a half:half-way and other goods...

i love mornings when the sky just GLOWS with the sunrise and I'm up to see it
...SOOO pretty.

car show in Mesquite...becoming a yearly tradition...
we are the minority in this crowd but its killer for Charlie!
he is in HEAVEN here...he even had a twiner model car...

our early valentines get-a-way.  we stayed at the honeymoon trails "cave"
-right here in town
such a cool place... thanks ricki for taking our kids! 
we went on a little hike the next morning that overlooked george
such a great 'relax' time!  

then my parents came to see us! they stayed longer than they ever have!
 yay for mom and dad!
of course we went hiking, cuz the weather was rockin' compared to up north in snowville.

went out for pizza...kids love grandma time...

went hiking again...to Johnson Arch or something like that ...near the scout caves trail, near the entrance to  snow canyon...

celebrated Charlie's birthday yet again...
i am officially changing his birthday celebration to January 26th..there, its done. 

and while my momma was here- she came to my OB appt where we found out we're having a GIRL!!
rube's is way excited...wants to name her ginger...we'll see about that:)
we went out to eat several more times while they were here
...it seems like that's all we did...eat and hike.

this little man is an awesome potty goer!!  it took only about 3 days.  thinking it would never click and then it did! just like that.  there were definitely some frustrating moments...like thinking he would need to sit and play monkey games on my phone for an hour each time he had to go.  but that all passed with time and he now wants to just get on and get the job done. no fuss.  it's so worth waiting till their ready/ and usually when the 'boy' turns 3 is about the time they can handle that! i would definitely changes diapers for an extra 6 months till they are 3 then deal with accidents and set backs and the like!  gag.  

so i thought i might not be able to pull this off...cuz i hadn't been training that great and i never really ran much past 12 weeks with my other pregnancies but this great gal ran with me and made these awes shirts- we are due at the same time in JULY- so it was super fun and doable to run with someone in the same 'situation' as me.  we just took it easy and didn't PUSH for a certain goal/time.  it was a relaxing, fun race!  i am so glad i did it.  and other than being pretty hungry that night and having a nasty cold hit me pretty much right after the race ended  ...my body felt great and i'm not really sore or anything.  thanks heather for being my partner in crime and running a HALF marathon =on our exact HALF way mark of pregnancy...
great times!!

here is the start line...with my running, training buddies/peeps-whom i dearly love-bri and ricki-even though they kicked my butt in the race
and my, so fun, i love her to death, sister in law...who is my sister by heart-JAMI and her brother Brody- they came down from layton to run it and it was jami who got me to sign up for the dang thing in the first place...we ran a half in the fall last year in vegas...see HERE   i think we should make it a ritual to run halfs' together every couple months...she's a great to run with and motivate me!!  Brody did awesome, it was his first run ever! and he finished under 2 hours!

finished!! such a good feeling...such a high...
ps. this cute little blonde thing is also preggo -12 weeks!
so the 3 of us-me, heather and jami ran -all fat and sassy together!!
okay i am the only fat and sassy one but still ...

Love this group, even the tinies..who couldn't let go of their mommies once they were in sight! ha!  

hallo & color me...

gutsy pumpkins...eeeewwh! 
 good thing daddy came home and helped you gut out the rest -
poor children..

school party-mummy wrapping!
and ruby's annual school parade...

the real deal, this ain't no ward party!
charlie parked himself right down on the street with his little friend max
 after just 4 or 5 houses- to pick at his treasures...
he was happy... and done!

color me rad... or sad(that's how my kids acted anyway)
me trying to keep ruby warm at the start line...
vERy COld day!!

charlie was a trooper...liam was at a soccer game
ruby and dax also rode in the stroller-on the back end-most of the 5k distance
remember folks, daxton is not yet 6 and ruby will be 8 in march!
she'll have LOTS of choices for a spouse...height will never be an issue.

 

pretty scenery! i love the snow capped mountains with red rock landscape...
 that is marty in the right corner pushing the stroller!
what a stud. 
dax rolling in the pink haze...

mom and son chambers...oh~
three crazies trying to look cool as we throw powder on each other..

unrecognizable ruby...she suffered through the cold,
it wouldn't have been so bad withouth the wind!...

i'll just say it was really nice to go take a hot shower after this!!!!!
ps. thanks dixie direct for getting us into this race! may the savings-force be with you!!
 

