Christmas with the Winns

Were you just thinking...my, oh, my--that is one good looking Santa?

Cause for real, I totally agree! (I love you baby!!!)

This year Jess got to be Santa's helper. Not once....but twice! (Lucky guy!) Once at our ward Christmas party, and again a few days later at his work party. The boys thought it was so great that he and Santa were so tight that Santa would ask their own dad to help him!

He looks great in a suit that Jess!

At the ward party we had gingerbread house decorating contest....we made the classic "Santa's Outhouse". That's a classic everywhere right? Maybe we're just cool like that!

Some of our freaken awesome friends had a White Elephant Party which was AMAZING. I hadn't laughed that hard and that long in a long long time. There were some creative and hilarious gifts...Jess and I made some pretty stellar shirts for the occasion. Here is Jess' that Aaron was lucky enough to get. HA HA HA! So great!

Here are our gingerbread creations for 2009. Kade and Luke made some great houses, Jess-a volcano and I made a diorama of a triathlon (obviously! (the reindeer head is on the bike--see....see--it's so obvious!)

Kade was sick Christmas Eve throwing up and what not...it was sad to see him so tired on the couch, but Jess got him outside with us to get the all important Reindeer Food out on the lawn.

I'm not sure how this turned out to be one of the only pictures I got of this years Christmas morning....I'm not even sure why he looks so ornery...but he is wearing a fancy crown from one of Jess' sister Andrea's awesome poppers from England--so that's fancy.
At any rate, our Christmas was so great. Kade felt lots better Christmas Day. The boys woke up a little before 6:00. I LOVE the excitement I heard in Luke's voice when he came in to wake us up, "GUYS! Santa's been here!!!!" It's so so so great! We didn't get to go to our friends house that night (on account of Kade's throwing up the day before..didn't want to spread that joy), but they did send over some turkey and ham and YUM--it was great! Not to mention that Jess made an AMAZING Green Bean Casserole this year. I've always hated green beans...so...that's pretty awesome right there!

Since Kade was sick we did our treasure hunt a few days after Christmas. (we usually do an extensive search for the boys pajama's on Christmas Eve. This year we went all over town and ended at the movies instead of pajama's--the boys love finding the clues and figuring out where to go next! YAY!! I love family time!

Our Christmas season was so so great! We have a great book that Jess' mom put together for us that we can read to the boys and show pictures to them about why we really celebrate Christmas. Our lives are soooooooooo insanely blessed. I love my Savior. I hope every one's season was just GREAT!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had such a fun Thanksgiving. We spent the whole day with the boys. They helped with EVERYTHING! What we ate, what we wore, what we did. It was so relaxing and nice. They loved "de-grossing" the turkey with Jess...they peeled potatoes for the first time, making desserts and hats and going to the movies and.....it was awesome! Jess made such a yummy turkey--and turns out I'm the only one who likes dark meat so I got the drumsticks (I LOVE DRUM STICKS!)



Our Freaken awesome hats!

such a classy shot! But for real--I really love turkey...

Making "Pilgrim Hats" Luke was helping by cleaning up the chocolate that was all over the toothpick--you gotta do what you gotta do!

Halloween, Friends, and Birthdays

So it got kinda crazy there for a bit with Disney World and Thanksgiving and life...but here's the stuff we missed:

Halloween was fun--we go home from Disney World the day before so I was thrilled that the boys wanted easy costumes (Kade's was last years too--awesome!). Jess was sick so he stayed home and passed out candy....to our 2 trick-or-treaters. Ha Ha--so we live on a hill...it's kinda steep...and well...either that or we give crappy candy, but we had one little boy and the Mitchells (woo woo Mitchells--thanks for spicing up Jess' night)
Kade and Luke enjoyed trick or treating though..Luke got tired in the end and was carried home but Kade loved it!


In November our good friends the Johnsons left. We like them lots and will miss them tons! Kade didn't want to celebrate his birthday without them so we were able to have them over for an early b-day party...dinner and cake. ANYWAY--We miss you guys!!! Enjoy Nebraska!!!

And Kade turned 6! Woo woo little man! He invited a friend of his from school and we went ice skating. Turns out...at our place they don't like to let pregnant people go ice skating....I couldn't even sign a waiver or anything..so Jess (experience on ice--like once) was in charge of Kade, Luke, Caroline and himself out there. He was freaken GREAT! and the kids loved it--wet and all. they had little crates duct taped together (classy I know--but it was a great surprise) that they LOVED. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KADE!

See how they are doing their ice moves? (that's what this pic is....)

And finally--can I just say I LOVE BEATLES ROCK BAND! Our boys favorite sing Beatles songs ALL the time now, and they can play really well. (i.e. not get booed and kicked off by the game )It is so fun to pull out the guitars and have all four of us play...I love my family!!!

