So Needed!

Last Wednesday, our family took off for a much needed mini-trip to watch my sister Kelsey play in the State Basketball Championships. Our three day trip was so much fun, that it turned into a week long vacation. It was WONDERFUL!!!!

The best thing of all, is that my brother, Ryan and his wife, showed up at one of the games disguised as people cheering for the other team. The came all the way from Alaska!!! They sat right in front of us and we didn't know it was them for a while. We only figured it out when my dad sat by them and started cheering as loud as he could, just to tease them. It was hilarious when he realized who he was really teasing! When we did, our entire cheering section flipped out! My mom ripped off Ryan's wig and immediately started crying. I was in absolute shock and found that my mouth had been hanging open for a very long time by the time I finally shut it. It was all caught on video, thanks to my aunt and uncle who helped them pull this off. We have watched the video at least four times already.

My other brother who was not there, Devin, ended up coming the very next day once he got word that Ryan and Juliet were there. ALL of my family were together (which is very rare and usually happens only once a year) and it was an absolute blast the rest of the week. It was so awesome.

This trip was just what I needed. Oh, it was so wonderful. We crammed a lot in.

We watched Kelsey's games, which were very fast, very intense, and very high energy. She is a phenomenal basketball player, so it makes it even more fun. It is her senior year, so this was the last State tournament for her, and the last games she played.

We played the game "Loaded Questions" for hours. We spent most of the time laughing until we cried, over and over and over again. What was said during that game will stay in that game.

We ate and ate and ate and ate.

We hung out with lots of extended family at lunches and at a tailgate party that my aunt had at her house. So awesome!

We celebrated Sam's 4th Birthday. LOVE that boy!

We went shopping. ;)

We watched movies.

We stayed up too late, a lot.

We worked out, thank goodness.

And we savored the time together as a family. I found my spirits lifting by the hour. I love my family so much. It was just so awesome to have everyone together.

The rest of the trip will be in pictures.



Ryan and Juliet. I wish I had a picture of the disguise they were in when they surprised us, but this is a cute picture too. We missed their kids (who stayed in Alaska) but it was so fun to be with them.



Ben hanging out with William.



My brother Tyler helping Sam put his Birthday present together. Yup, Sam turned 4 while we were on our trip. He had a great Birthday!



Me and William. Notice that the bottle is practically attached to William. That's my boy!



Sam wanted a rice crispy Birthday Cake, so here it is. Actually, he asked for pumpkin pie at the last minute, but we didn't have the ingredients. He did like the rice crispy cake though, he just doesn't smile for pictures right now.


My three brothers, Ryan, Tyler and Devin, "helping" Sam play with his new Imaginext Robot he got for his Birthday.


My sister, Kelsey, and Sam doing their special hand shake. This was right after one of her games.


Kelsey's last minute playing Basketball. It was a bitter/sweet moment for her as a Senior. She made this shot, she rocks! They placed third in the State!!! She had an amazing game.


Sisters.


Mary was pretty sick for most of the trip, but she still had a great time being around everyone. She sure loves her grandma.




The whole gang. And this is just the immediate family that came to watch Kelsey. There were a total of 45 people that came just to watch her play. It was so cool!


This is what Sam did during the games. The poor kid got so bored, but was a good sport.




William did great! We kept him around in case they needed a spare basketball.


Our cheering section of 45 rocked the house! We were loud, crazy, and obnoxious, and oh, it was so fun!


Of course, there was a one armed push up contest. Tyler literally did at least 30. What the......?


The gang...again.


My aunt (who we stayed with) has like a million potato heads. We utilized them to the upmost usage.


And the gang...again! Notice that Sam's shirt doesn't quite fit. That should about sum up the fun phase he is in right now. I am just in shock that he was even in the picture. But hey, we sure love him.


Tucanos. In a word...W-O-W. In another word...F-U-L-L. In another word...M-E-A-T.
All you can eat meat, delivered right to your plate. Along with a massive salad bar. At one point Mary leaned back in her chair and while rubbing her tummy exclaimed, "I am in love." It was THAT good.


