Christmas 2012

I'm sad to say that Christmas has come and gone, along with another year.We had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family.

Friday night we went up to Wellsville to have Christmas dinner and presents with the Cardalls. Right as we got to the pool house, which was about 8pm, the power went out through half of Cache Valley. So we pulled out a bunch of candles and Cade hooked the Christmas tree up to some sort of battery...and we had Christmas by candlelight. It was an unplanned, not ideal situation that turned out to be a very memorable one. The kids had so much fun playing in the dark.

We all ate dinner together, which had been cooked earlier (luckily), and then the kids all opened their presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Eddie got a dump truck, tractor and some pj's and Tommy got some cute clothes and a little peek-a-boo bunny.

Our plan had been to stay the night in Wellsville, and then head up to Montana early Saturday morning. But with the power being out, and it being very cold and only getting colder, we drove to the next town over to get a hotel room at about 11pm. And then, all hell broke loose...

Eddie decided that was the night to learn how to climb out of his playpen. So he refused to sleep. All he wanted to do was play. We tried to get him to sleep on my shoulder, in the pen, in bed with me, in bed with Dan...but he didn't have any of it.

By about 1am I finally got him to lay down with me. I thought we were all about asleep when Welcome to the Jungle starts blaring from the clock radio. Apparently Eddie had not to sleep and had crawled onto the end table to play with his new found toy. We finally got it turned off by Dan yanking the plug out of the wall, but it was too late, Tommy was crying now.

So I finally got the kids back to sleep at close to 2:30am. By this point I'm thinking we should have just driven all night to Montana, cause Dan and I weren't getting any sleep anyways. I think I dozed off somewhere in there between feeding Tommy and Eddie kicking me and about falling off the bed.

But lucky us, the clock radio had a back up battery in case it got ripped out of the wall by an angry hotel guest and we woke up to a blaring alarm at 5:45am.

But we got a few minutes of sleep somewhere in there and did make it up to Montana on Saturday. We had a great weekend with the family.

Monday night, Christmas Eve, we spent with all the Merg's at the firehouse. And Tuesday Cole and Shannon came over to have gifts and lunch, then Dan had to leave that afternoon to head home so he could work Wednesday morning. Me and the kids stayed until Saturday.

John and Mom ended up getting the flu Christmas night, then I caught it Friday night. I think it was the worst flu bug I have ever had. It always seems like someone ends up sick when we get together. It's just too bad it got 3 of us!

Eddie copying Grandpa on his phone

This is Eddie playing with Ken and Sue's dog Chief. Eddie loves to play with puppies, but he usually has an allergic reaction and his eyes will get all red and swollen. Usually we just watch him real close then try to wash his hands before he can start touching his face. But he was having so much fun with Chief licking him and jumping on him we just let him play. The poor kid had such a bad reaction we ended up giving him some benadryl. But the drugs and a bath took care of it fast.

Eddie didn't really get into opening presents. He would start to open one, then get bored and move onto the next thing.

And of course it wouldn't be Christmas without a few tears shed...

We had such an amazing Christmas together as a family. It was fun to see Eddie with his new toys. Next year will only be better with Tommy being older and Eddie really getting into the whole Christmas thing.

Eddie's 18 Month & Tommy's 3 Month Pictures

My sister in Law Shannon took these pictures over Christmas when we were in Helena and they came out so great!

Just Like Their Dad

This was Dan at 3 months old in the outfit his mom Nancy made for him... 

This was Eddie at 3 months old... 

And this is Tommy...

I'll let you decide who looks like who...or not.

Dan's 34th Birthday

We just celebrated Dan's 34 birthday. Normally I have a really hard time surprising him because he always either intercepts his gift coming in the mail, or sees a note I have made about picking something up for it etc. So I was totally on top of it this year. I had his gifts mailed to the Walton's that live nearby so there would be no chance Dan would see the package.

For months Dan has been talking about going to see "The Hobbit". He also knows that I HATE "The Lord of the Rings". Well it came out in theaters the weekend of his birthday. I told him that if he wanted to see it he would have to ask his buddy Ryan Walton to go with him. Secretly, I set up for the Walton's to babysit, bought tickets before they were sold out, then had Ryan tell Dan all the tickets were sold out when he asked him to go.

So for days before Dan's birthday, he's been complaining about how its his birthday and all he wants to do it go see "The Hobbit" and he's not going to get too. So the morning of the big day, I hand him his birthday card which has the tickets in it. He was so excited and shocked he didn't know what to do. I was so proud of myself for pulling off the surprise!

Well, I endured the 3 hour long movie, and it was as horrible as I thought it was going to be, but Dan loved it so that is all that matters. For after the movie we went back to Ryan and Jen's and had shepherd's pie (Dan's favorite) for dinner. Then I made German Chocolate Cake, also Dan's favorite, opened gifts and stayed up way too late playing games. All in all I think Dan had a wonderful 34th birthday!!!

 The Walton boys helped me put the candles on so some might be backwards:)

Eddie's First Snow Day

Today was the first time Eddie has been able to go out and play in the snow. And there was plenty for him to play in too. He had fun helping dad shovel, and even tried to help push the snow blower. But the little stinker didn't want to keep his gloves on so it was a short play session. But he enjoyed every minute!

Dan's sister sent me this cartoon the other day and it is so true...

Some people dream of flying...

but I dream of running. I know it sounds crazy, but it is true. I have dreams where I can run for a long time and not feel tired. And I can run fast, not super human or anything. It is so freeing and exhilarating. I wake up just wanting to run. But then I do, and I feel like I'm going to die after 30 seconds.

So I decided I want to run a marathon this year. Crazy I know, but I'm not getting any younger. So for the past 6 weeks I have been training 4+ days a week in hopes of running the Provo City marathon first part of May.

It has been a slow process, and I am so far away from where I need to be that most days I think this is pointless and I'll never be able to do it. But at the same time I can already feel myself getting stronger. I can run longer and faster than when I started. So far I have been able to stick to the training schedule I got online. I figure as long as I can do that, I will be good.

I really enjoy the time I spend running. I put my ipod on, turn it so loud that 3 treadmills away can hear it, and I just run. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer I can spend more time running outside, but right now the only way I can get away is to take the kids to the daycare at gold's gym and run inside. Dan works during all the daylight hours and I don't feel comfortable running in the dark. I plan it so that Tommy just sleeps in his car seat. And luckily Eddie has finally gotten used to it and loves going there to play with all the new toys. 

It has been a great way to get back in shape after the baby. As of last week I am officially half a pound less than my pre-pregnancy weight. And between the running and the dairy free diet I feel amazing. I rarely ever need a nap or feel tired. I feel less stressed with the kids, and I feel like I can balance my crazy schedule of housewife, mother, and Realtor a little better.

So here is to my lofty goal of running 26.2 miles. I have no goals of running it fast, or placing or anything like that. I just want to finish it within the 6 hour time limit. Even if I crawl across the finish line...