Quiet Riot

The older brother was in his room by the time I took these pictures, but rest assured, he was very much involved in this mess.

So today, I was enjoying a few minutes of sitting down on the couch. Everyone had been fed, chores had been done, no one was screaming "Mine! Baby!" and no one was crying. It was perfect. I even said "Quiet time starts in 3 minutes" and no one complained...that should have been my 2nd warning. My first warning should have been the fact that no one was screaming and no one was crying and I was in the front room and the boys were in the kitchen......having a quiet riot.

I mentioned yesterday how much Baby B likes flour!

 Both boys were quickly put in their rooms for nap time/quiet time. And I decided that I probably should clean up. It felt like about 5 pounds of flour. I love my boys, I love my boys, I love my boys, I love my boys.......

 After sweeping the floor about 5 times, I decided to do something for me- continue decorating. I put up the Alpine trees and got out the Snowcouple. I also put snowberry in the secentsy warmer....I am feeling much better now.

I think I will now go watch "The Biggest Loser"

What happened to November?

Well, it went by in a flash! My ankle has started healing- I can run again but there are times that it still swells a little. All is well though. More on that later. Here are some of the pictorial highlights of the month.

Little B discovered a love for flour- no gluten allergies here, just a great desire to stuff his mouth with handfuls of flour. He is so happy, when he is able to find time alone with the flour bucket, that I just can't be mad at him. Seriously, look at that smile.

I gave my boys haircuts in November- J's hair was getting pretty long. It had been a good 3 months or so since his last haircut.

While I was cutting his hair he started to cry "No, NO cut my hair, me want to be Handsome!", after some reassuring that he would still be handsome he settled down and got a pretty good haircut. I still have problems trimming around the ears, I cut too short.(can't see that here).Someday I am going to be pretty amazing at trimming around the ears, maybe when J is ready to leave for college.

Then there was Ken- the clippers started acting funny while I was cutting Ken's hair- and about half way through they DIED! I sent the half trimmed Ken door to door in our neighborhood looking for working trimmers, after a few minutes he came back. Only problem- I usually use a #1 on his hair- which was half cut, and the new clippers only had guards # 2 and 4. So we decided that Ken would get a pure no guard shave. (though not a Bic close shave). After finishing up Ken's hair we put Baby B on Ken's lap. This was his first official Haircut. I trimmed the baby mullet a month or two ago, but his hair took so long to grow in I was a little sad to actually cut it. I give Jared an allover shave with guard #8 and then I take a #4 to the back and sides. I was planning the same for B but when the only options became #4 and #2- that would still work......

Well, I did the all over shave, I thought to myself, "Wow, his hair is so light it disappears when it is cut this short, and then I went to change the guard and discovered that I had used the shortest guard all over his head! My baby- my baby was the perfect specimen of......of a Jar Head! We decided that since it was the day after Veterans Day, his new haircut was very appropriate.

What a sweet boy he is. I've heard many times that the difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is about 2 weeks. Well, this must have been a really bad haircut, because it's been more than 2 weeks and it's still just a little odd. Someday my baby will have hair again. Someday.

We had a really fun Veterans Day, We went to visit our very own Veteran. Grandpa Turner! My Dad was a Chaplin in the Navy and I am very proud to have been raised as a "Navy Brat", but I am much more proud of my Dad. We went with my Mother and my sister Laurie and her 4 children to visit Dad at the Junior High School where he works as a counselor. We had lunch and then he took us on a tour of the school. It was lots of fun.

I started running again- 2 weeks after spraining my ankle I was given the Okay to run a mile, then 2, then 3. I was ready to run in the Utah Human Race 10k on Thanksgiving, I was WAS ready but about 6 hours before I was supposed to leave to run the race I started having HORRIBLE flu symptoms. I stayed home from the race. By afternoon (and thanksgiving dinner) I was feeling ready to eat. I lost 5 pounds on Thanksgiving day- not typical. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I've gained most of it back. I ran my very own 10k on Saturday, I was still not feeling the best but I did okay time wise.

Ken did our Black Friday shopping, and he did a great job too!

And that- in a nutshell- was November

Christmastime is HERE!

We are feeling the spirit of Christmas around here! Joy is in the air. Yesterday Ken supported me while I put up Christmas lights! YAY!

J (in complete snow gear- for warmth) helped too- here is a picture of him making sidewalk angels. He is ready for snow!

After I finished with the lights and we had dinner and a very fun family home evening- the boys put on some of their new "black Friday" pajamas- we are proud to have two of the newest Space Ranger Cadets in our family. They are TOO CUTE!

And lastly- today J and I set up the Christmas tree. I decided just to put on the star and the red bead garland for now- we will decorate it the week before Christmas. While I was putting the garland on J came up and started singing a song about hugging the Christmas Tree. From his prospective his Mommy was hugging the tree and he thought it was fabulous- what was I really doing? Passing the garland from one hand to the other around the back of the tree. After we were done decorating I went to get the camera, as I came back in the room J sang out "Me LOVE the Christmas Tree!"

I love this time of year.

