A friend of mine on her blog, challenged us to run a 5K, a 10K and a half marathon. She had some pretty persuasive reasons for doing it, and I have my own...so, I told her I would do it. At least the 5 and 10K's. But I know that I haven't jogged or even had a lasting exercise prgram since Ricks College, and yeah, that was before it was BYU-Idaho. SOOOO, to those of you from here that are reading this, does anyone want a running partner? And I do mean running very loosely. And although I'd welcome some more people to do the 5K with, you don't have to. I'd just like to have someone to run/jog/walk for safety reasons (we can take turns carrying the bat) and so I make sure I don't skip it altogther. We can do it morning or evening, we could try it in the afternoon, but I'd have to drag three to four kids along, and I don't think that would work (I think it would be like taking three lab puppies for a walk in a squirrel infested park without a leash, yes, I do). To help motivate any of you (or, yeah, to make you feel guilty), here are my reasons for doing this:
1. So I can chase Joseph without panting.
Seriously,
1. My dad just started taking insulin shots. Both my grandmas had diabetes and a few assorted uncles and aunts. Also, my kids have diabetes on both sides, I'd like to be a good example for them, they're going to need to exercise.
2. High cholesterol runs in both sides of my family, too. Both my grandpas and one uncle died of heart attacks and my dad has already had one heart attack, along with his sister needing bypasses. Again, it runs in Farris' family, too.
3. Just like on Legally Blonde, you can't be sad if you exercise alot.
4. As I said before, at Ricks (BYU-Idaho) I got in shape for a backpacking trip in the Salmon River country. That was amazing, and I'd like to be able to do something like that again.
5. It would be nice to fit into clothes that I haven't worn for a long, long time.
6. Just like my friend said in her blog, the word of wisdom! I really wouldn't mind being able to run after my kids and not be weary. Mentally and emotionally would be great, too.
7.There are some really gorgeous places to jog around here. Farris sees deer all the time on his rounds. It feels so good to be outside, seeing things. And it's more productive than golfing.

I could go on making a bunch of stuff up, but I think this is enough. So anybody in my neighborhood want to go running (loosely, remember) with me? We could go with a small group, or just two of us or anything in between. If you've aready started, I'd love to join you. If you haven't, let's start together. If nobody answers this, I'm going to start talking to you face to face...

Kung Fu Panda vs. Daddy and other stuff

This morning at breakfast Caleb and Joseph started a discussion about what would happen if Kung Fu Panda and Daddy fought. Sorry Farris, the panda won. Later, I heard Joseph run up to Farris in the kitchen and yell "hiii-yaaa!" I'm not sure what happened at that point. Maybe Daddy got little Kung Fu Panda that time.
This was a fun week, on monday we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgving Point and met Rocky and Stacey and kids there. We'd never been there, and it really is cool. The kids have been into dinosaurs lately, thanks to the Land Before Time series, so they enjoyed seeing three-horns and sharp tooths and long necks (Joseph called all the bigger long necks "grandpa" after Little Foots grandpa in the cartoons). We also watched a 3-D movie there about dinosaurs. I've never seen a 3-D movie before, it whacks your eyes out. Caleb wouldn't put his glasses on, which might be good because some of the dinosaurs were scary. Yes, I gasped really loud (it wasn't a scream, maybe) when a pteradactyl came right out at me. The highlight of the trip was after when we went to McDonalds for dinner and let the kids play in the gym. Well, it was the first thing Caleb told Nicki about anyway.
Seth is still growing, we're starting to put him in 6-9 month clothes now. He has also grown out of his bassinet. We switched it out for his playpen (yes, our kids sleep in a play pen instead of a crib. One less piece of furniture to worry about, and you can pack it with you on trips so they don't flip out about sleeping somewhere different) anyway, we switched it out after the kids went to sleep. The next morning Joseph and Felicity came running in and stopped short when they saw what Seth was sleeping in. Joseph, in his little awed voice said "Look, Sissy, it growed up!"
Felicity has informed me that she's going to marry Maka, a little boy in her class that protects her from bullies on the playground. She told me that if his family moved, we were going to have to follow them and move, too. Just thought I'd let you all know, our family is going to become stalkers.
AND hurrah! hurrah! Farris is fixing up our laundry room, on saturday he put up new sheetrock. Some had big holes and some was entirely gone. Next we're going to mud and paint and then put up shelves and drying racks, and let me tell you, I am not going to miss our laundry dungeon. But I can't decide what color to paint, any ideas? I want something that will brighten my mood when I stagger in the door with large armfuls of dirty everything.

