11th Anniversary

I decided to suprise Jake with an anniversary gift this year. All I told him was to dress like he was going skiing and that we were headed to Park City. He thought he we were going snowmobiling but when he got there he said in a suprised questioning voice.....

"We're going dog sledding??" Yes baby, yes we are.

Jake and I cozied up on the sled while our musher Fernando got the team ready. It's true. We had a Mexican musher who loves snow and his dogs nearly as much as he loves running. He's a professional runner and comes from a long line of runners. His grandfather was a Tarahumara. I had just finished the book "Born to Run," which is all about the Tarahumara tribe and their history of long distance running, so it was awesome to meet someone who came from that line.

We couldn't believe how beautiful it was that day. Sun was in the perfect spot, the air was a little crisp, and the snow was perfect.

The ride was exciting down hill, relaxing on flat ground, slow going up hill, and often funny because he was training a new lead dog that just wanted to go off and play. We did tip over once as the dog landed us in a sunken in hole. That was awesome.

Our musher was awesome. I hope we can go back someday and do a full day adventure with him.

I kept trying to get a picture of the dogs beautiful faces but seriously all I could get was butts. Butts and more butts. If you notice, one of the butts is a lab butt. Fernando got into mushing when he was a kid after he saw a cartoon on mushing. He found a plastic table, glued some ski's to it, and started mushing his lab. His wife got him this lab to represent how he got into it. He said all the other dogs get annoyed with the lab and he's constantly getting tangled up but it's a good way to get the labs energy out.



Here's a clip of us getting settled in. As each dog gets hooked up they get more and more excited.

Here's a little clip of us running. You can hear our musher talking about his grandpa who was a Tarahumara Indian and how he used to herd the goats by running and wake up with snakes sleeping next to him for warmth. Can you imagine?

Christmas

Keith and Cherie had us over for a fun night of ginger bread house making. I kept calling it ginger houses on accident but after a while seemed fitting since Cherie and I are married to a gingers.

My finished product. Please note the dead animal hanging above the door, the broken down fence, the caved in roof and the dead animal in the pen. I was going for cute farm house and everything was falling apart so I went for recession farm house instead.

Jake's ginger house was made for eating, not living in. He had it polished off in 3 days.

Cherie made the cute house in front of Keith and Keith made the decked out sucker in front with the G on it. He definitely won the award for most creative house. Fun night for sure! (Thanks for letting me steal the pics off your blog Cherie!)

I'm not sure who enjoyed Christmas morning the most but Seth was sure the cutest.

I couldn't stop laughing at his hat combined with his pants pulled up half way and his underwear hanging out.

Christmas morning the big boys found nerf guns in their stockings with a note on them that said "Game on!" Mayhem immediatly insued. Dad had a revolver with extra darts. We spent part of Christmas having nerf gun competitions and shooting dad's flying helicoptors out of the air.

I got this lovely shot of mom trying to plug in the lamp or pick something up. I don't know what she was doing but I had to take advantage of the moment.

Mom got made at me for taking the photo so when Jon bent over she demanded that I take a picture of his behind and post it on the blog as well. Just for you mom.

In their stockings, the girls found face masks and nail polish. So we had a beauty night. Mom's mask was chocolate because she's a chocolate lover. I wish all of you could have heard her talk in her pikinini voice with the mask on. "I's embarassed. You's men go away."

After 32 years and a chocolate face mask, mom and I discovered that we have the same ears. Something I now share in common in Jude. Sorry son.

I have on a kiwi mask and Desi has on a pomegranate mask.

Here's me trying to smile my hardest in my mask.

Now the peeling of the mask.

And the finished product. 3 lovely ladies.

So the question remains, will I end up will helmet hair to hide my ears when I'm older or will I just let them fly.

I painted moms toe nails a pretty pink. Desi got the cherry red and I had a summer orange.

I also want all of you to know that we played a dice game and DAD TOTALLY CHEATED. Doesn't sound like dad at all right.

Blessing

I felt pretty nervous about my blessing today. A lot of people came to see me.

I tried to take a nice family pic with mom and dad, but they were too distracted. Notice how I'm looking right at the camera and they are looking to the sides.

Aunt Julie flew all the way from Washington to come and see me. She won the award for longest distance traveled.

Mom knit me some sweet booties and in her overly tired state attached the fire truck to the wrong side but I didn't care.

I'm not sure what I'm doing here............bitter beer face??

Overall the day went pretty well and I was so happy everyone came to see me! I was so busy visiting with everyone that I forgot to get pictures with them. But thank you so much for coming!!

Getting blessed is exhausting. Somebody else is in charge next time.

My Firsts

This is my first time.....

In utero

Being born

Getting an IV

Saying a prayer

Getting a bath

Mommy knew I had some of her genes in me

Participating in Halloween

Getting photographed by Maren

I threw a tantrum

Daddy read me a story

Daddy dressed me