Mary was trying to hold up her cool tongs that she had. Sam...well, lets just say that he does not like getting his picture taken right now. And he was REALLY mad when about 10 people came over banging drums and singing happy Birthday to him. I think I scarred him for life.



He did like his ice cream they gave him though.


It was THAT good.





Some of us girls went to a salon called Callidora. I have virgin hair. I have never done anything to it aside from getting it cut. I went out on a limb and tried highlights...and a small trim.


I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!


We got home last night, and grandma JoJo is coming tonight. We have a fun weekend ahead! And I have LOTS to do in the next few hours. I better get to it.

Sam's First "Party?"

My little Sammy Boy will turn four on Sunday! We will be out of town on his Birthday, so we decided to have his party a week early.

The party was so funny! I had some games planned, but one minute into the games, the kids decided they didn't want to do them. I felt like it was preschool all over again. Zero attention span. So, we decided to serve the cupcakes. I was suprised that Sam didn't shy away from the Birthday song and the candles. He did great and blew out the candles with all of the breath he could muster. It was so cute! I tried one to make sure they were good, and they were very yummy! I guess I expected them to taste like rubber or something, with the way the kids were playing wiht them. What on earth! They were just poking them and smashing them, so we decided to be done with the cupcakes.

Ben and I kept on looking at eachother with the look of "what do we do now?" We still had 30 minutes to go, and nothing to do. So, I grabbed some balloons, told the kids they were fireballs, flapped them like a crazy woman,and chased them all over the house. Ben found this to be gut-spliting hilarious, but hey, it was all I could think of. That kept them entertained for a while. We also pulled out the broom and did the kids version of the limbo. Now that was funny! I think they all closelined themselves at least 10 times, but they kept coming back for more. That ended up being the hit of the party! Honestly.

By the end of the party, I was probably more worn out than the kids were, but at least Sam was smiling. I could tell that he felt special all day as we got ready for the party, cleaned, decorated and planned the games. I think he had a lot more fun planning and anticipating the party, than the actual party itself. He is just like me in that way.

Although the party was not what we had expected, I still think it turned out great, because Sam grinned the rest of the day, and all of the kids left smiling.
(yes, Sam was actually very happy, his mouth is just full of cupcake in this picture)

Expressions

8 months!

On the 4th of this month, William turned 8 months old! W-O-W.

Here are the specs.

He cut his two bottom teeth.

He can get on all fours and rock back and forth. I am sure crawling is in the very near future.

He is on REGULAR formula. No more Nutramigen! We are beyond thrilled, and so it our wallet.


He loves food, but only food. He can grab all sorts of stuff, but he never puts anything in his mouth. It is weird to me, because Mary and Sam put everything in their mouths at his age. I was always monitering them. He is a major texture baby. He hates anything with chunks. He will gag on even the smalles bit of something. (like 1/2 of those star puff things) I am wondering if that is why he never took a binky, no matter how many times we have tried.

He is so, so, so, chubby. He is now in 12 month clothes, and even those get too small after being washed. His legs and arms look like tree stumps. There is no difference from his arm to his hand, or his calf to his foot. His ankles and wrists are burried under a deep layer of yummy baby fat. I kiss his rolls ALL day.

His laugh is a deep, from the belly laugh. He laughs and smiles very easily, and he is a charmer.

He can say "ba" for bottle.

He holds his own bottle, and a lot of the time, he does it with one hand. It is hilarious! His hands are enormous, so he can easily grip the bottle with one of them. It is a lifesaver at night. We just make the bottle and he feeds himself.

He grabs things so fast, and we never see it coming. It cracks us up. He will swipe anything that is in front of him. We like to call him "swiper," from Dora. He has knocked over many a jar of baby food, and pulled out numerous earrings.

He loves music. Any time we sing hymns in church, or turn on music at home, he will flap his arms and rock back and forth while laughing or smiling.

He is turning into Mr. Personality, and we can tell that he has a very fun and energetic spirit.

Love you bubba!

Almost There!

Here I Go!


Frusterated.


