Todd Family

Jazz vs Mavs! 1/19/12

2012-01-23T21:53:00.000-08:00

Zealynn went to her first Jazz game on Jan. 19th vs. Mavs. I couldn't decide if I was going to go since Z was a month old and I wasn't sure how she would do. Kev convinced me that she would do good and it would be good for the both of us to get out. I had only been out once in 4 weeks (plus two times for the Pediatrician) and I was starting to become a homebody. Well...she did AWESOME! So much better then I even thought she would! She was just taking everything in! We got there a little after it started, just in case there were fireworks in the beginning. She slept the first quarter, took her first bottle the second, I changed her during half, looked around and dozed off in the 3rd and took another bottle in the 4th. I was so happy that Kev convinced me to go! It was definitely a great experience and much needed for Mama!

This was her first bottle she had and she did really good!!

Kev loved being able to feed her!
Yep, she's in her PJ's again. One of these days I'll put her in clothes, but since she is asleep or eating majority of the time, she might as well be comfortable! :)

5 years!!

2012-01-23T21:32:00.000-08:00

5 years ago on Dec. 30th, I made the best decision of my life...married the perfect man for me! I was sealed to the most amazing man I have ever met. He has been the best decision I have ever made and everyday I fall harder in love with him. Now seeing him as the daddy to our baby girl has made every moment magnified and I am so grateful to have the blessing of being with My Love for forever! So excited to have forever with you Kev!

Obviously we couldn't really do much because we had a 9 day old, so we'll probably celebrate when she's a little older and we can go somewhere for the weekend. We were blessed with the best anniversary present ever! I told Kev that there was no reason he couldn't go...so he went to the Jazz game with his family. His dad has season tickets, so they went and had a blast. Me and Z and Jenn, Carter and Joce were home. When Kev got home...he gave me my present...TOMS shoes!! I've wanted them the past year but never could get them so he surprised me! Can't wait to celebrate eternity with this man!!

Random Pics- up to 3 weeks old

2012-01-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

oh how i love these two!!3rd time's a charm! she loved the bath this time and even kicked her feet!
Sunday nap
New Years Eve kiss

Z's first New Years kiss! :)

She falls asleep in my hand wgen I burp her. It's one of my favorites!

I got in the shower and came back to this....content with cuddling with daddy and sucking his finger! :)

A couple photo shoots!

2012-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

I think I mentioned before, we bought a canon camera before Z came because we figured we would want to take a lot of nice pics of her and frankly, we didn't want to be spending a grip on all the pics of her we would want. (I take a lot of pics of my nieces and nephews, so I knew Zealynn would have a fair amount!) Be prepared...pictures galore! She's just so cute i couldn't pick one (or two or three for that matter!) :) So here we go...1 week old (12/28/11)

her little hooked finger! haha

Oh her dimple is the cutest thing!!

Jan. 2, 2012 (12 days old)....Our Best Christmas Present EVER!

One of my favs!

Jan. 5th (15 days)- I wanted family pics so my friend came over and just took some quick shots. She was crying because I kept cutting her short for feeding. (She does eat A LOT...so I cut her to 40 minutes instead of an hour...hence the crying pics on some!) lol

Her cry is so stinking cute! It all starts with the bottom lip!

Always has an arm up! Love these two!! Daddy has a way to calm her down!

I decided to just feed her real quick and she became very somber after that. Love my cuddly girl!!

Love kissing these feet!!

Our perfect baby Z

2012-01-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve after her bath, we wanted to take pics to go with my last pregnancy pic. I think she looks so amazingly beautiful in these pics! (3 days old) I still can't believe she was in my belly and although I do miss her in my belly, it's wonderful to hold her in our arms! We love our baby girl!

She started sucking on my thumb! :)

Zealynn's first week Dec. 23rd-Dec. 28th

2012-01-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

I just realized these are backwards in order. This is from the 23rd of Dec (when she came home) to the 28th of Dec. She was definitely the best Christmas present...made from the heart! :) Here she is at 1 week old with her cousin Jocelynn. They are a little over 4 years apart. Jocelynn was so excited to have another girl cousin! Cousins Carter and Joce and Aunt Jenn. They came up to meet her from Cali! Thanks so much for coming up! We had a blast visiting!
Uncle Trev with Z
I love burping her. Sometimes she's so tired that she just falls asleep in my hands while tapping her on her back. She gets so relaxed it's so cute! And I love squeezing those cheeks!
These boots kill me!! Here she is at 5 days old!
Christmas Night we took some pics (4 days old)

Christmas Day...best Christmas ever! It was really relaxed. My parents were with us. My mom made some breakfast, we opened some presents and then just watched NBA the rest of the day with our baby girl. We were in heaven!

She is not one to be swaddled...she likes her hands FREE! Sometimes she'll sleep with her hands up like this! lol

Love these two! She sure loves her daddy!
Christmas Eve we gave her a bath...after her first blow out! That was a fun experience! My mom recorded it...she was not happy. Kev dipped her bum in the water and she screamed. We've learned how to do it since then! :) Kev's favorite thing is to give her baths and now she actually likes it!

She is a thumb sucker!! Of course, we figured since in her ultrasound at 23 weeks you can actually see her stick her thumb in her mouth and yawn. My mom was holding her and she started sucking her thumb. It was so stinkin cute so we had to take pictures, but then she started taking her pointer finger and jabbing her eye, so we decided to give her a binky so she doesn't stab her eye...she takes it every now and then when she's desperate and mommy can't feed her right away!

The night we came home (23rd of Dec.) 2 days old

We are in heaven with out little angel. She is so perfect. She is very chill and pretty much only cries when she's hungry and you are taking too long and when you touch her body with cold hands (definitely our daughter since both me and Kev hate that!) She use to hate her diaper changed because it was so cold, but we have put her by the heater and now she's use to it so she doesn't mind (unless you take too long and leave her in the cold!) :) She is good at night. She doesn't cry when her diaper needs changed, she just squirms and can't get comfortable. She usually wakes up at midnight, 3am, 6:30am, 9:30am....so on. This is for the most part, but every now and then she'll throw in a curve ball. Her cry is so cute and she has a little bottom lip. We are in love with her left dimple too! :) Kev and I feel so blessed to have her in our life.

Zealynn's birth story

2012-01-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

This is a long one..more for me to remember...so sorry in advance! :) Zealynn's due date was on Fri. Dec. 23rd, however, for my weekly check up, the doctor informed us that he would be out of town from the 22nd to the 26th of Dec. I was really stressing out because I wanted him to deliver. We grew really close to him and I felt it would be a good experience to have our first time be with someone we were comfortable about. Plus, my parents were coming up on the 22nd and we wanted them (and Kev) to spend as much time with her as they could before going back to work. My doctor said at my last appt. on the 12th of Dec. that I was dilated to a 1 1/2 and I was soft. (Not sure what % of effacement though.) So after much prayers, Kev and I felt it would be okay to be induced the latest we could and still have Dr. Judd. So if she didn't come before, I would be induced on Wed. Dec. 21st (2 days before due date.) It was so crazy to get everything ready the night before and know that the next time we are back...we'll be a family of 3! wahoo!

Here's my last pregnancy pic before going in!! 39 weeks and 5 days! Ah so bittersweet...I loved every minute of being pregnant...even up to the day she came. I was really blessed to always feel good, sleep good and never be in real pain. Yes, I had some headaches or backaches, but I think the mind and body is an amazing thing and I was really blessed to have such a good pregnancy! I miss it already, but seeing her and holding her is pretty sweet too!! :) I was induced at 5am. We got there and they started my IV and just basic paperwork info around 5:30am. She tried my left arm, but I had a rolling vein and then she got it in my right hand. Well a new nurse came in at 6am and was about to start the pitocin, but my hand was kind of sore. I just figured it was the IV that everyone said sucked, so I didn't really say anything, but when I looked at my hand, it was swelling. The nurse looked at it and said that the IV was placed only partially in my vein and the other in my tissue, so if we left it, my whole hand and arm would be ballooned! I couldn't really bend my hand because of the swelling, so she did it again and it felt much better! She checked me and I was 3cm and 90% effaced! wahoo! She started the pitocin around 6:30am. Here's the monitors! Ah! So excited!! Baby girl was moving like crazy!There was obviously a lot more that happened before the below pic, but we didn't take pics of that. :) The pitocin was increasing, but I didn't feel anything. Around 8:30am my Dr. came in and broke my water to get the progress started! Once my water broke, the contractions really started! I was so excited! (Is that weird?!) Kev found an app on his phone that calculated the contractions and made it a little more fun. so they became more strong and consistent, every minute to min. and a half. She checked me around 9:30am and I was a 4. Lori (my nurse) came in about an hour later to check Z's heart rate, but she kept moving so she put a monitor on her head. I was really breathing and getting through each contraction. I had to go to the restroom but had to time it right after a contraction. Once I got to the bathroom, I started throwing up with a contraction so I decided that I wanted to be checked and see how far I was to see if I should get an epidural or not. I wanted to go as far as I could, but I didn't know what to expect obviously. I was checked and I was a 5 and so I decided for the epidural. However, he wouldn't get there for 30 minutes or so. They asked if I wanted pain meds but I told them I'd breathe through these until he comes. Well, he didn't end up coming for about 40 minutes or so. The hard part was staying completely still while contractions came while the epidural was going in. It didn't hurt me at all, maybe because I was trying to concentrate on my breathing. I was really scared for the epidural because it freaked me out thinking I couldn't feel my legs. Well, it took about 20 minutes to kick in after he finished, so from the time I decided on the epidural til the time it kicked in (about an hour and a half or so) and I was a 7! She checked me right after the epidural kicked in to fix the monitor on her head. I couldn't believe it! From 7-10 cm, it was the craziest feeling! I could feel my legs and moved them, but the contractions were non existent. I just felt it in different regions. We watched The Warrior and she came in around 2ish and I was a 9+ and 2+ station. She checked me again and I was a 10cm and ready to go at 3:50pm! She said they like to rest and descend so they doc will come in after his office hours (after 5pm) so I don't have to push as long. Well around 5:05pm I started pushing with Kev and Lori (my nurse). I was nervous too about the epidural because I heard that you can't feel when to push, but I knew everytime when to! By 5:45pm the doc came in and said I had 3 options. 1) keep pushing and he'll see me tomorrow and I'll still be pushing because Z was posterior. 2) he can do a csection. 3) he can use forceps to help guide her out. SO...I've heard that he is the master at forceps and so we decided to go that route. Since then, I was so happy that I got an epidural. I was also so happy that we decided to be induced because the on call doc didn't do forceps and I would have had to have a csection. After the doc guided Z, I pushed 2 times and out she came at 5:59pm! 7 lbs 10 oz 20 1/2 inches...she even had hair and a cute little dimple on her left cheek! :) She had a big unicorn head from being in the canal for awhile. It was amazing...they checked her and then put her on me. Her head was so strong that she stretched it back like she was looking at me and came back down to my chest. she instantly latched and it was so perfect. We were a family of 3!!My awesome nurse Lori! Z is feeding for the first time!First family photo!First time Grandpa BruceI wish her eyes weren't closed :( but here's first time Grandma Carla Uncle Trev

Aunt Kiley

Our beauty..Kev picked her bows out to match her bedding :)

Dr. Judd!!

Aunt Jamie
Cousin Jordyn
Grandma Kirk
Grandpa Kirk

We left the hospital on Fri. Dec. 23rd. It was so weird to pack up everything and take her into the world.
The hospital was so awesome. They gave us a stocking to put her in and little mittens with candy cane on it.
It was too cold to take a pic of her outside, so she's behind us in the warm car already...but on our way home. :)

Introducing Baby Z!!!

2011-12-29T14:48:00.000-08:00

Our perfect baby girl, Zealynn Marie, was born on Wed. Dec. 21st at 5:59pm.
7 lbs 10 oz. 20 1/2 inches
I'll have more details of that perfect day in another post!! We were definitely blessed with a piece of heaven!

The last pics of pregnancy!

2011-12-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

Definitely bittersweet! I absolutely loved EVERYTHING about being pregnant. I was very blessed with feeling amazing the whole time. I was never really tired and had a lot of energy. I don't feel like I changed much, at least Kev told me I was the same and I never really got emotional. I did have one episode at 35 weeks when I was thinking about Z growing up. Kev started laughing and said "wait, you are sad that our baby, that isn't even here yet, is already grown up?" we laughed about it and that was that. lol. I have to give drinking my water and exercising 5-6 times a week to feeling good. So there you have it. Here are my last pics before the little one came. (more of that to come!!) I was 38 weeks, 39 weeks, and the day before she came.

