Halloween 2011

What better time to start updating my blog again than Halloween?  It seems like we have been celebrating Halloween for about a week straight (Kemmerer's Fall Festival, Trunk-or-Treat, school parties), and my kids already had so much candy before actually trick-or-treating that Jarrett couldn't even carry his own bag.  I guess at least now they have a stash for a couple of months...unless I get my hands on it, which, really, I'm trying not to. 

The boys had some really cool light sabers that their uncle Jesse gave them last Christmas so they decided to be Jedi.  And Jaycie was a cute little bumblebee.  Jarrett asked where her stinger was and Josey said she didn't have one; she was a nice bee.  I'm not so sure about that...  (FYI - she's a feisty little stinker whose redeeming qualities at this stage of her life are that she's REALLY cute and she takes long naps.)

I guess this is the way Jedi pose?

The only way I could even get her to look at the camera was to give her candy.

On Sunday Jarrett asked me "Is it Sunday today?"  "Yes," I replied, waiting for the usual pouty face and "Nooooo" that typically follows.  He surprised me by saying "Yay!"  I told him it made me really happy to hear him say that, but before I could even finish telling him that he added, "That means tomorrow is Halloween!" 

And this morning, on the day after Halloween, I let Jordan have a little leftover Halloween root beer with his breakfast just because that's the type of (bad) mom I am.  But when he wanted another treat, I put my foot down.  Then I got the "I wish you weren't the mom" response, which made me smile, because he really doesn't know how lucky he is.  Someday he'll appreciate me, I'm sure of it.  And until then, I guess I'll just have to keep eating all of his Halloween candy so he thinks I'm a mean mom. 

Goodbye Summer

When I look at my blog posts for 2011 compared to past years, I am mad at myself for being such a slacker.  I want to keep this updated so I can look back and remember what we've had going on.  So this will be a quick recap of our summer, just so I can remember what we did.

In June, we headed up to Glacier National Park for a family reunion.  It was beautiful and a lot of fun to be with Josey's Allen relatives.  We stayed in a hotel right on the shore of Lake McDonald and enjoyed a beautiful view each morning.  We hung out with family, went on a little hike, and had a small boat ride on the lake.  There was still a lot of snow so the Going to the Sun road was closed and we didn't actually explore much of the park, although we did get to see a bear.

When the weekend was over, we left our kids with Lyle & Jan and Josey & I got to be a ma and pa for our stake pioneer trek.  It was a great experience, and I was so glad to be able to go to Martin's Cove and Rock Creek Hollow.  The spirit was very strong and while our main goal was to help the youth have a spiritual experience, I felt my testimony strenghtened also.  I felt particulary impressed that I would make sure that the terrible suffering these pioneers went through and experienced would not be for nothing.  If they could be as strong as they were, I can be a strong influence in my home and family.  I can keep evil influences out of my home and not give in to the pressures of today's world.  I will teach my children how to make good choices.  I will not glide through life hoping they will learn these things at church or in other places, but I will take an active role every day in teaching them correct principles.  I feel strongly impressed that this is of utmost importance; not that I do the best job at it, but it's something I will continue to work on.

When we returned from the trek, Josey had to travel to eastern Idaho/Yellowstone/Jackson Hole to do a field studies course for his master's degree.  This would be his final course.  He had a busy week and a half and then he returned to get to work on his final project, which was putting together a field studies course for the area around where we live.  He stressed about it and sat in front of the computer for about a week and half straight, but all went well, as he scored a 96% on his final paper, when he thought he would barely pass.  To be honest, it was about the most boring paper I have ever had to proofread, but if you ever want to know anything about the geology of western Wyoming, you should probably ask him.  He now has a master's degree in Geosciences, but is still not quite as smart as me.  I'm so proud of him for accomplishing this.  He has been really busy these past three years, working on his degree and coaching in addition to teaching.  It is a huge relief.

With those big things underway, we could finally start enjoying our summer...oh wait, first I had to get through Fossilfest, our town's celebration of which I am the treasurer and on the committee.  It is a lot of work for both me and Josey (he being left with the kids a lot for those 3 days and also being worn out from playing in the basketball, volleyball, & golf tournaments this year), but all went very smoothly this year and as soon as it was over I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt like the fun could finally begin. 

