Here in small town, when you win a state championship you get to ride the fire truck. (Unless you ran track, no I'm not bitter. :) ) My little cousin is on the jr. softball team that recently won and is heading to Nationals today. Way to go small town girls!!!
My husband would call us bugs in this picture because of our glasses.
City kids! I had to keep telling my kids to go and get the candy. Of course I was a bad mom and didn't bring them a sack but they still need to go out and put up a good fight. :) No sore losers though, Payton came home with two pockets full of candy.
The parade is small here but like everything else, it's for the kiddos. It was strange to watch the girls dancing and think, that used to be us. Were we really that little. We thought we were so cool. I have to laugh now. We offered Abby $10 to go out and start dancing with the cheerleaders but she chickened out. :) That would've been a great post! It's all about the blogs these days, what can I say.

Laugh and Play

The great thing about holidays is that you get visit with all your friends and family. My kids had so much fun the last two days. Of course I've had to kick their butts a few times for throwing sand and spraying people with hoses, but overall it was a wonderful Pioneer Day.
Payton and Brandon tried to keep up with the 'big boys'. They actually made some pretty good shots and thanks to the uncles they were able to dunk like Jordan.
Abby is the BEST helper. She played with my kids for two days and Halle just LOVES her! She would wake up for a nap and I'd ask if she wanted to go play. She would get all excited and yell. "YEAH!"
We had most of the cousins over to do fireworks the night before. The kids loved it.
Uncle Les is just a big kid at heart. He and Jenna on the teeter-totter.

We did it!

The great and terrible race day has finally come and gone. JK. I am happy to report that I did finish the race and without the ambulance carrying me across the finish line. That's always good I say.
I only had a few goals for this race. 1. to finish. 2. not collapse. 3. try and stay with my cousins. 4. have fun.5. more running than walking. Not too much to ask for I don't think.
I'm not sure exactly how many others there were because there were walkers and runners. At least 2 buses full.
The gun sounded and off we went. At lot of people shot out quick and really took me by surprise. In fact the kid, yes KID, who won, literally sprinted out and had to have won buy a long way. I ran next to my cuz Lara who is a great runner, despite just having a baby a few months ago. I stayed with her the first two miles and then I had to slow down and walk a min. I hate walking but it gave me enough break to finish the race. They had everything categorized by age groups so not sure exactly what we took overall, but we each placed 3rd in our age groups. We all did better than we thought we would and my time was way under the hour I had expected, JK! :) I finished in 26 min which is crap compared to my PR but I don't care. I had a lot of fun and I only trained for a few weeks. Next year we decided to actually train and go for the 10k.
I'm pretty sore today but I love it because that means there is still some muscle in these old legs. And great job to all of you bloggers I saw at the race!

Twas the Eve before

So I went for a run this morning, after taking a week off to go play with my man. Oh...girl is still out of shape! The run is tomorrow morning so I'm not feeling too great about it. It will be fun to do it with my friends but I hate running when your lungs hurt and legs just won't go. Most likely I'll end up walking it.
I know a lot of moms are going to take their strollers and push their kids. Maybe I should take my double stroller and just one kid and then when I start to putter down, Shannon can just push me along in the stroller. I'll have to ask her about that. :)
I'm trying to get the kids to take a nap because the cousins are coming over today to play and we'll be staying up late for our annual sleepover. The kids are going to have so much fun. We've had sleepovers every Pioneer Day since I was a little kid. Course now we can't do anything fun like toilet paper the principal or we'll go to jail. Kids just can't do anything these days!
Oh, want to give a congrats to Kindy and Ashley for having their baby girls! Hope you're feeling good. Love ya both. And peace to Heidi, whose STILL pregers! :)

Another life lesson

When we were walking around we saw this. Now if you're gonna ask for money and make up a lie, at least be creative. Sad but funny.

