Enjoy the Moments

I want to capture some moments of my life. Emily is quite the talker. (I have no clue where she gets that from!) Her conversations and thought process crack me up! I want to try to write more down! Today in the car:

Emily- I want to tell Mrs. Sharp something. Where is she?
Me- We will see her at the play. What do you want to tell her?
Emily- Something.
Me- Something about what?
Emily-Something about Jesus.
Me- What about Jesus?
Emily- That he loves her.
It was so sweet!



Dallin's school put on the play Peter Pan and it was very cute.

Bryce is finally feeling better and it is so nice to see him smiling and giggling!

Dallin will read to Emily now and I love it!

That's all. Nothing huge, and that's how I like it!

We are heading to the beach this weekend and I can't wait!

The most important things in life aren't things...

Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, this is going to be a long update! These last 2 weeks have been part wonderful and part extremely difficult. We have been making memories, and enjoying wonderful weather and then having moments we want to forget and having crummy weather! So, first for the good times:

Going along with the good weather, we took our boat out for a spin! We didn't get out on the boat much last summer and I hope this summer to use it more. We love to bring other families, so for all you locals who read my blog, let me know when you want to come play on our boat! It is usually a last minute invite, and we might ask you to hold a baby or a flag, but I guarantee a good time! All my kids have loved boating, even as a baby, and Bryce didn't cry, but he also didn't seem too sure about it yet! The water was freezing, but I had a great ski run!

We have been playing and visiting with friends and neighbors. We have been able to splash in the pool, play with chickens, and just enjoying great conversation. I love that in the summer everyone comes out of the woodwork! I love park days!



We have a new addition to our backyard, and I look forward to many hours of watching my kids out the window playing on this!

Jeff has been working hard in the yard replacing our front yard. The kids have had fun helping them. We planted a vegetable garden and look forward to eating from it, if I can get anything to grow!


We enjoyed a Saturday at the river watching boat races. It was supposed to be a rainy day and turned out beautiful!


We have been able to talk with family on Skype. It has been so fun for us and the kids to talk with cousins and grandparents! Thank goodness for technology.

Bryce turned 1!! I would say that this year has gone by quickly, but honestly it hasn't! Many things have happened this year that will not be soon forgotten, and I am so grateful to have Bryce in my home and family. I am going to do a post just about him, but for now just know we love this little munchkin! His birthday was in the middle of the week that I want to forget. So, here goes!

On Tuesday, Bryce woke up with a fever and Emily told me she didn't feel well. At about 10am, after spending the first few hours of the morning with one of both of them in my arms, they both fell asleep. I checked on Emily and she was a little warm. I went into the other room to send out an email canceling Bryce's birthday for the next day and to try to find someone to work for me that night. I heard Emily coughing in the other room and it just didn't sound right. I went over and saw a sight no parent should see. She was convulsing and foaming at the mouth. I dialed 9-1-1 immediately and then ran next door to my neighbor's because I knew I couldn't be alone. The ambulance arrived about 7 minutes later at which time she had finally stopped shaking. She still wasn't responding to me, but was breathing and her vital signs were good. We went to the ER and Jeff was able to meet me there. She finally recognized me and was of course miserable as they poked and prodded her. They ran many tests to find out exactly what was happening. They have determined it is a febrile seizure(fever induced) but we are having an MRI done just to be sure. She was doing much better by the next day, but then on Thursday she woke up throwing up. Not a fun day again. I am just so grateful she is doing well. Bryce is still somewhat sick, but I feel more out of the woods. We have amazing friends and neighbors who helped out with the kids and meals while we were in the ER. We have been so blessed!

I love being a mom so much, even during the hard times. I feel even closer to Emily and I hope I can be more patient with her. I was a little more upset about the tulips than I realized. My little brother asked, "What's the big deal?" And, he is right! These beautiful tulips were delivered to my door by a wonderful girl, Charity, who I have met through Marathon Mommies. It brightened my whole day and reminded me the most important things are our relationships. With our spouses, parents, children, family, and friends. I hope my kids will always know how important they are to me.

