I'm a Slacker

I think I have mentioned this before, but I got a new camera for Christmas and its AMAZING... but our computer is rather slow so to upload my mega files to the computer, re size them, and then actually post on this blog of ours is almost an all day process. I don't know about you but I have several other things demanding my attention, meanwhile our pour little blog sits here and waits patiently for me to return. So here we go. I will post two things right now...


One of my FAVORITE MEALS is Hawaiian Haystacks... all the veggies are just delectable. Well I try to make it often cuz its easy and good for us and for a while Kevin wouldn't eat it and it made me sad. Then I got the brilliant idea to let him BUILD his own haystack... WORKED LIKE A CHARM. He loves them now and even asked for seconds on Sunday. HALLELUJAH!!! So one day we were all ready for dinner but Adam wanted crunchy noodles so he headed to the store really fast and I let the kids loose on the table. They chowed down. It was so cute to see them eat all the little condiments. Oh I love them.


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My niece Jaycee is so cute and wonderful. I lived with her family for 3 or 4 months before Adam and I started dating and she was about Katie's age at the time. She is almost 7 now and is very much in love with Katie. She also thinks she is bigger than 6 and that Katie is smaller than 24 pounds. She always tries to pick Katie up and carry her around. Well while I was cutting my other nieces hair Jaycee picked Katie up outside and accidentally dropped Katie... I heard this horrible little cry that sounded like she was saying... "oh my gosh this hurts so bad" as CoCo and I ran to get her I could see scrapes all over her little face. She had gravel stuck in there too. From what I can tell Jaycee must have dropped her by the stucco pillar on our patio and Katie's face was the cushion. Poor girl. Jaycee was so upset that she wouldn't look at me (since I have told her several times not to pick Katie up) I reassured her that Katie was okay and that it was an accident and that I wasn't mad as her. All of a sudden Katie reached up her hand and put it on Jaycee's arm almost to console her. It was so precious.
Here is her face... it healed quickly and everyone just thought I didn't wipe the food off her face.

The cutest girl in the WORLD!!!

Katie lights up our world. She is spunky and sassy with a smile and laugh that seriously makes us putty in her hands. She is always on the go but will take the time to give kisses if you ask nicely.
She will be 18 months on the 7th... YA for nursery!!!
She says only about 5 audible words even though she jabbers all the time.
He first words were Mama, Dad, ya, Jesus and just recently No. She loves her shoes and today I understood her when she said shoe. Oh and she also says her cousin Ella's name.
Adam got these boots on clearance yesterday for $4 dollars and Target, they are so cute they're KILLING me.
I really need to get a side shot of her because her belly is so BIG and her bum is also big, she walks around with both of them stuck out and it cracks us up especially when she is in a skirt.
She is learning some sign language for communication, just recently started scooting around on her wiggle car and still does not climb up our stairs. (I am okay with that!!)
Every time she comes into a room with a picture of Jesus in it she points to him and says his name over and over. I put a little Christus in her room since she seemed so attached to him and she points to him every time she wakes up, or walks in or out of the room. While I am changing her diaper she cranes her head so she can see him and I have to get him down for her to hold while I finish up. She kisses him goodnight and is still pointing at him as I lay her down for sleep. It is so astonishing to see how close she feels to him. As if they are best friends. I only wish there were somewhere I could buy a Jesus doll that she could sleep with or something. I love that girl!!

My Mission

Friday marked the 7th anniversary of starting my LDS Mission. So much has come from that wonderful experience that I know for sure I could NEVER list all of the blessings. I have been going through a personal struggle as of late and felt a strong prompting and desire to find a talk that helped me on my mission. Which brought me to my mission box... I am so emotional right now because of all the journals I read through and the pictures and letters I found. Part of me really really wants to turn back time and be that missionary again. I would never change what I have with my family and kids but I sure would like to feel what I felt when I was serving. My heart and mind were so engrossed in the work and the spirit was so intense.
Part of my personal struggle is trying to get that feeling back right now in order to show my children what the spirit can do to affect their lives.
I wouldn't change things on my mission either. What I would change is the correspondence I have had with them since coming home. I have been horrible and since I found several addresses tonight I will recommit myself to get back in contact with them. Hopefully my German holds up.

Finally and Update

We have been having a great time up in Utah the last few weeks and are glad we had the opportunity to come. We are however really really really missing our Adam (he is in Kansas City for Training until Friday and has been there since the 24th). Kevin hasn't wanted to talk to him the last few phone calls and finally last night I asked him if he was mad at Dad and he said Ya. I said "cuz he's been gone for a long time" and he said "Ya cuz I super miss him". So cute.
Katie the little stinker is turing out her personality and showing us how much independance she has. She is absolutely relentless in Church, whining and crying unless she has food in her mouth. Good thing our bishop doesn't want us to have food in Sacrament anymore... ya like that's going to happen.
We told her to give us a smile and this is what we got. She is so freakin' cute I just want to kiss her all day long.

Silhouette Machine

They are having this awesome giveaway over at Love Stitched and I want to win so badly. It's a silhouette cutting machine and it is so awesome. It is kind of like a cricut but instead of buying cartridges it hooks up to your computer so you can use any font you find or buy others for much cheaper than cartridges. LOVIN' it. The giveaway ends tonight so go over and enter.

