Welcome Hailey Susann

I thought I would finally post a few (more like a lot) of pictures of Hailey and announce to the blogging community that she is here. She was born on November 3rd at 7:53 pm. She weighed in at 6lbs even and 19 inches long. She is two months old today and I can not believe it. The time has just went so fast. I always have elderly couples stop me when I am running around places (usually Sam's Club) about to kill a kid or two and they tell me "Oh enjoy this time, it just goes so fast..... and then they go into a long story of how they remember when their kids were young and running around, and by the time they are done telling me their stories, my kids are no where to be seen and then I get a page over the intercom to come and retrieve a lost child at the service desk. Or the other one I always get is "Oh boy I sure wish I had their energy." And I think to myself, oh yeah, I'll give you their energy when I ring it out of them. Now I love all of my children dearly, and yes I know how I got them all, but there are some days that I wonder if I will make it to my next birthday or they will make it to theirs. But that sure was a long tangent when I was trying to talk about cute baby Hailey. So with all of that, here she is..... She is a wonderful baby. She is very mellow and loves to sleep. She sleeps very well at night, it's about time I got a baby who sleeps. She usually only wakes up once to eat. She know that for us all to survive, mommy has to get some sleep. I am trying to enjoy this newborn stage knowing that this is the last time, but man with five kids, there isn't much time to enjoy. So I guess I need to take all the elderly couples advice and enjoy this time because it goes so fast.

I couldn't believe all of her hair when she was born. All of the boys had platinum blonde hair and not a lot, but she has a ton of brown hair, and I love it. So she may look exactly like the rest of them, which is exactly like Mark, but now she has his hair too. I was hoping for a little of me in my girl, but to no avail, not gonna happen.

Enjoying our new princess

I thought this was a really cute one of Jonathan. Although Hailey looks like a pirate, she sure is a cute pirate. Jonathan loves to hold Hailey all of the time, no matter what I am doing with her. But then he only holds her for three seconds and then he says, "I'm done"

My sister Laura gave the boys these shirts for Christmas.

They are pretty funny, they aren't ready to sell her yet. They adore her.

Here is Blake giving Hailey a ride in her new doll stroller. Who will get more use out of the stroller I do not know. I finally had to take her out because she was starting to bend the wheel on the stroller. I guess 8 or so pounds is to much for that thing.

Ryan opening gifts.

Blake loves to be with Hailey.

She is so good to tolerate all the "Love"

Blake is showing us his burn that he got when he fell on the stove the first of December. YIKES!

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

I was sitting at the kitchen table last night and Miles was downstairs watching tv. Jonathan went downstairs and said "Are you watching Tinkerbell?" I proceeded to yell downstairs that it was fine, he could watch it. There was nothing wrong with Tinkerbell. Then a few minutes later Ryan finished dinner and went down the stairs, while he is walking down, Jonathan says, "Ryan, Miles is watching Tinkerbell." Ryan's response was "That is ok Jonathan for boys to watch Tinkerbell. Some boys are fairies. " Meaning that the tinkerbell show had some fairies that were male. It just made me laugh. Maybe we need to watch some more girlie shows at our house.
Then this morning getting ready for school, Jonathan and Blake were struggling over a book. And Jonathan says "Hey look we are playing," and Ryan says "No thats called fighting." Then Blake scratches Jonathan on the face and J says, "No, now that is fighting." I just have to laugh at the crazy things they do and say everyday. Love it! There is really never a dull moment around here.

Enough is Enough!

Alright I think I have tortured everyone long enough with my white legs and my "way to short hair" So I am finally writing a post (for the second time, I might add) I had a really funny post and blogger did something to it, so this is the second time posting it and now I'm tired. So for my two fans I will post something new but all my funny comments and antics have gone by the wayside. But they should be back soon. Here are some recent pictures of the cute little guys.

I AM A MARATHONER!

