My Adidas

It was early morning, a large crowd, and I was standing there waiting. Waiting the for the gun to sound. It sounded and I took off. I was amazed at how well and fast I could run. I felt like I was flying. I just kept running as hard and as fast as I could until I crossed the finish line and won the race. I felt on top of the world. Then I woke up.
I had that dream less than a year ago. When I awoke I wanted to keep that feeling, I wanted to be able to run like that. I hadn't really run in years. Every now and then I would go for a little jog, but that is all it ever came to. Shortly after this dream I was shopping at Costco and saw a pair of Adidas running shoes. They were white and pink and about $20, right in my price range. I bought them and was very eager to try them. It was the start of the summer and the weather was perfect for running. I could put my kids to bed and it still go running before it got dark. I remember those first few weeks of running. I started out running on a treadmill, and I would just try to make it past that first mile without stopping. It was very difficult and required a lot of concentration. After a while I was doing 2 miles, and then up to 3. I remember thinking, just make it to mile #2, or to that next corner, or just past that house. It always took a great deal of effort.
My first 5K this summer was in June. I had been sick the day and hadn't really eaten anything. The race went up the hill past the temple, and was much harder than I had expected. But I was extremely proud of myself for not quiting and running the entire way. My time was just over 30 minutes. I ran my next race in July with a time of 29 minutes. Shortly after that I met Tiana. She is my neighbor and was looking for someone to run with. We decided to try running together to see how that worked out and set up a time for the following morning. I remember those first runs very well. She was a better runner than I, and so once again I was pushing myself. It felt so good though. I was always proud of us when we ran 3 miles without stopping or picked up the pace. Somewhere in there we decided to do a Marathon in the spring. So we started doign long runs on Saturdays. The night before our first long Saturday run I couldn't sleep all night. I was so nervous. I had only ever done 3-4 mile runs and I had no idea how I would ever be able to run more than that. Well, 6 am came pretty soon and I met Tiana outside for our run. To my great surprise it was extremely easy. We ran 3 miles, walked one minute, and then ran 3 more miles. I remember feeling great the entire time. I never thought Just make it to the next stop sign, or make it past that house. It was just very comfortable and easy to do. We did 6 mile runs throughout October. At this time I signed up for a Spin class to help my knees. And let me tell you what, that hour spin class is just about the hardest thing in the world. But it does help my knees, has gotten easier over the months. In November we bumped the miles to 9, and then 10, and today we ran 12.8 miles for the third week in a row. It has gotten much much harder to run in the cold. My legs are never sore, and I am never out of breath. But my face is freezing. My hands are burning from the cold air, I have to watch every step I take and change the way I am running so I don't slip on the ice, and my water pack is frozen solid. and for some strange reason I love it. I love running. I love conquering that hill the seems so impossible when you first face it, but you just keep putting one foot in front of the other and give it all you've got and before you know it, you are on the top of the hill victorious. I love seeing how far I can each time. I love it when I have already run 10 miles and we decide to run as fast as we can for the remaining time. I love seeing what my body and legs are capable of doing. I am always so amazed by it. I love coming home and telling Ben about the extra miles we did. Or those hills we ran up. Or the deer we passed by. I can't wait for the day or the Marathon. I can't wait to see how well I perform. I can't wait to start it, and I can't wait to cross the finish line. I want to always run like this. I want to do Marathons all my life because I never want to lose what I have now. I want to run with my kids when they are older. I want to be the mom with all the kids that still runs races all the time. I love learning about running; form, nutrition, gear, shoes. I love all of it.
Last week I finally went to the running store and bought another pair of running shoes. But as I went out for my run and passed my old Adidas in the entryway, a little sadness came over me. Those shoes were what got me going. I liked the way they looked and felt when I ran. So I often went running just so I could wear those shoes. They have covered all those miles with me, and gotten me here. I will always keep them I think. I love those shoes. So I dedicate this blog to my old pink Adidas for helping me fulfill that dream I had almost a year ago.

Snowballs

This morning James and I went around to his friends houses and delivered little chocolates we had made. Most of his friends were not at home, but he and I had a good time anyway. As soon as we had gotten outside James was in the snow. I had just walked past him when smack, I had been hit with a snowball. I turned around and there was James getting another snowball ready. He threw this one as well and it was actually a pretty good snowball and hit me square in the chest. I laughed. From then on in between each house James would go straight to the snow and throw another snowball at me. We had a good time, I was surprised at how well he could throw those things though.

Bath Time

We had lasagna for dinner tonight, which Harrison completely enjoyed...completely. Meaning, his hair, ears, face, hands, and the rest of his body was covered. So it was straight to the tub with him. And I can never give one boy a bath without giving the other a bath as well. We went into the bathroom, I set Harrison down, turned on the water, turned around to see James getting Harrison undressed. He did a really good job actually and even took His diaper off for him, then he proudly stated that he had helped Harrison get ready for the bath. It made me laugh. Then Harrison did his usual pee trick right as he is getting into the tub and just after the diaper as come off, but before long the two boys were splashing and making a lovely mess of the bathroom. Throughout this summer I was trying to teach James how to hold his breath under water, he got really good at it and when he jumped in the pool, would sink all the way to the bottom and then slowly pop back up and laugh his head off. However, he will not stick his face under the water in the tub. And usually gets upset when water gets in his eyes or whatever. but tonight I think he was feeling very adventuresome. Because he plugged his nose and put his entire head under the water, face first and then blew as hard as he could, making huge bubbles. Harrison started laughing so hard. He laughs a lot, but I don't think I have ever heard him laugh this hard. James kept blowing bubbles over and over and Harrison about passed out from laughing so hard. I really wished that Ben had been home so he could have gotten the camera and recorded it becuase it was the cutest thing.
Oh another cute thing today. James was upset about something, I don't remember what, but anyways, so he was just whining and being grumpy, and then Harrison came up to him and jsut hugged him, and patted his back and hugged him again. I seriously almost busted tears it was so sweet. Oh and speaking of little tantrums, James and I were making little chocolates to take around to his friends and Harrison has already eaten plenty and I told ihm he couldn't have any more. So he went over to one of the kitchen cupboards, completely emptied the thing to show me his anger, and then immediately put everything back in its place. That made me laugh. Ah, my boys. Never a dull moment, that is for sure. Wow, this is a random blog.

