A Day in the Life of the Gifford Family

Lillie's Turns 8

2011-09-28T08:21:00.001-07:00

Lillie had a great birthday this year. We were in Idaho again so she was able to spend her birthday with all of her cousins. Because we were having a big get together for her baptism we kept her birthday small.

Scritpures from Grandma and Grandpa Erickson

Bay Blades. The first real boyish toys my girls have been crazy about.

Lillie was so excited to turn 8. She was excited for her baptism, but she was also very excited to turn 8 so that she could get her ears peirced. On her birthday we went down to Idaho Falls and got her ears peirced. She was all smiles.

After doing a little shopping we headed to Olive Garden for a birthday dinner. A perfect day!

Kim will kill me for this picture, but it was her birthday as well so I had to post a picture of her with her birthday treat (a cup of whip cream covered in chocolate syrup with a candle sticking out of it).

To see Lillie's 7th Birthday post click here.

Idaho Trip 2011

2011-09-28T08:20:00.003-07:00

Oh how I love Idaho. It is so nice to take a break from the North Carolina heat and enjoy some family time in Idaho. Like always we packed as much as we could in to our three week stay. I think everyone was very ready for us to go home this year. Usually we split our time between Whit's family and mine, but Grandma and Grandpa Gifford were on a mission at Heber Valley Girls Camp so we stayed at my mom's house the whole time. I think mom was pretty ready to get her house back. We are so grateful that everyone was willing to put life on hold for the three weeks. We really had an awesome time. Here are the highlights:

The Craze a new kid place in Rexburg. Great Grandma and Grandpa Erickson took some of the great grands here. They had so much fun.

Laser tag. Addie could barely hold up the gun.
Black light Miniature Golf

Playing at the park. Sam and Penny were fighting over a camera case. They kept taking it away from each other. Sam finally got smart and crawled away from Penny and she looked on longingly because she couldn't crawl over to him. Pretty cute.

This stage coach has been at this park since I was a little girl.

Crafting for Carter's bug birthday.

My favorite thing about the whole trip was Lewis and Clark Caverns, which weren't even discovered by Lewis and Clark. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. I remember that beaver slide being much bigger. It was really fun to take my kids through. Addie had a tough time at first. I really thought we were going to be stuck at the beaver slide, but I was able to convince her to keep going and she did great after that. All the girls thought it was pretty cool.

Notice my sweet front pack. We picked it up at a thrift shop in a small town in Montana on our way up to the caverns. I think it may have been meant for a doll, but it worked.

Addie sucks her fingers more when she is nervous.

I love this picture because it shows Lillie's amazement of the stalactites and stalagmites.

Notice Ryan has on my sweet new Ergo that I bought for the trip while I am wearing the doll carrier. You're welcome Ryan. I think it would have been a lot funnier to see Ryan carrying Brinley in the doll carrier.

Rigby Lake-Looks like Jaynie got caught!!

I love this picture!!

Tauphas Park Zoo

Feeding the ducks at the Nature Pond

There was so much more I just wasn't very good with the Camera this year. We went Huckleberry picking and to the new pool in Rexburg with water slides and a lazy river. We also were able to spend an evening up at Heber Valley with Elder and Sister Gifford. It was fun to see where they had been living all summer. What a beautiful place.

Since I am keeping up with the blog while catching up with the blog I am going to do a new post and an old post until I am caught up so if you are interested in our Idaho trip from 2010 you can find it here.

Jaynie and Lillie you are Triathletes

2011-09-28T08:20:00.001-07:00

On July 16th 2011 Jaynie and Lillie participated in the Kids for Kids Triathelon here in Winston Salem. Jaynie has been asking to do a triathelon since she was 4 and she heard th Marsh boys talking about it at Thanksgiving dinner one year. I have always wanted to put them in one, but it just never worked out until now. This year the neighborhood that we swim at was hosting a triathelon so it was the perfect time for the girls to do it. We decided to do it about 2 weeks before the race so we didn't spend a lot of time "training" but the girls were able to do and they both did really well. The swim was 100 yards, followed by a 4 mile hilly bike ride, and finally a .6 mile run. Lillie actually took 5th in her age division and if we would have practiced our transition times she could have won the whole thing. Her first transition was a little slow, in fact it was the exact difference in time between her and the winner. She was neck and neck in every split with the girl who won. Quite impressive. Jaynie was just so excited to be there she could have cared less what her time was. She had a smile on her face through the whole thing. I was so proud of both of them.

Lillie is famous. She made the newspaper.

Lillie in the swim

First transition.

Taking off on the bike

Starting the run.

Finishing the run.

Jaynie Swiming. She actually shared a lane with her best friend Jane.

First transition. It was hard to be standing right there and not be able to help them. Jaynie did great with her transitions.

The bike ride was tough, but Jaynie had a smile on her face the whole time.

Jaynie taking off on her run.

Lillie, Jane and Jaynie you are triathletes.

Getting massages after the race. I think this was probably the girls favorite part.

4th of July with Grandma and Grandpa

2011-09-28T08:19:00.002-07:00

My mom and dad came to visit us at the end of July. We had a great time. I was so excited to have them here for the 4th of July, although I think my brothers and sisters were a little upset that mom and dad weren't home with them. It was fun to share a North Carolina 4th with them. We spent a lot of time at the pool.

Yes the girls convinced grandma and me to go off the diving board. Like mother like daughter. The synchronized jump was not planned.

Nice dive Lillie

Whit and his famous flips.

Go Addie!!!

Mom and Dad had this cool underwater camera and I think the pictures turned out really awesome.

It was fun to have Mom and Dad here for our neighborhood 4th of July party. We have such an awesome neighborhood. We are so blessed to live here. I know it makes mom and dad feel better about us being so far away when they can meet the people we interact with everyday and know that they are such great people.

On the 3rd we went up to Asheville to watch their firework show. Asheville was fun and crazy. We saw all types of people. We spent the night in Hendersonville and then got up the next morning and went to the little town of Brevard. When I was looking for fun things to do on the 4th I googled the best 4th of July celebrations in North Carolina and Brevard was at the top of the list so we decided to check it out. A small mountain town celebration sounded like something that would be right up my dad's alley. I was right it was perfect. What a fun day we had. The town of Brevard is so cute and they had tons of arts and crafts and live music. There were so many fun little shops go into. We even got to see a melodrama put on by the local theater.

What's a 4th celebration without face painting.

Brevard is in Transylvania county which is known as the land of the waterfalls. There are over 100 waterfalls in the county so of course we had to go check out a few.

This waterfall is called sliding rock because you slide down it. They charge admission and everything. We were not prepared to go swimming, but the girls were dying to do it so Whit and Grandpa were good sports and went down in their clothes. The water was freezing, but the girls loved it. Even Addie wanted to go again.

A little more time fishing. The girls just can't get enough fishing with their dad. They had to show grandpa that they could catch a fish. Luckily they each did. Fishing at a stocked pond makes that a little easier.

The Browns told us of a little place in Union Grove, NC that has live bluegrass music every Saturday morning. Dad loves bluegrass so we had to go. We ate a really greasy, not so great breakfast and listened to some good old country bluegrass music. It was pretty cool.

Mom and Dad were here during blueberry picking season so of course we had to get some fresh blueberries. Having the extra adults was great because we got triple the blueberries. Yeah!!!

8 days, 12 girls, and 3 boys = lots of pictures

2011-09-28T08:19:00.001-07:00

We were lucky enough to have Whit's sister Anjeanette and her family come and stay with us in June. What a great way to start the summer. We had so much fun together. Annie has 5 girls so between the two families we had 12 girls. Whit was excited because the number of girls in the house may have been doubling, but because Brittan, Annie's oldest daughter brought her husband, the number of males in the house tripled. He felt pretty good about that.

All 10 lovely ladies Kings for a day.

The Anderson's were here for Father's day. People always tell me how sorry they are for my husband because we don't have any sons, but when I look at this picture and see all the girls that Whitney has to take care of him and dote on him, I just can't feel too bad for him. I think Whitney, Joel, and Troy are pretty lucky guys!!!

We crammed a lot of stuff into the Anderson's 8 day stay.

Of course Annie can't even go on vacation without cutting hair. We were very grateful though.

The girls made Troy spend a lot of time on the trampoline.

Whit was able to race in a crit race while they were here. It was fun for everyone to get to see Whit in action. Maybe now they can kind of understand why a person would choose to spend so much time in spandex.

Old Salem

They were draining the fire hydrants. The girls loved walking in the water.

The cemetery at Old Salem

The Zoo

We made a mad dash to the beach for a day.

There were sand fleas by the millions. All of the girls were cathing them and keeping them in a little pond that they dug. It was freaking me out a little, but the kids loved it.

No beach trip is complete without a huge container of cheese puffs. Penny was quite a fan.

My favorite part of the Anderson's stay was our day in the mountains. We went to Valle Cruisis and Price Lake.

Eliza and Joel developed a special bond out on the lake. Eliza thought her uncle Joel was a pretty neat guy.

Leave it to Joel to find fishing line and a hook in the trees and then catch tons of fish with it. My girls were pretty impressed.

Thanks Annie and Joel for making the long journey to visit us. You truly made our summer. We love you and can't wait until we can come and visit you.

Back to Blogging

2011-09-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

I know I took a year long hiatus from the blogging world, I am going to blame it on the 5th kid, but I finally feel ready to tackle the huge project of getting caught up. I am not sure how I am going to do that exactly, but I will do it. My plan is to get caught up while keeping up. I am going to try and post a couple of old posts for every new post. Things may seem crazy and out of order so pay attention to the date. This is the only form of scrap booking that I do so I guess I should post about the last year of our lives. I mean it was a pretty important one. We did add another child to our family. So if any one still reads this thing I promise there are great things to come.

Idaho Trip 2010

2010-10-31T17:57:00.001-07:00

As always we had a great trip to Idaho. We went mid August and got back just two days before school started so that was quite a challenge. I love being in Idaho in August though and want to plan on going then every year. It is such a hot time to be in North Carolina and Idaho is so perfect in August. Next time it will just have to be a little earlier in August.

Since it was so close to school starting we decided to take a girls trip to Boise and do some school shopping. It was just like the good old days. We were really sad that Starla and the girls weren't there. Someday we will have to do it with all the cousins, just like we used to when I was young. While in Boise we went to this pool with water slides. The girls loved it.
=

We had a combined birthday for all the August Birthdays at Rigby Lake.

Riding the carousel

Warming up at the spray park. My kids are used to swimming in the North Carolina heat so they were kind of wimpy at the spray park.

My favorite thing about coming home in August Raspberries. They are in season in August so every morning I got to eat freshly picked raspberries covered in cream. YUM!!!

We were able to meet our newest cousin baby Sam.

Bear world and the petting zoo.

Mesa Falls

Camping at Warm River

Floating the river

Happy 7th Birthday Lillie

2010-10-31T17:50:00.001-07:00

Lillie was lucky this year because she got two birthday celebrations. We were going to be in Idaho and Dad was going to be in North Carolina on Lillie's birthday so we decided to have a little party with Dad and Jane and Kate before we left.

Jaynie the Magician was the entertainment.

While in Idaho we had a combined birthday for all the August Birthdays in my family. We went to Rigby Lake. The weather was a little scary at first, but it turned out to be pretty nice and the kids had a great time in the water.

Activity Days Temple Trip

2010-10-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

Jaynie's activity day group went to visit the Raleigh Temple this summer. I let Jaynie take the camera so she could get some good pictures. She had such a great time and it was such a great experience for her to be on the temple grounds and feel the spirit that the temple can bring to her little life.

Jaynie really wanted me to see the door of the temple so she took a picture. I wish you could read the words because that is what she wanted me to see. We think they say Holiness to the Lord, but don't quote us on it. I will have to pay more attention when I go back next time. I thought it was sweet that the doors were her favorite part of the temple.

4th of July

2010-10-31T07:31:00.001-07:00

We had a great 4th of July this year. Our neighborhood is so great. We get together for celebrations like the 4th, so it makes it a lot easier to not be home on such occasions. On the 3rd we had our annual neighborhood BBQ and bike parade. The kids all decorated their bikes and rode up and down the street, it was pretty fun. Then we had a firework show with some illegal fireworks from across the border in South Carolina (sound familiar Idaho/Wyoming people). It was a pretty good show. The men decided that next year they were going to have a firework fund and ask all the men to donate to the pot. The women are the ones who came up with the budget this year and the men thought much more of the money spent should go towards fire works.

Sorry about the pictures. I couldn't find the cord to unload my pictures so we used Whit's iphone and the pictures transfer weird when I put them on here.

