A Shoe Switcheroo

These kids LOVE shoes! They are always playing shoe shop in my closet and trying on other people's shoes!

Maisey was "helping" me pack for our trip. She really wanted to bring all of her shoes, and didn't really understand why we didn't need some of them (like her ballet shoes and rain boots)!!!

Our First Crop

She is such a CRAZY!

My Dad is Rad!

I love my boys!!!

Miss Maisey

I just want to say, I LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL!!!! She cracks me up everyday.

*She thinks she is little miss independant. She is always telling us "I don't need your help." or "I do it by myself." It is funny to watch her try new things.



*I would say she is officially potty trained!!! YAY!!! She loves her Minnie Mouse undies. She only has 8 pairs. She made it all week last week wearing her Minnies. Which means 8 pairs in 7 days. Not bad!!! The last two weeks she has worn undies to bed at night and has kept them dry! I am so proud of her!!!


*She went to her first ballet a few weeks ago. She just sat there the whole time in awe! She can't wait to start ballet in the fall.



*She loves to play school . . . especially with her daddy.

She is so sweet and sassy at the same time! I love my Miss Maisey!

Maisey Moments

"Shhhhhh Mommy! I'm trying to see Wal-Mart through my obble gobbles." She meant binoculars.



"He scoooooots, He Squuuuuuats!!!" Trying to imitate Daddy when watching the world cup, "He shooots, He scooooores!!!"



We went to a pizza place for dinner a few weeks ago and while we were waiting for the pizza to come she had to go potty. We had to pass by the arcade to get to the bathroom and she said to me, "Mommy, LOOK!!! Disneyland!"



Maisey yelled at Gage during church, "You silly woman!"

There are way more things that I wanted to write down, but my mommy brain has the best of me today!

Happy Father's Day!

Well, we've survived the first year as Shaun being the EQ President! He was called last year on Father's Day!

Today is going to be a pretty low key day!

*We took an early morning visit to the cemetery to visit "The Papa that lives in Heaven" and this was the conversation that happened there:

Maisey (As she's running over to his head stone): Hi Papa!

Maisey (A few min. later): Mommy, he said hi to me.

Me: He did?

Maisey: Yes. And he tell me thank you for the flowers.

Me: Aww, that's so polite of him. (We've been working on being polite)

Maisey: And he tell me he love me.

What a lucky girl to have that experience! She sure loves her Papa!

*After church we are having a BBQ, putting kids to bed early and just relaxing!

Like I said, a pretty low key day! That's what Shaun likes!

Happy Father's Day to all of the Daddy's, Grandpas, and Soon-to-be Dads out there! :)

My Poor Little Guy and My Big Brave Girl

This morning, Gage had surgery on his right eye. He had a plugged tear duct, so the doc went in and opened it up. After surgery he came out to talk to me and told me that most people have 2 tear ducts for each eye. One on the top and one on the bottom. Well, Gage does not have a top tear duct on his right eye and his bottom one was clogged, hence all the nasty drainage we've had problems with in the past.

Hopefully the probing of the one tear duct that he does have will fix the problem. If not, we will be going back in for surgery #2 for the doc to construct a tear duct! Doesn't sound fun, huh?

He was quite a trooper. Of course, he cried when they took him from me. It was SAD! But he was so agitated and irritable when he was coming out of anesthesia. He didn't want to be held, put down, milk, froot (that's how they're spelled!) loops, water, a banana, ANYTHING! I ended up leaving with him screaming because I figured I might as well drive while he's screaming. Once he got home and saw his daddy, he stopped crying immediately! I guess his Daddy just has the touch.

When Maisey had her surgery, I didn't remember her crying that much when she came out of it, but then I read this and it sounded pretty similar to Gage.

He had/still has lots of bloody and mucousey drainage coming out of his nose. Hopefully that stops soon.

He's been sleeping for the past 3 hours! YAY!!!

The nurse told me to give him ibuprofen to help with the pain, but, just my luck, because of the recent recall, Wal-mart is not stocking infant ibuprofen and tylenol. Bummer!

Here's my lil' guy gettin ready!

The sitting in the chair thing didn't last long. He soon turned into Mr. Wild Man. He was probably searching for food! He hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 5:30 pm the night before.

Post-Op he was served some yummy pancakes and a banana. His all-time favorite meal!

This big brave girl and her handsome daddy sang in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday. She did a great job and was sure to pronounce every word, just so. She did not get shy at all. They sang "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" and "I Love To See The Temple." Maybe sometime I will video her singing them and post it up here. It really is adorable.

