These are the Shoes...

I had to take great lengths to find since Adidas has discontinued them. I don't know if anyone has ever mourned their shoes wearing out but I have now that these babies aren't replaceable. When I found them on the Internet I was tempted to buy about 10. Can you just see me at the gym 10 years from now with shoes I bought 10 years ago. Actually that wouldn't matter at Steiner, my gym, because anything at any age and size goes there.

Most importantly these are the shoes I will be running the Salt Lake City 1/2 marathon in in April. I just officially registered and now I'm stuck because I'm way to cheap to fork out 60 bucks and not do it. Due to my paranoia of ice, I started training early to get some of the longer runs in before the sidewalks get really slippery. I'm up to 8 miles. Wish me luck that I can keep running outside because I would rather kill myself than be on a treadmill more than 30 minutes. (Suzanne you amaze me that you train solely for these races on a treadmill)

Jane's 1!

Happy Birthday to my Janearoo. What a joy your are in our family. This morning as we were playing, while Bart and Emily slept, your smile and giggles over a simple toy overwhelmed me with happiness. Later when you waddled into the bedroom and woke up your dad I couldn't help but smile when you pulled at the sheets for him to pick you up just so you could give him a hug and morning loves. That's the kind of sweet person you are. Just like the time you got away from me at church and walked down the isle to a widower and motioned for him to hold you which he did for the remainder of sacrament meeting. Or the times you've made friends when we are standing in line at the post office or grocery store. You seem to know just what to do to make others feel happy.

Here's some pictures and a video for all those family members who were not able to make it to the party.

Santa Claus is coming to town

I just had to post these pictures that I just got in a Christmas Card from the friend who took these pictures at her Christmas Party.
Emily's face is one of pure bravery. (Notice she is clutching her candy cane) She had no desire to sit on Santa's lap but knew she needed to deliver her wish for a Tinkerbell Dress (or was it a Sleepy Beauty or Snow White Dress). Hope Santa gets it right tonight.

As always Jane's just happy to be part of the party.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Stockings are hung

I just finished, with the help of Pauline, Jane's stocking.



Now it is hung with the rest of the family's stockings.





When I first married Bart I noticed that we both had homemade felt stockings. His was made from his mom and mine from my Grandma Morrell. I thought it would be neat to make felt Stockings for our children. Thanks to my Grandma, I've been able to complete this wish, who honored me with some extra patterns that she had saved.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Did you know in December a couple of Santa's reindeer live only a couple of miles from our house. I didn't until my sister in law Mary blogged about it last year. For motivation to complete our scripture reading chart we told Emily if we fill in the chart we can go see Santa's reindeer. The last box was filled in Saturday so for Family Night we headed up to "This is the Place Heritage Park" I was expecting a few lights and reindeer but was pleasantly surprised. It was like walking back into time and experiencing an "Old Fashion Christmas" I liked it because it wasn't very commercialized and I could really feel a sweet Christmas feeling. Highlights included Father Christmas in Brigham Young's home, the Live Nativity, an angel puppet show, reindeer (of course) and square dancing with Emily (that was until Emily realized she was going to have to change partners and that was just too much for Emily to stomach dancing with a complete stranger.)

Itching to be like my mom

My mom was always big about her five girls looking really nice for special occasions. Most of the time it involved a lot of hairspray and rollers. For Emily's Preschool Winter Program I decided to carry on the legacy. Emily was so excited to have her hair in rollers and to get all dressed up for the program.
Well without further a due here's how it turned out
I really don't have much talent for doing hair. Sorry mom!

These are a few of my favorite things...

When Jane wants to be picked up she'll thank me for granting her wishes by patting me on the back while I hold her. I just love it!!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Emily had her Preschool Winter Program. Emily was so cute singing on the stage with her snowman she made in school. She sang a few songs such as "Five Happy Snowmen riding on a sled" and "Winter Wonderland" After the performance, Emily introduced me to her Best Friend Scarlette and her mom. As the girls laughed and ate punch and cookies. Scarlette's mom and I talked about setting up some play dates and how each morning our girls ask us if the other one will be at school.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

For our Ward party we had a night in Bethlehem. It was amazing how the church gymnasium was transformed into Bethlehem with wheat stalks and all. We paid our taxes to the Roman's (pennies given to us in a cloth sack), sat on blankets and ate yummy chicken pitas, fruit, hummus, and brownies. I'm sure they had brownies in Bethlehem. Everyone was dressed up in their biblical clothing and the Youth performed the nativity while Luke 2 was read. Jane loved walking around to everyone seated as her level. Emily loved having her cousin Bentley there to laugh with and chase around.

Run run as fast as you can.......

Project: Gingerbread House
Materials: Gingerbread Kit bought from Sam's Club
Participates: Bart, Collette, Emily & Jane
Job duties:Bart & Collette- assemble the house with the frosting
Emily- while placing candies carefully on Gingerbread house eat lots of the candy and some frosting right out of the bag.
Jane- eat the Gingerbread Man- I guess we now have an abandoned Gingerbread Shack.

It runs in the blood

Emily is a nervous wreck about the seams in her socks. It takes some serious time out of my day to put her socks on and pass her approval before the shoes can go on. I'm really missing flip flop season.
Pauline once witnessed the event and chuckling said "I remember Bart use to make us fix his socks multiple times at that age."
It was then that I made the connection with this genetic disorder that unfortunately doesn't get better.
I once went to great lengths one Christmas to buy Bart some socks, since he was wearing mine and creating holes in the heal and toes. It might seem like an easy task to buy socks but you see Bart wears a size 14 in Men's shoes. Shoes are hard enough to find in that size, thank you Nordstrom Rack, but socks are even harder. I found some extra large socks and thought I had solved my problem of holes in my socks. Well the new socks sat untouched and my socks continued to disintegrate. I confronted Bart about the issue. He admitted to not wearing the new socks because "the seams bunch up and bug him".
Sound familiar?

Shoot me a text

Jane may skip talking all together and go straight to communicating through texting.