Recent Accomplishments

Accomplishment #1:

Earlier this month, I got to run a half-marathon here in KC with these two lovely ladies! It was such a fun way to see the city and I loved training and running with my wonderful sisters-in-law. It feels so good to be running long distances again. I used to regularly do ten-mile runs, but it had been a few years and two babies since then and I didn't have time for more than three to four runs a week, so I was a little nervous at first.

Nadine and Lisa definitely pushed me. I have run a couple marathons and a half-marathon before, but I had never run with a goal time. And I beat it by almost thirteen minutes, clocking in at just over 1:47...and didn't feel completely dead. So I was pretty happy.

But the best part really was getting to know Nadine and Lisa better. They are such talented, patient, amazing women, mothers, and wives, and I look up to them so much. I really appreciate their examples as well as the examples of my other sister-in-laws because as the oldest in my family, I never had the benefit of an older sister until I got married. I feel truly blessed to not only have seven amazing sister-in-laws, but to have also had opportunities to get to know each of them in different ways. (And I'm getting another sister-in-law come December!!! Wahoo!)

And no. I don't know why I am hunching like the Hunchback of Kansas City in these pictures. If you want to see some more awkward pictures of me, click this link to see pictures of me in the race. I definitely need to work on my race face. Though I am pretty sure I was smiling a lot of the race, but they must have taken most of these during the last mile, when I was not smiling so much. Especially since I was with Nadine and Lisa the majority of the race and they aren't in the pictures. Also, they mistook a couple of old people running together for me. I think their numbers were close to mine. But don't be fooled. I do not have short gray hair or glasses on.

Accomplishment #2:

Mike's took his first mid-term! He is really back to the books. This is a picture of him on his first day--backpack on and ready to roll. It's hard to believe he is already halfway through the semester. And surprisingly, we are enjoying having him in school: Maggie's cousins live just a mile from Mike's school, so we spend family time driving up to his class, drop him off, then get to spend fun time visiting with Shawn and Nadine's family, who are fantastic hosts and usually provide us with dinner. I am learning some great recipes and housekeeping tips from Nadine, that is for sure. Maggie loves playing with Emma and Ava. And Kate gets to do fun things like try on lion outfits and be held and carried (only slightly scary :) ) by older cousins.














Accomplishment #3:

Can you tell what this is?

If you guessed the Angel Moroni, you guessed right. That's the little gold guy on top of LDS temples for those of my friends that are less familiar with Mormon lingo. Mike was the brains behind that family activity. Maggie wasn't too sure about the yucky pumpkin, but after Mike got it all cleaned out, she was really happy to pinprick it for the outline. Then Mike and I carved it together after the girls were in bed. Another winning family/date night! Next we have plans to do the Nauvoo temple...we'll see if we get to that this year or if we end up pushing it to next.

Accomplishment #4&5:

We got to go to the temple on Saturday for the first time in quite a while. It was such a nice trip. The girls were so good in the car and Maggie was so excited to see the temple. (Her favorite song has been "I Love to See the Temple" since before she turned two.) Then that night we finally got our turn to watch this crew for a couple hours while their parents took their turn for date night. Mike's brothers' families and ours have been taking turns swapping babysitting and it was our turn to watch the kids. It was a blast! We ate spaghetti, made cupcakes, picked bouquets, played, and danced to favorites like "Freeze Dance" and "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" (Greg and Steve, see post below). Seven kids under eight would be a blast if they were all as good as these ones. :) Maggie was, of course, thrilled. Her cousins are her favorite people in the world, I think. (Her most recent prayers all center around the phrase, "and pease bess my cuz-ins to be safe.") And it was so fun to see Mike interact with his girls, nieces, and nephew. He may have had even more fun than the kids did.