First Annual Kid's Fun Run

As my blogging audience knows, I have a great friend named Kirsten. This girl is amazing and has fun, unique, and inspirational ideas! This week, she pulled off the First Annual Kid's Fun Run. Kirsten had the idea to put together a race for kids of all ages. She put a lot of thought and time (and money) into doing it and it was so great! She scouted out a local park and found different distances for different ages to run. She made black and white checkered flags to line the course and made this great "starting" line.

We all gathered for instructions (for example - no pushing, no shoving, cheer everyone else on, etc.) and then Beth helped all the kids get stretched out.




We started with the "1 and 2 year old" division. The little kids, with their little legs, were so cute. Then there was the "3 year old" division. Kate got up to the starting line and took off, basically prancing, when Kirsten said "go." They had a pretty good size loop to do, but to our surprise, Kate ran the whole way and did a great job. She had a big smile on her face the whole time too.

Kirsten getting the 3 year olds ready to start

Lindsey guiding Kate to the finish line

The next division was "4 and 5 year olds" and Jack participated in this one. He was super excited and took off with the pack. They did the same loop that Kate's division did and Jack also ran the whole way. When he started coming down the last stretch, I could see that he was coming first and was a pretty good distance in front of the others. I could sense the pride that Jon had as he watched Jack run really well. (Jon loves running and even coached cross country & track for 3 years). Jack was super excited!

I love this picture - what a happy runner!

The final division was "6 years old and up." Emily and Lindsey ran in this race and both did a great job as well. This group had to run a bigger loop. They finished pretty close to each other. Everyone had such a great time, it was a beautiful evening and such a fun way to show kids how exercise can be a lot of fun. After all the races, Kirsten had made gold medals for all the kids and we all got to enjoy yummy popsicles and playing at the park. Kirsten - again, thank you for such a fun Family Home Evening!!!

Hannah - 9 months

Can this baby really be 9 months old already??!! Oh, Hannah! Where do I begin? You are just the sweetest little baby ever and such a great blessing in our lives!

Hannah's Stats

19 lbs. 2 oz (55th percentile)

28 inches (70th percentile)

92nd percentile for head size

Abilities: crawling (already!), pulling self up to couch (already!), walking along the couch (already!), heart-melting smiles, eating table food despite having no teeth yet, patiently accepting all the love given by her siblings, snuggling with blankie while sucking on binkie and getting super excited when daddy gets home from work or when Emily and Lindsey get home from school.

Disabilities: only way to get down from standing by the couch is to fall over, hates baby food (except rice cereal), and seems to love to eat paper, cardboard, and rubberbands.

Things I Never Want to Forget About Jack - Age 5

This little boy is such a joy! We all love Jack so much! He's at such a fun age right now, so I wanted to record some things that I love most about him.

1. He's our child most concerned about our upcoming move to Utah. He is easily reassured though that we'll be taking all of our stuff (or at least what will fit on the truck). He also truly believes that he and Jon will be roommates. I guess he figures that since we're making changes any way, that it's about his turn to have Jon sleep in the same room as he does. He believes they will sleep on bunkbeds - Jon on bottom, Jack on the top- and that they'll talk about basketball and soccer every night.

2. He is in love with soccer right now. He asks every day how many more days until his next game. He's really come out of his shell and goes right after that ball. We love watching him play and the excitement that runs through his skinny little legs.

3. Whenever he runs, he has to pull up his pants every few seconds.

4. About once a day, he'll blurt out "I love you, mom!"

5. When we're driving in the car and we drive by a car that is waiting to turn out of a driveway, he says "Good block, mom!"

6. He plans on marrying Brynlee Rasmussen and being a baseball player when he grows up.

7. He asked the other day if he'll be an old man some day. When I told him "yes", he then asked if his friend Jake Nadauld would be an old man some day too. When I told him "yes" he got really excited that he and Jake could be old men at the same time.

8. Jack has a great smile and is such a little buddy. He's my child that will stay right by my side in a crowded mall or walking into a store. He's dependable, sweet, happy and such a wonderful part of our family. He puts up with a lot of girlness in our house and he's so happy that he has his dad to wrestle with and play with. We love you Jack!

Happy Birthday Becky!

Today is my baby sister's 23rd birthday!!!! I am the oldest child in our family, then there were 3 brothers and then this beautiful baby girl joined our family! I was almost 12 when Becky was born and was so excited to have a sister. She is full of talent, beauty, love, goodness, and humor! Becky has always worked hard at whatever she did and has been successful because of that. She is such a great friend, daughter and sister! She's so great with my kids and they all adore her so much. All kids love Becky! They all call her "Aunt Becky."

Happy Birthday!! I love you more and more every day!!

