Hanging with the Hughes

Violin Recital

2011-11-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

Maya had her first violin recital on October 15th. She insisted on wearing a black dress since that is what violinists wear in the symphony. She worked really hard on memorizing and learning her piece. The other two girls were not quite as prepared, but it turned out ok. She is picking up the violin so quickly! I got elected to play the piano to accompany the girls in their song so Brian is recording the song. He clearly did it sideways! She did an excellent job and we are super proud of her!

Baptism Day

2011-10-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting around to taking pictures off of my camera. Maya's baptism was a few weeks ago, but better late than never. It was a very crazy day for a baptism, but it all worked out great. I started off my morning very, very early so I could run 20 miles and then be back to get kids ready. Maya was super excited for her big day. She had been hesitant in months past because she wasn't sure she wanted the responsiblity that comes with being a member of the church. I was very proud of her for taking this seriously and coming to the decision on her own. We tried to teach her the gospel and help her to choose for herself. She was still a little apprehensive, but willing to make the leap!

We had both my dad and Brian's dad in the font with Brian and Maya to help Brian baptize Maya. It's not everyday that the witnesses for the baptism are in the font with the person being baptized! It all worked out really well. Brian was able to baptize her without any problem.
Then the fun part was putting on the gorgeous dress. Maya and I spent lots of time on the internet finding the perfect dress. She was very happy with the end product. She felt like a princess and had a dress that was very unique!

We had lots of family support too that made Maya feel really special and very loved!

Birthdays, birthdays, and more birthdays!

2011-08-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

August is always an exciting time with loads of birthdays to celebrate. My girls have their birthdays just two days apart so it gets crazy busy very fast! Maya decided to have her birthday at Jack and Jill Lanes and do laser tag. She was super excited about it because she loves laser tag. We had a big group of 7-8 year old girls to deal with at the party. I think Brian was a little overwhelmed with all the girls! They got to play 2 games of laser tag and they were screaming and laughing the whole time.

She got some fun presents and was able to hang out with friends she hadn't seen since school. Of course it was her best party ever! (she says that every year!)

Kaitlyn had her party at the Legacy Center pool. She has been wanting to have a party there since Maya had her party there last year. It was pretty fun. All the kids swam and got to have pizza and cupcakes. Kaitlyn loves being the center of attention so she was ecstatic about her party! A huge party of girls again and it was craziness!

Bullock Family Reunion

2011-07-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

We had a family reunion at Lava Hot Springs this last week. When you have small children, there is a lot to pack to go camping with! I was sure I was forgetting something, but there was definitely no more room to pack anything else in the car. The kids had to get in and then I packed them in as well! It wasn't too far to drive which was good. We went swimming at the water park there and we went tubing down the river.
I had my doubts about going down that fast river, but we saw lots of people doing it so we had to try it out! It was really REALLY fun.
Even Maya and Kaitlyn wanted to go down several times. My brother and brothers-in-law talked me into going up the river higher and going down the waterfalls! Of course I went and had a good time, but I was a little nervous. We nearly tipped over several times.

Some of them fell out, but I managed to stay in the raft the whole time! I have really awesome brothers-in-law that were willing to put Brian in the raft and help him get out at the bottom.
We had to carry him up a steep, rocky bank, but he thought it was worth it since it was so fun! The crazy brothers-in-law then took a two seater down the falls. Needless to say they didn't make it!

The boys were all pretty beat up after going down so many times, and being crazy. Adam even cut his elbow open. We all had a blast camping and playing.

Piano Recital

2011-07-05T12:27:00.001-07:00

The girls had their piano recital for the end of the school year. They have been practicing and memorizing since school got out to get ready for their performance. I have to say that I was really impressed. They both took it seriously and learned their pieces well. They each played 10 songs. They looked so grown up on the stage by themselves playing the piano. Of course I'm biased since I'm their teacher, but they both did extremely well. Maya is getting to be a very good pianist! Kaity is on her way too!

Happy Birthday Dylan and Gavin

2011-06-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Gavin had been asking for weeks if it was his birthday yet. He mostly wanted it to be his birthday because he wanted a scooter like the girls have. He also just wanted it to be his birthday because, let's face it, birthdays are fun. He's at a good age where he can enjoy his gifts and really decide what he wants to do for his birthday. We took him to McDonalds for lunch. He loves that place. Every time we drive past it, he asks if we can go there. Then we went up to the cemetery to celebrate Dylan for their birthday.
Dylan got a spiderman balloon as well.
The kids wanted to release balloons for his birthday again. It was fun to watch the balloons float out of sight. I love going to the cemetery in late May because everything is green and beautiful, plus the wild rabbits are out and about!
After the cemetery, we went to Plant Fun/Pizza Pie Cafe. It's all you can eat pizza and games. Gavin loves pizza so he was super excited. They bowled, played video games, rode rides, and even played laser tag. This was Gavin's favorite. He couldn't get the gun to work very well, but he had a blast running through the dark and shooting at us. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun playing laser tag as well! Of course we finished with a Thomas cake. He got tickets to go see Thomas again because he loves the trains so much!

A Royal Ball

2011-05-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

We went to "A Royal Ball" at the American Fork library. The girls dressed up in dresses and Gavin went as a Knight. They had lots of fun activities. They got a wand from the fairy godmother. They searched the library for glass slippers.
They sang a little princess karaoke.
Even Gavin wanted in on the singing!
Then they did tattoos for the boys and nail painting for the girls. Gavin wanted his nails painted so badly! This is his sad puppy dog face! So we let him get his fingernails painted. They got to dance with some princesses and princes in the "ball room" as well. I thought it was really well done considering it only cost me a few dollars for the whole family.

Yo ho ho ho ho, a pirates life for me!

2011-04-20T14:39:00.001-07:00

Gavin got to go to the pirate party at the library. He wore his pirate costume and bandana. I forgot his sword so he was sad when he saw that the other "pirates" had swords. They had a fun snack for the kids.
Then he made a pirate hat and played with a parachute.

Usually he is hard to please, but he had a really good time and he looked so cute!

A fun, but busy week

2011-04-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

I meant to blog about last week before now, but it was crazy busy! I still haven't fully recovered. I finally got most of the dishes done and the floor swept. I still need to clean up a lot though. It was spring break for the kids so I took them to a few fun places so they could enjoy their break. We got to go to lunch, breakfast, and dinner. We went to Monkey Island and played on the blow up toys. Brian was gone for most of the week in Georgia on a business trip. He got back late Wednesday. We got to go to breakfast with him Thursday morning. The kids had a really good time. On the weekend, we had lots of family come because we were putting together a playset, and we had Taygen's baby blessing. The kids got to go swimming at the hotel where their Grandpa and Grandma were staying.
Maya showed off some of her swimming skills and raced with her Uncle Logan.
Everybody pretty much stayed in the hot tub because the pool was freezing!

On Saturday morning, our ward had an easter party. They kids got to go on a little easter egg hunt.

It was super cold outside so we didn't stay long. We stayed to see our bottle rocket launched and they we took off. Then the kids got to color eggs with Grandma.
That kept them busy while the other adults put together the playset. I feel really bad about the playset because everybody was putting it together for two days.

They hardly stopped to eat and it still took that long! They didn't finish until late Saturday night. The kids were standing there waiting impatiently to get on it! We had to let them play on it even though it was dark by then! It was really nice of all our family to help out. We never could have done it without them!
We prayed really hard that Taygen would be good for the blessing. Alas, she started to cry as soon as we got to the church! She was reasonably good during the blessing. She started to get really fussy toward the end. I put all three pictures of my girls in the blessing dress. I can't believe how much they look like each other!

A sweet little boy.

2011-04-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

I was running errands the other day with Gavin and Taygen in the car and Gavin struck up this conversation with me. Gavin: mom, where's Dylan? Me: he's in heaven buddy, he died. Gavin: he died?!!! But I wuv (love) him so much. Me: I know, I love him too. When we get to heaven we can see him again. Gavin: yay! I see him again! He's my big brother!
The kid sure knows how to melt my heart. He understands so much more than I expect him to. We are so lucky to have such a beautiful spirit in our home!

Pass it on!

2011-03-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to put this out there. My sister-in-law Hillary and her husband Tyler are looking to adopt. I put their picture with a link to their profile on the side of my blog. They are awesome and are going to make great parents! My girls just love to visit their Aunt Hillary! So if you know anyone that is looking to place, pass along their info!

Happy Birthday Brian!

2011-03-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

Brian's birthday was on Sunday February 27th. We had a party at our house the night before for my Dad's birthday as well.

Brian wanted to eat at Dickey's BBQ for his birthday. So he went there to pick up food and eat it at the house. It had been awhile since we had eaten there. One of the things we miss the most about Texas is the BBQ. It is tough to find good BBQ here! Luckily, Dickey's finally came here. They have pretty good food. Brian was happy, so that's all that matters! I was worried about pulling off a good birthday for him with a brand new baby and very little sleep. At least there always Mario Kart!

He got everything he wanted, except sharing his birthday with the new baby! He is pretty easy to please! Eventhough he can't seem to make it through a birthday without having a cake that his mom used to make or frosting that she makes. What is it with boys and their moms?! It's hard to measure up, but I am happy he loves his mom so much!

One Crazy Week!

2011-02-16T14:06:00.001-08:00

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I guess it is safe to say that we successfully survived an extremely stressful and crazy week! I can't believe it has been that long to tell you the truth! It all started Monday morning when I went in for an amnioncentesis. The results came back saying that the baby was more than ready to be born soon. I, however, was only dilated to a 2. So instead of scheduling a C-section for the next morning, we thought we would wait one more week to see if I would dilate further so that I could be induced. Little did I know that decision would be made for me! It was a good thing that we cancelled anything for Tuesday morning because we would not have made it. We went to the skating rink that night with the kids for their school activity. Brian met me there and then we both drove home. When I got home I got the kids in their jammies and was getting Gaving in his jammies when I heard Brian's garage door open. Then I heard him coming up the steps in the garage followed by a crashing sound. He had opened up the door to the house before he fell so I heard him cry out. He has fallen on several occasions, so I didn't rush right out because I thought he had just dropped some stuff or fallen to his knees. When I got to the door I saw him laying on the floor of the garage not conscious. I came down the stairs and he started talking to me. He seemed ok at first, but then I saw his head was bleeding and he was saying a bunch of incoherent and weird things. I decided he needed to go to the hospital, but there was no way I could get him up off the floor. So I called 911. He was still conscious, but not making any sense so the paramedics thought it would be better if they transported him so they could keep an eye on his vitals and other things. Luckily, a bunch of my neighbors had come over when they saw the lights and took my kids. The next thing I knew I was in my pajamas driving to the hospital. We were there for several hours waiting on tests and a CT scan. Everything came back normal so they let us go home. It was pretty late when we go here, but there were still neighbors who were here to help carry Brian into the house. By the time I got him ready for bed and asleep I was getting extremely sick. I spent the next 5-6 hours with the chills and vomiting. I called my mom about 5 in the morning and asked her to come to my house in a few hours to get the kids off to school because I would not be able to. I called the Dr.'s office and left a message about my symptoms and what I should do. So my mom got the kids off to school for me then went home. On her way home she slammed into the back of another car on the freeway. I feel totally responsible because if I hadn't of called her, she wouldn't have been in an accident. After I got off the phone with her, my Dr.'s nurse called and said that I needed to get to labor and delivery ASAP. Here I am, my mom was just in an accident, Brian is completely out, I have Gavin at home, and I am sicker than sick, and I supposed to go somewhere! I called some neighbors to leave Gavin with and then drove myself to the hospital. I looked horrible by the time I got there so they rushed to get warm blankets on me and take my blood. Let me just tell you that laying there in the hospital sick and alone and feeling helpless was not so good for me. All the tests came back normal, but my Dr. felt like sending me home in this condition was a really bad plan. He really wanted my consent to do a C-section that day. I was not willing to risk my luck or take any chances so I told him to go ahead. I wasn't sure if Brian was going to be able to make it. However, he told me on the phone that he didn't know how he was going to get there, but that he was not missing the birth of his baby. Again the neighbors came to the rescue to get him into a car and to the hospital. They wheeled him around in a wheelchair in case he got dizzy. The nice thing about the C-section was that everyone in there made me totally at ease. Even the anesthesiologist. I have never met one of those doctors that I like. This guy was awesome though. He was super friendly and made me very comfortable with my spinal. My last experience was very horrible because the guy basically did not care how I was feeling. This guy was really young, he was actually the same age as me which is kind of weird when you are stark naked on the table and everyone is attaching things to you! They made the surgery in to a big party. They called it a birthday party! When they brought Brian in I got really emotional. This was the moment we had been waiting for for so long. I was so grateful in that moment that he was there to support me and hold my hand. When they took our precious baby out and I heard her cry, I cried like I have never cried before. We're talking the total ugly cry. It was the best sound in the world to hear Taygen cry.
I have never cried at the birth of any of my children. I was always happy, but I never fully understood the true miracle of having a healthy baby. It was an experience I will never forget, a joy I can't describe in words. I am just so so grateful that after everything we had went through we were able to hold our baby girl. I of course sent for the kids as soon as possible so they could be comforted that I was OK, that Daddy was OK, and that Taygen was OK.

