School Valentines Party

I was able to go enjoy McKenzie's class Valentines party! McKenzie seems like she is the only one that still likes mom coming to her class and hanging out with her..the other kids are getting too cool for mom.

They played a game where you stack candy hearts as high as you can in 45 seconds and the person who stacks the most without them falling wins. McKenzie stacked hers really high and a couple seconds before they said stop her pile fell...she shed a few tears. The room mom was kind enough to give her a prize anyways....this is her with her HUGE smile!!

Passing out her Valentines cards...she was SO excited to do this for the first time!!!

To be young again.......

She's 9 and turning into a BEAUTIFUL young lady!!

Callie turned 9 on the 9th of Feb!! We love to watch her grow before our eyes...she is turning into quite a cute, special little lady. She loves to coordinate all her outfits with her jewelry. (she has more jewelry than her mom) She loves to wear hair flowers and headbands to match each outfit. She takes more time picking out her clothes than I do! Callie is such a sweet girl. She loves being the oldest and helping/bossing her siblings. She is a huge help to her mom!! Callie has such a tender heart, she loves church, and LOVES school. We love you Callie...I remember the day you joined our family just like it was yesterday, you made us parents for the first time and you a SO special to us! Thanks for being the kind, gentle, loving, smart girl that you are!

Family party...got to Celebrate birthdays with Uncle Eric, and cousin Dylan!! Aunt Elli did an AWESOME job on the cake!

She LOVES her new headband she got!

The party was fun...but by the looks on every ones faces you wouldn't be able to tell. LOL!

The tradition of eating cake/cupcakes for breakfast before school on your Birthday!

I did it! London's Run 2010

I was so excited for this day to finally come! I worked so hard for the last 20 weeks preparing my body for this long run. I was very disappointed when 4 days before the event I got sick, I caught a cold and it took me a couple days of laying around to finally start feeling good enough to attempt my last days of training. I knew when I struggled to run 4 miles two days before the event that I wasn't going to be able to reach my personal goals of running it under 2 hours and doing it without walking, but I was gonna do my darnest and try!! I can say I gave it my all, but at mile 10 my body and my lungs were telling me they were done and they needed to stop, so I ended up having to walk a little bit of the last 3 miles. I am very proud of my time giving my circumstances.....I completed it in 2 hours and 11 minutes. I will for sure do it again next year and try to beat my time!

Thanks everyone for helping me out along my journey...especially my mom!! She was willing to watch Makayla while I ran during the week. And a huge thanks goes to my husband, he had to put up with a lot of grouchiness due to me being worn out from training. And thanks for everyone that made it to cheer me on at the finish line, it means more than words can say!!

After a long run like this and coming around the corner to see a crowd cheering for you...it's emotional. Here I am trying to fight back the tears as I cross the finish line.

I have never been so happy to see the word "FINISH"... I was drained.

My biggest fans!

While my family waited the 2 hours for me to finish they had so much fun!! London's Run always makes it fun for the whole family.

They had face painting,

a helicopter they could get up close to and check out,

a scary animals petting zoo,

McKenzie's and Makayla's favorite was the inflatable bouncers and slides!!

Earned a visit from the Tooth Fairy

Cody has been working really hard to make his tooth loose, after about three weeks he finally wiggled it enough to make it ready to come out. (when he started it was even wiggly) He got it to the point where he could turn his tooth completely around, but he wouldn't let anyone pull it out. Finally, I was sick of seeing him with his hand in his mouth playing with the darn thing...so I sprung into action. I had to sit on him and with one small tug it was out!!! He is excited for the Tooth Fairy to leave him so hard cash...hopefully she won't forget to come!

She did it again!

Callie was recognized again at a school assembly for her good grades! I can't be any prouder of Callie, she takes school very serious and strives to do her best everyday. Way to go Callie, we love you!

Callie and a couple of her besties in her class...thought it was funny they make the Honor Roll but they can't even hold their papers right. LOL!

I can't believe it...

I can't believe this is happening......