Decorating the bikes

Riding in the parade. I have a bunch of cheesers on my hands.

Powdered Donuts

2010-10-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite childhood memories is the powdered donuts that my mom kept in the freezer for our lunches and snacks. I would love getting them in my lunch, but there was nothing better than eating one frozen for an after school snack. This summer we went to the grocery store and they were buy one get one free so I bought two bags. I think the girls enjoyed them as much as I did as a kid, we went through the two bags pretty quickly. Mom also used to keep frozen snickers in the fridge for Dad, but every once in a while us kids would sneak a taste. I think that needs to be my next childhood memory to explore.

I didn't get close up enough of the girls faces, but they were covered in powder from the donuts. That's the part I didn't remember as a kid, the mess they make.

Tornado Touchdown

2010-10-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Today was an eventful day for Jaynie and Lillie. We had a tornado touchdown here in Lewisville during school hours so the girls had to be on tornado lockdown. They said they had to go out into the hall and sit on their knees and bend their head down and put their hands over their head. When I asked if they were scared they said, "a little". They said they were mostly scared that they wouldn't get to come home because they weren't letting them out of school until the tornado warning was lifted. They ended up keeping them and extra hour.

It made me sad that I wasn't there to hold them and comfort them. That has always been one of my greatest fears when flying by myself with all the girls, that we would have scary turbulence (or worse, but I try not to ever think of the worse) and I wouldn't have enough arms to comfort all of my children at once. I guess this is part of having them grow up and go to school. I can't protect them all the time. That is kind of a hard thing to accept as a mom.

Tired!!!

2010-10-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

So I am trying really hard to get the blog caught up before the baby comes and I am dwindling my list, but I don't know if I will make it. That seems to be the theme of life right now. Every day things are getting dwindled off the list, but the list just keeps growing and growing and I am so, so, so tired. The baby is due in 3 1/2 weeks and we are supposed to be moving in the next two weeks. I haven't packed a thing. I haven't washed any of the babies things, or even gotten anything out to wash. I had two showings on our rental house this week and an open house tomorrow and my house is a wreck. I really should be cleaning, but it's 9:30 at night and I still have a lesson to prepare for tomorrow. Which by the way is on optimism and gratitude. Great just shove that in my face right now. My feet and hands are so swollen that it hurts to type this right now, yet here I sit complaining because you know what it feels good to complain. People keep asking me how I am doing and I put on my happy face and say we are fine, but deep down I am freaking out every second of every day about the next month of my life. Whit is spending every free second at the new house trying to get it ready or he is studying for his class he is taking, meanwhile I am just trying not to yell at my kids every second for things that really aren't their fault. I had to sit down with them tonight and explain why I am such a witch right now and I promised them that if they could just bear with me for a few more weeks life will get better. But will it? In a few weeks I will have a new born baby and a brand new house to organize. Will I ever catch up and become not so witchy. I am really starting to wonder???? Maybe I should go read my lesson. I think I need a good dose of optimism and gratitude right now. Life isn't perfect, but complaining about it doesn't make it better or make it go away. The house is still messy and my lesson still needs to be prepared and my feet and hands still ache, but I have it a lot better than a lot of other people so I should put on the happy face and this too shall pass.

Funny Eliza

2010-09-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

This morning Eliza was full of funny things to say.

First she says, "Mom I have a petache." "What is a petache," I ask. She replies, "You know it's when your mom has allergies so you can't have a pet and you really, really want one." Oh a pet-ache that makes perfect sense. Upon further inquiry I ask, "What exactly does a petache feel like?" And her response, "Oh it's like a really, really bad headache."

After that was all sorted out I was getting dressed and she says, "Mom why do you wear a boobie-ra." "A what?" I ask. She simply answers, "You know that thing that goes on your boobies." The best answer I could come up with was this, "Well first of all we call it a bra and it is to hold up my boobies." "Oh, I think I'll just call it a boobie-ra." Well o.k. then.

So there you go now you all have two new words to add to your vocabulary.

The Laundry Mat

2010-07-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

When we sold our house the buyers wanted our washer and dryer and we thought sure if that will seal the deal and yeah we get new ones. Well after about a month of doing our laundry at a laundry mat because of indecision and then back orders, that excitement really wore off. But we had a few fun family outings and experienced a whole new world that I truly never want to experience again.

Wicked

2010-07-26T09:07:00.001-07:00

In June we had the awesome opportunity to go to Charlotte to see Wicked. We gave the girls the tickets for Christmas so it was a long wait, but well worth it. We started listening to the soundtrack and read the Grimmery after Christmas, so by the time the show came around the girls were ready. On several occasions we had to tell the girls to sing quietly along with the show because they were getting a little distracting. It was really fun to get all dressed up and go to the real deal theatre. Even Whit got really into and loved every second of the show. We missed Addie, but who knows maybe it will come again someday. If it does we are there!!!

Class Pictures

2010-07-26T09:06:00.004-07:00

2009-2010 Class Pictures

Lillie with her class and teachers Mrs. Wuwert and Mrs. Washing
Jaynie's class with her teacher Mrs. Sloop

Both the girls had a great school year and loved their teachers. Jaynie's learning really blossomed and Lillie still talks about Mrs. Washing's hugs.

Jaynie made Honor Roll

2010-07-26T09:06:00.003-07:00

Jaynie made the Honor Roll for her second grade school year. Jaynie is such a great student. She loves to learn and has developed a great love of reading. By the end of second grade her reading had jumped to a whole new level. She finished off the school year reading the entire Percy Jackson series. Good Job Jaynie!!!!

Jaynie's Art Show

2010-07-26T09:06:00.001-07:00

Jaynie's art teacher put some of Jaynie's art work in an art show at the Old Salem Visitor Center and unlike our mistake with Lillie we made it to see her art work. We are so proud of both of the girls for their many accomplishments.

Eliza's Dance Recital

2010-07-26T09:05:00.001-07:00

Eliza was in dance this year and for the final performance they were butterflies. It was a lot of fun and she did a great job. We had a video of it, but it turned out so dark that you couldn't see her so you just get before pictures instead.

These are two of our neighbors that were in her class. It made it a lot more fun to have good friends to dance with. Don't you just love how Eliza is standing all poised in a ballet position.

Whit's buddies visit NC

2010-07-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

About a week after we moved into our rental house, which just happened to be our neighbors house up the street, Whit's buddies from High School came out to visit for their yearly boys trip. Whit was so excited to have them here. They acted like they were back in high school, staying up late and such and Whit quickly realized that he wasn't that young kid anymore. He was very exhausted at the end of the weekend.

One night I made a Low Country Boil, a classic southern dish and of course we had to serve it with Cheerwine and Virgil's Rootbeer.

Strawberry Picking with Grandma and Grandpa Gifford

2010-07-26T08:41:00.001-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Gifford were able to stay for another week after the Jaynie's baptism. It was so fun to have them and they were such a big help to us. We were moving the next week so we were grateful to have the extra set of hands to help us pack. We tried not to make it all work and no play so one afternoon we went out to the strawberry farm since it was prime strawberry picking season. Yummy!!!! I think the girls ate more than they picked, but I guess that's what makes it so fun.

Jaynie's Baptism May 1, 2010

2010-07-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Jaynie was baptized on May 1, 2010. It was such a special day. The whole event was so much fun for me. It was fun taking her to pick out a beautiful white dress and new white shoes and then going to the Tanglewood Gardens to take her picture. The best part was how excited she was for the day. She was giddy with excitement. She said on several occasions that she just couldn't wait to have the Holy Ghost.

The day of was just so amazing. I was so emotional. It felt very strange to have my child going through something so important in her little life. The spirit was very strong in the meeting. Jaynie choose to have her Grandmother's give the talks and her Grandfather's say the prayers. Aunt Kim played the piano and Aunt Kylie led the music. We were so lucky to have so many family members there. I hope this day is one that Jaynie will always remember. I am so proud of her and her choice to be baptized and I am grateful that she now has the Holy Ghost as her constant companion.

Grandma and Grandpa Gifford

Grandma and Grandpa Erickson

Aunt Kylie

Aunt Kim, Uncle Sean, and Carter

Some good looking Erickson Girls

Jaynie also had a lot of friends there to support her on her big day. It was quite the gathering. We really are blessed to have such great friends here in North Carolina.

Jaynie's friend Nate

I think this picture could be foreshadowing. I am all about arrange marriages for my girls!!!!

Allie, Jaynie, Morgan, Jane and Lillie

And of course Lolo

Happy 8th Birthday Jaynie

2010-07-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I have an eight year old. Where does the time go. Jaynie turned 8 on April 30th. It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Erickson, Grandma and Grandpa Gifford and Kim, Sean and Carter here to celebrate with. Jaynie has actually been lucky to have her Grandma and Grandpa Erickson here for her birthday for the last couple of years.

Eight is such a big deal. It means of course that she will be baptised and that she will go into third grade and face the oh so daunting EOGs (End of Grade testing). It's now time for my baby to enter the big world as an accountable girl. That scares me to death, but Jaynie is up to the challenge. She is such a great little girl. She is the peace keeper in our house and at times I think she is a better mom than I am. I look forward to many wonderful years of watching her grow up. Jaynie I love you!!!

Eliza takes on the Kitchen Aid and Loses

2010-07-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

Who knew the Kitchen Aid mixer could be so dangerous. We were in the Kitchen making cupcakes for Jaynie's birthday and I went to get something from the fridge and the next thing I know Eliza is screaming and the kitchen aid is making funny noises. I ran over there and shut off the mixer, but I didn't know what to do. Her hair was a tangled mess on the beater and it wasn't coming off. Eliza was really hurt and screaming in pain, Addie was bawling and screaming, "My Liza, My Liza" and I was screaming for Kim to get scissors so we could cut off the hair that was caught, but luckily my sister the nurse can stay calm in these types of situations and calmly and gently pulled her hair off of the mixer. Thank goodness too because we were able to salvage some of the hair that was still attached to cover her new bald spot. When we got her unattached from the mixer I took her to the bath to wash out the batter and then sat down to assess the damage. This is when I really lost it. I couldn't help but cry for her. It had actually pulled a huge chunk of hair right off of her head. I could only imagine what that must of felt like. She was one brave little girl though. I just have to figure out how to do her hair now????

The bald spot.

The tangled mess that came out as I started combing through her hair. This is a lot of hair to loose, especially for a little girl who just doesn't have much to begin with.

The West's Visit NC

2010-07-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Kim, Sean, and Carter came to visit us at the end of April. It was so much fun to have them here. I felt a little bad because I would get so sick at night, but we made the most our of our days. We did all the stuff that we do when people come visit North Carolina. We took the kids to the Children's Museum, took a trip up to the mountains to Valle Cruisis, and toured the Zoo. The best part about their visit was that they got to be here for Jaynie's baptism. Which made it all the more special for Jaynie. Thanks Kim and Sean for spending your vacation time with us here in NC. We love you.

Kim being such a good mom and playing with the kids at the Children's Museum.

The kids thought this crane was pretty cool. They could actually move it and drop stuff.

This is the back porch of the Mast General Store in Valle Cruisis. We pulled up and the bluegrass band was just packing up their gear. We were so sad. That would have been so much fun for The Wests to watch. We love this store and the kids really like it because they always get to pick out their own soda to sip on porch.

Carter did not want to have his picture taken so he was hiding from me, but I thought this one was pretty cute.

Carter and Eliza on the leaf slide at the zoo. With all the animals to see this awesome playground is still the main attraction for my kids at the zoo.

Riding the shuttle.

Grandma and Grandpa Erickson came at the end of Kim and Sean's visit for the Jaynie's baptism so we saved the zoo for when they arrived. This made it extra fun and thanks grandpa for being the designated shoulder carrier. Each of the younger kids had to have their turn on Grandpa's shoulders. Jaynie and Lillie wanted to as well, but we thought that might be asking a little too much of Grandpa.

We Sold Our House!!!!

2010-07-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

The week before I left to go to Idaho Jaynie wanted to fast for the first time on fast Sunday. We talked to her about what she needed to do and a little about what she could fast for. She then went into a room and said a prayer and then came back and I asked her what she had decided to fast for and she said I am fasting for the house to sell. Which was obviously a great thing to fast for, but not something we had discussed so we were proud of her. Then I left for Idaho that week and the following Sunday Whit had to show the house. I thought it was so fitting that he should have to get the house ready and the girls ready all in time for church. Little did I or Whitney know that the couple that was going to come see the house were actually sitting in the congregation during sacrament meeting. The couple liked the house and wanted to see it again on Monday and before Whit left he ran into the Realtor and she asked if we happened to be Mormon and told him that the couple was Mormon and thought that we probably were. So Whit went to walk the neighborhood and Kim was outside and Whit told her that the people seeing the house were Mormon and she immediately went down to our house to talk to them and that was all it took. Basically Kim acted as our Mormon agent and sold our house for us. She told them how great our neighborhood was and how there were five Mormon families in the neighborhood, which for North Carolina is pretty rare. They called with an offer later that night. So we owe it all to Kim and now we have great new neighbors, friends, and ward members in the Browns. We truly feel blessed and have felt the Lord's hand in this whole process and we have had the great opportunity to show our children, particularly Jaynie, the power of fasting and prayer.