St. George Runathon

OUR first marathon, and we did it together.  October 6, 2012. 
 I was so proud of my husband.  His longest training run was only 17
 and he didn't do as many longer runs as he should have. 
He stepped it up on race day. 
The end of the race was tough.  I tried to make myself
have an out of body experience, so I would'nt feel the pain. 
kind of like i did 2.8 years ago when i birthed my 3rd child naturally... HERE

 Starting line wating game...the nerves were setting in thinking about what we needed to do during the next 4 hours!
these girls-ricki and bri-got me through.  they helped me train.
got my behind out of bed in the early morning hours to run run run.
i wouldn't have done this without a running partner! thats for darn sure!
 marty and i couldn't train together...so thanks sistas!!

we seem so innocent and unaware...ha!
these 'high quality' pics were taken with rickis i phone:)
better than nothing!
thanks for providing memories rick, since i still own a slider w/no internet! 

We didn't have any family in town, mine were all in Lake Powell! stinkers.
but we had some dear friends come and bring our kids.
and made us posters.
and brought us donuts and drinks!
and took all these pics with her phone so we could have some documentation!

SOOO glad to be done.  couldn't stop smiling.  it felt so good to actually be DONE.
St. George marathon is such a fun race.  I've heard that from so many people, but Marty and I both had a great experience...so i believe it
there were 5716 finishers...
 

Ruby made this poster ALL by herself. 
yes, even block-cheerleader letters.  she is a pro. so sweet of her!
it was so fun to have them there at the finish.

these two crazies made it happen, i heart them.
they sacrificed the better part of the day to help us out.
we had my visiting teacher {bless her}come over at 4:45 to sit with the kids till 8
then my neighbor took them till 10
then tash and toph took them and brought them here and sifted thru the craziness of the finsih line and millions of people- with 2 double strollers & 5 kids under 2 feet tall~!!

just like Pres. Uchtdorf said during conference saturday...
we will fail to find joy in the journey if we are so focused on the finish line. 
 i truly felt calm and had fun during this run. i just took it easy in the beginning.
 leading up to 'the day', i kept calling it a race and marty kept calling it a journey, he helped me chill out and think of it as a journey- i did and i enjoyed it so much more. 
you bet i started focusing on the finish line those last 3 or 4 miles-cuz i wanted to stop running!.. but up until then i was having a good time.
 thanks for that perspective honey.  love you.
marty didn't take a picture but his time was 4:31:36!
some other blessings we noticed: 
 no injuries reported between us during training or race day...
the weather was perfect, never got too hot, mid 80's.
i was bothered by that time of the month but no cramping
our kids were well taken care of the whole day
and....we finished! 
check that off the ole' bucket list...

Week from H. E. double toothpicks



 THE FLU...THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY. 
SOMEONE PLEASE KICK ME IF I EVER THINK OF NOT GETTING MY KIDS A FLU SHOT AGAIN!
I kept putting it off and then forgot and somehow in the funny part in the back of my mind I thought... 'people don't get as sick here like they do up north..because it's mild weather and your not cooped up in your house or buildings all winter spreading germs, so they probably don't need a flu shot!' 
 HA!

It hit us on Wednesday. And it went in this order...

1. Ruby- woke up in the night on Wednesday with stomach cramps.  She threw up twice but was up several times crying with her pains.  The next day -Thursday- she didn't leave her bed ONCE, not once.  She was in a terrible state.  A fever and cramps and aching body and kept saying her chest hurt.  So I was her nurse-maid: in and out of her room all day.
She was miserable, poor baby girl.

