Mackenzie's birthday often gets celebrated in Ohio. This year was no different. She wanted to go ice skating and requested a hole poke cake. Grandma and Grandpa Dayton gave her a new trico blanket, pink with orange border and a hippo in the middle and ducks in the four corners. She was thrilled! She also got a new purse and a Ty beanie baby hedge hog. It was a great 12th birthday. Mackenzie was welcomed into the young women's program and as part of that celebration Nathan and I got to go into young women's and introduce her. We also brought a flower that reminded us of our daughter. Mackenzie picked out the dark purple wisteria vine. I looked up the information about the wisteria and found out that it grows in large quantities and loves to climb, in addtion to being beautiful and smelling wonderful. I shared with the other young women how lucky they are to get the chance to get to know one of my favorite people. Mackenzie is an amazing person and so much fun to be around. She loves to read and is brilliant. She has enough facial expressions to fill a book, some more pleasant than others. She's beautiful and spunky, creative and hard working. She's growing into an amazing young woman and I am honored to be her mother. Happy Birthday! I love you!

Dayton's Spoon

Dayton finds the invention of things a great past time. We were in Ohio for Thanksgiving and he decided to make a "shovel" that then became a super long spoon. I love how proud and serious he acts as he prepares to take a bite. I missed the picture after where his smile lights up the room. Never a dull moment with Dayton around!

Dayton's artwork

Dayton was messing around with his robe one night and discovered he could "draw" on it. He was entertained for quite a while as he tried out different patterns and shapes. Although the placement of those designs wasn't in the most convenient place, his designs were awesome!

Alexa Braces Off

The day finally arrived! Alexa was pretty excited to be getting her braces off. At the orthodontist office they write your name on the board for your first visit and on the day when you get your braces off. Ironically, Alexa's name was written in hot pink. She was beyond annoyed and I found it just a little bit funny. Everything went well and she came out all smiles with a desire to go to Quiznoes for lunch. After a yummy lunch and her own celebration cake (the ortho office gets the newly braces free person a personalized cake and a bag full of candy), she tried out her trumpet to see how different if felt. This was a huge downer. Alexa was pretty discouraged. It was a completely different feel and she struggled to make the same sound as before. She actually requested I take her back to the orthodontist office and have her braces put back on. Luckily she had all of Thanksgiving break to adjust to her new appliance free mouth and returned to school and band a much happier person. Now she has a beautiful smile with a retainer that sports a "Y" and the color BYU blue!

Itty bitty skittle and the biggest cheeto ever

Dayton happened to find the biggest cheeto ever, according to him not necessarily the Guinness Book of World Records. He was pretty amazed and planned on keeping it forever but I convinced him to eat it so we documented the occasion with a photo.

On a separate occasion, Mackenzie found the smallest Skittle ever. She proved her point by placing the tiny morsel with the regular sized Skittles from the package. Once again, documented with a photo.

Spell Bowl

Dayton decided for his 4th grade year that he wanted to participate in as many extra curricular activities as possible. First up, spell bowl. This is a huge commitment. Twice a week he's at the school by 7:45 to take a test on 50 spelling words and they aren't words like, tree, and house but words like inconvenience and anemone. There are a total of 750 words and at the actual meet each participant is given 7 words and they write them down in front of a proctor who grades them on the spot. Dayton did so well during the weeks up to the tournament that he was chosen to compete on the actual day of the meet. He was 1, 2, or 3rd place among all of his team members the entire time. Spell bowl was not his favorite but he stuck with it. If nothing else, it sure helped with his spelling and vocabulary.

