St George Painters Half Marathon

Well I did it! I want to thank Amy for talking me into doing this, other wise I would have never done it.
I started training for this a while ago and was pretty dilligent about following the routine I was supposed to follow, well most of the time. The bad thing was I did all of my training on a treadmill. So when it came to running outside on asphalt it was really tough for me.

The plan was to leave on Thursday afternoon around 1. When Kris left that morning he took my car to Sears to get new tires on it (why did you need to know we had to put tires on the car, well keep reading) Well we left at one, ran by the office so I can clean it a little bit, after that we got on the freeway to head out of town and noticed that the cruise control didnt work. So we stopped off at our wonderful mechanic at Layton Tunex to have him check it out. Looked over it and said it could be a few things but it would take some time to get the part in. We said well order the part and when we get back we will fix it. No sooner we get on the car wouldnt shift into another gear. Now if you dont know all ready we had to put a new tranie in the car a month ago (dumb FORDS). So my first thought was great the tranie is out all ready. Went back to the shop and found out that is was some thing that tells the computer to tell it something and gosh I really dont know what it is called. So they ordered it and after waiting for what seemed like forever (it wasnt) they got it fixed and at 4 we were on our way. Thanks guys at Tunex for getting right to it and getting it done for us.
On the way down right about Fillmore it was snowing and the wind was blowing like crazy. We were pretty scared for a little bit but of course Kris being the cautious driver he is got us there safely.
Friday we took our time getting ready and rested then meet my parents at the place where the race was going to start and checked that out, then they took us to a museum there. It was pretty cool! Then we went back to the house we were staying at and chilled there for a bit then meet my parents for dinner.
Saturday I got up at 7 had some yogart and we were at the race by 8:15. Race started at 9 and away I went. At mile two a horse jotted down the street with us (it got out of the field) and I shedded my jacket because I was getting hot all ready. At mile 9 I started to have some really sharp pain in my knees. At mile 10.5 I hurt so bad I felt like my knees shattered. So I figured before that my pace was about 8 mins/mile. However after my knees started to hurt I lost so much time. I was such a baby because I started to cry as people I passed long time ago where starting to pass me. Anyway I finished the race and pretty much dropped into my dads arms. Kris had lifted Broc on the other side so he can finish it with me and that was neat, would have been better if I wasnt hurting so bad. After i crossed the finish line all I wanted to do was get in the car and get back to the house to put ice on my knees.

What an accomplisment for myself I am proud of myself for doing it and hope to do it again next year, however this summer I will train more. And my Dad said he would do it with me if I did it again, so that right there is reason enough for me to do it again. So till next year everyone!
Oh yeah I am sure you all want to know my time......

It was 2:38 mins.
You can check out the race http://strideracing.com/2010/st-george-half-marathon-5k.html
P.S.
As you look at the pics you can tell how excited I was about the race and you can certainly tell when I started hurting as that is when I started walking and of course my face tells it all. So dont laugh at the pics with my silly face!

CTR RIng

Surprise Party

I have to admit, sometimes it is hard for me to keep a secret, especially if it is a good one. However I kept a very good secret for almost two weeks.
My Dad is turning 60 this Thursday, my mom had talked about throwing him a party but this weekend they will be with us in St. George. So she didn't know when to do it.

So I rallied up the troops (my brother and sisters) and we put together a great surprise party. The best surprise of all was my sister that lives in New Mexico flew in on Thursday to be here for the party.

Thursday night she arrived and my sister Kristin and I went down to the airport to pick her up. And of course since us native California girls love In-N-Out we picked her up and headed there. There are two here in the Salt Lake Valley, one in Draper by the outlets and one in Jordan Landing. Jordan Landing was closer so we traveled there, however I thought Jordan Landing was the same as Jordan Commons, so we went clear on the East side of SLC looking for this dumb place and couldn't find it. So Kristin calls information and gets the headquarters to In-N-Out and asks for directions. Since they aren't in the state she really had no idea where to tell us to go. She starts to ask Kristin where we are at, and I said "by the chevron" the lady was like "well that really isn't going to help me" She was very nice and very funny in her efforts to help us find the best hamburger joint. After driving around for about 45 mins, we figured out that is was Jordan Landing on the West side of SLC and not Jordan Commons on the East side. We get to Jordan Landing and we are driving all around this dumb place and still cant find it. Finally we pull over and ask a lady and she says "oh its right behind the AT&T store right there" we drive over there and again NO In-N-Out! Finally we found it by Target, not AT&T. By that time we were so hungry and my poor little niece was so hungry, and it was so worth driving all over the valley to find the place. What was worse part, well the fact that we could have just got on Bangeter highway and been there in five minutes from the airport. But I took the scenic route!

