We Love Christmas Lights

We love seeing the Christmas Lights. And we especially love going to see them at Temple Square.We also really love going to see them with these wonderful cousins.

My shepards

For our church Christmas party this year the theme was Night in Bethlehem and they asked people to dress up like they were from Bethlehem. Not that many of us did, but the boys were pretty excited when our neighbor called to say she had some great stuff they could borrow. They looked awesome. In every picture Henry had on his tough guy face. When I told him he looked like kind a mean shepard, he said, "Ammon was a shepard and he cut off the bad guys' arms."

Ok, point taken.

December is passing up by

This month has been passing us by in a hurry. We have been having a lot of fun and trying to stay warm. Wyatt has been running around like a maniac making messes everywhere he goes.

We put up the tree and decked all the halls.

We've done some baking and plenty of eating.

We've gotten dressed up to look handsome and festive.

And we have even had time to do some hanging out and reading lots of books.

Been having lots of fun and hopefully I'll get around to blogging more of it soon. Meanwhile, we will keep working hard to have a lot more fun this month. Only 4 more days of school before the break.

Looking Handsome for Church

Today was the Primary program at church, where all of the kids 12 and older get to a chance to participate talks and song for the whole church to watch. The teachers did a great job this year of helping the kids put on a fabulous program. This has to be one of the favorite meetings of the year for everyone who attends. Such cute talks are written by all of the kids and of course the songs are the best. Both Gavin and Henry gave a talk this year, it was Henry's first year of being both old enough and brave enough to participate. Here they are looking really handsome before church.

Gavin got his first suit... and it was an amazing $8 DI find... nice work Caleb. He loves it, and it is a 3-piece. Very fancy.

Henry loves to get dressed up and wear a tie. He is hoping that we can find him a suit too. Since Gav's was so inexpensive, I am now on the look out for an ensemble worthy of Henry.

Wyatt wasn't in the program, but he of course loved watching it. Not the best at posing for photos today, as you can see from the garden shovel he is holding, but always cute.

First big snow of the year

While I was enjoying the sun in Saint George, the boys were all at home and enjoying the first snow of the year. They threw snowballs and made a snowman, then proceeded to knock it down.

They also made some intense snow angels. Looks like lots of very cold fun.

Glad this white junk isn't here to stay, yet.

6th time is a charm- Snow Canyon Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my 6th half marathon. I didn't take this picture while running, I almost carried my phone in a backpack so that I could take a couple of photos, but decided that I didn't want to be bothered with extra baggage. This is a picture from a year before when I visited Snow Canyon with the fam and thought it would be a great place to go for a run. My fabulous sister-in-law, Stacy, had heard of this race and a couple months ago said she was going to go. I ended up deciding to go a long too and even conned Caryn into coming. As adventures go, the plan changed several time in the couple of weeks before the race and Caryn and I ended up going to Saint George alone. (Stacy caught the stomach bug that was circulating right before the race and wasn't able to come at all. We really missed her.)

We drove down on Friday night, slept a few hours at Caryn's aunt's house and woke up to fridged temperatures and some pretty high winds. We rode the bus up to about 4 miles above the state park to start the race. The wait was close to 25 minutes by the time they started. Since there was snow on the ground, we were numb and shivering at the race start. We hit 2 miles before I really felt my toes and fingers regain full circulation. Luckily as the sun got higher and we entered the park, the mountains blocked out the wind and we warmed up. It was such a beautiful and amazing place and even though there weren't as many downhill stretches as people had led us to believe. The scenery really carried us through. At 7 miles we were at 58 minutes and quite amazed at our progress. Caryn and I split up after that since she races much fast than I do, and we were each going against a different personal time to beat. So I turned on the music and kept on moving.

When I was still feeling strong at 10 miles, I knew that I had it in the bag and ended a great run with my fastest ever time- 1:57:43. What?!?! I know, I am surprised too. 10 minutes faster than my previous personal best.

And while I did feel a bit off for the rest of the day and was exhausted beyond belief by the time we hurried to shower and drove home to go on dates with our husbands, I didn't end up sick. And that to me is another reason to call it a Fabulous race.

There is a point in every race I have ever done were I start to feel amazed at the world around me and amazed at what the human body can do. As I pass people of all ages and with all kinds of stories out spending their time running, it just chokes me up a little. Somehow no matter what excuse you use for running or what you use to motivate you, running is about doing something good for your mind, body and soul. And I for one am so grateful that I have reached that realization in my life and hope to see myself at the age and mental condition of several women that I passed who have much more life experience that I do, but were out their running a race to prove something to themselves and just because they want to. The only thing better than that is having wonderful women to be running along side you.

If you haven't had a good run lately... I'll see you on MWF and Sat at 6:10am on the corner. ;-)

(for those that are interested... and since Caryn may not blog about this for 6 months, she ran a personal best of 1:49:40... that girl is "one fast cookie.")

