Playing With Photos Tonight

Every once in a while a picture turns out exactly how you want it...

Halloween

Our festivities this year began with an office trick-or-treat at Greg's firm. 

The kids' costumes were either very liked or very not-liked. About half the attorneys are Utah fans. :)

Many of the offices and hallways were super-decorated (unlike Greg's office. looks like I'll have to spearhead that one for him in the future--that's what wives are for :))

All three floors of offices had different decorations. 

I love this picture of Grey out in front of Greg's office.

Counting up the loot. This was where the kids got the majority of their halloween candy. 

 We carved pumpkins at Aunt Marcia's house the Sunday night before Halloween. We had one of the ghosts on the left and the big vampire pumpkin on the top right. The rest are the genius of other family members. Two of my faves is the cougar in the lower left corner and Mario in the middle.

All the kids with Greg's grandparents.

Greyson was a raccoon on the night of actual Halloween. My favorite animal. :)

I was a flapper and Greg was 1920's gangster (he left off half his costume, feeling lucky he wore the hat and vest). It was so warm and wonderful outside. I love a warm Halloween!

Wyoming Trippin'

Earlier in October, we moseyed  on up to Wyoming to spend some time at Uncle Dave's house and get our teeth cleaned.
Dave and Amber a such generous hosts. Amber always has hot baked something ready when we walk in the door, and Dave always provides excellent entertainment. Also, their seven children keep things lively. :)
This time we got to bring Greg's cousin Jessica with us and we all got our teeth cleaned. (Only one cavity to be filled between all of us) We got our toes painted at a nail salon for $5 each and we all went dirt biking and did some exploring on the back of D&A's property. I wish I could have captured the dirt bike track where we played. It is one of my favorite places I've ever ridden. And this was the first time I've ever tried riding Greg's 450.

Found in the thick brush at the bottom of their backyard cliff. How'd it get there?

It got kinda hairy in the untamed Wyoming brush behind their house.

We found the river after many tangles.

This doesn't even look real, but this is the view from D&A's backyard.
 I'll have to take back those times driving across I-80, that I cursed Wyoming for not being pretty. This is so beautiful.

Is it unattractive to vent on your blog?

Too bad if it is. I need a place to put my thoughts so the blog is where it is going this time.
:)

So I went shopping today for the umpteenth time in the past few weeks without buying myself much of anything. I got some money for clothes for my birthday (well-over a month ago) and I can't bring myself to buy clothes for this body.

Baby number three makes you fat.

Maybe its because I'm over 30 this go-round, or maybe its because its my body's third time through this ordeal and it refuses to let go of the spare tire (or maybe I just need to lay off the junk food already!).

I'm ready to fit in my clothes and I don't want to buy myself anything that doesn't flatter this currently un-flatterable figure of mine.

Ugh.

Thank goodness Greyson is the cutest thing on earth. It almost definitely makes up for the residual affects on my body of giving him life.


Vent #2
Parenthood should require more prerequisites.

I am stretched to my absolute limits every day parenting my kids. (and it doesn't matter how many kids I have, I was stretched by one and I'm stretched by three)

I constantly feel like I am barely squeaking by! My kid is regularly the last one picked up from kindergarten, and today I wasn't home when the carpool arrived to drop of Attalie.

Trying to feed them healthy foods, keep them in clothes that fit, and provide enriching activities for them--not to mention the emotional and spiritual strength I try to foster in their little souls--requires more ability than I have yet acquired in my life experience.

And I have a college degree, folks!!

Nobody checked my credentials before I had my first child to see if I would be a fit parent. I'm pretty sure they should have! I'm nine years in and know full-well that I'm winging it every step of the way.

What are the other parents out there doing? They make it look so easy. 

I used to believe I was just delinquent. That I just didn't have what it takes to be a parent and everybody else did. That it was actually easy for some people and harder for me. But now I just think it is stinking hard no matter what and a bunch of people out there are really good at faking it.

I'm no good at faking it.

I show up to get my kid from school in my sweaty exercise clothes with no makeup running late with a fussy baby still in his pj's and an over-full wet diaper. Then I make the same mistake every day.
I look around.
Everyone else has already showered and gotten dressed for the day! Their babies are wearing clothes. Cute clothes!! They got to the school on time and are chatting effortlessly with the other parents while they wait to embrace their happy little kindergartner as she runs into their waiting arms.

