Happy Birthday, Luke!

My birthday boy

Luke turned 7 back on September 2nd.
At first he wasn't so sure about traveling on his birthday weekend, but once he was hanging with his cousins, all doubt was gone and I'm pretty sure he had a fantastic time.
(His cousin, Caden was baptized on September 1st in Las Vegas, so we made the trip down to see family and be a part of that special day - that will be the next post. For now, we'll focus on Luke)

We love our Luke! He is a ball of energy, so smart, and loving, and a boy through and through.

Some of his favorites right now are; Ninjagos, playing Wii, soccer, building things, and doing pretty much anything with dad. He loves chocolate. For his birthday cake he wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate ice cream on the side. His favorite dinner is spaghetti and meatballs. He loves telling jokes. He asks to wrestle about 5 times a day (like I said - ball of energy). His favorite primary song is "Army of Helaman" - sometimes it's "I love to see the Temple". His favorite scripture story is about the 2,000 stripling warriors.  At night before bed he likes to do his exercises - about 7 or 8 pull-ups, depending on the night, followed by 20 push-ups. He learned to ride his bike this past summer and now loves riding his bike to school when we have time. At bedtime he loves giving "to infinity and beyond hugs and kisses" for Matt and I, which is a super big kiss blown through the air at us to knock us back as we walk out of the room. He loves to snuggle as he falls asleep. He's become a really good reader, but is especially great at math. When he puts his mind to doing something, he is all in and works really hard at it until he succeeds. He loves growing things in the garden and picking our veggies when I need something fresh from our garden for dinner. Sometimes, the only explanation I have for his actions or words are "You are such a boy". It's my only explanation and way for my girl brain to process what this boy of mine has done. I love him like crazy and am so blessed and proud and excited as I watch him grow up.
Luke - you are pretty amazing!

Luke, 1 day old, 9lbs 12oz

Birthday celebration with family in Vegas

 The next weekend we had a birthday party with his friends. Ninja theme. We had a ninja training skills course, threw darts at balloons to find all the pieces of a map that led to the fang blades, attacked the evil Lord Garmadon when he tried to steal the fang blades, and a good old balloon stomp and pinata. We wore those boys out!

"Green Ninja" Ninjago birthday cake

First real true birthday party Luke had. Afterward, he said it was the best day of his life.

I think he liked his presents

Champion

 (Catching up little by little)

Last spring Maya played her first season of softball. She loved it! We got lucky - her coaches were amazing! Great girls on her team and even her best friend.  Wouldn't you know it - her team went undefeated for the whole season and won the championship game! What a way to start your softball experience. She played outfield behind first base most of the time (and had a few great plays in that position) and sometimes covered 3rd base. 

She was pretty good up to bat. With young pitchers she got walked a lot, but she was pretty good at getting a hit. 

If she got on base, her coaches were really great at signaling when to steal and getting her home, which is exactly what was happening in the picture below.

Here she is with her teammates waiting for the closing ceremonies and trophies.

Congrats, Big Blue Wrecking Crew!!!

First Day of School 2012

It's that time of year again. It seems to come faster and faster all the time. But this year is much happier compared to last year in the fact that we are all together as a family. So grateful to start this school year with my husband in the country. As a matter of fact, Matt got to be home in the morning on the first day of school.  So we all got ready together and rode bikes/jogged to school bright and early on a crisp, cool August morning - hence the coats. By the time we got to school it was already too warm for coats.

Luke learned to ride his bike sans training wheels this past summer (a big milestone in every kid's life) and is very excited to ride his bike to school like a big kid as often as we can.

Maya started 5th grade this year. This is the first year I requested a teacher for any of my kids and I'm so relieved that my request was granted. She has a fantastic teacher who will challenge this bright girl of mine. She is also so excited to have her best friend finally in her class. They've gone to school together since kindergarten (with 1 year apart during 3rd) and this year they finally get to spend together. Maya said her friend even sits right in front of her, but they don't talk. Don't want to get into trouble and ruin a good thing. It was so hilarious to see their reaction when we went to the school the day before to find out who their teachers were. They ran ahead, and so I listened as I walked knowing that if I heard screaming it was a good thing. If I heard nothing, then they weren't together and maybe Maya didn't get the teacher I wanted for her. (I felt so strongly about her NOT having a specific teacher that I even had dreams about it)

But all is right in the world of Maya.

