Snow at the Zoo

Last weekend Matt took the boys to the zoo because they were making snow at the zoo! Of course everyone in the city also went to the zoo to see snow, so it was quite busy. Here are the pictures Matt captured (no snow pictures):

Carter loves the carousel!

Dancing to Christmas music

Carter's a little obsessed with the goats. The goats get a lot of TLC every time we go to the zoo.

and a kiss or two...

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It is so fun to have both of our families near so we can see both on each holiday. (Plus we love hitting up two Thanksgiving feasts each year!) We enjoyed going to Matt's Uncle Chris' house for a Thanksgiving lunch and spending time with his extended family. They are all so relaxed, laid-back, and so sweet. Uncle Chris has a large plot of land with cows and chickens, so it's very exciting for the kids.

The bull that approached us at the fence.

After lunch, there was some face painting to occupy the kids.

Caleb and Carter with their MeeMa

(Poor Carter was ready for a nap.)

MeeMa and Papa

Matt's family minus Rachael's husband. Rachael is a proud new Mama to Bryan Eugene. Matt is standing next to his younger brother. Can you believe it? Matt and his eldest sister look just alike favoring their mom, and Rachael and Patrick look just alike favoring their dad. I would never be able to guess that Matt and Patrick are related or Matt and Rachael for that matter. It's funny how those things work.

Back row: Olivia, Jeff, Rebecca, me, Matt, Patrick, baby Bryan, Rachael

Front row: David Earl, Abby, McKayla, MeeMa, Carter, Papa, Caleb, Hunter

After a Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house, some of us took a walk to get the kids out of the house for a bit. Here's Dallin, Carter, and Caleb with my dad.

Over yummy pies, we played some family games. All in all, such a relaxing day (besides all the cooking). I love spending time with family and playing games!

Meeting Baby Ellery

While in Utah for my grandmother's funeral, I was able to meet my new niece: Ellery Jean Shurtliff. It's so exciting to see my younger brother as a father. Ellery is so precious. We can't wait to see her again for Christmas!

Caleb holding his cousin Ellery for the first time at Thanksgiving.

Family

This Thanksgiving I am really grateful for family. My dad's mother passed away November 12, 2011 and we celebrated her life this past weekend in Utah. It was wonderful that so many could gather together on short notice to support my grandpa and reflect on my grandma's life; all but 4 grandchildren were able to attend the funeral. During the funeral services, I loved hearing from my dad's brothers and sisters about their memories of Grandma. There were some very tender moments, but I also was able to learn things about my grandma's life that I didn't know. To sum up my grandmother's life, she led a life of service and charity. She had a testimony of Jesus Christ, and her greatest hope for all of her posterity was to continue our faith and honor the covenants we have made in the temple. Most of my memories of my grandma are before I moved from Utah when I was 7. She loved having her grandchildren over, and I could always feel that love. I loved my grandma's house because she would give me sugar cereals, which weren't allowed at my house; she always had candy or treats. We played games frequently at her house. I loved playing games with all my cousins in the basement of her house...lots of "Murder in the Dark" as we grew older and visited for Christmas. Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's involved gathering around the player piano and singing Christmas songs. It was also so special to have my grandparents at my wedding in 2006.

My grandma was diagnosed with kidney cancer several years ago. I remember gathering for one "final" family reunion in 2007 when I was pregnant with Caleb. We did not expect my grandma to live much longer. I was earning my Master's Degree at the time and was able to finagle my way out of a mandatory class because my grandma was pretty much on her deathbed. She was a fighter though and continued to fight in order to take care of my grandpa who struggles with Alzheimer's. It was difficult to see my grandpa deal with the funeral. Some days he is more lucid than others. We're hoping that he will be able to join her soon and continue the mission they have led on earth on the other side.

Some pictures from the funeral:

My grandma and grandpa on their wedding day

All my aunts and uncles on my dad's side.

Saying goodbye

Grandma loved the bagged pipes

Sisters

All the male grandchildren minus my brother Jared.

Dad's 4 sisters and 1 brother + Grandpa

Our family minus some spouses and Jared's family. Lots of closed eyes in this picture :o)

I was really grateful to be able to attend. Matt stayed home with the kids and amazed me when I got back with how well he survived 3 days alone with the kids. I came home to an impeccably clean house! His sacrifice was very much appreciated.

No!

Carter's in a really fun stage right now. He's finally starting to outgrow some of his "naughty" behavior that was a result of not being able to communicate very well. Now that he is talking more, or at least able to pull my hand and point to what he wants if I'm not understanding him, he resorts to biting, pinching, or pulling hair a lot less. :o) The funniest thing about him right now is that he answers "No" to most every question. Our typical conversations might look like this:

Me: Carter, would you like to go on a walk?

