Forgive me if I've been a little absent from the blogging world.
I've been busy with preparations for our Halloween bash which is tonight!!
We sent out these invitations a few weeks ago and ever since then I've been in full throttle party planning and prep mode.
We've been slowly decorating the house a little more each day. It's looking pretty spooky!
We've also been working on our costumes.
This wig is a little sneak peak! ; )
Also on the agenda: Pumpkin carving.
The girls did a great job scooping out the guts.
They helped Daddy pick out a great design and supervised him while he carved away.
The finished product. Spooky spider!
Even better in the dark!
Last weekend I had to do some serious shopping for the party so Taber took all 3 kiddos to the pumpkin farm by himself. Brave daddy! The girls jumped hay bales for over an hour.
While Cam the man munched on apple cider donuts.
(you can see the sugar in his eyelashes, that's good stuff!)
They brought home 5 more pumpkins which we painted on Monday for FHE. The paint has been holding up pretty well through the rain and snow from the past few days.
On Wednesday, I had a little bat cookie making playdate for the girls since they were feeling a little left out by the Halloween party for grown ups only.
I found this idea on Our Best Bites, Here. I loved it because it was something the girls could do themselves without any help. (Even the 3 year olds!)
Teya and her bat
Mia and her bat
Brinley and the remnants of her bat.
Chocolate never lasts long around this girl ; )
We used candy eyes and cut wings out of cardstock. I think they were supposed to have fangs but Teya wanted smiley faces.
This project passed my two main criteria, easy and delicious. : )
After cookies the girls had popcorn and watched a Clifford Halloween movie while the grown ups enjoyed some lovely adult conversation.
And that's what we've been up to. Now back to party prepping!
A couple weeks ago I noticed a permanent tooth coming in behind Teya's baby teeth.
It kind of freaked me out for 2 reasons.
1) Two sets of teeth just look shark-like and kind of scary
2) Baby teeth are the last babyish thing Teya is holding on to. Once she loses those I feel like she's going to grow up on me and I'm not ready for that!
Once I got over my freak-out I told her she needed to start wiggling her baby teeth so they'd come out and we could make room for the permanent ones.
She wiggled and wiggled until that baby tooth got so lose it was ridiculous.
Finally last Sunday she let me have a go at it. She was definitely scared but once she let me really grip it it popped right out. Taber caught it on video and her reaction is priceless. She literally says, "I'm so happy I'm crying!" You have to watch it.
That night she put her tooth safely under her pillow for the tooth fairy.
Meanwhile the tooth fairies were in a quandary over how much a 5 year old's first baby tooth is worth. Tooth Fairy B thought $1 was good but Tooth Fairy T thought such a significant milestone deserved more. Luckily Teya's tooth fairies have a Facebook account and were able to consult with other fairies across the country. After several fairies weighed in it was decided that the first tooth was indeed significant enough for a $5 prize, but all the other's would go for $1.
The next morning Teya woke up to find that her tooth was gone and in it's place was a crisp 5 dollar bill and a note written on flowery paper in handwriting so tiny it could only have been written by a fairy.
She was on cloud nine and said she didn't even feel a thing when the tooth fairy took her tooth. Those fairies have skills, no doubt.
Later I took her to the dollar store so she could spend her money. Since there's no sales tax where we live she was able to pick out 5 things. True to character, she skipped right past all the candy and went straight for the puzzles and coloring books. She bought a princess puzzle, a my little pony coloring book, some glow in the dark stars, a Tangled notebook, and then without any prompting from me, told Brinley she could pick one thing out too. Brinley chose a stuffed caterpillar and both girls were happy as could be.
The whole thing was pretty exciting and fun to mark off another big milestone for Teya.
These were supposed to be Cam's 6 month pictures but between ear infections, crazy schedules and just trying to find that elusive slot of time where he is happy, fed and doesn't need a nap, they ended up being his 9 month pictures. : )
So yes, Cam is now 9 months old
He weighs 20 lbs 10 oz (58th percentile)
and is 28.5 inches long (53rd percentile)
We have finally gotten him on a real schedule where he takes two naps a day, then goes to bed at 6:30 and sleeps for 12 hours. GLORIOUS!
He is eating a lot of solids now. We still do baby food but he also likes pasta, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, Cheerios, bread and pancakes.
