Briggs and Al's Run

Last Saturday I ran an 8K with these fantastic ladies.

An 8K is 4.97 miles and my time was 52:56. A little on the slow side? Yup, but hey, I have two kids, I'm not a runner, and I am old. :)

Two years ago I ran a half-marathon and when I was pregnant with Bridget I made a goal to run another half-marathon this fall. Well, I soon decided that was too ambitious for my sleep-deprived self and a summer full of fun and vacation, so I found this 8K run right in downtown Milwaukee and got these ladies to join me. It was great!

We enjoyed some early Saturday morning runs together and then just ran on our own during the week. It was great motivation to get me running again and an 8K was much more doable than 13.1 miles!

Anyway, it was a grand morning. I'm sure glad that I did it and I loved the company of these great ladies (and the two little guys in the stroller)!

Karisa was a trooper and brought her two little guys along because her husband was at a conference in Madison. She sure made the best of it and we all helped her out by taking turns with the stroller. Her boys (despite their looks in this picture) were fantastic. It was a long morning for them and they handled it well.


Just one more thing Karisa did to improve the situation of pushing a double jogger. :) Luckily we weren't the last ones to cross the finish line, there were hundreds of people behind us! She sure got lots of compliments and pats on the back while we were running.

Like I said earlier, I ran a half-marathon two years ago and this 8K is only my second race. The half-marathon was in rural Wisconsin and less than 100 people ran it. It was great, and I loved it, and would like to do it again. This race, however, was so different. There were over 2,900 runners and even more walkers. There was live music at the starting line and live music interspersed throughout the route, there were high school cheerleaders lined up on streets, and even a group of Irish dancers near the end. It really was pretty cool to be in such a huge group of runners, so much adrenaline!

Here are the after pictures. It was Karisa's idea to jump for the second picture. Notice that she is the only one who had the energy to pull her legs up and the look on my face looks so pained! :)

Back To The Birthdays

Well, seeing as September has almost passed us by, I figured I should sit down and document the birthdays of Richard and Marshall. It was a grand weekend with Labor Day and a visit from Richard's parents. Not all festivities were documented with a camera, but I got some highlights...

Richard's parents arrived late Friday night. The reason for the visit was to swap us cars. They brought us their minivan and we gave them the Explorer. That's right, I am now a minivan driving mom. Sometimes I feel weird driving it, but it really is quite convenient and so much easier to get kids in and out. No more bending down for carseats, love it. Anyway, back to the weekend...

Saturday was spent visiting with Bob and Becky, watching football, and running errands. We rounded out the evening by cheering BYU on to victory (something that we haven't been able to do since then) and delicious, creamy Murf's custard. A perfect day.

Sunday was Richard's birthday and it came and went without a single picture being taken...oops! Our kids began the day bright and early at 6:00 am so we had plenty of time to lounge around, open presents, visit and get to church by 10:00 am. Bob and Becky came to sacrament meeting with us and then hit the road for home. That evening we spent time outside with wonderful cul-de-sac friends and delicious desserts.

Monday was Marshall's birthday and this is when I finally remembered to pull out the camera. This 3rd birthday for Marshall was very different from his others in that he was finally excited about presents! When he woke up he came running into the living room saying, "Those are my presents! Its my birthday!" He opened every single present and every time he would open a new one he would exclaim, "Oh, I love this tractor!" or whatever the gift was. It was darling. Here are some pictures to capture the excitement. He looks so old in some of them, breaks my heart.

Richard and I got him this tool set. Do you think he was excited?! Best birthday purchase we could have made. These tools have kept him fixing all sorts of things for hours.

Marshall with all of his birthday loot. I just adore this kid and his smile.
To the Toney family: This smile reminds of Danny's smiles when he was little.

After the morning festivities we had a Labor Day Brunch with a small gathering from the cul-de-sac. The food was delectable and the company was even better.

The rest of our afternoon was spent playing with Marshall and decorating the cake. Nothing fancy, although I did have grand intentions, but we stuck with the basic confetti cake and Marshall's decorations of choice.

We had an early dinner and then at 6:00 Marshall's little buddies and their families came over for a birthday celebration. It was a fun evening and by the end our house was in shambles and we were exhausted, but it was great. We sure are so blessed to have such wonderful friends here to celebrate these special occasions with!

Here are some random pictures of the cake and singing process, thanks Karisa. These, of course, were the only pictures taken of the evening.

I would like to mention that Richard blew out the candles as soon as we finished singing happy birthday. He didn't even let Marshall take a breath! Needless to say I was not very happy. This picture documents the flameless candles, Richard's mischievous smile, Marshall's surprise and my shock. So, after chastising Richard, I lit the candles again and we gave Marshall his chance.



Marshall still had a helper, but at least Duncan is his same age. But, soon blowing turned to spitting, and we let Richard assist.


Well, it sure was a wonderful weekend. I love my boys!

On Your Feet

Get ready for the big game tomorrow! Go Cougars, Beat the Yewts!

Bridget, Six Months

This little gal is six months old now, so just like her brother, its time for a little documentation.

*26 1/2 inches tall and 15 lbs. 6 oz.

*Loves sweet potatoes, squash, and green beans. Likes applesauce and pears. Hates, hates, hates bananas.

*Takes two 1 1/2-2 hour naps a day. Goes to bed at 7:00 and wakes up anytime between 6:00 and 7:30.

*A professional roller. She can quickly roll across the living room to get where she wants.

