounds.  my calendar looks like this with my codes for which kid is on what day of antibiotic doses: 

but hey....i'll take fevers ANY day over stomach viruses which, *knock on wood*, we haven't had this year (which is a VAST improvement over the 3-4 times we ALL got it last year!).

{girl's} night out!

you know how sometimes you need a some girl time?  yeah, i was SO there last weekend.  it's been chaos and stress in my world lately, so when one of my girlfriends went and had a birthday in january, we decided to turn it into some time away.  away from work....home....obligations.....stress.  so last friday, three friends and myself packed up and headed down to the beach house for a couple of days. 
now, you KNOW that reality likes to rear its ugly head when you have fun plans, right?  oh yeah...it tried to infiltrate my girl time.  4:00 a.m. on friday, chandler comes into my room with a 103 temp.  austin was out of town so there was no leaving kids with him.  luckily, my mom and my mother-in-law stepped up like the rockstars that they are and agreed to still take on the kiddos so i could still go. 

and go i went!  we went and ate lunch at a REAL restaurant (no kids meals or nothin'!), shopped in stores that i wouldn't DARE trust taking my kids into, got our eyebrows waxed (homegirl over here was in dire need of a good 'brow defuzzing!), had pedis and manis, and then hit up some seafood for dinner followed by a night listening and dancing to some music.  we even stayed up until 1:30 talking....because we knew we wouldn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to make breakfast for anyone!  (my camera battery was "exhautsed"  *its exact words!* so the only pics i have of this blessed event are the ones i texted to austin to show him the improvements)

check out the uber cool red skin betwixt my eyes....nothing screams "spa dork" quite like freshly waxed skin!!

a.) pay no attention to my monkey toes.  focus on the pretty color!  that would be some o.p.i. cajun shrimp....my fave nail polish hue :)  and MAN do i have some righteous veins in my feet!  okay...i'm done now.  

ya'll....it was glorious!  i didn't even have to cut up anyone's food ;)  although don't get me wrong....i LOVE my kiddos and i love taking care of them and their needs. but sometimes....sometimes i like to only have to cut my own food! 

we were supposed to hit up a pilates class saturday morning, but between our 1:30 bedtime and the raging storm that hit that morning, we decided to pack up and head back home.  but you know what?  it's a lot easier to handle the laundry and the noise and the cutting up of food when your eyebrows are arched perfectly and your toes look rockin!  ;)

guardian angel needed!

job description:  must be able to fly faster than a precocious 2-year-old can move.  must not have issue with saying the name "ava" over and over again.  must have the ability to sleep with one eye open (or not sleep at all.  which would be preferable).  lightning-quick reflexes a must.  a background in ninja preferred.  nerves of steel would be ideal.  angels with aversion to dirt, raw eggs, loud noises, premature teenage words and attitude, and general mischief need not apply.  direct line of communication to the Father is required.  you're gonna need it! 

applications may be submitted to one weary and harried mom.  backup angels may be necessary for the other two children as well....so bring a friend!  ;) 

in all seriousness....here's what ava has been up to lately: 

*getting into the refrigerator.  i think we all remember the raw egg incident. 

*unlocking and opening the front door.  thank goodness there's really nowhere for her to go out here.  and thank goodness we have a really loud front door. 

*telling her daddy to "hush" at the dinner table.  (didn't go over well!)

*getting up from her nap and dragging the ottoman from the living room to the kitchen to get herself a drink.  and eating all of the fruit gummy snacks from the cupboard. 

*stomping her foot and saying "fine!" when asked to do anything. 

it's a good thing she's cute!  ;)

21 days for {zion}

my godson, zion, is precious.  he's squeezy and sweet and has a head full of curls.  he'll be four this month and i can't believe that he's already getting so big!  when z was just a cuople of weeks old, i was supposed to be going down to meet him for the first time.  i was at a beth moore conference in jax and was breaking away from the group after the conference was over to go meet my beautiful godson.  but as the conference was drawing to a close, i could not get up with my friend.  i needed directions to their house and was panicking a little when it came time to head their way and i didn't know which way to head.  and then, i got a text.  carrie told me to head back home and she'd call me later. 

when i finally got the details, my heart was in my throat.  carrie had been holding zion as he slept when she noticed he wasn't moving.  at all.  she looked at his tiny face only to realize his lips were blue.  911 calls and an ambulance ride later....they discovered he'd had a seizure.  during birth, he suffered bruising to his brain.  zion was put on seizure medications that basically made him sleep through the first year of his life.  while they kept him safe, they also caused him to miss an entire year of milestones.  three-and-a-half years later, he's done countless therapies (and it doesn't hurt that his mommy is a speech therapist who is COMPLETELY devoted to her son!) and has made amazing strides.  he's walking and picking up some words. 

but the gaps are there.  he's 6 months younger than chandler and their vocabularies are incomparable.  so, zion's kentucky family and all of his florida fam are doing a 21 day fast and prayer for this sweet boy.  we will be sacrificing various things and giving our most heartfelt prayers to God for the blessing of speech for zion. 

