Happy Valentine's Day

We had a very fun Valentine's Day this year. We made yummy sugar cookies (from scratch, even the frosting!) and gave them to our friends. teachers, and neighbors. I tried to roll the dough and make them into cute heart and all that but it just didn't work out. Too much work for me but the kids didn't care, they loved putting on sprinkles, of which I bought way too much. 

I decorated the kids chairs for when they woke up, let them wear their Valentine's Day pajamas all day and then made Aaron a very fancy dinner after the kids went to bed and Aaron pulled through with chocolate fondue for dessert, it felt pretty perfect. I just love doing fun stuff on holidays like making heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. :) I sure love my little family. I am lucky to feel so much appreciation and love from them everyday. 

18 Months

My sweet Millie girl is already 18 months old. Man do I love the 18 month mark! It is like a sigh of relief for me. I admit it right now, openly, 12-18 months is a very hard age for me but it has past us and now I'm just settling into such a fun age with my kiddos. Camilla's official stats:

Height: 31 3/4" (55th)

Weight: 22 lbs. 8 oz (25th)

Head: 49 cm (95th)

My poor baby had to endure an earache that would not end. We did two different antibiotics and shots and it is finally going away. We have to see an ENT specialist this month to make sure everything is okay. She also got a yeast infection, it was pretty bad. Poor baby, we had no idea she even had an ear infection. she has pretty much all of her teeth in now (another reason I love 18 months - no more teething!) Camilla is still not talking, like at all. We get ma ma and da da and her animal sounds but she communicates what she wants perfectly fine thank you with her grunts, pointing and nodding yes and no. Camilla loves Carson, she wants to be with every second, she also wants to make him scream. If he is building a tower, she is knocking it over; if he is doing a puzzle, she is pulling it apart; and if he is getting dressed she is hiding his shoes. It is crazy how early this has all started. Camilla's hair is coming in in patches but she is still the cutest thing I've ever seen. Camilla loves me, she wants me all the time which most of the time I eat up. She loves to give hugs and kisses and loves her blankie. She loves to go to nursery and to play with other kids and wants to keep up with everything the big kids are doing. 

This little girl lights up my life, seriously, I can't go very long without needing her to smile at me and give me hugs. She is mischievous like you would not believe and she pretty much gets whatever she wants. Camilla loves to dance and conduct music and she does this little booty shake that is just about the cutest things ever. She is our independent girl who can do everything by herself! We sure love our Millie. 

A trip from Aaron's Parents

                                               

Aaron's parents came to spend a few days with us in January during some fabulous weather. It was fun to show them around Austin and do some fun stuff. Poor Carson was still suffering from the flu and I wasn't feeling well either and Aaron had school every day and home work every night but we tried to make the best of it. A lot of the day was spend playing in our front yard, raking up leaves and jumping in them. It was so nice out that we had so much fun being outside, we went to the park and walked around UT as well. 

Carson loved reading with his Grandpa and the kids had such a great time getting their grandparents undivided attention (something you don't get often when there are 23 grandchildren in a family). We also went out to Salt Lick to eat amazing BBQ, and oh my goodness did we eat and somehow we still managed to eat dessert. 

It seemed like the days they were here went by too fast but we are happy that they got to come and see how we are living here. It has been so much fun to see Aaron's Dad retired. They are just enjoying their life together so much and it is great to watch. They are going to be such fabulous missionaries. 

Girl's Trip

I had a great girl's trip weekend with my in-laws in Dallas back in January. Well I should say it started off good. We met together at a hotel and Aaron's parents opened their mission call to Russia! (we are so excited) and we had so much fun hanging out just the girls. I am so lucky to get along so well with my sisters-in-law and we just stayed up late talking and laughing. (Not eating though, this is Aaron's family :) Then Saturday morning I went for a run with my sister-in-law and came back from it feeling really awful. We all went to the temple together and I could not keep my eyes open and then while we were shopping I went into the dressing room at Gap to lay down. I finally had them take me back to the hotel so I could take a nap. I ended up getting a fever and getting the flu. It was pretty nasty for a whole week. But aside from this, I had a great time spending time with just the girls. But unfortunately my kids didn't do well for Aaron. Carson got the flu as well and spend the weekend throwing up, day and night. No one was sleeping, it was a rough weekend for poor Aaron. I came back early Sunday morning, we grabbed the kids and came home. I was sad to get sick on such a fun weekend (which included not getting to do all the fun eating out) but I was happy to spend some time with Aaron's family. Also Aaron gained new appreciation for me. In his words, " I will never make fun of you for being in your pajamas when I get home at night again." 

