Week In A Nutshell

The newest Frontier Girls
Jenny and Julie

A few months ago my dear friend Julie approached me and asked if I liked camping. Those who know me, KNOW camping don't go hand in hand. However, now and again I am up for trying new things even if it involves getting dirty. Little did I know that she had something more in mind for me. Never mind the fact she was also the stake camp director over girls camp. (which I vaguely remember back then) I replied with a "sure!" not thinking twice about it. Months rolled by and camping never came up again. Until this week. All the names that are submitted for any church outing or function have to be looked over and "approved" You are now looking at one of the newest stake leaders over the 3rd year girls. Yep, that's me! Thursday night was our first meeting. They have made the entire theme western frontier. Camper or no camper I have my boots ready!

Just a quick snapshot to prove we were there.
It was pretty windy after we got outside

I LOVE this guy!

Friday was just great all around. Doug got off early, the kids were in school so we headed over to the temple. We slacked the past couple of months and squeezed in a session just before the end of the month.

Sarah giving us her tips and secrets

After getting my camera, my sweet husband signed me up for a couple of photography classes with my talented friend Sarah. I spent 8 hours learning buttons on my camera that I didn't even know existed. It's going to take a lot of practice, but lucky for me I have 5 subjects under my roof to use as my guinea pigs. Beware of upcoming photo posts!

Sneigar Park
Baseball tryouts

During the time I was in class Doug drove Taylor over to her dance competition in Northp Phoenix (no photography allowed) then rushed back to catch Jared's basketball game and his little league tryouts. I caught the last 15 minutes. It took nearly 3 hours to have all the boys catch fly balls, hit and do a little fielding. Much thanks to my inlaws who watched my little boys for most of the morning.

With aperture, exposure and shutter speed information in my head I quickly took advantage of the last 30 minutes of light while the boys played at the park. I had to take this photo because I am constantly telling them to keep their shoes on, and this is where I often find them. Scattered in the sand or in odd places.

Doug lounging on the love sac

Once the sun went down I decided to pop in to some of our favorite neighbors. Heather made the suggestion that we grill some steak and chicken. We pulled together a fajita dinner in a matter of minutes. It ended up being so great! Thanks Hunter's for a fabulous yummy evening. Just so you know, Doug fully expects a dodge ball tournament in the near future. :)

good deed Thur: went to a girls camp meeting
good deed Fri: went to temple
good deed Sat.: helped Taylor get ready for her competition

Dash

Weston and his Big Sister aka his " bike teacher"

We've really been trying to set some goals as a family. This also means we have encouraged each of our children to do some on their own as well. After FHE on Monday Taylor informed us that she had a goal this week not to fight with her brothers. I have to say I am impressed thus far, there hasn't been any bickering and she has been a HUGE help in so many ways.

As I was reading a book earlier, Taylor informed me that Weston was going to ride without training wheels. I nonchalantly replied, well not until dad gets home just leave them on. She took matters into her own hands and said, um too late mom I already took them off and he is riding all by himself. What??! I had to go out and see with my own eyes. My THREE year old is riding without training wheels. I couldn't believe it! And yes, there is a reason we call him our little dash. The kid is fast at everything! Way to go Weston! Did I mention that just an hour prior he fell into the pool you see in the above photo that was filled with cement water? (our neighbors are building a pool) He is definitely one tough dude!

Here is the proof
Go Weston Go!

good deed: ordered and helped design our team shirts

SPT-Taking Photos Of Things I Enjoy

Trying to get an action SP

Loving Our Run!

Recently, Angie and I ran the PF Chang Half and doing so went out and got new shirts. We bought the same color, Angie's read "Running Is My Happy Hour" and mine read, "Addicted To Running." I truely never thought I would be wearing such a shirt, but after peeking back at old posts it's pretty obvious my life is pretty dedicated to this new addiction. By now MOST people know how quirky I am with my camera. Except on very rare occasions you can almost bet it is attached at my hip. I've gotten pretty good at taking action shots while running (because I hate to stop) They aren't the greatest shots, but something I can visually remember. We headed up to Las Sendas Monday to do an 8 mile run. Thanks to my dad and Susanne we only had to run with one kiddo. I think at first we were both thinking, what in the world are we doing?? Remember we are used to very flat terrain. The first couple of miles were up hill, which seemed impossible. Luckily, the next three were down.

It was 6 the first time, but we had to run back for a photo.

As we were headed back up I noticed a speed sensor on the road. I never would have imagined that it would pick up the speed we were running (which was SUPER slow). I ran by it the first time not paying attention until Amber said, "look it actually registered us!" Of course, me being me had to take a photo. After mentioning it to Doug he said, you should have videoed it. You won't fully appreciate the humor of it unless you saw The Office a couple of weeks ago. If you have a few minutes to watch click here.