Maya was extremely relieved.

She told me that she couldn't believe that Taygen had lived, but she was so grateful that she had. That girl of mine is going to have such a wealth of knowledge about how precious and short life truly is. I am so glad that this event turned out to be positive for all of us. So now were home
enjoying our little bright spot so much.
She means a great deal to our family and we love her very much!

I Might Be Crazy

2011-01-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

To say that I am stressed or anxious about this pregnancy is a huge understatement. I have reached the point in my pregnancy when we lost our son Dylan. I have tried to be optimistic about the outcome for this baby, but the fear is still always there. I go to the gym and work out on the treadmill to try and keep my anxiety at bay. I use lots of different relaxation techniques so I don't go totally crazy, but it's hard to sleep and not worry. I am so grateful everytime this baby moves. We had a little scare on Monday because I couldn't get the baby to move for several hours, which was not normal. I called the Dr. and he wanted me to go right to the hospital. Of course I totally lost it. I was so hysterical I couldn't pull myself together to get in the car. Luckily my awesome husband immediately left work to be with me. They still couldn't get the baby to move at the hospital, but they did get a really strong heartbeat. I don't think I have ever been more grateful to hear that sound! I think there was a part of me that thought maybe I could lose another child since I had already gone thru it before, boy was I wrong! I think it was almost worse thinking it had happened a second time. I want this baby so bad, but I worry a lot about it living. I have bought a few things for the baby, but all of it has the tags on still and I have all the receipts. How retarded is that? I did buy a few nonrefundable items, and we are preparing the house as if we will bring a baby home. My sweet girls pray day and night that this baby will live. It breaks my heart that I am the mom and supposed to protect them from pain. They have so much faith and I hope that a loss won't crush their unwavering belief. They are such amazing examples to me. I am getting so tired at the gym, but I'm afraid if I stop working out, I might completely lose it!! Right now the dr has me coming in every week and going in twice a week for nonstress tests. I am grateful that he is concerned about my welfare and that of my baby. He has been truly awesome thru this whole ordeal. I don't suppose I will feel truly secure until I have his baby safely in my arms!! Here's hoping for the best!

Class Talent Show

2011-01-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

Maya had a class talent show today. She decided to play the piano for her talent. She played "Moonlight Sonata." She had been playing it not so well this morning and yesterday, so I was a little nervous for her today. However, she really did well on it! She works really good under pressure! I hope she always has that skill because it will serve her well! I surely did not do so good when everyone was watching me! Good job Maya!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

We decided to get a real tree for Dylan this year. It turned out a lot bigger than we planned, so the decorations are a little sparce. I think we will keep that tradition up. It was fun for us to go to a tree farm and pick out a special tree for our son/brother. Then we all decorated it and took it up to the cemetary. We opened up our secret baby envelope at the cemetary as well. It was a special moment for all of us.
Later on, at my parents house, we re-enacted the Christmas story again. I had thought about just skipping it this year, but the kids would have none of that! All three toddler nephews wanted to be wisemen this year, so that meant that Uncle Adam got to be the star!
What a good sport! The kids were hilarious and very intrigued.
At least it is fun for them to play a part in the story. Hopefully someday they will actually understand what it is they are doing! Baby Matthew was Baby Jesus this year. Maya did a good job of holding him.
The boys really got into the fact that we were calling Matthew, Jesus.
The kids got PJ's again for Christmas eve.
You've never seen kids more excited to get a pair of pajamas.

How many preisthood holders does it take to assemble a treadmill?

2010-12-31T09:08:00.001-08:00

Well, five in our case! We got a treadmill over the weekend and we asked a few of the men in our neighborhood to help us bring it in. They were nice enough to stay and help assemble it. I was very, very grateful for that because it would have taken me hours upon hours to put it together! They were hilarious to watch putting the treadmill together. There's something about men and instructions, oh yeah, they don't follow them! I feel bad they were at our house so long, but it was greatly appreciated.
We have been waiting and waiting to get a treadmill. I can't make it to the gym everyday, so this way I can still get a workout in. Plus, Brian makes it to the gym maybe once a month! This will be a great addition for us! We've already used it several times!

And the winner is....

2010-12-25T17:53:00.001-08:00

The girls!!! That's right, we found out yesterday that we are having another princess. The girls decided since there was already 3 boys and 3 girls in the family that this baby was the tie breaker. So, the girls dominate! I was fine to keep waiting until the end, but I was outvoted by the kids and Brian. They wanted to find out for Christmas.
I think Brian is a little disappointed, but he loves his princesses, so I am pretty sure he is still excited. Now we just need to go shopping for everything because we got rid of almost all the girl stuff. That's an awful shame let me tell you!

Baking, Baking, Baking

2010-12-22T12:35:00.000-08:00

I have been trying for a few weeks to think of something to give my neighbors for Christmas that wouldn't cost a whole lot of money. I really didn't want to have to make something because I am just so tired all the time right now, but I finally gave in and decided it would be fun to make everybody Cinnamon Swirl Bread like they sell at Kneaders. (This is way good if you haven't tried it there!) Needless to say, I have been baking for two days to make 20 loaves of bread! It turned out really good. My kids have been eating it like crazy! They probably aren't as wonderful and perfectly shaped like they are at Kneaders, but I was happy to finally have something to give out! Hopefully they tasted good to the neighbors!

Rub A Dub Dub, Three Men In A Tub

2010-12-22T12:27:00.001-08:00

My brother-in-law had to have some surgery done on his arm, so we kept two of my sister's little boys for the day and overnight. I have to say that having 3 little toddler boys was a lot of work for this very pregnant mother! They had a good old time in the tub together. Carter (in the middle) is the youngest, but he is a character. He was washing the two other boys while they were playing. They kept giving him dirty looks, but he was just smiling and having fun washing their backs and their hair. Getting them all dried and dressed for the night was quite the challenge. Gavin and Austin are potty-trained, but that isn't to say that there isn't urine all over my toilet! I am pretty much done with the whole aiming and missing thing! I kind of wanted another boy, but I will be grateful at this point for another girl!
Luckily they all played well together, so it wasn't too much of a challenge. Feeding everybody was my biggest challenge. It felt like I was making, and cleaning up food all day long. I was exhausted by the time they got picked up. I hope it helped to have them at my house. They are welcome anytime!

A Whirlwind Weekend of Joy and Sadness

2010-12-17T09:04:00.001-08:00

This last weekend was really crazy. Brian's niece Mylin was born, and his cousin's baby boy Trevor passed away. We drove up to Idaho late Friday night so we could be to the funeral on Saturday. We got to see our new cute niece, which was very fun! It was bitter sweet since a baby was lost on the same day. We felt like we should go up to Idaho because it meant a lot to us when people came to support us at Dylan's funeral. I have to say that it was far more difficult than I could have imagined. I was OK until we pulled into the cemetary. Then I lost it. I don't have much control with all the pregnancy hormones, but being there was just so sad. It's not right to have to bury your child. I was mostly crying because I knew what that couple was going through. It's a rough road. I don't know if it helped for us to be there, but I was grateful to have went. After the funeral, we had to rush home to get to the girls' dane recital on time. They have been talking about it for weeks. It was fun to go and see them dance. Those two love performing more than anything! Gavin and my niece Savannah were super excited the whole time. You can hear them clapping and shouting during the performances. Gavin stood and danced the entire time!

Really, REALLY?!!!!

2010-12-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Brian has been whining, (yes whining!) about wanting to get two monitors for our computer at home. On Black Friday, I went shopping all night long and got some really awesome deals. When I got home, I guess he was feeling left out because he didn't get anything so I told him to check online to see if his monitors happened to be on sale. Well, to my surprise they were on for an extremely good price. So I told him to order them for himself for Christmas. They got here the other day, and let me just say "HOLY CRAP!" Just one of these monitors is almost twice the size of our old monitor, but there are two mind you! So we have this tiny desk (not that all this would fit on any desk!) for two monitors, the case, and whatever other computer parts we need! I guess I should have checked the size myself before he ordered them! Needless to say we have two massive monitors now that would probably dwarf our tvs! What am I getting for Christmas you ask? Oh didn't I mention, apparently one of the monitors is mine! Thanks honey, it's everything I ever wanted!

Dance Central Diva

2010-12-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we spent several days at my mom's house hanging out with family. My brother-in-law brought his X-Box 360 with the new Kinect. If you haven't seen this yet you are missing out. It is really cool. We especially liked playing the Dance Central game. Maya is quite good at it. You imitate the dancer and the Kinect picks up your movements to see how accurate you are. It is pretty funny to watch people play any of the games, but Dance Central is especially funny. The girls really enjoyed dancing with the game over and over and over! They say the games on the Kinect are a workout and they are not kidding. You can get pretty worn out dancing, running, jumping, etc with the games on this thing. We had a blast playing with it.

Saying it how it is

2010-11-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

I'm at that point in my pregnancy where you just feel really fat and not so cute. Brian wanted to go out on Friday night, so I thought I would get dressed up for the occasion. I did my hair and got all ready. I thought I was looking pretty cute. As I was looking in the mirror, Maya came in and said, "wow mom! You are really fat!". Isn't so awesome having kids to keep you in reality?! Well, that wasn't exactly the compliment I was going for! Brian told her that someday mom will be old and skinny and that you (Maya) will be pregnant and fat and we are going to totally make fun of you! At least he tries to make me feel a little better.

What a week!

2010-11-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

So it's taken me forever to get these Halloween pictures up! The week started off as Red Ribbon week. So the school had several theme days. They did crazy sock day, red shirt day, backwards day, and crazy hair day! They had fun getting dressed up. These hairdos were kind of special!
Friday, they had to wear their costumes. I had to get up early to get everyone in their costumes, including Brian! Kaitlyn was Cleopatra, so I had to flat iron all her hair. Maya was a witch and wanted her hair crimped. Luckily, Gavin and Brian just needed their costumes on. No special hair! When did Halloween get so complicated?! I had to make cookies, popcorn, etc. for all the parties. Basically, I was exhausted by Friday morning at 9:00! Then I had to get ready so I could watch the kindergarten parade of costumes!

We had a ward party on Friday night for Halloween. Yes, I squeezed into this Sleeping Beauty dress!

The things we do for the kids! I could barely breathe in that thing! It was fun, and I was glad we went, but never again will I try to squeeze into clothes while pregnant!
On Saturday the school had a fundraiser carnival. It was actually really well done. The kids had hours of fun running around to the rides. Is anyone surprised that Gavin rode this train over and over and over?!
He would not get off! Even when the other kids piled on, he still just stayed there. Luckily the operator of the train didn't care that he never got off!
Trick-or-treating was a little cold with the rain and all. I am just happy to have survived all of it!

A Whole New World

2010-10-22T09:47:00.001-07:00

Maya has been telling us for awhile that she can't see the board in her classroom very well. I had thought she was making it up because she has passed the vision screenings at school for three years, and none of her teachers have said anything to me about her not being able to see. I finally took her in last week while she was off of school to get her eyes checked. Sure enough, not only can she not see, she has pretty bad eyesight. I thought maybe she would need glasses just to see somethings far away. The doctor says she actually needs to wear them all the time. He says that she will be shocked at all the things she didn't realize she couldn't see because she didn't know any different. We tried to pick out some cute ones. Hopefully she doesn't get teased too much!

National Lampoon's Vacation?

