Thanksgiving

The only pictures I have of Thanksgiving are from the Turkey Trot, 5K. Which we rocked by the way. My best time ever, 36:55! It started out really cold by then the sun came out and it was a really nice morning. I was glad that I decided to shed some layers before the race started.
After the race we headed home, showered, changed, and headed to Colorado Springs for the feast. Most of the family was at Kathy's house for dinner and we had a really nice, relaxing time.
We got home from Kathy's at about 7:00 and I layed down with McKay and Gracie and Bryce in my bed. McKay was asleep before we got home. Gracie fell asleep after about 2 min. and Bryce and I layed there and talked. Then I got up and soaked in the tub and decided to check my email before I went to bed. I had an email from Children's Place announcing that all of the outlet's were 50% off the entire store. They were opening at 10 pm that night, so I changed out of my PJs and went to the outlets. 15 min in line outside, 30 min of shopping and an hour and a half in line to check out. It was a long night, but I got $400 worth of clothes for the kids for $150, cuz I also had a 20% off coupon and 10% for using my card. I was home by mid-night.
Sam also went black Friday shopping and didn't get home til about 4 am. I still don't know what all he got.

Universal Studios

Universal Studios was fun but by far my very favoritest part was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I can almost taste the butter beer now. The Hogwarts Castle was great. The rides were fun, the little kids went on flight of the Hippogriff like 15 times. the stores were cool, although we never actually got into Olivander's because the line to get in was a mile long all day long. but we went to Honeyduke's sweet shop and Zonko's joke shop and the kids bought chocolate frogs and lollies and burtie bott's every flavor beans. later that day, when we were waiting for the bus back to the hotel, i was already feeling a bit yucky from all of the rides and i found a couple of every flavor beans that looked like pop corn flavor and i popped then in my mouth. as it turned out they were not pop corn but probably ear wax flavored i almost puked in the parking lot. any who, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was by far the most crowded place we visited but well worth it. i wanted to live there. the rest of universal was fun too. Sam's favorite ride was the Mummy. A bit intense for most of us though. We had a much better experience than we did 4 years age at Universal Studios in California, but that's a different story. I highly recommend it.

Disney World

i have to get this blog caught up before the holidays hit, because i want to sent it all off the first of january to be made it to a book. so here are some of our disney world pictures. i still have to get some from my mom so this might not be the last you see of our trip, but its a good start. the collages are all labeled so i won't go into a lot of detail about the pictures. seriously though, we had such a good time. the little kids still love meeting the character, and the big kids put up with it for the most part. they all agreed to pose with mickey and goofy. i've never seen McKay more in love with anything as he is with his mickey. mickey did get in trouble one time though and had to go to time out. i asked McKay what mickey did to deserve a time out and he said that mickey punched him. i said "no he didn't" and McKay said "ya, him did. him really did!" it was funny. any way, next up universal studios and the wizarding world of Harry Potter! i hope my mom got pictures at the beach. it was my favorite day of the trip and i didn't take any pictures only video.

the budding photographer

today i downloaded all of the pictures from my iPhone to my computer and I found these. Most, if not all, taken by Abby. 650 of them! pictures of herself. pictures of everyone else in the family. pictures of her snacks. pictures of her dolls. pictures of the cartoons she's watching. pictures of the computer games she's playing. pictures of her stuffed poodle drinking her soda on the plane ride to Florida (my favorite by the way). pictures of our front door. pictures of the car. pictures of the calendar. pictures of notes she's written. pictures of our garden. pictures of pictures in our house. you name it, i bet she has a pictures of it. this was fun, i think i'll leave my iPhone laying around more often.

Baby Boy had a Birthday

he is soooo not a baby anymore and i can't even stand it! McKay turned 4 last week. we rented Toy Story 3 and watched it 20 times. we got a Toy Story cake and had friends over and opened presents. it was pretty low key, but he had fun. Things I want to remember about McKay at this age: He loves school and asks lots and lots of question. His teacher said he is highly intelligent. duh. He still wants to eat at "chich-cha-lay" everyday. He calls aerobics "marobics", and used to call computer "muputer", but now he says cupooder. He still ends up in my bed almost every night and I really wish he would stay in his own bed, until he does, then I miss him and I'm tempted to go get him and put him in my bed. He loves to snuggle, and is pretty much the sweetest kid in the whole wide world! I love you baby!

