Laguna Hills Half

Dear Kate and Riley,

I'm so behind on blogging! But there are a few things I really didn't want to miss here. Over Memorial Day weekend a few girlfriends and I ran the Laguna Hills Half marathon (ok more like I ran in their dust!). It was the same one I ran after Zach was born except Zach was born in October so I had MUCH more time to train than I did with Brady. In order to be ready for this race I had to start running as SOON as Brady was 6 weeks old. It was tough but I was so glad that I had the race to motivate me to get out there soon. I am also so grateful for Melissa who stuck by me when I was so slow.

The actual race day was great, despite feeling undertrained I felt good during the race and was able to run faster than I thought I would be able to. I ran it about 15 min faster than I did after I had Zach but I was about 18 min slower than the fastest half I've run but I have time to build back up to that. I ran it in 2 hours and 26 min which made me happy even though it was still pretty slow, I mean hey, I had a baby less than 4 months before!

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Chris were here for the weekend so it was fun to have my own little cheering section. We had a blast with them all weekend and Zach was so sad when they left.

The painful finish, I thought I was going to die!

My fans

My chubby bunny. Love this kid.

Aunt Jenny, it was so fun to have her there!

Julia was the last of the fasties to stick around for us slow girls. No one should have to take a picture next to Julia while wearing spandex.

Melissa, my training partner. This was her first half ever and I was SO so proud of her!

Zach's favorite part of the race

Exactly what I wanted to be doing

Love,
Mom

Father Sons' Campout

Dear Kate and Riley,
*I got the idea from Nicole to have DAD write about the Father/Sons' campout since I wasn't even there!*

A few weeks ago Zach and I went on our first Fathers and Sons campout at San Onofre beach on camp Pendelton. Zach was excited to go camping and sleep in a tent. When we first got there we had to find a place on the beach to set up the tent. We found a place that would keep us dry from any high tide, which was a good decision since high tide washed out a few tents and made some people leave that night. Once we found a spot, taking two trips to the car making sure that Zach didn't wonder off, I was able to put up the tent with assistance from another father. Luckily we didn't have to stake down the tent we just spread our stuff out in the tent.

It was fun to see Zach run around with the other boys and try to imitate what the older kids were doing. For dinner Zach enjoyed roasting hot dogs with his buddy Will, he didn't want any help from me, but I had to keep an eye on him so our hot dogs didn't come out all ashy. There was only one fire pit and a lot of tin foil dinners so some dads decided to start a make shift fire pit. We tried to roast more hot dogs on the new fire pit but Zach wouldn't stand close enough to cook the hot dogs saying that it was "Too hot, dad" and turn away.

The best part of camping by the beach were the trains that passed by and Zach yelling "whoo, whoo, that's a diesel train, dad." He did this every time even as we were in our sleeping bags ready to sleep. Zach had no problem sleeping on the sand, he rolled around a lot, and even talked in his sleep which woke me up at 3 in the morning. I had a hard time sleeping on the sand, I thought it would be soft but it was anything but soft. In the morning Zach sat in the beach chair eating Fruit Loops out of a ziplock bag with a spoon, that he picked out at the store the night before telling me that he needed them for the campout. This gave me plenty of time to pack up the tent and take all our stuff to the car. Although it was a short camping trip, I look forward to more camping trips with the whole family in the future.

Love,
Dad

Utah Trip and Brady's Blessing

Dear Kate and Riley,

The fun just never stops around here. We decided before Brady was even born that we'd all drive out to Utah in May when Aunt Jenny was graduating with her Master's degree and bless Brady. We knew that two other cousins would be born by then and thought it would be a good chance for most of both families to get to be there for Brady's blessing and for our family to be around for the two other cousins' blessings.

Once Brady was here I started wondering what I was thinking committing to drive all the way to Utah for just two days of being able to visit and then turn around and drive back. We had actually never made the trip with Zach in the car and I wasn't looking forward to it. We left Thurs. afternoon, stopped in St. George to sleep (Zach was a little too wired and excited to sleep) and drove the rest of the way Friday.

On Friday we got to see my Hansen Grandparents and my parents and then see most of Dad's family that night.

Great Grandma's backyard was being re-done and there was an excavator out back (don't try to call that a tractor, Zach will correct you!) it was a 2 year old boy's dream come true!

