Little Red Riding Hood Bike Ride 2010

This last weekend Saundra and Jenny and I went up to Logan to ride in the Little Red Riding Hood Bike Race. It was such an amazing experience! It was so fun to have a girls weekend, too! The course was awesome with super smooth roads and no huge hills. Although we did spend a few miles slowly going slightly uphill and then we got to speed down a huge hill afterwards as a reward! We did the 58 mile course (which ended up only being 54 miles! I was a little bit bugged about that...) and I averaged about 16.6 mph over the whole ride. I was happy with that. The first 24 miles just FLEW by! I was going 18-21 mph the entire time. There was no wind and the roads were so smooth! The wind started up during the second half and thats where the small hills were so the second half slowed me down a bit. It took me about 3 hours and 15 minutes and I felt GREAT after! I haven't been sore or anything! Next time I want to do the 80 or 100 miles, for sure!

We drove up to Logan on Friday afternoon and stayed at a hotel right on Utah State campus. I think it was old converted dorms, but it was just fine for our needs. We had a dinner at the race site and then went to get some "Aggie Ice Cream" with a token we got with our hotel room. :-)



This is us before we started on Saturday morning.

This is Saun and I at the lunch break. Oh my gosh, they had so much food at each stop. We pigged out! I'm talking chocolate, oreos with peanut butter on them, yummy peanut butter sandwiches (with lots more pb and j than I use at home!), licorice and other good stuff. And best of all, NO guilt was involved all weekend!

We (and our bums) are so happy to be done!

The Big Bad Wolf

Anorexic Little Red Riding Hood, she should have joined us at the rest stations to put some meat on those bones...

Good job girls! I had so much fun last weekend with you!

I have a 2nd grader?

I can't believe Caleb is done with first grade! Why does time fly by so fast? Here are some pictures from his end of the year program. I LOVED his teacher so much! Her name is Mrs Smith and she was so good and patient with the kids. If any of you have kids going to Reagan, request Mrs Smith for first grade! Love her!

Step by step through Caleb's treatments

I wanted to document step by step what Caleb goes through each month when we go get his treatments.

First we get up at the crack of dawn (6am) to leave to drive an hour up to Primary Childrens Hospital. I should really be thankful (and I am) that we are so close. Other families travel from out of state every time their kid needs a sclerotherapy treatment so we really do have it easy.

We get to the hospital and walk by the fountains. He really wanted a picture here.

We wait in the waiting room for a while and then they call us back to another waiting room. Here they check his vitals.

He also gets to watch a movie. We have waited in this room for three hours before. Luckily this time it was only about an hour.

This is how we sit as he gets his IV. He hangs his hands over my shoulders and closes his eyes. He doesn't even flinch when he gets his IV. He actually looks forward to it, the crazy kid.

Look how happy he is to have his IV in. That means he gets to choose from the prize basket which I forgot to get a picture of.

Now we wait some more. When it is his turn they give him some "loopy" medicine so he isn't scared of going into the treatment room. This medicine (Versed) makes him kind of out of it and tired but it isn't the sedation.

They wheel us both into the treatment room, me holding him. Here is where they put the sedation drug in his IV. Within 30 seconds he is out. They transfer him to the treatment table.

And hook him up to the machines.

Then I leave and go hang out for about 30-45 minutes while they do the sclerotherapy. They basically give him one big shot right in his lip. It is a scarring agent, actually one of the ingredients in chemotherapy. They hope is that it will attack all of his tissue and create some scar tissue thereby shrinking the size of his lip.

Here is after the treatment when he is waking up.


He is always sick for the rest of the day of his treatment due to the injection medication.

He usually barfs the whole way home. But then he wakes up the next day like nothing every happened!

This first picture is before we started treatments:

And this one is after two treatments before the third:


The difference is small but I can definately see it. Look at the height and fullness of his upper left lip. Three treatments down! I'm not really sure how many are left but hopefully we are all done by the end of the year!

Preschool Graduation

Last week was Brynley's preschool graduation. I cannot believe that she is as hold as she is. It is crazy to me. Doesn't she look so old and adorable?!


They sang a bunch of cute songs and then they got their diplomas. Mrs Suzan gave each kid an award. Brynley's was "Little Miss Creative Dresser" and then she went on to talk about all the different things Brynley would wear to school. It was so funny. I was talking to Mrs Suzan afterwards and I said, "That just means her mom is too lazy to make her wear normal clothes!" and she said, "No, I really think it says a lot about her personality and individuality." HA! Yes, Brynley is one of a kind. :-)

She is so excited to go to Kindergarten. She will be young like Caleb but she is already such a good reader and is very ready to start next year. She thinks she is starting very soon. Maybe next week. I don't think she understands that she has to wait until summer is over. She keeps saying, "I will be in Kindergarten after preschool" and I say, "After the summertime" and she says, "No, after preschool." You learn to just smile and nod with her.

We love you Brynley and are so excited for all the adventures you are going to have next year!

Hiking the Y

Last night we hiked the Y. Or we tried to, I should say. We put Aubrey in the hiking back pack and she freaked. Screamed, wiggled and tried to climb out. We tried to just keep going in hopes that she'd get over it, but she didn't. Around the first switch back we got her out thinking we'd just take turns holding her. But what 20 month old wants to be held when they're in a new place? Not ours. She wanted to walk. And that, as you can imagine, didn't go so well. She and I never made it past that first switch back. We looked at rocks and gave them hugs and kisses while we waited for Daddy, Caleb and Brynley to hike up and back. We walked around holding hands and she kept saying "big steps" and "air's bini (becab/daddy)" for "where's Brynley". It was pretty cute. Unfortunately, I had the camera so I don't have any pictures of the kids at the top. So we'll have to settle for these.



Cute sister moment for ya:

Random Pictures

Here are just a few pictures I've taken lately. Just us being ... us. :-)





These last ones are at Brynley's Mother's Day Program. It was so cute. They sang songs and we planted flowers and had a treat.




In basement news, it is pretty much finished! There are just a few little odds and ends to be done but that's it! Caleb is officially moved downstairs like a big boy! Pictures to come next week.

Life is crazy! Good crazy!

Sorry for the lack of postings! Things are totally crazy around here so I'll just fill you in really quick. Last week we decided to bite the bullet and finish the last two bedrooms in our basement, making it completely finished with the exception of a storage room. We got two bids, chose one, he started a last wednesday and he will be done on Friday! Things of been a whirlwind around here! The two rooms we are finishing were filled with storage so all of that stuff is in our family room downstairs. We are also adding a closet to the toy room so we had to empty that room so they can restretch the carpet. So, all of that stuff is also in our family room. We are also adding some shelving to Brynley's closet so we had to empty that mess into her room. Aubrey's room is pretty much the only clean room in the house so we go there for refuge from the mess. But it is a good exciting mess with lots of promise. We are excited. Pictures to come soon.

I am getting ready for Kelly's baby shower! Yay, so exciting! I've never planned a baby shower and I might never again until Brynley and Aubrey are having babies so it has been lots of fun!

I am training for the Little Red Riding Hood bike race on June 5. It is up in Logan and a bunch of girls are going up and staying the night and riding together. There is an 18 mile, 35 mile, 57 mile, 80 mile and 100 mile ride. We are doing the 57 mile. Saun and I are up to 33 miles in our training and it is going great!

My business is booming and I am loving it! I had no idea it would take off like this! I am so thankful I get to do what I love while still staying at home!

On top of this Brandon was out of town two weeks ago, this week and next. Can I be a single mom on top of all that other stuff? We shall see.