Friday we finished all the preparations for the party, then my brother and his family came over and we played pool and the kids played around. We had so much fun playing pool, however Tara and I suck at pool and Erik, well he is okay, but then there is Cami, she was really good. I need to get her one of those gloves that professionals wear.

Since my siblings were all here and since it had been so long since we had taken pictures of us, we decided to go to a park and take some pics with just the four of us. Oh my goodness, we had so much fun. We were silly, crazy, and had the funniest faces. I had such a good time with them, it reminded me how much I love my brother and sisters and how much fun we can have with one another. (As soon as someone makes me a cd with the pics I will post them).

Saturday night was a full house. A lot of my dads friends and neighbors came to celebrate with us. The best part I think was that my dads Sister and Brother came. I had not seen them in a very long time (long time meaning like 10 years or more) and they live in the state. Sad I know but hopefully it wont be that long before we see them again. My dad was completely shocked as was my mom. After they walked in the door, my dad was looking around at all the people and I said to my dad "did you see who else is here?" He starts listing off the neighbors and such, then I said "No right in front of you behind the camera?" He looked and finally realized my sister had come too. It was a great night! We appreciate all of his friends and family that came to celebrate with us and helped to make his birthday just as special and wonderful as he is.

We love you dad and are so lucky to have you as our father and example.

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY

CTR Ring

On Sunday Broc ran up to me flipping me the "Bird". I thought what is he doing. Well on that finger, was a bright new CTR ring with a HUGE SMILE to go with it. He was so excited and told me that it reminded him to chose the right and if he wore it all the time he would be good. Since then he hasnt taken it off. All though we have told him he needs to take it off when he washes his hands or takes a bath because his finger will turn green. He said, "Ewee why would it turn green?" I said "because it isn't a real ring" he said, "of course it is a real ring mom I am supposed to chose the right!"
I am so proud of him for wearing it all the time or more for the desire to wear it all the time. And the fact that he shows it to everyone! We will see how long it takes for it to go down the drain or for him to lose it.

Tree House Field Trip

Friday was another field trip for Broc's pre-school. I love this pre-school. We have at least one or two each month.
This time we went to the tree house downtown. We have a membership there, so for Broc it was just another trip to the tree house, but with a lot more friends. They first read a few stories, then they pretty much turned over the time to the kids to do what ever they wanted for an hour and half. I thought wow that is a long time, this is going to be a long field trip. But that hour and half went by very fast. They were bummed when we had to leave because they didn't get to play with everything they wanted to. Glad I have a membership so we can go back when ever he wants.

I was shocked to hear that not very many kids and parents hadn't been to the tree house. I thought it was one of the fun places to hang out at, especially durning the winter months when one needs to get out of the house!!!!
Broc and his freinds had a great time!

Happy New Year 2010

Wow has this year flown by. It has been a great year full of many up's and several down's. However we have been extremely blessed. Broc has grown so much this past year, he has learned all the sounds of each letter of the alphabet, can write his name, write mom and dad, tell you his address and phone number (including area code), he does small chores for me but doesn't let me forget that I need to pay him some "change" for his piggy bank. He loves Transformers and can repeat a lot of the movie, he likes to watch Nascar if Kyle Bush is winning or Dale Jr. is losing! One of the big things for him this year was he is finally tall enough to ride every ride at Disneyland! We look forward to what he will be learning this year and he is anticipating his 5th b-day so he can go to Kindergarten.

we hope everyone enjoyed their New Years and look forward another great year ahead.

