Christmas Jammies 2010

One of our Christmas traditions is to get new jammies on Christmas Eve. The kids look forward to this every year. Emily picked out her own jammies while we were shopping for the kids' jammies one day. She also picked out her new bathrobe! She was still surprised when she opened them up tonight.

They also get to open the present from their sibling who drew their name. The kids had fun right away tonight. More photos to come...

Then my girls stayed up and cleaned up the kitchen and house so it would be spotless for morning. That was a great present to me!

Visions of sugerplums....

Katie and Carson have spent quite a bit of time right under the tree today. I am not sure why, but they were quiet and getting along so why not?

You'd better not pout...

Emily was so excited to go and see Santa at the mall a few weeks ago. We were so surprised that she was so happy to see and talk to a virtual stranger. We told her before we got there that he was a grandpa and a nice guy. She told the ladies in the store where she changed into her pretty dress that Santa was a good guy.

A Song, Santa, and Reindeer

Katie signed up at school to sing a solo at this outdoor Christmas concert at a local business park. Katie sang at the end of the schedule so there was no one there but our family to listen to her. We assured her that was the best way to do your first solo performance, not so nerve wracking! There was a Santa in one of the businesses that you could take your own photos with. Luckily Emily had a successful Santa visit at the mall a few weeks ago since she wanted NOTHING to do with this Santa. However, the "Big" kids all had to sit with Santa for a photo! We actually got to pet a real, live reindeer too! It was a cold and rainy day so to warm-up we made off quickly to see the Guardians of Ga'hoole movie at the cheap seats in Nampa.

Katie's First Choir Concert....

Katie has sung in her school choir this year and this was her first Christmas concert in Middle School. She actually smiled at us across the gym as we were snapping hundreds of photos that evening. The kids did a nice job performing! It was fun to see her up there too.

Cabela's Fish Feeding....

During the last visit from Steve's parents we took the kids to Cabela's during the fish feeding time. It is amazing to see all of those big fish and how they race to get the food. Everyone around the store gathers around the huge aquarium windows to watch the "show".

More Zoo Boise....

More zoo pics....when you have two cameras shooting you end up with LOTS of photos.

Happy 16th Birthday Jonny....

Jonny had a friend party too, the first one ever he announced to his friends during the party.

We had a small family party too on his birthday.

I can't believe he is 16! Where does the time fly....

He hasn't really asked to drive much yet either......lucky me!

The last visit of the season

This was the last visit to the zoo for 2010.

November Birthdays...

This was the year for having friends over for a birthday party. I usually keep it to family since we have so many birthdays so very close together. In fact we have about 1 a week starting with Emily on Oct. 23 and then Jonny, Kristina, and then Katie on Nov. 24th.

With the Thanksgiving break during the week of Katie's birthday we had a combined party for Kristina and Katie and their friends. They all ate pizza and watched Toy Story 3 on the wall. All the movie candy they could eat too.

And then the requested ice cream birthday cake too!

Let the festivities begin...

Cool boots....

Katie recently purchased these cool boots with some of her birthday money.

Snow is......by Emily

Snow is freezing cold

Snow is ice cream

Snow is good for us

Snow makes our tummy full

She was so excited to have the kids home and to have them take her out to play in the snow too!

Emily's 3rd Birthday....

I can hardly believe she is three now. Time just goes by much too quickly. Emily has really caught on to the idea of birthdays and all that goes with it. She had so much opening presents and blowing out candles too. She even sang the birthday songs to herself with the rest of us. She has brought such a ray of sunshine to our family, we all just love her to pieces! She has been so much fun these last three years. She will be my only child in Primary when she moves into Sunbeams in January!

Halloween 2010

The ward has a Trunk-Or-Treat each year at the neighborhood park, just a block or two from our house. It is great to get all the stops done in one place! This year was Katie's last year as a trick-or-treater since she turns 12 in November. Our family rule is you are done trick-or-treating when you are 12. Emily, however has another 9 years of this fun stuff. I still get candy for all the big kids so no one misses out on getting some sweet treats!