2010-10-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

You know your vacation is not going well when your husband says, "Do you feel like we are in a National Lampoon's vacation movie right now?!" But that is just how our little getaway was this last weekend. The kids had school off for a few days, so we thought it would be fun to get a hotel and just play. It started out pretty good. We stayed at a Springhill Suites, which was really nice. When we checked into the room we decided to go swimming. I had the kids use the restroom before we went swimming. Well, the sliding door for the restroom would lock you in if you shut the door. At first, I just thought the kids couldn't get it open, until my husband then locked himself in there. So each time we had to bust people out. You'd think we'd have figured it out after the first few times, but no, i had to make sure for myself and got locked in there too!
Then we went swimming in their indoor "heated" pool! YEAH RIGHT! That water was freezing! So we called the main desk and complained. They took almost a 1/2 hour to fix the problem and by then we were all blue and freezing so we left. When we got up to the room I turned the heat up so we could get warm. Next thing I know the heat completely shuts off and the thermostat is blank. So again, we call the front desk. They send someone up to check on it, he says he knows what's wrong and then leaves. NEVER TO RETURN! Four hours later, it is getting really cold in the room, so we call the front desk and complain again! They tell us they can't fix it so we need to switch rooms. AWESOME! I just love packing and repacking! They did give us a complimentary lunch in their restaurant though.
We rented "How to Train Your Dragon" and watched it in the hotel room.
It was a really good show that everyone liked. Here is Gavin packed and already to go home!
When we had everyone get ready for bed, he packed up his bag, put it on, and said, "Ready! Let's go home!" I guess we just don't travel with him enough or something! I thought it was just camping, but the kid literally wants to sleep in his bed at his house. It took a little coercing to get him to get in bed to sleep at the hotel.
The next morning, we go downstairs for the breakfast. The kids are loud and crazy as usual so I don't really care. Then they all need to go to the restroom. So I ask Maya to take Gavin with her to the potty. Well, Gavin strips completely down to naked in the middle of the breakfast room. Maya grabbed him and rushed off to the bathroom, and I had Kaitlyn follow with his clothes. After breakfast they wanted to go swimming. The pool was shockingly warm!
When they got back, Brian took a shower with Gavin. There was not a non-slick floor in the tub or a bar, and Brian slipped and chipped his tooth on the tub.
So guess who got another visit from us, Oh the front desk! Such an awesome vacation!
So we went for our free lunch, which Brian could no longer eat.
Then the afternoon got a little better because we took the kids to see "The Magic Flute" an opera by Mozart.
They do a special matinee in English on Saturday. It was fun. That is one of my favorite operas. Leaving the opera though, we tried to take an easier way out with less stairs, but Brian tripped over Gavin and fell flat on his face on the concrete of a tunnel. I decided then that maybe we should just leave daddy behind! So we all sat down and waited for daddy to figure out how he was going to get up. Needless to say, I was very happy to be back in my house in my own bed that night!

5K Race

2010-10-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

I normally don't race while I am pregnant because I am not allowed to go very fast (nor could I!). The competitive side in me just can't slowly jog in a race. I run 4 times a week so it's not difficult to run 3 miles, I just like to race if I am going to race! I was kind of obligated to run in the 5K on Saturday for Brian's work. It was one of those optional, but not optional charity events! Since he obviously can't run it, I get to volunteer! It wasn't too bad. I probably could have run it faster, but I also probably ran it a little to fast! I finished in 33 minutes, which is slow for me, but I did beat some people. I even passed one of Brian's immediate bosses, which was awesome. I made sure to tell him that he was being beat by a pregnant lady! Next year, I'll beat the big bosses! It was fun. I was exhausted when I was done, but glad I could participate. I think I just look chubby and not so much pregnant though!

So Far, So Good

2010-10-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well we are halfway there! I can't believe I am already over 20 weeks along. The time is moving far too quickly for me!! We had our ultrasound this morning. All looks really good. The baby is super cute! Of course it is super cute just to see a healthy heart beat. The baby was sucking it's thumb for us too. It was fun to see a healthy perfect baby. I have been freaking out because I haven't felt any movement, and I had before now with my other pregnancies because I am not very big. The tech said that my placenta is right in front so it may be awhile before I feel movement. That was a huge relief! You could see the baby moving like crazy on the screen. This picture of the baby pointing was kind of fun! They do a few 3D pictures of the baby, so it was fun to get to see it's face a little better. Of course the baby had it's hands over it's face most of the time!
So, I am sure you are wondering what the sex is after all that! Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we didn't find out. Yes, you read that right. It was mostly my decision. I have to be honest and say that it wasn't so that we could be surprised in the end. This is my way of emotionally protecting myself a little longer. If I don't find out the sex, then I don't have to name it and buy things for it. Packing up all of Dylan's brand new stuff was one of the hardest parts of our loss. His stuff is still boxed up in my basement and will probably remain there. I can't go through all that emotion right now. The less time I spend stressing, the better for all of us. If the baby has a name and becomes a real part of this family, I will be in constant emergency mode to keep this baby alive. It's probably best for the family if I am not that stressed out quite yet! We had them write down the sex and print a picture for us, and we will open it at a later date.

Circus Time!

2010-10-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Time for the circus to come to town! The kids were excited for days before the circus. Even Gavin was talking about the circus everyday. He saw a few commercials for the circus, and was super excited about the animals.
The show was really well done again. We enjoyed ourselves a lot. Gavin was completely captivated by all that was going on. All the kids got glow in the dark necklaces and swords. My niece Savannah kept putting the sword above her head and screaming really loud. She is such a character! My favorite part was the motorcycles in the cage. They had seven people in there riding around in the dark with fluorescent clothing on. It was pretty awesome. Gavin loved the the Elephants of course. They did some really cool tricks with the elephants and dogs. One of the elephants picked up a basket with the dog inside and walked around with it! How do they come up with these things?! At the end of the show they brought out their brand new baby elephant. It was super cute!

Another Trip to Lagoon

2010-09-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

It's that time again, time for our annual trip to Lagoon. It is always a lot of fun and something that we all look forward too. I was a little hesitant this year being pregnant and tired, but I still went. Luckily, we had lots of help getting our tent set up and taking care of the kids. This was Gavin's first year to be able to ride the rides. He absolutely loved it. Of course his most favorite ride at Lagoon was the "Choo Choo Train", which also happens to be the most boring ride at Lagoon! You know the train that you wait for 1/2 hour to get on, and then it goes around the lake to where the half dead animals are! Anyway, that was his favorite so we went on it several times. He definitely used his ticket to Lagoon to it's fullest. He was able to ride the rides by himself and also with the girls.
I rode a few of the rides with the kids, but the belts were a little tight with my new belly!

Kaitlyn got to ride The Wicked for the first time this year. She basically snuck on to the ride because she is not quite tall enough to go on it. She had been turned away from some of the other rides, but she was absolutely determined to get on The Wicked. Sure enough, here she is. She was scared out of her mind, but said she enjoyed it! These kids of mine just love the rides. I guess next year Gavin and I will be riding the kiddie rides alone :( since the girls will be on all the bigger rides!

Pink Tights and Black Leotards?

2010-09-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Maya and Kaitlyn are back in ballet again, much to Brian's chagrin since dance is so expensive. They of course are required to wear the "official" ballet uniform of pink tights, black leotards, and a bun in their hair. Who determined that combination anyway? It seems like such a weird combination, yet we all associate that uniform with ballet. I don't mind that they have a required outfit because then I don't have to worry about them taking forever to choose something. They do make the outfits look good though! They enjoy taking ballet a lot. Luckily for me they are in the same class so I only have to make one trip. Maya is a little more graceful than Kaity, but they are both doing well. I am excited to see them progress and learn for their recitals.

Kindergarten Begins!

2010-09-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

It has taken forever to get here, but finally it is time for Kaitlyn to start school. It is kind of annoying that the kindergarten kids start a week later than the other kids. She was able to ride the bus with Maya. She even got back to the right bus stop to get off after school was out. She was super excited to start school. She didn't sleep well the night before because she was so excited she didn't want to miss it! She has several friends in her class so she will not be alone. I am happy for her to make new friends and have an enjoyable time at school. I feel sorry for her teacher. Kaitlyn will definitely keep her on her toes!

Ward Campout

2010-08-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

It is the first week of school, but we have our ward campout on the weekend. I was really excited to go. I had heard that the campout is really fun. We camped up Heber canyon. It was a lot of work for me though! I had to pack up the car all by myself, then set up camp all by myself when we got there. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I am used to doing most of the work, but usually there are a few people around to pitch in and I am not pregnant! I was so exhausted by the nighttime, I could hardly keep my eyes open! It poured almost the whole time we were there. It rained all night long. At night we gathered in a covered pavilion that has removable walls for some skits and fun. We had picked up Pizza Hut on our way up the canyon, which was a blessing because I never would have been able to cook food too! The kids were still eating the breadsticks during the program!
The night was horrible. Gavin had a really hard time sleeping in the sleeping bag. He was up most of the night. Luckily he didn't wet his bed in addition to being up all night, but when he got up in the morning he was beside himself he needed to use the restroom so bad! I was trying to get dressed and he was whining and holding himself, so I was as quick as I could be and then ran him to the potty!
The ward cooked breakfast for us in that morning.
It was really really good. It was the Bishop's birthday so we sang and had him run through a birthday tunnel.
Then just to make my life even better, the kids wanted me to row them around the lake! It was fun, but very VERY exhausting. I am glad they got a chance to go though. Maya even went across the lake on the zip line! By the time we got back from the campout it was all I could do to just make it to my bed! Then get up the next day to speak in church! What an exhausting weekend!

First Day of Second Grade

2010-08-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Maya is in second grade already! I put her on the later track this year so she could ride the bus with Kaitlyn to school. We weren't sure what time the bus picked up, so we missed the bus on the first day! It is going to be a great school year, I can tell already! It was fine to drive her to school. She has lots of cute new clothes to wear to school so she was excited to start. She has had a lot more homework already so she is very busy after school. She tries to get some of her things done in the morning before she leaves for school, but between reading, dance, scriptures, piano lessons, and homework; there isn't much time left for playing! I can't say I feel too bad about that! That's what the weekend is for!

An Official Announcement

2010-08-17T10:10:00.001-07:00

The secret is finally out. We are pregnant. We found out between our two family reunions that we were pregnant, but when we got back from the second family reunion everything went downhill. I have been in and out of the doctors' office for several weeks. They thought I was miscarrying at first, and then they found some other complications. Anyway, to make a long story short everything worked out fine. We kept waiting to tell people because we weren't sure what to say. The kids have known for awhile now, but they were sworn to secrecy and they did awesome. We finally told family this last week so we are now letting other people know. I am already out of the 1st trimester. We are due in February.
I think I would have been emotionally better off if we had not had all these scares and complications in the beginning. Now I am just holding out for the best. We have had many conversations with the kids. We all spoke before we decided to go ahead and try, to make sure everyone was ok with it. We have talked about the reality of something happening to this baby, but I'm not sure it would soften the blow if something does happen. The kids are super excited, so I am hopoing things go well. As far as we know there is only one this time, but that has not been confirmed with an ultrasound.
Luckily for me, I have an awesome OB. I don't know if I could do all this again without the care and support of my awesome physician. His nurse and him have been really supportive and overly cautious. He has given me permission to call and come in anytime. He expects me to be a basketcase and is willing to do whatever it takes. Right now I am pretty detached from the pregnancy. As bad as that sounds, I can't emotionally go there. I think it will probably be like this until I hold that baby in my arms and everything is fine. For now it's going to be a long six months!

Potty Training Success!

2010-08-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Gavin has been ready to be potty-trained for a while now. I have been holding out because it was so difficult with the girls, and I had heard boys were harder. I wanted to wait until he was closer to three, not 2 and 2 months. Finally I gave in and bought some Thomas underwear last weekend. It took him less than a day to figure the potty thing out. He was by far my easiest and youngest to potty train. The bowel movement thing is a little challenging, but he sleeps in underwear at naptime and at night with no problems. He doesn't get out of his bed after sleeping until someone comes in there to get him so some mornings he calls out to me saying, "Mommy I got go pee!!" So I have to rush out of bed and run him to the toilet, but it is all worth it! Still have not bought any pull ups for any of my kids! We have been really lucky with the potty thing.

End of the Birthday Week

2010-08-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

We finished out birthday week with a big party for Uncle Bradley, Uncle James, and Aunt Lindsay (plus the girls too)! They all got their own candle on their cakes!

The kids played in the pool and on the trampoline. We had a fun dinner and lots of fun. Happy Birthday everyone!

Super Swimmer!

2010-08-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Maya had her final swim party this week. She got several ribbons and a plaque from the county meet. Plus, she got a trophy for qualifying in 3 events. She was pretty excited that she got so many awards. We are so proud of her. She really put in the time and effort to do her best! She can't wait for next year. Then they got to swim in the outdoor pool. They went down the big white waterslide many times! When the sun went down, they got really cold, so we didn't stay very long!