This was our first house and we will miss it so much. A lot of blood sweat and tears went into that house and I think it shows. It truly is a great house. We think the Brown's are pretty lucky to have it. Sorry about all the pictures, but I wanted to preserve the memory of our house on the blog.

Our Robin's Nest

2010-07-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

We found this nest in a bush right in front of the girls bedroom window and we were able to watch them hatch and eventually fly away. It was so fun for the girls to watch the process.

Easter 2010

2010-07-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

I had really great intentions of making the girls Easter dresses this year, but being newly pregnant doesn't really agree with me very well and why sew when you have Target.

I guess the sun was in their eyes.

Our neighborhood does the funnest Easter Egg Hunt every year. The girls always love it and we get to avoid huge egg hunts. Yeah!!! This year the Easter bunny brought the girls coordinating swim suits and of course lots and lots of candy.

April Showers

2010-07-21T12:12:00.001-07:00

I love when it is hot enough on the 1st of April to pull out the sprinkler. The wonders of North Carolina.

Lillie's Art Show

2010-07-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Like many parents I often have moments in life when I feel like a bad parent, but never have I had this feeling like I did when I dropped the ball with Lillie's Art Show. Lillie's art teacher choose one of her art projects to be entered into a local art show at the library. We were so excited for her, but the opening was when I was in Idaho and it was a little much for Whit to try and do with all the girls. Luckily, it was set up for a couple of weeks so we didn't think it would be too hard to get over there. In my defence we tried twice. Once the library was closed and then we went on the last day and they had already taken everything down. I still don't even know which art project was displayed. The teacher never sent it home. I felt really bad, but Lillie was such a sweet heart about it. It really didn't seem to bother her, which made me feel even worse because I should have made it a bigger deal. Even though we didn't see her art work we were so proud of her. She is such a great little artist. She really pays attention to detail and puts little things into her art that most kids wouldn't even dream of. Lillie I am sorry we didn't see your art, but I know this won't be our only chance. I love you!!!!

Suprise Idaho Trip

2010-07-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

In January mom called and said Stacie you should come home for Kylie's Jr. Miss pageant and I will pay for half of it. Little did she know I had already bought my ticket to come home for Kylie's Jr. Miss pageant. I was planning on surprising Mom and Dad so I said I couldn't because I was coaching the YW's basketball team and the big final tournament was that day and I just couldn't leave them for that and believe it or not she bought it. I think she was a little mad that I would choose that over coming home at half price, but she believed me. So on March 10th I started my journey home, which didn't go as planned and after a night in the Dallas airport I arrived in Salt Lake early on the 11th. I was sad that my surprise wasn't going according to plan, but it worked out and I just kept saying how grateful I was that I wasn't with my four girls going through this. That would have been a real nightmare. The next morning Ryan picked me up at the airport and Starla and the girls drove me up to Idaho, where Kim was in charge of keeping tabs on Mom. They ended up in Idaho Falls at Babes bakery for lunch just in time for us to drop in as surprise guests. I had Emma with me when I walked in so mom couldn't place me at first, she thought I must be Starla. After a double take she realized it was me and started crying, then I started crying. Then just as I had planned she asked me if I was alone and I said well, not exactly alone, I do have a baby in my belly. I had just taken a pregnancy test a few days before and couldn't wait to tell her, but I held off so I could add one more surprise to the day. It was so fun to see her face and try and figure out how it was possible for me to be walking into Babe's Bakery at that moment. Priceless. I really love surprises. I had such a great time on this trip. It was only 5 days, but you can fit a lot into 5 days. I got to see everyone because of Jr. Miss and it was so fun to get to help a little bit with Kylie. Kylie did such a great job, I was so proud of her. The only sad part was as I watched the pageant I just kept leaning over to mom saying how much the girls would have loved seeing Kylie do this.

One afternoon we were able to go to Bear World where they were letting people hold the newborn baby bears. There were tons of people and I just kept thinking about my newborn babies and how overstimulated they get in big crowds and it made me really sad for those poor little bears, but we still stood in line to hold them and get our pictures taken and boy were they cute. Again I was very sad my girls weren't there. Lillie would have absolutely died for the opportunity to hold a baby bear.

I loved taking a trip all by my big self. This was the first time I have ever traveled on an airplane all by myself and despite my brief crying episode at the Dallas airport, I think I handled it very well. But as much fun as it was to be by myself, I missed Whit and my girls so much, and apparently Addie missed me too because she sucked blisters on her two little fingers while I was gone. She always sucks on her fingers, but has never caused blisters. It made me really sad to see them, but also happy that she missed me so much. Being away was a good reminder of how much I love my little family and it reminded them of how much they love me.

Baby #5

2010-07-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of March we found out we are expecting our fifth child. We are pretty excited. It took me a long time to come to terms with getting pregnant again (not with the having a baby part, just the being pregnant part), but we finally decided it was time. Our due date is November 16th so there will be 37 months between Addie and this baby. I hope that makes it easier rather than harder this time around. We shall see.

Single Ladies

2010-06-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Some good friends of ours took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Squeakual when it came out and ever since then Addie has been obsessed with Beyonce's All the Single Ladies song. We downloaded it and listen to it all the time. Whenever she sees something Alvin and the Chipmunks related she says, "Single Ladies" and throws her hands up in the air. It really is the cutest thing ever. Naturally, Addie can't help but dance to the music, but would get shy every time I tried to get her on video. Finally when we were watching the chipmunk movie she was so distracted that I was able to record her dance moves.

F is for Fish

2010-06-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Eliza and I have been doing "Home School" together a couple of times a week and when we came to the letter F we decided to go on a field trip to the pet store to see the fish and pick one out to bring home. I was really only going to spend the 25 cents that it costs to buy a gold fish and maybe a couple of bucks for a glass bowl, but this is what I came home with.
The lady at the store convinced me that goldfish need to be in a filtered tank so for their happiness I bought this cute little tank. So we came home with a cute purple tank that matches the girls room and a fish named Jewel and a fish named Blackie. Unfortunately they have both since passed, both found sucked up in the filter. Maybe they would have been happier in the $5 fish bowl I was going to buy.

Lillie's Artistic Photography

2010-06-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Lillie got a hold of the camera one day and I thought the pictures were just too cute not to post. They are actually pretty good.

Jaynie, Whit and I were doing yoga and for obvious reasons these were the only ones I chose to post of that portion of her photo shoot.

I really think she may have a talent. I love the ones she took of her animals. Seriously so cute.

Snow Spa Day

2010-06-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of snow this year and of course if there is any snow the girls get to miss school. On one of the days we decided to have a spa day. We had Jane come over and we did a little bit of yoga, followed by soaking our feet in the jetted tub, then a wonderful foot massage and pedicure. The girls even gave me a little foot rub since I had worked so hard. It was a fun day.

Valentine's Day

2010-06-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have been so excited to post about Valentines Day because of the love buckets I made the girls this year. They turned out so cute and they really were quite easy. The girls loved them. I didn't do it this year (because they weren't finished in time), but a friend gave me the cute idea of getting them out the Monday before Valentines day and letting them fill them with reasons why they love that person throughout the week. I thought that would be a good way to celebrate the love we have in our family.

The day before Valentine's day I spent the day getting certified to teach yoga in Raleigh and on our way home my friend and I saw this little cupcake shop and decided cupcakes would be cute to wake up to on Valentine's Day so we stopped and picked some up. They were so cute and came in such a cute box.

I love Valentine's Day and all that it represents. It is good to have a day to reflect on the love that we have in our lives.

Whit turns 32

2010-06-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

I know I have been a blog slacker, but as I get caught up maybe you will understand why. Let's just say it has been a pretty crazy few months for the Gifford family. A lot has happened and I promise to be better now that things have settled down a little.

Whitney turned 32 on February 3rd. He had a pretty low key birthday. I always want to make it fun and exciting, but it never really pans out. Luckily I think Whit is happy just celebrating with his little family. I may not throw a great party, but I do make him a yummy cake. Happy Birthday Whit. The girls and I love you and are grateful everyday that we have you. We hope this year brings great blessings to your life.

Lillie's Special Recognition

2010-02-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

Lillie's kindergarten year started out a little rocky. She came home with yellow sticks more often than green sticks and then lied to me about it. I thought we were really in for it with Lillie and school, but after some serious heart to hearts that first month she has not had a single stick turn since. Come to find out she is one of the best behaved in the class and in turn her teacher awarded her with a certificate of Special Recognition for being respectful. I am so proud of her, she has really become a great student.

Addie's first hair cut

2010-02-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

I have put off cutting Addie's hair for quite a while because of her beautiful curls, but after struggling to get the fuzz out of her hair for the third time I decided it had to be done. It was time for the super fine baby hair to be gone. I think it turned out so cute and she still has curl-Yeah!!!

Jaynie makes brownies

2010-02-23T17:15:00.001-08:00

Although it makes me incredibly sad to have my kids grow up I must say it is kind of nice to have someone else to make the Family Home Evening treats. Jaynie wanted to bake something and I didn't have time to help her so I thought of the easiest recipe I could and turned it completely over to her. She even had to half the recipe. I was so proud of her. She made them all by herself. Now if I can just get her to cook dinner too.

Hello and Goodbye to Cousin Kyle

2010-02-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

Whit's nephew Kyle has been serving a mission for our Church in Washington D.C. for the past two years and of course for the past two years we have wanted to get up there and see him, but it never worked out. Since D.C. is a lot closer for us than Arizona and Brent was coming into town to do a little touring with Kyle before he left we decided to make a quick trip up there. When I say quick I mean quick. We left Saturday morning and came home Sunday afternoon. It was a fun trip though. As soon as we got into D.C. we met Kyle and Brent at a TGIFriday's and ate dinner with a recent convert that Kyle taught. It was great to sit and chat and hear about Kyle's experiences on his mission. After dinner we went to my cousin Kristen's house to spend the night. Kristen and Scott were so gracious to let us stay at the house especially considering it was such short notice and they already had Scott's sister staying with them. We stayed up late talking and then went to bed. The next morning we went to Sacrament meeting with Kyle and Brent at the Mt. Vernon building which overlooks the Potomac River. It was beautiful. I wish it wouldn't have been so cold and we could have walked around. Then we said our goodbyes and headed back to Kristen and Scott's and ate the yummiest chili that they had made for us. It was so fun to hang out with them. After lunch it was time to head home. The girls did awesome in the car, especially considering we didn't have our DVD player with us. I have such good kids.

Happy New Years

2010-02-16T13:42:00.001-08:00

Our friends Marcia and Christian and their two girls were in town for New Years. It was so good to see them. We miss them dearly. When they were here it was just like they had never left. On New Years Eve we all got together to celebrate. We have started a tradition to celebrate the New Year with the kids at 8:00 p.m. and then put them to bed. That way the kids don't miss the fun of ringing in the New Year, but still get to bed at a decent hour. We made noise makers and drank sparkling cider and watched the 2008 ball drop on Youtube. We figured the year didn't matter the same ball drops every year anyway.

I ran the Tanglewood Running of the Lights at midnight again this year. Whit didn't run it this year with me and I decided I don't ever want to do it without him again. I missed him. He stayed home to get rested up for his 100k bike race at 8:00 a.m. This year our friend Shebnum and Barak joined in the festivities. Barak and Christian ran it and us ladies ran a little, but mostly walked and laughed our way through. We had a great time. But I do have to say it is hard to walk a race that you know you can run. My body just kept wanting to take off. It probably had something to do with wanting to stay warm.

Afterwards we wanted somewhere to go and hang out and believe it or not the only place open was Waffle House. So we went inside. Yes Dad I have finally eaten at a Waffle House. It was quite the experience. Nothing like greasy food at 2 a.m. to ring in the New Year.

On New Years Day Whit got up early for his race. He did awesome and finished with the top riders. Later in the day we took the girls to try out their new skates that they got for Christmas. We went to Skate Haven and the girls had a ball. Even Whit and I put on some skates. It was just like the good old days at R Skating.