Baby Bedding!!

2011-12-18T19:57:00.000-08:00

We decided to make our baby bedding! We aren't really "sewers." Kev has sewed me a quilt before for our anniversary one year, but I don't really know as much as I would like about sewing. There was this baby bedding that we saw online that we loved but it was about $350 and we couldn't justify it. So we thought "maybe we can just make it!" So that's what we did. Kev's mom sews quilts so she taught us how to do that and with many youtube videos...we did it!! Piping and all! We absolutely love it! Plus, we got so much extra fabric that we are going to make a throw pillow and have made ties for the curtains and some other fun things with it plus we still have leftovers...so maybe we'll think of some other stuff!! I'll show pictures of the whole room in a future post. We did the colors turquoise, lime, black and white so just in case the future has some boys in it! :) SO EXCITED FOR OUR BABY Z TO BE HERE!!! We are ready for you baby girl!!

Nov. 30th: Kev's 29th Birthday!!

2011-12-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

Wed. Nov. 30th was Kev's 29th birthday! I wanted to surprise him (because I love surprises and it's hard to surprise him!) So during the day, I brought him In n Out during work for lunch (love gift cards!) and then I wanted to surprise him with Ruth's Chris in Salt Lake that night. Here's the thing....Kev says Ruth's Chris is his favorite place...however, he has never been. I felt since we usually don't do anything like this, it would be a fun thing to do for his bday. Little did he know though that our friends would be joining us! So here we are in the car...I'm trying to stall so our friends are seated before we get there! :)Had to stall again...kev knows I love taking pics, plus we got a new camera so I don't think he questioned it! :)
The hot birthday boy! I love the Christmas lights down town!!

They gave him a birthday card!
Our friend Ashley Kobe!
Mark and Kev..they love each other! :)
Ruth's brought Kev a birthday dessert!!
The gang! It was such a wonderful surprise for Kev! He was so happy they joined us. They LOVE a good legit food...hence I asked if they wanted to join us. :)

Happy Birthday my Love! I hope you had a wonderful day!! I love you so much!!

Nov. 29th: Ugly Christmas Sweater Work Party

2011-12-09T22:53:00.000-08:00

Kev had two work parties this year...one for his department and one for the whole company. Both were so much fun! We have been so blessed to have Kev working for Qualtrics. It is such a great company and they really blessed us this Christmas time!! Thanks Qualtrics! :)And she's popping. :)
He's hot. I love his ornament. :)

Pregnancy Pics!

2011-12-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

So we couldn't decide if we wanted to take professional pics or just use that money and apply it to a nice camera. We figured I'm going to go crazy with wanting to take pics of her when she's born, so we figured that we could take those pics of her. We had Carla (Kev's mom) take these pics during Thanksgiving in Bluebell (at Kev's grandparents house). The next day, I was 36 weeks.

We have a pic almost exactly like this one in our engagement pics! We had to reenact the tree scene! :)

I really wanted to get on this tractor! :)

And this barrel was calling my name! hahah!

We took some other pics a little earlier too...I was 34 1/2 weeks here. Our friend Sarah took them at Riverwoods in Provo near Kev's work.

Kev made the perfect heart! :)

I wanted to straddle the tree stump. ha!

Of course Kev wanted to do something different! :) I told him if he fell in, he was on his own. :)
I love this man!

36 weeks and 5 days!!

2011-12-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

Baby Z has dropped...however, still no progress. That's okay, we want her to be as healthy as possible! :) BUT we are getting VERY anxious!!

"Deviled Egg"

2011-11-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

After our baby shower, that night we went to our friend's Halloween party. I wanted to take advantage of being pregnant and do something fun as a pregnant woman! Every year it's the same thing...Halloween comes SO fast and we are trying to figure out what we are going to be like an hour before we need to be there! So this is what we went as....."Deviled Egg"....I obviously was the egg and Kev was the devil. :) Zealynn loved when I painted that yellow yoke on me!

Here's the gang!

Oh how I love these girlies!! Sarah, Jenni, me and Haley

My little Jenni from Georgia! Love her! and Haley...laughing on the floor. lol. I think I was pretending that my water broke or something...that's why I am squatting. We were dancing really hard so I think everyone thought that maybe it was going to that night!

Spiders in spaghetti! So fun! :)

Kev hot glued the horns to his head! bahaha!! He was feeling it after he took them out! Luckily there were not bald spots!!Thanks for such a fun night friends!!! :)

Utah Baby Shower Sat. Oct. 29th

2011-11-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

My sis Jamie through me a beautiful baby shower on Sat. Oct. 29th!! I absolutely loved it! She put so much time into everything and did just a wonderful job! I love the pink, black and white theme and Zebra! so fun! I swear we were seeing zebra and pink every where we went after that shower! :) These cupcakes looked so awesome! We had lunch there...thanks to all the family who brought side dishes too!! We really appreciated it!

She held it in our Clubhouse in Pleasant Grove. It was a perfect setting! Kev put the streamers up, of course, what other girl would be able to reach that high, or even dare to try it?! :)

These little boxes were so cute! They were filled with kisses and hugs.

Aren't they cute? Kiley, Kev's sister and Jordyn, my neice. (6 months a part)

Some of my lovely friends! love you girls so much!

Look how beautiful this diaper cake is! I don't ever want to take it apart! And the cute bows! Jenni, Haley and Sarah did such a great job!!

I was 32 weeks and 2 days! Baby girl is growing! :)

My friend Laura! She is due 10 DAYS AFTER ME! Love how different every pregnant woman carries her baby! She is having a boy and looks so tiny to me! Would you believe that that night she started having contractions and was in the hospital for 10 days because they wouldn't stop!! Thankfully the little man stayed put...but she's on bed rest now. :( Looks like she's having him before me now! love you Laura!

My friend Brittany! She just found out she's having a boy too!

My old roomies!!! Love these girls!!! so grateful they came!! We had some fun times at Utah State!!

Here's Kev taking down his work of art after the shower. Good job Kev! It looked beautiful! :)

My friend Becca and little man Kai! She had him 5 weeks early! so crazy!!

My cousin Katie!

My wonderful sis Jamie!! Thanks so much for putting this on for me! Everything looked amazing!! Speaking of amazing....doesn't she look it?! she's got FIVE kids people!! way to go Jaims!

Bahaha! This pic cracks me up! We were laughing because....well I am tall if you don't know me. My sis is smaller. We were both wearing heels...but I love how my belly is almost to her neck! ha!

So happy for our baby girl!!

We're almost PARENTS!! AH! wahoo!!!!!

Some of the Todd familia!! (Great) Aunt Steph, (Great) Aunt Betty, (Grandma) Carla, (Great) Grandma Todd, Kev, me, (Great) Grandma Johnson, (Aunt) Kiley, and (Great) Aunt Brigitte! THAT is a LOT of GREAT WOMEN! :)

Soon to be cousin and Aunt! (Jordyn only has one other girl cousin on our side out of 10 boys...so her and Jocelynn are pretty excited to have another girl!) :) btw...I'm not sure if I mentioned this before...In my family the only girls (grandkids) in our family are from the girls first borns. Isn't that crazy?! My two sisters are the only ones with girls and they are the first borns! Which means...if I take after them...looks like she may be the only girl we have!

32 weeks and 2 days!!

2011-11-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

We are so excited!! She's coming so soon!! We can't wait to hold her and kiss her little feet. We love her so much!!

Corona baby shower! 10/8

2011-11-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

Sat. Oct. 8th, my mom and sis, Jenn threw me and Zealynn a baby shower!! I was 29 weeks at this shower. It was so amazing! I loved everything about it! They really put so much time and energy into making all the details perfect! I was so overwhelmed with joy and couldn't believe how many of my friends came! I love you all so much and am so grateful to have y ou in my life! I feel so blessed that Zealynn has so many people that already love her!! here's some of my besties!! love you girls!!

My mom made these signs! This was hanging above the dessert table. everything was "sprinkled with love"...

cute little outfits on all the tables!

My little Jocie!! She was such a big help! She stuffed all those cute baby shoes my sis made out of paper with kisses!! so cute!

My mom made this cupcakes!! So yum!!

And these pretzels!!

I'm obsessed with baby shoes...paper or not! :)

Cake lollipops!

Zealynn has a weird mom! :)

We were watching Zealynn on the ultrasound...she was sucking her thumb and yawning! :)

My besties from high school! thanks for coming!! and look at India's little man! ah! so cute!

My Grandma

Some friends from my old work at Ceridian!

My sis Jenn!!

My best friend Malloree and her daughters and her mom Janet...we grew up with each other!!

me and my lovely mom!! :)

Some of the girls in the fam!

My sis in law Rachel

Love this pic of the (3 1/2) generation! :) I had such a good time at the shower and was so blessed with so many gifts for Zealynn. We really appreciate everyone's sacrifices and can't wait to introduce our baby girl to the world!! Less than 7 weeks til she's here!!! (If she is on time!)

No Pictures?!

2011-11-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

Why does blogger not let me upload pictures?! It keeps saying "web page not found". Until I'm able to figure out why it's doing that, I thought I would give a brief update....everything is going fabulous!! I had my baby showers...My mom and Jenn threw one in Corona on oct. 8th and Jamie threw me one in Utah on Oct. 29th. It was all so wonderful and it was so much fun! So grateful for all of you that came and for my family to put it on! Zealynn is really growing! We are now down to Doctor appointments every 2 weeks!! I feel really great and we started taking our Lamaze classes last Wed. It's 2 1/2 hours every Wed. night for 4 weeks. I am 33 weeks today!! Only 7 weeks to go if she comes on time! We can't believe how fast time is flying. We're so excited to meet and hold and kiss our baby girl, although, I really do love her being in my belly!!! I love playing games with her. I rub my finger on one side of my stomach and watch her follow it. She already has our hearts! Love you baby girl!

She's growing!!

2011-10-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

I'm really behind...sorry! I've been taking some pics every month, but it takes me about a month to post them! I'm almost 31 weeks now, but here's me at 28 weeks. She's coming so soon and we are so excited! She moves even more now and we love being able to feel her little body parts!! I feel great and haven't felt like I've slowed down really. We're so happy for her arrival, but I am going to miss her growing and moving inside me! Such a special feeling that I am so grateful for! Kev and I have been doing great. We just did some interior designing (As much as we can in a rental) and got a new couch and washer and dryer so pics of that to come. We still don't have her room together, but we'll be tackling that project next! The closer it gets to her coming, I feel like there is so much to do! I had my Corona baby shower on the 8th, so I'll post those soon! thanks so much to everyone that came out and supported us! we love you all! Plus...we're taking Pregnancy pics on the 12th of Nov. so hopefully I won't be too swollen then. BUT if I am...just shows that I am pregnant and what better way to document it?! :) I'll hopefully post more things a lot quicker!! hope all is well with everyone!!

My friend Laura and I at work on 9/26. I'm a little over 27 weeks here. We are about 10 days apart and she's having a boy. She is FINALLY starting to show but still looks like she's 6 months! Crazy how different pregnant bodies are! I love it!

Visiting family and Tough Mudder

2011-10-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

In April, Bryan (Kev's bro) called to see if he would want to do the "Tough Mudder" in Sept. The Tough Mudder is an intense obstacle course that the British Army uses. This one was in Squaw Valley, near Lake Tahoe. We decided to make a vacation out of it (especially since the babe comes soon! yay!) We flew out to Sacramento on Wed. Sept. 14th and spent the next couple days with Bryan and Dana. Their house is absolutely beautiful and Bryan is in the process of building a shed in the backyard. Kev, of course, told him to save some stuff for him to do when we got there. So here they are...enjoying the newly purchased nail gun!

Then Thurs. evening we celebrated Dick's (Dana's dad) birthday with dinner and ice cream!

Friday, Dustin (Kev and Bry's cousin) drove up from Santa Cruz with his girls to try getting into doing the Mudder! And he got in to do it! yay! We were so happy he got to participate!

I just wanted to take a pic of their numbers, but they were feeling extra friendly. :)

Here's the group! Kev, Bry, Dustin and Matt (Bryan's co worker)

About to get started on the 12+ miles (10 of which were uphill) and 23 obstacles...

