Happy birthday Princess!

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I can't believe it. The years have flown by and my baby girl is six today. I remember the day she was born so clearly. After two healthy boys I was yearning for a girl. Her labor was not too long but painful because I didn't get my epidural in time and she was a big baby but when I saw my beautiful new daughter all the pain seemed to fade away. She had a head full of beautiful dark hair and these chubby little cheeks. And she was mine. All 8lbs 12oz of her.


I don't really think it's fair that you blink and they grow so fast. She was so much fun as a baby. Adam used to tease me that she was my little doll because I used to dress her up and do her hair. When it was finally long enough I even put curlers in it! After two boys I was in heaven with my little girl!

She was such a good baby. She was always content and smiling. She always had an easy going temperment. She has grown to be such an amazing girl!

She has so much spunk but yet she's quiet and shy. She loves to show off in her subtle, quiet ways. She won't talk to you but she'll dance for you. She's confident. She's sassy and sweet.

She loves to play with friends, to dress up, and to dance. She loves to read and color. Her best friend is still her beloved bear "bo-bo". She is very feminine and loves her nails painted and her hair done and she loves to wear dresses. Yet, she's not afraid to get dirty. She loves school and does pretty well. She loves to play soccer and boy can she kick a ball!

She is such a wonderful girl; Everything I could have ever wanted in a daughter. She is a true Princess. Happy birthday Emilia!! I love you.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAL!

We are well into soccer season again. Soccer is a family favorite. Adam is either practicing or playing in a game several times a week with his team and playing as often as he can in the backyard. Millie and Matthais are now practicing weekly with games on Saturday. Of course they are all at different locations (and hopefully different times!!). I really have nothing better to do than run around crazy all week. And that is just soccer.When you add in dance and therapy and with school starting I feel like I spend a lot of time chauffeuring kids. But you know what? It's ok. I am happy to do it. I know I complain a lot. A LOT! But, truth is I love what I do. I wish it wasn't so hard but I love it. I love watching my children's faces light up when they score a goal. I love watching their sportsmanship strengthen as the cheer their team on. I even love watching their tears as they learn that sometimes you get hurt or fail. They are learning and growing and I am happy to be a part of it.

Could it be?

Is relief soon coming my way? Only 4 more days until school starts? Yipee! Last night as I plopped into bed Adam asked if I was exhausted. "hmm," I thought. It's not so much a physical feeling as a mental one. Tuesday was my first day back to my full daycare schedule and at one point I had 17 kids here (and a few moms too!). The rest of the week it'll only be 8 but that is more than enough. Too many actually. I had to make sure I was sufficiently stocked with diet coke because I don't even have enough seats in the van for an emergency trip to BJ's. Today we have an open house at the kids school and I'm worried if I take Ian he's going to have his "I want to go to school" meltdown. These meltdowns can seriously last hours (like his 2 hour "I want to go to school" meltdown yesterday) and I'm not sure I have the mental strength to handle it. The other kids, however, are a little anxious about starting a new school and would like to go check it out. Millie is especially nervous. She's worried about lunch and restrooms and such. The guilt in me wants to make sure this year goes as smooth as possible for her since I am the reason she is switching schools. So, I'm sure I suck it up and go but I'm sure I'll pay for it later. Too bad the rest of my day is just to busy to simply run away. Maybe while I'm at walmart I'll invest in some ear plugs! Yay for school!!!

The dreaded 20 miler: take two

After my horrible 18 miler last week (I actually only ran 16) I could not mentally wrap my head around my 20 miler this week. I took off Saturday at 6:50 knowing that I was starting late. 3 miles into my run it started raining. Actually, pouring. There was lightning on all sides of me. I was wet and miserable and there was no way I was going on. I ran home with the intentions of heading over to the rec center to finish as much of my run as possible. The rec center was closed so I ended my run of a mere 6 miles. I felt like such a failure but there was no way I could have ran that in the rain. So, Monday I decided I needed to buck up and do it. I decided to do a 4 mile loop 5 times. I just couldn't be too far from home. It was a mental thing. I also decided to not pack my water/powerade and decided to stop at home. That was helpful. The run was actually pretty good and I mixed it up by running the route backwards and running on the other side of the road to avoid boredom. When I hit 13 miles I just knew I could not run that route again. I was struggling physically and mentally. I also knew I couldn't stop at home again. I ran through my old neighborhood and up and down streets to get the last of my mileage in. I ended up running 19.69 miles. That was all I could muster but I was proud of myself.

I actually feel pretty good today and this is the worst of my damage. I get a darned blister on this toe every time I run but this is my far the worst one I've had. I'm gonna have to do more preventative next time. 16 miles this week...that seems so easy now!

