Race Day

Here he is about to cross the finish line! Go Braeden.
Here he is passing another kid. He was trying so hard.
The Garmin's already to go. It looks huge on him--well, it is pretty huge. But it does a lot. It computes time, distance, pace, and all kinds of cool things that I'm not quite sure how to do. I usually just like to know how far I've gone and what my pace currently is, and then an average when I'm done.
All ready to go. He loves his sunglasses. I think the bright sun really bothers him. He thinks he's pretty cool in them though.
Stretching--or trying to. He kept falling over when he tried to stretch like this.
More stretching.
Braeden with his buddy Abby. She was made up perfectly for the race. She's a really cute little girl.


Braeden ran in his first race today! The elementary school he'll be attending in the fall was holding a 5k/Kids Run fundraiser race. Since Braeden has been to quite a few of my races in the past year, he's always asking when he can do one. So, this was the perfect opportunity. He was all ready to go. He made sure to wear proper running clothes, his sunglasses, and even my Garmin. Okay, so maybe I was a little bit over-the-top. But, I wanted to know what his time and pace was and the exact mileage. Plus, he sees that I wear it when I run. He was so excited to get to push start on it when he started to run. It was a quarter mile race and he ran it in about 2 minutes 33 seconds. He was so cute. He didn't place (although I told him he did), but he was pretty proud of himself for passing a fellow runner. He told me he was trying really hard to pass him. He's watched Lighting McQueen, Herbie Fully Loaded, and enough race car shows to understand strategy. What a character. His friend Abby came too. They made sure to stretch really good together. It was so cute. Abby's mom, Amanda, is my running buddy/good friend, so it was fun to see our kids running together. I am so excited about this elementary school. Everyone talks about how great it is and it was fun to participate in a school event already. My friend Jodi is going to be the PTA President next year, so we're also excited about that. She did a great job today on the race. Oh, the best part of the event was after his race. He came and sat down with me and in a very serious voice told me thanks for helping him with the race (I had come and run alongside him for a little bit), he said "that really helped me a lot mom" and thanked me again. Sometimes he can be a little stinker, but he has moments like this that make me so proud.

Soccer Season

Braeden's Pre-School Graduation

Braeden just graduated from pre-school. He loved his pre-school class and teacher, "Teacher Chelsea". He had a great year. They did a great little graduation program. Braeden did a great job reciting his little part with his cute personality shining through. Now on to kindergarten and Carter will start pre-school this fall.

Pictures from Braeden's Birthday

Braeden had a blast celebrating his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. He wasn't the only one that had a good time. Tanner LOVED it. He wanted to go on all the little car rides over and over again. Carter had a great time too and especially loved getting to put the tokens in all by himself. After all the fun there, we went home for cake and presents. Braeden's main present was a new bike. His old bike (a 12 incher) was getting a bit too small and his skills seemed to have exceeded what that little beginner bike could handle. So, he got an 18 inch lime green bike. He thinks it's pretty cool now, but at first he wasn't so sure. It came with training wheels on it and when he tried to ride it with them on, it was too hard. He has been riding with no training wheels for a year now, and these training wheels were raised up. So, it just felt weird to him. When Jeff was able to take the training wheels off for him, he was off and away. That kid was born to bike. He just loves it--and he's pretty good at it. He had an awesome birthday. He is such a cool kid. It would be impossible to try to describe how much we love him. I just can't believe he's a FIVE year old now and that he's going to kindergarten in the fall. Crazy!

Pictures from my race

Finally posting pictures from my race a few weeks ago.

That'll help the housing crisis

It's been a while since I blogged about anything political. But, an online article caught my eye today. Obama's climate guru, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, is encouraging us to paint our roofs white to help combat global warming. Now I'll admit that I haven't thoroughly researched the effects of such a suggestion. But, my first thought was about the cosmetic appearance of painting my roof white. Can you picture how hideous that would be. They showed this picture of homes in Greece and that's a totally different type of architecture, so it looks allright. But, could you picture my house with the shingles painted white. Classy--I think not. It seems to me like that would only add problems to our nation's current housing crisis. People are having a hard enough time selling their homes. Sheesh!

