Rhys

Today I went upstairs to see what Rhys was doing and saw this. He was putting hand soap on his hands also. At least he didn't turn the water on.

He is getting to big and also so cool looking.

Rhys being Harry Potter with a pencil wand. He'll come up to you and point his wand at you and say "zap , I zapped you" it is cute!

Rhys loves to vacuum and asks me to get my vacuum out so that I can vacuum with him. Now only if the thing really worked I wouldn't need to vacuum.

Christmas Break

This was Rhys' favorite thing to do watch for the balls to come back.

Christian and his Nerf gun

Rhys hiding from the dinosaur

Me, the Boys, my Dad, and his mom (the boys' Great Grandma)

For Christmas we decided to surprise our families and go to Utah without telling them. It was a lot of fun! I was expecting screams of excitement but no one did they were just speechless. It was so nice to be able to take this time and see family and relax and not cook. We went bowling one of the days while we were there with Great Grampy, but poor Christian didn't get to bowl cause he got sick just as we got there so Ross and him went home to get some rest. The boys had a great Christmas. Rhys got a toy dinosaur that would roar and walk if you pushed a button on its back. The first time we pushed the button he ran away and hid behind the couch it was so funny, he kept saying " I don't like it". It took him a little while before he liked it but he did warm up to it eventually . The older boys got some Wii games and each got a Nerf gun, Christian's was a machine gun that he barely can even hold up and Gavin's was a sniper riffle. Santa brought them some nice gifts. We also got to eat at some of our favorite places that Chicago doesn't have, just to name one Cafe Rio. Ross and I got to go out on few dates also that was really nice! To sum it all up we had a great Christmas Break!!!

Halloween

This Halloween was so much fun. All three boys were so excited to go trick-or-treating, even Rhys which is funny cause he had no clue what it was until after we went to the first house. This year Rhys was old enough and could stay up with the boys so he went the whole route. Christian was so excited we had to tell him to wait for his brothers. Gavin was such a cute big brother, he helped Rhys up and down the stairs of each house. On the route we went by a lot that was building a new house and there was a Bob Cat tractor and when Rhys saw it he stopped and said "Wow, that is cool" and it took a little bit to get him going again. He really liked the tractor. The boys got a lot of candy and had so much fun this year. Christian was an Army Dude, Gavin was Bat Man and Rhys was a Duck but his duck hood would not fit, it was to tight.

Races

Rhys watching the boys' races.





Gavin about to cross the finish line.
Christian your doing great!
They did a huddle before each race.
The finish line is in sight.YES!!!

Over this past weekend I ran my first Marathon, the Chicago Marathon. My day started at 4 a.m. so that I could eat and make it to the train station before 5 a.m. The race started at 7:30 but since there were so many runners I didn't cross the start line until about 8. While lining up at the start I met another runner which I ended up running the whole race with except the last 3 miles when we lost each other. I am really glad that I had her to run it with otherwise it would have been hard since I didn't train all that well. She kept me going when I felt like stopping and walking. I know the next one I do I definitely am going to train much better for it. The weather was a little cold.I don't think it reached even 50 degrees. In a way it helped I never did feel overheated or real thirsty. I enjoyed being able to see the boys and Ross right before I crossed the finish line. It was a lot of fun to be able to run through all the different parts of Chicago.

The boys also had races this past week since they are in their schools running club. There were three different races that they could choose to do, a half mile, a fourth of a mile, and a full mile. They chose to do all three. The weather was cold and rainy which made it a little muddy.
I am so proud of them being able to finish all three of them. Gavin did the mile in about 9 min 55 sec and Christian finished it at 10 min 16 sec. They did so awesome!!

First Day of School

The first day of school was August 19th. But the boys missed the first three days of school because we were still in Utah visiting with my brother Jeremy since he just got back from being in Iraq. Gavin and Christian were excited for their first day, but were a little disappointed that MOM was going to walk them to school. I had told them that they could walk to school all by their selves this year since they are 1st and 3rd graders and only have to cross one street which has a crossing guard. But I still wanted to walk them the first day, so that I could get pictures.

Hot Dogs and S'mores Up the Canyon

We love going up the canyon and having campfires. One night while in Utah we went up the A.F. Canyon and had hot dogs and S'mores with family.It was fun, we sure do miss being able to do this.

Lets Take a Walk

Here is the rock he carried for half the walk.



One of our favorite things we used to do on Sunday while we lived in Utah was to go on a walk near Cedar Hills golf course and look for golf balls. So one Sunday Nana, Aunt Leslie and all of us took a walk. The boys both found 6 each. On the way back Rhys was slowing down quite a bit so how we got him to pick the speed up is we gave him a golf ball and he would throw it down the path and then go chase it, he loved doing this. If he was not able to get the ball because it went in the bushes he would hauler at the boys to get it for him, he had them trained just like puppy dogs. He also carried this huge rock for half the walk, I'm not sure why though because it had to be a little heavy for him. We really enjoyed our walk!