Halloween 2010

The Bishop aka Hot Toddy...and Baby Hot Dog Blake

Angela also WON the award for the most hilarious costume. She looked awesome and oh so wide!!!

Jake so excited to go back out in the rain.

Hot Toddy and Shandra passing out Hot Dogs...

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

#3 - Half Marathon! I am glad to say that the last of the year was the VERY BEST YET! We had a GREAT time. It was short and sweet. We left Friday afternoon for St. George. Then we ran Saturday morning, showered and returned home by 6:30pm. Just in time for Sunday! I think the 8 hours of driving was TOTALLY okay because there were four fabulous ladies in the car and we never got bored of chatting.

Krista, Diana, Amanda, Holly, Amber (Camille & Alissa I need our other pictures to post you there too!)

Here was our good luck fortunes from Emily...who couldn't make it to the race this month. We SO missed you! But she was cute to send these darling fortune cookies.

Here is to the biggest trooper of them all, my sister Krista. She decided on Friday morning to run with me. So we enlisted in some childcare between our sisters and she joined me. It made the race the best. I had a buddy to talk and chat with the entire time. I was totaly impressed by her abilities. Who needs to train for a half marathon...not her! She even improved her time by 12 minutes from her last one in June. Now, as for me I LOVED this race. It was primarily down hill which ONLY helped my time. I ran this race in 2:09... My first race in June I ran it in 2:32, then my 2nd in 2:17, so for me to meet my goal of 2:10 I was stoked. The other ladies I ran with did AMAZING...They left us in the dust by finishing between 1:40-1:54...Seriously, amazing! But the best part of the race was that at the finish we had ALL met our individual GOALS. So it made for a perfect ending of running in 2010! I know for me, waking up and not HAVING to run was an early Christmas present! My house finally gets the cleaning attention it's been in need of! Oh, this journey has been amazing. I can't wait to do this all over again.

Best Buds

Jacob and Isaac

Cute boys...

Caleb

I just think that these little guys are adorable! The fun thing about having these close up shots of these two is to realize how different they look. Would you even think they are brothers? I don't see a resemblance, but maybe you will?

Jacob

A few of my favorite things...

Fall time. Halloween costumes. Happy little girls. Fall leaves. Hot Chocolate. Outside activities in cool weather. Family parties. Smiles. Joy School. Really, so many things right now have been so fun. Busy, but fun.

Today after church we had a few visitors. The Madsen parents had a busy after church schedule so the kids needed a place to go. So why not come over and spend time with their cousins. A few of my favorite things was listening to all the cousins watching a family video of our trip to California/Disneyland last week. The cousins were SO excited each time a picture of somebody came up. It was so fun listening to them giggle and be so excited to see one another. The other favorite this is seeing Alayna enjoy some good ole "girl" time. They set up a hair salon. I loved watching them! She came to me today and said, "Mom, will I ever have a sister to do girl things with?" At some point I'm sure, but heaven decides that choice! But until then I told her cousins are probably the best sisters out there. Every time you are together your having FUN. She loves these two girls. So thank you Madsen girls for being so darling with Alayna.

Here is handsome Jared doing what he does now on Sundays...Staying busy but being HAPPY while he does it. I have to add in and looking as cute as ever.

It's Joy School Time...

Seriously, is Jake old enough to start Joy School with his cousins and friends? You betcha! He has talked about going to school ever since Alayna started Preschool last year. Finally, it was his turn! Let's just say that this morning he was beaming from ear to ear. The kids were DARLING! I was the first mom to teach the kids and I was totally impressed. I had the six little monkies and they were great. My personal favorite part was teaching them a poem to memorize. I was cute. Next week I am getting it on camera and I will post it all for everyone to enjoy. But here is to really one of my favorite parts of being a mommy. It was a complete delight. Reading books, being super animated, happy, laughter, giggles, choo choo train rides, oh, it was wonderful! Anyways, I can't wait until next week and neither can the boys...and our one princess girl.

Herriman Fire- What we did.

