Merry Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year! It was the year to spend time with Brandon's side of the family and his parents were nice enough to come to all of us in Utah!

We started the weekend by going to the BYU basketball game on Thursday night. I haven't been to one of those since Brandon was a student so that was a lot of fun.

Friday night Jeremy and Angie and family and Jordan came over to our house. We had dinner and fondue for dessert, sang carols, read the Christmas story with our puppets, and did our favorite pass around game. This game is so fun. Everyone brings a little $2-5 present. You sit in a circle and someone reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Every time the word "and" is read you pass your present around the circle. At the end of the story you keep the present you ended up with. We usually do a kid circle and an adult circle. It's such a fun tradition.

Can you find someone jumping between pictures below?











The pajama elf surprised the kids with jammies again this year:

Christmas day was way fun. The kids got lots of fun presents. Santa brought Caleb a voice activated R2D2, Brynley a Furreal pet dog and Aubrey a baby with a crib, high chair and stroller.

We all ended up getting really sick on Christmas day and the day after. It still hasn't quite left us. Brynley has thrown up a bunch and we've all (except Brandon) had fevers. Not the ideal way to spend Christmas break but, to look on the bright side, there hasn't been much fighting because we've all just been lethargically laying around.

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season and had a great year. We didn't get out Christmas cards again this year. Maybe next year? I think I say that every year... Anyway, know that we love you all and think about you often!

(Job updates: Brandon has a contract job that is full time hours and good pay that will last up to 6 months. This is perfect because he can do that while he continues to look for regular work. We have been very blessed through this entire ordeal...)

Disneyland 2010

Creative title, I know. Man, I just realized I haven't posted for so long. We have no pictures from November. Seriously. None. Brandon was gone for the middle two weeks to Australia and we didn't do anything because we didn't want him to feel bad. ;-) Just kidding. But we really didn't do a darn thing. Besides eat turkey and I have no pictures of that.

In other news, Brandon lost his job today. If you follow us on facebook you already know this. It wasn't really EXPECTED but it was suspected. Anyway, I don't really know what to say about this... If you know anything anywhere here is some info about what he does.

"Brandon's degree is in Information Systems. He knows sql server and crystal reports. He does software implementation and training. He wants to get into software product management or a sales engineer role."

Enough about that. We went to Disneyland last week. It was awesome. The Christmas decorations and parades and fireworks shows were incredible. We saw the Aladdin show (AMAZING!), World of Color (also AMAZING!), the Christmas parade and the firework show. The parks were more crowded than we would have liked so I think we'll stick to going in Jan/Feb in the future. But we still had a fantastic time!

Halloween Weekend 2010

We had a crazy weekend around these parts! With Saturday being Halloween (or when it was celebrated in Utah) and Monday being my birthday we had lots of stuff going on.

It started with a dinner with friends on Friday night. We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of greasy food at Ruby River with the Nyes and Browns. Thanks for helping me celebrate my birthday you guys!

Saturday was the trunk or treat. I HATE trunk or treats but I'll leave that discussion for another day. Half way through the trunk or treating it started hailing like crazy. I'm talking immediate hurricane like storm. It was nuts. Everyone jumped in their cars and headed home. We were going to go REAL trick or treating later but Caleb said, "I guess we can't go trick or treating..." and I jumped on that opportunity and said, "Yeah, I guess not." So we watched Karate Kid instead.



Caleb was Darth Vader at school and Mario on Halloween. Brynley was Thumbelina and Aubrey was a ballerina.

Sunday we had a birthday dinner at my parents house and on Monday Brandon and I spent a couple hours running errands together at lunch time. It was a great weekend spent celebrating my birthday and halloween! Aubrey made me feel especially special because she kept saying to me, "Happy bowday, mommy!" She would follow that up with a kiss on my arm. She's so sweet.

Thank you all for the birthday facebook greetings and text messages! I felt so loved all day!

The Pumpkin Patch

On Monday night we went to the pumpkin patch. We have a pumpkin patch post every October so this may be a little redundant. This year they added a hay ride, a petting zoo and big bales of hay for the kids to jump off of and into. It was a ton of fun.

We were laughing before we went because three years ago, when Brynley was Aubrey's age she threw the hugest tantrum (similar to this famous tantrum) on the way to the very same pumpkin patch. I'm talking HUGE. TANTRUM. HUGE. So funny how time flies.

Caleb Surgery Update

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I didn't even bring my camera on surgery day. Lame, I know. Caleb had a surgery done on Monday. As you know, all year he has been getting injections once a month of a scarring agent with the hopes of his lip shrinking in size. It has been very slow progress but there is definitely progress none the less.

On Monday his ENT, Dr Grimmer, did a coblation procedure. This is where they basically shave down the inside of his lip so it lays flatter. You know how when you bite your cheek you getting little bumps for sores? He has that all over the inside of his lip. They are vesicles. The Dr shaved those off. Right now he has an open wound in his mouth but it will heal nice and smooth just like the inside of our mouths.

Right after the procedure I could tell it was going to make a difference. From the bottom his lip already looked much more similar in size to the other side. As with any surgery though, there is swelling and it is now much bigger again. We will be able to know by about 4 weeks out what kind of results we will have. They can do another procedure like this mid November if needed.

He is a resilient kid and was bouncing off the walls yesterday so I sent him to school today. I went at his lunch and gave him some Lortab and he was good to go all day. The dr said he would miss 1-2 weeks of school but he was back after two days. Such a little tough guy.

I'll get some pictures and post them but I just wanted to update you all with how he is doing for now.

Happy 2nd Birthday Aubrey!

