Swim Lessons, Cache Valley Weather, Emma Smith...

So, yes, this post is really three posts all mixed into one. I have been having thoughts about posting these for the past few days and thought I would just slap them all together and get it over with!

SWIM LESSONS...
Here are some pictures of Gavin and I at swim lessons. He has been doing really well in the water. He gets pretty distracted with the basketball hoop though! This kid LOVES basketball already! He points to it and wants me to lift him up so that he can touch the net. When I do he gets so excited and squeals and kicks his legs! He says "Buh Ball" (for basketball).

It is cute except for the fact that we are supposed to be working on swimming! So I found him a little basketball hoop that we put up at our house so that maybe the novelty of basketball will wear off for him and he might concentrate more on swimming when we are at the pool! We will see I guess. Spencer and Jaimee are in our class and it is nice to have someone we know there!

CACHE VALLEY WEATHER...The other morning for the half-marathon training I was supposed to do 3 miles of cross training so I decided to go for a bike ride for part of it. As I was riding along I found it ironic that the song I was listening to was Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun" and this is what my surroundings looked like...

I seriously took this picture from my cell phone! Honestly! It's April! Let's have a little sunshine!

EMMA SMITH...
My mom and I went to see the movie "Emma Smith: My Story" yesterday. I thought it was really good and I learned new things about Emma that I didn't know before. Has anyone ever heard the song "Emma" from the "Joseph, A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet" CD? It is so good! Seeing this movie reminded me of that song. Here are some of the lyrics (Written by Jason Deere):

"With the world on your shoulders

When the nights had grown colder

You seemed to weather every storm

With a queen’s grace

When you lost your husband

When you buried your children

I’m sure the angels stood in reverence as you prayed

How much can one heart take?"

I am always amazed at all of the things Joseph and Emma went through. I can't imagine losing one child and they lost 6 (I think! Correct me if I am wrong.) They had such amazing strength and courage and I am SO glad they did!

WOW! 2 posts in one week...must be a new record for me!

Our Trip to Willow Park Zoo...

Gavin and I took a little trip to Willow Park last week. It was a pretty nice day so we were excited to get out of the house for a little while. We ate lunch, played on the playground and walked around to see the animals. He loved all of the animals, but he especially liked the ducks! It was so cute because he knows quite a few words in sign language and when he would see a duck he would get a big smile on his face and do the sign for 'duck'. He was so excited.

Snowmobile Hill Climbs...

On Saturday Brent, Gavin and I went up to Beaver Mountain to watch the snowmobile hill climbs. It was awesome! It was pretty cold, but then there would be those moments where the wind would stop blowing and the sun would shine to keep us warm for a few minutes! It was a pretty day and we had a good time. One of our neighbors and his family compete, so it was cool to see them in action!

In this picture Gavin is eating a french fry and he loves them! So Brent dipped one in ketchup and he loved it even more!

Here he is reaching for another fry. I think he ate more fries than Brent did!

Brent and Gavin enjoying the action! And yes, Gavin is eating yet another french fry. We'll fatten this kid up one way or another!

Oh yeah, just a little up-date...I started babysitting two mornings a week for a family in our neighborhood. They have seven kids, and I watch the two youngest boys: Brandon is 4 and Braden is 2. I am going to babysit them for 2 months. It has been pretty interesting so far! More than anything I did this because I knew it would be good for Gavin and for me. Right now I am trying to come up with fun activities to keep the 4 year old entertained! Any suggestions?

I also signed Gavin up for swim lessons two nights a week. It is a "Mommy and Me" class where I am in the pool with him. We have only had two lessons but it has been good so far! And Gavin seems to enjoy it. He just loves getting in the water! He has done really well with all of it. Even getting dunked! My only challenge is trying to keep him focused! He gets so distracted with the basketball hoop! I will have to post some pictures later.

Add training for the half-marathon to all of this and my life has become pretty hectic! But it is good for me. Builds character, right? We'll see!

Here are some late Easter pictures!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

I am slow in posting these, but I'm going to do it anyway!

My boys doing some building with Gavin's blocks...
(Okay, this wasn't from Easter, but I thought it was cute so I'm posting it anyway.)

Gavin attacking Brent...

Learning how to hunt for Easter eggs... "Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters" (If anyone can name that movie I will be so proud!) Me and my awesome sister Ronda...

