Activity Days!

Tonight Aubrey had Activity Days. She was so excited. It has been awhile since she was able to go. Tonight her leaders had a pumpkin carving night. After that, they each got up and told everyone what they were working on in their Faith in God books. The girls had so much fun. They did a great job working on their pumpkins. This is a picture of Aubrey and her friend Hailey.

The finished pumpkin.

Austin had a tri-ward dance the same night. He had so much fun. He just wore a ton of glo-sticks. When he got home we kind of played with the camera and started taking pictures of him. This one came out kind of spooky!

The Box!

Once October hits, my kids start talking about the box. When will it come? Do you think they will remember? They check the front door everyday for this box. It is a box from their Grandparents. What is in this box? This box that causes so much excitement!

CANDY!!!!! Yes, their own stash of Halloween candy! They got some money from one Grandparent this week. They were so excited because the older kids wanted iTune cards, so they used their money and got their iTune cards. Then they got their candy! Their grandparents spoil them.
They go through all their candy and then put their names on it. They think this will stop Dad from eating some of it. Are you kidding me????

Austin was taking a nap, but when he heard Ian say the box was here, he woke up. Well, kind of.

Zach came home from cross country and he was excited to find a snack!

Thanks to all their grandparents for the little extra cash (They love getting more music!) and the candy!

I Miss Fall!

You all know I am from Connecticut. I love living in Vegas, but at this time of year, I miss home!!!! We really don't get fall until right before Thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong, I don't miss raking leaves, or the cold. Hey, didn't Connecticut already get snow???? One thing I do miss is going to Bishop Farms to get pumpkins. I loved it when we would go. Sometimes my Mom would pick-up my Grandmother and we would take her to Bishop Farms. It was so fun. When I got married, Don loved to go. I found this picture on the web. See what I mean? Not only could you get pumpkins, but you could get apple cider, apple cider donuts, pies, apples, jam, pick your own apples, go on hay rides, and get decorations. It was great.

Now when you live in Vegas, you can go to a pumpkin patch and orchard. We have one here in town, Gilcrease Orchard. Now it isn't the same, but you can go there. There are also pumpkin patches that pop up on street corners during this time of year. The other night, the kids got their haircuts done and Don and I realized that this was the perfect time to go and get their pumpkins. We were all together, so it was now or never! We went to a few places and couldn't find pumpkins that would be good for us. Don't ask, they just need to be big. We finally went to Wal-Mart and sure enough we found what we needed!

O.k, so picking out pumpkins with my family isn't like what I did as a child. Hey, they have pumpkin's right? My house is all decorated to look like fall!!!! I did find some real apple cider. (Austin is so excited. He loves hot apple cider!) If I want to see the leaves change, I just need to go to the mountains. (20 minutes away) O.k, they don't look like this......but what's a girl to do?

Flag Football Update

Do I really need to say what happened yesterday? I don't think so. So sad. The problem is this, we don't have a bad team. In fact all the boys are good. They work well together and do great. The other teams have one or two boys who are incredible and those boys do everything. I mean everything!!!! Do you remember the movie "Kicking and Screaming"? You know, "pass to the Italian's". That is what it is like. Everything goes to those super incredible boys! It is frustrating. Now we sit and wait. We don't know if we made it into the playoffs. Don't laugh., we might, because two teams just quit out of no where. I know, it is hard to believe. Two teams just said they are done. So we might have to play one more game. With our record, it will be one more game. The important thing is, Ian is having fun. He loves it!

Cross Country Update

The end is here. This was Zachery's last cross country meet. I don't think he did as good as he wanted to. Last week he went to California with the team to run a meet there, and on the way down he came down with the flu. He thought he was all better, but when he ran this meet he couldn't breathe good at all. I think everyone was sick here. Everyone was coughing after the meet. He did get a medal. I am so glad we went to watch this meet, because today we learned that he wouldn't be going to Regions. I would of been so sad if I had missed it. So, cross country is done. Austin didn't run because he wanted to go to "The Best of EFY." Austin was very pleased with his decision. He says that he will have many other races to run. Maybe Austin will be back, and run cross country next year!

