Birthdays

I am having a hard week....My little princess girl will be turning 12 in less than 2 weeks. This is such a milestone birthday, I feel like it is a coming of age. This is the birthday where you start to grow up and be a woman.

When I think about it the tears flow and I just want to stop time. When McKenzie was born our world changed. She made us better parents and better people. We were not sure if we were having a boy or girl. When the doctor said "Its a girl" both Kelly and I were overwhelmed with emotions. We now had this little baby girl to raise and take care of. She was the highlight of our lives.

It was a hard adjustment for the first few weeks of bringing her home. King Kolton was not our only priority and on many occasions he would ask us to bring her back to the hospital. He had a rough time being the only child, grandchild, and nephew on both sides of our families. He now had to share to glory, and with a girl.

My favorite thing about McKenzie as a little girl was her love for being girly. Her world was pink. she would tell you her eyes were pink and her hair was pink. We could not leave the house without hair bows, matching outfit and matching shoes. What little 1 yr old needs 10 pairs of shoes?

She knew she had to grow up fast to get ready for her unexpected baby sister
(Kelsie is 16 months younger). It seems as from the time she was born we were going 100 miles an hour. At 5 months she was crawling by 8 months she was walking and by her first birthday we bought a jungle gym so she would quit climbing on the counters and piano. She kept us going and going and going.....Things have not changed she keeps us going and going and going. I wonder how she manages 3 days of dance, piano, basketball, snowboarding, and school. All sometimes within the same day. And then I remember this is our baby girl that we would find on top of dinning room table and she would go and go and go. So what should I expect?

As her birthday draws closer I spend time remembering the past 12 years and how they have flown. If the past 12 are any indication of the next 12 it will be a great ride into womanhood. I am afraid for me it will be a tearful 12 years I have a hard time seeing my children get older.

So Kenz this blog is for you because you bring us sunshine everyday. Your beautiful smile gets us every time. You have always been such a pretty girl and every year you become more beautiful. WE LOVE YOU!!!

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN!!!!

Children are a funny thing. They have this way of talking you into something you never really thought you would ever do. I need to start with a little history so you can fully appreciate my little story. Kolton as a little boy always wanted a dog, and we had many attempts of getting him a dog. All the stories ended in tragedy, which we will not get into. So soon after McKenzie was born we learned she was allergic to dogs. This was a small misfortune for Kolton.

After a few months of research we found that poodles work well for allergy suffering people. Anyway as most of you know we had a white poodle that became part of our family and ran our house. Long story short....after we moved into our new house she struggled with the move and had a hard time being around little children. So she had to depart from our lives.

We said never again will we ever ever have another dog. OH MY GOSH!!! WE TOTALLY BUCKLED!!! McKenzie came to us with a proposal and we said no, every week she came to us with a different proposal and through time we finally said yes. So Kelsie and McKenzie pulled their funds together and bought a Yorkshire Terrier, we named him MORTY. The great thing about this dog he will only get to be between 4-7lbs so he is smaller than some cats. It is funny how he has grown on all of us.

Puppies do Funny things to people. The girls opened a separate savings account for puppy money. The CU we use is located at the site so Kelly has to deposit money and so forth. After a week of the girls giving him money to deposit the bank ladies had to ask why he was making all of these small deposits. He told them about this puppy and now when he goes in he has to give them updates on the puppy and email them the newest pictures.

Kolton thought this dog was just a boring piece of fluff when we first brought him home. He had to be responsible for him the weekend Kelly and I were in Vegas. When we returned home Kolton informed us that he was the dogs favorite and actually he would only hang with Kolton for a few days.

One Of my big objections to having a dog is we are busy people who are never home. Who was going to take care of the dog? We bought a cute PINK dog bag and we take him where ever we go. We picked him up DEC 1st so he came Christmas shopping with us, he goes to dance performances, basketball games, and anywhere we think we can take him. He has learned to be mobile and that is a good thing.

Kelly and I set rules for this dog and some people think we are mean, however it has paid off because he has been easy to train. He is not allowed to just roam around our house. HE is never to touch the carpet EVER! When we are not playing with him or taking care of him he has to stay in his bed or Kennel. The rules go on and on.....He does try to test us, last week he ran into the living room down the hall and back into the kitchen and jumped back into his bed. He knows he is not allowed on the carpet but I think he thought it was fun.