Chirstmas 2009

2010-02-15T18:24:00.001-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year. I love Christmas so much. It is such a fun time to be together as a family. I always try really hard to make it special for my girls. I want to give my girls the kind of Christmas that I remember growing up. Unfortunately, the things that made my Christmas' so great were things like getting together with my cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house and with out fail every Christmas Eve I tend to dwell on what my girls are missing out on. I really tried to be happy and upbeat this year, I don't want my girls to remember their mom crying every Christmas Eve, but my emotions did get the best of me for a little while. I was making Whit clean the house (I like to clean my emotions away) and once we finally got everything cleaned and picked up we looked at the clock and realized it was getting late. Too late to start the homemade pizza crust that I was planning on. Whit merely suggested that we go somewhere so that the house could stay clean and that was it. I broke down. I started crying and said, "Of course I want to go somewhere. I want to go to my mom's house. I want to go home." Whit let me cry it out for about 10 minutes and then I pulled it together and didn't cry again. Christmas with my little family is pretty special and as long as we have each other Christmas in North Carolina is pretty O.K.

We opted for take out pizza, that way we could still have our candle light pizza dinner on our finest China. Whit went and picked up the pizza and when he returned his favorite girls were all dressed up.

The girls in their Christmas pajamas.

Even Whit and I got matching PJ's this year. By the way it takes a real man to wear polka dots.

Lining up Christmas morning.

Lillie's Stash

Jaynie's Stash

Eliza's Stash

Adeline's Stash

The girls in the Tutu's that Aunt Shaunna made

Check out this hopscotch that my sister-in-law Starla made. Have you ever seen anything so cute in all your life. The girls love it!!!

I made the girls snuggies this year and thanks to Uncle Ryan, Mom and Dad each have one too. If you haven't tried a snuggie you don't know what you are missing. Next time you are sitting on the couch with a blanket eating your popcorn and your arms are cold, just remember you don't have to suffer. Get a snuggie.

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts and goodies that we got this year. We were truly blessed.

Christmas Card 2009

2010-01-25T18:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary to Us

2010-01-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

Whit and I got the very best Anniversary present-SNOW!!! I really couldn't have asked for a better anniversary day. Whit stayed home from work and went to Yoga with me and then we went to Lillie's Christmas party and during the party it started snowing. By the time we got home it had actually accumulated a couple of inches so of course we all headed out to play in it. It really was a perfect day.

I still can't believe Whit and I have been married for 10 years. I still feel like the luckiest girl to have found the most perfect husband for me. We make a pretty good pair. These last 10 years have been pretty amazing and I can't wait to see what the next 10 years will bring.

Here is some of our snow footage

The next day we had so much fun playing in the snow. The girls really wanted to go sledding and we have a great hill behind us, but we have never bought a sled. It is really hard to buy a sled when you really only use it once a year, but this year we got pretty creative. We do have a plethora of pool toys so we pulled those out and amazingly they worked really well. That is until they popped. The kiddie swimming pool worked really well too.

My Man. Isn't He cute!!!

Of course we had to build a snowman. We had remnants of our snowman into the second week of January. He just didn't want to give in to the sun.

Scary Santa

2010-01-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

Why is it that little kids are so afraid of Santa Clause. They love the idea of him sneaking into their house at night while they are sleeping and leaving them wonderful treasures, but when it comes to sitting on his lap, he suddenly turns into the Scary Santa. This year we got the two oldest to sit on his lap, but Adeline was terrified and for some reason this year even Eliza was scared to see him. Eliza said later that she forgot what to tell him and so she was embarrassed. The poor thing. Oh well, there's always next year.

The Joy of Giving

2010-01-18T19:14:00.002-08:00

Every year I take advantage of the giving season to get the toy room cleaned out. I have a long talk with the girls about how there are kids that aren't going to get very much for Christmas and how we are lucky that we have so much and wouldn't it be nice to give some of our stuff away so that more children can have a Merry Christmas. It sounds really great, but why does it have to be so hard. The girls were crying over toys they had forgotten they even had. Toys that hadn't seen the outside of the toy box for months suddenly became the favorites. I was pretty proud of them in the end though. They really gave away a lot of stuff. Unfortunately the toy room is still a mess. I think my girls just have far too many toys.

The Mistletoe Half Marathon

2010-01-18T19:14:00.001-08:00

I ran the Mistletoe Half Marathon again this year and for some reason the course didn't get any better. I don't know what happened, but the endless hills were still there. We woke up that morning to rain, but it wasn't freezing so we ran anyway. I actually enjoy running in the rain. After the first 10 minutes you are soaked anyway so why not keep going. It also makes the run seem like a bigger deal if you can tell people you did it in the rain. I was happy with my race time this year. I missed my goal time by three minutes, but I beat my last years time by three minutes so it was still an improvement. My time this year was 2 hours 13 minutes 42 seconds. I'll take it and I still have room to improve next year.

The girls hanging out in the back of the car waiting for me at Reynolda Village. They were cheering me on at mile 9.

My biggest fans waiting at the finish line.

Another great post race picture. I don't even know why I take them. I guess it's my proof that I did it-this is what you look like after you run 13.1 miles in the rain. Thanks Kim and Christy for running this with me. I know you are glad I talked you into it.

The Christmas Tree

2010-01-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

Here we are decorating the tree for FHE. Jaynie choose the longest straw, so she got the put the star on the tree. However, Lillie was so upset that her dad took the star off and let her put it back on. In the end all were happy. My decorations were a little sparse on our large tree, but it still looked beautiful.

Thanksgiving 2009

2010-01-16T12:47:00.000-08:00

While Whit and I were on our cruise my mom and dad and Kylie came and stayed with the girls. They had such a fun time. I am pretty sure the girls didn't miss us a bit. Jaynie and Lillie were able to skip school and go on a field trip to a Civil War site in Appomattox, Virginia. The night before Thanksgiving my Aunt Marcy and Uncle Kevin came down to see my mom and dad and be here for Thanksgiving dinner. I stole this collage of their adventures from my mom's blog. It looks like they had a lot of fun.

It was so nice to come home from our cruise and have my mom and dad here. It made coming home from vacation really exciting. It was also dreamy to walk in the door to a Thanksgiving dinner made by my mom. I haven't had that for 6 years. We had a great night visiting and catching up. I was so glad Kevin and Marcy were able to come down. I love having my house full of guests on a holiday.

Kevin and Marcy had to go home first thing Friday morning, I think we kicked them out a little early since we were trying to get the house ready for a showing that morning-UGH!!! I was sad to see them go, but they had guests coming to their house and needed to get back. The rest of us just had a lazy day. We did take everyone to the mall so the girls could get their Christmas presents from Grams and Gramps at Build-a-Bear. They were pretty excited, but Grandma wrapped them and made the girls wait until Christmas to get them.

On Saturday we did our annual Christmas tree hunt in the mountains. This is one of our favorite North Carolina traditions, so it was special to have my mom and dad here to do it with us. I think they really enjoyed it. We got a really great tree this year. It was huge. Here are some photos of the trip.

10 Year Anniversary Cruise

2009-12-29T13:44:00.001-08:00

Whit and I were able to go on a cruise for our 10 year anniversary. We haven't gone away together without kids for more than a night since we had kids so this was a pretty great opportunity for us. We left the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the Henderson's and our dear friends Carmen and Lauren watched the girls until my parents and Kylie arrived on Sunday to stay with the girls. We flew to Tampa and sailed to the Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel. It was so great to be warm and really just relax and be together.

Whit has had issues with getting professional pictures taken ever since I dragged him to Walmart when Jaynie was little, so when the 50 photographers on the ship wanted to take our picture we politely refused. I however really wanted a picture of us together on formal night so Whit created his own photo studio in our room. Great backdrop isn't it. Oh well at least I got the picture.

We had to take pictures of all the towel animals for the girls.

The beautiful waters of the Grand Cayman. I have never been to Caribbean waters so this was really an awesome sight for me.

In the Cayman we were able to sail on a Catamaran to do a little snorkeling and visit Sting Ray City. This was my first time snorkeling and I was really nervous about it. I had never really swam in the ocean except from a beach and the thoughts of being out in the middle of the ocean and swimming while breathing through a tube made me a little uneasy. I was so nervous that I asked to wear one of the dorky life vests they give people who can't swim, but luckily mine wouldn't blow up so I said I would just try to snorkel without it. My dear sweet husband was so supportive as soon as we jumped in the water, right after I said WHIT DO NOT LEAVE ME, he was gone and I started to have a minor panic attack. I finally had to lay on my back and calm down and tell myself this was something I had the power to do. Once I got over that first little set back I fell in love with snorkeling. What an awesome experience it is to view the ocean that way. I have always thought my parents are crazy for scuba diving, but now maybe that is something I could enjoy.

After snorkeling for a while our boat took us to Sting Ray City. What an amazing experience that was. Sting Ray City is basically a sand bar 30 minutes from shore where sting rays hang out and people come and feed them and hold them and, as you can see from the pictures below, even kiss them. It was pretty crazy. They were not afraid of people at all. They would swim right up to you and go in between your legs and everything. Some of them were so big they would almost knock you over. It was pretty incredible. This was definitely the high light of the trip. It was one of those moments where I thought, "Oh I wish the girls were here." Jaynie probably would have freaked out, but Lillie probably would have loved every second of it. Lillies only request was that we take a picture of a sting ray for her so Lillie this ones for you babe!!
Our second stop was Cozumel, Mexico. A little island off the coast of Mexico. We had a great time here as well. We got to spend a lot more time here than at the Cayman, so we kind of just did our own thing. We booked a snorkel tour and we started off with just the two of us in the boat, but after our first stop that was right next to the dock they picked up two more people. We were very glad we booked it ourselves because it was such a more personal experience. Some of the snorkel boats that we saw had 50 people on them. Our guide was great. He loved that Whit spoke Spanish with him and he showed us some really cool stuff. We saw one of those huge schools of silver fish (like the ones that make shapes on Finding Nemo) and our guide swam down to them and created a hole in their group. It was so cool. We saw tons of great coral and beautiful fish. The colors were just so bright and colorful. We passed a couple of barracuda fish, which I guess can hurt you. Good thing I didn't know that until after we swam by.

After our snorkel tour we wanted to go to the beach so we decided to rent a moped. Which was pretty fun until on our way home Whit decided to take us through the City part of Cozumel, where all the people are and traffic is heavy and we are on a little moped that cars don't really care about and we are not locals. Whit loved it. He wanted to find some authentic food and see how people lived, but I just wanted to be safe and sound on the cruise ship. I always said Whit and I would do awesome on the Amazing Race, but after those 30 minutes I realized I may not be ready for that yet. Whit could beat anybody, but he would need a braver partner.

There were wild peacocks roaming around on the beach. How fun is that?

Whit and I really wanted to see ancient ruins, but we ran out of time so these fake ones they had just right off the dock of the cruise ship will have to do until next time. By the way we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes during this picture.

It poured rain on our last day at sea. I was pretty sad, because I was hoping for one more day to work on my tan, but it really was nice. We just sat out on the back deck that was covered and read all afternoon. What better way is there to spend a day together. I have decided that the only problem with taking a trip like this is that once you go it has to end and it makes you really, really, really want to go again.

Brownie Camping Trip

2009-12-29T12:56:00.000-08:00

Jaynie and I got to go camping the first weekend of November with her Brownie Troop. It was freezing, but luckily we camped inside a lodge with heat. I always love to see Jaynie interact with her Brownie friends. She is such a grown up little girl and she is learning so much through the girl scout program.

Jaynie was a pretty determined fisherman. She really wanted to catch a fish, but they were not biting. After all the other girls gave up Jaynie sat down and waited and waited and waited. Maybe next time Jaynie.

The girls do most of the work at camp. Sometimes that is a hard lesson for us leaders to learn. It really would be so much easier if we just did it for them, but thankfully Jaynie has the best leader and she is very insistent that they do the jobs themselves.

Jaynie setting out some corn for the deer to eat. We left that evening so we didn't get to see how much the deer ate, but according to the other girls they ate every last bit of corn we left for them.

The girls all got to do traditional girl scout skits and of course the leaders had to do one too. Ours involved green hair paint that didn't come out very easily.

Halloween, Halloween, and more Halloween

2009-12-06T17:51:00.001-08:00

Halloween seems to be the never ending Holiday around here. I dressed the girls up three different times during the week of Halloween. It was pretty crazy especially since Lillie wanted to be a mummy. I really thought a mummy costume would be easy, but I was sorely mistaken. It took 30 minutes to get her wrapped up and then about 5 minutes to start to unravel. Luckily by the third go round I had it down to a science and she held together pretty well. I had tons of comments on how cute she looked, so I guess the unravelling made her look all that more authentic.