on my part, i initially chose to give up mountain dew (which to me is pretty much like asking me to hold my breath for 21 days!  i'm thinking the oxygen deprivation would have less of an effect on my moods!) but then i realized that i would just replace it with cokes and then it really wouldn't be a sacrifice.  so, i'm going with all sodas.  i was going to take out all caffeine drinks, but that would include coffee and then pretty much everyone around me would be in danger.  i don't think zion would want that ;)


but i mean, c'mon....just LOOK at those baby blues!  if my sweet boy needed me to swear off mountain dews for the rest of my life, i'd SERIOUSLY at least consider it ;) 

and then ava found eggs.....

so after my 5k run, a kid's bday party (happy birthday forrest!), and a 94-year-old's bday (happy birthday grandaddy!)....i was whipped (and we STILL had a 30-year-old's bday later that night.  happy birthday to megan!!).  i have not had the chance to take a nap in a very long time, but today i chose to grab that opportunity.  once the kids were tucked in bed and asleep, i lay down on the couch so that i would wake up if any of them the began to stir.  unfortunately, ava's special brand of evil superpowers affords her the ability to move like a ninja.  a NINJA, i tell ya!  i woke up to the sound of her playing with something.  it sounded like it might have been one of her puzzles.  and then she ran through the living room giggling.  y'all....that kind of giggle is NEVER a good thing coming from a precocious 2-year-old.  i went over to investigate and this is what i found: 

EGGS????  what?  huh?  why?????  $219.293.579 worth of toys in this house and she decides to play with eggs.  are you kidding me?  so, not only will i be unable to nap for the next 16 years....but apparently we are going to have to look into turning our fridge into fort knox.

the chautauqua 5k

saturday morning was b.u.s.y.  in the shoaf household.  first up was the chautauqua 5k.  this one was actually right in defuniak so that was nice.  i left the house at around 7:15 and drove downtown to meet up with my running partners (yay for running partners!!).   once again, it was cold....47 degrees and i roll up in there in shorts.  which, i was glad i had on at about 1.5 miles.  (that's me...#251)

race results: 

chautauqua women's club 5k

time:  31:0-something.  those were the lady's exact words.  official times to be release thursday. 

***regardless of the 0-something part, this is still a new personal best time! 

of course, i hit my 2 mile wall....but i only walked for brief moments twice this time and pushed a pretty hard run towards the finish line.  this MAY have been because austin and the kids were able to make it to cheer me on.  there was NO WAY i was dragging across all worn out-like with my babies watching ;)    **chandler would not take a picture with me.  i think it's because i looked like my face was about to explode! 

the awards ceremony was pretty eventful as well.  i'm glad that i stayed just for the laughs that we all got.  they were calling out winners and awarding medals....and going by age groups for the men and the women.  when they got to the 20-29 age group, they called out gold and silver winners.  and then for bronze....MY name was called.  i just sat there all confused.  then, i told them i wasn't in that age group.  the lady looked at me like i was nuts and said, "aren't you 29?"  ummm...yeah, sure.  in my wildest time traveling dreams.  "no," i said..."i'm 32".  so they huddled up and conferred for a moment and then came back to the mic.  they moved on to the women's 30-39 age group in which they attempted to give me the gold medal.  i stood up for half a second and then was like, "wait a minute....they came in way ahead of me" and pointed to several women sitting with me.  again, the huddle came out and they decided to skip that age bracket and come back to it once everything was straightened out. 

finally, they got through the rest of the field and then came back to women's 30-39 group.  that lady came up to the mic and said, "we need to give alison a big cheer and a thank you because she's not actually going to end up winning anything today!".  i died.  just a little ;)  i DID come in 5th and i DID have my personal best time today so i was happy anyhow. 

afterwards, i had an older gentleman come over and shake my hand and thank me for being honest.  apparently one of the "walkers" had broken a rule and run part of the race and she was awarded a medal and that chafed the other walkers pretty badly so they were happy to see someone turn down TWO medals that weren't really mine to begin with. 

here's hoping the next 5k i do is free of craziness.  last time i got lost and this time i was the center of complete awards ceremony chaos!  we're signing up for the resurrection run in april so i have about 1.5 months to get through my 2 mile wall.  my goal is to get down to 30 minutes and NO stopping!!

ava was at the center of the second bit of crazy in our saturday, but that story deserves its very own post so it'll have to come later on ;)

{one} potato, {two} potato

this past weekend saw the return of tater plantin' time on the farm.  this year was extra cute due to grandma's purchase of garden hats for all of the kiddos (which apparently are necessary whether there's any sun or not!). 

 i have to admit that they were pretty darn cute even though i'm highly questioning whether or not chandler could see out from under his: 

 

once they were all appropriately equipped with the latest in farm fashion, including blue latex gloves, they dug right in to the work: 

(this year, ava actually participated instead of spending the entire time trying to kiss remi!)

once the spuds had been properly tucked into the ground, chan and hkay worked diligently to get them all covered up. 

they learned their shoeing-the-dirt technique from the master ;) 

ava even threw down on some stake hammerin'.  she kept saying, "momma...dis heffy" when she would pick up the hammer: 

i have to give them kudos on a great job!  my little funny-hat-on-the-farm kids :)  hannah hollered out when we got done, "i LOVE farming!". 

and here shortly, we'll have some fresh potatoes to dig up and eat.  there's nothing quite like being able to grocery shop in your front yard!