Sick Little James

This past week has been extremely hectic. Mostly because James has gotten pretty sick, Ben has broken his arm while playing Basketball, and Harrison just wants to be held because no one is playing with him. Makes for little time to do anything besides try and keep up. But that is okay because as I have learned many many times, this too shall pass. So, while the laundry is piling up, the dinners are boiling over and burning, and the floors look awful, I have noticed something. As most of you know, James can be the sweetest most golden little kid there evevr was, but there is also the other side. He can throw a pretty good tantrum. And since the weather has turned cold and the kids are not playing outside as much, the tantrums are showing up more often than usual. I have really been struggling with how to deal with them. He is extremely strong willed, and very energetic, and when he gets really upset it is hard to know what to do. I want my kids to be good kids, who doesn't want that though? I want them to listen, to obey, to be good, to be happy, to enjoy life. I want them to know that there are consequences to every decision they make, whether it be good or bad. I want what every mom wants I guess. So when I see him do something that I don't like, I tend to freak out about it, not really but sort of. Not because I am angry at him, just because I want him to learn, but it often comes out in anger. And he will often get angry back, which leads to a battle of wills....and I never really know how it ends, but it always makes me sad. So anyways, during this time that he has been really sick I have noticed that he has been extremely good. He has been so sweet, and thoughtful. Always saying thank you, and telling me he loves me and obeying me even when he doesn't want to, like telling him he has had enough TV for the day, and he just turns it off. I haven't had any problems with him. So, I started to wonder why. Maybe it was because he was sick and didn't have as much energy as usual...that didn't really make a lot of sense. But then I realized that I had been spending a lot more time with him, and had been much more caring and conscious of his needs than I usually am. That I was much much more patient with him than I usually am. I realized that his attitude often is just reflecting my own, and if I want to teach him all the things that I want to teach him, and to be the person that I hope him to be, that I need to be that person as well. I need to demonstrate the qualities that I am always teaching him about, but then yelling at the guy that just cut me off, or yelling at my kids for breaking this or that thing in the house. Yeah, they need to learn not to break things, and all that stuff. I just need to teach them in a much more loving way than I often do. My neighbor and I were visiting the other day and her little girl is a lot like James. She and I were having the same struggles with our kids and she later made the best point. She said that with her son, she was not required to change really. He was very mild mannered, but that her daughter has changed her. Because of her daughter, she has had to learn to be more patient and loving and change how she does things. I had had a similar thought a few days before that. I always pray for help to be a good mom, and I always pray for more patience, especially with James. Heavenly Father can't just give me more patience, I have to learn to be patient. I realized that he has just given me that opportunity to learn to be more Christlike. Anyways, reading this email makes it sound like James is this all bad kid, but he isn't. He has a heart of gold. truly he does. He has said the sweetest things I have ever heard kids say. He really wants to be good, he just has a strong will which one day will do him a lot of good and give him the drive to do amazing things in his life. I just need to help guide that will with love instead of anger.

My beautiful Little Boys

I remember before Ben and I got married and we were deciding whether or not to wait a while before having kids. We of course prayed about it, and I remember just knowing that a little boy was waiting to come to our family. I knew that we were going to have a honeymoon baby. And we did. James was born 2 days before our 9 month anniversary. I still can see his cute little face all scrunched up the first time I held him. He looked just like his dad. As soon as he was born Ben said "I hate to say this but he looks just lke me. And he did. It was so unreal to be holding my baby. I almost didn't know what to do. then he started to cry, and cry, and cry. He was hungry and I knew exactly what to do. I had never nursed before and was somewhat scared to do so. But I just wanted to feed my sad little hungry baby. So I did, and yes he was hungry. I loved that time with James. It was just him and I. I would take him for walks every day. Usually several times a day. We would be so excited at every little thing he did. The day we brought him home from the hospital he rolled right over, no problem. He was always very physically advanced. He was sitting up at 3 months, crawling at 6, and walking at 9 months. He seemed to grow up so fast. He was always my little bud though, and still is. I love it when he comes to me in the morning and says "good morning sunshine" or when he says "mom, you can come rock me if you want" or "mom you can come play with me if you want". I am often trying to get some laundry folded or clean up the lunch mess or whatever chore that needs to be done, and then I think to myself "you know, one day he won't want me to come play with him, these days are numbered" So we go build some legos, or color, or sit in his room rocking in that chair and singing all the primary songs we know.
When James was about one year old I was once again baby hungry. I felt that it was time once again and that this time it was a girl. I was so positive it was a girl. The pregnancy was 100% different than last time, and I kept having dreams about a little girl. So when the day of the ultrasound came and we were told it was boy I was shocked. I seriously couldn't even believe it. I watched the ultrasound like 10 times to remind myself that I was having a boy. I was very grateful that everything looked well and that he appeared to be healthy, but I will admit I was a little sad that I wasn't getting my little girl. To get myself excited about boy #2 I made the cutest baby boy blanket ever. then I got a few new little boy outfits and a little green striped gown for him to come home in. 5 weeks before Harrison was supposed to arrive he stopped moving. 100% stopped. I told myself that this was normal and that he would start moving soon. By the evening there was still no movement. I sat on the couch sobbing as Ben made me call the DR. He of course told us to go straight to the Hospital. We went, I was sure at this point that we had lost the baby, but to my great relief the found the little guys heartbeat. Well, things went downhill from there. his heartbeat would not stay steady. It kept dropping. Until about 4 am his heart rate dropped to be almost non existent. I remember laying there hot tears streaming down my face as nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists were running in and out of the room. They were getting me ready for a C-section, and then his heart rate jumped right back up. So they decided to just watch and see what happened. This went on for several hours. his heart was fine and then dropped and then fine and then dropped. finally the Dr came and asked Ben and I what we thought we should do. We decided to go ahead and have the baby, and be ready for a c-section at the first sign of trouble. It was such an easy and fast labor. He came extremely fast, with only a little heart trouble during. He gave one little squeak when he came out, but then stopped. The room was packed with Medical people, and they immediately began to work on him. They had to resuscitate him and got him breathing, but he was still having a hard time breathing on his own. The nurse, Carol who has helped with both my deliveries, brought him over to me quickly and told me they were taking him to the NICU but that I could see him for a moment. I remeber seeing his beautiful face. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He was so tiny. I have never been filled with so much love for something as I was at that moment. I told him he was beautiful, that i loved him, and to be strong. Then they took him to the NICU. He was strong, we took him home 5 days later. Ben would stay up all night and watch Harrison, to make sure that he was okay. And he was. You would never know that he had struggled in the beginning if you saw him now. He is our little joy. We called him our angel baby. He was so sweet, and still loves to be held and loved. He is also a tease. I always have said that he as a little twinkle in his eye. He loves to laugh and loves to make you laugh. And that blanket I made him has been in his bed since the day we brought him home. Now he won't sleep without it. He calls it "deedee". He just laughs when you bring it to him. James and him have become very good friends, yeah they fight ovevr this toy or that, or harrison broke my lego set or whatever. But Harrison loves fuzzy things, and James has very fuzzy crazy hair. So when Harrison would get sad James would lay his head in Harrison's Lap and let Harrison just pull the heck out of it. I always thought that was so sweet of James. He also takes care of Harrison. James will find his sippy cup for him or his blanket or his froggy, or whatever it is that Harrison wants. the two boys love each other, though they drive me absolutely crazy, I love them more than anything. They are my joy. I love seeing them play together and laughing together and being mischievous together. I am sure they will continue to get into all sorts of trouble as they get older, but what fun memories I will have when I am older.
Last week our neighbor took some pictures of James and Harrison. He took several, but I thought I would post a couple of them. We only got 2 shots of them together, and neither is great. Harrison was tired of getting pictures. But the others are so cute, i love my little boys.

The Christmas Stocking

Growing up, my mom made each of us a felt stocking. Each was different, and mine had a teddy with a pink bow on it. I really liked that stocking, but I always took for granted how much work my mom had put into that thing. My kids have used my old stocking and some junky old stocking from the dollar store for the past few years and so this year I decided to make their stockings. James wanted a train on his stocking. I thought, "eh, that won't be too hard". So I bought the felt and all the trimmings for the stocking and came home ready to make a train stocking. First off, I had to make the lovely pattern because I had none, but stockings are a pretty basic shape and it was easy. From then on things went slow. Trying to design a cute colorful train that would fit, trying to figure out how to stick the felt on..I had some glue issues, but finally got it figured out. Cutting out all the tiny little felt pieces for the presents, snowflakes and wheels, and then gluing on without making a terrible mess of it. Lets just say that my life has been devoted to that stocking past few days and last night...very late last night I finished. It was a lot of work, but James sure does love the thing. He said "mom! is that my train? It is SOO cute! I love the sparkles." There are little sequin things on the wheels. Anyways, I do have to admit it is a pretty cute stocking, but I think Harrison will get is next year and use my old teddy bear stocking this year. Oh and sorry the picture is sideways...I don't know why that happened, I didn't take the picture sideways...oh well.

