Has it really almost been a month?

So I must post today so that I will not go one month without posting. It has not been for lack of things to post, almost the opposite. Where has the time gone? Can there really be only about 11 days left until Christmas? I have not gotten Mike one thing yet, and Hailey is really hard for me to shop for this year. I really am not into buying just to buy(Although it is fun!)

The past month has been filled with lots of family filled good times. For Thanksgiving we decided to make the trek to Utah to see family. My family knew we were coming but we did not tell Mike's family. A surprise is always nice. It was fun to see lots of family and a new neice and nephew.

Jackson really took a liking to his new cousin Mason who was just a week old. So precious!!

Jackson was busy as he helped to make the pumpkin pie with his very own sugar pie pumpkin that he got on his school field trip to the pumpkin patch. He was very determined to use it to make a pie, so we made one from scratch. As always there was lots of good food and family! Here are the boys hollowing out the pumpkin.

What else, we made our annual trek to the Christmas tree farm to find our tree. This year we made sure to measure the opening of our Christmas tree stand so that we did not pick a tree whose trunk was too wide thus requiring a lot of work to get it to fit. We are learning!!

All decorated! This is known as the "Adult Tree" to my kids. Meaning that Mom gets to decorate it. Their tree is up in the bonus room and has all of their ornaments on it. I did not help decorate this one at all, it was all them!Hailey had here first choir concert this morning, it was really cute to see her doing what she loves! Here she is with her cousin Cecilee!

Halloween-Better late than never

So I am a little behind,yet again. We had a fun halloween which resulted in way too much candy, which resulted in too many raids on my kids candy. Why is it that I can eat 10 fun size candy bars but would never touch a full size one?

Hailey wanted to be Dorothy this year and I was having trouble finding an appropriate 7 year old Dorothy costume. It seems that all the ones I found wer way too grown up, if you know what I mean. So Grammie to the rescue! My Mom made Hailey a costume and it turned out great.

I was hoping thatI could convinve the boys to go along with a Wizard of Oz theme, but they were having none of that. So Jackson was Bumblebee the transformer, and Noah was Spiderman. As he says the red spiderman. I guess there is a black spider man? Who knew?

Potty Training, Ughh!!!

So you would think that by the 3rd child I should have this potty training thing down, I don't. I just don't understand the fear that Noah has of pooping in the toilet, and why a better option is to do it in his underwear. Can anyone shed some light on this? Any advice for me to help him get this. We have the pee thing down but #2 is a different story. Sorry about the gross topic but I would really like to figure this one out!

I have to say accidents and all this kid can make me smile at the drop of a hat. Cute little guy!

October Madness

The fall is always busy in our household. Between school starting, soccer, birthdays and just living I never seem to sit down and relax. Not to mention that this October we added a trip to Boise, family pictures, weekend trip to Utah, and a marathon. So I thought I would try and catch up a little bit before I need to go make dinner for the missionaries.

Jackson and Haileys b-days are the 14th and the 19th. A few years ago I decided that they could have a friend party ever other year so that I could keep some sort of sanity. It was Haileys year to have the bash but Jackson did get to invite 2 friends to a little b-day celebration. We went to Out of this World Pizza, they had a great time. In Boise the weekend before he got what he wanted, the Big Bumblebee transformer. He is crazy about super heroes, Star Wars and skateboards right now. I can't believe that he is 5!

Hailey played soccer again this year. It was a more enjoyable season than last year, I think because the boys are 1 year older and I was able to actually watch Hailey a little and was not constantly chasing the boys everywhere.

Hailey wanted a TinkerBell party this year. She made her invite list and it had 13 girls on it! I like to throw parties at home but this was too big, so she opted for Out of this World Pizza. Come and visit we will go to this place, it is awesome. Whenever we go we are usually there 4 hours because the kids just love to play and I can just sit and relax. Not like Chuck E. Cheese where if you look away for a second it takes 1/2 hour to locate your child again! The kids had a great time and Hailey was so excited about her TinkerBell Cookie cake! On Sunday, her actual b-day, I was feeling like a loser Mom because I did not bake her a cake. Yes, we had b-day pancakes in the morning but I still felt bad. So around 7pm the doorbell rang, it was cousin Cecilee and family who had baked and decorated a cake for Hailey! Thanks for relieving some of my guilt!Just had to add this picture of Noah, sorry Mike! (Dan I don't want any comments!) We gave my neice Avery dressups for her b-day and Noah thought that they were so pretty!This month was tiring to me and obviously to Noah too! Watch out November, here we come!