And after! I loves Kev's smile here! :) They left at 12 and didn't get done until about 6pm! We couldn't believe it! They were stuck in lines for the obstacles for about 3 hours!! What should have taken 3 hours took 6! But they still had a blast. I was a little upset that we missed them! I didn't see him do any of it!! They have only 3 obstacles at the end that we could watch. we were there early just waiting for them to come. 3 hours later of waiting after we thought they would get in, I got a call from an unknown number. it was kev and he told me they were done! I couldn't believe it! I was holding going to the restroom for about 2 hours because I didn't want to miss anything, and of course when I couldn't hold it anymore and ran to the restroom for 5 minutes, that's when they came!! ugh! We couldn't believe it!

SO proud of this guy!! He was a little nervous because he didn't know what to expect...it was his first kind of race and he didn't train as much as he wanted to....but at the end it was like the 12 miles didn't even faze him!

Afterwards, we went to Olive Garden! So good! Then we left Sunday evening. We had such a great visit with the Todd's! :)

This is just us at a BYU game. I like Kev. He's hot. :) (P.S Our baby girl is growing and moving A LOT!! I can't believe that in less than 12 weeks she'll be in our arms! We are so excited!!!)

24 weeks (and 2 days!)

2011-09-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

YAY!! I can't believe how fast time is flying!! Our baby girl is growing like crazy and we are loving every minute of it! Every kick, every roll, every shake....makes our hearts melt even more for her. Here I am a little over 24 weeks (6 months) and I feel wonderful! My only side effects I've really have had are slight headaches (but they have kind of twindled away as more time goes by), some bloody noses and clogged noses. My clogged nose only really started happening this last week though. But overall I'm doing great. We moved to Pleasant Grove recently to be closer to work and really like our place. It's crazy to imagine that this is where we will bring Zealynn home. I always imagine what "that night" will be like. I still can't believe she'll be here before we know it! I've still been running and feel good doing it. I'm not doing it everyday, but when I do, I still feel good. we'll see how long I feel like it! :)

For those of you that don't know...her name is Zealynn Marie Todd. We wanted something different, but not too weird. Kev served his mission in New Zealand and I have always have had this fascination with it. One day we want to go visit it. We liked the "lynn" over the "land" and felt that she would have a part of Kev with her, but still have her "own name" rather then just being a country. :) Marie is my middle name...so she will always have a part of her and her daddy with her! (is that cheesy or what?) :) We love calling her by name and seeing my stomach move around when we call her by name.

I'm a little over 26 weeks now and I'm not sure if I have mentioned, but I really do love being pregnant and this opportunity of carrying not only my baby but My Love's child. It is really a blessing and I never want to take this opportunity for granted. I love feeling her little feet and bum and can't wait to look her in the eyes to tell her how much her Mommy and Daddy love her. We'll see you soon baby girl!

Cody and Amanda's sealing Sept. 3rd

2011-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

We came back early from camping Sat. morning because we had a temple sealing to go to. We were so blessed to go to the sealing of our good friends, Amanda and Cody. We met Cody through Jenna and AJ. Jenna is Cody's little sister. They are living in TN, but the family came up from Cali to go to the SLC temple. Kev and I were blown away with how strong the spirit was and how beautiful the blessing of the temples are. I am so grateful for opportunities that we get on this life to draw closer to our Heavenly Father and to remember what this life is truly about. I love having opportunities to have a place to go on this earth that helps me to always remember the covenants that I have made. I love having opportunities of feeling closer to our dear friend AJ too and all those that have passed before. I know that he was with us that day...we all felt him and all miss him. Jenna and me...love this "lil sis" of mine. :)

"Sisters"....I guess I'm included with them! :) Haley, Jenna, Amanda, Sarah, and me. Love this family SOO much!

The boys striking a pose. lol

I can't even remember what Kev was talking about here...but this was at the luncheon. It was at Lion House Pantry...SO GOOD. Really...it was amazing.

Thanks Cody and Amanda for inviting us to this event. Although we may not be related by blood, we definitely feel that we are still a part of you guys. We love you so much and are so happy for your decision to be sealed! You will NEVER regret it!!

Camping in Morgan Sept. 2nd

2011-09-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in awhile because I like to put all of our pics on the desktop and currently it is down, so I have to update from the laptop....well now that my reasoning is out of the way. :) Here's some camping fun! :) Our friend's family (Kobe) owns a whole lotta acres in Morgan, UT. I mean...a WHOLE LOTTA! So we go up there for bon fires and to go shooting and just hang out and enjoy the beauty. Fri. Sept 2nd, our other friend Lexi was coming up from Cali so we thought we would all go camping! So off we went and we had a blast! :)

Lex showing Mark how it's doneKev and I (and no, we didn't match on purpose! I'm wearing jeans and he's wearing sweats!) :)

Our tent! And check out that MASSIVE cow pie! lol you would think Kev would have seen that massive thing, but he stepped in the same one TWICE! HA!! SO FUNNY! I slept really well...except for the fact of the "pregnancy cramps" in my calves and feet and I couldn't really stand up in the tent on the blow up! seriously...i was squeezing both of my feet for like an hour! I think Z wanted us to make sure we remembered that night! :) She was moving like crazy too. Our baby girl is going to love the great outdoors! :)

Newlyweds...Ashley and Bret Kobe

Mark and Lexi

Kev made a birthday cake for Lex and the poor candles would not light so she had to blow them super quick!FOIL DINNERS! YUM!!

Kev loved tossing and flipping the dinners in the fire.

I ruined this pic! Boo! lol I didn't know it was suppose to be a "cute" one!

Zealynn's first camping trip! :)

I was so excited to put that bad boy in the fire! :)

The gang! So fun!! Thanks so much for a great overnight guys!!

WE ARE HAVING..............

2011-08-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

a beautiful baby girl!!! We are beyond thrilled! On Aug. 2nd, we went to get our ultrasound (I was a little over 19 weeks) and she told us we were having a GIRL! I know that it's a 50/50 chance of what you are having, but the odds were definitely towards a boy. Kev's dad is one of 8 boys, his mom has a bunch of brothers and there are 10 nephews (and 2 nieces) on my side. I guess we're just in "the boy mode." A couple days before we had the ultrasound, I had a dream that I was in labor and gave birth to a 6 lb 12 oz 18 inch baby girl...and it only took 10 minutes. lol so I wasn't sure how true it was going to be...but since the baby girl was then maybe the 10 minute labor will be? lol Anyway....she was so cute and kicking like crazy but we couldn't see her face because she was nose planted. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to meet with the doctor (we are moving so we changed) and we'll get another ultrasound to hopefully see her face!! oh and they video tape the ultrasounds!! I LOVE WATCHING IT!!! She is so cute!

The Sound of Music in Sundance

2011-08-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

My manager gave us tickets to go to The Sound of Music at the Sundance outdoor theatre on Friday, Aug. 5th. We had never been to one and had never been to sundance so we wanted to try something new and I'm so glad that did!! We had a blast! Definitely a fun date night! It was so beautiful!

Posing with our little one!

We ran into Sarah and Kyle!

4th of July week

2011-08-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

I'm behind because our desk top computer screen is not working. I guess having it for 7 years would do that to it...so I have pics on that computer that I can't pull up at the moment, but I do have SOME. So I thought I would just put what I have on here so I can continue on updating! So here we go...for 4th of July this year, kev and I drove to California to spend time with family before starting new jobs. First we went to Roosevelt July 1st-3rd and went boating, golfing and BBQing! Grandma Todd's 80th bday was on the 3rd so we celebrated that too! Such a great way to start off the holiday!We got to Cali Monday morning, July 4th...just in time to go to the ward breakfast my parents were putting together. Then we came home and hung out, went swimming and just enjoyed each others company! Carter's smile melts my heart!!That night, me, Kev, Jenn, James and Joce went to Santana Park and watched the fireworks!! It was SO much fun seeing (and hearing) the Jocelynn's excitement! While we were walking, she kept smiling really big saying, "I'm just so excited!!" It was so cute! It brought back so many memories of watching fireworks on our roof in Ontario and my mom making rice krispies and having root beer floats. Oh the memories!! I LOVE FIREWORKS!! The show was actually really good. We got there just in time for the fireworks and then headed home.We stayed at Jason and Rachel's house for a couple days and went bowling with our nephews and just played with them. We went to Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific on Thurs. and we had a blast! We've never been before and it was seriously so much fun to see the sharks and touch them and see the birds. I think the kids loved it too! Kev and Carter with the Lorakeet in the back!Some of the nieces and nephews..missing two...we've got a big gang! they are so stinking cute!I love this pic of Kev and the boys. They were having fun climbing on the tree when we were waiting for Rach.We went to the beach Saturday. My sister and her family came down from Wyoming so we got to spend time with them also while they were visiting. It was overcast in the morning and by the time we were about to leave it really cleared up. We all got some sun though!! We then left Sat. evening, stopped in Vegas to meet up with some friends for dinner and then headed back to Utah on Sunday. It was such a great visit with the family!!

Baby Update...I'm 17 weeks!!

2011-07-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well here it is...our cute little thang! I still can't believe I'm pregnant. I'll be 18 weeks on Fri. and to be honest, I have to keep telling myself that I"m pregnant. Every week, I read up on how our baby is developing and what size and all that. Right now it's about the size of an avocado and weighs as much as a turnip! It's ears are about to the right spot right now, so I've been listening to classical music. :) So crazy to think there's somebody in me!! Week 7-13 I was feeling pretty nauseous. Eating was such a chore, but I still ate about every two hours. I eat pretty healthy before I got pregnant, so it's been fun to eat all the fruits and veggies and whole grain I can. I LOVE smoothies, so I've been making them with orange juice, yogurt, milk, mixed berries and a whole bunch of spinach in it. SOOO Stinking good. I make enough to eat then and freeze the other for my night snack. HIGHLY recommend this for kids who don't get much leafy veggies in because you really can't taste it! No added sugar! Anyway..The weird part though is when I would eat actual meals, I would take 2 bites and be so full and then two hours later I would be hungry again. I threw up 3 times, but my doctor said I was doing really good and keeping most of it down, even though I've lost weight. Our first doctor's appointment was on May 13th and I was 8 weeks! We had an ultrasound and that was so fun to see it! Here are some pics from the ultrasound...This one looks like a hamster to me... And this one looks like a sea horse! :)My 12 week pics are so lovely! lolOn June 15th, we had my 12 week (and 5 days) doctors appointment. We didn't have an ultrasound, but we heard the babies heart beat with the doppler device. That was really cool to hear...160 bpm! The babe was doing jazzercise in my belly! :)
These pics are really sick...but on July 12th we had our 16 week (and 4 days) doctor appointment. Kev just started his new job so he wasn't able to come to this one (another post about the job soon!). It was a super quick appointment though. We just listened to the heart beat (140 bpm) and they took my blood for some tests. I'm starting to gain weight (finally!) but I'm still under my pre pregnancy weight. My doctor says the baby is growing perfectly normal so my weight loss is completely fine.

I'm starting to show a pooch...especially with tighter shirts! I "think" I felt the baby yesterday (July 18th) at 17 weeks and 3 days, but of course I'm not 100% sure because it was so...well ..baby. (small) It just felt like little taps on my lower abdomen, so I'm not completely sure. I'm so excited for when Kev can start feeling it move!! So we find out on Aug. 9th (at 9:15am!) what we are having!! So SO SO excited for that!! I have NO clue what we are having. I keep switching back and forth. There are SO many boys in Kev's family (his dad is one of 8 boys) and I have 10 nephews and 2 nieces on my family....so logic tells me it's a boy. However, the two nieces we have are my sisters first borns, so then I think that maybe it's a girl because of that. Does anyone think one way or another!? We shall see!! Can't wait for this little babes to come into our life! We have already had so many blessings because of this baby!!! We love you little thang! :)

Here's our first purchase...they are 0-6 months onesies and I'm so in love. I keep holding them up and just imagine a little person in it. Although we don't know what we are having, we figured that even if it's a girl, we'll put a bow on her. Hey, her mom wears jerseys, better believe she will too! :) I love the booties and the beanie!

California Visit Wed. June 8th to Tues. June 14th

2011-07-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

So it's taken awhile to post these. I think when you start to get behind then you just want to skip over them to go to the good stuff...but these were all way too cute to skip so here ya go! Have I mentioned how much I love my nieces and nephews yet? :) When some of the family came up to Evanston for Micah's baptism, Jenn wanted to stay longer with Carter and Jocelynn, but my parents had to go back to work. So we decided that she would stay until the following Wed. and then I'd drive her down to Cali and I'd hang out there and visit. So that's what we did and it was a blast! :) Here's the pictures to prove it! I was there until Tues. June 14th because I had a doctor's appointment the next day! This picture makes me want to squeeze Carter!!!

Ok..this one too

And these ones...

