My Amazing Little Runner

In a move that I can barely comprehend, my son decided to sign up for the school's cross country team. This boggles my mind because I absolutely hate to run. I'll do just about anything to exercise before running. I do it occasionally, but never because I just feel like a good run would be fun. Despite my attitude, D decided he wanted to do it. He has really loved it and has certainly improved over the season. I finally remembered to take my camera with me last week (the season ends tomorrow), so here are some pictures of his second to last track meet.

Here he is with his good friend Lee waiting for their race to begin.

Just starting.
He is in the middle of this pack...
you can see his head poking up over the others.

Coming around for the finish.
Yes, there is a little bit of a height difference.

Making his push for the finish line.

The finish

Like I said before, I could have never imagined that a child of mine would choose to run for fun, but he certainly has and he has worked hard. I'm so proud of him! Way to go, Buddy!

The Worst Part of Toddlerhood.

A couple of months ago, I thought I might attempt potty training. To put it short, it was a fiasco. In 2 days, KL didn't go on the toilet once. I gave up at that point and decided I would deal with it later.

Earlier this week, I decided "later" had come. I decided this, not because she was suddenly starting to show some new signs of "readiness", but rather because I have not had a rug down in my family room for some time. I ordered a new one and it had a big hang up, and several delays. Needless to say, I decided I would rather her pee all over the hard wood floor, than a brand new rug.

We started out venture on Monday--late morning--after we had finished our errands. You see, I knew that once I started this, we would be pretty homebound for a while. Well, the day started off much the same as our last attempt. She would sit on the toilet, but never go in it. As soon as she would get off the toilet, she would have an accident. Finally, at about 7:00 that night, we made progress. She finally got it right. Naturally, I had to make a big deal and tell her how wonderful she is. Here is a picture of her just after her big moment.


I am happy to announce that she really has seemed to get the hang of it. I'm sure we will still have several setbacks, but she really does understand when she has to go to the bathroom and knows that she gets a treat if she does. She also gets several "high 5's" and then she starts chanting, "oh yeah! oh yeah!" It's pretty funny.

I do have to say that potty training is the worst part of parenting toddlers in my mind. I had always been told that girls were so much easier that boys, but in our family, the opposite has been true. Both boys had it down in just a couple of days, while the girls, with all their stubborn attitude, have gone through moods of deciding that the whole thing wasn't worth their time. I'm glad that so far, KL hasn't shown that same attitude as her sisters... but like I said, she is new at this. Hopefully we continue on the track we are on. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

By the way... my new rug did finally come and I love it! So far, no accidents on it!

Boy's Weekend

My boys got to go on a fun weekend trip for one of their Christmas presents last weekend. Dave took the boys up to Denver. They had so much fun. I want to first thank Annie and Spencer for making it such an amazing weekend for them (they are still talking about it), and also Dave who has never taken so many pictures in his life!!! I decided it was more fitting for D to write the report on this trip since he was on it so here he is!

First thing we did is go to the team shop at the stadium after Annie picked us up.
Alright so here is Tyton's toy four-wheeler that he got for Christmas it was the first thing he showed me and B when we got to their house. He loves to crash it into the walls, that would just drive Annie nuts.
Later that day we went sledding it was totally awesome. Here I am at the bottom of the hill.
Here is us going off the ramp me and B tried doing stunts here is us trying a no-hander pull. This was one of many bails. B is at the middle of the hill and me at the bottom
Here is B's first time of the ramp. He soon learned how to get huge air, but I still got higher (not meaning to brag but I was soaring like a butterfly and stinging like a bee).
There is T lying on the ground crying every time he fell he would scream and cry but then get right back and try again his friend Luke is asking him if he is okay.
The next day we got a tour of the practice facility and here we are in the training room.
Here we are by my T-2nd favorite players locker Eddie Royal (With Peyton Hillis.)
Here we are in the equipment room well not me but dad and T.
Here are me and Brandon in the equipment room(believe it or not the background is 100% shoes I mean who could use so many shoes and the walls were huge).