Saturday we got everyone together at Uncle Andrew's house and blessed Brady and Drew at their church. We came back to Andrew's house and had dinner with most of Dad's family, all of my family minus Uncle Bret and a lot of Aunt Stacy's family too! It was a crowd but so fun to be surrounded by so much family.

Not ONE picture without Zach sticking out his tongue

Great Grandma Wiggins, Grandma Janice, mom and Brady

Hansens and Wiggins. I wish we would have done this w/ O'Farrells too but we didn't get to

Proud Grandpas, Papa Frank and Papa Ross

Drew and Brady (I want to admit that I typed Zach first! oops!)

Brady smiling for Aunt Jenny

On Sunday we went to Uncle Clint's ward where they blessed baby Cadence. Then we hung out at their house for breakfast and went back for Mother's day dinner. We got to talk to Uncle Bret which was SO much fun to do with everyone together. It was also really nice to spend Mother's day with my own mom since I haven't done that in a long time. Zach had SO much fun playing with all of his cousins he got to sleep in Skylar's room which almost made me sad he was such a big boy and he loved that two different cousins' houses have trampolines so he got in plenty of jumping time.

Trampoline fun

Grandma Janice, Papa Ross, Clint, Kelli and baby Cadence

Papa Ross, looking thrilled

Cousins! So much fun with Summer and Ali

Grandma Janice and Brady

Sunday night we just turned around and headed back to St. George and finished it off on Monday morning. Zach's vomiting episode aside the boys actually did pretty good in the car and even though I don't ever want to do a trip that short again it does make our trips this summer seem do-able.

This trip will always be remembered by me for all of Zachary's one-liners. He is quite the talker these days and is also very matter-of-fact about the world. Here are some of my favorite Zachary lines from the trip:

Uncle Clint: Zach what color is your hair? Zach: Spikey
Uncle Cint: Zach what color are your eyes? Zach: white (hey, he's right, right?)

Zach got his first bloody nose on the trip. Not because he got hit in the nose but because Utah is so dry and Zach has a nose-picking obsession right now.
Zach (covered in blood from a bloody nose) to Uncle Chris: I got red paint.

Zach (after projectile vomiting in the car): I spit up. Like Brady.
let's just say mom is glad that Brady does NOT spit up like that!

We had such a fun time and we're now counting down until July when we get to see everyone again (and drive to Utah TWO more times!)

Love,
Mom

3 months!

Dear Kate and Riley,
So I'm almost an entire month late with this one but I didn't want to just forget it.
How 3 months passed so quickly I'll never know. When I would talk to new moms after I had Zach I remember telling a lot of them to just hang in there for 3 months, because then everything gets better. The weeks leading up to Brady turning 3 months I started to wonder what I'd ever been talking about. But, sure enough, the week that he turned 3 months everything did get easier! Brady hasn't been a particularly hard baby but man the past few weeks he's been great. He's SO happy and smiley, he is such a laugher, Zach was harder to get a laugh out of, Brady will do it for just about anything. He is SO interested in the world around him and loves to be part of the action. He is definitely looking more and more like dad's side of the family but I do like to think he has a little bit of me in him. He looks a little like Zach but they do have their own looks. We just love him and even though Zach has a hard time admitting it, he's pretty fun to have around.

Current obsession: hands. He loves them, watches them, sucks on them, waves them around all day long

Love,
Mom

San Diego Zoo

Dear Kate and Riley,
I am SO behind! Life has been fun and crazy and there is so much to talk about. When tax season was finally over Dad took a day off work so we could all spend some family time together. We headed down to San Diego to one of my favorite places-- the zoo! It was a perfect day, nice and cool in the morning so the animals were all out. Uncle Adam and his family met us in the afternoon and saved us from what I'm sure would have been a meltdown from a very over tired Zachary. He was so excited about the zoo and his cousins he's still talking about it a month later.

this little guy was super happy

Zach LOVED "flying" the helicopter that was by the polar bear exhibit

Spring meant lots of baby animals, this little guy was very entertaining!

more babies!

We got passes and I can't wait to go back!