Kaitlyn's Birthday

2010-08-13T09:58:00.001-07:00

Kaitlyn turned 5 on Aug 10th. I convinced her that it would be more fun to have a girls day out, than to have a party. I have to admit that it was actually really fun for me too! We started out the day by going to breakfast at Denny's. If you know Kaitlyn, she absolutely loves breakfast especially orange juice! Going out to breakfast is huge for her! Then we went to the mall to get her ears pierced. She was very talkative and brave. She picked out really expensive earrings to be put in her ears! I didn't even know studs could be that expensive! She is obviously going to be our high maintenance person. After getting her ears pierced we went to the nail salon to get Gel toes done.

I thought the nail technician was going to have a nervous breakdown by the time they were done. Kaitlyn talks non-stop, asks lots of questions, and rarely sits still! I tried not to laugh as the woman tried to hold Kaitlyn's foot and answer all her questions. We grabbed some lunch and then went to Build-A-Bear. She got to pick out a really cute bear to stuff and dress. It was pretty fun. She had a little bit more money after all that so she got to go to the store and buy herself a barbie. She said over and over, "This is the best day ever!" How can it not be when you get to do whatever you want all day and get pampered?! That's my ideal birthday every year. We finished off the night with banana splits. (I was way too tired to make a cake by then!) Happy birthday girls!

Birthday Week Begins

2010-08-13T09:52:00.001-07:00

Maya's birthday is Aug 8th. She had a party on Saturday at the Legacy Center. It was really fun and really easy for me. They all got to swim and had pizza. All I had to do was bring cupcakes! The price was really reasonable though. She had a blast with her friends and got lots of fun gifts! I can't believe she is already seven years old. They grow up so fast!

The 24th of July

2010-08-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

We had such a crazy 24th of July! We did fun things all day long. We started off the day with a neighborhood bike parade. The kids had a lot of fun decorating their bikes and then riding them around the neighborhood. The donuts helped a lot too!
Then we went to the Lehi Foam day. The firefighters spray out foam all over the grass for the kids and adults to play in. There were tons and tons of people there. The kids loved playing in the foam! I was seriously impressed with the activity. What person doesn't want to play in soap bubbles?!
That night we got to do some fireworks with the neighbors. Some of the neighbors were lighting illegal fireworks, so we got a little visit from the police as well! One of the police officers happened to be the home teacher of the family that was lighting them! It was pretty funny. Luckily, all they did was confiscate the fireworks, but they were fun while they lasted!

Matthew Freestone is Here!

2010-08-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Matthew was born on July 21st. He is my sister Lindsay's third boy. You might remember that she had a baby this time last year. Yes, her boys are 13 months apart. She is crazy! I couldn't do it! She now has a 2-year-old boy, a 13-month-old boy, and newborn. Lots of boys! Should be fun! Congratulations guys!

Adding to the Obsession

2010-08-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

It was time for Gavin to be in a bed. I normally do not buy toddler beds because I think they are a waste of money. But, in this case, we just couldn't pass this up. He has been excited about it since the day we bought it. He sleeps just fine in it. In fact, he waits in his bed in the morning until someone comes in there to get him, just like he did with his crib. He even takes a nap on it! I was really worried we were done with naps and sleeping through the night with the bed, but he has been great. I guess that means it is all worth it! Especially since he is stoked about his Choo Choo bed!

She Did It!!!

2010-07-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Finally, everything that Maya has been working for came to a head last night! She finally qualified in the Breaststroke! She has been working harder than any other six-year-old that I know to perfect the stroke so she wouldn't get disqualified. We are so super proud of her. She really put in the effort to learn and practice.

The day started out not so great. In fact, she showed up at the swim meet with no towels, no swimcap, no goggles, and only one shoe! I figured the swim meet was going to be a total disaster! I was way wrong. She took overall 1st place in Freestyle (knocking 2 seconds off her best time!) and 2nd place overall in the Backstroke (also knocking 2 seconds off her time!). We are pretty sure she placed in the Breaststroke too, but it is the last event so she won't know until Wednesday how she did. She is just doing phenomenally well this season. She will probably medal at the county meet in a few weeks. Because she has qualified in three events, she will get to participate in those events at the county meet and she will get a trophy at the end of the season! We couldn't be happier for her!

4th of July!

2010-07-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

Brian's work provided tickets to the Stadium of Fire in Provo again this year. The main entertainer was Carrie Underwood. We were pretty excited to see her in concert. We had our special matching Monavie shirts on. The coloring on them was not so cute this year, but the kids liked that we all matched. We had really close seats this year too. We were right next to the grass.
I was really impressed with the Stadium of Fire this year. They started with a big salute to the military. They played the songs that corresponded with each branch of the military and had people in the audience stand if they were members of that branch. It was cool to see each branch out there on the field flanked by boy scouts. I love that we can take time to let them know how much we appreciate what they do for our country. They also held an eagle court of honor for all the boy scouts that received their eagle this year. It is the 100th year for the Boy Scouts of America. They had a 98-year-old eagle scout there to start the court of honor. I was seriously impressed by this guy. The entire stadium was silent as he spoke. He is my new hero! They also printed a page in the program that said, "Proud to be an Eagle Scout" and all the men who were in the audience that were eagle scouts stood up and held open that page to create the largest eagle's nest ever. It was pretty spectacular to see thousands of men old and young rise from their seats. I have serious respect for eagle scouts. I promised I would marry me one someday, and boy was Brian glad he could say yes when I asked him if he was one! The whole night was just awesome. I found myself in tears many times through the night. Carrie Underwood did a really good job. We had fun dancing and singing to the songs.

There was a point during the fireworks where the dancers and boyscouts created the USA with lights. It was the most incredible thing I have seen in awhile. The fireworks were amazing. I just love the 4th of July. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love this country and I think it is awesome we get to celebrate our forefathers and our freedom!

Family Reunions

2010-07-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

We had two family reunions 1 week apart. It was crazy! We are barely getting back to normal. Our first trip was to Island Park, ID. We stayed in a big bunk house with some of Brian's extended family. The bunkhouse sleeps a lot of people so you can imagine that it was not easy to get the little ones to bed! So nobody got very much sleep. It snowed when we first go there! It warmed up before we left, but it was a little more like camping instead of a summer vacation! It was fun to get to know some of Brian's cousins and let all the kids get to know each other. I had really bad allergies, and then I got really sick from the allergies, so my experience was not so great! The others had a great time though. There was an indoor pool for the kids to play in.
They also jumped from bed to bed in the bunkhouse and played lots of hide and go seek. Brian's sister Lindsay was kind enough to let me borrow their bike so I could take Gavin on a little bike ride! He was very excited! Gavin was so tired by the end of the weekend, he asked to be put in his playpen so he could have his pacifier and a moment alone!
Our next adventure (2 days later!) was at Bear Lake, UT. We stayed in some condomiums by the lake. It was for my Dad's family. I was in charge of the food for my siblings and parents. It wasn't too much work, but it was difficult since we were gone right before this reunion. I was still sick with a cold when we left for this reunion so again my time was pretty miserable. Then Gavin got really sick while we were there and didn't get any sleep. My niece Savannah got really sick too. Gavin and Savannah both had to go to the doctor. Savannah was more serious and had to go to the hospital because of dehydration. Then my brother got really ill on the day that we left and had to go to the doctor too. So all in all, I think it was stressful for everyone!
We did have some good times though. We rented some wave runners for a few hours on the lake. All the kids got to ride with an aunt, uncle, or parent.
I enjoyed myself immensely on them even though I wasn't feeling that great. The kids got to play in the lake too. There was a section of lake water that was pretty shallow so the water was warm. The kids like to lay in there and get warm. The regular lake water was extremely cold so it was a nice change. My nephew Carter didn't seem to mind the coldness of the lake. He sat right on the edge of the water and let the waves run up his legs. He screamed in delight each time!
The kids played at the pool everyday too.
I managed to not get sunburned or get any bug bites the whole trip! I got to see a lot of cousins, aunts, and uncles. We played games and had dinners together. It is fun to see everyone's kids because they grow so fast! We spent many a late night playing Settler of Catan. (One of our favorites!)
Gavin had a really good time playing with Savannah. They are getting to be quite good buds. They like to hug and give kisses!
Maya and Kaitlyn had a posse of little girls they played with like crazy.
They are all 2nd cousins and nearly the same age. They had a blast together.
Needless to say, I am still working on getting my house back to normal. We are all feeling a little better now and trying to get back into the swing of things. My life just gets busier because I am leaving for Girls Camp in 2 weeks! No rest for the weary!

A Good Sport

2010-06-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I ever mentioned this or not, but I was called awhile back to be the Assistant Girls Camp director in our ward. The stake YW Presidency challenged all the YW to read the Book of Mormon before Girls Camp. As part of that challenge, the wards were supposed to have two activities that focused on the Book of Mormon. For one of the activities we did a skit night. They asked my husband to be Samuel the Lamanite. They were supposed to be funny. I thought it would be really funny to have him do a rap while being Samuel. He was extremely hesitant, but agreed. He did a really good job. He was very nervous so he forgot a lot of the words, but I was super impressed that he would get up there.
The kids were assigned to throw things at Brian as wicked Nephites. When I explained this to them Maya was very upset. "I don't want to be one of the evil people, I want to be one of the ones that listened to Samuel!" I told her it was just pretend, but then she still wanted to pretend to be a good Nephite. I guess I should be happy that she recognizes what the story represents and wants to follow Jesus. I wonder if on the other hand I should be worried about Kaitlyn who was more than willing to shoot ammunition at dad! She was fine to be wicked! They all did a great job. I appreciate them being good sports!

A Day Out With Thomas

2010-05-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Gavin got to go for his ride on Thomas the train this week. When we pulled up to the railway station he could see Thomas through the window and was instantly screaming, "CHOO, CHOO!" I could barely get him out of his carseat before he took off at full sprint to see the train. You are not actually allowed to touch the train, but you try and explain that to a 2-year-old who is obsessed with Thomas! He really enjoyed playing with all the train tables they had set up at the venue. He got to see Sir Topham hat, but he didn't want to go up to him at all. He was a little intimidating I thought!

Then it was time for our ride on the train. He was not very patient waiting in line. Plus, we needed extra help for Brian to get on the train. On their website for Heber Valley Railroad, it said that we just needed to inform them when we got there that we would need additional help to get on the train. So Brian went to inform them, and they rudely said they need a 24 hour notice. WHATEVER! He said he would try to get on, but it did not workat all. So I threw a fit which caused a scene, and guess what happened, magically a lift appeared. So much for needing a 24 hour notice! I seriously doubt that they would have behaved any differently had we called them the day before. It took them all of 5 minutes to get the lift and the train still left on time. Gavin had a really good time which made the whole day worth it.

Guess Who's Two?!

2010-05-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

It's Thomas mania at our house this weekend because it was Dylan and Gavin's birthday. We went all out with the Thomas the Train stuff. We ordered pizza for lunch because he loves pizza, especially all the toppings! He really likes the mushrooms, olives, and green peppers. He eats better than Brian and I on lots of occasions. We got a Thomas pinata for the kids to hit. My nephew Austin and Gavin had a blast smacking the train. Even when the candy fell out, Austin still wanted to hit the train. He was excited that a few more pieces fell out when he hit it. For presents Gavin got lots of Thomas stuff. A few movies, lots of Thomas clothes and PJ's, an engineer hat with whistle and handkerchief, and he got a Thomas Ride-On car. After all of his presents he was saying, "This is awesome!" It was pretty funny!

He really liked his ride on car. He rode it all day yesterday, and all this morning! Of course he also got tickets to "A Day Out With Thomas" on the Heber Valley Railroad. They dress up the train to look like Thomas and all the kids get to ride on it. He will be beyond excited! Thomas Cake! We went up to the cemetary later on in the day. We got a Thomas balloon for Dylan as well. It was really nice to let the kids celebrate Dylan too. I was doing really good emotionally until I picked up the balloons and cake. I wanted so badly for the cake to have both of their names on it. Dylan is definitely missed. One of these birthdays I am going to get through it without crying! Gavin might be 40 by then, but it will happen!

