Halloween Party

Our ward had its Halloween party last Thursday. Here are some of the pictures from it:



Vanessa found one of her favorite things right away... a "baddoon"!



This is one of Vanessa's little friends, Maddie. She was so cute in her chicken costume, we had to take a picture (her mom was the egg).



Vanessa got to "trick-or-treat" at each of the primary room doors. She liked holding the candy better than putting in her bucket.


Well, okay, what she liked most was eating it! She had a death-grip on this tootsie-pop, and ate most of it (other than the orange drool that fell on her costume).



We tried to coordinate our costumes (as well as go cheap), so I'm a scarecrow, and Matt's a fat farmer (in women's overalls...not mine).



On to the games! The first was a mummy-wrap. This didn't stay on very long!



Another game was a "baby costume race." They split it up into pre-nursery and primary age kids. Vanessa won, hands down, for her group. She was about the only one that wasn't confused or crying. Plus, we stood at the end with Root Beer. At one point, another parent tried to stall her by turning her the wrong direction. All it did was make her want to get to Mommy and Daddy faster! She won a $5 gift certificate to Toys R Us. Yay Vanessa!


What's a Halloween party without eyeball glasses? I love Matt's expression...


and Vanessa's!

Two Peas in a Pod

In case you couldn't already see the family resemblance, here is the spaghetti picture Mom was talking about. Isn't it crazy!

Martha Stewart Dying

So, Lisa had this crazy idea this year to use some templates from Martha Stewart Living for our pumpkins. I was pretty stoked at first, so we recruited a cute little girl to bring the pumpkins inside for us and gut them out. She was pretty upset when she had to go to bed (she was having fun flinging pumpkins guts all over the living room with her spoon). So we got started and things weren't working out like Martha said they would. I was getting pretty upset and said we should let the candles in our pumpkins set fire to the templates, burn down the complex, and sue Martha for all she's worth. In the end, they turned out pretty cool, so Martha's in the clear.

Tennessee Trip (for real) Part One

After stubbornly fighting with Blogger, I finally get my way. So, here is the first part of our trip to Tennessee (& Mississppi). Vanessa and I traveled with Mama (Randolph), My brother, Joel and his wife, Kristina (who had the connections to get us buddy passes, and was kind enough, and brave enough to arrange this crazy week for us...Thank you, Kris! I can't say it enough) and their girls Ashley (3) and Katie (15 mo).This first picture is of Ashley, Katie, and Vanessa before the very first flight of the trip. This is when they were actually excited about the planes. It was very cute!

We then arrived at my Uncle Mike's house (My dad's brother). He is actually currently living with my (former) Aunt Ann and her husband Spencer. They live about a half hour away from Memphis, TN in a beautiful little place called Byhalia in MS. This picture is taken outside their house. Uncle Mike and Ashley are holding Schnauzer puppies.



One of the most distinguishing features of this home is that it is a "little heaven" for little girls. Particularly because there are so many animals that the girls can pet and play with. There are probably 5 or 6 big outside dogs, and then about 5 or so poodles inside, a chihuahua, and of course the schnauzer family. In addition to those there are 23 cats inside a special room added on to the house, 2 cats in kennels (ones that can't be near the others temporarily), and then I think another 5 that roam the house. Oh, and there's a canary, a frog, and some fish. The most amazing thing is that all the animals are well trained to be good and gentle (they stay in certain places if they don't behave), and they are all very well taken care of (Ann's family ought to be paid for all the love and care they give these sweet animals). So you can imagine why the girls loved it so much. (Of course they just loved all the great people there, too!)

This plaque sits just outside the cat room. How appropriate!



Here's a couple shots of the cat room. Mom (Brown), I thought you'd get a kick out of this!
The second picture shows how Vanessa's favorite word/sound was "meow" (or "melow" as she says it).




On this trip Vanessa discovered the joys of sleeping on pillows. She was missing her daddy a lot, and I guess this and her Uncle Joel helped a lot.

These picture are taken on the front porch. It was fairly warm but the porch swings made it pretty nice to be outside.

Vanessa got a chance to "explore the forest" in front of Uncle Mike's house. It was just so pretty out there I had to show this picture.

Before we left for the other leg of our trip, Uncle Mike served us one of his specialties: Spaghetti (trust me, it's no ordinary spaghetti. Even nauseous pregnant women enjoy it).

