Tallest in the family

Ash was very disappointed today when she opened my blog to find that it was pretty much the same since the last time she viewed it. Life is busy. And I've been working on a couple of posts. I just haven't put the finishing touches on them yet.

So this one is for Ash and will be a short post dedicated to the tallest in our family.


Every January we take the usual measurements -- age, weight, height.

And every year I seem to be a little shorter.

One day I may be as tall as Kiersten :) She seems to have stopped growing and isn't all that excited about being a shorty. Sad for her but she did not score in the tall genes with her parents.

Erik is an anomaly and has superseded his dad's height.

He now lays claim to being the tallest in his family. Grow Erik grow.

Cookie Thursday

Well, today is our last cookie day and I'd have to say Cookie Thursday was a success.

Several months ago I wondered if my kids might be tired of cookies every Thursday, so I took a few weeks off.

Oh no. That was a bad idea.

They came home wondering who the cookie monster was who had pilfered their cookies. Doesn't every kid envision walking in the door after school to homemade cookies, a glass of cold milk, and their mom asking all about their day? Mine at least did/do.

Cookie Thursday was back on.

I made all kinds: some were our regular old favorites, and some were a few new ones*.

*Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Favorite Chocolate Chip
Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
Homemade Oreos
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip
Peppermint Chip
*Rolo Cookies
*Andes Mint Cookies
Gingersnaps
*Cookies and Cream Oreo Cookies
*Swig Sugar Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Rocky Mountain Cookies
Macadamia Nut White Chip Cookies
*Salted Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

and the ultimate surprise, which I didn't think I'd like so much, were:

*Root Beer Float Cookies

especially if you let them sit for a day and let the rootbeer flavor enhance.

Cookie Thursday is on hiatus until school resumes and in the meantime we have library days with a trip to the ice cream shop afterwards.

Root Beer Float Cookies
3/4 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix DRY; do not prepare
2 eggs
1 t. root beer extract
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 to 2 c. white chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together. Beat in instant vanilla pudding and mix well. Add eggs and root beer extract and beat until well incorporated. Add flour and baking soda. Mix well. Stir in white chocolate chips. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes

Favorite songs

Our list of favorite songs for this year.

Alex: ABCs
Ashlyn: Just Give Me a Reason, by P!nk
Nathan: Hall of Fame, by The Script
Erik: Safe and Sound, by Capital Cities
Kiersten: Gone, Gone, Gone, by Phillip Phillips
Missy: Forever Young, by the Tenors
Tyler: Demons, by Imagine Dragons

Of course this didn't come close to filling up the time I needed with all our photos, so I added some other favorites from this year.

Home, by Phillip Phillips
Let Her Go, Passenger
Brave, Sara Bareilles
I've Seen Hell, from North and South soundtrack, by Martin Phipps
Ho Hey, by The Lumineers
We Are Young, by Fun
I Dreamed a Dream, by Anne Hathaway
Set Fire to the Rain, by Adele
Try, by P!nk

When we visited my brother Matt in Logan earlier this month, he introduced us to the group The Tenors singing the song Forever Young. Wow!! Their voices were powerful, the lyrics were powerful. I fell in love immediately and not only had new favorite group, but a new favorite song as well. 

 

"Forever Young"

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
Let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the sky
Climb on every rung
May you stay..
Forever young

 

 May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth and see the light surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay..
Forever young

 

 Forever young
Forever young
May you stay Forever...

 

 May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift
May you heart always be joyful, may your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young

 

 Forever young
Forever young
May you stay Forever Young

 

 And may you stay
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you stay
Forever young

Projects completed

I have found that with myself if I have things going on I tend to accomplish more. When life slows down, I slow down with it.

November and December can be two of my busiest times of the year (Oh, don't let me forget the month of May).

With Christmas looming, I had two BIG projects I wanted to complete. First was my blog book which I started two years ago. I finished that up the end of November and got to open it today and enjoy it.

I guess I wasn't the only one interested in it. Kiersten literally read it cover to cover, skipping some of the longer posts.

I was so happy with how it turned out and am starting another year which hopefully won't take two years to complete. This has become my new scrapbooking which I hated to do anyway. I love that Blurb has a copy of my book and I can print it again any time I want.

