Mother's Day

This is more of an all-encompassing post of the entire weekend. :)

Friday, I got to enjoy giggling and squealing with my angel.

He's so dang cute!

(squealing)

Friday afternoon/evening, we met up with Daddy after work and went shopping and out to dinner.

The sun was low, so his shade was low enough to prop his feet on.

At Kohl's, I got there and had to go to the bathroom. I went into the family one since I had finally gotten C in the stroller and didn't really want to take him out to...put him on the floor??

This toilet is cute. I know. a cute toilet? What? 

But it's all small and cute! J pointed out you can't tell how small it is. compare to waist-high trash can on left, belly-button high changing table on right, drain the size of my hand on the floor. Cute and tiny. :)

We went to Chili's, but I didn't get a picture of that. C had pieces of my fries and pieces of J's broccoli. He liked the fries...surprised? Not really.

We bought a Mother's Day gift for J's mom and my mom, kinda, and for me!

This is J's mom's present.

 Handprints and footprints of Mr C!

(really really difficult with this curious kid! but it turned out better than the picture looks...)

We'll be doing one for my mom when we get to AR in just a little bit!! Woohoo!!

These are MY Mother's Day present! Yay!!

New running shoes! Aren't they pretty??

And I got running capris. I feel pretty spiffy in them!

I got them Friday, but didn't use them til Monday because my 5K was Saturday and that seemed dumb to use brand new shoes for your biggest race.

 There are NO words to describe how proud I am of myself for running this race!
It was the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in Boise. I did the 5K. My friend, Jana, asked in February who wanted to join her in running every day and then running it.

I hated running. I didn't like how my whole body jiggled, I didn't like that I couldn't breathe, I didn't like it, Sam-I-Am! But for some reason, I told her I'd do it if she helped me get there.
She had a different schedule than I could do, so it looked like I had to train on my own...Not gonna happen.

So I asked Cassandra to run with me. We started out small. Walking, running, walking, running, etc until we had lots of distance and less walking to our running ratio. We took our babies, got running strollers, and did it every weekday!

By the week of the race, we were up to 2.73 miles in about 30-40 minutes (about 14 min/mile) not too shabby. I could do that!

The week of the race, Cassandra was out of town. Then, Saturday was her baby's 1st birthday, so she wasn't going. I was going with Jana and her hardcore group. So Wednesday, I went with them. OH MY HECK! talk about hard run!! I was dead about 3 minutes in!! They started uphill is my excuse. There were 11 of us running that night, so thankfully, I had someone with me the whole time who knew where to go and was happy for an excuse to walk, too.
I came home and my vision was blurry, I was hot, tired, and very frustrated.
Thursday, I ran with them again. After complaining a little, they decided to do the half-route. Especially since there were about 5 of us this time.
I made it. I told them I needed to walk, they walked. I got my breath back a little, and we ran.

I was intimidated by Saturday.

I went with Jana's hardcore group and started with them. I could feel the butterflies.

I started out well. I kept up, I had a good pace, but I was losing steam. I asked them where we'd meet after...don't ask that question during. ask before. They said, "at the end..." great... :)
So I slowed down for a little bit. People passed me, but they were nice about it. No huge sighs at passing the slow girl about to pass out. :)
Then I ran again. Slowed, ran, slowed, ran....I did the race by myself. The whole thing, pretty much!

3.1 miles! in 34 minutes, 21 seconds. That, my friends, is 11 minutes a mile!! Hot Dang!!

The race is basically run there and back. flat the whole way (thank goodness!). When I got there, the boy scouts are handing out water, so I slowed to a walk to guzzle my 2 ounces of bliss.

When I saw the balloons at the end, I almost cried! I had done it! I ran the race in memory of my Grandma who passed away from Breast Cancer. I did it in celebration of my future. I did it to improve my self-worth. I did it! I can't believe I did it!

My phone was out in the car because running with a phone is really not gonna happen unless you have an arm band. Maybe I'll get one for the next 5K I run. So the above picture is what you get. I finished 5 minutes after Jana's Hardcore Band, by the way!! I'm so proud of myself!

So I got home and we went to a benefit sale for a friend from church. I got a bike rack for my car and some christmas tree ornaments. woohoo!

We went to J's parents' place for the evening to eat dinner and hang out. It was nice. We were able to sit out on the back porch and talk during the evening when it was nicely cooled off.

Linda and I went to the 4 houses in her neighborhood that were part of a parade of homes. Holy goodness, those were fancy! The most impressive was the one with this room. Imagine a game night here. Awesome.