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays as much as we did.
The day started around 8 a.m. I was sound asleep when I hear in the distance, "I am Megatron" thinking that I might be dreaming I woke and took my ear plugs out (yes I sleep with ear plugs) and there it was again. Kris starts laughing as I say, "did he start with out us?" He said no he had come in a few minutes ago and Kris told him to go see if Santa came. And of course he did and he started to shake and play with some of the toys. Broc hollered back at us, "are you comin or what". He was so thrilled to get a big Megatron and Bumblebee and Sideswipe. I was to because they don't have to be transformed they are just big ones that make noises. He got Mariokart, Transformers for his DS from Santa, Lego Star Wars for the DS from his Aunt Tara, socks, play dough, and more transformers. He also got a basket full of stuff from the Dinosaur park with a year's membership.
In the past Kris and I hadn't been buying each other stuff because when we see something we want we usually just get it. But this year Kris's surprised me with a new camera! If you read my blog you will remember that I droped it in the water at Girls Camp. So I Borrowed my mother in laws for about four months. Thanks you by the way for letting me use it all that time Chris! It was a wonderful present and I look forward to using it!
We got Kris a couple games for the Wii and some gum because he loves to chew gum.
After we opened presents Broc wanted some french toast. We ate some breakfast and headed to my parents where they had muffins, fresh fruit with dip, orange juice, and hot cocoa. Man that was good. We then opened presents from them as well and Broc got a big Optimus Prime, that has to be transformed. It was hard! Since Grandma and Grandpa bought it for him we thought that they should try to transform him. My dad worked on it for an hour and still hadn't transformed it all the way. Then my brother tried and still couldn't get it transformed all the way. I think it will just have to stay standing up and not as the truck it is supposed to be!
After visiting with them we went to Kris's families. We Broc got more stuff! The best part was him and Kris along with all the boys and their dad's got Nerf guns. They were a huge hit! And of course I wanted to play so once one was put down I joined in and tried not to shoot the kids in the face or shoot at the girls. It was funny when one of the girls wanted to pass through they would say, "StOP SHOOOTING PRINCESS CROSSING" it was pretty funny. And those dumb things do hurt when you get hit in the face!!!!! So we now have two Nerf Guns to play with at home along with a Marsh mellow shooter that Nana got Broc. I keep finding marsh mellows all over the place, but it is still lots of fun!
We finally came home and played with Broc's toys and played some of the wii games we got. All in all we had a great day together, and hopefully Kris has a wonderful day watching Broc enjoy the day!
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that this next year will bring joy and happiness to each of you! We love each of you very much and look forward to a happy and prosperous New Year!

Happy Birthday Kris

Poor Kris, he has to share his b-day with Jesus. So we ate cake on Christmas Eve, he opened one of his presents on Wednesday which was a truck box thing for his truck. He opened more presents on his b-day, and got to spend the day with family. What more could one ask for right???? Well he wanted to stay home and spend the day home, sleeping I am sure, but to bad, he got to spend it with people who love him and who are so grateful for everything he does for them.
I am grateful for him and what he does for Broc and me. He is a supportive husband, loving father and one of a kind friend. He is also a tease to quite a bit of people, but it is only because he cares for them as well.
So here's to him
Happy Birthday Babe, hope you enjoyed it and know that Broc and I love you so very much!

Christmas Eve

We have a tradition in my family where we get together on Christmas Eve, eat Mexican food, and open PJ's Grandma makes for us.
This year was no different, we had my mom's yummy taco's, Kristin's chicken enchiladas, Cami's bean dip and chips, three different chocolate deserts! Cake Kristin made for Kris's b-day, a chocolate pudding cake Cami made, and chocolate eclair cake that I made. By the time the night ended we had to loosen a button or two. Then since Kristin had made some cookies the day before she brought those over and the kids all decorated cookies for Santa. They did a pretty good job, Spencer poured half the bottle of sprinkles on one cookie, it was so funny. And then I forgot to put the cookies out that night for Santa, Broc didn't remember till the day after Christmas that we had forgotten to do so.
After we ate we talked my parents into playing Rock Band with us. I have come to the conclusion that my dad has a flare for the guttier! He is pretty good and my mom, well she likes to sing, and with my dad's help sometimes they were able to keep in harmony. We all laughed at their expense and they were good sports about it. Erik (my brother) after much resistance to playing finally got up to play and did pretty good. He thought he was getting good until he changed the difficulty to HARD, lets just say he never stood a chance! But it was funny watching him try. Kristin (my sister) and her husband did pretty good, Herb (real name Jeremy) was a little timid at first but I think he secretly wishes he was Steven Tyler! Kristin sang well with the help of her 2 year old Matti. Me, Kris and Cami had experience in the game so we did good.

After noticing it was all ready after 9 and we still hadn't had our desert or opened our Jammie's, we scurried up stairs to do so. After opening our Jammie's we heard some bells out side and wouldn't you know Santa was out side walking around our neighborhood, just doing a quick check to see if the kids were in bed yet. He waved at the kids and told them to be good and go to bed. That was a great ending to a great night!

We HATE DALE JR.

It has been an on going battle with our friend Lori about who is better at Nascar! She is a die hard Dale Jr. fan, and just to get her all riled up Kris likes anyone other then him. Broc likes Kyle Bush, but only because he drives the M&M Car. When Broc was only 4 months old she kidnapped him and took him to Kiddie Kandids and dressed him in all Dale Jr stuff and got his pics taken. He looked so cute!
So this past week Kris went to Vegas to watch the BYU game and stumbled upon this super cute jacket for Broc and of course like me he couldn't resist.
Take a look!

