My Baby is 2 today!

Two years ago today my baby (#5) made his way into the world. After a week of hospital bedrest and still six weeks early, he was too anxious to join our family to wait any longer. And now, he is a rambunctious, typical two year old (albiet a bit on the tiny side)! I can't beleive that my baby days are behind me. We are definitely leaving the baby days behind us and moving on...to toddlers and preschoolers and grade schoolers...it is a whole new world. Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

A little comic relief with #4

Kids truly say the funniest things sometimes. Here is a conversation I had this evening with #4 (who is three years old and completely precocious) while we were sitting on a chair together:

#4: "Mom, where'd you buy your hair at?"

Me: "Nowhere, it just grew on my head."

#4:"I bought mine at Wal Mart."

Little does he know that women have been trying to buy that color hair at Wal Mart for years! (Do you think we might do a bit too much of our shopping at Wal Mart?)

A simple reminder

I know, I haven't been around lately, (and I have photos of back to school that I want to share, but some are still sitting on the camera, so those will have to be saved for a later date). But I wanted to share something that touched me last night.

Every night I go into #3 and #4's bedroom (look at header for reference :)) and the others join us for nightly prayers. #3 was saying his prayer (up to a month ago he needed assistance for almost the entire prayer, asking.."what's next" or "what else do I say" after each phrase) and unassisted his simple prayer touched me and reminded me what is most important. Along with a few other simple requests and items of gratitude he said, "Thank You for Jesus, and thank You that we can live." Aren't these truly some of the most basic elements of our gratitude to our Heavenly Father? Shouldn't we remember to thank him for His Son, who was sent as a Savior for us all? Without Christ, I can't imagine what life would be like. Without my knowledge of my Savior, who would I be? And for the gift of life that we all have received, should we not also express our gratitude?

I know that some of you may not share the same religious background as my family and I, so I hope that I have not offended you by sharing my feelings, but as this blog is a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings, I will occasionally share insights into my religion. If you want more information about the LDS faith, you can go to Mormon.org where many common questions are answered.

Changing things up a bit..

I decided to give the blog a bit of a face lift...the pics of the kids on top were getting pretty old and I was tired of the boring color scheme...what do you think of the new look?

Why, Oh Why, Oh Why...

...do I do this to myself?

What I really wanted was a Sonic Cranberry Limeade, but our local Sonic closed down a couple months ago. There is a Sonic in a neighboring town, but I needed to pick up a few things at Wally World (or as they like to say here in Utah, THE Wal Mart) and there is a Carls Jr in the same parking lot. I decided to hit Carls Jr instead.

Back in October I recieved a card that is good for a free Six Dollar Burger once a week for an entire year, so trips to Carls Jr are fairly frequent for us. You can't beat a giant, free burger. And to top it off they have some of the best fries around right now. Yummy. So, since I am running out, and I want a giant soda...I drive through Carls Jr and pick up one of these for Hubby:

Some of these to share:

And a LARGE one of these for me:

And here in lies the problem...I got that giant Dr Pepper at about 10PM last night...The caffiene kicked in and I was unable to fall asleep until around 3AM...It was completely my fault, but I just LOVE a good Dr Pepper...I can't seem to resist those 23 flavors....they just call my name, all hours of the day, and I often heed that siren call. And pay the price...my kids just don't understand that I was up all night because I drank a large Dr Pepper...they are up and at em and ready to go!

Summer update..

This summer has been a full one so far.

My parents joined us here in UT in early June, moving into a home about five minutes from our house. The children have enjoyed many visits to grandma's house. Their favorite is getting a chance to spend the night all by themselves. They are thoroughly spoiled and can't wait until it is their turn again. We have also resumed occasional Sunday dinners and other get-to-gethers that we missed while we lived here without family.

Joelle had her first Dance recital at the end of June and she looked so beautiful and grown up, I couldn't believe it! The photos are still on my camera for some reason, so when they are finally uploaded, I will post photos of my beautiful, grown up daughter. She is excited for another year of dance to start in the fall (I think she is just as happy that this means she does not have to continue playing soccer again this coming season).

The children enjoyed the Heritage Days parade again this year, especially Joelle, who was able to ride on a float from her Dance Studio. She got to throw salt water taffy to the people lining the street. She can't wait to do it again next year. The boys enjoyed catching candy and other fun stuff as they were thrown. I was the lucky one who got to walk down with the float to get Joelle at the end of the parade route. The evening ended with a fun fireworks show at the park, where we enjoyed visiting with friends and getting bit by mosquitoes.

When Joelle was in preschool in Sacramento (many years ago) I met a wonderful friend, Stephanie. We discovered a common love for books, especially young readers. We were both part of a fun music program for young children that I brought Liam to weekly. We developed a close friendship over the course of the year. At the end of the preschool year, Stephanie and her family moved away. I was so sad to lose such a great friend. Luckily, thanks to email and IM, we have stayed in touch over the years. Her family lives here in UT, so about once a year or so we have been able to meet up for a play date while she and her children were in town. This year we were lucky enough to have her whole family spend two days with us. Her three children are the same ages as my oldest three children, so they all had so much fun playing together! Thanks for a fun visit Steph, and come back anytime!!

This summer seems so full of great days! Early this month my sister went through the temple for the first time. For those of you who are not members of the LDS church, the temple is a sacred place where we go to worship God and make covenants with him. I was able to escort my sister as she had this new experience and it brought back many wonderful feelings from my first experience with the temple. Thanks sis for letting me be a part of your day!

