Abbie's growing up

Abbie's 12!!!!

Back in Feburary Abbie had her 12th birthday. She is such an amazing young yoman and I am so lucky to be her mom!

The morning of her birthday (it was on a Saturday) we celebrated by going to eat breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast spots, The Cracker Barrell. They have such yummy breakfast food. Abbie got a free dessert too! Nothing like dessert for breakfast!

When we got home the Beehive girls from church had come over and decorated her room to welcome her to Young Womens. They are such a darling group of girls. I am so excited for Abbie and all the fun adventures she has ahead of her. They wisked her off to her first activity, a Self Defense Class.

On Monday (President's Day) we had Abbie's birthday party. She invited the girls in her primary class and of course her siblings for a fun party at Cold Stone. We were able to go to Cold Stone an hour before they opened. We went on a tour of the store, learned how they make their ice cream and ice cream cakes, and got to try a hand at making our own creation. It really was such a blast!

Valentines Day 2011

We love Valentines Day in our house! Here is how we celebrated...

Our sweet cousins Evie and Hannah sent the kids these adorable Valentine count down's. A kiss for each day until Valentine's day. Such a great idea!

Teacher and neighbor gifts

The girls handed these suckers and a bookmark out too their classmates this year.

These are our Valentine mailboxes. We leave them out for a week before Valentines Day and we write each other love notes and stick them inside. I also throw in some fun Dollar Store trinkets too. The kids love this tradition.

This is a note Claire found in her mailbox from her friend Lizzie. "Dear Claire I love you so so so so much"

I love that Claire tried to be so secretive with her love notes. She signed it with a ?

This is Claire's note to her teacher. She signed it...your greatest student Claire. I don't think Claire is lacking in the confidence department. Hahah...

My love note written in Spanish from my Claire Bear.

I can't believe I didn't grab any pics of my Abbo before she left for school. She leaves much earlier than the other kids so I must have been out of my groove! I am so grateful for my sweet, beautiful, and wonderful family. I couldn't be more blessed!!

Jakey and Batman

My sweet Jakey is into all things Batman! For his 4th birthday we celebrated Batman style!!

Claire with her cousin Azure

Jake had a special suprise visit from his favorite Superhero. I have never seen Jake at a loss for words but he was in shock. He just stood there and stared. He didn't have much to say then but he talks about it daily now!

After a long day of partying he fell right to sleep in his batman jammies with big Jake.

Winter Blahs...

I have had a big case of the winter blahs! I have been feeling unmotivated to do much of anything. This week after a not so great run on the treadmill I left the gym feeling discouraged. Discouraged that a simple 3-4 mile run felt difficult and yucky! Seriously, after all the work I had done this last year why was such a short run so HARD? I felt like I was back to square one! I was seriously down on myself. Then I got to thinking about this past year and how far I had come and all the "firsts" that I had accomplished. My first half marathon, 2 10K's, and my first Olympic length triathlon. I decided to give myself a little bit of a break and am determined to get back into it.

BolderBoulder 10K with Paula. May 2010

(picture taken from Carrie's blog)


Chris and Steph ran this race with us too. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment for me. It was such a blast to do it with some of my most favorite people in the world!

Provo Freedom Run...July 4th 2010

The kids ran the 5K and Jodi, Bart, and I ran the 10K




Splash Mash Dash Olympic Triathlon...1100m swim, 20mile bike, 10K

These are the only two pics Kent got of me at the Tri. I was hurting after this one. I think it was as hard or harder for me than my half marathon. I was definitely not in the picture kind of mood but was so glad that I did it!