He is also finally taking a bottle and is officially weaned! (full post to come on this later but lets just say that for me, weaning my little piranha has been a very good thing ; )
He army crawls like a champ and can get almost anywhere he wants at record speed.
He is also still a major thumb sucker and has sucked his poor little thumb raw. I tried covering it with a sock the other day to see if he would go for his other thumb but he just screamed for 30 minutes till I took it off and then he popped it back in his mouth and fell right asleep. What can you do?
So that is the latest and greatest with our little man. Hope you enjoy the pics, I think they came out pretty cute : )
Happy handsome boy.
Rockin' the orange puffy vest
Munching his kakui nuts (love how they match his eyes btw : )
This one is my favorite! Love it so much I can't stop looking at it. :)
HUGE thanks to auntie Naomi for making him that cute malo and sending out the haku and kakui nuts.
Tomorrow Taber is running the Hartford ING marathon. Any time anyone runs 26.2 miles they deserve some serious props, but today I'm giving him props for the incredible effort he's made just to get to the starting line. I signed him up for this marathon as a Christmas present. Merry Christmas honey, you have to run 26.2 miles! But first you'll have to log hundreds of training miles, give up sleeping in on Saturdays, and dedicate what little free time you have to get ready to do it. I'm such a nice wife : ) Seriously though, I think he was a little scared when he unwrapped the training schedule I printed out for him and started to process what I had just committed him to.
I gotta hand it to him though, he took up the challenge and went for his first run on Christmas day. He built up his base all winter and ran a half marathon in the spring. Then in July he really got serious and for the last 18 weeks has dedicated himself to the intense training required for a marathon.
Because he works so much and has limited time with the kids he made a conscience effort to avoid running if the kids were awake. As a result there were many days when I watched him come home from work after a long tiring day, play with the kids, help put them to bed, then fight past his exhaustion to lace up his running shoes and put in a run. He didn't have time to just sit and unwind. no time for TV, no time for surfing the net, just work, eat, run, sleep.
Saturday mornings were dedicated to long runs. Sunday's we have church at 9am so no sleeping in for him. He had to carve out time for runs on business trips and vacations, he had to run in the rain, in the heat, in the dark hours of the early morning or late at night. It was not easy and there were days he was ready to quit. But he never did. He kept at it, averaging 150 miles a month for the last 3 months. Surviving on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. If that doesn't deserve serious props then I don't know what does! I have been completely inspired watching him. He probably doesn't know this but when I'm up against a challenge in life that seems too daunting to tackle, sometimes I'll chant to myself, "Just BLT. Be like Taber!" (true story) : )
So props to you Taber. Can't wait to watch you get out there and kill it tomorrow!!
Thanks to Groupon and the fact that we didn't have to do major long runs last weekend,
we were able to cross another big one off our New England bucket list;
Whale watching.
In my 30 years of life before this trip I had never seen a whale in the wild before.
It was awesome, like, literally filled me with awe. : )
We brought the kiddos because they're cute and funny and we figured if people got bored of looking at whales they could stare at our kids and be entertained. ; )
As we headed out to sea I had a smile on my face and was feeling good.
I probably should've brought some Dramamine though because after a few minutes on the boat I started to feel some sea sickness coming on. During the hour ride to where the whale's feed I definitely struggled.
Luckily the kids didn't get sick and enjoyed the sea breeze and the gorgeous weather on an unusually warm and sunny October day.
They brought one of their favorite books, The Snail and the Whale to keep them entertained on the boat and to pump them up for whale sightings.
Mostly they just liked hanging out on the deck and watching the ocean whiz by.
About an hour out to sea the captain spotted some whales. The boat slowed down and everyone clambered out to the deck to see.
Sure enough, out in the distance we saw whales! 3 humpbacks swimming towards our boat.
They got closer until they were only a few yards away.
The girls were FA-REAKING out! Every time a tail popped up they squealed and screamed. Taber actually caught a little video of it and it's the cutest thing! I posted it below so you can hear their excitement and also if you listen closely, some of Cam's non-excitment. He was a little tired and cranky at that point. The first 30 seconds is the girls freaking out and the last 25 seconds shows a few shots of the whales.
We watched the humpbacks for close to an hour and also saw a minke whale, a molo molo (which is a huge fish that looks like a shark) and some big crazy tuna's that were doing wild flips and jumps out of the water.
All that whale watching really wiped the girls out and they crashed hard on the ride back to shore.