Well I did it! But for starters, I have the most awesome husband in the world (sorry ladies) He is absolutely amazing and I never could have accomplished this life long goal without him. The last 18 weeks have been a lot of work and he has done so much. Always watching the boys, running ice baths, making me eggs and being so supportive. I love ya babe! Second, My Mom and Dad are the best parents ever! (sorry everyone) They have been so interested and excited from the very beginning. My mom told me that she would be supportive of anyone who even thought about running 26 miles. They helped me so much and financially made it possible for me to do this. Thanks Mom and Dad!!! Thanks to everyone who came to the race and fought traffic and people to help support me, it really means the world to me.

Now the big day. I woke up at 3:30 even though the alarm did not go off until 4:30. I nursed Blakers one last time and said a huge prayer that he would be okay. I got up, put on sunscreen and aquaphor (to prevent chaffing) and got dressed. I wanted to run in shorts and a tank top, but the race started at the top of a canyon and so I dressed in my outfit and then put pants and a sweatshirt over the top, so I wouldn't freeze in the canyon. I then put on my number and my chip timer that went around my ankle. My dad got up at 5:00 to help me and make me breakfast. It was so awesome. I got choked up saying bye to him and then I went out to get into the car and my neighbor had made me a good luck sign and balloons. another tear jerker. After I had made sure I ate and had everything ready to go, MD drove me down to the park, where I had to load a school bus to go to the starting line. I got to the park at 5:30 and waited for a half hour to load the bus. It was so fun to watch everyone and see all sorts of people. This is where it would of been so nice to have someone with me, to be able to talk and enjoy it all with. When we got to Hardware ranch (40 mins later) Everyone was standing in line for the porta poddies. There were at least 30 of them and a ton of people. While in line, the buses were leaving and they were taking all the clothes, so I had to get into my shorts and long tshirt and it was freezing!! Low 30s. Then the gun went off while I was still in the bathroom line, I started to panic and someone said it was the wheelchair gun. So I hurried and went to the bathroom and I was coming down the hill, and the starting gun went off. It was so neat to be up above and see the whole sea of people start to move. So I ran down and stood to the side of the start line and fixed my ipod, turned on my watch, took a deep breath, and jumped in and ran across the starting line. (the race is timed on the chip timers and so my time didn't start until I ran across the line, even though it was about two minute after the gun went off.) It was still dark out and the sun was just coming up behind us and it was so amazing. I loved running in the crowd of people and listening to everyone and just the excitement I had was so overwhelming. The hard part is to not start out to fast because I didn't want to die at the end, but I just started picking people out who were about my same pace and watching for them. The first aid station was at mile 3 and it came so fast I couldn't believe it. I finally ditched my gloves and longsleeve shirt at mile 7 and that was like taking off a sweaty five pound weight. We ran in the canyon for the first 14 miles and no spectators were allowed in the canyon, so it was just runners. The canyon was so beautiful, it was just changing for fall and all of the beautiful colors were starting to show on the trees. It was very serene and nice. Then the wind started to pick up at our backs towards the mouth of the canyon and push me and that was a nice boost. When I reached mile 13, I was there at 2hours 10 minutes and I couldn't believe it. I was like ok I am already halfway, let's do this. I still had tons of energy and I felt awesome! When I came out of the canyon the whole street was lined with people yelling, and cheering and it was so great. It really was so nice to have people cheering. I was coming up on mile 17 and I saw a kid who looked like Miles, then I thought it wasn't Miles and then that it was(he was carrying a huge stick so I knew it was him) and then I saw ryan trailing along and then Mark, Jonathan and my dad. I was able to say hi and good to see you as I ran by. It was so great to see them and it gave me a great boost. I still felt really good and I was really happy with how it was going. I couldn't believe how fast it was going by, they had mile markers and it really just broke up the race by helping me tell myself to make it to 18 and 19 and so on. I saw the boys, my dad, and mark a little after Mile 20, and this is when I was entering uncharterted territory. I had only trained up to 20 and that was a hard run, but at a little after 20 I still felt pretty good. I only had 6 to go and I was going to make it. I ran passed my friend tessa, who had rode her bike on every long run, and I told her she should of rode in this one. I kept waiting to hit the well known wall, and it wasn't coming, I hit mile 23 and I was tired, but my body felt good, my knees and hips werent hurting at all and that was so nice. Everyone was starting to walk a ton at this point and I knew if I did I wouldn't start again, so I was weaving in and out of all the people. My Dad and my sister Becky were at mile 24 and I wasn't so talkative then, I was only able to muster up a smile and that was about it. This is where I had to start talking to myself and saying that the pain would only be a minute but the memory of this race would be forever. I finally came to the 26 mile marker and I had to turn the corner to finish the last two/tenths of the race. The street is lined with people and the big finish line thing is there, I could hear all of my family and friends cheering and I saw mark's red shirt out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't even turn and look because it was all I could muster to keep myself going. I gave it my all and finished in 4 hours and 27 minutes and I didn't walk once!! When you go over the finish line the announcer tells your name and that was cool to hear my name called. You walk down the runners chute and they take off your timer and put a medal on you and then send you for a picture, and I am sure that one will look great! Then you walk into a runners area that has tons of gatorade, water, chocolate milk cheese, crakers, fruit and then I saw the fat boy's so I took three ( I only got a few bites, because my boys ate the rest, of course!) I waited in the runners area until MD came and found me and I went out to see my family. I felt so good, I felt so happy and it was the sixth most memorable, amazing day of my life! I can't believe I did it, I accomplished something I have wanted to do my entire life and I can't wait to do it again!!

