Happy Father's Day!

There's no question he loves those little girls... and they love him to pieces back!!!

To all you dad's out there, Happy Father's Day! Thanks for all those many, many diaper changes... even when you felt like throwing up. Thanks for all those times you finished even when you wanted to quit! Andy, thanks for being the father of my children. You are the best daddy in the whole world!!! We all love you so much!

Uh... I've been busy

I've been away from the blogging world for quite some time due to my busy schedule. Since my last post Sammy graduated from preschool...

(Sorry about the glare. It was really sunny that morning.)



...Dallin and Brindy had their reception here in Nampa at my mom's house. We spent many hours helping my mom to get everything ready. It turned out great!

(Some of my favorite pictures from that night.)

(Whoa, I need my hair cut.)

... I watched a few extra kids one day. There were two more that didn't want to get in the picture, but we had a lot of fun! Merridy also came in to town and you know how that goes. I don't think I went to bed before 1:00 every night. One night I came home at 3:00... oops! I also hosted a jewelry party and have debated on selling the jewelry myself.

...I went to girls camp! This was my first year as a leader and we all joked around that I should tattoo, "I don't know" on my forehead. That seemed to be my answer for everything on Tuesday. I went as a stake leader and I was in charge of 2nd level certification. I was only there for two days and I wished I had stayed, but I needed to get back. The theme was...

It was so cute! Each ward had a different type of candy and they were pretty creative. There were Tootsie rolls, heir heads (airheads), nerds, salt water taffy, hot tamales, and a few more I can't remember. Our ward was pixie sticks and they did fairy type stuff.

(Some of the other stake leaders)

I wished I could have been there for the faith walk today. The theme for that was temples. They put a ton of time and effort into this and I wished I could have seen the finished product. However, what I did see was absolutely amazing. One of the other leaders told me that the girls would walk through an arch at the end of the walk and receive their temple recommends. After that they walk a little more and see the temple. They have a generator hooked up to it with lights inside and out. Jolene Krahenbuhl is amazing for creating this piece of artwork!!! There are even curtains in all the windows. She told me that there is also a steeple that adds another two feet! Can you believe this?

And just to give you an idea of how big this thing is... I took a picture of Jen, Amy, and I in front of it.

I came home early so that I could get some rest before my race tomorrow. I'm excited to run this half marathon because as soon as I heard the name for it I was hooked! Angela and I are running the first annual half marathon in Boise called, "I Run For Chocolate!" Wish us luck that everything goes well. I've been dealing with some pain in my knee and possibly have torn my meniscus. Grumble! The picture below is actually from the Famous Idaho Potato race we ran in May. (Angela, me, Amy)

Oh, and did I mention we were potty training in there! Ashley is finally potty trained!!!! After I read Hollie's post with her potty training Gavin I decided there was no excuse for Ashley who is almost 4 to still be in diapers. I took some of Hollie's tips and started the following Monday. The first day was about half and half. The second day she only had 2 accidents. And she pretty much had it by the third day. She is not perfect and still has accidents, but they are true accidents... meaning she didn't make it on time and is in the bathroom. The best part is she does it all on her own!!! She comes and tells me after the fact and is very excited! Good job, Ashley, I'm so proud of you! And thanks, Hollie, for some of those tips. They obviously helped.

Worst Weekend In History!!!

As some of you know my little brother, Dallin, got married this last weekend and we traveled to Utah for the event. Congratulations, by the way! (Check out Cindy's blog for photos.) The weekend started out with me getting lost while running and then things got worse.

Saturday morning we arrived at the Draper Temple for the wedding and as we started to walk toward the the doors I had to gasp in utter shock! My Aunt Flow decided to pay me a visit for the first time in 12 weeks! It's been so long since she last visited that I kept checking my doorstep to make sure she didn't leave a bundle of surprise instead. Her timing was horrific! I didn't have any way to hide her and the wedding was starting in a half hour. Nobody could help in my situation so I sent Andy back to Shiloam's house speeding to solve my problem. It turns out that the temple worker went upstairs and said I had an emergency and asked them to ramble as long as possible, but they wouldn't wait for us. So then everyone who didn't already know started to ask questions... by then they wished they hadn't asked. Fortunately they let Andy and I slip in the back and we didn't miss all of the wedding. I was mortified when Dallin told me they announced it to everyone! Maybe I'll laugh about it later.

