The Borg's Blog

Swimming, The Zoo, a Marathon, and Fireworks!

2011-08-15T10:59:00.020-06:00

The remainder of our July was just as fun/busy as the first of July! We spent it this way...

Swimming with floaties at the Country Club with Grandpa Mark...

this picture is actually a BIG deal! Haylee actually dared to stand in the water all by herself!

We also payed a visit to the Zoo with the Castleton cousins. Did you know if you make an $8 donation you can take a picture with two Eagles after the bird show??

save a horse. ride a dino

We also spent some time waking up way early so we could catch daddy at the finish line of the Deseret News Marathon!! It was on the 25th of July, so since Brett had the day off he figured "why not run 26.2?" Yah, he's sort of nuts...

waiting patiently for Dad

He's coming!! (that's him in the black)!

"wait Dad! we want to finish with you!"

the official Zoosh picture, which I LOVE and think is PRICELESS and am going to BLOW UP and frame ASAP!

did you know that after you run you have to stretch?

and did you also know that after you finish a race with your daddy that you have to go to the Cliff Bar booth and ask for a free sample because you ran so good?

After the race, we headed home for a much needed family nap! That was followed by more swimming (sorry, no pics) and ended with a yummy BBQ at my brother's house! And who could forget the fireworks??

My Dylan cuddle bug!

my hunky hubby!

the boys with Grandpa Mark

Cheesy Haylee with Grandma Pam

the girlies!

Little Lady Ballet Summer Dance Camp

2011-08-15T10:45:00.006-06:00

My darling friend Natalie owns her very own ballet studio. Every Summer she holds a dance camp and it's definitely the highlight to Haylee's summer! She takes home all sorts of crafts, wands, tutus, and any other girly thing you can think of!
This year they ended the session with a garden performance at Natalie's mom's house! Nat's mom, Connie, also happens to be my ballet teacher from when I was just a little girl! Natalie has the same cute charm that her mom had :)

all pretty in pink

getting up close and personal

the costume is complete!

her little dance class! the funny thing is, half of these little girls belong to my friends from high school! it's so fun to see the next generation!

Girl's Trip to St. George 2011!!

2011-07-31T11:31:00.012-06:00

Brett's mom Lucy had the great idea to take all the girls in the family down to St. George to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacan! We ended up seeing it on Monday, July 4th but drove down on Saturday, so we had the entire weekend to party!!

we started the weekend off with some late night swimming!!

followed by some early morning swimming :)

bathing beauties!

Jamie and I decided to take our girls to Las Vegas for some SHOPPING!! Haylee loved it! We went to the H & M at Caesar's Palace and she thought we walked into a big party just for her! There was a lot of dancing and "Mom, I love this place" going on :) After H & M, we headed to the Fashion Show Mall for Lulu and California Pizza Kitchen. It was a pretty quick trip considering the mall closed at 7:00 PM!! :( But, it was way fun and Haylee still talks about shopping in Vegas to this day! I might have created a monster!

July 4th!! Waiting to go to the fair in the park

who needs a $3 bouncy house, when you have a swing and a mom who's willing to give you under dogs to go Super High??

the moment they've all been waiting for!! The Little Girls have arrived to The Little Mermaid!

me and my sweet Haylee at the Tuacan

cute little girls all in a row

seriously the Happiest Girl!! Thanks again Grandma Lucy!!

UT Valley Marathon 2011

2011-07-31T11:16:00.008-06:00

This Marathon was #2 for Brett this year! Haylee had a sleep over at my mom's house, so Dylan and I headed down south to cheer him on!

waiting for Daddy to run by!

Here he comes!!

gotta love the digital camera delay! Here's the tail end of an awesome high five between Brett and Dylan

the finisher with some free swag :)

My boys!

an awkward fam pic from a girl who didn't know how to work the camera :) Way to go Brett!!

Making Pizza!!

2011-07-31T10:51:00.009-06:00

One of my favorite nights is Pizza Night! We don't do it very often, because it take a lot of planning and preparation on my part. You have to make the dough a head of time, have a clean kitchen counter, and be willing to smell a burning pizza stone for a few days afterwards. But, the kids LOVE it, so it's all worth it!

first you have to roll the dough...

and look really cute while you do it

then you have to move your chairs over to the toppings station and spread the sauce

and make sure you get it ALL over or else it doesn't taste as good :)

next, you stick your cute little tushy out and watch it bake in the oven!

and devour it!

cute right?? That's why it's my favorite night!

Haylee's Spring Recital 2011

2011-05-28T11:27:00.001-06:00

This is always a highlight of my life. It's one that actually gets me choked up!! I love to watch my cute little daughter dancing and trying her hardest to follow her teacher on stage!

We have loved her costume this year!!

showing off some of her moves before hitting the big stage!

Her good friend Hadley! These two are so silly when they're together!

a few of her friends before :)

and a picture with her cute little brother who gets super excited to watch his sister dance (that and the fact that he always gets to pick out some candy to keep him quiet:)

Haylee and her darling friend Sadie!

making sure she watches her teacher's every move!

Haylee with her cute little friends! You'd think by all of the flowers they were famous or something ;)

Haylee and Grandma Lucy

Haylee with Beka, Jaxon, and Grandma Pam

Haylee and Dylan with Grandpa Steve

Grandpa Mark and all the kids!

Haylee with my Uncle Hank, Grandma Sandy, and Grandpa Paul

the proud parents!

Brett and Dylan at Texas Roadhouse after!

Me and the star!

More pictures from the reception...

2011-05-26T10:45:00.012-06:00

I told you there would be more and I told you my friend Brittany did an AMAZING job!!

My Whole Family!

my cute little family

The 5 J's and Shelby

me with my brothers: Jordan, Jared, Jake, and Jason. We call ourselves "the 5 J's" and yes, we still call ourselves that. It sounds like we're on some sort of team huh? Well, we are. And it's a pretty powerful team. One that holds each other together during trials. One that makes each other laugh. One that quotes inappropriate (and sometimes appropriate movie lines). Most come from the great movie Dumb and Dumber. "We the Castletons and we need a key" is our motto (and a total inside joke). Love these boys!

Here are some beautiful pictures of the wedding cake Brett's aunt Debbie decorated for them. Schmidt's Pastry Cottage does the most AMAZING cakes in my opinion. And I'm not biased. I just tell it like it is.

This is me and my kissing cousin, Jeremy. Come on, you know you all had one when you were little! We did a FLASH MOB and it was pure awesomeness!! Jake loved it! If you want to watch it, click here: http://youtu.be/Dr0P1yCdRH8

I love this picture of Haylee with her cousin Beka. I'm pretty sure they are talking about lip stick, shoes, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber...

my beautiful mother and Italian Stallion step-dad! They need a huge standing ovation and round of applause! The dinner and reception were both incredible and wouldn't have been without these two!! Love you both!!

Jake and Shelby's Wedding Festivities...

2011-05-16T10:17:00.016-06:00

On Wednesday, May 4th the wedding festivities kicked off with a bang (or a Pamper Party)! It was equipped with spray tans, gel nails, and chocolate fondue! What else does a girl need to pamper herself?? The bride to be didn't partake in a tan, because she's from the sunny state of California. They don't receive inches upon inches of snow in April and May. But, us Utahans sure had fun with it!! Except for my cute sister-in-law Meghan of course who was born with a natural glow. She was just excited to have soul sisters for a night!! Can you tell by looking at this picture who didn't get a spray tan?? ;)

This was actually my first and I was a little, OK A LOT, freaked out by my coloring! The spray tan lady ensured me that once I showered the next morning, it would be a pretty tan color... Well the next morning I woke up and looked like an oompa loompa! I was afraid to scrub too much in the shower, because I didn't want to wash my $20 tan away. It was just unfortunate that I was headed to the temple for Shelby's endowments. With my skin next to all white = a little nightmare! However, being in the temple for such an important event, I didn't let a little orangish tint get in my way from enjoying the sacredness of the temple session. But as soon as we were out into the worldly world again and I saw this picture...

I was back to worrying about my skin and jumped in the shower immediately for an emergency exfoliation!! It was amazing how much better I felt after my second shower! But that didn't stop me from taking a third right before the wedding dinner :) Enough about my panic spray tan, on to the wedding festivities...
Since Shelby's family was from California, it was decided that they would be married here. We had a wedding dinner the night before at the beautiful Flamm Barn. It's an amazing barn at the very end of Walker Lane. My mom decorated it to the hills! We had a friend from Utah Foods do the catering and the food was absolutely Divine!! Minus a little drama, OK A LOT of drama, it was a perfect night!

The Happy Couple

we are a happy couple too :) Especially me now that I don't look like an orangcicle!

girls on my side of the family... Tamara, Kenzie, Meghan, Casey, My Mom, and Me!

my handsome brother Jason and his lovely wife Meghan

My dad's parents, Grandpa Grant and Grandma Anne (love them!!)

my step-sister Brittany and her husband Mike

my step-grandma Vicky, my step-brother Kyle, and his girl friend Des (aka Princess Tiana. She's a good sport with my princess obsessed Haylee)

The next morning was the temple ceremony. Jake and Shelby couldn't have looked happier! The sealer did a phenomenal job and gave great advice. The kind that helps everyone in the room!

waiting for Jake and Shelby to make their appearance

my aunt Wendy, Grandma Anne, me, Meghan, and Kenzie

Jason, Me, Grandma, Grandpa, Jared (he's single and lives in San Jose California if you know anyone :), and Jordan

my cute family. The flowers at the temple were amazing!

After the temple my family headed to Settebello Pizza for lunch! If you haven't ever been there, you must go! Best authentic pizza ever!! We were able to sit back, enjoy a great lunch, and vent a little about some awkwardness that went on. I'll just leave it at that.

Our next stop was a beautiful reception at The Old Meeting House. My grandma owns it, so we wouldn't have had it anywhere else! My very talented friend Brittany who works with Busath Photography took all of our pictures at the reception! I can't wait to see them! She does an amazing job! I'll have to post them when we get them :)

Once again my mom did an amazing job with everything. The food, decorations, flowers, flash mob (yes, we had a flash mob), and who could forget about the AMAZING wedding cake that Schmidt's Pastry Cottage provided? It was just unfortunate that it became such an eye sore because of some miscommunication. I'll just leave it at that.

Me and Kenz. We were twiners!!

perfection

Just like any family event that lasts three days. It was fun(ish) while it lasted, but was nice to be done with it! It really was a great three days. My mom and Mark really over did themselves with everything! Minus a little, OK A LOT, drama it was a perfect wedding week!

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T11:16:00.022-06:00

I can't believe I'm actually posting about an event the day after. I kind of feel like I should be waiting a few weeks ;)
All I have to say about this Easter is, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! Both kids finally understood the concept of Easter eggs, the bunny, and most importantly Jesus! Haylee even sung with the primary during sacrament and you could hear her J She did so great! I held back tears the entire time while I listened to her sing about how much Jesus loved her.
The morning started out with an Easter Egg hunt of course. The kids had to first find their baskets, and then they could move on to the eggs! The bunny was nice enough to give the kids one toy too! They were so excited to find everything!

It didn't take too long for Dylan to find his basket!

Haylee's stoked that she finally found hers too:)

so proud of their loot!

testing out his new toy!

loving her new Belle doll!

all cleaned up and ready for church!

our beautiful little girl

our handsome little boy! real men where pink :)

After church we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Borg’s house for their annual Easter egg hunt! Dylan was all over the concept this year! Especially knowing there was candy inside! There were some points in the hunt where he’d be sprinting to each egg! Haylee on the other hand took her little sweet time. Typical girl :)

attempting to gather eggs while eating fruit snacks

dainty little Haylee gathering her eggs

taking her sweet little time

they have a grab and look method going... grab an egg while you look for the next one you're going to get!

high steppin' to his next egg!

proud of his full basket

all of the crazies (minus Monroe who had a baby blow out:) with grandma and grandpa

After we ate our Easter dinner, our next stop was to my Grandparent’s house for another egg hunt and more cousin time! I’m pretty sure both of my kids just had candy for dinner! looking for eggs with Jojo and Kenzie

Haylee had a nasty fall right before the egg hunt, so she needed her Daddy to help her :(

trying to brighten up her eyes. falling is a big deal to this little one.

I just love Easter and for the opportunity I have to look at the impact of the Atonement in my life. I am truly grateful for Christ’s sacrifice in my behalf. It’s no secret that I’ve been through a lot of trials over the past 11 years. In fact, I don’t think anyone I know hasn’t had their fair share of trials too. I’m just grateful that I have the knowledge that I do about the atonement. I’m grateful to know that Christ has suffered for my sake so that I don’t have to. It’s comforting to know that when I’m going through a rough patch, there really is someone out there who knows exactly how I feel. I have hope that through the atonement I will be with my Dad again. It’s been almost five months since he opted to leave us. That means we only have to wait seven more to start doing his temple work. What a joyous day that will be!

Jungle Jim's with the cousins!

2011-04-25T10:59:00.009-06:00

It’s that time of year where we are sick and tired of being confined to the four walls of our home. Mother Nature can’t really decide if she wants winter to be over yet. And then when it’s not snowing it’s raining like crazy! One day we had it! We just needed to get out of the house in the worst way! So we called on some of our cousins and headed to Jungle Jims!! At first it seemed like we were the only ones who had this idea, so our kids were able to jump from ride to ride with no wait!

five little kiddos!

getting ready to drive!

I love this picture! They were all kind of stuck. The girls are just laughing and Dylan is pissed! He started to pout :)

we couldn't believe they had the guts to go on this ride! their faces were priceless!

Dylan loved the car! Haylee, not so much. The cars went through a tunnel and she was afraid that it was actually a car wash. So, she sat his one out :)

Haylee and Memphis! They could pass as sisters!

brave enough to go again!

after playing hard, we hit up chick-fil-a and got some lunch! and of course we traded in our educational books for some ice cream! I love how Dylan is totally out numbered and doesn't even care :)

Thanks for the fun afternoon out cousins!!

We had some birthdays...

2011-04-25T10:13:00.010-06:00

I'm way behind on blogging, so here's my attempt to get caught up...