Carter: No

Me: Would you like to stay inside?

Carter: No

Me: Would you like to play with toys?

Carter: No!

Me: Would you like to read stories?

Carter: NO!

Me: Carter, it's time to get ready for bed.

Carter: No

Me: Let's go take a bath.

Carter: No

Me: Would you like to stay up really, really late and play?

Carter: No!

Me: Would you like to eat lots and lots of candy?

Carter: NO!

The more questions I ask, the more emphatic his "no" becomes. I can no longer joke around with asking silly questions for my entertainment, however. In an example like the 2nd one above, when I asked him if he wanted a treat instead of dinner, he said, "Otay" with a big smile on his face.

On more than one occasion, I've heard Carter talking in his crib late at night. I've put my ear to the door to listen to what he was saying to see if he was awake. Instead, he was dreaming and calling out "No" over and over in his sleep. It makes me chuckle.

Here he is at about 20 months. I took this picture this morning, so you can see that it is a balmy 78 degrees right now. I just arrived home from Utah yesterday (post to come) and got made fun of for one of my dressy outfits I brought to wear; it wasn't winter attire. With the warm winter I'm experiencing right now, I forget what appropriate winter attire includes! I tried to capture a picture where Carter was displaying his teeth. He has all his teeth except for the two next to his upper front teeth. It's so strange as most toddlers get those teeth right away!

Dressing-up

Caleb and Carter had the opportunity to dress up 4 times this Halloween. Carter loved every minute of it! He would have worn his dinosaur costume day in and day out if I would have let him.

Caleb the pilot at a church Halloween party

Love Carter's smile

Matt and I enjoyed dressing up for a friend's Halloween party this year. Caleb had the opportunity to dress up in a few different costumes (that I bought for preschool), and he loved having options.

Trick-or-treating

Caleb had so much fun. We went for awhile in my sister's neighborhood with Grandma and Grandpa. Then Caleb and Matt went longer in our neighborhood while I put Carter to bed and passed out candy. Carter held Grandma or Grandpa's hand the entire time and would have nothing to do with Mommy or Daddy!

What a fun holiday and fun time of year! Perfect weather too!

Huntsville Half Marathon

I ran my third half marathon yesterday morning. The morning started early as we made the drive to the race. We were all sleepy and a bit cranky (Carter was very cranky) as we didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked due to circumstances outside of our control. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful morning at a cool 65 degrees--perfect. My goal each time I run a race is to improve my previous time so I set out to run an 8:45 mile pace, but I didn't know how the numerous hills would affect me. Not all the hills were steep, but there were at least two steep ones and all the hills were definitely more of an incline than I ever run on my regular routes. The lowest elevation was 357 feet and the highest elevation was 490 feet during the half marathon course. Our good friends, the Burches, were there with us again for this half marathon. I'm so proud of Jacob who swore after the Galveston Half that he would never run a half marathon again. Not only did he run it again, but I believe he smoked his time from the Galveston run!

Here we are with a thumbs up ready to run the race.

This week we got a Garmin to help me track my runs. It's expensive, but amazing! I love being able to see what pace I'm running at any glance of the watch. I can see my mileage, set a pace guy to run with, see calories burned, etc. And I love being able to analyze the data afterwards on my computer. Love it! I've always clocked my regular running routes with my car, so I could not deviate from my routes if I wanted to know how far I ran and thus be able to calculate my average running pace. Clocking the mileage with my car, needless to say, is not the most accurate. (One of my loops that I do my car clocked at 1.1 miles and my Garmin clocked at 1.05 which makes a difference when I'm running long distances.) It's just nice to know and to be able to run any direction I feel like and my Garmin will clock it. Have I mentioned yet that I love it?

Anyway, the race course was two 6.55 mile loops. (So those two steep hills I mentioned previously I had to run twice making it 4 steep hills.) The first half I ran really well and surprised even myself that I was doing so well. My slowest mile in the first half was 8:35 and fastest was an 8:14. The hills didn't bother me too much because the downhill more than made up for the uphill I thought. The second half of the race was a little harder. The hills seemed more unbearable. By mile 11 the downhills hurt more than the uphills because momentum would carry my body faster than I was able to go at that point. The second half of the race my fastest mile was an 8:23 and my slowest mile was a 9:11.

Here I am sprinting at the finish.

I was so pleased with the final results! According to my Garmin, my average pace was an 8:34 minute-mile which put me finishing 13.1 miles at 1:52:13. I knocked 5 minutes off last year's half marathon time. That is a significant improvement, and I'm finally out of the rut of running 9-minute miles! Running is invigorating, and I love seeing improvement. As always, a big thank you to the support of my husband who had to deal with two cranky boys for the two hours that I ran.

