Way to Busy!

It seems like my life right now is crazy busy! I can't seem to get all that I want done in a day! Summer is always hectic with all of the fun vacations, family parties, and outings. These past three weeks have been crazy! Mark has been working overtime and actually has put in a whole weeks worth of hours in overtime. The next paycheck will be very nice indeed! I have been busy with the kids, parties, appointments, cleaning house, family, 5k runs, and so much more.

So today after teaching a lesson about procreation to my Miamaids, I came home from church and decided that it was time to relax! I got the kids feed, put them down for a nap and grabbed my book and read! It definitely feels nice to relax! This next Saturday we are staying home and enjoying our home and kids!

Dart Challenge 5k Run!

So Saturday I ran my second 5k this summer! A few people at my work wanted to run one so I decided to sign up and join them. I did very well considering that I only ran once last week. I was very busy and I enjoy my sleep to much!

It was a great day to go running! I was able to run the whole time without stopping and I even cut 8 minutes off of my last time! I was very excited. Now this race was put on by Davis High School so the majority of the runners were teenagers. I finished 69th out of 90. I know it sounds bad but considering that I was running with a bunch of teenagers, I think I did pretty good. My overall time was 30:29 minutes.

I am very proud of myself for actually doing one again. It sure has been a long time. I love the feeling that I get when I cross the finish line and know that I did it! It is exhilarating! I hope to keep running and maybe someday I might even be ambitious enough to try running a half marathon. As for now, I think I will just stick to a 5k.

Happy 3rd Birthday Vanessa!

Day of Birth1st Birthday2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

So our little girl just turned three years old! Where has the time went? I remember one night while rocking Vanessa to sleep when she was about one and thinking about how much I love holding her and that in a blink of an eye she will grow up! I blinked and here we are two years later! She is just a joy to have in our family! We can't even image life without her! She is my special friend and we love her so much!

For her birthday we played and went out to eat at Santa Monica Pizza. She liked the breadsticks the best. We came back and opened presents. She got some new shoes, Ariel pj's and jacket, Ariel puzzle and step stool, a princess wand, and a princess tent. The tent has become both Vanessa and Owen's favorite toy! They had so much fun playing in it together!

After presents, we sang Happy Birthday to her. She was excited to blow out the candles! When it came time to blow them out she had a hard time blowing all of them out so she got a little frustrated. With help she was able to get them all out and was happy again. What a silly little girl!
She even took the responsibility of cutting the cake with her play kitchen knife and gave us all a slice. The cake was even tastier! We had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday!

Very excited about the princess wand
Ariel pj's!
I love her facial expression!
She loves her Ariel stool. Now she can reach the sink to wash her hands!
Having a blast with the tent!
Blowing out her Little Mermaid candle
Cutting the cake! She did very well!

Here are a few things about our sweet Vanessa:

• She loves to play dress up. She is very fond of a certain pink dress and pink shoes. She likes to call it her "Sleeping Beauty and/or Aurora dress."

• She has to have a princess wand with her all the time! She likes to grant wishes,
• She has just started to ask us to dance with her and when we do she likes to sing a song from Sleeping Beauty which goes like this, "I know you, I danced with you once upon a dream." She even does princess twirls while singing.
• She now loves Princess Aurora! It used to be The Little Mermaid but she switched the day of her birthday party.
  
• She says the funniest and most random things. For example we asked her what she would like to be for Halloween this year and she confidently replied with this, "A titty tat with my pink Cinderella swimming suit." She always makes us laugh.
• She likes to help her little brother. Even though helping him gets up pretty upset.
• She is very polite. She usually remembers to say please, thank you, I am sorry and excuse me.
• She still loves drinking milk! We have to limit it or she could drink a whole gallon in two days!
• We have finally conquered nap time and bed time. She will now lay down and go to sleep when asked. Our home is definitely a much happier place now!
• She continues to amaze us with how smart she is! She is one quick learner!

We are so proud of her and of all the accomplishments she has made over the past three years! We love her so much and are excited for all of the many new adventures to come!

Happy 3rd Birthday Vanessa!
We Love You!

5K Run

So I decided to brave it and run a 5K this past Saturday. I ran it in 38 minutes without stopping. I feel pretty darn good about it especially cause I haven't been training very much lately. My last 5k I ran was when I was at Snow College which was six years ago! I am glad that I did it and it gives me more confidence in knowing that I can! I am running another one this Saturday. Let's see if I can beat my time.