Jocelynn and Carter have such a cute relationship. They laugh together all the time. They were in a really happy mood to take pics so me and Jenn went crazy! :)

This visit I hung out with family and friends and went to the beach for a bon fire!! It was a lot of fun!!

Just realized this was a big time Carter overload! :)

We went to Wabi Sabi by my brothers house to go out to dinner with Federica (Jeff and Katrina's foreign exchange student from Italy) for her last night before going back!

Playing in Evanston

2011-07-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Right after Micah's baptism on June 4th, Jaeger had a soccer game that the family went to. It was so cute watching him play! Kev, of course, was wrestling with the nephews. :)

After the game, we all went back to my sisters place and took naps, hung out, and the kids played outside.

Carter and Ryker are 4 1/2 months apart.

That night we had a BBQ outside and it was such NICE weather to just relax!!

Carter (10 months), Ryker (14 months) and Nathan (21 months)

The kids (And Kev) making funny faces

S'MORES!!!

Micah's baptism June 4, 2011

2011-06-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Our nephew Micah was baptised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Sat. June 4th. I still can't believe he's old enough to be baptised!! We are so grateful for him and his example to his brothers and sister and cousins. We love you so much Micah! Micah before he got baptised.

Some of the Kirk family came up for the baptism and it was so much fun to spend time with each other. I know it meant a lot to my sister Jamie too.

Here's some of the gang. Missed you Jeff, Katrina, Preston, Christian and James!

I had to put this pic up because Micah's face made me laugh....

Here's the happy family again! :)

My 26th and visiting Grandma Gloria

2011-06-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

For my birthday this year (May 10th), it was a very relaxed day. I wasn't feeling good at all so I just watched movies until Kev got home. Then we just went to Cafe Rio for dinner when he came home from work. Such a special day to be with my love. :) My family came up for our nephews baptism (more of that to come). My brother and sister in law and the kids stayed with us on Thurs. June 2nd and then we went to Grandma Gloria's in Logan on Fri. June 3rd. My Grandma Gloria found out in Feb. 2011 that she had cancer (it has spread to multiple areas). She has always been such a positive person and although she is in pain, she still has so much faith and happiness. She is such a special woman. I was able to live with her for about a year while in college and have some awesome memories and stories with her. She took off her hat to show the greatgrand kids that she didn't have any hair. She wanted to teach the kids about her cancer and that she was still smiling.

Jenn, Grandma and me

Dad and his mom

Some of the great grand kids

Some of the grand kids. We love you Grandma!

And so it begins! See you soon Dec. 23, 2011!!

2011-06-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well...now you know why I haven't blogged much lately. :) Right after San Fran, I came home on the 25th of April and Kev was there. I told him that we should take a test together. I use to want it to be surprised, but I thought it would be something fun for us to do together. I had a couple pregnancy tests from my sister (she bought me some in anticipation) :) I felt like I was, but I was always so scared to take the test because I was nervous it would say that I wasn't and I'd be disappointed. So I waited as long as I could. As soon as we started the two lines showed up instantly. So we ran out of the room, just in case they faded away.

And then as soon as we walked back in...this is what we saw....

And we celebrated with a lot of kissy kissy. haha!
The post that I wrote about me running the half marathon in my record time and snowboarding all in the same day...I guess I could add "pregnant" to that list also. As my Mom says, "this baby will push me to where I didn't think I could go!" :) It really hasn't hit me yet. I think Kev realizes it more then me. It's just for 4 1/2 years we've been saying "When I'm pregnant" so now that that time is here, it doesn't feel real. Not sure when it will happen, but we are so excited for this new chapter in our life. We had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks and saw the heart beat. Our pictures are funny because in one, the babe looks like a sea horse and the other one it looks like a mouse. lol. I'm 11 weeks today and our baby is due Dec. 23rd, 2011....so it is due 7 days before our 5 year anniversary!! Christmas is always a special time for us...and this just adds to it!! I couldn't think of a more precious way of celebrating Christ's birth then to experience it so close to it. We feel so extremely blessed to have this baby in our lives and so extremely grateful that our Heavenly Father has trusted us with His sweet child. We are also excited to make our siblings aunts and uncles and our parents Grandparents...(again in some cases) :). So grateful for the example of Motherhood and Fatherhood in our lives! This definitely has been and will be an exciting and adventurous year!!

San Francisco trip April 21st-25th

2011-05-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Jenna, Lynlee and I went on a much needed girls trip! We left Thursday night, April 21st and stayed in Roseville, CA the night thanks to my brother and sister in law Bryan and Dana! (Thanks again guys!) Fri morning we woke up, went to Sacramento and the state capital then headed towards San Fran where we would stay the rest of the trip.Driving in downtown San FranThis was one of the first sights we saw...how sick huh? Underwear and fish..you know it reeked!! We headed toward Chinatown and ate a restaurant called "The Oriental Pearl" and it was pretty good!

Then we checked into our hotel at the Marriot and then went to Ghirardelli Square. We thought we were going to get an actual tour and free chocolate, but I guess the plant closed down years ago so it was just shops to buy the chocolate.

Fri we kind of just drove around to get a feel of the town. We went to Pier 39 and saw all the seals

We drove to a spot to see the Golden GateWe took the train

Sat. afternoon we went to the Giants vs. Braves game. We lucked out because all the tickets were sold out for both Fri night and Sat. afternoon. We didn't want to spend $80 a ticket so we thought we weren't going to get in. But then a very nice man at will call told us he had two extra tickets that we could have (for free) and then buy one from the scalper! So that's what we did! We talked the scalper down to $40 instead of $60 so $40 for 3 tickets..plus the 23rd rown was not bad at all!!! :) Especially considering the nose bleed seats were $25 each!

Yummy garlic french fries plus we got chili, clam chowder in a bread bowl and a brat. :)

There was this japanese sweets place downtown. Lynlee's husband went to Japan for his mission and she wanted to bring some back. Unfortunately, they are only good for like 2 days after so she was unable to bring them home, but we tried some.

The lady was so cute explaining what it tastes like. I love the asian accent!We tried the one above and the one below. It actually didn't taste bad! (I'm proud of myself for even trying it!) :)

I thought these were so pretty. All of the sweets were so perfect.

Sat night we went to Fisherman's wharf. It smelt like..well a wharf. The guy in the back...silver "mime" or whatever you call him.

So...while we were there, the girls wanted some crab and shrimp. I wanted to throw up. The smell was VERY fishy. But I did it!! I like shrimp, but usually when it's breaded. So I tried both the shrimp and the Crab...straight from the boat...just boiled and I liked it!! Wahoo! :) Now, will I order it at a restaurant...not sure, but I did eat a lot of it so I get points! :)

And this was just funny. hahahah!! So I've always have heard the food at hooters (Especially the wings) were really good. Jenna said, "Let's get just some wings there! Please?!" So we did....we were cracking up the whole time....especially when they put the group of girls off in the corner. We looked around and that's how it was all set up and the men were in the middle. So funny. And yea..the wings are SOO good. I REALLY want to eat there some more!! Jenna and Lynlee were laughing so hard at this pic, they couldn't get in it. :)

This guy was so amazingly talented. He made the most beautiful paintings! We were watching him for at least a half an hour!

So this whole trip, I was the girls "puppet" i guess you can say. The beginning of the trip we talked about funny pranks....and I was the only one that would do them. The plan was that they would get the camera set up and then I would do my thing and leave....not talking to them afterwards at all. we didn't know each other. So here's one of those. This couple behind me in the window....the girl was puckering for like 1/2 hour to her boyfriends camera. it was really weird. we were laughing so hard. So after this picture, I walked up to the window and stared at them really weird looking for like a minute (Which is a long time of straight staring at a stranger!) We had some fun for sure! :) Later that night, I did a whole bunch of other pranks like swimming breast stroke laps in the hot tub with a group of people around or the next night doing a cannonball with one random person in the hot tub and got him all wet. Or walking through the lobby in my swimsuit, hunched over with my "wings" sticking out looking like a crackhead. Or running for 1/4 a mile downtown really weird. Really, the list goes on....we definitely had a blast! :)

Sunday was Easter Sunday and it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! Unfortunately, Lynlee's Grandpa passed that morning so that was a rough way to start the day, but we felt blessed that Papa is now with AJ and I am sure it was a very glorious reunion. We needed to get out so we rented bikes and rode them over the Golden Gate Bridge to Salsalito (A cute little town or the other side). There and back, was 28 miles and probably half of it was uphill which was AWESOME! :)

Taking a quick stop...it started getting really windy!

Jenna cracks me up

Getting closer!!

so pretty on the golden gate!

We ate our Easter dinner at a place called "Scomas" which was AWESOME!! Seriously...it was REALLY good. They have one in downtown San Fran, but we wanted to do this one since it was right on the bay with the water. The girls got fish and I tried it again! It was actually REALLY good and I would probably get some later. I got the spinach and artichoke raviolli's that were BOMB too!

On our way back....it was SO windy on the golden gate!! Everytime we passed the corner, it knocked us completely off our bikes so we had to get off and push through it. Here Jenna is embracing the wind. ha!

Right when we got to San Fran we knew we wanted to go to Alcatraz no matter what. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that it was SO hard to get tickets to it!! So we were really nervous. But they had tickets for Monday at 9 so we had to jump on that!! We were flying out at 1pm so we knew we had to do it fast, but it was a good experience for us to go see it!

Showers

Jail Cells

"The Hole" when they were misbehaving. Complete darkness and limited food for days...max like 19 days or something.

Dining Hall and the last meal menu

We had such a great trip and really made some memories that we will remember forever. Given the circumstances, it was unfortunate, but I am blessed to have such good friends that help get through the trials in this life. I think AJ was probably smiling (and laughing) at us that weekend and I really find joy in that.

Salt Lake City Half Marathon 4/16/11..and I'm crazy! :)

2011-04-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already over! It feels like it came so quick! I did another half marathon yesterday for Salt Lake City. I did this one last year and got 1:57:28. When I first signed up, my goal was to beat it, but a lot of stuff happened that caused me to not train as hard. So I was hoping to at least beat my Top of Utah half that I just trained for 2 weeks on. So Sat. morning came....I got up at 5am, got ready, ate my bowl of rice...and attempted a picture of myself on a timer so I didn't have to wake up Kev. I walked outside to go to trax and it was raining! No one thought it would rain that morning! But, by the time we got to the starting line, the rain had stopped and the roads dried a little. Now it was just a nice cool breeze that was perfect for running!The whole time I had kept a good pace. I knew at mile 11-12 was a hill, so I wanted to go as fast as I could to make up any time I would lose on the incline. I was prepared because of doing this one before and I knew when I needed to sprint and when I could catch my breath. I couldn't believe I kept my pace up for so long though. Even on the hill, it was rough, but I never walked it and kept pushing through it. This pic was almost to mile 10. I was feeling really good...my legs were getting a bit tired, but my lungs were feeling awesome! And then almost to the finish line. Kev was so cute and met me at mile 4, 9 and the finish line. I am so grateful for his support for me in doing these!I did it!! I beat my best time!! This year, my time was 1:54:57!! My overall place was 1113/4444. My age division (25-29), I was 85/501. My sex overall was 415/2715. My overall pace was 8:46 min mile! I was so excited and couldn't believe it! I pushed myself and it paid off!!My good friend Brittany did the 5k that morning also!! Here we are with our wonderful supporters, Adam and Kev!!And my lips started to turn purple! ha! I was so hot that whole time, but by the time my heart rate went down, my lips turned purple. Didn't know it at the time! :)Now these next pics, I had to post. So some people (or a lot of people) think I am crazy. I like to challenge myself physically...and I try not to let "it's too hard" or "I'm too tired" to get in the way. That being said, no I don't want to do a full marathon because I like pushing my time for the half now...training for a full takes up too much time and although that would push my limits, I'm really happy with how I feel after half marathons. BUT, I've noticed that most people, after they get done running halfs or fulls, sleep the rest of the day, or just relax. I don't know what that is like. My last half, we drove 5 hours, packed our stuff and moved into our apartment and didn't go to bed until 5 the next morning. This time, our good friend Mark had free tickets to go snowboarding. Kev was going to go, but they weren't sure if I would be up for it...considering I just ran. But I couldn't pass that up. Is that weird? ha! So I took a quick shower and we left 30 minutes later for the mountain. My legs were jello so I had to go every other time that Kev and Mark went. But towards the end of the day, I just kept going with them. 4 hours of snowboarding after running a half marathon in under 2 hours...you can imagine what my legs feel like today! My whole body aches but it's a "hurt so good" feeling! Man, I love it! :) One more thing I want to add...don't ever let someone else or even yourself talk you into believing that you can't do something. You are capable. You are strong. You are determined. Now go sign up for something you "never thought you could do" whether that is school, half, 5k, full marathon, a sewing or cooking class, or even a gym membership. Challenge yourself...you'll be happy you did!

