Ella graduated preschool last Wednesday. I can't believe how big she is already. Her little sign she is holding up is a picture of her from the first of the school year. I think she looks so much older. During their performance I noticed that out of two classes she was the tallest kid on the stage. Her and Rylee are basically the same size. Rylee is maybe an inch taller. But they wear each others clothes. She is super excited to start kindergarten. I can't wait as well. She is really smart and I think it will be fun to watch her learn.

 Ella and her future husband Braylon.....

I've been bitten by the running bug! I never thought I would say that but it's true. I can't believe how addicting it is. I ran another half marathon on Saturday May 5th and did much better than the race before. I beat my time by 7 minutes. I came in at 2:10. This race for some reason was so much better. I had a lot less anxiety and I wasn't worried this time about where all the girls were. I pretty much knew where everyone one would come in at. I think it helped to that it was over cast. The SLC half got pretty warm towards the end and my face was beat red. I could have kept going after this one, I felt great. I ran a 10k this Saturday with my father in law. Who by the way did a really good job and beat what he thought he would run it by 20 minutes. He started training to run the race with me and did great. My next race is the Provo Valley Race which is June 9th. This one is sold out. The course is suppose to be a really good one so I'm excited. I would love to come in @ 2:08 so that is my goal for this one. I am going to try to do a half every month until the end of the year. We'll see how that goes.



Rylee finally learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last week! I know she probably should have learned sooner but she really had no interest in doing so. After about 20 minutes of having them off she was up and running and riding around fast like a crazy woman! She was so excited to get them off. The next  morning while I was getting her ready for school she was asking me do you know what I'm going to do today? What?  I'm going to ride my bike as soon as I get home. She also of course had to tell me her butt hurt from rididng around on her bike for so long. ( I say this after a long bike ride ) When she got home from school that day I asked her if she told her friends she was riding her bike without her training wheels. She looked at me with a really annoyed look and said yes I did, and they all got theirs off when they were like 4! Oh man should have seen that one coming.

Little Annie is pulling her self up to everything including our stairs. She wants to climb up them so bad. That's cause she knows the toy room is at the top of them, smart girl. She gets stuck and doesn't know how to get off the stairs on her own which is kind of funny. I'm not ready to put up a baby gate, I hate those things!

It's hard to believe that little Annie is already 11 months old today! She is growing so fast and getting so smart. She started crawling a few weeks ago, yes I know this is late but it is what it is. At 11 months old she still is toothless! Not a single tooth in that cute little mouth of hers. She has decided she hates bottles and is down to only 2 a day but most of the time just one in the morning. She loves noodles and rice but refuses to use her own hands to feed herself. She'll eat crackers etc. with her hands but not pasta. She was 20lbs at her 9month check up and 29 inches long. She wears 18 month old clothes, for the most part.  She is getting to be so smart. She can say momma, Dada, up above, Nana. She is waving hi and bye and she can clap. She is pulling to stand.  She likes to play peek a boo and put her head to the side. She is a happy baby and loves to be around people. She loves to people watch and anyone can get a smile out of her. She looks more and more like her big sister Rylee every day. She has become a major Daddy's girl and seems to prefer Chris over me these days! Sad, this usually doesn't happen until they are 2. But he does do lots of fun things with her so I can't blame the girl for being a trader.  It's crazy to think she will already be a year old. It makes me very sad. But she is adorable and we LOVE having her in our family.

Never in a Million years did I think I would be capable or crazy enough to run a half marathon but I did it! Last Saturday April 4-21-2012 me and 5 other friends ran the SLC half marathon. It was a perfect day for an April run reaching over 70 degrees. I started running in December to try and lose some of the baby weight and my friend Erin said do you want to train for a half marathon? Not knowing what I was getting myself into I said yes without even thinking. We started training for it in February. It's more hard mentally than it is physically. My goal was to finish in 2:30 and I came in at 2:17 so I'm proud of that. Training and actually do it aren't quit the same. When ever anyone passes you it feels like you are the last one on the course and you are getting left behind. When ever a pacer would pass me I would always be surprised that I was still running under a 10 minute mile. Towards the end I wasn't able to keep up with the 2:10 minute pacer but I feel like I tried my best. We all run in at different times and were beat by our friend Tara who is 4 and a half months prego and run it in 1:53. She's an animal. Even though I trained with Erin I couldn't keep up with her. She finished at 2:07. It started to get really hard from about mile 7 to mile 11. Just when I felt like I could do it then came the hill. The last mile of the race had you running up Capital Hill which just isn't fair when your already so tired. But once I came around the corner and saw the finish line I pushed myself and passed a lot of people I was going back and forth with on the course. I have to admit although it's hard it is a little addicting to think you can push yourself so hard and accomplish a goal that feels impossible. I think most of us are going to sign up again for the Utah Valley half which is June 9th. This course is all downhill so I'm hoping I can improve my time. The girls wanted to know if I won. Of course I did, anyone who crosses the finish line wins!

PS. Thanks to the worlds best sister ( Lettie ) for following me on my bike the weekend before so I could run 11 and half miles to be ready for the race. It gave me the confidence I needed to finish and I wouldn't have ran if she hadn't gone with me.

Me and Erin showing off our medals

My cheerleaders

4 of the 6 of us who ran. Kim, Erin, Me and Devrie

Evidence!

                                

Our Easter this year was very low key and relaxing. Normally we would be driving to multiple houses on Easter but this year we just went to Namas. It was Annistyn's first Easter and it was such a nice day. It was hard to believe it was the first of April with as hot as it was. Ella "won" the Easter egg hunt wining the most loot. Having that little hard start for the being the youngest really paid off. We had a yummy barbecue and a hula hoop contest which was fun, which by the way I won! I hadn't hula hooped since I was a little kid, I was shocked that I could actually do it.

Master Bedroom Makeover....

We finally have a Master Bedroom you would want to sleep in! I loved the way it all turned out. There's not a lot of color but I wanted it to just be clean and crisp with a hint of color. There's a sitting area in the corner of our room that I need to finish but that will not be for a while. Apparently money doesn't grow on trees! Oh how I wish it did! I think I may use more color in that area but for now I'm happy with the way it all turned out.