About Time...

I was going through my journals a few sunday's ago and I realized, I haven't written in them since two months before I got married. OOPS! I guess I am going to have to rely on memory for the last nine years. So with that on my brain, I figured I would post a little for posterity about a memorable time to me.
I am running 26.2 miles on Saturday in my first Marathon and I have a little anxiety of the whole thing. I ran 20 miles three weeks ago and I was able to complete it in about 3 hours and 20 minutes, and I didn't have to walk at all. That will hopefully keep me in my time goal for the marathon. This is the highest mileage that I will go in my training. So the last 6.2 have me a little nervous. Luckily that will be when there are a lot of people around to help motivate me. I have to remember that my body is ready, it better be, I have had 18 weeks of 25-40 miles a week, I hope that I can pull out the mental toughness. When I ran 20 the first 15 miles of the run went fairly well and then my body just started to get really tired. About Mile 18 my legs were really aching and I was starting to lose it mentally. My friend who rides her bike with me, was soooo helpful and kept me going. I was a little disappointed because two weeks before I had ran 19 in the pouring rain and I had an awesome run but I guess there are good runs and bad runs and I hope Saturday is a good one. Too bad I won't have anyone with me on Saturday, just the ipod. When I finished the 20. I was so happy and relieved to have it done. And it felt great to know that I could do it. Mark tells me " come on you've run 20 what is another 6.2, and then he goes oh yeah, six miles is far!!" So this will be where I define myself, and show what I am made of. This is a dream/goal I have had my entire life, so I am so excited to see what comes of it. My Mom and Dad will be coming from Wyoming (since they have been the marathon sponsors) and my two sisters and one brother and mark's sisters family, it will be so nice to have a lot of support. Thank you everyone, it means so much to me!!
My big fear is leaving Blake for so long, I have to leave around 5:15 and I probably won't get to him until noon. I have been trying to cut back the nursing but I think he is on to me and he wants to nurse 24/7. But I know MD is very capable and with my family here they can deal with a grumpy Blake. Miles keeps asking me what I am going to get when I win. I keep telling him that I am not going to win, my goal is to finish and then I will get a medal. He keeps going, "Oh mom, you will probably win a lot of money, maybe you should start running a lot to make money." Oh the determination of children and the belief that you can do anything. Thanks Mi! I will be posting more this week because I want to document this event somewhere and since the journals aren't cutting it this will have to do.

Hey Alex....

This one is for you, Alex!!! HA HA, (like the cutting board)