All the focus is on Luke right now since it was his birthday and first day of school so I thought I'd do a flashback on him just to round out the week.

Luke was a very big baby 9 lbs 3 oz and I was HUGE when I was prego with him. Luckily I don't think I have any pictures during the end. Right from the moment he was born he was a sweet baby. After having such a hard baby with Tayson we couldn't get over how easy Luke was. For a long time I thought he was just like most babies but because of Tayson we thought he was the best. But now that I've had 2 more kids and they have been normal kids I realize just how easy Luke was. He was honestly the easiest, happiest, sweetest baby. He ate like a champ, slept even better and smiled all the time. He LOVED his binky (it was quite a challenge getting rid of it when he was 3).










Luke is such a lovable kid. He loves to cuddle and is very sweet and sensitive. He is a total perfectionist and loves to make people happy. One of my favorite things is that Luke and Tayson are pretty much polar opposites which makes them perfect brothers.

Today started with birthday pancakes - topped with whip cream, sprinkles and a candle of course. Luke really thought long and hard about his wish before blowing out his candle (I wish I knew what he was thinking).







I love how excited Luke is for school and I'm pretty sure he's going to love being in kindergarten the whole year not just today. He did so dang good on his assessment test (184/200) and reads like a champ. He's a rockstar!

Some funny things my kids have done/said recently:

Yesterday we didn't have normal church because of the Temple Dedication and at about 1:00 pm Luke walked up to me and said "mom, when are we going to church?" He was the only one who either knew it was Sunday or cared that it was Sunday. He is such a cutie.

I absolutely love watching Claire when she doesn't know I'm watching her. She quotes and sings along to all the songs in her movies. Her favorite right now is "The Little Mermaid" and she says the "my fathers gonna KILL ME" line with so much vigor and when she sings "part of your world" she purses her lips and pushes out her chest like she's on the rock. It cracks me up.

Sophie can't be stopped these days. This morning she was walking around in the room while I was getting ready and at one point I looked over and she was on the bed. She managed to get up on our cedar chest using Todd's backpack then up on the bed. She is very resourceful and a little crazy. A little bit later she pulled over a tv tray that Todd had next to his desk so that she could get my purse down. It bonked her on the head and she was bawling until she realized the purse and keys were now hers for the taking.

Tayson loves his new teacher. He came home everyday last week telling us how fun his new class is. Yippee - he's not one to love school.

I was trying to get Luke to ride Tayson's old bike the other day and he told me he can't ride until he turns 5. He has the idea that he will grow up on his actual birthday and some magical change will happen to him and he'll be a year older on that day. He's so silly.

Yesterday Sophie took a small pink stretch toy thing (I don't know how to explain it better than that) and put it in her mouth and Claire said "Sophie don't...that is isgusting!" then when Sophie didn't listen to her she said "it's NOT a snack Soph!" Finally Sophie spit it out and handed it back to Claire.

A few months ago my group of running girls decided to run the Park City Half Marathon. It sounded like a good idea at the time because we would already be in shape since we would be right in the middle of training for our marathon. Then as we got closer I kept wondering what I got myself into since it was during a recovery week in the training and I really like my recovery weeks. The race was sandwiched between two 20 mile runs so I really didn't want to get too sore on the race.

My awesome friend Jill was the instigator of this particular race then got a bad hip injury and can barely walk yet she finished the half marathon like a champ. Watching her come across the finish line brought tears to my eyes since I knew how much she was hurting and just how awesome she was for doing it. The course was an out-n-back route so you got to see everyone on the race and while I was running I kept thinking about how every person out there had their story. It could have been their 100th race or their 1st. Maybe they were feeling great, maybe they just had a baby or surgery or an injury. I had a totally different view of every person out there running with me.

My main goal with this run was to feel good. I hurt so bad at the Moab half. I ran it just like our training runs and I felt good the whole run. I didn't cramp up and I managed to pick it up at the end.



The best part of the entire race was the girls weekend we made of it. We left Friday afternoon and we had a great dinner, shopped and shopped and shopped had an amazing room at the Canyons resort thanks to Leigh Anne. Ran our race, shopped some more, ate some more then finished the day watching one of the running girls play some awesome tennis in her regionals tournament. I have some pretty freaking awesome running partners and friends.

