Heather's crazy ideas

So I've been tossing around this idea for like months on end. It has literally been an uphill battle to stay motivated to keep working out and getting back into shape. So I had this brilliant idea! Crazy, but brilliant! Let's make Heather do a triathalon! YAY! Yup. Okay, maybe not a full out triathalon, but I decided to do a MINI triathalon they are putting on in July through the rec center. It's a 500 yard swim, a 13 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. Yup. That'll keep me motivated. I've been going back and forth on the idea of participating in it, and despite my lovely last three weeks of terrible workouts, I've decided to go for it anyway. So here's to hoping I can make it through! I know I can do the run, because I've been running like crazy for months. I've been training to get through the swim, (been about 4 times and done the swim), and even though I look like a giant whale that is flubbering through the water--yup I'm a goober, I can't put my head under the water when I swim, I can swim the entire 500 yards (10 back and forth laps) only stopping once to catch my breath! YAY! SO that only leaves the bike. Ugh. I stink at biking. Really really stink! ARgh! But I managed to do a 6 mile bike yesterday, and felt like I could have done a few more miles. So maybe I'll be ready soon. I'm gonna push and push for these next 3 weeks and maybe I'll be just "crazy" enough to make it through the whole thing. That's the goal, make it through the whole thing. Not by any means win it or even get an awesome time, just to finish it! Yep! So wish me luck. Here's to crazy!

An even busier two weeks-yep!

Honestly I have to laugh that I called those last two weeks "busy" weeks! Yikes!~ The last two weeks have been WAY busier! In case you couldn't tell by the lack of posts on here! So let's scoot back two weeks! Two weeks ago my dad and my brother and their two dogs came up to Cody to stay with us getting ready for my sister Cora's wedding.

The kids had a hard time dealing with the dogs- mostly just bruno, they were scared of. Emmalee even decided she needed "protective gear" to be near them!

Oh well.We took Cora through the temple that wednesday. This involved a drive to Billings Montana (2 hours away) and 5 and a half hours in the temple itself. It was a wonderful day. Busy, but wonderful. We spent a few extra hours in the temple because her fiance was late for the session. But it all worked out. Honestly it was nice to just be able to be someplace where my kids weren't screaming in my ears, and asking for something every two seconds. So 5 and a half hours of temple rest time was wonderful. Her fiance made it for the last session of the day, and all was well. We went to eat at Applebee's after that because we were starved! (10 p.m.) and they were still open! YAY! That was way fun. Saturday was wedding day. We headed back up to Billings for the wedding in the morning and had a luncheon afterward. The ceremony was beautiful and we are so proud of and excited for Cora and Frank!

Billions of pictures later and a stop to Target for tights for Emmalee and we were off to Cowley Wyoming for the reception. Frank's family and our family helped get everything all set up for the outdoor reception at his mom Julie Ann's house. It was such a beautiful morning all bright and sunny, but it soon turned into a windy mess. It was a struggle keeping everything on the ground including the tables! But it didn't rain! We were worried it would rain because it had rained everyday for like over 3 weeks straight. We had a great turnout there, although people didn't stay long because of the weather! Oh well. She had a beautiful cake

and it was a fun reception anyway. And the bride was beautiful. :) Blake and Emmalee were junior groomsman and junior bridesmaid along with Frank's nephew and niece.

They looked so cute in their little outfits. Emmalee didn't feel real well the whole time though.

