10 months in Polka-dots

Here's our little Samantha at 10 months. She makes me so happy:)

Happy Birthday to Blake!

Blake turned 3 yesterday. He's a big 3 year old, he looks like he should be 5. He's our goof ball, he has such a different personality then any of our other kids. He pulls really funny facial expressions a lot. He's a tuff kid, he doesn't cry very often only when he's really hurt. He LOVES food, monster trucks, curious george, spiderman and trains.

Rich made him a #3 pancake in the morning.

The night before Blake's birthday I showed him 3 different birthday cakes online and asked him which one he wanted, I'm so glad he wanted this crocodile cake, it was a lot of fun to make.

Anytime I ask my kids what they want for their birthday meal it's always pizza and rootbeer:)

Blake is really funny about wearing belts. He has to have one on every day. He's always the first one dressed in the morning, he rarely hangs out in in p.j's in the morning. We got him a spiderman belt, he was thrilled.

We had Rich and Katie over for pizza and cake. They are two of the nicest people we've ever met.
My Rich and Katie's Rich are a lot alike. Katie is P.A, she's been helpful to Rich while he's going through his schooling and her husband Rich is a professional fighter/Jiu-Jitsu instructor. He is training with the USA Jiu-Jitsu Olympic team. We will be cheering him on in Greece!

Happy Birthday Blake!

26.2 on the beach

After my sisters reception in Santa Clarita we drove to Huntington Beach. I had a New Year's Eve marathon in the morning. We all got to bed around 11:00 pm that night. I started to feel a head cold coming on the night of my sisters reception. Rich ran to the store and got me vitamins and Airborn which I loaded up on. I woke up the next morning feeling great. I felt really lucky. This race is different then any other run I've ever done. Most runs I've done have at least a thousand people running it, huge crowds, lots of cars and a huge finish line. The man that organizes these races is an ultra-marathoner, he does 100 mile races. He only lets 50 people total in his marathons/half marathons. I really enjoyed running with a small group. We all cheered each other on and gave each other thumbs up when we passed one another. When I finished the Bear Lake marathon in 2008 my body felt broken when I was done, everything hurt and it took a long time to recover. I remember thinking after that race that I would never put my body through another marathon. I've been told that running a marathon for the 2nd time is always better. I am happy to say that is was! I felt great finishing this race, it was still hard and a challenge but I didn't feel like I was hit by a truck when I was done. I think training at a higher elevation and then running at sea level made a big difference and I cross-trained a lot more this time too. I absolutely loved running along the beach on the bike trail. There was a lot to distract me when I started to get tired, people playing volleyball, watching the surfers, people camping on the beach, families riding their bikes. There was so much to look at. Then of course my family was there cheering me on. Rich driving our car with all the kids, and my parents honking their horn along the way too. I would do this run again in a heartbeat! Here are a few pictures...

Rich snapped this picture of Blake while they were in the car following me. What a goof!

The man running next to me I recognized from the Bear Lake marathon. I sat by him on the bus ride up to the drop off point. I had a neat conversation with him on the bus, he was 63 when he ran Bear Lake. I remember thinking, gosh I hope I can stay active and in shape like he is when I'm older. He's done the Boston marathon and MANY others. This was his 80th marathon! It was neat to cross paths with him again. I asked him a lot of questions about how he's able to stay so strong and how he's able to keep on running in his late 60's, he gave me lots of advice. It was fun to run side by side with him for a few miles.

Samantha eating the sand.

Blake decided to strip down and take off his wet jeans.

Brooklyn chasing the waves.

Putting my feet in the cold water, it felt so good!!

The man with the blue shirt is Charlie Alewine, he's the director of the marathon. He's 61 years old and he's completed 202 races from marathon distance to 100 miles. Charlie set his new 100 mile PR of 25:34 at the Iron Horse 100 in Florida.

Bike trail

Views from the trail

Mr. and Mrs. Longshore!

My little sister Caroline got married on December 30th! I couldn't be happier for her, she chose a great guy. She looked so beautiful all day, I don't think I've ever seen her so happy. Congratulations!

My Grandma and Grandpa Evans, my Aunt Connie and my cousin Alison.

My cousin Jeff and his wife Shannon and their son Max.

My mom looking so pretty!

My dad and Caroline

The reception was really fun, they had a really good D.J. So there was lots of dancing:)

Brooklyn loved dancing with her dad.

The wedding cake

The grooms cake.
Nick used to play football for BYU, and Caroline was a cheerleader in highschool.

Caroline wore my mom's wedding veil.

My cousin Kristi and her husband Swen.

Blake being a goof ball.

Weston hamming it up for the camera.

Brooklyn loved holding my flowers all day.

Father daughter dance.

My sister Lauren and Brooklyn in the visitors center during the sealing.

Caroline and Nick's grand entrance into their reception.

I love this picture of my parents.

Christmas morning

Christmas morning gets better and better each year as our kids get older. Brooklyn is starting to get to the age where she is starting to ask for certain things. She really wanted her own umbrella and a new comforter for her bed. Our boys didn't really ask for anything specifically so that made it easy for me.

Waiting at the top of the stairs while I was getting my video camera out.

Brooklyn did get her umbrella, she was a happy girl:)

Samantha got a babydoll

Brooklyn's new comforter set.

SOCKS!!
My boys have a serious problem with losing socks! Each of them got 10 new pairs!

They got this nice wooden train set from my Aunt Kelly. She was in town in October for a huge yard sale in Albuquerque, she saw me eying this train set and secretly bought it for me. I waited until Christmas to give it to them. Thank you Aunt Kelly!

Ramona and Beezuz!! We love this movie.
Our new favorite phrase to say around here is "GUTS!, GUTS!, GUTS!".

Rich got me this cute apron from http://www.flirtyaprons.com/.

We got lots of puzzles this year, Weston is especially good at putting them together.

I wanted to make something different this year for breakfast. My sister-in-law Amber gave me a recipe for German Pancakes. They were good! It's kinda like eating eggs, french toast and pancakes all at the same time.

Brooklyn's new comforter.

The boys train set.