13 Months on Friday the 13th!

This can only happen once! Owen turned 13 months on Friday the 13th! He must be a lucky kid cause his day was perfect! He continues to be our handsome little boy! We love watching him walk all over the house. He looks like a little monster when he toddles around. He is just so much fun and we just love having him in our family!

Here are a few things that he is doing:

• Walking around everywhere!
• Climbing on Vanessa's bed and jumping.
• He loves to climb up stairs. Well, just about anything!
• Can sign "baby, eat, milk, and more"
• Says drink. Sounds more like "Da, Da"
• Barks when he hears a dog bark.
• Ask him what any animal says and he growls like a lion.
• Loves playing outside and in the dirt.
• Loves books, bubbles, and balls.
• He enjoys taking baths and playing in water.
• Loves opening and getting into drawers and cupboards.
• He know has two of 12 month molars.
• Is finally sleeping through the night! Hallelujah!
• Is consistent with napping and bedtime.
• He continues to be such a happy baby and we love to see his cute smiles and hear his adorable laugh!
  

Happy 13 Months!
We love You!

Under the Sea Birthday Bash!

We celebrated Vanessa's birthday this past Saturday! She wanted a Little Mermaid party this years so we borrowed the Carter's big blow-up slide and made lots of water balloons to help us celebrate! I had a lot of fun making decorations for the party and even found some cute Ariel plates, napkins, and cups to match the decor.

I also had fun making her cake! I decided to attempt making Ariel out of fondant. The end result was actually pretty good. It took some time to get it just right but it was definitely worth the time and I saved money too! I didn't have to buy a cake topper! Vanessa loved the cake and she also loved eating the sand (brown sugar). She came up to me and said "Look Mom, I am eating the sand and it's yummy!" I just hope she doesn't think all sand tastes that good!

The kids loved playing on on the slide while they waited for dinner. We had a BBQ with hot dogs, salads, chips, watermelon to feed all of us hungry people! Vanessa was a bit too excited to eat much!

Vanessa got lots of fun things! We gave her a Little Mermaid plate, cup, and bowl. Grandpa and Grandma Mendoza, Cody, Maria, and Reagan got her a Princess purse, necklaces, rings, earrings, a princess bowl and water bottle, and dress-up shoes. She loved all of them of course! Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen, Arianne, Kimberly, and Laura gave her a purse, Cinderella chapstick, and Hello Kitty necklace and bracelet. Other gifts she got where a green dress and backpack, bubbles, She loved all of them of course!

We had so much fun celebrating her birthday! We had most of the family come up. It is always fun getting together. Thanks to all those that came! We love you all!

The Little Mermaid made from fondant

The Little Mermaid cake with edible sand!

Happy Birthday Vanessa!

Having fun in the water!

She had to wear her Little Mermaid swim suit!

Getting warm

Owen even loved playing on the slide!

He especially loved playing with the "pink" water balloons!

Twirling like a princess!

She loved eating the sand!

Princess shoes! Just what she wanted!

Little Mermaid cup!

Blowing out the candles!

Our sweet "Little Mermaid!"

Hogle Zoo Adventure!

On Wednesday, we decided to go to the Hogle Zoo! We loaded up the kids and headed to Salt Lake in the morning. It was the perfect day for our Zoo Adventure. This was Maria's first time to the Hogle Zoo so she was very excited to go. Vanessa was super excited to see the baby elephant but not too excited to see the tigers. They're too scary!

We had a lot of fun walking around and seeing all of the animals. The kids did very good and Maria was once again a big help! It would have been hard if it was just myself taking the kids to the zoo.

We were able to ride the train around the zoo. The kids loved that and so did I! We were also able to see the bird show. The kids had fun seeing the birds but got distracted easily. Owen especially wanted to just crawl up and down the stair and was so tired that he was just cranky most of the time. It was definitley time for our adventure to come to a close. I'm glad that we went and were able to have lots of fun spending time together!

Loving the train ride!

My Gorillas!

Owen the gorilla infant

Vanessa the gorilla juvenile

Mom the adult male

Maria the Adult Female

The giraffe was right by the fence so we were able to get a great look at it! Owen really loved watching it.

Giraffe's have super long tongues! It must be so they can reach the leaves off of trees. This one liked licking the pole.

Vanessa didn't like standing by the statues. They were once again too scary!

Owen loved looking at the Rhinos

And so did Vanessa

Baby Zuri

All tuckered out! As soon as I buckled him in the car seat and gave him his blanket, he fell asleep. Jeez I wish I could fall asleep that easily!