I actually did it!

This is the story of how I set a goal and actually accomplished it. This NEVER happens. Either I set a goal and change my mind about the result I want, or I give up, or I just don't set goals...how ever it is, I did it...I RAN A HALF MARATHON!!! 13.1 miles...I did it...every step!

So, last spring, I was training for a half, but had a little hiccup in my plans. The half was 3 weeks away, and I found out that I was pregnant...surprise!!! and I got sick...no fun, but it is the best little surprise I have ever had! I wouldn't change a thing. So, I didn't do it.

Fast forward nine months...well, 8 and a half. My dear friend Megan called me. She'd had a baby in September. I was due early Dec. It was mid November. She said, "Court, do you want to do a half marathon with me next summer." Sure...I was glad to have some motivation. Then she called me back a few days later, she said, "I signed up for the SLC half marathon." Sounds great  Megs. When is it? "It is on April 15." I was VERY pregnant still and was crazy enough to agree to this.

Now for some women, this wouldn't be too big of a deal, but I always gain 40 pounds or so with each baby. SO, I knew I was going to have to work my butt of to be able to do this. This meant starting to run with a 4 week old baby (totally sleep deprived), running when the temps were in the teens...brrrrrrrr, and really finding the time and energy  to do this.

I am proud to say, I DID IT! It was so fun and so exciting. I actually put in the blood, sweat, and tears it took to be able to do it! 13 miles. WOW. For this girl, it is an accomplishment.

My cute little 4 and a half month old baby the morning of...

Here I am at the end...only about half a mile to go. Robbie and Luke were definitely a sight for sore eyes! It seemed like forever since I had seen them!

Running down the center of Gateway mall...to finish!!!

I DID IT!!! I REALLY DID IT!!!

I needed to document how little my baby boy was...TINY!

My cousin Jessica and I. It was so fun to have her there. She is definitely a seasoned runner and had done this race. It helped to take away my nerves a lot! It was also fun to have my mom's sister Deanne there. There were times...like mile 11...when I had been running for 2 miles with blisters....that I kept thinking, "This is hard." Then I would think of my mom and all that she went through. This wasn't hard. This was fun. I had legs that could carry me as far as my mind would let them. It was definitely a celebration of a healthy body. I will NEVER take that for granted.

Megan and I at the restaurant after the run. Thanks Megan!

Here are the blisters I had on every toe...I started feeling them at mile 9. They were killing me by the end. I am still not sure why I got them. I had on good shoes and socks. I guess I was just lucky!

I am so thankful for my darling sister in law, Heather, who kept my bigger boys. They had so much fun and so did I! It is so gratifying to know that I took every step of all the training and all the race. Me. No one else could do it for me. I do have to thank Robbie for all the times he kept the kids so I could run...Thanks Hunny!

Check out cute little Nate on Sunday after naps and dinner. I love the fruit punch mustache and the crazy nap hair. That is my shirt and my medal. Could the shirt be any uglier????? or any bigger???? It was HUGE!  But, that was not the real prize, so it doesn't matter. The prize is knowing that I did it, and that I have the support of such a great husband and cute little boys!

While the big boys are away...

While the big boys are away, the mom will take lots of pictures of her 2 little ones! Carson and Nate were at school and I decided to take some pics of Logan and Luke. They are darling. Those big brown eyes melt me. It is hopeless...I am in love with these two.

 Are you kidding me??? With those eyes, Logan, the answer is always YES!

 An attempt at a self portrait with an infant and a 2 year old...

 Not too successful!

There is nothing I love more than to have my whole family together, but I do appreciate those times when I get to spend one on one time with the boys. Nate especially loves dates. Even if the two of us go into the grocery store together while the rest of the family stays in the car with Robbie, Nate says, "Mom, this is like a date right? Just me and you, right?" Right, Nate. I love these boys and want to keep them little forever! They grow up too darn fast!

What do you do in Idaho in the spring???