Keep trying.


I give it a week...two at the most.
Time to start putting everything up one shelf higher.

When all else fails...

We break out one of Mary's favotire Christmas presents, ignore the amount of sugar the children are sucking down their throats, and the bright blue color on everything, and enjoy the smiles and shouts of excitement.



Although I stayed true to my Sugar Sunday goal, and didn't partake, it smelled great! It is so cool to watch the machine turn the sugar into a cool spider web type pattern. I am so glad that Santa decided to give Mary such a fun gift.

Even William knew that it must be something yummy. He sure wanted a handful himself!

Sometimes Even Superman Crashes

Yesterday, preschool was here at our house. The baby is teething, so he wasn't exactly allowing me to get much done. I was busy carrying him around (all 22 pounds of him) while trying to help 6 preschool children do a craft. It wasn't working very well at all. He was screaming his head off and the kids were losing attention fast. Dang.

So, I decided that it would be "break time" for the kids, so I could make the baby a quick bottle and calm him down. I told the kids that they could play downstairs in the toy room for just a few minutes.

Just a minute later I heard a big bang downstairs, followed by Sam's full blown, filled with absolute shock, scream, at the top of his lungs. The scream was followed by his usual holding his breath until he almost (or sometimes does) passes out. I ran down there as fast as I could. Sam would not calm down. After this, he continued to cry and cry and cry. He was holding his foot and wouldn't let go. He refused to walk.

After questioning several "witnesses," I learned that Sam was showing everyone that he can fly. And he did so from the VERY TOP STEP. Probably 9 steps high.

Unfortunately, Sam didn't quite clear the very last step, where his foot caught the brunt of the crash landing. You see, Sam is sure that some part of him is Buzz Lightyear, Superman, Batman, or some flying superhero. He is also pretty sure that he can fly, if he can just get up high enough.


He cried for the rest of preschool, which was over an hour. Between Sam and the baby, it was very chaotic, but we made it through somehow.

By the end of the day, Sam was walking, kind of. He has a very strong and very weird limp. He kept on asking me why it was STILL hurting. Sam bounces back really fast when he gets hurt, so this was new to him, and me. I wasn't sure what to say.

We went to the doctor today, where, when asked what happened, Sam told the doctor that he was flying. I filled in the blank by adding that Sam "flew" from the very top stair and "had a hard landing" at the bottom step. The doctor smiled and nodded. He was a trooper through the X-Ray stuff and even got two dinosaur stickers. He was told the the light from the X-ray machine was like a lazer beam, and that is all it took. Superman now was shot with a lazer beam and it "didn't even hurt." He must be sooooo strong!

The X-ray didn't show a clear break, but the doctor is pretty convinced that he has a hairline fracture on the side of his foot. She didn't cast his foot, and depending on the next few days, he may or may not get a "special power shoe that heals bones," a.k.a. a walking boot. We will see.

Sam has ALWAYS been a jumper, and I figured this day was "bound" to happen. No pun intended. hehehe I am grateful that it wasn't anything else worse, and I am really hoping that Sam has learned a good lesson.


On the way home from the doctor today, Sam said, "Mom, you know that even Superman crashes sometimes." And that was that.

Gem

A small little fact that I didn't know, and that you should know:
Strep throat, untreated, CAN or MAY lead to infection of the ears and/or sinuses.

Sure, it felt just like strep throat. My toes curled every single time I swallowed, I was up for hours at night, tossing and turning from the raging burn and ache in my throat, BUT, I didn't have those nasty white spots all over my throat that almost always accompany strep when I have it. I also had no fever. hhhmmmmm

So, I didn't go to the doctor. Not smart. After three days of the sore throat, that wasn't getting better, I woke up at 1:00am and I could have sworn that the side of my face was going to explode. It looked like it, felt like it, and I knew my ear was infected. At the time, both of them were screaming. One more than the other. I sat up in bed holding my ear for the next three hours. Every time I laid down, the pain was too much. I have had ear infections as an adult, and they kill, but this one was in a whole different dimension. It was TERRIBLE!!!

