Nate's Birthday

Nate had to work on his birthday this year, so we kept our celebration pretty low-key (which he prefers anyway). We went out to dinner and then came home for cake and ice cream. He's always nice to let me experiment with new recipes for his birthday, but there's always the dilemma of cake vs. pie. He prefers pie, but I prefer cake and have many more cake recipes than pie recipes I want to try out. In the end. I made a caramel apple cake with apple cider frosting. It was good but probably not one I would make again. Our friends Sandy and Bill also stopped by to join us for cake and ice cream.

As for his presents...his main gift was a 6 month membership to a massage place in hopes that it would help with his headaches and the knots he always has in his upper back. And since I needed to give him something he could actually open, he got a new pair of slippers. Happy Birthday, Nate!

Yellowstone Half Marathon and June Trip

This weekend we had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Nate's parent's house so Nate could run the first ever Yellowstone Half Marathon. It also happened to be a cabin trip for my extended family, so my cousins Steve and Lori ran it too. I was a little nervous about how Nate would do and recover running at such a high elevation (about 6600 feet), but he wasn't very concerned about time. He just wanted to have fun. He and Steve ran almost all of it together until about the last mile where Nate hit the wall and told Steve to keep going. He finished just a few minutes behind Steve with a time of 2:22:12.

Here's some photos Nate took during the race. Certainly a beautiful course, although he said it was more of a trail run.

He had the girls run the last few feet of the race with him.

They all did it! And for the record, the girl on the right, is Lori's friend who ran it too.

Like I said, it was a quick trip. We got there late Thursday night and left Sunday afternoon. On Friday, the day before the race, we just hung out. The girls love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and playing outside. They were hoping for a few RZR rides, but it still had the snow tracks on it and Grandpa couldn't find the right bolts to put the wheels back on. 

We would have spent some time at the cabin, but Felicity was at the tail end of a cold and Dayton was very, very sick with one. He was so sick, in fact, that he hardly slept 2 of the 3 nights we were there because he was coughing so much and very congested. Poor little guy, he spent most of Friday and Saturday just snuggling and sleeping on whoever would hold him.

It's a good thing we're coming back next month for a little longer trip and hopefully with healthy kids.

Ogden Half Marathon and Kids K

It's mid-May, so that means it's time for Nate's favorite race of the year - the Ogden Half Marathon.

Sadly, I'm not as supportive of a wife as I should be and did not go to the effort to get all 3 kids and myself ready to drive to the finish by 8:45 am, park, and wait to see him finish. Thankfully, he doesn't expect me to either. So I don't have any pictures of him to post, but here's a beautiful shot he took of the course as they head down the canyon. Yes, it was a beautiful day unlike the pouring rain of last year.

 

And Nate finished in 2:06:15

 

Like the previous 2 years, Bridget wanted to run the Kids K again this year, but this time we decided to let her do it all by herself.

 

Here she is coming down the finishing chute:

And proudly wearing her cow bell "medal":

Nate's Birthday

Another year has come and gone for Nate. Even though birthdays aren't a big deal to him, he obliges me and lets me try to make it somewhat special for him. Sadly, he was unable to take the day off from work or even work from home, so it was more his kind of celebration than mine.

I spent the afternoon making his cake (German chocolate) and was grateful both Dayton and Felicity took good naps at the same time making it much easier for me.

That blanket he is holding has Dayton in it even though you can't see him at all.

We didn't go out to eat because I didn't want to take Dayton out to a restaurant, so we got takeout from Zupas. I should also mention that some people Nate works for took him out to lunch at a hibachi house, so he got a really nice lunch too.

Because I am the giver of practical gifts, Nate got a new desk chair for his birthday. With as much as he works from home, it was time for a new, comfortable chair since our old one was one we purchased when we got married over 7 years ago. It was far from comfortable anymore.

Happy birthday, Nate!

Father's Day

Our Father's Day celebration this year was simple but nice. Amidst all the church meetings we were able to enjoy a nice breakfast and lunch/dinner together as a family. And since special occasions give me the opportunity to try yet another new cake recipe, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I did give the option of pie since he's more of a pie than cake person, but he also loves the pineapple and coconut combination so I went with cake. It ended up being a good choice, and we all enjoyed it for several days.

Pina Colada Cake

A moist and delicious coconut cake with pineapple filling and a coconut cream cheese frosting

Nate didn't get to open up an actual gift this year because he took forever making up his mind about what he wanted. I presented him with 3 very good options, but he didn't actually decide until Father's Day. Two-and-a-half weeks later, it arrived - a video baby monitor that we can view either on the computer or our phones. He's been in technology heaven ever since with his new gadget, and we both enjoy taking peeks at Felicity in her bed.