My Luke started 2nd grade this year. The school put him in a combination 2nd/3rd grade class. I asked the office about this and they said I should be proud because it means the teachers who know Luke think he is strong enough of a student and independent enough to handle the combo class. Ok. But my main worry is, is Luke going to miss out on any of his curriculum because his teacher has to teach 2 of them. But I guess 2nd and 3rd grade learning has a lot of overlap. We'll see how it goes, but I am impressed with Luke's teacher so far (and it did put me at ease when I was told she has 4 boys of her own - if she raised 4 boys, she'll understand Luke and know how to handle him just fine). My other issue for Luke is his ears. He's been dealing with hearing loss all summer. We had an audiology appointment after the 2nd day of school and met with ENT on day 3. Looks like Luke will be getting tubes in his ears, again. This will hopefully happen by the end of September. I can't wait until he can hear us speak in regular volumes again.

Now, we can't leave out Seth. As you can see from the picture below, he was very excited to ride bikes to school as well. He was supposed to ride in the bike trailer, but Matt gave in and offered to ride slowly next to Seth while Seth rode his little spiderman bike the mile to the school.

 

Well - here goes the 2012-2013 school year!

Paradise

Bellows Beach

I will eventually catch up on our family happenings soon - hopefully before school starts next week. But for now, enjoy this picture from my favorite beach on Oahu. A lot more pictures of our vacation will follow soon.

Jen's First Half

Finish line sprint!

I'll start with - I am a sprinter. I like short, quick running races. Loved racing as a kid and teenager. Never once in my life had I thought, "I want to run a half marathon. That sounds fun." I've never even run an official 5k, unless you count the sprint triathlon I did 2 years ago. I need to do one of those again soon. I loved it.

I was shocked a few months ago when Matt mentioned he was running a half marathon in Afghanistan and wrote about how he'd always wanted to run a marathon. My reaction: wait...what?? I had no idea that was something he was interested in. But running is something he fell in love with while deployed and I have to say I am so glad he caught the bug. He and I now both get antsy if we don't get a good workout in everyday. And I want his heart healthy and beating for a long time. Running is a great way to help that happen.

Went off on a little tangent there. So, I've never had any plan to ever run a race longer than a 5k. I love working out at the gym and while Matt was deployed I trained and certified to teach Body Combat; a mixed martial arts cardio exercise class. It is my favorite! I get in 4 great cardio workouts and 2 strength training workouts every week. I take Sundays off. It is a day of rest after all. 

I do enjoy going out for a run every so often. Sometimes you just need to hit the pavement and move your body, but while Matt was deployed I did not go for a jog once. That's how much I hate pushing the jogging stroller. So when he came home and was running all the time, I got the itch and had to go with him. So fun. I love running with my husband! We busted out about a 4 mile jog and it didn't even phase me. Went out again the next week with him and did a 5 mile. Still felt great. (I may not have gone jogging while he was gone, but combat is high intensity, muscle fatiguing, hour long cardio workout) So about 3 or 4 weeks ago, my friend who is a runner (she's done a dozen half marathon's and 2 full) mentioned there was a half coming up May 19th, do we want to run? I figured it was geared more toward Matt, but it made me think. A 5 mile wasn't too tough for me, could I bust out 13.1? I was already signed up to do the Tough Mudder in the fall and that is a 12 mile obstacle course (anyone want in? Let me know)

Matt started back up to work and I went on 2 more 4.5 mile runs over the next few weeks without committing to the half. Matt was supposed to work and I would have to leave the house at 5am. Not fun finding a babysitter to come at 5 am. A week ago, Matt let me know his shift got switched and he'd be home the day of the race. He was really excited about the idea of me running a half. So I texted my friend and let her know I was in. I can count on one hand how many jogs I've been on and I committed to running 13.1 miles in 1 week. I'm a little crazy. I work out every morning after dropping kids off at school, but this last week I added in a 6am 8 mile run with Kashia, then proceeded to go to Body pump and lift weights for an hour. Ouch! (but I loved it!) The 8 went fine. I was excited to try the half.

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 4:40 and got myself ready and forced myself to eat a clif bar - I hate protein bars, and met up with Kashia to head to the place where the buses would drive us to the start. This race started up at Lake Solano and we would run through the scenic California rolling hills into town and to one of the high school stadiums. The buses dropped us off in a parking lot by a lake and all us runners walked around aimlessly because we didn't see anyone official. After about 10 minutes the officials arrived and got us set up for 7 am start. 

Talk about scenic. The lake was beautiful. There was a bunch of (noisy) peacocks up in the trees and all around. A few dead snakes on the roads as we ran. And one of those happy california cows running on the hill next to us. It was a little mean that the run started right away with a big old uphill. 