Here are our carved pumpkins

All the girls in their Halloween finest. Just incase you can't tell, Jaynie is a vampire, Lillie is a mummy, Eliza is a witch, and Adeline is a dragon.

Our first dress up event was Lillie's Daisy scout Trunk or Treat. It poured rain so we did a drive up Trunk or Treat so all the kids waited in the school while the cars pulled up under a pavilion two by two. Whatever it takes for candy. Right?

The week was full of class parties. I was able to help with Lillie's class.

Dress up number 2: The ward Trunk or Treat and Carnival. The girls had a blast.

Jaynie couldn't win a donught to save her life. I finally asked the YW to rig it for her. Oh anyone standing on the black cat wins a donought this time. YEAH!!!

Dress up number 3: Halloween night. It poured rain again and I at the last minute tried to host a neighborhood potluck dinner in my driveway, which ended up in my house due to the rain, but it was a lot of fun to get together with the neighbors. The Shirley's joined us as well.

I heard a rumor this year that there was a Halloween Witch and that she and the Toothfairy decided to team up to prevent tooth decay. Their plan is to give kids an incentive for getting rid of their candy. The rumor was if you put your bag of candy out on the front porch on Halloween night the Halloween witch would take all your candy and leave you a suprise in your bag. Well the rumor was true the Halloween Witch does exist and she will leave you suprises if you trade in your candy.

The Amazing Corn Maze

2009-12-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

The girls had a couple of days off at the end of October for Fall break so one day we headed to a local Corn Maze with a bunch of friends. It was a lot of fun. We split into two groups one with the Big Kids and one with the Little Kids. The Big Kids did not want to be slowed down by the little ones.

The maze was the United States so my girls of course had to visit Idaho and say Hi to Grams and Gramps and then they really wanted to go to Disneyworld so they headed to Florida. The Little girls waved to Grandma and Grandpa as we passed Idaho and rather than go to Disneyworld we opted for Disneyland in California. Which to them was all the same. I guess the sun was in their eyes.

Addie with her best friend Gracen and Raelyn.

Lillie roasting some corn. Thank goodness there isn't fire in that pit.

Addie milking the cow.

How about a duck race?

The cow train pulled by a tractor. How much more fun could you have in one day?

Corn Tee pees.

There was this beautiful path that I just had to have a picture of. I love North Carolina in the Fall.

Rural Hall Halloween 10K

2009-12-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

A small town near us had a fun Halloween run on October 24th that I signed up for. It was a 10k and trick or treat 1 mile run for families afterwards. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it ended up just being a 10k in the pouring rain. Despite the rain, I actually enjoyed the race. It was a really small race that was mostly flat, which for this area meant it only had a few tough climbs. I finished in 58:06 which beat my Salem Lake time by 54 seconds. I was pretty happy with that. I never thought I would say this, but I can't wait to turn 30 because then I will finally be out of the fast 25-29 age group for these races. I ran the race with Kim, Christi, and Nicole (a neighbor) and all of them placed in their age groups. I would have gotten second place for the 30-34 age group behind Kim if I were 30. Maybe instead of wanting to get older I should just work on being faster.

Baa Moo Farm

2009-11-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

I want a farm. A real one. Just like the one Lillie's class visited in late October. The Baa Moo Farm is a real working farm complete with the barnyard cat and her baby kitties. This place is the real deal and is exactly what I always dreamed a farm would be like. Now that I have visited one I really, really want one. I am not sure who will work it for me, but I really, really want one.

Lillie makes a pretty cute farmer.

This is the oldest known breed of sheep. It is called a Jacob Sheep because it's genealogy dates back to the time of Jacob in the Old Testament.

Squeeze and Pull Lillie, Squeeze and Pull

Lillie visits the Fire Station

2009-11-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

Lillie's first field trip. The Fire Station is within walking distance of the school, but it still counts as a field trip.

Addie turns 2!!!

2009-11-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

Addie turned two on October 15th. I really can't believe she is two. Where does the time go. It feels a little weird I have always had another baby or one on the way when the youngest turned two, but not this time. Addie is still the baby for a little while longer. I feel like two will be a whole different experience this time around.

When I asked her what kind of a cake she wanted for her birthday she said "Cupcake?" and thanks to my dear friend Cortney and her giant cupcake cake mold Addie was able to have a big cupcake for her birthday. She loved it. She carried around the pan the whole day and then once I made the cake she just kept following me around saying, "my cupcake, my cupcake, eat my cupcake." She was too cute with the Happy Birthday song too. She kept singing "Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me" all day. I think Whit has a video of that on facebook, but it is beyond my technology abilities to get it from there to here so checkout Whit's facebook to see just how cute she was. She got some new clothes from mom and dad and a baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa Erickson. She was pretty excited about the baby.

No Addie it's not a good idea to gouge the babies eyes out. She really was just fascinated that they opened and closed.

Look at me. I'm a big girl now. I have meaning to post this picture forever, but kept forgetting. Addie started wearing big girl panties in September. She wanted to be potty trained long before that, but I wasn't ready. Earlier in the year she started telling me when she needed to go poop and then she would go poop on the party. I figured she must be ready, but I kept putting it off. She did really well. She was my easiest to train, but she has started having accidents again recently and so I feel like I am the one that is potty trained and not her. Oh well. Cleaning up her accidents is cheaper than buying diapers. She does pretty good at night. She had a week or so where she peed every night (I'm not sure what was up with that) but now seems to have that under control.

Addie really is a big girl. Two is such a fun age, but such a hard age at the same time. They are so sweet and I love watching them learn so much at this age, but they also start to develop their independence and that can be frustrating. Addie is very tender hearted and gets her feelings hurt easily. I think she may have picked up some drama from her three big sisters. She has learned to throw fits, but they are very short lived, which I think is adorable. She runs away and cries for a minute and then comes back as though nothing happened. Addie really loves her big sisters and copies everything they do. She wants to be big so bad and sometimes I think she will get there much sooner than I want her too. She really communicates well. I can understand most everything that she is trying to tell me, which is so nice. She is terrified of animals especially dogs. We had an experience with a couple of lost dogs that chased her and knocked her down and since then she freaks out whenever there is dog in the vicinity. Even when we are inside and she hears our neighbor's dog bark outside she says, "doggie scare me" It has carried over to cats too. It makes me so sad, but we are working on it and she will now go out back and play without me so that is a big step. Poor thing.

Addie is really into being in the kitchen with me and unfortunately I am not one of those mom's that love to cook with my kids. I get frustrated with them easily, but I am learning to let go a little. I have to with Addie. She wants to be right there whenever I am making something. Her favorite job is putting the chopped vegetables in the pot and cracking the eggs. It really is sweet.

I love you Addie and I can't wait to see what the second year of your little life brings.

Ward Campout

2009-11-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

Whitney have always wanted to be campers, but in North Carolina camping is so different from out West. You can only camp in the early Spring and late Fall or else it is too hot. We went one year up to the foothills for Memorial Day and we cooked in our tent. It is just harder to go when the girls are in school and you can only go for one night. Camping is so much work for one night, but since we were on the kick of making memories for our children, aka. the fair, we decided we would go to the ward campout. We went up to Hanging Rock campground, which is so beautiful and so close. We got there after dark so that was fun for Whitney. Putting up a borrowed tent with a flashlight was no easy task. Luckily Brother Snow came to the rescue and helped him out. Otherwise we may never have had a place to sleep. The big problem with tent however came later when we realized we had no rain fly. We weren't too worried since the sky was so clear, but one Brother insisted we take one of his tarps with us, just in case. And of course at about three in the morning we heard the rain. Whit got the tarp on, I felt bad making him do all the work, but I was pretty useless since I had forgotten my glasses and couldn't find where I had put my contacts. I did take Addie to the bathroom and got lost coming back. I thought I was heading in the right direction, but ended up in someone else's camp. That was a pretty scary feeling. Someday I will have lasik eye surgery:). But even with no sleep, camping is still pretty great. We did the full breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage on our little Colman stove, all in the rain. After we got packed up and ready to go we went for a little hike where there was a waterfall with a shallow pool and before we left all of the girls were swimming in the water with their clothes on. Making Memories!!!!

Salem Lake 10K

2009-11-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

This post is mostly for my personal record, but I ran the Salem Lake 10k on September 26th. This was my second year running it and last year I ran it in 1:06 and this year I ran it in 59 minutes. I really wanted to get my 10k under an hour so I was pretty excited about my time. I was sad that Kim and Marcia weren't there this year to run it with me. This run last year was really the start of our great running moments. Luckily, I have a new running friend, Christi that was doing it and encouraged me to do it too. It was pouring rain and freezing, but I always love runs out on Salem Lake.

Dixie Classic Fair

2009-10-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

For the people of Winston Salem the Dixie Classic Fair is as much a tradition as Christmas, but for the transplants from Idaho it is quite a dreaded experience. The best way to describe it (for those who know and understand) is to imagine the Eastern Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot, remember the smoke and food and dirt and crazy people, now imagine that and multiply it by 100 and that would be the Dixie Classic Fair. Scott was here visiting a couple of years ago and so we went during the day when it was a little less crazy (probably more like the Blackfoot Fair times 50) and I will never forget being in line for the carousel behind an 8 month pregnant woman pushing a two year old in a stroller, smoking a cigarette. I couldn't believe it. I know I live in cigarette country, but come on. Well after that experience I really had no desire to go back, and luckily we somehow managed to miss it last year, but the girls are now old enough that they realize that everyone in their class is going and they really, really, really wanted to go. Jaynie's girl scout troop also set up a booth and took first place so we had to go see that. Of course we caved and of course we had a great time. It was still loud and dirty and smokey, but just watching the girls faces light up at every turn was well worth it. Plus we got to watch a demolition derby and eat food that you can only eat at the fair. Things like candy covered apples (Lillie's treat of choice), cotton candy (Eliza's treat of choice), an elephant ear (Jaynie's treat of choice) and an ice cream cone for Addie only because she was screaming that she didn't have the candy covered apple. By the way I don't remember this at the Blackfoot fair, but did you know you can deep fry just about anything. They deep fry oreos, twinkies, candybars, all of this I have tried thanks to Mitch, but this year they introduced deep fried butter. They actually put a cube of butter on a stick cover it in batter and fry it. I know unbelievable right well I took a picture of the sign so that I would have proof and I actually talked to a woman at a weight watchers meeting of all places that ate it. The entire thing she said, except for the little piece of butter at the end of the stick that didn't get batter on it. Well at least she didn't eat that part right? I am pretty sure that is a heart attack waiting to happen.

Yes I live in the South!!!!

The animals were probably our favorite part of the whole fair. We saw horses that were a foot taller than me at their back. We also thought the 1200 pound pumpkin was pretty cool.

Jaynie wasn't tall enough for the bumper cars when we went two years ago so she was very excited to ride the bumper cars this year.

This is Jaynie's Brownie Booth that took first place.

All-A-Flutter

2009-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Jaynie's Brownie Troop was able to go to a butterfly farm in September. They were working on a bug badge. This place was so great. We got to go inside the Monarch Butterfly habitat and see them in all their stages. They had milkweed plants covered in eggs and tiny to big caterpillars and then you were surrounded by hundreds of beautiful butterflies. Jaynie could not have been more excited.

She wanted me to put a flower in her hair so that maybe a butterfly would land on it. Too cute!

This is a moth cocoon. The green girl represents the butterflies chrysalis. Moths make cocoons. Butterflies make chrysalis. There is your science lesson for the day.
After the farm their leader treated them to snow cones at a local honey festival. Each girl also got to bring home their own little jar of honey.

I wanna be like you....

2009-10-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

One night my girls decided they wanted to wear my t-shirts to bed (I am sure it was because all of their pj's were dirty, but I would never admit to that). Of course they had to take a picture to show everyone that they can be like mom. Eliza was especially excited that she got a running shirt and had to put on my running shoes and race around the house. Pretty cute girls.

YEE HAW!!!

2009-10-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

For playgroup I was able to take Eliza and Adeline to ride horses. They were both very excited and we dressed in our cowgirl best (cowgirl best for Eliza includes a skirt and cowboy boots) and headed out. Eliza loved the horses and I thought Adeline might too, because she seemed so excited. But once it was her turn to ride and we got near the horse she didn't want anything to do with it. Oh well Eliza had a blast.

Happy Birthday Eliza

2009-10-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

Eliza turned 4 on September 15th and she wanted to have a princess pajama party. So on the Saturday before her birthday she invited her best friend Raelyn over and we had Jane and Kate come down so Kim and Duane could go out and we had a pajama bash. The most exciting part of her birthday was her cake. Whit used to work with a girl who decorates cakes and she asked him to make a board for her and in exchange she would make a cake for one of the girls and Eliza was the lucky one with the next birthday. We told her what kind of party she was having and this is what she came up with. Isn't it adorable. Look closely and she even put hardwood floors and E's on the pillow cases. How cute is that.