My second project was a slide show I wanted to do for Christmas Eve, starting a new tradition. That entailed getting a year's worth of photos organized which normally I do, but for some reason this year I fell seriously behind. I had so much fun putting Tyler's birthday slide show together that I decided to do the same with all our photos from this year. Early in the month I asked for everyone's favorite song. And of course they all wanted to know why. It took me up to the 23rd to get it done, but I did. After our Christmas Eve festivities at grandma's house, we came home and watched 2013 in Review. I actually added last Christmas Eve and Christmas Day photos at the beginning to get them excited about Christmas morning.

Again, I was so please with how this particular project turned out. Everyone was in agreement that we have a new Christmas Eve tradition.

* * * * *

As I'm writing this post, Alex came up to me and said, "Mom, it's nice to be home." I looked at him and asked if he liked home because I had absolutely no idea where that came from. Then he clarified, "Dusty says that all the time."

Oh boy! We're quoting movies now. His favorite movie right now is Planes. He could watch that over and over and sometimes does. Another favorite quote of his: "You make joke? You leave me no choice."

Temple Square

Every year around Christmas we try to visit Temple Square. It's just a fun tradition we do and the kids admitted to me this time how much they really enjoy going.

And every year I watch the weather; well because I always watch the weather and plan my life around the weather . . . shopping, running, errands, trips out of town, gardening. I really should have been a weather man. All that money wasted on a business degree and my heart really loves weather because frankly it affects every person's life in some way or another.

Okay, that was a bit of a tangent. So last week I was watching the weather and seeing very warm numbers on the screen followed by very cold numbers. Tyler and I made a quick judgment call and decided to hit Temple Square last Sunday. We've been before in freezing cold weather and unquestionably, it just isn't that enjoyable. I don't think we've ever visited on a Sunday and I thought it would kind of quiet. Um, I think I'm not the only weather watcher out there. Anyway, the warm weather made for a very pleasant evening and I'm relishing in those memories at this moment as I write this post and it's a balmy 10 degrees outside only a week later :)

This year we especially loved the luminaries and different nativities. Kiersten especially loved the sign language luminary. 

 

I love this picture. My kids can be such goofballs. But they are my goofballs and I sure do love them.

Still workin' on that summer bucket list

Nate wanted to visit Arches this summer since this is the last time he was there and doesn't remember much:

It never crossed my mind that my parents live close enough to so many wonderful places in central and southern Utah that we could stay at their house and make it a day trip to most places, places I would go to on field trips. I was planning on taking the kids myself until Tyler was able to get work off at the last minute. And then on our way out of town, Aunt Katie decided to tag along. We are so glad she came, grateful dad could come, and happy we have an 8th seat to take extra stowaways.

It's become tradition for Tyler to put together a road trip booklet for the kids to fill out about our destination. This one came with coupons, mazes, mad libs, crosswords, and much more.

I stole this picture from Katie. It pretty much sums up how excited everyone was for a family getaway.

Pine Tree Arch - The only photo of the whole gang. We did a picture swap thing with another family.

Landscape Arch

One tired boy

Sand Dune Arch - Our favorite and one you have to discover in the middle of all that rock.

I don't think I've ever seen so many people there at one time. When we were there many years previous, we were lucky to have one other family come through and take our picture.

Ash even ran into a friend from school, and Alex finally warmed up to the feel of the sand.

Delicate Arch - We decided to do the 1/2 mile hike to the lookout and Alex was determined to walk the entire way, stopping every few feet to lean over the wooden rail and say "Hi" to whatever happened to be out there.

Balanced Rock - On our way out of the park some of the kids wanted to try holding up the rock. I'd say they did a pretty good job!

The weather will be changing soon. I'm so glad we took advantage of the beautiful weather. October is the PERFECT time to go to Arches. It wasn't too hot and I actually enjoyed working on that end-of-season tan.

The road to my first 1/2 marathon

It all began here:

Our little town of Ferron holds their annual Peach Days celebration in September and in 2007 when my sisters and I were attending we all decided that the following year we would run the 5K that takes you right past my parent's home. It would give us a year to get in shape. Fast forward a year and here we are before the start of the race.

Since then it's become a tradition and a sort of impromptu family reunion to all meet up at Peach Days to run the fun run which is either the 5K or 10K.