The next morning Andy and I were getting ready to fly to Colorado to get the last of our things in our house. We knew that what Tanis had at the wedding was a bug rather than lack of sleep when Katie started to throw up. We were needing to leave within a few minutes and decided that she would be in good hands with Brigetta and Shiloam. Unfortunately, Shiloam was also sick and throwing up. So that left John to take care of Katie while Brigetta and Brandon took us to the airport. Our flight was on time and we didn't have to wait long to take a shuttle to the truck rental place. I called John and found out that Katie threw up another 3-4 times since we left. I was frustrated that I couldn't be there to take care of my baby and wanted to get back on the road. We waited at least a half hour for the truck, but got a pretty good deal for our time. We suddenly had a major and unexpected change in plans. (Sorry, I was asked not to indulge on this part.) We ended up taking the truck back and had to get on the next flight to Utah. We were so anxious to get back home and things still did not get better. Once we were on the plane the pilot came out and told us that there was only one runway open due to a funnel cloud touching ground and it would be at least another hour before we took off. At this point I was in tears just wanting to get home to my sick baby. We made it back to Utah, packed up our things, and headed back home. As we were driving I told Andy, "I don't think that weekend could have gone any worse." He quickly responded, "Don't say that! It's not over yet!" Sure enough things got worse!

The drive home was full of crying, sick kids who were constantly complaining about sore tummies. Once we hit Twin Falls Katie cried so hard that she threw up... again! We stopped at a gas station and cleaned her up. Then we dreaded to get back in the car and continue the long drive. We were literally 50 feet from our exit to go home and Andy got pulled over! He was going 65 in a 55 construction zone. Fines double in construction zones!!! Luckily, both Katie and Ashley decided at that same moment to have a meltdown. The cop commented on our full car and crying kids and let Andy off with a warning. Thank goodness for that because it's $147 fine! Ah, we made it home a few minutes later...

Monday morning Katie threw up another two times and refused to eat or drink anything all day. The poor girl was so dehydrated and weak that she mostly just cuddled and slept. Things started to get a little better by the afternoon when she went down for a nap and then Ashley decided to do a very smart thing... I heard the water running upstairs which is never a good sign when Sammy is sitting next to me and Andy is gone. Ashley said she needed to wash the toothpaste off her hands. Of course she got the lecture of "your not supposed to use the toothpaste without mommy's help." Then my nose smelled a familiar smell that was NOT toothpaste, but still couldn't put my finger on it. At this point Ashley was saying that her hands and mouth were burning. I ran upstairs to see what she used and found a surprise. She used Icy Hot to brush her teeth!!! I called poison control and was told (after a few chuckles) that if she started to throw up to take her to the emergency room immediately. Thankfully nothing happened and we were able to finish our weekend somewhat quietly.

Two Down...

Here are the photos from our Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon race. We started out at Lucky Peak Park freezing our behinds off!!! Right away we were crowded and had a hard time finding a place to run side by side. Later we weren't so cold and weren't as crowded, but still had to weave in and out of people. We finished at the Ann Morrison Park in 2 hours and 18 minutes... cutting 9 minutes off our last time (Provo City Half Marathon). We were somewhat happy with our time, but know we can do better. The next race is June 20th in Boise (I Run For Chocolate) and we are looking forward to improving our time. Anyone wanting to join us?

Glad that one's over...

We're in Utah right now for my brother's wedding and since I didn't get a chance to run yesterday due to traveling, and I won't be able to run Saturday morning I thought I would get an early run in today.  I knew I had to run by myself since my sister's knee isn't doing well so I brought my shuffle and was ready with angry music.  I haven't run by myself in a long time and the most I've ever done alone is about 5 miles.  I thought maybe a 6-7 mile run would be okay... well I got a little lost on my planned route, but found my way back fine.  I just mapped out my run and guess how many miles I did... by myself!  9.6 miles baby!!!  I was so glad it was that long because I kept thinking, "Man, this has got to be more than 6 miles."  I'm glad that run is over and that I have someone to run with back at home.  Wahoo for running buddies!!!

