Post prego half marathon

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Spring Training

Well, well, well... this is not the longest we've gone without having a blog post but it's definitely been a little bit. Since our last post we've been busy traveling around and having fun. For instance, Liam decided to take a vacation from us folks and spend some time with the grandparents. He had a great time, but since he was on vacation, we decided to fly out to Colorado with our good friends the Wrenicks to do some skiing at Winter Park.

The following weekend Liam decided he needed to spread the love so he had us drive him to his other grandmother's house for the weekend. Since he didn't want his parents to embarrass him, we were not aloud to stick around so we took the opportunity to visit the Arnolds in Manhattan. As always, it was a lot of fun.

Now that we are back from all our travels, we plan to spend some time here in our neighborhood. Good thing too, spring is here and its time for spring training. Dana has started training for her first post-pregnancy half-marathon. Come out and cheer her on in Olathe, KS on April 16th. Lawrence has also started his spring training, but Liam thinks he needs to add a little resistance to the schedule...

We Love 2 Run

This last weekend we decided to run the 4 mile Love 2 Run race in Columbia. It is a couples race that adds up both runners' times as the finishers' total time, and their ages for the divisions. The Simple Simonsons (as our team name stated) decided to add a third "runner" and give Liam an opportunity to participate in his first race, so we bundled him up in his snow suit and buckled him into the baby jogger for Daddy to push.

Liam didn't much enjoy being immobilized by his tight snowsuit and buckles.

Warmed up and ready to run!

Turned out our efforts were rewarded - Liam enjoyed being pushed in the race, so much so he fell asleep mid-run, and we somehow managed to place 2nd in our division! Go Simple Simonsons!

3 States in 2 Days

Well, as usual, we had a whirlwind of a weekend. We visited the Beezley's and packed a load of boys' clothes back across the neighborhood on 2 strollers Friday night. If our neighbors didn't think we were strange before, they're surely on their way at least to that train of thought by now. Unfortunately we had to trek through the street as most of the sidewalks were still covered with snow/ice from the last couple snowfalls and Liam's first stroller isn't quite made for that kind of off-roading... yet.

Saturday, we traveled to Kansas to see our nephew Ayden for his 2nd birthday party.

Lawrence got Liam warmed up for the party with some "roly poly" playtime.

Ayden loves baby Liam and is getting good practice for

his little baby sister or brother that will be coming along this July!

Ayden also got to play with their cousin Evan who was visiting

from South Carolina, while his Mom (Sarah) played with Liam.

Liam had fun seeing the Simonson family, and cuddling up to his numerous uncles.

Grandma Karen got some cuddles out of Liam too!

We traveled back that night in order to get up early for another full day of traveling and adventure. This time we headed east and made it all the way to Illinois (as far as St. Louis anyway,) for a bike expo and swap. It was another first for Liam; not only traveling to St. Louis, but also to a bike expo that will surely not be the last if Daddy has anything to do with it. We also made it to Trader Joes, a very interesting, and infamous grocery store, with many organic foods and cheap wine to boot!

As you can tell, Liam had a pretty full weekend, but he's already resting up for the next adventure we're cookin' up for him!

4 Months In... 18 years to go

Welp, he done did it - he made it to 4 months, but more importantly, so did we. Liam is eating us out of house and home and now weighs 18 lbs - the same as most 9 month olds. He's also starting to act like a real baby, check it out!

Snow Day

We wanted to share the link to a special video that Cousin Kelsey pulled together for Dana's brother Grant, who is still recovering from his stroke and could always use more prayers. He has always loved the song "Lean on Me" and she thought it would be a good idea to gather pictures of his friends and family holding each word to the song and spell out the song so that he could see us singing it to him, as he is not able to hear much at all. We all thought it was a great idea - check out this very cool Christmas gift (especially the ending:-):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuRTIy5C7z0

Well the holidays are beginning to fade into the past and we are starting to get back into the swing of things. However, this past week's snow storm that hit Columbia slowed down the town a bit and resulted in many school closings, but it created an atmosphere for many fun adventures for those kids who got to stay home. This includes the Simonson boys who managed to have quite an adventure of their own. Check out what fun Lawrence and Liam had...

Hope you all have an adventurous week of your own!

New Year with a New Baby

We would like to thank everyone for their patience with us as we figure out just how we will be adapting to our new family life. As you probably already know, we were blessed with a very healthy, 8 lb 10.7 oz baby boy on September 18th at 11:29pm. It was a stormy night, which should be no surprise as during all major events in our lives, the angels start throwing some loud parties to celebrate with us. This day has even more special meaning now because Liam Paul shares his birthday with his Uncle Grant as well as his GrammaLou and Papa's anniversary.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures & videos from Liam's first 3 months.

It's hard to believe that Liam is almost 4 months old! He already looks so different after going back through his first baby pictures, but we know he'll continue to change each and every day so we really try to live in the moment when we spend our waking hours with him. We will say those first 3 months did not seem short at the time, but we can appreciate that much more these happy days that we continue to experience as Liam develops in many ways other than his style of crying. He's having cooing conversations with us, holding his head up very well, and giggles when we cuddle up with him.

We hope to better keep up with our family blog so that you can share in the joy of Liam's development. You're always welcome to stop by and visit our cyber as well as physical home. Happy and healthy new year to you all!