Bye, Bye Baby

Well, normally I'm not having so much fun that I don't have time to blog, but this weekend proved otherwise. Andy and I never really got a honeymoon because we were in school when we got married and it was the only weekend I didn't have a track meet. So this weekend was basically the honeymoon we never had and it was a blast.
After the dinner cruise we went home and were able to sleep in!!! Now this is very important because we NEVER get to sleep in. It was soooo nice.
Andy was the best hubby this weekend. He's not really a city person but he took me to Manhattan to see a few things. We decided to go to an area we wouldn't really go with our kids so we went to SoHo, Chinatown and Little Italy. It's a completely different and crazy vibe down there but it was great. There are a million little shops and festivals going on. It's a little overwhelming about which place to choose just to eat.
Our first stop was Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village. A famous bakery basically because it's been on a lot of TV and movies. We waited in line about 20 minutes for a cupcake. It was a very good cupcake though.

I got this little Key Lime Cheesecake and it was DELICIOUS! I gotta try and do this at home. I'm a copycat so I always think I can. We'll see.
After our yummy treats we stopped by this shop claiming to be the best pizza in the nation, voted by Food Network. The thing about New Yorkers is that they are very hung up on thin crust pizza. I'm not a fan but this was truly probably the best thin crust I've had. Excellent.

We stopped at Washington Square Park which was under a major construction. We didn't take a lot of pictures because we hate looking like tourists. :) It's the one from 'August Rush', where the boy plays his guitar. (I think) They had an outdoor concert going on so we just relaxed and listened to the music. It was so nice, even though we noticed a bum behind us on the grass was sleeping and decided to just roll over and go to the bathroom. Some guy took a picture of him and shook his head and then the dude just went back to sleep. Crazy!

We headed down to Chinatown and then Little Italy. We basically bought a pair of sunglasses and 2 ties. What a waste, JK. We ate at some little place that was pretty good but more importantly, because Andy doesn't really like Chinese food and just an example of how good he was this weekend! There are so many interesting things that we just walked around, looked, and tasted all the strange but yummy things to eat. I just have to say again, my man is on his feet ALL day and hates to shop but he took me all over and didn't complain at all! You're the best babe!

We were pretty tired so we took a taxi back to Penn Station and rode the train home. We got home by 7 so we decided to go see the Dark Knight. I was a little hesitant because I'd heard mixed reviews but just have to say, I LOVED IT, LOVED IT!!
Sunday we went to church and they gave me a new calling, primary pianist. The missionaries have had to play for a while so this will be great.

We then headed to a friends for a BBQ. It was great to visit everyone I hadn't seen for most of the summer. We've also had some new, cool people move into the ward.

Monday morning I got back on a plane and headed back here to hot, dry, small town Utah. It was so great to see my kids. They were asleep in the car and when they woke up they smiled and then looked at me oddly. I got lots of hugs by time we reached the house though.

Payton said, "Mom, do you go see your friend Daddy?" He then said he's excited to go see dad because he is going to take him to a Yankees baseball game. He can't wait dad!

It was sad to leave my hubby again. We're heading back in 2 weeks though so we're going to make the most of our time here. This week should be fun for the kids with all the Pioneer Day festives going on. The kids are so excited to play with all their cousins!!!

I can see a lot of you went on fun trips too so I can't wait to hear all about em.

It was such a great view outside that we would hurry and eat a few bites and then run back to the deck to just stare.


We were probably the only people on the boat who weren't drunk. Well, there was one pregnant lady I think so maybe there were 3 of us. It's always so interesting to watch grown ups act like idiots and dance crazy to old 80's music. One guy was literally talking to some imaginary friend and kept telling him no! We had a good laugh about that. The sad thing was he looked pretty serious. Then some big guy brought out a blow up doll. Don't have a clue what they ended up doing with that. It was so fun though and it was amazing to see the Statue of Liberty at night. We decided we definitly have to take our parents on this someday.