Week in Review

2010-05-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Wow we had a crazy busy week last week. The week started off with the passing of my Grandfather. He was my Dad's dad. He was also my last grandparent. I am grandparentless now. Luckily for me, Brian has two sets of grandparents that treat me like one of their own grandchildren. My grandpa Bullock was 93 years old. He was amazing. He was at church just last Sunday on Mother's Day. His caretaker/Bishop said that he had born his testimony the week before. I think that gives a whole new meaning to enduring to the end. He served in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints his whole life. I can only wish to be half the person he was. He was completely all there to the end also. He simply died of old age. I guess a person's body has to give out sometime. We expected that he probably would not live much longer. My dad and six of his siblings. It was a whirlwind trying to get family called and all in town. My dad is the oldest of 9 children. My grandfather was the oldest of 10 children. He is survived by 2 brothers, 9 children, 57 grandchildren, 81 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-great-grandchildren! That is one heck of a legacy to leave behind. So it was crazy to get together this weekend. Many of them were able to make it. He will be missed. Maya, Kaitlyn, and 2nd Cousin Maddie. Maya had tryouts for the Swim team again. She of course mad the team. She is looking really good already this season. We are expecting awesome things from her this summer! She is excited to try and qualify to get a trophy this year. Kaitlyn had her pre-school program. She loves to perform so this was a lot of fun for her. She reminded Brian everyday that her program was coming up. He missed the last program because Maya's was at the same time. She was not going to let him live that down! He is lucky he was able to come because I don't think she would have ever forgiven him!

Getting my Butt handed to me!

2010-05-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I ever said this or not, but my foot injury turned out to be stress fractures on the metatarsals. This of course means no running for at least 6 weeks. So in order to try and stay in shape my Dr. gave me a "nonimpact" workout regimen which consists of Elliptical workouts, bike workouts, and pool workouts. I figured these would be pretty wussy and would have to start from ground zero by the time my six weeks were up. Boy was I wrong! These workouts are seriously kicking my butt. I do a spin class once a week. I have been on the verge of throwing up during these classes. My butt is killing me too! You have to work out seriously hard on these items in order to get your heart rate to the right range. I wasn't aware a person could sweat while swimming!
I am not sure what this means for my running in a few weeks, but at the very least I don't think I will be huffing and puffing like I originally thought.

Sleeping with Darth Vader?

2010-05-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Brian finally got in to see a Dr. about his snoring. Turns out he has serious sleep apnea. I think it is weird that he didn't even snore when we first got married, and now suddenly he has a serious case of sleep apnea only a few years later? Well, neither of us have been getting very good sleep, so we decided to do something about it. They basically give you only one option, which is a CPAP machine. We have had the machine for a week now. Besides the fact that he looks like he's getting ready to fly a jet fighter, it's not exactly quiet. My mother-in-law has described it as sleeping with Darth Vader. I have to agree. Although it is not as loud as he is, it sounds like he is a muted Darth Vader! Then as the night progresses I feel like I am in a wind tunnel because the pressure gets higher and more constant. Everyone has told me that they are so quiet and don't make any noise. If someone tells you that, they are deaf or they consider wind quiet.
It is nice that he is no longer snoring. Although, the first couple of nights I did go over and check to make sure he wasn't dead. He is absolutely still and silent with that thing on! I am not used to him not making any noise! I think he is sleeping better though. Plus, it isn't good for his heart to be gasping for breath with the sleep apnea. I think we will both get used to the machine and be a lot happier!

Braver than I!

2010-04-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

We had a ward talent show on Friday night. I signed Maya up to play the piano for a talent. She was very excited about it. The activity was well attended and many people showed us their talents. I was afraid she might back out when we got there, but she went right up there to play. She started playing the wrong song at first so she got a little flustered, but then just took a breath and played the right one. She was one of the only kids that played her song memorized. I know for a fact that I would have been super nervous. I never played that well at recitals and things because I worried so much. I don't think she was even nervous at all! She plays really well. The only thing that bothered her was that some of the older kids played harder songs so she thought they were better than her. I was really impressed with Maya. She has no fear about these kind of things. I hope she will stay that way throughout her life because it will help her a lot.

A Little Disappointed!

2010-04-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

I guess it is pretty obvious since I haven't posted that things didn't go well on Saturday. Actually they went really wrong! I had been having some hip trouble at the beginning of the week. The pain was pretty bad so I was running that week favoring my left leg. I went to see a physical therapist about my hip and found out that it was indeed out. He fixed it up a few times for me so I figured I would be in pain on Saturday, but that I could still run. Because of the compensation, my right foot had been bothering me a little, but felt like normal pain. About nine miles into the marathon, I felt a seering pain go across my right foot. I stopped running and tried to walk on it. It was still really painful. I thought maybe it was just cramping so I continued to run, just limping a little. Well, I continued to run 10 more miles like that. I wanted to try and at least finish. I knew I couldn't qualify with that much pain going on, but I thought I could at least make it to the finish line. By mile 19, the EMT's were following me on their bikes. They were trying to get me to quit. I normally wouldn't have, but I literally could not go any further. I was able to make it back to my family, but that was it. Since that moment I have not been able to even touch my foot. It is in extreme pain. We got an X-ray done, nothing major appeared to be broken. The Dr. thinks it could still be a hairline fracture, but he won't be able to see that for another week or so.
So here I am about to be 30 and I am completely bed ridden! Life is kind of the suck right now. Although, having Brian do everything is a little bit of a nice break! He is getting a taste of what it is like to be me for a few days! Let's just say that he needed some "Brian Time" last night! Now he knows what it's like to have everyone need something from you that by night time, you want to be left alone! He has been so good.
I feel really bad that my family was all there and ready to help on Saturday. They did so awesome! I only wish I had performed better! I guess it just wasn't meant to be this time. Hopefully I get better soon and can enjoy my summer!

The Calm Before the Storm

2010-04-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

I am on my last few runs before the big one. I have pretty much done all I can do to prepare for this race. The other day I was telling Brian that I have trained harder and done more things this time around than for any other race that I am surprised I even finished my first marathon! I didn't know then any of the things I know now, and there is still plenty to learn I am sure. I have incorporated at least 4 different training programs together to get where I am.
When I first looked into the Boston Marathon, I couldn't believe the qualifying time. I never thought in a million years that I would ever be able to even run at that pace period. Now, here I am able to run much faster than that and may have a really good chance of running that pace for 26.2 miles.
I am definitely physically able to, but it's the mental part that I am not sure on. If you have run a marathon, or any type of long race, you know it takes a great deal of mental strength to continue when you are tired and sore. My plan this time around is to recruit people to stand along those last six miles yelling, "DON'T QUIT!!" I know on my own I am not mentally strong enough. I have been there enough times to know how hard it will be. Of course if I don't qualify, plan B is always to do better than last time! (Which is still an accomplishment in my book!)

A Fun Easter

2010-04-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

I didn't plan a whole lot for this Easter weekend, but it seemed to turn out ok anyway. The kids got a package from Grandma Hughes that had some candy in it and a Barbie movie. The girls screamed hysterically for several minutes when they saw that they got Barbie in a Mermaid Tale. Easily pleased I guess! They have watched that movie non-stop for days now. I pretty much have it memorized, along with all the songs!
On Sunday we went to Grandma Bullock's house and had an egg hunt. Gavin loved his new train Easter basket. He had it on his head whenever he didn't have candy in it! It had snowed a lot the night before, so we just found eggs in the kitchen and living room.
The littler kids went first. Gavin was much more interested in finding the eggs than eating them. He was screaming and running around wildly to get all the eggs. He didn't want his cousins to pick up any of the eggs!
He was very unhappy when I told him he had found his alloted 15.
Here they are in their cute Easter clothes.
They wore them to church last week since there was no church on Easter. The girls love getting dresses on, especially Kaitlyn.
She insists on wearing a dress to school as often as she can get away with it. She tells me that when she wears a dress "everyone just stares at her because she is so beautiful!" Clearly she does not lack any confidence in herself! Even Gavin likes to get dressed up. He is always wanting me to do his hair too and dress him up all Dapper Dan!
Between conference sessions the boys were playing XBOX. Maya was on the couch watching her Uncle Bradley play. He died and Maya said, "Oh, Uncle Bradley you just got owned!!!" It was pretty funny. I know I was laughing pretty hard! Apparently she picked that up from her lovely new Barbie movie, and clearly understood exactly how to use it in context.
They all had way too much candy, especially Gavin. They gave up eating their candy from guessing the apostles and listening for certain words during conference. They just started saving it. I was happy they would still watch conference even though they weren't eating anymore treats. It was a fun and crazy weekend!

Obsessed? (maybe just a little!)

2010-03-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Gavin has this thing going on for Thomas the train. I guess I shouldn't say thing, it is an obsession! He insists on wearing his Thomas PJ's every night. The problem is that I only had one pair until recently. Now we have two, but that is still not going to cut it. He throws the biggest tantrum you have ever seen in your life when I try to take these PJ's off in the morning. He has Thomas shoes as well. He wears them constantly and takes a nap with them on. He lets me take them off at night now, but it is still a struggle. One night, I left the Thomas shoes on his dresser. When he got up the next morning, he had put the shoes on himself in the night and slept in them!
This has been going on for months now! The girls really liked Princess stuff, but this is a whole other level of liking something. He now has Thomas sippy cups, a Thomas swimsuit, a Thomas sweatshirt (that he wears constantly!), and several Thomas trains to play with. He wants to watch Thomas all the time too. Luckily he will also watch "Chuggington" (if you don't know what that is, you are lucky!) on the Disney channel.
His obsession makes buying things for him very simple, but taking things off or away from him a nightmare! Every night I ask him to get his PJ's on and he says, "Choo, choo?" It's worth it for me to do laundry more often just so he is happy. I don't know what I will do when his shoes get to small. CLEARLY I should have bought a pair in several sizes!
I am thinking it might help with potty-training though. The girls did good with princess underwear, so I am hoping the Thomas underwear will work for Gavin!

Another Born Swimmer?

2010-03-03T14:22:00.001-08:00

Gavin is finally old enough to learn to swim. He got to have his first private lesson starting this week. I had my doubts about him. He is super super sweet, but when he doesn't want to do something, he is the most stubborn person I know. I fully expected him to throw a huge fit and not work well. I was completely wrong. He actually did really well. He cried and screamed of course, but he did what he was supposed to do. He got more upset at me for taking off his swimming suit than he did about swimming.
Usually she doesn't have them stick their faces in the water right away, but Gavin did that all on his own. He is already floating on his back on his own as well. He might just be another born swimmer in this family. He is still a butt in the pool because he throws the toys that are meant to make the little kids feel better. He just throws them out of the pool in defiance, but he gets the swimming done.
I just love the swimming lessons. It makes going to the pool so much fun. Very expensive, but worth every penny in the end!

The Big 3-0

2010-02-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

That's right! Brian is 30 years old! He has entered the next decade of his life. I asked him if he feels older, and he said that he used to feel like a young guy trapped in an old man's body, but now he feels he is just old! So there you have it! I am still younger for a couple more months! He was kind enough to watch the kids most of the day because I had to run one of my 20 mile runs yesterday. Boy was that fun! It is not so much fun to have that plus a birthday all packed into one day. He was a trooper to help out and not complain. I guess he kind of got to feel what it is like to be a mom on her birthday! (Like we ever "actually" get the day off!) I was exhausted by the time I got to bed last night.

The kids were stoked about it being dad's birthday. They also think it is hilarious that he is 30. Don't ask me why!

Gavin loves having his picture taken. When I was taking pictures at dinner, he kept posing and asking me to take another one of him.
It's so nice to have digital cameras that you can just erase the pictures!
I had some help pulling off the cake, otherwise, it would have been store bought cookies or something! I think overall it was a good birthday. He is a pretty simple guy. He just likes to have people around to celebrate with him! Happy Birthday Babe!

They do as you do, not as you say!

2010-02-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

I have heard many people over the years say that your children tend to do what you do instead of what you tell them to do (if what you are telling them to do contradicts what you actually do!) I have noticed my kids following our example on many occasions, but today takes the cake.
I was driving home with Kaitlyn from her school. We were stopped at a stoplight when she said, " Hey, I can totally drive, I know what all the lights mean." "Red means stop, Green means go, and Yellow means hurry up and drive fast before it turns red!" Yeah, that would be how I probably drive on lots of occasions! So I told her that the yellow light actually means that you should be slowing down because the light is going to turn red. Then she said, "But that's not how you guys drive!" I admit that I hate to wait through red lights. There are several on the way home from Kaitlyn's school. I should be better. I need to set a better example for my kids. I just can't wait until Drivers Ed when they can pick apart all of my driving!!!

One word and the whole meaning changes!