The First Snow

I remember as a kid waking up in the morning and looking out the window to see the freshly fallen snow. I loved the way the trees looked, every branch lined with beautiful white snow. And how everything seemed to be just standing still. It was always so peaceful and magical to me. I also of course loved getting bundled up and breaking the winter silence with screams from being hit by a snowball or sliding down the hill in my parents backyard. I loved coming inside after hours of freezing cold enjoyment and sitting in front of the fire to get warm. I love the smell of fires. It always brings so many memories to mind. I loved the winter as a kid, and so when I got up to go running this morning and saw the falling snow. I knew that my kids would be excited to wake up this morning and see the snow. As soon as I returned from my run (which was 10.5 miles in the falling snow....yeah I have to brag a little about that, it was rough) I got the kids bundled up and we went outside to play in the snow. Harrison was mostly amused by his new boots. The first steps he took with them on made me laugh so hard, it was very frankenstein-ish. But he really enjoyed running around in the snow as well. My neighbor had a sled and let me borrow it. So I loaded the boys on that and we ran around for a minute or two. James made some new friends and played outside with them for a couple hours. They had a good little snow fight and made several snowmen. Oh, when I was taking these pictures I told James to look at me and smile and I looked through the camera at James just as he was throwing a big snowball at me. That made me laugh. After all the fun was over and the kids got cold we came inside for hot baths, soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. What more could you ask for?

My Wild Indian James

Okay, So I always call James my wild indian. This is why.

Harrison's True Love...Food.

Harrison has two true loves, balls & food. He eats from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to bed and then some. If you are ever eating anything he runs up to you saying "Ah, ah, ah, ah!" with his mouth wide open. You think he would give up and you could enjoy your food alone, but he does not give up and you have to share with him. At dinner, he eats and eats and then throws whatever leftover food he has onto the floor, and then climbs down eats the food off the floor and comes begging to everyone else at the table. He digs in the garbage can for food, after he has just eaten a full meal. He is 100% pig and I love it! It always makes me laugh to look over at him and his mouth is once again wide open begging for food. James has nicknamed Harrison "Mr. Piggy Hands". Tonight he went running up to Jay saying "ah ah ah ah ah" He then went and got the whipping cream and let Jay know that that is what he wanted. He opened his mouth wide and Jay sprayed it on in. He loved it. Jay has done this several times to Harrison, so this was no big surprise. Here are the pictures.

The Turkey Run

I signed James and I up for a Turkey run on Thanksgiving day. I signed up for a 4 mile race and James a 1/4 mile race. I have been so excited for the races, mostly to see James run, but also to see how I would do. I have taken James running with me a couple times. He was pretty excited for it and really liked it when I got him "special running water"...Propel. Well the day of the race came and it was 18 degress outside and windy. I was so cold! It was so hard to get my muscles going and everytime I took a step I felt like I was going to get blown away. So yeah....Well my total time was okay, but not great. I think I could have done better if I had pushed myself a little more. My time was 36 min, so an average of 9 min miles. I got 305th place overall, that doesn't sound so impressive, but I got 17th place in my age group and that sounds more impressive right? Anyways, so I finished my race and it was almost another 30 minutes or so until James' race started. He was so cold he was just crying, as you can see in the pictures. I almost just took him home so he could defrost, but I wondered if he would want to race once he saw the other kids line up to race. So I gave him my jacket and we traded hats to try to get him a little warmer. He did get somewhat excited about running the race when the other kids lined up, but once we started running he got about 20 feet and just started crying "I am too cold!" I felt bad for him and we went home. I told him we could run another race together next summer when it is warmer. HE felt really bad later that he didn't get to run, but I filled up our huge tub with hot water and let him go "swimming" in it. That seemed to fix everything. Hopefully next summer he will enjoy races a little more. Oh and I figured out how to put videos on this thing, so here is a shot of me running near the end of the race. I have video of James' race but it is on another camera so when I get that one figured out we will put it on here too. Happy Thanksgiving.

Recipes

I decided to post some of my recipes that I often get requests for, and I always forget to give them to people, so I figured it would just be easier to post them so everyone could see them.

Orange Jell-O Salad

1 Large Cook and Serve Lemon Pudding
1 Large Orange Jell-O
1 Small instant Lemon Pudding
1 Cup Milk
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 can Mandarin Oranges

Make cook and serve Lemon pudding as directed. Make Orange Jell-O as directed (Do not let Jello set at this point, mix it with the lemon pudding first) Mix orange jello and Lemon pudding together. Let sit 3 hours or until firm. Make instant Lemon pudding with the 1 cup milk. Whip up the cream, and then mix with the instant lemon pudding. Put that mixture on top of the Orange Jello/Lemon pudding mixture. THen top with Mandarin Oranges and eat up!


Oatmeal Cookies

1 Cup Shortening
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup Brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 -2 1/2 cups Flour
2 cups quick oats

Cream shortening, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Add soda, flour & salt. Mix. Then add Oats, mix well. Bake at 325 degrees for 9-10 minutes until the bottoms, or lower sides are just starting to brown. (they will be a little undercooked in the middle) Let sit on pan for a few minutes and enjoy.


The Best Rolls Ever! Seriously.

2 Cups Warm Water
2/3 Cup White Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 Cup Veg. Oil
6 Cups Flour

Mix the sugar and water, then add the Yeast and allow to proof until foamy (usually about 5 minutes) Add remaining ingredients, but add the flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth. (If you have a dough hook on your mixer, just use that and let it knead for about 5 minutes in the machine..much easier this way) Cover dough with a damp cloth and let rise for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in bulk.
Punch dough down and form into loaves, rolls, breadsticks or whatever. Let rise another 30 minutes.
Cook at 350 for about 24-30 min depending on what you are making with the dough.
This recipe makes enough for two loaves. I usually only make half, and make 9 rolls with it.


Waffles

2 Cups Flour
1/3 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup oil
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Cups Milk
2 Eggs

Mix all together except the egg whites. Whip the eggs whites and then fold them in.

He Makes Me Laugh.

