Happy Birthday to ME (in 6 more months)

So I gave myself an early Birthday present. I signed up today for the Ogden Marathon. The best part is, it's their 10th annual Ogden Marathon on my Birthday! How fun will this be? 26.2 Here I come!

Strange Things Are Happening...

We've had quite a few exciting adventures around here lately! We had a lovely Halloween, complete with a fun party at the cousins' house, pumpkin carving, and a run through the cemetary at night for a Halloween 5k! It was very fun! I ran my fastest 5k since Rachel was born. (I've dubbed it my 5k PPPR, or Post-Partum Personal Record!) 30:13 is certainly not where I WANT to be, but getting there. Slowly! (Hardy-har-har!) Vince did great though. He came in at 22:20, and earned a 4th place (pink) ribbon!!

I'll have to get more costume pictures soon, but here's the one from the 5k at least!

Carving pumpkins:
I thought this was an interesting view of our activity!
Pumpkin Brains!
Evan was so grossed out when he first stuck his hand in!
Brooke took this picture; I love it!
Our pumpkin family! We all (well, except for Rachel) designed our own faces. I thought they all turned out so fun! And I love the creativity of my kids!

From Left to Right--Rachel, Evan, Brooke, Me, & Vince!

And just for fun, I wanted to show you the spooky thing my broom can do! I took pictures from different angles just so you can see--no strings attached, and I didn't alter the photo at all! (Now if I can just get it to sweep up Vince's hair...)

And lastly, Evan. Poor kid. We went up to Vince's sister's house in ID last weekend to see their brand new (and ADORABLE) little baby. The kids were outside playing. Just before lunch Evan started bawling. He came in saying he'd been running outside, tripped (on his growing feet, apparently), and fell on the grass and hit his shoulder. I looked at it--no scratches or scrapes. Just a bump and maybe a bruise--so I THOUGHT! He cried for a while and I told him to not think about it, it'd stop hurting soon, etc. Well, about halfway through lunch I looked over at his poor, sad face and the giant alligator tears welling up in his eyes, and I realized, he's really hurting! After church the next day, I took a closer look again, and saw that the swelling was getting worse, and he still couldn't even raise his arm up. That's when I realized this was serious! So we took him to the doctor on Monday, who sent us to the hospital for x-rays. Turns out he BROKE HIS COLLAR BONE!! I felt so bad! I hate those "bad mommy" moments! But he's well and dandy now with his sling. So Evan wins the prize for the first broken bone in the family! (And hopefully it'll be the last!)

Happy Baby

There are so many things to blog about! But because I'm short on time (since it's 9:45, and I'm just now posting this today) I will make this quick. But I did want to get this video on for Grammy tonight, as promised. So just a quick update on my pretty Baby!

We tried out some rice cereal the other day. She LOVED it! I'm not sure she's ready for it on a daily basis yet, but we'll keep trying every now and then to see if her body is ready.

Mmmm!
I'm also THRILLED to report that she's started sleeping through the night!! *happy dance* She goes to bed around 7:00 or so, and usually wakes up just once, around 5 or 6 am. But we've learned that Vince can get up, wrap her up, stick binky in, and she'll just go right back to sleep until 7 or 8! I'm so glad she's figured out that sleeping all night makes for a happier mama and baby! (And I have to say, I LOVE Vince for being willing to do the re-wrapping! What a good Daddy he is!)


Rachel's other new tricks: She can now roll over both ways. She loves to smack her rattles around. She loves to play with her toes. She still doesn't laugh very much, but she LOVES to GROWL! (It's very cute.) I think she should've been a bear for Halloween instead of a ladybug! She also just recently started fake "coughing" to get our attention. My favorite is her new way she expresses her love! She reaches for me when I walk by! And just the other day she very deliberately grabbed my face, leaned in, and planted a big, wet, juicy, slobbery, open-mouthed baby kiss all over my cheek! Who knew I'd melt so much while getting slobbered down my shirt??

Here is a little video of her performing some of her new tricks. It takes her almost a minute, but she does cough and growl a little! (Oh, and um. My apologies for MY fake coughing and growling! I had no idea it would be so loud--and scary!) Enjoy!