This was our last round before heading back to my dad's house. Red Mountain is one of my FAVORITE'S! It was such a beautiful day, the weather was 50 degrees, perfect for a mid-morning run.



good deed Sunday: Helped Jared with Faith In God
good deed Monday: Brought in my neighbors trash
good deed: Read with Luke

Saturday Six

Sitting back relaxing. Holes or not these are my FAVORITE pair of jeans.

Today as I sit, I could hear the drop of a pin (it's really that quiet). A VERY uncommon Saturday in our household. My three are at the park, while my husband and oldest son are skiing the slopes. Jealous? No. It's not too often I can sit and take a moment to myself. In rare moments such as these, some read books, others may watch television or nap. I personally enjoy scrolling back at the photos I took over the week. My words obviously can't seem to keep up with the images that are taken daily. (hence my blog slacking) Here are six very random favorites I captured this week.

2.

My kids favorite new thing is to ride bikes out front and play at the park.
I caught Luke rolling in the grass.

3.

We have had a week of strange weather, cloudy skies with high humidity.
(reminds me a lot of San Antonio)

4.

My middle toe suffered from a blood blister (from my race)
It's a miracle that 4 days later it is completely healed!
I ran 7.6 miles this morning and it felt great.

5.

Yesterday I spent an ENTIRE day cleaning. This was the last load of laundry I folded/put away.
I can't tell you how nice it is not to have laundry (one of my dreaded tasks)
Let's be real, it lasted 8 hours, but it was grand for a little while.

6.

Weston, just being himself. I can't even tell you how many times a day
he makes this particular face. I am just happy I captured it.

good deed Friday: packed Doug & Jared's stuff for their trip.
good deed: went to my sister's to be a patient for her school assignment.

Nine In 2009

It never fails Jared has some sort of "sports" cake for his birthday
The request this year was a Cardinals cake, this is as close as I could get.

Nine years ago today our Y2K baby was brought into the world. I look back at how much Jared has changed, yet some things he does remain the same. Here are NINE favorite memories I have of you over this past year.

His new favorite shirt

(I know they stunk, but he still loves ASU)

1. We discovered since he began to play sports at how much he thrived at them. It doesn't really matter which one specifically, as long as it involves running, competition, AND getting a trophy at the end. Jared played machine pitch baseball for the first time, then moved on to kid pitch within a few months. (after we moved to Arizona) We realized that your left-handedness may be a good reason to keep you in baseball. Playing catcher, shortstop and pitcher were your favorites. These of course all involved being in the CENTER of the game.


2. If it were up to Jared he would have played tackle football this year as well. As a parent I just couldn't commit to the time and energy it took to get him there. (sorry bud!) He just started basketball and already he has been practicing his lay-ups religiously. Dad is especially excited that you FINALLY got on a team that "connects" and works well together as players.

3. Your personality has remained the same since you were a small little boy. From the moment you entered into preschool you have been a people pleaser. You still worry at the most minor things, but if you didn't, you wouldn't be my son.


4. Jared is our "lunch" child which means that is his favorite meal of the day. If I allowed it, I think he would eat Subway EVERYDAY. Seriously. However, each birthday there is a request for a special breakfast, this years choice french toast and eggs.

5. This is the first year Jared gets to go on a special "outing" with dad. He hits the ski slopes tomorrow to try snowboarding. I know he will do great because Jared is one of those kids that tries something and it instantly connects.

6. Jared has had the opportunity to ride his bike to school since moving to Arizona. He was the only one who didn't get a bike for Christmas, so for his birthday he requested a "trick bike" This turns out to be a double bonus for his brothers since they can ride on the back.

Jared and his cousin Aaron
(another lego star wars junky)

7. Jared has always loved Star Wars AND legos, but now he has gotten really into collecting and building them. He will spend hours (and still does) building and recreating. In fact over October break he built the entire Indiana Jones 800 piece set over 2 days by himself. I still can't believe I didn't take a photo of it! Jared received 4 new lego sets for his birthday, you can just imagine the excitement.

Jared getting his wolf badge

8. Last year Jared started cub scouts. We went from only attending 2 den meetings in Texas (there was no leader) to attending weekly. Thankfully we had a few months and crammed through to get your wolf badge. Lucky for me I now get to have you in our bear den. We are proud of your efforts at striving to be a loyal scout!

Weston, Luke and Jared
(before church a few weeks ago)

9. Jared may never admit it, but he has a spiritual side as well. Last month I witnessed my what used to be "shy" boy to go up to the stand and bear his testimony. Each Sunday it never fails that he is the first one up and ready for church.

Jared, we are so lucky to have you in our family. I want you to know that your dad and I are very proud of you and love you very much! I hope you have a GREAT 9th birthday bud!


good deed Tuesday: took Doug a Sonic drink.
good deed Wednesday: remembered to say my prayers morning and night.
good deed: went visiting teaching.

The Tu Tu Girls Rocked!

We started off Saturday by getting pedicures. The guy that did Angie's feet was quite chatty. I think we both left there knowing a complete life story about him. We were low on fuel so headed over to meet Doug and the kiddos at Rumbi's for lunch.

