a quiet afternoon of checkers...

the other day rita and i had a meeting with sam's club to talk about sponsorship for girls on the run and she brought ada over for aaron to watch while we were gone. this was the scene when we left - they play so cute together!!


it takes quite a bit for dallin to sit down and do anything for long...Y

blue eyes...

thought this was a cute one of the tan-man. my baby is growing up too fast! (he has now figured out how to push the kitchen chairs to get anything his little heart desires - which is usually knives or something else dangerous or messy...) he is also an expert now about throwing fits (the flopping-all-over-the-floor-like-a-fish and screaming like a banshee tantrums.) on the flip side, he is a great bear-hugger and gives the cutest little kisses!Y

25 random things about me...

i got this tag off of facebook and similar ones through blogger, and like colleen, i thought i would post it in both places.

1. i was born 10 days late (the day after Christmas) with my ear squished against my head and my foot squished up against my shin - when it took a couple days for me to relax a little, my parents thought i was going to have some issues...

2. i'm obssessed with stephenie meyer and her twilight world...(vampires are real, right? when i grow up i want to be bella - postpartum.)

3. we're soooooo done having kids. (though i love the ones we have dearly and absolutely adore being a mom!!!)

4. i can say the abc's backwards - almost faster than i can say them forwards.

5. i almost always type without capitalizing because it's quicker (my mom said that i was very impatient, even as a baby and have been that way all my life. maybe that's why i've been blessed with 4 kids - hehe!)

6. i don't watch tv.

7. i was the teenager from hell. that's all i have to say about that.

8. i have had freakish things go wrong in birthing 3 of my 4 children - from anesthesia not working during a c-section, to major loss of blood, to dallin trying to come out sideways...the list goes on. (see #3)

9. i was stung on the tongue by a bee in the 2nd grade.

10. half of my left iris is brown. (not sure what color my eyes are...green, hazel, kinda blue??)

11. in high school i landed the lead in 2 school theater productions without knowing what the heck i was doing.

12. i played flute for 6 years and i took 2 years of japanese.

13. i am the oldest of 6 children (yes, i am the typical type a, ocd, bossy big sister).

14. i'm trying to be patient (see #5) on the very long road to becoming a nurse anesthetist.

15. i love working with teenage girls (while many won't go near them with a 10 foot pole due to emotional instability).

16. i have lived in 5 states (ca, ut, id, ny, mn).

17. i'm a participant in the 2008-2009 elizabeth kearney women's leadership development program through the ywca.

18. one of my hidden talents is speed-reading.

19. i love to run (and i secretly hate to run at the same time - don't tell anyone...)

20. i served as young women's president and then primary president before i was 30. (after reading #7 above, some parents are probably having heart failure.)

21. the creative art genes abound in my family (brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, children, etc.) but for some reason decided high jump right over me.

22. i love, love, love reconnecting with friends on facebook.

23. if i could take a class in anything, it would be surfing. (fat chance in mn!)

24. everyone in our family has double letters in their name - even our last name has double letters. (we didn't do this on purpose until we were looking for a name for dallin.)

25. i am a food junkie - not just any food. wierd, exotic, gourmet, too-much-butter food. i'm a little too critical, though i tend to blame this on my parents' perfect cooking...

also like colleen, i tag everyone who reads this!!!Y

music update

i finally sat down and added some more songs to my pitiful playlist (thanks to estelle who inspired me). i didn't add much, just enough to give me a break from a certain little girl yelling "mmmmooommmm" from her bed well after her bedtime...

so i got a few good ones on there - i know the playlist can sometimes be annoying to some people. if so, just scroll to the bottom of the blog and hit the pause button. i did spare everyone from my techno/dance obsession and did not add any of that craziness to my playlist (i'll save that for running...)

i also finally made a background switch - man is that a pain in the rear. but i needed some fresh colors and carissa drogowski-now-barron stole my background!!! (just kidding carissa - i love you!) i thought i'd go a little valentiney.

i do love reading everyone's blogs (if you're listed on my page under friends and family, i've been following all your blogs and have been getting updates everytime you post!)

good night!Y

2009 - This is gonna be a good one...

this is going to be a good year - i can feel it...

it feels like the holidays went by in such a blur - i didn't even get much in the way of pictures. very sad.

here are the kids - they were up way before the crack of dawn - the fuzziness represents my state of mind at that hour...

here's tanner on the stilts that emma begged santa for.

here's dallin (don't ask me why he's standing on the table - it's a favorite place to hang out for both boys...) in his fix-it gear from grandma j. (you'll notice i still don't have curtains in the kitchen - i'm still looking for the perfect fabric and have been accused of being too picky...)

we're just now getting back into our routine. it's way too cold here, no surprise there. the kids are getting bigger every day and we're looking forward to a year jam-packed with school, work, more school, more work, girls on the run, ballet, church, swimming all summer, a few home improvement projects, some camping, a trip to utah and cali in aug, hopefully a vacation with the mcpheters, and a whole lot more work and school. (probably no races for carrie - but i can still hope!!!)

i hope this year is fantastic for everyone!!!Y

the tag i procrastinated...

here is my other tag from anita - the one where you go to your pictures and open the 4th folder and post the 4th picture and blog it. here's mine:

you may think this is a little strange, but it was a pretty cool day. i had just finished the duluth half marathon and the elite marathoners were coming in (yes, i am that slow...). rita, karyn and i were standing in awe, watching them come in. this is the first place woman - it was pretty incredible to watch them and the moment they cross the finish line is very emotional. the energy at the finish is unreal. so that's my 4th pic in my 4th folder.

i tag tara, jenn s., andi, and janelle.Y

oh, christmas tree...

well, we had our first minnesota christmas tree cutting experience...it was quite the adventure. we have a family tradition of cutting our own christmas tree the day after thanksgiving (we usually go in the morning and then spend the rest of the day decorating). we started this tradition in ny when we discovered granger's tree farm in mexico, ny (loved it!!! petting zoo, fireplace, hot cocoa, treats, popcorn, tractor ride, etc.) - last year we went to utah for christmas, so we didn't bother getting a real tree. so this year we found a tree farm about 20 min. away and set off (later than normal) to get our tree. we forgot to get cash out and when we got there found out they don't take visa (very small tree farm...nothing like granger's in ny!!!). we head back to mankato to get some cash out - aaron tries twice at cub, but it keeps swiping his card as a credit card so we have to make a trip to the bank. then we realized that we would get home later than we thought in time for date night, so we had to swing by the house to retrieve a forgotten cell phone to call the couple we swap babysitting with. we finally get back to the tree farm and start hunting for a tree...well, minnesota trees are very different than our beloved ny trees. they all looked very funny to us! we ended up getting a very fat 8 foot tree (that is probably 8 feet wide) with very long needles (the vaccum isn't liking that). they did have some diluted hot apple juice...whether or not that was a good thing - i don't know. we'll see how next year goes...

emma's all smiles

dallin helping dad get the tree tied on

kaylee is a nut...

chubbs with his candy cane stuck to his glove - mmm, fuzzy...Y