Another funny side note: I had told Todd I would be home around 5:00 on Saturday but the tennis match didn't go as long as we thought so I got home around 3:30 instead. The house was in complete disarray because he was planning on starting to clean at 4:00 so it would be perfect when I got home. It was so funny to me. Of course I was so thankful that he had watched the kids and let me go out with the girls I hurried and cleaned up so he wouldn't have to. He is so supportive of me and is seriously so good to me. I am one lucky girl!

I know it's silly but I absolutely LOVE that Luke wears footed jammies. Tayson and Claire stopped wearing them by 2, but Luke just loves them and always asks for us to buy him more and picks them out first in his drawer. Last night at Wal-Mart we found some 5T ones so I let him pick out a few pair (they are actually hard to come by in his size....for a reason I'm sure).




Don't worry I already have an appointment to get his haircut before he starts Kindergarten next week. I really do love his hair long though :)

I had a cute outfit picked out for Tayson but he didn't want to wear it so he wore a white t-shirt and his track pants. Oh well - he still looks adorable to me. Tayson has gotten so big over the last year and it is crazy to me that he's in 2nd grade. I'm very excited about his teacher this year (she said she likes social kids - even class clowns).

Saturday was a long run for the marathon training. I've put the details on my fitness blog but I want to document it here with some pictures of the fun run. We did a one-way run from Wallsberg to the mouth of Provo Canyon.






Oh how I love the girls I run with. There is no way I could have done it on my own. Leigh Anne's hubby James came as our support team. He drove us up to the top, met us several times to refill our water and took pictures. Looking at the pictures my outfit needs more color to hang with such stylin' girlies on the road. I also want to document that a couple of guys fishing yelled "hey ladies" at us - totally classic. But hey, I'll take what I can get at this point :)

Tayson really wanted to have a pool party for his birthday but on Saturday it ended up being really cold and rainy so about 30 minutes before the party and 30 minutes after I finished running 20 miles so the start was a little stressful.


Everyone was helping Steve and Christine move in across the street so I filled the minivan with 6 of the kids and had to leave Claire and Sophie behind with Todd. Heidi got there about 20 minutes later which was great to have a backup....but she brought 4 kids with her so now the count was 10 kids and 2 adults. Then Todd showed up with the girls and Chris came to help so we ended up with enough adults and the kids were great the whole time. I am so glad we bowled instead of swam or I could have never done it with ratio of kids to adults.

After bowling and corn dogs at Fat Cats we went home and had b-day cake and ice cream then the kids played downstairs for about 30 minutes until it was time to clear out so Sophie could take a nap. It was a little crazy changing plans so last minute but it ended up being perfect and Tayson had a great time with his siblings, cousins and a few friends.

Today Tayson and Luke both had their annual checkups. In the last year Tayson grew 7 inches and put on 5 pounds. He is now weighing in at 49 pounds. Luke on the other hand is 45 inches and 41 pounds and in the last year grew a little over 3 inches and didn't gain a pound. He was a big boy last year :)

They both checked out healthy and neither had to get any shots so it was a good day at the doctors. Tayson's eyes weren't as good as they should be so I'm going to need to take him in to an eye doctor to see if he needs glasses.

Also last week Sophie had her checkup and was rounded up to 20 pounds. I'm so happy that my little pip squeak is actually that big since I thought she was about 18 pounds :) She was healthy as can be and I still haven't done any vaccinations on her. I will do them someday I just don't want to yet for some reason with her.

Today my baby turned 7 years old. It's crazy to me how old he is. He has been looking forward to his birthday since school got out and I think this morning in the 1 1/2 hours between when he woke up and when I left for work I heard "I'm the birthday boy!!!" at least 30 times.



We did the traditional Schultz birthday pancakes and sang to him before I left for work and tonight we are taking him out to a restaurant of his choice - he chose Olive Garden because he can't get enough of their fettuccine alfredo. Then tomorrow he is going to the pool with lots of family and a few of his friends for a few hours.

