Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of my boys in their Halloween costumes. My parents went to their annual Endo club and this year my mom wanted to take pictures of her grand kids to show off so I took these pictures last week. I love this picture of all the boys I feel like it really shows their personalities.

Ethan -- the black ninja

Jake-- the red ninja

Ryan -- the happy skeleton (that's what he calls it)

Andrew-- the candy corn


And just two days ago Jake said he wanted to be a vampire for Halloween. We had this costume from a previous year and so I just had to find some teeth and at Jake's request he wanted his hair black (we have a vampire wig but he insisted on the spray) So this picture was taken just before we left for his school party. So funny to see Jake without red hair.

Disneyland

Well we survived our first trip to Disneyland as a family. It was definitely something we will remember. Here are the pictures I took. They are in a pretty random order. I had this bff in jr. high named Stephanie Tomlinson and these are her parents Jill and Todd. They were at Disneyland with Steph's kids. It was super fun to see them. I was so sad that Steph wasn't with them. It would have been nice to see her. I don't think I have seen her in over 10 years.

Jake said he was so excited to meet the real live Mickey Mouse. A few days before we left for Disneyland we were eating dinner and talking about the rides. I told my kids to remember everything at Disneyland was just pretend. ( I really didn't want Jake to get scared of things, he can be really sensitive) He looked up at Mark and me and asked is Mickey Mouse pretend. I didn't really know what to say. Mark was quick and said when we get to Disneyland and you see Mickey Mouse you tell us what you think.

Jake rode this with my dad. My dad told me he kept saying you take the wheel now grandpa. He loved the cars.

Ethan was pretty excited to meed Mickey mouse as well.

We went on the train ride all the way around the park so we could figure out what we wanted to do next.

Jake and Ryan waiting to go on the ladybug ride in CA adventure park.

Ethan, Jake, Me and my parents waiting for the celebration parade to begin.

Jake, Ryan and Grandma going to the Island.

Here are some funny things or not so funny things about our trip.

-Ryan and Andrew were pretty sick the entire time.

-Our hotel was "going green" which meant they were no longer going to be washing our sheets every day, due to Ryan and Andrew being sick they had to wash our sheets every day.

Ethan's favorite ride: Indiana Jones

Jake's favorite ride: Pirates

Ryan's favorite ride: Buzz lightyear 3D in CA adventure

Mark's favorite ride: CA screamer with Ethan

JanaRae's favorite ride: CA screamer

-Ethan's first time on the CA screamer "this is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, can we go again" all before the ride finishes.

-On Saturday I went to the park with just my dad at 8:00AM we rode space mountain and then went and rode the Matterhorn. We had to share a seat. It was pretty crowded. My knees kept hitting the front.

-One night we were in the hotel eating ice cream my parents were in our room. Ethan was on my bed watching TV. He was calling to everyone, "come here" finally my dad went in. Ethan said "can you do me a favor and watch this cartoon while I go to the bathroom and then tell me what happened" Grandpa said "no" and left the room. I haven't stopped laughing about this still.

-Jake going on Splash mountain with out being forced. After the ride my dad telling him when Spencer was 6 he went on this ride and it made him cry. Jake responding, "it made me cry too"

-We were driving home and got to Spanish Fork when Andrew threw up all over himself. We had to pull over and clean him up the best we could and all the cold air woke up Ryan and Andrew who then started screaming all the while Ethan was pretending to gag because of the smell.

Ryan's Birthday

These are two videos from Ryan's birthday. They make me laugh so hard. I feel like I could watch them over and over. I hope you enjoy.

Ryan wanted a pink Iron Man cake for his birthday. My parents were in town the day before so we had them over for a little cake and ice cream. I just did a plain pink cake for Saturday. On Sunday Mark's parents came over. Mark did an Iron Man cake for his actual birthday. His reaction was priceless.

In case you can't hear what he is saying here is the basic run down

Mark asks who is on the cake

Ryan says you

Then he says its a Robot

Mark says its Iron Man

Happy Birthday Ryan! We love you.

quick update

Ok well I know its been a long time since I lasted posted and I am crazy busy. I don't really know why everything has to happen the last 3 months of the year.

Mark had his birthday it was lots of fun. He ordered an enormous carrot cake from SYSCO. Our home teacher is SYSCO salesman.

My neighbors keep giving me their produce from their garden. Not that I am complaining but it just means a lot of work. I have frozen 3 dozen ears of corn, made raspberry jam, blanched and frozen 2 gallons of broccoli and this week I am doing spaghetti sauce and grape juice.

I am also in the middle of sewing Halloween costumes. WE are going to Disneyland next week and the kids can wear their costumes on Friday. So they all have to be done by then.

Sorry no pictures but that is about all the time I have for an update.

