Thanks A Million

I love Thanksgiving. Not just because turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls and pumpkin pie are my favorite...although that's always been a big part of it. But mostly because it gets really easy to take all of the things that make life wonderful for granted and this time of year you get to revel in each and every blessing that you have. So here we go...

Our Little Man.
He is such a joy and a blessing and a gift. There's no way to describe how his big heart and sharp wit and around-the-neck-bear-hugs and 'emergency kisses' have made our life and our family so amazing. He has this little lilt in his voice when he says things like "Thanksgiving is for loving mommies and daddies" or "You wanna make a deal?" We are so incredibly grateful that Tagg is our son.

Our Baby Girl
Those big blue eyes. Sloane brings new meaning to love and adventure every single day. She will wrap her arms around your knees one second and scale the counter tops the next. There is nothing better than her belly laugh or her big kisses or her curiosity for life. She is our angel and our love and our miracle baby.

Friends, Family & Crazy Running Stuff.
I am grateful for my family and friends who do crazy things with me, like run 188 miles in 24 hours or get up at the ass-crack of dawn to run a 5K in freezing temps on Thanksgiving. And I'm grateful that I am healthy enough to run a block, let alone 6.2 miles in 63 minutes. Most every step is hard, but every step is a gift and I know that for sure.

Sunrises. Sunsets.
Somehow the sky gets painted with these breathtaking colors and patterns that make me stop in my tracks.
God, nature, miracle, call it what you want. I don't care. I love them.

Freedom.
You ain't seen nothing until you've seen Sloane in the throes of the joy of running. In her Uggs and her leopard skirt-pants, baby mullet flying in the wind. She is the epitome of joy in life, all day every day.

Love.
You can't ever have too much love in your life, we always say. And judging by the calls, texts, emails and hugs we got today, we are not lacking in that category in any way. We are so very, very blessed to have an extended family that envelopes us all with so much pure, unadulterated, unselfish love. It is beautiful and amazing.

Special friends.
Tagg and his cousin Ashley have a special relationship. They have grown up together, with Auntie Leese who watched them when they were little and they just, well, they just love each other. I have a lot of friends like this. The ones who love even when they smack you or share their cold with you. No matter what they are always there to hold your hand when you need it, or when you don't, and to give you their last M&M, even if you don't ask.

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Scott gets the love. I am the ride.

My Amazing Husband, Scott.
I love this man. He is my best friend, my rock, my guy who will do anything for me as long as I ask with a smile on my face, and he is the best best best father in the world. He can out-play, out-patience, out-smart, out-love our children without a sweat...and that's saying something!

Seriously. Does it get any cuter than this?

 

 

Suburbia.
Normally I don't love living in the burbs but every once in awhile you find a reason to love it. Today, we had an epic Thanksgiving dinner at Kent and Nicole's and then the family walked about a half-mile to see a zebra. Oh yeah. You heard me right. A ZEBRA! Like at the zoo. And a couple of emus, a goat and some horses and stuff. But seriously, a ZEBRA...named Zuri. We fed it grapes.

Feeding the goats.

Here, goatie, goatie.

Grandparents.
Scott and I have unbelievable parents. And those parents make over-the-moon grandparents. It's a different kind of special love. It's beautiful to watch and enjoy and appreciate and be inspired by. And I love that our babies are embraced by that all-consuming love from all of their grandparents every day of every month of every year.

Family.
Sometimes a walk on a cool day is the thing you remember.
It's always the thing that you love.

Football.
I am grateful for DVR (thanks couch potatoes) so I could watch the games between chasing kids.

 

Food on the table.
We ran a 10K this morning to benefit the Utah Food Bank. They did a challenge recently to see if you could survive on food stamps for a month which basically meant you could spend 6 bucks a day per person on food. Uh, hello. That's my Starbucks budget. So we've tried it and failed. And I am so, so incredibly grateful that our family has enough to eat and that we can share with others who don't.

The spoon is actually sticking to Sloane's hand like magic. But really it's sticky Jell-o hands.

Hope.
I want everything for my children, my siblings, my parents, my family, my friends. When there is something that they desire, I want it for them and we will do everything we can to make it a reality. Today we know that the all promises of life and love and family continue. There are so many great things ahead of us, more joy, more love, more photo moments. And we are nothing but thankful. So incredibly thankful. Today and every day.

Sunday at the Park

Sunday was one of the last real days of fall. Fairly warm, blue skies...so we were off for a walk and a trip to the park. We dressed Sloane in this hot-pink velour sweat suit (it was a gift) and promptly dubbed her J-Slo (like J-Lo, get it?) for the duration of our adventure. She NEVER lets any of the absolutely darling hats I buy her stay on her head for more than about 20 seconds. This ridiculous baseball cap? On for almost the whole trip. Really? At least it says "I Heart Mommy" but I'm still not sure I can get behind it.

Commandeering Tagg's scooter. She can totally ride it.
See him in the background? That lasted for about a minute before he took over.