I love these 2 kiddos like crazy!

I AM A HALF MARATHON FINISHER!

Pictures first!I'm the 3rd from the front!

Sayin' hi to my fan club!

Crossing the finish line!

My finisher's medal!

The rest of my fan club!

The Hoopes and my friend Tish were SO nice to drive all that way to cheer me on! Thanks guys!

So. . . Here's the low down:

The Morning Of: The race started at 8:00 am. I left my house at 6:00 am hoping to be there around 6:45 am. Well, traffic was horrible and I didn't get parked until 7:40 am. I am so glad I picked my packet up early and not the morning of. I was a little paniky because I thought I was going to be late. I had to use the bathroom before I started and the line was 300 people long. So I ended up starting the race at 8:10 am.

Scenery: Rolling hills out in the country and

The Roloff Farm! From Little People, Big World on TLC! I almost pulled my phone out to take a pic of it as I ran by. But it was at the start of the 4+ miles of hills so I decided to save my energy. This pic brought to you by Google Images.

The Hills: I was reading a blog the night before that said the hardest hill was between miles 3 and 4. So after I ran the first hill, which was during those stated miles, I thought that was the hardest. Boy was I wrong. The second hill was STRAIGHT up for about a 1/4 mile. I, again, almost took my phone out to take a pic. It was crazy! I seriously had to talk my way through it and just kept saying, "just keep putting one foot in front of the other." After that hill, there were still several others, but they seemed very minimal when comparing them to that second one.

Stats:

Time - 2:53:54

Pace - 13:16

Place - 2658/3447 over all

1580/2248 females

As I was training, I ran a pace between 12 and 13 minutes. That was with out hills. My goal was to finish right around the 3 hour mark. After the race, one of the other racers came up to me and told me that she was really impressed with my consistant pace through out the whole race. I was pleased with my finishing time and with my pace!

My Body: After I finished, I felt like I was going to vomit. I didn't, but I kinda wished I would have. I ended up walking a 1/2 mile between 11 and 12. To start running again after that .5 mile walk was one of the hardest things I have ever done. My legs felt so heavy and dead. Toward the end, my feet also really started to hurt. Because a lot of it was down hill (if you go up, you must come down, physics right?) there was a lot of pressure on the balls of my feet that I wasn't used to. Other than that, they day of, my body held up pretty well.

The next morning, now that was a different story. But by tonight, I'm slowly getting back to normal. I do have a massage scheduled for this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to that.

The Whole Experience: It was so amazing to think that I could train my body to run 13.1 miles. I know people do way more than this all of the time. But when I started running in March, I had a two mile route that was so hard for me. I would have to stop and walk for a little bit. But I just finished a half marathon! With 3 months of training! I really am proud of myself! And I would probably do it again. The satisfaction of crossing the finish line and knowing that I accomplished a major goal in my life is unexplainable. A.MAZ.ING! That's the best I can do!

As if running a 13.1 mile race is exhausting enough, check out the post below for everything else we did over the weekend including playing in a golf tournament 3 hours after finishing the race!

A Potpourri: Giddy Up, Got My Creative Juices Flowing, Grass and Golf

*Giddy Up*

We attended a Cowboy Cookout on Friday night! It was a ward activity at our Bishop's house! It was loads of fun! Maisey was decked out in her cowgirl boots and hat, and brought her jump rope to rope her a cattle! She was devastated when we left her stick horse at home but got over it after causing quite the scene for 30 minutes!

Here she is learning how to rope!

And here's the fam! Yeehaw!

*Got My Creative Juices Flowing*

I told you I haven't done any projects or anything fun since Gage's birthday and I was having serious withdrawals, so I made this horse cake for the cowboy cookout. Maisey was my little helper!

We also made mini corn muffins!

And Angela's famous chocolate cake for my mom's friend! Friday was quite the baking day!

*Grass*

It has now been 4 weeks since we planted our grass! It was a jungle out there so Shaun and his dad mowed it this weekend. I didn't take any post-mowing pics, but I'm pretty pleased with how full our lawn is for only being 4 weeks!

*Golf*

We played in our Stake's golf tournament that is now called the Rick Olsen Memorial Golf Tournament because he started it way back in the early 90's. It was hot, I was EXHAUSTED, but we still had a great time!

The Maughan's totally carried the team! Tish was way better than she said she was! We had a lot of fun playing with them.