I was also coughing a ton, and I am sure you can guess how wondeful that felt on my throat and ear. oh yeah.

I got into the doctor that morning, and he explained to me that I not only had strep throat, and a bad go of it, I also had an eardrum that was going to burst any given second and a whopper of a sinus infection. I think the doctor patted me on the back about 20 times in complete pity.

Thank goodness Ben was able to be home a lot this week. I have been good for nothing but keeping my spot of the bed warm and well used. Oh, and I did a nice job of depleting the house of all kleenex.

Yesterday, after 7 days of being sick, and two days of antibiotics, I finally felt pretty good. Once I started feeling good, I started remembering that I hadn't been to the gym at all this week. A good run sounded so wonderful at the moment, but there is no way I should be going to the gym for the next few days. I think I would snot all over everything and spread all sorts of germs to everyone. Not the best way to make friends.

Then I remembered this video I bought, but had tucked away in a drawer, recommended by my mom. She couldn't stop talking about it, and I had wanted to try it, but just hadn't gotten around to it.


Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred
Yup, that beasty, ronchy ,Biggest Loser Lady.
I see her in a new light now.
She rocks!

I was very sceptical, but after two days of this, I am completely sold!!!

This video is an absolute gem! And the best part, it is only $9.00 at Walmart.
There are several other videos that she has made, and you better believe I am getting my buns back there to get more of them.

It is only 20 minutes long, and when I am done, I am pouring with sweat and I am S-O-R-E for a long time. She does it perfectly. Mixes cardio, abs, and weights, for maximum calorie burn and maximum toning of the body. You are constantly working several parts of your body at the same time. It is incredible! There are three different levels, so anyone can do it. Did I mention that it is only 20 minutes long!

I do two levels a day right now (40 minutes total) but when I get back on the treadmill next week, I will just do one 20 min workout each night after the gym. It is great for those upper body muscles that I never work, but wish were more toned. Her leg workout is a beast, but I go easy on it, because I already work my legs when I run. If you go all out with the video though, your legs, and everything else will tone up fast.

My mom has been doing it, along with running, for a while now and she says that the results are amazing! She said that once she started the video, the weight started dropping and she is toning really well! You are not required to run or do anything else along with the video, that is just something that my mom and I are doing. It is a way of life for me. I run because I love it.

I am not one to promote work-out videos, and I have done a lot of them, but this one is a-mazing. Did I say that it is only 20 MINUTES!!

The video boasts that you can lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days. I, for one, do not believe that, but I do firmly believe that in 30 days, if you are faithful to it and eat smart, you will see some serious results.

So, go to Wal-mart, get some cheap hand weights, get the video (in the sports section) and go for it. Seriously! It is great.

I dare you!

And The Winners Are..

The Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon.
I will be running this with my mom, ON HER BIRTHDAY, April 30th. I absolutely cannot wait to do this with her. It will be a very special experience.



Utah Valley Full Marathon. This marathon sounds absolutely amazing! The scenery is going to be so incredible. It goes past rivers and lakes, through mountains and canyons, etc. It is also known to be a very fast course. Perfect for a P.R. I am pretty nervous, because I am running for time, but it makes it all the more exciting.



Just 6 days after the marathon, I will be participating in the Ragnar, June 17-18. as mentioned in the previous post. The timing isn't the greatest with the marathon, but it will be fine. I will just have to adjust my training accordingly.

And there you have it! 2 years ago, I spent the month of June sick and on the couch with mono and severe blood loss as a result of losing our precious baby. Last June, I spent the month having a baby (which was a miracle and a gift) and figuring out his protien condition, while saying goodbye to my dear grandpa who passed away that same week, while packing up for a big and very hard move. This June, I will be running a Marathon and the Ragnar! What a month! I wonder if my parents knew what they were in for when they gave me my middle name...June.

Let the training begin!

Something New

Normally, with my playlist, I choose a song that goes along with the blog post that is up at the moment. It has been really fun, and my playlist is getting very full with all sorts of random music. I have decided to try something different for a while. I just put the playlist on random shuffle and am letting it pick the songs for me. So, if you get a fun post with a mellow song, or a mellow post with an upbeat song, just flow with it. Consider it a suprise every time you log on to the blog. Enjoy.