I know I have heard probably 1000 times that laughter is the best medicine and it is just one of those sayings, but it really is true. As I have said before the past few months have been pretty tight financially, but we have been able to make it through and have been plenty comfortable as well. Well, I have known for quite a while that James needed to see a dentist and that I needed to see one as well. But I also knew that it was going to be REALLY expensive. So, finally, after tuition has been paid, car fixed and other bills paid, I took James to the Dentist. It was far worse than I had thought. 11 cavities, yeah you read that right, eleven. and 7 of those are quite possibly going to have to have crowns. Lets just say that that bill is going to suck up our entire savings and then some, and that wasn't even counting what my teeth needed as well. I cried all the way home from the dentist wondering how we were ever going to pay for all that work and with Christmas around the corner....well presents were just out of the question. I came home, put the kids down for naps, cleaned up, and then looked over our finances trying to find some way to squeeze those bills in there. Oh yeah, and on top of this, in the past week we have been notified that our mortgage was going up due to taxes, our insurance did not cover our sons last DR appointment, and we owed another DR some unexpected $$ as well. So I was looking at our account, okay if we don't have to buy food then we can make it...ha ha! So then I went to the pantry and looked to see how many meals I could make out of what we had. Lets just say we will be eating a lot of rice. So I was pretty darn discouraged when Ben got home and told him everything and what does he do? He quotes some part of a Simpson's episode that made me laugh so hard. He just made me laugh and it made me feel so much better. It is one of the great things that I love about Ben. He can always always make me laugh. Some nights we laugh until 2 or 3 in the morning. I will laugh so hard my stomach hurts. When I was in labor with James and wanted to die, Ben made me laugh. On our very first date he made me laugh harder than I had ever laughed when he jumped up from the picnic table tossing his drink behind him and yelling "my mouth's bleedin bert! My mouth's bleedin!Merry christmas Bedford falls" Later on that night he randomly took his shoe off and started talking to it like a phone. He was so serious about it too. Then there was the time that we were at Zuka Juice and he just took one great big bite out of his Styrofoam cup and chewed away. Once again, I laughed. I think that was the first thing that made me like him, how much he made me laugh. Anytime things have seemed somewhat bleak Ben has always cheered me up and it always makes the biggest difference. When he got home today he could have been depressed like I was but instead he made a bunch of jokes and then things seemed okay. Later on tonight we went over to my parents so Ben could get set up to do some contract work for my dad's Company. He has gone over several times, but they ahven't been able to figure some something out and so Ben has not been able to do any extra work and I had pretty much given up on that extra cash. However, tonight Ben was able to get things set up very quickly and now has plenty of work to get done. More than enough to pay for the dental expenses, Christmas presents and maybe even some food too! :) We really will be able to pay for everything, christmas included, and be just fine. I know that there was an upper hand in helping Ben get things set up so he could earn the extra money we needed, and I am grateful that once again Heavenly Father has provided a way for us.

Life is Crazy

You know what, life is crazy. I haven't blogged in a long time, and it is because I think to myself, "well I don't really have anything to write about it, life is just normal...crazy" For instance, this last weekend. I was throwing a baby shower for my little sister. And knowing me I can never just make it simple, I always have to make decorations and make it as cute as possible. I love throwing parties and doing all of that, but I really have to devote my entire life to it for about a week before the party.Yeah I know I am an idiot. Anyways, back to the baby shower. I was shopping all day Friday, getting food and such, I was in line at Walmart for an hour. I hate and love that place....sheesh. And then when I was all done shopping it was time to take my kids to my sisters for a Tea Party with all the cousins. It was really cute and the kids had a great time. My sister had made mini cinamon rolls, mini pizzas, mini everything pretty much. And then the kids made froot loop necklaces and made a grand mess doing it, but once again had a super fun time. So much fun in fact that I forgot to check the time and oh my heck it was late and I had so much to do for the baby shower. So we went on home, put kids to bed, cleaned up the house, did a load of laundry, baked the cake, cleaned the kitchen, and then started making the party favors. At about 11 pm the cake was done and time to dump it out. It was in the shape of a baby buggy and was very cute. Oh, some background info here. Ben always always always greases and flours a pan before cooking in it. And I always tease him about it and tell him that he only needs to spray the pan and that is plenty good. In my cockiness, I only sprayed the pan and now that it was time to dump it out, I wished very much that I had greased and floured the pan. Lets put it this way, the cake was in about 100 pieces by the time I got it out. Well. now it was too late to go to the store, bake a new cake and decorate it before going to bed. But it needed to be cooked that night at least. So Ben being the nice boy that he is, went and got another cake. Oh yeah, I forgot, another hiccup that night. When we were putting the kids to bed Harrison was running around the house and it wasn't until after he had gone throughout the living room that we noticed poop come out of his pants...yeah Ben carpet cleaned that night as well. Nice. Anyways, so I finished the games, decor, party favors, meat and cheese platters, and all that other stuff around 3 am. I went to be and could not sleep, I was so anxious for the next day, but I assume I fell asleep sometime because I woke up trying to smash the alarm clock on the floor about 6 am. Then my insanity kicked in and my brother and I went for a 9 mile run. The run actually felt 100% great. However, as soon as I got home it was time to get moving and get the cake decorated (It was the kind that you decorate with all the little frosting stars.....it was worth it though, it was really cute!) I made cream of wheat for the kids, showered, and started squeezing out the little frosting stars onto the cake. Fortunately my fam came about 30 min before the shower started and helped me get all the food set up and so by 11 am it was ready to go. The shower went really well, and Becca got tons of cute cute things. During the shower though, Harrison kept coming to me, rubbing his eyes and just crying. I thought he just had something stuck in his eye. But after a couple hours of this I called the DR and shortly after the shower was over, took Harry to the DR. Turns outm he has a sinus infection, ear infection, and a viral infection in his eye. Yeah, I guess he was a lot sicker than I thought. I felt so bad for him though, he just sat on my lap and cried the entire time his eyes hurt so bad. Anyways, so after that it was time to get prescriptions and all that jazz. Ben did that for me though while I laid down on the couch and Harrison slept. James came and sat by me and we talked the whole time. I don't even remember what we talked about, but he was just being funny. It was fun to sit there with him. Well then after that, I decided that Harrison needed something to cheer him up a bit and so we got him a new red ball. All of you that know Harrison, know that all he cares about are balls. All day he just plays with any ball we have in the house. We got him a little red bouncy ball and he loved it. He carried it around the rest of the evening and took it to bed with him. I took it out of his crib eventually because I didn't really want him sleeping with it. However, I woke up in the middle of the night to "diddy diddy diddy....BALL" "adidididida...BALL" I went in there and he was standing in his crib pointing to the ball. I held him and let him hold the ball for a minute while I got him a drink but then put him back to bed. He cried for the ball a little while longer, but eventually went to sleep and so did I.
So there you have it. That is just a couple days of my life. Obviously it was a little more crazy than usual, but it seems like there is always something going on around here.

Halloween Party

All right, so it has taken me almost a week to write about our family Halloween Party. First off I have to say that it was great! Ever since Ben and I got married we have wanted to throw a Halloween party. We sort of threw one a few years ago, but not really. So this year I decided to bite the bullet and just do it. So we did. We ended up inviting about 100 people. Neighbors, family and other friends. Adn about 65 people came, so we had a pretty good turnout I thought. We had a few activities for the kids. They made pumkpin masks, did a ghost walk where they won ghost suckers, and then a bean bag toss into a cauldron or plastic pumpkin. And then there were cupcakes and homemade rootbeer as well as about a 100 other treats people brought. There was plenty to eat that is for sure. Ben and I had spent the entire week decorating our house for the party. We had the funnest time making the decorations. We made paper mache pumpkins, we made little jack o lanterns out of a bunch of tin cans and painted them. Ben cut out about 50 paper bats and about 25 paper pumpkins to hang from the ceiling. We made 30 paper Jack O lanterns to hang on the wall...okay you get the idea, we made a ton of decorations and the place looked freaking awesome if I do say so myself. In the ghost walk room (our Master bedroom, we moved the bed and everything else out besides 2 dressers for the party) We coverd the 2 dressers with white sheets and put black eyes on them and then we had ghosts hanging from the ceiling all over and gave out ghost suckers to the winners of the game. A lot of the kids said that this room was their favorite. We had another room for kids to make pumpkin masks in, I think the kids liked that as well. And then downstairs we had treats, treats, treats, and homemade rootbeer. James was so excited for the party, each day this week he asked if it was the day of the party yet. So he was excited to finally have his friends come and have some Halloween fun. I think everyone who came had a pretty good time, we enjoyed it and we will for sure do this next year. I have posted just a few pictures from the party, I have pictures of each of the guests and will be printing those off and taking them to their owners. Can you tell we love Halloween?

