ta da!

my hair was FINALLY long enough to chop 11 inches off for locks of love. such a great change. my head feels so light! thanks to lindsey for such a wonderful cut!

"we're thankful for hyenas"

Yup. That is what Ryan said in our family prayer last night. Leah hasn't really caught onto the whole praying thing. Once in awhile she'll squint her eyes trying to copy us, but usually she is restless and crying/screaming by the time the prayer is over.

She does, however, love performing her animal sounds for people:

• hyena (laughing)
• fish (lips popping together)
• puppy (panting)
• monkey (ooh ooh ooh-ing)
• snake (hssss-ing)
• lion (hssss-ing...yah, she thinks it's a snake too).

So, in order to please Leah last night, Ryan randomly decided to pray for each of these animals in the prayer. And, after each animal was named, Leah obediently performed the corresponding animal sound...in the middle of the prayer. Needless to say, it made me smile. Prayer time was a happy time last night.

sunday: our lovely flight home

sunday we went to church with ryan's parents. first we went to the wrong ward building (i forget there is more than one LDS church on every street in utah). we finally made it to the right building just a few minutes late. leah didn't last long. the poor thing was tired and teething. we ate dinner at their house and then had ice cream cake (nice choice, Brinn) for Ryan's cousin's birthday...more guilt-free eating. yes! four generations

our flight itinerary:

6:15: got through security perfectly (minus one rogue water bottle from the race i had forgotten about...oops!)

7:00: board plan one time

7:00-7:45: leah screams. loud. nothing we do calms her down.

7:45-8:10: leah falls alseep on the floor by our feet.

8:10: leah tries to roll over and rolls into ryan's foot.

8:10-8:45: maren leans over to rub leah's head and back to try to calm leah down (resulting in an even bigger headache than was previously there) so she can sleep. she dozes on and off for periods of 3-4 seconds, then screams again.

8:45: leah is miraculously all better. giggling. smiling at fellow fliers.

9:00: we land.

it's a good thing airplane windows don't roll down. we thought about it.

saturday: the race is on

so, race day weather was basically perfect. chilly enough at the start to not be miserably hot by the end. there was a bit of wind at the end, but other than that, perfect. i had a goal to run this half in 2 hours or less. i'm not sure if that was a lofty goal as i trained at elevation 50 or something and ran closer to 5,000.

julia, lindsey and i started out awesome. we were totally on track to meet our goal. julia bonked at mile 6 as she had a cold previous to the run. i bonked at mile 10 (my back was killing me!) and lindsey kept going (yay lindsey!). luckily, i found ryan's friend chris at mile 10-something and he was also having a rough time. i finished in 2:11 (which tells you just how slow i ran those last 3 miles), but i still had fun...and that's still my fastest half, so i guess i can't complain.

my superstar mom on the other hand powerwalked that thing in 2:48!!! plus, we got to wear these sweet shirts that say "cancer drools...karen rules" on them. even leah had a onesie ("...grandma rules."). yah, we're cool.

poor leah. we dragged her around everywhere for a week. she was tired. cute, but tired.

we had a yummy breakfast with the wades/hellands after the race...and kelli treated us to a delicious dinner with all of my siblings (minus two spouses) at Asian Star. Then we had sundae's at Chris and Dani's. i love guilt-free eating.

friday: lots of stuff

friday morning my best friend from high school, megan, came over with her darling little girls, rachel and bria. my mom made everyone a yummy, yummy breakfast. rachel was a sweetheart and bria pretty much hated leah. she kept trying to hit her and telling leah to not steal her blanket. gotta love a 2 year old. those girls are so cute! we went outside to take a picture and rachel was playing with a plastic camera my mom had...and decided to take a picture of us taking her picture.

next we had dental appointments with dr. hauley. no cavities for both of us (but my mouth was cleaner...dr. hauley said so). and leah had her very first checkup. dr. hauley said it didn't look like any new teeth were on their way...but they were. the very next day a top tooth popped through!

then we went downtown with ed, lindsey, jona and julia to pick up everything for the race. julia and i were twinners. we totally called each other before and said, "hey, you bring your target purse and navy pants from north carolina and i'll bring mine from california and we'll wear them on the same day." um, no, not really. but we look cute, huh?

ryan and leah took an afternoon nap and i stole away to day murray music (love that store!). then we headed to bountiful to meet up with ryan's high school friends for a carb loading fest (yum, carolee!)...four of us ran the half marathon the next day...and to have the boys drool over reed's new harley. i love these guys. they are so great. and, although i love getting together with them, i'm still glad i didn't know any of them in high school. it probably just wouldn't have worked out. if you want to know why, check out chris and dani's most recent blog post. niiiiiiice, guys.dan, ryan, ben, chris, reed, bryce, dale

thursday: one last run

thursday morning i went on one last run with julia and lindsey before the big race...and we had a great time. ryan took leah to his mom's house to play.

we had dinner with brandon and danielle (yum! thanks, guys!). laneah wasn't so fond of her dad that night and preferred ryan...so brandon adopted sophie the doll for the evening.

