Facebook Friday

I'm very happy I chose not to shovel the driveway this morning. The snow is completely melted. (2/26)

WW week 4 weigh in. Down 1.2 lbs 6.8 total. Ah yeah. (2/26)

Sophie needs her tonsils and adenoid removed. Anyone in Utah County know a good ENT? (2/21)

Birthday run for the BEAutiful and amazing Jill. There is no other way I'd want to start my day. (2/21)

No work tomorrow!!! Hooray! (2/20)

Watching the slam dunk contest. These guys are amazing. (2/19)

First lost tooth! (2/19)

Just bought new running shoes. I can't wait to try them out tomorrow. (2/18)

WW week 3 down 1.6 lbs. 5.6 total. Ah yeah. And I put in 25 miles in the last week. (2/18)

Pictures on my phone

I love looking through the pictures on my phone. I find sweet gems like this. Sophie took a picture of herself to put in this "make a princess" app on my phone.

Tayson's First Tooth

He's 8 1/2 years old and he finally lost his first tooth. On Friday night Todd and I went out and then Saturday morning Tayson came in with his tooth in a baggie and the following conversation took place

Tayson: did Eric tell you I lost my tooth?
Me: Nope he sure didn't. Tonight you can put it under your pillow and I can make sure the Tooth Fairy knows you lost it
Tayson: Come on mom I know you're the tooth fairy and Santa
Me: Huh? Who told you that?
Tayson: It's pretty obvious.
Me: OK can I just give you a dollar then?
Tayson: Nah you can still put it under my pillow
Me: Sounds good

Of course I totally forgot that night to pay up and then on Sunday he pulled out his second tooth and told us he wanted us to buy him some crowns for Wizards 101 instead. It was hilarious to me. The kid is such a crack up. When his second tooth was loose I was going to pull it out and told him to tell me if it hurt and I would stop. I heard it make a loud crack sound then he said stop. It was barely hanging on and he came back in within 5 minutes showing us that he pulled it out himself.

Welcome Baby Parker

My little sister Jeannie had her baby! Another beautiful, big boy. I was so glad I got to attend the birth. She did an amazing job and was happy the entire time. There was a bit of a scare at the end - the cord was wrapped around Parker as he was coming out. I saw the doctor pull the cord off him then we saw that his hand was up holding the cord so his shoulder and elbow were getting in the way. The doc was awesome and managed to help position him and then Jeannie gave a nice big push and his shoulders and the rest of his body came out. He was so blue and bruised from the cord but by the next day when I went to visit he was pink and adorable. Could my sister be any more beautiful minutes after delivery???? It's just wrong!


I love that Trent was wearing his "Jacob" shirt. Only T could get away with something that hilarious. This little boy is lucky to be in such an awesome family.

The Details: Parker Daniel - 8 lbs 13 oz, 21 inches long born at 6:39 pm.

My little Sophie

Yesterday Meggan had an appointment to go to so I had a visitor with me for a half hour at work. Sophie was so excited to color on my board and to color on paper and to look at her picture. She chatted non-stop with anyone willing to listen to her and I helped translate. She is such a sweet little thing.

Then after I got home from work she put on her Hello Kitty rain boots and headed outside for some 50 degree weather and a bit later I heard her screaming - she never screams so I hurried out there. She was completely stuck in a big mud puddle. I pulled her out of her boots and then got her boots free too. They were really stuck. She was so distraught about her boots being covered in mud.

She has been re-potty training the last 1 1/2 weeks and is pretty much potty trained again. Hooray! Last night she wore a huge nightgown to bed so it touched the ground and was way too big for her. This morning while I was getting the boys all ready for school she took herself back to go potty and ended up with half of it on her pj's and the floor and the other half in the potty. It was pretty funny to me. She came out right as I was getting the boys in the car and she has to go with me to drop them off so I pulled off her nightgown which left her completely naked, she put on her hot pink sparkle shoes and a long coat and off we went to school. Good thing we just sit in the car and drop them off. Every day she has to come with me to take the boys and when she sees the bus she always says "choo choo bus!! choo choo bus!!" Oh how I love my sweet bug.

It's the Little Things

This morning I was rushing to get the boys off to school (still in my bathrobe of course) and when I was getting a coat for Sophie I saw a special surprise. Who cares if I'm late...I had to get my camera. This picture was taken in our mud room about 5 feet from the laundry room.


I sent a text to Todd with the picture that just said "seriously????" I mean honestly who bundles up their dirty socks and hangs them on a coat hook 5 feet from the laundry room? The best is that he texted back "I wondered how long it would take you to find them." I'm sure if this happened in someone else's home they might be upset ... and maybe a few years ago I would have been too. But not me. It made me smile and miss Todd. He is one quirky guy and has seriously issues with picking up his socks.