Lagoon

I never know what to get Ben for his birthday. I always ask what he wants, and unfortunately the things he wants are several thousand dollars, so I can never really get him what he wants. This means that he always ends up with what I like to get him....clothes. Yep, I always get him clothes for his b-day and maybe a toy. Seriously, a toy. Anyways, so this year i decided to get him something completely frivolous and I got him 2 tickets to Lagoon. They have just put in a new roller coaster there and we have been dying to try it out, so I thought he would enjoy it. Well, here it is more than 2 months later, and we finally used the Lagoon tickets. Susan watched the kids and we went off to lagoon. We had the funnest time. I don't even know why, I mean the rides were fun, but we had to wait at least an hour for each ride, so we actually didn't get to go on that many rides. I guess it was just so nice to be together, without kids. We love our kids, but everyone needs a break now and again. Anyways, we started off with the white roller coaster. I forgto how much I like that ride. It is just a good old fashioned coaster, but I still totally love it. Then it was off to the spider, which I 100% enjoy every time. I love that it flips you around as you ride. And then we went on the new coaster, Wicked. yeah that was pretty darn fun. I was absolutely terrified the first time and pretty much screamed the whole way. I couldn't stop shaking after either, but for some strange reason I really enjoyed it. And we went on it again. The second time around I just enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun. after that we went on Colossus a couple times and then to one of the haunted houses. I was surprised that I actually got a little scared in their haunted house. I thought they would be totally lame, but the did a pretty good job. Maybe I am just more of a wimp these days. That is most likely. Anyways, after all the fun was over we went to Wendy's and got frostys, fries, and onion rings. I am such a sucker for onion rings. They are delicious though, who can turn them down?

Uh, Knock?

I can't think of anything to write about for the day because it was the usual day of cleaning, cooking, cleaning, errands, and then more cleaning. However, we did get to go see Jeremy and Rosanne's baby, Ada. She is a cutie, and a chubs, which I love. I love chubby babies. Anyways, so today I remembered something James did once and it made me laugh so I am going to write down so I won't forget it.
James has never been a very good sleeper. He didn't sleep through the night until he was one, even though we spent several nights of trying to let him cry himself to sleep, often 3,4,5 hours at a time. He finally slept okay from about age one to just before he turned 2, when we moved him into the toddler bed. Harrison was due soon and we needed the crib for him. At first James was excited about his new bed and did just fine sleeping in it. However, after the new bed lost its charm, we were back to sleepless nights. James didn't want to stay in bed...ever. We tried just about everything we could possibly think of. It finally came to shutting and locking his door. Yes, he would scream and cry but after a few moments he would go back to bed or fall asleep by the door. It made me sad, but it was the only way he ever went to sleep. Wel I don't remember what really happened, but for some reason we couldn't lock/shut his door. I think the handle was broken or something. Oh here is a little background info, I had taught him that when he wanted to go into a room when the door was shut he needed to knock on the door to see if he could go in or not. Okay, now back to the story. Well we put him in bed, he absolutely would not stay, we tried letting him sleep in our room, that didn't work out either He would just not sleep. So we put him in his bed, and then went in our room and locked our door shut, in hopes that he would wander back to his own bed. He came to our door crying, sreaming, hitting the door, 100% tantrum. Well he is screaming at the top of his lungs when he suddenly stops and says, "uh.....Knock?" We started laughing so hard. It was the funniest and cutest thing ever. I don't even remember how he ever went to sleep that night or what happened, but I still laugh whenever I think about him saying "uh...knock?"

Singing

Ever since James was born I have sung "I am a Child of God" to him. I have sung it every night to him before he goes to sleep, and then we often sing it during the day as well. He never sang it along with me or showed any sign that he even recognized the song until he was 2. It was a little while after Harrison was born. We were over at mom and dad's and had gathered around to sing. All the little kids were sitting in their chairs and had hymn books they were looking. I remember seeing James sit there with the Hymn book and thinking he was so cute all dressed in his Sunday clothes. We finally sang "I am a Child of God" and to my great surprise James sang the entire song. He knew every word and he just belted it out. I was bursting with pride and was of course sobbing at the same time. I will never forget that moment. Since then we have sung that song at least 1,000 times. And still every night when I ask him what song he wants us to sing, that is the one e picks (he often picks a second song as well, but his first choice is always I am a Child of God). James is a funny little singer. He loves to sing. He will switch tunes in the middle of any song, but he tries really hard to get it all right. When he has to go to the bathroom he always shuts the door, and, thinking we can't hear him, sings at the top of his lungs for about 15-20 minutes. It always makes me laugh. As soon as he opens the bathroom door he is as quiet as a mouse and acts as if nothing had happened. We really need to record it sometime. James also often sings himself to sleep. I will hear him in his room singing a song to himself and slowly the song gets slower and quieter, and then he is asleep. He did that the other night in the car singing "Snape, snape, severus snape" until you could barely understand what he was saying anymore. I then asked him if he was tired, he insisted that he was not, continued singing, and in a few moments was sleeping soundly. I love my little boys.

Running

I would not consider myself a "runner" exactly, but I do go running a few times each week. I run at least 3 miles each time and if I am feeling extra good I will do another mile and a half. I always run in the morning, around 7 am. At first it was really hot outside and I would be dripping in the first few minutes. Now it is starting to get cold and I bundle up and only start to get warm in the last mile. I started running in April. I have always gone for walks and did a little running but nothing really. I did some 5K's this summer. I love the races, I think that is why I run mostly. I love to be out there in the early morning, runners everywhere getting ready for the race, your adrenaline gets going as the anticipation mounts. And then everyone takes off. Pretty much everyone is going faster than me, but I don't mind. Slow and steady wins the race. In fact, in my first race this summer we ran up the hill that leads to the provo temple. it is quite a hill when you are running it. I felt pretty darn good as I ran the entire way and passed several college students, including guys who had decided to walk up the hill. Yeah, I was pretty proud of myself. My time on that race was disappointing 30 min. But with each run I improved my time. My running partner and I did our last 5K in 26 min. Not amazing, but I was proud of it. It is funny, before I run I always think "oh man, I really don't feel like running today" and I really don't want to go. But I am always glad when I return from the run and tell Ben how well or bad I did. My favorite part about running is when I am about done with my route and I just run as fast as I can the rest of the way. I love to run fast. When I am going as fast as I possibly can I seriously feel like I am on top of the world. I feel like I am some super hero or something. Yeah that is pretty lame and cheesy, but that's the truth. Sometimes I dream about running races and I am unbelievably fast. I always wake up and think "man if I could ever really run like that" My goal is to one day win one of these races. (be the first woman across the finish line, or in my age division at least) that might not happen until I am 95 and the only reason I win is because everyone else my age is dead, but still, I win. I have recently committed to doing the Ogden Marathon. That is another one of my goals, to finish a marathon, running the entire way. My neighbor and I are training for it. I am sure it will be the death of me, but I am really excited to finish the thing. As I was running tonight I was paying more attention to my running than I was to the music I was listening to. I was running at my neighbors house and there was a mirror right in front of the treadmill, so I couldn't help but see what I looked like as I ran. First off, why didn't anyone tell me that my thighs jiggled as I ran, ugh. But I will say this, I felt powerful as I ran. I love the feeling of my heel hitting the ground and my leg reaching as far forward as it could and carrying me on to the next step. As I watched myself run, I didn't think that I looked like a "runner", but maybe one day I will.