General Conference April 2011

2011-04-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

This conference was so amazing to me and I felt like every talk was talking to me or was for AJ's family and Jenna. I liked to think that AJ had a part in that because he wanted all his friends and family to feel the spirit and build our testimonies! My parents have been such an example to me and my siblings of the importance of general conference and listening to the words of the prophet and apostles. They have come up from California every conference (Oct and April) to spend the weekend on temple grounds. Sometimes we have tickets and sometimes we don't. Sunday Morning, my parents went out like 2 hours before to get tickets and us 3 got in! (Unfortunatly Kev had to work that day. Boo!) I'm so grateful for the example my parents are to me and the sacrifice they make to be up here. Sometimes, they drive Friday after work, get in early Sat. morning and leave Sun. after the morning session and listen to the afternoon session on the radio. Some people think it's crazy, but I think it's an amazing example of their testimonies. Love you Mom and Dad! My parents and sister Jamie and her husband Chad went to the Jazz/Laker game the night before and me and Kev watched their kids. So they spent the night and we went Sat. morning to temple square to listen to the prophet and apostles. It brought back so many memories of doing that as a kid!

I have so many memories of watching/listening to April conference and then when the men go to priesthood, my mom and I go watch Final Four for March Madness! :) This year was no different...then we went to Blue Lemon! Yum! :) Thanks fo the visit Mom and Dad and Jamie, Chad and kids!! We had a blast! :)

In Loving Memory of AJ Rooks

2011-04-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in quite sometime. A lot of you know why, but a lot of you don't. I won't go into too much detail, but on Saturday, March 19, 2011, we lost our very close friend, Anthony Jordon Rooks very unexpectedly. We have had so many thoughts and emotions, too many to write on a blog and that I have saved personally. I have never felt this way. ever. My heart hurts for my dear friend Jenna...AJ's beautiful wife of 11 months. My heart hurts for AJ's parents, brother, and sister. My heart hurts for Kev and I losing such an amazing man as a friend. My heart hurts knowing that this isn't the last time I'll feel this way in my lifetime. Although my heart hurts, I can't help but feel at peace because I know that I am not the only one who has felt this pain. My Savior has felt every heartache, every pain, every weakness, every misfortune that I have felt...and still...he has felt more. He has felt this...it was His choice. It needed to be done. He came forward, for me. How grateful I am for my Savior. For sacrificing all so that we may see AJ again. He sacrificed all so that we may find peace and comfort through our despair. I love My Savior so much. I love knowing that AJ is happy. I love knowing that AJ is teaching about this incredible Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love knowing that this is what this life is all about. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is PERFECT. This last weekend was general conference...2 weeks since the passing of AJ. I know these men are called of God and are very inspired. Each conference that I have listened, I have always left with a feeling of peace. A feeling of inspiration to BE better and to DO better. This weekend in particular really hit me hard and I felt a more firm conviction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I felt a more surety that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Perfect and that it is Simple. There are challenges and trials, but with these come peace, humility and ultimate joy. There were so many amazing talks by these inspired men and I would highly recommend reading or watching them on LDS.ORG.

Kev and I were with AJ and Jenna almost everyday for months since moving to Salt Lake. We learned so much from both of them and continue to gain knowledge of what this life is truely about. I am so grateful for the frienship we had with AJ and I know that we will see him again and continue to be friends through the eternities. I believe Kev and I were friends with AJ and Jenna before this life. We knew what was going to happen. Life can be hard. Life can be challenging. But we can still have joy. We can still have peace and comfort. I absolutely know this to be true. It puts a lot of things in perspective of relationships. I hope that when I leave this life that the people I leave behind know that I was honest and know that I tried my best to be like Christ. Being upset over small things (or even big things)....does it REALLY matter?! AJ's funeral was amazing, but one thing continues to hit me. AJ's brother in law said, "Yes, AJ had his flaws, but it's amazing that we don't care about that. We don't reflect on that." Shouldn't that be how this life is too?

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation that we gain the education that we come here to acquire."

There is a Benefit account that has been set up for Jenna for funeral expenses and anything else she needs help to get back on her feet. I know that we are all in different financial situations, but we would appreciate if anyone reading this that feels incline to help to go to any Wells Fargo and donate to the Anthony Jordon Rooks benefit account... $5 can really go a long way. Until we meet again, AJ. We'll do all we can to take care of your beautiful wife and family.

Ryker and Jaeger's bdays

2011-04-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

Our nephews, Jaeger and Ryker, celebrated their birthdays this year at Chuck E Cheese in Layton. Jaeger turned 4 on March 9th and Ryker turned 1 on March 11th. I was able to spend the evening with them on Fri. March 11th. Kev, unfortunately, had to work that night...boo! Anyway...here are the cute birthday boys.

LOVE this picture of 3 of the 4 brothers. So silly.

Happy Birthday boys!! We love you so much!!

President's weekend in Cali

2011-02-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

Well this President's weekend (Feb. 18th to the 21st) we did a little road trip to Cali. We hasn't seen some of my family members since Thanksgiving and since I had that Monday off, we had to take advantage of it. We left Friday after work and drove through the night getting there Saturday morning at like 4:30am (CA time). We got to play and just hang out with some of the family for Saturday and Sunday and unfortunately had to leave at 1:30pm on Monday afternoon. (We drove down from Utah). It was a short trip but so much fun to spend time with the family. We missed some of the others and missed seeming some friends, but hopefully we'll make another trip...or Utah has some nice snow for snowboarding right now! :) Enjoy some of the beautiful babies!! :) Carter

Jocelynn and her harmonica

love these boys

haha..love Carter's face!

love his big brown eyes!!

Right after this pic, Joce was laughing and kept saying, "I was holding his head!" Love that baby girl SO much!! She is so smart and so beautiful and has such a fun personality! I can't get enough of them!!

Joce was so excited for her first time roasting marshmellows!

And so was Jenn! :)

So it didn't look that good from that kind of fire...we need a real camping fire. So we settled with having s'mores from the microwave and oven! :)

We met up with Jeff, Christian and Preston Monday before we left. We missed the others so for sure next time!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

So I'm not a HUGE fan of Valentine's Day. I mean, I like it in the fact that people show people that they love each other and yada yada yada. But I don't like when people
only use Valentine's as like the one time they really show they love that person. I'm so blessed to know year round that My Love cares about me and loves me! With that being said...Kev and I knew that this valentine's would be a little more quiet for us. Kev had a big test to study for for the next day. So, on his half hour lunch break, he drove up to my work (it takes about half hour there and back to get to my work) and dropped off these amazingly beautiful flowers!! Look at those things!! They are actually still just that bright and beautiful and it's almost two weeks later! I love them so much! I ran home from work and grabbed him an apple pie apple (his fav) to be there when he got home. After that, we had dinner and I stayed up with him while he studied all night (and morning) long. That man means more to me than anything and I would happily lose sleep for him any night! Thanks for being so amazing My Love! I love you!

Cabin fever..Happy Bday Jenna!

2011-02-27T17:15:00.000-08:00

So our wonderful friends from our ward, Jenna and AJ, were celebrating Jenna's birthday with friends and family at a friends cabin. We went up there Fri. Feb. 4th and came back on Sat. Feb 5th. Kev went up with Jenna and AJ earlier to go snowmobiling (I unfortunately had to work) and then we celebrated that night with everyone. It was so much fun and it wasn't even my bday! :) She got 3 cakes...and she was excited! :)

Oh girls, I love you guys! Brittany (also from our ward), me, Haley (Jenna's sister), Sarah (sister in law) and Jenna.

AJ and Jenna

Kyle (Jenna's bro) and Sarah getting bundled up to head out.

We were going to go snowmobiling that afternoon, but it wasn't the best conditions. So we waited for Kev to get home from work and we went night snowmobiling. We unfortunately had to cut it short with a little mishap, but it was still so much fun! That night we went to Bombay (which was BOMB!!). We love Jenna and AJ! Happy Birthday missy!

Shooting in Morgan

2011-02-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

This last Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (Jan.17) we went shooting on our friend's (Kobe) land in Morgan, UT. Keven has gone there shooting a lot in the past, but this was my first time going with them since Kev got his new guns for Christmas and his birthday. Kev's new Remington 12 gauge shot gun.Mark testing out Kev's new scope on his 22. So here I am...for some reason I kept eating it in the snow. I mean, the snow was so high up and my boots were not really made for the snow so I kept falling. BUT I carried that gun like it was a baby and made sure it never touched the ground. The guys always laughed at me, because whenever they turned around, I was tripping but would hold the gun up. My pants, needless to say, were drenched by the end of the day. But it was AWESOME!! It looks like the snow is up to my waste, but really, it's only up to my knees, I was just sitting on my knees. Kev aiming for a bird...there was actually a huge Mountain Lion (well according to her paw prints) that we wanted to see. We were trying to track her, but never did end up seeing her. That would have been amazing to see! Mark and KevOn our way back, the clouds and the wind started coming in and it was getting way cold! And this was on our way home. I've never seen a sunset like it. How amazing huh?!

Everyone was pulling off to the side to take pictures of it.

Scuba Diving in Cancun Dec. 2009

2011-02-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I never put up our scuba diving pictures from when we went to Cancun in 2009....so here they are! We got PADI certified and did our open water dive on our visit there. It was so unbelievable! I mean...really a whole new world under there! We didn't get any pictures from under the water from our last dive in Aruba, so these are all from Cancun. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the monteray, but believe me...it was beautiful!

Kev with this nasty eel. We saw a couple of these in Aruba also. They are creepy looking

I was trying to scare the fishes

Kev and I are doing sign language. There are different signs for scuba diving, but we realized that we should learn more of the actual sign language. one day!

"Ooooo Baracuda"

The coral was so sweet

Biggest star fish we have ever seen. I totally wanted to take it with me, but you can't take anything from the sea

check out that coral!

Getting out and standing on the boat was so hard because it was so heavy!

my strong husband...I love him in these goggles! haha..so funny! :) If anyone has the opportunity to scuba...HIGHLY recommend it.

The Beach Boys were right!

2011-01-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Aruba is amazing! Kev and I were blessed with the opportunity to go see another beautiful country! For those of you that don't know, Aruba is an island off the coast of Venezuela (about 11 miles or so from it). It is only 19 miles long and about 6 miles wide. The weather (when we were there) was from 82-89 but only changes about 5 degrees all year long. It is the perfect dry heat with a perfect cool ocean breeze. We were able to get two weeks off of work and with Kev being in between school semesters, there was no better time than the present! We were there for 10 days, so beware, it's a long post...mainly so I can remember stuff when I start scrapbooking about it. So we flew out Wednesday, Dec. 29th early morning. We flew from SLC to Chicago to Miami and than to Aruba. We got there Wednesday night, so our festivities began Thursday, Dec. 30th...which was our 4th anniversary!! It was a PERFECT way to celebrate! Thursday, we rented our jeep and went to the North part of the Island called Noord. We found a place called Coconut Inn and went to Palm Beach which is near the High Rise hotels. We stopped by some shops at the Palm Beach plaza! Kev got some sandles and I got a swimsuit then we headed to Palm beach.

Driving along in our jeep. It was so much fun to put the top down!

That night, we went out for our anniversary to "Gilligan's" It was right on the beach.

Friday, Dec. 31st, we relaxed some more. Hung out at the beach and went to the Hyatt pools. That night we went to Tomatoe Charlie's and they had the absolute best pizza ever. Kev puts it in the top 3. It was seriously amazing. That night was obviously New Years Eve and it was the craziest thing we have ever witnessed! I'm not lying either. I have to show people the video so people believe what I am talking about. Unfortunately, for some reason, I can't upload it (I think it might be too long)..so at this time, just take my word for it!! Fireworks are legal in Aruba, so EVERYONE had their own. It started on the 30th...but New Years, about 2 hours before was ridiculous and 2 hours after. Let alone right at midnight! Anyway...perfect way to start out the new year! The first couple days were obviously spent just relaxing and enjoying the island. Charlie's was so amazing that we did the same thing...the next night, Saturday, Jan. 1st! haha! We had the same waitress and everything. All was the same, except we ordered the Large pizza instead! :)

We left the "Coconut Inn" for the South part of the island. Before we did that though, we traveled North to the furthest tip where the California lighthouse is. The water was beautiful!