I will laugh about this later...

....the last of my Tulips. Emily was nice enough to pick this one whole and put it in the vase. (It really is that long. :-))












As for the other ones...














...they are gone! As I was working hard trying to get the house clean and organized (and doing Monday laundry), Emily was picking flowers. I looked out the window while I was doing dishes and my usual view of the tulips (my favorite thing this time of year) was gone! This is what I was left with.


I went to find Emily and this is what I found.














I was very upset and tried to handle myself calmly, but I will admit it was not pretty. I definitely became Mean Mommy. I really do not like when Mean Mommy rears her ugly head. The rest of the day did not go much better, I am sad to say. Emily refused to eat dinner and peed on our newly reupholstered dining room chair. (Lucky for her, not too much pee!)

She ended up going to bed early and eventually I did go in and talk to her about her day- just me- no Mean Mommy. I am just at a loss of what to do with her sometimes. She can be the sweetest little girl in the world, but if she doesn't want to do something- there seems to be nothing I can do to change her mind.

Today, I am remembering all the things I love about her. Most importantly, how grateful I am for her. We had a scare a few months ago where she went into shock for about 20 minutes and couldn't speak. I have never been so scared in all my life. The thought of never hearing her cute little voice just broke my heart. I do love her so much, and I love having conversations with her. I hope tomorrow goes better, and I hope I can have the patience I need to show her the love she needs.

Never, ever give up...

That is the lesson I learned this weekend. Not exactly the lesson I was going for. I was hoping to learn the, "If you work really hard, you will reach your goals" lesson. Things don't always turn out as planned, even with all the good luck wishes from my sweet kiddos and friends. In case you couldn't tell I am talking about the Salt Lake Marathon. I was not able to qualify for Boston, but I was able to prove to myself that I can stick with something even when I want to quit. I also was able to cross the finish line with one of my best friends and beat my best marathon time by 3 minutes.

In spite of this little disappointment, we had a fantastic weekend with family and friends. What a special time to share with Jeff's parents as they are preparing to leave on a mission. It was wonderful to be with the whole family. My sister Shelly was kind enough to spend the day with me and then watch my kids so that Jeff and I could go to the temple with all of his brothers and sisters and their spouses and his parents. It was a very special experience. Thanks, Shelly.

Before the marathon, we had a pre-race party with the awesome women from our blog. How fun to finally meet many of them and hear their stories. So inspiring! One of my favorite teachers from high school flew into town to run the first few miles of the marathon with me. It was very cool! One of my great friends met me a few places along the course and that meant so much to me, especially when things were going tough. At the finish line, Shelly surprised me with bringing along one of my best friends from high school , Amy. (Shelly I need to get some of the pics from you!!)





I would like to update more, but it is TV turnoff week, and that means the computer. So, here are a few pics for now and I will see you in a week!!


What a beautiful, wonderful family I was lucky enough to marry into. I love all of them! We will miss you Grandma Di and Grandpa Mel!

Can I live at the mall?

Those of you who know me well know that this is not a question I would normally ask. I am not a big shopper and I only go a couple of times a year. But...
to see how happy Bryce is in their play area I would go every day!

He is such a sweet boy, but he has been my toughest baby so far. He is never far from me and cries when I set him down. There are few moments where he actually just "plays." The good news is that I have had lots and lots of cuddle time with him and I have just tried to enjoy it, knowing it won't last forever.

But today, I was in heaven. I had only planned on dropping in on this play area for a few minutes after a birthday party. I ended up staying an hour and a half, and Bryce was smiling and giggling the entire time. He crawled through the tunnels and played with his brother and sister. He never climbed on my leg once. It was pure joy.

