Happy 88th!

(Sorry these pictures are gigantic! I'm not sure what I did to them, but I'm too lazy to go change all of them. Hopefully your computer can handle it:)

Friday, January 29 was Dan's Grandma Sellers 88th birthday! One of the most fabulous things about living in Vegas is being close to Grandma and aunt Linda. We have loved being able to spend time with them and really build a relationship that is hard when you live far away.

Linda prepared a delicious feast for the whole gang...

No party is complete without the most annoying noisemakers you can find. I tried really hard to find party hats too, but if you can believe it- Walmart only had Transformer hats. Bummer! Grandma would have looked so cute with a noisemaker and a party hat!!!

Grandma's request for dessert...lemon! Most of you know that I love these little Pepperidge Farms cakes from the frozen section (probably because I could eat a whole one by myself). We had three to choose from...lemon, chocolate and coconut.

Wouldn't it have been great to really have 88 candles?!? Maybe we'll do that next year for #89.

This picture was actually taken a couple weeks ago when Dan's parents were in town for a visit. Dan's mom (Grandma Sherry) is standing in the back, Aunt Linda on the left and Grandma Sellers on the right. Love this picture!

Last (and certainly least) if any of you are interested in seeing some "professional" pictures of my running the race last weekend go HERE. Most of them are pretty hilarious. I either look like I'm crying or about to lay down and die (it was true actually). And little did I know that a tiny section of my belly was hanging out for all to see during most of the race. Pretty funny if you ask me!

Painters Half...

It happened. The half marathon that I've been talking about has come and gone. Saturday, January 23rd was the big day. And what a great day it was (seriously).

Rachelle Abbott, Amanda Parker and I were up and on the road at 5am sharp so we could be in St. George for the 9am start time (plus the 1 hr time change). It had been raining/snowing the night before but was dry and cold for the entire race.

Not making excuses, but I've been fighting an I.T. injury that happened during a short run on New Year's day. As of last Wednesday, I wasn't sure if the race was even a possibility. But after a physical therapy visit, a steroid injection in my knee (administered by he-who-shall-remain-nameless), and some good stretching on a foam roller I was able to make it through the Painter's Half Marathon.

Rachelle and I right before the race...look at all that bright sunshine :)

Rachelle finished at an AWESOME 1hr 55mins and I was trailing along behind (still happy) at 2hrs 12 mins. It was such a great experience and I'm totally up for another one (after my IT heals of course). Following the race we had a GREAT time playing the day away with lunch at Olive Garden, Pier One, Outlets, Movies (w/ popcorn of course), and ice cream on the way home (we had to replace all 1500 calories we had burned during the race :). A huge thank you to Rachelle and Lindsey for a fun lunch! And a huge thank you to my cute hubby for hanging out with the girlies for the day (lets just say the 'Squeakquel' was on their list).


And this perfect little note was waiting for me when I got home...

And your deep thought for the day is:

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired." George Patton, 1912 Olympian

Disney...

So I just got online and read about the "Disney Day of Service" program they have going on right now. If you haven't read about it you should!!!

It's not a buy one get one free sorta deal...if you give service with one of their participating organizations you get a free day at Disney. Even kids over the age of 6 are eligible.

I checked out Las Vegas and there were 5 pages of organizations that are participating with Disney's Day of Service.

As far as I understand...our ENTIRE family can go to Disney for FREE after we go give our day of service! What a great opportunity to get involved in the community at the same time. We are TOTALLY doing it!!!

Just saying...you might want to be one of the first million people to check it out because I know a good stopping place on your way to California!!!

Contrary to what you might think...

We did celebrate Christmas this year. It just takes me forever to post things these days...why is that??? And contrary to what you might think...we did spend some great quality time with the Norris family, I just failed to take any photos of our time over there. But we love them A LOT just the same. I'll do better next year...

Christmas nativity scene...Cute Sadie kept whispering something in donkey Dan's ear over and over. At the end we asked Dan what she was saying and he told us she didn't say a word the entire time she just kept breathing really heavy in his ear :)

Every year for as long as I can remember we've had a talent show. We used to participate in the show but now we just take pictures of our kids showing off their talents. KayLynn took this picture and I thought the effect was so cool. James was showing us how fast he could stack his cups...I think we'll all agree that is pretty dang fast!!!

Kallie and Syd singing the "12 Dogs of Christmas"...each day was a different dog and on the 12th day "my true love gave to me...a CAT!" They learned it in choir class at their school. Notice their "NEW YORK" shirts from Grandma Sherry!

Grandpa's talent...getting kids all rialed up (how in the heck do you spell rialed???).

And look at that great Santa straight from the North Pole!!! Their faces crack me up and I love how she has to hold onto the chair so she doesn't fall to the floor.

What did Dave want for Christmas? A Wii!

Look at those cute PJs and even cuter fuzzy socks!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!! I told the girls they couldn't get up until the clock said 7-0-0. Syd had to get up at 6:15 to go the bathroom and then proceeded to come into our room every 5 minutes after that saying..."Mom it's 6-2-3 can we get up now?" NO "Mom it's 6-3-1 can we get up now?" NO...you get the idea.

Look what Santa brought? Are you having flash backs to your childhood?

And the best present of all...a "go fish" game from the $1 aisle at Target. I haven't seen everyone laugh that hard for a long time! Of course I couldn't play because I was on the sidelines for HOURS assembling a Playmobil horse stall.

Coming soon...amazing photos from KayLynn from their visit to Vegas for New Years. Since KayLynn doesn't have internet right now she burned them on a disc for me to post. She got some good ones too...and hopefully it won't be a month before I actually get them on here :)