Our Happy Halloween

Our day of celebration and costumes turned into a weekend, with several carnivals and parties followed by the actual day of knocking doors and getting candy. This was the first year that my kids have gone door to door trick-or-treating. We did have to leave our own neighborhood to make it work, but they really had a great time.

Gavin put some serious thought into his costume choices this year. He ended up listing them on paper and then drawing one out of a hat. The final decision was Cheetah (this guy really loves animals). We got some fabric and my friend, Caryn, used her excellent sewing skills to help me out with this one.

I wasn't thrilled about the face paint after the first night because of the mess it made, but he insisted and really loved his entire look.

Henry decided this year that he wanted to be a ninja... again.... when I mentioned that he was a ninja last year he just said, "This year I will be a blue ninja." And he was. Caryn also helped me with this one, we used the same shirt and pants pattern for both costumes. You really can sew a lot of things out of basic pajamas. Henry really loved how silky and smooth his get-up was.

This guy was a different story all together, Welcome in the newest hater of Halloween. Hopefully his anti attitude won't last beyond this year. We went through several different ideas for him and ended up picking up this cute monkey suit. He is a cute monkey, but no thanks to this costume. He really hated it and even though he endured it for awhile, he really tweeked out at one point when his hand went inside the built in mitten and he couldn't get it out. Needless to say we didn't make him get dressed up on Halloween night for the trick-or-treating. He stayed home with Stacy and I to hand out candy and was much happier because of it.

Our cute group heading out for trick-or-treating on Main Street Lehi. Their favorite part of walking around Lehi seemed to be the dogs in costume.

Thanks to the Cardons for letting us join their neighborhood fun. And thanks to Mother Nature for giving us such fabulous weather right before this big and freezing cold storm. We really enjoyed out day and have more candy than anyone could ever need to show for it.

Jack-o-lantern Time

If our abilities as parents were based purely on pumpkin carving, we would be a sad failure. Lucky for us there are some other criteria. Every year the boys have big creative dreams that they sketch out for us on their pumpkins, but they don't seem too disappointed when we can't always quite make their visions a reality.

(And yes, the man I married has reappeared with a lot less facial hair.)

Pumpkin Brains...

Wyatt wasn't a huge fans of the pumpkin carving, but he liked sticking his fingers in the holes.

Some of Gavin's sketching remained just a drawing. He is the biggest planner of all events at our house these days.

Big H was a pretty big fan of the H nose that Dad carved into his jack-o-lantern.

The finished product. Looked pretty cool and creepy.

Gardner Village Witches

I took my first ever trip to Gardner Village last week during fall break. They put up a big Hallloween display with witches all throughout the quaint little house that are converted to shops and restaurants. It was a beautiful day and a fun outing (Willardsen family included).

I discovered how hard it can be to get 6 kids looking at the camera and smiling all at the same time. They are pretty cute no matter what faces they make.

Dancing to the witch who was playing the piano.

They really wanted this to look like they were chained up... not quite as believable with the porch furniture behind them.

Wyatt and his babysitters, Gabby and Parker.

Handsome Josh and Henry.

Cute, even with bedhead.

Gabby washing her hair outside... maybe someday someone will want my bathtub for their yard.

The sassy moms that were nice enough to take their kids to have some fun.

Just a cool sunflower... not real, but the color are cool.

A long time coming

The day finally arrived. Yesterday at 10am, I went to a very exciting event... Caleb's Thesis Defense. By 11:30, his committee told him that he passed and I was feeling pretty good about life. I think he was too. It was pretty fun for me to go and listen to him present his research, even though I don't understand much of the technical aspects of what he has been doing for all of these years. He sounded pretty smart to me. Perhaps the long journey has been worth all of the knowledge and patience that we have all gained, both in the lab and outside of it.

Hooray for Caleb and this HUGE accomplishment. We are so proud of all you have done.

In case you missed all of the info about the next events in our life... you can refer back to that decision making process by following this link.

Thank you for all of the love and support that we have received from all of you. It has been an interesting 6 years and we look forward to the future with hope.

Pumpkins and Dodgeball

We squeezed in a bit of pumpkin painting with Bridgett before she left. Even Wyatt pretended to paint one and then ran in for the photo. We now have some very creative pumpkins helping to make our house more festive.

Caleb convinced the boys that they should go outside and play dodgeball with him on Sunday night, then he took off to make bread and left Nana and Bridge to fend for themselves. It really was a hilarious site. Nana and Henry kept taunting Gavin and were actually pretty quick to jump out of the way. Then when they would get hit with ball Gav would be nice enough to grant them "Another life" so that he could continue to throw the ball at them. What a nice guy. Just a couple of action shots.