Build-A-Bear.....

I received a coupon in the mail for a free animal up to $12 or that much off of a more expensive animal. Steve and I took Emily to the mall, our only visit for the year, to choose her animal. I had showed her all the choices on the website before we went to get an idea of what she would like. She chose the Kipper look-alike dog which was great, it was $12. When we got to the store we walked her by all of the animals and said she could choose anyone of them. After seeing all of her choices she went back to the beginning of the line and chose the same Kipper dog that had seen on the website!

You can put a sound box into your animal. They range in price from $4 to $8. I said no to the sound box. Steve however said yes to the one on clearance for $1.50. Great! It's the Jonas Brothers.....Emily's favorite! (Not! She doesn't know who they are) But she has music in her dog and she will dance to it or have her dog dance to it. It really is cute! It is worth the $1.50 to watch her dance with her dog!

It is fun to watch her face as she goes through the process of picking her animal and stuffing it, washing it, and giving it a name on the computer. The most fun however is watching her carry her box. She is determined to do it herself and she carries it all the way to the car.

My 2nd 5k event....

Tami and I ran in the 5k High Speed Pursuit last Saturday. I finished and received the finishers medal. The medal is what it is all about according to my sister. My road training didn't prepare me for running on dirt roads. I ended up with shin splints about 1.5 miles into my run. I finished the race walking/running. I was disappointed not to make it running all the way again. I don't have shin splint issues when I am running at home! Emily had me up every hour from about 4am to 6am and so I was not rested as much as I should have been. I really want to make it running an entire 5k! So I now I have 3 races coming up that I want to do. I just have to decide which one!

"Now let's go feed the lions!"

We raced to Zoo Boise yesterday to make it in time to feed the giraffes. Emily just loved it. As we walked off she said enthusiastically, "That was fun! Now let's go feed the LIONS!"

My first 5K - Update...

Here is the one and only photo of me at my first 5k event. It was taken by my friend 2Busy, who also ran her first 5k that day too. She did leave me in the dust....that's ok! I made it to the finish! It was good to have a friend in the crowd!

Among the crowd, awaiting our time to take off!

My first 5k

First of all, they spelled my name correctly! That's a first!
On this last Saturday, Sept. 25th I ran my first 5k race. I didn't really race anyone but myself even though I was surrounded by thousands of women. I had started "training" for this event back in June doing the Couch to 5K program on my iPod. I had completed all 9 weeks of that program a couple of weeks before my big day so I would just pick a distance or time for my run two to three times a week to continute to train.
The night before the race I had everything set out and ready to go. My ride shows up and I grab my pile of stuff and hop into her car. We are parking the car at the shuttle location and I notice that I left my headphones at home, nice.... And then I also realized I had left my pins home to attach my number to my shirt, again....nice going! Oh well, I was up and on my way!
We waited forever for our wave to start the race. My toes were going numb standing around waiting! Meanwhile I am hoping that I can complete this race pain free. During my last 4 or 5 weeks I have had pain in my upper thigh that gets unbearable at about 1.5 miles into my run. And my inner knee on the same leg is painful too.
I left the starting line at a good pace. It is hard to maintain your own pace when so many are running around you. I ran up the hill and made it to the top and then shin splints set in. Ugh.....all this training, all this time and NOW shin splints? What????? So this was about 1.5 miles into my first race and I was VERY discouraged! But I had to keep on going. So I would walk for a few minutes and then run for a few minutes until the shin splints took over again! I crossed the finish line only to see the clock had been stopped...I can only guess that I finished in about 45-50 min! My worst pace ever! After reviewing the hundreds and hundreds of photos taken at the finish line I never did find a photo of me crossing the finish line, wow do I feel like a loser now!
BUT, I did finish the race! I felt great the rest of the day, until the end of the day and my soar throat won the day's race and I had lost my voice completely!

I have signed up for my next 5k event in October. This time the course is flat and I will continue to train and improve!