2.  Liam started coughing in the night on Thursday.  Nothing much, but Friday he started coughing more and more he couldn't take a nap because he was coughing so much..  Saturday he was coughing NON stop.  I mean literally nonstop.  It is the worst I have ever seen or had in my kids.  And it was a deep barking cough (not the croupe kind-but still a bark) it took everything he had each time he had a coughing fit.  I'm sure he had a sore, raw throat from all the coughing. And if I had a headache I'm sure his was pounding.  I almost wanted to shake him several times and say STOP COUGHING!!!!  It was so unnerving for two days straight.  It has been the most frustrating couple of days in my parenting career.  Especially at night when his coughing kept us all awake.  The worst part was...nothing helped, no doTerra, no cough syrup, no steaming shower, no humidifier, no cough drops, nothing. 
Poor baby boy.

3.  Charlie- got the bug too but it manifested itself not so much in throwing up, which her never did thank goodness- but diarrhea!  He had terrible diarrhea all day on Saturday.  Just straight squirts and it made his behind so irritated and raw.  The most foul smell.  I even called Marty home early from the Preisthood Leadership Meeting he was at on Saturday afternoon because I went to change yet another diaper and it was like 2 full cups of liquid-too much to even soak into the diaper!!  Never seen that before, it scared me.  I had to hold him over the toilet to even take the diaper off and it all came splashing down into the bowl.  When I looked in to see if his insides came out with it, I noticed two weird looking things in all that liquid...I thought it was a parasite or something.  Come to find out it was an undigested gutted out grape:)  So good thing Marty came home to help me figure that out.
  Poor baby, baby boy.

In the end- the kids had different symptoms to begin...but they ALL developed a fever, the squirts and that dang cough!
Noone coughed like Liam did though.  I wonder what made his so bad and consistent...endless.

Now between me and Marty- he got the chest cold/cough part and I got the stomach bug.  Like I said...
 THE WORST WEEK EVER. 



visitors and fall fun!

We had THIS going on whilst my sister and her family were enroute to our house!  {REALLY?}  We've never had strep in our household- what immaculate timing.



Soooo, they rented a hotel for two-unplanned nights in a row and we finally spent some time (kidless) Friday for dinner...which was way fun and then we went hiking with them and our kids on Saturday.  It was 24 hours after the antibiotics...so we were in the safe zone:)



The cousins were in heaven when they FINALLY got to see each other.  It was like torture to tell them they were in town but at a hotel!

We hiked at red rock again.  It was different then a month ago when we went w/our friends.  There was water in the pools this time...cold water , but water just the same and kids have to get wet when they see water.

Finally a little glimpse of FALL in ST. GEORGE. ha!  It was beautiful with the red rock background.

Morgan is Ruby's favorite!  She adores her.  Morgan held Ruby's hand most the way back to our car.  Needless to say, Courtney could have used that hand holding- she was so brave when we were swimming...but, cried the entire trek back.  Poor thing was cold and tired.



We went to Staheli Farms for Liam's pre-school class field trip.  Charlie tagged along and spent his time massaging the goats behind and chasing this stray chicken....little stink!



Liam's class...we do a joy-school type thing and switch off teaching every 5 weeks...works out pretty nicely!  The kids showing off their loot from a package from Grandma Sharon and Ric and then days later they got another from Grandpa Lee and Merry...spoiled!  Why trick or treat?

Yes, the incredibles AGAIN.  I know, I know...lame.  But the kids loved it and it wasn't lame to St. Georgian folk...they didn't know us last year!  Liam won a cupcake at the ward cake walk...he was so thrilled.

Charlie was the MAN at handing out candy at the trunk or treat...he picked up the slack from Marty.

Next we had Jared and Ingrid come for the weekend.  We went to Zion's with them.  It was so GORGEOUS>  This is a little stop on the way.  Kind of fun.

We got to feed the animals some carrots...if you look closely in the 'jail' picture above this one...Charlie ate his own-

More leaves!  yay!  I LOVE FALL still. 

After our hike we spent some time by the river...so relaxing, and did I mention beautiful?

We had a little Hallo party at Tasha's on Sunday.  Bobbing for apples and a cake walk...you can't go wrong with the kids!

Marty had to show them how it was done.  They'd never done it before...it took a while to get the hang of it and a lot of 'wetness' to finally accomplish the task!

Liam did it next!  Ruby got it too, but cheated a little by biting the stem, or she was smarter than the others... not sure?

Charlie, well he just got wet... and loved every minute of it.