Heartbreak

I cannot imagine the heartbreak that those families in Connecticut are going through right now.  I cannot imagine having my little boy taken away from me.  Waking up with your baby boy and going to bed without him.  It breaks my heart to think about it and I am so sad for those families.  I just cannot imagine something like that happening.

I am so glad my baby boy is mine, here and safe with me for now.  I love him so much and cannot imagine my life without him.  My heart breaks for those that can't say that anymore.

My friend Christine took these beautiful pictures of Asher back in October.  He was being a little bit of a stinker and didn't want me to set him down.  That was until we distracted him and got him playing in the leaves a little bit.  Then he forgot he was sad and started laughing and laughing at those leaves.  I love this little baby boy.

Skinny

Why do we all want to be so skinny? 

Because of some things in my background (the way I grew up, my degree in exercise science, and my job as a nutrition and exercise consultant) this is something I feel very passionate about. I believe it is important to eat healthy and take good care of our bodies. I believe it is so important and everyone needs to so it. But I also think that there is a very fine line between being healthy and taking care of our bodies and obsessing over every single food that goes into our body, feeling guilt for eating, and always wanting (and talking about wanting) to be skinnier. 

I believe we should fill our bodies with whole, nutritious foods. I believe we should use our bodies how they were designed and be active on a regular basis. I love challenging my body with something physically demanding and feeling strong and proud when I succeed.  But I also believe that we are meant to enjoy life and not obsess over things.  I think we can indulge in a small treat now and then without having to feel guilt and frustration. I believe in moderation in all things. 

I have had some situations in the last few weeks that have made me really think about this and not be able to get it off my mind.  I feel like lately whenever I am with a group of women, if there is a treat or something good to eat, the women all want it.  They know they want it.  And they even usually eat it.  But they don't stop talking about how they shouldn't be eating it, or how they'll have to make up for it in the gym.  

The other setting was more serious to me.  We were in a situation where as women, there were younger girls with us, listening to us and watching us.  As the leaders of these darling girls, we are supposed to be teaching them how important they are, how much they are worth, and what really matters in the world.  I noticed that some of the women I was with were constantly making comments about "oh I really shouldn't be eating this," or "I know where I'll be tomorrow morning after eating this."  Comment after comment about how heaven forbid we eat something not good for us without working off the calories and maintaining our figures.  What message are we giving?

I would be lying if I said I never worried about my body, my size and how I looked and felt in my clothes.  I know there are moments when we all worry and want to be different or smaller.  But I also think it is more important to be happy how we are, comfortable in our own skin, confident and happy with the bodies our Heavenly Father gave us, than to obsess, stress and compare ourselves to others who are always skinnier.  

I believe we must set an example for the girls around us.  For our children, and for the girls growing up.  I think it is a confusing time.  We live in an obesity epidemic, and so much emphasis is placed on dieting and losing weight, while at the same time we are bombarded with pictures of beautiful, skinny women in the magazines who keep losing weight and "look better than ever."  We are constantly told that skinnier is always better.  I believe that is not always the truth.  Especially when it comes in place of what is most important.

And most of all, I believe that our worth, our importance, and value in this world is not determined by how fit we are, what dress size we wear, or whether we burned enough calories at the gym this morning.  There is so much more than that. I truly believe that, and I hope that someday when I have daughters of my own I can raise them to believe that too.

The Hunt

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed up past Preston to pick out our Christmas trees.  This year we were all getting at least one tree and between my whole family we had seven trees to pick out!  We headed up the mountain and soon all went our separate ways searching for our perfect tree.  The trees seemed a little more sparse this year (probably just due to where we started looking) and it seemed like it took a long time to find them.  But once again everyone headed home with giant, gorgeous trees.  

Oh my goodness look at these cute babies in their snow suits!

We found our tree!  We never realize how massive they are until we either look at these pictures and see that it is more than triple my height, or get it home into our house.  Marcus got to work cutting it down.

When we all had our trees, we headed back to Katie's house for our annual "Christmas Kick-off".  Katie made a delicious meal for us and we all made yummy Christmas goodies.  We had a feast of desserts.  My mom seriously outdid herself and went to so much work giving us the perfect gifts to get us in the Christmas spirit.  Each grandkid got their own package, and it included a puzzle, book, candy, bath toy, a little duck, a truck, and more.  Then each couple got their package and it was full of fun things for us for the season.  She gave us all an ornament, a Christmas book, sprinkles, muffin liners, lotion, a giftcard and consumer report for the guys, and more fun stuff.  It felt like Christmas day.  Thanks to my sweet mom for making our Christmas kick-off such a fun tradition!  

What a fun weekend and I am so lucky to have been able to spend it with all of my amazing family.  Pictures of my wonderful tree to come!

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving spent with my family. We all enjoyed being together and eating way too much food. The day after Thanksgiving we went shooting with my dad. Katie and Nate had to go home, and my mom and Lola stayed home doing pedicures, but the rest of us went.