The boys had swimming lessons, we played at the park and went swimming a lot, took day trips to places around Kemmerer, went to Bear Lake, Josey improved his golf game quite a bit, and I ran a few races. 



Skipping rocks at Viva Naughton reservoir; it was kind of gross (leeches), but the kids loved it.




Check out Jarrett's tan line; like I said, we went swimming a lot.

 I forgot to mention that I didn't run at all in the month of June due to an injury that I thought was a stress fracture.  It turned out to be tendonitis, thank goodness, so I started running again at the beginning of July.  I decided to run the Fossilfest 5K at the last minute and felt awful.  It was a combination of exhaustion and having not run for a month.  It was probably my worst race ever.  Then I ran a half-marathon in Kemmerer at the end of July.  I hadn't trained for it at all (as in, no speed work, and one 10-miler since May) and I think it was my worst half ever - slowest time, but I felt much better than I had during the 5K (1:46:46 - about 10 minutes slower than my PR).  It was the hardest half course I think I've done and I was basically using it as a workout and just did it because it was in my hometown.  Still, I got 2nd place female...oh, but I guess I should mention there were only 4 total female runners and only 7 runners overall in the half.  The next week we were in Bear Lake for Raspberry Days and I ran the 5K in 22:15 and took 2nd place female.

In August I ran the Epic relay from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY with some family members.  It was AWESOME and definitely the running highlight of my summer!  9 out of our 12 team members were descendants (or through marriage) of my Grandpa Christensen's brothers/sisters.  It was so fun to get to know everyone and everyone had worked so hard to prepare.  I was actually quite surprised at how well our team did, taking 19th out of 82 teams.  Not too bad.  It took me about a week to recover from the lost sleep and toll on my body, but I finally felt like I recovered.  My last leg was the hardest for me, running over 7 miles up the canyon from Alpine towards Jackson into blasting wind.  I felt like I was hardly even moving.  Even when it was flat or slightly downhill, I felt no relief because the wind was so strong.  I was definitely relieved when I was through running that leg, but I would love to do a relay again.

Our final adventure of the summer was camping in the Big Horn mountains of northern Wyoming with Josey's parents.  Josey didn't really feel like making the 12 hour drive to their house, so luckily they agreed to meet us halfway and were great sports about going camping.  After researching on the internet, Josey chose Meadowlark Lake for our camping and fishing destination.  One thing the internet forgot to mention is that the lake was being drained for a highway project.  When we first drove past the lake and Josey told me that was it, I thought he was kidding.  We couldn't get close enough to the lake to fish or we would sink in the mud.  I had the terrible idea to take a nice little trail run around the lake.  I ran into a problem when the trail ended about halfway around the lake.  Instead of going back, I decided to try to make my way around the shore.  Worst idea ever!  I ended up getting stuck in the mud a few times.  Literally stuck.  I thought I was going to be stranded out there for a few hours until my family decided to come look for me.  I managed to get myself free, but I was out in the middle of this huge muddy lakebed and it was quite the effort to make my way through it.  I ended up going through a few streams and more mud in the process.  What started out as a nice run turned into a huge adventure, but it was actually kind of fun.  We did drive to another lake so the boys could do some fishing.  They had no luck.  Josey waded out to the middle of the lake and there were fish jumping all around him, but he didn't catch any.  I think the boys had fun anyway, especially since grandpa let them take off their underwear and wade out into the lake too.

Now our summer is winding down.  Josey started school last Monday, but Jordan doesn't start until after Labor Day.  A 1st grader, I can hardly believe it.  I really hope he likes 1st grade.  It will be good to be back into a routine, but I will miss the warm weather and always having Josey around as backup.  I will have to start getting up really early to work out, but I guess I will get used to that quickly.  I really love the fall and I'm glad Josey doesn't coach during this time of year and we can enjoy watching football games together.  We've got tickets to one BYU game this season, and I'm looking forward to that.  Jordan is finally to the stage where he is interested in trying to run actual plays.  He can almost tackle me too. 