$2 may be too good of a deal

Thanksgiving point is having an amazing deal on Tuesdays in August. Admission to any of their fabulous facilities is only $2. That would be a $22 savings to take my brood to the museum. Being the cheapskate that I am I jumped on this deal. Me and everyone else in Utah county!!! The line to the museum wrapped around the building! I was meeting some friends and didn't even know where to begin finding them. Luckily most had decided not to come and when Shauna came and saw the line she headed for home . (I tried her on her new cell phone to no avail!) We decided to go to the farm. Not quite the deal as the museum but it was something to do. Ian has been asking to ride a horse for months now and I thought this would be the perfect time to appease his interest. The line for the horse rides was long but I knew there was no way we could skip this. He was his usual self in line. Major meltdown. Waiting is not his thing. I was trying my hardest to keep calm and trying to distract him to no avail. The lady behind me was crowding me and I was holding Ian as he flailed around and he kept pushing me into her stroller. She was acting so annoyed and I wanted to say "you see what he's doing...don't stand so darn close!" What I actually said was "excuse me, I'm sorry but I'm trying my hardest to control him but I'm worried he's going to push me into your baby. Could just step back a little bit?" I made sure she saw his "I have Autism, what's your excuse?" shirt and she smiled and stepped back. There were three cute girls in front of me talking about their blogs (Maybe one of the is TAMN?) and they were being cute and talking to Ian trying to distract him. When it was just about our turn and girl approached me and said "I just want to let you know I think you are doing an amazing job. I saw his shirt and thought wow! What a great mom!" Can I just say it totally made my day?!?!? She was telling me her son is bipolar and before he was medicated she couldn't take him anywhere because he had a lot of meltdowns. I was relieved to be surrounded by understanding, kind people. And once he had his horse ride he was fine. It's like flipping on a light switch. I just wish I could flip it off too!

How to have the run from heck

I know this should go on my training site but since I barely have time to post here I've kinda abandoned my training site. I just thought I'd let my running friends know how to have the worst run in their life...just in case they're wondering.

First, you need to drive over 100 miles to go camping. Stay two nights and get as little sleep as possible. It won't be very hard since you will freeze and you'll most likely have a toddler kicking you all night. And besides...it's camping. Also make sure the cold you've been fighting turns worse due to lack of sleep and heat. Next make sure you don't wear sunscreen and get a great sunburn. Eat as much junk as possible and don't drink any water...just diet coke and fresca because hey, your camping. Drive the 100 miles home and eat more junk on the way home. When you get home eat lunch around 2:00 but don't eat anything else before your run. Start your run later than planned and make sure it's around 95 degrees outside. Bring your water and sports drink and make sure your sports drink is one that you've never tried before and tastes like pickle juice and makes you gag every time you drink it. Run your familiar beautiful route and get envious of all the beautiful houses and well groomed yards. Make sure you gel early and then realize you only brought one and you have 3 hrs left to run with nothing to keep you going. Make sure you run through the sprinklers so your shoes are nice and soggy. When you get to mile 14 you can break down and cry and wonder how on earth you are going to finish this run. Just make sure that when you get to the point that you can continue on a mile and go home or turn and run 3 more miles you turn. Stumble and fight your way one more mile, in the dark, crying until you finally call your husband to come and get you at 10:40 p.m. But hey, it's victory! 16.29 miles. That's .29 miles more than last time. Try to humble yourself as your husband picks your sorry, cramping butt up and drives you home 1.71 miles short of your training run. Cry again as you climb into the tub and count 12 blisters and realize you get to run 20 miles next week. Yes... GET to run. Rejoice in the fact that you will soon be a marathoner.
If you live that long.

MMM...the wonderful smell of campfire

After 3 loads of laundry I am almost rid of the wonderful smell of campfire. I just need to defunk myself but since I have an 18 mile run today I decided to just get rid of it all at once. I survived my first camping trip with four kids and we actually even had fun. Amazing. It helped that we were with so much family and we had some back up. The first night I realized just how long it's been since we've gone camping when I realized the flimsy sleeping bags I brought for my kids were not going to cut it. I couldn't sleep worrying about how cold my poor kids were. A true bad mommy moment. The next night was much warmer and we had some donated blankets as well. Adam did a ton of fishing and I even went out on the boat with him. It was my first time since our boat only holds four and I usually spend our lake experiences on the shore keeping track of a kid or two.

It was Owen's first time on the boat as well. At first he was a little nervous but before we knew it is was walking around and reaching over the edge for the water. And we even caught a fish while we were out.

The campground was called the Big Rock campground and there was this big rock. You can't really see the size of it from this picture but it was big enough that most of the kids needed help climbing up and down off it.
We brought our four-wheeler too although we really only road it around camp. This is Millie with her cousin Kayden.
This is me and my sister. I have to make fun of her because she is so not a camper. In fact they actually slept in a house about 40 min away. I call her a wimp. I know I remember camping as a kid. In fact, when we went to Disneyland as a family when we were kids we camped the whole time. But, I know how she feels. Camping is such hard work it almost feels not worth it. Almost.