As you can see, Vanessa devoured it with gusto. I think Uncle Mike has the special touch when it comes to food. She even ate the scrambled eggs he made one morning (she never eats eggs, ever!). By the way, I think this is my favorite picture of her now. Don't you just love that messy grin?

While we still in this area, we got to meet Uncle Mike's sister Sharon (he is technically Papa's half brother through their dad and this is his half sister through Uncle Mike's mom). She is such a sweet lady, and she was very accomodating to tired, hungry traveler's and their kids (okay, I threw in hungry, because I'm always hungry). It was great to meet her, and I'm glad that the two of them ended up so close to each other.

We also got to see almost all our Uncle David's kids (Ann's girls). My cousin Steve lives in another state, but I got to see all five of the girls. They were so nice. I wish I knew them better and had more time to visit with them. Since that visit, my cousin Holly had a baby girl. Congratulations, Holly! Maybe we'll get to visit again someday when Matt can come with us.

It was so good to see Uncle Mike again. He is the uncle I know best since he would come and visit anytime his truck routes would take him over our way. Thank you, Uncle Mike, for letting us come and treating us like royalty while we were there. Vanessa sure loved you (and I'm pretty sure the other little girls did, too). I hope it won't be so long until the next time we see you.

Well, that's only half of the trip. I will see if I can get pictures from Mama for the rest. There were a lot of great pictures I missed because of being tired and sick half the time (although now I wished I had just sucked it up and grabbed my camera anyway). Stay tuned for more!

Tennessee Trip (well, not really)

So I have been trying to create this post for a week or more. Nothing doing. Last week was a bit insane, considering we had to move everything out of our kitchen & bathroom for the pest control guy to come fumigate. Then I got to play catch up on getting the house back in order and all the Relief Society stuff I haven't been able to get to. That was slowed down by my nausea and fatigue from pushing too hard with my schedule already. So the few times I have attempted to post have not been very successful. Now that I have a spare moment, Blogger won't let me load pictures. Stupid Blogger! The stories aren't as fun without the pictures. I will try later, but if you want to know about the trip in the meantime, just call or e-mail me. I know those will work!

Okay, so sorry about the griping. I think I just need a break from the computer. Talk to you all soon.

A Change of Pace

Well, I officially completed my first marathon. My time was 4 hours 45 minutes, and I can't remember how many seconds. Much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. The people of St. George were incredible. Thousands of people came out just to cheer everyone on and provided much needed words of encouragement. Here is a break-down of the day:

3:45 am: Woke up and got ready

4:30 am: Lisa drove my friend Brad, his wife Cassie and I to the registration building.

4:45 am: I fell into some sort of manhole as we were heading to the bus and bruised the crap out of my shin (I thought I was done for)

5:00 am: We got on a bus that took us to the starting point. I sat next to a lady named Stacy who was also running her first marathon. We talked about a lot of concerns and how happy we would be when we got done.

5:30 am: We arrived at the starting point and joined the other 5,100 runners that were competing. It was an awesome site to see. We all huddled around about 20 bonfires to keep warm and stretch out.

6:45 am: Start time! 5,100 runners charged out of the starting gate whooping and hollering. It felt like a fight scene from Braveheart. It was really cool!

9:04 am: Hit the halfway point (13.1 miles).

11:30 am: Gave Vanessa a kiss on the sidelines and crossed the finish line (26.2 miles).

It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment and pain. I was able to run during the whole race, excluding about 3/4 of a mile where I had to walk. I was amazed at how hard-core and intense some of the runners were. Here are some interesting things I saw:

1) A man sticking his vaseline covered hand right up his butt before the race. To be honest, I wish I had done the same.

2) A 60 year-old lady's bare butt as she squatted next to a honey bucket (she didn't want to waste time waiting for an available toilet).

While I was training, I swore countless times that I would never run after this was over (needless to say, I would never do another marathon). Despite the rush of crossing the finish line, my feelings remained the same right after the race. But I have to admit, my feelings have now changed. It was by far one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. There's just something about being around so many people from so many places all sharing the same goal. It was truly a life-changing experience. As of right now, I hope to do it again next year. I would also like to compete in some smaller runs to be better prepared. Here are some pictures of the race. Sorry there are so few, but it was impossible for me to have the camera with me.

Before the race

Me about 100 yards from the finish line

Me, Brad, and Cassie after the race

Lisa putting up with my stench (she has a pregnant nose)

Vanessa got really tired watching people cross the finish line