In March Brett and I always have a busy Birthday week! Our Birthdays are five days apart! I turned 29 this year. I can't decide how I feel about my last year in my twenties. No offense to my mom, but I remember when I was younger (people make fun of me when I say "little" because I'm still little...) and my mom was 30. I thought she was so old!! Now I am getting to that point. I guess I have to face the facts that I am getting older. With getting older, life is getting better. My kids keep getting cuter and cuter. My husband and I keep growing closer together through everything we get to experience together (the good and not so good). So I guess, here's to getting older! Bring it on!!

this was my birthday cake. it's one of my favorite cakes in the world. my grandma Anne's homemade chocolate/chocolate cake. she even bought a candle that sings happy birthday!

my kids are quite the candle blowers!

my jewels. life is good :)

Brett's birthday was a little more eventful than mine! In November I signed up for the Canyonland's Half Marathon and got in the lottery. Brett didn't sign up since it's a pretty pricey race and we'd have to find someone to watch the kids. The race also happened to be on his birthday, so I did feel a titch guilty for leaving him. Well, The Salt Lake Running Co. had a facebook contest and were giving away a spot to the race to whoever could get the most "likes" to a comment posted on their wall. I was sitting at home and checked facebook and saw that Brett had written "The Canyonland's race is on my 30th birthday. It would be great to run with my wife." If anyone knows me then it won't surprise you that my competitive side kicked into high gear and I became obsessed with the idea of Brett winning!! I posted all over facebook, sent text messages and emails to all of our friends and family, sent an email to everyone in our ward, I had a dear friend promote us on her adoption blog (the r house), and asked everyone I knew at work to "like" his comment! I was pretty much glued to facebook for three entire days making sure Brett was still in the lead. 280 some odd votes later, he won!! There was a tricky little devil that was right at our tail, so we were a little worried for awhile. This listtle devil even went to the extreme of making up fake profile names to get extra votes. Lame, I know. Anyway, we were stoked Brett got in!

Since I already had a hotel room and travel plans with my friend Tiffany and her mom, Brett just jumped right in and joined us! Even though he was the only man in the group, I think he still had a lot of fun! We had some pretty good times at a nasty restaurant and good conversations in the car :)

I know Brett will probably beg to differ, but I love running with my husband! He keeps me on task and puts up with my potty mouth. He also forgives me for taking all of my frustrations out on him while I'm running :) This race had its share of those moments. It ended up being super windy. We're talking wind gusts up to 40 mph. At times you had to just run with your eyes closed to avoid all of the sand. At other times you had to hurdle tumble weeds that were coming at you with full force. Needless to say, I didn't do as well as I wanted to (at least I didn't stop to walk! That is my goal in each race). In fact, I finished 6 minutes slower than I had the year before. Major bummer. But since then, Brett has taught me that each race is different. Even the same race can be different. The wind could have been a major factor to adding 30 seconds to every mile. The only plus side was that I felt great after! I'm usually limping and really sore after a race, but this one was different. I had cross trained like crazy and tried to focus on strengthening my legs and core. Sure I was a tad sore, but not the kind of sore that keeps you from walking up and down the stairs like a normal person. So, even though I was a little slower, I was glad to see an improvement in other areas!

Since the race I have taken a little mental break from training. I have also signed myself up for the St. George Marathon in October! Brett is putting a killer training schedule together for me, so I'm starting to prepare for that. I probably won't finish in less than 5 hours, but this time my goal will just be to finish!

packet pick up!! gotta love the reflector on his jacket :)

me and my step-sister Brittany. I would trade her for her long legs in a heart beat!

Tiff, me, and Brett. stripped down and ready to run!

and in case you didn't know... r house runs for adoption! and I have very wide hips!

the finishers! everyone did great!!

Happy 30th sweetie :) I'm glad we were able to spend it together!!

Lake to Lake 50 Mile Relay- 2011

2011-03-15T14:43:00.031-06:00

This was our 2nd year participating in the 50 mile Lake to Lake Relay in St. George and it was a blast! Our team consisted of Brett, me, my Uncle Ron, my cousin Cole, and my friend Lacey! Here's our team "Run Your Buns Off!" before the race started...

Bright and early and freezing cold next to the lake!

Leg #1 (Gunlock and Loaded) 6.07 miles. Difficulty: 5

Lacey had the first leg and totally rocked it! She was even running on a newly recovered knee injury and did awesome!!

coming in earlier than was expected!

Leg #2: (Red Rock'n Roll) 5.79 miles. Difficulty: 6-7

I had the second leg and was totally pumped to run all of the hills on the coarse (NOT)! I'm kind of a hill baby, so I definitely was not looking forward to this leg. But, surprisingly enough I did WAY better than I thought I was going to. I think 80% of it was just the adrenaline from the race and 20% was wanting to do good for my team!

loved seeing the end in site!

Leg #3 (Navigators Nightmare) 5.71 miles. Difficulty: 6

Brett was next up! He was a little worried to run his first leg. In the St. George Half Marathon six weeks prior, he tweaked his foot and hadn't been able to run on it since! He's pretty much a rock star and did great! Kept a good pace and finished strong!

posing for a quick "girl's only" pic before Brett finished :) (just a quick side story... Lacey and I actually met through blogging! We both contributed to http://therhouseruns.blogspot.com and ran the St. George 1/2 last year. We ended up meeting IRL for dinner that night with our husbands. A few months later we roomed together in Moab for the Canyonland's Half and have just been friends ever since!! She has 5 beautiful children, 2 in which are adopted, and 2 that she will have the opportunity to raise in heaven. She is such a rock and great example to me. I have called on her for extra guidance, strength, and peace. I just love her and am lucky to call her a friend!)

Brett finishing strong!!

Leg #4 (Dixie Stampede) 4.84 miles. Difficulty: 5

This leg kind of has a funny story. Cole was up to run and took off with a vengeance! At this time of day the heat was starting to pick up and Ron was worried that he would need some water. We parked the car at what we thought to be a good point and never saw Cole, so we drove on and decided this would be a good time to grab Subway sandwiches! On our way to the next hand off we got a call from Cole that he had been done for 5 minutes and had been trying to find us! Woops! We definitely under estimated Cole's speedy legs! Ron got his stuff ready in the car and took off as soon as we got there! Bummer for us, an extra 5 minutes added to our time :/ Also, a big SORRY to Cole! No pic of you running this leg since we didn't see you!

Leg #5 (Man O Warrior) 4.68 miles. Difficulty: 7

This leg had Ron's name all over it :) He's seriously a running warrior! He runs about 7-8 marathons a year in addition to many other races!! He's definitely been an inspiration to both Brett and me! Ron did great and finished way fast!

After he finished we let him stretch out a little bit and eat his sandwich. Then it was on to meeting Lacey!

Leg #6 (Trails Trails and Llama Tails) 4.34 miles. Difficulty: 4

When we arrived I took my time to get my hydration pack ready and go potty one last time. As I was making my way to the hand off station, I saw Lacey walking with her family (they live in St. George and came to cheer her on)! Woops! She had been waiting for 3 minutes. Add 8 extra minutes to our time for just underestimating speed!

Lacey with her darling family (Ally, Lacey, Nick, Sam, and Violet)

Leg #7 (Washington Fields Forever) 4.4 miles. Difficulty: 5

Both years I have participated in this relay I have struggled with my second leg! It sounds silly now that I look back at it how dramatic everything felt in the moment. My leg was just one gradual up hill and I definitely felt it! Halfway into my leg my stomach started cramping, my right foot went numb and tingly, and the heat started to get to me. I had no other options than to reach deep inside and find something to push me a long. I started to think about the reasons why I was participating in the runner's series and thought about my dad. I started to call on him to help me push through. I started looking around at the scenery and thought about how much my dad loved the outdoors. Then a song came on my iPod that said "I cannot live I can't breathe unless you do this with me..." At this point the end was near and I could see Brett. He was up a hill that I didn't look forward to climbing. I said out loud "Do this with me Dad!" and took off! I hauled up the hill and gave it everything I had. My watch clocked me at a 7 minute mile speed, which is fast for me, especially considering the hill. I gave Brett "bones" and he took off running. At that point I was so physically and emotionally exhausted from running that I just broke down in tears. I know my dad was there to pull me out of my funk and carry me to the finish...

running up my last hill!

Leg #8 (That Washington Damn Hill) 4.7 miles. Difficulty: 8

I don't think the graph does this leg justice. There are two hills in this leg. One up Washington Damn Dr. and another up a steep red dirt hill! Brett was definitely the man for this leg and held an awesome pace!!

coming to the end of his last leg! What a great feeling :)

Leg #9 (The Dirty Climber) 4.34 miles. Difficulty: 10!!

I wouldn't wish this leg on anyone! You start out by running up a nasty steep dirt hill and end by running up an almost equally steep paved hill! Cole was up for the challenge though! We met him up his first and replenished his liquid, and then he was good to go!

giving us the thumbs up that he was good to go!

I took two pictures of Cole to make up for the leg we disappeared on :)

Leg #10 (Sand Fanale) 6.35 miles. Difficulty: 7

There was no better man to run us to the finish line than Ron!! The heat of the day was definitely at it's hottest too! He totally rocked it and finished strong! Our finish time was about 7:39, which put us at a 8:58 pace!

feeling good the end was near!

the finishers (minus Lacey who went home with her fam :)

We finished 51 out of 95 teams overall and 26 out of 43 in our division! Pretty average and we were stoked! That dang 8 minutes added to our time didn't really help either, but we had fun and it was all worth it!

This post wouldn't be complete without a little shout out to our kids and sitter! Since we were gone from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM we decided to bring a sitter down with us! Katie was awesome and kept the kids happy, safe, and entertained while we were gone!!

Haylee and Katie enjoying some tunes on the way to St. George!

And our cute little Dylan Billin chillin' on the couch with is nunight :)

Ice Castles in Midway

2011-03-07T10:35:00.013-07:00

At the end of February Brett and I both had an afternoon off together (a first in a LONG time) so we decided to do something fun as a family! Brett had to work the 3:00 AM shift that morning, so we met him at work, ate some lunch, and headed up to Midway to check out the Ice Castles! Brett had seen an article in the newspaper about them and thought it would be something fun for the kids to see! He was right! The kids loved all of the frozen castles! Brett and I enjoyed it too! It's amazing that each and every one of them were really made out of solid ice! If you haven't heard about them, google it and check it out next year!
We ended the afternoon with an ICE cream treat (seemed appropriate:) and then drove down and ate Scaddy's for dinner! It was just a nice afternoon and fun to spend it as a family!

entering their first ice castle!

posing with the Mommy

picture with the Daddy

Haylee's showing you all just how big this castle really is!

our happy Haylee! (with a rolled up post-it note that's actually her cell phone in case you wanted to know...)

Dylan was more about eating the ice than looking at it! (and yes, there was a sign that said "DO NOT break the icicles")

couples pic!

walking around...

a classic Dylan/Haylee face

There's our happy boy! He comes out to play once in awhile ;)

And the afternoon wouldn't be complete if something didn't turn into a gun or sword. he's ALL boy!!

2011 Daddy Daughter Dance

2011-02-21T13:12:00.021-07:00

At Life Time Fitness they have a Daddy Daughter Dance every February. Haylee and Brett went to it last year and to this day Haylee still mentions her night out with her Daddy! This year was no different! Once Haylee knew the dance was coming up she literally asked me every day if her and Brett were going out! The day finally arrived and we had to get her all dolled up for the dance! Luckily Paul Mitchell was having a princess event and so we were able to get her nails, hair, and make up done for the night! We also met Keili and Emersyn there!

Getting the works!

her finished up-do!

I had to take this picture... Dylan is such a good sport! He comes with Haylee and me to every girly thing! Here I've caught him twirling to some princess music :)

Three little princesses ready for their ball! (I also wanted to point out Haylee's new smile. Not really sure where it came from, but you'll notice it a lot in these series of pictures :)

Haylee and Brett. Such a cute couple :)

Our sweet little princess!

Not quite sure what's going on here! Haylee's making a funny face and Keili is striking a pose :)

Haylee and Barbie

Haylee and Belle ;)

Haylee with Princess Tiana

Haylee, Keili, and Giselle

Haylee and Tink!

waiting her her chicken and fries!

I was a lucky Mama and had to work a few hours at this event, so I got to steal a little love from my princess!

I asked Haylee if she was having fun and this was her response... I'll take that as a yes!

Haylee and Cinderella!

boogying with Cinderella herself!

Haylee's busting out some moves to Karaoke!

This and That...

2011-02-21T12:46:00.008-07:00

In an attempt to get all caught up on what's been going on lately, I'm going to need to combine a few posts together! So, we've been a little busy with this...
My dad's Birthday. My dad would have been 53 on February 11th. Just 53 and he wasn't there to celebrate it with us. I wish it would have been his 90th birthday that he would have been missing for the first time. That would mean he's still here. But he's not, so we still did his favorite thing together. We met for lunch at El Farol and enjoyed a Ute cake! Ever since we were little, he has been taking us to El Farol for dinner. The owners knew us by name and we felt like VIP :) Since we had a party of 12, they stuck us in our own private room (which was good since we had 5 crazy kids). We talked about some good times, ate way too much, and enjoyed being with each other!

Beka, Jake, Ron (my dad's brother), and Theresa (my dad's wife)

Jason, Jaxon, my mom, and Dylan (who is dumping a whole basket of chips on his plate) And yes, that is a plate of bean dip chips which happen to be my all time fave at El Farol

Me, Haylee, Meghan, and Baby Davis

The Birthday Cake (from Schmidt's who make the BEST cakes around!)

And That...

Last Sunday was beautiful! The weather was just slightly over 60 degrees and we were LOVING it!! We got home from church, ate lunch, put Dylan down for his much needed nap, and headed outside. Haylee got a bike for her birthday and has mastered riding it around our kitchen, so she couldn't wait to get out and ride it up and down the street! We stayed out for a few hours and loved chatting with our neighbors! It just gave us some major spring fever and now we are dying with all of this new fallen snow!

my happy little girl riding "so fast"

A Few Projects

2011-02-14T12:52:00.010-07:00

We've been doing a few projects at The Borg's House this past month. One that took no effort on my part and one took a little effort on my part.

Project One:
Before I even got married I inherited my Great Grandma Thurgood's China. I loved it! It was displayed at my wedding, and then stuck in a box where it almost stayed for 8 years. We didn't have a dining room or china cabinet, so I really didn't have anywhere to put it! No where until, we inherited Brett's parent's dining room set!! We used to have front room furniture, but we NEVER used it! Not even when our home/visiting teachers came over. So we pretty much had a few couches, end tables, and coffee table for no reason. It was also taking up the space in a room that we never went in unless the kids decided to venture in there to play in the drapes. Once we got the dining room furniture moved in we decided we needed an easily accessible walk way from the kitchen to the dining room. To do that, a hole had to be made in a wall! This is where Carlos (or Haylee's new boyfriend that she now prays for at night) comes in! He's my grandma's handy man and did a wonderful job! You'd never know the walk way came later. He's that good! I love how it opens up the house too! I can actually look out my front windows from my kitchen now!!

Cutting the hole

a different angle (the kitchen is right behind me)

the finished result (with one handsome little man who loves to be in pictures)

and it was all done for this China set! We love it!!

Project Two:

Dylan is now 2 1/2 years old (I know, I can't believe it either). About three months after his 2nd B-Day he started climbing out of his crib. He loved to climb right out, come down stairs, wake me up, and demand a movie. It didn't matter what time of night or morning this was either. At this time I was having a really hard time sleeping anyway (around Nov. and if you know me, you know why), so being woken up in the middle of the night/early morning and sometimes multiple times of night was just not happening! Here's where my easy solution comes in.

Dah Dah Dah! THE CRIB TENT!!

