36 Seconds

Shun The Sun 2010

This is my "Shun The Sun 2010" Half-Marathon.

I was super excited when I crossed the finish line. As Mike put it, I beat my goal time with 36 seconds to spare!

I wanted to beat 2 hours. Well, let me back up, I wanted to beat my time from my last half-marathon in January. That was London's Run. My time was 2:07:32. This was a 9:45 pace. But, word was the race was mapped a little short. So I was probably around a 10-minute mile considering the course was short.

My friend Maddy suggested we do Shun The Sun and work on our speed. She found a training schedule to help you beat 2 hours. Although, she didn't really need it, she is already super fast and was well under 2 hours in January.

And we did it!!! My time was 1:59:24. It felt so good!

The race went really well. The course is all flat and paved most of the way. I drove up w/ my friends Maddy, Meredith, and Casey. Meredith and Casey did so awesome, this was their first half.

Maddy and I stayed together for the first 4 miles. Then, she took off.

At mile 7, I was feeling great! I think the Olive Garden pasta I ate the night before paid off. They had a clock at mile 7 & I knew I needed to step up my pace. I turned on my i-pod and off I went. I felt like I was cruising. The endorphins must have kicked in. I felt like I could run forever. I was passing people. It was invigorating.

Then came mile 10. I started to feel tired, but I knew mentally I could do 13 at my pace if I kept pushing. Mile 11 - 12 was the worst, it seemed to take forever. I think I went a little too fast because I couldn't sprint towards the finish. But, when I saw the clock, I knew I would beat my time and that was all I cared about.

I look forward to doing another one. I want to beat my time again. I get crazy ideas that I want to run a full marathon whenever I am at mile 8 in a run. But, then when mile 11 comes on, I realize it might be too much of a challenge!!

I have to say I feel like I am addicted to running. I am amazed at what my new "norm" feels like. The human body has such an amazing ability to adapt. But, I still can't decide if where I'm at is healthy or not????? I feel like I need 2 six-mile runs during the week and a long run on Saturday to feel good. It is like my body craves it. I know I say this all the time, but I think if I drank alcohol I would be an alcoholic based on how addicted to the endorphins I am.

Mike teases me because I am burning through running shoes like crazy.......Am I turning crazy??? I still love the feeling nonetheless.

Family Photo Shoot 2010

The pictures from our family photo shoot this year are in. It took me forever to get them up on the blog. I loved the way most of them turned out. It was so hard to get all the kids to smile at the same time - AHHH; hence why their aren't many family shots. Here are my favorites....

I just want to grab her tongue. This is my favorite picture of her from the shoot.

Love my little girl!

I think Daven is the photogenic one of our family. Mike is very photogenic, too. I love the way Daven's turned out, that is why I've posted so many of him. So if in 100 years, my kids are reading this, I love you all the same!!

My favorite family shot. Don't look too closely or you'll see Logan's red socks. I had everyone's outfits ready, just not enough clean black socks. oops..

I can't even tell you how in love I am with this picture of Mike and Aves. I think it should be sold in picture frames at the store. Just cut off the extra space on the side.

Happy Halloween 2010

Here are our Halloween Happenings this year.

Saturday night, we went to the Ward Halloween Party. Mike and the youth were in charge of the spook alley. So I was in charge of this crazy bunch for the evening.

This was taken before the spook alley. After the spook alley, Avery was super scared of everything. It took lots of coaxing to get her to "trunk or treat" at our Ward's Halloween party.

The rest of these pictures are from Halloween Night. I love this one. Avery loves birds. I'm sure she's pointing one out for the camera.

Go Utes! Can you tell that Mike had a hand in picking out her costume this year? Mike's mom went to the U of U store and got this for her. It is so cute! We are so glad she did that for us. When we got it in the mail, Avery kept saying, "princess, princess." I know, I can't believe she knows what a princess is. But, she was excited about it when it came.

Jengo Fett...I can't remember exactly what he does or who he is. Daven knows, though. That is all that matters!

Last year it was Daven Vader, this year Logan Vader joined our family. He was the sweetest Vader I've ever met.

Aside from being excited when her costume arrived, Avery was hesitant to get dressed up for Halloween. She threw a fit. But, as soon as I asked if she wanted some lipstick on her cheeks, she perked right up! No.more.tears. Just like that! How does she know what lipstick is? And what am I going to do since she loves to wear it? I think that was her favorite part about Halloween. Is she starting a little early? Should I be worried?

This is Mike's favorite picture.

The weather was beautiful. Not hot, but not cold either. Gotta love the AZ trick-or-treating.

This face says it all....

Carving Pumpkins

Avery learned a new word while carving pumpkins this year: "EWWWW!" It was hilarious, she kept saying it over an over as we scooped out all the guts.