I know I say this every time I blog, but I love my family.  My kids are so funny and cute.  They make me laugh every single day.  Yes, they get on my nerves sometimes, usually every day, but then they turn around the next minute and say something funny or do something sweet.  Josey asked me the other day about my "job satisfaction" because it was being discussed on the radio show we were listening to.  I can honestly say I would not rather be doing anything else.  I consider myself very lucky and blessed that I feel this way.  I do not feel like I'm giving anything up, and I've never regretted the choice I've made to stay home with my kids for this short and precious time in their lives.  It helps that I have a husband who lets me have time to myself and pursue other interests that I enjoy.  He is so good to me and I love spending time with him.  We just have to avoid talking about certain subjects on certain days. :)  Another bonus about my family?  They're beautiful! 

           

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

We've been busy for the last little while, first taking a trip to Glacier National Park for a little family reunion, and then Josey and I left our kids with their grandparents in Montana and went with the youth in our stake on a pioneer trek to some historic sights (Sixth Crossing, Martin's Cove, Rock Creek Hollow) in Wyoming.  Both trips were awesome, and hopefully I will update more on these later. 

Before we left to Glacier, we had a little birthday party for Jaycie.  I can't believe my baby girl is one year old.  She weighs 17 lbs. 5 oz., which puts her somewhere between the 3rd and 5th percentiles.  She's in about the 10th percentile in height, so she's not very big, but she definitely makes up for it in attitude.  She is bossy and definitely lets us know when she wants something or is upset about something.  She is a really good eater, and about the only food I've found that she won't shovel into her mouth nonstop is carrots.  She's finally mastered going down the stairs with some help from grandpa (she's been climbing up them for a couple of months but couldn't and wouldn't attempt going down).  She's never been a cuddly baby and she won't let me rock her.  She tries to squirm out of my arms every chance she gets.  It was really hard for me to leave her for a week with her grandparents, but I knew she was in great hands and she did just fine. 

She has been such a joy and it has been so fun having a baby girl.  Even though I can hardly believe she's already one, I remember that with my boys I always loved all of the stages between ages 1 and 3.  I'm looking forward to the fun we're going to have watching her continue to grow and learn new skills.  As you can see from the pictures, she enjoyed her birthday cupcake.

She was a little too quick for me and might have actually got her finger in the flame a little before I could stop her.  Then it took her a minute to figure out what she was supposed to do with the cupcake.  But once she got a little taste, she quickly devoured the rest, leaving no leftovers.  Typical Jaycie.

Dare I hope?  I've seen the sun quite a bit these past few days and it makes me very happy.  My kids have been playing outside and summer break is just around the corner.  I really love the nicer weather, and I will make an effort to be grateful for any amount of sunshine and still air (meaning the wind isn't blowing) we can get, because I know they don't always last very long here.  Sometimes a few minutes a day is all I can get outside, but it's still better than nothing.  

This post (like most others) will mostly consist of random thoughts and things that have been happening.  I just do this so I have a record of some of the things that are going on in our lives right now, to help me remember.  Mostly, a lot of my thoughts and actions are consumed with how much I love my family.  How did I get so lucky to find Josey?  Even though he doesn't believe in "soul mates", I still claim he is mine.  And I love our kids so much.  They fill my life with joy.  Not only do they make me laugh, they teach me, they challenge me to push myself, to figure out ways to parent them.  It's not easy, but I'm thankful for the growth I've seen in myself over the past 6 years since I first held Jordan in my arms.

Jaycie has started walking, which means that at 11 months, she's the earliest of our kids to walk. 

Jordan learned how to ride a bike with one short lesson from his dad, which I am very grateful for because that meant I didn't have to teach him.

I raced a 10K (6.2 miles) a couple of weeks ago that I had been training for.  My goal was to beat 45 minutes and I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it.  But I guess when the adrenaline is pumping and you've done all you could to prepare, good things happen.  I finished in 44:35 (7:11/mile), which was good enough for 1st place overall female, which was fun.  It was a small race, but it was still fun to win.  Mostly, I'm glad I met my goal and got a new PR.  (Even though I look happy here, it was really close to the end, I was ready to be done, and that guy ended up beating me to the finish by a couple of seconds.)

