One of those weeks

I'm not sure any of you have had one of these....you're all too perfect - but I really felt like I wanted a vacation AWAY from my children. We're having worries over Korrynn and I felt like I wasn't taking enough time with each of my kids individually - school started and it was crazy and hectic - soccer and dance started and it got even more hectic and crazy - and then I had scouts and Brian's meetings on Tuesday with practices and boys' scouts. I think I'm just on overload for a minute until I can get into a routine. I know that people have much busier times than me, but .... CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!

We ran it!!!

I can't believe I haven't written on this since April! But we officially ran the 1/2 marathon on August 8! It was amazing and so so so hard. The first 3 miles were my fastest miles I have ever run and it felt awesome- when you get in with a group and your adrenaline is going 100 mph it just felt like I was flying. And it helped that I was going downhill he he ha ha. On mile 7 they had you go uphill for almost a full mile and that just about broke me - I definitely slowed down after that. And then once I got to mile 10 I wasn't sure if I could keep going - I wanted to stop and yet knew that I couldn't and Brian was right there pushing me and complimenting me - it was so good to run with him. My brain kept telling me to stop, but Brian and my heart kept telling me to do it. As soon as I ran past the finish line I was ready to burst into tears - it was AWESOME! I'm definitely running another one!!
I passed my mental and physical challenge!! I'm very proud of myself!!

Half-marathon here I come!

Yes, we did it! Ok, we haven't officially ran the race yet, but Brian signed us up for a half-marathon in August! I'm proud of myself for running three miles, but I'm VERY nervous about 13.1 miles. I was so nervous after signing up that I had to go use the restroom!! My tummy still gets nervous when I think about it!
Wish me luck - actually, pray that I can cross the finish line!

Taeoalii's farewell party :(

Info for EVERYONE!

We are all getting together this Friday, March 13 at 7:00 at Karen DeMann's house

It's a farewell party for the Taeoalii family! Invite everyone! And bring food!

Day 11!

I think my body is getting more used to not having sugar! Yea! I love my fruit smoothies in the morning and every now and than I'll have a homemade popsicle - orange juice is awesome frozen. I was talking to one of my friends that had no sugar 80% of the month (it was for her insurance)which meant that she could have sugar 13 days out of the month. I really liked that idea, but maybe up it to 90%. (It was definitely hard when Spencer had his birthday on Wednesday) - so I think I would look through the month and find 7 or 8 days that sugar would be ok - like FHE or birthdays, etc. But I love feeling healthier - I love how my body is feeling - I'm really eating tons more fruits and veggies and can feel the difference, I have more energy and don't feel so sluggish - I love that! So I'm sticking it out to the end and am wanting to impliment it into my lifestyle. If I give myself days that are "ok" I won't feel so frustrated, but I know that on the other days I can't give in.

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Spencer had a great day - he had a yummy breakfast, and than had a fun treasure hunt to find his present! He loved it!

Our fun tradition is that you get to decorate your own cake and Spencer made a soccer ball! Didn't he do awesome!!
Happy Birthday to an awesome boy who is extremely smart, such a kind heart, and has such funny comments! We love you!

Day 6!

So lets just say that I did great the first 5 days - and than my mom and dad came up with my sister's family and we celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.... and than I caved today!! This is definitely harder than I anticipated - I didn't realize how much candy gets distributed to my kids - they got treats from school and than tons of treats from church - Why do kids have to be praised with sugar when I'm trying to be good? Can't they see that I'm struggling and give them stickers instead?... Spencer's b-day got celebrated with my Moab fam this weekend - and he'll have his official cake and icecream this Wed .. it's so hard to see all the sweets and not partake! I feel for Eve! And so I take the fall and am picking myself back up and starting again tomorrow!

6 Weeks of no SUGAR!

Yes, it's true - our family is doing a six week "Eat to Live" challenge! So we are going to be eating tons of veggies and fruits and ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR! I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and I was so good last week until Valentine's Day came around and I ate and splurged and hated myself afterwards for it. So, family involved, we have decided to challenge ourselves, because I know that I can't do this alone.