More posts coming soon

I'll post again when I get back from Idaho. We still have to report on Braeden's 5th birthday party. He is getting so big. He had a great birthday and we have fun pictures to prove it. We seriously have been so crazy, busy lately with house projects. We hope it slows down a little now. Now I just have to worry about keeping the house looking spotless at all times while we try to sell. Wish me luck. My boys aren't exactly known for their clean habits. Are any little boys? Probably not, but it just amazes me that Carter is three now and eats like a one year old still. So messy! At least it's summer and we can be outside a lot. I have been having the boys eat out on the deck a lot. Then when they're done eating, I just pull out the garden hose and hose everything off. It's wonderful. The boys just finished swim lessons, well sort of. Thursday was their last day and I got so busy trying to finish up house projects and cleaning before we packed up for Idaho that I forgot to take them to swim lessons for their last class. Bad mom...I know. I was waiting for their last class to take pictures and to see if they passed to the next level (which I'm sure they didn't). Carter just goofed off and had fun (perfectly acceptable for a barely three year old to just have fun and get comfortable in the water) and Braeden is just to nervous to go under water. So, I'm sure Braeden will be stuck in Level 2 forever. I do have him registered for lessons with a lady in our neighborhood who teaches in her own pool. She is also a school teacher and people rave about how she has helped their kids learn to swim. It is really hard to get into her swim school. You actually have to be invited to register. So, I hope it's worth all the hype. Anyways, Braeden has one soccer game left on Weds. We are hoping he will score his first and only goal at his last game. Go Braeden go! The good thing is that he's had a blast with soccer this season. So, that's all that really matters. But, he wants to score a goal so bad. I just hope he scores because I know it will mean a lot to him. It has been a little tough because he accidentally got put in the league of kids that are mostly a little older than him though. So, that has made it a little extra challenging for him. In other family news, I just ran a Half Marathon last Saturday. It was a great race--I did the same race last year. So, it was fun to have the goal of beating last year's time (which I was able to accomplish--I actually beat it by 10 minutes and barely finished under 2 hours with 45 seconds to spare). I felt great the whole run. Because the last race I ran was the full marathon, this one actually seemed to fly by. There were quite a few people I knew running it, so that made it extra fun. Jeff is now hoping to start swimming on a Master's Team at the Rec. That should bring back fun memories of his HS Swim Team glory days. I always love to tell people that my husband is a Hall-of-Famer as he and his swim team were inducted in the Hall of Fame down in AZ last year. Enjoy reading our new posts and hopefully you'll hear from us soon now that our house is done! I guess things could get totally crazy again if we get an offer soon, then we'll be crazy packing. We have no idea what to expect with this market/economy. But, we have already packed at least 20 boxes worth of stuff in our preparations for selling. So, at least we have a jump start. My goal is to pack a box every day to make it easier when we move. I really hate moving and I'm glad that this should be our last move for a long, long time.

Finally...

Our home of 3+ years is finally on the market. We have worked our little tail ends off the past few weeks to reach our goal to have it listing by Memorial Day weekend. We did it. I think we both feel so relieved to finally have it ready. We feel really good about how everything turned out. My only regret is that we didn't get this done sooner so we could personally enjoy it more. But, that's how it goes. This house has been a huge project. Virtually everything in this house was replaced, refinished, repainted, etc. Tons of work. Sometimes we wonder why we didn't get things done quicker and then we remember that we had a 17 month old when we moved in and I was pregnant with Carter. We had Tanner 19 months after Carter (I don't get a ton accomplished when I'm pregnant). Plus, we rennovated our condos to sell them which also kept us busy. So, I guess that explains that. We are looking forward to moving into our new house that will need no work. We aren't doing any of the work on the new house ourselves except putting in the yard. Here are some pictures of the finished product. We hope it sells quick. I am in Idaho right now with my parents and brother while Jeff stayed home to do open houses this weekend. It'll be much easier for him to show the house without the boys and their toys in the way. We discovered the house through an open house the listing agent was doing. So, we're hoping that an open house will be worth Jeff's time. Generally speaking, most realtors aren't real hip on doing open houses. It helps a little that he's sitting in his own home waiting for potential buyers instead of someone else's house.