Gardner Village

Last night Ben returned from a several day business trip. So today he took the day off, and we went to Gardner Village. I have never been there before, but people had told me it was pretty fun, and that it was all decorated for Halloween. We, being the Halloween crazies we are, wanted to go check it out. We were not disappointed. First off, the candy shop had the yummiest pumpkin fudge ever, I want more now! The boys got little pumpkin suckers, that kept them happy for quite a while. It was really cool there though. There were pumpkins and witches EVERYWHERE. There was a witch in a boat in the pond. A witch peddling on a bike in the air, some witches playing baseball. Witches on the roof, at every doorway, and around every corner. It was so fun. James said he liked the ones playing baseball the most. Ben liked the bike one, and I liked the one in the pond, although the one on the bike was pretty cool looking. That place really did have the coolest Halloween decorations ever. I wanted to buy everything, but I am proud to say that we only got a couple little treats and a pony ride for James. There was a petting zoo and pony rides. Harrison loved the sheep, he liked their wool. He laughed really hard, chased the thing down and then grabbed it with both hands and rubbed his face on them. It was really cute. He has always liked fuzzy things on his face, so I am not too surprised. James got to ride one of the ponies. He was a little afraid of the animals when he got up close to them, but from a distance he loved them and said "Oh look, how cute!" He was so excited to ride the pony, but he was a little afraid while riding it. I was sad we didn't take a camera with us. Probably James' and Harrison's favorite place was the bakery, where we got cookies and donuts, and the toy store where they had a Thomas train set that they could play with, and they did. I liked just about every store, but there was a Christmas store there and me being the Christmas crazy that I am, could have spent all day there. I have always loved the little miniature villages people have at Christmas time and have always wanted to get one. This place had every Christmas village set you could imagine. They were all over. They also had Halloween villages and I thought they were just as fun. After all of our Gardner Village fun, we went to Carl's Jr, and ate like pigs. Harrison found a new love, Fry sauce. At first he just dipped the fry in and sucked off the sauce, then he just grabbed the entire container of fry sauce and drank it up, I later found him with the paper container in his mouth ( I guess he was just getting every last drop). It made me laugh pretty darn hard though. All in all, I think we had a pretty fun day.

Surprises

I am often surprised by my kids. Surprised at what they could do. I have found on several occasions that they can do way more or understand more than I thought they could. For instance, we have a FHE wall. We are currently learning about different people in the Book of Mormon and what they did. We then put up a picture and a little phrase to help us remember something about them. Like Nephi " I will Go and Do". Well I was moving stuff to another wall and James just started telling me all the stories that we had been going over and I was so surprised that he actually remembered them so well. It made me happy to think that he was actually listening. Also, When he was a baby he had a pacifier. And took it everywhere with him. He woke up in the night when he lost it and wouldn't go back to sleep until you found it for him. He was getting older and older and i kept thinking that I needed to take it away but I was so worried about the tantrums to follow and the crying all night and everything without a pacifier. When James was almost 18 mos old we lost his last one. And I had said when he lost that one we were not going to replace it. I was shocked when James could not have cared less that it was gone. He slept all night long and never missed it for a moment. Once again today James surprised me. Church always seems to be somewhat of a struggle with baby and toddler and trying to keep the noise level down. I always brought a bag of snacks sippy cups, crayons, quiet books, and other stuff to keep them entertained. But once again I have been thinking that James is getting too old for this and should be sitting without all the extra stuff to entertain himself. I was really worried 2 weeks ago when I explained to him that he woudl have to be a big boy and just sit reverently the entire time. It was stake conference and so it was 2 hrs instead of the 1 hr sacrament meeting. I was absolutely shocked at how well he did. He asked a few times for things but when I reminded him that he was a big boy now he didn't complain. The nest week when we went into church he said "If I be reverent we can go to grandma's tonight?" I of course said yes. And he sat on the chair with his arms folded the entire time. I was absolutely shocked. We went to gma's right after church, he definitely had earned it. Again this week he was unbelievably good. Ben was gone today, so i had harrison on my lap and could not give the sacrament to the people at the end of the row, so James very carefully carried it to the family sitting at the end of the row. He was so good, I was just beaming. Now, I realize that there are many a rowdy days ahead of us and that the novelty of being a good boy will probably wear off and all that stuff. But I am once again surprised by my kids abilities and realize that I hold them back sometimes because I am too afraid of how they will do. Kids are a lot tougher and more capable than we give them credit for.

Tomato Soup

Whenever I am cold I get an itch to make some delicious soup or stew and a good batch of rolls. mmmmmm. The past two mornings have been especially cold, and since I run before the sun is up, well, lets just say that my hands go completely numb, and it takes several hours for me to defrost. (Yeah, I don't know what I am going to do when it is actually winter out there...brrr). So, I have been wanting to make some homemade hot soup this week and today I finally did it. It seems that everyone has a plethora of tomatoes this time of year, my parents and myself being one of those people. So, I have been wanting to try and make tomato soup from the tomatoes. I found a recipe online and used the tomatoes from the garden. I was pretty scared to make it. I have never had homemade tomato soup, so i didn't know what to expect. Okay lets get to the bottom line here, It was delicious. Seriously, I want to go make more right now. We ate it all in a flash. There seriously wasn't a drop left. We used the rolls to scoop the bowls clean. I am already so excited to make some for lunch tomorrow. oh baby. I seriously want to make it for everyone so they can taste its deliciousness. But since many of oyu who read this live far away I will post the recipe here and you can try it at home.

Ingredients:
1 (29 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (10.5 oz) can condensed chicken broth, undiluted
2 Tablespoons Margarine
2 Tablespoons White Sugar
1 Tablespoon chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Directions:
In a large stock pot mix tomatoes, chicken broth, butter, sugar, onion, and baking soda. simmer for 1 hour

In a double boiler heat cream until ho. You can also do this in a regular sauce pan over low heat, but watch it carefully so that the cream does not scorch. Once heated through, add to tomato soup and serve.

What I did:
I used fresh tomatoes, peeled them, and then blended about 2/3 of what I had and then chopped up the rest. So that it would be a little chunky but not too. I used 2 chicken bullion cubes in 2/3 cup water. I also chopped up half of a small onion instead of just the 1 Tablespoon. Also, I only had half and half, so I used that instead of the heavy whipping cream, it was still amazing. Oh yeah, I put a few bay leaves in there too. I don't know if that made much of a difference but oh well. Enjoy!!