Tayson is one silly boy. He makes us laugh all the time and is very dramatic. He got my quick temper and emotions and Todd's sense of humor which combined into one crazy kiddo. He has grown up so much and is a very good helper around the house.

Now for the flashback...

7 years ago I had my first baby. WOW - what a learning experience. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was in labor for 10 days before he was born. I would have hard contractions at regular intervals for several hours at a time...then they would just stop for a day. It was so annoying and I was so miserable and grumpy and HUGE. Finally on the 13th I went into labor and about 6 hours later I had a perfect beautiful baby boy. He was 8 lbs 5 oz and 19.5 inches long.



We should have realized in the hospital that first day what a handful he was going to be by the amount of crying he did. Luckily, we didn't know any better and just thought that was how babies came. When he would nurse he was like a little puppy - he would growl and take his little fist and push my boob to get the milk to come out faster. He was a very loud eater and I couldn't really nurse him in public. He also made a habit of having blow out diapers at least once a day while nursing which meant both he and I were completely covered. Yuck. He kept up his crying and we would swaddle him sooooo tight and play his white noise (a 6 minute waterfall on repeat) on a boom box turned up really loud or he wouldn't sleep. He loved to be bounced on the exercise ball and our rocking chair didn't get much use with him.



I can't believe my baby is already 7 and even more that I have had 3 more since then! Time sure does fly.

Lately I've been totally into casual cotton dresses...long or short they are just very comfortable. Last week I was wearing one and someone said to me "this is the first time I have EVER seen you in a skirt". He said it with so much shock in his voice I thought maybe I should dress more feminine from now on.

So, today I have on a cute brown one with white polka dots and I have gotten more compliments on my simple outfit than I ever do at work. I guess should wear it more often. But it has a few big issues with functionality the biggest being no pockets. I know why girls clothes don't have pockets - they aren't as slimming but it poses major problems when I'm going around work with so much stuff to carry. I just went down to lunch with my badge, cell phone and credit card in hand then added a small salad, half a sandwich, a fork, napkin and water bottle....that's a tough load to carry. So while I was organizing it all so I could carry it upstairs to my office (and still be able to use my badge to get into the door and have a free hand to open the door) I apologized to someone about taking up so much room on the counter and said something about how not having pockets was something that guys never have to worry about. He said he could go on for quite a while on why it's easier to be a guy (he's married and has 3 daughters) and pockets aren't in the top 100. Made me laugh.

But I think I'll still wear my silly little dresses and my jeans with buttoned down back pockets even though they aren't functional because they are more slimming :)

Last night I finished the book "The Hunger Games" and can I just say it was so great! I loved it. It was a quick read and the characters were awesome. I can't wait for the second book in the series to come out in a few weeks.

Also, I got my blog book yesterday and I am so happy with how it turned out. These aren't the best pictures...but I had to use my phone to take them because my special blogging camera battery is dead.





I used blurb to make my book and I will use them again. The book cost me $67 total (I found a free shipping coupon online which saved me all the shipping costs). I decided that I want to do my blog into journals in 1 year increments so this is my 2008 book.

So here is what I did. I went to blurb's website and downloaded their booksmart software onto my computer. Then I imported my blog. One thing I did wrong at this point was the order I got my entries - mine came in newest to oldest. Then I made a journal cover and back to my book using the same basic image and title that I have on my blog right now. Then the real work started. I went through every page and found a layout that fit it better, cropped and zoomed images, changed font sizes, took out everything at the bottom (like my email address) and only left the date/time stamp from my blog. I combined smaller entries onto single pages (see the left side of the image above) in order to cut down on the number of pages. I made sure that if a spread was 2 pages long that it was laid out together rather than having to turn the page. Initially I was putting the date/time stamp in the footer so I had to go back after about 75 pages and put that back in the body and change all my footers to only have the page number. I re-read almost every entry to make sure they made sense, removed things that didn't really matter (like the Twilight trailer), and occasionally had to slim down the picture descriptions to fit in the space provided. Once I was happy with all of the layouts I was previewing my book and I didn't like the way it flowed with newest to oldest so I spent a few hours changing the order (I couldn't find a way to do this automatically and had to do it 3-4 pages at a time). Then I had to go back and make sure that all my double spread layouts were still grouped together. After that I ran a spell check and did a final preview of my site. They recommend that you print it out and look at it but I really didn't want to waste 260 pages so I placed my order. It took about 2 weeks to print and mail. One thing I wish I would have done differently is to order it with the Hardcover image wrap instead of the dust cover. I'm sure the dust cover will be ripped and ruined faster than I want. Other than that I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.