What do you do in Idaho in the spring??? Well, with nonstop wind, of course you fly a kite! Usually we get the cheapies from Walmart. But this year we went all out and got this $10 beauty from Costco (they get WAY too much of my money...I find myself thinking it is only 10 dollars...$150 later). It was so fun and the string was SOOOO long.

Cute face...SO excited.

 Helicopter cross with airplane kite

 You had to be strong. It was a tich to windy. Nate was scared and wouldn't take a turn.

 LONG string...It was a tragic moment when I crashed the kite on our roof. No damage...just tears because they thought I ruined the kite.

 This spring the wind hasn't stopped. I am SO ready for warmer weather. I am pretty sure I am going to be waiting a while...

Just hanging around with the boys...

When it is blustery and ugly outside, what better thing to do than take out the camera and take some pictures...

Luke...almost 4 months old

 These two brothers love each other...

 Really...they do!

 Look-a-likes!

 Logan has been doing this naughty thing with his eyes. He looks at you out of the  the corner. He eyes are so expressive and dark. It cracks me up!

 Nathan made a Lego gun...a favorite thing to do at our house.

 Carson's turn with the camera

 I love this little guy. He is growing so fast. It is not fair. This is also another one of Carson's pictures! He is doing pretty good.

I love these lazy days with all my kiddos home. These little boys are the best part of my life right now. It is not going to be long and Carson will be off to kindergarten. I am pretty sure I am going to bawl my eyes out. It is the ending of an era. We will have to get up and go every day. One will always be leaving. I am like a momma chicken...I like all my babies safely gathered in under my wing. I guess it is part of the plan that they leave home and gain some experience...live life. Who's plan was this????? It obviously didn't come from a mother. Until August rolls around, I am going to cherish every lazy day we've got!

Spring Break...or Spring Travel...

Over spring break, I, by myself, took my 4 kids and drove about 4 and 1/2 hours to Heber, Utah. We went to a cabin with some friends and had so much fun. We left on Tuesday, March 22. Robbie had some CE in Heber the same time. He came down on Wednesday. We stayed at a hotel in Park City. It was beautiful. We took some time to just have fun with the kids on Thursday. We went swimming twice. And, we watched BYU lose in the NCAA tournament in over time. Poor Jimmer. My kids were bummed. Me too. But the great pool made up for it! I was terrible with taking pictures. The only one I got was this one after swimming...so cute....3 of them in one bed. I love it! I wish they would stay little for longer. They are growing too fast! 

On Friday morning, we got up early and drove to Idaho Falls for my cousin Geoffrey's sealing. It was on Saturday. I helped Heather decorate for the luncheon. It was so neat to be there and see a family with 4 little kids be sealed. The sealer said a lot of important things that really touched me. I had complained about all the driving I was going to have to do by myself, but this experience was worth it. It truely is the most important thing that  a family can do. There is nothing I want more than to be with my little family forever. I can't imagine life with out them.

So, from Rupert to Heber to Idaho Falls to Rupert in five days was some serious travel. How did I do it??? My little baby was an angel and my oldest was too. Carson was the best help I could have asked for. He really is a good boy.

We earned it!!! and a little extra...

Clear back at the beginning of November, the boys wanted to go bowling for Family Home Evening. I thought that sounded like a lot of fun, but there was one problem...I was 9 months pregnant at this time. So, we talked it over and decided that in order to do something SO SO SO fun, maybe the boys could earn it. We had them fill a small jar with marbles. Each marble represented a service. We tried to discuss our service over dinner, but then we forgot, so it moved to Monday nights. The services ranged from shoveling snow for Grandma to helping set out napkins at preschool. After 4 long months, we earned it. On March 7, we went to the bowling alley. We were so excited. We had a pizza and some french fries there...dun dun dun...that will come later. 

Nathan so excited to bowl

 Nate throwing it down the alley...thank goodness for bumpers!

 The big Daddy...so strong!

 Lukey loving all the excitement!

 Logan didn't really care for the bowling, but he LOVED the fry sauce! He drank it!

 Nate's got great form!

