Bike Cruisin

One of Mackayla's grandma Sylvia presents was a purple dog bike so she could cruise around with the kids.

 She loves it

 Since sharing is still a foreign concept, if Cody and Macey try to sit on it they get yelled at!

 Last night we went to the church to ride bikes. Mackayla and I took the wiggle rider.

 She loves that too!

 We got Ben a bike for $10 at a garage sale. Now he fits in with the rest of the state of Oregon! He and Cody are "Travelling Red Bike Twins."

 They showed us all their moves

"Sometimes when you make a cool face you look cooler."

 We're in the church parking lot. From where I'm sitting, we live behind those trees

 and this is the church. So close! We hop on the bike trail to get here. 

I thought that only happened in Utah!

God's Work

I spoke on Sunday. Ben was called in to work at midnight on Saturday night and hadn't gotten home as we headed to church. We found some families that the kids were comfortable with that they could sit by while I spoke. Five minutes before I went up Ben tapped me on the shoulder. So relieved, I almost cried, mostly because I knew whoever took Mackayla would have a feisty crying baby the whole time in the hallway. she mostly just likes me:) One thing I mentioned while I was speaking was in Alma 44. Moroni attributes their success in battles to their faith and the Sacred Support of their wives and children. I kind of glanced up at Ben because I wondered if he would not like me talking about him in public (I really didn't say anything about him directly:)) and got all choked up because I thought "he just worked all night and instead of going home to sleep he came to church to support me." Then I wondered if people thought I was crying because I was a crappy wife:). ha ha!

Top favorite quote from my talk:
Jeffery R. Holland on raising small children: "Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. You are doing God's work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing and He will bless you, even-no, especially-when your days and your nights may be the most challenging. ...There is nothing more important in this world than participating so directly in the work and glory of God, in bring to pass the mortality and earthly life of His daughters and sons."

I quoted that after reading this Mischief post. It wasn't quite as funny when I wrote it as it is now.
Just for good measure, here's another good memory. After not dealing with that for a year, I'm a little leary of Mackayla getting older!

Now we're currently in the 'age of drama' with Macey. One week I decided I would lovingly address every single one of her crying outbursts. After being mentally and physically exhausted I realized what I already knew; she doesn't cry because she's hurt, it's just how she expresses frustration. With a sound that makes people think she is going to die.  She has a slightly different hurt cry I can distinguish instantly. I'm still not sure how to handle it. Eh. Here's another good Jeffery R. Holland quote!

"Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been as you try to make an honest effort, however feeble you may sometimes feel that to be."

I'm Cool Like That. Plus lava tubes!

I was really hungry on my jog today, so I ate potato chips while I ran. Veggie straws to be exact. I'm sure there was some juice of one piece of broccoli in the fried crunchy goodness. I'm cool like that.

Still. Running! It turns out running without a stroller is super easy. I did a 5 mile run Saturday morning. AND...it's so easy to wake up early when you sleep through the night. That's right, breaking news - Mackayla is sleeping. A few weeks of preparation staying in her room while she went to sleep and then one night of 1/2 hour of crying and she's a good sleeper! cross my fingers.

We are going to the track this week for my jogs. The kids play on the bleachers (without holes so Macey doesn't fall through). I run with Mackayla. We made a bathroom break to the men's (oops) bathroom.
I would say our biggest success today was that no one touched the toilet.

It works out well that swimming lessons are in the same parking lot as the track!
[Imagine a cute picture of the kids in their swimming suits by a pool] I can't manage to get all the kids there in their suits plus me in mine and be on time with the addition of a picture.

Macey has LOOOOVED swimming lessons. Ben kept asking me when I was going to sign the kids up and I skirted the issue and then finally decided to do it with Macey doing private lessons just once. She just basks in the attention of her patient teacher. It was a good decision especially since I am in the pool with Mackayla and can't be by the side of the pool for the multitude of inevitable break downs she could have had. Win-win!


We took a break from our every day lessons on Monday to go visit cousins! Steph and Ryan are moving back from their Boeing internship in Washington and were making some stops somewhat close to us. Only they would camp until 1 am the night before they move and then pack up and camp the whole way home. Only them.

Luckily, we benefited from their insanity. We made the drive to Mt. St. Helens to see them and some lava tubes.

 The first one we saw is Ape Cave. Here's the descent into the cave:

 The freezing cold, black hike into the huge cave goes back 3/4 mile. Macey and Mackayla cried for, eh, 1.3 miles of it. So, not a total success, but Cody loved it! He even got to wear a head lamp.
Then we stopped at lava holes or tree holes or something. Pretty cool.

 Looking down

 Crawling through

 Informative

 Cousins! Cody couldn't go to sleep the night before they saw each other because he was so excited:)

 Mt St. Helens. It's last eruption was 1980 but the lava tubes were formed long before that.

All in all a 6 hr drive. It made for a long day, but worth the experience.

The Body Project

Getting my degree in fitness and wellness, akin to exercise science, is both a blessing and a curse. It means that when I'm not in shape I feel it and know it, in exact terms. BUT, on the blessing side, I know how to get back in shape. At least in theory!