At this point, it would seem appropriate to have a picture of Nate with the girls, but since remembering to take pictures is not one of my strong points this post will have to do without one.

Nate is a wonderful father, and I'm so grateful for all of the help he constantly gives me with the girls. Happy Father's Day!

Ogden Half Marathon and Kids K

Today Nate ran his 5th half marathon and Bridget ran her 2nd Kids K. We've enjoyed some beautiful spring weather this month, but they didn't get so lucky today. The temperature was around 50 which was fine, but it poured rain all morning.  When Nate left our house at 4:30 am, I could hear how hard it was pouring and truly thought he was crazy for wanting to run 13.1 miles in that weather. Thankfully, he was fine with me not dragging the kids out of bed to stand in the cold and rain to watch him finish, so the only pictures we have from his race are the ones he took with his phone before it got too wet and shut down.

With the poor weather and his less vigilant training the past couple of months, he wasn't expecting to do very well. He finished in 2:02:27 which he was satisfied with.

Here's a shot of the start line. Everyone was soaked before the race even started.

We were extremely fortunate in that the rain let up for about an hour just in time for Bridget to run her race. She was pretty excited about it and would have done it even in the rain. Felicity and I were just happy we didn't have to get cold and wet watching it.

I snapped this shot of the two of them just a few feet from the finish line.

And here she is finishing!

All of the kids received cow bells as their "medal" for finishing.

Nate's Birthday

I'm big on birthdays, and Nate is not. This year his birthday was more low-key than what I prefer, but that's because I was lame and didn't get my act together as far as planning. He didn't complain though since that's how he likes it.

He took the day off of work since he's trying to use up his vacation days before the end of the year (they don't carry over into next year). We didn't do anything super exciting, but we did enjoy some nice family time together. We started the day off with a nice breakfast - Baked Pumpkin French Toast. Nate and the girls spent a good chunk of time raking the millions of leaves that continue to fill our yard. It certainly wasn't fun for him, but at least the girls got to enjoy that part. He did manage to squeeze in a much deserved afternoon nap while I was busy making his cake. For dinner, we opted to try Union Grill, a local restaurant that I'd never been to and he hadn't been to in years. We were both disappointed with the food, so we probably won't be heading back there again. At least we got to come home to a delicious carrot cake. His birthday presents were also kind of lame - new black dress shoes, compression shorts for running, and a new polo shirt.

As a side note, his birthday fell on election day this year (and a Presidential one at that). Too bad our candidate of choice didn't win. We did enjoy watching the election coverage though since it was a close race.

I'll have to do better at making next year a better birthday celebration. Happy birthday, Nate!!

Nate's 3rd Half-Marathon & Bridget's 1st Race

Once again, Nate completed Ogden's Half-Marathon! His goal was to complete it in under 2 hours and he did it! Here's his official stats:

Time: 1:59:15

Overall: 1070 out of 3193

Men: 567 out of 1132

Men 35-39: 145 out of 286

Here's Nate with the girls after the race. Felicity is so wiggly these days that this is the best picture we got.

Personally, I think I deserve a medal for getting myself and both girls ready (including breakfast) and to the finish line by 9 am. It was a very stressful morning for me, and I drove like mad trying to get there in time to see him finish, I had a feeling all of my effort would be in vain and we wouldn't make it. Amazingly we did, but just barely. I was pushing the stroller and trying to get Bridget to walk as fast as she could as I tried to find a place for us to stand when I happend to see Nate about 50 feet from the finish. So I saw him cross, but the girls did not.

After Nate's race, we headed home for a couple of hours so Felicity could get a good nap before we had to head back for Bridget's Kids' K. For over a year, she's been begging to run a race, and she finally got her wish. She kept changing her mind about who would run it with her, but in the end, I convinced her to choose Nate since he informed he was going to feel bad about it if she didn't. That was fine by me since I don't really love running.

Here she is in the middle of her race (Nate ran a few feet ahead of her several times to take some pictures):And here's the shot I took of both of them just before the finish while Felicity and I cheered Bridget on:Since Bridget didn't get a medal for her race, she decided it would be okay of she and Nate shared his.

Nate's Birthday

That's right. Nate turned the big 35 and was so excited about it. (Okay, not really. But I always enjoy celebrating a birthday - even when it's not my own).