Packing

Does anybody love to pack... if so you should come and help me. I am actually procrastinating it so long now that I am going to be up until midnight doing it. I actually don't HATE packing, I am just NOT in the mood tonight. The one thing I really hate about taking a trip is UNPACKING. If I don't do it the day I get home the bag sits in the middle of the floor for a week or two. If you ask my husband he will tell you the honest truth that it has sat there for a month a couple of times. I just dislike it. Maybe one day I will have a change of heart and learn to tolerate the unpacking portion of a trip. Who knows, it could happen. It happened with the Utensils. I used to HATE HATE HATE unloading the dishwasher particularly the utensils. Oh MY GOSH it plagued me. But now I totally have a system and when I do get around to the dishwasher I go for the utensils first.
Do any of you have packing or unpacking tips for a trip challenged girl?

Wow

This week has been crazy crazy crazy. I have done hair like a mad woman (apparently everyone wants to look good for the holidays... whatever). We also had a huge activity for R.S. tonight that I was semi heading up. Tonight actually rejuvenated me though.
I ran 5 miles this morning (my first 5 ever besides a 10k I did once when I first got home from my mission which I was totally unprepared for). I have never run like I did this morning. I got to my 3 miles that was my original plan and said to myself, I bet I could run one more. So I did. Once I did that I thought to myself, I could probably run another. So I did. At 55 minutes on the treadmill I had burned 763 calories and I was TIRED and also feeling a little weak from it being so early in the morning with no real food in me. So I stopped. But when my sister asked me today on the phone if I think I could have done one more I said... I think I could have. Crazy I feel like a runner and I think I AM GOING TO DO THE HALF IN JANUARY. Scary. But exciting too. (also I shaved 30 seconds off per mile today). I am really not trying to brag, I just never thought I would get to this point and need to document it.

Half Marathon

I don't know what it is about running but it entices me. I cannot run fast, I am not very strong mentally when I run, in fact I often convince myself to walk, but for some reason, I want to be a runner. I actually like doing it and kind of crave it. Sometimes I lay in bed when I can't sleep and wish that it was a safe enough world out there to just go for a night time jog. My sisters are doing a half marathon in St. George in January and I really want to do it with them. Actually what I really want to do is a 10 K but that is not available that day. It's either a 5k or a half marathon. UGH. I only have 10 weeks to train (I sort of started this week) and I am really slow. The most I have ever run on my own is 3 miles.
So I guess I need a little input. What should I do. My mind might get the better of me on this one and convince me that I am too weak and don't have enough time to train. HELP.

"I earned it"

Kevin "earned" this garbage truck finally.

It has been at least 2 months since Kevin saw this garbage truck at Costco and begged me to buy it for him. Every time we went to Costco he said that he wanted to see "his" Garbage Truck. This boy has a lot of motorized things just like this and it was NOT Christmas nor his Birthday so I told him he would have to buy it with his own money. He got excited, which really worked out well for us too because at the time he was on a mean streak with Katie and not minding us very well. We needed something to motivate and encourage him to be nice and do the things we ask of him.
My sister Collette set up a Marble system with her kids and Kevin really liked that so we started right away.
He would get a marble for simple things and two for big things (and sometimes Mom was lazy and forgot to emphasize the marble earning) but 200 marbles later he finally got to open his garbage truck. He played with it for 2 hours straight and was very very sad that he had to say goodnight to it. I think this fascination with Garbage trucks all started when Aunt Mandy bought him a little Matchbox garbage truck. We go out every Tuesday and Wednesday morning whenever we hear the trucks coming and watch as he lifts the big can and dumps all the trash out. It's the highlight of his day. I just love him.

I apologize for this randomness

Today Adam and I were able to go to the Temple and do Sealings. I must say I can't believe how much it rejuvenates me to do that especially with my husband. Just looking at him makes me happy and I know he is commited to me and the Lord for all eternity. We had a great time and feel reconnected with eachother and the Lord.
We lay the kids down at my friend Rachel's and when we returned we found out that niether of them really ever slept... BUMMER. So they went to bed SUPER EARLY tonight. I literally came home from picking them at 4:45, made them dinner, washed Katie up and put her to bed. Then it was stories and bed for kevin. By 6:20 they were OUT cold. THANK GOODNESS. They were both cranky and ready for sleep.
I feel like I haven't really hung out with them a ton because we have had busy busy busy days, but it won't be calming down in the next few day since we have the Gilbert Groundbreaking dedication and Stake Conference this weekend.
I went running this morning specifically to time how fast it takes me to run a mile. I ran 3 and finished at 34 min. 30 seconds which makes my miles 11.30 minutes. I was gestimating 12 so I am pleased with my numbers. I would however like to be able to run 10 min. miles by the end of the year and I don't even know if that is at all possible so I guess we will see.
Adam and I also went to a Cirque Dream performance last night for date night (He has a 4 day weekend). It was SO COOL. I am still thinking about all the tricks and crazy stunts that happened. What was even better was that Adam WON the tickets on the radio so we didn't have to pay anything for our night on the town. When we came out I couldn't believe how cold it was, I needed a jacket... CAN YOU BELIEVE IT... a JACKET in AZ... I was meant for this weather FOR SURE. If I am dying in the "COLD" weather of ARIZONA how did I ever live in CEDAR where you FREEZE just by walking on your tile.
I am going to bed now... sorry for the random post.