Redo

When Ben and I bought our house, there were things we knew we wanted to eventually change.  But with kids, my laziness (and busyness), and Ben busy with work and church . . . things haven't happened very fast.  

We have painted a few walls, but that has been it.

Until Ben heard that his brother Matt was coming into town, and was willing to be hired to help Ben put in a floor in our living room and kitchen.  So we did!  We hurried and picked out the floor, and had it ready to go when Matt got into town.

Since I wanted to put in dark floors (after much indecisiveness), I felt like my dark fireplace would need to be changed . . . so I wouldn't have so much "dark".

I have always really liked white fireplaces anyway . . . so now I had a really good excuse.  Not like I needed an excuse . . . I guess this just MADE me finally do it.

Above are pictures of our fireplace before I tackled it.  That first coat of primer is always a little scary!

With each coat of primer and then paint, it kept looking better and better.

I love it!  I should have painted it white years ago. 

 I felt like even with the light carpet in there, it looked okay!

Finally, the carpet of 16 years was pulled out! 

I can't believe all the dust and dirt that was under the carpet.  In some spots, it literally looked like sand had been dumped on the floor.

Ben and Matt only had two days to put in the floor.  

We couldn't find goggles, so snorkeling masks had to do!

It took so long to get these floors in.

The weekend finally came to an end, and Matt had to leave . . . school or something :)

Ben took an extra day to finish up the rest.

We are happy with it though!

It took me some getting used to because it was so different than the light carpet, but we like it.

We still haven't completely finished it . . . we need to order a stair nose, so a small part of the floor isn't done . . . and then baseboards.  But enough is done to put our furniture back.

Half Marathon Weekend

I ran my first Half Marathon!

This is something I thought I would NEVER do.

A year ago, I hated running.  But last spring, finishing a 5K changed that for me.

Last summer, I started training for a 10K.  And while I didn't actually sign up for an official race, I was able to run the distance by the end of the summer.

Training for a Half Marathon seemed the like next step, and one that  I was excited about.

So last August/September, I started training for the St. George Half Marathon!
I found a Hal Higdon training schedule that I liked.  It was a 12 week schedule, and the race was around 20 weeks away, so I just doubled up on many of the weeks to give me lots of time to prepare.

I was nervous!  

The training schedule I used (which I diligently followed) had me only run up to 10 miles before the race.  Ummm, the race is 13.1 miles, and to me there is a big difference between 10 and 13 miles!  But according to Hal Higdon, if you can run 10 miles, you can finish a Half Marathon.  The adrenaline, the people, the finish line . . . all that inspiration will help you run the last 3.  

So . . . I was hoping that would be true!

The St. George Half  Marathon turned out to be perfect for me!  First of all, the weather was GREAT!  Not too hot, not too cold.  It was great to run in.  The race started at 9am which I like . . . it meant I didn't have to get up too early, I would have time to eat before, etc.

The course was nice.  There were some hills, but not worse than what I run on in my own neighborhood.  Ben and the kids would hang out at different points along the race to cheer me on.  

I loved that!

Here I am at the very end of the race.  I can see the finish line, and I am trying to will my legs to run faster.  I don't think they were responding though :)

Once I finished, I couldn't believe that I had done it!

My only goal with this race was to  run the whole way.  NO walking.  Even if that "running" was at a  walking pace, I did not want to lose that "running" groove.  

I guess secretly I had another goal of at least finishing with a certain time.  It was just a time that fit into what pace I was already doing in training.

I reached my goals!  

Not only did I run the ENTIRE time, but my pace was a little faster than I anticipated!  

Not a lot faster, but still . . . 

Overall, it was an awesome experience.  I have never set a physical goal like that . . . and so to work towards something that I wasn't sure I would be able to do . . . and then do it, felt awesome!

My legs hurt so much the rest of the weekend . . . and even a few days after that.  But it was worth it.

I spent the rest of the day hanging out at the condo.  I spent a good amount of time in the hot tub :)

The kids thought it was so great I was running a race, because it meant a mini-vacation for them.  They love to go to St. George.  They swam, they played basketball, and just did all the activities available  at the condo.

We spent Sunday attending a Sacrament Meeting, and then visiting with Ben's cousin and her family.  They were nice enough to invite us over for dinner.  It was fun!