One of the main reasons I actually started to write this post was to put some of my thoughts down about my Jarrett boy.  I get to spend a lot of time with him with Jordan in kindergarten all day.  He says some really funny things and challenges me in ways Jordan never has.  I'm glad I still get one more year home with him before he's off to kindergarten too.

The other day I looked out the window and was amazed to see how high he had climbed the tree.  When I told him he should not go any higher, he just told me he wanted me to take a picture.  So here it is.  I wasn't really afraid, but I probably should have been.  When Jordan was younger, he did the same thing, but he got stuck in the tree.  Jarrett was able to figure out how to get down, thank goodness.

I am always trying to get Jarrett to eat anything healthy.  It is a constant battle and a really hard thing to do.  The other night we were having family scripture study and Josey read Mosiah 23:7 - "Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think himself above another..." so we were explaining to the boys how we should never think we are better than someone else.  Jarrett applied this by asking, "even if they don't eat their vegetables?"  Yes, we had to agree.  Even if someone doesn't eat their vegetables, we are not better than them.  I think Jarrett was happy to have this little bit of knowledge to tuck away for future reference.

Maybe one of the reasons I have such a hard time trying to get him to not eat junk food is because I am a poor example.  (This following story is kind of embarrassing, but it made me laugh for an hour or so after he said it, so I'm going to share it anyway.)  One day I was eating some M&M's, minding my own business, when Jarrett tells me, "Mom, you eat way too much chocolate.  That's why you sometimes have major gas, because you eat too much chocolate and candy."  Like I said, a little TMI, but it cracked me up.  Even though he has me confused with his dad it was still funny.  He's always been a good talker and the way he says things often makes me smile.   

I was playing "Simon Says" with him on the trampoline the other day and Jarrett said: "Simon Says do a flip."  So I tried to do a flip.  He watched me and then said: "that was a tumble, but I guess it's okay."  I'm glad that I get the chance to play with him and that he wants to play with me.  Sometimes I have to make him wait a long time while I finish up other things, but he's very patient and forgiving with me.  There are so many things I can learn from my kids, and I'm grateful for this special time I have with them when they're young and sweet and growing and learning.  Some days are definitely very challenging, but I know that someday I will look back on this time with the longing to play with my kids again and kiss them and hug them all I want because they still let me.         

Springtime in Wyoming

Well, after living here for 5 years, I think I'm finally resigning myself to accept the fact that at 7000 ft. elevation, spring really does not come until June.  Our weather has been awful!  I think Josey has had two track meets that have not been canceled due to the weather.  While this is fun for me (I get to see him more), it is not fun for him or his track team.  I keep praying for better weather; meanwhile, Jarrett keeps saying in his prayers that he is thankful for the snow and ice.  I guess I could try to learn something from his attitude because it doesn't look like anything is going to change anytime soon.  

We did get one little dose of sunshine in March when we took a little trip to St. George.  It was perfect there (low 70s) and we made sure to get in as much golf, running, playing in the park, hiking, and swimming as we could in four days.  We went with my parents and an aunt, uncle, & cousins, and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend.  

Other than that, we've just been plugging along with everyday life.  I volunteered to coach Jordan's soccer team this year.  It was his first year playing and I wanted to pull all my hair out at the end of each practice.  I seriously don't know how kindergarten teachers manage to do their jobs.  It was very hard to teach these kids anything, but hopefully they had fun and learned even a little bit along the way.  I had high hopes for Jordan since I was quite the soccer star as a young child :), but he was a lot like the other kids: not paying too much attention to the coach or the game and always wanting to do his own thing.  He is pretty aggressive (he was the only one I had to call pushing on) and he never stops moving, but often his head seems to be up in the clouds.  Maybe with a little more one on one work I can teach him a few more skills.  

