St George 1/2 marathon

I totally forgot to post about this back in January! Towards the end of January my 2 running buddies and I ventured down to St George and ran a half marathon down there. The weather was warm and beautiful and we were all very happy to leave the snow and cold. The course was a little messed up due to some flooding in the area, but overall it was very beautiful there. We left Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel around 5 and then went to the race expo, got our race packets, and then went to dinner to carb load at the Pizza Factory. We had a hard time sleeping that night (due to nerves before the race, sleeping in beds that weren't our normal ones, and just having fun girl time without kids around), but were still able to be up early and out the door for the race. We ran the race and then went right back to our hotel room to shower and then checked out and went to lunch and did some shopping before hitting the road to come home. It was a quick trip, but lots of fun to get away with my running buddies. For some reason blogger won't let me upload the photos I have of us down there, so all I have is the pic of my race bib and medal.

Lincoln and his new accomplishments!

Linc and his new "McQueen" bed

Here's my funny, sweet, and motivated 2 year old. Over the holidays he started showing an interest in potty training. I ignored it because we were so busy and I didn't have the time to do it. I put it aside for a while and then last week decided I needed to buckle down and do it because I really didn't want to go buy another box of diapers. So I bought a package of Pullups and we started the potty training. I gave him a little lecture about how he needed to tell me when he had to go. The whole week was amazing. Not only did he only have 1 accident the whole entire week, but he also woke up from his naps dry and even woke up at night if he had to go. So, after switching from Pullups to underwear or "big boy pants" as we call them we decided we also needed to get him out of his crib so he could take himself potty at night. I've been kind of hesitant to take him out of a crib because Carter was such a pain about escaping all night long out of his room as soon as we put him in a toddler bed. Last night was Lincoln's first night in his new bed and he was amazing. We told him to go to sleep and stay in his bed unless he needed to go potty. He went right to sleep without a fight and woke up at 3 am and took himself potty. This kid can't stop amazing me. If only his 4 year old brother was as obedient as him. We feel so blessed to have our boys in our life and enjoy being their parents.

Family Pics

Here are some of the family pics we took of our family when we did family pictures with my very large family. Enjoy!

Christmas and New Year's

I should have taken more pictures, but I get so busy trying to take care of everything and everybody that this is what we get. We had a fun New Year's Eve party with our good friends, the Hardings. They brought over their 4 girls and their awesome bounce house (which fit perfectly in our family room) and the kids had a ball. We had some yummy Mexican food and a wonderful ice cream cake and enjoyed hanging out and watching the kids have fun.

The boys loved their New Year's hats and their noise makers that I soon after confiscated.

Again, sorry for the lack of pictures from Christmas. We had to open our presents at home and then get over to Brandon's parent's house for breakfast and then hurry over to my parent's house for their turn with our family. SO much going on this day!

Carter and his new lego set

Carter and his stocking stuffers along with his new bike.

Lincoln with his new Thomas train set. He LOVES this and plays with it everyday and carries the train around with him. He even brought it to bed with him the other night. He cracks me up.

Christmas Happenings!

We've had so much going on the past few weeks. Here are just a few of the things we've done:


We made our first snowman. I have actually NEVER made a snowman. Brandon made me come out and help.

Brandon and the boys making the base...the largest one I've ever seen

Carter on Santa's lap (Linc refused to sit on his lap. He cried so hard and would not let go of me).

Riverboat Christmas cruise on the Provo River-the boys LOVED this

All of the beautiful Christmas lights and scenes along the banks of the Provo River

This was a fun experience and one we will probably do again. We waited for a night when it wouldn't be too cold (it was 45 degrees which is pretty warm for Dec at night on the Provo River). I was surprised my kids didn't end up in the water. They were so good and enjoyed all of the lights and Santa even showed up along side our boat in a canoe.

Carter & Linc's 1st race!

On Thanksgiving there are many "Turkey Trots" held in our area (a 5K run). I was going to run one but after some last minute changes I decided to do a longer 8 mile run (so I could eat more Thanksgiving dinner later) and my boys would make it in time to do their 1st race (100 meter fun run). Carter had been talking about doing this for weeks and was even "practicing" and stretching in our house constantly. He asked me if I could hand him water as he ran by me & he asked Brandon if he would hold up a sign that said, "Go Carter, Go!". That kid cracks me up. They braved the 12 degree temperatures and had a lot of fun doing this (well, Carter did at least).

Carter pre-race giving Linc some advice on running
Carter running the race

About 1/2 way through the 0-2yr old dash Linc gave up from being cold and started crying so I picked him up and carried him to the finish. Some crazy mothers were literally dragging their 2 yr olds to the finish line. I couldn't believe how crazy the were!


Linc and I after his race (he refused to wear his hat which I think would've helped keep him a little warmer).

Carter trying to calm Lincoln down after the race. He was SO upset by the cold, but he loved getting his medal for doing the race

Lincoln's "little" mess

My sweet little Lincoln decided to climb up on the counter and get into my spice cupboard while I was showering yesterday. Here is a pic of the result. Gotta love having a 2 year old! He just got himself locked back into his booster seat while I shower from now on. I miss my sweet baby!

He even dumped spices into my toaster. Gotta love that smell in my kitchen everytime we make toast! (yes, I did clean out the toaster, but I can still smell cinnamon & cumin & they are NOT a good combination).

This is what my wood floor looked like after. I'm still finding peppercorns and baking soda everywhere even though I swept and vacuumed. I had to wait a whole day before posting this because I was so mad at him. I can laugh today though. I just got back from the grocery store and replacing all the spices he completely dumped out was pretty pricey.