good Ross day

It was good shopping at Ross today. Sometimes they don't have a lot of stuff I like and other times they do. Today they had tons of stuff and I came out with a skirt, top, capri's, track pants, and boys Nike socks for just barely under $50!

a sure sign of spring

Well, I guess Spring is really here (even if the calendar hasn't caught up with us yet). Its soccer season again! Jared starts soccer this week with practice on Thursday and a game on Friday. I'm sure we'll be welcomed into the season with rain and snow -- not very springlike in my opinion! Too bad he couldn't have played yesterday -- temps in the 60's -- it was fabulous!

walls really do talk

Can you tell what Ryan is into these days?

A Perfect Running Day

Today was mostly cloudy & cool, but not at all cold, and a few rain drops were falling here and there. As I began running this morning, I remembered that today was the Moab half-marathon and five-mile that Mark & I were hoping to run (but we weren't picked in the lottery). In honor of that I thought maybe I'd push myself up the Reading hill today. When I got to the hill (it comes after 1 mile) the Go-Go's song We Got the Beat came on the iPod. I told myself I wasn't going to stop running up this hill until the song was over -- well, when the song stopped I found myself at the top! Wa-hoo! I decided to keep going on my 5K route, telling myself that I could take a short cut back home if I wanted to. However, my feet just kept on going and I ran the whole 5K route! Another wa-hoo! When I stopped I felt like I could have gone longer if I wanted to -- it was a great feeling. It wasn't five miles, but it was a 5K! I haven't run that entire route for a long, long time, so I was excited about that and it was an even better feeling to still have energy left over. I can't help but wish there were lots more days when I felt great running instead of feeling like my feet are made of lead bricks (like most days).

Sweet Baby Matthew

Matthew has invented the "Buh" game. It starts when he's sitting in his high chair and has eaten at least half or more of his meal, so he's not ravenously hungry anymore. He says "buh" and then looks around for someone to say "buh" back to him. When you do, he laughs and giggles and says "buh" again and waits for you to reply. This little game can go on for as long as someone is willing to say "buh".

The other day when I was doing laundry, I headed up the stairs ahead of Matthew to take the clean clothes to my bedroom. A minute or so later as I was folding clothes, I heard a sweet little voice calling from the bottom of the stairs, "ma-ma ma-ma"! It was so cute -- he was trying to find me! So I called down to him from the bedroom and a few minutes later he found me. I'm going to believe he knew what he was saying!

I love holding and rocking Matthew to sleep for naps. It is the one time he's cuddly! I know these days won't last forever because he's growing up quickly, so I'm going to enjoy every chance I get to sit and rock and enjoy holding him in my arms. I love looking into his little sweet innocent face and remembering how blessed we are to have him be a part of our family.

groceries

I am so tired of grocery shopping and planning daily meals. I get tired of it because someone always complains about whatever is for dinner -- I can't win. The kids wouldn't complain if we had mac and cheese or pizza every night, but the fat content for adults is literally a killer. If there's something more healthy on the menu (which is 98% of the time), at least one or more kids have to be force fed. So far Matthew likes everything, as long as it is mushed into a fine paste -- I hope it stays that way, although I know it won't. I guess I'll go make some homemade wheat bread -- everyone actually likes that and I don't have to go to the grocery store. What else is for dinner? Whatever it is, it comes with a side of complaints.

Suess - fest

Yesterday we had a Suess-fest in honor of Dr. Suess's birthday. Basically this means, we had dinner and ate "Suess" inspired food! Heidi "capped" off the dinner with this fabulous Cat in the Hat cake! There was a delicious chocolate cake and buttercream frosting underneath this fantastic red and white fondant. Awesome isn't it? (That's why I asked her to bring the birthday cake!) Other menu items were: Cat in the Hat jello cups -- This is the kids favorite item (mine too!)

Green eggs (deviled and hard-boiled -- Jacob & Ryan love just the hard boiled eggs --Jacob ate 4 of them yesterday) to represent the obvious Green Eggs and Ham book, or even Horton Hatches the Egg. The broccoli salad to represent The Lorax -- a book about trees.
Here's the ham for Green Eggs and Ham. The ham is surrounded by elephant cheese cut-outs to represent Horton. (We had ham sandwiches)
Animal crackers for If I Ran the Zoo.
Goldfish for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
And we also had chocolate milk for Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? And star shaped rice krispie treats for Sneetches. I really wanted to do a pasta salad with alphabet shaped pasta, but I couldn't find any -- I know it exists somewhere! So if any of you know where to buy ABC pasta, please let me know!