We went through all our kitchen cupboards and came out with a messful of sugar! I didn't even know there was that much sugar in our cupboard. And can I just say that it was soooo HARD - I didn't think it would be, but I thought of all the cookies and cakes I would be missing, and I kept trying to think of ways to keep them (look at my sad face). But in the long run they all came out!

It's hard for me, but I'm excited for the challenge! So please, friends, don't bring any goodies over!!
The kids are amazingly in on it, too. They say they want to eat healthier, and be better. I love this pic of them getting the last minute sugar rush in before we get rid of it!
So I have to blog about this in hopes that by recording it, it will help me be better.
Day one starts tomorrow! Feb 17, 2009
I would love any recipe ideas that would be healthy for kids.

Draper Temple Open House

The Draper Temple Open House was wonderful and beautiful! The kids had so much fun. This was taken in the meetinghouse right after the temple preview.

How thankful we are for TEMPLES! And how thankful they are so close!

Eric's favorite part was the bus ride there. He loved changing seats! The back of the bus is the best!

New Scout Leader

Yes, Nettie, it's true....I have become just like you!! Except it's with the Bear's. I'm excited - Ok, so I've only gone once and Valerie Hampton did everything that day. But I think it will be lots of fun......I hope it will be lots of fun!!! There are 13+ energetic boys, but I must say that they are pretty cute! Having 6 noisy children I think helped prepare me for all the noise the scouts made - it didn't even phase me!!! I didn't dare put a pic of my shocked face (nettie's was just too perfect!)

Pinewood Derby Results

Yea! The boys had a great time at the Pinewood Derby race. Alec took 1st place and Spencer took 2nd. The funny thing was that Spencer actually had the fastest time, but they had 4 runs and Alec's car won the average. So I have to make a disclaimer - even though I posted a video of Brian working on the cars without the boys, I PROMISE that the boys did quite a lot of work on the cars themselves! But we did have a few people ask if we were cheating somehow!

When they called Alec's name he started jumping up and down - he was so excited!

#2 Video

Here's a cute video of Kortney saying one of her first prayers. She is so cute! She's at the fun stage where everything she says is adorable and we keep trying to make her say things just to hear her words. Whenever Brian asks Kortney to say the prayer she responds in the cutest voice "I say it."

Videos

Here's Brian getting the axels ready for the Pinewood Derby - The boys had just gone to bed and Brian wanted to get just one more thing done on the cars. He had just informed me that he loves Pinewood Derby, because he never got to do one when he was younger. We laughed about that after a fun reminder that this wasn't for him, but for the boys.

Kayley's new smile!

She is so excited! And looks so darn cute! My girl just keeps growing up - how do we stop that?

I know her eyes are closed and she'll be embarrased for a minute - but you can see the braces so much better in this shot!

What a vacation!

We had such a fun winter vacation! It was sad to see it end! I was very spoiled and slept in almost every morning -- We knew it wasn't going to happen again in a long time so we enjoyed every minute of it and didn't feel guilty once. But we also stayed up pretty late so we decided it evened itself out!

Brian was able to take 1 1/2 weeks off -I LOVED IT! We put ourselves to work and redid our bedroom. You know how these old houses are with the small master bedrooms, so we added tall cabinets and took out our dressers- It created so much room for us -we are so proud of ourselves!

Isn't it just so cute! I now have a place to put my Willow Tree figurines without my kids knocking them off. And Brian can't put anything on top of the dresser anymore! The doors hide everything!
The kids had a great Christmas - They finally got a Wii and some Webkins! Almost three long years of waiting for the kids - It's actually pretty fun so the only hard part was waiting for the kids to go to bed so we could play it!!!

One of our favorite days was going SLEDDING - We stayed for a couple of hours and exhausted everyone!

Look at the huge smiles. Kortney stayed in the sled the whole time - she is quite a daredevil!