I DID IT!!!

I have to pat myself on the back a little bit....I ran the 1/2 marathon in the Ogden marathon on Saturday! I've been wanting to do it for a couple of years, but I always talked myself out of it, thinking that there was no way I would be able to accomplish it. Well, finally, this year, I didn't let myself out of it. Thanks to a few pep talks and my great running buddies....I ran it and we finished in 1 hour 50 minutes! I am stiff and sore but I feel like a million bucks for accomplishing this! Now, I think I'm hooked! Thank you, thank you to Julie, Erika, Michele, and Sheridan...I couldn't have done this without you! You gals are amazing! (That's me in the pink)

From left: Erika, Julie, Michele, me (we lost Sheridan somewhere)And, of course, a big thank you to my fan club who cheered me across the finish line!

We've been Shot...by Celeste!

So...my BFF, Celeste, decided to go and buy herself a fancy schmancy new camera. So, being the kind, generous, selfless, thoughtful friend that I am...I decided to let her try it out on my kids...aren't I sweet! Here are some of the results.......LOVE THEM!

I have to say...they turned out pretty stinkin' cute!! Thanks Celeste...you rock!

Check her out at shotbyceleste.blogspot.com

We love the Dinosaur Park!

We love going to the dinosaur park! We love walking around and seeing all the different dinosaurs, playing on the playground, feeding the fish and ducks, finding the hidden trails...but it's even better on Physician's family night when everything is free...even a huge bbq dinner! We even got free tickets for the gold sluicing and geode cutting! What a great time! And Holt just loves running along the paths...he doesn't care where they lead! But, of course, I forgot my camera tonight (why don't I just keep it in my purse?). Oh well. We'll get pics next time.

Another "2" cute

So, I think I got complacent a little bit with Korinne and Porter. When they were two, they would of course make normal messes, but they never really got into things that they weren't supposed to. But then along comes Holt. He's done things like squeeze the kids bright pink and bright blue toothpaste all over the bathroom...I mean covering every surface. (I can't find the pictures right now...but they're pretty funny). Or, he's gotten into the flour and spread it all over himself and the kitchen. So it should really come as no surprise what he did Friday night....
Korinne was at a ballet with her friend, Porter had fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie, Colby and Holt were outside "working" in the garage, so I took the rare opportunity to spend a little time on the computer. I could hear Colby and Holt going in and out upstairs, but wasn't really paying attention. After a while, I could hear a lot of water trickling and I remember thinking, "wow, it's really raining hard now!". Then I could hear Holt upstairs yelling Porter's name, so I yelled up to him to leave him alone and let him sleep, so then he started yelling for me and I of course kept telling him "just a minute, bud!" Then Colby started yelling for me, so I went upstairs....Holt had pushed a bar stool over to the sink and turned on the water. (our faucet is one of those swan neck ones). He then pushed the button for the sprayer, so needless to say, the kitchen was completely flooded. The trickling water that I had heard and paid no attention to was the water pouring out of the ceiling onto my sewing machine and all over the craft table. So, as we are working to clean up the flood, Holt stood there saying "Holt play in water, mom." Cute.

Easter

I'm finally getting around to posting about Easter..... We had a great weekend, especially since we didn't have to go to the stupid Easter egg hunt that the city has at Friendship park...our wonderful neighbors had one instead, yeah!! Thanks Petersens!

We colored eggs....

And we had our annual Easter picnic with Colby's family. Lots of good food and company, and while the kids and dads are off playing, the Easter bunny always sneaks around and fills up the kids' baskets with all sorts of treats and then hides them.

It was a little cold, but they didn't mind!

Conference and other stuff

I've always loved and looked forward to conference weekend. I love relaxing at home, but at the same time being spiritually uplifted. It's hard to concentrate on every talk with little kids around, but we even just enjoy having them with us, hopefully picking up on some of the talks. I always find conference activities for them to do and they get excited for those. I loved hearing our prophet talk about hope and a bright future, but at the same time reiterating the importance of being prepared, getting out of debt and becoming self-sufficient. It always renews my resolved to work harder on these things that are so important to our well-being. I'm grateful for a prophet and to live in this day when we are able to hear his words so easily.
On another note....last night (monday), we were able to attend a benefit concert for Paul Cardall (an LDS pianist who is one of my absolute faves! right up there with Kurt Bestor, Jon Schmidt). Anyway, he has been on the heart transplant list for 229 days because he is in heart failure from a congenital heart defect, so this concert was to help his family with some of his medical bills. It was a great time...they had Kurt Bestor, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband, Peter Breinholt and others. We thorougly enjoyed it. But one of the most touching moments was a tribute to a little baby, Gracie Gledhill, who struggled with a congenital heart defect and a heart transplant, but unfortunately didn't make it past 11 months old. Her story has had an amazing impact on me and I have been a religious follower of her blog. It was a great night, hard to describe the feeling unless you were there. But, we're praying for Paul to get a heart soon, and hopefully be able to go back to what he does best (besides being a husband and father) and that is make amazingly beautiful music.

Finally!

Porter was so excited when there was no snow on Saturday...that meant he would finally be able to play soccer! It's been a long, hard winter of waiting. It was freezing cold, but that wasn't going to stop anyone! Only one other of his teammates showed up, so they had to pull another little guy from the opposing team to be on Porter's team...it was a little confusing for the boys, but they played their little hearts out and had a great time!
That face says it all! What a great day!