commit me

as in, i'm a crazy woman.

sooooo.... before henry was born i signed up for this. realizing full well that i would only have 4 and a half months from the day henry was born until race day, i knew that if i didn't sign up before my stomach was sliced wide open and sewn back together and before i was suffering from serious sleep deprivation, i would never do something so seriously delusional.
but wait, you say. haven't you done this before?
apparently i'm glutton for punishment.
remember this? just last year? (which by the way seems like it was like 3 years ago) remember how much i fell in love with running? remember how i reached my goal weight? remember how i ended up conning 5 other people to join me? remember how i hurt my knee in the race and hadn't run more than like 3 miles since that day?
well, i was sure that the only way to get back in shape after baby # 2 was to have a goal and a commitment. that's right. commit me to something, and i WILL do it. even if it means training for a half in half the time.
i started running the day henry turned 6 weeks old. again - i hadn't run at all since i found out i was pregnant - so i was a little rusty, to say the least. i have not been nearly as psychotic about sticking to my running schedule as i was last year, and i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that last year my baby was already sleeping through the night when i started. henry? not so much.
up to this point, i had not yet really caught that fire that i felt last year. i haven't been super excited to hit the road and hadn't felt that same sense of accomplishment that i did each time i ran. in writing this post i have gone back to some of my old posts from the running blog and it has gotten me super pumped to go and change my life once again. and maybe i cried a little bit. maybe.
yesterday i ran 6 miles in the canyon and was able to catch up on life with a good friend at the same time. so, she may have thought she was going to die or at least puke, (she did neither, by the way), but we made it and i got such a rush when we were done. and bringing out that inner cheerleader in me (no- i was never a cheerleader, but you know what i mean) really gets me excited about what i am doing.
so, d-day is 6 weeks away. i'm looking forward to another something to be proud of. because, let's be honest - every mom (especially of babies) needs to be able to pat herself on the back every once in a while.

anyone else going to be in provo on august 8th and feel like taking a nice little 13.1 mile jog with me? you know you want to....

boredom + poor-dom =

ingenuity! (that's the word i was looking for!)
was feeling deprived of cute clothes.
had the itch to sew and to take advantage of some adorable scraps i inherited from carlie.
started with some old plain cardigans that i never wear and here's what i came up with:









this one is clint's favorite. tweet tweet.




and i'm a tiny bit in love with this one:






total cost? $3. the orange sweater was found at a thrift store for 3 big ones.
what do you think?
are you a re-fashionista?

B.O.Y.

B is for BONK!


O is for OUCH!


Y is for YIKES!

(all within the last two days, mind you!

oh what do you do in the summertime...

when all the world is raining with thunderstorms and flash-flood warningsssss?
wait, that's not how the song goes?
well, the sun is finally out, thank goodness, but the first few weeks of what i would normally consider to be summer were a total bust. (although remember this last june? curse you rexburg, hallelujiah orem!)
here's how we've waited for and welcomed in our sunny season friend:


bike rides with dad... whenever the skies clear up and clint can spare a minute he takes o out on the town. i just love the way he looks in that helmet. soooo funny.


owen has been working on his first art installation. on our front door. look out jackson pollock. though he prefers the colored pencil medium. (and the glorious magic eraser to clean up.) yes, owen is in his pajamas in these first 3 pictures. don't you judge me.


(look- there's henry on the right!)

white-trash-watching/ fair-food-eating --- er... i mean... going to the orem summerfest. why is it that the strangest people come out of the woodworks when the carnies come to town with all of their assembled-in-one-afternoon-death-defying (literally) rides, fried food and chachkies (miq, how do you spell chachkies?) to sell? the pride of orem, i tell you what.

i have been keeping busy with a new obsession of mine... i bet you can't wait for me to tell you what that might be. well, you're gonna have to. i'm not ready to divulge my latest genius-ness. (that's not a word. what is the right word? i think i get dumber by the day.... sigh.)

a few shout outs

ok, a little late, but better late than never, right?
happy late birthday to the mom who deserves a gazillion trillion wishes granted after putting up with me as a teenager...


happy late father's day to the dad who deserves a gazillion trillion days off for putting up with my mom while putting up with me as a teenager...


happy late father's day to the husband who deserves a million trillion kisses and should be thankful he never knew me as a teenager...



and happy 3 months t0 the little boy who will be spoiled rotten so long as he never acts like i did as a teenager!