Love,
mom

Easter Fun

Dear Kate and Riley,
In addition to being spiritually uplifted, we also got to have some secular fun for Easter. A few days before Easter we went with Will to the "Easter Train" which was surprisingly similar to the Halloween Train and the Christmas Train. We rode the train and when we found out it was $10 to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, we decided to wave at him instead. The bounce house was a much better deal than sitting on a creepy bunny's lap!
On Saturday we had a little informal ward egg hunt on Saturday and on Sunday we had the Bowens over for yummy dinner and some egg dying. Two year olds and food coloring make me a little nervous but we managed with no major catastrophes.

I was excited for my first chance to dress the boys in matchy outfits. They may not go for it for long but while I still have control over the wardrobe choices they can match!

Matching! This was the Sunday before Easter. Getting a picture of these two turned out to be pretty impossible

Like I said, almost impossible

Waiting for the Easter Train

So excited to hold his own ticket for the train

I don't know what he was pointing at but I can hear the "WOOK WIWL!" (that's look will for those of you who don't speak Zachary)

The bounce house and a proud mom moment, my kid actually came OUT of the bounce house without someone having to go in after him. Didn't mean we didn't have a 20 min tantrum afterward, but hey we count every success here.



Brady was really in to the ward egg hunt

Zach getting ready

in pursuit

Checking out the loot
(let's get tax season over with so Dad can get some sun on those legs! wow!)

Easter Basket. I took a video so the pictures were scarce. He got Mater and Doc (from "Cars") and was VERY excited

"Happy Easter" (it was cuter on the video, doesn't quite translate here!)

Brady might kill me for this outfit when he's 16 but it was a gift and it was so cute we couldn't pass it up!

Easter Eggs, the whisk keeps hands out of the dye. It was a brilliant idea!

Our photographer was having some issues but I guess the moms were too nervous to back away enough to get a picture of the two of them

It was a fun-filled week!

Love,
Mom

"My soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain"

(we forgot the camera so dad's phone had to do in a pinch, the quality is really bad)

Dear Kate and Riley,
I think you know by now that since losing you Easter has become one of my favorite holidays. The promise of the atonement and resurrection are so much more real and powerful in my life than they ever were before you.

This year we had general conference on Easter where we get to stay home and listen to all of the church leaders give talks on TV. I have to admit that at first I was a little disappointed. I like going to church on Easter Sunday. I was excited to dress the boys up in cute little matching outfits, to sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and to listen to the choir sing. But it turned out to be a wonderful blessing to still sing, to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing (no disrespect to the ward choir, but come on, can you compare!?) and to listen to the apostles and prophets of the Lord share powerful testimonies of Christ and His atonement and resurrection.

Even though its hard to concentrate on conference with a noisy and active two year old and a needy infant, I was able to enjoy some of the talks and hope to be able to read the rest in the coming weeks. One talk in particular struck me with such power. Elder Hallstrom spoke of a woman who lost a baby in childbirth. He talked about this couple and their family and the anger they felt (I could relate) and how their inability to let go of the anger, hurt and resentment caused them to ultimately leave the church and affect four generations to come. How sad for that family. He then spoke of another family who lost not only twins but the mother as well as a result of childbirth but how their faith remained strong and that their faith and obedience to the Lord had positively affected four generations to come. It made me so grateful that I fell into the second category. There were times I was angry when we lost you but we were able to keep our faith and to understand the principal of opposition.

Elder Hallstrom continued and talked about the concept of opposition being a divine principle which I have come to have a very strong testimony of. He said that the promises that "Men are that they might have joy" ( 2 Nephi 2:25) and "there is an opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11) are complimentary and not contradictory. He also reminded us of Alma and his declaration that "...yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!" (Alma 36:20) Oh how true that statement rang in my heart! I sat on that couch and thought of our pain of the past and our joy in the present as tears streamed down my face. I can truly say that I have felt joy as exceeding as was my pain. And that the pain that I felt is one of the REASONS that I have felt the exceeding joy that I feel. I am so thankful to have the gospel to put these things in perspective for me. I am so grateful to have the joy in our lives that we have today and for the promise that we can be together as a family again and that we will feel even more joy as we are reunited as an eternal family some day.

I hope you enjoyed your Easter celebrations.
How sweet the joy this sentence gives-- I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES!

Love,
Mom