fun website

I just found a fun website called goodreads.com. I'm always on the lookout for a good, clean, well-written, fun books so this website will be great--it has reviews, a place you can put titles you want to read so you don't forget (I'm still suffering from monkey brain, brought on by being a mom) , book groups, and even a place you can see what your friends are reading and what they think of a book they've read. If any of you want to join, too, we can share book lists and maybe get a group going.

We've been wanting to start composting for our garden, but commercial composters are expensive and small and a lot of the plans you find on the 'net are really elaborate and complicated and expensive...this is pretty simple and basic and easier than a bin or a pile that you have to shovel and stir. Now the video made us laugh, the man who did this gets really happy about his compost. And I'm not really sure if the pee is a good idea...you'll see.

How To Build A Compost Tumbler

This week

I'm now thirty-something. This birthday was weirder than turning thirty, that little extra something is...well, something. Farris made my birthday enjoyable, he made french toast for me for breakfast (any day that I don't eat oatmeal for breakfast is a good day) and then dinner, too (yummy ravioli, not from a can). Plus chocolate cake and thin mint ice cream. Yes, my birthday celebrations are all about food. On thursday we went to the BYU art museum for an opening of a new exhibit. The exihibit was of south-western art, it was fun to see hogans and sheep and anazai ruins again, even if it was just pictures. And they have a Georgia O'Keefe painting, which is really cool. The kids enjoyed Valentines day, even though Joseph stole half of the box of chocolates that we gave to Caleb. That boy likes chocolate and it's a bonus if he can irratate his siblings at the same time. Felicity has not hit the stage where she has to scrutinize every word on a valentine card before she gives it to a boy, (maybe in second grade) so she had a lot of fun at her school party, at least she came home loaded with stuff. Caleb wrote out some valentines, one of which is for our neighbors dog. We're still not going to get a dog, we'll just continue to share with them. Saturday night we made valentine cookies. It got a little crazy. And Joseph and Caleb like to lick flour off of the counter, which I don't agree with. But we had fun. After I told them to stop licking the counter.

I copied this from a friend's blog. I thought it was a very true to life, soul-searching question. And I wanted to make my sister-in-law, who's son painted himself (Michael is such a cutie!) with nail polish, feel a little better, in comparison.

Life really boils down to two questions:

Should I get a dog?

OR

Should I have kids?Tee-hee-hee.

And you know what, I am still glad I have my kids. Of course, they have never painted everything in sight.

Yet.

Joseph, what are you doing...

Question of the day

How can a two year old lose his diaper and not know where it went to?

Seth is four months old!

Here's a picture of Seth from his blessing day, January 4. He's even bigger now!

We just got back from Seth's four month well-child visit. He's growing! He is now 15 lbs, 2.5 oz (55%), 26 in long (90%) and his head is 43 cm around (75%). So he's tall with a big head. He's still the cutest little baby ever (well, he shares that with his sibings, of course) . He's learning about his hands right now and giggles at his brothers crazy dancing. His hair, what he has of it, is reddish blonde and his eyes haven't turned brown...yet...but they're usually twinkling as he grins and wiggles. He loves to entertain the people that sit behind us in sacrament meeting and competes with Joseph for the most laughs from people watching. He's decided that he doesn't want to sleep all throught the night anymore, but we'll work on that and maybe we'll start trying solid foods, too. If we want to worry about the mess, anyway! He's been a wonderful baby and our whole family is really enjoying him.

My little ballerinas

Due to popular demand, here are the pictures of the Child Family Ballet.

The star of the show.

Caleb showing his classic Kung Fu Ballet pose.

Our beautiful Cinderalla.

I know he doesn't look excited in this picture, but he loved twirling in this skirt.

The pressure is getting to him.

And that's all folks!