NY Date Night

Some good friends of ours recently went on a dinner cruise and had so much fun that Andy surprised me with trip of our own. We actually boarded at the marina just a few blocks away from our apt. The Queens Ferry I believe. It's in the picture behind me.
The bottom deck was mainly for dining and the upper deck had a DJ and lights of all sorts for dancing. It was a 4 hour ride total from the dock to the Statue of Liberty and back. It trudged all down New York City and my pathetic pictures surely can't do it justice. It was an amazing site. If you ever come to NY it's definitly a must do.
Ain't my man so sweet! Our kids check the blog so there are lots of gushy pictures of the two of us. AHH!

See all these boats behine me. They are all out anchored in the water about 100 + yards from the marina or shore. How do people get to their boats to take them out? Do they have a boat to get to their boat? How funny.

Oops! Oh well, Happy Birthday!

Ok, so I missed yesterdays PB praise. I actually hopped on a plane and came to visit my hubby for a few days in NY. But technically mom, I made two the other day! (One just turned out gross ) ha.
So the flight was nice and I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Normally I'm constantly worrying about making sure the kids are fed, not screaming or whatever. I did crossword puzzles, my favorite, and even got a nap. It was soooo great.
I took Andy to work today, in Jackson Heights. Wow, is that a change from small town Utah. Luckily I have my GPS and it was a breeze.
So, today is moms birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! As a present I left her my kids for the whole weekend. Aren't I the best daughter ever! I swear she loves it. Na, I'll make it up to her but I'm sure their having a good time. We are going to celebrate for her tonight and actually go on a date. Been a long time since we've had one of those without the kiddos. When I get back we'll make lots of fun for mom cause she'll be on vacation. Yahoo! I owe you mom, thanks!!!
I want to give a shout out and tell you just a few great things about my mom.
.......She is awesome. She has followed me around since I was a little kid, supporting me in all the things I did. She'd get up and take me to track practice and hour away at 6am. She went to every single meet or game I had, including several in college.
She hates to fly and comes out here all the time just to visit and help me with the kids. She is alot of fun and even in high school my friends and I loved her hanging out with us. She drove us around to all sorts of fun places. And what mom isn't cool who can rollerskate with her kids???
She is completely unselfish and would help anyone. She even wants to win the lottery so she can give (most)of the money away. :) Course, she hasn't ever bought a ticket....
She has helped us more than we can say and gets embarrassed when we gush about her so I'll just say thanks mom. WE LOVE YOU!! Have a GREAT Birthday!

Dogfood or PB

Today I tried to be a good mom and let the kids do and art project. It's rare I can get them to do anything like coloring or painting so when they say yes, I jump on it. We had fun for a whole 10 minutes and made cute pictures from Nana's birthday this week.
I guess it's bound to happen. If you find a kid who hasn't eaten dog food it's like finding a pickle without a bump on it. I thought I'd passed that stage with Payton but nope, now at 4 yrs old he decides to try it. He kept eating it like it was candy and kept sneaking out to do it. Of course the other follows but she thought it was more fun to just play in it and feed it to Boo.
As always Payton loves his picture taken. He was happy to play in the water today. He's strong enough to turn on the water by himself and if I don't wake up right when he does, he goes outside first thing and turns on the sprinkler.
When I decided to do this PB week for my mom, I didn't realize how hard it would be to do things other than treats. Well, that I wasn't too lazy to slave over the stove anyway.
So........I found a recipe that looked good. PB-Banana Muffins. Never had it before but I like trying new things. It made up quick and smelled really good out of the oven. I took a bite and YUCK!!! They were totally bland and blah! No way would I share that. So I made my hubbys FAVORITE treat-Peanut Butter Pie. We do this for birthdays because he's not a cake fan. It is rich and YUMMY!
I did try something new this time which was ok for small portions.
Normally I do the whole thing in a pie pan but I don't want to end up eating the whole pan myself. I decided to put in individual cupcake pans which turned out kindof cute. I like to experiment so I made one crust of oreos and the other my original crust of Nutterbutter cookies. For a pie, put most of the package in a food processor and it chops quick. Add about 1/4 c melted butter and a pinch of sugar and mix. Press into pan and freeze a few minutes to set.
Next, Pile in your favorite ice-cream, freeze again and then layer with melted PB and chocolate. Have everything melted before removing from freezer and put back in immediately to keep ice-cream from melting. Keep frozen until served. Left over crumbs can be added on top. I've never done the oreo before and it's good but the Nutterbutter is close to Perfect!

