pancakes

Brenna set her alarm for 6:00am and got up and made pancakes this morning. Yes...you read that correctly. Could my life be any better? And they were really good (from scratch) pancakes. She's awesome!!

jelly donuts

This is why you should never leave your husband in charge of breakfast!! Todd inevitably gets a box of donuts for the kids. They LOVE it!! Charlie pounded a jelly donut. Fortunately for me and the children AND TODD, I only saw the pictures. Oh well....what do you do!!

pinecone hunt

Last year we collected some pinecones while on a walk and they were still hanging out in this basket in our garage and Eliza discovered them the other day. So we decided to hide them around the living room and Eliza and Charlie (Brenna & Emma were at school) found them. This was Charlie's first time to find and collect things in a basket/bucket and he loved it. All of the girls have always loved for me to hide things around the living room or in the back yard. One day we took lot of random little items from the "junk drawer", counted them(so we would know how much they were looking for) and then hid them. They played that forever!

This past year for Brenna and Emma Grace's birthday we hid the presents around the room and they had to find them. We told them if they were "hot" and "cold". The girls liked it so much they have insisted that we continue it for all family birthdays.

i want you

This picture reminds me of Uncle Sam and makes me want to laugh. I, of course, wasn't trying to get this shot but it just happened. I couldn't help but to put it on my blog next to Uncle Sam.

But my mind couldn't stop thinking of how I could use this on my blog other than just for laughs. So there is something "I want you" to do. There are lots of you out there reading my blog and not leaving comments...you know who you are. For a lot of you that are not familiar enough with blogging you may not know how to leave a comment. So here is a tutorial:
1. Read the post.
2. If you think of something and you would like to make a comment, click on the link under the post that says "comments".
3. You will have to type in your email address and a password(something like that...it's been a while since I very first left a comment).
4. Type your comment.

It's that easy!! I love to hear from all of my friends and family who are reading!!

you use olive oil for what?

Okay...go ahead and make a comment telling me I've gone crazy!! No really....if you have a baby who has a diaper rash you have to try this. A couple of nights ago Charlie had some redness in his "rolls" and then when I wiped him there was a tiny bit of blood. So I thought to myself, "well which do I use...baby powder or desitin". I decided to call a friend who has 10 children and her youngest is a baby right now. I asked her for some advice about it and she told me to try a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. She told me that Charlie's problem would be gone by morning. I was eager to put it to the test. I'm not kidding you...it was better in the morning. His bum was swimming in olive oil all night but it worked and he was a happier camper the next morning.

So go buy a special bottle to keep by the changing table. You're not allowed to take it back and forth between diaper changes and the kitchen!!

9 days

(that's not me in the photo...I wish that was the scenery in AZ)

I've officially started counting down the days to the race! Nine days until Todd, Tara(my sister in law), and I run the 1/2 marathon in St. George, Utah. I'm so excited!! I'm not sure that I ever really thought I would be running a marathon, although it was in the back of my mind. For years I have wondered if I could ever do it. But whenever I even tried running, I would stop after a few minutes and think "that is crazy. running is painful". What I've learned is that you can do anything that you put your mind to. How many times has my mom told me that in my life?!

Over the past week or so my left foot has started hurting. Not wanting it to slow me down, I've continued to run in the morning. But on Tuesday morning by mile 7 it was killing me and I was pratically limping while running to try and compensate for it but I didn't want to stop and I ran 8 miles. So this morning I went to see Dr Brimhall and told him he has nine days to get my foot feeling better for the race. Yikes! He pushed and pulled and twisted and gave me some more supplements. And I'm very confident that my foot will be fine for the race next Saturday. He's awesome!

charlie monkey

When I came across this book in Barnes and Noble before Christmas, I couldn't believe it. I always call Charlie "Charlie Monkey". He makes noises like a monkey and climbs like a monkey. He was even a monkey for Halloween this year. I was so excited to buy this book and it is the cutest thing just like my little Charlie Monkey.