I Survived!

So I know that you all have been sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if I was crazy enough to run the Portland marathon 2 weeks after my other marathon. I was and I am still alive to tell about it! I did indeed run the Portland marathon and qualified for Boston so now I have the option of running it in 2009 and 2010. I am very happy about that because that is the only reason that I did it. My body was definitely not fully recovered and my IT band on my left knee was hurting but I am glad I did it. It was a great day for a marathon! The temp was perfect, it started raining about 1/2 way thru but I actually enjoyed the rain, that is until I was done. At the point I was soaking wet and once I cooled down I was shivering.

Anyone crazy enough for Boston 2010? I will be there, love for you to join me!

Anyone who wants a full report go to http://www.marathonmommies.blogspot.com/ I will be posting my race report soon.

Girls Weekend, oh and a marathon!

So this past weekend three of my good friends and I flew to Salt Lake for a girls weekend and to run the Top of Utah marathon. We have been training together since my last marathon in April. We had a blast with some pain involved. If you want more marathon details go to http://www.marathonmommies.blogspot.com/ to read my post titled Top of Utah marathon. For those of you who do not want all the details of the race I will spare you.

So what do 4 women do when they have no children or hubbies around?

• They buy People magazine to catch up on all the hollywood gossip while riding on the plane without wiggly children
• They stay up late watching Made of Honor, eventhough they know that they should go to bed
• They go to the Salt Lake temple and enjoy a live session together
• They try and figure out what the whistling noise in the car is, but finally give up and get used to it
• They try and figure out what a good pre-race meal would be and end up at Quiznos
• They get up at 4am to go run 26.2 miles, yes we are crazy!!
• They all finish the race and are still alive to talk about it thanks to Mike who sent me with Zofran (anti-nausea drug)
• They go out to dinner and drink Diet Coke happy to not be drinking water or gatorade!
• They shop, go to a movie at 10pm, and stay up talking and laughing until 2am. Awake for 22hours and ran 26.2 miles. Again we are crazy!!
• Grow to love and appreciate each other even more!

We had an awesome time, I am proud to call these ladies my friends.

My Mom, Dad, sis-in-law and neice were nice enough to drive up to Salt Lake on Sunday and we all went to Music and the Spoken Word with the Mo-Tab choir. It was amazing!!! President Monson was there and spoke a little after the performance. It was a very moving experience and I am sso glas that i drug myself out of bed! It was fun to see some of my family. I feel very blessed to have a life full of great family and friends.

My cup runneth over.

Noah is 3

I can't believe that my little guy is already 3. Time really does fly by!

I thought that I would share a few pictures from his b-day. We went to Red Robin, he fell asleep on the way there and was out! We ordered for him and when his food came we woke him up. He was kind of out of it, his food was really hot so he decided that the lettuce was a good temperature. He proceeded to pick it up, dip it in the kethup and eat it. He did this repeatedly, he is definitely my son. The veggies part, not the kethup!

Back to school for Jack

I am way behind on blogging! Since school started my life is so busy. It seems like I am running nonstop from the time I get up!

Jack started preschool a few weeks ago. It is so fun to see him in his element, so happy to be playing with his friends. He is always so excited to go to school. He is so funny because he really has an opinion on what he wants to wear on most days. The first day of school being one of them, his shirt is a little small but I have learned to pick my battles and that what he wears is not importnat. Yes I know that I am type A and I like to control almost everything. I am working on that, I think that kids have forced me to loosen up which is a good thing.

I love this little boy!

Signing his name, yes he is a lefty!

Sewing his school back with Teacher Linda

A place for kids?

So Friday I took the boys to McDonalds for lunch. We have a deal that on the day of the week that Hailey eats "hot lunch" at school I will take the boys to eat somewhere because of course Jackson needs everything to be "fair". We got their happy meals, went outside and as usual they eat 2 bites, open their toy, and then disappear into the play structure. A few minutes later Jackson returned with a very disgusted look on his face and he was spitting.

