10K

So today I decided to run a 10K just to see if I could do it, and I DID!! I was so proud of myself, although I did think I was going to die! It took me 1hr 4min. Obviously not sprinting through any of it, but I ran the whole way. Next time I try that feat I will make sure I eat something before I leave in the morning. I about threw up when I was walking during my cool down! But I did have enough energy to do a little victory punch in the air and dance at the end. Not sure a marathon is anywhere in the near future though....

Lilacs

My sweet daughter picked some lilacs for me and brought them home from school the other day. I LOVE lilacs, no comparison for me. What a sweetheart!! all the kids knows they are my favorite and get about as excited as I do when they start to bloom. I had them on the tables for my reception and just the smell brings back so many memories. Thanks my little Brookie!

What the....

My 14 month old knows how to climb up the slide and onto the trampoline, should I be worried? I think so.

Love.

This may be long...
Every week I enjoy going into Brooklyn and Brady's classrooms to help out. In the last month in each of their classes one of their classmates has lost a parent. One to sickness and one in a car accident. Today as I went into Brady's class the child was back at school after being gone all last week. She is the cutest, shyest little thing I have ever met, she just looks so....forlorn for lack of a better word. She has always been that way since the beginning of the year. Now I don't know the whole story of her life or anything like that, but it really has hit me hard today. Brady has always played with her and done stuff with her almost everyday. She doesn't play on the playground with the other kids, but will stand by the teacher the whole time. Brady and Jarom take turns standing with her. Maybe she just needs the security of the teacher being right there, maybe her Mom had been sick for a long time, who knows. But like I said it has made me think. Good for Brady for recognizing that this little girl probably needed some help. I'll admit I used to get irritated that Brady would always talk about this little girl, thinking he had a little crush on her or something and I would always tell him to play with someone else, but maybe his manly inborn trait of protecting someone was coming out. Now I feel bad that I ever told him to play with someone else, although I don't think he has totally abandoned her. He told me she had been gone all week and was finally back at school yesterday. So today when I went to his class I was anxious to see her. I have never heard her talk, but when I saw her today she smiled and came and gave me a hug. I hugged her back and almost started to cry. What a sweet little thing, what a hard thing she has to deal with at such a young age! I just want to bring her home and let her have a mommy again!
Then here are so many kids who are alone because of bad choices their parents have made and continue to make, I can see that so much in the schools. I don't think I could ever be a teacher because you can see so much pain from these little kids who should not have to deal with it. I think too many parents would be offended by me telling them to step up and raise their kids, GROW UP people! School now is just a daycare for parents who don't want to be parents, but need someplace for their kids to go in the day. Kindergarten kids go to counseling!! Yes can you believe that. How to deal with their emotions, what to do if someone is mean to you stuff like that, I think it is so ridiculous. They are teaching 2nd graders how to brush their teeth, come on! I am so glad that my kids have good teachers this year! Brooklyn's teacher is one of a kind and we LOVE her. I like being able to check in with both of the kids teachers and make sure the kids are being challenged and doing what they are supposed to be. I think the teachers should feel a little accountability to me as a parent, I don't know maybe I am one of those annoying parents. Chas was talking to his Mom the other night and he said something like, " We don't really send our kids to school to learn, we could teach them the same things at home." First of all how sad that our kids are not learning much at school, granted they are in kindergarten and 2nd grade. So my mother in law, posed the question, "Why do you send them away from their mother for 8 hours a day then?" At first I thought, "Well one reason is for me to keep my sanity!" But that question has stuck with me for a couple of days now and I really have thought about it. I guess one of the reasons is maybe we can help someone else, maybe we could have some influence over someone to change their life for the better. Maybe I can be the one person who tells a little boy to keep trying, your doing a great job. Maybe I am the only hug they get for the day. Maybe my kids will help them and influence them for good, you never know what kind of seeds you can plant. So until the school starts totally going crazy and teaching things I don't agree with, I guess we will stay where we are and just do the best we can do.
IT seems lately like I have had a lot of realizations, some are good and some are definitely going to be challenging, but I am grateful that I know who is behind it all and who will always be there to help me.
We have a deaf couple in our ward and so the kids and I have been learning sign language, the kids love it and can remember so much more than me. We got to "talk" to them last sunday, just easy stuff, but it was fun to see how excited they were when we could communicate with them.
I've decided that people just need to feel like they are loved, doesn't matter who they are or where they came from. All they need to feel is that they are loved. And love makes the world a much better place.

what's your favorite?

here are a couple of our top finalists, just checking to see what the opinions are out there? I won't tell you which one is who's favorite, we shall see what comes up! If you have any other ideas feel free to express! We have looked at 100's of colors, it's harder than it looks. And for any of you out there going to build a house soon, do NOT get light colored shingles!

Thanks Linds!

Thanks to my sister in law Lindsey I now can print off this picture and hang it in my house(see previous post), how cute is he?!!!

5K

I did it!! I'll admit I was quite nervous, but it went well and it was even fun! So my next goal is a 10K. The 5K was a lot easier than I thought it would be, so now I think I can actually start running a little farther. I love the feeling of accomplishing something I have never done before or thought I could do!