2010-02-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

Maya was asked to do the scripture in primary on Sunday. She was really excited to read a scripture from her Book of Mormon all by herself. Brian helped her pick out a scripture and helped her read through the scripture a few times before church. He reviewed with her a little at church and made sure she still had the scripture marked. The scripture was 3 Nephi 12:16 which says,"Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Only when she got to the last sentence, Maya said, "... and "crucify" your Father who is in heaven. I was crying because I was laughing so hard, but trying not to make a sound. The sad part was that Maya was totally excited and oblivious to the huge mistake! Then Brian said, "And that's why we come to church!" It was pretty funny. She is such a cute kid.

What does a mom of daughters do?

2010-01-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

Maya receives notes like this from school almost daily. I find them when I am cleaning out her backpack. For some reason there are several boys that seem to think they are in love with her. She comes home with notes that have their names, addresses, and phone numbers on them. What is up with that?! She is six years old! When I ask her about them, she just shrugs it off by saying, "They just have a crush on me mom." Great, that makes me feel a lot better! She even got Christmas presents from these admirers. Now obviously they couldn't have gone to the store, bought a present, wrapped it, and then brought it to school all on their own. So the mothers clearly know the boys like her.
It's fine right now, but what happens in a few years?! Right now she says her dad is her only love, I sure hope that lasts a little longer! Brian has both the girls convinced that there can be no other man in their life forever. I think that is one of those commitments they grow up to regret agreeing too! Maybe we will need to home school and invest in a few shot guns!

Here we go again!

2010-01-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

I added a new countdown on the blog. I have begun training for the Salt Lake City marathon. I know, it is a little bit crazy. The thing is that I was trying to qualify for Boston before I turn 30. It is like a bucket list thing. The SLC marathon is on April 17, which is only a few days before my 30th birthday. I am already in pretty good shape so I figure my chances are pretty good! I have not ever tried to train in the snow, so it will be an interesting experience. So far it has been very cold! I hope to not injure myself by slipping on the ice!

A Very Merry Christmas

2009-12-31T19:13:00.001-08:00

We had a really good Christmas. We started out Christmas Eve with Savannah's 1st birthday party. She is such a cutie! We went all out on the Christmas Eve program this year. The costumes were awesome.

When I got the costumes, Gavin really liked the Star costume.
So he got to be the star in the pageant. He was pretty happy with himself. We were able to find Dylan's grave marker really easily this year and sang some songs there.
It was really nice. The girls got a HUGE doll house from Santa (that took Santa 3 1/2 hours to put together and the elevator is still backwards!), and Gavin got a train set that took Santa a very long time to figure out as well! I don't know who keeps buying these toys that are impossible to put together because the instructions have no words!
They really enjoyed all their gifts. It was nice to just have a break from work and school. We went to Ihop for breakfast with everyone on Christmas morning.
It was really good! Nice not to have to do the dishes. We went over to Great Grandpa Bullock's house to sing carols with him. It was a crazy busy time! Then, to top it all off, my sister Natalie moved into her first home.
It was finally done, so we moved them in over the Christmas break as well.

Not one, but two!!

2009-12-31T19:05:00.001-08:00

She didn't just lose A tooth, she lost two of them! One of her teeth was a little loose about a week ago, and then the second tooth came loose shortly thereafter. We noticed that the one tooth was coming in behind, so we needed it out. We had a dentist appointment anyway, so it was convenient. He agreed that the one tooth needed to come out, but I asked him to take both out. It was a good thing to, because the other tooth was coming in behind as well. Maya has been asking for months when her teeth will be falling out. "Everyone has lost their teeth but me!" She was not excited about the dentist pulling them out either. Can I just say that it was DRAMA at the dentist. She was screaming and crying before he actually even did anything. He told her to raise her arm if it was painful and he would stop. Her arm was raised before he even touched her mouth! So Maya is screaming, then Gavin starts to scream and cry because he doesn't know what is going on, and Kaitlyn is standing over the dentist yelling, "EWWWW that's gross!" It was a very fun trip to the dentist needless to say. Then all the way home Kaitlyn is singing, "All Maya wants for Christmas is her two front teeth, her two front teeth, so she can wish you Merry Chrisssssmas!" It was the lower teeth that were missing, but Kaitlyn didn't care. She must have sang that over and over for an hour. Maya wouldn't close her mouth or talk normal for several hours either. She just let drool fall out of her mouth. I sure hope the next teeth fall out on their own!

Born Clown!

2009-12-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

This kid was born to entertain! He lives to make people laugh. His new thing is putting on Maya's swim goggles. He is so stinkin hilarious. He looks like the young Carl Fredrickson (from UP). He is constantly looking for something funny he could do to make his family laugh. He continues to keep our spirits light no matter what!

It's Fun to Get Dressed Up Sometimes!

2009-12-21T11:53:00.000-08:00

Brian's company Christmas party was on Friday night at The Grand America. It is a more formal event so I got all dressed up. I decided to have my hair done for the occasion since I am not good at doing my hair up. The girls were ecstactic about all of it. They went around telling everyone that I was going on a date for two days! (We decided to stay the night since it was our anniversary week.) When we got all dressed up, we both felt like we were going to the prom (especially since he had a room for after!). The girls wanted to take lots of pictures of us. They gathered up their friends so they could see me all dressed up "like Cinderella!"
It was a fun party. They had Kurt Bestor as the entertainment. We got to sit by my brother and sister-in-law because Sara works with Brian! The company always does a good job on their parties. It helps that it is an amazing dinner, plus we get our Christmas bonus and a gift. You don't want to miss it! It was fun to get dressed up and go out with my husband for the weekend. We really needed the time away together. Especially since he has been working lots of hours at work!

Seeing Santa: a success!

2009-12-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

We went to the Muscular Dystrophy Association Christmas party on Saturday. It is always a fun party for the families. We had a good Christmas dinner and got to visit with some other families. We were discussing with another family about their's and Brian's types of Muscular Dystrophy, and Kaitlyn chimed in with her own description. She described Brian's limitations as him falling over if he runs, and not being able to run. Then when she was all done describing him, she looked very intently at the man and said, "My Daddy is very special!" He smiled and agreed with her while Brian and I just laughed. It was pretty cute!
They all got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Even Gavin thought it was pretty cool!

He didn't even cry. I fully expected him to be afraid of Santa, but he was actually excited about it. It was fun!

The Return of Flat Stanley

2009-12-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

We got him back a few days ago, but I forgot to put it on the blog! For those who are unaware, Flat Stanley was from a book they read in Maya's class. The story is about Stanley Lambchop and his younger brother Arthur who are given a big bulletin board by their Dad for putting pictures and posters on. He hangs it on the wall over Stanley's bed, but during the night the board falls from the wall, flattening Stanley in his sleep. He survives and has one special advantage which is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope. So Maya's class mailed Flat Stanley to loved ones and that person is supposed to take Stanley places and take pictures of their adventures. Maya chose her Uncle Logan and Aunt Shalee.

They were awesome and did fun things with Flat Stanley. It is a pretty creative project and it was fun for Maya to send and get mail.

Teaching Common Sense

2009-12-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

I guess I forget what it's like to be a kid. You try to set an example for your kids, teach them right from wrong, and then let them experience life. Somewhere in there we forget to pass on common sense. There are certain things you just can't plan for because it's not even possible for you to imagine all the possible retarded things your children will come up with. Maya was playing in the basement with a friend. There was lots of giggling going on, but if you know Maya, that pretty normal. The next thing I hear is her screaming and coming up the stairs crying. She is holding her ribs and crying that she can't breathe. I asked her what happened and she said she fell on her chest on the chair. She was ok so I told her to not fool around and be careful. Later on Kaitlyn asked her what she was doing downstairs when she got hurt. Maya proceeded to tell her the following story.
"This if very serious Kaitlyn." "We tied the ends of my jump rope to the princess chairs." "Then I got up on the chair to walk across the rope."
The look on my face must have been classic. "YOU DID WHAT?!" I couldn't believe what she was saying. Common sense would tell you that if your arm can bend the rope surely it would not hold up the weight of your body! So naturally everything came tumbling down, thus the injury. SERIOUSLY?! How do you teach your kids that this kind of stuff is not smart? She thought it was a completely awesome and an original idea. At this point, if she makes it to adulthood, it will be a shock to me!

A Happy Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

We have been so busy since we got back from Thanksgiving, that I haven't had a chance to post. We went up to Brian's parent's house in Idaho for Thanksgiving. We had a really good time. Thanksgiving dinner was yummy and it was good to see some family. We got to visit with Brian's grandparents during dinner. Grandpa Jack is really a very awesome guy. It is always fun to hear stories about Brian's dad when he was growing up and stories of Grandma and Grandpa.
Gavin absolutely loves the dog Mickey.
He loves to follow him around. Here he is trying to get into Mickey's secret hiding place!
Gavin got braver the longer we stayed. He was petting Mickey and letting Mickey kiss him on the cheek before we left. They got to be pretty good pals. Gavin was really nice to him which was a very good thing!
He really enjoyed that chocolate pie!
I can't blame him. I love chocolate!
We even got a little guitar hero in.
I have played Rock Band a few times with my family, so I was able to figure it out pretty easily. They are a little different, but basically the same. It was fun watching everyone concentrate so hard to play the songs! It was Rod's first time and he rocked it!

This is Maya on time-out AGAIN!
Our kids were really bad at Grandma's house this trip. I don't know what got into them. It might be awhile before we are invited back!
We finished out the week with a little shopping. Brian got to experience his first Black Friday! We went to Walmart at 4:30 in the morning! We got a lot of good stuff and even saw some friends from home! He says he'll never go again, but secretly he had a really good time and didn't really miss out on that much sleep! Plus, he got to go to Burger King for breakfast. It was a crazy, but fun weekend!

A Night with Guys and Dolls

2009-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

We made it kind of a tradition a couple of years ago to go to the fall musical put on by the high school. This year we went to see "Guys and Dolls". It was well done. The girls enjoy going a lot, but we probably should have explained to Kaitlyn what a doll was. About halfway through the production she yelled out, "When are the dolls going to come out?!" After we explained that they call women "dolls" she was much happier. She has been telling anyone she sees today that she and her mom are "dolls". She's so proud of herself!
We saw the musical at Mountain View High School, my Alma mater. We usually go to Lehi High School, but they were doing "Aida" this year. I love "Aida", but it is a little much for the kids. The last couple of scenes are pretty intense and they cry when Charlotte dies in Charlotte's web, so I figured funny would be a better bet. They really like to meet the characters after the show is over. Here they are meeting the character Nathan Detroit. According to Kaitlyn, "he is very cute and has a mooostache!"

Canning Catastrophe

2009-11-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to can a few things lately. We had been successful several times so we decided to do some more canning. Well, I managed to set my mom's kitchen on fire this time! It's really not all that surprising if you know me. These kind of things always happen to me. When I was in college, I had Organic Chemistry lab. The building and everything in it was relatively old. My bunsen burner had a leak in the hose. I was already really fearful of lighting my burner anyway, but when I lit it this time, there had been gas leaking out from the hose and the entire countertop went up in flames! Everyone's papers for their lab were burned, which if you have O-chem, the labs take hours to do and your paperwork is kind of important! No one was very happy! Luckily no one was hurt. Needless to say this was not my first catastrophe in chem lab, nor was it my last. It was kind of difficult for me to get a lab partner. You had to be brave (stupid) to pair up with me!
I was trying to help my nephew in the kitchen and I put the canner on the stove with a hot pad stuck to the bottom of it. Neither my mom or I were paying attention because we were trying to clean up a mess. Next thing I know my mom is yelling, "Something's on fire!" as smoke comes billowing towards me! It was bad! Of course I panicked and started throwing things off of the stove to contain the burn. We all had smoke inhalation for sure. We went around opening doors and windows. It was very hard to breathe. I got a real sense of what it would be like to have even more smoke with a huge fire. I can see the danger in the smoke!
Everything worked out though. There was no damage, just a few melted dishes. We got everything cleaned up and went on with the canning. To think I was just trying to do some food storage!

Star Wars for the Win!