(Kade was getting into Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds here I believe)

We're having a....

It's a BOY! And we're all super excited around here!!! GO BOYS!

Disney, Disney--YAY Disney

DISNEY WORLD IS SOOOOOOO GREAT!

So for REAL! This vacation was so so so much fun. We've had lots of vacations back home and to visit family but this was probably our first real FAMILY VACATION. A HUGE thanks to the Davis' for inviting us to stay with them--it was soo much fun and so nice to go with our friends-not to mention that the place we stayed was way nicer then any place we would have stayed on our own. We loved it and THANKS THANKS THANKS! Shari's blog is up too if you want to check it out here .

We drove down Friday--went swimming in the places AMAZING pirate pool (with a ship and slides and water shooters--this pool was so so great! And the next morning started our trip with Animal Kingdom. Jess, Shari and Ben went on Expedition Everest and LOVED it. Me--being great with child---and getting motion sickness since I was little gladly stayed with the kiddos! But they loved it! (Everest is in the background...see...that white blob that didn't show up...anyway--I heard the ride was awesome!)

See how tough they are?

This was a dinosaur digging area. Both boys found a spot where there were no bones--and dug till they found their own--they were pretty proud of themselves!

Sunday we just chilled. We went to church, then in the afternoon drove to the Orlando temple. It was only like 15 minutes away so it was awesome to let the kids see it. And just walk around and see how gorgeous it is. I wish I could do landscaping like the temple people...so so pretty!


Cutest quote of the week was done by Lilly our friends 3 year old. While at the temple, she ran to one of the doors, banged on it and said, "Jesus! Let me in!" SOOO CUTE! (me and Jess were laughing at this in this picture)

Monday--Typhoon Lagoon and it was so fun! Kade and Luke could have stayed all day in the wave pool and been perfectly happy. Every time that water went up for the giant wave they would scream with the happiest little faces I have ever seen! Then I'd just hold onto them while we all got washed away...FUN! Jess took Kade on some medium sized rides and he LOVED it! Then for the bigger tube rides we switched off with Shari and Ben and had so much fun!

Jess is awesome and did all the super scary rides--(which next time I am SOOOOOOOOO doing! (here's my rant) I love water parks and LOVE freefalls. And it's a good think Jess was there to keep me, and our little one inside, from going down them...I wanted to real bad...he's a smart guy...probably kept me from going into labor. Anyway--anyone up for Water Parks next summer???)


That day was perfect. We even got this giant "Garbage Pail" ice cream for everyone to share at lunch--soooo much ice cream and tons of toppings--it was awesome---Even with all of us eating it, we still had to throw tons away. FUN THOUGH RIGHT? The kids played in the sand, rode on tubes--did the lazy river thing..it was so nice!

Here is Kade's Sand Monster. I'm sure the Typhoon Lagoon people love it when parents let kids get all sandy over and over again and wash off in the water...probably right? They were loving it though!

Tuesday was Magic Kingdom. We splurged and did this pirate thing for the boys where they got their faces painted and spent like an hour with other pirate people getting medallions and swords and pictures and swearing pirate oaths. It was cute--and I think the boys really liked it...but we probably won't do it again. Luke took off all his stuff within the hour, and then just looked like we beat him cause of the makeup. And for real---should I really be encouraging stealing and lying and cheating? Probably not. ANYWAY--it was fun though.

Luke's close up

Kade's best pirate face--in the secret pirate room....

Lucas acted like we didn't give him anything to drink. He tried to lap up all the water here...he got soaked!

On the way back from Magic Kingdom. The Conductor guy let Kade and Luke open all the monorail doors and gates--that was nice!

Wednesday we went to Sea World....we went to one show, and Kade felt nasty sick. So I took him home (our hotel was like 2 minutes away--so that was nice). It was a super hot day and it sounded like comparing this Sea World to Disney was rough--the kids thought it was fine...and everyone came home early..and we played in the pool and watched movies.

Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios. Kade loved his autograph book this week and filled it up with all the power rangers here. My only regrets from the whole week were that we didn't take Kade to the Hollywood Tower Hotel Ride. He had LOVED all the rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, this scary dinosaur one.....other stuff Jess took him on...and he really wanted to do this one, but after the simulator Star Tours Jess took him on Jess felt nasty so..he didn't have anyone to take him. Another time I suppose. I was so impressed with him though. He and Luke both were so brave!

Luke wanted so bad to go on the bigger rides but was 2 inches too little. He did enjoy one roller coaster called the Barnstormer something...after it he was all hysterical and happy and giddy and wanting to do his roller coaster again...and then after the second time, he said..."I don't want to do that one ever again." in a plain, "there you go" manner.