Spring!

we have had a wonderful spring! It all started out with an Easter trip to Spokane and ended up with us digging in the dirt and loving the sunshine! Got out the hats to protect these cute little smiles from the sun.

Beckett is such an outside kid, he loves to dig in the dirt.

Don't mind the purple hat! I realized all of his hats are too small, but was not about to go shopping in the middle of our work project. Sorry Beckett, but I do love this picture. Too bad it wasn't a blue hat, I would have framed this picture and hung it up in his room! Nothin cuter than a dirty little face.

We had 14 people in Aaron's house cause Ezra decided to come up with us too, I think their house is like 1200 square feet, yep a little cramped, but it was fun. If houses being too crowded was really an issue for us we would never go and see any family, so it's just part of the deal! Here all the kids are opening there Easter baskets and eating their yummy candy.

Brady studiously coloring his egg!

Hoorray!!!! Flashlight, sidewalk chalk and a bucket w/ shovel!

All the kids coloring eggs with Lindsey and Marissa

We decided to get out of the house and we all went for a bike ride along the river, too bad it was like 31 degrees and alternately raining and snowing on us the whole way. We were all frozen by the end!

Getting ready to go, Ez and Linds roller bladed and pushed Beckett and Brock in the stroller, Emree and Brinley got to ride in the bike trailer. They were nice and toasty! We went swimming right after our bike ride and enjoyed the nice warm water. Needless to say the kids were sooo tired that night and slept so well. Friday night all of the adults got to go out for ice cream at this cool restaurant on the lake. We had a great time eating and visiting by the huge fireplace. Thanks Aaron and Marissa we had a great time!

running

ok so running has never been my thing, but after hearing about a 350 lb. man running 5 miles, I thought, what the heck is my problem. So this coming Saturday there is a 5K, I know not a big deal to some, so I thought I would try it. So last Monday, I ran a couple of miles and then decided to try a little further. Wednesday I ran 3.8 miles and pushed the kids in the stroller, talk about a workout! Saturday I decided I would try it again and ran 4 miles! OK, that is a big deal for me. I have never ran that far at one time in my life, my max has always been 3, cause I really don't love to run! Anyway I am so excited, a 5K shouldn't be too bad and we will see how it goes, the first race I have ever run in. Who knows maybe in a couple of months I will be ready to run a 10K, thats like 6 miles isn't it? I have lost 10 lbs since January and am finally feeling close to my pre- Beckett self. Anyway enough of me...
The kids have started baseball and softball, oh how I LOVE to watch them!!! Ever since they were born I have been so excited to have them start sports, so we could watch them play, its so fun! We all go to practices together and even Emree and Beckett like to watch them. I made Brooklyn try softball this year, as she hasn't ever played before, and she loves it, although she was not excited that I made her try. She is getting pretty good at catching and we love to play catch outside. Brady is a natural and is doing so good too. I have so many good memories of playing sports with my family or watching siblings play, I am excited to start doing it with my own family!
We got some compost yesterday and filled the flower beds and garden, now if it was just warm enough to start planting, although we do have some spring flowers up, they just make me so happy!!! Can't wait till growing season!

Chas' job

Last night Chas asked if I wanted to go with him to his community meeting about the project he did up on the 6 ranch. It was last minute, but thanks to Janae I was able to go with him. They made a movie about his project which was a river restoration and fish habitat project, he re-routed the Wallowa river (I think thats the one) and made it back into what it used to look like before they channelized it to put in the railroad. So he got to do all the design work and work with the ranchers and a hundred other people up there. Anyway I loved going to see him in his work setting, it was a community event to see the film they made about the project and then an open panel discussion afterwards. The movie was shown on OPB. He got to answer questions and talk a little about his role in it. I am so glad he thought to invite me and I was so proud of him. He did such a great job. He has another meeting tonight in Elgin, which is supposed to be packed and then another in Enterprise tomorrow night. He doesn't even get nervous about the whole thing, I would be a wreck, having to talk in front of lots of people like that. Although he did say, "I hope some wacko environmentalist doesn't show up." I guess that is the extent of his nervousness. Good Job, Chas!!thanks for inviting me along.

new siding!

HOLY COW!!! I cannot believe what a huge difference this makes!! I am sooo loving the new siding, we still haven't decided what color to paint it yet, but sheesh! It looks awesome just with the primer color! Now I can really go to town on the yard, flowers will look so beautiful in front of this LOVELY looking house!!!

ps. The for sale sign was for when we bought the house, it is not up for sale, yet anyway!

10 years!

And one more shout out to my wonderful hubby, who I can definitely say I love way more today than I did 1o years ago when we got married!

10 things Chas has taught me

1. Patience is a virtue! He has the patience of Job, which is so good for me to see and tRY to emulate.

2. Being Calm is also a good thing. He never gets too uptight in any situation and always is in control.

3. Actions speak louder than words. Chas is the epitome of the term " Practice what you preach."

4.If you say something bad about someone they will almost always hear about it, so don't say bad things about people. In short don't gossip.