Also, we ran the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon on Saturday and cut 9 minutes off our time from the last race.  There will be more to come on that, soon.

One down...

As most of you know I ran a half marathon last month. It was such a great experience and accomplishment that my running buddy and I decided we're going to try and run a race every month at least till October. Tomorrow is our second half marathon and I'm totally pumped! Along the way we recruited Amy to run with us. She does great and I think she is totally insane!!! We decided two weeks ago that we were going to do the half marathon rather than the 10K and the most Amy had run was 6 miles... that's right... 6 miles!!! She registered to run the half marathon with us! (Amy might need a hip replacement after the race.) I'm really excited to run with Amy and Angie. They're seriously wonderful ladies whom I enjoy running with every day!

Thanks to those of you who commented on my carb post. I'll take your advice and we'll see how this race goes. (I really didn't want to eat my arm.) And thanks for all your support! If there's anybody out there that wants to run with us, let me know. I promise we're slow, and fun! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! We tried emailing this but we were unsuccessful with that route. The second and third videos were our attempts, but they were funny so we stuck them in here anyway. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did. We love you!

In case you didn't catch the lyrics...

You give me a kiss. You give me a hug. You smile when you see me, too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you.

You read me a book. You sing me a song. You whisper you love me, too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you.

I'll try to be good. I'll do as I should. I'll whisper I love you, too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you.

A Little Give & Take...

I'm sitting here listening to the pouring rain (if you're in Nampa right now you know what I'm talking about) and catching up on my blogging. Last week I was talking to Christina Arnold about my kids getting into the fridge and pantry just to make a huge mess. For the 3rd time Katie and Ashley took a brand new box of cereal and dumped it all over the kitchen, dining room, and both living rooms!!! I was only upstairs for literally 10 minutes and before I could reach the bottom step Sammy said, "Mom! Katie and Ashley made a big mess. I didn't help, but Ashley did!" She's always quick to blame Ashley, but in this case I wasn't surprised. It was a HUGE mess!!! I was so upset I sent all three girls upstairs and told them not to come out of their rooms until I told them to and if I saw their faces even once I would spank their bare bottoms. (Katie was in Sammy's room with her.) I spent the next half hour or so cleaning up the tornado of cereal and then jumped on the treadmill to calm myself down. As I talked to Christina about my frustration she suggested I get locks on my pantry... I've tried finding a child lock for my pantry and have come home empty handed. The knobs are too far apart for the locks that loop around them... does that make sense? This is what I mean...My doors are the kind that pull out and make sort of a W shape... I'm sure that doesn't make sense... Like this... Anyway, Christina came up with a brilliant idea!!! She thought maybe a shower curtain rod would work. I was off to Walmart to find a cheap shower curtain rod in hopes that it would work. Guess what? It works wonderfully!!! Plus, it only cost me $10 and will save me lots more in the long run. Now my kids are staying out of the pantry and fridge thanks to another child lock (above). Wahoo for Christina's creative thinking!!! I just wanted to pass along that little bit of advice if your needing a child lock for your weird pantry doors.

Now for the take... Angela and I have decided to try and run a half marathon every month this summer. Our next race is in two weeks and I'm in a bit of frustration. I know that you are supposed to carb load the night before your race, but I would rather eat my own arm than to eat pasta. The night before our last race I sucked it up and ate some pasta, but it really wasn't much. I still hated it and sent most of it home with Angela. So my question is, "What can I eat that is a good carb before a race that is NOT pasta?" We've been talking about this a lot and have not come up with answers. We thought maybe breads or potatoes, but those are so full of starch. Any ideas at this point would be greatly appreciated. Please help!!!

Just for laughs!

I've had a hard week and needed some laughs. If there are any of you out there needing a laugh... this is for you! Enjoy!

It's Alive!!!