answer key:

very impressive indeed.
here you have it...
1. open it
2. lunch
3. whoa... it's a big one!
4. hi henry!
5. i want... this.
6. thank you
7. hungry
8. teeth
9. carlie and max (my friend and her son)
10. goodnight... i love you

thanks for playing! you are officially fluent in owenese. one thousand points.

a-ha.

do you ever find yourself just sort of coasting through through your daily life and not really paying attention to what you are doing? i have been doing that a lot lately - maybe it is the lack of sleep or the groundhog day feeling of having two little ones at home, but yesterday i had an a-ha moment.
clint and i teach the marriage and family sunday school class at church. the class is made up of mostly newlywed couples, few have children, most do not. we really enjoy teaching together and i feel like i am learning more from it myself than i could ever possibly share with the members of the class. yesterday the lesson was one that i could barely get through - "the sacred role
of mothers."
after reading this talk a few times, i felt so humbled and grateful for this important work that i am in the middle of. those of you who are moms, i hope this provides the kind of refreshment for you as it did for me. those of you who are not yet moms, surely you know someone who is and could use a few words of encouragement:

"One young mother wrote to me recently that her anxiety tended to come on three fronts. One was that whenever she heard talks on LDS motherhood, she worried because she felt she didn’t measure up or somehow wasn’t going to be equal to the task. Secondly, she felt like the world expected her to teach her children reading, writing, interior design, Latin, calculus, and the Internet—all before the baby said something terribly ordinary, like “goo goo.” Thirdly, she often felt people were sometimes patronizing, almost always without meaning to be, because the advice she got or even the compliments she received seemed to reflect nothing of the mental investment, the spiritual and emotional exertion, the long-night, long-day, stretched-to-the-limit demands that sometimes are required in trying to be and wanting to be the mother God hopes she will be.

But one thing, she said, keeps her going: “Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that in my motherhood I am in an eternal partnership with Him. I am deeply moved that God finds His ultimate purpose and meaning in being a parent, even if some of His children make Him weep.

“It is this realization,” she says, “that I try to recall on those inevitably difficult days when all of this can be a bit overwhelming. Maybe it is precisely our inability and anxiousness that urge us to reach out to Him and enhance His ability to reach back to us. Maybe He secretly hopes we will plead for His help. Then, I believe, He can teach these children directly, through us, but with no resistance offered. I like that idea,” she concludes. “It gives me hope. If I can be right before my Father in Heaven, perhaps His guidance to our children can be unimpeded,” she said, “and maybe then it can be His work and His glory in a very literal sense.”

In light of that kind of expression, it is clear that some of those Rhode Island–sized (under-eye) shadows come not just from diapers and carpooling but from at least a few sleepless nights spent searching the soul, seeking earnestly for the capacity to raise these children to be what God wants them to be. Moved by that kind of devotion and determination, may I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well. The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you. He knows that your giving birth to a child does not immediately propel you into the circle of the omniscient. If you and your husband will strive to love God and live the gospel yourselves; if you will plead for that guidance and comfort of the Holy Spirit promised to the faithful; if you will go to the temple to both make and claim the promises of the most sacred covenants a woman or man can make in this world; if you will show others, including your children, the same caring, compassionate, forgiving heart you want heaven to show you; if you try your best to be the best parent you can be, you will have done all that a human being can do and all that God expects you to do." (Jeffrey R. Holland, Because She is a Mother)

i hope all of you moms know how important you are and what a great work you are doing!

seriously?

no one speaks owenese? not even a guess?

do you speak owenese?

owey has been talking sooo much lately and even started stringing words together recently. but, you all know he is a professional jibber-jabberer, so it isn't always easy to figure out what he's talking about. he really has his own language - mostly baby talk with a real english word (or the remnants of one) every fifth word or so. i call it owenese.
any guesses?
1. a-pent
2. munch
3. whoaaa... tsa beeeg one!
4. hi unra!
5. iuuunt... dis.
6. ank-ooo
7. hungeee (or sometimes it turns into honkeeee)
8. teeef
9. careee n masksx
10. nigh... uv ooooo

he also has plenty of actual understandable words he's added to his repertoire lately too: ouch, mama (finally he calls me mama), monkey, blueberry, bum, home, mess, drink, milk, pig, birdie, big, blue, black, whoa! (he says this all the time), chips, all done, all gone, cookie, cake (see what i mean about the love for junk food?!), paper, help, blanket, and he recently picked up DON'T (and believe you me - he yells it - in all capitals) ... and many more... that's all i can think of right now.

mr. blue eyes.