We've never seen the end of an island before. It was a U-shape of water. (does that make sense?) It was really cool.

Kev at the lighthouse. We loved having a rental jeep...it made even driving a blast! I loved being able to go to the whole island. It was quite the adventure!

Sunday, Jan. 2nd, we had reservations at our place in Savaneta (the South part where more locals are). We actually got it from Hostelworld, so we didn't know what to expect, but we were really excited to find out. And this is what we got........PURE HEAVEN. I am taking this picture from our bed. Kev's on our balcony. They were little beach shacks. The double doors opened up and we could wheel the bed out to the balcony if we wanted.

Part of the inside of our bedroom.

When we got there, the group was going to B55..a local restaurant and asked if we would like to come with them. Of course, we loved to!

Edward...quite the character as you can tell by his outfit. haha...we absolutely love this man!! When Kev went outside to put the top on of the jeep, Edward asked me to dance. He has his speedo on underneath that! ha! There were about 15 people that we met, all from different parts of the world. We had so much fun with them and continue to talk! Can't wait to meet up with them someday again!

Our first sunset in Savaneta. This was from our dock.

Monday, we drove around, just exploring the different beaches and such. The cool part about this island is that it is considered a "desert island' because in the past hundreds of years, it only rained about 14 inches a year. Well, this year, they had multiple times that it would rain 16 inches a week. It had showers the whole time we were there. So that's why they have all these sweet cacti everywhere! It sure makes the island unique!

We pulled over to baby beach...

Then we rode to Arikok National Park. It was right on the beach. There were random goats everywhere. I absolutely loved the baby ones and wanted to take one!!

The first cave we went to was Quadirikiri Cave.

This is from inside the cave, looking out to the ocean...

Then the Fontein Cave...those are drawings from hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Then we drove towards the beaches inside the park...you weren't able to swim because it was really dangerous, but they sure were beautiful!

This was a crazy cave that opened to the other side...

We loved coming home every night. It was so much fun even to just be at the dock, watching the sunset, and hanging out with the others. This was taking a picture from the dock. Our room was the top one on the right where Kev is. There was a room below us, and a room to the left and then the bottom left is the full kitchen that anyone could use. There were two other places there also.

Here's the pic from our balcony.

The sunsets were seriously amazing!

Some of the gang, just hanging out and talking Monday night...

Monday night we went to Aruba's capital, Oranjestad and got something to eat and just walked around. Aruba has Aloe Vera everywhere...Kev got a little too much sun Tuesday, so we rubbed this on him. He smelt horrible, but it was still nice to have it near by! :)

From our balcony...I seriously still have dreams about this..

Wednesday, Jan. 5th, we went scuba diving! We got certified in Cancun last year and had to go while we were in Aruba!! We were excited because we were doing off shore dives. We went with Jads dive and had so much fun. It was me, Kev and Rudolph from Bolivia that was our instructor. Our first dive was at Rocky Beach and we went 77 feet deep! It was AWESOME!! We saw some beautiful fish and eels and some crazy coral.

Then we dove at baby beach (behind us.) A lot of people come here to go snorkleing, so it was awesome to be able to go scuba diving here. We again saw some sweet fish and even saw a sea turtle!! Even though he wasn't right next to him, we still saw him! :) Wednesday night, we went to Charlie's with the gang..which is a bar and grill in San Nicolas. We had some awesome sirloin from Brasil there!!

That night we had "Dancing Under the Stars" on the dock. It was the whole group and it was so much fun. Some people had left earlier in the week, but we were happy that at least some of us got to enjoy it!! We danced the night away for about 4 hours! So much fun!!

Since we had to drop off the car Wednesday night, Kev and I decided that we would just hang out at our place for our last day. We laid out, swam, read, etc. It was such a relaxing last day...we saw some sweet crabs too! :) Unfortunately, Kev got a little too much sun, so we just relaxed and got some Subway (yes..we bought American food in Aruba!) that night. Here is Julie, Peter and Jack. Julie and Peter are from London and moved to Aruba (without ever visiting the island) 6 years ago. 4 years ago, they built the shacks. We were so grateful for them and hopefully we'll go back and visit them again!! We had such an amazing time and absolutely love Aruba!! We left Friday morning, Jan. 7th (thanks Amadeo for taking us to the airport!!) and got back to freezing cold Utah Friday evening. It was so much different than what we had just been in, but it was still beautiful in its on kind of way! :) I still dream about Aruba and hope that one day we can go back!

Christmas with the Todd's

2011-01-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas, we had it at the Todd's. Since Trev has been on his mission the past two years, this was a special Christmas since we were all together. The whole last half of December was awesome though because I got to see some of my family too!! My parents came up on the 17th to the 24th to see us, my Grandma and Jamie and her family. We hung out all day on saturday when they passed through Salt Lake which was a lot of fun! Then that Sunday, Jason, Rachel and the boys came up! They were going to come up to have their first White Christmas at Jamie's. We were so happy that they were able to stay with us for a couple days also!! Tuesday, Jason, me and Bryan (who came in that Tuesday also) all went night boarding. It was so awesome!! I love this time of year and all the family you get to see (we missed those we didn't get to see though!) :( So I had Friday off of work for Christmas Eve and also that Monday....and also I was able to take off for two weeks (more to come on what we did for those two weeks in the next post!!) We picked up Dana from the airport Friday morning and we headed to Roosevelt for Christmas festivities to begin!!This is on the Todd's Christmas tree....I love this saying!Christmas eve we got to open a present! I guess it was a tradition in the Todd family to get whatever favorite cereal they wanted...so the tradition continued!! I got these sweet new kicks from my parents and I absolutely LOVE them!!! I've been eyeing these babies for a VERY long time! Thanks Mom and Dad!Here's kind of a funny wrapping job, I know. But Kev actually had his gun and he knew this present was a scope from my parents...he actually mounted it...but I still wanted to wrap it because it was for Christmas that he got it!:) Thanks Mom and Dad! Kev is in love with this thing! :)

I love my Jazz jersey!! It's D Will's number and I LOVE IT!! :) Carla got a new Tom Tom GPS from everyone.
Bruce got an XBOX and a Tiger Woods golf game that now Kev is madly in love with.

Kev got a new 12 gauge Remington 870 shot gun for Christmas also. He was in heaven and it is actually a very sweet gun!

After we opened presents, we got ready and headed to Rush and Shanalee's. We continued the tradition since Kev was young to go to Aunt Pauline's house. Unfortunately Aunt Pauline passed away two years ago, but we were very grateful to carry on the tradition and have a very wonderful breakfast!!

Afterwards we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Todd's house. We love them so much!!

Sunday, we had a wonderful church meeting and kiley (Kev's little sister) sang a beautiful musical number. We took family pictures after church (which it started snowing very hard and was very cold!) but for some reason, they aren't uploading so I'll have to upload those later.

Monday, we went to the Jazz game that night. It was so much fun and I got to sport my new Jazz jersey!! That night we went to Bruce and Carla's hotel and hung out and Tuesday we went to the temple and went out to eat. It was such a great way to spend the holidays!! Thanks Todd family for being so wonderful! We love you! :)

The forgotten Carols and Christmas decorating

2011-01-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

On Friday, December 3rd, I went to "The Forgotten Carols" with Bruce, Carla, Kiley, Mariah, Laura and Trev. Kev had to work that night, so he wasn't able to come. It was such a beautiful story and a beautiful play. I was really I was able to go. They spent the night that night and we just hung out Saturday morning. After they left, we went to look for our Christmas tree! I absolutely LOVE looking for Christmas trees! It brings me back to when I was younger and the tradition of looking for a real tree as a family! We found the perfect tree! It was an 8 footer and perfect shape and smelt amazing!! We were really excited and I even got us a discount on the tree! :)
I love decorating for Christmas, because Kev enjoys it also. He is so cute and loves making everything perfect. He always does the lights and the garland on our counter and he is really good at it too! These pics are really blurry...but you get the point...we had fun! :) Every time we walked into that room it smelt like heaven!! Too bad you can't leave it up all year long!!

Kev's 28th birthday

2011-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

This year for Keven's birthday, we celebrated it twice. When we were in California for Thanksgiving, my mom got a candle for his oreo cheesecake and the whole family sang to him. He opened his present from me which was the "Call of Duty-Special Ops" game for his XBOX 360. He kept saying that he really wanted it, so I think he was happy. On his actual birthday, Tuesday November 30th, his Dad was in town so he took him out to lunch and then went to a movie. When I got home from work, I made him some "better than hug" cake and we went downstairs to Gateway (we love living so close to it!) We went to Panda express and went to Express to get him some new jeans. I love you Kev!! I hope you had a wonderful 28th birthday!

Thanksgiving in Cali

2011-01-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

Kev and I drove to Cali for Thanksgiving this year. We left Wednesday, Nov. 24th and got there at about 3am on Thursday. We went out to dinner with Mom and Dad on Thanksgiving day and went to the movies. It was actually REALLY nice to do that on Thanksgiving day! Then Friday we went to the beach and that night hung out with Jenn and James (and the kids) and mom and dad. Saturday, we had Thanksgiving with everyone (except Jamie and her family and Katrina...we missed you guys!) It was so wonderful to spend time together. We left Sunday morning and it was the longest drive EVER! It took us 14 hours when it usually takes 9. The snow started in St. George and we were going 30 mph the rest of the way home (9 hours later)! We had a great Thanksgiving with the family and was so grateful that we were able to spend time with them!

Carter's cute bum! Jenn and Mom..man that turkey was wonderful!

LOVE this pic of Kev and Carter Jason, Rach, Grandma and the boys

Me, Grandm and Kev

Dad, Grandma and Mom

Nathan and Grandpa

Another remodeling project

2010-12-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

I realized that I didn't post a project that we had been working at at the Todd's house. While we were living there (Kev lived there a year and I lived there almost 6 months...thanks again Bruce and Carla!) :) we did a lot of projects around the house. There was a lot that they wanted to get done before Trev came home from his mission, so we were excited for the challenge. I don't have a picture of the before for this one, and I realized that I also don't have any pics of the backyard...but since it's snowing now, it looks like I'll just have to take pics next season.

Project #1: Retaining wall and black bark. They had these bushes planted, but wanted it to be "touched up" a little bit more. So we built a retaining wall and laid black stained bark. I think it has a more completed feel to it now.
Project #2: Family Room, Kitchen, Stairs, etc. Well...this took a little (or lot) more time. They have REALLY tall ceilings so we needed to rent scaffolding for the night. The ceiling is so tall that we put the scaffolding at the tallest and then put a latter on top of that and Kev was at the top of that. Yea...it made us all a little nervous! Here he is taking a break...

Here are some before pics..Also notice the stair case...and how many spindles there are! We also added a red accent wall under the stairs and the kitchen was painted red also (Carla did an awesome job on that one!)
They wanted to get rid of the sliding door because it was really hard to open...

And the after...I took on the project (mostly because I felt it would make the biggest pop...I guess you could say I'm stupid, but I think it turned out very well) to stain the stair case. I sanded the whole thing down (spindles and all) and then stained it. Each one, by hand a couple times. And then I put a gloss on it. I was up until 4 am some nights trying to get it done. I still see so many imperfections to it...but supposedly to everyone else, it looks wonderful.

Carla did a sweet faux finish (I think that's what it is called, but not positive) and I thought it looked sweet. Also, we sanded and painted the window frame and I think it looks like a brand new window. They got rid of their old window treatments and got wooded blinds.

Here's the window that was also sanded and painted. Looks like a brand new window!

Here's from the kitchen and Carla did a wonderful job painting it! Also, I stained the New Zealand cloth frame hanging on the left wall. Kev made the frame for Christmas and brought home this cloth the Maori's make one year when he came home from his mission so I just stained it to match the stair case.

The beautiful french doors. The blinds in this thing is so sweet because it's in between the window. It opens up awesome to the beautiful deck in their backyard.

Overall, I think it turned out awesome. It was like a compoletely different house when we were done with it. Eventually painting the other hall wall and staining the front staircase will come....but for now, I think the Todd's were pleased.

Halloween

2010-11-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

Well now that I'm barely putting Halloween up, Christmas is almost here?! oh man... I really need to get cracking! So this year for Halloween, we were invited to our friend's, Misty and Colton, Halloween party. I was getting my hair done that day and so I wanted to be cleopatra, but that didn't really work out. And luckily it didn't because every year when we dress up, Kev always convinces me to be scary or ugly. haha..that's what every husband wants to see his wife as right? Kev wanted to get face makeup and do freaky zombie like stuff. The past couple years we've always waited until the last minute. So I went with it and it was so much fun...especially putting the stuff on!! Kev was right...Halloween is definitely suppose to be scary and ugly! How real does that look!? Make the pic bigger...this is the "skin" that we started off with.