Winter Park

i can't even bring myself to hate this kind of snow. as we were driving home from winter park last weekend, it was snowing and the mountains were beautiful. at one point the road was winding along the mountain lined by towering snow covered pines and i so badly wanted a picture of it, but there wasn't a safe place to pull over so we drove on until we came to a little spot were skiers and boarders park then climb the mountain and ski down. we stopped there and got a few shots. this spot wasn't quite as lovely as it was further up the road but it was still nice.

Girls Weekend

I had a nice little get away with some girls last weekend in Winter Park. We drove up in the fog and snow on Thursday evening and got settled into our condo. Friday Raina and Heather and I went skiing at Loveland. It was a great day for skiing and we had a lot of fun. Saturday we hung out at the condo. We went to the club house and ran and played racquetball and then soaked in the hot tub in the snow. It was lovely. I had intended on it being a restful relaxing weekend and that, it was not. Two of the nights I was up til about 4 am and then with all of the activities I was totally wiped out, but it was a lot of fun, and Sunday night I got to go to bed around 6ish, in my own bed.

Happy Veterans Day!

Isn't my grandpa hansom?! He is now 89 years old and lives with his wife Marjorie in Farmington NM. He has written a autobiography entitled "The Kid from Carson", and today in honor of Veterans Day I read the chapters, Military Service and Prisoner of War. He was in the Air Force in WWII and on March 9, 1944 on the return trip from a bombing mission on Berlin, Germany, his plain was shot down. The plane was on fire and so was he. He parachuted in to a field near Zwoole, Holland and was taken prisoner by the Germans. His face was badly burned and he spent the next 14 months as a POW, spending time in several prison camps, until they were liberated. I'm thankful to my granddad for his service and his example of patriotism and for recording his experiences for future generations. I also have an uncle who served in Vietnam. My brother served in Desert Storm, and I have several cousins who have served and are currently serving in different branches of the military, some of which are currently deployed overseas. I'm proud to know them and pray for them and their families. God Bless America.

SNOW!!

i don't love the snow. i don't love finding all of the snow clothes. i don't love helping the kids get the snow clothes on. i don't love helping them get the snow clothes off. i don't love the wet snow clothes left all over my house.
i do love to see happy kids playing in the snow. i do love drinking hot cocoa with cold kids after playing in the snow.

the don'ts won.

I want summer back!

FHE

We're not as consistent as we should be about having FHE. It's something we should work on cuz our kids love it and it really does help our family. Tonight we were a were planning on skipping it. Not like we just forgot we were actually planning on skipping it. I know, what's wrong with us. Anyway, I was in a great debate with myself over whether to go to bed at 7:30 or go to the gym. I took the dilemma to Sam for a final decision. He decided to call the rec. center and see if the basketball courts were open. They were, and we all went to the gym and played basket ball. some of us all so went to the treadmills and weights. It was a fun night. Gracie made 2 baskets after trying and trying and trying. But then she got hit in the head with a ball and sat and cried for the rest of the time we were there. Just a bit of an over reaction from a tired, overly dramatic 6 year old girl. She is going to be playing basketball on a team starting in a couple of weeks. I hope that her games end better than tonight did. After the rec center we came home, talked about our weekly schedule, talked about Thanksgiving and showing gratitude, song, prayer, bed. Tomorrow we are going shopping for Operation Christmas Child and getting treats. For now I'm going to start reading my Nov. Ensign, Conference Addition and then put myself to bed also. Happy Monday!

Happy 300th post

Okay here it is, 300 posts!! I have loved keeping this blog over the last 2 and a half years. It is the only journal that I have stuck with and enjoyed writing in and looking back at. I think it's because I'm not just writing it for me so I try not to write anything that I'm going to be embarrassed about later, which is a big problem I've had with past journals. So for my 300th post I'm going to look back at some of my favorite posts from the past. Like this one cuz I love this picture and I double love this kid and it makes me laugh every time I read it. Or this one because it was one of my few proud parenting moments and I was proud of my kids and it makes me cry every time I read it. And I love this one and this one, because sometime when my kids have kids, and those kids are making them crazy I can show them these posts and Ha ha, ha ha ha ha! And this one, because I sometimes I need to be reminded what a seriously great husband I have.
So I know that this post isn't super exciting, no big give-away or anything fun like that, maybe for my 500 posts celebration I do that. But for now I just wanted to recognize that I've stuck with something for this long cuz that's really not my style. I also want to thank my readers and especially my commenters. Your comments have been a source of much laughter and some tears (mostly happy ones) and lots of much needed support. I love you guys!

ps. I love you mom!

memories, like the corner of my mind.