It resembled a cage, but let me tell you, it was my saving grace. We know in the summer when we go to the Zoo Dylan will be pointing out all of the animal's crib tents too. ;) He actually liked it and we made it fun! He was totally enclosed and safe from hurting himself from falling out of his crib. Nights went back to normal and I was able to get my good sleep again. Well, that was until the zipper broke TWO MONTHS LATER! Really? When you spend $80 on an item that is supposed to be made for kids 18 mo- 3 years, you'd hope it would last a little longer! We attempted to fix the zipper on our own and it lasted about two days. So, we knew that our next project would be to get Dylan into a big boy bed. In one Saturday afternoon I bought a mattress off of a friend, found sheets, bedding, and turned a door knob around so it could be locked from the outside. He was set! He loved it! His nap that day was a dream come true! I wish I could say that much about his first night. It consisted of him waking up about 6 times. One of those times I even had to turn the lights on because he was lost in his closet. I think by the second night he realized there was no point of getting out of bed, because he couldn't get out of his room. Since then, naps and bed time are great! He loves his big boy bed and I'm in complete denial that we have no use for a crib in our house ever again...

Nu-Night-check, brown bear- check, white bear- check, pillow pet- check, car's blanket- check, gabba-check, tigger-check, puppy-check. Gang's all here! He's ready for his nap!

All snuggled in and ready!

I just love this little guy and can't believe he's growing up on me!

St. George Runner's Series...

2011-01-28T13:41:00.011-07:00

The week after the St. George Marathon, registration for the St. George Runner's Series opened up. If you're not sure what the series is, let me tell you... Before the St. George Marathon you have to run two races in St. George. They have to be approved by the runner's series, but it gets you a guaranteed spot in the marathon. Since the marathon is a lottery, it's the best way to do it if you want to for sure run it! Last year I ran two races that were series races, so I thought to myself "what the heck, I might as well register for the series in case I get the itch to run the marathon." Well, the day of registration I posted on Facebook "Just signed Brett and I up for the St. George Runner's Series. Here's to a year of stress!" And who do you think was the first to comment? My Dad. He said "You'll do it. Your determination and persistence is incredible. Love you!" Less than a month later, he was gone. All I have left of him are little comments on my facebook, pictures, memories, and the hope I'll see him again some day. After his death I thought to myself, "I have to run the marathon now." If my dad had the faith in me, then I have to have it in myself. I physically and mentally couldn't train for the St. George half that was last week, so I had to settle for the 5k. I felt a little silly running it, but it was all for the series. Our second race is a 50 mile relay in March, and then we will be qualified for entrance to the marathon. Running doesn't come easy to me. I've also taken a big break since my last half in June, so I'm a little rusty. Whenever I'm running and I feel like I'm hitting a wall, I just say to myself "don't give up. giving up is not an option. if I could have said that to dad before he pulled the trigger I would have..." And then I take deep breaths and keep running...
Brett and I took advantage of the race weekend and left the kids home with a sitter. My uncle Ron and cousin Cole were running the half too, so we met up and took some pictures before the races started...

Me and my uncle Ron (my dad's brother)

Me and Brett

Ron and Cole (they ran the whole way together!)

Our group (add my friend Lacey and it makes up our team for the 50 mile relay!)

Our friends the Carrs came down for the weekend and were super nice and came to the race! Here are the pics they took for us! (above) me finishing my 5k at 31:41

Brett hauling A to finish within his goal of 1:45. He made it with time to spare :)

Brett giving me the deets of his race and what he had to do to finish

proving that he had done it :)

us with Brett's super shiny blanket

The rest of our December

2011-01-02T16:40:00.019-07:00

Before anymore of 2011 slides by, I'd better write about the rest of our December!!
Ever since Haylee was a little baby, I've been dreaming of the day when she'd be old enough to take to the Nutcracker. I loved the Nutcracker growing up and enjoyed dressing up, going downtown, and attending a professional ballet! I was also in the Nutcracker when I was young, so it's always been a favorite of mine. I thought since Haylee was finally four, this was our year to go! And I'm so glad we did. It's now January 3rd and not a day goes by where Haylee doesn't make some sort of reference to the Nutcracker. She loved everything about it! She even sat and watched it all without getting too bored! That's my girl :) This will definitely be a tradition of ours that I will look forward to every December!

Me and my beautiful Haylee Bailey

The last festivities we had for December were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of course!! Haylee was really big into wanting to bake her very own cookies for Santa this year, so one of the first things we did Christmas Eve morning, was bake cookies!! I decided when we started I was going to stand back, let the kids take control, and I wouldn't stress out over it! I obviously measured and mixed, but they had complete control over pouring and tasting :) They had a blast doing it and not too much flour ended up on the floor! We made Chocolate Chip Cookies without the chocolate chips. That's how our Santa likes them! It's funny, Brett doesn't like chocolate chips either ;)

watching the mixing happen

so proud of their mixing skills. they better be careful, Daddy will put them to work at the bakery!!

cleaning the beaters, a must!

That night we headed over to my parent's house to exchange presents with the cousins and my siblings. We were a tad late, because we had to wake Dylan up from a nap and were convinced he had an ear infection. But, nope, no infection, just really ornery!

the first smile of the night from Dylan! He loved his puzzle!!

Haylee kissing Jared to say "Thank You!" For her Strawberry Shortcake DVD's! Jared's the uncle who doesn't live in UT, so when he comes to town, he spoils the kids!!

Our next stop of the night was to my grandparent's house for the BIG cousin exchange and Christmas jammies!! Yes, we are almost 30 and we still get jammies :)

Haylee got a Taylor Swift CD, necklace, and bracelet from my cousin Justin and became the happiest girl a live! She loves Taylor Swift and can pick her voice out anywhere we go! We have now listened to her CD a gazillion times and it never gets old to Haylee!

Dylan got a pillow pet from his cousin Davis and has slept with it every night since!

The annual cousin jammies!!

our cute little fam damily (with a slight change of jammies. the kids get two jammies. one from grandma and one from great-grandma)

Our next stop was to our house so the kids could put out their cookies they made with a glass of milk! Then it was off to bed cozy and tight! Santa came to our house and the kids didn't even care to wake up until after 8:30 to see what he brought them! Brett and I didn't complain, it felt good to get some sleep :)

Haylee showing off a few of her favorite things... her new necklace, "hair band," and princess camera

Dylan trying to figure out how to bust his toys out of the box without having to untwist a thousand grey, wired, twist ties. He didn't have any luck by the way, so mommy got to do it later :)

After our house was a disaster and the kids were dressed, we headed off to Brett's parent's house for our annual Christmas breakfast. To make a very long and emotional story short... After having a mini seizer of some sort and a 4 hour trip to the Emergency Room, Brett's dad is fine and doing OK. It did make for a long morning of waiting to make sure everything was OK though. I also couldn't bare the thought of losing another dad anytime soon. Did I already mention that it was emotional? When Steve came back and ate breakfast, it was time to break out the gifts!

girl's pic! Haylee also wanted to show off her necklace again :)

Brett and my best attempt at a self taken pic! Man, we look like we've been put through the ringer!

Haylee loving her doll, who's name is also "Haley"

Dylan showing off his new power saw!

Next on our list was dinner at my grandma and grandpa Castleton's. My dad's parents. It was really weird not seeing my dad this year. He didn't do a very good job keeping in touch throughout the year, but you always knew he'd be there for Christmas. We have countless pictures with him by my grandparent's tree. Anyway, dinner was fabulous! My grandma is probably the best cook I know. She has a certain touch with everything she makes. If I can one day master her baked beans, chili sauce, and marsh mellow brownies I'd be one happy girl!

Our family on Christmas

My family with my grandparents

We made one more stop to Bountiful to see the Strattons, then it was off to home! We got home before 9:00 PM, but it felt like midnight. It was a very busy/emotional day and all we had energy for was bedtime!

Thank you everyone for your kind gifts and words this Christmas season. We are grateful for our beautiful children, who really are the best gift we have ever received! We are grateful for our Savior and his sacrifice in our behalf. I don't know what we would do without the knowledge of the Atonement in our lives. We're glad to celebrate his birth at this special time of year!

Our December so far...

2010-12-20T10:09:00.030-07:00

I have way too much to catch up one, so I decided to make it one big post! We've had quite an eventful December so far! The first thing on our list was Haylee's Winter Dance Recital! Her costumes this year are to die for! She's the cutest Snow White you've ever seen! If she didn't have to wear it one more time in the Spring, I'm pretty sure she would live in it! She was so excited to get all dressed up with make-up and go dance with all of her friends!

Dylan (the proud brother) and Haylee all ready to go!

a quick picture with her friend Hadley. These two can get quite silly!

getting her smile on before the music started!

following along with her teacher

what you didn't see was, Haylee was the last one down! Better late than never :)

our beautiful dancer!

she loves when her cousins come to watch her!

Matalie (Haylee's biological half-sister) and Haylee

Cindy, Mindy, Matalie, and Haylee

Haylee, Shelby, and Jake

Haylee loves her uncle Jason!

Haylee and Grandma Pam

Jason, Meghan, Beka, Davis, and Jaxon

Kenzie, Jojo, and Haylee!

Theresa (Mimi T) and Haylee

The proud parents and our silly little girl

Daddy's girl

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lucy

The second thing on our list this December was a visit to Santa's house. Every year we go to the same Santa. He's the real deal and our kids love him! This year they both sat on his lap without our help and actually smiled!!

Haylee made sure to tell Santa that she wanted a baby alive and Dylan was just happy that he got a candy cane!

After experiencing such heartache this past month, it was nice to have something good and exciting happen for our family! My brother Jake got engaged to Shelby! I won't tell their story since I don't really have permission, but what I can tell you is... Shelby is perfect for Jake. She came into his life at a perfect time. It's one of those times where you know the Lord's hand played a part in bringing them together. There are too many coincidences to say otherwise. Shelby is also a sweetheart. She is one of the most sincere girls I've ever met. You can tell she truly cares and loves everyone in our family. She loves to be apart of our lives. She's tender, and honest, and has an inner and outer glow that is contagious!

When Jake was trying to figure out a way to propose, he called on me to help! While they were out with her parents and my parents I decorated my mom's house with rose pedals and candles. He had a present waiting for her that had everything they loved together. She was super surprised and tears were definitely shed. It was perfect!

waiting for them to come home to

some of the things they love together

the happy couple

I just love these two!!

Jake and Shelby with Kenzie and Jordan

Her beautiful flowers and ring!!

Most people know that I have the most hard working husband in the world! To top off his normally busy schedule, when December comes he works even longer hours!! We're talking 7 days a week and 16 hour days! To stay busy and to keep the kids from climbing up the walls with me at home, we have to think of things to do without him! Friday night I thought it would be fun to head over to Thanksgiving Point to see their holiday lights. I invited my mom and Mark to come along! The kids had a blast! They loved seeing and waving to all of the lights! At the end of it all, they have an area where two of Santa's real life reindeer live. The kids couldn't get enough of looking at them and yelling "Hi Reindeer!" Haylee was convinced she was going to see them fly :)

glued to the pen

the real deal

posing with Grandpa Mark

my best attempt to getting a picture of the kids together

Now that it's the week of Christmas we just have one day of pre-school and the rest of the week of late nights and play (for me and the kids at least. Brett will join us for fun on Christmas Eve). I just love this time of year. I love all of the family time we get to spend together. I love all of the new memories we get to create. I love the birth of our savior we get to celebrate. It's just a magical time of year!

Haylee turned 4!!

2010-12-10T10:12:00.020-07:00

I'm in a little bit of denial that I have a four year old. I can remember the day she was born like it was two weeks ago. Haylee is the sweetest girl I know. I also can't get over how beautiful she is. The fact that Brett and I were actually chosen to be her parents is completely overwhelming! We just love her dearly and can't get over her little personality.
Haylee is still into princesses big time! So, when we were trying to come up with an idea for her birthday party, Brett suggested that we hire Cinderella to come. Lets just say, it was the cutest party I have ever seen! Cinderella was a big hit and kept all 11 girls entertained, which right there in its self was worth every penny!

this picture has nothing to do with the party. I just love it because this is what she was wearing when she stepped off the bus from school!

ready for her royal ball

her princess cake

a warm welcoming hug from Cinderella herself!

loving her stories

the girls were glued to her the whole time!

what a bunch of beautiful princesses!

the birthday girl

posing with her flower

learning the proper way to twirl like a princess

ring around the rosies

getting a birthday crown from Cinderella

"thank you Cinderella! Come back tomorrow!" were Haylee's words

opening presents

blowing out the candles

after the party Mindy, Cindy, Marco, and Matalie came over to say hello and give Haylee some darling sparkle clothes and paper doll!

after they left we gave Haylee the last of her presents. She loved her bike! I told her she couldn't ride it in her dress, so she just stripped down and took off :)

Haylee had such a great birthday and has been playing with every toy and riding her bike around the house like crazy this morning! Thanks everyone for making it so special and a special thank you to Brett's parents for letting us host it at their house so all of our friends could come!!

I don't even know how to begin...

2010-11-22T12:58:00.011-07:00

It's been three weeks now since my dad opted to leave us and I've really wanted to write down my thoughts. I just don't know where to begin! I've debated whether or not I want to share the details about how I found out. I'd like to remember certain things, but when this is such a touchy subject, I just don't know how much I really want people that read my blog to really know. As much as I really do speak my mind, I am a private person. I guess I'll start with my last pleasant memories...

My dad called me around mid-October and announced to me that he was getting married. He had been dating his girl friend for a little while now and decided they had found their soul mates. They were going to be married in Vegas since they were going down there for Theresa's niece's wedding anyway. He didn't want to make it a big deal, so didn't think that any of his kids would want to come. Especially since they'd be getting married on Oct. 30th, which was technically Halloween in Utah. I didn't really give my dad a choice. I called up my brothers and we all figured out how to make the quick trip work. My brother Jared who lives in California even made the trip to Vegas. Jake and I got there on Friday night around 9:30 Vegas time, went and grabbed Jared, checked into our hotel, and headed out for people watching at its finest. First we stopped by my dad's hotel to tell the happy couple good luck! We stayed and chatted for about a half hour, then left to hit the city. Jason, Jordan, and Kenzie finally arrived around 3:30 am Vegas time, then we all hit the sac. That morning we met Dad, Theresa, her brother Kevin, her son Chanse, and his wife Janell at the court house. My dad looked so excited and I hadn't seen him that happy in a very long time. His ceremony was very casual, everyone wore jeans. We teased that the clerk couldn't even pronounce his name- she kept calling him "Dougruss." All in all, it was a happy time. After their ceremony we headed over to a wonderful cafe at the Wynn hotel. Their breakfast was seriously the best I had ever tasted! We were all together laughing and happy. When breakfast was over, my brother Jason and I had to head home to be with our kids for trick-or-treating. I remember giving my dad a big hug. He had tears in his eyes, which made me teary too. I remember him saying "I hope you know how much I love you Boo!" I said "I love you too dad." and gave him a kiss. He thanked me for making it down there for his wedding and I told him I wouldn't have missed it. Then as we walked away, we just sort of held hands for awhile. Being my dad's only daughter, we have a very special bond. Then we came to the point where we had to go our separate ways. And that was the last time I really saw my dad alive.