For the party Eliza really wanted to roast marshmallows and make smore's but they were too interested in the Barbie princess movie to do and I didn't push it because they had already loaded up on the cake and it was close to bed time. But I couldn't disappoint her and not make smore's so for her actually birthday that was what we had for her birthday treat.

For her birthday Eliza got new dance clothes and two Cinderella dolls from Grandma. Eliza's passion for Cinderella has lasted over a year. She is still her favorite princess and she still loves all things blue. Luckily her phase of wearing only blue dresses has passed, but she still loves dresses and skirts and prefers them over anything else. She will wear leggings and long shirts so we are lucky that is in style. Jeans are pretty much out of the question unless we are going somewhere that I tell her she could get dirty like the fair and camping. When the girls started school I decided that Eliza needed a little something special since she wasn't going to school so I put her in dance class. Her friends Raelyn and Grace are in her same class and she loves it. When I found the blue dance outfit I just knew it was made for Eliza. She really is a princess. She still has her spit fire personality that although tries my patience often is really one of the reasons I love her so much. How can you not love my Eliza? She really has us wrapped around her pretty little finger just where she wants us. Eliza we hope you had a great birthday and we all love you so much.

Labor Day Weekend Beach Trip

2009-09-20T17:29:00.001-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend we decided that we really needed to go to the beach since we didn't go all summer. We did the day trip thing, which really wasn't that bad. Nine hours in the car for five hours at the beach is well worth it. This trip was probably the best trip we have had so far. All of the kids were old enough to really enjoy it. Jaynie and Lillie were really brave and went out and were jumping the waves. I was so proud of them. All in all it was a great day.

BUY OUR HOUSE

2009-09-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

It's for sale, we need someone to go ahead and buy it.
www.7347ridgecresttrail.blogspot.com

Sister Julie Beck in Asheville

2009-09-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Sister Julie Beck, the General Relief Society President for our church came to Asheville to speak and all the surrounding Stakes were invited to attend. Kim and her sister were going so I hitched a ride with them and we spent the day being spiritually fed and enjoying the beauty that Asheville has to offer.

Here is us on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am pretty lucky to live so close to such a beautiful place.

Listening to Sister Beck was so wonderful. She did it as a question/answer session. It just amazes me that someone would be so confident in the gospel that they would let people just ask her questions and them come up with the answers on the spot. She is such a spiritual giant, but because she is so down to earth you feel like you could actually be her. I wanted to record my notes here on my blog so I will always have them and then maybe someone else could benefit from her beautiful words as well.

Life Long Responsibilities of Women:

1-Increase faith and personal righteousness

2-Strengthen Family and Home

3-Provide Relief

Women's Role in the Plan:

-Earth was created for families to dwell

-Families need a mother and father

-Adam needed Eve, for her leadership

-The fall enabled the family to grow in experience and numbers

-You can't have the sealing power with out each other

-Men are the guardians of the priesthood keys

-Women have the responsibility of influence

How are we doing?

-We are doing well, but there is always more to be done.

Modesty

-Sometimes we can be the pornography-cover up

-It is our responsibility to help the brethren

-You cannot see into the temple, the curtains are closed

Through the covenants in the temple we are endowed with power beyond our imagination-the power of angles.

-Moroni 7: 26-30, 36, 37

-Our children need our Power more than ever!!!

-Don't trust that someone else will do it-teach them

Alma 48: 7,8,9-Three strategies for our homes

1-Prepare the minds of the people to be faithful-Teach

2-Strengthen the fort-Prepare and defend your home, don't let bad things in

3-Strengthen the weak spots, put the most work into the weak spots

Alma 50

-Plan your defence so you can be happy during the war

-Celebrate the Good, Defend against the Bad

What can you do when you've done all you can and it's not enough?

-Genesis 24

-Rebekah was pretty important in the Abrahamic Covenant

-She never took her eyes off the plan

-Teach and prepare like Rebekah

-Use the power of the temple

Quotes:

-This life is not the dream-This life is to prepare for the dream

-Some of us are sad because we don't have kids, Some of us are sad because we have so many, and some of us are sad because we have the wrong ones.

-If we center our Faith on the Savior we will be O.K.

-Get to know the gray haired ladies, they are a wealth of information

Quote by the Asheville Stake President:

-You either married your biggest trial in your life or you gave birth to it. (this came from a LDS marriage counselor)

First Day of School-August 25th, 2009

2009-09-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

The girls started school. I can't believe how fast the summer came and went. Lillie started Kindergarten and Jaynie started 2nd grade.

It was so much easier to have Lillie go to kindergarten than it was with Jaynie. Lillie was just so ready to go. I didn't worry one bit about her and because she has spent so much time at the school already and she knew right where to go and what to do. She was a little hesitant at the very last second because they did a staggered start so only 7 other kids were there and she was confused about where to sit, but she got over that quickly and she was off. She has Jaynie's same teacher, Mrs. Wuwert, which is helpful for me because I know what will be going on and what to expect.

I am having a hard time believing Jaynie is in 2nd grade. Can she really be that old? She is so grown up and was a super big help with her little sister. I guess Lillie was sad when Jaynie and Jane got on the bus after school because she sat there forever by herself, but Jaynie didn't hesitate for a second and sat down right next to her and comforted her all the way home. I hope Jaynie never gets too cool to help her younger sisters. Jaynie has Mrs. Sloop this year and we are lucky because she also goes to our church and she is an awesome teacher. Jaynie's big concern was that she would accidentally call Mrs. Sloop Sister Sloop in class. I told her she would probably answer to that too.

The first day of school also marked a first day for me too. Jaynie's kindergarten teacher approached me last spring with the idea of keeping her new baby for the school year, and after much thought and prayer I decided that I would do it. At the time I thought sure. Why not. I can do babies. I have done four. The baby will be 6 weeks when we start, so all she will do is eat and sleep. Addie's going to be two and I'm not pregnant, so why not. Not to mention it really felt right. Well I am starting to see the why nots. It has been pretty hard for me these last couple of weeks. The baby is adorable and I love her to death and I am glad to be helping a friend, but my life has had to change dramatically and I wasn't quite prepared for that. I guess when it's your baby you are totally prepared for that period of adjustment and you know it is going to be a little rough for a while. I am not sure how I forgot about that, but somehow I did. It is going to be o.k., but I have spent a lot of time mourning the gym and my clean house and the time I could be spending with Addie and Eliza. I just need a schedule and once we can get there I will be o.k. Eliza and Adeline love her and spend the time she isn't here asking when she is coming back. So it is good for them and the money is really needed right now, so I am done complaining. I am going to have faith that I can do this and I am going to start enjoying this new adventure.

Whit and His Bike

2009-09-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

Whit spent a lot of time riding his bike this summer. It is fun to see him so passionate about something. I just hope someday we can get me a bike so I can catch the fever too. Here is Whit riding in a crit race in August. Whit we love you and your girls will always be your biggest fans!!!

Summer at the Pool

2009-09-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Most of summer days in North Carolina are spent at the pool because it is too hot to do anything else. This summer was not any different. The girls have really become great swimmers. Lillie and Jaynie spend most of their time in the deep end jumping and swimming and going off the diving board and Eliza decided she didn't need floaties anymore and is actually swimming under the water. Addie became quite proficient with the floaties and loves to jump in and go under. It's amazing what one summer can bring. It just stinks that we basically start all over again next season, but hopefully the courage will remain.

Whit spent one night teaching the girls to dive and Lillie (the brave one) is now jumping off the diving board and Jaynie (the determined one) is still working on it. Here are some videos of them doing their thing.

Lillie's Turns 6

2009-09-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

On August 8th Lillie turned 6. She got a new bike for her birthday and instead of having a party she got to invite one friend to go with her and her sisters to the children's musuem where they were having an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party. They had a wonderful story teller telling the story of Alice in Wonderland and then they had a cute little fairy teaching them the proper manners they should have at a tea party.

Here is Lillie trying out her new big bike.

Lillie sporting the mad hatter hat at her table.

The Ladies sipping their tea properly.

These mad hats are going to be all the rage some day.

Lillie wanted to have a turtle cake so to make it go along with the Mad Hatter theme we gave him a Mad Hat.

After playing at the musuem for a while we treated the girls to McDonald's Happy Meals and we had cake and opened presents. This was my kind of party. Easy Peasy for mom!!! Lillie is so dramatic. With every present she opened it was like the best moment of her life.

Goodbye Marcia

2009-09-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Our Good friends the Praono Stevens family moved just shortly after we got back from Idaho. We miss them dearly. It is hard to make such good friends just to have them leave. I know that is why we are still in North Carolina-Good Friends become Family when family isn't near. Marcia was like a sister to me and she made me think I could do crazy things like run marathons and wear bikinis (Shh don't tell my mom) and guess what I discovered I can. Thanks Marcia. I love you.

As a goodbye celebration (for lack of a better word) we had a girls day. The day started with Kim, Marcia, and myself getting up for our traditional morning run. Then at 11:00 Kim and I got a babysitter and we rode our bikes to a cute little coffee shop in downtown Lewisville to get frozen lemonade and then to the pool. Cortney met us there. I tried to convince her that being 8 weeks pregnant was no excuse to not ride with us, but she just laughed in my face. After relaxing and laughing at the pool we went out to eat at a great restaurant that featured fancy Southern Cuisine. Yummy!!! Then we had a spa night at Cortney's parent's pool house. It was a crazy fun night.

We also had a chance to get all the kids together for a fun photo shoot before they left. It was a ton of fun and we got some really cute pictures. Here is the whole gang striking what I am sure is to be the newest fashion model pose: Sarp, Emilia, Addie, Eliza, Kate, Carmen, Lillie, Jane, and Jaynie. Sarp is one lucky guy.

Here We Have Idaho

2009-09-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

Just four days after getting school over with the girls and I were able to fly out to Idaho and stay for nearly a whole month. June 16th through July 15th. The crazy thing was that it wasn't long enough. I just can't get enough of Idaho in the summer. There are so many pictures and events to post and it take me a little while to get it all on here, but I promise the pictures will be here eventually.

Last Day of School

2009-09-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

The last day of school finally arrived on June 12th. To celebrate Lillie, Eliza and I decided to paint the car in bright colors to tell Jaynie and Jane how proud we were of them. Lillie and Eliza had tons of fun doing it and Jaynie and Jane loved seeing the car pulling up in the car rider line. I think they felt pretty cool.

Lillie Looses a Tooth

2009-06-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Lillie lost her first tooth on May 26th. It was crazy to have my first child old enough to lose a tooth, but now to have my second child loosing teeth makes me feel really old. Lillie loved having a loose tooth and loves it even more now that she is a toothless wonder. She now keeps a very close eye on her other teeth, just waiting for them to loosen up.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-06-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day we decided to have a "Camp In". The girls got out their sleeping bags and we told ghost stories (the girls told some pretty scary ones:), and we roasted marshmallows in the fire place and made smores.

On Memorial Day we went up to the mountains. We went to a great park in Valle Cruisis (our favorite spot in North Carolina) to eat lunch and of course we visited the Mast General Store where we loaded up on 10 pounds of candy and I got some sweet new Keens. I always end up getting new shoes when we go to that store. Lucky Me!!

Sipping Soda's on the porch of the Mast General Store

Strawberry Picking

2009-06-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do in North Carolina is go and pick fresh fruit. Strawberries and Blueberries are our favorites. The month of May brought about Strawberry picking season so a strawberry picking we went. Kim and I decided to go after school one day so Jaynie and Jane could go with us and I thought it would take us forever, but I was amazed at how fast we filled five gallon sized buckets with strawberries. I guess it's true what they say, "many hands makes work light."

The fruits of our labors.

Yummy Freezer Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Pie

Strawberry Shortcake

Plus we have lots of frozen strawberries for shakes!! Gotta love strawberries!

Playing in the Rain

2009-06-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

We have had a really wet spring here in North Carolina and finding enough indoor activities for four kids can get pretty hard after a while, so on several occasions we decided to just play out in the rain. It is now one of the girls favorite things to do. Addie especially loves puddles, which can be a challenge when we are not supposed to be playing in the rain, like on Sunday morning.