I've never been a runner, never really had the desire to run. Growing up my sport was basketball which entailed a lot of running anyway and I didn't feel the need to add to it. Then I turned 30 and entered Kiersten and Erik in a couple of 1Ks. I should have known Erik would have some potential when the neighborhood moms started calling him "road runner" because he was always running to school. But I was happy to cheer them on. Peach Days came in 2007 and I had a goal and began running . . . at night because I didn't want anyone to see me. Wow, at the beginning there I couldn't even make it a quarter of a mile without feeling like I was out of breath. Gradually my distances increased and I ran my first 5K at the 2008 Grantsville 4th of July celebration.

Our Peach Days race came next and my mom took this picture as I was coming up the hill by her house.

I ran another 5K the following summer and was ready for a challenge. We happened to be at East Canyon camping the same weekend a 10K was being held. The starting line was literally a 100 yards from my tent door and I couldn't resist. It was a hard 10K that took me onto a dirt road and up and down hills, but what a feeling that I had accomplished something a little harder.
I ran the 10K at Peach Days instead of my usual 5K and got to run with an old friend I had grown up with.
2010 was the year of baby and house. I was happy to get one race under my belt and got to cheer for my sister Katie as she completed a half marathon and then a full, but with several 10Ks and lots of 5Ks I was ready for a challenge again. So last March I solicited my favorite running crew, my sisters, to see if they wanted to run the Top of Utah Half Marathon in August. It would give me just under 6 months to train. Plenty of time . . . or so I thought. Five kids which includes a baby makes it kind of tricky to find that time.

I now call myself a runner. I still don't especially like getting up to go, but once I do and I come home I'm so glad I did.

A few things I learned along my 13 miles.

• This race was one of the hardest things I've done in my life. Even some of the births of my kids weren't this hard.
• I couldn't have done it without training first.
• Don't start out too fast. I don't feel like I did this and honestly it's kind of hard when you're packed in like sardines at the start to go real fast at all.
• I love running races with my family and hope we keep this little hobby of ours going for awhile.
• I like being at the start of the race and feeling all the energy bouncing off the people around me.
• Walk through the drink stations or you'll get water/Gatorade all down the front of you.
• The oranges tasted like candy.
• I loved the breeze coming down the canyon that kind of pushed me along. I didn't so much like all the humidity from running along side the river. I was sweatin' before I reached mile 2.
• I should have used ointment in spots to prevent chaffing. I had never experienced it before but I did in my last mile and it was uncomfortable.
• It's okay to walk if you need a little break (although this is a goal for the next -- to run it completely). Nobody at the finish line cared whether I slowed a little and walked as I replenished my reserves. They were just happy I made it. I hit mile 10 and this is where it started to slowly climb and I hit my wall. I was so grateful for the cute kids who had their hose out to drench us about mile 11. It felt wonderful.
• Drink, drink, drink. I thought I had drunk enough along the route, but my body told me otherwise. About 40 minutes after finishing, I started to feel nauseous and had a headache. I now know I was dehydrated. The humidity in the canyon and no shade the last 3 miles were not good for my body.
• During the last mile I kept scanning the sidelines for my kids because I knew they would push me on to finish. What a feeling it is to have someone cheering you on and most of the time it's complete strangers.
• As I crossed the finish line the first thought I had is "I will never do a marathon." I honestly don't know how they do it. That's a lot of wear and tear on the body.
• The first half felt like a breeze compared to the last half.
• Stretch, stretch, stretch, and stretch some more. I should have done more stretching afterwards. My legs hate me today and I felt like an old lady at church, hobbling down the hall. Stairs are a killer.

Running 13 miles is not an easy thing to accomplish. My goal was to finish in under 2 1/2 hours which I beat by 4 minutes. I was actually a little surprised when I saw the time at the finish line because I had walked a lot the last three miles. Oh, I'm so happy to cross this off my list, grateful for the challenge it gave me, excited to try another one . . . next year. What do you say, my favorite running buddies?

First day of school

At the end of the school year a friend and I were discussing our year end traditions. She told me how she makes each of her girls a candybar gram.

My mom used to do the same thing for different occasions. I don't know why it never crossed my mind to ever do one.

So all summer I've been anticipating doing one for each of the kids (except for Alex). I was a little excited this morning as the kids woke up.

