Since it's ski season I thought I'd flash back to a ski trip. I'm pretty sure it was 1994. I was living here going to BYU and the family came out to visit from the flatlands of Missouri to ski.

isn't she cute?

A nice picture of the sunset ruined by lipstick on the teeth...yes I know photoshop can get rid of small problems like this but what about in real life. I can't tell you how often people tell me I have lipstick on my teeth (which I am grateful they tell me or I'd keep walking around smiling not knowing the problem).

So here's the thing. I would really like to get permanent makeup done to my lips so I never have this issue again but in the meantime I'm trying out long lasting lipstick. I've tried Almay and Cover girl. The Almay lasts for like 24 hours and is good but I haven't found a color that I love yet. I like the Covergirl color but it only lasts until about 2:00 pm.

Have any of you used the all-day stuff? Which brands are good? Is it worth spending extra money to go to department stores instead of just buying something at Target?

Claire will you get me a tissue so I can blow your nose?

10:00 - all done with my stretches, scriptures, prayers, face washed, teeth brushed and in bed....whew getting ready for bed is quite the job

10:45 - wake up to Sophie crying....feed her and go back to bed

11:00 - put her binky back in....and again.....and rock her until 11:30

2:30 - wake up to Sophie crying....feed her again this time she goes right back to sleep

4:57 - wake up to Sophie crying....feed her AGAIN!

5:13 - back in bed

5:20 - alarm goes off for spin (too bad I can't skip my workout today...but when you're the teacher you have to go)

7:00 - that was a good workout!

7:20 - home from the gym...get clothes for the boys to wear....supervise the making of 2 beds....scriptures....family prayers.....email a few things for work...unload dishwasher....load breakfast dishes (dang the garbage disposal is broken - thanks Todd for fixing it so fast!)

8:00 - conference call with Europe

8:45 - shower and makeup

9:10- feed sophie breakfast....dress claire....dress sophie

9:30 - fix hair

9:45 - nurse sophie and put her down for her morning nap (man I could use one of those right about now)

10:00 - take out 2 bags of trash...scrape car windows and off to work

10:20 - scarf down some breakfast (finally) while reviewing mock-ups for a project with 2 people on the team

11:00 - meetings, emails and more work

12:30 - lunch at last! drop off dry cleaning....put air in the tire (it's really flat and i have to wait for 10 minutes for the scoob in front of me to check and re-check his tires 10 times)....pick up supplies for Young Women's New Beginnings tomorrow....grab some drive-thru and head back to work

1:30 - pump (mooooo....I love being a working mom) while checking emails on my phone

1:45 - work....work.....work.....email.....work.....conf calls....work

3:30 - give away tickets to the Jazz game tonight because I'm already too tired to think about going

5:15 - home from work. My house is spic-n-span clean, dinner is in the oven, homework is done and the kids are playing downstairs (thank you sooooo much Amy!!!)

6:00 - fold wash.....bathe 4 kids....supervise the boys putting away their wash

7:00 - nurse Sophie and put her to bed while Todd reads with the boys

7:30 - work on my talk for YW tomorrow night....blog and relax while the kids watch a movie before bed.....next stop BED!!!

OK I am done complaining but I needed to vent and get it all off my chest - hopefully tomorrow will be a less exciting day!

**most days are not like this thank goodness**

Sophie is as busy body these days....she is "perpetual motion" as my mom calls her. She can roll and get into a seated position from both sides, pull up on her hands and knees and even take a few crawls forward. I think she's my earliest crawler.

Claire has a cold and it doesn't seem that bad except that she has it in her eyes. Those big, beautiful eyes are swollen, red, and there is SO MUCH goop coming out of them it's disgusting (as she would say). Two of her favorite words right now are disgusting and because. She will say things like "because mom.....I need a drink because" it makes no sense but she likes to throw it into sentences as often as possible.

Here is a conversation that happened between Tayson and I tonight:

Me: I am sooooo sick of you doing that
Tayson: Then why aren't you throwing up?

Are kids his age supposed to be sarcastic????

And lastly....my hip is doing so much better. Thank goodness for physical therapy! I've been working on my running drills to change my form slightly (my hips are in front of my head and shoulders and I strike my heels too hard). At the end of our 6 mile run yesterday I could totally feel my hamstrings so I think I'm starting to work the right muscles. Yahoo!!!

Let's go back to 1979

Such defiance.

I do not deserve a child like this....I was sweet!

Well I did it I ran the "Frigid 5K" and it was 14 degrees outside. UGH! But I set a goal to run a race every month of 2009 so there was no choice.

I was a little worried about my hip bothering me but the physical therapy has helped a lot and it didn't hurt at all during the run and is only a little sore right now. We decided that we weren't going to push ourselves hard today and I didn't even wear my Garmin. But we managed to finish the race just over a minute longer than we did the Nutcracker 5K last month. It was a small race (about 71 people). We finished in 25:50. Placed 9th and 10th overall, 3rd and 4th out of all the ladies and 1st and 2nd in our age group. Hooray for small races! And a big thanks to Traci for being just as crazy as I am...I couldn't do it without you!

A few weeks ago I got a bunch of slides scanned in that belonged to my Grandpa Schultz. There are some great photos and I now have years of flashbacks ready to go!


These pictures were taken when my grandparents came to visit us in Tucson, AZ. I love that Sherry and I are all dressed up in dresses and coats (yet we have bare legs so it was obviously not very cold) and I LOVE that George and Steve are wearing full on cowboy outfits - boots, hats, plaid (oh wait that's just the style not part of the "outfit"), holsters and guns (I bet they were cap guns too that were loud and smelled like smoke - why don't they make those anymore???)