Then there was us, who didn't do too hot, and Shaun's dad is way in the background and he was pretty good!

I think we ended with +8 and it was only a 9-hole course! Hey, there's always next year!

Nerves

It just hit me.

A week ago I was confidant!

Now, I'm feeling nervous.

And anxious.

Tomorrow is the big day.

The RACE!!!

And now I'm flyin' solo.

(But for a legitimate reason)

And it's going to be hot.

I know I can do this!

I mean it's only 13.1 miles.

I can do it, Right?

The Culprit

This little red dirt devil has not been well liked at our house lately!

When Maisey's auntie gave it to her for Christmas 2 years ago, it was the coveted toy! She LOVED it!!!

But this is what has happened this week:

*2 nights ago Maisey woke up in the middle of the night SCREAMING!!!! Shaun went in there to see what was wrong and she kept yelling "Get the bunny out! Get the bunny out!" Shaun couldn't figure out what she was saying until she very timidly got out of bed and pointed to the vacuum's shadow on the wall. Apparently it looked like a bunny to her! So Shaun took it out of her room and she went right back to sleep.

*I put her to bed last night and I went out and about 10 minutes later she started screaming again! So I went in and again it was the vacuum! So I went to put it in her closet so she couldn't see it and she didn't even want it in there. So I put it in the playroom.

*This morning the vacuum was still in the playroom and Gage was wandering around the house and playing! He went in the playroom and immediately came out screaming! I thought this was very unusual so I took him back in there to see what was wrong. He saw the vacuum again and clung to me like he was about ready to fall off a 50 ft. cliff.

What is with this little toy? It really is harmless. . . I think!

I did what?

I was cleaning my bathroom this afternoon during nap time. I wanted to get around the drain of my sink really well, so I grabbed a toothbrush and started scrubbing. Seconds later, I realized that the cleaning toothbrush was in the cleaning cup on the floor and I had grabbed my toothbrush that I currently use!!! At least I figured it out before I needed to use it again! :)


P.S. I found the BEST shower cleaner. Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Foamer. It works so well, and the best part about it was I got it from Target for free about a month ago! :)

Happy Cleaning!

(I'm going to go get a new toothbrush!)

Crabby

If I knew how this morning was going to go I would have saved these shirts for the kids to wear today!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!

I took the kids to Costco this morning, and Maisey really had her eye on the bakery. She kept begging me to buy a cake. What the heck are the 4 of us (2 of which are trying to eat healthy) going to do with a whole Costco cake? So she settled with the promise that her and I would make a cake after Gage went to bed tonight.

So during nap time I looked up creative ideas online. I haven't really done in "creating" since Gage's birthday, and I'm kinda having withdrawals! I found this adorable idea and decided to go ahead with it!

When I showed Maisey what we were going to make tonight she told me we couldn't make it because it was raining and people don't like to swim in the rain. At the store, she picked out a strawberry cake mix with strawberry frosting! I guess I'll have to wait for sunnier days. . .

Oh, and I also cleaned out Gage's closet last night! I've been squeezing him into his winter clothes (size 9-12 months) because it is STILL winter here! So, if you see my little man sporting shorts and a tank top when it's 50 degrees and POURING rain, it's because he has NO winter clothes left that fit him.

I heard a rumor it's supposed to be in the 70's next week! I don't want to jinx it, but I'm really looking forward to it!!!

Those of you who are experiencing nicer weather than us (i.e. ALASKA), please do not comment! I will only resent you!

Beach Bums

We headed to the beach on Memorial Day. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that neither of my kids have ever been to the beach! Maisey was excitedly telling everybody for the last few weeks that we were going to the beach. Well, to her dismay, the beach (at least in Oregon) is not everything Dora, Kai Lan, and Max and Ruby make it out to be. But the rain held out on us and we just had to endure freezing cold temps.

Gage ABSOLUTELY loved the sand! Playing in it, being buried in it, and eating it! YUM!

Maisey was trying so hard to like the beach! Porter was trying to show her how much fun it was, but she wasn't too convinced.

She did actually get her feet wet. She liked the water better than the sand!

Look at his sandy mouth! Let's just say I changed SEVERAL sandy/poopy diapers today!

Daddy helped Maisey fly her Dora kite and after we got back she said that was her favorite part of the trip!

High-flying!

Mommy and Maisey trying to stay warm!


After the beach our friends took us geocaching for the first time! Shaun is adpoting this as his new favorite hobby! Anybody else ever done this?

Finding his first box!