Random Pictures and update

What a great few days we've had. Between the time off work, time with family over Thanksgiving, and some good R & R- its been a great week. Elijiah has been with his Dad for the holiday, but prior to him leaving we had a couple days with him. We finished the gingerbread house, and he completed his new lego toy. Wed. I took both kids in the jogging stroller to the store and we bought some stuff to make cookies and decorate. While we didnt find what we needed ,it was a great outing and the weather was perfect. Thursday we hit both Jonathans family and my dad and nancys, for turkey and stuffed ourselves! Friday I hate to say it, but we did hit the mall and we got some great deals! As Jonathans post below says, we had a date night and celebrated my birthday with a great meal and awful movie...why why why did Twilight have to suck??!!! Anyway Saturday and Sunday were spent with Jonathan studying every moment and us not getting out of our PJ's. Heaven I say!!(not the studying, but the doing nothing) Hope everyone had an equally relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Tristan looking super cute in those PJs!

Gingerbread house making....

I just had to post this one of Elijiah- hes been asking me for a while now to get him a tie..so I went and got him one. I thought he looked so handsome all dressed for church! There was a glimpse however to him all grown up and working as a stock broker -or perhaps a church employee-white shirt, navy tie( ek!!!) Two adorable shots of my bugs...

Seriously Tristan makes the funniest faces! Jonathan taught him this weekend to blow bubbles with his drool, and to make a car motor sound. Its HILARIOUS!

This was the lego gift he got from Jonathans parents for his birthday. He spent the better part of one afternoon putting it together. He was so proud! He has been carefully carting it around with him and its now sitting next to his bed.

Could he look any cuter~???

Date night!

So Amber and I were able to have a date night Friday and although Twilight SUCKED ROTTEN EGGS to say the least, it was absolutely blissful to sit with my wife, have a quiet conversation over a fantastic meal, and just relax. My mom watched Tristan so I had her snap a shot of Amber and I. Amber ALWAYS says that I look miserable in all my photos but I really AM so very happy. I just hate smiling in pictures so the best you get, when I'm totally ecstatic is my tell-tale smirk. Anyway, I was cropping the photos and Amber and I decided to give me HER beautiful smile and to plant my smirk on her. FUNNY STUFF!!

On this day...

A new pair of lines may etch themselves onto the canvas beside your deep blue eyes...
Because once again, sacrifices were made so that another could rest.

A tentative child, fearful of all his new life throws his way, will be greeted with the warmest smile and a joyous "good morning handsome boy"...
Even though blissful rest was shattered by screams at midnight, one, 4, 5:30, and 6:20.

A heart will break as two of life's most precious loves are dropped off and goodbyes are said...
and one who dreamed of a job helping others will go where she never thought she would.

For 8 hours smiles and cheerful conversation will brighten the day of all around...
even though there's no work to do thanks to a bleak economy and a thief in the night.

After a long day's grind, Traffic will be braved and two grumpy boys will be gathered...

A wonderful home made meal will be prepared with one needy child slung round a shoulder
and another permanently grafted under foot...

An eternally disorganized house will be refreshed flawlessly...

A bottle will be lovingly fed amongst rocking...

Bathtime visits will sooth uncertainty...

And stories will be read...

Right before collapse, a body will finally fall to bed hoping for just a few hours of rest...

And adding insult to injury, another sleepless night may etch two more tiny lines...

And on this day, one remarkable angel will become immeasurably more beautiful to me...

Happy Birthday Amber-Lou

Our new Elliptical!!!

Emily(see blog roll) made a very nice comment about me seemingly being in shape so quickly after having Tristan...(so kind- thanks Emily!) But in all reality there wasnt any secret to my loosing the weight. Im not blessed like my friend Sarah who magically has the flattest stomach imaginable even after 4 kids- shes just genetically blessed. I on the other hand have to WORK for it. (I have to admit the whole baby #4 scares me as really it gets harder to loose the weight with each kid...but honey Ill do it- I want to ---really I do!! )

As anyone with a newborn will know, sleep is a commodity, and with a colicky child, almost non-existent, but I was determined to get my workouts in no matter what. Well honestly with having a spring baby, I had almost 6 months of time where once I put the kids down at night I would be able to go for a run. And in order to get in shape, one has to put in a workout 4-5 times a week minimum. So thats what I did. I lost the weight not because I am lucky, but I put in the time. Now my tummy still needs some help, but I am able to fit into my pre-prego clothes and I am happy about that.

Jonathan and I both have a gym membership which, with the exception of an occasional kickboxing class, neither one of us use it(so we canceled it). I hate that the kids are in daycare during the day, and it feels incredibly selfish to then take them to the gym daycare at night(which I wont do) so as the nights were getting shorter, I wasnt able to get a run in before it was getting dark. Jonathan and I started to discuss getting something we could use at home. I love to run- Jonathan not so much. He prefers the Elliptical. So because I am the wonderful wife I am, I compromised(haha) and we decided to splurge on this great machine. (happy birthday-Merry Christmas!) After doing many hours of research, some in store testing, and internet searching - we found an AMAZING steal on one. eBay my friends!! Gotta love it! So now instead of not working out-- I just head to the basement and do a quick 30 minute workout. While its not as satisfying as my outside run, it will keep me from gaining back all my weight this winter! Yea!!

Happy Birthday Noel!

