PF Changs Marathon January 17, 2010

Rosa, Leah & I ran the pf changs marathon in January. All those months of a strict diet and training so many hours came all down to this day. Rosa flew in on friday, we went to the expo on saturday to pick up our race gear and we parked close to the expo we thought, but we couldn't find it surprise surprise, so we are walking around trying to figure out how to get to the right building. We came to this dead end, then some gate's opened up and some worker walked through the gate's and Rosa said lets go through there so we started running to get through the gates before they closed. so we started walking around and realized we were in the loading dock area that was all gated off and the only way to get out was if you had a key. So while we were trying to figure out how to get out of this place (we were thinking of jumping over the brick wall) some employee showed up and let us through, thank goodness otherwise I could see myself trying to jump over the wall and falling on my face. After the expo we went to go load up on carbs at Olive Garden, my favorite! Went and hung out with the family and slept at my mom's house because my little Jeremiah wake's up still so I needed to get my sleep for the race. Even though it was hard to fall asleep and stay asleep, my mind was racing about what it would be like to run the marathon. I was so nervous for a lot of things: I hope we get there with plenty of time, I hope I ate the right foods, I hope I can do this, can i do this?, I hope I don't hurt myself, I hope my legs don't give out on me,I need to get good sleep but why can't I fall asleep, and I was so nervous of "hitting the brick wall". I even had dreams about the race. I woke up before my alarm went off, got all my gear on, went over and over to make sure I wasn't going to forget anything. Brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom said my prayers, ate some toast and we were out the door. My sister-in-law Leah, her dad was nice enough to drive us to the race. We had our maps of where the drop off was and we got a little lost, whether the map was wrong or we were it was still nerve wrecking cuz all of us girls were kinda flipping out at Joe(he says) we finally found the drop off, and Leah whose time was starting before Rosa and I took off running. Me and Rosa just tried to remain calm, we both needed to go to the bathroom so we found the outhouses with a huge line, thank goodness people let us in front of them because we were running the marathon not the half(the marathon started first) So while we are waiting in line we see Leah running past us from the other outhouses and the look on her face was panic, Me and Rosa started busting up laughing! It was so funny! So we made our way to the start line and there was music and people talking, I recognized some guy up on the stage talking and then realized it was John McCain wishing all the runners good luck, so much excitement! Rosa and I ran the first 9 miles together but she is a faster runner than I am so I didn't want to overwork myself because I know I would pay for it later so I told her to just go. It was such a fun race because there was a band at every mile and cheeleaders too. I felt really good up until mile 20, my legs started to cramp up really bad so I had to stop and rub them out. Stopping made them hurt worse but yet they were killing me when I was running and I was really tired. I started to doubt myself and was thinking why am I doing this, it is sooo hard, I just want to give up but I didn't I just prayed and thought about what Rosa told me when we were running in the beginning of the race "We are kings of our souls" and I also thought about what I put on my vision board for this years resolutions, my motto for the year"Be Victorious" So after thinking like this it didn't get any easier but I started feeling happier and goofy, I started singing and probally staggering back and forth but I made it to the finish line(4:48) and it was the most amazing feeling ever! Just a feeling of accomplishment, doing something that I thought I could never do was so empowering. I felt like I can conquer anything that come's my way. It was so nice to have family there at the finish line waiting for me. I definetly would recommend everyone running a marathon it's the most amazing feeling ever and you get to experience all these emotions in such a little amount of time. It also was so cool to think that 1year ago I was doing another kind of marathon, giving birth to my sweet Jeremiah 1-18-2009

THE SNOW.... So beautiful!

Our friends Terri & Shawn invited us up to their cabin in Pinetop the week of New Years Eve. The kids were sooooo excited to see the snow, it was their first time. Gabriel absolutely loved the snow! He didn't want to come inside, he would have stayed out and played all day but I was cold. It was fun, I haven't seen the snow for 4-5years so it was really nice. Bella played outside for about 20minutes then she was done, she said it was too cold. We went sledding twice and that was a blast! I loved watching Gabriel drag the sled up the hill and going down, he finally just started sliding down in his snowsuit,he thought it was the coolest thing and couldn't stop laughing. Bella played for a little bit then went in the car and watched Hannah Montana. It was a lot more scarier then I remember going down those hills, I guess when your a kid you have no fear. I did go to the top and went down, I was so scared of falling off but I never did. I just went on the tube's or the airmattress's, they are a lot smoother then the plastic sleds (those one's just throw you around, I saw kids wiping out big time and getting back up and going again.CRAZY!) The mountains were beautiful, it started snowing when we were up sledding and it was gorgeous. It was nice to go to the snow but even nicer to come home to warmer weather. I have alot more picture's which I'm going to post on my facebook so check it out.

Making a snowmen, they never finished the snow was too powdery.

Snow ANGEL

He was trying to touch the snow and got frustrated cause he couldn't because of his gloves.

