Flashback

For the last three months I've been planning and preparing for the Ragnar Relay, Las Vegas. And now as I sit here trying to record my thoughts it seems so far away. It's like a blur. Did I really run the race? Was I really just in Las Vegas two days ago? I really ran in the middle of the night by myself down a dark deserted road? Was that really me running 3 miles at 3am? Did I only get two hours of sleep in 48 hours? YES! YES! and YES! What an amazing experience this ended up being for me. I was able to prove to myself that I could run even though I hated it. To be completely honest I still really don't like running but I made it through the race with not much complaining. My team my feel differently about that but they were so supportive and without Aaron, Alycia, Emily, Megan and Kevin I never would have made it the last three miles. The cheering and support they gave me at 3 a.m. was what I needed to get me to that last exchange point. I was most surprise by my brother. Usually he can be a bit negative and critical but through out the entire race he was so supportive. He continually told me I was doing a great job and that I just needed to do my best and not worry about anything else. He has no idea how much his positive attitude towards my lame running skills encouraged me to keep running. I was also so fortunate to have my close friend Alycia running with me. She is a true athlete and no matter how hard her runs were she made it happen. Up hill in the hot sun, she ran. Five miles at 4:30am with only two hours of sleep, she ran. She was truly my inspiration for when the going gets tough you stick it out and keep running. Best of all I had my mom their to hug me after every run. She was our number one cheerleader. This is one experience that I will never forget and look forward to doing again.
It's 6am and I'm trying to get some sleep on the ride to the start line.Van 1. Alycia, Me, Aaron, Emily, Megan and KevinI'm looking a bit nervous. This is the start line and I remember thinking "what have I gotten myself into?" Ahhhh! The thought was caught on camera thanks to Mike.My first leg of the race. I was nervous and excited. I remember just feeling like I wanted to cry because I knew I was going to loose our lead and because I wasn't sure if I could do it and because I was excited that I really was running in the race.

My own personal cheerleaders. Mom and Livie running beside me and cheering me on. I'm almost to the end of my 3.5 miles.

Hanging out and trying to get some rest before our next set of runs.

Crossed the exchange line of my last run! After my last run as I'm cheering on my team I can't figure out why my flip-flops feel funny. Finally after about an hour I decide to look down and figure it out. One was mine and one was my brothers. That's what happens when you've had two hours of sleep in 24 hours.

Favorite Memories

The End!Although I am ready for my next ragnar I know that I will be more cautious and aware of my surroundings. This may have been a great experience for myself and my team but tragedy struck for another team. A runner was hit by a drunk driver and killed. My heart and prayer go out to Mike Kunz and his family.

Big Boy.

Luke was invited to his very first 'solo' party. What I mean by solo party was that only Luke was invited, no family or Anna. I wasn't sure if Luke would go only because he is usually so attached to me. The morning of the party I tried to really talked it up and when the time came he was ready to go.According to Chris he had a great time. The only part that became a problem is when he had to leave the present with the birthday boy. Apparently Luke thought he was going to be able to bring the dinosaur home with him.

Anna.

Anna's days are spent being a wonderful big sister. She loves Livie and always wants to hold her. I have to say she is such a big help when I need to get things done around the house. She will always hang out and play with her and watch her. I love her helpfulness!

Anna loves to play dress up. On this day she was a cowgirl princess. I asked why she had on rain boots and she informed me that I have never bought her cowgirl boots and rain boots were the closest thing she had. Luke's not in the picture but he's got his sword and shield ready to play with Anna.

Anna's new favorite thing to play is Hair Salon. So when she doesn't have her BFF Leah to play with she uses Luke as her muse. So proud of her up-do!

It's all SPARKLES!

Our new favorite thing to do. Grab some pink nail polish and super fine pink glitter and voila you have

SPARKLE TOES!

Miracles do Happen!

Although Chris thought it would never happen BYU beat OU! Yahoo! Good thing we had the party. It made the the win so sweet.

Decorations

Good Foodand Fans!

In my footsteps

Seeing Anna and Luke with our shoes on made me laugh and wonder. Laugh because they can be so silly and I love their innocence and love for each other. Wonder because it made me think that I am their example and they follow in my foot steps. I try everyday to be the best mother I can be but I know I have so many faults. Do I yell too much? Yes! Do I play with them enough? Probably not. Do I teach them how to be polite well mannered children? I try. Do I set a good enough example? Sometimes. Do I give them enough love and attention? YES! That I know. I love each of my babies so much it hurts. Really, sometimes I look at them and just want to explode. There is not enough time in the day to give them all the kisses and hugs that I want to give each of them. Every opportunity I get I whisper "I love you." It's sometimes surreal to think that I have three children when it feels like just yesterday I just longed for one. I am blessed to have these wonderful beautiful children in my life. My hope is someday when we look back at this picture they can say without a doubt that I was a good example to them and they are proud to have followed in my footsteps.

In the spirit of Yo Gabba Gabba (lukes favortie show)
"Don't stop, don't give up. Keep trying, keep trying!"
I will always keep trying to be better!