The Life of a Butterfly (or moth in our case)

2009-06-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

This spring the girls were constantly finding caterpillars and wanting to keep them in jars. I hate to do this because they always die and we never get to see them turn into a butterfly, but I told them they could keep just one. Luckily this time we got to watch the whole life cycle. We watched him make his cocoon and then the day I decided that he must be dead inside there He came out. We put his jar on the table out back so that he could fly away. Lillie tried to help him out and probably hurt his wings because he never really flew away. He hung out on the table for a long time and then who knows what happened to him. The girls are sure he flew away eventually. Jaynie our super smart first grader said his wings have to dry for a really long time before they fly away, so maybe. I guess this science lesson paid off.

The brown blog is our moth. In the Jar you can kind of see his cocoon. He was apparently a tent caterpillar.

The Marathon

2009-05-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

O.K. so here it is. My marathon story. I want to start this post by saying that this marathon was really hard and to me only compares to being in labor. What an experience. I was really prepared. I had done the training and done really well through all my long runs, but nothing could prepare me for the mental struggle I experienced in this marathon. My body may have been ready, but my mind was not. My mind got the best of me from the very beginning. Jaynie was up all night throwing up and I had a horrible stomach (I attribute this to the food, but who knows because just Jaynie and I were sick) so I just knew I was going to have a bad run and I did. I think with a Marathon you have to go in to it with a positive attitude and for all of the training I had a great attitude, but I woke up that morning with a negative attitude and I think it really affected me. Anyway I started out pretty good, but because of my stomach ache I wasn't drinking my accelerade (a glorified gatorate) and I tried the gatorade they were offering, which I think made it worse, one because it was so sweet and two because that wasn't what I was used to. I knew better, obviously race day was not the time to try something new!! Then at mile 8 I stopped to go to the bathroom to see if that would help my stomach, but of course I couldn't go and after that I just couldn't really get in a groove. I felt really sluggish and at mile 14 there was a huge hill and I actually had to walk up it. I had never had to walk up a hill in all of my training and here again the mental struggle came into play. I started questioning, What in the world as I doing. What am I trying to prove? Who cares if I run a marathon? I watched my buddy Marcia get up the hill and keep going and I thought, "I'm done. There is no way I can finish anywhere close to where I wanted to so why bother." You can see why going on would be a little difficult, but I also knew I would see Whit, my girls, Mom and Dad, and Kim soon and I didn't want to give up because of them. So I kept going, but at this point my stomach was really bothering me. **Warning!! This story is probably going to get a little graphic so if you get queasy easily don't read on. At the water station at mile 14 I tried to go to the bathroom again, and again no luck. Then just before the next water station I tried to take another gu (a really disgusting substance that you squeeze into your mouth that is supposed to give you a quick boost of energy). Gu is really horrible to take on a normal stomach, but as I discovered if you have an upset stomach it is extra horrible. Needless to say the gu came right back up. Right on someones front lawn. Now I have done my fair share of throwing up. In fact after four pregnancies I feel like I have made it a skill, but this was the worst thing I have ever experienced. In fact afterwards the only thing I could compare the pain in my stomach to was the contractions during labor. I doubled over on the ground and a man right behind me asked if he should get someone. I hurt so bad that I just said, "yes, please send someone to help me." Luckily I was able to lay flat and stretch out my stomach and by the time the EMT's got to me, I felt a lot better. I was just really discouraged. That had cost me a lot of time and I did not want that to happen again. I really didn't know what to do. The EMT's were really "encouraging" saying things like, "you have done a great job to make it this far, no one will think less of you if you stop now." Yeah that's just what I wanted to hear. I decided I would keep going until I found Whit and then decide. Luckily he was just about half a mile up the road. When everyone saw me this time, they were pretty worried. I guess I looked pretty bad, plus as soon as I saw Whit I started bawling. I gave him some of my bottles from my fuel belt so it wasn't so heavy and decided to keep going. I was walking a lot at this point, I just couldn't make myself go. I was really dragging and I knew I needed some nourishment, so stupidly I tried taking a gu again at the mile 18.9 water stop. All I had to do was put the gu in my mouth and I threw up again. This time the stomach cramps made the first cramps feel like a walk in the park. I really thought I might pass out. It hurt so bad. My EMT friends had been worried about me since the first time I threw up so they were slowly following me on their bikes, so they ran to me again and of course this time they were a little more persistent about me stopping. Again I laid flat and stretched my stomach and felt better, At this point I wasn't sure what to do. I knew I was getting super dehydrated because all of my fluid had come back up, but I also knew I couldn't stop. I didn't put in all this time and do all this work to have nothing to show for it. I decided again to get to Whit and see. My EMT friends stayed close and on I went. Whit was at mile 19 in the car. I really wanted to get in the car. Whit was awesome he just said, "I will support you in whatever you decide, but I know you can do this." That was exactly what I needed to hear so I went on. The next two miles were really lonely. There was a point where I couldn't see anyone in front of me or behind me. I was convinced that I was going to finish this thing dead last, but I finally realized I was going to finish. I was really, really dragging though and I was worried I was going to get really dehydrated if I just kept drinking water, so finally I wised up and started drinking my accelerade. Just little sips because I didn't want to throw up again, but it was enough. I finally started feeling myself pick up and I was able to run to each water station. They were about a mile apart at this point and I just kept telling myself. Just run to the next station and then you can walk and drink some water, so I did. I was feeling really good. I had caught up to all the people that had passed me when I was throwing up and by mile 23 I had passed those people. My fans were at mile 23 and I think they were very glad to see me a little more perky. Here they told me I wasn't very far behind Kim and Marcia and I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what had happened to them, but I was pretty excited because I was sure they would have already finished. At mile 24 I saw them at the bottom of a hill and I just started bawling again. I couldn't believe that we were going to finish this thing together. When I got to them Kim was in really bad shape. She had thrown up as well and had just let herself get really dehydrated. She was pretty delirious and walking. When I got to her I tried to get her to run, but she would get really dizzy when she would so we walked. She had to lay down a couple of times and the EMT's really wanted to take her to the Medical tents, but Marcia and I wouldn't let them. We knew she would want to finish. In hind sight that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but we knew if we were her we would want to go on, so we were going to carry her if we had to. There was a point when Kim had one arm around Marcia and one arm around me, but we got her to the end. When we had about a quarter of a mile to the finish we dumped some water on Kim's head and we decided to run. Kim took off and it was all I could do to keep up with her, but it was a pretty awesome feeling to finish all together. We started this journey together. Why not finish it together?

Before

Mile 11

Mile 23

I had the best supporters ever!!!

My Girls finishing with me

My time-an hour later than I hoped for, but at least I finished. Maybe next time.

Thanks Mom, Dad, and Kim. Having you there is what got me to the finish line!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

2009-05-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Mom's Birthday was May 1st, the day after Jaynie's so we started the celebration with a birthday dinner on the 30th. We went to a great restaurant and had great food. On Mom's birthday Kim, Mom, and I went out and got pedicures. I know someone took pictures of this. Mom? Kim? If you have them send them my way so I can post them. Then we came home and made a yummy dinner. This was the night before the marathon so we ate in. Unfortunately I tried something new and fancy, which turned out to be a not so great idea for the marathon, but it was a really great dinner. I felt pretty bad, because I was so focused on the marathon that it turned out to be a pretty boring day for mom, but I think we made the best of it. We watched a really funny movie called Run, Fat boy, Run in honor of the marathon. I only watched part of it and then left everyone else to finish while I went to bed. I realized the next day that we didn't even have cake or sing to mom or anything. What a great daughter I am. I hate realizing my selfish moments, but this definitely was one of them. Sorry Mom, but know that I love you and it was a great privilege to be able to spend your birthday with you.

Happy Birthday Jaynie

2009-05-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

Amid all the craziness of company and preparing for a marathon we had Jaynie's birthday party on her birthday, April 30th. Jaynie had had her party all planned ever since Grandma and Grandpa Gifford's visit in February. Grandpa would tell the girls Fairy Tales, but mix up all the names. The girls thought it was hilarious and Jaynie had the idea of putting on a play with the mixed up tales. We asked Grandpa Gifford if he would be willing to write it and he did. We added a little for extra parts, but what came of it was adorable. Jaynie invited 10 of her friends and there were 12 parts. Rittle Led Hiding Rood, Mother, Wolf, Rindercella, Tortoise and the Hare, Princess Pea, Parunzel, The three little pigs and of course Mandgrother. I hope to one day figure out how to download video from my video camera so that everyone can see the final production, but for now still pictures will have to do. For the party we painted the background scene of the forest with our hands, had cake and ice cream, opened gifts, picked parts (thanks to Jaynie's Brownie leader for teaching me the best way to do this without hurt feelings-there could only be three princesses) and practice, practice, practice. We put the play on for the mom's at the end of the party. The girls really got into their parts and amazingly remembered lines (or at least the gist of their lines) It really turned out better than I expected. Luckily I had Mom, Kim, and Dad here or I would never have been able to pull it off. Thanks you guys are the best!!

For our scenery I had the girls create flowers using their hands. I thought it turned out pretty cute and was a great art project for the party. Just a little tip for those who ever need long rolls of paper. Call your local newspaper and ask if they sell roll ends. Mom gave me this tip and the people at the newspaper knew just what we wanted and for $5 I got two huge rolls of paper. By the way if you live near me don't call the newspaper-I would love to share mine with you.

Here we have our Rittle Led Hiding Hood (Jaynie) and our mother.

Our Tortoise and the Hare racing to see who can grow hair the fastest. (Mom put all the costumes together. Thanks mom. The tortoise was pretty creative)

Rindercella finding her lost shoe under Princess Peas lumpy mattress.

Parunzel coming out of her tower to give her hair to our slow hair growing tortoise.

Our disgruntled three little pigs, Pigsy, Piggly, and Pigwy, in search of that nasty big bad wolf.

And of course our big bad wolf who turned out to be not so big and bad. Lillie did a wonderful job as the wolf, except for her brief disappearance for a potty break.

And finally Eliza as Grandma!!

Take a bow girls-You did an awesome job!!!

Happy birthday Jaynie!! I love you so much and am so proud of how wonderful you are. Thanks for being such a big helper to me and your dad and for being such a great big sister. Your younger sisters really look up to you and will always want to follow in your footsteps. You are such a wonderful example for them to follow.

A visit from Mom and Dad and "Suprise" Kim too!!

2009-05-24T12:28:00.001-07:00

Mom and Dad came to visit at the end of April. They scheduled their trip so they could be here for my marathon and for Jaynie's and mom's birthday. I was so excited to have mom and dad here for my marathon. It meant a lot that they would want to be here for it. But there is even more to the story.

I picked mom and dad up at the airport on Wednesday evening and as I was driving down there Dad called to tell me they had landed, but that they would be a minute because he had left his wallet on their first flight and so he needed my address so they could bring it to him the next morning. When I got there to pick them up dad said they put it on a flight that came in at 5:00, which was in about an hour, and he wanted to wait rather than get it in the morning. I was thinking come on Dad you can live without it until the morning, but of course I said no problem and we went and found a little outlet mall not far from the airport to get out and walk around. While we were in the mall Dad got a phone call from the airport saying that the plane had landed and that someone would be walking it down to baggage claim waiting for him to pick it up. So we headed back to the airport to the baggage claim and guess who was waiting at the curb-not some official looking airport guy with my dad's wallet, but my sister Kim. I saw her, but didn't put it together right away. Mom actually had to say "Who is that" and then it hit me. I was in shock. I just kept saying, "you guys are lying to me." Dad had to remind me that I need to stop the car and pick her up. So I pulled over trying to see through my tears and got out of the car as fast as I could. Writing this is making me cry all over again. I ran to her and hugged her and at this point I think her, mom and I were all in tears. It was a surreal moment. One that I will never forget. I only wish Whit would have been able to be there. Because Whit, my husband who is terrible with surprises, had put together this whole little scheme. He got his dad to put Kim's ticket on his credit card and didn't tell anyone, but Kim and Sean, about it until the day before Mom and Dad came out. He only told Mom and Dad because he needed their help with the surprise. Whit came up with the whole forgot my wallet routine, which Dad played out flawlessly. I was totally convinced. So not only did I get to have mom and dad here, but Kim as well. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Thanks Whit. You are going to have a hard time topping this one. I love you more than anything.

A Boy's Weekend

2009-05-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend of April 25th, Whit was able to go to Denver to hang out with his good friends from High School. Zack Sutton, Val Dalling, and Kevin Schiess met Whit there and they stayed at Owen Eames house for the weekend. They played a lot of golf and went to two baseball games to watch the Colorado Rockies play. Whit had a great time and I was so glad that he was able to go and relax for a couple of days. He really never gets to do things just for himself.