Christmas Day.

On christmas eve we got home about 11pm so Bella and Jeremiah fell asleep on the way home & Gabriel put some cookies out for santa, he was so excited. Of course christmas morning Ryan & I were the first one's awake, we are just so excited for the kids so around 8am we finally woke up the kids (our kids have never woken up before us on christmas, it's crazy cause Ryan & I remember when we were kids how we couldn't sleep and then we used to wake up so early, maybe when they are a little older they will do that). They were so excited opening their presents. Poor little Jeremiah was sick so he wanted to go back to bed. Gabriel was so happy to get his Nintendo DS and Bella got her barbie townhouse(it's so fun!) I kept taking Gabriel's nintendo ds from him and he told me I need to get my own, it's pretty fun to play with. After opening presents and playing for awhile we went to my mom's house for my dad's breakfast, he make's the best waffles! We hung out there for awhile went home and took naps and played some more then back to my mom's house for our Christmas dinner. I can't believe another christmas has passed!

Can you find Jeremiah?

My poor little guy was sick on his first christmas.

He was so happy, can you tell?

Bella was still half asleep.

Christmas Eve

We spent christmas eve at my mom's house of course eating yummy food. We did a nativity scene with the kids but it was hard to get our kids to sit still. They were still so cute, they sang the nativity song and Bella memorized her little part and sang it so dang cute with no fear.We always have a little talent show too which is so fun to watch everyone. Abish played the piano, Marisol sang a song, Abuelo sang a song of course(he's so cute) Alessia played the violin, Gianni and Bella sang.
The picture above is me and my siblings. My little brother on the far right Gabriel is only 14 and I think he is going to pass us all up. He's already taller than me! No fair.

Bella was the angel and here she is singing her part.

Cousins

So cute!

Christmas Programs

Both Gabriel and Bella had Christmas programs and they were so fun to watch. Gabriel's class sang a song about a donkey (I never heard it before) it was really cute, he was a little nervous, he did sing some of the songs but he's not the singing type and he's more like me, he doesn't like to speak in front of people(it's so scary) Bella sang and danced to a couple of songs, she was shy at first but then she started to feel a little more comforable after the first song. She's the opposite of me, she love's to sing and dance for people. She love's to be the center of attention.

A night at the temple

We went to the temple with the family a couple of weeks before chistmas, it's always fun to see the nativity and look at all the beautiful lights and hear the choir. It was a cold night but we were all bundled up in our warm cloths. After we went to my mom's house and had her hot cinnamon tea to warm up.

DECEMBER

December is always so busy and fun. The kids had fun decorating the tree, they took all the ornaments out and put them all on the tree, well as far as they could reach. They took out all the decorations and put them all on the coffee table's, they were covered with cookie jar's (that I have gotten as gifts over the year) santa clause's, peguins and a bunch of other christmas decorations. They were so proud of themselve's, I think we only broke two ornaments from Bella and of course Jeremiah. I left it like that for a couple of days then I went and evened out the ornaments and put a few decorations away. Jeremiah loved the ornaments on the tree, he would keep hitting them like they were punching bags and he loved crawling under the christmas tree and hanging out there, that was his spot all month.

Between our church party and my mom's church party, the mall and school parties we saw Santa like four or five times, maybe more. They could go see him everyday, they wanted to make sure he knew what they wanted for christmas. Gabriel asked for a nintendo DS and Bella asked for a barbie townhouse.

His favorite spot for the month of December.

Every year we decorate a few ornaments and hang them on the tree. I love to look at all the ornaments from the previous years. It kinda make's me sad to see how many we have done already, It make's me realize how fast the years go.

Making the gingerbread house, the kids loved eating all the candy and frosting. All month they kept asking to to eat the gingerbread house but we saved it till after christmas.

Love's

When Jeremiah gets a hold of the wipies he'll just pull them out one after the other until somebody stops him or they are all gone so we have to put these somewhere where he can't get them.

The helmet he's wearing is for a flat head( I can't remember the medical term for what it is called) He has torticollis in his neck which is a tight muscle in his neck that he was born with. So since he was born he would only lay on one side of his head because the other side was too uncomfortable for him so that's how he got the flat head. He did have to go to physical therapy for the tight neck muscle so that got better. His head looked kinda funky so this is why he wore the helmet and it corrects his flatness. He adapted to it pretty easy, got a couple of sore's at first but he did pretty good with it. It was hard for me I have to say because I'm used to taking him out and everybody would always comment on how cute he was but when we went out with this on him people would look at him then look away real fast, it made me so sad but that's ok cause I thought he was still so cute with it on.He wore it for 2 1/2 months and it did help, his head doesn't look so wierd. Of course Ryan added the dolphin stripes and logo to it. It was cute! All his little cousins asked why he was wearing the helmet and we would tell them he's a football player or a sumo wrestler.