Not doing too good!

Flag Football Update

Honestly, do I really need to say it? You know how this team is! One more game to go and then the playoffs. I did get some great pictures.

Ian's friend Ethan!

Mother-Daughter Night

Aubrey and I got invited to a "Glitter Toes" party at Heather B.'s house. I am not much of a glitter person, (I know, I live in Vegas!) but I am willing to try new things. Aubrey was all over this! She thought it was wonderful. I was worried I wouldn't have any toenails to glitter. Running marathons does that sometimes. You really can't tell from the picture, but our toes are certainly glittery now! Not just a little.....It is like a giant disco ball on your toes. I went with black (Halloween and all!) and Aubrey did purple. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Heather for having us and letting Aubrey play for awhile with your girls. We had so much fun!

BYU vs. UNLV

Don won some tickets for the UNLV vs. BYU game. We love going to this game. It is always fun. Saturday night we headed to the stadium for the game. BYU won. They killed UNLV. I kind of feel bad for them. It just isn't getting better for UNLV. Maybe it is the dancing they do before the game. When we used to go to this game, they would play a ton of heavy metal music. Don loved it! (Yes, he is a metal head!) This time they played a ton of hip hop and rap. Why the change???? When the team came out to warm up, they were dancing. I mean, really dancing. I felt like I was watching an episode from "Glee". You know, the one with the dancing football players? (It is one of the only episodes I have seen.) All I can say is UNLV football might be struggling, but boy, those guys sure can dance. Our tickets were on the UNLV sidelines. There were more BYU fans than UNLV ones. We stayed on the UNLV side until half time and then we moved over to the BYU side. What little UNLV fans there were, they were drinking a lot and turning on us quickly! It was getting ugly over there. Hey, can you blame them? They are just waiting for basketball season to start! When we did go over to the BYU side Don saw this guy wearing a red UNLV shirt that said, "Real Mormons are Rebels." That was funny! This is what Don wore to the game. Yes, he is ever faithful to Alabama! Don't worry, I wore Zach's BYU shirt!

We love college football. It was so fun to watch.

Flag Football Update

Football hasn't been going good for Ian lately. He missed the game on October 3rd because I was running the marathon. They won that game. Then we looked at the schedule and it said the game was at 10:00 am the next Saturday. So we got there on time and we saw that his team was playing. The schedule was changed and now all the games are at 9:00 am. That would of been nice to know. The coaches said they told Ian, but let's be real, he is seven! Oh well! We went home and took some pictures of him anyway!

His mean look!

Cross Country Pictures

Remember how I said that I was worried about the crazy poses my sons made during their team picture? Bad enough, Zach had blue hair! Well, we got the pictures today and they came out great. Zach was mad that the photographer picked the only picture that he and Conner had serious faces! I told Zach that the photographer has done this before, and this is probably the only picture he could use! You can't even tell they have blue hair. Now if you look at Austin in the very back row. He got his crazy pose!

Austin's Cross Country Picture

Cross Country Update

Yesterday was the Bud O' Dea Frosh-Soph. This means that only Austin ran. Zach didn't have to. Austin said he felt really good at this race. He got a 17:45 and he was pleased. Isn't that all that matters? Now the boys are headed to California for a meet this weekend.

I guess this is Zachery giving a pep talk to the underclassmen.

How many members of the cross country team does it take to hold up a tree?
Austin and Dallin!

I didn't go to the meet, Don did. I really appreciate the Albrights for taking these pictures and e-mailing them to me.