When we got back on land and my stomach had a chance to settle again, we stopped at a really yummy restaurant called Passport for a late lunch/early dinner.
Taber ordered a lobster roll (which normally I'm not a fan of) but he let me try it and it was AMAZING. Finally a lobster roll that lives up to the hype!
And then we ended our excursion with ice cream because that always just feels like the right thing to do. : ) Definitely glad we bought the Groupon and got to see such amazing animals in the wild. I would highly recommend it to anyone but if you're a motion sickness light weight like me, don't forget the Dramamine ; )
Brinley's preschool teacher sent me these pictures from school and they were too cute not to post.
B is for Brinley.
C is for Carrot and Cactus
Using shapes to make "Mat Man"
And Brinley's impressive drawing of Mat Man
(or Mat girl, she later told me, since she put a bow in his hair)
And one more drawing just because I think she's got skills for a 3 year old! This is one she drew of President Monson during conference last weekend. Love that she totally gave him a tie : )
For the last 6 months I've been slowly but surely working my way back into shape after taking a 9 month break from exercise and responsible eating while I was pregnant . : ) I signed up for the Applefest half marathon back in April to give myself some extra motivation to get out there and run.
Last year I came with "big baby" (AKA my prego belly) to cheer on Taber, my sister and a bunch of friends that were running it. This year it was pretty awesome to be pinning on a number too.
After watching everyone run it last year I knew the course was insanely hilly with the worst of the hills coming in the back half. Those hills really freaked me out and I was hesitant to set a time goal for myself. But then my running buddy Kendall told me that every time her sister races, no matter what, she always goes after a PR. I was inspired by that and it made me think of that quote, "It's better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit your target." So I decided to aim high and set my sights on finishing under 2 hours, which means I would need to sustain at least a 9:10 pace for 13.1 miles.
To prepare for race day I ran the Applefest course twice in training so I could get a feel for those hills. Both times I pushed pretty hard but couldn't get it under 2 hours. I was nervous, but hoped that with good weather and race adrenaline I could get there.
Then the day before the race Taber did something unbelievably awesome. He told me he was going to forget about his own time goal and run as my pacer to make sure I got my goal. I seriously could not believe it. I was literally jumping up and down and squealing with excitment. It was like being handed a secret weapon with superpowers. Once he told me that I was like, "Bring it on you big scary hills! I'm running with The Taber! You got nothin'!"
Seriously though, knowing that Taber would be running with me was the best confidence booster I could've asked for. He also volunteered to run with the fuel belt so I could stay hydrated (water stops are only every 2 miles at the Applefest.) I was so pumped to have my own personal one man entourage. Pacer, water boy, motivational coach and even camera man. With Taber by my side it was going to be a good race.
We woke up that morning to cool weather with drizzling rain. Perfect running weather. I ate some toast with peanut butter and banana then we loaded up the girls and drove over to the high school. Taber and Joseph dropped me off with Teya, Brinley and Brielle and went to park the car. We had only 30 minutes before it started and I still had to drop off my bag, find my friend who was watching the girls to do a kid pass off, meet up with a running blogger friend for some pre-race pics, stretch, and most importantly, do my port-a-potty routine. Navigating the crowd with 3 little girls who walk slower than worms crawl was going to be a problem. Luckily I bumped into Taber's training buddy Rob and he offered to watch the girls so I could drop off my bag.
I ran up to the gym and checked my bag, met up with my blogger buddy Lauren for a quick picture and good luck wishes on the race (I'll post more about our meet up on my running blog) and squeezed in a trip to the port-a-potty with not a minute to spare. Taber got the girls situated with the babysitter, we took a quick picture and then we lined up with Rob, Ricky and Joseph near the front.
The race director said "GO" and we took off with the crowd. Rob, Ricky and Joseph pulled away from us pretty quickly. I could see Rob and Ricky in the distance but Joseph was long gone. I worried that we might be going too slow but Taber told me to hold back and stay with him. We finished our first mile in 8:11, well under our goal pace. Mile 2 brought us to Merrill hill which we plowed up no problem and clocked an 8:30 pace for the 2nd mile. We saw the girls at that point and they were screaming and cheering and reaching out for high fives. We slapped them some skin and the lady next to me said, "Aw! How motivating!"