Once we parted ways from the boys I took her over to SAS a fabric store. I remembered it having TONS of inexpensive ribbon. We left feeling exhausted and worn out because of the way they cut ribbon. Did I mention they add things by a mini calculator? Long story, but oh, my they really need a new system!

Needing a sugar boost and hearing all the rant and rave about Sprinkles, I thought we too must give it a try. Angie indulged in the chocolate/chocolate. I chose the red velvet. I think we both agreed that it was about a 5 on the cake scale. Fun experience, over rated in price.

We spent some girl time shopping at the mall. Angie was excited we actually have a shade store here!

Friday we decided if we were running this thing together we might as well make it a "twin" event. We bought matching shirts (with different sayings) and added some extra bling.

Our alarms were set for 4:30am and we were out the door by 5. Not knowing what fully to expect we got on the shuttles and arrived 2.5 hours before the start of the race. The downfall to that was it was extremely chilly. We spent most of the morning standing by the exhaust of a high powered light. Sad, but true.

Here we are decked out with our blue/black ribbons, shirts, ribbons on our shoes and our signature tutu's. I never in a million years would have thought that so many people would comment on our tutu's. Even the announcer at the finish line said look there is Jen and Ang in their tutu's. So funny. It will definitely be a tradition!

We started off in corral #12. They had over 26 corrals each starting about 1 minute apart. Our official cross start time was around 9:00am.

Most of our route was unfortunately pretty ugly. For some reason they gave the half marathoners the unscenic route. And my other complaint was the spectators were silent. What in the world?? We needed more cheering people! Mile 12 was the best part of the run, not only because we were almost done. But, we ran across the Tempe Town Bridge into Sun Devil stadium.

When we finished I couldn't believe how crowded and crazy it was! The weather ended up being perfect to run in. I think it was in the upper 70's by the time we crossed the finish line.

I didn't see my little spectators, but we did hear my sister yelling for us as we were running in.

This was right near the finish. I realized I look like a complete dork when runnning. Notice our bling on the shirts? Love it! Our time official time was 02:13:11.

We decided to add bling to the back as well. We may have looked ridiculous, but we had fun and we did THIS together.

We treated ourself with a much needed In & Out burger and a HOT bath. Angie's plane left late last night and I already miss her!

Thanks for a wonderful weekend dear friend! Our goal is to try and do one of these together at least once a year. Hopefully, this is just the start of my medals. Today I feel great other than one sore toe. Tomorrow I will pick up my running training. Next year, I may even gain a wild hair and do the FULL. I am officially addicted!

good deed Saturday: Took Taylor to get a pedicure.
good deed Sunday: Prayed for a friend.
good deed: Took Jared to lunch.

Five GREAT Reasons For Friday

Notice I am giving the thumbs up.

1). There is a reason I set my alarm for this time, and NO it wasn't to get up and run.

2). There is a reason I CHOSE to take Hwy 101 N. and drive during rush hour.

3). There was a reason I happened to take Exit 5, Sky Harbor Airport.

Me and Ang
Getting our racing bags, chips and numbers

4). There was a reason I found my best friend waiting for me on the North curbside, door #8. Angie flew into town to spend a weekend with me!

5). And last, but not least there was a reason she came to play AND we attended this Expo downtown (which we decided at the last minute) We both registered for the PF Chang Rock and Roll Marathon. We may be crazy, but hey we're doing it together. Wish us luck!!

good deed: allowed Doug to watch 4 hours of his favorite show (and I never complained or said a word about it).

Competitive At Heart

We have had the most beautiful spring like weather here over the past week. The minute my kids get home from school (unless there are activities) they immediately get on their bikes/scooters and play until the sun goes down. We have about 5 boys in kindergarten on our street so my little boys are in heaven. We invited one of Luke's friends over to play yesterday. He just adores Nathan.

Nathan, Luke & Weston

I am certain my neighbors think I am the mother who doesn't exist. Often times I leave the front door open, so I can "hear" what is going on. We don't have a lot of traffic on our street, so I feel completely comfortable allowing my boys to roam the front yard. Yesterday I parked my lawn chair on the driveway and soaked up the sun with them.

I found when I am present, they often come to me seeking advice what to do? Apparently they lack imagination when their mother is "watching?" We started out with a home made obstacle course. That wasn't FUN enough, so my next suggestion was to have a race from the stop sign to our house. They seemed to like that idea, except for the one that lost. Luke is a by the BOOK kinda boy. So, if one person didn't start at the same time as him they automatically were cheating. AKA meltdown. Do you sense I have a highly competitive person in my house?

The best part was watching the younger one finish as the winner, yelling ha, ha, I won! Luke didn't like that too much. I did make sure each got a chance at a victory. (phew)

Weston claiming his victory, loud and proud!

Then when the big brother arrives back home, well that is an entire different competition all together.

good deed: gave the man at the car wash extra tip $$.