Like Father Like Daughter

My mother-in-law posted this picture of Todd on her blog today and it reminded me of a picture I took last month of Claire.

The Fish Tank

Where do I begin with this post? I guess right from the very start.

The beginning. Three years ago Todd decided he wanted to get a salt water fish tank. I wasn't very happy about it but finally consented to let him spend his own money on a used 90 gallon tank. It cost him $500. The night he drove up to Sandy to pick it up ended up being the worst storm of the year and it took him over 2 hours to just get to the guys house. Then they had to pick it up and bring it home and set it up. It was quite a project. Speaking of projects - once he had it set up there were numerous trips to the fish store and to home depot to get everything set up and working. We started with a clown fish, yellow tang and cleaner shrimp. We had our very own "Finding Nemo" tank going on. Bubbles (the yellow tang) was the craziest fish - it would speed around the tank and sometimes run into things. The kids loved that we had Nemo fish.

The fish. There have been lots and lots of fish come and go from the tank over the years. We've never been able to keep a blue fish (of any kind) alive more than a few weeks. So it became a running joke. Todd bought an eel online (the shipping was 3 times the price of the fish) and it committed suicide by jumping out of the tank. We found it dried up behind the tank. Then he bought another snowflake eel and it grew and grew and grew. It got so big and we saw it eat one of the fish so we had to catch it and take it back to the fish store. It was tough to catch and even after we got it into the plastic bag it jumped out and was squirming around on the carpet. Yes I screamed when it jumped out. Bubbles, this crazy starfish and one of our clown fish were our longest lasting fish in the tank. In the early days of the tank Todd bought these crazy shrimp that would eat starfish. I hated them. Thank goodness that phase only lasted a few months. There were times when we had lots of fish and times when they would keep dying and we only had 2 - 3 fish. Todd bought some new fancy lights for the tank and then started adding coral which were cool. I liked the movement of the anemone and other coral. The anemone was cool because the clown fish loved to go in it.

The upgrade. The tank is big in my opinion 90 gallons is a huge home tank. I always joked about how only doctors offices and Chinese restaurants had tanks that big. Todd was always trying to talk me into getting a 150 gallon tank and reinforcing the floors and drilling this and that and knocking out walls and all sorts of other crazy talk. And this from the guy who doesn't like to hang up too many pictures and paint walls in case we ever want to sell our house. Anyway, I always said no and there were even a few arguments over it so it never happened. Then he started traveling so that was out of the question. Timmy and I would take care of the fish during the week (I always tried to be sneaky when I was feeding the fish because Sophie loved to do it and then it was a lot more work because I would have to lift up the top, pull back the glass and pick her up just to throw in 2 cubes of food). And on the weekends Todd would do water changes and cleaning and stuff. But the thought of doing major work when he is gone so much was just out of the question.

The end. So we decided to replace all of our carpet with wood floors this year and Todd kept trying to figure out what to do with the fish tank. You can't just move it and even if we empty it the fish will only last so long outside of the tank. So he decided to put up for sale online in preparation for the new floors and had a buyer within a few hours. The guy sent a text at 4:00 am! He came and looked at the tank the next day and the next week he and several of his buddies were at our house to pick it up. I will admit I was a bit upset that Todd put it up for sale without asking me. I've become a bit attached to it recently and I actually miss it. I'm sure that was his ploy to get a bigger one in a few years! The front room seems empty and quiet without it. I'm sure I'll get used to it being gone. But I honestly do miss how peaceful it was to just sit and watch the fish swim around.

Valentines Day

Todd was out of town for Valentines Day this year. BOO! Oh how I missed my valentine! But, instead of being sad and moping around all day I decided to have a party for the kids. After all it is a holiday all about showing love and I love love love my kiddos. So I bought heart shaped pizza which came with a very delicious S'more dessert pizza, made chocolate dipped strawberries and red kool-aid and we had a party. I bought valentine plates, napkins, fancy cups, confetti, Hershey kisses, cards and presents for all the kiddos and then lit the candles for our awesome dinner.





The kids had so much fun eating by candle light and Luke even said "mom - this is the BEST Valentine ever!" I'm sure that will change once he starts liking girls...but for now I'm glad that his mom can give him the best v-day ever. I kept trying to give the boys kisses and they would run away - hilarious.

During dinner I sent a picture to Todd telling him how much we missed him and he sent me back a picture of his lean cuisine that he was eating in his hotel room. Sad. Of course thanks to weight watchers I too had a lean cuisine while the kids ate the pizza.

On a side note: When Todd and I were doing the boys school valentines we laughed so dang hard. They are so silly and they always tease each other. One of them would tease the other one about one of the girls in their class and then they would deny it. Hilarious. Tayson even asked Luke if he wanted to "make out" with so-and-so. Ha. Of course we asked him if he knew what that meant and he said no - what a silly boy. I sure hope that they keep doing this when they are teenagers so I always know what's going on in their lives.

