"Dadda"

I totally forgot to mention Austin's accomplishment until I read my friend's blog about her daughter's first word. Austin said "Dadda" before, but it seemed like it was in passing and he wouldn't repeat it, though I think he did know what he was saying since we were on our way to mine and Jason's room...

This last time, however, I know he knew what he was saying. He and I were in my room putting clothes away and we heard the front door open and Jason step inside (of course I only thought I heard it since it was about two hours before he usually comes home and I was highly doubtful that he was home early). The only reason I even went down to see if it was Jason was because Austin said, "Dadda!" and started to run for the stairs! It was so cute and unexpected, and also unexpected that Jason really was home 2 hours early! This was a couple of weeks ago and I was just about to pick up my dad from the airport, so I totally forgot to mention it here!

We were trying to capture his shiner that he got the other day, but it's hard to see unless his eye is closed, but you can see it is slightly swollen. It's totally purple on his eyelid, but I'm not about to risk waking him up when he's sleeping, so here you go!

Doughnuts and Cider

If you're ever in Michigan in the fall, the tradition is to visit a cider mill and get apple cider and doughnuts. There are many in the area, we usually go to Plymouth Orchards. This time, we were able to take my dad and his wife, who just got off their mission where they served in the mission office of their local mission in Southern California. They happened to be here at the right time for this fun tradition that we do every year.

The one we go to happens to have animals to see and great picture set-ups for the season. They also have a wagon ride through the orchard, but it wasn't running when we went. No big deal, I'm sure we'll go again soon!

Austin really liked the cider!
Powder- Victoria's favorite!

Mmmm! Sugar and cinnammon!

Marathon Update

So I found out that I placed 19/107 for my age group of women and 138/704 women total. I guess that's not too shabby!

26.2 Baby!

After months of training I finally got to run the Air Force Marathon! It was such a thrill! I did not do as well as I had hoped, but I will blame that on the fact that I didn't really train the last four weeks, due to some injury. I tried to keep it on the down-low, so as not to worry certain people in my family. I don't know what caused it, or even exactly what it was. At first I thought I pulled a groin muscle, but after not running for two weeks, and it still hurt to run after that, I figured it couldn't have been a pulled muscle. The last two weeks I ran a couple of short runs and it still hurt, but I felt like I wanted to try the marathon to see how I would feel. I took some ibuprofen and felt fairly good most of the run. I could feel my injury the whole time, but it really didn't bother me until mile 20, then after seeing my family at mile 22, my quads were feeling like they were going to burst, so I slowed down quite a bit then. I always heard that the "wall" was more mental, but mentally I felt pretty good. I knew I could make it to the end. My legs were the things that hit the "wall".

My favorite parts were all the rock bands playing at certain points throughout the race, the crowds cheering me on (especially through the small town of Fairborn), seeing my family, and seeing the finish line, and of course crossing it! Even though I would have liked to have come in sooner then 4:12, I'm just glad I could finish it, considering my injury. Thanks to all who supported me on this craze!

Mile 22 Finished!

The Playground

The big project this summer was building a new playground for our backyard. The old one was fun, but one of those metal, old-style ones, that had huge spaces between the very tall ladder up to the slide that required just a little too much parental supervision for toddlers. Not to say that I don't need to supervise with our new one, but I feel more comfortable with Austin climbing the stairs for the slide on this one by himself.

We found this one at our local grocery store back in May, $100 off the original price. After having looked for months on craigslist, etc., for the perfect playground, we found this that beat out everything else. Jason started building it in mid-July after his classes got out and the World Cup was over. Actually, he started building the border that he made for it then. He didn't actually start building the playground until late-July. Of course it took more time than we had planned (he says he knows why it was such a good price), but I think personally think it was worth it and the kids agree.