I love this kid...

The End!

One of Gavin's new favorite things...

CHEESE!

It looks like I posed him or something in this picture! But he was seriously standing like this looking out the window at the cars passing by.

Thanks Brian and Jaimee!

Okay, so as usual I am really slow at posting these pictures!

But here goes anyway...

The story behind these is that training for this half-marathon can be a bit challenging sometimes! For instance, one day last week we were supposed to run 7 miles and I was trying to figure out how and when to do that. Well, Brian and Jaimee came to my rescue! We came up with a plan and it ended up that Gavin and I went to stay at their house the night before so that Jaimee and I could get up at the butt crack of dawn (pardon the expression, but mornings and I do not get along!) to go run our 7 miles while the boys were still asleep and Brian was home to listen for them. It is really nice when I am able to get up early and get the training done for the day and this was even better because I had Jaimee there with me to encourage me! Jaimee, you're awesome. I am so glad we are doing this together.

Later in the day I was able to watch Spencer so that Jaimee could run a few errands. It was fun to play with Gavin and Spencer and see how they are so alike and yet so different in so many ways! (Just like their dads...hmmm!)

Here's a cute picture of the boys playing with the Baby Einstein! It was so cute because as Gavin was playing inside Spencer would pull it around in circles. They were both thorougly entertained!

I love this picture because if you look at Spencer's face and then look back at Gavin's they are both doing this weird thing with their lips!

Also, Brian and Jaimee had two huge bean bags in their basement and they decided to get rid of one and give it to us! It is so great! We used to have a big old bean bag in our home theater room (actually it was Chuck and Ginger's that we were storing for them) but when they moved they stole it back! We have missed it and there was a big empty space in the middle of the floor. We are pretty darn excited to have another one!

Well Gavin and I had a wonderful time hanging out at their house. (I mean, who wouldn't?!) Thanks guys! Thanks for everything! We love ya!

Here's Brent and Gavin breaking in the new bean bag while watching the Jazz game on the big screen!

My muscles are mad at me...

Hello everyone. Just a little up-date on what's been going on with my goals. I am still training for the half-marathon (which takes place in SLC on Saturday, April 19th). It has been really great to be able to train with Jaimee and Rachel. Thanks guys! They sure help me out a lot with babysitting and what not. It is awesome to have such a wonderful support system! I also must mention what a great help Brent has been. He has helped me out so much with taking care of Gavin so that I can train. Thanks honey!

So, the other day my bishop's wife asked me to come play in the region basketball tournament for our ward. I haven't played or practiced with them all year so I was a bit hesitant. I also haven't picked up a basketball in who knows how long! I told her I didn't have a lot of spare time these days because of training for the half-marathon and come to find out she is training for the Boston Marathon! She is amazing. She has six kids and this is her 3rd marathon. Anyway, I decided that if she can do it than I better! So I went to play in the tournament with my ward today and we won both of our games! I was pretty excited because we only had 5 players at each game so nobody could sub out and we still won! Wahoo! Go team! I must admit it was good to play ball again. (If only I could make those darn foul shots!) I was supposed to run 4 miles today for my training, but I decided (and Brent and Jaimee agreed) that running up and down the court for two games would suffice! And it definitely did! I am so sore! Also because I rode my bike for 2 miles and did a core secrets work-out video yesterday. That also has a lot to do with the sore muscles!

I am also still reading the Book of Mormon and trying to finish by May 10th. I'm not as far as I should be, but I am just glad that I have kept with it! I try to read everyday, but if I can't read everyday I don't give up and that's what used to set me back! In our class we learned that we have different programs running in our minds and sometimes we fail because it is the easy thing to do. I heard somewhere the other day that the first two letters of GOAL are GO, so you can write things down and set goals all you want, but until you take action you won't get very far.

Okay, so I wrote the previous stuff a while ago, saved it and now I am just getting around to finishing this post! We played our second basketball game last night and we lost 28-24. So we are done with church ball for the year! It was fun and I'm glad I played. Well, I best be off to bed since I'm supposed to get up at 6:30 am and go running!

My boys...

Here are some cute pictures of Brent and Gavin

playing the piano...

Brent starting playing and singing"The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Gavin was staring at him like, "Wow Dad, you know this song too?"

"And you can play it on the piano? Impressive!"

Watch this video...it is amazing!