mothers day

Mothers Day weekend was a good one.

Saturday was Sam's last soccer game with this team.  The weather was CRAZY!!  Right as the game was supposed to start, there was a huge downpour with thunder and lightening, so they postponed the game.  Once that storm passed, they started the game, but it began to hail like crazy, so the stopped the game until that storm passed.  Once they resumed again, the wind was nuts, but they kept playing through it.

The weather was so bad, that I was the only one that went to the game.  I was an idiot, and I was just wearing my gym clothes, because I had just finished working out.  I FROZE!!!

The game was good, and Sam had a great season.  He loved this team, and I feel like he learned a lot.  I noticed that Sam has become  much better with his foot work, and his confidence in taking shots at the goal has increased too. 

I am excited to see him continue on.

One last STORM cheer.

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning, training the dog, and trying to entertain kids who were cooped up due to the weather.

Sunday, Mother's Day was a good day.  The kids gave me really cute homemade cards, and gifts they made in school.  The weather finally cleared up and the sun came out, which was a huge deal to me.  I really need the sun.
We decided to get everyone, including the dog, outside.  We went to the park.
While we were at the park, Sam asked me if I wanted to race him.  Somehow I had energy to spare, so I agreed.  I wasn't sure I could beat him, but I thought there was a good chance I could.  I run almost every day after all.

Once the kids heard that I was going to race Sam, they all wanted to race me.  We decided to have a family race.  Ben would be the finish line.  I figured Mary was the only one that would most likely beat me.

Well, we did the race and Sam and Mary completely smoked me....by a LONG way!  They blasted past me and got way ahead.  I didn't have a prayer!  I couldn't believe it.

To make matters even more crazy, William also beat me.  Yup, my 7 year old.  For real.  I did not go easy on them at all.

I was so astonished by how badly I was beaten, that I called for a re-match.  That one was only worse. 

I am not a competitive person, with other people, so I wasn't bothered, but I was definitely shocked.  It was actually hilarious!

That is me, way, way back there in the blue sweater, running my absolute fastest.  And that would be Mary and Sam, absolutely trashing me.  haha!!!  William wasn't in this particular race, but he beat me every single time.

It was really fun to play with my kids and to be together as a family.  We all had a good time.  One the walk home, William walked up to me and said, "it's ok mom, maybe when you're older, like 90 or something, you will beat me."
Thanks William.

Church was great.  Mary was asked to speak in Relief Society about women in her life who have been Tender. 
She wrote the talk herself, and she wrote all about me.  It was very touching and very sweet.  I kept the talk.  It was so special.
 We had a yummy dinner after church, and Mary and her friends worked really hard the day before to make cake pops (my favorite dessert) for me.  They were so yummy!

We hung out after dinner.  We did some push up contests, sit up contests, and talked about each child and their special story of coming in to our family.

It was such a great day.

I am so blessed with my beautiful children, and to be a mother to them.

Being a mother is my greatest treasure and gift.

primary program

Our ward had our primary program 2 weeks ago.  Mary wasn't in it this year, because she's too old, and Molly wasn't in it, because she's too young, so it was the year for the boys to do their thing.

They memorized their parts and did a great job.  I love the primary program and the pure faith the children have, and their powerful spirits.  It is always a very special meeting.

The kids looked so cute before church that day, that I had to snap a picture of my precious babies.  They are my everything.

she's the only one who enjoys pictures, so she gets a lot of them

she was being a little ham, so I took advantage

oh yeah, she is definitely 3

fall fun in p-town

The kids and I took a weekend trip, for fall break, to Pocatello.  We wanted to get out of the house, and do some fun fall activities as well.  I think we accomplished our goal.

My mom and I took the kids to a pumpkin patch. 

It had this INSAINE corn maize.  It was really cool, because you had to answer a question right to know whether to go left or right through the maze.  It was really fun for about 45 minutes, then we realized we weren't even close to being 1/2 way done.  Good grief!  We found an "emergency exit" and ended our corn maze adventure.

We got to take a tractor ride over to the pumpkin patch, and the kids were very intent on finding the biggest pumpkins possible.  I'm pretty sure they did!

 

Later that evening, we decorated grandma's warm, perfectly soft, and crazy delicious sugar cookies.  It was hilarious watching how the kids worked so hard on their cookies.  They definitely don't get their artistic side from their momma.

 

William greatly appreciated grandmas amazing sugar cookie recipe

that is a serious work of art....and a ton of candy corn

Bop even got in on the action.  Once again, there is no resisting grandmas sugar cookies.

 

I let the kids stay up late watching movies and playing games every night.  I'm pretty sure they ended up thinking that was the best part of the trip.

 

One of the days we took them to a really cool bounce house.  I was worried that the hour we paid for would not be enough time.  Sometime during my life as a mother, I might realize that my children are nuts, and very active.  The image of them just sliding down the blow up toys and then crawling back up was about as far from accurate as I could have imagined.