PB #2

So this probably isn't the most exciting thing for Peanut Butter week but it is yummy. (Hey, they charge $10 for 4 of these at a restaurant!) Of course it's not my 'creation' but it's one of those things I've seen a lot and never tried. Well, with the PB anyway. I love peanut butter but can't get carried away here and eat a ton so I chose this because it's fruit so it's healthy right? :)
Super easy and the sweet/salty mix is delicious. Costco actually has really good strawberries that are nice and big but any work. I actually did some with milk chocolate and some with semi-sweet chocolate. Still can't decide which I love better. It's not a lot of chocolate so just melt it in the microwave on med heat, 20 seconds, several times. Dip and lay on wax paper. Wait before adding the melted PB. Don't recommend chunky unless you don't care what it looks like. Peanut butter melts quick and a spoon works great to drizzle. (You don't need a fancy dipper.)
Since dark chocolate is 'healthier', I may try it another time. Don't know if it will taste as good. In fact, I really think that it would be good to melt certain varieties of candy bars to dip in. Symphony, Milky Way, Snickers, etc. Anyone who tries, let me know.

Sand, Spice and Everything Nice

So today the kids and I just played all morning. No cleaning! They decided the sandbox was our destination. I think we'll have to fill it up again soon because most sand ends up outside the sandbox. Either by them tossing it, or covering themselves and then removing it, outside the sandbox. This doesn't do it justice but this is what Halle looked like after playing in the sand. I was trying to keep her from getting it everywhere that I didn't get a picture of Payton, but something tells me there will be more pictures like this. He had so much in his hair that he looked blonde, well, maybe a little gray haired.
I gave them each a bath because we were heading to St. George. Paytons hair wasn't even dry but I let him go outside to watch Jason mow the lawn. Five minutes later I went to get him to leave and he was COVERED in sand!!! It was time to go so we just gave him a shake. We both laughed and decided he was 'crazy.'

My cousin was kind enough to watch the kids while I went to some appointments. They had a lot of fun swimming at her house. Their dog loves to get splashed. And of course my kids love to splash others so it was a perfect fit.
Halle was nervous at first but wouldn't leave Karen alone after she decided it was fun.

Peanut Butter Kick-off

Generally we always make some sort of dessert on Sunday. Since my moms birthday is this week we are doing a peanut butter week. If you haven't guessed, PB is her favorite thing. All week I'll be putting up yummy PB recipies, and not just desserts. If you have any favorites, fill free to share.
So today we chose to make Chocolate Chip Cookies with PB chips. This isn't my absolute fav recipe but all mine are at my house so this is what we found here. I have to say, it is very, very yummy though and I'd say it's in my top 5 fav choc chip recipies. (yes, I've tried a lot, I love to cook)
So when we make our yummy treats we always take one to Grandpa and Grandma great. They live next door and the kids love to go visit as often as possible. My grandpa will be 99 is September. He is The Man and is the best lookin old guy in the world, besides Sean Connery of course. But he gives him a dang good run for his money. Sean just has that accent ya know.
So this recipie isn't mine, it's the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip original
2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips > or more :)
1 cup pb chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Combine flour, soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, sugars and vanilaa in mixer until creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Sitf in flour mix gradually. Add chips and nuts. Drip by spoon full onto ungreased sheet. bake in preheated 375 for 9-10 minutes. Let cool on pan a minute before removing to wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen.
This recipe is best if done with kids and you make the most mess possible. And don't forget your camera!

Running update

So, obviously I'm still alive after my first running post....barely. It's still not going as well as I had hoped. I am not a morning person so I go at night and with everything going on, it's hard to go everyday. I finally ran 3 miles the other night! yahoo. Well, if I'm being honest, I ran 2 x 1 miles at the track and then ran the last mile home. But it totals 3! The first two weren't that great but my run home felt really good. Gave me a little confidence boost to keep going. Course I played last night and didn't run so we'll see how tonight goes.