Easter

Yeah - I am back! Last week was so busy, so it's good to finally be able to blog about Easter. I was frantically trying to finish 2 quilts for the girl's teachers (I found out that I needed to get them to my quilter much quicker than I thought - pictures to follow!), I spoke in Church yesterday, it was my turn for Kate's preschool group, plus all of the regular day-to-day events of our lives....so, FINALLY...here are the Easter pictures.

We had a great Easter this year! The weather finally warmed up and was beautiful for all of the fun events.

Easter Egg Hunts & Decorating

The kids were excited to do 2 Easter Egg Hunts this year. There was an Upper Arlington one at Lane Road Park. Jon took the four oldest kids over. He said there was a ton of candy spread out all over, but even with dividing kids into different age divisions, all the candy was snatched up within about 40 seconds. The kids were happy with what they got and since it was a week before Easter, they loved having candy early.

The following Saturday, Becky Larson had organized an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids in our ward. She had the moms bring over eggs and goodies and she filled the eggs, went to a local Elementary School and put them all over. It was an impressive amount of eggs! The kids had a really fun time gather their eggs and searching for the "golden" egg that had $1 in it. Emily got some candy and then helped the little kids find some, Lindsey gathered her eggs and then started giving it away to kids that didn't have quite as much, Jack got as many eggs as we'd let him and wouldn't let anyone touch them, and Kate floated around finding her few eggs. It was really fun to be with so many of our great friends!! (Thank you Becky for the fun Egg Hunt!).

Hannah's idea of "hunting" was to just sneak some out of the other kid's baskets

We came home and while Jon went for a run, the kids and I dyed eggs. (In all honesty, for me, egg dying is like carving Jack-O-Lanterns - soooo much work, soooo much mess, and sooooo stinky!). The kids had a fun time waiting for their eggs to turn colors and it turned out to be a really fun time to just visit with the kids.

Easter Morning

The kids had a fun time finding their Easter baskets on Easter morning. Emily and Lindsey helped me fill and hide them and it was fun to see them feel so grown up. We got ready for and went to Church (unfortunately Jon had to work). Church was great and it's such a blessing to be able to celebrate the life, Atonement and resurrection of our Savior.

Easter Dinner

We had the Rasmussen's and Johnston's over for dinner for our traditional Easter dinner. We had ham, baked potatoes, Jell-O beans, rolls, creamed corn, cooked carrots and Bunny Cake and Cupcakes for dessert. Holidays are so fun with these great families and we loved being all together. Kirsten let the kids decorate the bunny cakes and they had a blast. One turned out just like a bunny, the other was just covered in candy and they called it a "one-of-a-kind" cake. It all tasted super yummy and it was a treat to all be together.

Kirsten's amazing bunny cupcakes (the bunny's feet are sticking up out of the dirt)


10 great kids!!!! Hannah was grabbing both cakes with her hands and making the kids laugh. You'll also notice that the cake Lindsey is holding is sliding to the ground. Kate and Karli also ended up with matching skirts (Hannah had one too but it had already needed to be changed). Wow! We love these kids!!!

Easter Family Home Evening

On Monday night, we had our Easter lesson in FHE. We talked about the last week of the Savior's life and His Atonement, Death and Resurrection. The kids did a pretty good job paying attention and it's always amazing to hear about that week. We ended by cracking open an egg that we had blown out, to show that the tomb was empty on that first Easter morning.

Favorite TV show

Any guesses on what tv show the kids like?

Going to Daddy's work

Okay - I just had to eat a quick bowl of cereal (because of staying up so late) - and thought I'd hurry and blog about what happened tonight. It was a normal Saturday and a normal bedtime. Jon and I were on our way to bed when Hannah woke up and sounded croupy. (Ah, again! Our third child within about a month with croup). Jon took her outside to try to help her breathe better but it didn't seem to help at all. We had some steroid medication left from Jack's croup, so we gave her that, but felt like we should still take her in. We called the Larson's and Doug came over to sleep on the couch (thank you again so much Doug!!!), Jon and Doug gave her a blessing and we took Hannah in.

The nurses and attending were so great and helped us through pretty quick. They took several chest x-rays of her, just to make sure she hadn't aspirated anything. She is scooting all over the place now and I get things out of her mouth all day long (including a dime this week). We tried to give her some breathing treatments while we were there, but they just seemed to make her more upset. The X-rays looked clear and her breathing became much better, so we were able to take her home.

It was kind of fun to see where Jon works (although he's at Children's Hospital just occasionally now). I don't know how he does it. The staff sure like him there though and got a kick out of seeing Hannah. He has to be up in just a couple of hours to be back at the ICU. Poor guy! But, anyway, we're so grateful that Hannah is okay!

Cute pictures

While Becky was here last week, she took some cute pictures of the kids. She just took a photography class and takes really cute pictures (all the pictures from our spring break trip are from her camera). Here are some of the highlights....