Well, I'm sure everyone has read all they want to about the Herriman Fire, so I'm not going to re-cap everything. We simply packed up our goods that meant something to us. And that we sat in camping chairs outside and watched the fire burn down the mountain till about 2:30am. We had a great time visiting with our neighbors, family and friends. We eventually decided to just go to bed because we felt we were safe. It honestly was an amazing blessing and miracle that so many homes were saved. With that being said, the very next day the kids were working on "thank you" cards for the fire fighters. We consider them our hero's around here. So for Family Home Evening the kids wanted (I promise it was their idea) to make cookies and bring them to our heros. So that's what we did. Alayna brought her card and off we went!

"Police, Firefighters, Soldiers...Thank you very much for saving us."

We decided to bring the cookies to the policeman and soldiers that were stationed just up the street from our house. I figured the Fire Fighters at the station were well taken care of by all the other mom's and kids out there so we decided to take it to them. Anyways, they were GREAT to the kids. They let them turn the lights on in the cop car, the siren, climb in the Hummer, shake their hands and just visit with them. It honestly was wonderful to tell them "thank you!" It was a great experience of service and gratitude. I loved it and so did the kids!

Dilemma of being a girl

Welcome to Alayna's 5 year old little life. What shoes will she wear? We were on our way out the door the other day and I found her in the corner looking like this. Who knew picking shoes would be so difficult and take SO LONG??? Certainly not me! I have two pairs of flip flops, 1 brown and 1 black. (Currently, my black is missing so, it's the brown where ever I go.)

I made her smile just because she has such a cute little face when she's smiling.

As I am warning her that she will have to go with out shoes because she's taking too long she finally picked her favorite pair. Her brown Reef sandals that were given to her. They are finally getting too small after being worn for two years in a row, but they are her first choice. Oh, I think she is the reason our oh so unsightly shoe basket is exploding everyday!

Life of a toddler

Let me introduce you to Caleb. He is (I think) 16 months old. He is Mr. Trouble around here. The kids call him, Coo-Coo or Fee Fee Love. Really, where do my kids come up with these nicknames. I like to call him Crazy Man. Because simply he is. If he's not strapped down in his car seat, high chair or caged up some how. You will find him on top of the dining room table, standing on a stool reaching anything that is NOT meant for him on the counter, finding my jewelry in my bathroom cabinets, touching any electronic in sight, remotes to the television, my computer, anything in the office, pulling books off the bookshelves, etc. The list can go on and on.

Things I do that I shouldn't...Oh, eat markers...even though this messy face was created by Jake sharing some M&M's with him. He normally is FULLY covered in markers. He has learned to take off the lids, chew on the marker point and pull it out. Which ends up in your fingers and it turns everything on you PINK, BLACK or BLUE! Oh, you find everything you shouldn't!

Alayna's favorite job on her job chart is when it's "Help with Caleb" - she is the BEST big sister. She will get him milk, a cracker, play with him outside and entertain him while I am cooking dinner. I have GREATLY appreciated Caleb's vocabulary growing. It's amazing how much "AHHHH" and "SCREAMING" we have been enduring lately...so with even a few words being used we LOVE to hear them. "Down, Don't, No No, Mum...Dadda, F-oohn (Phone), Uh-Oh, Out, All Done, Mmmm-k (milk), Ah-Na-Na (Alayna), Isaac (We think he means this for Jacob...because he's always yelling it at him. Maybe it's just because Jake and Isaac are always together, but it's easier to say than Jake). My favorite moments in the day with Caleb is when he arches his head and neck up and says, "Mum...and stares at me than he begins to ramble baby gibberish..over and over again" But he is dead serious, that I should know what he's talking about. It's hilarious. I can't wait to get it on camera!

But Jake said it best, "We just love him, huh mom." Yes, we do. Even though you are causing us to lock every door and continue to child proof everything, over and over again. Yes, we love you Caleb! (Who couldn't just want to hug and kiss my big toothy big eared baby??)

BYU Football should be Jacob's middle name

Here is one little dude who loves BYU Football! When Jake heard that a "real" BYU football player would be coming to our house on Sunday he ran right upstairs and put his BYU football shirt on and hasn't taken it off since. Thanks to his Aunt and Uncle Brian he has plenty to wear! :)

Here was a dream come true...meeting a "real Football Player" - This is Walter #71 (I won't even attempt to spell or say his last name!) He's dating our really good family friend, so they came to dinner and pretty much made every little boys dream come true!!!

Here's Conner thinking he's pretty cool stuff with the football player!

A great reminder on those hard days.