With his birthday falling on a Sunday this year, we got to celebrate for a couple of days. On Saturday night we headed to one of his favorite restaurants (Pepperbelly's) for dinner. Megan, Brant, & Kirstin even joined us. We were having so much fun, we forgot to take any pictures.

On Sunday, my Aunt Jennine had us over for dinner and we brought the birthday cake and homemade ice cream for dessert.

Happy Birthday, Nate!

This may sound weird but Nate didn't get to open any actual presents on his birthday. We decided to get the new Kindle Fire as a birthday present to both of us since we ended up returning the TV I got for my birthday and the monthly date nights only seem to have happened once. Since the Kindle Fire doesn't come out until mid November, we'll both have to wait just a little longer for a "birthday" present.

Nate's 1st Full Marathon

It's only been 1.5 years since Nate started running regularly and training for races, and he's now accomplished a full marathon! I must admit I was a little worried about how he would do because he didn't stick to his training plan as religiously as I think he should have and didn't do much cross-training. His goal was just to finish, and he did it in 5:31:47.

This is only the 2nd year of the Layton Marathon, so there were only about 300 runners and not great support from volunteers and aid stations compared to other marathons. By the time Nate got to the finish line all they had was water. Lame!

I had some obligations that morning, so he was a lot farther into the race than I would have liked before we were able to find him and cheer him on along the way. My sister Megan came to cheer him on along with me, Bridget, and Felicity (okay, Felicity didn't do much cheering but I'm sure she would have if she could).

The picture on the top left is where we first saw him around mile 23. He was in great need of encouragement at that point, so I'm glad we were able to be there with our signs to cheer him on. The picture on the bottom left is Bridget joining him the last little bit before the finish line. She's been begging to run a "Kids K" for months now, so we hoped this would make her happy until we can get her signed up for one at some point in the future. And the large picture is, of course, after it was finally over.
He said his biggest issue during the race was that the arches in his feet cramped up - something he'd never experienced before and didn't know what to do about it.

I'm proud of him for finishing, although I wish he'd keep his promise that it was his first and last. Oddly enough, he started talking about doing another one in the future less than 24 hours after finishing this one. So much for that promise! Then he changed his promise to not doing another one while we have little kids.

Way to go Nate!

First Preschool Field Trip

Today Bridget got to go with her preschool class on their first field trip of the year, and Nate took the day off to go with her. They went to a nearby farm that had all sorts of activities for the kids, and they even got lucky and had beautiful weather (mid 80s) - almost too hot actually.

In the picture below Bridget's showing off the pumpkin she picked out to bring home from the pumpkin patch, taking a turn down one of the many slides, riding on the train, and running around the kiddie corn maze.
One of the other favorite activities they had there was this giant inflatable pumpkin bounce house.
They had several animals for the kids to look at - llamas, donkeys, peacocks - to name a few. Sadly, it wasn't a petting zoo though.
She had such a great time (and even Nate enjoyed it minus the sunburn he got on the top of his head from not wearing a hat).

Half Marathon #2

One of our big events this month was Nate completing his 2nd half-marathon. This time it was the Ogden course which comes down Ogden Canyon and ends in downtown Ogden. With the crazy cold and wet spring weather we've had this year, we got lucky with perfect weather that day which I'm sure many people were grateful for.

Nate's goal was to run it in under 2 hours, but having a newborn in the house along with the less than favorable weather this spring made training much more difficult for him the past few months. He did improve upon his time a little from the Layton half-marathon he ran in the fall, so that's definitely something to be proud of. He also seemed to recover better this time around. This time he finished in 2:10:09. That's 2 minutes 1 second faster than his Layton half time.
I also have to give myself props for making it to the finish line by 8:50 AM with both girls to watch him finish. Getting up that early as a sleep-deprived mother of a newborn and getting all three of us ready by myself was no easy task.

Way to go Nate!

By the way, you'll notice I'm not in the family photo, and that was on purpose. I may have gotten us to the race, but I didn't want any lasting evidence of how I looked that morning.

I should also mention how much Nate's example has influenced Bridget. She's decided she wants to run a "kids' k" this summer, so we're hoping to find one for her to do. She informed us that she needs to get some running clothes like Daddy and some Powerade to give her more power to run.