And the after math. The knife was added for fun! :) when we put the blood on...that was so fun! haha

Cutting up my cilantro! :)

You can't really smile with a face like that...

At the fiesta

Here's Michael Jackson..."It''s black. It's white"

She looked so much like Michael, it was crazy!

Misty and lil CiCi!

Us and Misty and Colton

This was so much fun...pulling off our skin at the end of the night!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

The New 'Do

2010-11-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

Well here it is. Yes..that's me! ha! So...for those of you that know me, know that I love changing my hair. I've ben every color, except black. So what did I decide to do? Dye my hair black of course! :) I think it's so funny seeing how freaked out some people get over a hair change. I mean, really...it's hair! It's not like I'm going green or anything! Luckily My Love likes when I change it up too, especially since he can't really dye his hair. Now here we are at the BYU game last weekend. It was super sunny so sorry for the squinty pics! Enjoy until the next time I dye it! :)

I like wearing it curly sometimes too...I like the versatility! :)

Now I can officially say that I have been every "normal" color! :)

Game 2 Jazz Game 10/28/10

2010-11-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 28th: Since Kev and I live across from the Energy Solutions Arena, we definitely try to take advantage of the Utah Jazz games! Kev wasn't able to go to any of the pre season games because of work, so this first home regular season game was a treat! Kev's dad's company has season tickets, so sometimes we are able to go, but we didn't have the tickets for this night. Since the game started later this night, Kev got home just in time to run over for the second half! We ran over and saw two people coming out. Kev asked for their tickets if they were leaving. They gave it to us and said, "They are really good seats actually! We just have to go! Not sure if they'll let you in since they've already been scanned, but give it a try!" Now let me tell you why we are genius'! :) We went to the ticket office and bought the cheapest tickets we could...total nose bleeds! Then once we bought the tickets to get in, we used the other tickets to watch the game! No harm done since we still bought tickets and these people were gone! So yea...it was so sweet. We ended up getting 13th row courtside. Even though we lost to the Suns, it was still so much fun to go to the game with Kev!

Spent $32 for $316 tickets...not too bad! :)

Fifth Water Hot Springs 10-16-10

2010-11-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

I know I know...I haven't posted anything. I've been working on my scrapbook and pretty much put the blog on hold for a bit. But I thought I would post pics about what happened almost a month ago! Holy Moly! Anyway...on Saturday, October 16th Kev and I and a friend went to this sweet place called Fifth Water Hot Springs. I was hesistant of saying the name because I don't want it to be overloaded with people the next time we go, but ah well....it's beautiful and people should see it! :) So anyway...it's about an hour hike there and hour back..so not bad at all!! It was so beautiful this time of year too because of all these leaves and their many different colors! (Look at that first picture! Aren't the leaves unreal?!) Kev likes hikes but REALLY likes it when there is something fun at the end. I looked online to try to find a sweet place and found this one. It's so cool (actually hot since it's hot springs) but here are just some pictures we took before it got too dark. The pictures obviously don't really show the details because it was dark, but just trust me, it was cool. :) Go online and look up the images if you don't believe me! It was SO hot in some spots and other spots were luke warm. The closer you got to the water fall, the hotter it was. It was so sweet! We'll definitely go there again!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!

2010-10-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

5-0 so far...way to start the pre season Jazz!! Thanks Bruce for taking me to the games!! It's going to be a WONDERFUL season!

"Living a Covenant Marriage"..."Man of Influence"..."The Message"

2010-09-29T20:49:00.001-07:00

Well I know that I haven't blogged much lately. We've just been working and doing our thang in good ol' SLC. Kev's been working hard and studying hard....so we haven't been doing anything "blog post worthy", just enjoying each others company. You know, lounging, watching movies, talking, laughing, staying up a lot later then we probably should....but hey, those are the days you really remember right? Who cares if we got 4 hours of sleep one night... at least we were awake together. I know, that sounds cheesy. I'm not sure if you have ever felt this way... but each day gets better and I fall harder for My Love. ANYWAY...

I'm not a reader...at all. I wish I was, but for some reason, I would so much rather be doing something active then sitting and reading a book. However, a good doctrinal book or something that uplifts my spirits, in my opinion, is something that's always needed. The past 3 weeks, I've read 3 books. (I know...insert clapping here) I am lucky to be able to read at work, and while Kev's working at nights, I figure since I am done at the gym...might as well get something else inspiring in. So here they are...and they were WONDERFUL!!

Book #1: LIVING A COVENANT MARRIAGE edited by Douglas E. Brinley and Daniel K Judd
This book...well it's beyond AMAZING! I would recommend this book to anyone that is married, knows anyone that is married, has been married, or would like to be married. After finishing that book, I felt an even stronger desire to be "That" wife...you know..."THAT" wife that is strong, faithful, passionate, confident, unconditionally loves and continues to be Christlike even when marriage is rough? I felt a stronger desire to be more Christlike and to "not sweat the small stuff" because in the grand scheme of things...does it really matter? This book confirmed to me the power of the temple and the temple covenants that we made. There are so many amazing quotes in it, but one that really sticks out to me was quoted by Elder Boyd k. Packer, "We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification. We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems. We are indoctrinated that somehow we should always be instantly emotionally comfortable. When that is not so, some become anxious-and all too frequently seek relief from counseling, from analysis, and even from medication. It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal. Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out. There is great purpose in our struggle in life." I know this to be true. I know that temple marriage is called of God and I am so grateful that I will be with My Love forever. What an amazing blessing!

Book #2: MEN OF INFLUENCE by Robert L. Millet
"A priesthood holder walks with the Lord when he seeks to emulate his Lord, to do what Jesus would do. In addition, a priesthood holder walks with the Lord...when he treats his wife as a queen, treats his children with patience and respect, and creates a home environment that is safe, secure, and serene, a home that becomes, by the power of the Holy Ghost, a little bit of heaven on earth." What an amazing gift we have on this earth! We have the very priesthood that our Savior Jesus Christ had when he was on the earth!! I am so beyond grateful for all the Priesthood holders in my life, that take on that responsibility and treat it with the utmost respect and honor. I am so proud to be a woman that can call on her husband to use his priesthood to bless our family and those around us. I strongly feel that women have the responsibility to lift those priesthood holders so that they may know the gift that they have been blessed with. I am so grateful that my husband is worthy and understands the importance of being a "man of influence." I know the priesthood is called of God to bless this earth!

Book #3: THE MESSAGE by Lance Richardson
Now, I can't talk too much about this book, because this was actually Kev's and he was suppose to read it first. (I don't think he knows I actually finished it before he did...so shhh!) :) BUT I do have to say that this brought a completely different perspective of this afterlife. I HIGHLY recommend it. I was brought so much peace in knowing (and feeling) what it's going to be like after this life. It's going to be perfect and so peaceful. Just to imagine being greeted by our loved ones that have passed before us. I can't explain the feeling I had while reading this book. It's a man's personal experience of having his spirit pass into the world beyond while is body was being kept alive by medical support equipment.

I am so grateful for various opportunities and the tender mercies that have been given to me to increase my testimony of this Gospel. It is ALL true and I am grateful for the peace that I have in knowing that Jesus lives and that he loves us so much. I'm so excited to learn more about this Gospel!

TOP OF UTAH HALF MARATHON 8/28/10

2010-09-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well I had my second half marathon on August 28th. It was a totally different kind of race for me. My first half, I had trained like crazy and this one wasn't like that at all. This race was a lot harder to train for because of the summer and how hot it gets. The only way I could train outside would be to wake up at 5 am every morning before work and I am definitely NOT a morning person. Plus, the gym at the school was being worked on, so I wasn't able to use the treadmill either....so hence, I didn't train that often. I was so nervous for this half because I trained about 2 1/2 weeks and that's it! Kev lifted my spirits though and said that I already proved that I could beat 2 hours so now just have fun! So Friday...we left for Logan, UT (our old stomping grounds)....Here's my "lucky" number!The morning of...at like 5:30am. We stayed at our friends house up there. (Thanks Jake and Crystal!)

The first 6 miles was in the canyon and it was AWESOME! So beautiful and perfect weather! The first 10 miles or so was awesome. My time was good and I couldn't believe that I had done as good as I did for not really training. (No, I don't recommend it though). So this was on mile 9. Apparently I was too fast for Kev that I just bolted past him! ;) Not really, but I ran up to him and he was like, "Ah!" so he took off running in front of me so he could get some pictures. It was so funny! I couldn't stop laughing...he's such a good supporter! I love my honey! AND I did it!! The last 3 miles were kind of poopy. The half is 13.1 miles...I ran for 13 miles and walked for about .10 miles so I was happy with that. But the moral of the story is that I FINISHED!! I ended up getting 2 hours 12 minutes and 30 seconds, which is a lot better time then i thought would be.

I look and smell like death in this pic but I had to get a shot with my love. I want to do about 2 half marathons a year and never the same one. I would love to go all over the place and get all the cool Tshirts and medals!! This was officially the longest day ever though. Right after I ran the half marathon, I went back to take a shower, then we drove to Salt Lake (1 1/2 hour from Logan) to pick up our keys then drove to Roosevelt (2 1/2 hours from Salt Lake). Then we packed up and drove back to Salt Lake to move in. We ended up getting back to Salt Lake at midnight and unloaded the truck and trailer. We finally went to bed at 5 am. Yes, we were both VERY tired and my feet are still in need of a pedicure! :) So now we are living in Salt Lake City (Downtown) and we love it. I started my new job last Monday and Kev started school last Monday and will have some job interviews this week. Life is great and we are SO happy since we get to do this all together!

Trev's home!

2010-09-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well this is a long awaited post, but we were in Cali until the 6th of August. It was a much needed trip to see the family and we are so grateful that we were able to see the family! It was definitely bittersweet though because the day we left Cali and flew back to Utah, Kev's brother was coming home from his 2 year mission in Japan. We were so grateful that we were able to see him! Here's Kev and Trev right after he came out from customs at the airport.

Kev and I have totally seen a transformation in Trev. He was talking to everyone at the airport and it was great to see. Since Kev and I were living at Kev's parents house, we were able to spend a lot of time with Trev and just hang out and talk. It was about 3 weeks before we moved to Salt Lake and Trev moved to Provo for school. On the 15th, Trev gave his homecoming talk and a lot of the family got to come out and see him. We are so grateful for the example Trevor is to us and are excited to be able to spend the time we can with him. He is truly a remarkable man and we are looking forward to the next chapter in his life. Welcome home Trevor!

Kirk Family Pics

2010-08-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Since Kev and I came down to see the new addition to our family (and of course everyone else) and so did my sister and her family, my mom wanted to have family pictures! I love family pictures! I think Sarah did such a good job! Check her out at Sarahhullphotography.blogspot.com. Here's the whole family...even 5 day old Carter..and Jenn's a champ too! :) So far the total is at 24! Holy Moly we're growing! The Todd Family of 2 :) (Pics by Sarah)

The Ward Family of 4 (Pic by Sarah)

The Liechty Family of 7 (Pic by Sarah)

The Kirk Family of 5 (Pic by Sarah)

The Kirk Family of 4 + 1 (They just got a foreign exchange student, Federica, from Rome Italy! We love her!) Pic by Sarah

Mamacita and Papa family of....well 24 now, but 7 originally! :) Joce is all giggles!

Me and Ty

Katrina and Preston

The Grandkids...10 boys and 2 girls. Can you tell Jeff is holding Preston and hiding behind my dad?! So funny! Pic by Sarah

James and Carter

Most of these pics are from my camera...so when we get all of them from Sarah, I'm sure I'll post more!

Carter James Ward born 7/30/10

2010-08-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

That's right! We got another beautiful baby in our family!! Carter James Ward was born on July 30th at 11am. He is the cutest and we are so grateful to be his Aunt and Uncle! He is our 12th and we love him to pieces...just like the other 11!! Being an Aunt and Uncle is seriously so amazing, so thanks to my brothers and sisters for making us one! :) Carter is the second child of my sister Jenn and brother in law, James. Carter's due date was on the 29th, but that day came and went, much to my sister's dismay! Kev got to California on that Wednesday and I was arriving Friday night. Carter came Friday morning... I still think it's because he was waiting for me to come! :) I'll have to ask him when he's older if that was the real reason! I arrive Friday night and Saturday afternoon we headed to the hospital to spend some time with them. James, Jenn and Carter at the hospital.

