A Spooky Weekend

Ah Sunday morning-- the best time to get caught up on blogging, while the kids are "playing" (AKA fighting over toys) in their room! Last weekend was Halloween and Gracie's birthday. Luckily my friend's halloween party landed the previous week while the girls were with their dad so I got to go- but didn't bring my camera :( But rest assured there were some great costumes and we had a lot of fun!!

On Saturday, Gracie's brithday, we went Trick-Or-Treating. It took months for Ashley and Gracie to finally pin down what they wanted to be. It varied from Petter Pan and Tinkerbelle, to Barbies, or Princess Tiana and Charolette, to finally.... INSECTS! Ashley was a bee (which is what I dressed up as too!) and Gracie wanted to be a lady bug.

They were excited to wear make up and Gracie requested that she get lipstick to match her dress! And Andrea came over and crimped their hair all cute, and then they were ready to go!

Ashley insisted on posing like this for her pictures.....

And yes, those are Gracie's pink rainboot. It turns out that we really needed them that night! We were prepared with rainboots and umbrellas, but it sure didn't keep up dry!

After about 30 seconds outside, their hair and make up was gone!!

Gracie's birthday party we had on Sunday. We found an awesome Halloween/birthday

cake for her, which I loved! Gracie doesn't smile a lot in pictures, but she

was pretty excited about the cake, too!

She got to open presents and loved every minute of it!

One of Gracie's presents was a pillow pet- which she's been asking for for months!

Her and Erika snuggled with it....

It was a fun weekend and we were exhausted! This is how I found the girls asleep that night...


And now it seems that Gracie thinks she gets to wear make up all the time! AND she gets to put it on herself.... YIKES!! I guess I better keep my eye liner hidden from here on out!!

Gorgeous!!!

How much do we love Andrea?! The answer is .... A LOT. Because without

her we wouldn't get those awesome pictures!!! THANKS ANGE!!!

Ashley came up with this pose all by herself... shocking, huh?!

I love Ashley's serious faces.... I think she can pull it off!!

I love my girls!

Sometimes life is really hard. Sometimes I feel like I cant keep up and that I'm doing everything wrong. Sometimes I feel like I'm not measuring up like I want, and that I can't get important things that I want or need- even though I try so hard and want it so much.

But all of it can go away, even just for a second, when I hug and kiss my girls. I'm so blessed to have such fun, loving, and sweet kids! The other day I was exhausted and I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes for a minute while the girls watched Dora, and Ashley came up and put a blanket over me. She's so sweet and thoughtful! And no matter how wild Gracie gets, she'll always stop for a "squeeze" and a kiss. I love them so much!

CrAsH

Gracie is the kind of kid who never sleeps and has neverending energy. She's like a less-furry Energizer bunny. Her and Ashley have been having to get up at 6:30 every morning, and she rarely falls asleep before 9:30 each night. And I think it caught up with her today! One of her cute daycare teachers texted me this picture of her today. When she finally does crash... she crashes hard!

She Gonna be a Soccer Player!

Gracie had her first soccer practice today! She was excited to wear her shin guards! We walked up the the park where practice was and she kept saying, "Where's my coach?" "I want to find my coach." "Oh there's my coach." haha Made me laugh!

Gracie was a natural with the soccer ball! She wasn't afraid to just get after it! She was stealing the ball from the boys during their practice game and score on them. She played defense awesome- blocked some goals! I was impressed!

She did great wih dribbling down the field - kick the ball and run!

GO TIGERS!!!

She has 4 games over the next 5 Saturdays. We'll see how they go! Good luck, Gracie girl!

Labor Day at the Fish Farm

What a great holiday we had today!! My parents took the girls up the the fish farm in Kamas, where they used to take me and my siblings when we were younger! The girls were excited and I was happy that we knew for sure that we'd be catching some fish! haha

Ashley was the first to catch a fish- and it was a big one! She loved catching the fish, but when it came to standing within 3-4 feet of the fish- she ran away FAST!! For some reason the fish scared her!

Gracie was a little more brave with the fish. This bucket is where we kept the already-caught-fish flipping around.

Gracie's second fish was pretty big!

She wasn't too sure about standing so close to the big fish though!

And then the fish started flipping out while still on the hook and it kinda scared

her! You can see how she was surprised and tried to move away without falling into the pond!

There was this cute little swing that the girls got to play on while we got the fish all together before we left.

Gracie loved my hat... she also loves having pictures taken of herself.... haha Gracie got this little star ring at the fishing pond and she loved it- even though she kept losing it!

We were in the car a lot today and both of the girls got a good nap in :)

Back to real life tomorrow!! Wish us luck!

13.1

It all started in May, while watching The Biggest Loser. I decided I needed something more to motivate me and to help me get back in shape! I decided that I wanted to run a half marathon this year. Running is one of my weak spots, and I figured training for the race would force me to make it a strong point. Lindsay offered to help me train and come up from Vegas and run it with me! I'm so glad she did! We had to wake up around 4:30am on Saturday to get up to the U to catch our bus to the starting line! I don't know how motivated I would have been to do that alone! She's my hero!

The first 4 miles were the steepest hills I've ever seen (Little Mountain in SLC). It was a killer! But the rest of the race was downhill- down Emigration Canyon, which was much better :) Miles 5-9 or 10 felt really good and I was running at a faster pace than my usual, even though I still took a few walking breaks :) But the last 2 miles were so so hard! My body started feeling like it couldn't go any further. When I had only .4 miles left, my legs were screaming at me- and I really felt like I couldn't go another step! The Linz pointed out to me that we couldsee the finish line and it was so close! So I kept running- and a few seconds later I saw my cute dad on the sidelines. Oh that made me so happy and I knew I could do it!! And then he motioned to people sitting over in the shade, and just then my girls came running out. It was so sweet! And I hurt SO much! But Ashley and Gracie came and ran with us across the finish line. And it was so cute and fun to have them with me!


When we were done, Ashley said, "Phew I'm tired from all that running!" Haha

We didn't have a lot of water stops on the course, so drinking up this super cold water at the finish line felt so good!

Me and Linz at the finish line. Thanks for the support! I loved

running that 13.1 miles with you, Linz!

I've never been more sore in my life! And I limp around like I'm handicapped- but it was a good experience- from May til now! I guess you really can acheive anything you put your mind to! :)

Ashley's in Kindergarten!?!

Well this was a HUGE week for Ashley! After waiting for so long she finally started Kindergarten! She has been talking about Kindergarten everyday for at least 6 months! I was really excited for her to start, too. She's so smart and such a social butterfly that I knew Kindergarten would be perfect for her. Unfortunately, on her first day of class (and everyday of class for the rest of the year!) I had to be in class, too! I was sad to miss her first day- but thank goodness for my parents! My mom and dad took her to her first day of class for me! It made me feel a lot better :)

Gracie gets to start preschool this coming week and then all 3 of us will be in classes and have homework! Let's see how I do keeping up with all of it :)
Ashley and Gracie were being ballerinas before school..

Ashley would look in the opposite direction of my dad holding the camera when he would

call her name for a picture. haha classic stinker Ashley!

I love you Ashley, you little smarty-pants! You'll do AWESOME!