I'm back, but it'll take a while to get caught up!

I realize that it has been, well, 7 months since a post here. Sorry. I haven't had time, but I will be trying to get caught up within the week. Expect MULTIPLE posts at a time (if you care.) Mostly this will be for me, and my journaling purposes, but you are more than welcome to read along!

The Grand Finale: 5K and a Parade

Freedom Festival, 2010

Back in April my friend Valynn had mentioned that she (along with many co-workers) were going to sign up for the Freedom Festival 5K run, and that was the beginning of a running partnership. We decided to train so that we could run a full 5K without looking like the n0n-runners that we were. We used couch to 5K program, and we were both completely astonished that it worked! Both of us, who had never been very good at running without getting winded, within 8 weeks were able to run a full 5K without stopping and could carry on a comfortable conversation the entire time and not feel like jell-o by the end or that our hearts were jumping from our chests! So it really works, folks! I'm a runner now! Our goal was to complete the race in under 30 minutes. We did it in 28.

That's me in the pig-tails and black shorts, in the middle. Valynn is next to me in the grey shorts. The finish line was in view.
Made ya look, didn't I?! It was a bottle. I covered him because I was an idiot and forgot to pack warm things for my supportive children to wear at 7 in the morning! Poor Matthew was brought with nothing but a onesie on, and it was COLD! All three of my children had blue lips and goose bumps when I found them at the finish line. Oops! I learned a lot about race prep, mostly because of error, but we all survived!
We also all went home and took naps later on. Poor things. They were so excited to come and watch the race though, but 6:00 came all too early for everyone!

After the race, we walked down to the parade route which was easily a mile away, and once the sun came out over the mountain all complaints about being cold quickly vanished. We found great seats right up on the road next to some really nice Grandparents. It was a fun parade.
They had a bunch of these really big balloons. Curious George was my girls favorite balloon.
But this was the most popular attraction on the parade, hands down. Cinderella! This poor girl was probably the last one off the parade route. She was mauled by just about every child along the parade route, and folks, this is Provo! There are a LOT of kids! It took her 15 minutes just to get past our little spot.
The other great feature on the parade, which I didn't catch a picture of and I wish I had, was the cast members from "CATS" the musical were on a float. My girls just LOVE this musical, ever since their sweet cousins introduced it to them in February. They can sing almost every song and were so excited to see the beautiful white cat, among others, coming down the road on the Tuachan theater float.
But then, when it was all over, we had to find our car again. We didn't plan this very well. Dallan parked for the race, which made lots of sense at 6:00 in the morning, but at 11:00, when we needed to go home we faced a 2 mile walk back to our car, uphill... with three kids and a double stroller. UGH! It was hot, we were all tired, and we didn't make it to the car until after noon. Thank heaven for that little oasis of a pizza store on our way. It truly saved the day!

It was an Independence Day weekend to remember.

Freedom

I'm so thankful for freedom. It's something we experience every day of our lives, and yet I believe can be easily forgotten of taken for granted. It is what allows us to speak, to believe, and experience life with our families how and what we may. People sought out this land for freedom of religion, and I believe God blessed this land to be a place where people could come to become closer to him. I'm truly proud to be an American!

My children are too, even if they don't know it yet.

Fireworks

Well, with the 4th on a Sunday this year, Independence Day seemed to go on FOREVER! Which I was okay with. The weekend was lots of fun. We started the holiday off with a "bang" and played around with fire. Lucy insisted on bringing her fire hat to the Haslam's for dinner that evening, because where there is fire you must have fire safety. We all felt safe with with Lucy around. The Haslam's have been my friends since high school, and we happen to have children that all correspond closely in age. So it's been fun living near them again. The girls have become close friends with their girls, in fact every time we see them they all seem to sporaticly burst into affectionate hugs. They were just being stinkers when I tried to get them in a picture. We had a fun BBQ, followed by some good fireworks in the street, then we left the husbands to put babies to bed and us 6 girls went to watch the stadium of fire fireworks in Provo. It was good enough motivation for my kids to all nap REALLY well that afternoon, otherwise this wouldn't have been possible. We didn't get home until after 11:00, easily the latest my kids have ever been up! It was a lot of fun!

Amelia and Quincy

Lucy and Eleanor

Sparklers were a fun first experience

Stadium of Fire, viewed from Fox Field in Provo. Dallan did experiment once the booms could be heard and said he could see the highest fireworks from the porch of our house, and many of our ward members just watched from our church parking lot.

Dinosaur Train Party

PBS has a new show this year, the Dinosaur Train, which Amelia and Lucy have fallen in love with. The dino characters are completely lovable, and perfect for the young imaginative mind to relate to. So, Amelia requested a dinosaur train birthday party this year. It was supposed to be held outside in our backyard, but it decided to rain when the birthday party was scheduled for. We were flexible, and adjusted our gathering activity from digging for dino's in the sandbox to making junior conductor hats. The kids seemed to really like the hats, and some even kept them on the entire party. So that was a success.

We played dino games, like "What time is it Mr. T-Rex?" and I thought it was really cute how each child that was it had a favorite dinosaur and so it was, Mr. Allosaurus, and Mr. Stegasaurus, and Mr. Aubreyasaurus... you get the idea. They had a blast playing this game. We tried played "Hot Lava Rock", like hot potato, and whether it made the kids nervous or what, only 5 of the kids wanted to participate in this game. So we moved on.
Amelia planned the refreshment table, and I loved her idea. We had a carnivore plate (with chicken, on bones, a very important factor for Amelia), an herbavore plate (fruits and veggies) and a bowl of goldfish for the pteranadons. We found some great little straw cups at a party store for really cheap, and each child got to write their name on one, and take it home with them. So we had juice and water to go with the snacks (and ZERO spills! A success in itself with 14 kids in the house!).

My friend Valynn was a HUGE help, and made this adorable pin the tail on the t-rex game. This is Buddy, the T-rex from the show. The kids seemed to really enjoy this game, too!
We also had a pinata, but I didn't get pictures, probably because we were all trying to protect children from getting whacked with the bat. But they had a good time with that. Then we had present opening. The kids liked grabbing the present they brought and personally presenting, and often helping to open it. So that was fun!
And just look at this super fun cake! I owe all credit to my dad for this. He decorated all of our cakes growing up (which I added up to be 20+ years of cake decorating in our house. 40 if you think of the 8 years for all 5 of us kids... that's a lot of cakes!) and while I struggled with the idea in my own mind, he kindly stepped in to help. It was BEAUTIFUL! And done in less than 2 hours. Thanks, dad!
It was such a fun party. I usually don't like throwing parties, but this one was fun. I liked how involved Amelia was in planning it, and the kids had such a great time. But I'm really glad I have at LEAST 2 years before I plan another one!

Tastes

It's so much fun to stick stuff in a baby's mouth for the first time. I don't know if it's just the reaction I love, or what it is, but I think it's a lot of fun to give a baby food tastes for the first time. Matthew hasn't had many tastes, but so far cries if he has to eat banana, doesn't really respond with favor to rice cereal, but LOVES to handle apple pieces, carrot sticks and jicima slices and will actually swallow apple sauce with some favor. We'll expand this cute gerber baby's pallet! Isn't he cute?!

To Be Free

Don't we all wish we could live this freely?
(yes, Lucy is outside in her birthday suit. And no, I did not encourage this, but found it. As for Matthew, I heard him grunting one morning around 7:00 am, but he quieted down so I left him alone. At 8:30 when he still hadn't woken up, I peaked in and found him like this. That is poop on his back. Warm and cozy folks, warm and cozy!)