As we were moving here we were so excited that Ben would have to work less daunting hours! I had planned to run a marathon, and among other things. Then, once he had worked a bit, reality set in. I was sad for him and, selfishly, for myself too because now I couldn't go running, or anything else, as easily. So as I sat one night reading a book by Dallin H. Oaks I read something so simple it was funny I hadn't already figured it out. Never depend on someone else to achieve your goals. Ta da. 

I can train for a race all by myself. 

This week I went running four times with my kids. Having that under my belt I felt a little empowered and last night I signed up for a half marathon! Not a marathon, but one baby step at a time. Someday, I WILL run a marathon again. Maybe next spring when my baby is older and I'm not nursing!? (I'm almost done!!!!!!! strangely sad.) It turns out it was perfect timing because Ben went to work Thursday morning at 7 and he hasn't been home yet. It is now 6 o'clock p.m. on Friday. Insanity. I heard today that in medical residencies they have a cap for hours they can work. They do not have that in the vet world.

I feel bad I never truly used my training for anyone else, aside from working at BYU. But I am starting from scratch and it's kind of enlightening. Last year, we moved, I had immobilizing pregnancy pains and I lived in Oklahoma. (If you didn't know, nothing is close by in Oklahoma - not the gym, not a sidewalk for a host of children, and not a storm shelter in a tornado:)) Even if we had a sidewalk I'm not sure I would have used it. A good friend invited us to trick or treat in her neighborhood at Halloween and jokingly said she wouldn't want us to parade around to all the child molesters in our neighborhood:)! Definitely not excuses to not exercise but I took a year and a half off completely of exercise and felt like it was a good decision.  I have ALWAYS felt like exercise should not be stressful. 

Okay, back to my point, where I've never trained anyone I don't really know how hard to push anyone else. But as I was running today I figured the way I get better and faster personally is I mentally prepare for that moment when my body -not my head- tells me I'm done. Then, (okay on a good day) I slightly accelerate and run at that pace for as long as I predetermine, like another 1/4 or 1/2 mile at this point. Simple enough. Having said that I've been slowly working to a point that I feel comfortable doing that. I did about three weeks of "no pressure" exercise to build a fitness base, where I run or walk when I feel like it while I'm working out. Actually that's pretty natural when I'm running with kids, they always need something!

My race is in 10 weeks!

 The best benefit to exercise is the way I feel. I'm looking forward to feeling good!

One Year Ago Today

Mackayla was born.

Where did the time go?

 We had a party with her two best friends

 She stands for a few seconds by herself

 She got two dogs for her birthday

 and some fun things from her grandmas.

 And of course a dog cake and butterfinger dog biscuits

 She didn't go after her cake but carefully pulled pieces apart

 and gnawed on her dog biscuit:)

 She gradually got more animated as she ate

 and pulled cake apart

 and ate it

 and flung it on the floor

 stinker:)

 She also loves to feed me. No thanks

I don't recommend using buttercream frosting. Martha Stewart led me astray with the dog cake demo. It has TEN sticks of butter. go vomit. And how do you clean that up?

 With lots and lots of soap and water.

 After that we went with daddy to work

 to check on a patient.

 More about that later:)

We love Mackayla. She is very sweet and easy going, and feisty and wants her way. She's patient and demanding. A terrible sleeper but will sleep anywhere. Doesn't like to cuddle, but very loving.

She plays contentedly.
She loves animals.

She loves her mom.

She loves her family.

She loves to swim.
She loves to brush her teeth.

She loves blueberries.

She loves Cody and Macey and their toys.

She wants to be as big as them, 

and will be before I blink my eyes.
You're getting so big baby 'KayLa!

When the Storms Come

We read the Wolf and the Three Pigs the other night. The one where the wolf blows down the houses. Then another day it was cloudy outside. My children think, since they lived in Oklahoma, with me, that if there are clouds there is going to be a catastrophically large storm that may or may not be a tornado. So Macey ran in and very emphatically told me:

"There are clouds on both sides of the sky! and they are coming together! we have to get out of our house! because it's made of wood! not bricks! and it will be blown down!"

We are lucky there was no storm.

Beach Getaway

The exterior of our house was getting painted last week by our landlord (they are awesome). So we (we, as in the kids and I) went to the beach to get out of the way.

We tried a new beach.

 It had some pretty rocky areas

 That they loved to float "boats" in

 Mackayla loves sand

 Cliffs surround all the beaches

 Treasures to collect are everywhere

 This house looks precarious to me

 Cody practiced his harpooning with a shovel

 I figured Mackayla was a little cool and dressed her. Mostly.

 The collected treasures were used to create

 Castles

And homes for Crabs (one is sitting on the log)

 

Sometimes treasures are hidden

 Inside

 This is how I know we played hard. A peaceful drive home. 

We came home to a new house!! I love it!

 So do they

I hope we can fit in all our adventures this summer before the rain starts. I hear it never stops!