Another year

I can't believe summer is almost over and we are back to a schedule. Anna is back in school and all I can think about is how quickly my sweet little girl is growing. She was thrilled to be back at school but I still miss having her home all day. She's my ray of sunshine and my little helper. Not to mention she helps keep Lukie busy. It does make me happy that she loves school and loves learning, I hope this continues through out her life.

2008 First Day of School
2009 First Day of School

Remember this picture? She was not wanting her picture taken at school.Well not much has changed this year! She just wanted to get to class.Anna first day was great just as she'd expected. She was excited to play with her friends from last year and meet some new ones. Miss Shelby says that Anna is a model student and is quite the little helper. Being that she knows the ropes Miss Shelby can really count on Anna to help out and show the new students around. I know she enjoyed this because it was one of the first things she talked about when I picked her up. She also was proud of the cookies she and I made for her teachers and it made her happy that her teachers loved them. We are looking forward to a year filled with lots of fun!

DIY

A few weeks ago I was blog stalking and I'd seen a post about an UGLY mirror turned into a very cute chalkboard. I loved the concept and was on a search for and ugly mirror. After a couple of weeks of search craigslist and some thrift and antique shops I remembered my Aunt Lily had this mirror sitting in her hallway. It was an old and ugly gold mirror and it was perfect!

BEFORE: Gold Mirror

I can't believe I forgot to take a before picture. I didn't remember until we had already primered it.Handyman Hubby spraying the primer.Handyman Hubby cutting the sheet metal and getting it ready for some chalkboard paint.

On our dining room wall ready for pictures and chalk. I absolutely love the way it turned out!

AFTER: Totally Awesome Chalkboard.

The one I Love.

What a surprise when Chris called me in tonight to show me this. It was ten minutes before midnight. He said he just couldn't wait until midnight to show me. I know he was excited and proud of his 'Anniversary' movie. How could he not be! It is probably the most thoughtful gift he has ever given me! There is something to be said about gifts given when there is no money spend just time and thought! He did such an amazing job of capturing so many wonderful moments and memories of the past 14 years. I can't even believe it's been that long. Really it doesn't seem like it's been 14 years but it has. I can't say that it's been perfect because what marriage is bliss 24/7. What I can say is that I couldn't ask for a better partner in marriage. I'm not the easiest person to get along with and I'm a bit high strung and high maintenance but Chris loves me despite these flaws. His calm and laid back attitude makes for the perfect balance. He is so tolerant and patient with me and that can be very difficult sometimes. I am so blessed to have Chris in my life so blessed to have him as my best friend, my husband and the very best daddy to our beautiful children.
Hey babe it's been a great 14 years. You picked some of my favorite memories. Our first Valentine's Day. Lot's of surprises and so many roses! That's when your patience and tolerance kicked in. Surprise trip to California to meet the parents. Guess it went well we ended up married just a few months later. Wedding day...so in LOVE, so NAIVE, and so YOUNG! We drove that Sentra into the ground. 150,000 miles, was it more? All I know is it got us from California to Florida no problems. Summer of Lighting Seeds. I remember so clearly standing in front of the plane in Colombia getting ready to board and thinking how CRAZY and surreal it was having spent the last three months backpacking through Colombia. Mud volcanoes, beautiful beaches, disgusting buses, amazing food, floating poop, huge bugs, mini motorcycles, and awkward sleeping arrangements. First Christmas, first Utah apartment (looking back how is it that they converted the entry closet to a toilet?), first house in Vegas, first dog ( I still can't believe you bought her while I was at work!) and of course our first baby! After 6 years of trying we finally had our little Anna. Life just kept getting better with Luke and Livie. I'm crying as I watch the video because each of those moments are so special because you were a part of them because we were together! You are a wonderful husband and I love you more than I could ever express. Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to make this video and reminding me how great these last 14 years have really been.
LOVE YOU!

End of Summer.

Summer is coming to an end. But we've tried to make the most of these last few weeks before school started.

Tahoe with Lupe and the kids.

We had a great time hanging out by the lake.

Going Bananas!

We had some ripe bananas so I decided to let the kids make chocolate dipped bananas! They had so much fun dipping and eating.

i HEART cupcakes.

There is something about making cupcakes that I just love! This particular week I decided to try Cookies and Cream and Pink Lemonade.

I won't post the Cookies and Cream recipe because I wasn't impressed and ended throwing most of them away. I hate when that happens. The Pink Lemonade on the other hand were a nice surprise. They were light, fluffy and tart. This is a great summer cupcake.

Pink Lemonade cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 egg whites

1/3 c. thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate

1/4 c. buttermilk

2 or more drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with liners.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth. Add just enough food coloring to turn the batter a light shade of pink.

Scoop batter into liners (fill about three-fourths full). Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting (see below).

Lemonade Buttercream:

3 c. + 3 Tbsp. confectioner’s sugar

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1/8 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. pink lemonade concentrate

Red food coloring

Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, lemon juice, and a few drops of food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy and uniformly pink. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

City Life.
Started our day out at the S.F. Zoo.
Our favorite sight at the zoo. Ugly Bird!My favorite little bugs.
Then off to Blondies for pizza and Ghirardelli Square for hot fudge sundaes. This family can't get enough chocolate. I'm sad to see summer end. Lazy days of sleeping in and never changing out of our pajamas will soon change to waking up early and getting back on a schedule.