From there we headed over to the St. George Temple Visitor's Center.  We roamed around and watched the "Meet the Mormons" movie they were showing.  

We might do it again another year!

Christmas Break

 Christmas break is coming to a close.

This year the kids actually had two full weeks off!

To celebrate the new year, we thought it would be fun to try cross country skiing.

The girls liked it!  

Austin . . . not so much.

Gwen was really fast!  

Abby and Halle like trying to find small hills to go down.

Austin looks happy here, but really he was telling us he wanted to go home and never do this again :).

We will definitely do this again!

Gwen's 8th Birthday

Gwen turned 8!

Because of General Conference next week, the stake baptisms were scheduled for the last Saturday in September . . . which happened to fall on her birthday!  How often does that happen!
We started out the day with a birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage and chocolate milk, and a few presents of course!
Ben's brother Matt left Rexburg, Idaho at 4:30 in the morning to make it to our house in time for birthday breakfast!
Gwen felt pretty loved.

Here is Gwen before the baptism program started.

She was SO excited!

The program turned out so nice.

All my children participated!

Austin gave a talk.
 We wrote out two pages of simple sentences about baptism, and he drew pictures to go with them to help him remember what to say.

He got up there, spoke in the microphone, and gave his talk.

He didn't even look scared.

It was amazing!

Halle said the opening prayer.

Abby was the pianist.

Both Abby and Halle participated in a musical number of "I Lived in Heaven".

Halle played the piano, Abby played the violin, and Nico Pugh's relatives and mom (Jennifer) sang.

It was so beautiful.

I was so immpressed with how well my girls played their instruments!  They have never accompanied singing before, and they did SO well.

After the program, we did the traditional photo shoot and then had lunch of homemade Cafe Rio Pork salad for lunch . . . with chocolate pie and pumpkin bars for dessert.

We ate food and Gwen opened a few baptism gifts.

It was so nice to have so many people come support Gwen.

Later in the evening, we went to the Women's Broadcast.

It was so fun to go with my daughters, my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law and two sister-in-laws!

That doesn't happen very often . . . if ever!

My mother-in-law wanted to take everyone out after the broadcast.

Since it was Gwen's birthday,  we went to her choice . . . Los Hermanos.

This was such a fun time!

We talked about what we liked about conference and enjoyed the company.

Los Hermanos sang a rowdy birthday song to Gwen and made her wear this hat.

I think deep down inside she loved it, even though she said she didn't :)

Gwen had the BEST DAY EVER!

Thanks to all who helped make that happen!

Bittersweet

So, my last baby just got on the Kindergarten bus!

He was soooo excited that we ended up going out to wait for the bus twenty minutes early.

And . . . then the bus was about 15 minutes late.

He looks a little nervous here, but he walked on all by himself.

I can't wait to see how happy he comes home.

I think he has such a great teacher!

At least that is my impression from my brief 2 minutes meetings with her before school started.

I think teaching Kindergarten just might be her calling in life . . . so I am so excited that Austin will have such a nice experience at school.

Soccer, Soccer, and More Soccer!

Soccer has started!

This is my FAVORITE season, despite how busy it makes our life.

For Halle's game yesterday, there was water everywhere!
It was POURING the night before.
The night of our ward campout . . . which we attended 100%.
Anyways . . . 

the field was flooded in the middle!

So . . . it made getting the ball around a little difficult.

This year, Halle moved up a level (to the fifth/sixth graders), is playing on a bigger field,  with more players on the field, bigger goals, and more competition.
  She is once again super aggressive and played so well yesterday!

She has THE BEST coach as well!
Her coach has scheduled three hours of practice time a week!  This means that Halle has soccer games or practice 4 days a week . . . which just equals heaven for Halle.

Gwen wanted to play this year!

After taking a break last year, she was ready to try it out again this time.

She is so confident out there!

I wasn't sure what to expect after taking a break last year, but it's like she didn't miss a beat.

Austin is in Cub Soccer again!

It's weird to think that this is our last year of Cub Soccer.

All of our kids did this . . . for two years each!


Austin is pretty excited to have his own games for us to go to.

He has improved since last year!

He seems more willing to run after the ball!

Austin has a pretty awesome coach too! :)

And the assistant coach is very handsome . . . (Ben will fill in sometimes if the coach can't be there:))

Austin also knows a few of the kids on the team, which makes it nice.