I had to laugh though because one of my cousins called me while at the track. I told him I was running and he said, "Oh, you're doing speed work?"

HA!!!! For those of you who don't know, I used to be a sprinter. I am now 'retired' from that but it cracked me up. You still do speedwork for distance running but girl is still too out a shape for that. He is training for the race too and is in excellent shape. The fact that he is getting married in a few weeks may help too but either way we had a good laugh.

So I'm now down to 13 days before race. We have a group of us who are going to do it together so that will help. I'm not concerned about trying to win, I'm more scared that the inner eye of the tiger will come out and think I can run faster than I actually can. Resulting in me crashing like some deer on the side of the road and the ambulance picking me up. That would be slightly embarrassing. :)

Oh well, I love a challenge!

"Cause I'm gonna play on Monday!"

Payton has now decided he loves to play basketball. He likes it so much that he will even share and take turns so he can play! That's love I tell ya. He said, "Mom, I'm done mowing the lawn now, so I can play basketball." He's really into mowing the lawn too. He kept going back and forth from each. He was shooting hoops and then said, "Cause I'm gonna play on Monday!" I didn't know what he was talking about. Sometimes I play volleyball on Mondays but either way, he has an important game and he's getting prepared. I was surprised that he can make about every third shot. Video is for you dad. :) I love his stance at the end.
I later asked him who was going to play at his game.
"Ellen"
"Honey, she is in Texas"
"Oh!"
"Do you have any cousins here you can play with?"
"Yep, I will play with Shelby. Cause we're gonna play on MONDAY!!!"

Happy Birthday Emma

Sunday we had a July birthday party for my mom, aunt Mary, Marie, Nick, and mostly Emma. (Nathan and Starley's daughter.) She had the big number 1. She was so cute I had to put a few pics up.
Payton got to blow out the cake for her. He really enjoyed that.
This is the cleanest 1st Birthday picture I have ever seen. My kids are generally cover from their hair to their toes.

Weekend pictures

The other 2 videos looked to be too dark so I just added a few other pictures. Sorry babe. I love the look on Halle's face. She actually does this face quite a bit.
"I did it ALL BY MYSELF!"
Just can't leave Boo alone.
For all you city friends who still don't have a license, my 1yr old can drive!! There are some perks to being country. She even knew to put in in reverse. If I'm being honest though, she can't go far. But we still have a while to learn yet. Gotta be John Deere Green!
This is kind of random but I thought it was funny. The other day he was acting up and I made him take a nap. He refused and refused and eventually just fell alseep in a corner. He slept here for over 2 hours and didn't move!

Look at me dad!

My hubby wanted me to put some videos up from our weekend since he wasn't able to be with us. He may find them more interesting than you but too bad, it's our blog. :)

Since the kids would rather ride bikes on the concrete, we didn't put up the big pool. (We can swim next door for that.) They love the kiddie pool because they can jump in and out of it as much as they want. We wanted to make it more fun so we put it under the swing set slide. It took a while for Halle to decide if she liked it but Payton had a blast.

I feel a little bad for them because I have to refill it every other day and the water is freezing but they don't care. They just shiver and smile.

4th of July

We had a pretty good 4th of July celebration here in small town, Utah. We mostly spent the day home and outside playing in the water.
We went to the races for a little while. For those of you who don't know, this is where everyone gathers for fun, games and races at the local church. It's more of a big deal for Pioneer day but it was still enjoyable. Halle missed the 1 yr olds so she ran with the 2 yr olds and still did great. She loved it and probably could have won.


Guess we'll see what happens on the 24th. Either way she was so cute.
Payton for some reason didn't want to run. He cheered everyone else on though. He said he'd do it 'next time'.
He has met some new cousins and is really enjoying it. He and Cordon, who he keeps calling Cody, had a fun time swimming. They finally understood that they could get warm by laying on the concrete.




