One for the grandparents . . .

Here are just a few quick pictures of Annie and James of late. Annie got into my make-up again. This one was a little more elaborate and some of the make-up was damaged beyond repair. Good thing I buy cheap make-up! :) Annie still throws me for a loop on most days, but she is so dang cute too! The other day I told her that carrots were good for her eyes. She told me that she'd like another one. She put them in her eyes to help her see. Then she told me candles were good for your nose because they help you smell, and Crystal Light is good for you because it helps you swallow. I love the way her mind works. It's always going and she remembers EVERYTHING!

James is developing more of his own opinions, but he's still super sweet most of the time. He continues to LOVE to eat dirt (and chalk apparently). He's walking pretty consistently now. He doesn't say much, but he's got a few words (uh-oh, mama, dada, all done). Despite the very limited talking ability, he's very good at pointing at what he wants and proclaiming, "Dat! Dat! Dat!" If you guess wrong, he'll vigorously shake his head. He also does that when I'm feeding him and he's not done chewing. I love it. He's great a folding his arms too (I think I put that in another post). Just about the only time he consistently screams is if I open the fridge (for any reason) and fail to give him something. That is a travesty not to be borne. It's amusing if it's in the morning, by 5:00 pm, it's no longer amusing.

For the most part, I keep thinking to myself that I need to enjoy this stage because I feel like they are both at a really cute/fun stage.  

Awww

Today at story time my friend was reading a book about the tooth fairy and she asked, "Do you believe in fairies?" Annie quickly replied, "No, I believe in Jesus." Love it! Good for her!

Funny pics

Look at me and my mad series of posts tonight.

Yesterday Annie called up to me that she'd put chocolate on her face. In a way she was right. She'd actually put Chocolate Fling (my lip gloss) all over her face.

We've been trying to get James to fold his arms for a while now and last night he started doing it over and over again during dinner. He was pretty proud of himself. To be fair, we were pretty proud of him too, which is why he did it so many times. Also, James started walking in earnest today. He actually chose walking over crawling several times, and he went longer distances. Yay James-y boy!

Graduation . . . but not the kind that leads to a job

We hosted our final Joy School today, which mean it was Joy School graduation. I was in charge of this class and I feel like it turned out really fun. Thanks to Emily for the great ideas. I had the kids all wear one of their dad's white church shirts backwards, and then I made each of them their own mortarboard with a brass brad and yarn for a tassel. For our craft today we made fruit loop leis. They were all decked out and they looked SO cute! They paraded down the stairs to Pomp and Circumstance and then sang some of their favorite Joy School songs. Afterwards we all had brownies.

I really have come to love all the kids that do Joy School with Annie. They are really good kids, and I'm happy she's friends with them. I feel bad I didn't get a better picture of all of them. I was trying to lead the songs at the same time I was taking pictures.

 

Congratulations MaryAnne!

I (MaryAnne) never let Brad post this, but after reminiscing about my first half marathon after my most recent one, I kind of thought it might be fun to have it officially in our blog.

Usually these posts are written by MaryAnne, but I needed a turn for this one. MaryAnne ran her first "official" half-marathon yesterday. We ran the Provo half-marathon course together 2 years ago but did not run the official race due to extreme poverty and the like. However, I got one of those Chase Bank coupons in the mail that gives you $125 if you open up an account with them. I did that about a month ago and we used the money to pay for the race registration for MaryAnne and we also purchased a region free DVD player for me so that I can finally watch all of the movies that I purchased legally in China (as a side note, had I purchased the pirated ones from off the street, they would work just fine, so it really pays to do things above board....but I digress). Information about the race can be found here. She ran it with her friend, Jenna McGowan. The girls left early, and then Brett and I followed about an hour later with the kids. In traditional fashion, I forgot the camera and so I had to take pictures with my phone. Not the greatest way to document a huge accomplishment, I know. I was in a rush and spaced it until we were in Lewiston, NY (very close to Niagara Falls). The course is gorgeous and goes from Lewiston to Youngstown and through the old Fort Niagara (important holding during the war of 1812) and then goes along Lake Ontario to Porter on the Lake at Fourmile State Park.

