We were Runnin'

Santa Barbara to Dana Point + Twelve Girls + Running all Day and Night = A BLAST!This is our team " Kin of A Big Deal" at the start in Santa Barbara.

We were in the 2nd Van, so we had about 3 hours to kill in Santa Barbra.  We rented this Surrey to ride around.  To quote Lorraine, " Once you go Surrey, you never go back".

This is my first run through strawberry fields.Two luck ladies got to run down PCH right by the ocean.  Isn't it beautiful!  

Run #2 took place right through LA at 4 am!  We were a little scared, but Joanna and I got to run together and wear headlamps.  We just looked forward and ran and we made it though alive!  

Running through the finish line 

Guess who ran Ragnar,too.... Kelly Kapowski!  We ate dinner in the same restaurant as her team.  It is always weird seeing a famous person do something "normal".

Last, but not least - the van we spent 30 straight hours in.  I only knew one other girl in the van, but I definitely made 5 new friends by the end.

Ragnar was such a GREAT experience!  I will definitely do it again!

He Really Is Sweet

Look at that face. Isn't he sweet.

Well, tell that to the baby in the library he hit over the head with a DVD. Or the little baby he poked in the eyes. How about the toddler in our ward who Ryan body slammed.

He really is sweet. He is just big and figuring out how to deal with those smaller than him. And I am trying to teach him how and trying not to cry with embarrassment every time he hurts a little kid. Persistence is the key... I hope.

I Scream

That is what I wanted to do while I was making FIVE different homemade ice cream flavors. I don't know what I was thinking. I was inspired by my friend, Sally, who made lime ice cream. I am a chocolate girl, so I was a bit skeptical. However, when I tasted it, it was amazing! I couldn't wait to make some lime ice cream for Easter. Then the wheels kept turning, so I also made coconut, blackberry, rocky road and raspberry-lemon sorbet. It was a lot of work, but once it was done it was well worth it! Everything is better homemade! I had a bowl of ice cream about 5 times today!

This is Ry in his Easter outfit. He needs a hair cut, but he is still a handsome little thing!

Chocolate Mouth

I was talking to my grandma on the phone. Ryan was a little grumpy, so I got out the bag of Cadbury eggs ( love them) to give him one. I put them on the counter. Ryan is now tall enough to pull things off the counter, so he pulled the bag down and about 10 of them spilled onto the floor. Before I could collect them all, Ryan picked up about 6 and stuffed them all into his mouth. I can't blame him though - I stuffed the other 4 into mine! He's got the chocolate gene!

Ryan Must Take After His Mother

I found this all in the trash. But in my defense - he meant to throw this in there. We may have to have a conversation about the Book of Mormon NOT being trash!

Boring April Fools

I tried SO hard to come up with a good pril Fools joke to pull on Brett, but I couldn't think of anything good. So, it was boring. I need to take my inspiration from this lady on the left - my old roomie and dear friend, Millie. Our last year of college, she and another friend played and elaborate joke on me. They started about a week before April Fools Day. My kind of cousin Tyler Jennings had a thing for Millie since freshman year and we all knew it, but they were just friends. So Tyler started calling me and telling me how he just was in love with Millie. On the other side of this, I think Millie was talking about how she wanted to get married and just might marry Tyler... I can't really remember. Then on April 1st, Tyler called and told me that he was going to just propose. So he came over about midnight and I was freaking out because I didn't know how Millie was going to react. They started discussing marraige, which of course was very dramatic and I was trying to evesdrop on every word... and then they came into my room and shouted, "April Fools"! They sure got me!

True Love

I think that the movies have got it all wrong. True love is not bringing flowers home every night, planning elaborately expensive dates and saying all of the right things at the right times. That would be romance ( which is nice. brett... I still like all of that). True love is more.

Brett has shown me many times what true love is. Tonight, for example, I realized that I threw my wallet away... I know, I know...

But anyway, I threw it away and then took out the trash to the dumpster(i did not know my wallet was in there at the time). Brett offered to go jump in the dumpster and find it for me. When he came back, he said it wasn't in our bag of trash. Then I remembered that I threw it away in a smaller Target bag, which was next to that bag of trash... so he went back to climb in the dumpster again... LOVE!

That caused me to reminisce about other such experiences.

1. When we were still dating, I got the stomach flu and Brett would hold my hair back for me as I, you know... love.

2. Once, we were playing indoor soccer and this big guy was trying to take the ball from me. Brett ( not as big) ran up and rammed into him and pushed him away from me ( in the legal, soccer way). i thought it was the cutest, sweetest thing ever.

3. When we were in New York my metro card fell to the bottom of the toilet (it was like $75 sitting at the bottom of the toilet) and he got it from me... wait, did he do that for me or the money? Either way - that is love.

4. Brett went out to lunch for work and specifically saved me some of his sweet potato fries because he knew I would love them.

Brett must really love me.

hair do(s)

Still Growing

I took Ryan to the doctor last week and he is definitely growing! My baby is a big boy!

Height: 32 inches. That is 2'8"... weird thinking of it that way. 75 percentile.

Weight: 28 lbs. 90 percentile.

Head: All I know is that it is off the charts big. The doctor asked me if his head has always been that big (we went to a new doctor). That is why they had to cut him out of me!

Words: Ya, momma, Dada, bird, dog, balloon "boon", ball "ba ba", more, banana "na na", uh oh, Elmo ( he really works his lips to say this one),

And now for your viewing pleasure... Ryan pointing to his body parts with bed head! It took me a while to find the one he wanted to start with. He is so opinionated - maybe that is why his head is so big!

Look at what MY kid can do!

Isn't it funny - and appropriate - that whatever your kid does, you think it is the great thing in the world. You think they are the smartest, cutest, funniest kid on the face of planet earth! This is how I feel about Ryan... I mean, he really is.

Until you try to show them off.

Ryan recently started folding his arms before he eats or whenever he sits at a table. It is so cute! And of course, we thought he was brilliant. So, when we were over eating dinner with some friends the other night we were about to say the prayer and I said " Wait! You have so see how Ryan folds his arms - it is SO great... he is SO smart ( I just thought that last part)"

There was a pause as everyone had their eyes on Ryan - waiting for the arm fold. He just stood there - staring back - probably wondering why everyone was looking at him. And then, right behind him, little Paige, who is a month younger than Ry, folds her arms! Ryan still just stood there. That sure humbled me! So, maybe Ryan is just normal for his age, but I am proud of everything he does - and doesn't do!