Tonight I decided to attempt reprogramming the garage door opener. From the day we moved into this house we have not known the code for the garage door panel. It drives me crazy that I have to walk through the house and out the garage just to open the dumb door. Well, it was a success... It only took seven months but we can now open our garage door from outside without the remote!!! Yippee! The really dumb thing is it literally only takes 30 seconds. I wished I had taken the time back in December to figure this out.

Do you have a flat chest?

Yes, it's what you think I'm talking about! You know it's time for the boob job when your sports bra is now baggy on you and even an "A" cup is too big!!! How freakin' frustrating is that? I love that inches are shedding from my body due to running... but I don't like where they decide to shed first! I think 11 year old girls have bigger boobs than me now. Where do I find the training bras? Hmmm, someday when we're rich... (Just venting!)

Welcome Baby Sinjin!

Andy and I received a phone call from Nate letting us know that Gwendolyn had their baby. He was 9 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long! Gwendolyn was such a trooper and went through 22 hours of labor without the epidural and then the next 4 with the drugs. (Andy asks when I can get the epidural the minute they admit me to the hospital.) Sinjin Nathanael is the 40th grandchild for the Wyne's. Andy and I now have 48 nieces and nephews, total, and at least one more on the way! Congratulations Nate and Gwendolyn, he's a keeper!

Half Marathon!

If you haven't noticed the countdown to the right... it says hooray! I ran the Provo City Half Marathon race on Saturday! The drive down to Utah was scary and frustrating. Our portable DVD player died on us and if any of you have traveled with kids you know what a life saver that can be. We also hit a blizzard near Snowville... our favorite place! We made it to Utah finally and the fun began.

The whole week before the race I was dealing with shin splints again. I was worried that I would even be able to run at all. So the night before I asked Andy to give me a blessing. After my blessing I felt a little more calm, but not restless. During the night I had several dreams that something would go wrong... mostly being late and forgetting to pick up Shiloam and Angela. In the morning I still was debating on what to wear because we heard there was a 40% chance it would snow. I decided to wear pretty much everything I brought and I would take off layers if I needed to. Uh, yeah, it was snowing a lot when we got outside! We picked up the girls and were early for the race.

My group included my sister, Shiloam, my girlfriend, Angela, and myself. Along the way we picked up two other girls. One girl, Liz, was actually neighbors with Shiloam about 6 years ago and they hadn't seen each other since. Another girl, Morilla, was right in front of us most of the way and we started chatting with her. This was my first race ever and it turned out to be really fun! Even with the snow, wind, and 30 degree weather! I was very bundled and stayed warm for most of it. (2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a jacket, gloves, visor, and 2 headbands!)

Some of the best things about the race:

-Andy, John, and Cindy were at the water stations every two miles to cheer us on!
-Angela traveled all the way from Idaho to run with me!
-Our hubbies totally supported us in our training, and race!
-Shiloam didn't bail on us and stuck with us the whole way!
-We RAN the whole race!
-No shin splint pain whatsoever! At least not on race day!
-I didn't have to use any kind of energy gels! They are so gross!
-We finished before Mohawk dude! He was the guy that Andy, John, and Cindy would look for to see when we were coming up. We were behind him by about a minute until the last leg and then we passed him.
-Passing a lot of people at the end!
-We finished in about 20 minutes shorter than we expected!
-Shiloam, Angela, and I crossed the finish line holding hands!
-Andy, John, Bryce (and Brenton), Cindy, and Emily were cheering us on at the finish line with roses for all of us!
-I can now say I've run a half marathon, and I have a shirt to prove it!!!


Some of the bad things about the race:
-Seeing girls pull their pants down and take a dump because they don't want to wait for an available potty.
-A ton of people passing us!
-Feeling out of energy and not finding stuff to talk about (off the top of our heads) to get our minds off the kill.
-My legs are super sore!
-Now Angela and I have to get back to normal life! Maybe we'll train for something else so we can keep running together without getting flack from our hubbies... hmm!


Thanks to all of my supporters! It was fun to talk to you and take your encouraging energy with us to the race. Thanks to our hubbies who supported us and watched the kids many days and nights so that we could run. Thanks to our groupies who cheered us on every two miles! That was seriously one of the best things about the race! They missed the 12 mile water station to go and get the roses and we were totally bummed... until we saw the roses. Thanks to the girls that stuck with me on the race and didn't leave me in the dust. And most of all, thanks to Angela! She stuck with me through the training and has become such a great friend. She helped me learn to love running! When I run with her I find my troubles disappear and I am a much happier person all together. I totally love that fabulous girl!!! I think she and I will be friends for eternity! I love you tons, Angela!