The Halloween Half Marathon

On Saturday October 29th I ran my 2nd Half Marathon. It was the Provo Halloween Half, costumes were encouraged and so Ken round me some $1 cat ears and I painted my face- those two things combined with my black running clothes made me a wonderful black cat.

My sister Laurie also ran, she was a skeleton. I finished my first half marathon in 2 hours 35 minutes or so, I finished this one in 2 hours 14 minutes! YEAH! Yes, the first 4 miles were ext ream downhill grades, and the rest of it was pretty much downhill as well, but I was told my my doctor on Monday that a 21 minute improvement shows that I was better trained and in better shape- the downhill helped, but not that much. The picture above is of Laurie and me before the race, below you will see me after the race. my nose and whiskers stayed on really well- how? I used water proof Mascara.

I tried very hard to stretch sufficiently but I was pretty sore on Sunday. Monday, Halloween, I was still quite sore but I was getting better. I was excited about how well I had done and I signed up for another half marathon in June and a 10k on Thanksgiving. I was all dressed up in my Halloween Half shirt and I was wearing my medal- I figured Halloween was a day you could wear medals and not have anyone look at you funny. I was on my way downstairs to see if the baby had woken up from his nap, hoping that he was so that I could take the boys to Ken's office and show off their costumed cuteness. I was taken by surprise when I reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs and I heard a POP and felt a horrible, horrible pain. I think I remember looking down and seeing my ankle turned at an odd angle. I do remember that I really felt like I needed to call 911, it hurt THAT BAD! J was on the potty, of course, and he came running when he heard me screaming. I talked him into putting underpants and pants back on, then he brought me the phone and eventually he went to get a neighbor for me. I was able to move myself around and lay on the landing with my leg elevated on the stairs. My neighbor checked on baby B, who had slept through all my screaming, and she brought me pillows and frozen green-beans, to ice my ankle. Ken got home and took me to the insta-care where they took X-Rays and told me that I hadn't broken my ankle, but had sprained it.

Like a true addict I asked the doctor if I was going to be able to run again- especially since I had just registered for a race on Thanksgiving. I was told that I needed to stay off the ankle for 3 days, then I could walk if there was no pain, and then 2 weeks after the injury occurred I could start running again. I was really worried that something was really wrong, I was doing what I was told to do, I was using crutches and elevating my ankle and icing it and keeping it wrapped, yet it was still swelling, weird swelling. I broke down at bedtime on Wednesday, Poor Ken. Thursday was the day that I was supposed to be able to walk, and I just didn't see that happening. But it did! I could walk, with no pain! And so I kind of over did it. So I tried to make sure I still took it easy on Friday and Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday I had my annual physical with our Family Practice Doctor. I am the healthiest I have EVER BEEN, my cholesterol is perfect, in face all my lab tests were great. My blood pressure and heart and lungs were great. I am doing great with my weight loss and I have a firm final goal for my weight- set with my doctor. AND he said that I had torn a ligament (he said which one but I don't remember) and that I shouldn't be worried about it, it will heal. I asked how long it would take to heal and he said about 4 weeks and I said "so does that mean I can't run my race on Thanksgiving?" He smiled. Did I tell you he is a runner- he ran in the Half Marathon I did in August. He told me that I could start jogging next Monday if I promised to take it slow and stop if it hurt and as long as I wasn't suffering too much pain I could run the 10k on Thanksgiving. I have ankle strengthening exercises I have to do. But I am feeling much better today than I was a week ago.

So that is the story of the My Halloween Half and my SCARY Halloween Sprain.

October (as I remember it)

October is a wonderful month, this year it was full of summer temperatures and fall colors. We went out to a pumpkin patch in Erda, with Steve, Melissa and Cousin A, and we had Tons of Fun!

Yep, We're Cute- believe me, even J is cute, distracted, but cute.

Little B really liked the straw, really. (this is how I remember it after all)

J's Preschool went on a field trip to Corn Belly's. J enjoyed driving a tractor....

and Jumping on the GIANT PILLOW, seriously it was HUGE!

and B enjoyed being carried around in the sling.

I tried to get crafty- and also discovered that I can ALMOST take a self portrait- I was trying to set the timer- to my surprise I took a picture.

There- that's better- I got this shirt a couple of years ago, and this year I added some fabric flowers...what do you think?

I discovered that B LOVES to read, in fact I find him quietly studying books and magazines quite often.

I also discovered that B loves to wear hats- and is darn cute in them too.

Halloween got closer and costumes were mulled over. 

They are handsome little devils

Yep- that was October. It was a good month. November's flying by. 

Thankful!

So we made some Turkeys- and I just realized I put them up in the window a little backwards- I shall fix that- I have a little sign that says "Thankful for...." and then we have Daddy Turkey, Mommy Turkey, J Turkey, B Turkey and Cousin Q's Turkey which was our inspiration. 

Q's Turkey is the one there on the far left- he has an eye patch, an ammo belt with plenty of grenades and a gun! Love that Turkey.

Here's a close up. 

I'm thankful for so many things, but Q's turkey makes me happy that I am the Mom of Little Boys!