Girl Scout Camporee

2009-05-24T11:39:00.001-07:00

On April 17th and 18th Jaynie and I went to a big camporee at Camp Keyauwee, a local girl scout camp. We had a blast. I have to say I was hesitant to spend the night with 20 6 year olds, but it turned out to be a really great experience. It reminded me so much of girls camp growing up. I like that Jaynie gets to have such fun experiences at such a young age. I am glad I was there with her to enjoy it. I wouldn't have wanted her there without me.

We got to stay in the bunk house. Here is Jaynie reading in her PJ's on the top bunk.

The next morning was full of activities. We got to go paddle boating and Jane and Jaynie did a great job in the boat. I got to go out with another girl that was scared and lets just say paddle boating is hard work especially when you are the only one paddling. I am glad no one took a picture of me in my life jacket and my boat almost tipping over from the uneven weight distribution of me and the 6 year old.

The girls were able to tie die shirts. Jaynie's shirt is the orange and purple one in the middle.

The theme for the camporee was A Blast from the Past: The 60's, 70's and 80's and on Saturday night they had a big disco dance. The girls loved it and even after a long day really got out on the dance floor and boogied. Jaynie went for the 80's look, inspired by the new jelly shoes that she got for Easter. Luckily we were able to just pull stuff right out of her wardrobe. Scary!!

After camp her troop had an awards ceremony where they received all of the badges (try-its) that they have earned this year. Jaynie received seven badges for her vest.

Happy Easter

2009-04-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year. I decided to make the girls Easter dresses and I started early enough that I thought I wouldn't have to be stressed at the last minute. But of course I was up late putting the last zipper in the dress on Saturday night. I think they turned out pretty cute as long as you don't look very close. I had never tried Addie's on her because she was always sleeping when I was sewing so when I put it on her Easter morning it was to the floor. The bottom two inches of her dress were wet and grassed covered when we got into the church building because she walked through the wet grass. Oh well.

We had a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday afternoon that was a lot of fun. The girls did a great job finding eggs. Addie would find an egg and have to open it and eat the candy before she would move on to the next egg. Needless to say she ate a lot of candy really fast. We also did a little egg hunt around our house, but the eggs were filled with items that represented the last few days of the Saviors life. Addie was pretty upset that those eggs didn't have candy and she tried to eat a little piece of soap that was in one. The girls also died eggs and we of course ate deviled eggs for dinner with pork chops and potatoes and the girls begged me to make rolls so I decided to break my tradition of easy Sunday dinners, but only because it was Easter.

The Easter Bunny did find the girls on Sunday morning. They each got jelly shoes that they are wearing with their new dresses, a littlest pet shop, a chocolate bunny, and way too much candy. I am going to have to talk to the Easter Bunny next year about the candy, because I am the one who ate it all.

I love Easter so much because I think it is a great time to reflect and think about all the Savior did for us. I found a wonderful article as I was preparing for my lesson by Elder Wirthlin titled Sunday Will Come. He spoke of how the Friday before the resurrection when the Savior was crucified was probably the darkest Friday in history, but then Sunday came and everything was better. The hurt and the pain and the sorrow that everyone felt was gone as soon as they recognized that the Savior had come to life again. In his talk Elder Wirthlin promises that even on our darkest Friday's we can have faith and hope that our Sunday will come because of the sacrifices our Savior made for us. I thought it was such a wonderful way to look at Easter. Easter is a celebration of faith and hope.

Adeline's growing up

2009-04-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Adeline is growing up too fast. She is not a little baby anymore. She is climbing all over everything and her vocabulary grows everyday. I am amazed at how well she communicates with me. With the other girls there was that long period of time when they were trying to tell me what they wanted but couldn't say the words so they would just scream. Addie still does that on occasion, but for the most part she can tell me what she wants with gestures or words. Maybe she is just easier to please than the other girls, but the guessing game is so much easier this go round.

Mom's big helper

2009-04-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

The other day Eliza, yes I said Eliza, decided to help mom out and made my bed. She won't make her own bed without a huge fuss, but I thought it was pretty sweet of her to want to help mom.

Jaynie's South Korean Fan Dance

2009-04-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Jaynie's Brownie troop spent some time studying about girl scouts in South Korea and even earned a badge that they earn. As part of the big event they made paper fans and did a little fan dancing. It was pretty cute. Notice they are all in green, yes it was on St. Patrick's day. Jaynie is in the front in the blue and green striped shirt.

The rest of us wore green too, I just forgot to take a picture.

Lillie's St. Patrick's Day Parade

2009-04-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Lillie loved St. Patrick's Day at school. They make a really big deal of it. A leprechaun comes and trashes their room and leaves behind a big pot of gold (Rollo's). Notice her cute pose. I think she adds extra drama around the boys :).

The Power of Prayer and the Faith of a Child

2009-04-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the girls and I had a wonderful prayer experience. It is spring break right now for the girls and all it has done the whole time is rain so we have been stuck inside, but the one thing we had planned was to go swimming at a local indoor pool yesterday morning. We had a set time that we had to be there and we were doing great on time (which is very unusual for me) but as we were walking out the door I couldn't find the car keys. According to the girls Addie had had them earlier so who knows where they could be. We all got frantic. The girls were racing around looking, I was bawling because the girls had been so excited all morning and I just knew we were going to miss it. After about 10 minutes of searching everywhere I was able to calm myself down and I asked the girls if they thought we should say a prayer to Heavenly Father and ask Him to help us find them. So Jaynie said a prayer and we started looking again. I went back into my bedroom and got down on the floor to go through some piles of laundry and I looked over and saw the keys hidden underneath my rocking chair. We ran out to the car and once everyone was buckled in and we were ready to go I asked Lillie to say a prayer of Thanks. It was actually a really cute prayer that had a little bit of her Methodist Preschool flare. She said Dear Heavenly Father, (pause) Thank you Jesus for helping us find the car keys.

I know this seems like such a simple thing, but for my children and me yesterday it was huge testimony builder. I know and my children know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. We know that He is there for us when we need Him. I am so grateful for experiences like this that remind us of His presence in our lives and remind us that we do need to rely on Him in all things. The best part about this experience was the wonderful conversation we were able to have all the way to the pool. I hope this is a moment in time that my children never forget.

Running 16 miles in the rain

2009-03-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

As my running partners and I were running our 16 miles yesterday in the 38 degree rain, the discussion came up about whether or not we can call ourselves runners now. I have always said I don't run I jog, but after yesterday I feel like I can officially call myself a runner. When I got out of bed at 6:15 a.m. and it was pouring rain, just like the weather predicted, running was the very last thing I wanted to do. Especially 16 miles, but my training schedule said I had to run 16 miles so I ate my oatmeal, layered on the clothes, put on my old running shoes, and headed out the door. The rain never let up, but with good company and good conversation it was actually quite fun. I didn't really notice how cold I was until I was finished and walking home and I tried to wave to a neighbor and my fingers wouldn't bend because they were so cold. My legs literally felt like frozen popsicles. I was moving them, but couldn't feel them, which was probably a good thing at the end of 16 miles. So after running on a day like yesterday I think I have earned the right to call myself a runner!!

Why I should learn to just stay out of the kitchen

2009-03-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

No these are not chocolate cookies-they are snicker doodles after about an hour in the oven. We are lucky we still have a house.

I am the first to admit that I am not a wonderful cook. I have my basic things that I make and I stick to them because I don't like complicated recipes and I have a hard time cooking multiple things at once and I often get sidetracked and over cook the pasta or burn this, that or the other, but as far as baking is concerned I have always been pretty good at it and I have always enjoyed it. I mean how bad can you mess up a batch of cookies right? Well as you can see from the above picture you can really mess them up if you try hard enough.

As I said in my previous post we had beautiful 70 degree weather last weekend and the kids were all playing outside. When we go outside in our neighborhood the kids tend to flock to each other and they all ended up in our backyard, parents included. So everyone was outside enjoying the weather and the company and I was inside finishing up a batch of cookies to bring out and share with everyone. The timer went off and they weren't quite done so I left them in the oven without resetting the timer and that was the end of those cookies. Someone needed me outside and the cookies sat in the oven for about an hour. Our house smelled like burnt cookies for the next couple of days, but luckily that was the worst of it.

Our Last Snow Day-Hopefully

2009-03-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong. I truly do love it when it snows in North Carolina, but for every day of school missed for snow the kids have to make it up. We already have two less days of spring break and two less days of summer vacation. If we have another snow day we will run into our Idaho vacation.

However, as far as snow days go this one was the best. On Monday March 2nd, we woke up to about 4 inches of snow. Enough to go sledding. Yeah!!! We started on our neighbors backyard hill, but that was not challenging enough so we headed off into a new area of our neighborhood where they have a huge hill. All of the girls, except Addie, went down it and loved it. Just watching them scared me to death. I was sure someone was going to get hurt. Eliza looked terrified going down, but kept begging to go so I guess it wasn't scary enough. Crazy, Crazy kids.

Not only did we miss school Monday, but they also called school off on Tuesday and had a two hour delay on Wednesday. Seriously people it's just snow. Then in true North Carolina fashion the weekend weather was in the high 70's. I guess you could say our March came in like a lion this year. Let's just hope it goes out like a lamb!!

Sleeping with Curlers

2009-03-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

A while back I bought some of the sponge curlers like the ones I remember my mom making me sleep in on Saturday nights. I wanted to try them on my girls hair for Sundays. Ever since then Jaynie has asked me several times to put the curlers in her hair, but time has never permitted. Well last night we had some extra time after baths so I thought lets put in curlers. Let me tell you this is no easy task with four girls. Lillie and Eliza were not about to go to bed without curlers in their hair so I had to do every ones. Even Adeline had to have a curler. Jaynie's was pretty easy, but Lillie and Eliza both have shorter hair so it was a little more difficult to get the hair in. I also used all the bigger ones on Jaynie's head, so I was left with the littler ones for the younger two. We got it done though and they all went to bed with curlers in their hair. Amazingly they woke up with all of the curlers still in tact. With the exception of Adeline of course. Hers lasted about 30 seconds. Jaynies turned out great. I only had to do a little bit of touch up with the curling iron. Eliza and Lillie on the other hand were another story. Apparently the smaller the curler the tighter the curl so Lillie and Eliza both had these really tiny tight curls right next to their head. It took some major reconstructing, but I think the end result was pretty cute.

My Lovable Lillie

2009-03-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

Lillie has been full of quotable quotes lately. I wanted to get some of them down before I forgot about them.

The other day Lillie was sitting at the table and coughed. Here is the conversation that followed. (Warning this is not for those with a weak stomach.)

Lillie: Mom I know why I cough sometimes.
Mom: Why do you cough Lillie?
Lillie: Because I like to eat my boogers and when they go in my throat they turn to slime and I have to cough them up.
Mom: Lillie that's gross. You shouldn't eat your boogers.
Lillie: But they taste good.

I warned you. Pretty disgusting, but pretty cute. Leave it to Lillie to not be bothered at all by boogers.

Then last Monday during FHE Lillie started crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I don't want to grow up and not live with you anymore. I will miss you." I am not sure what brought it up, but it lead into a great discussion about Eternal Families. I didn't want her to be sad, but it was cute that she would miss me.

Finally here is Lillie performing a song that she learned at preschool. I hope you enjoyed getting a dose of my very lovable Lillie.

So I am running a Marathon

2009-02-25T12:42:00.001-08:00

I never thought I would actually say those words, but it is official. I am running the High Point, NC Marathon on May 2nd. It still makes me nervous to say those words. I have played with the idea of doing one ever since my half marathon, but I couldn't find a good one that was close enough or soon soon enough. I really wanted to do the Teton Dam Marathon but the timing isn't going to work out this year. Luckily a friend of a friend found out about this one in High Point and everything just fell into place. The timing is perfect and it is just a half hour away so we don't have to spend money on lodging. My two running buddies from that half decided they were in too and that was that. We started our training with just 11 weeks before the race so our first big run was 10 miles, but it went really well. I was afraid I had lost everything from my half training over the holidays, but luckily my legs still remembered how to run long distances. We did 12 last week and felt great. It is really funny, but when I was training for the half the 10 and 12 mile runs about killed me, but when you run 12 knowing you are only half way there it seems much easier. It's all about perspective I guess.

The most exciting part of my training is my Valentine's Day present. Whit took his birthday money and bought me a Garmin Forerunner 305 (obviously he didn't buy it just for me :). For those of you that run, you have to buy this thing-TODAY!!! It will change your life. I took it out on our 12 mile run and it told me the pace I was currently running at and my average pace as well as the distance. After my run I came home and plugged it into the computer and it tracked my route and told me how fast I ran each mile and tracked my elevation. It even told me what the temperature and wind chill was. I don't think anyone should run without one of these babies. Seriously if you are a runner check it out!!