I can't believe my baby is two years old! It seems like just yesterday she was born. Aubrey is such a good little girl. She is so pleasant and happy. She hasn't quite hit the terrible twos yet so we still love her. :-) I will say this though. While she is probably our easiest toddler yet with regards to temperament, she is MESSY! She goes from drawer to drawer pulling things out and throwing them all over. Yesterday I gave her a graham cracker and when I walked away she put it down on the carpet and stepped on it over and over until it was all crumbs. But she is always happy and sweet and oh so cute, so we'll keep her.

Aubrey loves:

-her doggy blanket
-yogurt
-pacifiers (fasers)
-playing with her brother and sister (Ehcob and Binny)

About a week before her birthday this conversation ensued:

Mom: "Guess who's birthday it is next week?!"
Aubrey: "What?"
Mom: "Aubrey's!!!"
Aubrey: "YAY!!!"
Mom: "What should we do at your party?"
Aubrey: "Snacks"
Mom: "What should we have?"
Aubrey: "Goldfish. Milk"
Mom: "Ok, what games should we play?"
Aubrey: "Duck, duck, sit"
Mom: "Sounds good. Should we have cake and presents?"
Aubrey: "YEEEAAAAHH!!!!!"









She had a bit of a pacifier (faser) addiction so on her birthday we decided it was time to get rid of those suckers (pun inteded). I tied one of them to some helium balloons and we sent them to the babies in heaven. She was really sad. But she is over it now. Every once in while she asks for them. I just remind her that she is such a big girl and she gave them to the babies in heaven so they can sleep good and she just says "Babies. Heaven. Sleep good."

She is just such a little sweetie. Love her.

2010 Share a Smile Triathlon

Today was the Share a Smile Triathlon. I sponsored a Lean Bodies Health and Fitness team and there were about 15 of us all in matching shirts. I was hoping for top three in my age group but I placed fourth. It's ok though because ... are you ready for this?

LEAN BODIES HEALTH AND FITNESS PLACED FIRST in the team division!!! WOOT, WOOT! I am still so shocked. Way to go to EVERYONE on the team!

Caleb also did the triathlon! He did so great and had such a fun time! I am so proud of him for doing something kind of scary and hard. He said he even wants to do it again next year. His time was 8:30 and he swan 25 yards, biked 2/3 mile and ran 1/3 mile. Brandon even said he sprinted to the finish line! WAY TO GO CALEB!!! I am sad I didn't get to see him because our race started right after the kids swim.


Here's my little recap so that I can check back next year to compare notes. Skip if you want, this may be boring.

Swim: Feeling good. At the beginning of the line because my swim time is on the faster end. My fastest time in training was 6:57 for 400m. I stood with the 7 min people. I passed one person and got passed by two which I am thinking is inevitable in a pool swim. But because of the passings my time was approx 8:10 min. I flip turned the whole swim so I was proud of that.

T1: I forgot to set my iphone up for the ipod to be all ready to go so I had to do that during the transition. Lame. I put on my helmet, garmin and ipod, put on socks and shoes and headed out. T1 time was about 2:30.




Bike: Bike felt great. My goal average speed was high 17's or 18mph. My average speed was 17.4mph which matches my fastest speed but I was hoping for faster. The bike was also 11 miles instead of the advertised 10 miles so my goal time was a few minutes too fast for an 11 mile ride. But I like that course. It includes a steep but short hill and some good slight downhills where I was going 23 mph easy. Bike time was 37:24 min for 10.87 miles. Fastest speed 29.2 mph.

T2: I rode in, changed my shoes, changed from a helmet to a hat and then ran off... in the WRONG DIRECTION!!! AH! I noticed it pretty quick though and turned around. T1 was about 1:10.


Run: When I started running, my calves immediately cramped up worse than they ever have in my life. They felt like tight tennis balls. It was aweful. I actually had to stop and stretch on the curb. I couldn't get my speed under a 10:30 min/mile for about the first mile. After that, I could speed up a bit to about a 9:30 pace and the last mile was in the 8's. I finished at a 6:27 pace. My average pace was 9:20 min/mile. This run was 3.35 miles, longer than the advertised 3.1. My time for 3.35 miles was 31:25. I was hoping for a 9 min average/mile and a time of 28 (if it was 3.1 miles).

Overall, my time was 1:20:50. My goal was 1:13 but that was based off the shorter distances. So when you account for that, I was pretty close. I came in fourth in my age group.

I have to tell you about a friend I met. When I was biking up the first hill I was right behind her and we were cheering each other on. I passed her after the hill but then she passed me again and we were together on the second hill cheering each other on again. Then I was right behind her in the run, so I caught up to her. We ran together for a bit. When we were on the last mile, she said "We need to finish together." I said, "Wanna hold hands as we finish?" And she said, "Yeah, let's do it." Our speed was pretty fast (for me) that last mile and I give her all the credit. I couldn't have done it without her. Around the Scera Shell, we grabbed hands and finished at the exact same time! Thanks Abby! You were awesome!

Anyway, I was a little disappointed with the fourth place finish. (Third just sounds so much better.) But the person who placed second and third beat me by like 6 minutes so it's ok. But finding out our team WON in the team division made me giddy with excitement!!! I still can't believe it. I have a small trophy I get to keep and I get a huge trophy to keep for a year and then I turn it in next year. I am so excited! GREAT JOB to everyone on the LBHF team! You guys were AWESOME!!!

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ETA: There were errors in the calculations and our team did NOT actually place first. I think we were third. No hard feelings though. :-)

Hey, I at least got a picture with the trophy, right?