Sweet Carter. He weighed 9.5 lbs and was 20 1/2 inches long!

I love all his hair!! He looks SO much like Jocelynn when she was born!

The proud Uncle and Aunt

We love when "our" babies lay on us like this!

Jocelynn does this thing...it's so funny. Everytime I say, "Joce, let's take a pic" and I move it so I am taking the picture...she makes different faces. We look at it and I say, "JOCE!" and she laughs and says she'll take another one..

And this is what the next one looks like! haha!

I have to tickle her to get her to smile. Seriously...it's so funny to look at all the pictures I have with her lately. She knows I don't know she's doing these crazy faces until I look at it and she thinks it's the funniest thing ever. Usually she has a tongue sticking out by the 5th one. :)

The proud big sister. She loves her baby brother!

The happy family. Such a BEAUTIFUL family!!

Jenn is such an awesome Mom!

Grandma came for another visit!

Us at the hospital

Ryker's baby blessing and 4th of July

2010-08-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

This year, for the 4th of July weekend, we went to Evanston, WY (where my sister and her family live.) Her 5th kid (Ryker) was being blessed on the 4th of July. We were so happy that we were able to be there. We got there Friday night after work. My Mom and Dad came up from California, so that was awesome to see them too! Evanston has legal fireworks, so usually people buy a ridiculous amount of it and will light fire works off a couple days before. It was crazy, but lots of fun! We LOVE fireworks!! (Are you surprised?!) :) This was Sunday before church. Micah and Jaeger...future missionaries. I love it!! Chad gave a beautiful blessing. Here's the whole Liechty fam!

The 5 kids...4 boys and 1 girl.
After the blessing, we had dinner at my sisters house. The food was awesome and I got to cuddle with this cute little guy!

And so did Kev! And so did Mom! :)

My sis Jamie and me
After some of their friends went home, we lit off some fireworks. And Kev was having a blast with the boys! Chad gets free fireworks every year because he is a police officer which makes it that more fun! Chad made this "firework gun" in high school. It was actually pretty cool! All the kids wanted a shot at it...

Cute Jaeger. I love when he closes his eyes. :)

Jamie is proud of her firework she lit. :)

Mom and Dad watching the excitement inside with Ryker so he wouldn't get scared.

After we lit all of our fireworks, we grabbed chairs and just watched...it was unbelievable. We had 360 degrees of huge fireworks coming from almost every house. It was so sweet. Jaeger wanted to cuddle up with Kev while watching it. It was so cute...he wanted to hide from Mommy too. :)
Cute Dylan wanted to be a part of the action too!

So grateful for 4th of July and for the freedom that we have. Thank you to all the soldiers out there that are fighting for me and my family!!

Camping at Flaming Gorge

2010-06-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

Friday June 25th to Sunday June 27th: Kev and I were decided to get away for some alone time. Thursday, I called Kev from work and said, "let's go camping this weekend." So that's what we did. It's really nice to be able to do that right now. So Friday after work, we got everything packed and headed up to Flaming Gorge. It's about an hour and a half from Roosevelt, but I have never been. Kev use to be a river guide right after high school and would go on a lot of scouting events here. I was really excited. We had some idea of what we would do, but nothing set in stone. When we first got there, we just kind of drove around to check out the area. And then we drove up to the look out point of Flaming Gorge. It was beautiful.

The Flaming Gorge Dam out in the distance.Friday night, we drove and found a sweet camp ground called "Firefighters Memorial." This was our view and there was no one there! It was so peaceful!!

Then Saturday, we actually slept in...I've never done that while camping because it usually gets really hot and I end up waking up at 6:30am. But this time...we slept in until like 9! The weather was beautiful...not too hot and not too cold! Now to tell of our exciting Saturday....Kev and I wanted to go kayaking down the Green River. We weren't sure if the kayaks were still available, so we drove and found a spot that had a two many kayak. Well, you are suppose to have a vehicle at the bottom and the top of the river so you could have a ride. If you didn't have that, people pay $50 to have a shuttle pick you up. Kev's response? "We're frugle. We'll walk." haha...i loved it!! Especially when the ladies said, "No! I would totally not do that! That is such a long ways and you have to bring the kayak with you! No one has ever done that! It would be worth it to spend the money." So after she said that...it was an even more reason to do it! They didn't think we could! Now we had to prove ourselves! So we stuck the kayak in our magnum (Which is the best vehicle ever! They never stuck a kayak in a vehicle before either...only put it on top of it!) So there we were...driving to the bottom of "Little Hole" with a 90 lbs 11 foot long kayak in our trunk. Who wouldn't smile?!

This was our break at the 2 mile marker. We probably held it for about 2 miles...but it was awkward and you couldn't walk as fast...so we decided to lift it up and put it on our heads. We walked like that for about 5 miles.

A little after the third mile, we stopped for a lunch break. A very needed lunch break! Then we finally made it! It took us about 3.5 hours. The last 2 miles were probably the hardest because our necks were hurting caring the thing. So we took more breaks. But all in all...we are glad we did it! It tested our physical abilities and we were proud to say we were the first ones to do it! Everyone coming down the river were routing us on!

Coming down the river was heaven. It wasn't huge rapids or anything...so we just coasted down and enjoyed the scenery. I can't imagine going Kayaking down big river rapids! I've only been rafting...any slight movement, the kayak would tip or get completely covered!

I took about 50 pics like this...it was a hard angle! :)

Oh the beauty!! Kev and I just love going to places like this. I love seeing nature and what Heavenly Father has given us. We truly are so blessed!! There are so many beautiful things in nature that is just an hour (or less sometimes) from our homes....our goal is to take advantage of that! Even though we would LOVE to go to Tahiti...there are still beautiful things nearby! Anyone reading this....try looking for those beautiful places near your homes!!

Just a clarification...

2010-06-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Everything is fine. Kev and I are very happy and loving life. The set back we had is that Kev was suppose to graduate this December. He has been working so hard to get done in December. And out of no where, they told Kev that to graduate in Dec. he has to have a pre req for one of the classes he was going to take in the fall, but it already started this summer. So Kev talked to the teacher and he approved to let him in late. Kev then went to register and they said that he can't get in because he hasn't had Math for a year. SO they said he had to start completely over in math. So now what could have been done in one semester now will take 3. The hard part is this just sets everything back a lot longer then we thought it would. So that's how our plans have changed. Now we are learning that we just have to keep relying on our Heavenly Father. There has to be a reason for Kev to be in school longer. Something we are to learn. We are so grateful for our health and for all of our blessings. We really have been blessed and we are grateful for this challenge we have together. As stated in the below post...Good things WILL come. In the meantime, we have to learn to have Joy in the Journey!

Good Things to Come

2010-06-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post the latest of what's been going on, but Keven's Aunt posted this message on facebook and I just thought it was so much better. We've been enjoying the summer. We were able to go to Lagoon with my sister Jamie and her family and drove out to California to spend time with my family for Memorial weekend (and a couple days after.) We had such a great time. I love going home. The last couple weeks have been a little challenging as our plans haven't really gone the way we thought they would. My mom said something that I probably won't ever forget, "Sometimes you are going to have to have faith and take a step into the darkness." I'm starting to realize that things don't always go as planned, but if we rely on our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, then Their plans are all that truly matters. I have such an amazing husband that helps me find the good in everything. I am so blessed!

My 25th birthday..and other stuff

2010-06-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well...time to catch up again! This year, Kev and I have been really spoiled by Kev's dad in being able to go to the Jazz games! We have so much fun when we go! This was round 1 of the playoff's vs. Denver Nuggets. We won that game so it was a happy day! :) This was Game 3...I think! (the end of April). Then the beginning of May happened...April showers, bring May blizzards? What the? Yea...we thought the same thing! This was before I left for work in the morning. By the afternoon, it was all melted. Kev had just mowed the lawn the day before!

Then came my birthday!! May 10th...25 to be exact! I still can't believe it...I love every year that passes! I can't imagine when I turn 75!! It just keeps getting better. I am definitely one lucky girl! I woke up to my alarm at 6:30am..Kev turned and said, "Good Morning My love! Happy Birthday!" Then he got up and made me breakfast! (now, how could your day possibly get any better after that?!) well...it did! So, after breakfast...same ol' at work...then around lunch time, my wonderful amazing husband came in with flowers and presents! (btw...we already got my sweet watches for my birthday the weekend before!) Then Kev took me out to lunch (we chose Rocky's...a local place in town with wonderful grasshopper shakes!)

I am draped with two shirts that he got me. I was so surprised and love them!

Then my totally awesome co worker (who hired me..i might add) got me some of my favorites!! She is such a doll! She got me OREOS! I mean..seriously...I LOVE OREOS! And my 100 grand and chapsticks were wonderful too! Thanks Andrea! You are the best!! (and I am not just saying that because we are the only girls that work at L&L!) :)

Here's just a close up of my lovely flowers! :) As Kev said..."I love your birthday being right after Mother's Day...all the flowers go on sale!" haha!

So then...when I came back to work after lunch, there was a big box on my desk. I was a little confused because it was from "Mrs. Fields." Yes...I was hoping it was really from her and not just an old used box! Low and behold...it was!! This is what I opened! My co workers from my old job (Kim, Sokha and Erika) all surprised me!! They had a guy from my old job look up my new job online, call me to confirm my work address, and had it mailed out to me! I couldn't believe it! I am truly blessed with amazing people in my life!

THEN...GAME 4! Yep...that's right...we got to go to Jazz vs. Lakers round 2. We were so excited and so grateful! Even though our Jazz didn't win, it was still a wonderful birthday! (Even if Kev and I were prepared to get in a fight if needs be!) ha! We even got matching playoff shirts!

Thank you everyone for all your sweet birthday wishes! You will never know how much it all meant to me. I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude for all that I have been blessed with. Love you!

My first Half Marathon

2010-05-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's taken awhile. Sorry! I had to get some of these pictures from my father in law. So beware of some serious blog updating!! Well as my previous blogs stated, I had been training for my first half marathon. It was in Salt Lake City on April 17th. I had trained really hard and felt very prepared. When I first started in training, I wanted to hit 9-10 minute miles. I didn't know how attainable it was, but I started there. By the end of my training, I changed my goal to complete the half marathon in under 2 hours. Well...I'll let you know if I did at the end...... :) My lucky number!

My sister in law, Dana and myself. Can you see us?! It's like "where's waldo?!" I am wearing a bandana and Dana is in a blue shirt. This was before the race. And this is after...not sure where we are but there was a bunch of people there!

We saw Kev and Bry at the beginning of the race and then I didn't see them until about mile 9. I was so pumped the beginning of the race because I would hit about 8:00 minute miles at times. Disregard my face in this picture. I was trying to take my shirt that was wrapped around my waiste to throw to Kev, while I was running. Hence, my face is weird! :)

Trying not to laugh while running...as soon as I past Kev, he ran with me in his sandles. It was pretty funny how he was trying to pump me up. He's so cute. :)

I did it!! It was so packed at the end of the race (13.1 miles) that Kev couldn't find parking. He had to park like 2 miles away and just ran it..in his sandles and barely missed me passing the finish line. Apparently, I ran a lot faster then he thought I would! I like the girl in the back of this picture. Ha! It's like she thought Kev was taking a picture of her! :)

After the race, there were a lot of different venues and music and a lot of supporters. It was pretty cool to hear them screaming for you while you turned the corner! Oh, I forgot to mention too...so the last 3/4 of a mile, I got a cramp in my foot!! I couldn't stop because I wanted to hit my goal, so that mile part was a fun experience. Oh and mile 11-12 was up hill...so that was a little challenging, but good.

My love and I

I was feeling good! It was such a perfect day!

AND YES! I DID IT!! THIS IS OUR SIGN FOR DOING IT IN "LESS THAN TWO HOURS!" :) (Kev's less than sign should have been on the other side though) MY TIME WAS 1 HOUR 57 MINUTES AND 28 SECONDS! My average minute per mile was 8:58. I was 1,342 out of 4,621 overall people. Out of the females, I was 534 out of 2,882 and out of my age group (19-24 year old girls) I was 82 out of 398. I was pretty pleased and hope to beat my time the next race I do!

After the race at Dana and Bryan's apartment.

And today I thought of something I never thought I would....I actually MIGHT do a full marathon in September. I figure might as well do it before we start having kids and don't have as much time to train! Don't hold me accountable if I back out though since I am not signed up yet! :)