Translation of James' Post

Upon arriving home from Grandma's with the biggest pumpkin from her garden James stated "Mom, we should grow a dinosaur in our garden next time....it would be little....and it wouldn't growl ..........um, no we should not grow a dinosaur, I was just kidding" It made me laugh. Today we played Doctor for quite some time. We turned the coffee table into the operating table, and then put teddy bears on there where James did surgery. He gave them shots, listened to their hearts and even gave them breathing machines (a plastic bowl over their mouth) Then he took them into the harry potter closet shut the door and used the remote to take x-rays. Then we played around on the computer and took about 100 pictures. Harrison loved seeing himself on the computer. James loved to make funny faces and take pictures. Yep it was a fun day.

James' Post

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Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.

The past few months have taken a toll on our finances lately. We put another $1000 worth of repairs in our car last month, school started for Ben which meant tuition and books. Tuition was quite a bit more than I was expecting and last month we went on a camping trip. I realize the trip was not a necessity, but for my sanity it was. Anyways, so we have been pinching pennies lately trying to get our savings back up and since we found out yesterday that James needs hand surgery on both hands, we will probably need those extra pennies. So, I have once again adopted the motto "Use it up, Wear it out, Make do, Or do without." I love that phrase. I always think of it when I am shopping or dreaming about beautiful furniture for our home. It makes me realize how much of that stuff is simply not needed. I have spent quite a bit less on our grocery bill lately, but I have to say that we have still been having quite good meals. Our garden put forth way more food than we thought it would. It was great for many a salad or sandwiches or other yummy meals. It was crazy to see how much just a few vegetables could add to our meals. Also I have begun making bread again. I forgot how much I love to make bread. I know this sounds weird but I love the feel of the bread dough after kneading it for a while and it is just that perfect smooth soft feel I am looking for. I also discovered a use for all of Ben's worn out old jeans. Make little jeans out of the big jeans for my little boys. It is really quite simple. You use the same side jeans and hem so it keeps that "jean" look and then just sew the inside seams and waist and badda bing, a pair of jeans for James. They aren't the best looking but they will do for playing around the house. I remember when we were saving for the down payment on our house. We were living pretty similar to how we are now and I made James' entire summer wardrobe. I really enjoyed making those shorts. Plaid shorts were just coming back in style so he actually looked pretty darn cute. He still wears them and even after 2 summers they look okay. It is amazing how much you can save and use when you really try. It is actually kind of fun to get creative and seen what different things you can do to save money. I will say this though. We most definitely cannot take all the credit for any money we have been able to save up over the years. We have always found that when we are trying our hardest to save and paying our tithing and a generous fast offering, money just seems to come our way some how. When we had Harrison we were saving for a house and knowing that a baby was on the way we didn't know how much we would be able to save. Well we decided to double our fast offering. Our bishop had told us that when you pay fast offerings you would definitely see financial blessings. So we gave it a try. I seriously cannot count the blessings that came our way that year. Here are a few of them, My student loan for 10K was forgiven (long story there), Ben got several contracting jobs, and was able to earn extra $$. After we turned in our taxes we got a note from the IRS saying they owed us more money (no complaints there), Harrison was premature and had to be in the NICU for a while, & somehow we were able to pay all those bills and still have the down payment we needed. And during all this time we were plenty comfortable with food, clothes and whatever else we needed. So this is what I am saying, when you need an extra buck, pay more fast offerings and never skip your tithing no matter what. We have seen that money a thousand times over, you can't count the blessings you get in return. What a great blessing tithes and offerings really are.

Gone Fishin'

This last Saturday Grandpa Morrise (Marshall) took James fishing. At the start of the summer he told James that he wanted to take him fishing. He has mentioned a couple times since then, but no plans were ever really set in place. A couple weeks ago in Nursery James was sitting at the table telling the rest of the class that his Grandpa Morrise was going to take him fishing and he was going to catch one. I thought to myself "oh man, I had better remind Marshall or else James is going to be one sad boy" Fortunately though, He kept his word and they went. THey went to Salem pond. They were there for several hours, but finally, James caught a fish. He brought it home, cooked it up and ate it for dinner. I thought it was great. I guess after they had been fishing for a while James started to get bored with it and wanted to go play at the playground, but then when he caught the fish he said " I want to keep fishing", and did not want to play at the playground or go home anything else. I think they had a good time. Susan told me that whilke they were there anytime he ate a cheeto or a snack of any kind he would ask each of them if they wanted some too. yep, there is that heart of gold I was telling you about. Sweet little Boy. He and I have been going for bike rides lately while Ben is at school. I have Harrison on my bike and then James pedals along behind me on his trike. He actually keeps a pretty good speed, I can't imagine he can go any faster on that thing. But we go around the entire neighborhood (which is a mile and a half) and he always wants to go around another time. I have found that it has given me good opportunities to teach him about crossing the road safely and watching where he is going and all that. Plus it is nice just to spend time with the boys. It has been great fun and a good way o get the boys ready for their afternoon naps. :)

Goodbye Summer.

As I watch the sun set sooner each evening, and feel the first hint of a chill in the air, I am sad to see the summer come to a close. I have always loved the summer, I love going for hikes and camping. I love being able to take the kids walking with me each morning and not have to worry about them being too cold. I love the many bike rides and summer strolls. I love the kids playing outside in the sprinkler and spraying the water at the sliding glass door and laughing at me from the other side. I love sitting in the warm sun. I love running and the feel of sweat running down my face. It always makes me feel like I am running even harder. I love the summer races and parades. I love the look of a freshly cut lawn. I have loved my flower garden this summer. At the start of spring I went out and bought beautiful tall bright pink flowers, and had pansies and alysum surrounding it. I think I got to know more people in my neighborhood because of that garden more than anything else. I enjoyed watering each evening and visiting with neighbors as they passed by. I always kept my front window open so I could see the flower garden each time I passed. I grew a vegetable garden in our backyard as well. I was pretty sure nothing would grow back there. It was mostly gravel and leftover construction supplies from the builders. But I spent a good afternoon raking and cleaning it out and bought some decent dirt and put it in. Then I put in several tomato plants, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalepeno's, and chili peppers. (Ben likes the spicy ones). My garden grew more than I could even handle, my tomatoes are out of control, the cucumbers started to grow over the air conditioning unit. Needless to say, we have enjoyed many tomato and cheese sandwiches and many salads. The best part about our gardens was James' enthusiasm for them. He helped me doing everything for them. Each day he went out looking for weeds and pulled any that had started to come up. Now that the tomatoes have ripened he goes out there on a daily basis and picks all the red ones he can find. He comes inside with a handful of cherry tomatoes and excitedly tells me he found even more red ones. Then he washes them up and eats them in a flash. I think he has eaten more tomatoes than the rest of us put together. I also have enjoyed making jam this last month. I picked tons of Raspberries from my parents garden and made it all into the yummiest jam ever. So while I am sad to see summer go, I am certainly enjoying the harvest.

My little boys.