*Getting better at sitting up, but still doesn't have the greatest balance. This is how I found her the other day. She was so happy despite the fact that she had fallen over and blood was rushing to her head. :)

*She adores Marshall. She freely gives him smiles and laughs. The only time she cries with him now is when he really smacks her hard (fortunately that is happening less and less). She has obviously become immune to his frequent nudges and bumps. Poor second children. :( She will also get quite upset when he starts screaming, but he can have a piercing yell, so I can't blame her!

*She has one top tooth that has poked through. You can't see it, but you can feel it.

*She continues to growl, but has also picked up on blowing bubbles and some form of spitting.

*She loves attention. If she is alone in a room she starts getting very vocal until she sees someone coming to join her.

*She is a little monkey. She continues to suck on her feet, but she also uses her feet to grab your arms. This is so bizarre, but always makes me laugh. Almost every time I pick her up or change her diaper she will grab my arm between her two feet.

*And lastly, little Bridget has stopped nursing. This just about broke my heart. Since she was about three months old she started nursing less and less and I just figured she was becoming more efficient. But, I noticed a definite decrease in her nursing time when we started giving her rice cereal and again when we started her on other solids. The last couple of weeks she would only nurse for 3-5 minutes, that's it! I tried lots of different things, but nothing helped her nurse more. By the end of all of this she became constipated (poor thing) and was not her usual cheerful self between meal times. The night of Marshall's birthday she was tired (it was late) and she had hardly had anything to drink all day so I decided to make her a bottle of formula because I knew she would stay awake to drink it and I wanted her to go to bed with a full tummy. Well, she saw that bottle and got so excited and grabbed it out of my hand and tried to put it in her mouth! I knew then it was over and I was sad. :( I called my mom the next day to tell her that my oldest just turned three and my baby stopped nursing. My good mother consoled me and all is well now. :) So, this little girl definitely knows what she wants. She is doing much better now. She still gets so excited every time she sees a bottle, she is happy, and pooping better. :) Here's a video just to document her excitement.

And just a few more pictures of little Bridget.


Happy 6 months Bridget; we love you!

Marshall Man, Age Three

This silly little guy celebrated his 3rd birthday on September 5th! I cannot believe that I have a three year old, just blows my mind. I will do a whole birthday post for him later, but for now I just wanted to jot down some things about Marshall at age three.

He is 30 lbs. and 38 1/4 inches tall.

His current favorite foods (meaning the last couple of weeks) are Trix cereal, bagel with peanut butter, nectarines, string cheese, grilled cheese or ham sandwiches, and sausage.

His favorite activities are playing with his tools, playing with his train track, building temples with his blocks, and of course playing football and basketball to BYU highlight videos.

He is starting to figure out how to peddle his bike, but he won't let us show him how to do it.

He has a wild imagination. Just today his basketball hoop has also served as a smoke stack, delivery truck, and a mail truck.

He is enjoying Bridget more and more (most days). He is great at making her laugh and frequently asks for her to be in the same room as him while he plays.

He can count to eleven or twelve.

He knows his colors (finally, I was worried that he was color blind!)

He knows probably half of his letters.

He has no desire to go potty on the potty. :)

His favorite show to watch is Curious George, otherwise known as "Monkey George" in our house.

Once he is all ready for bed at night he has "Daddy cuddles". But, before that I ask him for a monster hug and he always willingly gives it. Then I say, "Hey Marshall", he looks at me, I blow him a kiss, he blows one back, I whisper, "I love you" and he whispers it right back. Melts my heart every single night.

We sure love this little guy and we are so glad he's ours!

Sept 11, 2001, 10 year anniversary

Jenny wants me, Richard, to edit this post as she said it could be confusing. Here I go.

As many of you know, I served in the New York New York South Mission from September 22, 1999 to October 10, 2001 (first 2 months in the MTC, so in New York end of November 1999). September 11, 2001 obviously falls into the time frame of when I served my mission.

Where I was on September 11th, 2001. I was living in Richmond Hill/Ozone Park in Queens serving with my companion, Elder Warner, and we were at the laundromat washing our clothes. We happened to look at the TV that was on, something we didn't normally do as missionaries, and we saw that the news was showing smoke coming out of one of the world trade towers. I thought this had to be some kind of movie, but shortly after we started watching the tv lost reception and went to static. When the tv feed finally came back, after a few seconds, the tv announcer were screaming about a second plane that hit the other tower. We both ran outside and looked towards Manhattan and we saw the big cloud of smoke.

We quickly grabbed our clothes, I don't think they were completely dry, went back to our apartment, grabbed the other 2 Elders living with us, and drove down Cross Bay Blvd to the bridge over Conduit Ave. We snapped a few pictures and then went to a member's house to see what the news stations were saying. We didn't really do much work that day as everything was pretty much shut down and people didn't want to go out.

Sadly, I knew one of the victims of this devastating attack His name was Ivhan Luis Carpio Bautista and he was a member in the Richmond Hill Branch, the branch in which my companion lived in and where I lived/served for 8 months. (the end of my mission was different as I was finding/removing names form membership records for 17 units)

http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2011/09/mormons-and-meaning-on-september-11/

Cougars

Happy Game Day

Go Cougars!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by Brooke Hedin. She did a fantastic job and I love them. Here are the favorites.

This is one of the first pictures we took. As you can tell, Marshall was thrilled to be there. But, I do love Bridget's little face so it is still a favorite of mine.

After a few minutes though Marshall turned into a little ham and we got all sorts of squinty-eyed smiles out of him.