Check ya later!

We're headed to Vegas today - and next Tuesday to Colorado. I think I'll still post about my marathon sometime during the trip, but if I don't get a chance then I'll be back in two weeks!

Shoes & Smells

These shoes are made for running... and that's just what they'll do.

The Nike Air Pegasus +25 are the shoes I have chosen to carry me 26.2 miles a week from Saturday. So I've been wearing them all over the place to break them in. I wore them during one run this week and they felt good. I'm hoping they'll improve my time by at least 25 minutes... that's what the +25 means, right?! :)

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Smells are big with Max right now. Everything we pass in the grocery store - or while we're in the car - that has an aroma, elicits a dramatic sniff and an "I smell something, Mommy" from Max. Well, this morning I sat down to snuggle with him while he was watching a show. He normally loves that. However, this morning I snuggled him close and he said, "I smell something". I was trying to figure out what it could be as he was crawling away from me to the other end of the couch. I said, "Max, what's up? Don't you want to snuggle with me?" He said, "No, I smell something" with a disgusted look on his face. It then occurred to me that maybe I wasn't smelling so pretty. I realized I hadn't yet brushed my teeth and my throat is a little sore (and we all know how bad sore throat breath smells). I said, "Oh, is it my breath?" I leaned over to let him have a whiff. The look on his face said it all. I promptly brushed my teeth.

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Another funny Max-ism just an hour ago. We were getting out of the car and coming into the house. I told Max that I needed to feed Kelly some lunch because she was really hungry (he'd eaten some McDonalds in the car while we ran errands). His response? "Mom, you take a quick shower while I feed Kelly." If I hadn't already taken a shower and he wasn't 2 1/2 years old then that may have been a more appealing offer. Still, it's the thought. :)

For your viewing pleasure....

Kelly has been crawling for a while now...I took this video of her when it was still pretty new. Man, she's cute. In my totally biased mother's opinion, this video is worth your time.

Max's most recent favorite song - Book of Mormon Stories. He usually sings it a little slower, but every time I've taken the camera out to record it he gets excited and it comes out something like this (you'll love the dramatic finish):

Bangity, Bang, Bang, Bangs!

Love 'em...I think. The cut went a little shorter than I'd planned, but that's probably good. Now I won't have to get it cut for a long time. :) Except these bangs are going to need many trims, I'm sure.How is this for Dana overload?! What can I say...these are all of the pictures that turned out well. Not pictured is Dana with her eyes closed, Dana from a bad angle, Dana with double chins. You get the picture. Well, you don't get those pictures since they've already been deleted, but you can imagine.

Choir of ONE

Last night as I was putting Max to bed and singing him his final, final song for the night (we're often called back in for "one more song, Mom/Dad!") Max raised his arms and began conducting inches from my face. He was very focused on the correct (which were also hilarious and exaggerated) movements of his hands and would occasionally say during the song, "Good singing, Mom!" Gee, thanks, bud. I have to say that I did try a little harder to sound good last night since I had such a cute conductor to impress.

Quote of the Day

Tonight, as some of my young women were walking into the church, one of them said:
"Sister Foster, you look like a teenager."

Thank you, Chloe. You so totally made this tired momma's day. But for the record, I'm really glad that I'm NOT a teenager! I'd much rather be a tired momma any day.

Bangs???

I am growing my hair out, but it's struggling for style right now. I'm thinking bangs might add the sass I need. But I'm a little bit afraid. What do you think?

Halloween and then some!

We had a fabulous holiday...not only was this a really fun year with Max being a little older and more into it, but we also had my DAD here for a visit. How lucky are we?! It was such a great, kick-back weekend. I feel so blessed by this little family of mine and loved having my dad here to enjoy and spoil my kiddos as well.

Family Home Evening before the big holiday - pumpkin carving, baby! First I had to take some cute shots of my cute kids with their pumkpins...but heaven help me, I could not get them to look at the camera at the same time!


I love to make the top for pumpkin...I love to scoop out the insides and seperate the seeds...I don't love the creative end of pumpkin carving for some reason (deciding what the face will look like). I leave that part to Ty. I did actually carve my pumpkin after he drew the face for me. I don't know why I don't enjoy that part more!The actual night. A football player and his own personal cheerleader! Don't let Max's non-smiling face fool you, he was thrilled with his costume. Still loves it. (Yeah, I know we live in Seahawks territory and he's dressed as a Patriot, but a new uniform set was like $50 and we found this on ebay for $11...I figured nobody would beat up a cute 2-year-old)We went Trunk-or-Treating, which I have to say was quite lame. I don't really want to be in charge next year, but I wouldn't mind telling them how to make it GOOD! :) There's just so much that could be done. Oh well, we supported it at least. Then we hit the neighborhood a bit. We went to Max's Tutu's house (his adopted grandma) where he received an already full halloween bucket! Made trick-or-treating super easy - we could have just made that one stop and called it good. She sure spoils that little man. Next was a little "after party" at our place. We had some friends over for hot chocolate and donuts (a Mann Fam tradition). It was a really fun night! I forgot to take pictures until some of the crew had already left.


Max's best friend, Reyes Linton. We saw them on the street trick-or-treating and both of them started to squeal when they saw each other. Actually, they do that everytime they see each other. I love those two! Halloween was a hit.

For the rest of the weekend we just hung out close to home. My dad added 5 lights in our bedroom, cooked some awesome meals, made salsa and let a very excited 2-year-old boy totally wear him out. The fam also came and cheered me on a bit during my 20-mile run and my dad's stuffed hot dog creation was just the ticket for my post-run meal. It was the best my stomach has transitioned after a long run. Such a perfect visit - I already want him to come back. I always forget to take pictures during family visits. We're too busy having a good time! But here are a few 'randoms'...

Left: photography by Max. Center: Dad working his lighting magic. Right: Kelly's newest passion.
Hmmm...I wonder where she gets those baby blues from???We definitely didn't want to 'kick him to the curb', but we had to drop him at the curb nonetheless. It was still hard to say goodbye even though I'll be seeing him in two weeks when we fly to Vegas. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming, Daddy! We love and miss you!