Pictures of our house for sale!

Kid's bathroom. We re-did the floor in here, the cabinets, countertop, sink, faucet, and painted.


The deck was in pretty rough shape. Jeff had to replace and repair and few parts. Then, we painted it because the wood had uglied out. One thing we have really loved about this house is all the nice, mature trees in our backyard. That's something you don't get with new construction. Planting trees will be one of our top priorities. I especially look forward to planting a few peach trees which tend to grow well in our area.

This is Braeden and Carter's room. They love their bunk beds. It's hard to see in this picture, but there is a window seat in their room. They have spent many Mondays watching the garbage men from the window seat.

This is now Tanner's room. It has just been a playroom most recently. Prior to that it was a guest bedroom. It used to have ugly pink and white striped wall paper. The wallpaper was hard to get off. So, we just covered it with beadboard. This was Jeff's first time doing beadboard. He did a great job. After we got this project done, I decided this room looked to good to just be a playroom. So, we moved Tanner in here.

This is our basement family room. This room was super disgusting when we moved in. The carpet was horendous. It had stains everywhere--crunchy stains. Gross. We tore it out immediately and put down carpet scraps until we remodeled the basement last summer. Then, we put in nice, crunch-free carpet and painted.
This is our master bath. We have loved this big tub. The kids take their baths in here. This whole bathroom had ugly, white blah tile before. It wasn't in great shape as the previous owners did not properly care for tile in a bathroom. Can you say "grout sealer". Ah! Anyways, we put in the cultured marble and cultured granite surround (great for cleaning), ret-tiled the floor, new countertops, sink, toilet, paint, etc.
Here's our bedroom. I need to re-take the picture in better light. Taking interior pictures is tricky. We didn't do much to our master bedroom besides paint and new carpet (the whole house got new carpet).
Here's our main floor family room. I rarely see it like this--it usually has toys all over. This is where the boys like to play. Despite our efforts to keep the toys in the basement or to use one of the bedrooms as a toy room, the boys just like to be where all the action is (ie. where i am).
Here's our formal living room. This is what you see right when you walk in the front door. I hope this makes a good first impression. It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but we painted our railings black. When we moved in, half of the railings in the house had been primed white and the others were the original light oak. Ugh. Jeff installed pergo flooring in the living room/entry way that extends into the kitchen and eating area.
Here's the kitchen. We put a lot into the kitchen. We just had the cabinets refinished. I love how they turned out. The new stainless appliances were just delivered about a week ago (too bad I didn't get to enjoy new appliances myself--our old oven wasn't so great--didn't cook evenly). My mom made the valances for the kitchen and family room. Thank heavens for a mom that can sew well. I'm getting more into lately. But, I've learned everything I know from her.
Here's the outside. I guess I kind of did this in reverse order. I need to get a better exterior picture when it's not so sunny. We love the big tree in the front yard. I seriously thought of having Jeff list it as a exclusion on our listing so we could figure out a way to transplant it at our new house.

Big Announcement

We are moving! We are building a house about 1/2 mile south of our house now. So, it's the same city, same stake, but not the same ward :( , same schools, etc. They should start construction in about 2 weeks. We also hope to have our house on the market by then--hopefully we'll be all done with our projects then. We are really excited. We've moved around quite a bit in the 7 years we've been married and we hope this is our last move. This is definitely the house we plan to stay in for a long, long, time. We just took the boys to the lot to play with their dump trucks. They are excited to see the construction workers get started.

