Mail

This is what happens when your kids bring in the mail on a windy day.

Rewards

We survived stake conference with these three joys. Are there special rewards in heaven for that?

Good Life

My long run this week was one of my favorites. There was a storm in the forecast so I went extra early to beat the storm. The weather was the calm before the storm. So peaceful and warm (30 compared to the 17 degrees last week) that it made it so much more enjoyable. I saw this quote last week and loved it.

I love my morning runs because I get quiet time to myself to think about everything. I took this picture yesterday, the temple was so much closer but in the picture it looks far away.

Hardware Ranch

We went to Hardware Ranch on Saturday. It's a little bit of a drive from our house, about 2 1/2 hours. We had been driving about 2 hours and were getting ready to head up Blacksmith Fork Canyon. James told us he needed to go potty so we told him we could stop. He asked, "Are we going to go home so I can go potty?" I sure hope not!
It was a beautiful, sunny day on the ranch. Fresh, clear air. It was 45 degrees and felt so nice. Funny how that can feel so warm after temperatures in the single digits. We met Miranda and her family there and also Beckie and her family. All the kids had fun playing together in the snow. We had picnic lunches and then went on a sleigh ride to see the elk. It was really cool.While we were sitting on the sleigh watching the elk Lynnlee asked, "Are we going to shoot them?"

Marshall was so awesome and carried Kaden in the front pack the whole time. My back and shoulders appreciated it!

Piano Man

Marshall bought me a piano keyboard our first Christmas. It has been nice but definitely not the same as a real piano. It wasn't a full keyboard either so I couldn't play most of my classical pieces. When we moved into our house I was dying to get a real piano. Have you seen how much pianos are? I had no idea and since we've moved I've realized how naive I was to the cost of a lot of things. Well, we browsed KSL free classifieds everyday and found a free piano. It's so nice to have a free piano but a few keys were not working and others out of tune. I've been playing it anyways and I've gotten so use to the off tune that when I played my parents in tune piano I thought it sounded wrong. Ha! Thanks to my amazing husband, after taking a look at it, he fixed all the non working keys and tuned the off keys. Wow! He knew nothing about piano repair until tonight. One of the keys wasn't working because there was a marble in the way, not from my kids but the previous owners. Nice! I'm so glad he took the time to fix it. Thanks Sweetie!

Cotton Candy

We went to the Grizzlies game yesterday. James was so excited yesterday morning when I told him we were going. He didn't sit and watch that much of the game but I think he likes going for the experience of it all. Dancing to the music, watching the mascot, walking around the arena, and sharing some cotton candy. Lynnlee just wanted to do whatever James was doing.

Lynnlee was so tired after the game that she fell asleep. A nap at 4:00 in the afternoon definitely means that the 7:00 bedtime is not happening. By 9:00 she was still getting out of bed and refusing to go to sleep. At one point I told her to lay in bed and count sheep. She said, "Mom, I don't have any sheep in my room."

My Valentines

My favorite Valentines.

Fruit Loops

Indoor activity #27: cereal necklaces

Indoor activity #35: Play date with cousins.

Indoor Activity #49: Trip to the mall.

Cute Valentine's dress from her favorite Auntie! Her smiles are priceless.

Don't you just want to squeeze these cheeks?

Kaden

Kaden is 7 months old. There is just so much to love about this little guy! He is so easy going and content. I'm always amazed at his calmness. He goes to bed around 8:00 and then wakes up around 7:30 and coos and giggles in his bed until I get him up around 8:00.

He is always entertained by James and Lynnlee. Sometimes he doesn't want to eat his veggies so I get James and Lynnlee to make him smile so I can sneak in some bites.

Winter Training Part 2

(Another boring post on running)
Today's long run went much better than last week. Even though I was running further it was 10 degrees warmer which made a huge difference and I didn't have to wear as many layers. I felt better overall and made sure to drink more water. Thank goodness my water bottles didn't freeze this time.

So a question I ask myself everytime I run outside is, Why don't cars get over for runners? Is it really that hard to cross the yellow line when there aren't any other cars coming? What's worse, crossing a yellow line or hitting a pedestrian? So frustrating sometimes!

It was a beautiful morning. The clouds were clearing from the storm. You could see a pink sky through some of the clouds. It is such a rush and a high to run early in the morning. Also nice to be done first thing in the morning and then spend the rest of the day with my fam.

Stuck

We've been stuck inside the last week due to illness. The same old activities are no longer fun when you do them multiple times a day every day. It's forced us to be creative. Our store bought playdoh is dried out. James got a recipe for playdoh from preschool. So we made it. It was super easy and was a fun color from the Kool-aid.

Then we made a train/bus. We had two conductors with awesome blue steering wheels.

That wasn't good enough after awhile and so we covered the train/bus so it would no longer be a convertible. They put passengers in the back which were their favorite stuffed animals. Then we dug some train hats out of a box that they got in a kids meal awhile back. They were happy and played for awhile.

What do you get if you add together two kids playing with each other all day? You get tired and fighting kids. The solution is time out on the couch holding hands. They weren't happy about it as you can see but it works.

Ski Buddies

Yesterday Marshall took James skiing to the free rope tow lift at Sundance. It is so nice that they have that! James has a bad cold so he probably shouldn't have gone but we couldn't pass up on a warm, sunny day. James had fun and did pretty good considering. He was completely worn out after and was asleep in bed by 6:30.

Warmth

The family room is my favorite room in our house. The sun shines in the window all day. It warms the room significantly. January has been so cold that I have really loved the warmth in this room. Where we used to live the sun only came in the at the end of the day. Sometimes it felt like a cave, even with all of the blinds open and some light getting in.

Winter Training

(This is running related and would be boring for most so please enjoy the pictures and then feel free to skip this post)

This is my second time doing winter training for a race. The first time we lived in Bountiful and it was a piece of cake. It was a mild winter and I never had to layer up. This winter is completely opposite. I've run outside once since the beginning of December. Treadmill it is which isn't so bad watching show on Netflix. I enjoyed it until my long runs days went more than 10 miles. Last week I thought I was going to go crazy by the last mile. It was warmer last Saturday so I was hoping to go outside but the fog was so thick I knew it wasn't safe.

So I had to go running outside no matter what today. I drove to American Fork to run my familiar route. The car said 17 degrees. I know lots of people go running outside at this temperature but this was new to me. I had no idea how many layers to wear. I thought about skiing and kind of based my decisions on that. I started at 6:35. It was still dark so I had a head lamp on and reflective vest for safety. There was so much extra weight with all the layers and my water belt. It felt weird. So different from my treadmill runs!

Once I got going the cold didn't bother me and I felt just right. I think you have to be a runner to appreciate port-a-potties. (Must have been the temperature but I needed one by mile 3) Luckily there was one by a construction site. I was so happy to see it! After that I kept chugging along and enjoyed seeing the sky light up. I took a few pictures along the way. At one point my vision seemed blurry but I realized it was moisture forming on my eye lashes.

My body hated me by mile 9. There were spots where it was colder and it was hard to keep my face warm. My water bottles froze. Thank goodness I found a church that was open so I could thaw the water bottles and refill them. Luckily the last 3 miles were downhill. I finished and felt so tired. I felt like I had never run a day in my life and then just all of a sudden ran 14 miles. I blame that on the treadmill. I'm so glad Phil said we will have an early spring. Although after reading a little about Groundhog's Day I realized that it's only 39% accurate. Here's to an early spring so I can do more runs outside! I'm not so sure about this winter training. 10 more weeks until the Salt Lake Marathon!

Friday!

Who says 8:00 is too early for a dance party? After all, it's Friday! Wahoo!