Jake's First Day

Jake has been so excited for kindergarten. He knew that he could go when he turned five and the day after his birthday in March he asked if he got to go to school. It has seemed like forever waiting. I have been so excited for him to start.

Kindergarten starts one week after everybody else. So for Jake school started on September 1.

Jake with his first day of school balloons

My mom bought Jake this entire outfit for the first day of school while he was in Arizona. It included underwear, socks and shoes. He was so happy to wear it all.

We decided to put Jake in the same school as Ethan. They both go to Orem Elementary.


On the first day of school while Jake was eating lunch he told me he was sick and that he felt bad that he was going to have miss school on his first day. I asked him if he was nervous and he said yes and that he was kind of shy. I told him it would be ok and that he would make lots of new friends.

self portrait by Jake on the way to school

Jake was a little disappointed that he didn't make any new friends on the first day and told me he didn't want to go back on Thursday. Thursday morning came and he was still nervous. I told him there were probably other boys at home who didn't want to go to school because they hadn't made a new either.

Jake at a table in his classroom

Jake came home the second day and told me that there was a boy crying and he went up to him and told him he would be his friend. (I know I have such a kind son)

Ryan thought he was going to school too.

Jake has recently told Mark that he doesn't like school because you have to do what the teacher says, everybody has too and you can't say no. (I thought those were the same rules at home...hmmm guess we need to work on that one)

Ethan's first day of school and other random pictures

Ethan had his first day of school last week. I am pretty excited because I think he actually likes school this year. The past few years he has hated it. I can't believe he is in second grade. WOW what a big little kid. This past weekend Shade had a warehouse sale. My sister-in-law Michele told us all about it. Becky went with Michele. Mark and I went for our date on Friday and we saw Noelle there. We all bought the same shirt. YEAH for Matching. We had a Western family reunion the next day so we decided to all wear them. It was pretty funny. Of course we had to get a picture.

I just took this picture this morning. We were working on Jake's homework, a book about himself. He has to put a book together of himself. When Jake grows up he want to be batman and a construction worker. Ryan really wanted to be in the picture. Sorry I couldn't turn it.

The Marathon 26.2

So I ran or you could say jogged and sometimes walked a marathon on Saturday. It was in Park City Utah. Here is my story. (mostly for my record keeping) Start line with Sarah Hall and Jullian Pexton. Jules is the one who I ran my first marathon with. I saw her in May and she had just signed up for the Park City Marathon. She told me was going to start her training the next day. I thought I sounded like a good idea and so I went home and within a 1/2 hour I was signed up too.
Half way through training I decided I didn't want to run the marathon anymore. They are so time consuming. I decided I would much rather be a mom who exercises in moderation than a person who runs marathons and has kids. Mark told me I had already trained for two months, paid for the registration, new shoes and the running rain jacket, so he wasn't going to let me back out. I was supposed to run 4 days a week but from them on out I typically ran 3 and sometimes 2. I wasn't very motivated.
I didn't get my hotel reservation until 2 or 3 weeks before. I kept thinking I could still back out. Once I payed for the hotel I knew that was when I felt locked into running (although Mark felt locked in way before then) Even on the morning of I woke up and wasn't really in the mood to run.
I stayed with Jules and Sarah for about 2 miles. I trained around an 11 min. mile. Jules had picked up her pace while training and was running about a 9 min. mile. So I was pretty sure I wasn't going to stay with her.

Around mile 3 I had the plan that when I saw Mark at mile 14 I would just drop out of the race. He surprised me and was cheering me on at mile 7. I decided to keep on going. Around mile 10 my left I.T. band started hurting. Around mile 14 I decided I was glad I was running the marathon and I was happy that Mark didn't let me back out. At mile 18 there was the biggest hill ever. I really thought it was some kind of joke on the marathoner. At mile 20 I thought I was going to throw up, if I never eat another shot block in my life I would be happy. By mile 24 I started feeling better. And at mile 25 I got just enough energy to finish.

Here I am finishing the Marathon. Since I trained at an 11 min. mile I planned on averaging a 12 min. mile during the marathon. I thought I would run it in about 5:30 and my official time was 5:35. I was pretty happy about it.

I would have to say my favorite part about running the marathon was that I didn't run with Jules or Sarah. I met so many great people. It was fun talking to them while running and cheering each other on.

Here is my fan club. I don't know why I never got a picture with Mark and my kids. I really appreciated everyone who came. Mark's parents came for the finish and they brought Ethan and Jake up. It was so great to have everyone there.

And after all that as I finished I thought maybe I could do another one just no hills, ugh! This marathon was more difficult than my last one. There were way more hills and most of the path was gravel. It was pretty tough to run on. I really looked forward to the breaks when I had pavement or even the wooden bridges. IF I do run another one it will be a long ways down the road. Thanks again to everyone for their support.