First Business Trip to New Brunswick

This past week marked a first in our marriage. In the nearly 5 years we've been married, we'd NEVER spent a single night apart from each other. A lot of people think that's weird or crazy, but that's just the way it is. Anyway, we can no longer make that claim because Nate had to go on a business trip to Saint John, New Brunswick and was gone for 4 days. In case you're not exactly sure where that is, it's on the southern border if you look at the map below:
I've spent the last 6 weeks dreading this trip for several reasons: I'm very near the end of my pregnancy, and if something happened while he was away, he probably wouldn't have been able to make it back in time. Single-parenthood is a lot of work. Trying to get myself and Bridget ready and out the door before 7 am in the mornings was going to be a huge challenge alone. And last but not least - I would miss Nate and the feeling of safety I have when he's home.

We did survive, but I'm so glad it's over with. The days were fine, it was just the nights and getting ready in the morning that were a little rough. Here's the highlights of how it all played out:

DAY 1: Nate left the house at 4:30 am to drive to the airport for his 6am flight. It took him nearly all day to get to his final destination for that night - Bangor, Maine (also pictured on the map above). Bridget and I had a pretty laid back day together because it was President's Day. My awesome friend Emily came over for a play date with her daughter to help cheer me up. Also, Bridget came down with her millionth cold of winter over the weekend, but it wasn't too horrible - yet. I also found out late in the day that I didn't have day care for her the next day because the woman who watches her wasn't going to be able to make it home from her weekend trip in time. If I wasn't completely swamped at work with grading and trying to get my long-term sub plans done, I would have just taken the day off the next day. Thankfully, my friend Emily helped me out and watched my sick child for me.

NIGHT 1: Bridget's cold took a big turn for the worse. Between her nose running like a faucet, a fever, congestion, and the worst cough she's ever had, she was up 3 times in the night. I should also mention that one of those times included having to change her PJs and all of her bedding because she wet the bed for the first time in about 4 months.

DAY 2: We made it out the door on time that morning! I felt like the worst mom ever not being able to stay home with my sick child, but I really appreciated my friend helping me out. I spent the rest of the day taking care of Bridget and resting myself. Nate and his co-worker drove the 3 hours from Bangor to St. John that morning and spent the rest of the day in meetings.

NIGHT 2: This was by far the worst part of the whole 4 days. Her cold continued to get worse, so she wasn't sleeping well at all. Between 2-4am she was up almost constantly, not to mention the other couple of times she was up in the night. I think in total I got maybe 5 hours of sleep (which is not nearly enough for me). And she even woke up for the day by 6:15 (not good).

DAY 3: Even though her cold was horrible, I had no option but to take her to daycare (not that it matters too much considering most of the other kids have colds already). We made it there on time and after I picked her up, we had a pretty lazy day together including naps for both of us. Nate was in Saint John until the afternoon, and then they drove back to Bangor that evening.

NIGHT 3: This night was the best of the three, and she was only up a couple of times for a quick trip to the bathroom, and her cough seemed to finally be a little better. I actually didn't feel exhausted when I woke up that morning.

DAY 4: I could hardly wait for Nate to get home that afternoon. We made it out the door again on time (I was so proud of how well we did with this all 3 days), but it was hard to wake her up that morning because she was so tired. By the time she woke up from her nap that afternoon, Nate was home, and we were both so glad to have him back.

All I have to say about that experience is that I'm grateful for technology and being able to talk to Nate on the web camera every night. I also don't know how single parents do it. I know that there will probably be future business trips, and by then we'll have more than one child. But hopefully, I won't have the stress of working outside of the home to deal with because that would make it a lot easier. By the way, Bridget slept through the night completely Nate's first night back. Grrr...not fair.

November Happenings

Since I've let a whole month go by without a single post, here's a long one with all of our excitement.

At the beginning of the month, Nate celebrated another birthday. I won't mention how old he turned because that would be rude, but it's way more than the number of candles pictured in his birthday pie. We started the day off with Mother's Crunchy French Toast (a recipe from a delicious restaurant in Portland). Later that day we met up with my sister Jessica, brother-in-law Matt, and nephew Colin for dinner at Mi Ranchito before heading back to their apartment to eat Nate's birthday pie - Black Bottom Peanut Butter Pie (also a recipe from Mother's Bistro).
Another fun happening we had this month was getting rid of Nate's 2-door car and upgrading to a 2008 Honda Pilot EX. With the upcoming expansion of our family, we needed something that will hold 2 car seats more comfortably and still have plenty of cargo room for road trips. It was great timing too because days after we bought it the snow storms started, and it's been great for driving in bad weather. The picture below is one I stole off the internet, but it's our same car - Aberdeen Green (basically a metallic grayish green).
For Thanksgiving this year, we didn't have to travel anywhere because several of my family members came to us, and we hosted at our house. The night before, we got together with my extended family for dinner and then headed to Nate's extended family's for their traditional pie night.