2009-11-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

The girls both wanted to be Princess Leia for Halloween. (This is influenced by their father!) They have seen the movies quite a few times with their dad. I then got an Ewok costume for Gavin. He made an awesome ewok. He looked just like one. When he walked or tilted his head he completely resembled them. Complete strangers were taking pictures of him with their cameras and cell phones because he looked so strikingly similar. He loves having his picture taken so the attention was welcome. The girls insisted on light sabers, even though technically Leia doesn't have one. It was better than trying to figure out how to make them both Luke Skywalker!
I had to get up extra early on Friday to get them both dressed up for school. At school, many of the children did not know who Kaitlyn or Maya were dressed up as. More of the kids at Maya's school were familiar with Star Wars. So when we went trick-or-treating, Kaitlyn made sure to tell people "I'm princess Leia, from Star Wars" Of course, most of the parents handing out the candy could figure it out from the famous buns over the ears!
We like to go to my parent's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. I always went to my grandma's house to trick-or-treat and it was fun. I know all the people in the neighborhood so I feel safe taking my kids there. We saw C3P0 and R2D2 while trick-or-treating. (if you don't know who those people are, you really need to get out more! :) ) They were excited to see our Star Wars characters, so they took some photos. I left my camera at home, but hopefully I can track down the picture because it was priceless! The girls were stoked that they saw other people from Star Wars.
Gavin did quite well considering it was his first time trick-or-treating. He wanted to go inside everyone's home. He would take a piece of candy and then crawl up the step to go inside! He got a little confused because some people let him choose a candy and other people handed him one. That's just too much confusion for a 1-year-old. He didn't know what to do at each door! I got tired of taking him around so I tried to leave him at my mom's house, but he just followed us back out the door to do more trick-or-treating!
It wasn't too cold, and we got done reasonably early so I think overall it was a success. Thankfully we have a whole year before we've got to do that again!

Cornbelly's

2009-10-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Cornbelly's Corn Maze last night. It is out at Thanksgiving Point. They have several little mazes, haunted mazes, jump houses, slides, etc. for the family to enjoy. I took just the girls by myself. It was a good thing too because it was seriously cold! I was grateful we had dressed pretty warm.
We got a little lost in one of the corn mazes, but I am pretty tall so I can see the beginning fairly easily, and we made it back out. (We pretty much cheated, hence the picture!)
They loved the princess part of the activity. They had a big pumpkin shaped carriage with lights all over it. They loved getting in and pretending to ride to the ball.
They had a big pillow (that's what it was called) that we could all jump on. It was actually quite fun.
I didn't jump too long because I hadn't used to restroom before we came! They ran around like crazy until their faces were red!
They wanted to try one of the haunted things. Here we are at the mouth of it.
It was an inflated beast of some kind that you enter and then there are people inside that scare you. I told the girls it was going to be scary, but they wanted to go anyway. We made it until about the third person, and then I thought they might cry so I took them out. Luckily they have exits all along the way so you can leave at any time. I, of course, was scared too. They startled me a couple of times, so I screamed, which only made things worse for the girls! When we got out, I explained to them that it was just people dressed up that were scaring people. They wanted to try again, but I was sure it was not going to work so we moved on.
In the car ride home they asked me about the haunted maze. Maya- why were those people scaring other people? Me-That's what their supposed to do. People go to haunted things around Halloween. Maya-Why Me-It's fun Kait-It is not fun to be scared mom Me-Well it's supposed to be fun, people like to be scared Kait-why would people want to be scared? I was not having fun Me-Well I can't really explain it, it's just what people do for fun during Halloween time Maya-I wish I was like you mom Me-Why? Maya-Cause then I wouldn't be scared and I would think it was fun.
It is kind of weird that we pay people to scare us. As if we don't have enough things in this world that are truly scary and are not fun. I have enjoyed many a scary movie and haunted house myself. I don't know if we just are taught it's fun or if somewhere deep inside we love the thrill. Who knows?!
We were like ice cubes when we finally left. We made sure to get a picture in the "Cornbelly's Rocks" huge rocking chair!

First Haircut

2009-10-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's finally that time! His cute little curls are making him look too much like a little girl. I love the curls and I have held out as long as I feel good about! He needs to have his haircut. I took all the kids to Cookie Cutters. It is fun for them to watch movies and play while getting a haircut. It made it not so miserable for Gavin as well. He watched Backyardigans and played with bubbles while she cut his hair. Then at the end he got a certificate, locks of his hair, a balloon, and his favorite; a sucker! This was not cheap mind you, but it was fun and it was a moment! Everbody looks good. No longer straggly! Although, this last picture of his beautiful curls is timeless!

Homemade Marinara

2009-10-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

I decided to use the tomatoes from our garden to make my own marinara sauce. We eat lots of pasta, as I have stated before, so it seemed like a good idea. I am a Ragu fan myself, so I definitely had my doubts as to whether I could make one from scratch that would be good. Plus, I would be making it out of real tomatoes. I made a huge pot of it to freeze for later. When I first put all the ingredients in (consisting of peppers and other veggies from the garden) it looked really gross. Don't taste test it at this point! It is nasty! After it simmered for 4-5 hours, it was awesome! The house smelled amazing. Brian and I were trying to find anything and everything to dip in it so we could have some more. I was very happy that my first batch out turned out well. I will definitely be making more!

Hold on to your valuables!

2009-09-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

That's right, Gavin is our resident klepto! In fact, that's what Brian and I refer to him as. The kid takes everything he can get his hands on! You know when you are wandering around the house looking for something and you ask yourself, "where could I have put that?" That is my life story as of late, and typically the answer is Gavin the kleptomaniac! The other day I opened the cupboard under the sink and out fell all the of the girls' missing flip flops. A couple of weeks ago, neither of us could find our cell phones. We found them at the bottom of the stuffed animal bin in the basement. The scary thing is that he swipes things in total silence, hides them, and can't tell us where he hid them because he can't talk! He doesn't have a particular place that he hoards things either. So it is a guessing game everytime something goes missing. Most of the time it still takes us forever to realize that he took it and we didn't misplace it!
Last night Brian was tripping around in the dark and said, "where are all the nightlights?". We have about 5-6 nightlights in the hallways, bedrooms, and bathrooms so that the kids can get up and use the bathroom without tripping. You guessed it! All of the nightlights are missing! So my answer to him is that he will have to ask the klepto! All of the little doorstop rubber things are missing too!Today Brian's cell phone is missing again. I don't know how Gavin is so stealth! The kid is only 16 months old! I would say don't leave anything where he can get it, but he will find a way to sneak it away from you, and you will spend a lot of time looking for it!

Lagoon '09

2009-09-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Every year in September we go to Lagoon with Brian's extended family. We camp at the campground next to the amusement park. It is a lot of fun and we look forward to it every year. The girls love riding all the rides.
Maya is tall enough to go on a lot of the bigger rides now, so she loves to go on the more exciting rides with her dad and Grandpa Hughes. The girls get to ride on all the kiddie rides with their cousins. There are 4 little girls.
Maya is the oldest and then the other three are all about the same age. It goes Macy, then Kaitlyn, then Riley. They had a good time riding the rides together. It will be fun to watch those girls grow up and see them be friends. I enjoyed having lots of cousins that were my age.
This picture is of two grown guys sitting in a car together on Puff.
It is Brian's brother-in-law Mark, and his friend John (who is married to Brian's cousin). They got in line on the ride to ride with their daughters, but then their daughters chose to ride together, so the attendant person told them to get in the car together! Kaitlyn and I were right behind them, and I was hysterically laughing. The attendant asked if everyone was ready, and everyone yelled except the two boys, so she said,"Are the two gentlemen sitting together back there ready?!" I thought for sure I would wet my pants. They were totally squished into that seat and both trying to pull to the side as to not touch each other as much as possible. It probably is a 'had to be there' moment, but it was definitely a memorable one for all of us!
It was frightmares at Lagoon also. The kids got to go trick-or-treating, and there were lots of people dressed up that had candy around the park.
We didn't make it to any of the haunted houses, but they looked like they would be fun. I hadn't ever been to frightmares before, and it was actually really fun. I wouldn't mind going to Lagoon at that time every year. It was kind of cold in the tent at night though! Who goes camping in Utah at the end of September anyway?!
Later that night, the older adults watched the kids for us so we could all go back into the park and ride some rides with our spouses. Many of you know Brian has muscular dystrophy, so getting on and off the rides is always a challenge. I think he was more tired this time around because it was bad. We finally got a pretty good system down though. John and Shandel were with us so John lifted Brian out of the rides and placed him over by the rail so that Brian could then stand up. I lifted him out once or twice too. It was quicker than letting him try to get out and hold up all the cars behind us. But we created such a scene by carrying him out of the car that all the attendants and riders stopped everything to watch, so everything was held up anyway. I couldn't help but laugh a lot at the two of them because it was hilarious. Bri was a good sport though! Only Tyler and Hillary can truly appreciate what we went through!

Western Days

2009-09-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the preschools and schools think it is so fun to have themed days and have the kids get all dressed up?! It is not so fun for the moms! Halloween is one thing, but then they throw in Native American day, Western Days, etc. Who has that kind of stuff on hand?! Not me! I am all for school spirit and wearing jammies to school, but this kind of stuff is over the top for me. I pulled some things together and borrowed things from people (thanks Julie!) in order to pull this simple western outfit off. Luckily Kaity's hair is long so I could just do braids. She was way excited when she went to school. Daddy told her that she looked beautiful and that "Mommy wins again!" I need to keep a tab of when daddy recognizes that I pulled off the impossible again! They totally don't get how hard it is to be mommy and have to pull off all the school projects, holidays, activities. It is a full time job just to do that! Thankfully this one worked out ok.

Ah, the Circus!

2009-09-25T07:51:00.001-07:00

My mom got tickets to the circus last night for the girls and for my nephew Austin. I have to admit that I had my doubts as to whether the circus was going to be good or not. I don't even remember going to the circus as a child, that's how long it has been! It turned out to be surprisingly cool. The things that they got the animals to do were phenomenal. They have very talented people who can do amazing and very dangerous things. I thought it was hilarious that everytime they did something extremely dangerous they reminded the kids that they should "not try this at home!" They must have said that 50 times or more. I could just see one of these kids going home and trying to stick their siblings through a giant fan! My Kaitlyn was not amused by the magic tricks at all.
At one point they cut one of the clowns in half. Everyone else thinks it is cool and they are amazed. Not Kaitlyn. "That is sooo rude!" "Why would they do that?!" "It's just pretend Kaitlyn" "NO Mom! I just watched them cut him in half!" "How are they going to put him back together?!" "He can't live without his legs!" She is yelling all this as loud as she can of course. I try to explain to her that it is magic, etc, etc. It didn't work. I don't really even know how the trick works, but I told her that I think that there is another person in the box so he isn't really cut in half. They took him off the stage cut in half of course, so she never did get to see him put back together. Just another conversation with my logical, intellectual daughter who needs everything to have a purpose and an explanantion!
All the kids thoroughly enjoyed the circus. Everytime the elephants came out, Austin would clap and get really excited.
He was not a fan of the clowns, but he sure loved the animals! I quite enjoyed the circus. It was a fun night!

Well...

2009-09-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

I know you are all waiting in anticipation to hear the results! :) I actually did not qualify for Boston :(, but I did break 4 hours, which was plan B. I was soooo dang close though! I was totally on target for 20 miles, but I could not keep it together until the end. I "unofficially" came in a 3 hrs. and 58 minutes. That is 18 minutes over my qualifying time, but I am not too discouraged because I beat my last marathon race time by 22 minutes. I felt like I really did try very hard, in fact I am impressed that I finished at all! I was super close to quitting at 22 miles. It took everything I had to keep going. I am happy with the results, Boston would have been better, but I will try again! I am pretty sore tonight, but doing well. One more ice bath tonight, and I think I might actually be walking tomorrow! Which is a good thing since I have a baby blessing to get to. Thanks for all the support from everyone. Hope you are not too disappointed! Stay tuned for the next one!

Down To Hours!

2009-09-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

I am finally down to just hours on my countdown to Top of Utah Marathon. Ready or not, the race is tomorrow morning. We will be leaving here in a few hours to spend the night up in Logan. I have raced so many times, but I get nervous every single time! It's just a race! I am probably more nervous due to my goal of qualifying I suppose. We shall see how it all ends up. I'd say "be thinking of me while I'm racing," but most of you will probably not even be up before I am more than halfway done! Keep your fingers crossed or whatever you do to bring good luck! If I am not dead tomorrow, I will try and post with my results! Have a great weekend!

Let the Carb-loading Begin

2009-09-15T15:22:00.001-07:00

Of all the weeks that Brian has to support me and sacrifice things for my marathon training, this is his least favorite week. Okay, let's be honest, he hates this week! He hates pasta! I don't know how that is even possible. The kids and I could carb load every week! We could eat spaghetti or any other kind of pasta everyday. We usually have spaghetti when he is working late, but he is a good sport and eats it with us every once in awhile. All you can eat pasta at Olive Garden is like Christmas at the Hughes home! So if you see Brian sneeking out to go grab some fast food you'll know it's pasta night again!