St. George Marathon

Well, it wasn't good! It wasn't my worse marathon time, but it wasn't what I wanted. (4hr 17min 17sec-chip time) I am not going to Boston! I tried to stay with the 3hr50min pace team, and that was my big mistake! I am the type of runner that starts out slow and builds speed. This time I started out fast, too fast. I just couldn't keep up. I watched my Boston marathon dreams slip away. Inside I just started to freak. Then I remembered that I was running this marathon for Aubrey, and I had to do my best. I was doing good and then mile 18 hit. I have never felt that kind of pain while running! My feet started to cramp and my calves felt like they were going to explode. (It was like the Hill Cumorah calf injury, but not that bad.) It was horrible. I could feel my injuries and I didn't know what to do. I thought about quitting. Then I thought about all of my kids waiting at the finish line. I thought about how sometimes things don't work out the way we plan, we don't reach the goals we want to reach, but we need to keep going. Things might get tough, but you should never quit. That is what I wanted to teach my kids. So, I slowed down and did my best. It hurt so bad! I was really worried I would injure myself more. Then I finished, walked up to Don and started to cry. All I could say was, "Sorry!" I really felt like I let everyone down. Don just said to me, "You're crazy. You just finished your 3rd marathon! I am proud of you!" (Can you see why I married him?) Will I do it again? Uh, yes! I love running marathons, and I still have my goals! In fact, I have Ian left and Don wants me to run one for him! So what if I can't walk or stand up straight right now. My legs will heal. I have learned from this marathon that I have to run my own race. I know my body, and what works good for me. I know how I race. I can't get all caught up in staying with pace teams and let the pressure of qualifying get to me. I have to have more faith in myself and my abilities.

Here are the boys watching the finish line. We stayed with Tony and Deanna again. My kids love staying with them. They are an awesome family. They even came to the race! Thanks guys!

Don said one look at me, and he knew I was in trouble. I am in the white shirt.
Great view of the hand print shirt. I love that. That is the clock time, above is the chip time! I hated seeing that!

Like I said, I couldn't walk very good. I think Tony took this picture. Thanks! Check out that I am still holding my Great Harvest Bread! Hey, I have priorities! Austin is totally laughing!

This was Aubrey's marathon. I read this quote one day, "Every foot strike a woman makes will help a daughter somewhere be stronger, smarter, and happier." I think when you are active, it does set a wonderful example for girls. Teaching her to set goals and accomplishing them through hard work is the example I want to set for Aubrey. I don't look so good here. Everything started to spin, and I felt sick.

The best part of today is all of my children were there to see me run. That is the best!

I love the St. George Marathon, and I will be back!

Cross Country Update

Yesterday the boys had a meet against Cimarron, Shadow Ridge, and Meadows. They lost their meet. (Play shocking music here!) Zach and Austin said they didn't have good meets at all. Zach had a 16:19 and Austin a 18:58. They were not pleased at all. That happens sometimes. Well, what can you do. Maybe a break from cross country this weekend will be good.

That Time Of Year Again!

This is by far, my most favorite time of the year. It is also the time of year when I miss living in Connecticut the most. I do love getting ready for the holidays. It is so much fun. Yesterday, the weather turned cool here in Vegas. It was perfect timing. Right in time for October! So, in order to celebrate the cool weather I made pumpkin soup! The kids love it. The older boys were at a meet, so they got some later.

Anybody who knows Don, knows how much he loves the holidays too. He loves to decorate for the holidays. He has this thing about having the Halloween decorations out on the 1st of October. That is when it has to be done. Well, on Tuesday we were going over the week and I told him that it would be better to put up our decorations on Wednesday before the 1st of October because Thursday was going to be crazy. (Dance,Football, and whatever!) I could tell Don wasn't too pleased to go against tradition, but in the end he agreed. So yesterday he rushed home from work, the kids rushed to do their homework, and the decorations went up. In the end, Don was happy to put them up.
Our Halloween decorations are cute, not gross or super scary. Listen, Ian can hardly walk into a store during this time of year. It scares him too much. All those scary decorations and displays. He freaks out! He loves Halloween, but all those spooky decorations he could do without. This does make it very interesting when we take him in a store during this time of year. We have to have him close his eyes, and one of us walks with him until we pass the scary stuff. Austin does love to hang these skeletons up. Yes, my pots are suppose to be hanging there, but no, we have skeletons.

Every inch of my house gets a decoration. Even my plant shelves in the front room. Don climbs up there. It is kind of good, because it does need dusting up there.

Oh yes, we even have vampire books around. Aubrey is finishing it up.

After that, we made my marathon shirt. Every time I run a marathon the kids put their hand prints on the back of shirt for me to wear. They are, "pushing me along".