Nate and my brother, being the avid runners that they are, signed up for a 10k Turkey Trot Thursday morning. They (along with my cousin Steve) were crazy enough to run that far in 14 degree weather! At least it wasn't snowing.
The entire Thanksgiving feast was prepared in my kitchen. Thankfully, it's a good size, but I was really wishing I had 2 ovens, a 6-burner stove, and a larger refrigerator. The picture below is one I stole from my sister Jessica off Facebook (thanks Jessica). My brother, Mark, is the one peeling potatoes in the background while I'm rolling out my roll dough. And in case you are wondering, I only made the chocolate mint pie on the right. Megan and Jessica made the pumpkin and apple pies. It was great to have so many of my family members here - Mark, Other Mark, Emily, Enoch, Asher, Megan, Jessica, Matt, Colin, and Nate and Bridget of course.
November is birthday month at our house, so we finished off the month celebrating Bridget's 3rd birthday. Sadly, she had the worst cold she's ever had and was pretty sick during Thanksgiving and her birthday. We started off her special day by letting her open her presents from us first thing that morning. She got a shopping cart, play food, and a sweater. Note to self: Do no let her open birthday presents before breakfast next year because then she just wants to play instead of eat.
For lunch that day, we met up with some of my family for lunch at Paradise Bakery. Mark and Mark even supplied birthday cupcakes and candles since I knew I wasn't going to get her birthday cake made before lunch.
She was so shy about blowing out the candles, so Aunt Megan had to assist.
While she napped that afternoon, I decorated her Curious George birthday cake (homemade chocolate cake with a cookies and cream filling and white buttercream frosting). We'd planned to take her bowling that evening, but her illness and crabby mood made us decide to wait a few days until she's feeling better.
Here's her 3-year-old stats from her checkup at the doctor's office yesterday:
Height: 41" (99th percentile)
Weight: 38 lbs. (94th percentile)
Head Circumference: 20"
She's tall, thin, and basically the size of a 4-year-old.

And finally, Nate really got into putting up Christmas lights this year. He's not one to usually care much about holidays, so he surprised me with his festiveness. Here's our very green house:
All in all, November was a pretty good month for us. Baby girl #2 is also still doing well, and everything looked perfect at her anatomy scan we had at the beginning of the month.

Nate's 1st Half Marathon

Yesterday, Nate ran the Layton Half Marathon - his first of what he hopes will be several half or full marathons. He started training for this goal 5 months ago and has also shed 30 pounds in the process! His goal for the race was to finish in 2 hours, and he was close with a finish of 2:12:09.7. To break down the stats, that's 189th (of 395) overall; 92nd (or 137) male; and 24th (of 34) for his age division.

While waiting for him to cross the finish line, I'm sad to say I didn't get the best picture. I wasn't sure what he was wearing because he left our house in the dark early morning, and when he came around the final corner I had my camera out but got all flustered and didn't get the lens cover open in time. Bridget broke it a while back and I forgot to manually open it all the way, so here's the resulting picture:

And there he is just a few feet away. It's funny because he didn't actually hear us cheering him on and ran right by us because he was so in "the zone."

A family shot including the medal. Ooooo....ahhhh.

I love Bridget's cheesy grin in this shot. We'll just forgive Nate's expression since he was exhausted. Bridget liked Nate's "necklace" and wanted to keep it for herself.

And here's the rest of the cheering squad - my cousin Amanda and Aunt Jennine.

I'm so proud of Nate for his accomplishment. He ran the entire thing except for 2 very brief walks to drink water at the aid stations along the way. We can't wait to cheer you on at your next race sometime next spring!

Jessica's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, we went to SLC to spend the day with my sisters (Megan and Jessica) and my brother-in-law (Matt) to celebrate Jessica's birthday. It was a gorgeous day outside (70 degrees) and very windy, so we went to the park to fly some kites. Nate and Uncle Matt did a great job teaching Bridget how to fly the kite.

In fact, they did such a good job she was doing it by herself before too long. It was just too bad her attention span was so short that she would just drop it and walk away after a minute or two.
Can you believe she's not even 16-months-old yet?
She loves to steal my sunglasses.

Can you blame her? She looks so cute in them.

And here's the birthday girl with the Barbie birthday cake she requested I make for her. Apparently 21 is not too old for such a cake.

The rest of the festivities included making and eating homemade personal size pizzas (sorry no pics of that) and eating cake with homemade ice cream. Yum!