wednesday: coats and friends

since tuesday turned out to be so stormy, we were prepared for wednesday. leah wore a coat for the very first time. she had no idea what i was putting on her and could barely put her hands down. the wind was blowing and she wasn't quite sure what to do; she kept gasping for air!

we spent the morning at the ellis's new house in lehi and lots of friends from my provo ward came! it was so much fun to catch up with everyone...and we missed everyone who couldn't make it! i think we got everyone in the picture except jessica and her boys...sorry!

leah loved this game crystal had at her house...a tin can with orange juice lids. we dumped them out and leah put them in one by one...for an hour. she loved it!

and this is laneah...with mr. potato head glasses. she is hilarious.

tuesday: snow?

i knew the weather was going to range from stormy to sunny while we were there, and we packed for it. saturday and sunday were great. monday was BEAUTIFUL: 80 degrees. Tuesday morning was gorgeous. The apricot trees "popped" overnight and the morning was already 60 degrees. I dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops and leah wore a t-shirt and jeans. No jackets necessary. We went shopping with my mom and Kelli. With each store we went to, the sky got cloudier and the air a bit chillier. A few hours after we left, we were driving home in SNOW. Really. It was crazy! Leah had never seen snow before, so we decided to capture the moment.

we spent the evening inside watching Biggest Loser and American Idol. and leah rocked out to the alvin and the chipmunks movie singing "The Witch Doctor." hilarious.

monday: provo

on monday morning, i drove to provo with my friend and old co-worker, amanda, and her 7 month old girl, emmy. we had a great time. emmy was a champ. leah was a bit tired, but held up okay. good thing kelli came with us to help out! we had a great time talking with old co-workers, browsing through the BYU Bookstore and eating at CAFE RIO. yum. yum. yum. hint, hint, California...jump on the bandwagon, please. i go through withdrawals!



i also took the third of three installments of a picture with Kerry Hammock, a counselor i worked with at BYU who was trying to lose some weight. way to go Kerry, you're looking fantastic!!

june 2006

january 2007

(kerry shrunk, i grew)

april 2008

(notice june 2006 picture in background...he has it framed in his office as motivation!! go me!)

p.s apparently, it takes me 22 months to grow my hair long enough for locks of love. good to know! the first picture was taken a day after my last real hairCUT...

utah, we love thee...

so, i spent the last week in utah visiting family and friends and prepping for the salt lake half marathon. i probably won't get to posting everything tonight, but here goes...

the plane ride there was actually quite good. i flew with lindsey and sarah harman and sarah and leah had a great time entertaining each other and stealing each others' toys. lindsey and i were just grateful to have each other for an extra set of hands. all in all, a successful flight with two pretty happy babies.

the flight was pretty empty so leah even got to have her own seat for part of the ride. the only bummer: leah throwing up all of her cookies on me...no that is not an expression. i thought she was eating them, but apparently she was just storing them in her cheeks to use on me later. good thing white shirts bleach well.

rock on

Yes, Ryan and i are rockers. Who knew? We sure didn't. But, we had a great time at the Bon Jovi Lost Highway concert on Tuesday night. I got him the tickets for his birthday and he has been soooooo excited ever since. I haven't ever been a huge Bon Jovi fan, i'll be honest. mostly because i never know who sings any song. not that i don't like them...i just didn't really care that much. but...they are so great live...great performers! not only jon bon jovi himself, but also richie sambora (the guitarist), and the drummer and violinist. i was seriously amazed. plus (mom, you'll get a kick out of this), during one song, the guy who plays the keyboard even whipped out his accordian!! daughtry opened for them and they were really great too!

plus, the wide range of people who were there. this guy was our favorite. at least we think he's a guy since he has a moustache. wow.

oh, and chris and ben, ryan said you guys would have drooled at the concert just looking at the lights and sound equipment they had...i'm sure all three of you have dreamed of equipment like that at some point.

just a great night. let's give a shout out to jeff and sarah who were so nice to watch leah for us.

where does she get it from?

leah pulls the funniest faces. her newest one is a fish face. she won't do it on command or for the camera (that's why this one is blurry), but can be found sporting these sucker lips multiple times throughout the day.

she also loves her tongue...

i have no idea where she gets it from...

p.s. why did no one ever tell me my cheekbones were weapons? that's scary!

uncle scott!

uncle scott just got a new job working for a company whose headquarters are right near our house...so when he came for training last week, we got to play!

we ate lunch on the wharf (mmm...clam chowder in sour dough bread bowls), watched the seals and enjoyed the sunshine. then we trekked up to ghirardelli square to enjoy ourselves some dessert. i'm not sure who enjoyed it more...leah...

or scott...

ryan was a champ pushing the stroller on those famous san francisco hills. no, this picture is not tilted. good thing babies are buckled in, right?

drove on lombard street and SCOTT street...

and got a great view of the golden gate bridge...no fog!

scott also treated us to a yummy italian meal complete with chocolate gelato. mmm...come and visit again, scott!

the evolution of a baby

meet armanie (3 months), leah (13 months) and sarah (7 months). we took a similar picture of these three at our new year's eve party 3 months ago (see lindsey's blog for a slideshow and the original picture) to see babies at 10 days (armanie), 4 months (sarah) and 10 months (leah). here they are three months later...crazy how they grow.