Frustration...arrgh!

Earlier this week I had to give up my spot on the Wasatch Back 180 mile relay team. I feel like I've let down my team but it wouldn't be doing mt knee much good to be running 3 different times within 24 hours - not to mention the steep hills along the course.

Then, yesterday I officially pulled out of the marathon I was supposed to run in May. I transferred my registration over to the 5k (thanks for the advice CarrieAnn). I'm really bummed that I had to "quit" but my knee just isn't cooperating. 3 miles is about all I can run.

The one upside is that I'll be able to watch Trevor at the finish line of his first marathon.

Trevor's Triathlon

Trevor was asked to be on a team for the Blue Mountain Triathlon. In this race, the swimming is replaced by cross country skiing, then there's the biking, followed by the run. Trevor hadn't been feeling well all week and lost his voice on Wednesday night but he did the race anyway. There were some last minute changes to the course so instead of 5 miles it was 5 1/2 miles, which wouldn't have been a big deal except that the starting line was changed too. That meant that instead of running at an elevation of 4500 feet (which is about what our house is at so he's used to that) it was now at 7000 feet and went uphill for 2.5 miles - also he was still sick and had a hard time breathing to begin with. Surprisingly, he and his 55 and 61 year old teammates came in 12th overall and 3rd in the men's teams!

Michelle's clogging

Michelle had her first ever clogging competition. She got 2nd in her solo dance. She also did a great job in her team dance which is the video below (she's the 2nd from the left on the front row then moves to the back row).

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My mom's birthday is March 1st. Her and my dad came in to town this weekend for my cousin's missionary farewell so we threw her a small surprise party. I tried to surprise her with Turtle Brownies with homemade caramel sauce but my first 2 attempts failed so she helped successfully make the sauce - always a mom!

The Newest Talented Bear Cub

Caleb's first ever piano performance was at the Ward talent show. He did really well considering there were a lot more people than either of us was expecting.

At Pack meeting this month, Caleb received his Bear Award, a gold arrow, 3 silver arrows, and the astronomy belt loop. I must say he's the cutest Bear I've ever seen. By the way, he was also awarded "Scout of the Month" for his den!

Megan - Student of the week

Megan was Student of the Week and got to color a poster telling all about herself.
If I could have one wish, I'd wish for a...dog
My favorite thing to do is...watch tv
When I grow up I want to be a...doctor
Nauvoo was my favorite vacation

BYU Basketball

This was our first ever sporting event we went to as an ENTIRE family. I was a little leary of how well Gabriella would do during the 2 hour women's basketball game but she was pretty well behaved - especially while she was napping ;)

Three years ago, our first Valentine's after Gabriella was born we took her with us to a men's BYU basketball game. Here she is 3 years later and taking another nap! Don't you love the tutu she put on her stuffed kitty.

Megan drove us crazy about wanting to meet Cosmo. We chased him down and Megan was thrilled to give him a hug.

Caleb was a little leary about meeting Cosmo but I know he would've regretted it. Michelle had come a few weeks ago with Trevor to a game so she didn't need to meet Cosmo again.

I couldn't believe that I actually caught one of the shirts that the cheerleaders throw to the crowd. That was the greatness of coming to a women's game. We sat on the 11th row - close enough to catch the goods.

Caleb the Bear Scout

Caleb's grandma gave him his first pocketknife. Within 1 hour of receiving the knife he earned the Whittling Chip Award and passed off the requirements needed towards his Bear patch. Below is the penguin he carved out of a 3 inch bar of soap.

Last night was the Pinewood Derby. Caleb came up with his car design and helped in every aspect of the car building. Unfortunately things didn't work out fast for his car. I was REALLY impressed with his good sportsmanship. Any other 9 year old I know that would've lost every race (not even finishing the last race) would've broke down crying. But Caleb held it together even though he was devastated. For that we treated him to a great big ice cream cone!