Mackenzie gets beehive attacked

I LOVE this tradition. When the young women in our ward turn 12 they are welcomed into the Beehive class of 12 and 13 year old young women. Just before their actual birthday the young women from that class come to the home of the incoming young woman and "attack" her by putting colorful bees all over her door. Mackenzie knew they were coming:-( but she played along just the same. It's a little intimidating for the new young woman with all of these girls coming into her home and she being the center of attention, so not in Mackenzie's comfort zone. The girls were fascinated with her hair being so soft and smelling so good. She was treated a little bit like a new pet. I'm so excited for Mackenzie. She will be such a good example to all of the young women and will be able to learn so much from all of them. The young women program was so instrumental in my own life in helping me learn about who I am and my purpose on this earth. It helped me develop and strengthen my testimony. I learned about leadership and the importance of service. I made wonderful friends and loved my leaders. I'm looking forward to sharing this time with Mackenzie as she continues on her journey towards becoming even more amazing.

Young Womanhood Recognititon

Not quite 2 years into the young woman program and Alexa earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award. She completed 6 value experiences in the eight values; faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue. In addition she completed a 10 hour value project for each of those values including reading the Book of Mormon. Alexa is not a jewelery fan, so I don't anticipate seeing her wear her necklace but I am so proud of her for her accomplishment. I love the personal progress program. I love what it taught me and I love the chance I had to work with Alexa as she completed her own program. Alexa completed the program just before Mackenzie turned 12 and now Mackenzie is determined to beat Alexa's record. The Young Women's program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helps young women between the ages of 12 and 18 learn how to set goals and complete them. It provides guidance for young women to grow in their knowledge of the gospel and helps them set patterns of behavior in their lives that will benefit them long term. Alexa's most memorable experiences were developing her talent with the trumpet and sewing a pair of BYU shorts with her grandma Dayton. Congratulations Alexa! I'm proud of the young woman you are and the example you have set for me. I love you!

Monumental Half Marathon

I started running this past summer and decided to try and run a half marathon. I have several family members who run and I thought, why not? So, I gradually built up my mileage to 7 by the end of July and actually ran 14 miles one day with my brother, Matt, while we were in Ohio for a family reunion. I came home and decided to keep up the running and recruited a buddy to run with me. Mandy Alcorn is just crazy enough to join me in my insanity. So we decided to run on Saturday mornings and then decided to run 2 days during the week as well. We ran early. Five thirty in the morning on Monday and Wednesday and five thirty or six on Saturday. Mandy and I decided to register to run the Monumental Marathon and Half in Indianapolis on the fifth of November. By the time the race came around we'd picked up a new member of our running team, Amanda Hatch joined us. She didn't run the half with us but participated on all our training runs.
The day of the race was cold, I mean cold! We wore garbage bags over us to keep us warm and joined the rest of the participants to run our first half marathon. I shredded the garbage bag at about mile 3 and felt great until about mile 8 when I got tired. I hadn't taken my thyroid medication during any of my training runs because we ran so early in the morning. The half started at 8:30am and by 10, I was pooped. I totally get the concept of running being mostly mental. I was mentally battling myself to keep going. My body was done and my hips hurt, my feet hurt, my mind was saying, "walk into that homeless shelter and lay down, NOW!" I needed to walk a bit of the race but I finished. My goal had been to finish and I did. 2 hours and 32 minutes later. I learned a lot from that first experience. I started taking my thyroid medication before all of my runs now and I feel 100 times better. I've learned that my mind is a powerful thing but that I can do hard things. I've learned that running is therapeutic for me. I love the girls I run with, they are amazing women who know way more than they ever wanted to know about me. After all, what happens in running, stays in running. Last of all, I've learned that I like to run. Who would have ever thought? I've signed up to run the mini marathon in May.

Halloween 2011

Everybody "created" their own costumes this year. WooHoo! for me. Dayton decided he wanted to make a candy shop and after his costume last year, a snack bar, was attacked we decided to eat the candy first and then tape the wrappers onto the counter. He made a shoot for the candy to be put in and it slid down a tube ending up in his trick or treat bag. Quite the costume. He received tons of compiments for his creativity. Makcenzie was pirate. She put all of the pieces together for the outfit and I helped with the makeup. Alexa was a "costume." She enjoyed the perplexed looks from many who just didn't get it. I think this may be our last year as trick or treaters. The prospect of handing out candy with their friends and getting to hand pick their own treats is sounding quite appealing.