The first few miles I had to overcome a stitch in my side. I kept trying to hear my high school track coach tell me to run through it, breath even, nice big breaths. Prayed hard for the cramp to leave. Every breath was painful. By about mile 4 or 5 the pain was finally all gone. But I was proud because I had pushed through and did not stop to walk once. I was so glad I had Kashia to follow. She set a great pace and encouraged me on.

I stayed with her (tried hard to keep up with her) til about mile 10. Then I decided I need to not worry about running as fast as her and run my own race. There was a mile marker snafu. They labeled mile 11 mile 10. That was disheartening and threw me off a little. Those last few miles I had to pep talk myself. A 5k. I can do a 5k. Only 3 miles. That's less than half an hour. You can endure anything for that long, just push through. 

And I did. My only goal going into this was to not stop and walk. Even if I was doing a 15 min pace, as long as I was jogging. Never in a million years did I think I would hold a 9 min mile pace the whole time. My quads and calves and soles of my feet jarred with pain every step those last 2 miles, but the competitive nature in me would not let me slow down or stop. I did it!

The best sight to see was coming into the stadium after being out in the country for so long, and then seeing Matt and my boys on the sidelines cheering me on. I almost started crying. I was so happy to see them and so grateful they were there cheering for me.

I posted these pictures below and a few others on facebook and a friend commented that I should not look that happy after 13.1 miles. I was happy and relieved to see my boys and the race was coming to an end. That would make anyone smile!

Me and Kashia checking out our medals.

Felt so good to stretch after. I put on my body combat cool down and took us through all the stretches.

My official time was 1:58:00. Out of a little over 200 half marathon racers, I finished 81st overall, 24th out of a little over 100 women, and 9th of 34 in my age group. I'm told under 2 hours is a great time, but I really don't know much about these things. I was expecting to be closer to 2 and 1/4 hours, so I'm pleased. Maybe next year I'll train a little more, cuz ouch! It still hurts to walk.

I'm hoping the sunrise website will post some pics from the run and I'll add them here.

The half marathon made me realize - never in a million years will I do a full marathon. I would like to run this race again next year with Kashia, and hopefully Matt will join us.

The Big 1-0

Today is Mother's day. Ten years ago on Mother's day (which happened to be Matt's birthday - May 12), I went to the hospital to have Maya. What a fitting day to become a mother for the first time. We thought she was going to be a special birthday present for Matt, but she held on and was born a little after 7am the next morning - May 12, 2002. So she gets her own day. Today is her day.

10 years old

1 day old

So yesterday (on Matt's birthday) we threw Maya a party cuz, hey, 10 is a big mark.

So we had a Karaoke Rock Star party.

Supplies for getting "bling"-ed out and rock star ready

pre-party entertainment

Luke getting silly

Rock stars

Rock and Roll!

Getting ready to sing

Matt doing the "cha cha cha" dance as we sang to him. It was his actual birthday after all.

Yay for presents!

I can't even believe she's 10! Where does the time go? Maya is amazing. She is such a blessing in our lives. Some of her favorite things are: Piano and singing and dancing, playing sports (and showing up the boys), sewing and art, writing books, fashion shows with friends, and playing barbies. She has started doing some of her own cooking in the kitchen including making pancakes all by herself. She started wearing contacts about a month ago and loves it. She is so bright and does so well in school. She is her class representative for student counsel and has the highest reading level in her class. She loves to give hugs and to snuggle with her mom and dad. She's still a little shy, but gets along with almost anyone. She's quick to obey and help and loves her crazy brothers. She loves the gospel and as a family we are almost done reading through the entire book of mormon all together for the first time.

She's my girl and I'm so excited for all the girl things we'll get to do together.

Bubble Fun

Now this is the way to spend your Sunday afternoon!

Maya, Matt, and Luke ready to make some bubbles

This is the start of a series of 5 or 6 pics of the same bubble. Fun to watch it form throughout the next several pictures.

We got this idea from my sister Becky. Thanks, Becky! We had so much fun! If anyone is interested in how to make these, go to amomknows.com. My sister(-in-law) and her sister created the website and they and several of my sisters have written articles on it. It's a fantastic website with lots of great ideas from all kinds of moms. When you go to the website, there's a link to meet the moms. If you click on that and then on my sister Becky you can see all the articles she's written including these bubbles and every step to make them. 

Check it out!

These pics were taken with my new camera which I absolutely LOVE!!!