Jared, Jason, Me, Theresa, my dad, Jake, Kenzie, and Jordan at the court house

Fast forward to Monday... I called my dad to see how the rest of his weekend was and he told me it didn't go too well. Him and his wife had an argument over something that was a misunderstanding. I told him things would work out. He had to catch the other line on his phone, so I told him I loved him and that was the last time I talked to my dad.

Fast forward to 3:30 AM on Tuesday... I walked through the doors of my house exhausted. I had been at the hospital since a little after 9:00 PM. While at the hospital I had to sit in a tiny room full of my family, my dad's parents, my brothers and their wives, my husband, my dad's brothers, Theresa and her sons. We all had to talk to doctors and decide if we wanted to pursue surgery to save my dad's life. Knowing that this surgery might not work. Knowing that this surgery if it did work wouldn't fully return the dad that I knew and loved. His personality wouldn't be the same. That was one of the things I always loved about my dad. He would probably need 24 hour care. That was something my dad always made clear to us that he would never want. We had to decide whether or not to pull the plug on my dad's life. Talk about the hardest decision I've ever had to make. Someone that is 28 shouldn't have to decide whether or not to pull the plug on their dad who is only 52. Who just got married two days before. Who had 5 beautiful grandchildren. But, with a lot of family prayers and priesthood blessings, we were able to let my dad go. We decided to donate his organs, so they would work on that all night long. That would give Jared enough time to fly in from California to say good bye as well.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning at 9:30 AM. We all met back up at the hospital (actually Jason hadn't ever left). My dad was moved to the ICU and his face had been wrapped like a mummy so you couldn't see anything. I finally decided to join all of my brothers to say our last good byes. My dad was perfect from the shoulders down. I made sure to hold his hands. I always loved his hands. I actually have his hands (just not as chubby). He had worker's hands. Something I always loved about him. We were all able to hold another family prayer and finally release him. Most of us stepped out of the room, but some stayed until he took his final last breath. It only took ten minutes for him to pass on. At 10:40 am on Tues, Nov. 2nd my dad returned to Heavenly Father. He returned to live with his brother Jeff who had passed away a little over eight years ago. He returned to grandparents who are now taking care of him since we can't.

After he passed away they wrapped him back up and we went in the room. You could tell that his spirit was gone. There was a peaceful void in the room that hadn't been there before. My dad was officially gone from this life. After regaining our composure, we met in a chapel that the IMC hospital has to talk about funeral arrangements. My dad had always talked about being cremated. He wanted his "5 J's" to hike Red Castle in the Uintah mountains to spread his ashes. So, we started to call crematories in Salt Lake. We made arrangements to have his funeral at my brother's ward house "The Douglas Ward" actually, so that seemed pretty fitting. We also decided to hold it in the gym so that it was more laid back. The way my dad would have wanted it. We also decided to divide his ashes into several urns, so that we could spread them all over the places he loved. My dad loved the outdoors and was an avid fly fisherman. Our first place to spread his ashes would be up the Provo Canyon. He loved fishing up there and that is actually where he proposed.

Friday, Nov. 5th was his funeral. All of us kids spoke about all the great memories we had. My grandparents, bless their hearts, shared their thoughts. Theresa and her son shared words. His brother Ron recalled some childhood memories. A lot of tears were shed. A lot of love was shared. After the funeral, just family, headed up to the Provo River. My brother Jason gathered all of my dad's fishing gear and hats to change into. Brett stepped in my place, although I wore the hat until it was time to fish. We found the prefect place to spread my dad's ashes and officially named it "Doug's Spot." Spreading his ashes was very peaceful. Everything felt right. You could just feel that we were doing exactly what my dad would have wanted us to do.

me and my rock

making our way over to the perfect spot. (my dad would be proud, Brett had to carry me on his back accros the river, then I had to hop on rocks in black boots:)

spreading his ashes

walking away

I love this picture of my brother Jason and me. We're probably talking about how perfect it all was...

After we spread his ashes, the boys and Theresa fished for a little bit. It was a perfect end to a horrible experience.

It has now been three weeks to the day, and maybe even time, since I said good bye to my dad. I miss him everyday, but time has definitely helped heal. I don't know where I would be without my testimony of the gospel. Especially of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We had no idea what my dad was dealing with inside. Only God knows that. I have faith that he will be judged justly. Heavenly Father knows each one of us individually and will take care of us. We'll never know if my dad had a chemical imbalance. We'll never know what reasoning my dad had to take his own life. Only our Savior and God do, and I have peace in knowing that everything will be taken care of. We are now looking forward to the mini trips we have made to spread the rest of my dad's ashes around. We are also looking forward to doing his temple work. He has one year to get ready for us to re-baptize him and to take care of his endowments. Now more than ever do I have the hope that we will live for eternity with each other again. I now need to do my part to make sure I make it back to live with him again.

I have been so lucky to receive such great service from great friends and family members. All of the prayers that have been said in our behalf have been felt. I know that there will still be good and bad days. I just hope I never forget the good times.

I love you dad and I can't wait to be held my your loving arms once again.

IWUWE Always, your little Boo.

Sweet Tweets Boutique

2010-11-15T14:41:00.002-07:00

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Actually, I have a lot of everything in my life to catch up on, but I'll talk more about that later. This week my mom and I are frantically getting ready for our first Boutique!! We are so excited! Please come and support Curtsy Daisy and other local vendors this weekend!

Halloween Festivities- thus far...

2010-10-25T10:50:00.034-06:00

One thing's for sure, our family has definitely lived up the Halloween festivities this year! I think we're making up for being quarantined from last year's swine flu! We didn't even make it to a pumpkin patch last year! This year we started early and visited Gardner Village in September. I wouldn't do it any other way! It wasn't busy and the weather was still warm!

checking out the boat

looking for fishies

this is what happens when you say "Haylee say cheese"

taking a break from witch hunting and shopping

We decided to try something new this year and headed to Wheeler Farm with our friend's the Carrs. The kids got to ride a hayride, go through a maze, and pick a pumpkin from the patch. The kid's loved it all!

as good as a family picture gets! props to Brett and I for looking :)

checking out the horsies

saying cheese by the "moo"

I love how he has to make a tractor noise while he's driving!

all smiles.

posing for a quick pic in the maze

mazes are way more fun when you sprint though it!

picking the perfect pumpkin

so proud of her find!

typical guy. had to find a pumpkin that was bigger than his sister's ;)

when we got home Haylee insisted that we take a picture with their pumpkins on the porch. not to shabby of a picture either!

Our next festivity on the list was a Halloween party at one of our neighbor's houses. They do it every year, but this was our first year going. The kids loved dressing up in their costumes for the first time this year. They were able to ride on the back of a "tractor," play with their friends, scratch the heck out of their face (Dylan), and eat tons of sugar!

my handsome boys (Dylan is the cutest Puss in Boots!!)

after his nasty fall. it looked way worse the next day :(

Haylee (trying to stand the bright flash) with her friends. she loves her 10 year old friends and told me they were her "best friends" the other day!

Mine and Haylee's next stop was a primary Halloween Party! We both dressed like witches and had a ball!

Dylan can't resist a photo op!

There's still a week left to have fun and I'm sure my kids will live it up!

Mother of the Year Award!

2010-10-12T16:16:00.005-06:00

I hope I'm not the only mom that has bad things happen to them while they aren't looking. I'm usually (like today) just in the other room cleaning or something. So today I will accept my "Mother of the Year" award...I'd like to thank my little Haylee, for without her this award would not have been possible. I'd like to thank the little garbage can in my bathroom who acted like a step stool so that Haylee could reach my razors. I'd like to thank Dylan for not squirming so that the stripe of hair that was taken could be a perfectly strait line on his head. I'd like to thank God that no blood was shed in my absence since my children who are three and two were playing with new razors! I'd like to thank facebook, the Ogden Marathon web site, and my full dishwasher for keeping me occupied so this said incident could take place. Without all of these combined I wouldn't have the satisfaction of feeling like Mother of the Year today. Thank you.

*not pictured: Haylee who was in time out during the photo shoot.

St. George Marathon- the final one!

2010-10-04T13:16:00.010-06:00

I have about a gazillion other pictures and posts that I have been meaning to upload, but just haven't found the time or motivation! I didn't want this post to suffer like the rest of them have, because Brett has been working so hard and it finally paid off!
When Brett signed up for the Grand Slam last year (you have to run the Ogden, UT Valley, Park City, and St. George- Top of Utah can also replace one) I thought he was crazy! Four marathons in 5 months?? Well, then he went insane and signed up for 2 more on top of that! Some how he ended up getting injured (I have no idea how ;) and didn't run one of his marathons without pain. His finish times were still a heck of a lot better than my time would ever be not injured though! So, when it came time to run St. George, his hope of qualifying was out the window. Luckily his sister Jamie signed up for the race too, so he had someone to push and run with. Side note- if you ever need someone to run with, you want to run with Brett. He is THE best motivator and is so patient. He lets me cuss and take out everything on him and still loves me when we're done :). Anyway, the weather ended up being hotter than any start time in St. George Marathon history! They finished together at 3:59 and I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary watching Brett finish with his sister. Another side note, races make me two things... 1- emotional (I love the energy of a race! The smallest moments can set me off) and 2- a sailor (while I'm racing. Don't know why, that's just what happens).
Now that his 7th race in one year is over, Brett can't wait to sign up for the Grand Slam again. He promised me that he won't run any extra Marathons and that he will cross train better to avoid injury. We'll keep our fingers crossed! He has also talked me into signing up for the St. George Runner's Series. You have to run two races in St. George (which we already did last year, so I know what I am in for), then you are an automatic shoe in for the St. George Marathon. The thought of running a marathon freaks me out beyond belief, but I have a while before I actually have to register, so I'm going to see how the rest of my training goes. Plus Brett said he would run with me as long as he isn't trying to qualify. I'd love to run a marathon with Brett. I saw a husband and wife cross the finish line together at a race this past year and lost it!
Anyway, I'm really proud of Brett. He has come a long way with his running this past year! I just hope now that he can really enjoy his break from running until the St. George 1/2 in January!

packet pick-up with Jamie

coming to the finish line

the rock star finishers!

so proud of our Daddy!

sporting Brett's metals (Haylee's a little done)

taking pictures with Daddy's metal

showing me the 2010 St. George Metal!

my uncle Ron and Brett- the Grand Slammers!

Dylan turns 2!!

2010-09-14T13:19:00.030-06:00

It's only taken me three weeks to find the time to write this post, but who's counting? I promise it doesn't mean I love my little guy any less! I really can't believe Dylan is already 2! It seems like they aren't babies any more the day they have their birthday. The next day he just seemed older! Here are a few facts about Dylan... He is ALL boy! Rough and tumble and I love it! He still loves food and will be the first to come inside if food is mentioned. He loves/is obsessed with Cars!! Except for he doesn't actually say "car" it's more like a noise that comes from the back of his throat that starts with a "ka" sound. Dylan is a GREAT sleeper! He always has been! He takes a really good 2-4 hour nap during the day and sleeps all through the night for at least 11 hours. He's my cuddle bug. He loves to give me hugs and cuddle up with me at the end of the day for some down time. He is the most determined little boy I have ever met. Once he has his mind set, there's no changing it! Not so fun for mom right now, but I hope that drive doesn't change for when he's older. He believes that kisses really do make owies better. If he ever has an owie, he has to get it kissed or else he won't stop crying or obsessing about it :) The list could go on and on. He's a lot of work right now because of his age, but he's also so stinkin' cute so I put up with it ;) Love you buddy!!

For his birthday we had quite the celebration going on at our house. It started Sunday when Skyler's parents and Jen came over...

opening presents with Tim

no time waisted- playing with his cars...

opening Jen's present!

sneaking in a little cuddle time! I seriously love open adoption!

On his birthday (Wednesday, Aug. 25th) he started the day out by opening a present in bed

I love the quote above his bed!

later that day when Daddy got home, he opened more presents. He loves shoes!!

trying out his new bike!!

And then the real party started!!

climbing in the bouncy house!

getting tickled by Jen! She's seriously the best! My kids just attack her whenever she comes over!

Aunt Brittany (my step-sis) with Beka, Jaxon, and Davis

Italian Stallion Grandpa Mark

uncle Trevor, Grandpa Steve, and cousin Tyson

Grandma Lucy (with new baby Shia), aunt Debbie, and aunt Jamie

Grandma Pam, aunt Meghan, Travis, uncle Jason, and uncle Jake

my uncle Hank and aunt Tamara

Brett and Norm (Jen's dad)

Kristi (who looks fab for just having a baby 5 days prior) and Jamie (again ;)

Uncle Jojo

attempting to get a mommy picture

cousin Stephanie and baby James (Dylan and James have to hold their own against all the girls)

Dylan, Taye, Haylee, and Jen bouncin' around

opening presents and LOVING THEM!!

the cake

singing Happy Birthday!

blowing out the candle! He actually did it all by himself

looking at his food and deciding if he should take little bites or just one big one...

one big one it is!!

We had a really great day and Dylan had a blast! This will probably be the last big party he'll have for awhile and it sure wore us out!!

Park City Marathon- The Nail Biter!!

2010-09-08T14:34:00.009-06:00

While Brett was almost done training for the Park City Marathon he injured his knee. You would think he injured it while running, but no, he heard something tare as he was getting out of the car. Lame right? Who would think lifting up your leg to get out of the car could injure you? Maybe for someone who had already ran 4 marathons it would be possible! Well, the injury happened two weeks before the Park City Marathon. This is usually the dreaded marathon among all the marathons. The first 17 miles are UP hill. Yeah, killer! Brett iced and babied his knee up until race day. I can't tell you how nervous I was for him! The night before his race, he couldn't even go down the stairs normal! I was a wreck all morning!! Brett was nervous too. At this point he decided his goal was to just FINISH. He had six hours to do it, so he had to be fine with that. About an hour into the race got a text that said "6 miles down, feeling OK." I felt much better after getting that! I arranged for a babysitter to come to our house at 9:30 so I could head up to the finish line. I had Brett's crutches in the car just in case he wasn't able to walk after the race and wanted to be there to drive him home. I made it up there in enough time to meet his friend Shay around mile 20. We waited about 10 minutes then saw from a distance Brett and my uncle Ron pushing through! They were way excited to see us and it gave them a little boost of energy. They hit mile 23 in less than 30 minutes and finished strong at 4:46:13. He still finished top 52% in his age group and over all. Considering I couldn't make that time on two good knees, I was very proud of him! Now he just has one more marathon to go (St. George) and then he's done for the year! Crazy SOB!! ;)

realizing the cheering was coming from us!!

on the road again

coming around to finish!

They Made It!!

The rock star finishers!!

I'm a proud wife

Brett and his friend Shay (with his cute girls Jakelle and Kelsie)

Pierce/Castleton Family Pictures

2010-09-01T12:27:00.011-06:00

My wonderful and very talented friend Brittany took some family pictures for my entire family at the beginning of August. We went to the Peace Gardens downtown, which was a perfect place for pictures! Here are the incredible results!

the whole fam damily!