Baton Rouge Beach Marathon Review

A post just about me! :) 

So about six weeks ago I ran in the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon. It was such a fun race, I highly recommend it to anyone. It was very well organized and the route is very pretty. You run through the LSU campus and around a small lake through a gorgeous neighborhood. It is a two-loop course, decently flat, and I was lucky enough to have Aaron bike the second 13.1 miles with me. It was SO wonderful to have him right there with me during the hardest miles of the race and as it is crowded the first lap it really thinned out the second lap after we lost the half marathoners. I have nothing but great things to say about this race. I felt great the whole time and had so much fun - really, I mean it. It was hotter than anticipated but since I train in Texas it wasn't such a horrible shock, just tried to get in more gatordae. 26.2 miles is never easy and getting to this point is so much work but it is so worth it. I just already can't wait to do it again. 

Here are a few shots of the action:

And here I am crossing the finish line. I was so lucky to have my parents drive up to be there. There is NO way this would have worked without them. They kept my kids so Aaron could bike with me and helped us so much. Plus they were right there at the finish line so I had a little cheer section. :) I couldn't help but cry when I got the medal, I LOVE that feeling of knowing you worked so hard for something. 

And as soon as I was done there was a little girl with her arms out waiting for me.

 It was fun to get an award. I got second in my age group (30-34) and 10th overall for females. 

Carson spent the whole time doing this, even though all morning he said, "I need to go watch Mommy race." Our hotel was just down the street from the start/finish line so it worked out perfect.

We all enjoyed the post-race grub of jambalaya, rice and beans, fried fish, fried chicken, fried everything. It was so delicious. Normally after a race I'm not that hungry immediately after. But that day I could not get enough fried food. For dinner I ordered the fried platter. 

Some worn out kiddos:

One of my friends that I run with dropped this off for me the night before I left. I loved it:

On Sunday we went to church next to the Baton Rouge Temple. It was very small but pretty. It was just a gorgeous day. Even hotter than Saturday so I was pretty lucky. 

I love all three of these pictures, couldn't choose just one. 

We had a great time visiting Louisiana for the first time. It is a fun place and the trip was great.

I enjoyed training for this race so much. First of all I only trained for about 7 weeks so this meant I didn't get burnt out and my friends were amazing. Waking up at 4:30 in the morning to run or bike along side me was just beyond nice. I never did a mile of one long run alone. And Aaron was so supportive of all the time and money it took and got me through those last few miles when I kept saying, "where is the finish line, why can't I see it yet!!??!!" Having Aaron be so busy with school and recruiting and studying was hard for me at first. He was having so much fun and making all these friends. I loved that I had something to work for too that was just mine ya know, something just for me. 

Christmas In Arkansas

I'm just going to have to give the shortened version of this trip to Arkansas as it was a long trip filled with fun activities (as are all our trips to Arkansas).

Aaron's Dad retired after 32 years at the UAMS hospital. We attended his retirement party, here is a picture of the cake with all of his favorite things:

I got my hair done and I started to worry about the kids so Aaron sent me these pictures to let me know the kids were just fine. I was SO excited to get my hair done, it was just awful.

Aaron had a guy's trip while we were there, filled with golf, movies, and eating out. They also spend some time in Greers Ferry and stayed in this gorgeous house and played more golf, of course.

While the men were gone we had fun activities with the girls. We made lettuce wraps, hung out, and decorated sugar cookies with the kids. They loved decorating the cookies but I must say we were much more interested in eating them. 

Carson loved playing with his cousins every day. Every morning he begged us to go over to their houses to play, it was so cute. And of course everyone was so nice about letting him come over. He rode bikes, played kickball, jumped on the trampoline, played in the leaves, and ran all around with them. He was so tired every night.

Our kids had quite an obsession with Josie, they really miss her. She is being very well cared for.

Nativity on Christmas Eve, the best one yet!

Christmas morning was anticlimactic. The kids didn't know what was going on. Carson colored the whole time and Camilla opened all their presents. Aaron and I didn't buy the kids anything or each other anything so there wasn't much to open. I vow to do more next year so its a little more fun. 

We made Carson come over and open his activity books and he just started coloring them there. 

Camilla did love her doll and her purse. 

I made fruit parfaits for Christmas dinner and Camilla helped with the whipped cream. She was a pretty big fan. Can't blame her. 

Carson spent the morning playing with Josie. She is his best friend. 

 Christmas day the power went out in the whole town so we got to do a lot of fun in the dark games and sing songs. Then the snow came down. So. Much. Snow. It was really fun to have a white Christmas and beautiful to look at but I know it was so much work for everyone as it took out trees and branches all over the place. We still left that day but waited until it warmed up a bit and they had a chance to clear out roads.