I can't believe my little girl is already 6 months old. She is the sweetest baby ever - I swear she never cries (it has to be pretty bad at least before she'll cry). She can sit like a champ, roll all over the place, put her binky back in her mouth (hooray!), babbles, smiles, eats great, sleeps good (now that we are back in our normal routine and her head cold is going away).

She really is my beautiful sweet angel.

The other night when I was nursing her before bed I was so amazed at how big she is now. Her little legs were totally hanging off my lap. Then when I was burping her I couldn't believe that she didn't fit anymore....so sad.

First let me give some background information. Todd and Danny (my bro) are a tad bit crazy when they are together. And thanks to the holidays they have been together quite a bit over the last few months. So there is an ongoing joke about putting a sock on the door (if you know what I mean...if you don't you can stop reading now).

A few nights ago after all the kids were in bed I got myself a nice bowl of ice cream and was headed back to the bedroom (to blog of course) and there was a sock on the door. This made me laugh. But then I opened the door to find the lights out, several candles lit, and music playing and Todd sitting on the bed (don't worry he had all his clothes on).

Of course I had just gotten myself a nice bowl of ice cream so I just sat down on my side of the bed to talk and eat it. Right when I sat down I heard the sound of gas passing....was it me? It had to be I heard it and it was right here! But no, it wasn't me I was pretty sure about that. So I had quite the perplexed look on my face right about the time I realized Todd had put the whoopee cushion under the sheets right where I was sitting. He had only put a little air in it and put it under all the bedding so it wasn't a loud obnoxious noise it sounded so real. He was laughing harder than I have ever seen him laugh before. Freakin' HILARIOUS!!!

p.s. Todd bought the whoopee cushion at K.B. Toys going out of business sale for like 48 cents....I believe it's the best bargain he's ever gotten. And the boys think it is sooooo funny. They keep putting it everywhere and saying "mom come sit down" and you will see a blanket thrown over a very full and obvious whoopee cushion...but I play along and they crack up.

This year instead of my typical New Years Resolutions I'm doing the following.

1. Setting a theme for the year. My theme is "Embrace your crazy". Everyone has their own brand of crazy, some are more pronounced and others are so similar to mine I don't even think they are crazy. But really we are all crazy at some level. When I look at other people's "brand" of crazy and see it as just that I am much less judgemental and enjoy other people more.

2. Sign up for races/events. Instead of setting a weight or workout goal I like to find races or events to do and then I meet any fitness goals while training for them. Here is what I have in mind for 2009.

• Moab Half Marathon (already signed up....now I must train)
• 2 Centuries (Little Red Riding hood and Heber most likely)
• A marathon (maybe Top of Utah or Deseret News)
• Run at least a 5K every month of the year

The reason I took all 4 kids up to Spokane for the funeral was not to give Todd a fun-filled weekend alone.....it was so I could get 4 generation pictures with my Grandma (who is weeks away from turning 95).

Amy (my cousin), Sherry and I

2009 Sophie and my mom
(this is Sophie's first time swimming)

Me, Luke, Tayson, My dad and Claire
we are freezing and have no tan whatsoever!

So much better once you're in the hot spring

It was a long trip... Claire was left in the back by herself too long. She decided to play with her crayons and colored her entire face red. We noticed this about 5 minutes from my Uncle Ron's house.

Our first day in Cali we all sat down to plan out the week. We planned meals and activities for everyday. We put all the options down on paper then everyone was allowed 1 cross off. There were small activities (like making reindeer cookies) and big all-day activities (like the "space museum" or Griffith park). Todd crossed off the "space museum". But then Amy and I decided it was a good option for the kids so we put it on as our Dec. 23rd all day activity.

It was quite a drive to get there and we were following Todd M. but lost him due to way too many cars on the road and too many freeways. Thank goodness for google maps on my iPhone so we could get there without directions. The kids kept asking us what were going to do so Todd and I explained what "space" is and about stars and astronauts and how this would be just like the Dinosaur museum but about space.

Then we got there and the first exhibit was bugs....what in the world? Finally it dawned on us that it was the "kidspace" museum - not as in "outer space" but as in "give me some space". For days we had been calling it the "space" museum. HA!

They crawled in ant holes
The rode tricycles
(Tayson's helmet is on backwards...LOL)

Luke was kind enough to take Claire for a ride
And they both loved it

They climbed on plant roots
They climbed rock walls
They built towers
(Claire was an excellent assistant)

**Warning: Picture Overload**

We went down to California for Christmas this year. Traveling with 4 kids to Salt Lake is a lot of work so preparing and taking the long trip (with Christmas presents) is no small feat but we did it! The drive home was HORRIBLE - it took us 8 hours and 45 minutes to get from Todd's house to Danny's house in Vegas. This is normally about a 3 1/2 hour trip. We were in serious traffic for HOURS and HOURS!!! The kids were really good and Tayson got his first true road trip experience of peeing in a bottle (there was no choice!) and now he loves it and would rather pee in a bottle than stop at a gas station. Oh boy - what have we started!!!

California was a blast. Amy and Todd were there too with their 3 kiddos so it was non-stop action the whole week (7 kids under the age of 6).

Here are the highlights...

Christmas Lights:

And NOT doing.

I HAVE NOT been: blogging, exercising, waking up in the morning, or even to the grocery store for the last 3 weeks.

I HAVE been: sleeping, in the minivan with my kids way too much, playing rock band, and eating too much fast food and gas station food (sick) while on the road with my kids.

As of right now I'm changing my ways I will be back to myself! So get ready for some serious blog catch up....I have lots to post.