I'm still here...

I took a year off blogging. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure the hustle and bustle of life had something to do with it. I'm not going to even make an effort to catch up.   Here are a few pictures of the kids playing in the leaves before the first snow and my prego belly. Our little girl should be making an appearance any day soon.  Of course, more pictures to come....maybe.

Mommy's Weekend

For the last 4 1/2 years I have worked nearly every weekend at the hospital. While I am able to be home during most of the week, I still feel like I'm missing out on a whole world of weekends. I can just imagine all of the magic and rainbows that occur while I'm sleeping all day and working all night.

Well, a few weekends ago I was able to spend the whole weekend home with my sweet boys. My adventurous husband ran a MARATHON! Yup, he ran 26.2 miles. He traveled to Logan,UT for the race and because of cost my kids and I stayed home. Jake did amazing! he ran the entire marathon in 4h 1min. I can't believe it! I would still be running when they were taking the cones and aid stations down. I really admire the work he put into the marathon. It was amazing to see how dedicated he was. He NEVER missed a training run, even when we were on vacation. Great Job Jake Baby!

Morning of the marathon. Probably around 4am. Jake ran it with his sister, Trisha. She did an amazing job as well!

After the marathon. They DID IT!!!!

Anyway, I wanted to tell you what we did while daddy was away.

The first night we were able to make our own pizzas. I love homemade pizza and it tasted especially good this night!

Rolling out the dough

From front to back: Braden's, Cami's, Jordan's pizzas!

Cooked and ready to eat!

After the pizza was polished off. You can tell that Braden enjoyed his! We also watched The Tooth Fairy together. Both the kids were asleep before it was over.

On Saturday morning we went to Miller Farms in Platteville. It's about 1h north of Denver. We had a really great time. They had these old cars made over to look like the Disney's Cars characters. Here's Tow Mater!

Sheriff

Lightning!

Doc Hudson

Someone else....

There were so many activities at this farm: animals to pet and feed, a bounce pillow, corn maze, enormous haystack to climb, tractor trikes to ride. It was amazing. Unfortunately, our camera stopped working (which I am still trying to fix) so I didn't get any more pictures after the animals. After all the activities we met up with the Rodericks (all 6 of them) and went on a hayride to pick all of our food. We came out with around 100 lbs of food. Potatoes, corn, tomatoes, carrots, onions, hot chilis, eggplant, and pumpkins. I am still working on getting everything ready to store. It was definitely worth it! I feel like the food was practically free!

It was a great time!

Hopefully there will be many more weekends like this in the future!

I LOVE ORGANIZATION!

I have to share what I just recently finished. I have had this hanging in my garage for almost a year, but haven't gotten to the hardware store to buy the supplies and assemble the whole thing. Well, I finally did it and I adore it. I keep opening the door to the garage just to look at its beauty. Now on to the next project!

Marathon Training!

Jake finishing a 16 mile run......and me chasing him on a bike.

He ran all the way from Honeyville to

Willard!

Family Vacation 2010

Palm Springs! Grandpa decided to give all the kids rides on the golf cart. It was like 9am and already heading towards 100 degrees. It was hot, but we sure had a lot of fun!

Korbyn, Braden, Jordan & Grandpa.

Malachi, Melody, Asa & Grandpa

Girls activity. We did facials and pedicures. It was just fun to have all of us together. As you can see there was a lot of silliness and a lot of laughter.

Elena, Melody, and Cari

Brooke, Elena, and Melody

Ariella!

Off to Disneyland! We didn't ride on the teacups. Jordan got motion sickness just on the ride over (had to make a special stop to throw up). So I don't think it would have been a good idea. But they had one to sit in and take a picture.

At California Adventure we went to this 4D Bug's Life theatre. It was so fun to get spit on and really have water spray on you. You could feel bugs crawling under your backside, you got stung in the back, and we really smelled the stink bug. These were the cool 3d bug glasses.

Jordan, Braden, Alex & Ariella

Braden, Mommy, and Jordan on Mickey's fun wheel. It was a ferris wheel that let you slide and swing while it was rotating. I love these pictures!

Jake & Cami

We were so excited for Alisa to go through the temple so all the sisters could be there. We all live so far apart, this was the perfect time. The Redland's Temple was so beautiful. It was a great experience!

Melo, Sandy, Mom, Alisa, Cari, Dad, and Cami

Palm Springs Water Park!

Jake sitting in the Cabana!

Jordan and Braden's favorite slides (probably because there was no waiting!)

Sunburned Jordan, even though we applied sunscreen like 30 times that day. You just can't beat the 115 degree heat!

Happy Braden!

Our pet Iguana at the Big House. He was definitely a spectacle. We even got to feed him some fruit. He came running and scared me half to death.

We turned on the jets in this bath and created the most amazing bubble bath I have ever seen. Jordan had a great time!

Pictures after Church on Sunday

Ariella and Jordan

Braden, Ariella, Jordan, and Tierzah

Jake, of course, spent half the vacation training for his marathon. He ran nearly every day. He sweats so much that he leaves salt trails all over his body. MMMmmm Sodium Chloride!

Just Finishing a Palm Springs run!

He is pretty good lookin'!

The happy couple. Can you believe we've been married for 7 years. Crazy!

We returned home just in time for Jordan to start 1st grade. He is gone all day long now. I think he is loving it. His teacher is Mrs. Hyde and she is wonderful.

1st day of 1st grade!!! He's growing up so fast!

Snapshot of the summer

I know I'm MIA recently in the blogging world. We have been enjoying our summer! I can't say we've done much, but it has been great sleeping in, going to the park, swim lessons, etc. I was able to spend a few weeks studying for the CPN (Certified Pediatric Nurse) Exam. I took it about a week ago and PASSED! I am so excited. That means a raise at work and a few extra initials behind my name.

Here are a few of my fav' pictures from this summer so far:

*Buddies Forever*

I asked Jordan why he slept in Braden's bed this night, he said that Braden needed to be protected! I love it!

Swim lessons

Row, Row, Row your boat...

Mommy and boys! I'm all ready for work, but don't want to miss out on a squdge from my kiddoes! Who's cute kids are those?

This is Jake after a super long run. He is training for a MARATHON in September. This particular day he came home with several bug carcases stuck to his forehead. His forehead acted like a makeshift windshield. I guess he was just going too fast! He said he may have swallowed a few as well! *Yuck* Can you believe how green his eyes look here!