One thing that added to the length of time this project took was putting the border around and then killing the grass within it. We decided that since we have more than a quarter acre of a yard, which takes a fair amount of time to mow, and we didn't enjoy mowing around the other playground, that this would be a good solution. We have a little less grass to mow, we don't have to mow in and out of swings, a slide, and a playhouse, and we won't have parts of the yard with half grass/half dirt (ie. the parts of the grass that get run down from swings and slide).

So we laid down landscaping fabric, 3 yards of sand, and 5 yards of mulch. Now, 1 1/2 months later, we have our playground! Even better, we didn't have a chance to get rid of the old one yet, so we have our own park which all the neighborhood kids enjoy!

Here's the chicas enjoying watermelon at the picnic table right after the base was set up.
Austin has become a huge fan of the slide!!
Karissa likes both swings (it does come with two"big kid" swings, but since she can't pump yet this works for now so Austin can swing too). Austin just climbed up the ladder by himself and was very proud!

Victoria enjoys the see-saw, but especially loves the regular swing! She swings on it whenever she gets a chance, even when it's getting dark out and she's by herself! She also enjoys the monkey bars.
Here's what it looked like after we put the sand down.
Here's the playhouse, which everyone loves to "decorate" with chalk, something they couldn't do on the metal one, which can kind of be seen in the background.

All done!
We even re sized the sand box to fit inside the mulch area. Jason just finished making the cover for it tonight.

First Day of School

Tuesday was Victoria's first day of kindergarten. Though she was ready in terms of supplies, I don't know if she was ready mentally. Not that all of her hard work at the charter school for Fantastic 5's didn't pay off last year, it's just that she was enjoying dinking around, especially in the morning.

The day before school, instead of talking about going to see her new teacher we had just met, or seeing the friends she already knew were in her class, or even talking about being nervous, she woke up in an imaginary world of her own.

She woke up early, which I was happy about since she's going to am kinder. I told her to get dressed and eat so she could practice for the next day. She looked at me kind of funny, then proceeded to put on an hour, or so, long production of her "wedding day" including dressing up with a veil and everything! My mom and I even hummed the Wedding March for her, which was the only acknowledgement I gave to her "special day". She even had Karissa as her flower girl. After breakfast, which I forced her to eat, she "gave birth" to Froggie, her baby. The rest of the day she was his mom. Doing all the things she said a good mother would do. She kept asking me if she was a good mother and I kept telling her "sure, but I want you to be a daughter right now and help me with this...."

She was absolutely, totally oblivious to the fact that school was starting the next day, or at least she didn't even care. She was just in this other world, not even interacting much with me or my mom, her BFF, which is very unlike her for at least part of the day.

The next morning when I told her it was time to get up and get dressed, etc., she wasn't very happy. We had an argument about what to wear and of course about moving faster. Last year she wore a uniform, which now I'm wishing she still had to wear one! Her outfit was cute, but she was shivering in the strappy shirt she chose to wear with her short shorts, until I made her put a shirt under the first one.

Here's the first day, once she got warm and could smile again. Here's the second day in front of school, as I forgot to bring the camera to school the first day.

The plus side is, she loves her teacher already and always says how fun her class is, as I'm sure it is since there are more "toys" in it than in her class last year! Also, I love being able to drive there in 5 minutes or walk in 20 minutes, slow pace.

Karissa's first day of preschool was on Wednesday. We are doing an at-home preschool swap with 7 other moms once a week. She was really excited to carry a back-pack and "go to school" even though it was at her friend's house. She got to bring the mystery bag this week and brought her bear Beary in it to share. She is the oldest by a long shot in her group, but I think it will be good for her.

Missionary Mom

My mom is here visiting this week. This is her last hurrah before she and her husband go on a mission to Geneva, Switzerland for two years. She's been teaching the kids French, which has been fun for us all.

Here's some of the activities we've been doing:

Roller skating

The zoo (Austin doesn't like to part with his Mama)

They got to hold guinea pigs at the nature center at the zoo.

They also got to paint their own faces, obviously, and create a "habitat" for the animal they pretended to be.