Asher wasn't too sure about his ear muffs but he was still pretty good about leaving them on, for a little while.

Miles was so sweet and read to him to keep him entertained for a bit. That just about melted my heart to see those two cousins with their big muffs reading together.

Busy

Things have been so busy.  I don't even know what they've been busy with...just life I guess.  I have things I want to blog about...Thanksgiving, getting our Christmas trees, and Asher.  But life comes first and I just haven't had the chance.  Today was kinda a crazy morning...but this afternoon things slowed down and I was able to just hang out and play with Asher.  We took a few funny pictures.  I love these moments.

And a few old ones to see how much he's changed!

The Olympics Came to St. George

Back when the Olympics were going, on Marcus and I were at the Browers house and we decided we needed to have our own Olympic event. We were watching track and decided it would be fun as well as motivating to hold our own track meet. So we planned a trip to St. George with a few other couples so we could host the first annual friendly Olympics.

We went down this weekend, and while the weather was quite cold and not exactly ideal, we still had such a fun weekend and the Olympics went off without a hitch!  Those that had kids left them at home and it was so nice to be able to do whatever we all wanted all weekend long, without planning around naptimes and everything else.

First we went out for breakfast and then rode the side by sides out on the sand dunes. It was a lot of fun and a little bit freaky at the same time. We were all covered from head to toe in red sand by the time we were done, even in our teeth. We also got lots of time to play pickle ball, hot tub, play scum, and just have a good time in general.

Saturday morning we headed to the track for our olympics. Who participated: The Browers {Dan and Shalane} The Currits {Tommy and Rilee} The Pughs {Sam and Marie-Reine} The Kearls {although only Bryson participated, and Tara opted out} and Us.

The pressure was on to prove who was the fittest couple. Kidding! This was all in fun. The guys were definitely competitive and the girls had varying degrees of competitiveness. (And when we got there my camera battery was dead, so all pictures are courtesy of my phone.)

First Bryson gave a very funny and awesome speech to open the Olympics. Then it was on to the events:

-A 100 meter sprint

-The shot put

-A 40 meter dash

-A 400 meter run

-The long jump

-The javelin throw (or more accurately a broom throw.)

-And the final event, a couples 2x200

The Currits and Marcus sported their five fingers.  Rilee was the fastest so maybe they helped!  Shalane was an awesome scorekeeper.  And that broom handle was a lot harder to throw than it looked...

...we didn't use a true shot put...but a round cement ball worked perfectly...

The long jump proved to be one of the most fun events, as well as most fun to watch.  Sadly though poor Bryson ended up flat one too many times and thinks he broke his tailbone.  

Sam was the most trained, thanks to his frisbee practices.  The jobs of timing the sprints as well as the cap gun were taken very seriously.  And proof (in my shadow) that I was actually there.

Poor Marcus pulled a muscle in the very first event which definitely put a damper on it for us. He wasn't able to really fully compete in the remainder of the events except for the throwing ones.

It ended up being hilarious and so much fun to participate and compete in an event like this.  I think it will become a tradition and hopefully in the future we can get a few more people to compete.

After we went out for a fancy dinner of fondue and cooking our own steaks on a hot rock.  Dinner was a whole event and lasted more than two hours.  We had such a great time!

Shalane and I made medals and later that night we held a medal ceremony.  Bryson again used his comedic talent and came up with clever individual awards for each person.  

Thanks to everyone who participated, and to the Browers for letting us stay at their place!  Also we are so grateful to my mom for watching Asher while we had our weekend away.  

hall-O-ween

We had a fun Halloween this year.  

Asher and I went to the pumpkin patch one afternoon with Christine and Kylee while we were waiting for our husbands to get home from work.

Marcus and I carved our pumpkins.  We waited until Asher was in bed and peacefully carved away.  

We had a fun neighborhood (HOA) party where Christine snapped these pics.  

I love this one of Asher with his little buddy Kylee in the background.  

Marcus' first place winning pumpkin(s).

Here are most of the girls in the neighborhood with our kids.  We live in such a fun neighborhood with so many cute kiddos!

Here we have Kylee, Issac, Sebastian, Camden, Turner, Jude, Madsen and Asher.  Asher was not being all that cooperative.  I love these cute babies.

On Halloween we went out to Matt and Marilee's house in Daybreak to take Asher trick or treating with his cousins.  At the very first house, a huge man in a gorilla mask opened the door while screaming "rooooooaaaaaaaaar" at the top of his lungs.  Asher took one look and started screaming!  After that he wanted nothing to do with trick or treating.  Instead we went back to Matt and Marilee's and Asher ran around the house and watched all of the trick or treaters come and go.  He loved looking at all of their costumes, and roared at everyone the rest of the night.  He got quite a lot of attention for his cute little costume too.

Happy Halloween!