I've gotten so bad about blogging (journaling) lately and I really hate that because I love have a family journal that the kids will be able to read when they are older but my life is so busy chasing around my three very active children so here is our random life, in pictures.

A

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

I ran my third half marathon of Nov. 5th. I was not nearly prepared for this one as I have been for the other two. I wasn't really training, I was running with my friends but I wasn't really working on my mileage, my longest run was only 9 miles and I only did that one time. I was kind of chickening out too, I knew I could run the race and finish but I knew my time was going to be terrible. I let my pace drop way slow and I was a little sad to run the same course as my first 1/2 and finish behind my PR. But my Dad said he would come up and watch the kids for me while I ran (since we weren't sure if David would be on call or not) and I was really excited to have my Dad see me run. I haven't had my parents at any of my finish lines yet and it really meant a lot to me that he was going to be there. So I figured slow time or not I'm running this race. My Dad got in on Thursday night and Friday after David got off of work we headed up to St. George. And we barely got there in the nick of time to get my packet, literally, they were closing at 9pm and we pulled up at 8:51. Then we headed out to dinner at Chilies, which is always an experience with 3 kids. Afterwards we headed to the hotel so I could get some good rest before the big race. SO not the case. First I forgot to bring the pack and play for Talli and the hotel was all out of portable cribs, Maylee didn't want to sleep on the hid a bed or with Grandpa, she only wanted to sleep with David, I and Talli. Luckily David was able to get Maylee to sleep pretty quick and she did sleep through the night on the hid a bed but as for Talli, she did not sleep much at all. She woke up about every two hours and cried for about 5-10 minutes until David could get her back to sleep. David was super great though and took care of her by himself so I could get as much rest as possible. But waking up every two hours makes for one exhausted mommy.

When the alarm went off Dad drove me to the buses and wished me good luck. At the start it was freezing, there was snow on the ground and I didn't come prepared for that. I was using a extra pair of socks for gloves, it was so cold. Once the race got started I warmed up really fast, a little to fast in fact. At about 1/2 a mile I was pulling off my gloves/socks and my jacket. But if I wanted to get them back at the end of the race I could only drop them off at an aid station. So I ran with them in a bag holding it for the first five miles, it was very annoying. But the course is all downhill for the first seven miles and so you can just fly. At one point I heard someone say that they were at a 6:40 pace. I still can't believe we were running that fast. About mile 5 1/2 I was curious what my pace was so I asked a lady next to me with a garmin what are pace was and it was a 7:35. I was shocked, mostly because I felt like I was running slow and because I didn't train at that pace at all. Then at mile 7 my shoe came untied (first time that has happened to me during a race) so I bent down to tie it and it was so hard to do because my hands were so cold. By the time I stood back up the lady with a garmin got to far ahead for me to catch back up to, I was really bummed about that. Close to mile 8 my hips started hurting from all the downhill and I was really needing some encouragement. Once you hit mile 8 you come out of Snow Canyon and then you start seeing spectators again. I was really hoping to see David and my Dad. David has never done the whole spectator cheering thing, but I knew my Dad would, so I was hopeful that I would see them soon. Then all of the sudden I came around a turn and I saw our van, or at least I hoped it was our van. So then I started looking for them, I turned another corner and there they were. It was definitely the encouragement I needed at that point. I just wasn't really feeling my best during this race, and I knew it was because I hadn't properly trained for it. They kept driving ahead and then getting out and cheering until mile 10 when we went into a neighborhood where spectators couldn't come anymore. They seriously gave me such a boost to keep going for those two miles. Then I hit mile 11 and I felt like some one could have walked past me even though I was still running. I was feeling pretty slow and pretty miserable. But I was encouraged that I only had two more miles. When I hit mile 12 I thought ok this is it, just push through this, give it all you've got only one mile left. But I just could not pick up my speed any more. I was tired! Finally I could see the school, and then the track and I was down to the finish line. Once I was on that final stretch and the clock was coming into view I finally got my second wind and was able to really push myself into gear again for those last few steps and then I crossed the finish line and saw the clock 1:54 and I was SHOCKED! I could not believe for one minute that I came in under two hours considering how I was feeling. I got my official chip time and it was 1:53:33 only one minute behind my time last year. I was beyond thrilled that it was so close. You think I'd be upset that I missed beating my PR by a minute but I was just so happy to still come so close considering how I was feeling during the run. And it was so fun to have my Dad at the finish line, it was great to have him drive all the way up just to support me in my run. Thanks Dad for coming!!!

We got our results in. I know I didn't do fantastic or any thing but it is still such a huge accomplishment to me every time I finish a race. I never thought I would actually be considered a runner. And if you knew me in my younger days, you would all agree with that.

