Look who turned 1

EMBRIE Can't believe that it was a year ago! Throwing up in the car, getting the to the hospital at an 8! Having a sweet little girl that I didn't get to see for 3 hrs. or hold for 12 hrs. or feed for 18 hrs. One little girl who sturggled for breath at first, but we should've known then what a little spit fire she would become! Just like her brother! She is quite the fighter and it turns out that you have to be in with an older brother! Each passing day we appreciate her in our family more and more. We are excited to enter this new phase of life with our little Embers. Her vocabulary is beginning to expand beyond "mama" and (her favorite) "dada". She is very close to walking but not quite there. She loves to dance, give kisses and hugs, and get tickled (I will insert a video of that later). She is entering a learning spurt at the moment and is figuring out something new each day!

We started out with a little celebration, which was nothing more than opening a couple gifts from us the day after her actual birthday on the 5th, but with Brad's work schedule that was about all the excitement we could fit in.

Then we had a birthday party with family on the 13th.

getting a little help from her friends (cousins)


Who doesn't love to watch a one year old dive into an entire cake by themselves?



It must be a girl thing, she is a little concerned about getting her hands dirty.

We ended up giving her a spoon and she liked that idea.

Grandma Sheri feeding her a little bit of ice cream to go with that cake.

My favorite picture of the day.

Ending with a bath in the sink. (yes we were in a church building)

It's sweet to be ONE!

Splish! Splash! I was takin' a bath!

It is not often that I let these two bath together and with all the splashing you can see why! I have to be in the right mood to clean up a bunch of water. But they sure do love it!

No holds barred not even for babies!

Love these two!

Need a meal makeover?

For the past several weeks I've been so tired of making dinner. I am not entirely sure if I am sick of
the act of making dinner
the lack of meal ideas
or the fact that it is another mess that I have to clean up after

but either way I can't get out of doing it because we can't go out to eat every night, our budget and our waist lines can't afford it. I was disscussing this with some friends recently and found that everyone seems to feel that way once in awhile. So a friend set up a blog for dinner ideas and invited some friends to share recipes on it. I think it is a great idea so I am deciding to share it. Check it out if you need some ideas and if you would like to contribute let me know! The more the merrier dinners right?

http://nomoreboringdinners.blogspot.com/

Running a 5K: Check! plus a couple other Firsts for me

St. George 5k, fun girls weekend, what's not to love?

So I did it! yay! There maybe some people out there thinking "so you ran a 3 mile race whoo hoo big deal". Ya it was only 3 miles but as I trained for it, it was a first for me to push myself beyond just being tired and stopping whenever I feel like it. And I learned that I can do it and it wasn't quite as hard as I thought. In training I only time I ever timed myself running it was about 34 min. and I really didn't have a lot of expectations for time I just wanted to do it for the fun sake of doing it. But as I was running I kind of got into pushing myself a little harder. I ended up running it in 28:30 cutting 6 mins of my time! I was pretty surprised. I allow, however, that I was pretty excited and nervous when the race started and adreneline might have something to do with it combined with the lower elevation and fresher air. ;) There were 4 great girls who ran the 5k with me, they did awesome as well! 2 awesome chicks who didn't run but hung out and made it a great time. And 5 amazing ladies who ran the 1/2 Marathon! Being at the race was awesome. I had a great time cheering other runners on too! As those of us who'd finished the 5k waited to cheer for our girls running the 1/2 I was inspired by all the different people at different physical levels running in the 1/2. From very young kids to adults in their 70's. They all seemed to love the encouragement they got from the side lines. You could tell they were proud of their accomplishment and they should be! So I've heard racing can be addicting and I believe it. I have been continuing my training for the Riverton 1/2 marathon in March. I look forward to running with some of the same great friends, though I admit I am a bit nervous! I just keep thinking that 13 miles is a lot! But too late to back out now! I also am planning on two other races 5k in April and 10k in Aug.

As for my other "firsts". . . I left my baby girl for the first time over night 2 nights. I was a little nervous because she can be a mama's girl. But she did just fine! I missed both of my kids, but it was a needed break I think. Also the girls got me to try sushi for the first time. Not the raw kind (it would take a lot more convincing for that, probably money and a lot of it!) The first bite was alright, the second bite was ok and after that it just got worse. I guess I can say that I don't like sushi, for one thing the bites are too big and for another it just doesn't taste good. I'm not usually a very picky eater and it is unfortunate, my only consolation for paying for the food I didn't like was that it is healthy. Plus I tried something new.

These are my running buddies, some of whom I got to know for the first time over this weekend. I have to say I love them all!

Emily(5k), Angie(5k), Angela(1/2), Amy(5k), Jena(1/2), me, Jeanette(1/2), Susie(5k), Laurie(1/2)
awesome friend Nickie (1/2) was unfortunately not here for this picture.


Jaime (in blue) was the friend with the awesome connections for the condo we stayed in. It was a great place and she had us all cracking up with her super mad-gab and scrabble skills! Ya we live on the wild side! *hehe

Sheena(in red) supported us all on through the races we are working on convincing her and Jaime to run with us next time!

What is a weekend out with the girls with a lot of exercise if you don't then spend the rest of the time surrounding yourself with food?

(angela, jena, nickie, me, amy, sheena, jeanette, jaime, emily, laurie, angie, susie)

(plus a couple of cute babies!)

We stayed up too late and spent a good time not acting our age. And of course, it was PERFECT!

Grandma Kemp

My wonderful, sweet Grandma, Barbara Kemp passed away 2 weeks ago. It wouldn't be right to go on without saying how much she will be missed. As my step-grandma, from the begginning of our relationship she welcomed my brothers and I as if we'd always been part of the family. She was truly a great woman to follow as an example. She was a loving and giving person. I am so grateful that I've been able to have her in my life and hope that I can live my life the way that I should to be able to meet with her again someday. As the best kind of person there is out there, there is not doubt in my mind that she is with our Heavenly Father again.

Time is my weakness!

Well it seems that making some goals are in order . . . I don't usually make new year's resolutions. I'm not sure why I don't. I guess you could say that I try making new goals for myself throughout the year as I deem it necessary, but that is not quite the same thing so I am going to try to make a list this time and really stick with it from Jan.-Dec.

* Well first on the list has to be running my first 5k, which I have signed up for and it takes place in 3 weeks.

Going hand in hand with that and definitely more challenging is the 1/2 marathon I plan to run in March. If that goes well I plan also to run one in May.

This is something I have wanted to do for years (since I got married probably), but I let the excuse of not having time to train get in my way. I like running for exercise, but I think as far as training and running the 1/2 I want to accomplish it to prove to myself that I can do it. I am nervous but Be tough!

* I am going to be better at attending the Temple. This is something that I also use time as an excuse for, but really what better thing can I do with my time? Most likely this means that Brad and I won't be going together very often but we'd better both get there regardless! The goal for now is to go every other month for sure. If I do this then I'll probably move it up to every month. How can I not take advantage of the Temple that is now 5 minutes from my house!?

* Spend more one on one time with my kids. Having 2 kids has made me feel guilty about not having that special one on one time with each of them. But I am going to be better at it this year. We need individual bonding time.

* Strengthen my marriage. (Not that it isn't strong, but there is always something more we can do right?) This means DATES. No more of this one or two dates a year! We must make time to go out or even stay in for a date once a month!

Wow as I write these things down I realize one thing they all have in common. TIME. Well all that tells me is that my main goal should be to Prioritise my time better! Who knows what I could get done if I did that!

So you think you can dance?

The new move called the "bum bounce" has been invented.

Who needs toys? Santa should have brought more socks!