My cousin and his family came over for a BBQ. We had a good time. Lots of crazyness with 3 boys and Halle running around but it was all worth it. We even let the kids stay up late to do fireworks.
This was Halle and Paytons first time to see fireworks and it was fun to see their faces and how excited they got. Payton covered his ears a few times but happily they didn't get scared.



I love the looks on their faces. They would clap after every one. They kept saying good job to us. We were obviously doing a fabulous job lighting them.
The kids did snaps afterwards and even Halle managed to throw a few. It was a great night.

It's weird not having Andy here but apparently he and our friend Mike had a very exciting day.
We'll see if he writes about it or not.
Anyhoo, hope ya'll had a great Independence Day.

For Men Only

Many of y'all women blogger folk (who see this page at 2am for some reason) want to visit NY for the shows, the buildings, the zoos, the statue of liberty, the subway, the celebrities, lights, whatever. For a lot of us men, NY is not on our bucket list, or on any one of our lists. Maybe on a list of places never to go---unless we need a good doctor or something.... Why? Lots of people, lot of hustle, lots of noise, cramped spaces, left wing tree huggers, vegetarians, 63 different languages, living costs, heavy traffic, no country stations, etc...
I work in inner city Queens at a Primary Care hispanic serving clinic, and at the end of the day all I want is open spaces and some good music for this dad gum traffic......so I thought...I found heaven the other day--and like is usual for me, not where most guys would think.
We live just a block from Long Island Sound, 18 miles from Manhatten. Guess what? I finally booked that Striped Bass to die for trip. Long Island holds all the records for Striped Bass and fish commonly hit 40 lbs and up, making it like fishing for small children. I had been trying to find a decent time to go for a year, but school was always in the way. I finally quit making excuses.
I got to the marina at 5:30pm, Joby showed me how the boat worked, and we proceeded out amongst the floating sailboats (hundreds of them) to catch some bunker for bait. Joby tosses a twelve foot net with precision using the new hi-tech soanr at 10 foot depths. We ended up with about 10 bunker about 10-12 inches long. When your bait pushes almost a foot long, your imagination begins to wander, kind of scarry...We headed over to some rocks across from the harbour at hempstead point, I missed a huge one on a top water that had me sweating with palpitations and shortness of breath.
We then headed over to Sand's Point about 200 ft offshore where we anchored. Joby pulled out the bait, hooked it behind the back dorsal fin, and let it swim off with the 60 pound line. It is spooky because your bait fights hard enough for satisfaction, and as the bait surfaces about 50 yards out it starts splashing, and that's when it all begins. When the first fish took drag out like it wasn't set, my eyes were dilating, palms sweating, I started to whoop and hollar. I set the hook as hard as I could, and he set me right back, just taking drag. I reeled him in a foot or two, he took more drag, then me, then him. After 10 minutes and about 200 calories later, the sun having set, the fish surfaced near the end of the boat, and after fishing my whole life in TX for these monsters, I finally saw one close up. Joby did the netting, and there he was. He mumbled, "A good one. About average, but not bad for your first."
Normally us men when we take fishing pictures, we try to hold the fish out to make it look bigger. Uh, not needed for these, plus you get tired just holdin' the cotton pickin' things. We used about 4 inch cut pieces of bait and caught another 18 pounder and a smaller 14 pounder. They call 14 pounders small. Twenty eight inches is the keeper size. We kept the first one and the filets ended up being 5 lbs and 18 inches long, good for several night's gourmet eating.
It was now dark, around 9:30pm and the lights of the capital of the world lighting up the horizon background, the brooklyn bridge beaming off in the distance. I was glad I was as far from it as I was, but that it was still out there somewhere. It was a great trip and it is amazing how just holding one of those big stripers changes everything for some reason. So for you fishermen who have no good reason to visit NY, this is definitely one you need to put on your bucket list. Leave your wife in manhatten and come fish the capitol of the world!