Our cute family of four!!

the pretty women

the good looking men! I may be bias, but I think I have some of the most good looking men in my family! Yes ladies, two of them are still single ;)

me with my man

classic grandparent pic!! Love it!!

Swimming Lessons!

2010-09-01T12:17:00.009-06:00

This summer we decided to sign Haylee up for swimming lessons. There's a darling family around the corner from us that offers lessons in their backyard. Haylee isn't a huge fan of pools, so my goal was just to get her used to the water. Well, she did great!! She loved blowing bubbles and was so proud to sit in the pool by herself (huge accomplishment)! Her teachers were darling and Haylee was sad when it was over...

what she came downstairs wearing when I asked her to go get her shoes on! Not really swim appropriate :)

blowing bubbles

practicing her back floats

ice cream scoops!

learning a new stroke!

strait leg kicks!

Way to go Haylee!

24th of July!

2010-09-01T11:56:00.008-06:00

Yes, It's September and I am blogging about July. That's just the way my life goes right now!
For the 24th of July we actually didn't have any big plans, which was actually kind of nice! Brett decided to run the Deseret Marathon in the morning (because 5 marathons in one year isn't enough), so the kids and I waited anxiously to hear how he did! He did really well until mile 23, then the notorious hamstring cramps started happening! His official time was still 3:39 and he finished top 21% overall and finished 10th in his age group at 26%. He's a running machine I tell ya! During the day Daddy and Dylan took a much needed nap and Haylee and I went shopping (which was also much needed :).
Later that night we met at my mom's house for a small BBQ with a few of my brothers. I was in charge of buying th fireworks and did an amazing job ;) Really, I only spent $10 and the kids thought they were spectacular!! We also watched the Rio Tinto fireworks from afar and then called it a night! Good times!

eating ice cream on the back porch!

Haylee and Daddy

Dylan looking for the next firework to light!

watching the awesome firework show with Grandpa Mark!

our attempt at a family picture :)

Haylee with Grandma Pam

Pictures at the Peace Gardens

2010-08-12T10:11:00.014-06:00

A few weeks ago we headed to the Peace Garden's to take some updated pictures of the kids. Dylan turns two in a week and a half, so we thought this was a good time to take some updated pictures of them. Getting a picture with the kids together was about impossible, but we did get some good ones of them alone...

they're together!

love this one!

Our Little Boy... DYLAN

would you seriously look at those eyes??

Our Little Girl.. HAYLEE

she has a smile that could brighten anyone's day!

mommy's toe shoes :)

Little Lady Ballet

2010-08-12T09:56:00.008-06:00

My darling friend Natalie has a ballet studio in her basement and teaches dance. In the summer she holds a little summer workshop. It's the cutest thing you've ever seen! Haylee loved all of the princess crafts they did every week and still marches around in the tutu and crown she received. At the end of the workshop they had a "garden tea party" at Natalie's mom's house. Her mom, Connie, is actually who I took dance from when I was a little girl.
I love that Haylee has the opportunity to experience all of the cuteness I got to when I was young! Natalie and Connie sure know how to do it! When the girls first got to the party they went on a walk on the "secret path" looking for fairy houses. That was followed by a darling tea party with little treats and lemonade.
Haylee had a blast and we were both sad when it came to an end. Haylee is now back at AED, but always asks if she's going to go dance with Miss Natalie instead. I just wish Little Lady Ballet was a little closer to our house.

arriving to the tea party

Dylan can't resist saying "cheese" when the camera is out :)

posing before their walk in the "secret garden"

looking for fairy houses :)

leave it to Dylan to double fist at a tea party! (no that is not his princess CD player)

my two kiddos enjoying their treats!

Swimming!

2010-08-12T09:47:00.005-06:00

Before the summer is officially over (for us it will be when Haylee starts school again), I have a goal to get our blog caught up. I don't know what it is about summer that keeps me busy, but I tend to slack in a lot of areas!
On one of the rare days that we were actually home, I decided to whip out the kiddy swimming pool and let the kids have at it!

my rough and tumble boy digging right in

my princess girly girl taking a little dip

I'm pretty sure Dylan is plotting how he's going to get his sister wet!

Nutrition!

2010-07-29T10:52:00.005-06:00

fats and oils

Yesterday I met with a nutritionist from my work and I'm still in awe about how clueless I was about eating right! I guess to make sense of all of this, I'll start from the very beginning...

I took what's called a Cardio Point test 6 months ago. The test measures your oxygen intake/carbon dioxide out put and your heart rate. After they have those numbers they tell you at what point in your heart rate you burn the most fat. Those are always your lower heart rate "zones." It also tells you at what heart rate you burn mostly sugar. Since I started doing endurance runs last year I didn't pay attention to any of my zones and I just trained hard all of the time. Which meant, I was always burning sugar. It's not bad to burn sugar, but sugar is not the most ideal fuel source for your body to burn. You can burn out fast because your body only has so much sugar to give. So, when you are doing endurance sports, such as running for long periods of time, you want to train your body to burn fat. Naturally your body has fat storage. If you can train your body to burn fat while you run, you can last forever and go faster! Well, I started to get frustrated that I wasn't able to run very fast, so through taking this test I learned that when I run I only burn sugar. NOT GOOD! So I cooled my training down a little bit and started working in my lower zones. After religiously working on it for 3 months I should have seen an improvement, but I didn't! Let more frustration begin!! I have an awesome personal trainer who started to brainstorm why my body isn't allowing me to burn fat. He asked me on a typical day what I ate. I started listing everything as he inputted the info into a food journal on http://www.livestrong.com/ and we figured that I only eat about 1,000 calories a day. And mostly carbs. Aain, NOT GOOD! So, here comes the second test I took...

I took what's called a RMR. It test your resting metabolic heart rate, which can then calculate how many calories your body burns on any given day without doing any extra physical activity. I burn 1,100 calories. I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but that's just what it is. So when I'm only eating on average 1,000 calories I'm -100/day. You have to give your body good fuel to survive or else it'll start storing fat, because it's afraid it won't get it back. Hence my problem! My body is afraid that I won't replace the calories so it refuses to allow me to burn fat!! So, here comes my next step, meeting with a nutritionist...

If you ever need a good one, contact Cameron Morgensen at: cmorgensen@lifetimefitness.com. He was so great!! He's really good at educating you so you understand what's a good complex carb and what's a good simple carb. As well as good protein and fat. Yes, you have to incorporate good fat into your diet. He put me on a 1,500 calorie diet. That's just to maintain my weight. If I wanted to lose weight and that was my ultimate goal, he would have dropped the calories. He then set out a meal plan for me that consists of 6 meals a day! Holy cow, 6 meals!! I'm usually just a 3 a day type girl! It's better to keep feeding your body good protein and carbs throughout the day to keep your metabolism going. So my day will consist of 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% good fat. After he drew out my meals I looked at him and said "this is a ton of food! Are you sure I'm not going to gain weight??" He said that I'm going to be really surprised. If I give my body the right types of foods and keep exercising the way I am I might even lean up a little bit and gain some muscle (which would be nice!). In return, my metabolism will be a lot more stable and my body will allow me to burn fat when I run! Which is my ultimate GOAL!!

Just because I know your curious, here's an example of a breakfast...

Carbs- 45: 1/2 cup plain oatmeal, 1 apple

Protein- 18: 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg

Fat- 10 grams: 7 almonds (fat also in whole egg)

I used to eat just a bowl of cereal, which was pure carbs, so this is going to be a change! All of my meals are somewhat similar and consist of good carbs, protein, and fats.

Ater meeting with Cameron, I grabbed a shopping list and headed to the store! All morning I've been cooking things ahead of time so when it's time to eat all I have to do is grab it and heat it up! He said the key to keeping to it is convenience. I love convenience!! All for it!

I'm super excited to see the changes happen and am so lucky to have such educated people who are willing to help me!

4th of July Festivities

2010-07-21T17:56:00.009-06:00

Our 4th of July weekend was actually filled with Birthdays! We started it off at Jordan's 21st birthday! We had a fun BBQ at Jason and Meghan's, then headed to Keys on Main! Well, at least some of the adults did :) Since Jordan had turned 21 he wanted to live it up with a virgin margarita and some good music! Keys on Main is actually pretty entertaining and the piano players are quite talented!

family picture!

Keys on Main with my Bro Jake

The Birthday Boy Jordan with his cute wifey Kenzi

On Saturday we headed over to my Uncle Ron's house to celebrate my Grandpa Grant's 80th Birthday! I still can't believe he is 80! One thing is for sure, I hope I end up with his grey hair genes! He's just barely going grey! Yah, and he's 80! Instead of presents this year my Grandma asked us to each write him a letter. Try writing your 80 year old grandpa a letter without crying. It's impossible! After dinner we headed over to Brett's sister's house and lit some fireworks with all of the cousins! The kids had a blast :)

My cute grandpa

I hope Brett and I are like this in 50 years :)

Haylee with her cute cousin Beka modeling Curtsy Daisy's Miss Liberty Skirt

Utah Valley Marathon/Half Marathon

2010-07-21T10:21:00.007-06:00

I have A LOT of catching up to do! My first catch up post is going to be about the last race Brett and I participated in... The Utah Valley Half Marathon1 The slogan was "the pain you enjoy." And that is so true! I don't love the way I feel after I have ran 13.1 miles, but for some reason I always sign up for the next race and I truly enjoy racing! I was going to run this race with some adoption friends again, but their lives got too busy and training became too challenging. Luckily a couple in our ward had signed up to run the half as well, so I had some people to tag along with and talk to on the bus!
The race time was actually 5:30 AM. Ya, I know, that's way too early for anybody! That meant that we had to be up and at 'em before 3:00 AM to get ready and drive to Provo. We were fortunate enough to find places for our kids to sleep that night so we didn't have to worry about them. We still didn't get too much sleep and arrived in Provo in enough time to catch the bus to the starting line! The race actually started a little late, which I wasn't too happy about! If you're going to have a 5:30 start time, start ON TIME! Otherwise, start at 6:00 OK? Anyway, the race started up Provo Canyon. Brett's actually started closer to Midway, but still up the same canyon! When the gun went off my strategy was to take it nice and easy for the first two miles since it was all a gradual hill. Well, my plan worked and by the first aid station at mile 2 I was ready to take off! I loved all of the downhill and totally took advantage of it. For some reason I was under the impression that the majority of the race was downhill. But, we were only in the canyon for the first 6 miles, then it was flat or a little uphill from there. Blah! I was hoping for a better time than my last race, but actually finished around the exact same time. After thinking about it, I technically did do better, because my last race had more downhill. So, if I could run the same distance with less downhill and get the same time- I had improved! My sweet brother Jake decided to support me at the finish and it was so nice to see a familiar face! After stretching, eating and using the potty, we still had about an hour before Brett thought he would finish. I just enjoyed sitting there and soaking in all of the positive energy! I love watching runners finish a race! I love the determination that's on their face! I love the tears that sometimes follow afterwards! It gives me a high like I've never felt before and I love being a part of it!
Well, Brett finished around his goal and he did great! It was his 3rd Marathon this year and he still finished strong! He still has 3 left (ya, 3). I'm so proud of him and his determination inspires me!
Unfortunately we didn't have our camera, so the only pics we have were taken with a cell phone...

My uncle Ron, Me, and Brett before going our separate ways to load the buses

The Finishers!

My cute brother Jake with Brett and me

Brett and I (yah, it was June and freezing by the way!)

sporting our awesome adoption running shirts!

Our Big Preschooler!

2010-06-21T10:56:00.004-06:00

All ready for school!

Last Tuesday Haylee started Preschool. I know what you're thinking- isn't it summer? Yes it is, but her school has two more weeks and invited her to join in before the break began!
For the past four months Haylee has gone through some pretty extensive tests to test her language and speech skills. After Haylee turned three we started to wonder if she needed some extra help in those areas. Haylee is actually a very bright little girl and has a memory like an elephant, but sometimes she has a hard time communicating and understanding others in some conversations. The school district actually does all of the testing for free, so our thinking was- we might as well get her tested to see if she needs extra help and if she doesn't, then at least we know! Well, test after test did show that her scores in the cognitive areas were below average. They summarized it by saying Haylee has a hard time understanding language in general, so when people ask her questions in ways that she isn't familiar with, she has a hard time responding back to them. Her speech is actually normal, but will improve even more once she understands more language! Once we had all of her results, a school reviewed them and accepted her into their preschool program! We are so excited for Haylee! She has the best teachers and they have some really positive goals in line for Haylee for the next few years!
It was a little strange sending Haylee off the school for the first time. School means she is growing up on me and I'm not ready for that yet! I would be lying if I said I didn't get teary eyed as she walked in the school holding her teacher's hand! When I picked her up she was all smiles and had a note in her backpack from her teacher saying "Haylee had a really great first day!" She loved telling me about the friends she met, the pom poms she played with, the snacks she ate, and the fact that she used the potty!
We're super excited for Haylee to have the opportunity to learn from teachers who specialize in this area of teaching. Haylee is in good hands and we are sure she'll start to improve quickly!

Jungle Jim's

2010-06-21T10:49:00.005-06:00

For those of you who live in Utah will agree with me that we have had the craziest weather lately! One day it will be nice and warm and beautiful outside and the next day it will be rainy and freezing! A few Fridays ago I woke up and was sick and tired of staying inside all of the time! Especially because it is June and we are used to being out and about! So, I loaded up the kids and headed to Jungle Jim's (by myself I might add :). The kids loved riding all of the rides! Probably just as much as I loved getting out of the house!

lovin' the swings!

driving the rockets!

Jeepin' it up!

Although Jungle Jim's is a little ghetto, the kids loved it and that's all the mattered :)

Making Cookies!

2010-06-21T10:43:00.003-06:00

One of the best parts about being married to a baker, is that I can just call him at work and ask him to bring home things! Need rolls for dinner? No worries, just call! Need bread? Cakes? Treats? Just make a phone call! As long as he remembers to bring it home, it's easy :) Just kidding Brett, I know you get busy and can't help but forget sometimes :)
Although it's super convenient, I have to admit that I miss having homemade goodies once in awhile. I also have two very good helpers that are always ready and willing to lend a helping hand in the kitchen! I can't resist but to make some homemade cookies once in awhile. And my kids love to lick the beaters! It's the best part of baking right?

First Trip to The Zoo '10!

2010-06-21T10:32:00.007-06:00

Please bare with me as I have a lot of catching up to do! At the end of May we headed to the Zoo with Brett's family. We do this every year and decided it was better earlier than later in the summer to beat the heat! It was such a nice day and the kids loved walking around with their cousins! This is probably the first of many trips we will make up there this year. Both Haylee and Dylan are at such great ages! Dylan couldn't get enough of the animals and loved every minute of it!

following a peacock!

you can't really see the peacock in this pic, but it's there and the kids loved watching it!

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lucy with their grandkids!

some of the little girls walking around the Zoo!

Haylee's 1st Dance Recital!