Last night Mark came over for dinner and I had just opened my book so I ask him if he wanted to know what he missed out on while he was gone and handed him my book jokingly. It made me so happy that as he was looking through it he kept stopping and reading and reading and reading. My kids love it and every time they see a page with their picture on it want me to read them the story. This is why I love keeping a journal and now my blog. I want my family to remember their lives and especially to know how much I love them.

Now I need to be better about keeping my blog updated so that 2008 has just as many great stories and pictures as 2007.

Nu Skin is such a great company and they do a lot to help those in need. Every Wednesday Nu Skin employees volunteer their time to serve lunch at the local food and care coalition. I got the chance to go yesterday and it was a very interesting experience.

I purposely put on a nicer "casual day" outfit in the morning because I had to do a presentation during an afternoon meeting. So I walk in and the first thing the guy running the show says to me is "nice True Religion jeans". UGH! I felt like a snob and honestly I wasn't thinking about it when I got dressed in the morning. Then when I went out to set up tables a lady said something to me about my beautiful jewelry - again I felt bad about not just wearing jeans a t-shirt and my hair in a pony tail. Of course that's not how I dress when I go to work so it wasn't really something I thought of. Rather than serve the food I chose to stay in the kitchen and do prep, making the trays and clean up. Can you believe how big the pot of sloppy joe meat is? (yes, I sang the Adam Sandler sloppy joe song in my head the entire time)

During the meal someone I know came in for lunch and I thought about how glad I was in the kitchen so she wouldn't have to see me. For some reason rather than go out there to say hello (not that we are great friends...she was actually rather offensive to me on a few different occasions but that doesn't matter) I thought she would rather not have someone know she was here having a meal. I guess I felt this way because if it was me I would be embarrassed and wouldn't want someone to see me but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't show my friendship to her. I feel bad that I didn't make an effort to say something. I suck in situations like that!

I was really impressed with how well everything was run. They give everyone a great meal - the same thing for everyone. They make a huge effort not to have anything wasted and the people who worked there showed so much love for those in need. It was a great experience and I'm glad I had the chance to give a little of my time to those around me in need.

Todd planned a big Schultz Family "fathers and sons" camp out for this weekend. He researched and found a good spot that wasn't too close or too far away (Coldcreek Campground). Todd planned and planned figuring out who was coming what meals and activities. He made about 4 trips to Wal-Mart in one day trying to get everything ready and perfect. He took enough food to feed an army (seriously....way too much food). Todd took both boys, my dad, Mark, Steve and his boys, and David all went up together.

However, he forgot to bring the boys sleeping bags, blankets and pillows....oops! Friday was the coldest night we've had in months and they all froze and didn't get a lot of sleep. Which meant they came home Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday (which I was very happy about). I asked Mark afterwards why he didn't let the boys use his sleeping bag and he said "I slept with a table cloth cause I forgot mine too". So classic.





Meanwhile....Timmy, the girls and I were at home so we decided to go shopping. Timmy cut his hair as a deal to get to go clothes shopping for some work clothes so we headed up to Nordstrom Rack for the afternoon. We got lots of great deals and he got 3 shirts, 2 pair of pants, and 2 pair of shoes for less than $300 (not bad). While we were there Claire had to use the bathroom and I almost cried when I saw how constipated she has been. Not to get too graphic but honestly my sweet tiny little girl has bigger poop than she is. It is so sad and it breaks my heart. Then like 15 minutes later Timmy says "I think Sophie is poopy" and I went to grab her to go change her and we see that it was a massive blow out ... all over of her clothes .... all over Timmy's arm .... so nasty. So I ran to change her and took off her clothes so she finished shopping in a bow, diaper and pink shoes. It was hilarious.