They are REALLY good at faking it.
:-/
Until I get better at making parenthood look easy from the outside, I'm gonna continue to blame society as a whole for not requiring I get a PhD in Mommy-ing (or at least that I pass parenthood 101) before taking on this task.    And I'm on my third kid!! DOESN'T SOCIETY KNOW I'M BARELY SQUEAKING BY ON KIDS ONE AND TWO???!!!!
And (the better question) Do I think I'm gonna figure this out if I just keep having more kids?!

And maybe that's why people have more than one kid.

Maybe I'll get good at making it look really easy by kid number three. Maybe he won't be the last one picked up from kindergarten. Maybe he'll get a better mommy for what I've learned raising his older siblings.

Anyway, I haven't learned it yet. I'd love to know if anyone else can tell me their secrets...for how to fake it, of course, because I know the rest of y'all are winging it just like me. ;)

Beautiful little angel

Just out of the bath

Those eyes.

That little face!

Eva's First Day of Kindergarten

Beautiful little Kindergartner.

Sweet little Eva. Her personality is happily infectious. I adore her and can't wait to see how she grows and learns in the coming years.

See those cute shorts? Turns out they are Greyson's size 6-9 months pants. They ended up in Eva's drawer and she decided they were the perfect little shorts for her first day of kindergarten! She picked out her entire outfit. 

She wanted me to take this picture of her.

Maybe a little dazed and confused?

Hmmm... What is kindergarten all about?

Attalie's First Triathlon

Here she is in her transition area. Little cutie number 14.

Melyssa and her three older girls all participated, too!

Here she is ready for the swim.

She backstroked the entire swim. She was F A S T!!! I was very impressed!

Gotta love the cruiser bike. Go Attalie!

She is so happy. I wish I looked that cute running!

Here she is with her groupies after the race. :)

The final numbers.

Wearing her finisher's medal. 

First day of 4th grade.

Here are the important things: 

We did her hair in an inside-out diagonal french braid. (we call it the Katniss braid)

She has the same teacher as last year. 

On the first day, her water bottle leaked all over her lunch, which was all in ziplocs, so it was safe.

She didn't receive any homework on the first day of school. :) 

She loved seeing all her old friends!

Anatomy of a Triathlon

Warning: This post has TONS of photos. There is a part of me that thinks I'm a photojournalist. Couple that with a good camera, and this post is what you get. Poor Greg felt like he was being followed by paparazzi at his triathlon yesterday. I love having the job of photo documentation. :)

THE RACE:
We stayed the night in Provo with Greg's parents the night before the race. Thankfully, they could watch the kids while we got up e a r l y for the race.

This is what we saw as we approached the transition area. It was d a r k  outside. Cool, huh?

 Greg is the picture of confidence, but he assured me he was nervous.

 Got some pre-sunrise shots of the lake.

 The pre-race meeting. Love that smile!

 Look at that triathlete.

 Game face!

 Our friend Kulani has done several Ironmans. He was just here to cheer this time.

Look at all these wet suits!

 Love this picture.

 Greg is the top-middle. It's a deep-water start, so they are all treading and waiting for the blow-horn to go off.

 There they go!!

 1.2 miles later... swimming back in .

Transitioning: Wetsuits are almighty difficult to get off. Greg doesn't mess around. He sat down and got the job done.

Then there's the toweling off.

 And grabbing the bike.

 He's having fun. Love that man.

 Go Greg!

 While Greg was out on the bike, I went back to Greg's parents house and picked up the kids. His parents came, too. Greyson LOVED cheering on his daddy.

 56 miles of biking later...

He dropped off his bike and began the run. At this point I asked him how he was feeling and he said he had tennis-ball-sized knots in both his quads. Not a good thing to ever happen to you, let alone when you're about to run a half-marathon. This was when I texted a bunch of people to pray for Greg. Even so, he was smiling and jogged away!

 After his first lap, he was still smiling and running along, but when I asked him how he was doing, he said he now had knots in both calves as well.

 I know he was in pain going into the last 6.5 miles of running, but he put on a good face and kept moving. (note the salt accumulating on his shorts)

 The kids were there for the last 4 hours of the race, and they were better than I could have ever asked. Thank goodness for the iPad! They hardly whined at all. :)

 13.1 miles of running and 70.3 miles overall later...

The girl on the left was excited to see Greg!

the girl coming in after greg ran with her hair down? what is that about?

This picture is worth a thousand words.

 My hero.

 All the finish-line support. (Jeanette is behind the camera)

 LOVE him.

 My (half) Iron Man