And seriously--who doesn't remember that scene from Honey I Shrunk the Kids where they eat the giant oreo? I loved that part and had Kade pose.

Here's a shot Luke took of us all relaxing. Seriously--it was such a great trip!!! Happy happy happy! (and sooooo much food...and great dinners...and just...YAY)

Ahhhhhh....

Kade and I are reading "The Chronicles of Narnia"--"The Magicians Nephew" (the first one) and without us telling him anything about it, he said this one night,
"Mom, Aslan reminds me of Jesus. He created the world and is really nice." Ooooh, it made me so happy to see this happy smart awesome little boy making these comparisons. Anyway--he's a sweet one!

The boys loved it, we loved it...it was amazing. The whole week was so much fun--it was just perfect! YAY

Triathlon Fun

HICKORY KNOB TRIATHLON 2009

Course description: "Rolling to Hilly Moderate Course....a great one to end the season on!"

So naturally that's what we started with!

So me and my friend Sarah have been training for this triathlon for 3 months and today (Saturday) was the big day! It was a sprint triathlon which means a 500 meter swim (1/3 mile) 10 mile bike ride, and a 5K run.

And HOORAY!!! I did it with 21 minutes to SPARE!!! My 3 goals went like this. A#1, finish before 2 hours (that's when they said they'd start kicking you off the course cause you're just too darn slow). B#2, Don't stop, and C#3, Don't be last. Check Check and Check!

Let's start with the swim. Me and Sarah entered into the Novice category and got some lovely green caps to wear in the water. Everyone was SOOOO nice. Crazy novices all laughing and making up cheers while bobbing in the water waiting for our start...

It was FREEZING. Unlike the warm weather I'd imagined I'd be racing in, the temp we raced in started at 49 degrees and maxed at 51...I thought jumping into a lake which was 71 degrees would be a relief...but no...it was quite a shock. (which might explain the hyper crazy cheers and laughing from all of us before.) Sarah's timing chip fell off her leg and she had to dive blindly into the murky water to get it...AMAZINGLY she got it. (if not, she would have been disqualified and owed them $40 bucks--not a great start)

Getting to that first buoy I thought I might possibly maybe sorta die...but then...when I got there (after going way off course cause I forgot to look up for a bit...and crazy of all crazy things...turns out they don't paint lines on the bottom of the lake--huh? Who would have thought:) and looked behind me, I saw tons of green caps---YAY!! I might succeed. Getting to the second buoy and returning to the dock was MUCH better...lovely even. Climbing out was even fun. We had rope ladders and people to help us out. They even gave me the warning, "you're going to fly up so be ready" my arm ended up slipping out of one of their grip and I just sorta dangled there for a bit...a little break I suppose--that was nice.

So...on the course description they've labeled the distance from the lake to the bike racks as a "short steep climb". It was more like 10 miles uphill both ways with stairs. I finished the swimming part without dying though, and that made me so happy that it only seemed like 9 miles (it might have really only been .3.........just saying......)

First transition: I wasn't sure how cold I'd get on the bike so I put on a beanie, shorts, and my giant hoody. And I was warm, but as soon as I started biking...I noticed most everyone was wearing just their triathlon suits and were down and low looking all professional and fast...I looked more like a fancy red parachute. Now I realize I could have gone the route of aerodynamics like them...but I like to think I was being more charitable then that...I was helping those behind ME be more aerodynamic.....I like to give like that!

I LOVED the 10 mile bike ride. I think it was my favorite. Plus, a major bonus was that I didn't even crash--not once. Not going to lie, it was a major concern...what with all those gears and crazy shaped handle bars. (I just want to add here that Sarah had the saddest thing happen. She rented a road bike last minute instead of using her mountain bike, and the chain kept falling off until the race people suggested she walk it back. She wanted to finish so she ran the bike back from the 3 mile point and ended at the same time I finished the bike portion. Then we ran...she's so cool! Seriously, she basically ran a 10K with a bike for half of it! That's fast! I'm really glad she asked me to do this with her...cause...fun!)
Now you might think for someone to do a triathlon they would be good at at least one of the three events.....but let's just say I thought it was enough that I COULD swim, COULD ride a bike, COULD run. But my least favorite of the three definitely was running. I don't so much like running. I thought maybe it was my attitude, and I could just think better thoughts about it and enjoy it more...NOPE, still don't like it, but here I was, running/jogging a 5K...