Our official time was 2:27:04! Our overall place was 482 out of 561! I know we are slow for some people but we didn't really care about that. We just wanted to finish in under 3 hours and actually run the whole thing. We did it!!! Another really cool thing... In our training we ran over 200 miles! How awesome is that!?!

If you want to see other perspectives go to Cindy's blog or if you've been invited to Shiloam's blog you can check out her thoughts, too... as soon as she posts.

April Fools Day!

Late last night we heard something scratching and banging against our window in the living room. I went downstairs and asked Andy what it was. He didn't know, so we opened the front door to see what was going on... This was my reaction. (Can you guess what it was?)

I bet you couldn't guess! Well...

This is what we found!

There was a live chicken tied to our doorknob! That's right! A live chicken!!! There was also a note attached that read, "April Fools! Eat me!" We knew right away that it was Brandon and Brigetta that put it there. A friend of theirs put a chicken on their doorstep a few years back while we were visiting... plus, we saw them drive past our house. So I called her and said, "Ha, ha! Very funny!" Well, we got the idea to go and put it on someone else's door... so Andy and Brandon walked down to another friend's house and tied the feathered devil to their door. They thought it was teenagers knocking on doors and running. So they ran to the back door in hopes of catching the "teenagers" and when they didn't catch anyone they went to the front door and found the chicken! Ha, ha! They laughed about it and then turned around and put it on someone else's door. How funny is that? Needless to say, this psycho chicken has been passed around the ward and lots of people don't even know who started it all! Ha, ha! One girl didn't know what to do with it so she started calling people asking if it was them and if they wanted a chicken. While at mutual tonight she even got clucked at... so funny! I think this April Fools Day joke tops the charts! Andy made sure I posted this one... especially me screaming at a chicken flying into our window that separated us. Happy April Fools Day, everyone!!!

Fun-Funny-Filled-Weekend!

This weekend we were lucky enough to have my brother and his family come stay with us. Saturday was a fun, and funny, day. It started off with running 9+ miles with Angela and my sister-in-law, Emily. About 4 or 5 miles into the run Emily said, "Okay, where's a business? I really need a bathroom." We run in the country so there are no businesses around, but my cousin's house was just around the corner. So Emily ran ahead and knocked on the door. My cousin had no idea who she was and was in his bathrobe! She said, "Uh, hi... I really need to use your potty." He was totally confused and said he was about to get in the shower. I love Emily! She said, "You're going to have to wait, because I really need to pee!" The poor confused guy let her in and then she was on her way...

After showering and getting ready for the day Sammy came up the stairs crying her eyes out. I asked her what was wrong and she said someone peed on the floor. I asked her if it was her and she snapped at me that it was most certainly not! So then I asked her why she was so upset. Her response was, "Because I fell in it!!!" So I headed downstairs with a towel in hand and asked where the pee was. Emily told me they thought the half bathroom flooded. I walked to the bathroom and found the most revolting mess!!! The toilet not only flooded pee... but poop, too! Disgusting!!! I cleaned up the gagging accident and meanwhile Andy was getting out of the shower taking care of Sammy. He asked her what happened and she said, "I fell in cigarette pee!!!!" Where that came from I don't know... but it was pretty funny.

Later that evening Nate was laying on the couch while Noah, his 2 year old son, punched his hand. Nate said, "You punch like a girl... you punch like a girl." Noah started to punch as hard as he could and as Nate turned for a split second Noah socked him right in the eye! Nate said, "Okay, that was a good one." It's rare that I see Andy laugh as hard as he did after the "girl" punch to the eye.

We had a great weekend with the Koenig's and are glad they came. We miss them so much we made Nate stay with us all week and then we're driving down to Utah tomorrow to see the rest of the family... :) (My race is on Saturday... and Nate had to work in Boise this week.)