A bunch of updates all squished into one!

We've had a busy few months around here, and I feel like I haven't really had a second to stop and take it all in! We've had birthdays, birthdays and more birthdays!! We've been remodeling bathrooms, taking some short trips and, trying to remember to breathe every once in a while. Life's good!
Liam turned one at the end of January (cue minor heart attack!) and is just becoming the funniest little guy :) He laughs at everything, including himself. He's starting to really try to talk and says the normal "Mama, Dada, uh-oh, hello, bu-bye" etc. He just started saying "aya" for Ava and putting a few words together like "bu-bye dada". He's still the most laid back kid that I've ever been around, but has such a fun personality. Everyday I see more and more of Jon in him. He really is Jon's little mini-me! Big news too...he FINALLY started walking!! He took his first step a little over a week ago while we were in Houston and now he's taking more and more everyday. He's trying to push himself up to stand from the floor and go from there too, and has managed to do it a few times. So, go Buggy!! 'Bout time little dude.
Ava turned 4 at the beginning of February and while I was hoping she would magically wake up and be done with the terrible 3's (because whoever came up with the terrible 2's clearly never met my daughter), but 4 had been just as challenging so far. She does have some redeeming qualities though, so I'll work with what we've got for now. According to her sweet, wonderful teachers at school, she is polite, helpful and always on her very best behavior. I am convinced that I'm sending a different child to school than the one that I bring home. At least she saves the drama for me...and I'm so thankful that she knows to leave it at home. Right now that kid's social calendar is harder to plan around than any of ours. She's playing soccer, taking ballet and swim lessons and is already pretty much booked up for the summer. I mean, seriously. But, she's happy and active and that's a good thing. She's been asking for a while to go out running with me, so I talked to her Pediatrician about it and he said go for it. So, we bought her 1st pair of running shoes and we've been running around the neighborhood together. I'm running a 5k in a couple of weeks and they have a kids fun run that she's going to do! She's so excited and it makes me so proud that this is something she seems to really like right now. I hope she enjoys the whole race experience so I can continue to encourage her :)
Jon and I both turned the big 3-0 and had a joint "60th" Birthday party last month to celebrate. It was so much fun and so many of our friends and family came. I have to say that I was pretty excited to finally be in my thirties. I was so over being 20-something and feel like and official grown-up now for some reason. Of course I still do completely immature things like buy $10 sunglasses because I can't take care of nice ones, and buy music by girls with $ymbol$ in their names because I like to listen to it when I run....you know, to make me feel young and all ;)
Speaking of running, I ran my SECOND half marathon a couple of weeks ago! I was having some problems with my hip, which looks like it might be IT band issues, and really followed a pretty pathetic training schedule...but even with all of that I managed to take a full 12 minutes off of my time from the 1st one in just 3 months! With the exception of my hip, I also recovered so much faster. I took a couple of weeks off and I'm going to try a short run tomorrow and see how I feel. I am surprised at how much I've missed running lately. Never thought i'd say that ;) It will be nice to run just because I want to for a little while, and not because I'm training for anything. After the half I did something ridiculous (blame it on Andrea again!) and entered the lotto to run the New York Marathon in November. Not sure what I was thinking. I've had it in the back of my head that I'd like to run ONE full marathon, and if I'm going to do it, I need to do it this year. We find out in a little over a week if we got in...so we'll see! I'd say wish me luck...but I'm not sure how much I want ;)
So, that's our story for now!