Harry Potter

Last year Todd talked the boys into earning money and buying a turtle. Sounded like a great idea at the time. It was pretty expensive ($100 not including the lights, bark, etc) but the boys had enough cash so they all went to the pet store and bought a Russian Tortoise and named him Harry Potter. We lost him once when he escaped in the backyard during FHE but found him a few days later at a neighbors house. We had him in an old fish tank and he never did anything until we put him in a wooden box - and he has blossomed ever since. Sophie loves her turtle and likes to bury him in the bark and sometimes put his food or water bowl on top of him. She loved it when I would give her veggies to put in his cage.

When Todd put the fish tank up for sale he put the turtle up for sale too. We got an offer from a breeder but didn't know if he was a boy or girl ... HA! Then the guy who bought our fish tank said he wife loved the turtle and he ended up buying it the same day he took the fish tank. Not a bad day's work. When he was carrying the cage out to his car Sophie was following him saying "turtle...turtle...." it was hilarious. We are now a 1 pet family - and no we are NOT selling Shadow.

Happy Valentines to Me

Todd bought tickets to see Spamalot a few months ago for our Valentine's date. We love going to the theater so it was the perfect date. Steve & Christine and Jeannie & Trent came with us too. We went to dinner before, to the play then to get desert after. It was so much fun. I love that Todd enjoys going to the theater as much as I do and I always love getting dressed up and going on a big date. I'm sad that this Valentine's day he won't be home (first time ever for us) but we had so much fun I keep reminding myself that the 14th is just a date on the calendar. I sure do love Todd and everyday I am so glad that he married me. He truly is the perfect match for me.

Facebook Friday

Just finished a great night of bowling with my Ragnar girls. I LOVE it!! (Thursday 2/10)

Today is my grandma Jean's 97 birthday! It look likes her daily 1 mile swim is still paying off. She is amazing!!! (Wednesday 2/9)

Just hit the 100 mile mark. Only 900 left to go and I have 10 1/2 months to get there. (Wednesday 2/9)

For some reason I don't feel right using my weekly points. I'm ok going into activity points but feel like my weekly points are there only for major emergencies. (Tuesday 2/8)

I'm starving and don't feel like cooking. (Tuesday 2/8)

Temple and dinner for our date. I'm a lucky girl. (Saturday 2/5)

Girls Night - Bowling

For our monthly Ragnar meeting we went bowling. Just for the record I don't like bowling very much....I suck at it and I hate sucking at stuff. Todd has always tried to get me to embrace the game, but I just can't do it. We take our kids all the time but I usually just watch. Well it was evident in our first game that I suck at bowling. I started the game with 4 gutter balls - UGH! But then I finally started warming up and by the second game I did ok and didn't bring my team (Van #1) down much. All in all the night was a blast - which just goes to show no matter what we're doing if I'm with my crazy fun running friends it will be awesome!

Jill started the night off with a bang!

Van 2
Melissa, Steph, Jen, Gretchen and Jill

Van 1's rocker - Lisa's pants are too funny!

The overall winners .... Van 1
Lisa, Gina, Laurie, Me & Traci

Superbowl Sunday

We don't watch football, we don't play football but we love the Superbowl. It's fun to have a party and it's fun to watch the game. This year Todd and I started weight watchers the week before so I had to figure out how to have a party and still manage my points. I spent a lot of time on the WW website planning and finding healthy options. I made homemade peanut butter dip, salsa, 7-layer bean dip and a sausage and pepper pasta. My mom and Christine both brought healthy soups too. It was delicious, I ate until I hurt and I still kept within my points. YIPPEE!

Facebook Friday

Friday nights are not what they used to be...leftovers, kids watching a movie and me in my comfy clothes playing on facebook. I need a life. (6:34 pm Friday 2/4)

Weight watchers week 1 update: lost 3.9 pounds and ran 23 miles last week. Boo yah. (7:13 am Friday 2/4)

Tonight is an everyone is sick, put on your jammies and watch a movie at 6:30 kinda night. (6:32 Thursday 2/3)

Parent teacher conferences are over. Luke's teacher couldn't praise him enough (and he wasn't even there since he's sick). The best part was that Tayson had a good one. First time ever -including kindergarten. :) (5:26 Wednesday 2/2)

My poor sweet Luke is so sick. He has been asleep most of the day. I hate it when my kiddos don't feel good. (9:45 pm Tuesday 2/1)

I got a new computer yesterday. But in the process lost my blog book since I hadn't uploaded it yet. UGH UGH UGH! (11:44 am Tuesday 2/1)

First group training run of 2011. Watch out Ragnar. Here we come. (Saturday 1/28)