Still in the equipment room but this time next to the shoulder pads.

By the video equipment.

In the cafeteria.

By the Vince Lombardi trophy and it was so cool just moments before I saw and talked to Eddie Royal.

A background full of History.

By the door about to leave.

Just before church T and G were being so cute. Later that day we went bowling and even saw Knowshon Moreno. (quick mom edit... they went bowling on Sat afternoon... not Sunday afternoon)
Warming up for the Chiefs if you look hard you may see Spencer and Peyton.

Huddled up just before kickoff.

Thunder the horse.

Entering the field.

There is Spencer on the opening kickoff.

We had VIP passes for after the game so here we are on the sidelines.

Here we are at the temple there was snow everywhere.

Then we went to a cool amphitheater called The Red Rocks. All sorts of famous people have been here ranging from Muse to Bill Cosby to The Beatles. Here is Gr he is so cute.

Here is the theater.

Behind the stage on the cliff.

At the top of the staircase at red rocks it was a great view.

Climbing in the cliff with Tyton and Gunner.

We then had some hot wings and my dad and Spencer combined had like 45 wings. Then afterward we went to bass pro shops and there was a huge catfish.

Here is me and Gunner on an ATV.

Tyton on an ATV.

Afterward we went outside and in the parking lot we put on Spencer's gear here are some pictures.


It was an awesome weekend.

Jane Roe

I was in my bathroom yesterday morning getting dressed with the news on in the background when I heard this commercial come on. I stopped what I was doing and went in to watch. I was very impressed by this and just wanted to pass this along. Obviously, I have my views about this issue that is of course very controversial, but I thought this really got to the heart of the issue and came at it from an angle I never would have expected.

My Big Christmas Project

My boys have been totally into skateboarding lately. It's all they think about. I was looking into getting the boys a ramp for Christmas, but those things aren't cheap!!! Dave said we could make one because he had when he was a kid. While I know he truly meant that he would be willing to help, I also knew that there would never be a time when he could work on them when the kids weren't around. I was pondering whether or not I wanted to take this project on on my own, when my neighbor said she would want to do it too for her son. So... we decided to make it a joint effort. We actually ended up making 3. One for her son, one for my boys and one for my sister's boys. It was quite an undertaking, but we were pretty pleased with the outcome.

As we were making them, we decided we could work on the frames in the morning when CK and my friend Kimberly's little girl who is just a couple of days older than CK were here because they wouldn't recognize what they were. Then, we could do the finishing touches after they had gone to school. Well, the first day we were out there with them, the girls walked out and said, "What are you doing? They look like ramps." At this point, I knew I couldn't deny it too much, so we went with it and told them that they were for old ladies in wheelchairs to help them get into their cars so they could go to church. They were a little skeptical, but didn't challenge us too much.

Kimberly gave hers to her son for his birthday, then my sister gave hers to her boys early too because they went to Isreal for Christmas. (I know! What an opportunity! They thankfully made it too and from safely and had a great time.) So, my boys had to wait. When my sister's family celebrated Christmas, my kids just had to go over and see what they got. As soon as they saw the ramp, L said, "That's from Mike! That's from Mike!!" Mike is my very kind next door neighbor who allowed us to hide them in his back yard. As soon as she said that, my nephew Josh said, "I know! There's another one too." Hmmm... Great. I tried to make a point of telling the kids that Kimberly's family had just got one too, but they still weren't too surprised come Christmas morning. The only thing they were surprised about was that I made it, and not Mike. At least they were excited about it!

Here the 3 of them are as they were just all finished out on my driveway.

Me with Mine

Kimberly with hers

My little sister was able to get me a great jpeg file so we could print out the Bronco and glue it on. Kimberly graduate from Boise State whose colors are also orange and blue and the mascot a bronco, so it worked out well.

It was clearly made by moms....

Not only were they painted and decorated, but...

Here's B enjoying all my hard work.