The kids had lots of fun. I am so glad daddy is good at carving pumpkins. If it were up to me, there would only be circles and triangles on there. Mike made some good faces.

Our neighbor, Mike came over to say hello. Our boys LOVE him. Probably because he's usually in his driveway working on his car or motorcycle. They have been saying hi to him for the last 4 years every time we come & go!

My 3 little pumpkins!!

Go Braves!

Go Braves! The first T-ball game of the season was on Saturday. This was Logan's first T-ball game. Daven has played 2 seasons before this. We are excited because Nate, Daven's best buddy is on their team, too!

I was so worried that Logan was going to be the smallest one on the team. He isn't. I was thrilled. But, he's still pretty small! His pants drown him. But, he is so excited to get to play. He is our Lefty and is a good hitter. Daven is starting to get the hang of things and even mangaged to get a few people out during the game!

Logan's friend, Sadie. She told him that he is the only boy she likes. I'm glad, because she sure is cute!!!

Little sister gets so excited to go to baseball, but then gets bored after a few minutes.

Go Atlanta Braves!! We'll keep you posted.

Reverently, Quietly

Mike snapped these pictures of my sweet baby girl a few weeks ago before church. She is so precious. We love her so much!

Reverently.......

Quietly........

Doing Something So Naughty!!!

My darling girl decided to try and give herself a shampoo yesterday.

I guess she's figured out how to use the liquid soap dispenser.

I seriously have to follow her everywhere she goes. She can open all the baby-proofed cabinets. She can push a kitchen chair up to the counter to get things out of reach. And if you don't watch her, she likes to jump off the couch. I'm going to hide all the scissors. I'm sure a haircut it next.

Avery's going for a run!

This week I was getting ready for the day. I heard Avery turn the treadmill power on.

(She can't get to the safety key to make the belt move, I put that in a separate spot). But, anyways, I heard it go on. I went to inspect. She had gone into my closet and got my running shoes. She set them on the treadmill and slid her feet in. I thought this was adorable. She looked all ready to go!

Logan Starts Preschool Again

Logan started preschool 2 weeks ago! I can't believe he only has one more year left before starting kindergarten. Looking at these pictures, I think he looks more grown up to me.

He is going to Miss Heidi's preschool. He loved Miss Shirley last year, but she is not doing it this year :(. We were glad to find Miss Heidi.

One thing I'm super excited about is that there are 5 boys and only 1 girl in his class. Last year he was one of the only boys at school & at church he is surrounded by girls. Maybe it was meant to be. He seems to really like school so far. It is 3 days a week from 9 a.m. - noon. It has been strange to only be home with Avery during that time. But, I have enjoyed playing with her lots.

Showing off his new back-pack.

Little sister thinks she is a little mommy. She loves to help the boys get ready for school.

A Big Week for Daven

To start the week of July 26th off, Daven started 1st Grade! I felt like this was a huge milestone. In some ways I was even sadder to see him go to 1st grade than I was to send him to Kindergarten. It seems like it is official that he is more grown up now.

Next year, I am going to take pictures at school. But, here he is all ready to go. This year I did walk him to the playground and waited until the kids lined up. So many people have given me a hard time for just dropping him off last year, but last year he didn't care. He was so excited to go to Kindergarten! But, this year he was a little more hesitant, had a different playground to go to, and a new place to line up.

I think he is going to really like his teacher. I have heard great things about her & she seems so sweet. I had a question for her already and she called me on the phone 30 minutes after I sent my e-mail. So, I think she is pretty on the ball. Daven's carpool friend, Bailey is in his class, as well as a few friends from last year.

And to top it off, he got his first loose tooth the night before. Having both milestones in 24 hours was a bit too much for me, kind of hard to believe.

He came running in Sunday night saying "I just bit a Lego and I think my tooth is loose." I was thinking, "yeah, right!" But, sure enough it was loose.

It wasn't very loose. I figured it would wiggle for a few weeks then fall out.

Well....not so....

On Tuesday night (2 days later), he came running in with blood dripping out of his mouth shouting, "I just forgot and bit another Lego and my tooth really hurts." It was SUPER LOOSE. It was hanging by a thread.

I called Mike at YM's and said he'd have to pull it out when he got home. He kindly informed me that he doesn't pull teeth. So I called my friend Karen. She told me exactly what to do. It was much easier than I thought. It came right out, pain free.

I couldn't believe it.

The tooth fairy came and brought $5.00
I'm not ready for his beautiful smile to change. I guess he is officially more grown up now, even though he talks a little funny :)

Where's Avery?

I came into my bedroom the other day to find this: Avery under the bathroom counter. Never mind that these cabinets are childproof. Oh, I love this little girl.

Love those brown eyes peering at me and those two cute feet sticking out.

There she is, mommy's sweet & crazy little girl.