the ones you live with, laugh with, love: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

So everyone is asleep. I just finished downloading pictures and getting everything ready for the big day tomorrow...

I think M was able to rest well enough today... We didn't do too much except play around the house... Have contests to see who would swim across our freezing pool that has no heater. Then, we drug everyone down to the beach this evening for family pictures... Thanks to Mel and her amazing camera I think we have some good ones... Be thinking of M. I can not even begin to tell you how nervous I am right now.

I am too nervous to sleep ( You would thnk I was the one getting ready to work my tail end off tomorrow..:) ) so I 'll load a few family pictures...

Go Daddy!

Day Before The Race......

Wow, tomorrow is the race..... We are excited! M is sticking all of the numbers on his bags, bike,

helmet etc. as I type. We will take down everything and check it in here in a bit. We drove the course yesterday. M likes to get a mental picture of exactly where he will be. It is a very flat (dare I say, boring) course. He should do well, especially considering the altitude we are at and the altitude he is use to training at. So keep him in your prayers. ANd send lots of good thoughts!!!! He runs by the house we are staying in 4 times so we will get to stay here for some of the day, so I will try and write some updates along the way...

I guess we are going to try and do some relaxing today... Not sure if that is possible with six kids in the house... but we will do our best.

OH, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so caught up in the race I almost forgot.... We are kind of being lazy for halloween this year... We are going to play some halloween games and make halloween cookies tonight and hope we get some trick or treaters.... The kids did a few halloween parties and trunk or treating ( with other wards) so we decided that was good enough. It was just easier not to haul the costumes all the way over here. It was just one more thing... And we barely fit as it was in our car.....

Hope everyone is doing well... We are thinking of you all!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

More on the Beach!

Double A and I went shopping this afternoon and M and grandpa Peter and Grandma Lynette took the other kids down to the beach to play. They had a blast building walls to protect them from the waves. They even saw a jelly fish. But were so fascinated by it they forgot to take a picture... Oh, Grandma Debbie, take a look at the bag of shells Little A is holding in the picture. The kids have been finding you lots! And big beautiful ones ,too! Love you all!

Long Trip, But We Made It!

Wow, What a trip over here! We flew into Orlando which was 3 1/2 hours, then jumped into our car and drove 6 hours to Panama City. A very long time to be traveling with five kids! They did great but we were all exhausted from the trip.

On the plane ride over.....

Leaving the airport.......Check out how much luggage we have... And this was packing light, knowing that we would be doing laundry at our house here in Panama City. :)

Now this is what makes the trip worth it... The Beach!

At the Iron man Inspiration Station... The kids made these signs for M.

We will update more later in the week... But the water is warm, M swam in it today in his new wetsuit and he said it felt great!

Monday, October 27, 2008

AND WE'RE OFF!

So we leave first thing in the morning to go to Florida for M's Ironman. We are all very excited and a little nervous. I always find myself fighting these nerves as the race day approaches. It has nothing to do with his ability, because he has trained so hard and will have no problem doing it. It is just something that seems to come over me every time he does one. When that race starts and all 2500 people ( yes, no typo, 2500. I just asked M.) start it is so overwhelming. You know that for the next 9:00 to 10:00 hours ( He's hoping to be around 9:00) the love of your life is out there and putting everything on the line. I have a hard time explaining it. Maybe it is that I am always calling him through out the day.. I need to talk with him all of the time. He's my best friend. He's been my best friend since I was 17. Anyway... enough mushy ramblings..... We are very excited about this trip and just being together as a family. What more could I possibly ask for? The kids and I have been watching the movies made from M's past ironmans to get us all pumped and excited. So I thought I would post them again. I know I have them on the side bar of my blog but you can't really see them so here they are again!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Halloween Dance....