I just spent the last 3 hours reading all of my 2010 blog posts, all 129 of them. I laughed, I cried, I remembered things that I have forgotten and was sooo happy that I had recorded them so I could remember them. I read through comments and was so grateful for this awesome way of staying connected to friends and family. I can't wait to get my 2010 blog book printed! I also realized that I had a total of 298 blog posts. This is 299. I've thought about doing something special for 100, 200, 300... and so on. I just forgot about 100 and couldn't think of anything cool to do any way. I didn't even know I had passed 200 until tonight. And my next post will be 300. So I'm going to try to think of something cool to do for it, but until I think of something I can't make any more blog posts. So this is it until I come up with some idea, or decide to do nothing again. Stay tuned!

I'm a runner

pictures from all but one of the races I've finished this year

I was just looking back through all of my "I'm a runner" posts. If you're interested you can read them HERE. Wow. I've come a long way. I didn't get here as fast as I had planned and I'm still not really a real runner, like really, really not really a real runner, but I have met almost every goal I set for myself this year.

Finish my first 5K in 45 min. Check

Finish the Bolder Boulder in an hour and a half. Check

Run a whole mile. Check

Run a mile in under 10 min. Check

Run a whole 5K- no walking. Totally Check

This last goal was originally meant to be completed in an actual race and after the Castle Rock Stake 5K I almost gave up on the goal all together. It had been a while since I had done any sort of running, but last week I decided I should give it a try and see how it went. I was thinking that if it went okay I might register for the Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving Day 5K. I went out side and started running. I made it around the block and decide that was enough. My lungs were hurting from the cold air. Then last Tuesday I went to the rec. center and started running, and it felt easy so I just kept running and I totally ran a whole 5k-no walking. It was a pretty slow 5k, about 42 min, but I did it. Then tonight I went to the rec. center and I did it again in 39 minutes. So I have yet to run a whole 5k-no walking, in a race, but I'm counting it. Plus, I just registered Bryce and myself for the Turkey Trot, so I have one more chance this year to do it in a race. We'll see what happens.

I totally couldn't have done it without the most awesome running buddy in the world, who practically dragged me through more than one of the races.

Thanks Heather

And thanks to Bryce who has done 3 of the 5 races with me and totally kicks my butt every time which motivates me to do better.

And thanks to all of the others who have encouraged me though out this year, and ran with me.

I have a rockin support system.

This is now sounding like a really long acceptance speech and I haven't even won an award.

So really I'm done.

*cue music*

So I just got almost done typing this post and somehow (because i have the most evil computer on the planet) the whole thing got erased. So after using some "not my Sunday words" and taking a minute to relax I'm going to try this again.

Okay...

Ready...
These are our Halloween pictures. I was able to talk Nate into being a hobo for Trunk-or-Treating at the church on Saturday night, but he wouldn't dress up for his school party or for Trick-or-Treating on Sunday. Wierdo. Bryce was Goofy. He wore the hat he got at Disney Land 4 years ago and the shirt he got at Disney World last month. Yes, I know I still need to blog about our trip to Disney World. One thing at a time people. Abby was a Witch. Gracie was a Snow Princess. Speaking of snow, there wasn't any on Halloween. Yay!! McKay was a monkey. He didn't really need the costume, cuz he is actually a monkey in real life, but he wore one anyway. I was a Witch and Sam was a party pooper, he didn't dress up. I don't usually dress up for Halloween either but this year I had a good reason to. My friend Heather's sister got married on Halloween and it was a costume party. The bride and groom and their kids were the Adams Family. You have to go check it out Here. The bride was walked down the isle by Beetle Juice. Seriously. It was a wild and crazy weekend and I'm so very glad it is over, but it was fun.