 He did it! He got a STRIKE!

 Logan's turn!

 Here are our scores...Notice the winner with 115...Logan! And not too far behind...big Daddy with 105! Gotta love bowling.

After we got home from bowling, I rode the exercise bike. I kind of started feeling a little sick. I just thought it was the pizza gut bomb. About the same time, Carson started complaining of a tummy ache...Well, needless to say, by the next morning all of us (except Nate and Luke) had either thrown up or had diarrhea or both. Carson and I got it the worst...It was BAD.

I can handle the sickness, but the next day I was in charge of the Relief Society Birthday Dinner. I had to make dinner and dessert for 50 women. I hadn't slept and my tummy was still turning. My cute husband stayed home from work and helped so much. I baked 100 cupcakes and frosted them and got everything ready for the dinner. Robbie grilled chicken and cut it up. He also tended all the kiddos. My kitchen was a disaster, but I made it. I didn't eat dinner, but I heard it was good.

The conclusion we came to is that we got food poisoning for the pizza or fry sauce. YUCK and YIKES! We will never eat there again.

It was neat to see the kids set a goal and accomplish it. They worked so hard. They earned it. It was just too bad we had a little extra that came along with it!

And we have a 4 year old birthday...

We have been counting down the days until Nathan's 4 year old birthday for a very long time (at least a year). He was so excited. He had preschool on his big day so I had double duty as far as a cake is concerned. He has been asking for a pirate party, but then he changed his mind to a Jesus party. When I asked about decorations he said that we could just use animals and stuff Jesus created. Then I asked about the cake. He said that he still wanted a pirate cake, but "with a good guy named Jesus on it.'' So, we did not have a Jesus party...we had a pirate party complete with exploding cannon balls filled with candy. We had cousins. We had a sleepover with Easton...so fun.

Here is the cupcake treasure map that he took to preschool complete with a compass, volcano, bones parrot treasure chest filled with sand, and a shovel.

 Here is the pirate ship cake... 

 complete with fish and a plank...ARRRRG.

 Nate, Easton and Carson

 Even Luke celebrated

 The big surprise for Nate's birthday was a bike. We have had the bike since Black Friday...thanks to a devoted sister and grandma. It has been in the garage. At Christmas, we told the boys if they looked for presents in the garage, we'd take back what they find. Nate came in from the garage with wide big blue eyes and said, "MOM!!!! MOM!!! I promise I did not see the blue bike you got me for Christmas!" Well, it wasn't for Christmas, so we didn't have to take it back...just saved it for his birthday! He loved it!

 Blowing out candles. SO big!

 That is one happy birthday boy!

So far, 4 has seemed to be a magical age. Nate is so funny. It seems like he is finally able to really express what has been going on in his brain behind those special blue eyes of his. Just a couple of weeks after his birthday, Robbie asked if he was excited for church that day. His response was, "Nope. But I still love Jesus!" He has such a good heart. He tends so gently to Luke. Nate is always singing Lukey songs. Some are prettier than others. His brothers are his best friends. In fact, he would like a few more brothers and no sisters. One of our older nephews was calling Luke "Luke puke." Nate was concerned about this and asked what he should do. I told him next time Tommy said this to nicely say that he didn't like that and to please stop. So, the next time Tommy was here, he said Luke puke. Nate came unglued. "TOMMY, DON'T YOU CALL MY BROTHER THAT. WE DON'T LIKE IT! IT IS NOT NICE!" Poor 7 year old Tommy was in big trouble. These brothers love each other.

Nate is gentle, but so strong and big. He is kind. He is so fun. The kids at school love to play with him. He loves to wrestle anyone. He loves sledding. He hates cleaning his room. He is my buddy. He is my calm, easy going kid. He has always been pure joy. I told him just the other day that the reason he came with blue eyes was the Lord's way of letting me know he was not the same as Carson. From the moment my second son was born, I knew that. I love all my boys and am thankful for their differences. On this 4 year old birthday, I am especially thankful for you, NATE!