I had to make a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home from work and several things drove me crazy. I have a lot of pet peeves and I try very hard to let people be who they are and try not to judge but honestly some things are just common courtesy.

So here are a few things that really annoy me at the store:

1. People who leave their empty carts in the parking lot. It's just not that hard to put it back. You don't have to go back into the store but putting it in an empty parking spot is just uncalled for. I saw a young college aged fella do this yesterday and I almost said something to him - there was no reason for him not to walk 50 feet and return it but instead he put it in a prime parking spot. UGH.
   
2. People who leave their carts right in the middle of the aisle while they look at every single price point of an item. I don't care how long you stare at the tomato sauce but don't block the entire aisle so that I either have to run into your cart on accident or wait 10 years for you to make up your mind. Yes someone was doing this yesterday at the store. Her cart was at an angle and was honestly taking up so much room I had to move her cart to get past it and she didn't even say sorry or move her cart. ANNOYING.
3. Talking on your speakerphone. Seriously I don't need to hear your conversation or what you should be buying at the store. There was a BYU couple at the store yesterday walking (slowing strolling at best) through the store holding hands and taking up more than their fair share of room in the aisles chatting it up on the speakerphone. REALLY?
4. People with kids at the store who are yelling, crying, throwing the food out of the cart onto the floor, adding extra food to the cart and still getting a treat at the checkout. OH WAIT I don't hate that .... that's me at the store.

I'm so glad I got that off my chest. It was really driving me bonkers.

Back as far as my memory goes Danny has been one of my very best friends. We are 2 years apart (he's younger) and pretty much did everything together our entire lives. He got me into trouble all the time when we were kids making me skip school and do things like play apple baseball. Pretty much every one of my friends from elementary school into college had a crush on him. I swear most of my friends growing up would have sleepovers so they could try to sneak into Danny's room. He is such an amazing person and really can do it all. It's nice to have such a stud for a brother to keep me on my toes.

A funny story about Danny: When he left on his mission one of our friends told me a story about how 2 years earlier he was driving my jeep and he went off the road into the ditch and turned it on it's side in the snow. Luckily there were enough big strong guys to get it out and he made them all swear not to tell me until he was on his mission. I laughed so hard when I found out. Like I could ever be mad at Danny.




I'm a day late posting....I've been busy

I finished this book last night. It was quite a bit different than the other 2 books I've read by Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper and 19 Minutes). It didn't seem to be quite as controversial. I really liked the main character (Cassie). It was a lot of character development and relationships with a good plot and good ending. The biggest issue I had with this book was the language.

I spent a lot of time the last few weeks organizing and finishing my 2008 blog book. I am so excited to get it...it's on order! When I was going through all of my posts I realized how much more I blogged last year than this year. I wrote down lots of simple things and made it a point to write down all the small things that matter to me. I am committed to blog more so that this years journal has just as many memories. I can't wait to get my book. My kids are going to love it. They love reading my blog and hearing fun stories about themselves.

On Friday afternoon Todd and his mom took the kids out on the boat while Sophie was napping so I stayed home for some peace and quiet. They were gone for about 3 hours. I put on my iPod and cleaned the entire house and then when Sophie woke up we ran a few errands. Then on Saturday Todd and his mom took all the kids to the fish store while Sophie was napping so once again I volunteered to stay home with her. I opted to finish the last 2 loads of laundry, do the dishes and finally read my book for a few minutes.

The funny part is that even though I didn't nap or rest really it was so great to have the house to myself to get everything done I wanted to. It was nice to not have to find extra time on Saturday to clean when I would rather be spending time as a family. I love having a clean house and I don't mind cleaning it especially when I can rock out to some music and not worry about what my kids are doing or trying to keep them busy with chores of their own. I think it's fun when we all clean the house together (it takes twice as long but it's fun to watch the kids clean) but it was so nice to just be alone doing simple tasks thinking and enjoying time to myself.