It's in His Genes

Miles estactically came running to me on my birthday morning,



"Mom, mom, come see where my underwear is!"



Hmmm, sounded quite questionable and concerning - seeing as he was running around naked (as well as Jonas). But when I looked at the pointed spot, I was no longer concerned. For this is what I saw:

And, knowing he has my G-side of the family genes in him, I thought,

"Genetics at play here."

You see, when I was a youngin', we would (we including my sister and wonderful cousins Melissa, Kristen, and Steven) throw our underwear (not the ones we were wearing that day, however) on our walls in our big entry-way. The walls were textured and so things could get stuck on them. Things like underwear of course. It was a pretty fun game back then. I miss it. So that is why I am glad to see Miles carrying on the tradition - all on his own.

Apparently his underwear was not in his jeans, though.

Quote of the Week

"Mom, can we eat your birthday?"

~Jonas

Turns out that Jonas thinks the word "birthday" means one thing: cake.

Post-Birthday Post

(picture posted for Ben. because he loves it. and i love him.)

So yesterday was a good day. A really good day in fact. Simple, yet great.

It was pretty much a normal day, with some extra flares here and there. We spent the morning at home and I just had fun with the kids and was oh-so-happy. I spent a little more time on the computer in the morning and didn't feel guilty because "it's my birthday." That is such a great phrase. Too bad I can't abuse, I mean use it today.

I gave the kiddos a bath and they had such a fun time, were being so cute, and it was just so fun. We had made this craft for the boys the day before and the boys were just bezerk about them. Then Emmy just giggled and giggled and loved every minute of her bath. So I really don't know why, but it just was fun.

I was also able to vacuum and, truly, that made me oh-so-happy. We hadn't done it since we've moved in and so it was nice to clean up some.

The rest of the morning we read books, played, etc. After I put Emmy down for a nap I had promised the boys a movie. But first they helped me make my fab cake. Then I put in a little movie for them to watch.

Meanwhile. . . Ben had set up a birthday massage for me at Main Street Spa. So our good friend came over to watch the kids and off I went. It was super nice and relaxing and, yes, somewhat painful.

The rest of the day was spent just. . . hanging out.

Then we had yummy paninis for dinner.

Then finally we had the birthday cake - Jonas was asking about eating it all day long. All. Day. Long.

Here I am in all my splendid 30 years of glory. Isn't my cake great?

Isn't this picture great? The great blowing-out-candles shot. We actually had to re-light the candles as Emmy blew them out before any of us had a chance to blink our eyes. After Ben re-lit the candles, Miles put a plate in front of Emmy's face so she couldn't blew them out again. Ha.

Yummy Rice Krispie cake.

That nite we had a sweet young gal come over and read books to the boys and put them to put (we already put Emmy to bed). Ben and I had fun being together. Nothing too much, just going to get some frozen yogurt, then to JC Penney. It was nice. The rest of the late nite was spent putting up my vinyl wall decal. Once again, Ben was willing to spend his nite doing it because "it's my birthday."

So here are some pics of the fun things I got/we made for my birthday:

The daisy room is complete! Yippee. The white framed thing is what we finished up for my birthday. It is a pegboard wall so I can frame and hang our children's art work. LOVE IT. We love this room as it is so bright and sunny.

We made this chalkboard as well. LOVE IT, too.

This is the vinyl decal my mom bought for me - picked out by me. I LOVE IT. It's different and unique, and, yes, some people might think it weird. But I like it. It's in our dining room and the colors are perfect.

So, like I said, my birthday was simply great.

30.

I'm 30 today. I don't know how I feel about it. I don't feel particularly happy about being 30, nor do I feel sad - or old. I think my height is so deceiving to people. I can't tell you how many of my patients tell me, "You are too young to be a nurse." Or ask me, "Are you a new nurse?" And it's not because I look young, I think it's just because I'm short. Real short.

But my birthday has already started good. I went on a chilly 16-degree run with freshly fallen snow. And, truthfully, running in this type of weather is much more to my liking than running in 75-degree sunny weather. Weird I am.

So here's to a chilly stay-inside birthday.

p.s. i just took this photo this morning. i love the battle of Winter vs. Spring. it's always so beautiful.

Moab Rocks

So we really had a fabulous time in Moab. Short but sweet. I'll narrate via my photos:

We stopped about 30 minutes outside of Moab - on our trip over. Here were some of the first looks at the neat, red cliffs towering over us.

Cool kid #1.

Cool kid #2.

Then we drove to our "cabin." It was as a hostel and was ummm pretty ghetto. Ben was a little leary of our room, but I wasn't. It was just what I expected. The whole area, though, of where we stayed was a little sketchy. But it was about 1/5th (literally) of the price of what everyone else had to pay - so frankly I felt lucky to have found this place (thanks to my sis Erin).