I haven't written a blog in a little while, probably becase not much has ben going on. Just the usual life of cleaning, shopping, cooking, cleaning, sleeping, watching an episode of Heroes, etc. I guess it was Ben's birthday last week. James was so excited for it. He went B-day shopping with me and consequently told Ben everything we got him as soon as Ben came home from work. I let James decorate the cake entirely by himself. I was quite surprised at what a good job he did. He was so proud of himself, and was so excited for Ben to blow out the candles and finally eat a piece of it. I bought James a suit coat this week. It was on super clearance so I went ahead and bought it and some khaki pants to go with it. He looked so grown up today wearing that little suit. Ben was helping him with the tie and it made me cry just to see the two putting their ties on. He really liked being all dressed up today and looking so grown up. Sheesh. I remember the first time we ever took him to church. He was 2 weeks old and wore a little polo shirt/onesie. It was striped, dark blue, white and gray. I remember thinking he looked like a little man in that outfit. I can't believe that he is 3 1/2 now, before I know it he will be 6 ft tall, trying to get some girl to notice him, and be 100% nerd. He can't help that, look at his parents. It is so funny to me to watch James and Harrison. James always tries so hard to be funny and even once said " I don't want to be good, I want to be funny" And it is true, he always wants to make people laugh, and tries a little too hard doing so. Harrison is funny by nature. You just look at the kid and his smile or whatever look he has on his face will make you laugh your head off. He is 100% tease. But he is a wimp, whereas James, he is a lion. I always said he was a lion. He is a lion with a heart of gold. And Harrison is the court jester. Ha. My two boys.

Family Camp Out

Okay so we went on our usual family camp out this summer, and I am so happy to say that we had the greatest camp out ever!! I was really worried that it might turn out to be a huge disaster and that the kids would be miserable, but they weren't and it was great. James absolutely loved it. He was so excited to go that starting the week before we went he would ask me every day, "Are we going camping now?" He asked me this at least 100 times a day. And 2 days before we left he woke me up at 6 am completely dressed, with his bug catching kit in one hand and his camping chair in the other and said " I ready to go camping, are we leaving now?" It was so cute I was so sorry to tell him that he would have to wait a couple more days. However, the day eventually came and we had the best week ever.

We got the biggest camping site ever, seriously it was huge. That was perfect for us because the kids could just run around and do whatever and I could still see them and not worry. Harrison probably ate at least 20 rocks and a several handfuls of dirt, but I guess that's all part of being up in the mountains. He loved sitting in James' little camping chair. HE would scoot his little bum right into it and plop down and just chill for a while. It was super cute. James loved hlping ben get firewood, as you can tell from the picture. He was really proud of himself for bringing in that big piece of wood himself. He loved helping ben get the fire ready and then roasting marshmallows, but who doesn't love that? There were several squirrels that came to our campsite throughout the day and james gave them the name of jumpy squirrel. Whenever one would come over to the table James would shout "jumpy squirrel, jumpy squirrel!" It was fun.
We had planned to go on several hikes, but we enjoyed sitting around and going on "adventures" with James so much that we only went on one hike. The "adventures" we went on were, going up the dry river bed, go to the "castle" it was really just stage made out of rock, and looking for bugs. We caught a few ants, but that was all. I was a little worried about seeing bears because I guess they have had a few down there this year. One night I woke up and had to pee, but I surely did not want to take the long walk to the bathroom to do so. So I just hopped out of the tent and went in the nearby bushes. Suddenly, I heard a lot of crumpling bushes nearby and a very gruff growl/bark sound. Yeah, you can bet that I seriously just dove right back into the tent, zipped it shut, woke Ben up and told him there was something out there. Yeah I was 100% terrified. At that point James woke up and wanted me to go get him a snack. I told him to go back to sleep, nothing was going to make me go back out of that tent. Anyways, I can't think of much more to say about our trip except that it was exactly what we needed and that we just had a super great time.

Exhausted

After several nights of no sleep, a little boy with a smashed lip and upper gum, a throwing up 1 yr old, piles of laundry, and a very messy kitchen, I am 100% exhausted. James' gums, upper lip and cheeks are extremely swollen and has been very needy and sad the entire day and all night last night (no surprise I know he is in a lot of pain). Both Gma's came today though and brought him things to play with. That really helped James cheer up. He has just been wimpering all morning. He was so sad when he tried to eat something and couldn't do it. He just started crying and said, "I can't eat any food!" He was so sad! I feel so bad for him. I hope that the pain will start to go away soon and that the swelling will go down. We went to the store and got him several things that he can drink. Yogurt drinks, Pediasure's, Chocolate Milk. He was really excited when he finally figured out a way to eat/drink his food in a way that did not cause him pain. I am currently waiting up to give him his midnight dose of medication. Then hopefully, he will sleep, Harrison will sleep, and I too will sleep. Ahhhh.

Little Boys=Bumps & Bruises

So this morning James asked me if we could go to the park. I was leaving shortly and taking him to Gma's, so the answer was "later". I picked him up from Gma's and again he asked if we could go to the park, I was extremely tired, Harrison needed a nap, it was boiling hot outside, and once again the answer was "later". So, after Dinner tonight We went for a family walk that ended up at the park and James went straight for the playground. We had only been there a couple minutes when I noticed James hanging from some monkey bars. Ben grabbed him and told him not to play on them. the very next thing James did was run over to the other monkey bars, Jump to them, hung there one handed for about a second, and then crashed down to the ground, hitting his face on the platform first. I ran over and of course there is blood, and tons of it. I looked in his mouth and it seriously looked like he had knocked out his upper 4 teeth. and did I mention that he was bleeding like crazy? So we went home, I tried to clean him up, we called the dentist, and went to an urgent dental care. By this time James' and My shirt were completely covered in blood, but I tell you what, James had stopped crying and was being 100% brave. I was so proud of him. WE went to the dentist and they took several x-rays and James just let them do whatever and didn't fight or cry one bit. It turns out that he didn't actually knock out his front teeth, but just pushed them all the way up into his gums and back. The roots look fine still and so we are hoping that his teeth ill go back into place (with little kids this often happend because the ones are still so soft) But if the teeth die, then we will have to take them out and wait for the permanent ones to come in in 4 years. But fortunately, that is the worst of it all. I think it could have been a lot worse and so I am so grateful that it is jsut a couple of baby teeth and not some serious head injury. I guess I had better get used to this kind of thing though, I do have 2 little boys and they are wild indians. I am sure we will be visiting the ER quite often throughout our life.

Protected

So last night we were 100% exhausted because we had been up all night reading Harry Potter the last 2 nights. So we put the kids to bed and were looking forward to a long nights sleep...that did not happen. around 3 am James woke up terrified and would not calm down, he often has nightmares, so this was not too unusual. So we sang some songs and then I told him that we should say a prayer to help us feel better. as I was saying the prayer, I was expecting to feel better, but the opposite happened. I suddenly felt like something was seriously wrong and that I needed to act right then. So I woke Ben up and we checked the entire house and outside. We didn't see anything and so we said another family prayer in hopes that we would once again feel okay. We all went back to bed and a few minutes later Ben got out of bed and told me that he just felt like we needed to be downstairs. So we went downstairs, I eventually fell asleep on the ouch but ben stayed up all night with the TV on and turning lights off and on and continued to check outside. In the morning, I asked Ben what happened and he told me while he was saying the family prayer he too got the distinct feeling that something was not right and that he just knew that we needed to be downstairs and keep lights on, and didn't feel like things were okay until about 6 am. Alls I have to say is I am so grateful for: The power of prayer and how it can guide us, and for a husband who listened to the spirit, obeyed its promptings and watched over and protected our family. Isn't he the best? Anyways, this morning I still felt a little shaken by the whole thing so I spent the day at mom and dads because Ben was going to be at a meeting all day. We had fun though, we went with Gma and Amy to the Peppermint Factory. Gma bought the kids all sorts of goodies which they, of course, enjoyed thoroughly. Then once again tonight Ben and I took the kids for a bike ride. It was perfect weather. The sky was completely overcast, so it was nice and cool, and every now and then we got hit by a few raindrops but that just made it more fun.