Signing Up!

This will be a summer of running, and I am VERY excited! I am on track with training and, if all goes well, (knock on wood) I should be ready.

My mom and sister will most likely be running their very first 1/2 marathon, and I will be joining them. We will be picking one in the next few weeks and then begin working toward it. I am beyond excited to run with my mom and sister. It will be so fun to be with them when they accomplish such a big goal. My mom is amazing and is working so hard, it will be such an awesome thing to run with her. We are trying to find one that is in July.

I am also signed up for the Ragnar Relay here in Utah.


For those of you who don't know what it is ( I sure didn't at first), here is the lowdown. It is a relay that goes from Logan to Park City. It is a total of 188 miles in 24 hours. There are 12 people on each team. Everyone runs three legs of the relay. You run anywhere from 3 miles up to about 9 miles for each leg. Some legs are VERY hard and basically all uphill, and some are rather easy. Each person runs a total of 14 to 21 miles, depending on which spot you have. It goes all through the night. I am VERY pumped for this. There are some very fun and energetic people on the team. It should be a blast.

I am also signing up for the St. George Marathon in October.

It is a lottery, so I have my fingers crossed that I can get in. I ran it a long time ago, (it was my first full marathon) and I loved it. It was an amazing experience. I REALLY want to beat my time though! I ran it in 4 hours and 2 minutes, which I was thrilled with. The killer is that I spend about 5 minutes waiting in line for the dang port-a-potty. The dude in there was having serious problems. Boo!!! Without the potty breaks, I could have broken 4 hours. I really want to run a marathon in under 4 hours.
I ran a marathon two years ago, in Nevada. The Valley of Fire Marathon.

I didn't know that that course was basically all uphill, and absolutely nuts. 1/2 of the runners dropped out because it was too hard, or because it was just a terrible course and they didn't want to waist their time. It was a horrible marathon. In fact, I think they got in trouble and aren't able to do it anymore. I didn't have a chance at beating 4 hours with that one. The guy that won the thing, ran it in over three hours. I am just grateful that I finished it.

If I don't get into the St. George Marathon, I am on the look-out for a back-up marathon, just in case.

And there you have it. I am nervous, but also so excited. It should be a very fun summer!

Sugar Thursday?

This is Maya. Maya Sugar Maynard (as named by Mary and Sam)

And she is ours!!!!

Her name was originally Sugar, but we tweaked it a bit. She is young enough, that it won't really affect her. If you read the previous post, her name is pretty ironic! We had a good laugh anyway.

She now sports a camo. pink collar, sleeps in a soft white fluffy bed, is walked (by Mary) with a cute purple leash, has a rainbow dog tag, and ALMOST got a hot pink sweater. How's that for a welcoming...and some serious love from a 6 yr old, puppy crazy girl.


Maya is the most beautiful, adorable, cuter than pie, sweet, tender, happy, eager to please, little puppy you will ever meet. She is a 4 month old purebred golden lab. It was love at first sight with this one.

We were VERY careful this time around. We asked a million questions and really made sure the decision was a good one. We made sure her previous owners were honest about her. We didn't want to have another Nico incident. We feel great about this one!

We brought her home Thursday night, and we have all absolutely fallen in love with her. She is such a sweet little thing. She is already house trained..yippee! She is young enough to train her to be part of our family, but old enough to already be trained in the important areas.

She will grow to be the perfect size for running, hiking, camping, playing, protecting, and traveling.

We plan on her being in our family forever. She is a keeper for sure.

Welcome Maya, you sweet little sugar muffin!

Sugar Sunday

Ben and I have made a deal. We are calling it "Sugar Sunday."
We were talking about our new family goals, and one of them was a goal to be more healthy.
We are alreay on a very consistent work-out schedule, and have been for a few years now. We only eat out once a week, and we try to keep it somewhat healthy most of the time.