After the race

The best picture of me and my boys. Caleb is unable to look at the camera for a picture these days.

Pumpkin Time

Some cooler weather came our way, so what better time to visit a pumpkin patch? We went today for a preschool field trip.

The best picture we could get of my boys and me.

Jackets were a necessity with the cool wind! Each person got to take a pumpkin home after the field trip.

A train ride

Playing at the park while we ate lunch in a pavilion. Carter just went back and forth between the swing and the animals.

Petting the dogs

Kissing a goat

I actually got a picture with Carter looking at the camera and smiling!!

Looking at these pictures of Carter, he looks like the sweetest most lovable little boy--which he can be at times. He actually is quite the challenge, especially compared to Caleb. He's into bullying/hurting other smaller children with pinching, biting, and pulling hair. I'm having fun working through it especially when he doesn't understand the connection between the consequences and the undesirable behavior. A lot of his aggressive behavior has to do with the inability to verbally tell me what he wants. Hopefully this is just a passing stage and not here to stay!

Carter with his cousin Gavin.

The cooler weather is very welcome after the hot summer weather. We hope it is here to stay!

Cantaloupe

We haven't done as well staying on top of our garden this year, but we are producing some cantaloupe. This is the biggest one so far, and there are about 6 more growing right now. Caleb finds it so exciting to watch them get bigger and finally to pick them! We'll have to do better next year.

Running Update

A year ago at this time, I was training for a marathon. Carter was 6 months old, and I had been training for 2 months already. It was definitely difficult to work the training around nursing, but it felt invigorating to seriously train again after taking a 6 week break when Carter was born and doing some light running to try to get back in shape. Since my marathon on January 1st of this year, I haven't run any other races, but I have kept up the running to around 6 miles. Since the money can add up to run a lot of races, I didn't plan on running another race until November. I planned to run the Galveston half marathon again this year since I enjoyed the run last year along the Seawall looking out at the ocean. Unfortunately it was cancelled. The next half marathon race I was aware of nearby wasn't until March. I was kind of bummed. It's fun to work towards a race, but March was too far off.

A few days ago, I learned of a half marathon coming up in 3 weeks about 45-60 minutes away. Today I ran 13.1 miles to make sure I could do it, then I signed up. It's a month sooner than the Galveston race I was planning on, which cuts my training short. There's more I still want to do to shave minutes off my time, but I'll just have to make do.

I have made great strides in improving my running times. I've been able to run up to 6 miles in 8:45-9:00 minute-miles depending on the day while pushing my kids in a double running stroller. Today's 13.1 mile time was 1:54:35, 3 minutes faster than my half marathon last November, and the last mile was pushing the stroller as Matt had to be somewhere. The pace was 8:45-minute-miles. I'm hoping to run just as well in 3 weeks if not faster. The number one thing that might get in the way? Hills. The half marathon I signed up for I haven't considered in the past due to the hills. There are 2 large hills and other mild hills throughout the race. There are not many hills to train on around here that are close, so I have not done much hill training. In the next 3 weeks, I hope I can get a chance to run some hills but will have the difficulties of time (the closest hills are 20 minutes away so that's 40 minutes of driving time) and having to push my kiddos in the stroller. It's exciting to have a race on the calendar though and to have a time frame to push myself harder. Races have such a fun atmosphere, and I'm looking forward to it!

Happenings

A few weeks ago, Caleb went to the doctor for his 4-year-old check-up. His doctor visit at 3 years old didn't go so well, so I was pleasantly surprised this time around. He was a little jittery and nervous, but he did great as the nurse took his blood pressure, temperature, etc. He had a vision and hearing screening done as well, which was kind of fun. The amazing part was that he didn't even cry during his shots. On shot number two he said "ow," but that was it! To carry on the tradition from last year, his doctor's visit was followed by a snow cone.

As I mentioned in the last post, our lives are busier now due to preschool. Caleb is a great student and is very eager to please. He loves having all these friends come over regularly as well! (I have a total of 8 students including him.)

Here's Carter on the first day of Caleb's preschool. He wants to be a big kid and just tag along.

When I'm not teaching preschool, we're spending more time on the potty seat. We've had a few random successes, but we'll keep practicing. He's such a big boy!

And as mentioned in the last post, church is keeping me busy always, but I love working in the Primary with the children. We did a Primary temple trip yesterday and had a tour around the temple. A temple worker also came and spoke to us. Overall it went well. We were surprised by a little rain as we walked around, but definitely grateful as we're in a drought right now.

(Carter's grumpy face...we had to wake him up early from a nap in order to attend.)