This little one has started to sleep on his tummy. I think it's so adorable.

Snuggling with Dad after sleeping and now headed home.

C made me a mommy for this Mother's Day. I'm so thankful for him with all of his silly quirks, his goofy grins, and even his frustrating days. 

 It was a great Mother's Day. We went to church, I was treated very well by my sweet husband, J made lunch, my Father in Law made dinner with the help of J and TyTy, I was given awesome new running shoes, a tiny little orchid, and a footzone by my Mother in Law.

A little before dinner, we made a call to Arkansas to wish my mom and my sisters a happy Mothers Day.

She may never forgive me, but I am very happy with this picture... Makes me smile. My mom rocks. She's patient, giving, kind, hilarious, and always so wonderful. I'll make the picture smaller so she doesn't get too mad at me... :)

Brag-post

So! Today is where my blogpost is going to be a brag-post...

If you don't want to find out how awesome I am, move along. :)

I just need to get out there that I'm quite proud of myself and the little things I can do!

I can crochet!

I'm best with squares.

Therefore, I make baby blankets and scarves. One year in high school, I made all of my friends scarves. 

Now I make baby blankets. I'm working on one and need to get yarn for another.

This one, I think I put a picture on here a while ago. It's yellow and brown so that, hopefully, either a boy or a girl could use it. It was sold at J's extended family's reunion last year.

This one I made in 2 days. That's right folks. 2. 

It's blue and black. Kinda cool.

This was for one of J's coworkers.

This one is my most recent blanket I've made. I made it for my cousin's daughter, Evelyn. 

It's yellow and white and turquoise and white.

It's beautiful.

This is a ruffle bum onesie I made for my friend who's due on Thursday! Yippee! let's hope this little girl comes soon! I can't wait to meet her!!!

In church, I work with the 12-18 year olds doing Personal Progress. It's an awesome program where they set goals, achieve them, work hard, and gain a testimony of the gospel of Christ. Pretty awesome, right??

So this year, there is a new curriculum for their classes the 3rd hour of church. Each month has a topic that is basic to the gospel and the teacher is to facilitate conversation and enhance conversation rather than preach and tell.

It's fabulous. (especially from a teacher's point of view)

So every month, I make a handout and it somehow relates to the Personal Progress goals.

This one is about repentance. I tied it into the laundry detergent TIDE and got an acronym (shout out to J, Kristin, and John for figuring out the acronym. You rock!)

This one was about the Plan of Happiness. We are here on earth to make choices, learn from them, repent, and hopefully return to live with our Heavenly Father. So I made a handout about how our choices need to be the best we can make.

This was a month about the restoration of the Lord's gospel to the earth. Since there was no priesthood power on the earth since Christ's apostles, the gospel had to be restored through a prophet, just like in every apostasy and restoration. I have a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and that he truly restored the gospel.

On a less spiritual note, I am crafty in my garden!!

I think it's beautiful this year!!

I'm also really into doing hair. :) It's fun! And surprisingly easy! I first tried in college on my FHE sister, Shayna. And it worked! So I kept going! I did Amy's hair-she had tons of hair, so that was exciting! and then I did my hair for formals and even my own wedding. So I've gotten good with updos and playing around. I've told my sis in law that she better have me do her hair for her wedding... :)

So there's a girl at church who goes to lots of pretty, fancy dances and stuff and I told her I did hair! 

She asked me to do it! Woot!

Here it is!

Cool, huh? the light from the flash kinda distorts it a little, but I think it still works.

I did this for my fancy Valentine's dinner

This was a bride's hair that I did at the end of March. We did 2 practices because the silly girl (xoxo) didn't know what she wanted!

So I did an updo and down, curly with a little pulled back. She asked me to do it down, curly with a little back for the ceremony and then pull it up for the reception. But when she got tons of compliments and really liked it down, she then asked me to just touch up the curls.

This is how it looked at the reception. So pretty! Especially since she always has pin-straight hair. 

It was cool.

This next one is really silly, but it's still creative and pretty awesome.

I am building princesstopia in minecraft.

These are Cinderella's and Rapunzel's places. Pretty cool.

Then!! 

We got a swing set from friends who moved to Arkansas (crazy, huh?) from here in Idaho.

It was missing a piece, so we added that white part on the closer a-frame.

It also had a really yucky swing with rusted chains and a broken plastic thingy. Not exactly what I wanted children swinging on!! So we bought a new, blue soft plastic swing from Lowes!

The previous owners also had IKEA swings. One baby and one kid kind. They were kinda rough and worn, so I sanded and stained them!!!

