December & Christmas 2010

December has been a blur...

BUT

We did enjoy our first big SNOW fall - Laex helped me shovel and then we built a snowman! We got about 6-8 inches of snow overnight - Laex was IN HEAVEN!
















































We had many evenings of Christmas Stories or Christmas Movies with Popcorn -Christmas Vacation is a MUST :)
We got an early Christmas Present - the Wii and had a blast bowling, bowling and bowling - Laex loves it and usually kicks our butts :)
























































A
N
D

We were finally able to S L O W down and enjoy the Holidays in Vernal! We had a great time!

We arrived in Vernal on Thursday, enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner with Mom, Kenz, Grams and Gramps, Trev, Ramey, Taite & Avi --We missed Elder Hoopes & our Dad who was out in the snow working :(

Thursday night we had fun opening our stocking gifts - A tradition Mom started, we each buy a gift for each others stockings and write a nice note to go with it - we then open them either Christmas eve or this year, the day before, so that the stockings are empty for Santa!



















































































Friday we enjoyed the day playing lots of fun games and hanging out! We spent our Christmas Eve at Aunt Jenny's Annual Christmas Eve Party with yummy food and a fun Gift Exchange Game!




































Saturday Laex had a BLAST as he realized he'd been good enough that Santa came :) --It was the first year he really got into it and he was so excited! He opened his & Loa's presents! Then we spent the rest of the day jammin out on the wii, playing games and enjoying the kids as they went from one toy to the next! We had lots of yummy finger foods, we grazed, played, rested, played and grazed some more :) AND we got to enjoy our LAST phone call from Elder Hoopes, he'll be home in exactly 5 weeks, we can't wait!! And we ended the day with a trip to visit Grams and Gramps. (YES! we ROCKED Just dance - it was a riot . ALSO, as a side note, Laex really thinks he's buzz lightyear so when he got "wings" he was ecstatic!)







































































































































Sunday we got to go to church with Grammie and Papa and then enjoyed our last evening in Vernal.

Monday we got up, packed the car to the brim and had a nice trip home --when we arrived out house was only Forty degrees, with the heater not running :( Luckily LeGrand was able to mess with it a bit and get it going - so the heater, along with the gas log running we got the house heated up! We were happy to have warmth!

We had such a nice holiday, we're happy to be home, have the decorations put away and be able to relax

Turkey Day!

This year we stepped out-of-the-box and hit Little America for Thanksgiving dinner! It was SO nice that none of us had to Cook or Clean but it did feel a bit weird that there were no left-overs.

We enjoyed ourselves so much it may become a tradition!






















































































































































We finished off the day with a serious shopping trip that started at 9 pm in line at Toys R Us and ended at about 3 am at home buying everything I needed online :) I heart Black Friday excitement!

Blizzard 2010

LeGrand insisted that I document the "BLIZZARD" of 2010 - it was expected to hit two days before Thanksgiving (Tuesday Nov. 23rd) around 5pm - the hype was crazy!

People were let off work early, all the colleges closed early, Schools around the Wasatch front canceled all activities after 4 pm, people were lined up at Costco trying to "get prepared" all so that everyone could get home before the biggest storm of the past ten years hit.

I got this text from LeGrand around 1:30 that day: "if you have time please fill up the MDX. this storm is supposed to be ugly. also we need ice cream" LOL-Priorities!


HERE'S the result...

a little wind blowing around some "fluff" (LeGrand's words)

7.5 months

This is a bit late - as have been all of my posts lately - BUT, here's some awesome stuff about our amazing little lady at her 7 1/2 month mark!

She had one tooth and another on the way so we've had some rough nights (the "other" one is now here - hopefully it will get better!)

She not only sits up but is ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE --no "official" crawling YET - just scoots herself around!

She'll eat her baby food but would MUCH rather have "REAL" food - this is daddy's fault, he thinks she needs to try every.thing.
















She is so fun! --almost EIGHT months old --WHEN did that happen??

St. George Fun!

It just happened that the week before the Race, Dad was in St. George at some lineman schooling/training SO Wednesday (November 3rd) Mom met us and we followed each other to St. George.
We spent Thursday and Friday shopping and playing!!! Laex's most recent FAVORITE thing EVER is Mini-Golf - Don't worry, we played mini-golf TWO different times! It was fun to hang out and play and of course we thoroughly enjoyed our CARB LOAD at Olive Garden the night before my run!

Snow Canyon Half!

A few months ago I took on a challenge that I never could have dreamed I would even have a desire to try! Some friends and I decided we were going to train for a half marathon (doesn't 13.1 miles just sound SO MUCH BETTER than 26.2?) We had exactly 12 weeks until the Snow Canyon Half Marathon so we got to work! We literally started from scratch - I could barely run 2.5 miles and then I felt like I was going to die and I DIDN'T enjoy one bit of it!

*I must note* I AM NOT a runner!!!!! (see all those exclamation points!) The LONGEST I had EVER ran in my LIFE was a 5k (3 miles) and I hated it! To this day I can't say I LOVE to run, what I can say is that I have learned to enjoy it more than I did :)

This challenge proved to be one of the most exhausting yet life changing things I have ever accomplished!
I pushed myself to limits I didn't know I had -
I disciplined myself to run wherever I was so I could stay on schedule.
Some runs were easy {I felt FANTASTIC after my 7 mile}, some runs were GRUELING {my 10 mile was ROUGH-to say the least-both my running partners were injured leaving me to run it alone and I didn't even have music, I just listened to myself breath for TEN-MILES!}
Yet in the end, the pride and confidence I felt after finishing ANOTHER run is indescribable!

November 6th was the BIG day, and really I can't believe HOW FAST that 12 weeks of training flew by!
Race day was perfect and running through snow canyon was Awesome! I loved the course and I LOVE that I exceeded BOTH goals I set for myself:
#1-Run the entire 13.1 miles
#2-Finish in 2hr. 15 min.

I did it! 2 hrs. 8 min.'s later I crossed the finish line!





















I'm grateful I took on this challenge and I really can't believe how much it has changed me. I learned the reality to the saying, "Mind over Matter" - you truly can accomplish ANYTHING you put your mind to!
Though I do have to admit - I'm not necessarily addicted :) - I do have plans to do a couple more next year to keep me motivated but I don't think a full marathon is in my future - 26.2 miles doesn't appeal to me AT ALL!

PS - I'm in the BEST shape of my life :)