Flashback Friday - 4th of July

One year ago....

Todd had very long hair

I was VERY prego

Claire was young and sweet

Luke was always happy (and he still is)

And Tayson's clothes fit
(he still wears this outfit and it's way too small now)

Happy 4th of July!

This year we are spending the week in California and will make lots of great memories I will miss the Schultz/Johnson fireworks and the neighborhood sidewalk of fire though. :)

Top 10

David, George, Timmy, Dad, Mark, Me
Steve, Sherry, Danny, Mom, Heidi, Jeannie

Last week my family came in town. All 10 of us were together which rarely happens. Since there are 10 of us I thought I would do my top 10 for the week.

1. Mark coming home and his awesome talk
   
2. George playing charades (I'm torn between "star performer" and "heart seat")
3. Watching the boys tube (or wrestle on the water behind the boat)
   
4. Family pictures
5. The "Roman Flu" (honestly, who doesn't love cleaning up kids throw up)
6. The fact that Sherry took a kitten home (especially after we tried to make George take one home)
   
7. Kenadi beating Cody in an arm wrestle
8. George beating Mark in an arm wrestle
9. Blessing baby Josephine (even though I missed it by 3 minutes!!!)
10. All the red Schultz shirts being worn (my kids wear theirs so much they are pink now)
    

Yesterday right after everyone left sweet Luke said "mom, why does everyone have to leave?" and I explained to him that people had to go back to their own houses and to work and then he asked "can't they work from our house and just live here?" I agree with him. I already miss the chaos of having 10 extra people in my house!

My baby's all grown up...

Glen, Sophie, Ella

I saw this sweet picture of the 3 babies (all born within 3 weeks last summer) and it made me sad for how fast they all grew up. Glen just had his first birthday and my baby Sophie turns 1 next week soon followed by Ella's b-day. They were all together last week and they are so different now. I need a picture of the 3 of them together because Glen is twice the size of the girls now and there is no way we could get them to sit still for a picture like this one - they all go in different directions.

Why is she growing up so fast???

He's Home!!!

I can't believe it 2 years is over and gone and Mark is home. His flight got in this morning at 8:45 am.

Mark looks great and it was so fun to be there to welcome him home. There were 7 (maybe 8) missionaries from his mission on the flight and Mark led the way down the escalator. I of course cried (so did Heidi and my dad and maybe a few others that hid it well). The kids were so excited and held up the signs they made yesterday. By tomorrow night all of us will be together!!!

here we are waiting

coming down the escalator

I'm pretty sure my dad was the most excited

Mark, Claire and I

The whole welcoming committee

Two funny things about the signs:

1. The kids are holding the ones they decorated. Notice how neat Luke colored his and how crazy Tayson did his. Tayson put BYU all over his even though we told him Mark went to the U. And Luke put a b-day cake on his for some reason.
2. On the back of one we wrote "Pwned" it was supposed to be "pwnd" I guess. Some gaming thing that means owned. Anyways...Todd, Timmy, David and Mark understood and got a kick out of it.
   

**funny side note about his flight: My parents were gone until about a week ago so we weren't sure exactly when Mark was getting home so I called the mission home to ask them for his flight info. I explained who I was and that my parents were out of town for 7 weeks but she was still hesitant to give it to me. So I told her I would go check the mail at my parents house and then I asked if it wasn't there should I just call back. So she said "just a minute" and then came back and asked me a bunch of questions. "what are your parents full names?" "who is Mark's stake president?" "What is his middle name?" I of course knew all the answers (thank goodness Mark is in my stake or I wouldn't have known that one) then I asked her if she wanted to know how much he weighed at birth. I shouldn't have said it and I didn't mean to sound sarcastic it was all just so funny to me. But in the end she gave me the info.

He's Coming Home

I can't believe it! Tomorrow morning I will be at the airport with a BIG smile on my face and a sign in my hands to welcome Mark home. I am 100% sure that I will cry (I'm about to just thinking about it).

Here are a few of my favorite memories of Mark's mission over the past 2 years:

• His first Christmas out he sent home 1 Christmas card to my house that I was supposed to share with everyone (including family members out of state...what in the world?)
  
• Seeing Mark both years on our drive to Cali for Christmas. We ate at Chipotle both times (according to Mark it's a tradition if you do it more than once)
• Mark's final email (word for word..."Family 2 John 1:12 Elder Schultz"
• His hilarious emails about biking
• The amazing letters that came home from people who's lives he has touched
• Knowing that he was out there doing the Lord's will and LOVING it
• Hearing my kids pray for him
  
• The fact that 6 kids were born while he was on his mission

I know there are a million more things that I love and want to document but I'm just so excited it's hard to remember....

Here are a few of the things we have planned for the next few days:

• Going to the airport bright and early in the morning
• George, Sherry and Danny all coming in town
• All 10 kids together again (it's been sooooo long since we've all been together)
  
• Family pictures
• Volleyball
• Boating/Swimming
• Going running with Sherry and/or Danny (everyone's invited)
  
• Hopefully going on a bike ride
  
• Lots and lots of computer gaming and board games for the boys (all night every night is what I've heard)
• Mark speaking in church on Sunday
• Heidi blessing baby Josephine on Sunday
• I get to have about 10 extra people sleeping at my house and couldn't be more excited
  

All the meals are planned and food assignments are handed out...all that's left to do is decorate signs and clean my house! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!

Provo Triathlon

Today Todd and Timmy did the Provo Triathlon. It's always fun to get to go and cheer them on instead of having the stress of doing the event. They both did such a great job today.


Timmy wanted to beat 1:30 in the sprint distance and came in at 1:24 taking 5th in his age group. He kicked it in so strong at the end and his run was under 8:00 min/mil




Todd had a great race. He did the Olympic distance and finished in 2:53. He averaged over 20 mph on the bike and right around 9:00 min/miles. He was awesome and looked so great so the whole time. I was so proud of him. He took 3rd in his age group. Way to go babe!!!










I really love watching Todd race. It makes me happy that we both love to race and do events.

Flashback Friday - Mark and the Chairs

There are so many great things about this picture:

• Mark is too cute and so little
• The Cookie Monster chair is mine (I got it for Christmas when I was 8)
• Big Bird is Heidi's
• The eyeballs are already missing and these chairs are probably just under 10 years old in this picture.
  
• I remember seeing the big box with the chair in it hidden in my mom's shower the Sunday before Christmas when my mom was fixing my hair
• The mini-tramp in the background. My mom would do her exercises on it, but we kids really knew how to have fun with it.
• The awesome pink pictures on the wall in the background. Especially the fact that the big one has some award just put on top of the frame. Classic.

These pictures were taken Easter 2009
28 years and 2 houses later the chairs live on...

you really can't beat little tikes for a long lasting product.