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My dearest Audrey,

From the moment I found you in my tummy I loved you. I kept you close, and vowed you would be a part of me forever. As I felt you rolling and kicking, I rubbed your little feet, and knees and bottom, and whispered sweet words of love and encouragement to you.

When you arrived in this world, I forgot everything else. You were my universe. You have changed me only for the better. You inspire me to be a better person every day, in every action I take, no matter how big or small. You have shown me the path to compassion, unconditional love and infinite patience. You are a daily reminder that purity, innocence, goodness, truth and freedom truly exist in all of us. These past three months have been the best of my life. I look forward to the years and years ahead with our little family of three.

love, mommy xx

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Now that I am officially a stay at home mom (wooohooo!!) I have been thinking of new fun & interesting things I can do to keep me busy (aside from caring for & nursing Audrey). Now mind you, I've already learned that any type of project or activity has to either include Audrey or last less than 45min to an hour. This is where the challenge comes in! One of my favorite hobbies is cooking. This, might be the most challenging activity to do with an infant in tow. Until she is able to occupy herself I should probably forbear from cooking for awhile. I say this because so far every cooking project I have started has been completed by my gracious in-laws. I know that they too enjoy cooking and are always more than willing to help, but along with the delicious outcome, I also enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. With that said there are a few yummy treats I have been able to make (with help) in these last few weeks.
In trying to coact with my intent to eat healthy I am determined to find nutritious recipes for tasty treats that satisfy my sweet-tooth! However, believe it or not, these things do not mesh (in this case anyway). I did though try and this is what happened.....

60 calorie cupcakes. Unfortunately they look better than they taste.

(you don't want to know) calorie glazed pumpkin doughnuts. delicious!

I am very interested in health and nutrition and I find it rather fascinating how chefs create beneficial versions of common recipes such as cupcakes. This particular recipe for instance with-held butter and sugar! In place of these items were honey (natural sweetener) and Greek yogurt. For the frosting I pureed fresh blackberries and combined it with fat free cream cheese. I liked how the berries turned the cream cheese purple! The honey, being the only form of sweetener, just wasn't enough for me and made this more of a breakfast treat rather than a dessert. The glazed pumpkin doughnuts on the other hand were amazing! I have always had the desire to make homemade doughnuts and my craving has been satisfied ten fold. Yes, these were deep fried. The complete opposite extreme from the cupcakes, I felt I had to amend my former misdoing ;) Needless to say the doughnuts were the winners in the taste factor but when it comes down to counting calories, the cupcakes are the way to go.
In 2009 I became very interested in the Raw Food Diet and took some time exploring it's basis. I was instantly enthralled with a whole new appreciation for food. During this time I purchased an Excalibur Food Dehydrator and started a journey of preparing new and exciting living foods. This included raw burgers, crackers, bread, dried fruit, veggie chips, buckwheat crisps, etc. all vegan and "cooked" at a temperature of 115 degrees or less. Although I didn't stay with this diet for very long (it was quite expensive & time consuming) I did hold on to a few recipes that I still enjoy making today. So yesterday I decided to pull out the dehydrator and make some yummy Kale Chips! They are so delicious and SO healthy, probably my favorite way to eat Kale.

Okay, enough about food. It's making me hungry.

Something else new and fun that I just started engaging in is running. It is something that both includes Audrey and is a healthy habit. I've never really been one to enjoy running but I have done it for sports in high school and for exercise occasionally. Now I find myself excited to go for runs and excited to see if I've made an improvement. I'm pretty sure Matt is also glad that I am learning to love running because I am definitely getting great use out of the expensive jogging stroller that we purchased. Speaking of Matt, he has been a great running partner and is so motivating. Without saying, he knows when I need that extra push.
This past weekend was the P.F. Chang's Rock n' Roll Marathon here in Phoenix and Matt, Audrey and I went to cheer on our friend Heidi. We know Heidi through our Bible Study small group which only meets once a week so it was nice to see her and her husband Ben outside of our study group.

I am planning on running next years marathon so being there was such an inspiration! I really look forward to training and putting in the hard work to accomplish this goal. Running long distance requires great physique but also mental strength. I hope to learn how to improve both of these things during my training. In the meantime I have registered for my very first race, a 5K (3.1 mi) which is next Saturday January 29th. I ran a test 5K the other day and kept a 12:20 minute pace which is pretty slow but right now my concern is just finishing and not so much time. I am excited for the race and we'll just have to see how I do!

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We have made it through the first week of the year!
I have set a few goals for myself this year and I am excited to accomplish them. I am tempted to share my goals but have been advised not to (even though I'll probably end up writing about them eventually anyway). One of Matt and my favorite writers Donald Miller blogged about a lecture he went to where the speaker talked about goals and how powerful they are. That we shouldn't share our goals, if possible, for it puts you at a disadvantage. He said the brain enjoys the sharing in the same way it enjoys the achievement itself therefore you have lost your motivation. It makes sense and is something interesting to think about.

Since I won't be sharing my "actual goals" I will at least say that so far I have stuck with them and have set smaller goals within my big goals that I have already started to achieve.

Now, on to Audrey.

She is at the stage where she is closely observing her surroundings. It is so fun to just watch her look around wide-eyed, taking it all in. You can just see the wheels in her head turning trying to figure out what everything is. Matt and I often talk about how pure life is when you're a baby. How simple your needs are and how nothing alters or influences you, you just are who you are! How beautiful is that? I hope this innocent pureness is something Audrey holds on to for years to come.

Earlier this week we took Audrey for her first hike. It was a lot of fun and a pretty intense workout for me considering I didn't exercise very much during my pregnancy. We hiked North Mountain because it has a paved trail so we were able to push Audrey in her buggy. She slept the way up but awoke when we reached the top, which is only about 1.5 miles.

It looks level here but it was quite steep most of the way.

Half way up a nice man offered to take our photo.
We usually don't get to take photos of all three of us.

A view from the top!

I love this photo! Matt showing Audrey where she was born.

I love her cute little face.

Audrey telling Daddy how much she likes hiking.

On the way home Audrey fell asleep, per usual. When we were ready to take her out of her car seat once we got home I wanted to film her because she does this cute little stretch every time. It's one of my favorite things she does. She raises her eyebrows and stretches her neck and usually curls her arms on each side of her head. It's the sweetest little thing.

More cutie photos of Audrey...

Tugging on her little hat.