J-Slo loves to climb. Anything and everything. Including the stroller.

And she's in! Quite proud of herself.

At the park? Same story...climb, climb, climb!
Whatever, dad. I don't need your help!

Tagg pondering the wisdom of sliding down this one on his own.

And decided it would be more fun if daddy went too.

Now they're adding wood chips to the sliding adventure.
Because that's more fun. Obviously.

And when the wood chips are in your hair? Game on!
This must be the reason for Sloane's no-hat rule.
How are you going to put junk in your hair when you have a hat on?!

One of Tagg's first bike-riding extravaganzas. He's getting the hang of it. And, yes, he does have a helmet, for the serious rides like when he's mountain biking. As you'll notice, all of our video clips end up with us stopping the camera to avert some kind of danger. Welcome to parenting!

Halloween Pancakes

I was feeling all crafty around Halloween - in spite of the aborted scuba diver costume. So Sunday morning I decided we were going to make "pumpkin" pancakes. Not actual pumpkin-flavored pancakes because then I would likely be the only one eating two-dozen pancakes while the rest of the family noshed on Eggos or something. But I'm  thinking some red and yellow food coloring and some raisins? We've got pumpkin-like pancakes!

I run this idea by Tagg as we're lounging around watching Sunday morning cartoons and he is not a fan. "NO MOMMY. REGULAR PANCAKES." No amount of convincing, cajoling, craftiness was getting me closer to him eating orange pancakes. So of course I make them anyway. Plus one regular pancake, just in case.

I think it's fairly obvious from this photo that this is a bad idea from the start. These look...scary? And adding the raisins for the jack-o-lantern face might have really pushed it beyond the limits. But I'm thinking...this might still be kind of, a little, maybe sorta cute.

And then I flipped the pancakes. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! Mutant pumpkin pancake zombies! RUN, people! Run!

And, believe it or not, Tagg loved it. He ate two. Even the mutant raisin eyes. Sloane loved them too, although she ate the eyes first cuz that's what she does. So Pumpkin Pancakes? A big hit. But I keep having nightmares about pumpkin zombies so I'm still too scared to think about making them again any time soon.

Work of Art

 Isn't this lovely? I think this is the first "person" Tagg has painted. It's a masterpiece.

He was actually working on a very special art project this day. Painting birthday cards for some very special people. When I asked him what they were called he knew exactly: Birthday Cake and On the Day You Were Born. So we labeled each card accordingly. We're not allowed to wear shirts when we paint anymore because the creative process is not always good for shirts and pants, not to mention the table, the dog...but it's always worth every paint splatter.

Gettin' Dirty

Dirty Girls.

 Have you ever hear of the Dirty Dash, a 6 mile mountainous trek that promises the following:

Have you ever said to yourself, “Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?”
We haven’t either…those races are really hard. Think about it…the first person to run a marathon actually died.  HE DIED!...and he probably didn’t even have fun along the way!

Well, welcome to a new kind of race: THE DIRTY DASH.  This race that puts all other races to shame.  The Dirty Dash is a mud run obstacle course where a military boot camp meets your inner five-year-old’s fantasy and subsequently converts boy to man and then man to swine. 

You’ll need endurance to trudge up mountains of sludge, courage to overcome uncompromising obstacles, a complete lack of shame to wallow in pits of mud and a smile to show through at the end!

Dirt? Mud? Sludge? Sign us up! Cuz that what's we do.

Obstacle #1...balance beam, over a mud pit. Seriously.

Greased up with dish soap before the big slide. Sweet!!!

Army wall!

Natalie after rocking the big slide!

Apparently hands like to make mud prints on butts.
There's no other explanation.

Shut up. We walked some.

No. These are not Jell-O shots. Everyone was
hoping but they were just the straight stuff.

Before we got "dirty." Literally NO idea what we were getting into.

Pig Tattoos? Perfect. Almost better than a medal.

We were the first wave of the day so we had a little less mud and guts. The reason we know this is that Natalie ran the Dirty Dash again the next weekend with her company team from Adobe, which includes my brother Marc. Dressed as Angry Birds. (video, anyone? You really should watch this!) And they were dirty dirty. Like REALLY dirty. We kind of had to try to get dirty. Which we did.

Mile One. With all the hills, it felt like more. So clean.

Climbing the walls, all military like.

The tire run! I felt like a pro football player!

Climbing hay bales! Some guys were literally jumping them.

Here piggy, piggy!

The rope climb was awesome!

Heading into the swamp. Seriously a half-mile slog through
thigh-high water filled with critters, ivy kind of stuff, and
really stinky mud. Like the kind you don't want your lady bits touching.

The last jump into the mud pit! Photo by 8 year old strangers.

Much needed. Best 4 bucks we ever spent!

The showers weren't quite as warm and relaxing as we'd
imagined. That's a power washer for heaven sake.
But not freezing was well worth it!

That's How We Roll...

Sunday. Scooters. Swim Goggles. Pancakes...regular. Welcome to the weekend at our house.