As a family he has brought a little joy into our lives. The girls have been very responsible they trade days taking care of him. At six in the morning we have not heard many grumblings about taking him outside. I wake up the girls when he is barking in the morning Kelly feels sorry for them and takes the dog out himself. Sometimes it feels like we have a new baby in our house again, and some nights have been bad. Over all I think we are all happy and he has definitely grown on us. I have really liked the company he gives while the kids are at school, at least now when I talk to myself the dog listens. If you asked each of us who the favorite is I know we would all say ourselves... We have crossed over to being "DOG PEOPLE"

NEW YEAR

I have these great thoughts when I am running, snowboarding, or during outdoor activities. I just wish I had a word processor in my head so In could later take my Pen drive and upload them out of mt brain and download them onto my computer. Really it would just be helpful if I had a USB port on the side of my head it would be a great way to transfer information. And maybe my great profound thinking when uploaded would really just be gibberish and ridiculous.

Anyway as a family we went snowboarding. I always love when we can spend a day on the hill and not have 20 little friends come with us. (which does not happen that often) I sat on the side of the hill and watched each of the kids, all have their own style of boarding and each one is at a different level. I love to see the bonding that takes place and each one of them helping the other. We take turns riding with each other, so throughout the day we are able to spend 10 min increments with each other on the lift just talking. It felt good to see the hills covered in snow it was so pretty. The ski hill is just a good place to build friendships. We ran into some friends and Kelly's Aunt that have the same age kids as us. It was so nice to do a few runs together. I think friendships grow stronger and relationships deepen in such a serene place.

I always have my usual goals every year

1. Lose weight

2. run a marathon

3. find more time

out of all of then all I accomplish is the marathon. I love cookies to much to lose weight. I cannot add more hours to the day soooo. This year my goal is to make someones life better everyday. Find the person who needs a pick me up or call a friend that I only send Christmas cards to. It is time in my life to look beyond just my family and living everyday. This sounds a bit cheesy, and my sisters would agree(They think I am kind of a cheesy person). I believe you need to seek out those who need you. In our ward we have this great Lady from Star Valley, Luann Egan who gave this talk and she told of this story of some neighbors that were giving them a hard time. The moral of her story was "kill them with kindness" Kelly and I have had to use that this year and what a difference. Even when we were right we apologized and went out of our way to make them happy. It made such a difference I think it has inspired me.

My goals this year

1. Run a marathon

2. look for someone daily to love

3. Lose weight! (to you all that say, You look good. I say obviously I do not want it bad enough.

TO THE COOKIES!!!

blogs

I love to read my cousins blog, it makes me feel like she does not live across the ocean in another country. My brother started a blog recently and I found it funny to read about his quirky life. I also started to feel sorry for my sister-in-law that deals with him daily.
I love my brother he is a funny guy. You need a sense of humor when you were named after the cartoon "CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG". He did connect with Kolton on a funny level, and you have to respect anyone who will sit and listen to a 14 yr old for 12 hours everyday while visiting. Next time he comes he will have a baby of his own so maybe the antics of Kolton will not be so entertaining.

Christmas is always a funny time of year where you struggle with the religious and commercial side. In the beginning we always say we are going to keep it low key, spend more time in service and focus on the true meaning. In the end we buckle and fall into the trap of the final days of shopping and not feeling like we have enough. Does it end?

We did have a nice Christmas, however we did over do it a bit. Every Christmas Eve before we go to bed we will open the "Golden Gift" this gift is centered around Christ so we are able to stop the madness and focus on the true meaning. The Williams family got together on Christmas Eve and had a very nice program about the nativity (thanks to my sister-in-law)

MISSION STATEMENT OF MY BLOG

my goal is to have a place to keep track of our family, our lives, activities and be able to go back and remember the prior year just a little bit better. If my friends and family can get any benefit from it along the way that will also be great.

Love to all

JEN

marathon number 4

I just ran my 4th marathon! I am tired... After running this marathon I actually contemplated not running one next year. I think my training should have been better, or longer.
Obviously I did not want that 4:20 to train for it. Vegas knows how to put on a show. Kelly and I ran the first 3 miles together, and parted ways. Each mile seems to be a milestone along the way and each mile brings a whole new set of challenges. Be it physical or be it mental it is easy to find a road block. I saw a runners shirt at mile 10 that said "get your mind right" Funny to me as I was down on myself for not getting the time I was hoping for. Mile 15 was an extra challenge, my legs hurt and I really wanted to be the quitter. Mile 20 I am home free......................it is back to the strip for me!! PARTY TIME> Why was the first 20 miles not as easy as the last 6? The irony the first 20 as know as the easy miles, you give 50% of energy to these miles and 50% to the last 6.2... I needed 80 for the 20 miles and 20 for the 6. Go figure the best plan always fails.

Crossing the finish line is incredible. What an emotional ride. To all the marathoners out there the past present or future enjoy the ride, respect the body, and get your mind right.

Oh by the way I did a 4:43

Jen