sick kids

Okay, today I'm home{all day}. My washing machine is broke and Eliza is sick. The guy is suppose to come and fix my washing machine sometime between 8am and 5pm.{ugh!} It's 12:39 and were still waiting. Eliza has a yucky cold that is making her feel pretty yucky. I put Charlie down for a nap and went to the computer to check email and read a friends blog. Before I knew it, Eliza had climbed up on my lap and was sound asleep with drool coming out. So I decided to enjoy this quiet moment with a sleeping child on me and blog how much I love sick kids. No really....I don't like for my kids to be sick but I have to admit that some of my favorite moments as a mom are when they are sick. They tend to be more cuddly and calm. I love it!!

I have lots of pictures of kids sick, asleep with a "throw-up" bowl beside them.

The bowl is missing in this picture because her sister is wearing it on her head and being a monster. ;-/ (I learned that little face from Amanda:-) )

Funny pictures of snot coming out of their noses in big bubbles. I know their are pictures somewhere of the bubble but I can't find it right now. This picture is Charlie in March 2007 with a little RSV.
Or my favorite is the picture of Emma Grace with her cast on her leg. The two of us on the couch exhausted from the long day of being at the hospital and I'm holding up her casted leg as if it's our trophy. This picture is so gross...me after a day at the hospital...ek! But I had to share the picture of Emma Grace and the cast.

For all of you who didn't know Emma Grace at that age{17 months) but know Charlie right now, doesn't he look just like Emma Grace{the boy version}? In this picture she is the same age as Charlie is right now.
Isn't there a way to put a big black dot over my face in photoshop? Boy, I need to learn how to use that program.

I will Follow the Prophet

After the passing of President Hinckley, President Henry B. Eyring said,

"President Hinckley had the gift to make

people want to do better and

to feel that they could."

The gals at "marathon mommies" have made a challenge...dedicate your run to President Hinckley....HOW MUCH CAN YOU DO?

This Saturday I'm taking the challenge of dedicating my run to President Hinckley. I was only going to run 6 miles but because of the challenge I'm going to run 13{a 1/2 marathon} to remember the life of President Hinckley and push myself a little bit further.

He lived an amazing life! He always pushed himself to do more. And so this Saturday while I run I will think of all the ways I can follow his example and his prophetic counsel.

Come on...join the challenge and do a little bit better!! Post how much you are going to do on their blog so they know how far this challenge reaches.

My friend Kristi posted these ideas on her blog.

1} download a some of his conference talks on your ipod and listen to them while your walk/run
2} write the 9 b's on your hand and think about how you can apply them to your life Be Grateful - Be Smart - Be Clean - Be True - Be Humble - Be Prayerful - be Positive - Be still - Be involved
3} put a photo of him in your pocket of your jacket (of course this would apply to all those in freezing running weather... burrr!
4} ask yourself, "how far would you go for the prophet or leader of your church?"
5} set a goal higher than you think you can go and watch yourself be amazed when you walk/run with a purpose.

taking sign ups

{in case you can't read the sign it says: "sign up for acting classes,

every Thursday from 4:30 to 5:30pm, $2.00 a month.

your teacher will be Brenna, phone number: ask us"

If you come to my house right now, this is what you will see. Brenna has decided to give acting classes on Thursday afternoons. My first thought when I saw this posted and a little neighbor friend looking at it was "no way". But before I said anything, I thought, "no, just let her do it and help her". So tomorrow is the first class for "STARS R US" right in my living room. She is so excited! I have tried to help her think of things to do and she has it all planned out. The other kids on the street and my other kids are all very excited too.

In case you haven't read it on my blog previously, Brenna has been taking acting classes for about a year now and absolutely loves it.

tooth tunes

She was actually dancing to the music of her toothbrush in this picture but I didn't catch any of her cool moves.
For Christmas Santa Claus brought the girls these very cool toothbrushes. If you haven't seen these yet, they are really fun! Santa Claus brought Eliza the toothbrush that has "We Will Rock You". That is my life with Eliza!! She rocks my world everyday!! It's so great when she walks around singing, "we will, we will ROCK YOU". You can buy these toothbrushes at TARGET or here is the website: http://www.hasbro.com/toothtunes/

s t r e t c h i n g

{Brenna and Emma Grace stretching with me in the bathroom

after my run this morning. They were very funny trying to get

their feet up there since it's kind of high for them}

I love stretching! I love YOGA! I would probably go to Yoga everyday if I could. So there is an ongoing conversation{or my husband may say nagging} that goes on in my house. He says he stretches after his run and I'm not sure that anyone would really consider what he does to be stretching. So the other day he went to see Dr. Brimhall after the 1/2 marathon because he was having a ton of pain in one of his legs. One of the first things Dr. Brimhall asked him about was stretching. Then he had Todd lay on the table and he lifted Todd's leg up until Todd couldn't stretch it anymore and Dr. Brimhall said, "You're kidding me. Is that it?" And then proceeded to tell Todd that he needed to stretch. THANK YOU DR. BRIMHALL!! I'm not saying that Todd has to come to yoga with me but if you're going to run you've got to stretch.

just keep running!

So what do you think...does it look as painful as it felt at some points in the race? {these are "official" race pictures from www.zazoosh.com}

st. george 1/2 marathon

I ran my first race in these shoes{the middle ones}! Nikes{they are even pink}! How often do you get to eat whatever carbs you want and not feel bad about it? Everyone says you should carb load the night before a race. So we went to a very "carb-o-licious" place to eat...The Pizza Factory!! The breadsticks are so awesome{check out the picture below}. They taste even better than they look. It's a good thing they don't have one of these restaurants here or I would be carb loading when I shouldn't. We loved it so much we went there for lunch the next day before we went home.


Because I was so excited about the race, I didn't sleep very well after about 4am. We finally got up at ....

Here is the three of us just starting the race. Some of those layers of clothes were dropped at mile 2. Do you see the smiles?...that's how you can tell it's the very beginning of the race!
Okay, so we're smiling here too but is only because it's over. We made it!! It was so awesome!! And now I'm looking forward to more races with Todd and Tara and anyone else I can recruit to do it with me.
These are the "runner cards" that show what our stats were for the race. I met my goal for the race...to run it in under 2 hours!!
My ipod is my best friend while running. It helps me not think about what my feet and legs are doing!! Thank heavens for the ipod!!