2010-05-31T12:30:00.021-06:00

before the show began!

Last Wednesday Haylee had her first dance recital with AED (her dance studio). This was her first official dance recital EVER, so Brett and I were curious to see how it all went down! Haylee is a little free spirit, so you never know what you're going to get with her :) We knew she was going to make us laugh, we just didn't know everyone else was going to laugh along with us too!
Haylee had a dance rehearsal on Tuesday, which I video taped, and she did great! The only thing she forgot to do was run off stage after she was done, so she was just standing there all by her little lonesome as the class behind her took the stage :) A teacher had to lead her off and I am sure she talked to her about leaving the stage, because when it came time for her to perform in the recital the next day she had no problems running off...
Her recital went a little something like this... Before the recital even started we had to drop her off behind the stage to stay with her class and little helpers. We found our seats and waited for the show to start. Just as it was about to start, we saw a little ballerina take the stage all by herself! Yep, it was Haylee! She jumped the gun alone and wondered on stage before the show began. Her cute teacher Miss Anne came to the rescue and had her waive, then they let the stage. Oh, our little Haylee! What a nut! The funniest part about that was, her class wasn't even the 1st performance! They were about 5th, so she really jumped the gun! Then it was their time to take the stage. Her class had to sit on some back benches while they waited for another class to finish.

waiting their turn on the benches

Once Haylee's music began they were to run to their spot! Well, Haylee had it nailed in her head that she was supposed to leave the stage, so when the other class ahead of her left, she ran off too!

coming back on stage :)

She shortly returned and almost ran off the other way until she saw her teacher flagging her down to do the dance.

coming back from almost going off the stage again :)

Haylee then decided she was going to dance with her class and follow her teacher. Well, that was until the chasse's came into play. She chasse'd one way and when she was supposed to chase to the other, she ran off stage again!

dancing with everyone... finally!

By this time she had the whole audience laughing! But someone off stage stopped her and she returned to finish the rest of the dance with her class!

coming back, yet again!

One thing was for sure, she was not afraid to be on stage! I think in her mind she was thinking "don't stay on stage, run off this time..." It was the funniest thing we've seen in a long time! We are so proud of her!! Now we have the summer off to play, but when she returns she will be taking Ballet, Jazz, and Tumbling! Yeah Haylee!

clapping for herself :)

the victory walk with her flowers!

being a little shy to all of her guests

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lucy

Marco and Nana

Grandma Pam

Mommy and Daddy

Grandpa Doug

Dylan, Beka, Haylee, and Jaxon

Jason, Meghan, Dylan, Haylee, Beka, Baby Davis, and Jaxon

Kenzie and Jojo

Cousin Emersyn

Thank you everyone for coming! And for those of you who didn't make it, no worries, we have it all on video :)

Curtsy Daisy

2010-05-28T10:59:00.003-06:00

I've been a little, OK a lot, occupied with this little project: http://curtsydaisy.etsy.com/. Curtsy Daisy is the new name of our little skirt shop. Sewn Sassy was actually already taken on etsy, so we brainstormed and Curtsy Daisy was the winner! We love our new name, banner, and everything else about it! We are extremely proud of our new 4th of July skirt and have it being sold in a few stores in Utah! We actually had it showcased on channel 14 last Saturday too!
Check out our store, become a fan on facebook, and let us know how we can create a darling skirt for your little miss!

#2- Ogden Marathon

2010-05-18T22:54:00.009-06:00

This past Saturday Brett ran his second of five marathons! He decided to set his goal at 3:30-3:35 and told me that the only thing that would hold him back from reaching that time would be an injury. He ran with our friend Scott who is one of those insane runners who runs 100 mile races! He taught him a few tricks on how to pace himself, then take off to finish strong! Our friend Shay also ran this Marathon, so Tiffany and I loaded up the kids and headed up to Ogden Saturday morning to cheer on our husbands. When 3:30 came and went I started to get really excited! I knew Brett would be coming down the final stretch anytime! Then, 3:31, 3:32, 3:33, and 3:34 came and went. I started to worry that he re injured his hamstring. He's been babying it since we ran our 50 mile relay in March. Then just like that, 3:35 came and Brett and Scott appeared! I could tell Brett was in pain, but he still looked strong! I gathered up the kids and met him passed the finish line to congratulate him! He said that at mile 23 he felt like his hamstring snapped, so he ran the last 3 miles in pain. He still met his goal and I couldn't be more proud of him! On Sunday when he woke up, his hamstring felt fine, so he's thinking that his hamstring may have just cramped! That's great news considering he's running in the Utah Valley Marathon in 3 1/2 weeks! I'll be doing the half marathon as well, so it'll be fun being at a race together again! Brett's planning on taking more time off and eventually qualifying in the St. George! Good luck sweetie! We'll be there cheering you on along the way!

icing his hamstring after 26.2 miles!

Scott and Brett

Marathon #3!

Brett and Shay (who also did an awesome job and finished in 4:10!)

so proud of our Daddy!

our happy little camper

Haylee and Jakelle staying busy picking the grass

7 Years- Look How Far We've Come!

2010-04-29T12:37:00.003-06:00

7 years seems like a long time! When I look back at the 7 years Brett and I have been married, I am amazed at how much we've built and what we've become! We have 2 kids, beautiful house, awesome marriage, a cat, our dream car, and our health! We have so much to be grateful for! I feel so lucky to be Brett's partner. When I think of the future and things start to make me nervous, I just think to myself that Brett will be there with me all the way and all of my anxiety goes away! He's a wonderful father! Wonderful is probably an understatement! He just loves our kids and does things every day that make me realize how lucky I am to have HIM be the father of my children.

This week is also National Infertility Awareness Week, so I've been thinking A LOT about how far we've come and everything we've gone through. The other day I watched a "What IF" video about infertility highlighting all of the What IF questions that pop up while you are going through Infertility. One of the questions on this video said... "What IF my husband leaves me for a woman who can bear his children?" I would be a liar if I said that worry never crossed my mind. Especially when we've ran into Brett's past girlfriends and their cute little kids. I've worried that Brett regrets choosing me over them. But, early on in our struggles with Infertility Brett reassured me that... "I chose you to be my wife. In doing so, I chose everything that comes along with loving you. I can't choose my kids or how they get there. That's up to Heavenly Father and I'm OK with that." I have had to hang on to those words so many times! I'm just glad I have a partner who will love me for everything that makes up me. Infertility and all!

Love you sweetie! Thank you for 7 amazing years!

Three Kisses,

Jenny

Salt Lake Marathon '10

2010-04-21T11:05:00.013-06:00

This Marathon marks the first of 5 (maybe even 6) for Brett this year!! He signed up for the "Run the State" or "Grand Slam," which is 4 marathons in 6 months. They include the Ogden, Utah Valley, Park City, and St. George. Well, when one of my brothers was going through a hard time this past winter Brett told him to run a marathon with him! It would get him to focus on something positive and would keep his body healthy. After looking into a few marathons my brother decided he wanted to do the SL. The one marathon that's not on Brett's list! Regardless, Brett was willing to register and run it with him for support! Well, they started training and then my brother's work life got really busy. It was a good thing for him, but interfered with his training. When the 20 mile run can around in their training schedule my brother decided to just go for it even though he'd only ran 14 miles up to that point. Well, let's just say at mile 16 I received a phone call that he couldn't make it any further and needed to be picked up :) He actually started having knee problems and his muscles kept cramping on him. Well, ever since that run his knee makes the worst popping noise I have ever heard!! So, he was out for the count and left Brett to run alone. Well, Brett had a friend, Shay, who had been training for the Ogden Marathon and called him up and said that he could take my brother's place if he wanted it! Shay was a little hesitant, but decided- what the heck! Brett has been actually babying a tender hamstring, so they both decided to not push it and to just finish. Besides, the Ogden is in 3 weeks and they wanted to make sure they could run that!

The morning of the SL Marathon Tiffany, Shay's wife, and I loaded up the kiddos and headed downtown to cheer on our hubbys!! They finished in 4:36:45 and we were so proud! We handed Haylee and Jakelle over the wall and had them cross the finish with their Dads! It was pretty cute! To this day Haylee will tell you that she ran with her Daddy :) Brett was just happy that he finished un-injured and felt great afterwards!! He would like to try and qualify if he feels good enough in a few weeks, so he'll need to knock off about an hour and 20 minutes from his time or 40 minutes from his 1st marathon's time :) If his hamstring holds up, I know he can do it!

The girls had way too much fun screaming and laughing in the car!

if Dylan sees you take a picture, he sits and says "cheese" until you take his :)

melting in the sun while we wait

our boys finishing strong!!

Brett is holding Haylee and Shay with Jakelle, headed for the finish!!

proud Haylee with her Daddy

the girls had to eat some post-race snacks too :)

flaunting their metals!

fam pic!

Things That Start With The Letter 'B"

2010-04-21T10:55:00.004-06:00

Our little Dylan Billin loves things that start with a letter "B." He is the happiest when he was a bear, a ball, or his Mommy Borg :) OK, so the last one is a stretch, but he really does love bears and balls!! The other day just Dylan and I were at the mall (a rarity), because Haylee was at playgroup. While we were walking down the hall Dylan started to get really excited about something and started reaching! I looked over and saw "Build-A-Bear." He just kept saying "bear, bear, bear!" So I thought, what the heck. Haylee got her 1st build-a-bear when she was about Dylan's age, so we headed in. He couldn't get enough of all the bears on display! I handed him a sample and asked if he wanted that bear and he just kept hugging it and saying "yah!!" I recorded a little message for his bear (similar to Haylee's) and he waves and says "love you" when he listens to it :) I hope he always has this much love for little simple things like a teddy bear :)

A Little Bit of This...

2010-04-11T22:23:00.021-06:00

Here's one big post to catch up on all I've missed!

We've done a little bit of this...

spilling apple juice on our tray and slurping it up!

And a little bit of that...

finding Easter Eggs in our jammies

Dylan was all about Easter this year!!

The kids with their loot!

And a classic meltdown from Dylan after candy was taken away so we could eat breakfast :)

the kids in their Easter Best

And a cute one of them holding hands!

We did a little bit of this...

double fisting Easter Eggs at the annual Borg Family Easter Egg Hunt!

And a little bit of that...

Haylee looking beautiful as usual!

an attempt to get a picture with ALL the grand kids!

We did a little bit of this...

putting the change he found from his eggs into his piggy bank!

And a little bit of that...

random I know, but modeling Foxy Fitness wear at a Lifetime Fitness Fashion Show

She did a little bit of this...

while waiting for mommy to change after the fashion show, Haylee hopped on stage and showed off some classic "Haylee Hippie Dancing"

We did a little bit of that...

riding on Uncle Jake's new scooter "Sasha" with Grandpa

and lovin' every minute!

And of course, he had to do a little bit of that too...

while resembling a little someone else...

and also lovin' every minute!

We've kept quite busy, but have had a lot of fun. I've enjoyed laughing to myself tonight as I've added these pictures. My kids add such joy to my life! Gotta love parenthood :)

Working on this...

2010-04-08T12:13:00.001-06:00

http://sewnsassy.blogspot.com

I've been MIA lately, because I've been helping my mom with her new little business called "Sewn Sassy." You need to check her blog if you haven't yet! Let me know if you are interested in a skirt!

Moda- Frolic

2010-03-28T21:01:00.005-06:00

It amazed me yesterday as I sat and watched my mom turn a beautiful piece of fabric into a darling skirt!! I bought this fabric at "Material Girls" and it's by Moda and in the Frolic line :) So darling and you can have one too for $15 (excluding fabric)!!

I also made Haylee two matching hair clips with the scrap pieces and am going to be making them for people for $4 for one bow or $6 for two! Or I can make it into one pin for $4 :) So cute to pin on a cute top, jacket, or sweater!

Email me if you are interested! Skirt weather upon us! jennyboo12@hotmail.com

The Utah Valley 1/2 Marathon it is!

2010-03-28T09:44:00.003-06:00

After going back and forth about which 1/2 I wanted to run next, I decided on the Utah Valley 1/2!! I'm super excited and Brett's going to be running the full! So after I'm done, I'll be waiting at the finish line cheering on my hot hubby! The only downside to this race is the start time is at 5:30 AM!! I don't even know what 5:30 AM looks like! Let alone 3:30 AM, which is probably the time I will have to wake up! Oh the things we do for running!! As of yesterday there were only 125 spots left in the 1/2, so if anyone wants to join me, hurry and sign up!!!

Skirts for Sale!!

2010-03-26T09:32:00.004-06:00

After posting pictures of some skirts my mom and I made, you wouldn't believe the feedback I received! A lot of them wanted to know if I would be willing to make some skirts for them! Let's just say, I wasn't the talent behind the skirts. I definitely helped, but my mom is the master sewer and perfectionist! After talking to my mom about how much everyone loved them and wanted them for their girls, she has now decided to start making them for people! You just need to provide the fabric and elastic and she will sew them for you for $15.oo/skirt! I think that is a great deal! The pattern alone costs $10, so for a little more you are saving your time and having someone do it for you :) If you are interested, go ahead and send me an email: jennyboo12@hotmail.com. Spread the word, it's almost skirt weather!

Canyonlands Half Marathon, where it all began

2010-03-22T09:04:00.007-06:00

Well, it's finally done. The half marathon that started my running bug in the first place. Way back in August I read this post on the r house blog. I starred at the computer for literally 20 minutes with butterflies in my stomach thinking to myself, "can I really run a 1/2 marathon??" 13.1 miles is a long run and up to this point in my life I had only ran 3 miles. A really slow 3 miles. I called Brett at work and told him my "dilemma." He was very encouraging right from the get go. He had all the faith in the world in me. He knew I could do it. I just had to talk myself into it. I'm the type of person that once I set my mind on something or tell someone I'm going to do something, I don't step down. I knew I had to be totally in this and willing to train if I said I was. So, I gathered up enough courage to comment...

"OK Mrs. R after a 30 minute pep talk by my husband (who is training for the Top of Utah Marathon in Sept.) I have decided to run with you ladies! Could you please email me the training schedule?? I have only ever ran a 5k, so a 1/2 marathon is totally intimidating! I'm already nervous!!"

And just like that, I was committed! I started running on my own and got up to running 5 miles before the training schedule started. Fast forward another month and me and my friends decided to run a 1/2 together in January. Well, due to personal things going on in my friend's lives, I ended up running the St. George 1/2 with Brett in January. By doing so, I had to start my training in November. I was really nervous for it, but surprisingly enough, my body didn't let me down and I was able to run! You can read about my first half here...