I got pictures of MaryAnne at mile 5 and at mile 10. Then, I ran back to Brett's car to get the car seats out and put them into our car (remember, that MaryAnne and Jenna left early in our car) so that I could make it to the finish line in time to see MaryAnne. Jenna was a bit behind MaryAnne and so I didn't want to risk missing the finish. I had a bit of a car seat disaster and was booking it towards the finish line hoping to make it in time. The problem was that the only road to the finish line was the same road that the runners were on. So, I was driving as fast as I could on the opposite site of the road, making careful deviations back into the fray to avoid getting the car smashed by oncoming traffic. I passed MaryAnne a bit before mile 12 and gave her my best encouraging yell as I made my way towards the finish line. When my GPS told me that I was 0.2 miles from the park, I hit a road stop. They were letting the oncoming traffic come though, so I thought it was only going to take a minute or so. After 3-4 minutes, I knew that time was tight and so I pulled off the road into a golf course parking lot, got out the double jogger, loaded it with Annie and James, and made my way for the road that I thought was the shortcut to the finish. I was told that the road went to a campground and that the shortest route to the finish was the one that the runners were on. Figuring it was 0.2 miles, I started booking it. I was passing people left and right and the spectators on the side of the road were giving a lot of encouragement to the father of two dressed in a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans running for his life with James screaming at the top of his lungs (he had not eaten in 5 hours, so the cranky screaming was to be expected). Well, was the finish line 0.2 miles in front of me? No it was not. Try about 0.85 miles. I rounded what I was told was the last bend and saw MaryAnne in front of me. I turned up the juice to full sprint, but she was off like a rocket herself. I crossed the finish line about 10-15 seconds after her, but I did see her finish! No picture, though. My apologies to MaryAnne, but at least I didn't miss the big moment entirely. She turned around and saw us and we had a big family hug. The race people gave me a water bottle, and I could have gotten a finisher's medal, but it didn't feel like the right reward for running less than a mile.

MaryAnne was a flash! She ran the race in 1:50:53, which means she averaged an 8:22 mile for 13.1 miles! That is a pace good enough for qualifying for the Boston Marathon (only catch being that you have to run twice as far...). She ran negative splits for the whole race, which any coach is always thrilled about. She also finished 8th in her age category. Needless to say, I am a very proud husband today. To be a nursing mother and pull off the training, as well as the speed is inspiring. In fact, after she finished, a man came up to her and said "thanks 327 (her number)! You were an inspiration. Every time you passed us we were amazed. You really helped me during the last few miles. I almost caught you at the end." Jenna was also amazing. She hadn't run farther than 8 miles and she finished the race in 2:14. Wow. I think MaryAnne and Jenna took a picture before they started, and I will try to get that up soon. In the meantime, here are the pictures from the phone. I love you MaryAnne!

MaryAnne at mile 5

MaryAnne at mile 10 -- still going strong!

Cinco de Mayo Festivities

We had a great Cinco de Mayo! Brad was good enough to forego writing his paper for several hours and watch the kids while I went up to Grand Island with my good friend Lisa to run a half marathon. (I really need to give credit to Jenna too who watched the kids while Brad went to his Saturday boards study group. Thanks Jenna!) It was GREAT! Her major goal was to do it in 2 hours or under and we technically crossed the finish line at exactly 2:00:00. I maintain we were just under because our watches told us we'd run 13.18. It was great to be able to help her reach her goal - I was SO proud of her! I accomplished a goal too; I'd told my Joy School kids that I wanted to run 14 miles because I've always stopped at 13.1. I was feeling so good at the end of the race, I just kept going until 14. The man at the finish line tried to stop me (probably thought I was deliriously still running), but I forged ahead. I really did feel great - I think I could have kept going for another mile or two. I didn't register for the race, but Lisa was so thoughtful and got me a race t-shirt too, so it's practically like I officially ran this half! I love having a great running partner and friend. We missed you Katie!

That evening we had a birthday dinner for Michael. We had cafe rio pork with all the fixings and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Yum! We are SO glad to have Michael live by us, but the delight we feel is far surpassed by Annie and James, particularly James. They adore their uncle!

Otter Pops

Our neighbors who just moved left our other neighbors with a giant box of Otter Pops. They were meant to share among the whole neighborhood, but instead Annie and her friend Ruth polished off almost the whole box while I was inside talking to my mom. I asked her how many she'd eaten and she told me, "Like 45". I think that's closer to the truth than I'd care to admit.