On Saturday M and I chaperoned a stake YW/YM dance. But we didn't realize it was a costume dance until my YWgirls started calling me to see what the costume guidelines were. So very quickly M and I (with so much help from our Double A) put together these quick costumes. YOu can't get the full effect but they worked. I was a "bee" and M was a FBI agent. We made the wings out of hose and hangers and put pipecleaners on a headband. Then we put an earpiece on M and made him a Badge. We had so much fun! We had a great turnout and the dance was actually fun! Thanks to M for coming with me. And thanks to my older kids for holding the fort down while we were out!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Aw, Don't you just love the mornings?

Don't you just love it? I think it is so funny! We are all not really morning people. Well, except for M. He's way too chipper in the mornings! :) The rest of us just grumble around until we have had some breakfast. And this picture just captures how I feel almost every morning( and probably look. Okay, I could never look this cute).

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Sugar and Spice and all that's nice!

Exhausted But Doing Well!

This seems to sum up our lives.... We are always so exhausted. But we love it! It is that "good" exhausted feeling. We are exhausted because we are so busy with sports and other activities. We are exhausted because we just want to play one more game before we go to bed. We are exhausted because we can't stop reading our nightly book because it is so good. We are exhausted because our two year old has crawled into bed with us and kicks us through out the night. Exhausted but doing well! Yep, that pretty much sums it up. It won't be too long until we have too much time on our hands. We will be hoping our kids might come home for the weekend. I will be wishing I could see the little hand prints on my windows. I will even be missing cleaning my bathrooms and doing loads of laundry. We are in a good place and we wouldn't change it for anything!

This picture (taken by Tiny A as you can tell by the finger smudged lens) sums up this saying as well. This is right after the two older kid's cross country meet. Don't they look "exhausted but doing well"? And they are doing well. Each week these two very determined kids move up higher and higher in the standings. They amaze me!

Little A's new hair style!

Little A has been begging me for quite some time now to let her have bangs. She has very curly hair and I didn't think they would work. But the other day when I was trimming her hair I gave in. She loves them and is so proud of her "new" hair style. She even asked that I post a picture so her Aunts could see it...

Tiny A isn't so tiny any more!

Okay so her blog name isn't going to fit her for very much longer. She will be three in Dec. But I guess she is the Tiniest "A" we have.... :)
She has changed so much lately... Talks non stop... Makes up songs about everything... And will change any story to make the outcome better for herself.... Hmmm. We will have to work on that one :) But on a serious note, she is my little companion during the day. I love having her here and we have a great time together!

At church the little ones ( up to 3 yrs. ) go to nursery after sacrament is over. Well, all of my kids are always "Momma kids" so they don't go. Out of my five kids only Triple A went ( because he had phenomenal leaders) and now Tiny A ( For the same reason). She loves it! She learns so much and is always so eager to share with us all that she has learned. This picture she made me take of her because she was so proud of her "Prophet poster" she made in nursery. ( She posed herself which makes this picture even funnier. :)

Matt was just putting sunscreen on her and we never knew she was so ticklish, pretty funny video.

Football is done!

Well, it is at least done for Triple A's team. They lost their first playoff game against the #1 team. They played hard and did great! Good Job Triple A!

Definitely the way to watch a game....

"OOOOHH, IT'S SO CUTE!!!!!"

Not exactly what I call cute, but never the less this is what my two year old said when we saw this tarantula right outside our front door. Amazingly none of our kids seemed to mind the presence of this little guy( Okay, BIG guy). They all watched him for quite sometime. Oh , the simple joys of childhood. I wish I could keep my little ones right where they are. I love that it is the simple things that please them. :)

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Balloon Fiesta !

Okay , so this picture isn't from this year but we didn't get any balloons close enough this morning. We actually got up nice and early and went to the kids school where a balloon was suppose to launch from their grassy field. Well, they never showed! So we all went home with some grouchy, hungry kids. Hmmm... not exactly what I call a fun morning. But the cute thing was that almost every family from church was there with their cute little families. So it was still fun. Triple A said as we were walking away, " Well, I atleast got to play with all of my friends really early in the morning and I never get to do that!" So, there you have it, it was a good morning!

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Fall weather. We are loving the cooler nights and mornings. I am always ready for the change. :)