The little loves in my life: 2013

Monday, November 4, 2013

Snow Canyon Half Marathon 2013

These pictures are out of order, but oh well I don't know how to order them.We took our kids down to St. George and during the race left them at a daycare nearby. Their first time in a daycare - sad to do, but thought we could have a family trip afterwards. Brooklyn woke up at 2 am the night before the race and I had to have her sleep on my stomach for her to be good since we didn't have a play n pak for her, but we did have a play n pak for Ashton. So I didn't get much sleep before and then we got up at 5:30 in order to get to the bus by 7:30. Crazy morning, but worth it to say I accomplished this. It was cold but warmed up and was a beautiful day. Jared was nice enough to stay by my side even though he could have run it faster. We ran about 9 minutes a mile for the 13.1 mile race. Thanks to Jared who ran with me in the mornings and doubled back every now and then just so he could stay at my slow pace and to Madeline who watched Brooklyn for me if she woke up and fed her. What a grown up little lady she is becoming. So happy to finally accomplish this goal that I set in 2012, but then I had a miscarriage and then got pregnant with Brooklyn, so I had to put it off because the doctor didn't want me to run with the problems I had last pregnancy. The race was nice enough to bump us to this year and so yay! Glad it's done! So sore now though! Hard to walk up and down the stairs, but hey it won't last long and I have a medal now :)

Jared and I after the race.

Jared and I before the race.

After

With our finisher medals :)

Before

Medals

Halloween 2013

I went to the Halloween parade for Madeline and Ethan in the morning with my mom and Angie.

Some pictures from the parade are at the bottom. Here are pictures of the kids individually at the top

with their costumes. Brooklyn as a pea pod. We had this costume from when Ethan was a baby.

Ethan the UPS delivery boy. Everyone loved to comment on this one!

Madeline as sushi. She came up with this on her own.

I helped make this salmon pillow for her costume.

The kids before they went trick or treating.

Ethan at the school parade

Madeline - school parade

Ashton as a cowboy /sherriff

Ashton getting a smiley face pancake at IHOP also with my mom, Brooklyn and me.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Pinewood Derby 2013

Ethan wanted to make a car that looked like an iphone. Here are some pictures of it. His car came in 10th of 18 cars I think. Last year he did a Hershey's bar for his car. I posted pictures from last years car too.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Articles on motherhood

I love being a mother and came across two articles on facebook that I loved reading. One is:

“You’re a stay-at-home mom? What do you DO all day?”

http://themattwalshblog.com/2013/10/09/youre-a-stay-at-home-mom-what-do-you-do-all-day/

and the other is:
An Uncensored True Tale of Parenting http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-walsh/an-uncensored-true-tale-of-parenting_b_4059358.html?view=screen . I wanted to share my favorite quotes from them so I could have a copy.

Quotes from You're a stay at home mom? What do you DO all day? I could probably highlight it all, but here are my favorites:

"I want to kick our backwards, materialistic society in the shins and say, “GET YOUR FREAKING HEAD ON STRAIGHT, SOCIETY.”
"Are we really so shallow? Are we really so confused? Are we really the first culture in the history of mankind to fail to grasp the glory and seriousness of motherhood? The pagans deified Maternity and turned it into a goddess. We’ve gone the other direction; we treat it like a disease or an obstacle."
"The people who completely immerse themselves in the tiring, thankless, profoundly important job of raising children ought to be put on a pedestal. We ought to revere them and admire them like we admire rocket scientists and war heroes. These women are doing something beautiful and complicated and challenging and terrifying and painful and joyous and essential. Whatever they are doing, they ARE doing something, and our civilization DEPENDS on them doing it well. Who else can say such a thing? What other job carries with it such consequences?"

"Whatever your job is — you are expendable. You are a number. You are a calculation. You are a servant. You can be replaced, and you will be replaced eventually. Am I being harsh? No, I’m being someone who has a job. I’m being real."

"If your mother quit her role as mother, entire lives would be turned upside down; society would suffer greatly. The ripples of that tragedy would be felt for generations. If she quit her job as a computer analyst, she’d be replaced in four days and nobody would care. Same goes for you and me. We have freedom and power in the home, not the office. But we are zombies, so we can not see that."

"Yes, my wife is JUST a mother. JUST. She JUST brings forth life into the universe, and she JUST shapes and molds and raises those lives. She JUST manages, directs and maintains the workings of the household, while caring for children who JUST rely on her for everything. She JUST teaches our twins how to be human beings, and, as they grow, she will JUST train them in all things, from morals, to manners, to the ABC’s, to hygiene, etc. She is JUST my spiritual foundation and the rock on which our family is built. She is JUST everything to everyone. And society would JUST fall apart at the seams if she, and her fellow moms, failed in any of the tasks I outlined."

"Yes, she is just a mother. Which is sort of like looking at the sky and saying, “hey, it’s just the sun.”

Quotes from An Uncensored True Tale of Parenting. Here are my favorites:

"I'm left with nothing in the English language that can even come close to communicating what it means to me to be a father."

"I can tell you that what people say about "losing your freedom" is bull crap. We've got a pathetically shallow notion of freedom in this country, and that's perfectly reflected by this common claim that you lose it when you have kids. Sure, if "freedom" is merely "the ability to go places and do things with minimal hassle," then, yeah, you've lost that. You haven't lost it permanently, but for a good long while. This is a flimsy, flat, flaccid view of freedom. I believe there's more to being "free" than vacations and financial flexibility. I've seen both sides of this; I lived completely alone for the first half of my twenties, so I know about this sort of freedom. I know about it, and I can honestly tell you that I feel more free now than I ever have before. If I didn't have a family, I could go on a cruise, or move to Vegas, or see Paris if I so desired. In fact, I could go pretty much anywhere on the globe. But I'd only be "free" to travel laterally. Now, I can travel deeper. I'm free to go deeper into human existence and experience things that are much more life-changing, enriching, transformative and exciting than a thousand vacations to a thousand exotic locations. The greatest freedom we have as human beings is the freedom to change. I'm not talking about changing the scenery, I'm talking about changing ourselves. Having children is TRULY life changing; having free time is not. This is not meant to be an attack on people without kids and spouses; I'm just clarifying a point. They are not more free than you."

"Real freedom comes only from love. When you have your kids, you will have a love that you've never before experienced, and never could have experienced, and that will be the truest sort of freedom."