One new goal we made, is to do abs together. After I run my buns off for an hour and then do the elliptical (for those awesome flappy arms), I just don't have the energy to to abs right away, and then I forget to do them. Ben has a killer ab workout he does, and that I attempt to do sometimes, so we decided to do it together in the evenings. We can motivate eachother.

Or other goal is a big one.
It is a major weakness......SUGAR.


It is amazing how much a body can crave it, right after eating a good meal. It can almost make you foam at the mouth. uh, did I just say that?

Anyway...

We both are feeling happy about our current weight and fitness level, but there is always that last "layer" that can be so stubborn to burn off.

You know that one I am talking about. The one that hides the carved out chizzled muscles in a man or in my case, the pre-baby waist that once was. Yeah, THAT layer.

We have decided to call it the "sugar layer" because we are pretty sure that, in our case, sugar is the reason for its existence.

Ben and I both feel strongly that any diet that completely shuts out any food group, sugar or not, is not healthy and only ends with binging and unhealthy cravings...for us anyway. So we are giving ourselves one day a week to eat sugar...in moderation. Like a dessert or that pastry that I have been wanting to make. The rest of the week, we ignore the craving and find other alternatives, like liver or spinach from a can. Just kidding. But really, there are some good alternatives out there. I may even try some on the kids.

And no, you are not getting those sick before and after pictures with me in my skivies all slouched over and blubbery and stuff and then all fake computerized and sucking it in a month later. Nope, you get these cool, pictures of sugary food I found on the internet. Enjoy.

I have a little thing with Mary, where we usually bake something yummy on Sunday. We eat some and we try to find someone to give some to as well. She loves this and looks forward to it, so we decided that we would make Sunday the day that we will eat sugar. It will be Sugar Sunday.




So far, so good. All three days of it. Go us!

Here's to losing those last few stubborn pounds and shedding the "sugar layer."

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I have a lot to blog, but honestly, I don't really feel like doing the details right now, so you will get a summary of our last week and 1/2. It will probably be very similar to all of yours, and may be quite boring to anyone but us, but hey, we love reading our blog books from past years, and this post will be a fun one for us to look back on.

Mary turned 6 on Dec. 23rd. I know it sounds so cliche', but I honestly and truly cannot believe or really accept that she is 6. Maybe it is because she is the oldest and I am in a phase of wanting to freeze my children right now and not let them grow up anymore. Time is going too fast. She had a very fun Birthday.

She had a party earlier in the week, but we still found some low key ways to celebrate. We went to Costco for lunch, Mary's request, and also picked up our family videos we had them convert to DVD for us. She opened presents and played with her best friend. I made her her favorite dinner, chicken enchiladas, cantaloupe, rolls and she requested caramel brownies for her Birthday cake.

We had some last minute phone calls from my siblings and we were so excited to be able to spend her Birthday evening with two of my brothers and their wives. We laughed our heads off, watched videos of Mary (tradition) and swapped Christmas presents. Our home was full of love and laughter. My brothers have never been able to visit us before, so this was a big deal to me. My brother Tyler, his wife and new baby stayed the night with us as well.

Mary had a great Birthday and we love her so much.

The next day was Christmas Eve. We drove my brother and his family to the airport (there are many perks to living near the Salt Lake Airport)and then headed for our traditional Christmas Eve breakfast. We went to an adorable, small, festive, place called Kneaders. They have some killer pastries!!!!

We spent the afternoon at the movies. Sam insisted on wearing his 3D glasses to the movie. It was hilarious to watch him.

We were planning on a nice, quiet Christmas Eve with our own little family here in our home, but we got another fun, surprise phone call from our neighbor inviting us to a Christmas Eve party with them and two other families in our ward. We were very excited not to spend Christmas Eve alone.

The party was awesome. We had a very nice and formal dinner. We have some very comical and very not shy people in our ward, so our conversation was always fun and energetic.

We played a bunch of games, had a talent show, and finished with the kids acting out the nativity. It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve. They also had the NORAD Santa tracker up on their computer, so the children were watching to see where Santa was throughout the evening. It was really cute.