This is how I have been feeling for the last couple of days. And of all weeks...it's has to happen this week!! GRRRR! I have been training (for 20 weeks) my heart out for the 1/2 marathon coming up on SATURDAY.....All I can say is I better start feeling better REALLY soon! So please, everyone out there...send some healing thoughts my way!! Thanks.

My husband is a NUT!

When Clayton walked in the door from work I was giving Makayla rides in a laundry basket on the stairs. He said, "I have a better idea, I'll be right back!" He went upstairs and grabbed a sleeping bag and said, "this this how your suppose to do it!" Will he ever grow up? LOL!! (we don't really want him to.)

Sorry, you'll just have to tilt your head to watch this...couldn't figure out how to fix it.

Of course I had to try it!!

If you have stairs, you should try it...it's really fun and cheap entertainment for the kids!

My Little sTiNkEr and our Saturday hike!!

I was on the computer doing some research for our upcoming Disneyland trip and Makayla kept coming up to me saying, "We need more chocolate pudding, it's all gone." I just bought some, so I thought she just couldn't find it....well a few minutes later I walked downstairs to find this....

At least she used a clean spoon for each one! lol

Friday night my brother Eric called out of the blue and said, "Let's go for a family hike!" He is very good at coming up with ideas or saying he is going to do something but being single with no kids, something always comes up and it never happens. So when he told me to call everyone and decide where and when, I joked with everyone when I called them....plan on it, but we probably won't go. Well, he was serious, he really wanted to go! We ended up going to the San Tan Mountains, there were 10 adults and 18 kids!! It turned out to be a really fun day with the WHOLE family...thanks Eric for coming up with the idea, we love when you want to hang out with all of us and our LOUD kids!

4 + miles with 18 kids (9 and under) is a HUGE accomplishment!

Half the group...

The other half...

Makayla and Leah. I was so proud of Makayla, I only had to carry her twice..she did so good!

Most of the kids..

Christmas and SNOW!!

We had a wonderful, low-key Christmas. Christmas Eve we spent it with the Welker side, at Grandma's house! As usual their was lots of kids, food, and laughter. The BIG present from Grandma is a "DISNEYLAND TRIP!" She bought each grandkid (16 of them) Disney p.j.'s and a Mickey or Minnie. It took some kids longer than others to figure out the clue! Once they did, there was a lots of LOUD screams from excitement! The count down is on til we go!!

All the kids lined up ready to open the clue.

Makayla and Callie after they figured it out!

Mom and Dad enjoying the kids excitement!

All 16 Grandkids. (we need a few more...we don't have enough) LOL

We spent Christmas morning at home as a family and then later that day did our rounds to every ones houses to see what they got. Clayton had from Christmas Eve until after the New Year off. It was sooo nice having him home, nothing beats having dad home!! (I'm sure he was ready to go back to work after a week + with us)

McKenzie has ALWAYS wanted a basket for her bike..she was so happy.

Makayla checking out the goods.

We got each of the kids a pair of running shoes, hoping they would want to go on some runs with mom.

McKenzie got a styling kit...trying it out on dad.

Part of the kids Christmas was a trip to play in the snow. So we headed up to Snowflake to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Mowers. We had so much fun! We went to the old Sunrise area and tubed/sledded out hearts out. The kids were in heaven all day. Three year old Makayla hopped on a sled the second we got on the top of the hill and said "push me". I was freaking out...these hills weren't small. She had absolutely NO fear. I was hoping she would hit a little bump on the way down and it would scare her so she wouldn't want to go anymore, but no. She hit a bump few times and even did a face plant, but she got right back up and kept going. She showed her mom up....I only went down twice and I drug my feet both times (I called them my brakes). I'm a chicken. We were lucky enough to have my brother Jeff and his family join us. And Grandma Mowers happened to have the day off from work so that was an extra treat to have her come!!

Makayla waiting for someone to push her down the hill.

Grandma Mowers and Makayla

The crazy adults linked together and went down...they were just asking for injuries.

Dad and McKenzie

Cody and cousin Tanner

McKenzie LOVED the snow!

We hope our 2010 is as good as our 2009 was!!