(And isn't his first haircut so cute?)
Man, I love this kid!
"...recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments." M. Russell Ballard, this past conference April 2008

Righteous Traditions

As we have been listening to Conference, one of the talks that stood out to me was the one about righteous traditions. This is something I think about a lot, and now I am ready to act on it! I do feel we have some great traditions, but I feel that it is time for more. I love seeing and hearing about the traditions that other families have. I really feel traditions are the way to bind families together. So, I would love to hear some of your favorites and I will adopt the ones that will work for us! Here are some pictures from one of my favorite Easter traditions. When Dallin was 1 year old, we had an Easter brunch with 2 other families who each had one child. We had wonderful food, easter egg hunt, and good conversation. 5 years later the tradition is still going strong. All of us look forward to this part of Easter. I also love Easter because it is less commercial than Christmas. I feel we are really able to focus on the resurrection as the meaning of Easter. My kids love the Easter Egg hunt for the eggs with the scripture story in them.

This was not the picture I envisioned of the kiddos, but is it ever?! :-)

Here is the whole group now. My how we have grown!

Here is one of the pictures from the first brunch we had! So cute!

So, I have decided that I want my blog to take the place of my family scrapbook. So, I will be adding in dates and pictures from earlier this year, just because it is my blog and I want to! This also means that I am going to try to blog each Sunday. Hold me to this!

I'm Defying Gravity...

Yep, I am still on a "Wicked" kick. I know I still need to post my Easter pictures, but I just had to record my experience today. I had the most AMAZING run this morning. It has been 10 months since I started running after having Bryce, and this was the first run that felt "easy." Those of you who aren't runners, I promise there is a point you reach where running actually feels good! I started off with two good friends and then let them go ahead and do a faster run and it was just me and my music. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight (rare for Oregon!) and it was a deep, beautiful blue. I could see Mt. Hood in the distance for much of the run and felt the peace that comes from knowing I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and created this beautiful place for His children.

Running has been the perfect escape for me and time to be by myself. I have needed this more than ever in these past 3 months. I thought running would fall by the wayside as I have struggled with my emotions, but it has been my release and my comfort. I hadn't planned on trying to qualify for Boston just yet, but everything has been coming together and I have decided to go for it. I have been working harder than I have ever worked before and I am so happy with the results. 3 days a week of speedwork has been tough, and I don't always want to be doing it, but I love how I feel when I am finished!

I am not a "natural" runner, in fact in high school I was the slowest one on the cross country team. But since I have had children I have found my passion is setting goals and accomplishing them. Running is a great place to do this because you are only competing with yourself. I have had an awesome network of running friends who have encouraged me and supported me, both in my running and in my life. (Sometimes those 2 things are one and the same!) I have a very supportive husband who has let me focus on this aspect of my life. I have loved proving to myself that I can stick with something so completely. No more giving up because I am not the best at it. This has translated to so many other areas of my life. So, here I am. In 2 1/2 weeks, I will get to possibly make a dream come true. Does this scare me? Of course. But, I am so excited about the prospect! As I hit mile 4 of my run today, this song came on. How can these words not inspire you?! (It helps that I just saw the amazing performance of this song and it was my favorite part of the play!)



Something has changed within me.
Something is not the same.
I'm through with playing by the rules of someone elses game.
Too late for second-guessing.
Too late to go back to sleep!
It's time to trust my instints.
Close my eyes, and leap!
It's time to try defying gravity.
I think I'll try defying gravity, and you can't pull me down!

'm through with accepting limits,
'Cuz someone says they're so!
Some things I cannot change,
but 'till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
loosing love, I guess I've lost!
Well, if thats love, it comes at much to high a cost!
I'd sooner buy defying gravity
Kiss me goodby!
I'm defying gravity, and you can't pull me down!


So, on April 19th, please be thinking of me. The hardest part for me will be not being able to call my father, the first person I always called after a race, and my biggest cheerleader. However, there is no question in my mind that he will be there cheering me on. I hope to make him proud!