We came home and opened our Christmas Eve gift...new pjs. The kids also opened a very special gift from Grandma and Grandpa. A book that will be a forever keepsake in our home. It is a really cool book, but the special part is that it has a speaker and my parents and sister read the book to them. It made me cry. Very special. The kids were very giggly and squirmy, and I admit, so was I. It was so fun and magical. I LOVE the magic that kids bring. We left out the cookies and milk for Santa, got the stocking picture taken and it was off to Bed to await Santa's arrival.

Ben and I went in to check on the kids later that night and found this.

We could hear them whispering and giggling to each other. Adorable.

Christmas morning began with a family prayer a bloody nose and so much excitement that I thought the kids would burst.

We had a very special and fun Christmas morning. As a mother, it always feels good to see everyone happy and feeling special and loved. It also feels good to know that your "Christmas purchases" were a success. Sam did that for me this year. He opened one of his gifts and absolutely flipped out. It was awesome, and I felt like all of the planning, work and thought were well worth it. It was hilarious. I wish we had it on video.

Later that evening we headed for Pocatello to see my family. It was a very fun visit.
In a nutshell...
We talked, played games, worked out at the gym, made some amazing candies, downloaded all of my sisters music to my new ipod, played racquet ball ( I laughed so hard during our racquet ball game that I seriously started wheezing, oh man, good times), watched movies, and had a good time being together.

Then it was off to the Maynards home in Boise. ALL of Ben's brothers and their families were there.
Ben and I celebrated our 7 YEAR ANNIVERSARY with a snow skiing trip to Bogus Basin. We had a great time and I was able to see Ben tear it up. Truly, he is an amazing skier! I knew he was good, but I was very impressed. We really enjoyed being alone together.
The next few days in a nutshell....
yummy food, LOTS of noise, talking, laughing, teasing, wrestling, playing, ect. A trip to the Old Penitentiary (spelling) where we FROZE our buns off, but it was interesting, a trip to some hot springs, an all out crazy dance party on New Years eve, Christmas present swaps, a talent show, and some good family time. It is always bound to be an adventure when all of the Maynard boys get together. Good times.

We had a good trip, but it was so wonderful to be back home. We sold our dog the night we got home. Yup. He turned out to be a TERRIBLE chewer and he would get excited and jump on the kids. Not good. He ruined a lot of important things in our home and in our parents homes. I don't have the time to constantly be monitoring a dog who is chewing our home to pieces. We still plan on getting a dog, but we need to find a good fit for our family. The girl we got him from was not honest with us at all. We will be WAY more picky next time. He went to a wonderful home with a great family. And we were completely honest with them about Nico.

It feels really good to be back in the groove. The kids came home to all of their new toys, and were very excited. I am digging in and cleaning up all of the Christmas Decor and planning for the "spring/summer look" of our house. It is exciting for me. We made our family New Years Goals for FHE last night, and it got us all excited and looking forward to the next year. We have two major goals for our family that we have broken down into several categories and ways to accomplish them.
The two main things are: drawing closer to each other by having fun as a family, and drawing closer to the Lord by living the gospel as a family.

And..last, but not least, William is 7 months old today!


He gets bigger by the week, literally.
He is pushing 23 pounds.
He has zero desire to crawl, and somehow Ben and I find that adorable.
He laughs easily and adores Mary and Sam.
He can say BaBa for bottle.
He still LOVES baby food and is now eating #2 foods.
He had the worst diaper rash I have ever seen in a child. It has lasted almost 2 months and is a bloody raw mess. We think we have a hold on it now after using antibiotics, steroid creams and the usual butt paste.
He loves to try new sounds and really enjoys patty cake with mommy.
He is a major snuggler and likes to be around people.
He has so many nicknames, I can't list them all. I guess nicknames and chubby babies go together. Right now, his main name is "Big Mike" He got that one in Boise. It comes from the movie Blindside. All of the Maynards call him that.
William gives the best "sloppy kisses!" He will basically grab my ears, pull me in and attack my face. It is so cute.
We love our William!