Aaaaaand since:

Here's a picture of my cute little man! :)

Thanks for reading all of my bragging!! :)

What I Look Like When...

So you know those pictures that say "What I think I look like when....What I actually look like when..."? 

Well, my current one  that is plaguing me is this one.

Pretty sure it's true... :)

So here's what I look like when I'm running...

I got this awesome jogging stroller online for only $40! Awesome!

This is what my baby looks like when I'm running. I pull the blanket up really high so that the wind can be blocked. :)

And this is what C looks like after we run. I love the lopsided hat and the funny hair.





Which "What I really look like" pictures is plaguing you right now? :)

Perspective

This weekend was a great one with some hiccups that were a little big and tried really really hard to overshadow the greatness of the weekend.

Those hiccups did a fabulous job, I might add.
So in order to see a better perspective, I am going to show you what happened!

Me and my little family (that's so fun to say!) went to get some things with our tax return money! We wanted to get a running stroller, a grill, a microwave, and a weed whacker. 

We got 50% of it!

We got the grill and weed whacker. When we get propane, I will post a picture of our very pretty grill when we make hamburgers or steaks or bbq chicken. mmm....

And the weed whacker will be set up and used next week, I think. Hooray!

The strollers at the secondhand store were sold very quickly. I've asked some craigslist people if theirs are still available and of course I haven't gotten a response but it's still listed online. Rude!

The microwave was a big misunderstanding. So when we looked at others, J and I had completely opposite opinions. So we decided to come back again.

We also went to Arby's. C was adorable in his high chair eating his cheerios and green beans.

Earlier that day, I fixed up my friend Paige's hair for her wedding. We had practiced twice and then I went to her house at 6am and fixed it for her. It took 2 hours. I came home, fed C and went to bed. 

That afternoon/evening time, I went back and fixed it since she'd gone about 12 hours with it and no curls last that long.

Here are the two of us-a little blurry- at her reception.

My masterpiece. I loved how much attention I got when they found out I did the hair. I was famous!

We then stayed at J's family's place for the evening and hung out for a while.

Last Thursday, C was starting to get sick. J was sick first and then C caught it and capitalized it! yay...

So Easter, he wasn't doing so hot. I left after sacrament meeting with C.

But he sure looked stinkin adorable!!!

Here, he's sporting the tie Gma C bought for him. His cousin has a matching non-bow-tie.

We all matched in some way for Easter.

J saw this cool way to tie a tie online, so he figured it out and it looked REALLY cool!

If you want to see a tutorial, go here.

Choir in our ward is at 4:15. We have church at 9. But on Easter, we don't have choir practice! woohoo! So we went to J's family's place right after church.

So I took some pictures of my adorable little man!

Thankfully, Aunt K wasn't home because C pulled Toby's fur and skin...hehehe he deserved it...

Such a big boy!

We then got comfy and put him in his "my first easter" onesie. So dang cute.

See?? So cute!! A cotton tail! -hence no pants-

Gma C's family tradition she brought to the family is rolling hard boiled eggs down a hill and watching them break and the yolk explode.

So we take an hour or two to decorate beautiful eggs and then proceed to roll them down a hill...

I know. weird. but fun. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Here's my Winnie the Pooh egg for C

Storm Trooper egg

J made C's favorite toy-a jingling bird- for one of his eggs.

C loved his birdie egg.

The loot after searching after dark...kinda fun but a lot harder with flashlights! 

It was dark when we searched because J and I got a flat tire. Not just a small hole and it leaked to flatness, but two giant holes, wheel bent kind of flat...and then the donut was flat because it hadn't ever been used. (the car is 12 years old...)

So we replaced the tire with the donut, drove 10 feet and pulled over again.

J stayed with it to wait for a tow and J's dad picked C, me and Aunt K up. Then J's mom picked J up later. Word to the wise, don't ruin wheels. They have to be ordered and take 4+ days and they cost your right arm and 1st born child. (Poor C)

So I had a fabulous weekend, right?

On Monday, if you'd asked me how I was doing, I would've burst into tears. Just ask my poor sister. She called at the wrong time and got it allllll... :)

C had a terrible monday and tuesday so I cried a lot those two days. But Wednesday, he was a lot nicer to me. slept, ate, smiled even!!

He's still sick, but at least I'm not ready to head for the hills!
(He doesn't want to nap right now...I'm sorry, but 30 minutes is not enough, little man!!)

Here's to a better weekend listening to the word of the Lord through his prophets!!