The children's innocence was so darn sweet as they just LOVED our "new home." LOVED it. Miles was super excited about it all, even asking me, "Mom don't you love the checkered curtains?" "Of course honey." So here our some shots of Home Sweet Home in Moab:

Yessss, a bunk bed! But even cooler. . .
Christmas lights under the top bed! Sweet. My kids were hooked.

I guess the lights were a little too bright for Emmy, though.

How cute.

That night we just hung out there at the cabin, ate dinner at Hogi Yogi (no crowd at all there), then came back and put Emmy to bed. Then the 4 of us watched the new "Charlottes' Web" on our car-DVD player. It was fun.

Saturday morning we got up and drove me to the bus-shuttle area and dropped me off. Ben wished me to find a friend - ha, I only knew of 2 friends running this race and since there were 5,000 runners, the chances were slim. But lo and behold one of my friends got on my bus! So we sat on the bus together and then chatted at the starting line for about 2 hours before the race. I was so glad that I found Michelle and it was great visiting with her (we went to nursing school together).

While I was doing this the kids went to some parks:




But the real reason they were there in Moab:

to watch me run.

The reason I was there: to run the Canyonland's Half Marathon. It was a pretty great race - until about mile 11. Then I was tired. I don't get along much with the Noon-Day Sun and he was out in all his glory. But it was a beautiful race. But not quite the downhill I expected nor was told. :) I mean, come on. There was about 400 feet of decline in elevation and about 320 feet of incline. Really, a net loss of about 80 feet. Sorry, that is not downhill to me. :) But whatever. I finished. In 2:03. (Barely) less than half of my marathon time 8 years ago - so that was good enough for me.

I didn't feel too grand afterwards and had to sit just about every minute. After standing for one minute, everything around me started turning white. Weird and annoying.

We went back to our Cabin, got lunch, then Emmy and I napped - while the boys went hiking on Slick Rock. Miles had been waiting to do this since we left for Moab. They had a great time! Such cute little hikers. . .

Miles had to tell Everyone that they had gone hiking in a "real desert." And that they saw a lizard ("well I didn't see it, but Jonas and daddy did."), a real cactus, and a broken car. Very cool.

Then they came back and picked up us gals. We went into town and got an Italian Soda. Yum:



After that we just walked up and down Main Street. I ran into a gal that went to high school with me. As well as I boy from my BYU ward that I went out with a couple of times. Crazy. Emmy had to throw a few fits while out 'n about, though. She doesn't care where she is, she can throw a fit or a pout anywhere! Proof:
Proof #1. Mad that I wouldn't let her run down the "ramp" into on-coming traffic. I'm such a mean mommy.

Proof #2. Sometimes her tantrums are real quiet ones. She just gets mad (I don't know why she was mad here) and goes somewhere and lays herself down. Funny girl.

It was a fun trip. At the end of the 1/2 I felt like it would probably be my last. 3 kids and 3 1/2 marathons. A 1/2 for each kid.

So this one just might be my last. Or it might not. . .

Home Sweet Home, Part 4 - and random (slightly boring) video

Here are a few more pictures of our new home. They are of Emmy's room - which is really hard to take a picture of because it is octagonal shape. Then my mom wanted me to show the side of the home, so I'll do that just for her. Then I might as well do the back of the home. Then you can watch a video if you want - it's none too exciting. Just my typical afternoon.

Emmy's room.

Left side.

Right side.

The side of our home.

And the back.

"Irish" You A . . .

Home Sweet Home, Part 3

This isn't going to be a terribly exciting post about my home, but oh well. This post is highlighting the random, fun things about the home. Not all of them. Specifically just our closets and vents. Closets and vents? Oh yes.

Our closet space here is tremendous. And interesting. I took pictures of them all - but it is so hard to actually see what they are. But oh well. Here we go:

Emmy's closet.

The boys' closet.

The master's room closet - Ben's half is on the other side. Then you go through my clothes and get this:The picture doesn't do it justice. But there are about 4 of these "steps" for more storage. (Isn't this a pretty post?)

A closet at the top of our stairs.

Then we have a real-live Harry Potter Closet. It goes under the stairs. It was so hard to get a good picture of the closet, but here it is:

The door to the HPC.

You walk in and have some space, then go through the white door-jam to our coats and hats. Turn the corner and voila:More storage. Then turn right again and enter the space under the stairs:This is actually quite a large space and goes back a few more feet behind our coats.

(sorry, what a lame and boring post. i'm not even done. . .)

Now for the vents. Lucky for you I didn't take a picture of every vent in our home. But the vents are significant. For one thing, they are actually on the floor. The last 2 (cold) homes we have lived in have had the vents on the ceilings - hello, heat rises. Not so efficient. But on the floor is so nice and warm. And F.U.N.

The boys and Emmy love standing over them when they are blowing and getting warm and having their hair blow all over. And it is so fun to make things fly. Like birthday balloons and crepe paper:Who needs TV when you got this sort of entertainment?

Here it comes! (It referring to the flying red crepe paper of course.)

The end of a going-no-where post.