Conner Turns 2 !

We couldn't decide on a single theme for Conner's birthday so we just did it all. He is so in to fighting with a light saber and loves to pretend to be Indiana Jones that we did both. We had the cousins come over and did a pinata. We had a great time with all the family. Conner's favorite part was singing happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Conner!! What a wonderful kid.

We Have An Announcement!

We used Conner as our delivery boy for our news! We are expecting in April! We wanted to wait until Marathon day to let the news out about our new arrival! We made this t-shirt to make the announcement. I was hoping that Rod would have all the questions from my family and friends answered before I finished the race. I figure it is his turn to do that since it usually falls on the mom. It was pretty fun to keep it a secret and have an event like the marathon to make the announcement. Rod and I didn't tell anyone until that day. The girls I run with didn't know until our big sleep over party the night before( although some suspected). It is something I definitely wont forget. Running a marathon at 11 weeks pregnant isn't something you do every day!

St. George Marathon

Yes! I am crazy! That's what I have decided. I've done the marathon before so you would think I would know better. But it is amazing what peer pressure will do for you! My running group (The Sole Sisters) did a great job. Despite the rain, we managed to enjoy ourselves and we all finished with great times. We were lucky and a few of us stayed at the starting line in a motor home the night before. It allowed us to get a bit more rest and stay dry until we absolutely had to get out to start the race. Thanks to Cassie , she had an extra poncho for me to wear that became my security blanket throughout the race. I didn't want to get rid of it for fear I would freeze. Melissa finally tore it off of me at mile 23. We finished the race just under 5 hrs. which was our goal so we were very happy! Thanks girls for a great experience, and to my husband who supported me along the way.

Disneyland

Well, we weren't planning a trip this year bur this one just fell into our laps. Rod had multiple work related things that he had to go to Anaheim for so we decided to tag along and do Disneyland with the kids. Rod's sister, brother-in-law and their 5 boys went with us. We had a ton of fun with them. We don't get to do many trips one-on-one with them so this was unique. My kids love their cousins and they seem to like our kids too. The older boys were a great help and loved taking them on the rides. Olivia and Porter are finally tall enough that they can ride all the rides. Indiana Jones was a big hit along with space mountain (porter liked tower of terror), and Soar'in Over California. I think we went on Buzz Light year 7 times. It was probably because it had a short line and we could take Conner on it. He loved it though so we decided to have him be Buzz for Halloween. He likes to put his hands under his arm pits (for Buzz's wings) and jump off the highest thing he dares. Another one of our favorites is The Haunted Mansion. They change the decorations , the music, and the narrative to The Nightmare Before Christmas. My kids have always loved Jack Skellington and the music to we get a kick out of this ride at Halloween time.

Mary's BIG 33rd Birthday!

Rod planned a great birthday for me this year! He took me out to lunch at the Painted Pony and then planned a party for me that night at Troy's BBQ with the whole family.
He even arranged baby sitters for lunch and ordered me my favorite pie from Crowshaw's for my cake. That is definitely the way to celebrate, not having to do any planning myself. Troy is a friend of ours and had his restaurant decorated and even provided birthday hats for the kids and a crown for me to wear because I am the princess!
Of course you always have help blowing out your candles whether you want it or not.
Thanks for the great birthday to Rod and all my wonderful friends, neighbors and family that made it a memorable birthday!

Olivia is in the Nutcracker

Every year where Olivia takes dance they do a production of the nutcracker. My mom and I have been taking her and she has been very excited about being tall enough to try out. This year we decided would be a good year because we would be in town and be able to commit to the time it takes and she is also tall enough. We had her prepared for tryouts and told her to just do what Miss Sheila asked her to do the best that she could. She knew that there were a lot of kids and she may not make it but to try her best and have fun. She had a good time and found out that she made the part in the Mother Hubbard children. We were so excited for her and she is having fun at the rehearsals and can't wait for performances.

End of Summer Tradition

We decided to start a new tradition this year. The last day of summer, that is before school starts, we are going to sleep outside on the trampoline and then go out to breakfast in the morning. It took a bit of convincing to get Porter to stay outside with us but in the end he was braver than his dad and stayed with Olivia and I. It was a ton of fun. The kids thought it was great!
This is Olivia on her first day of 2nd grade! She is such a big girl. She rides her bike to school with some friends. It is about 1 mile to get to school and 1 mile back. It has been really hot but she is toughing it out and is being a trooper about it. She has Mrs. Ivey as her teacher this year (we just found out that she has cancer and has to leave for an undetermined amount of time, olivia has been very thoughtful of her since she found out. The new substitute is one of her class members mothers and it seems to have been moving along smoothly)and has been doing very well. So far she has gotten 100% on all her weekly spelling tests. We are very proud of her independant spirit and her will to be good!
Porter started kindergarten. WOW!! He is so excited. He knows some of the kids in his class but is very excited to meet new friends. His teacher is Miss White who happens to know rod's sister and she has been great with the kids. Porter's assessments that they do at the beginning of ther year were fun to get back because he did so well. He knows all his letters, lower case and capitol, and all his letter sounds. He also can count to 100 easily so all they really had to say was that he was doing great and set some reading goals. He has had homework to do and has started his level reading. His study skills are different from olivia's but he has learned that we get it done after school then he can play. He is doing great and we are proud of him.

Rod's Birthday Aug 19th

The great thing about august is that I shouldn"t forget anyones birthday since they are all together. Rod turned the big 35 this year. It wasn't as eventful as he would have liked it to be but the truth is, he was in the middle of a serious diet and our options were slim!! no pun intended. We took the kids out to share a dessert and he got new church clothes. (the old ones are to big now because of the diet). Everyones dream birthday I'm sure but he was a good sport!