Please tell me I am not the only one that has hard or difficult or tiring "mom" days! I'm not complaining I just simply watched this video when I needed someone to remind me, "I am magnificent!" Enjoy.

Time Out For Women

The Fam- Krista was here, but she had to leave before we pulled out the camera!

My good friends...missing Camille, she also left before we snapped the photo!

YEAH! For my sister Angela telling over 25 ladies about Time Out For Women...let's just say it is a tradition. We will return and have another GREAT time. If you know me well, you know I love all things spiritual, crying, sharing heart to heart feelings, laughing, good food, great friends, beautiful music, excellent speakers, laughing, staying up till 3am, being with my mom and sisters. Really, the only thing missing that I love more is my husband and kids. But since they were together (and were not invited) I knew all was well. This is a MUST for any female out there that reads this. Honestly, if you h

ave been to education week or women's conference at BYU like I have, yes, you love that...but this I love. It just was done perfectly for us.

Here are just two silly pictures of a funny morning. Yes, there is TONS of laundry on the floor. Yes, the kids are supposed to be sorting them. I thought I'd have this great idea while I was working Deals to Meals yesterday to turn on a movie for them WHILE they worked. Um...note to self. This does not work! They decided to go to a "drive-in movie" instead of doing their jobs.

Because they are so cute and clever I decided to take a picture of them happy before I turned off the movie and ruined their fun. Sorry, we try to live by the "work before play" phrase around here. That sounds like I'm super strict, because once again those that know me know that I will take imagination play over working any day!

Ok, here's to marshmallow. My dad gives all the grand kids the largest marshmallows ever. I think my kids are kinda sick of them, considering I found them doing this!

Sleeping Beauty

Ok, so for some of you, you will be totally shocked that my little guy is dressed like a beautiful princess...I guess this is the curse of an older sister. Yes, Alayna plays dress up. I have yet to have Jacob even interested in playing with her until the other day. To my surprise and my sisters because they were over with their kids playing. We had little Princess Jacob come down dressed head to toe like this...Anyways, we were BUSTING up laughing. We decided that it was just too hilarious to pass up an opportunity for a photo moment. Ok, so we started asking him questions like what's your name princess? He said, "Princess Beauty." Later we found out the reason he dressed up was so his cousin Kennady would play with him. Apparently, she only wanted to play princess and he didn't...or I guess he did! So he decided to be the princess instead of prince charming.

So within a few minutes, to our surprise he said he didn't want to be "Princess Beauty" anymore. So we thought he was done...Oh, don't worry he was ready to be Cinderella. Hilarious.

I just can't stop laughing at this picture. Good thing Jacob you are a true BOY at heart...Considering this princess dress up lasted for a short 5-10 minutes and yes, you began tacking and running around and playiing football again! Welcome back. But for a moment Jake, you provided some great entertainment.

Park City 2010

Really, as I go through my hundreds of pictures I realize it is impossible to document every moment of the trip. When you are vacationing for an entire week...Sunday to Sunday. You take LOTS of pictures. We walked on main street, went swimming, ate Carmel apples, went swimming, rode on the trolley, went swimming, ate lots of good food, went swimming, played with cousins, played tennis, cross-stitched, more swimming, eating hot pepper contest, and even more swimming, etc. Really the list goes on and on, you get the idea we went swimming and hot tubing every day! In the end some were ready to go home and others (my family) wanted to stay another week!

Here is a cute picture of Caleb enjoying our daily adventures to a fun Park City park. We returned there everyday. The mom's had a monkey bar contest. We can't forget the obstacle course we set up for kids and parents. Little Olivia won both, she's amazing.

Alayna was in HEAVEN having her cousins by her side from morning till night. Now, that she's back in school she doesn't see them unless it's on the weekend or something fun and she just is hoping for off track time again!

Our annual tradition is to hike up to the Payday lift. It takes about 1 hour and it is intense for the little ones. Alayna is our little "prayer" girl. If it gets a little rough, she says, "Mom, I need to say another prayer!" Last year, we attempted this hike with our 5 two year olds. This year we did it again...all 5 walked on their own and they did amazing! Really, as an adult it's hard for me, but yet the little legs just inspire you to keep on going. The joy at the end of the hike is a free ride down the lift. We were privilege enough to see two moose down below. Overall, our week was fabulous and it was SUPER great weather! Until next year, we love Park City!