Now fast forward to this last weekend. Lindsey, Lacey, Lindsey's sister-in-law Juliann, and me all headed to Moab to run for adoption!! The feedback we got back from people about our shirts was awesome!! Great adoption advocacy!! We all ran at different paces, and we all finished strong!! For me, it was the first time I had ever ran alone. I usually have Brett there pushing me on my long runs. I was pleasantly surprised that I had it in me to do it alone!! I had a goal of finishing by 2:20 to beat my previous time and I did it with 30 seconds to go!! The course was a lot of fun and really beautiful. I remember feeling really proud of myself, because by mile 8 I still felt really good!! Then a beast of a hill crept up on me at mile 9 and I thought to myself "why do I run?" After getting my heart rate down again I was back to a pretty good pace until... we got out of the canyon. Nothing is worse than running through a gorgeous canyon, then finishing your last 1 1/2 miles in a neighborhood! I stopped at the aid station at mile 12 to get my last boost of energy by drinking both water and gatorade. Then, it took everything I had to get my legs going again!! I thought I was running pretty fast until I looked at the garmin on my wrist and noticed that I wasn't. I picked up my pace a little bit, then turned a corner. And there it was. A finish line that couldn't have been so close, but so far away at the same time. I tried to pick up my speed, but all of my energy was gone and my legs didn't want to go any faster! Then I saw her. My dear new friend Lacey who is a speedster and finished a half hour before I did. She was cheering me on, then started running with me!! She knew of the goal I wanted to reach and kept pushing me. She encouraged me to go beyond and run even faster! I had about .10 to go and had less than a minute to do it. I sprinted to the finish line with 30 seconds to spare! I felt so incredibly exhausted, but I did it! I ran my best. I ran for adoption. What a great feeling!!

Now that it's over the running bug inside of me is looking to my next race! It might be the Utah Valley Half or the Top of Utah Half! We'll see. All I know is, I feel so proud of myself for tackling such a hard beast. Running is a whole different animal and harder than anything I have ever put my mind to. It's physically, mentally, and emotionally draining! But when you cross the finish, it's worth every stinkin' mile!

me, Lacey, Lindsey "mrs. r," and Juliann

showing our stuff, "r house runs for adoption"

in front of the "finisher" banner and proud of it!

Haylee got her ears pierced!

2010-03-13T15:23:00.008-07:00

Haylee has a "good behavior" chart hanging up in our hall closet. Anytime she does something nice or actually does what we ask her (i.e. put away her toys, eat her food, be nice to Dylan), she gets a sticker on her chart. This worked really well when we were potty training her, so I thought we'd give it a go! As incentives she gets little prizes once in awhile and her big prize at the end was going to be anything she wanted! I thought that was fair since there are like 100 squares to fill stickers in! Well, she wanted earrings! But not just any earrings, she wanted earrings "like Mommy and Beka." Beka is her cousin that has her ears pierced. We've talked a lot about it lately and I've told her that it's kind of like getting a shot, but then it's all better! So she'll tell you... I want earrings, but it's going to hurt like when Dylan bites you, then it gets all better!! At least she knows right?? Well, for some reason she has been talking about getting her earrings a lot this weekend. She's been racking up the stickers on her chart and hasn't been too naughty. She even let Dylan have her apple juice yesterday in the car, because he drank his all gone and was freaking out that she had some! So, today I went to the mall with my mom and mentioned to her as we were passing "Claire's" that Haylee has been talking about getting her ears pierced all weekend. Then I thought some more and said, "should I go see if they have two people to do it right now and just get it over with??" Sure enough, they had two employees ready and willing to pierce Haylee's 3 year old years!! I kept telling Haylee that it was going to hurt, but they it would be over and she would have pretty earrings. The employees on the other hand thought I should leave the "pain" part out of it. But, I know Haylee better than them and she needed to know what she was getting herself into. She picked out her earrings (pink sparkly flowers), plopped down on my mom's lap, and freaked out when they tried to clean her ears with alcohol!! I talked her into letting me do it and she still was VERY hesitant and screamed as if I was piercing them already. So at that point, my mom changed her mind about being the one to hold her :) She was fine when they marked her ears, but then started to get really nervous when the other employee came over to get her gun loaded. They made sure I knew once they opened the package of earrings that we had to pay for them, no matter what! I told them that this is what she asked for and knows what she's getting herself into, so we were doing it, no matter what! Well, on the count of three as I held Haylee's head still, the guns went off and there were more tears! They wiped them clean with some antiseptic, which made the tears stop. Once she saw her new earrings in the mirror she forgot about the pain and was as happy as can be! She can't stop looking at herself in the mirror now and thinks she's a princess!
As for the sticker chart, we're about half way full and now she can work on earning enough stickers to get some other earrings to wear once her 6 weeks are up! Brett said I'm a sucker for doing it early, and he's right :)

putting the markings on

my brave little girl!

no more tears! all better!

all I had on me was my phone at the mall to take pics, so when we got home I wanted to take one with our nice camera! She loves them!!

this has nothing to do with the post, but since I was taking Haylee's picture, Dylan sat down on the ground and started saying "cheese," so I couldn't resist. He's a cute little bug!!

Lake to Lake 50 Mile Relay!

2010-03-08T11:02:00.029-07:00

Brett is in the "St. George Runner's Series," which means he has to complete two St. George races, then he's an automatic shoe in for the St. George Marathon. There's a long list of races he can participate in and when he looked at it, he decided to run the St. George 1/2, which we did in January, and the Lake to Lake Relay. The relay is a 50 mile relay and you are encouraged to form a team of 5. It can be all male, all female, or mixed gender. Since Brett's sister Jamie is in the runner's series too, we decided that Brett and I would be on a team with her and her husband Jeff. That left room for one more team member. Brett and Jamie knew our brother-in-law Zac ran every morning so they asked him! As long as he could run fast (which he did) and got a t-shirt he was in :) So, there was our team of 5! It was nice, because none of us were taking it too seriously and just went out and had fun. The energy of the race was great and made me feel so proud to be a part of it! Here's a recap....

Ready to go at 7:30 AM!

Leg 1: "Gunlock and Loaded" 6.01 Miles

Jamie is an early riser and usually does her exercising in the morning, so she wanted to run 1st. The race started at Gunlock State Park. The difficulty was rated at a 5. Jamie rocked it!

Jamie's in the purple

Leg 2: "Red Rock N' Roll" 5.19 miles

Zac was up next. Let's just say Zac is one of the fastest men I have ever met. After Jamie was cooled down and stretched, we all piled in the car and headed off to the 3rd leg starting line. As we drove, we asked ourselves, "where is Zac?" We hadn't taken that long to take off, but he was long gone! Well, we finally found him- way down the road and he was haulin'!! This course was rated at 6-7 for difficulty.

Zac in the zone

Leg 3: "Navigators Nightmare" 5.71 miles

Jeff was up next. This course had a million directions, so we decided Jeff was the man for the job! He did awesome considering he had pulled his abdominal muscle a few weeks ago! This course was rated at a 6 for difficulty.

finishing strong

Leg 4: "Dixie Stampede" 5.22 miles

This was my first leg. The majority of it felt like deja vu, since a lot of my leg was on Dixie Dr., which is where I ran some of my half marathon. The difficulty for this leg was set at a 5 and it really wasn't that bad. The downhill spots really helped me maintain a pretty quick pace for me!

coming to the finish!

Leg 5: "Man O Warrior" 5.50 miles

This leg had Brett's name written all over it! He did great and even put up with a beast of a hill that was in our half marathon in January! The difficulty was set at a 7 and he maintained his Boston Marathon qualifying speed! He just needs to do that for 21 more miles and he's set :)
coming to the finish!

Leg 6: "Trails Trails and Lama Tails" 3.95 Miles

Let me just start off by saying, after you ran your 1st leg, it was really hard (at least for me) to gain the motivation to run a 2nd time! This was Jeff's 2nd leg, which was perfect for him and his injury. The difficulty was a 4 and he did awesome. No Lamas were to be seen though, what a rip off!

the final stretch...

Leg 7: "Expedition Virgin River" 4.47 miles

To me, this leg sucked!! The wind really started picking up at this point which made it hard to maintain a good pace. The coarse is rated at a 5 and says in it's description, "a windy flat run, with a little bit of a big hill near the end you might like." Yah, who ever likes to finish a run with a big hill? Not this girl? That mixed with the wind, is where I asked myself "why do I do this??"

running with heavy legs!

Leg 8: "That Washington Damn Hill" 4.74 miles

After running my leg and seeing the next two legs, I tried not to complain too much! Jamie had this leg and was awesome! She even started having an allergy attack from some of the farm animals, but didn't slow down! The difficulty was an 8 and "I've Gotta Feelin"" helped her finish strong!!

mastering the last beast of a hill

Leg 9: "The Dirty Climber" 4.25 miles

Let's just say the name says it all. Brett started off with a 6% grade hill right off the get go! Not only was it steep, but it was all on soft sand. Have you ever tried running in soft sand? Let alone up a 6% hill?? Yah, he's a rock star! Not only did he have that hill, but then there were two more that he had to deal with. This was the only coarse rated a 10 for difficulty! Go Brett!!

climbing the last hill

now that's "dirty!"

Leg 10: "Sand Finale" 4.87 miles

The best man for the final leg was definitely Zac! The difficulty was a 7 and he used his lightening fast legs to help us finish strong!! We again passed him on our way to the finish and tried honking and cheering him on, but he was in the "Zac Zone" and didn't even notice :) We all ended up running the last little bit with Zac to finish as a team and he's a speed machine! It was a great feeling crossing the line together knowing that we tackled 50 miles together! It's kind of funny because we were all doing it just so Brett and Jamie could get into the marathon in October, but we ended up doing pretty good! We placed 15th in our division out of 52 teams and 31st overall out of 95 teams! Not too shabby :)
finishing as a team

feelin' good that it's over!

"Team Schmidt's!"

1 year ago today...

2010-03-03T11:45:00.003-07:00

I can't believe it's already been 1 year from this day. My heart is so full today as I sit and reminisce about our special day 1 year ago. I still tell people that having our entire family inside the sacred walls of the temple was one of the happiest days of my life. If I had to choose between having my own children and sharing such a sacred experience with my two little angels, I consider being infertile a blessing. It has taken me quite awhile to get to that point, but when I think of how truly blessed I am as an adoptive mother, I feel so honored that our father in heaven would trust me to raise and care for two of his most choice spirits. The things my children teach me and what their birthparents have taught me about love and sacrifice are lessons I would never replace. Today my heart is so full of joy and my eyes are full of tears. Adoption is a beautiful thing and I feel so blessed to have Haylee and Dylan in my life.

Bargain Skirts!

2010-02-23T10:49:00.007-07:00

My mom works at the most darling quilting/fabric store in South Jordan called "Material Girls." The store is full of fun fabrics and patters! One of the first patterns that caught my eye was one for a "girlie skirt." After looking at the pattern and figuring out how much fabric it would take to make Haylee a skirt (only 1 yard!), then thinking about the family discount I get, I had a great idea!! Instead of buying Haylee's Spring/Summer clothes from Old Navy, Children's Place, Target, and Gap, I will make Haylee's clothes!! Well, at least the skirts and jumpers! On average I can buy a yard of fabric for $5-$7. So that means I can make a darling custom skirt or jumper for Haylee for $5-$7!! That's way cheaper than any outfit I can buy! I haven't started on her jumper yet, but have my eye on the perfect fabric. Here are the three skirts that my mom and I have made so far...

Way cute, right? Now I just need to buy some cute t-shirts, which usually go on sale for $4-$5 and she has herself a bargain outfit that's not only DARLING, but made with love!!

Daddy-Daughter Princess Dance

2010-02-15T13:07:00.022-07:00

Last Friday at Lifetime Fitness they had a Daddy-Daughter Princess Dance. They host a daddy-daughter dance every year, so I figured that Haylee was the perfect age to go this year! She was able to get her hair done, nails painted, all dolled up in a Belle Dress, and make-up on! She was super excited about it all day and asked over and over "Haylee go to the dance with Daddy?" Brett was a good sport and stayed the whole time until it was over. Haylee was able to meet all of her favorite princesses in person, ride in a horse drawn carriage, and dance (or twirl) the night away! There really isn't anything cuter than a daddy with his little princess!

Haylee getting her hair done :)

Her first up-do!

Our pretty little princess- or in Haylee's words "Haylee is so beautiful!"

Haylee and her daddy- ready to go!

what a cute little pair!

waiting patiently in line to go in

receiving her flower

riding on the carriage with Daddy

Haylee and Ariel!

Haylee and Cinderella

Haylee and Belle (her dress was a little too low, so you'll have to excuse my poor quick photo shop job. I'm just glad Haylee's not old enough to notice stuff like that)

Haylee and Pocahontas

Jasmine and Haylee

Haylee and Sleeping Beauty

Haylee with Mulan

Haylee and Snow White (Snow White actually came up to Brett and said "I don't usually say anything, but Your daughter is so cute! I've never seen a girl's face light up quite like hers when she sees a princess!"

Haylee and Tinker Bell

twirling the night away

Haylee and her cute cousin Emersyn- the "Belle's of the Ball"

Haylee showing Cinderella her necklace :)

Nothing Too Exciting...

2010-02-08T10:01:00.007-07:00

We haven't done anything too exciting lately, but I do have a few pictures to share! With the yucky weather, we don't get out much but when I saw the advertisement for a Kids Expo I jumped on the opportunity to get tickets! They had it this past Saturday at the South Towne Expo Center. They had tons of booths geared towards kids and bouncy houses/slides to play on. We mainly went for some bouncy time! Both kids loved it! Dylan couldn't get enough of going down this little slide and for once in her life, Haylee went down the big slides all by herself! It was nice to get out and do something with the kids and they had a lot of fun!

Dylan having a ball!

Keili, Haylee, and Dylan going down together! We may have ourselves an idea for Dylan's 2nd Birthday party!!

Other than that, life has kind of been mellow. Haylee is going to a new dance studio once a week that she absolutely loves and we can't wait for her first recital in May! They started learning their dance last week and it's about the cutest thing you've ever seen! She loves the friends she dances with and talks about them all the time. She also loves Miss Ann, her teacher, and practices her dance moves at home!

Dylan is getting to be quite the rough and tumble little boy! He'll be 18 month on the 25th of this month and I can't believe it! It seems like he went strait from infant to little boy! He hit a growth spurt this past month and just looks so old!!

Brett and I are running our guts out preparing for our next races. I have 6 weeks until my next 1/2 and Brett has 10 weeks until his next full marathon! It's actually been a fun new hobby that we can both talk about and do with each other!

Other than that, we do a little bit of this...

jammies, nun-nights, sippies, Mickey Mouse, and their couches. Life doesn't get much better :)

St. George 1/2 Marathon

2010-01-24T22:44:00.008-07:00

Well, I did it! I completed my first 1/2 Marathon. If someone came to me last January and said I'd be running in a 1/2 marathon next year, I would have called them a liar! I've always hated running. I've never really given it a chance and would always find some sort of other cardio to do instead. Now things have changed! I can't say that I love running yet, because in the process I just want to be done, but afterwards I feel great and wouldn't trade the feeling for anything. I've mentioned this before, but I love how I'm in control. I'm telling my body to do something and for once, it's not letting me down! Here's a little recap...
To be honest, I didn't feel ready at all! Since we had been on a trip the week before and I missed my long run, I was really nervous to go out there and run! Before yesterday my longest run was only 9 miles and that really worried me! But, the race was happening and I was going to run it regardless of how ready I felt! Brett and I left for St. George around 4:30 and headed straight to the St. George Rec Center to pick up our race packet. After that it was on to the Pasta Factory to do a little bit of carb loading (see picture below)

If you ever eat at the Pasta Factory in St. George, I highly recommend their whole wheat linguine! After dinner we stopped off at Smith's to grab a banana, water, and power bar for breakfast in the morning. Then, it was on to Brett's parent's house for bed! I actually slept pretty good considering how nervous I was! Brett and I woke up around 7:00 to give us enough time to actually wake up, get dressed, eat, and get to the Dixie Center. The race started at 9:00 am and they had you just drive to the Starting Line. We ran into some unexpected traffic because of some really pointless cones that made everyone merge into one lane right before our intersection and got to the starting line with 3 minutes to spare. We took a quick "before pic" (seen below), then the buzzer went off and we left running!