can you believe i have a blue-eyed boy? oh i just melt everytime he looks at me. i think i can stop having kids now that i have those big baby blues! well, maybe not, but they certainly will hold me over for a while!
henry is growing up so fast. i swear it was just yesterday that he was absolutely swimming in every piece of clothing he owned - and nowadays he's about to burst out of some of those 0-3 month outfits. he continues to be the most pleasant baby in the world and i get such a kick out of making him smile. he certainly is not selfish with that show-stopping grin of his, and i am so grateful!
so far having 2 kids has been easier than i thought in a lot of ways, and that is mostly because of this little chill, laid back dude. what a tender mercy you are little henry!

brothers.

p.s. i forget who and when, but someone asked about these collages? so super easy you are gonna kick yourself that you didn't know sooner. it's google's picture program, picassa. google it, download it, a super easy way to store your photos, do very basic edits, collages, text on photos, and even upload pictures directly to blogger. check it out.

random randomness

ok, here are a bunch of random pictures that are totally out of order and not the greatest quality (we have such terrible lighting in our house!) but oh well. here you have it:

henry and his namesake (middle name that is). my dad came into town for a quick business trip and the kids were excited to see their papa.

owen feeding himself yogurt. i don't know why we ever even bother getting this kid dressed - we have to change him every time he eats!

owey's newest obsession: "sks" which means music in owenese. he loves rocking out to the tunes on my shuffle. the kid can dance!

these are from like 2 months ago, but i just had to throw them in there because i can't believe how big henry has gotten! don't mind the crazy face... he really does love grandma.

usually a very happy kid, but even when he's sad he is stinking cute. (notice the dimple!?!)

talking to grandpa

finally some pictures from henry's blessing. i am really bummed that we didn't get any of henry by himself in his sweet white outfit, but at least we got a few with the fam.

henry and mama. and t and e chowing in the background.

this is when henry was like 2 weeks old... do we all look a little sleep deprived, or is it just me?



owey loves to read to his baby brother.

peaceful little henry.

owey in a cage. too bad we can't keep him there. just kidding! he loves climbing into diego's cage but kind of freaks out when he can't figure how to get back out. i know the picture is really blurry, but i think it's hysterical.

$500 an hour

thursday night clint and i attended a dinner in salt lake hosted by the society of petroleum engineers of utah.
why, oh why would we ever do such a thing?
because clint was their guest of honor as the chosen 2009-2010 recipient of a juicy scholarship. su-weeeet.
so, first let me brag about clint. with 3 times as many applicants for the scholarship as previous years, he still came out on top. he has worked so hard to get great grades and he totally deserves the recognition and the reward. besides that, i think they took pity on us for being back in school a little late in the game and with kids to boot. hey, i'll take pity if it comes in the form of a cash scholarship!
the night was pretty funny actually. we left the kids with my aunt (thanks cox family!) and headed off to ute territory. as we made our way into the banquet room at the marriott, we had no idea what to expect. the first hour of the dinner was a "social hour" - which if you know any engineers, is a joke in itself. (sorry, but true!) adding to that the fact that we didn't know anyone made for an interesting night. dinner was yummy and then things took a turn for the worse. a keynote speaker. uggh..
i now know more than i ever, ever, ever wanted to know about the history of gas and oil in utah. seriously. the guy talked for an hour and 45 minutes - complete with black and white slides. (see example above.) i was mostly concerned with getting home to the kids super late (i thought we would be back by 9, and he was still rambling by then.) we just had to keep reminding ourselves that we could sit through a few hours of pretty much anything for a scholarship.
so, although we weren't prepared to spend 4 hours for this dinner, when you think about it, $500 an hour isn't too shabby!

sometimes i like utah.

though most days i'd rather be on the beach, sometimes a trip to the canyon leaves me grateful to live in such a beautiful place (at least for half of the year...)
a few weeks ago we decided to take a little hike (more like a casual stroll) up to bridal veil falls. it was a perfectly sunny day and i was just happy to spend the afternoon with my boys.



don't worry- we didn't leave henry behind... he was just too cozy to get in on the family photo:



owen and dad by the river... i am pretty sure it was the first time owey had ever seen a river - and he was about as fascinated by it as he is with everything else water - the beach, the pool, the bath, diego's water dish... you know.



i love this picture. the falls don't look that big until you see owey and clint down in the bottom right corner. owen would have been content to stay and play in that run-off all day!



and this is my favorite pic of the day:


give this boy a stick and let him run loose... the perfect recipe for one happy little guy!

on days like this, i can do utah... for now.