Pumpkin Masterpieces

We let Maddux go to town on his pumpkin with 3 sharpie markers. He concentrated so hard on all that scribbling. :) This was drew's look of surprise when he pulled the top of his pumpkin off to find that I pulled all the goo out for him while he was at work. He told me yesterday that de-gooing pumpkins is the worst thing all year. Yes...all YEAR!Here are our Superhero-ish themed pumpkins.
(my cat is supposed to be for Reese for Catwoman)

Schnepf Farms

We went to Schnepf Farms this year for a little family Halloween celebrating. Maddux was in heaven and we definitely needed more time to do everything. We stayed until the 9:30 fireworks show, and poor Reese was completely exhausted. We had her in the Baby Bjorn the whole time, next year we are taking the wagon.

face paintingthis face CRACKS ME UP!airplane ride
honeybee ridehay maze
(also attempted the huge corn maze Maddux ended up on Drew's shoulders because there were big kids hiding in the corn shaking it, yelling and making ghost noises. Maddux freaked).
carouselpetting zoopumpkin patchwatching fireworks show from the parking lot

Kasey's Shower

I hosted a baby shower for cute prego Kasey last week. I told my self a zillion times to take pictures of everything BEFORE it started. But when the first guests arrived and my hair was still wet, food wasn't out, and my table wasn't set up yet...pictures were quickly forgotten. I remembered only after the food was half eaten and the drinks were almost gone. I think it looked a lot cuter before.
Oh well!
Can't wait to meet Baby Vander in just one more month!

Reese would NOT let go of this Butterfinger. And if anyone tried to take it away, there was a full blown meltdown involved. yikes!

Girls Trip

Drew couldn't make it to the marathon (see below for highlights), so Becca, Steph, and I decided to make it a girl's trip instead! We had a ton of fun together.

My car started making a horrendous noise while we were over the Hoover Dam, we made it to pick up my packet with only 25 minutes to spare, got lost in St. George trying to find Olive Garden, got lost in St. George trying to find our hotel, got the car to Big O just before the alternator went out ($535 fix), got stranded after the race because we had to check out of the hotel but the car wasn't done, went to lunch at Cafe Rio with all our luggage in tow, almost ran out of gas on the way to vegas, shopped, ate, shopped, and ate some more, almost ran out of gas on the way home, went the wrong direction for 30 miles, got to the Hoover Dam and then decided to turn around and take a detour when we saw the traffic, enjoyed some 5 hour energy, and laughed non-stop for about 3 days. ADVENTURE would be the perfect word to describe it.

walking in st. george while temporarily stranded

dinner at RASteph modeling one of the beds in Vegas

The Hash- House -a-Go-Go...big menu = even bigger portions

yum yum yum

Marathon- Take 2!

So, my most questionable idea of 2010 has been to run a marathon with only 3.5 months of training time.
Two years ago, I was privileged (not) to run the COLDEST St. George Marathon in it's history. This year I said so many prayers that I wouldn't have to run in the wretched cold again. Well...my prayers were answered. It was the HOTTEST marathon they have had in history. YUCK!

Below are highlights of the race. I attempted to make it positive, but I decided to go with honesty. I am still SO glad I did it! And I'm almost ready to sign up for another!

Race Highlights:

*Got up after only 4 hours of sleep

**Hung out at the starting line alone for a few hours (next time, I'm dragging someone down with me)

*Finished the first 13 miles with a time faster than most of my half marathons!

**Then the 3:50 pacer passed by me

*Eventually the 4:00, 4:10, and 4:20 pacers all ran by

**Ran shoulder to shoulder up Veyo Hill with a guy who was walking at a leisurely pace

*Decided at mile 15 to try some Icy Hot on my calves that were throbbing

** Stopped every 2 miles from then on for Icy Hot from my hamstrings to my ankles

*At mile 23 I could taste the Icy Hot in my mouth- oops! (later read not to apply more than 3
times a day, so 5 times in a few hours may have been a bad idea)

**Favorite sign along the race: "running takes balls, other sports just play with them"

*Favorite t-shirt: "if found on the course, please drag across finish line"

**I high-fived every kid standing along the race with their hand out. Sometimes this meant running from one side of the road to the other very quickly

*Used my inhaler 4 times during the race. I was really worried because I didn't know if there was a limit on acceptable number of uses in a period of time.

**Told myself at mile 18 that I could run at a comfortable pace as long as I picked it up for the last 4 miles

**Told myself at mile 22 that I would just pick up the pace at mile 23 instead

*Convinced myself @ 23 that it was really ok to take another slow mile and REALLY push it for 2

**With only a half a mile to go, my brain and my muscles just didn't want to push it at all. No "pushing" ever happened

*Steph and Becca stood at the finish line holding signs and cheering for me. First signs I've EVER had made in my behalf!

**Found my amazing friends and we agreed to meet in 10 minutes so I could cool down. I sat down to stretch and my tibialis muscle on both legs started to spasm. Then the arch of my foot and then my calf. I was screaming and yelling and pounding the ground with my fist. A nice guy came and helped me for 20 minutes while my legs continued to convince me never to do this again. torture. absolute torture. In the meantime, friends can't find me because I am stuck laying on the ground.

*Walked with said amazing friends back to the lovely motel we were staying at an approximate pace of a quarter mile/hr. Poor friends!

**My time was 4:44, which is 6 minutes slower than last time. Which also means I WILL be running another marathon because I WILL beat my time. Next time- 5+ months to train and praying for NORMAL St. George weather!

the hill of death....Veyo Hill. just when you think it's over...you've got 3 more miles of it!

5 Months

Here is an update for my growing girl:

*weighs about 14 lbs, according to my less-than-accurate bathroom scale
*is finally rolling all over the place. gone are the days of laying her on the bed while i get ready
*tries to grab her bottle and hold it herself
*still nursing like a champ
*can find her pacie and put it in on her own most of the time (yay!!!!!!!!!)
*talks and screams like a girl (loud and NONstop)
*smiles at absolutely anyone that will give her a second of attention
*adores her brother
*turns her crib soother on and off by kicking the button

*puts all things directly in her mouth

this month's goal: take more pictures! I don't have any good pics of her this last month! sad!!! :(