I took some of these off Noels myspace page as I had to post these adorable photos...(hope you dont mind Noellie!) Noel was what 3?!
Noels first trip to the beach with her parents
such a girlie girl....
Noel and Chloe- I love this photo of them

Summer 2008

Again I cant believe its this time of year- when my first born is another year older....13!!!! Officially a teenager! With each year I sit and think back to the "day"(your birthday) and think about what I was doing hour by hour. As its only 8am - this is when I was in labor, but feeling blissful as I had an epidural by now, and all was well. As I was induced and you being almost 2 weeks early( due to a variety of things complications being just one factor)I went in the night before at 6pm and 12pm for drugs to get me started, and by 6am I was miserable and on my way to the hospital. Within just a few hours you were born a healthy 6lbs 3oz and 18 1/2 inches long. Wait wait- has 13 years really passed by this quickly? My goodness it really has...I dont feel older but this kid(YOU) will make me face my TRUE age(haha) Well Noellie I have to say that you are one amazing young woman. I wish I got to see you more, but so it goes being in different states, but how great it was to spend some time this summer with you. Your parents have done a remarkable job, raising you to be the wonderful girl you are, and Im so proud of all your accomplishments and who you are becoming. I hope you have a wonderful day today - Happy Birthday!!!!!

Gotta Love FACE BOOK!

Teresa and Hubby

I am really loving facebook! Its been a fun way to reconnect with people from my past and present and keep up with eachother( other than blogs J). Case in point- my best childhood friend- Teresa. She found me on facebook and it was so great catching up. We haven’t spoken to eachother for years and when we finally did talk and catch up on the phone last week, it was like walking down memory lane.
Teresa and I grew up on the same street in Cameron Park. When I wasn’t at the gym it seems all my waking hours were spent with this girl until we moved to Shingle Springs. This was the girl that I built forts with, rode our bikes around town, to the local Mormon church to ride down stairs and hop curbs. Our parents let us go anywhere our bikes could take us be that around the block or down Cameron Park Drive( OMG really? I cant believe that they did- think Highland Drive in SLC for comparisons…ek!) We were inseparable. In the summers we LIVED at eachothers houses and in eachothers pools. I cant think of any time NOT spent with Teresa. I went to church with her on occasion, went to church camp with her. She was the other half of my “tomboy” girlhood. And believe me, finding another girl that would rather climb trees and be adventurous was so great- I never was a dress up or play with dolls kinda girl.
Not only did we have tons of fun, but we got into lots of trouble too. One instance there was a piece of property next to our house that was sold and the new neighbors decided to start building. Well THIS didn’t sit well with Teresa or I, after all, we had spent many hours cutting down the Manzanita trees and building the coolest of forts. So we decided that we would get back at these folks for heaven forbid- building a house on their property! Lol. Once they poured the cement to house we walked around in it, put our hand prints in it etc. We thought we were pretty cool. Well this instance was my first REAL experience in LYING! The neighbors came over to my house asked my parents if I had done it and my dad confronted me at the dinner table. I of course lied about it doing it. Repeatedly. It wasn’t that I wasn’t willing to tell the truth, but being confronted publicly about it was humiliating. It was a lesson Ill never forget. Never confront a child- or anyone about something they’ve done in front of others. Anyway I kept denying it and my parents took me over to the property and put my hands down on the handprints in the cement- surprise! They matched! So I confessed. And I got grounded from playing with Teresa for a while.
The other thing that I remember clear as day was when we got in trouble for sneaking out of the house. Oh we did this often during our many sleep overs. We never did anything bad, we just walked around etc the neighborhood, on one occasion (ok maybe two) we did some tee peeing(sp?)..anyway no big deal. We were always out and about. Well we got dressed in our black attire, snuck out of her house and went about our business. When we got back to her house later on, all the doors had been locked including the windows and we weren’t able to get back into the house. So thinking we wouldn’t make much noise, went over to her younger sisters window and tapped lightly on it hoping she would wake up and let us in. Well we woke her up alright, but she thought we were burglars! She got her parents up, and boy were we in trouble. I remember Teresa being so mad at Christy for not looking to see who it was first. That was another time we were grounded from hanging out. However when my parents moved -Teresa and I didn’t see eachother much after that. I went to another middle school and we kinda drifted apart. We connected again during high school, but unless you are in the same classes or have the same lunch you didn’t see one another-this was the case with us.
Anyway all through high school we were friends but not as close as we were as kids. However she meant a great deal to me and I have often wondered what happened and what she was up to. Come to find out shes been married to a great guy now for about 5 years, just started nursing school and lives near our home town. Her son just started high school and shes doing fantastic. Who knows if we will see each other again, all I know is I am so glad she contacted me, and its great shes doing so well.

Elijiahs 6th Bday

Just a few snapshots of Elijiahs birthday celebration...it seems that our other camara that had photos of all the attendees- isnt working now( GRRR) so until we can figure it out, these were just a couple I had to post and share.(hopefully Ill be able to post more soon) The weekend was Khorys unfortunately, and while we seemed to have a MAJOR disagreement about how to celebrate the birth of our child, it ended up a good one for the boy. Elijiah went skiing with his dad Saturday morning, then was brought to our house for a nice family get together, then off to Grandmas while we the parents went to his school fundraiser that night. Sunday Khory and his family had something planned so he had a great birthday weekend. Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Elijiah insisted on wearing "comfy" clothes so of course he got out his old sweats- which not only DIDNT match but are several sizes too small....I figured it was HIS day so why not?

Now this soccer cake didnt turn out the way I wanted, but it was appreciated by Elijiah. Jonathan helped as I couldnt quite get the lines and shapes right, but in comparison to last years pirate cake, this was much easier!

My child. Such a funny one....