I have a Wicked Incredible Husband

(This is the weather we left in Oregon...)

It is amazing to me that Jeff knows me as well as he does. It is almost spooky. I had the most wonderful weekend, all thanks to the amount of thought and love that my husband put into this trip. There are so many details that he went to great lengths to make sure were perfect!

It started out a little crazy with us missing our flight (basically Bryce woke up early, and there was an accident on the freeway), and Jeff just looked so depressed as he thought about all his plans going out the window, but once we knew we were going to actually make it to our destination, we relaxed and enjoyed reading our books for the extra couple of hours on the plane! So, the destination was...

Orange County, CA! My sister lives in Huntington Beach and Jeff had arranged all of the trip with her and my mom. I didn't think I had talked to Jeff about it much, but he had figured out what I needed. He knew that I needed to be with my family. I have been having such a hard time being away from them since the funeral. What a wonderful surprise to get to spend precious time with them without my cute kiddos hanging on my legs!

He had told me to bring something fancy to wear, but I didn't know what it was for. I figured it was probably a show of some type, but I just waited patiently (kind of!) to find out what he had planned. (Please don't mind the Happy Birthday tiara that my sister made me wear!)

I was so excited when we saw the billboard for Wicked!! I had mentioned once or twice that I wanted to see this. I grew up watching local productions of musicals and I LOVE them. The show was phenomenal and I was grinning and giddy through the whole show. My mom bought me the CD and I have been listening to it on my IPOD ever since! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! It was also cool that we went with my sister Crystal and her boyfriend, Tony, and it was in the awesome Pantageous Theater in Hollywood! I felt like a Rock Star, ha ha!
Next up: (Yep, our night was just beginning, it was only 11pm after all!) the Magic Castle. Crystal had some friends hook us up at this really cool place! Basically there are rooms with different magicians doing cool magic tricks. It was a lot of fun and apparently a hip, Hollywood spot. We saw Steve Valentine from Crossing Jordan, if anyone cares about that sort of stuff! We got home about 1:30 and hung out chatting with my mom until about 2:30am. What party animals we are!

Friday morning, we slept in and then woke up and went for a run on the beach, my favorite kind of run!! Jeff had been working hard at the gym to get ready for this run with me. I thought that was so sweet, and it meant more to me than he could know. So, we ran 5 1/2 miles together and it was gorgeous and so much fun. (Although I don't know if it was as fun for him with me talking his ear off!) I wish we could run together more often, but that won't be for a little while. :-) We spent the rest of the day hanging out with the family. We also biked to the beach later on to catch the sunset.



My aunt Marlynn came over with a couple of her kids and we had a nice visit with them. About midnight, we decided to start a game of Cities and Knights, I know, again we are the crazy party animals. I won the game to end a perfect getaway! We had to wake up at 5am to catch the flight home. It was quick, but just what I needed. I love you, Jeff and I am so grateful for all you did!
(These pictures are Jeff's ideas of relaxation (snoozing while listening to the NCAA tournament on TV) and mine (reading my Book Club book at the pool!)

We came home to happy kids who were well taken care of by grandma. They also surprised me with a cake! Thanks, Diane for your part in all of this! How blessed I feel and how lucky I am!

Just a quick note...

...to say I'm here, but actually, I'm outta here!
Thanks to this wonderful woman ...

I get to spend the next 3 days with the cute one on the right in this picture!

My sweet hubby flew his mom in as a surprise to watch the kiddos and I still don't know where we are going, I just know we are leaving on a plane in the morning! All he told me is it is someplace warm and to bring my running shoes. I am so excited I definitely can't sleep! Jeff is amazing and I can't wait to see what he has planned.

I know it will be a great 30th birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

Some teaser pictures until I get back with a REAL update. ( I have been a little busy training for this marathon, hoping to qualify for this marathon next year. Visit this blog for more info on what I have been doing...)

Any guesses as to where he is taking me?