I should add here how nice everyone was at the race. I mean seriously, everyone is your instant friend and everyone cheers for you and says "good job" and "you're almost there!" "Finish strong..." all sorts of nice and encouraging things. Just really nice people all over! Maybe it was the desperate look on my face or the pace I had settled on of "barely moving" that made them feel inclined to say those things, but I like to think they did it for everyone. The run ended and they announced my name (fancy). WOO WOO. 1:38...just yay!

The food they gave us for lunch was AWESOME...that might have been my favorite part. I mean a buffet of BBQ chicken sandwiches and beans and brownies and candy bars...on a cold and rainy day--soooooo yummy! So that's it! We did it. When I got home, Jess had got me a card and the boys had signed it and were all over me with hugs and kisses and it was soooooo fun. I loved it all!
Also--a HUGE thank you to my friend Natalie who answered every single tiny and big question I could think of. Also for sending us her triathlon suits to wear-they made us feel super legit and not like posers at all! THANKS NAT!

(I may look partially delusional in this picture...but it was my big finish so...here it is!)

A few things I learned:

When the course description says there is a 2 hour limit, they don't actually have someone following you on the course ready to tackle you down the moment 2 hours expired, at least that I saw...they could be very sneaky.

• I'm not nearly as competitive as I used to be. I'm sure it's lots of fun to be in front...I'm just happy for them. Cause how fun for them to be in front. But I'm perfectly content to be behind, exerting exactly the amount of energy I want to. (I think I'm more competitive with things I'm good at....that's more healthy anyway right?)
  

• Racing and being pregnant caused me only one problem. Keeping hydrated and having an itsy bitsy bladder is inconvenient.



• I love free shirts from events!



• Always train with someone. If it wasn't for Sarah I would SO have stayed at home instead of training all those mornings that didn't start off so well--what with the nausea and what not...but Sarah got me out! Thanks!

• I love, love, love to try new things...and I think it's totally okay to do those new things once.

(I wrote this the day of the race...it's the next day now and I've changed my mind. Maybe triathlons are like giving birth...immediately afterwords, you might not want to do it again right away...but the next day....you think it might be fun? Well, not exactly like having a baby...)

I think it would be fun to do this again! Okay! There it is! I loved it!

Winns come to visit!

Can I just say I love my in-laws? Of course I can--this is my blog! They are so so so great. Jess' parents came out to see us a couple of weeks ago. Now, I'm sorta a planner and like to have lots and lots to do....and Jess thinks that can get crazy....so I had express directions to not plan anything...and know what? It was still SO FUN! Huh? Who knew?





First off Julie got the greatest gifts for the boys! She brought Kaden a bug box and Luke Play-dough. Their first day here was spent catching grasshoppers and crickets in the back yard! We even caught a frog and added him in there and he ate the cricket! AWESOME! I know that's not so awesome....it happens all the time...but Kade saw it happen! Now that is awesome! (and every spare minute was play dough)

Next she got busy with doing household chores that had needed to be done FOREVER ago. She's nice! This table leg stabilizer wood piece thingy...well, it broke 2 years ago. It's been taped since. That Julie knows how to get a job done though. Took it off, found the guy that would do all the fancy cutting and make a new one....(Leland at Ace Hardware--he made sure we knew he was the ONLY one that would have done it for us...funny guy that one)...and boom boom, now our table's not broken.

Then she fixed the leak in the car--seriously--she rocks! (I was a helper, see, I was holding the chair....)

A little backyard fun with grandpa....

Both of their faces make me laugh in this one...I'm sure it was fun for all!

And of course we all took part in a little Beatles Rock Band Guitar action.

George and Julie went to lunch at Kade's school both Thursday and Friday and Kade felt so so so special to have his grandparents there. We went to the Oliver Hardy Festival, watched lots of Conference, and just hung out and talked. I am so so blessed to have such great in laws. For real! THANKS for coming out guys!!!

With all of Julie's can do spirit, I decided to tackle something I should have done months ago...decorate the boys room. They wanted outer space...but we weren't sure how to do it. At any rate I think it turned out soooooooo great! Turns out...the boys don't care either way. I mean I'm sure they like it, but for real, turns out decorating boys rooms is more for mom then anyone else...maybe when they're older they'll love me more for it. Maybe? At any rate I totally just sit in there sometimes and look at the walls....I really do like projects...I just haven't done one in a long, long time!

Jess is the artist of the family and I'm sooooo glad. He was in charge of Earth--and for real--how cool is that earth??? We used this Styrofoam-type (not real styrofoam--that doesn't work so well turns out) balls and cut them in half....for a 3D effect (It was the ladies idea at the craft store...I'm glad there are creative sorts out there like that.)

The boys and I painted little wooden hearts with white/silver sprinkles/and glow-in-the-dark paint and used poster puddy to put them up with. The planets and the starts go around the room like this...FUN!