Phases and Stages

Evan is in a stage where:

* this is what happens when I tell him to smile. Is he trying to mock me?


* he can finally go down the stairs without help. Though when the stairs turn, he too turns around and takes the last few facing forward and bum scoots the rest of the way down. Thoroughly entertaining, I might add.

* he wants in on the action. No staying and watching from the sidelines anymore.


Anna is in the stage where:

* she has mad dance skills she is always showing off. Especially after watching 'Shuga Munga Dance So You Think You Can Dance'. Yep. That is what she says. Every. Time.

* if I don't let her help me make dinner, this is what happens. Heaven forbid there be 'down time' for 5 minutes.

* she is a poser

* she only wants to be wearing dresses and skirts - cause, you know, they twirl and she can't be pretty otherwise. Lucky for her, her Grandma Janers whipped her up some new ones while watching her last week.

Please note her pointer fingers are out and so is her tongue.
It seems this is the only way she can dance/twirl. lol.

I am in a phase where:

* girls weekends never get old. This time it was in sunny (and way too hot) St. George with some of my Dixie friends.

the view from Nat's condo

* cooling off involves swimming.

* Beazer taught Natalie and Tiff how to blow bubbles under water so she didn't have to keep yelling at them not to plug their noses.

* I loathe feet. Especially mine and the effects running has had on them. But I couldn't say no to a pedicure with these lovely ladies


* Ross won't touch my feet. But now that the lady doing to pedicure basically re-made my second toenail and made them look semi-presentable, maybe now he will? Please?


* sneaking candy into a movie is still okay to do. Too bad none of us ate any because Inception was pretty intense.

* I understand why there is an obesity epidemic in America. Mmmm. Bear Paw. How I love thee.

Ross is in a phase where:

* he sanded and painted my car by himself (awesome).
* he did the Tour de Donut again :) No pictures of him since I had the camera in the land down South. Sad day.

P.S. Best. Idea. Ever.

Yay For Summer!

We headed up to O-town, as usual, for the 4th of July festivities. We, once again, ran the Huntsville 10k. I really wanted to run Cherry Days (I would get to sleep an extra hour) but alas, they have no 10k. You hear that Cherry Days?! YOU NEED A 10k!

I ran it in 48:22, which I was happy about. My dad and I got 2nd in our age division and John got 3rd - ruining what could have been a beautiful dejavu. Kidding. Bradee even ran the 1 mile fun run. The kid got up at 5:45 and went up there with us. You could not have PAID me to get up early and run when I was her age - she is awesome!

Then we partook of the Huntsville breakfast and headed over to meet up with my husband and children at the Cherry Days parade. Annabelle really got into the concept of gathering the candy being thrown out from the floats...errr trucks. I can hear her and Maddie plotting their ways right now.

Is it just me or are the kids getting candy getting older and more vicious? I swear if Anna didn't down right plop herself on top of the candy then there was no way she was getting any. She would get so excited when she did get candy and almost start to cry every time she didn't. She would walk back to me all super dramatic-like and say, 'I didn't win Mommy!' I was like, listen, it's not a game, they are going to throw more candy and for crying out loud it is TAFFY! You can't even eat the taffy!

Afterwords we had a bar-b-que at my parentals and I got to hang out with my Arizona friend. We skipped out on the fireworks so we could get home and put Evan to bed. This is the sunset right before the fireworks. Craziness. And before you all think I am terrible, we did let Anna stay up and watch the fireworks from our house with us.

Last weekend John and I did our first triathlon of the season. The last one I did was right before I got prego with Evan. I love doing them, but every time I finish I leave with the feeling that if I could just swim I would enjoy it a little better. I am slow. Very slow. No matter how much I practice. So when my goggles leaked water on the right side the entire time, that certainly did not help the situation. I tried to swim and just close my right eye and let the water pour in, but it wasn't working. So I pretty much alternated between that and doing the back stroke. My swim was terrible!


There really were people left in the water after me, I swear. lol. Though probably not many. The look on my face says it all...


I had a hard time with my T1, there was so much mud all over me from the swim and transition. Then you have to carry your bike and try and run in biking shoes out to the rode before you can mount your bike. But the bike was great - hilly - but I felt good. And I was happy that I did not eat it when clipping in and out of my bike - something not too uncommon for me.


The run was on a dirt trail and it went by quickly. I am just glad triathlons end with running. So there were over 700 athletes that participated and 42 people in my age division. I told myself I would be happy if I finished in the top half of my division (when it comes to triathlons, I know I will never place, I have no idea what time I will finish in and frankly I am usually pretty happy that I don't drown) Any who, I finished 16th - goal accomplished. Yay! After the swim, I really wasn't sure what would happen. I also looked at each part and how I ranked out of those 42 people...swimming - 30th!!! Man, I seriously suck. I took 11th out of 42 people on the bike and then FIRST on the run in 23:52. Holla! That almost makes up for how I feel about the swim ;)


Makes me think I should just stick to running. That, or I should take a swimming class and start at Annabelle's level.