Our next adventure is a trip to Sac for two family reunions...wish me luck camping with five kids!

Wasatch Back

I know it has taken me a while to post about our Wasatch Back race, but Jared and I finally finished editing our photos from the race.

The Wasatch Back is a 12 person relay that runs from Logan to Park City, UT. The team splits up into two vans of six runners. The first six runners start at Logan early in the morning (well early in the morning if you are a slower team like us...the BYU men's Cross Country Team didn't start until 6:30 PM and still slaughtered us!). Since Jared and I were in the second van we did not have to get up quite so early. We left Syracuse at around 11AM and headed to Liberty (the location of the first major hand off between the vans).

By the time we finally got the first hand off (around 2 in the afternoon) it was pretty hot! Jared was runner #7 (the first runner in our van) so he took the first leg for us. It was warm, but he did great, finishing at a great pace! I took the baton (which was actually a slap bracelet...you remember those from the early 90's right?) next and ran 3.4 miles. The first mile felt great and I ran it quickly, but it started to feel pretty hot after that and my pace slowed just a bit. I still finished in great time, running my miles at less than 10 minute pace (which was my goal). After my hand off Jared and I cheered for the rest of our van as they raced on in the heat. Jared served as van photographer, making sure to get great photos of our entire van (unfortunately I was not as good a photographer and got very few of him =( Something I plan to remedy next year!). We also served as water boy/girl and made sure our runners had the water they needed (there were no water stops along the way for the runners, so each team had to supply any needed water).

After our van was done with our first legs we ate lunch at Snowbasin (a very yummy pasta salad provided by Lisa...THANK YOU Lisa it was PERFECT) then headed on to the next hand off point. We pulled out our sleeping bags and found a patch of grass where we all relaxed. Two of our van mates brought guitars, so we all sat and enjoyed their music and sang along to a few numbers. It was nice to have some relaxing downtime.

Our turn began again around 10PM when Jared took the baton for his night run. Running at night was quite involved. Each runner was required to wear a reflective vest, a head lamp, and a butt light (yep, a light over your butt or close to it). It was definitely interesting running with all of that extra gear. Jared's leg went up a pretty steep hill, and he did awesome, especially with little to know hill training. Syracuse is pretty flat, so most of our running was done on the flat trails that run through town. Next year I am determined to find some good hills for training. I hear that there are some great ones out on Antelope Island that I want to try. At the top of the hill Jared handed off to me, and I began my decent. Seven miles, the first five and a half down a gradual hill (the map made it look like it would be much steeper...) with a few rises here and there. Running down hill that far is definitely interesting. The first 2 miles I went out pretty fast and then realized how much farther I had to go so I slowed up a bit. I am not sure if that was a good idea or not...the control it requires to go slower down hill made my legs tighten up a bit. The last mile and a half felt like forever winding through town. They threw in a nice little up hill there in the end for good measure!

After that I was exhausted, nodding off occasionally in the van while the rest of our team ran their legs. At one point we could not find one of our runners (it is VERY difficult to identify an individual in the dark...everyone starts to look the same with their vests, lights and head lamps.) He had changed the location of his butt light, throwing us off completely. It took a while to find him, but in the end all was well and he got a talking to about changing his lights =). After handing off the baton to the next van, we headed to the location of our final major exchange.

We rolled out our sleeping bags...on the cement in a skate park in Heber (the grass was soaking wet) and tried to get as much sleep as we could before we had to start running again. When I woke up (well I never actually fell asleep so I am not sure you can call it waking up, but I got up after laying down trying to sleep for two hours) I felt sick to my stomach. My last leg was to be a 6 mile stretch that ran gradually up hill. I was completely mentally and physically exhausted. The closer we came to the hand off, the more nervous I became. I felt sick to my stomach and like passing out at the same time. I feel bad now, because I did not take pictures of Jared during his last leg, I was so nervous.

Jared began his 4.6 miles from Heber to Midway, keeping a great pace (especially after no sleep). I can't tell you how proud I am of him. Jared was NEVER a runner until this past year, and to have completed this race is an amazing accomplishment! In Midway, I took the baton and ran the most frustrating leg. Midway is a beautiful little town, and I guess they wanted you to see a lot of it, because I had to turn in so many places I thought I would go crazy. I was exhausted, in pain and could barely shuffle for the majority of the leg. To top it off, right before the end there was a pretty steep hill that about threw me off of my goal not to walk at all during the race. When I finished I was so relieved! Jared and I were done! We had done it! Here is a picture of us in Midway after we were both done:

We hopped back in the van to cheer on our next runners who had to run some insanely crazy legs up VERY steep hills! I am so impressed with how well the did. I can't imagine having to run their legs. They ran through beautiful mountains in the rain. We ran into some car trouble going up the steep hill, but all was well in the end and we made it back down the hill safely, and in time to hand off the baton to our final runner, who would take us through Park City to the finish.

At the finish, we all met up to cross the finish line together. It was an amazing feeling to have accomplished something so difficult. The best part was that Jared and I did it together, we were there to cheer each other on and be a support during the difficult times. I can't wait to do it again next year!!

Jupiter's Dozen 2009

Just one week left!

Just one more week until Jared and I attempt the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with a team of 10 of our friends (for a total of 12 members). I am definitely getting nervous and I am not in the condition that I would like to be when attempting this race, but I am also excited! I will run three legs in all (4 miles, 7 miles and 6 miles) and I am sure to be exhausted by the time all is said and done.