The results are:

Out of the overall I came in 591 out of 1408 people. Not to shabby.

Out of overall female I came in 290 out of 882 women. I feel pretty good about that.

And out of my age group and gender which is 25-29, I came in 39 out of 120 women. It feels good to know that I'm actually a competitor.

I really couldn't believe that I ran a full marathon after this run. I could not image having to turn around and run it all again. It just goes to show how important training is. I kept telling David and my friends that after this race I was taking a break, I was burnt how. But once I crossed that finish line all I could think was, when is the next race, sign me up. But next time I will definitely train better.

We had a halloween party with some friends and had a pumpkin craving contest. In the seven years David and I have been married David has never won a pumpkin craving contest, it changed this year, but I think (and he completely agrees) that he won for the worst pumpkin. HAHA! It's so true, every year David decides he is going to be in charge of craving the pumpkin, which I'm fine with but he always decides to get experimental (My mom will totally get this) he gets experimental like with his cooking and sadly enough it never turns out :) The first couple of Halloweens I'll admit I was a little embarrassed (ok a lot) but I've gotten past that and I have learned to just laugh at his designs. Regardless him and the kids had fun craving pumpkins. And yes that is the drill you see sitting next to the pumpkins, David craves manly style. Halloween night we took the kids around our neighborhood. After about 15 houses (about one street) they were a little burnt and we had to encourage them to walk home. But they got lots of candy and of course loved trick or treating. Talli was such a hit this year, everyone thought the little waddling pumpkin was adorable and they enjoyed sneaking an extra candy into her bucket.

T-ball

Dutch has been playing T-ball this season. He has really enjoyed playing and he is on the same time as his buddy Lucas. It's been so much fun watching him play. This is the first sport any of my kids have been in and I love it. And watching a bunch of 3-5 year olds play t-ball is hilarious. It's more like tackle baseball.

Halloween Activities

Here in Henderson they have trick or treating activities all over the place before the actual Halloween night. I knew of five different places we could take the kids trick or treating in three days. We only made it to two of the activities and they happened to be on the same day. First we went with Maylee's preschool to trick or treat at the rec center and then let the kids play in the bounce houses they have set up at the end of the trick or treating.

I saw this little mermaid costume on pinterest that I thought was adorable, but mine version of it didn't turn out so great. But Maylee still liked it, I guess that's all that matters. Then that night we headed over to a different rec center for some more candy. Talli was super cute dancing to the music. Dutch and Maylee enjoyed playing some games and filling up there buckets with way too much candy. Oh yeah, David and I were there too!

I was making myself a dress out of purple and white stripped fabric that I got from California. Well when Maylee saw the fabric she asked if I would make her a matching one, since purple is her favorite color, as her argument went. And I just couldn't tell her no. So then I decided to do a whole matchy thing with my girls. I have never had all three of us match each other so I was pretty excited. Talli was super excited about her "fitting" and ran around in circles hamming it up. She is one stinking cute girl. All ready for church.

For Maylee's preschool field trip we took the kids to the Fire Station. Dutch was beyond thrilled because he had been learning all about fires, fire safety and firemen at his own preschool. The kids got the whole tour and then got to walk through the Fire truck and the ambulance. Then they let them "try on" their packs. The kids all loved it.

I was at the grocery store and when I was checking out the cashier told me they were handing out free tickets to the car race and asked if we wanted any. I figured it was something Dutch would really enjoy so I got some tickets and the next day we headed over to the Speedway to watch the race. I have been to Monster Truck shows, which I thought was awesome but never to races. And it turns out that I was the one who was most interested in the race. Dutch thought it was cool and Maylee and Talli could not believe we dragged them down there. I could not believe how loud the cars are. It was a lot of fun!

Talli got a hold of the box of cheesy pretzels and I'm pretty sure she knew she wasn't suppose to have them because I found her with them, hiding in her bedroom. She was so proud of herself.

A couple of Sundays ago after church I was just so tired so I grabbed a pillow of the couch and laid down on the floor to try and get a little cat nap in. David threw a blanket over me and then the kids decided that it looked like a lot of fun to take a nap on the floor. Needless to say I didn't get a cat nap in. My nap buddies were a little to wiggly for my likely.

Dutch turned 5!

