I finally felt like blogging, you lucky people! :) So here's what we've been up to...

This little man with the cheesy, wonderful smile is so fun! I love that he's getting older and we get to hear what's going on in that head of his. Some fun things he says/has said lately that I'll share:
He started saying "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" But what comes out is "Hiccup Hooray!" - Max is fond of saying "Hey for-a-buddy" (spelled phonetically) which is his version of "Hey everybody"... last Monday our Family Home Evening lesson was on the scriptures and we got talking about prophets. I used the little object lesson from my mission about how there is a wall between us and the Lord and we can receive answers to our own prayers through that wall, but if the Lord has something that He needs to tell the whole world, then He tells a Prophet who stands on top of the wall and the Prophet tells all of us (Reader's Digest Version for you all). It was typical FHE with a two-year-old and I wasn't sure how well he was listening...but then toward the end of FHE he stood on top of one of his toys and said in a loud and serious tone, 'Hey, for-a-buddy, I...am...a prophet. (deep breath in) Let's talk(deep breath)...let's talk about Jesus. (another exaggerated breath, sticking hand in jeans pocket) Jesus lives in heaven. (deep breath). Hey, for-a-buddy....(repeat of same speech a few more times). Suffice it to say, his parents loved it and were proud of our little listening boy.

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This little lady with the crazy hair is super close to being a full-fledged crawler. She's been quite mobile for a while now with her army crawling and rolling skills, but she's getting up on all fours a lot more often. Her first tooth finally broke through (hallelujah!) last Monday and tooth #2 is on the way. She lights up the world - and not just ours. Oh how we love her!

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Tyler Michael totally deserved some extra love from his little family -

so we made him King for the Day!King for the Day came complete with a "throne"

(bean bag covered with everything a king could need - a crown with flattering words written all over, two favorite kinds of candy, newspaper, a card full of loving words, a "royal remote" and a plate of grapes, strawberries and cheese *not pictured*)I just wanted Ty to know that we really appreciate him. He had a lot of lame things going on - the washing machine broke and he was trying to fix it, the computer was all jacked and he was working on that, I backed into a truck a few weeks before and dented our new van (which, by the way, he was extremely nice about "Dana, we don't buy cars to have them as trophies. It's fine, don't worry about it" No groan or frustration once through the whole thing), he goes to work everyday at a job that isn't his favorite...and he does it all willingly and makes sure the rest of the fam is doing well. I am so, so grateful to have such a wonderful man in my life and I wanted him to know it.

I taught Max to say, "I am your servant" and all day we called him "King Dad". Our instructions were to put off the projects that needed to be done and relax. We were going to do whatever he wanted to do. One kink in the plan was that he ended up going to work that morning, so we didn't have as much time to cater to his every whim as we would have liked. But we still went to the pumpkin patch (pictures below), had a nice steak dinner and a quiet, wonderful evening at home. Great day.

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Pumpkins! We got 'em. Oh, and we also made Max's dreams come true (see tractor pictures below).

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I signed up to run the Valley of Fire Marathon. 26.2 miles of straight running. Holy cow. So far my longest run is 16 miles (done yesterday). It felt good, although my left knee was giving me some serious problems. Today my friend whose degree is in exercise physiology told me that I need to do some exercises to strengthen my hamstrings and quads. She gave me a few that will be good to do so I'll get on that tomorrow. Next Saturday is 18 miles and the following will be my longest - 20 miles. Why is it that most training programs only take you up to 20-23 miles? Anyone know? I'm getting excited, but the emotion I mostly feel is fear when I'm just thinking about it. Sometimes I wish that I had a running buddy around here and then someone to run the actual race with me. But I also enjoy the solitude and thinking time. That thinking time, though, sometimes turns to, "What in the world was I thinking?", "Why I am paying money to do this?", "Maybe I can transfer that money to run a half instead". I can't let those thoughts linger long, however. This kind of running takes serious mental energy and positive thinking. I know that I'll finish, however slow I may be....