Brett has a Garmin watch and decided to run with me the entire time. I told him the pace I wanted to run and he kept me going! At about 1.5 miles my iPod decided to freeze on me unexpectedly! Since we had just barely started running, there was no way I was going to run the next 12.5 miles without any music! So, we pulled to the side, restarted my iPod, and started running again. I was so frustrated that I had to waist time to fix that! I'd never had problems with it before!! Anyway, to make up for waisted time we sped up our pace a little bit. We were doing good until about mile 5, then we both had to pee!! Luckily there was an aid station at about 5.5 miles, but everyone else had to use the potty too! So, we had to stop for almost 5 minutes! Do you know how long 5 minutes is in racing time?? It's a lot, but we had to go and didn't know if we could make it to the next potty so we waited. Again, we got going at a good pace to make up for lost time...

Brett took this picture of me as he was catching up after using the potty. About 2 miles later, my iPod decided to die again! But this time, it was for good. I didn't stop to fix it this time, I just tried to revive it while I was running. A frowny face with a note to "contact apple.com" even popped on the screen, so I knew it was done for. So yes, I had to run the last 5 or 6 miles without any music!! I totally got to my head and started doubting myself. If I seriously wouldn't have had Brett there cheering me on and pushing me, I would have stopped to walk (which we didn't to once). After hitting an aid station at mile 11 I got a second burst of energy and just wanted to conquer this beast!! At about 12.6 miles (.5 miles to go) Brett said that we should start sprinting and finish strong. I swear on everything I was trying to, but my legs had never been so tired in their lives! I had just ran further than I had ever done before!! I picked up my pace a little bit when we saw the finish line and we both finished strong! My official time was 2:27:11. According to Brett's Garmin (that stopped the time when we fixed my iPod and stopped to pee) we ran it in 2:19, but unfortunately our chips didn't work that way.

After crossing the finish line, I just wanted to collapse! I was exhausted, but yet so proud! I just clung on to Brett and started to cry. I was emotional because all of my hard work had paid off. I was also emotional, because he didn't leave my side once! I had my own personal cheerleader and it meant so much to me to experience this with him. He really is the best husband any girl could ask for!

This picture is of us after we got our medals. I was a little disappointed that I ran my butt 13.1 miles and all I have to show for it is a quarter attached to a ribbon! I was expecting something a little more worth showing off ;) And for the few people I did pass or that were behind me, this is what they read on the back of my shirt...

That's right, I run for adoption. R House Runs for Adoption and I'm proud of it!! And if I would have known my face was in the picture, I would have done something a little less awkward!! Anyway, the adoption community is a great support system. I have really enjoyed getting to know the women and families I have met through adoption. I'm actually running the Canyonlands 1/2 Marathon in March with a group of adoption peeps! One of those peeps actually lives in St. George and ran the 1/2 too. Since we sort of got to know each other online, we decided to get together with our husbands for dinner last night. And here we are after dinner...

Brett and I actually had a really nice time with Lacey and her husband Sam. They were super easy to talk to and we had a lot to talk about!

I guess if I had to sum it up it would go like this... I'm really proud of myself for accomplishing such a hard goal (13.1 miles is considered hard for me). I didn't know what to expect going into this so I told myself I wanted to be done by 2:45. Knowing that I beat that goal by 18 minutes makes me really happy. But, at the same time knowing that if I wouldn't have had to stop for my stupid iPod or to pee I could have finished 8 minutes earlier, frustrates me. But you can't plan for the unexpected. I've definitely learned that in my life! I learned that if I push myself I can accomplish anything, especially with Brett by my side!

Now I just need to wait for my quads to stop hurting so I can start training for my next race that's in 8 weeks!! Wish me luck ;)

The Mexican Riviera

2010-01-18T09:41:00.033-07:00

For Christmas this last year, Brett's parents decided to give everyone a cruise instead of presents. ALL 9 grandchildren were invited too :) They had a blast playing with each other everyday and I am pretty sure my kids are having cousin with drawls as we speak.
Brett and I had fun as well, but honestly dealing with our kids all week on a cruise was a little rough. Dylan ended up getting an ear infection, which made his ear drum actually burst, so he wasn't the happiest camper :( But, the times where the kids were good and happy were really fun times! Here's a recap...
Day 1- Sunday, Jan. 10th
Our first day was spent traveling and getting settled into our cabin. We had to wake the kids up at 6:30 am (2 hours before their normal wake up time) so they were a little tired to say the least. Getting through airport security was a little chaotic, but we made it! Haylee was just excited to finally fly on an airplane and pull her suitcase around. We got all of the girls matching Ariel suitcases after Christmas. It was seriously the cutest thing I had seen in a long time :)
After we arrived in Long Beach we headed to the port to check in for our cruise. Somewhere between the airport and checking in, Haylee lost a shoe, which doesn't sound like a big deal but they were new :( I checked and called everyone I could think of and it was never found. Anyway, once we waited and waited and waited to board we finally got to eat! I've never seen so much food in one place in my life! After lunch we got a quick nap, then headed to the deck for our safety rundown. Luckily we had an early dinner time, so we were able to get the kids dinner and early bedtime since it had been a long day!

Haylee pushing her suitcase :)

Haylee, Emersyn, and Keili heading to our gate

posing for a pic

Dylan's 1st time on a plane

Haylee got her own seat and was so good the whole flight!

Day 2- Monday, 01-11

The 1st day at sea was actually really fun! We woke up, went up to breakfast, then headed to the pool. We had to try a few different pools before we found one that was warm enough for the kiddos. The kids had a lot of fun swimming and probably could have gone longer, but the parents were worn out ;) After swimming Brett and the kids headed to a play area that was open for young kids from 12-2. While they were playing I attempted to keep up on my half marathon training and went running in the gym. I never thought running on a ship would be that difficult, but since the ship is moving up and down you start to run uphill, then downhill on the treadmill! My heart rate was all over the place and my knee started to bother me, so rather than doing 5 miles, I stopped at 3. Man, was that discouraging! I went and traded Brett in the play area so that he could run, then we were off to lunch and naps. That night was formal night in the dining area, so we all got to dress up! Our kids looked pretty good if I don't say so myself :)

The fam- Dylan has little spells where he throws fits. We were lucky enough to capture on in this photo :)

Haylee enjoying her orange ice cream!

Dylan is always happier after he has a full tummy.

Haylee with Brett's parents

our towel animal that night was an elephant, which was very fitting considering my kids love elephants!!

Day 3- Tuesday, 01-12

We were at sea again Tuesday, so we stuck with the same routine- breakfast, swimming, playtime/gym time (I finally made it to my 5 miles and felt much better about myself), lunch, nap time, and dinner!

what else is there to do with a bunch of blocks with Daddy than build a fort?

Haylee and her cousin Taryn playing in the fort

My kids are attached to these blankets like no other, we call them their "nun-nights"

since our kids were so excited about the 1st elephant, Wayan made them another one

Day 4- Wednesday, 01-13

We finally made it to Porta Vallarta! We decided before we left on the cruise that we would try out a zip line! Since some husbands and wives wanted to do it, we had to go in 2 groups and baby swap. They luckily had a restaurant that we could wait in, which was outdoors so the kids could run around and stay busy. The zip line was definitely a highlight! They had us going through a jungle with a river right below us. I even got brave and went upside down a few times! Talk about an adrenaline rush!! After the zip line we headed back to the ship for lunch, then went back out to shop. All of those little markets are crazy! We just ended up with a little dress for Haylee, then went back to the ship for dinner and bedtime.

Brett on the zip line

it's impossible to see me in this pic, but I'm on the zip line over the river

long story- really short, we call Dylan a gorilla sometimes because he throws food. Our towel animal was very fitting!

Day 5- Thursday, 01-14

Mazatlan was next on the map! This day was a really rough one. Dylan woke up at about 3 am and didn't sleep too well until he decided to be awake for the morning at 6 am! He was fine at breakfast, but then in the taxi on the way to the beach he started to cry. Well, about 3 hours later he finally decided to fall asleep. He cried for 3 hours strait in Mazatlan. We were lucky enough to have gotten a ticket that allowed us to hang out at a hotel by the beach, so Dylan could sleep in the shade. Meanwhile, we tried to take Haylee on the beach and she wouldn't have anything to do with the sand or water! So, after everyone else had fun on the beach, we headed to Senior Frogs for lunch. That was the first time I had ever been there when it was buys, and boy is it CRAZY! We had a lot of fun though and ate really good food! Dylan still stayed asleep through it all, which is beyond me! Haylee loved the music and even got up on the table to dance. I told Brett that she is not going there alone when she is older if she is already table dancing at age 3 :) After lunch we headed back to the ship and on the way I noticed that liquid was coming out of Dylan's ear. I knew he had ruptured his ear drum and that explained the hours of crying! Luckily the ship had a medical center, so $90 later, we had a check-up and amoxicillan for the little guy. After the dr visit we showered and headed for dinner and called it a night!

before we left our room, Dylan was giving Haylee loves!

Brett's Dad at Senior Frogs!!

They gave Haylee a name tag that said "Super Baby" since she was dancing all over the place

Brett's parents in their balloon hats :)

Brett's hat and our sleeping baby

Haylee and mommy's hats!

Day 5-Friday, 01-15

Cabo San Lucas was our last stop before heading home and we were only there for half the day. We woke up at 7 am for breakfast, then headed out with the Dicksons to go exploring. Right off the port there was a booth where you could take a picture with a baby lion. Since that is on Brett's top 10 list, we jumped on the chance! Brett was in heaven and he even found out the cat's name is Lola, which is our cat's name too! After that, we found a guy to take us to "Lover's Beach" to snorkel for a few hours. The water was way too choppy to snorkel, so we just played on a towel on the beach since the kids didn't want to sit on the sand! Dylan would at least play in it, but he didn't want to sit in it! We didn't do anything, but there was something about being on a beach in Mexico that made it fun! On our way back we bought a t-shirt for Dylan then headed to the ship. Haylee was just glad she got to see fishies and pelicans since they are both on finding Nemo! When we got back we had a late lunch, got the kids a nap, then went to our last formal dinner. Haylee grew very fond of our waitress and loved dancing with her when they would perform little shows! She did a great job keeping our kids happy and called them "Little Prince and Princess."

this is how our kids play on the beach

family photo

Haylee and our waitress

story time before bedtime

Day 6- Saturday, 01-16

Since the whole week was very busy, we decided to take it easy this day. We pretty much just walked around, ate, napped, and packed. This was also supposed to be the day where I should have ran 10 miles, but the water was SO choppy, that I would have probably fell right off the treadmill!

Brett and his family on the last night

Dylan digging into his last banana split!

Haylee posing with our doggie

having Mommy time before bed. He was being super cuddley and I loved it!

Day 7, which was yesterday, was spent waiting and traveling. The kids were super excited to be back home where they could run free where ever they wanted to! Brett and I still have sea legs, but hopefully that will pass soon. Now we are just getting ready for our 1/2 marathon that is this Saturday!! It's good to be home!

Pushing Through it!

2010-01-07T11:17:00.003-07:00

For the past 10 weeks I have been training for the St. George 1/2 Marathon. If someone were to tell me last summer that I would be doing this, I wouldn't believe them! But, somehow I've been able to run every stinkin' mile! That has been my goal, to run (not walk), every mile. I may not be very fast, but I pace myself at a rate that I can handle for however many miles I have to run. The most I have ever accomplished up to this point was 8 miles. Cardio wise, it wasn't that challenging. However at mile 4 I felt this puppy forming (note, it's winter, so I know I need a pedicure!)I stopped at mile 5 to try to adjust my sock, but that didn't help so I kept running until I hit my 8 miles. The pain seriously shot up my whole leg! I would have been better off to have cut my foot off and kept running. I'm pretty sure that would have hurt less! My blister is healing now and hasn't held me back on the rest of my training. I have 2 more Saturdays of long runs- 9 and 10 miles, then the next Saturday is my big race! I can't believe I have been able to set this goal for myself and achieve it!

'09 Holiday Update

2010-01-05T12:45:00.021-07:00

I swear our lives have been out of control busy since Haylee's Birthday! Because of Brett's busy work schedule, my work schedule, parties, running, and being a mom our blog has been neglected!
Christmas this year was extra fun since Haylee understood Santa Clause and Dylan understood opening presents (poor guy was only 4 months old last year)! Here are some pics of the festivities we participated in...

Every year at the beginning of the month, Brett's parents give the grandkids their Christmas jammies and a Christmas book! All the girls looked darling in their princess p.j.'s!

Zoo Lights! We hadn't ever been up to see the lights at the Zoo, so one night after a Utah B-Ball game we took the oppertunity to do so! There were some pretty impressive lights! The cats were all pretty active too, which was fun to see! We couldn't believe how big the tiger cubs have gotten!

Tea Time! For my Mom's and her twin sister's Birthday they took all the girlies in the family to Tea Time at The Grand America. It was a very nice afternoon out with the girls! I highly recommend the Mint Hot Chocolate!

This was our attempt to get a picture of the kids in their Christmas Church outfits!

This next set of pictures is of Christmas Eve. We started the evening off at my mom's house. Dylan got a basketball hoop from everyone and Haylee got some princess make up and a cash register! My mom also made the girls a knitted beanie with handmade flowers all around it. They were very cute and the girls loved them! Our next stop was to my Grandparent's house for our cousin's party and gift exchange. Everyone from 30 to 1 gets Christmas jammies and a present!

My mom made the kid's jammie bottoms this year! They are adorable!

After the party we rushed home, put milk and cookies out for Santa and went right to bed! The next morning the kids woke up to see that Santa came! Haylee was super excited to see that he drank his milk and ate his cookies! The kids loved their toys and haven't stopped playing with them since!

Since Haylee has a princess couch, Santa brought Dylan his very own Car's couch! He loves it!

playing in their tent!

The one toy Haylee asked Santa for! And Cinderella got her very own doll house to live in!

After presents we headed up to Brett's parent's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast! It was a blast as usual and the kids got even more gifts!!

me and my girl

Daddy and his boy!

We all had a very good Christmas and our kids were spoiled by everyone including their birthfamilies! I swear Santa doesn't even need to come next year! We are now excited for the new year and what it has in store for us!!