EAT YOUR HEART OUT DALE JR! GO 18

Pre-School Christmas Party

I dont know what I was thinking when I volunteered to do the Christmas party for Broc's class. Thankfully I recuited the ladies that helped with Joy School last year and we all did it together. I would have been ten times more stressed had I done it by myself.
We had the kids frost cookies, make a Christmas tree out of tongue depressers, color and cut a reindeer out with a fluffy red nose, gift exchange, learn a new song, and read a story to them. At the very end we had a very special visitor! It was the Big Guy himself! Santa arrived in a Chevy Pick-up. I guess Allan Jackson really knows what he likes to drive because that is what he arrived in. I think he left his sleigh back at the North Pole along with the reindeer so they wouldn't get to tried.
The kids had a great time and it made me realize it takes some special people to teach 3 & 4 year olds, 19 of them is a lot of kids. There were four of us doing the party and only two teachers, how do they do it without pulling their hair out?????

Ginger Bread Houses

Last week my sister in law Cami invited us over to her parents house where her mom had made 10 ginger bread houses! All we had to do was bring over some candy to decorate. The kids had a blast, they were creative and silly! Jolene (Cami's mom) had her own grandkids; Ashli, Spencer and her son's daughter, Broc, and my sister's four kids all decorating! They also had pizza too. Her are some fun pics for you to enjoy.

Jo- if you read this I am so grateful you invited us over, we had a great time! Hope to make this a tradition with you guys!

Back in August Kris and I went on the daughting task of finding a new couch for our basement. We found at a place in Brigham City called The Roomloft. We first picked one out that was a "U" shape, when we saw it there it didnt look like that much of a "U" shape it was a very wide "U". However when we got it home it was a very tight "U" shape and once together hardley any room to do anything else in in that area. So we had them come take it back and found another one we liked, which they told us would take 4-6 weeks. Which by then it would have been here while we were in Flordia (yep back in October). I thought well that is a long time but that is the couch I wanted so I will wait.
When we got home from Flordia it was still in CHINA waiting to be put on a container ship to get here. To make a long story short it just barely got here TODAY! Why you ask didnt I just go get my money back and go somewhere else, well I all ready had the love seat that went with it, and they were going to charge me a 20% restocking fee to return it. So I waited, first it was only two more weeks then four more and so on, so after calling each week and being very nice about (Kris always says "you catch more bees with honey, so be nice") I got my couch plus 20% cash back on the cost of the couch because it took so long. SWEET!!!

Here are the pics of the couch and basement since we finished it. I have some things to go on the wall but not sure where to put them yet, our theme downstairs is "Welcome to our Theater" I have found several things to put on the wall, but need to order them and well Christmas presents come first, so maybe this next year I will focus on decoarting, but then again by the time I get around to that it will be spring which then I will want to spend money on the yard. Okay I am rambling... here are the pics!

COME PLAY POOL AND WII WITH US IT IS A BLAST!

Eventually this will be a kitchen

This is my workout room and my craft room!

Great Snow

Around here snow is worshipped! By Kris and Broc, not me. I prefer the warm sunny weather, but seeing how it is almost Christmas I will welcome the snow.

Today it has snowed all day, so Kris pulled out the snowmobile and took Broc all over in the neighborhood. By the time he got back he had a line of kids ready for rides. They probably rode around for about three hours.

While waiting their turns the kids had snowball fights and I am sad to report my poor little boy got one right in the eye. It was pretty tramatic for him apparently. But he made me put a cold towel on it and back out he went.

Festival of Tree's

On Saturday we went with some of Kris's family to the Festival of tree's. I had never been to it before and was very curious as to what it was all about.
CROWDS is what it was all about. But the best part was seeing all the unique decorated trees, ginger bread houses, wreaths, and smaller trees. Their were some that were ugly, hilarious, beautiful, heart warming, so many different stories behind each tree. I wish we had the time and patients to learn about each tree and why they decorated it the way they did.

After enjoying a yummy scone we went over to an area for kids were with tickets they could make things. Broc got a tattoo on his check, then upon seeing how wonderful it looked he talked his Grandma into getting one just like his. Pretty cute! He made three reindeer ornaments out of light bulbs, a reindeer hat, and a painted a plaster ornament. There was also a phone both that you could go in and talk to an elf! But the line for that was really long and we were hungry. All in all we had a great time and wouldn't mind going again. Just not on the last day!

If you cant see these very well I will tell you what they are. The first one is on a shark, the tale is coming out the top and the head is right where Broc's head is. It was one that sold that along with the tree you got scuba diving lessons.

The second one is a smaller tree and it was for breast cancer.

The third one was of Temple. The person who bought this tree got several huge pictures of about 5 temples in black and white (the new ones that have come out) along with ornaments that had temples on them tiles with saying on them and signs about temples. It was so beautiful.

This is a very cute playhouse that sold too, I want one. This is Broc's Aunt Pip, her daughter Taelor and our other neice Katie.