Busy, busy, busy

We've been so busy lately. I guess that's probably how most all of us feel. I wish I could get around to updating this more often, but I guess that's how it goes. We've been doing good though. Braeden is now counting down to his birthday which is about a week away. There are tons of things he is asking for his birthday. I hope he doesn't get too disappointed. Braeden's in soccer and is actually enjoying himself this season (he didn't have much fun last fall). We'll post pictures soon. I've got Braeden and Carter in swim lessons two mornings a week at the Rec. They both love it. Braeden is not at all afraid of the water, but he is afraid of submerging his whole head in the water. He's progressed enough to put part of his face in the water though. Carter just has fun playing in the water. He is still such a little chunk. There are two little boys in his class that are brothers--they are some of the skinniest kids I have ever seen. Carter looks like such a chub next to them. We're wondering if he'll lose more of his baby fat this summer. He goes in for his well-check visit at the first of June and I'm worried that the pediatrician is going to comment on it. Carter loves being outside on his bike and in his sandbox. He does so good on his bike, I'm sure he'll want his training wheels off by the time he's four. Braeden tears it up on his bike. We are amazed at how well he can ride. I wore my Garmin on a bike ride one time. We went 6 miles and he rode the whole way. He wanted to keep going, but it was getting dark. I can't believe he can do that. Tanner is just getting over an ear infection (fun stuff). He is cutting a molar too which seems to be unbearable for him. He gets so fussy with teething. The older two didn't seem to have it as bad. Tanner is starting to really exhibit signs of jealousy if I'm holding or snuggling with one of his brothers. He really tries to edge his way in and then he tries to push them away. He is so fun though. He loves to do the 'five up high, down low, cut the pickle, tickle tickle' thing. He always grabs my fingers and puts them together to make the pickle. Then just laughs and laughs. Sorry if you don't know about the "cut the pickle" game.

We've been dedicating most of our spare time to fixing up our house. I have done so much painting and I am getting sick of it. Jeff has kept really busy too. I am always amazed at how productive he is. He works so hard that I have to remind him to eat and drink. He can't stand to take a break if he knows he's got more work to do. He really does like working with all his cool Dewalt tools though. He just got the vanity installed in the basement bathroom. He installed beadboard over the pink and white wall paper in one of the bedrooms. That turned out really good. We're hoping for nice weather this weekend so we can do some outdoor projects. We need to refinish our deck and do some yardwork. We've had so much rain here lately. We'll see if it's dry enough. Our lawn in growing so good because of all the rain and Jeff's good fertilizing job that we have to mow every 4 or 5 days to keep up on it. We are getting closer to having all our house projects done. We are never ever getting a fixer-upper again! We'll post pictures of our progress soon!

Also, we have a BIG annoucement to make soon too. That'll keep everyone in suspense right? Check back for updates. I hope to stay more on top of this.

So tired

Carter was in the kitchen coloring the other day. I realized it had gotten very quiet (usually that's a sign of trouble around here--noise is good). This is how I found him when I went to check on him. How could he fall asleep in this position?

Silly Day

Braeden loves Silly Day at school. Carter wanted to join in on the fun too.

The big THREE

Carter just celebrated his third birthday. He had a great time. We went to a place that had all kinds of inflatables and slides (he fell asleep on the way there). He wanted quesadillas for his birthday dinner (that's no surprise--that's about all he ever wants to eat). We love our Carter man more than anything. He is such a fun, sweet little guy.

"I {heart} u"

The picture says it all I guess. At least he wrote something nice on his brother. I couldn't help but laugh. I almost didn't want to wash it off. (In case you can't make out what it says--it's "I {heart} u"). That's Braeden's way of writing I love you because he can't always remember how to spell love.

Car Wash Time

The boys have been waiting all winter to get to wash the car. Even Tanny joined in on the fun.