5. Be kind

6. Keep the Lord first.

7. If you are patient good things will happen

8. Stick up for yourself, say your opinion

9. Persistance gets the job done

10. Most of all he has taught me how to love.

Places we have been in the last 10 years: California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Kansas, Nevada. Pretty much all of the western states.

What we have accomplished: Bachelor Degree, Professional Engineering License, 4 kids, bought our first house, done numberless house projects, managed to move only twice (yay!)

It's been a great 10 years!

More of Becketts Bday

I know these are a little late, but here are a couple more pictures of Beckett's birthday. We ended up having his party a little late for him and so he didn't really enjoy his cake, you can tell he looks soo tired! Happy Birthday my little MAN!

He kept trying to grab the candle so we had to keep it at a distance.

This is my first attempt at making any kind of birthday cake, besides just one in a cake pan with frosting on the top. The bill is a little big, would've been great if I would have shaved it off some more, oh well. Maybe next time, ya and maybe next time I will have had some more practice. But it turned out ok

Beckett really did enjoy the beaters when we made the cake though, so they will have to count as his "getting the cake all over picture."

Cousins

Here are a couple pictures of the kids playing with Rae- Rae. She was a good sport having so many kids maul her, and actually liked playing with them in the end.

Girls Weekend

Thanks Tanners for coming down!

We all miss having Janae live with us, it was so good to see her!

Well one boy was there, which I guess we couldn't really kick him out of his own house! Thanks Ezra!

Tyanna, Tacey and Kayla.

So my Mom and my sister came down a couple of weeks ago. It was so fun to have them here. Each of the kids got to go to lunch with Grandma, which they loved. It was so fun to have Tacey here and play with her she has such the personality! She was a blast. On Friday all of us girls went down to Boise to meet my other two sisters and have a girls weekend. We shopped till we dropped, ate at Red Robin (my fave!), laughed and cried (when we had to say goodbye!) All in all it was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Has it been that long?

Well I am wondering where March has gone as it is already the 22. Which is our 10 year anniversary. It started out at midnight with Beckett waking up screaming, by the time I got him to sleep and back in bed Brady woke me up by throwing up in the bathroom, hey at least it was in the toilet and not in his bed. He was up about 5 times between 1 and 2 and has slept since then, thank goodness. Chas brought Beckett in to me about 5:45 cause he went into work early today so we can do some more siding after work. Beckett decided he didn't want to go back to sleep, hence I am blogging at 7:00 in the morning, which is good cause I have some catch up to do. Although Beckett's loud toys have now awaken Emree and Brooklyn, so I guess our day has begun. This week is spring break so I am looking forward to just staying home and not having anywhere to be all week!! YAY!

After prepping all week we finally were able to start putting siding up on Saturday, it is going to be so nice! This is not the final color obviously, but even with new siding it looks 100% better! I have been painting trim all week and I am sick of that! I am just glad that our house is not huge, that would have added to my workload. That was our Saturday. The kids were really good and I was actually able to help Chas outside most of the day, LOVE those days.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is going through another clumsy stage, I swear its like once a month. She just grows so much that everytime she hits a growth spurt her long legs cannot keep up with her feet. She fell the other day at school during recess tore another hole in her jeans ( they now all have holes once again!) and skinned up her knee pretty bad. Her whole knee was black and blue and bloody and scabbed, poor girl! One of these days she will get some co-ordination, if she stops growing so much. She is already up to my shoulder

Note to self...

NEVER let little boy out of sight as older boy forgets to flush the toilet and put the seat down and little boy has found out that he LOVES to play in toilet!
can I say lots and lots of soap was used!
ps. good thing it was only #1!

Beckett

Can't believe the little guy is one today! Here are some pictures of his birthday breakfast, we love you Beckett!

A lot accomplished

Well lots has happened this month! Beckett is now walking, and just getting so big. He decided he wanted to be done nursing about a month ago and has not looked back, it has been such an easy transition which is really nice. He now sleeps through the night, but I am trying to get him to change his hours. He sleeps from 6:00 pm to 5:00 am, the nights are quiet, but the mornings are very early, I would rather work out to something other than Go, Diego, Go at 5 in the morning. Oh well! Brady has had a couple of bad accidents, which he is still recuperating from. He still limps on his foot he hurt like a month ago, and the other day he crashed into a parked truck! Crazy I know! He really smashed his finger good and can't bend it all the way yet. It is black and blue and I am sure he will lose his fingernail. I can't keep enough books on hand for Brooklyn to read. She reads them all the time, and going to the library once a week is just not cutting it. She reads about 6 books a week. I love it! We are all looking forward to Becketts birthday on Thursday! In between all of this Chas has been so busy working on the house. He got two more windows put in on Saturday while Brooklyn and I went riding. IT was so fun to have her go with me and hang out with her. She is so much fun and we enjoy the alone time we get. It was beautiful outside and we rode until we got cold, remember it still is February so we were gone for like an hour or so. It was a great week!

Emree sleeping in princess pose

(Emree's birthday which I forgot to post pictures of)