They all loved them, but Ash was the funniest. I'm sure she just thought it was a bunch of candy stuck to paper until we had her read it. She tried skipping over the candybar until I had her insert the candybar name in the sentence. Then she got it and giggled and giggled. She couldn't wait to get to school to tell her teacher all about it (except when she got home she told me she forgot to say anything).

First shift. I can't believe this girl is in junior high. Who gave her permission to grow up. I wished like crazy today that I could have been her invisible friend to help her when she couldn't get her locker open or she forgot where her classrooms were or she couldn't find her friends at lunch. We'll see how the day went when she gets home and I'm sure it won't have been nearly as traumatic as I've made it out to be.

Second shift. I sent these three off to the bus stop. I missed living close to the elementary today and seeing all the kids excited to get to their classes as they walked or biked. The bus stop just isn't the same.

Alex and I went for a jog/walk this morning after everyone left. It was a rather quiet morning like I knew it would be. I'm just glad I have this little guy around to keep me company as he toddles from room to room.

P.S. I also have the irrigation guys and deck guy to keep me company and anyone working next door. So I should clarify that the quiet morning meant quiet in the house . . . no fighting, piano playing, radio turned up, keyboard clicking. I can't say the same for outside the house. There is no shortage of commotion going on out there.

The halfway mark

Yesterday marked exactly 6 more weeks until school starts up again and summer is officially over. Sniff, sniff. Why does summer go so stinkin' fast. I'm sure my kids feel like we haven't really done anything, even though we did mark the second half of summer by heading to the library, AGAIN, and enjoying ice cream afterwards, a fun little tradition we started this summer. It sure seems all our little traditional activities always seem to include food.

Here's a recap of our summer so far.

A trip to Phoenix sans most of my kids.

Our annual trip to Manor Lands but without really going to Manor Lands. We weren't sure how the snow situation was up at the cabin, so we opted for a "camping" trip to Kamas where we stayed at the Winterton home with running water, showers, and beds. I even went for a 6 mile run one morning.

A new playset and teeter totter.

 A visit to the zoo.

A very fun family 5k with the best cheering section ever.

A Peter Breinholt concert with Jon Schmidt as a surprise guest. Fireworks followed.

(Mom/Grandma thought Peter Breinholt looked just like Tyler. Hmmmm . . . maybe.)

Cub scout day camp for Nate. I am lucky enough to be his Wolf leader and got to go.



A short trip to Ferron for an open house. While there we had an unexpected visitor show up. Paul Johanson. I hadn't seen him since he was 7 and I was about 9 when they moved to South Carolina. I was good friends with his sister Mary. Dad asked if I knew who he was. I took one look and said, "He's a Johanson." Then Dad asked if I knew his first name. I answered, "Paul." I think I shocked everyone, including myself, that I would remember someone I haven't seen in about 26 years. He was passing through and wanted to see if he remembered anyone. I'm glad he did. I also got to catch up with another good childhood friend, Amber. Love going home and seeing old faces. (Also got in a 8.5 mile run; that 1/2 marathon is creeping up.)

While the boys spent time in Ferron, we talked the girls into cruising the Jordan River Parkway on bikes and rollerblades instead of going to a parade on the 4th. Lucky for us, Grandma Laura and Grandpa Brian came along for breakfast because we forgot the bike piece that connects the bike trailer to the bike for Alex.

Practiced our nursing skills on this poor girl. Natalie tore her ACL playing tennis and ended up having surgery the day before her mom (my mom) left for Phoenix to attend a baby blessing. The poor girl was miserable and just wanted to be home. Notice the little red cowbell? That's our dinner bell and she was under strict orders to ring it anytime she needed something and four darling little angels would magically appear.

Ate hot dogs and ice cream at a neighborhood party. We are loving our new neighborhood and seriously could not imagine living anywhere else. (Did a 10 mile run on this day.)

AND . . . yard projects galore. I swear we are the only ones on the block that have tackled the entire acre at once. It is slowly starting to take shape thanks to Tyler who has kept on top of it all. I think the one thing that has surprised me the most with building a home and putting in a yard is how everything interconnects. You make decisions WAY before you ever thought you'd need to. You end up doing things that you thought could be put off until next year just because it's more cost efficient to do them now. Just wondering what next summer will be like. In the meantime we're finishing up a deck and walkways and getting ready for sprinklers.