We finished mile 3 in 8:32 and took advantage of a nice long downhill to pick up a fast 8:08 pace on mile 4. I felt strong, energetic and awesome during those first miles. Taber had his phone and was taking little videos while we ran. He would tell me when to speed up or slow down and do form checks every once in awhile. He also told me I looked awesome and made it look so easy. I was like, "Man I should run all my races with this guy! I'm lovin' this!"
Here we are at mile 4 all smiles and thumbs up.
We hit a good hill at mile 5 but luckily there was a guy there playing the bagpipes for some motivation. We finished that mile in 8:38 and stretched out our legs to pick up some speed on the downhill at mile 6. Since the worse hills are in the second half our strategy was to run the first half under pace and pick up as much time as we could on the downhills so we'd have a buffer when we got to the big hills from miles 8-11.
We saw our friend Kemper cheering at mile 6 and then we saw Rob's wife Darby a half a mile later with personalized signs for us! We clocked an 8:22 pace for that mile and felt good as we got close to the halfway point. Mile 7 was mostly flat and we were well under pace so didn't push hard and kept it steady at 8:47. After mile 7 we downed our chocolate GU's and geared up for the long stretch of hills I call the gauntlet.
The gauntlet is brutal but I had run it in my training and knew what I was up against. We jogged, we shuffled, but we never stopped to walk. It started raining pretty hard right as we were heading into the first hill but I didn't mind because it kept us cool. At mile 8 we caught up with Rob and Joseph and ran with them for awhile. Joseph hadn't been able to train since he started MBA school at the end of August and even though he flew through the first 8 miles, the hills started to take their toll and he fell behind. Rob fell back too but I knew we had to keep going because if I stopped I wouldn't be able to start again.
The rain made my feet wet and soggy and my legs felt heavy going up the hills. Taber told me to dig deep and started talking about all the people and things that motivate us to run. I blocked out everything but his voice and forced my legs to keep moving. Our splits through the hills were 8:59 for mile 8, 8:40 for mile 9, and 9:35 for mile 10.
When we got to the top of the last hill in the gauntlet Taber was celebrating but I was spent. He was ready to pick up the pace and coast in for the last 2 miles but I was starting to break down. Mile 11 was 9:15. My legs were so tired and even though Taber said run, all I wanted to do was walk.
"Come on babe, you got this! Just stay with me and you're going to PR!"
"This is all I got." I told him. "It's all I can do not to walk right now."
"15 more minutes of hard running and you're done. Think of why we run. Think about Cam. Don't stop."
That must've done it when he told me to think about Cam because I picked up my legs again and finished mile 12 in 9:02. Then we were back to Merrill hill. The cruelest part of this course is a 75 foot climb on the last mile. I wanted to cry. Taber started to pull away from me and I finally gave into my screaming legs and stopped to walk. Taber was having none of that though. "Stay with me and you're going to like what you see at the finish line, we're almost there, just stay with me!" I grabbed his arm and told him to pull me but he said, "no, you're going to do this yourself." I knew he was right, so I summoned every last ounce of will power and commanded my legs to run. I got to the top and it was all downhill from there. I ran as hard as I could. I heard Taber shouting, "Yeah! you're doing it! YEAH!"
We rounded the corner back to the high school and saw all our friends and our girls shouting and cheering for us. Someone was holding Cam and ran him out to give me high five as I was passing. Darby took this picture right then. I could see the finish line and knew I was going to PR, I saw my girls and my sweet baby boy, my friends were there cheering for me and I had Taber by my side. It was an amazing moment.
My official time was 1:56:15. Smashed my 2 hour goal and set a new personal record. My average pace was 8:53 min/mile and I placed 19 out 70 in my age division. Not bad for my post-baby comeback!
Huge congrats to Kendall my running buddy for a strong finish on her first postbaby race. She had her baby a week before Cam so it was awesome training together with so much in common.
Also congrats to Joseph for finishing his first half marathon ever in an unbelievable time for a guy who literally has not run since August!
Many thanks to Darby, Melinda and Teresa for braving the rain to cheer us on and helping out with the kids during the race.
And many thanks to Taber for being the best pacer, water boy, coach, motivational speaker and friend I could ask for. He is my real secret weapon. So grateful to him and the kids for all their support (even though Cam and Brinley don't look super supportive in this picture ; ) I couldn't have done it without them!
And I'll end with a little video of the clips my personal camera man took while we were running. : )
