Breakfast with Santa!

Some of us like Santa more than others!

Dax is 1!!!

This sweet baby has brought so much happiness to our family over the last year. He is as sweet as they come and he has all of us wrapped around his little finger.

Parenting at its BEST!!

All 1 year olds should be able to play MarioCart right when they wake up from their naps!!!

Reflections...School Level

I know that these are awful pictures but they just make me laugh! Poor little Easton. All three of these fine children entered the Reflections program at their school. They enter because it is a requirement for the Soaring Eagle Award. (A special little program their school does to honor the kids that go above and beyond what is expected.) Hailey and Coleton both wrote poems and Easton painted a picture of him climbing a mountain. (It is a lovely picture!) The theme this year was Believe, Dream, Inspire...or something to that effect. Both Hailey and Coleton moved on to the Council level but Easton didn't and he was heart broken. They both got trophies and he did not. I felt so bad for him! It is tough to be a little brother!!!

Principles Pride...Hailey

Coleton Earned his Wolf

Coleton earned his wolf! He also earned 4 arrow points. Way to go cute Coleton!

Saltair Half Marathon

I ran this half on November 16, 2013...two weeks after Snow Canyon. I ran it with some friends. The weather was awful! It was freezing and it rained...freezing cold rain!!! This course was right by the Great Salt Lake so it was very flat. I started out way too fast and was dead by the end. I finished 54 overall (out of 253). In my age division I came in 4th...the 3 friends I ran with beat me. :) All in all I learned not to start out so fast on a flat course. I will chalk this one up to a learning experience!!!!

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

This past weekend we enjoyed St George with some of my family. My sister, brother and I all ran the Snow Canyon Half. It was a beautiful course and a super fun race. It was fun training and running with family. A year ago I never would have guessed that we would run a half together but I am so glad that we did. The kids had fun swimming at the hotel after the race and John enjoyed the afternoon golfing. The weather was gorgeous!!! I was hoping to run this race with an average 8 minute mile. Chet and I made it just under that with an average of 7.54 min miles, so I felt happy about that. Chet on the other hand is determined to run a half closer to 7 min miles. Good luck to him! I am not as ambitious!

John had all 4 kids ready to go for the day and met us at mile 4. It was so fun to see my family and give the kids a quick squeeze! I thought I would be a bit cold during the race so I chose to wear my light jacket. It turned out that I was super warm so i quickly took off my jacket and repined my number on. I was so happy for Hailey's help! She made sure to grab my gloves and jacket for me. As I was making the quick change, John saw the 1.45 min pacers coming. He yelled, "hurry up, here come your pacers! run, run, run!!!" (I love his teasing!) I had to run super speed to catch my brother after my little stop! Luckily, mile 5 was seriously down hill. My family surprised us at about mile 10 i think. It made me smile to see them! As we made a turn at the end of the race I saw my car making its way to the finish line. It made me smile again. My mom and dad were standing just before we entered the track and I knew we were almost finished. I really did like the distance of a half marathon. I didn't feel like I was going to die..until the next day when I got out of bed and tried to walk..that was a little rough but all in all it was worth it!

Halloween

Some of our Halloween Festivities....

Principals Pride

In September, Coleton earned the "Principal's Pride Award " for being enthusiastic about learning. His teacher said he shares wonderful thoughts and ideas and that his eagerness is catchy! That is a good way to sum up Coleton. He is such a fun little person to have around all of the time!

Pinewood Derby

In September, Coleton participated in his first Pinewood Derby. It was a learning experience for all of us, but thankfully my brother helped us and hooked us up with all the tricks. (Well not ALL I am sure but some tricks)Coleton had fun. He named his car "Orange Crush." His car did well. I loved watching all the 8 year olds cheering for each other! They are sure a cute bunch of boys!!

Back to School

The 3 oldest kids are back to school and little Dax FINALLY gets to have a nap schedule! Hailey is in 6th grade, Coleton in 3rd and Easton started kindergarten. They are all loving their teachers and loving school.

I miss them but I am not going to lie, it has been nice to start getting caught up on my to do list...and HALLELUJAH I can now mark "update blog" off of my list!

Fathers and Sons

John braved Fathers and Sons with Easton and Coleton. They had fun. The boys love this kind of stuff. Hailey had a swim team party so we didn't get to have any girl fun until after the boys got home on Saturday. We left the baby with the boys and saw Sea of Monsters. Hailey loves the Percy Jackson books so she was excited to see the movie.

Snowbird

We spent a few nights in August at Snowbird with John's family. It was so nice to get away for a few days. We spent one day doing all the activities they have up there during the summer. We all loved it. Easton was hilarious. While I was waiting in line with the two oldest kids, John had Easton and the baby. Easton was getting bored so John told him to go play in the snow cone shack that wasn't being used. Easton started to pretend that he was selling snow cones. It was so funny because random people would stop and pretend to buy snow cones from him. One person pretended to hand Easton $1.00 and Easton got all serious. He said, "Look at the sign, these are $2.00." Another person would order a flavor and Easton kept telling the guy, "sorry, we are all out of that flavor." Finally, the guy chose a flavor that Easton had. Funny kid! The second day we were there we hiked to Cecret Lake. This is one of John's favorite places to hike and an easy hike for the kids.