Five Years Old! How does time fly so fast? It seems like just yesterday that we had Dutch and at the same time it seems like we have always had Dutch, it's hard to picture life before him. David and I decided that we would only do a big friend party for our kids on their even birthday's and then a family party on their odd birthdays. But I still wanted him to feel like it was his decision, that way if he really wanted a friend party we could have one and not be sad that he didn't. So I presented him with his options, he could have a friend birthday party or he could go to Chuck E Cheese and get presents. He choose Chuck E Cheese, it's his favorite place. Our good friends Brian & Celynda and there kids joined us. We got lots of tokens and let the kids loose. They had a blast. This year Dutch's birthday landed on a Sunday so we celebrated at Chuck E Cheese the night before and let him open one presents, which was the Lego Batman game for the Wii. That way him and David could play it that night. Now I'm not sure who likes the game more, David or Dutch. Then on Sunday it was a pretty low key birthday, we had a special breakfast and then went to church. When we got home from church he got to open the rest of his gifts and then we just spent the evening hanging out. We love our Dutch Boy and we all had a great time celebrating Dutch. He is such a good kid and we are lucky to have him in our family. Maylee is holding hands with Brookie, her best friend. It will be heart breaking when we have to separate these two girls for residency. I feel the same way about when Celynda and I will have to move away from each other. Opening presents from Lukas and Brookie, thanks guys. Opening presents!

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy!

Tuacahn

I started going to Tuacahn with my family when I hit my early teens and I instantly fell in love with the place. I love watching plays and musicals. Ever since we have moved to Las Vegas I have been wanting to take advantage of the fact that we now only live two hours from Tuacahn and was hoping to see a lot of shows there. And when I got the brochure for the plays for this summer and saw that they were doing The Little Mermaid and Grease nothing could keep me from going. So we decided to go make a trip to St. George during David's month off. My Dad also loves Tuacahn and so him and my Aunt Lisa made the trip up here to see the shows with us, and Noah was able to fly down to see Grease with us.

I unfortunately am not good with the whole time zone, time change thingy. I always forget to calculate that into my plans. So I was babysitting on Tuesday and Liza was being picked up at 5 which I figured was perfect because the show didn't start til 8:15 so that gave us over three hours to get there, perfect. Until Noah called at five Nevada time and asked where Dad was because he was suppose to pick him up at the airport. I told him that Dad had left my house at 3 and should be there any minute. Noah then asked, "Do you remember that Utah is an hour behind you." Lets just say I had major freak out moment. That now gave us less then two hours to make it to Tuacahn. I was a wreck, tickets for a family of five aren't necessarily cheap and I didn't want to pay that much money to miss the first 45 minutes of the show. But it was too late to exchange our tickets, so we had to make it that night. I was in a bad mood, and David was determined to get me there to see my show. Grease was the first night and that was the show I was looking forward to the most. I won't tell you how fast David was driving, because it even made him uncomfortable going that fast but needless to say we got there as the show was starting. St. George is two hours from our house, we left at 5:30 our time and made it there at 8:16 Utah time which is 7:16 our time, we were flying, through the Gorge, David said we will never do that again. Anyways Grease was amazing, we had awesome seats and well... the show was just spectacular.

Noah could only stay for one night, so Dad and I woke up early to take him to the airport to fly home. When we pulled up at the airport Noah asked if I would like to fly with him for a few minutes before he left. Heck yeah! I was Noah's first passenger when we got his license at 17 and I was 15 and I haven't been up since. So It's been 12 years since my last flight with him. To say I was nervous is an understatement, planes scare me regardless of who is flying but I was still so excited. My legs went numb when we took off but after that I was fine and it was so much fun to fly with Noah. Hopefully I won't go another 12 years before our next flight. The rest of the day we spent taking my Aunt Lisa to some of the historical church sights in St. George that she's never been too. We went Brigham Youngs summer house, the tabernacle and we walked around the temple. It started raining while we were at Brigham Young's house so we sat out on the covered patio and took tons of pictures.

Then we headed to dinner and then to see The Little Mermaid. Maylee was as excited to see The Little Mermaid as I was to see Grease. And I was super excited to take Maylee to see The Little Mermaid. She had been talking about it for a month. And she kept talking about how she was going to give the REAL Ariel a hug. Maylee loved the play, she sat perfectly still and never took her eyes off the stage. Dutch on the other hand wasn't that into it and just wanted to go play with Talli and the kids care center there. I loved it and thought they put on an excellent show. We had a great time in St. George and I'm so glad we finally made it to Tuacahn again.

For Grease David and I put all three kids in their Kids Show Care center, it was so nice to be able to enjoy the show kid free.

Noah snuck a picture of himself on my camera. It was so fun to see him. We just don't get to see him often enough. Watching the pre-shows. Maylee didn't even hesitate when it was her turn to meet Ariel. She just ran right up to her and wrapped her arms around her neck. It was so adorable. And Dutch was terrified to even stand next to Ariel for a family photo. This was a hard picture to try and get three kids to look in the same direction.