You Gotta Have Your Shoes to Go Outside

2009-09-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

I am in my room getting ready yesterday, and Gavin comes in with his shoes in his hands. He is always bringing me stuff, so when he sets them on my lap I just say 'thank you' and put them back on the floor. He picks them up again and starts jabbering about something and puts his foot up so I can put his shoes on. So I ask him if he wants to go outside. (I am always telling the girls to put their shoes on before they go outside.) He gets a big smile on his face and starts nodding like crazy. It's kind of like when your dog brings you their leash because they want to go for a walk. The kid can't talk, but he sure can communicate! I figure at least it only took me two tries to figure out what he wanted! He absolutely loves going outside, and I knew he could hear all the kids outside playing. I was busy at the moment, so I told him he could not go outside. Then the pouty look comes out! For only being 15 months, the kid has mastered the pouty face! Brian is hysterically laughing at this point because he knows that neither of us is going to be able to tell Gavin 'no'. He definitely knows how to work us. He gets away with a lot more things than our other kids did! What a character!!! This picture is from this morning. He is not even dressed yet, but he is ready to go outside!

The Final 20!

2009-08-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

I ran my final 20 mile run today. YAY! It's a good thing too because it was pitch black even at 6:30 this morning. Fall is coming already! I ran up Provo canyon and it is not lighted at all. Plus, there is lots of tree cover, which is nice for the shade, but it makes it much darker in the dark. (if that makes sense!) I ran for several miles in the darkness. Maybe I need a headlamp! Course, if I got one, then I'd be expected to run in the dark!
I guess that means it is all "downhill" from here. I am happy to be done with ice baths, waking up hours before the sun comes up, and Gu gels for a few weeks. I am pretty stressed out about the race though. Actually, to say I am stressed out is the understatement of the year! I have worked really hard and really want to qualify, but it all depends on how I feel on that day. I know I have other chances to qualify for Boston, but it was a lot of work, and I don't know when I will have the time to do it again. I will be happy if I can do it under 4 hours though.
I know several people that ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon this morning. It made me think about my races. I have run many 5k races and a Marathon. I have not run any Half Marathons, and I have only run one 10K. I had a really bad experience with a 10K in high school. I ran the Speedy Spaniard. Remember when we ran that race Steph?! Yeah, it was the suck for me. So I have not run one since. This is dumb since I run way more than a 10K on a daily basis. I think I need to go back and run that race again, then maybe I will feel like I can do one again!

First Day for Kaitlyn

2009-08-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn started preschool on Monday. We decided to put her out at Challenger, which is a private school. She needs a little more than what some of the other preschools were offering to her. It is pretty intense, but she is up to the task. She absolutely loves going there. It's nice being at that school, because everybody treats you WAY nice. Because it is a private school there are lots of wealthy people attending there, so it is just like you see on tv. The teachers, staff, principal, you name it, they are all there to do whatever makes you happy. I have never seen so many expensive cars in one parking lot!
Dropping her off and picking her up is a little like being a chauffuer. You have to drive all the way around the school and then wait in a designated area for them to come and pick up your child. The teachers come right out to the car, open the door, and walk your child to the school. Then, when you come to pick them up, you have a special visor card with their name on it. You drop it down from the visor (with a case that they provided) and the teacher brings your child back out to the car. I felt like I was at the airport waiting for an unknown person holding up a sign with their name on it! It is pretty crazy, but really nice. She can't wait to get up on school days and go to school. She will definitely be like her parents and love school!

First Day of 1st Grade

2009-08-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

My little Maya is in 1st grade today. She was stoked about starting school today. She loves the social aspect of school! She has to get up really early because she has to be on the bus at 7:15 in the morning. I almost cried today when the alarm went off! Isn't she gorgeous?!!
We went school shopping a few days ago. When we went to the dressing room she turned around and said, "You can wait out here mom." I was actually surprised, but said ok. I am on my way out of the cool circle for Maya. At least she let me take her to the bus this morning. That is not going to fly with her forever though. She wants to go to the bus by herself, I guess it is time for me to let her grow up a little! She did tell me this morning that she didn't need breakfast because she would be taking a lunch and eating it at school! Luckily, I can still make her eat breakfast for a few more years.

Goin' Campin'!

2009-08-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

We went camping this last weekend for a family reunion with my immediate family. I say camping because we went to a campsite, but you can see my house from the campsite! We stayed here so my sisters with little infants could stay at my house at night, but still participate in most of the festivities. Of course it was horrible weather again! We got totally rained out. There were points of sunshine though so we did have a good time.

We were packed in like sardines in our family tent. Pack 'n Plays are definitely not tent friendly! I have decided that it is not a lot of fun to go camping with toddlers. They don't walk so well so they are constantly falling in the dirt/mud. They get way dirtier than everyone else! Plus, they run into the firepit, run out of the campsite, and just cause trouble! Here they are confined to a double stroller so we can make some food!
And they are still grabbing at each other! Babies at least can just lay in their infant carriers!
The boys all went fishing, and I had Brian take Maya with them. Guess who was the only one that caught a fish!!! MAYA!!!
Point for the women! She was pretty proud of herself. She even got to cook it in the fire and eat it for lunch! Maybe she doesn't need us parents after all, she can apparently live off the land!
We got out of the campsite Saturday before the huge monsoon-like storm hit. It was a fun time. I think we will definitely do it again!

Happy Birthday!!

2009-08-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

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Happy Birthday Maya and Kaitlyn! Maya turned 6 yesterday and Kaitlyn turns 4 tomorrow. I am a mean mom and made them have a birthday party together yesterday. They each got to invite some friends and I rented a waterslide for the party. The kids had a blast climbing up and going down the slide over and over

Luckily, the weather was decent. They had been threatening all week that saturday would be cold and super stormy. It was a little cold, but the sun was out! The kids were freezing after playing in the water for a long time so they all huddled up in their towels!

They both got some cool presents. Kaitlyn was overly dramatic with each gift!
She got a big girl bike from us, which she really liked. Gavin was also a fan! Kaitlyn got out of her swimsuit to go out and ride it!

I decided to make the girls' cakes for them this year. I told myself, "I can make two Barbie cakes, no problem!" Good going Steph!!! I won't tell you how long it took me to make these cakes, but I can tell you that I was in labor with these girls less time than it took me to make these cakes!!!!

They turned out ok and the girls were super excited about their Barbie cakes, so that is what is important. Next year, we will probably buy cakes again! :)

Berry Picking

2009-08-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

I had this brilliant idea to go pick raspberries as a family for family night. Since our raspberries are new we didn't get enough to make lots of jam. So, I found a place that will let you come and pick your own berries. Sounds like fun, right?! NOT!!!! We put buckets on our belts and had the kids help us get berries. After awhile my pants are practically falling off because my buckets are full, and Brian's, well let's just say he wasn't even close to filling his! He was pretty much a spectator.
It took a really long time and it got dark before we were finished. The kids had a great time, but I was really worn out. They tried to help dad out by only putting their berries in his buckets for awhile!
We came away with only one tragedy. Gavin tipped himself over in the stroller so he has a lovely bruise on his forehead.
We did get over ten pounds of raspberries and we have been enjoying them a lot.

Boise

2009-08-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

We went up to Boise last weekend for a family reunion with Brian's immediate family. It was quite the drive! Gavin is not a good travelling child. He screamed most of the way there and back. Needless to say, we will not be going that far again for awhile! Brian and I about went insane. The kids got to play with their cousin Riley at a splash park. They loved getting wet and having buckets of water drop on them! Their facial expressions say it all! Gavin had an awesome time with Daddy in the water. They bonded. He got to go over to the water with Grandma too. They had lots of fun getting wet. He apparently loves tomatoes. I threw in this pic of him eating some tomato. What a cute kid! It was fun to see everyone and have a nice break.

LAST SWIM MEET!!!!

2009-08-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

We finally had Maya's last swim meet. It was the Utah County Swim Meet. It was in Springville, (and let me just say that they really need to get a new pool!) and at night. It was really hot, and they did not start on time. Maya unfortunately did not qualify in the breastroke or the butterfly, but she is excited to try again next year.
She did really well at the meet even though there were lots of kids. She was the heat winner in backstroke!

She was really excited to get a ribbon. She won't know for a couple of weeks if she placed high in either of the races. She is actually really sad to be done with swimming, but Brian and I are relieved to have it done! It was a lot of work, but fun too! Congratulations Maya!

Happy 24th of July!

2009-07-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

I love Utah in July. We get to celebrate the 4th and the 24th. There is fireworks, BBQ's and many other fun summer activities all during July. The best part, of course, is getting both days as paid holidays! We get 3 day weekends twice. Our 24th was really fun. We got up early so that I could run in the Pioneer Day Classic 5K. The night before Maya prayed that I would run well and get a medal. So I ran as fast as I could so she wouldn't be disappointed. That's me getting a medal for first place in my age group.
Not too bad for a mom that's had 4 children. I actually did really well. At least now I can tell Maya that if she works hard and tries her best, good things happen.
The girls got their faces painted,
they got a french toast breakfast, and they played on the bounce houses at the park.
We went to Thanksgiving point and played in the water at the gardens.

Gavin had a good time until the girls knocked him over and he went under the water! Luckily Brian was already in the water so he could grab him out.

Later that night my parents came over for dinner and we had fireworks again! Some of our neighbors brought their fireworks over too, so we had a big show!
I am so happy we live where we can still do fireworks! We were all exhausted by the night, and I had to get up at 4:30 the next morning so we could all be at Maya's swim meet at 8:00! Needless to say, we are completely exhausted from our weekend!

You're like Harry Potter!

2009-07-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

There we are sitting at dinner and Kaitlyn informs us that she wants a bed. Brian tells her that she already has a bed. She emphatically says, "No!, I don't have a bed I sleep in a drawer!" I can't even keep my food in at this point. Of course she doesn't really sleep in a drawer, it is a trundle bed, but in her little mind, it is a drawer. It looks like one and it pulls out just like a drawer. So Maya tries to make her feel better by telling her that Harry Potter sleeps in a closet. It's a no go! She still thinks she sleeps in a drawer! We are hoping to finish the basement next summer and finally get her out of the drawer. Poor kid! We definitely get the mean parents award!

Life is too busy!

2009-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

We have been crazy busy the last few weeks. With the 4th of July, running lots of miles, attending many swim meets, and practice after practice after practice! I have had to sacrifice a lot of my sleep for the swim team. I usually have to do my Saturday runs at 5:00 AM so that I can make it to the swim meet and not have to run in the middle of the afternoon when it is 100 outside. You'd think that I was the only one out running at the hour, but you'd be WRONG! Even though it is pitch black, the crazys are out there running! I have completed my first 20 miler, so I am pretty excited about that. Maya is doing really well in her swimming. She took 4th place in the 25 yd freestyle.
She cut almost 15 seconds off of her time! She has yet to qualify in either the fly or the breastroke. This next saturday will be her last chance! We have our fingers crossed!

A New Generation

2009-06-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

I'm at the park and Gavin is being fussy so I let him have my cell phone. He opens the cell phone up and puts it to his ear and starts talking into it! I'm like, "you're 1, how could you possibly know what that is or what it's for?!!" My generation wouldn't have even known what to do with a cell phone. Now every kid you see has one. I still have a really old cell that we got for free over 3 years ago. My mom can barely turn her cell phone on and off without assistance. It is funny how things change so quickly that right in front of you your children know more about recent technology and how to use it than you do. I swore I would never be that person when I saw that my parents weren't even able to burn a cd. Well, looks like I might have to eat those words! I am far behind the times on cell phones and other technological advances! Of course, in the same breath he is trying to eat my camera! So maybe I have a few years on him!

Carter Phillip is born!

2009-06-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Carter Phillip Freestone was born yesterday afternoon. He is my sister Lindsay's second son. He is 8 lbs. 14 oz. He doesn't have red hair like his older brother Austin. I am not even sure who he looks like. We are excited to have the new addition and Lindsay is doing well! The funny thing is that he was born on the exact same day as James's twin Mark's son, and Austin was born on the same day as Mark's oldest son. They both have two sons with the exact same birthday! Kind of trippy!
New proud Daddy/Uncle with my kids!

Dance Pictures

2009-06-21T18:37:00.001-07:00

Wanted to post their dance pictures for the fam. They turned out way cute!