Tomorrow Jaycie will be ten months old.  It's crazy how fast this time has gone by.  She's finally decided that it's fun to crawl on her knees instead of doing the army crawl, and she's getting a little braver about once in awhile letting go of the furniture and trying to stand on her own.  We took her swimming today at the indoor pool and she enjoyed that for the first time (she didn't like it in St. George).  She loves following her brothers around and they love her like crazy.  Jarrett helps me out with her a lot by trying to entertain her and play with her when I can't get to her.  The other day they were playing in her crib and Jaycie started crying really loud.  I could tell Jarrett was getting really frustrated when she wouldn't calm down.  He kept saying: "I'm sorry Jaycie.  I didn't mean to hit you in the chin.  Stop crying!"  And she wouldn't stop and he couldn't understand why she just wouldn't listen to him.  I thought it was a cute conversation to listen to.  I love listening to my kids interact.  

And finally, I don't think anybody cares about this, but I've really been enjoying changing up my exercise routine just a little bit.  I started lifting weights a little more than I was before.  I found a book I really like called "The New Rules of Lifting for Abs."  Kind of a dumb title (I'm not aiming for washboard abs, although they might be hidden somewhere there under a layer of flab), but it's really about lifting to strengthen your core, which is what I need as a runner.  Anyways, it basically just gives me a structured program to follow, but I feel really dumb in the weight room sometimes because I'm not just using the machines and sometimes I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.  But I feel like I've already made quite a bit of progress and I feel stronger.  My main goal is to have a stronger core so that I'm less likely to get injured, but it's still a full-body strength workout.  Anyways, with more lifting, I've been running less (around 20-25 miles per week) and I'm training for a 10K at the end of the month.  After that, I'll look for a half marathon to run this summer and then in August I'm running a relay with some family members from Logan to Jackson Hole.  I've heard the relays are really fun so I'm looking forward to that.  I ran 10 miles outside today while getting snowed on, but it was still great to be outside.  I rarely get to run outside until Josey is out of school for the summer, so I'll take any chance I can get.

Pigtails!

Since it has been so long since I've updated this blog, I'll just share a few random thoughts, and then I'll try to be a little more diligent about taking pictures and updating.

Jaycie's hair is finally long enough to do something with, so I decided to try my hand at giving my little girl her first real hairdo.  Pretty cute, if you ask me.  I'm really nervous about fixing a little girl's hair, so I better start early at getting some practice.  She is almost 9 months old now.  Still doing the army crawl, which she's been doing since 6 1/2 months.  She spent a couple months rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, but has since seemed to abandon that desire to really crawl.  I get comments that she's really fast at the army crawl.  She loves to pull herself up to standing on chairs, stools, the couch, etc.  She likes eating solid foods and feeding herself, but still no teeth.  She loves playing catch with a ball.  She is a very happy and sweet baby and we love having her in our family.

Josey finished his first year as the head girl's basketball coach.  I think he had a good season for his first year, and it will be interesting to see what he decides to do in the future.  Personally, I think he's sometimes a little hard on himself.  I just tell him he's doing a good job, but unfortunately, I know nothing about basketball, so I doubt he puts much stock into what I say.  But I see how hard he works and how much effort he puts into everything he does, and I do think he does a great job.  I did have to stand up for him once when some guy was bad-mouthing the coach in the stands, and I was happy I chose to do that.  It's not always easy being married to a coach.  It's been nice having him home after school this past week, and that will last another week until track season starts.

Another thing we're excited about is that we started remodeling our basement.  Now we will have a nicer living room and another livable bedroom down there.  I'm very excited for the end result, and I'm glad we decided to hire somebody to do the work!   

It does not look like spring is almost here.  It usually doesn't get here until June anyway, which is really depressing, so I will not think about that.  Instead I will think about how excited I am that we get to take a little spring break trip to St. George, where Josey can do some golfing and hopefully I will be able to fit in a couple of outdoor runs.  

And one random story about my sweet boys.  When we were in Riverton for the regional basketball tournament we were staying in a hotel, and Josey and I were both in the bathroom getting ready.  Unbeknownst to us, Jordan put Jaycie on one of the beds and told Jarrett to watch her while he did something else.  Well, she fell head first off the bed.  In his own defense, Jarrett said he was "watching" her.  He watched her crawl right off the edge of the bed.  :)  I can say she is probably going to be a pretty tough little girl.