We found out why later. After the reception we headed back to Cody with my dad and brother and my sister and her husband. So we had a full house! And yet an empty one too! After everyone left on Sunday, we had a house full of just us! Cora's been living with us for the last 5 months, so that was really strange and yet stress relieving at the same time. We took Emmalee to the doctor Monday morning because she just was not getting any better (she'd had this cough for two weeks and been tired, but no on else was getting sick) and found out she had bronchial pneaumonia! Which explained the no one else getting sick thing (not contagious) and also explained why she wasn't getting any better! So we got her on an antibiotic. Between Monday and Thursday I did a million loads of laundry and dishes and dealt with three kiddos, one that was sick, and tried frantically to get everything ready for the Poky reception. Thursday was way busy, running to the store, packing, watching kids, and baking sheet cakes! We drove down on Thursday night and stayed in Ashton at Ryan's grandmother's ranch house. Then we headed down to Poky. Along the way we spotted a truck pulled off on the side of the road. We looked over to see what the problem was and low and behold it was Cora and Frank! So we flipped back around and pulled over to help. Frank's brother was already there, but we thought we'd better stop as well. Turns out the fuel pump had gone bad in the truck. So we towed the truck into town to a mechanic (ironic I know with a family of mechanics--time issue) and Frank's brother pulled the trailer of 4 wheelers behind him. Once we had the truck settled at the mechanic we all piled into the 2 vehicles we had and made our way to Poky. We got to the hotel and got all checked in and ready for the reception and then made our way over to the church. We had been told there would be a funeral earlier that day (noon) but that they would be out of there in time for us to set up (3 or 4). So imagine our surprise when we walked in to find that the funeral dinner was just STARTING at 4. The funeral had started at 2 not noon! We ended up sharing the kitchen until they were gone and setting up everything just 45 minutes before the reception! But all in all, the reception went fine. We really didn't get a lot of people show up (about 50) and so we had a ton of leftover refreshments. In fact I have about 6 bottles of ginger ale and 4 bottles of white grape juice sitting on my counter still, and my dad has like 3 gallons of ice cream in his freezer! But it was fun. I got to see some relatives I haven't seen in a while, and the kids got to run around and be crazy. Yup. So that was all the crazy busy wedding weeks stuff. Maybe it wasn't as crazy busy as I thought, but to me, the stress and headache of doing my normal routine (kids, keeping house, primary, etc.) is compounded when I add things to it! A wedding, a sick kid, houseguests, and traveling. But all is well! We survived! We did it! Cora's all married off, and we are back to our routine at the house. Well, until Thursday anyway! Then we'll head into the next round of busy. I think we're just in for a busy summer!

Busy Two Weeks

We’ve been so busy the last two weeks I thought I’d post what we’ve been up to! It has been CRAZY around here! We’ve been doing projects, camping, and made an Idaho trip. Yeehaw! So Here goes!

We graduated Blake from Preschool. Here he is with his teacher Miss Lori and with the other boys from his class.

We got a big package in the mail for Emmalee! It was her replacement toy from Hasbro that they sent after the present we got her for her birthday didn’t come with any connectors to put it together. We originally got her the rose petal cottage (clearance version), and they sent this instead. Awesome upgrade! She was so excited.

We dressed up in Ryan’s classroom décor and did the Mexican hat dance.

We went camping with cousins.

We tried out the new slip ‘n slide.

We painted the house green with an awesome paint sprayer. The kids helped too!

We drove to Idaho in the truck.

Jarom sat on the table and ate cookies.

We took pictures of significant others. Frank and Cora, Jon and Shirlee, and Me and Ryan.

We had a girly bridal breakfast with my sisters Cora and Shirlee and her friends Courtney and Brittany.
We watched Allen sing in the choir and walk across the stage for graduation.

The boys fell asleep listening to the school board lady drone on and on. Allen got his diploma! YAY!

Adventures in Parenthood

So there was a ladybug. Yup, a ladybug. Unfortunately it was on Emmalee's menu at the restaurant. And so begins the story of our latest eating out experience with children. Yup, we decided to take all three on our grand adventure with us to Bubba's because all the sitters were at either youth conference or state honor choir. Uh huh. Darn it all. SO we took a family dinner instead. You my think we're crazy but we believe that it is possible to eat out with kids every once in a while, you just have to roll with the punches that come along with it! Inevitably there will be a spill. The kids will not sit down the whole time. The baby will not stay in the high chair the entire time. And the kids will not eat even half their meal because it is murphy's law, I swear to it! But it is possible! We actually had a fairly tolerable time this time. There was a spill, kids did not stay put the whole time, but they didn't irritate our neighboring eaters too horribly bad and we got a funny story out of it as well. So back to the ladybug. The waitress came to take our order and Emmalee wouldn't focus on what she wanted to eat because the ladybug was on her menu. And so dad wiped off the ladybug and Emmalee freaked out that he had "killed" the ladybug. But alas, the lady bug had survived, it was on the table! The waitress had found it. She handed it back to Emmalee calling it a "good luck" symbol and Emmalee of course freaked out again because it was still on her menu where the waitress had placed it. Emmalee coaxed it off the menu onto the table whereupon Blake decided he wanted to squish it and was chided not to, but alas Jarom reached in and did the job for him. Emmalee balled again because the ladybug was squished, but lo and behold, the ladybug was alive! So mom scooped it up into her hand and declared that Emmalee should follow her outside where they could "free" the ladybug to his rightful home. The ladybug was returned to it's natural environment and all was well with the world again. Isn't it fun to eat out with kids?