I asked him what he was doing to which he responded, " I drank something that tasted like concrete."

I of course was very confused as his chocolate milk was right next to me and it did not taste like concrete. I asked a few more questions like, "Did you really drink something?", and "Where is this thing that you drank?"

He responded, Yes, I did drink something and then he pointed up to the play structure.

So I asked him to go retrieve this thing that he had drunk. I sat there a little apprehensive waiting for him to return. All the time hoping that it would not be what I was thinking that it would be.

Sure enough he came down with one of those king size cans of budweiser. What is a can of beer doing in the kids play structure at McDonalds? What is my son doing drinking out of any open container that he finds?

I took the can to the manager and let him know that there was obviously some extracurricular activities going on after hours in their play structure. He was apologetic and very surprised. Then I had a discussion with Jackson about not eating or drinking anything that he finds. What is common sense to me isn't always common sense to my almost 5 year old obviously.

So beware what your kids might find in the McDonalds play structure. While disgusting it is definitely a classic Jackson thing to do. Gotta love him!!!
Boys are a different breed! I used to think that people were just saying that. I don't anymore!!! You have to love this boy with ice cream all over his glasses!

All Grown up

Tuesday was Hailey's first day of 1st grade. It was harder for me to let her go this time than it was for Kindergarten. Having her gone all day is weird, and sad. She will never be home all day again, they grow up so fast. I tell myself to cherish the moments when my kids are little because they grow up too fast!! Although it is hard sometimes when they are screaming, fighting, creating huge messes, etc.
From this picture you would think that it is Noah's first day of school.
I had to take a picture to document what grade school she is going to. I think that I won't forget but you never know.
I dropped her off on the 1st day so that I could meet her teacher with her. She started right in on her work and has never looked back. So far she is still excited to get up and go. We will see how long that lasts. So far her favorite part of school is everything and recess.

Hood To Coast 2008

After many months of planning and training the Hood to Coast Relay came and went. It was a blast! Thanks to everyone on the team that helped make it such a fun, memorable experience!

I could not have picked better people to run 197 miles with!!

Van 1-Pre-Race photo, sorry about the black and white my camera was in the wrong setting.

Left to right: Marcae, me, Kristin, Jeremy, Mike, and Thomas

Our team name was Almost There, there were definitely times that it did not feel that way!

Van 2 left to right: Mallory, Nathan, Joanna, Alex, Megan, WillJeremy and Thomas showing their "guns", happy to be finished with their 1st leg.Half asleep getting ready to start our 2nd legs which would all be in the middle of the night. This was by far my favorite and my fastest leg. Thank you to my awesome and talented sis-in-law Ellen for all of her hard work on the decals for our van!After our 2nd legs we drove to the place where we would meet up with Van 2 to begin our 3rd legs. When we got there the guys and Marcae slept out in their sleeping bags. Kristin and I preferred the warm van. We were all a little envious of Marcae who could sleep just about anywhere.

We used a lot of these which were amazingly clean and not smelly. Atleast that was my experience!!Kristin during her 3rd and final leg!! Yeah!

Once we got to the beach we got to have a shower, that was an experience! Just think junior high locker room. Anyway we were happy to not be covered in dried sweat anymore. This is us post shower waiting for Van 2 to finish and meet us at the finish line.Boy do we need sleep! We look pretty tough, don't we????The finish line was great, chaotic but great. 12,000 runners, lots of spectators, food, music, the ocean, a beautiful sunny day, you can't ask for much more!
Enjoying the moment while waiting for Megan to finish our last leg and meet us at the finish line! So proud of her!!! Megan is my neice who flew up from Utah to run with us! Thank you to Marcae also for flying up from Utah! It would not have been the same without these ladies!! Shout out to Brian, Marcae's husband who kept their 4 month old while she ran! Running toward the finish line, what an awesome feeling of accomplishment and team spirit!

29 hours, 11 minutes, and 45 seconds later we are still smiling and have made many memories in the process! Thanks to an awesome team and to all those who put up with all of the stress that I went through planning it! It was all worth it! Love you guys!