 

They blasted into that bounce house full steam ahead.  The were bouncing, flipping, running, sliding, crashing, and everything in between.  45 minutes after they started, they were all bright red, dying of thirst, and ready to collapse.  Rock on.

Sam and Mary had a contest to see who could slide down the blow up toys as UN gracefully as possible.  It was hilarious!!  Seriously, it was incredibly funny.  Oh man!

After the bounce house, I bought the kids soft pretzel bites with dipping cheese, and let them each get a soda. ( got the biggest Diet Coke known to mankind)

 

You would think I NEVER fed my children.  They went on and on and on with how it was the best meal they have ever had.

 

Pretzel time for the win!

 

Aside from our outings, we had fun just kickin' it at grandma and grandpas.

 

All in all, it was a great trip.

 

The evening we got back, I took Mary and Jett to their first ever Haunted House.  Mary had been freaking out all week for it, but was so excited to go.

 

Sam also went in another group with Trey (Jett's brother) and his parents.

 

It was a local one here in Heber called, The Night Walk.

 

I ended up being the one in the front holding the flash light, while Mary closed her eyes and clung to my arm.  Jet did his best to act cool, but he was totally freaking out.

 

According to Sam, he wasn't scared, but Jett's mom, who was standing behind Sam when he told me this, was definitely mouthing to me on the contrary.  haha!  Boys.

 

It was awesome!  I love haunted houses.

 

Mary survived, so did Jet. 

Jett Cherry, Trey Cherry, Sam and Mary

 

Boom.  Awesome Fall Break if I say so myself.

more summer happenings

This is going to be my last post about summer.  It is taking me forever to try to catch up, so I am just going to do one more loooong post, and then start in on current happenings in our lives.

One day, we were feeling adventurous, so I took the kids to Lowes.  It is an awesome trampoline park, that also has a trapeze, a climbing wall, a ninja warrior course, and a huge room set up for the younger kids.

The kids had a BLAST!!!  If it wasn't so expensive, we would go there every day.

Sam's favorite place this summer, here in Heber, was the skate park.  He and his buddies begged all of their parents daily to take them there.  They brought their scooters, and did some pretty cool stuff.  Sam is very brave!  I could not believe some of the stuff he would jump over and go around. 

William

Luke

Sam

 Of course, Molly and Luke did a lot of hanging out with their best friends, Boston and Beckham.

Luke and Boston building something

snow cones

Luke and Boston....best buds

Molly and Beckham....inseparable.

 

 

 

We went on a family hike to a place called Blood's Lake.  It was GORGEOUS!!!  It is named bloods lake because of all of the mosquitos.  They aren't kidding.  We got eaten alive, but it was really fun anyway.

 

 

I have been running a ton trying to get ready for my next marathon.  I had to take a break to heal up my IT band from the marathon in June, and I also got another steroid shot in my labrum in my right hip, to try to calm down the inflammation and allow me to make it through the rest of my training.

 

Some runs are better than others, and I was in a serious training rut last month.  Completely burned out.  Running in McCall helped pull me out of it, and some mental relaxing about running has helped as well.  I have had to force myself to chill out and just enjoy running again.  My 20 mile run a couple weeks ago was awesome!  I have a 21 miler coming up in 2 days, and I'm praying it goes well also.  After that, I start tapering for the marathon.  The worst of the training will be over!!!

I LOVE the view on my long runs

right along my running path

 

 

Luke was diagnosed with strep throat, and soon after we got home from the doctor, he was stung in the neck twice!!!  The poor kid!  After we got him all fixed up, he grabbed his guns and told me he was going to kill all of the bad germs and bad bees.  Go get em' Luke!!!!

 

Actually....he ended up being totally freaked out the rest of the summer, and refused to play outside if he saw a bee. Poor guy.

 

Luke dresses up almost daily.  His outfits are amazing!!  I looked outside one day this summer and about died from laughter.  I love this kid so much.

We went to the duck pond a couple times.  The kids love how the ducks eat right out of your hands!  Molly thought it was awesome, until they started chasing her...hahaha!

Luke and Boston figured out how to siphon water one day.  Unfortunately, they tested it on about 20 of our food storage water bottles in the basement...argh!!!

 

It was really cool though, once they took it outside.  These two crack me up!

 

Speaking of food storage.  Molly is a huge organizer!  She discovered our food storage, and her favorite thing to do down there is to organize the food storage.  Too bad it is already organized ON the shelves, and she likes to organize it OFF the shelves.

And last, but not least, our summer has been full of looking for "Diaper Horses."  Molly calls these horses diaper horses, and I cannot tell you how many times I crack up when I hear her say it.
Oh, she is so stinking cute!

Aaaannnd, that's a wrap for summer 2017.   Whew!