Near Death

Thank heavens Megan was being watched over last night. An hour after we put her to bed, Megan came out crying about how her night light wasn't working. Trevor and I couldn't understand why that was such a big deal until she explained (after the tears stopped we could finally understand her) that she'd stuck a "penny" in it then it stopped working. Needless to say we asked if she was okay, realizing that she blew the circuit breaker, the nightlight and burned the side of the nickel. If she would've been electrocuted we'd have never known it for a few hours (when we check in on the kids before we go to bed). Once again I'm so grateful she was being protected from above.

New....

Gabriella's first day of primary was "awesome". She has a great and creative teacher. Gabriella hasn't even once asked "where's the toys".

For Christmas we gave the older 3 kids desks. Megan loves hers a lot. Even during Christmas vacation she'd spent hours at her desk drawing pictures.

For Christmas I asked Trevor for a way to display the family's accomplishments. He gave me the words "Family Glory Wall" and together we came up with this layout. The smaller pictures are the photos of each of us doing something notable like.... Michelle's is one of her leading music at her Christmas program, Caleb is running a 5k with his grandpa, Megan won 2nd place at the County Fair Art Show, Gabriella started primary, Trevor is running a personal best in a half marathon and I won 3rd place in my age group in a 5k.

Christmas

Santa did bring me a new camera and I'm sure all of you will appreciate the clearer pictures. Santa also brought our family a Wii and Caleb and Michelle wasted no time in playing.


Gabriella loved all the new clothes she got. In fact instead of carrying around her new toys she carried her clothes around all day, or at least the 2 shirts, 1 skirt and 1 pair of pants that she was already wearing.

Megan loves the new home she got for her stuffed animals. Can you believe that ALL of these animals were previously on her bed all the time - even when she slept. I'm sure she's sleeping more soundly now that she has the majority of her bed back (she still has 3 large teddy bears on her bed).

Here's the family the Sunday after Christmas. If you look close enough you can see the necklaces that Michelle made for each of us from her new kit.

Merry Christmas to all........

Kids' Programs

On Wednesday, Caleb's 3rd grade class had an afternoon Christmas program (last 15 minutes of school) and we were all amazed that Trevor was able to squeeze away from work long enough to come see Caleb sing a few songs.

Later on Wednesday night, Michelle's 2nd grade class had a sing-a-long. Her teacher played the accordion and the kids took turns leading the audience in singing Christmas carols.

Caleb and Michelle practiced their songs so frequently around the house that now even Megan and Gabriella have the lyrics memorized.

On Thursday night Michelle's clogging group had their Christmas performance. It was Michelle's first large performance and she enjoyed the limelight.

Gabriella's 3rd Birthday

I was pretty proud of my first attempt at using actual cake decorating tools...then I realized I left off the "e". Oh well, she loved the chocolate cake with pink frosting and everyone scarfed it down so fast it must've tasted pretty good too.

She looks so grown up. I can't believe my youngest is already 3!

Gabriella's own picture of Megan putting together Gabriella's new puzzle set.

It was a long exciting day. This is how we found Gabriella shortly after dinnertime...all bundled up in the bean bag chair with a good book. I hope she keeps that love of books alive for years to come.

I love you my precious Gabriella!

Gabriella

Yesterday we had a combined family birthday/Christmas party at my sister's house. We were only able to take these couple of photos due to a full memory card (Oh I so hope Santa brings a new camera with a huge memory card). Gabriella's favorite pie is pumpkin so that was her birthday "cake". She had a hard time with everyone's attention focused on her (hence the scene below) but she livened right back up as soon as the singing was done and the pie was served.

Substitute Pet

The kids woke me up this morning yelling something about a dog on our porch. We at first thought that it was Caleb's piano teacher's dog but it wasn't. It seemed content to just hang out on our porch out of the snow and wind-which was fine until I realized it shredded our welcome mat and the cushions on our porch swing. Caleb and Michelle spent a couple of hours playing with the dog in the snow and having it fetch a tennis ball. Eventually it just wondered off and we haven't seen it since-although it did leave someone's snow boot on our front lawn that it drug off of someone else's porch.