Stroller 5K

Our Stake puts on an annual free 5k. This year I decided to run it because having recently become a "runner" I must take advantage of free! I am still not sure why I pay to run . . .

This particular saturday I would be husbandless and therefore pushing a stroller, this is not my preference, which is why I didn't commit to running it until the day before. But misery loves company right? that is why I asked around and found a bunch of people that were also pushing their kids. So I decided to go for it.

- I consider running a race with a stroller (or even running period with a stroller) a BIG accomplishment! My previous 5k a dad passed me pushing a double stroller with 3 kids in it and they were all, not babies, but big kids! and yes I said he passed me! I totally clapped for him as he did!

Here is our stroller crew . . . there are three dads there and I will say to the credit of the ladies only one dad pushed a stroller the whole way. Go mommies!

What good little sports! they were excellent!

I was sort of dreading it but it actually surprised me, it wasn't too bad. The weather was perfect, my kids were good, we didnt have to run uphill. Finished in 33 mins and I can't ask for better really, I was pushing at the very least 65 pounds, (even if I was able to borrow a good jogging stroller.)

Preschool

Well who could've forgotten to take their camera to their son's ending preschool program??? I was so mad! But luckily I mentioned it to the teacher and was at least able to get a picture of him with her!

Garrett LOVED school! I am so glad and I hope that he continues to like learning. He has learned to write his letters, follow directions, left and right, numbers up tp 20, the Pledge of Alligence (my fav), months of the year, days of the week and more. I am so proud of him and I can't believe he is old enough for this stuff already!
The kids sang songs that they'd learned at school and each child learned a "part" where they got to introduce the next song they were going to sing. Then she presented them with a big book of crafts, letters, their home work and a collection of pictures she'd taken during class time as well as a treat!
Garrett loved Miss Bre' and I can't help but wonder if he had a little crush on her in the beginning.

Thanks Miss Bre' and we can't wait to come back to Tiny Minds Preschool again in the fall!

Just realizing that Garrett will be going to Kindergarten next year just a couple months after preschool gets out! Year round school means he'll be starting at the end of July most likely! WEIRD!

Just a little something we picked up . . .

A souviner maybe? No a hitch hiker is more like it!


meet the wood tick!



Combing out Embrie's hair the other morning this is where I found him. Firmly attatched to my child's scalp where he was proceeding to drink her blood. Muaahhaaahhaa!

I've delt with these before, but it has been a long long time and I was a little shocked and slightly freaked out finding one on my kid, but if anyone needs assistance on removal of a wood tick my memory is now refreshed just give me a call! If you want to know where we picked up this little hitch hiker read the post before this one. Yes I checked both of my kids for these before hand but must have missed this one or he must have gotten a ride home with us.

Tsk tsk sorry little fella. This is not the sort of bug that you just put outside into freedom so that the next chance he gets he can jump a ride back into the house and his own personal dinner table, aka your body. You actually can't squash them either so burning is the only way to go.

If I had a better camera you would see the peice of Embrie's skin that this thing is carrying in it's mouth. Can't say I am sorry to see him go!

Ranch Hands

Over Memorial Day we went up to my home town to visit "the folks". There is always work to be done! (plus we owe them ,right?!)

So we headed to the Ranch!

It is funny how it wasn't very fun to go to the ranch back when I was 11-17 . But I've decided it really isn't that bad. And the kids absolutely loved it!


Of course Grandma Sheri wants to get the campground area (which is where we would park camp trailers for long work weekends) cleaned up. So we got a fire started and the kids thought I was great picking up all the sticks they could find and throwing them in the fire.

Now we can't have all work and no play right?
well we could when I was a kid, but this is the grandkids we're talking about here!

So the guys had to take a 4-wheeler ride out to get . . . .

The Green tractor.

Then load up the 4-wheeler again with one extra passenger to get the . . .



Red tractor. Simply for the joy of my son riding the tractors.

look at these little bugs!

Every boy needs to have a tractor!

And because that was a lot of work, we all sat around the fire and had our lunch!

gotta fuel up for the real fun!

getting some of these out of the ditch

and move some of these into position for irrigation season

Unfortunately the two above photos are not actually of our ranch but I was working at the time, not taking pictures, but I wanted all ya'll city folk to get the idea ;)



That night after showers and dinner we had a little surprise birthday time for Garrett, because of all the ranch work that needs to be done before grandpa goes to China for work grandpa and grandma won't be able to come down for the birthday party.

A Seek and Find book (Garrett loves these) and a monster journal!

Thanks grandpa and grandma we had fun at the ranch!

On the right track

These two just might like each other yet! If you used to have a lot of dandelions in your yard and they all seem to have been picked it was probably these two. Garrett loves that Embrie loves the flowers and picks them for her constantly. This was the first day of this new discovery.

What a nice gentleman!

Think she has enough flowers? And of course she wasn't letting go of a single one!


She likes to hold hands so occasionally Garrett will take her by the hand and lead her around.
Saying in his best high pitched voice "come on Embrie lets go play"

These moments are nice, too bad they don't last forever, or even all day, or even 10 minutes . . .

Mother's Day

I think sometimes most moms, myself included, usually like to think of Mother's day as the one day we get special treatment and might even get a break from being mom. (maybe I should say moms with young kids, I dunno). Anyway . . . this year on mother's day Brad got sick, he tried really hard to tough it out for the first part of the day but he really wasn't feeling good. So he ended up laying down and resting most of the day. And here is what we did . . .

I took the kids outside and we started a rock collection.

When I was a kid I had a pretty good rock collection. Garrett had heard me talking to Brad in the car a while back about us washing our rocks up at the cabin when I was a kid and he had asked if he could do that. So we went out hunting for rocks in our garden since we have no better place near by. When I was a kid my grandpa Clyde would take me out looking for rocks up at his cabin. I would find the coolest rocks out there! some of them were very shiney and pretty! (I later found out that grandpa actually bought those polished rocks and planted them so that we could find them, tricky!) Then we would get the whole collection out, and grandma would get some trays out with water in them and we would wash our rocks and let them lay out to dry. We did this for hours and our rocks were as clean as rocks could be as you can imagine. So I am passing down the tradition.

After the rocks we all raced around the house several times and got out our energy.

While doing this I realized that this is what mother's day should be about! Not taking a break from my kids (though I will not deny that I will still jump at a chance for a break once in awhile, I am not completely crazy afterall!) I got to spend Quality time with my kids which with busy days is not always possible. They were even good for dinner and baths that night as dad was still out of comission. It was a good mother's day. I got to be MOM!

Shout out to the mother's in my life! I am blessed to have so many good examples to me! I hope I can be more like them!

update

after all that birthday excitement (or lack of) Brad brought home flowers (which is pretty good for a man who doesn't believe in flowers) and an ice cream cake! yay! Surprise! Thanks hun!