GOAL!

This past Saturday was a day of accomplishments for almost everyone in our family. It was a fun and busy day! The first was mine in that I participated in my first half marathon. I have been running pretty regularly since my high school soccer days, and have run in some 5K races, but training for this definitely forced me to work hard. My knee did not cooperate as well as I would have liked so, were I to do it again, I hope to do it a little faster and feel a little better, but I am still proud of myself for sticking to it and finishing!

Joe and the kids were able to see me finish. It wasn't pretty, but I did it!

Speaking of soccer days, Chloe has really enjoyed her first year of soccer. We went straight from the finish line of my race to her game, the last of the season. We loved having Joe's parents join us to watch Chloe score, not one, not two, but three goals! She also had several near misses. Every time she scored she did a little fist pump thing. Cutest. thing. ever.

Following her game, each member of the team received a medal for participating in the season. For a little girl who cried all the way to her first game, she has really enjoyed playing and looks forward to it again next year.

Chloe thought it was so incredible that we both were able to get medals on the same day. Over and over again she told me that she couldn't believe the coincidence. We had to take a picture to commemorate such a momentous occasion

Noah's accomplishment is no small one either. After a few false starts, this kid is finally out of diapers. We have all struggled with this goal, and I am so so proud of him for finally doing it. Today he told me "Mom it really does feel so much better to be a big boy!" Now if we could get him to pull his shirt out of his underwear, when he pulls it back up, we will be set.
Joe's accomplishment was to join the smart phone world. After being harrassed by his friends and co-workers about his brick of a phone, he finally went and got himself an iPhone. I'm not sure who is enjoying this new toy more


Adam is very close to sitting up, but eveytime I think he's got it, he falls over. Either way, he's still cute and will reach that goal someday.Goals or not, these days are fun, filled with crazy kids (and parents) and lots of laughs. That's an accomplishment in itself and I love it.

I Hoped They'd Call Him On A Mission

Until I reached 13, my siblings were all sisters. We ran around forming girl clubs, playing with Barbies and house, and doing about any girlie thing you can think of. The girl club streak came to an end when my little brother David Jr was born. I still clearly remember going to church the week after he was born and, when it was announced that the Hubbard's had had a baby boy, the people in the chapel broke out in applause.

When DJ was born we were all way too excited to be around our new little brother. Being 13, I was allowed to help a lot more than with previous babies. We all wanted to help. When my mom would leave us home, she had to specifically divide out responsibilities so that we all got "fair" time holding and taking care of him. We were in love with our little king of curls.

The experiences of having a brother had some major differences to having sisters: being peed on while diaper changing, going to watch baseball games (note the name of his team in the picture below), and looking forward to the day that our little brother would serve a mission.

Girls can serve missions just as well as guys, but aside from me, all of my other sisters were married before they reached the age where they could go, and going wasn't something I felt strongly about at that point in my life. So yesterday marked the first time we gathered together as a family to watch our DJ open his mission call

Before receiving his call, DJ asked us to each guess three places we thought he might be called to serve. No one guessed an area even close:

So many great things will happen in St. Louis, Missouri, I am excited for him to have the opportunity to serve and come to know that area well.

Another first happened yesterday in that Adam got to try peas for the first time. Good times.

An Egg-citing Update

Procrastination. That is my explanation for being almost two weeks past Easter, finally posting about it. Daily the thought has crossed my mind, and daily it has quickly fled as other things that need to be done overtake it. As a result of that and the fact that life does not stop, waiting for me to update, there are a lot of random things to catch up on.

Easter. We had a great Easter this year. I love that the kids are getting old enough to enjoy the activities that we do together. What I also love is that they are starting to understand the real reason we celebrate all these great holidays. A parent pay-off moment came as we talked about Easter and the Savior, and Chloe and Noah both answered questions and helped tell of the events that took place. So cool.

My kids were in awe of all the colors that awaiting their blank eggs. Chloe was especially in awe of the nifty egg dipper

The serious business of deciding which stickers to use on their eggs
Because we didn't already have plenty of treats lying all over the house, with the prospect of Easter baskets full the next day, we decided to sweeten things up a bit and make and decorate sugar cookies too.

Easter day arrived, and after several years of having Noah wear "girl" pastels colors, we let Chloe deal with Blue this year.

These were our best shots. My kids are way too cute.

Let the egg hunt begin!

Adam is looking forward to joining next year, this year he just enjoyed playing with daddy's tie

Three tired Easter babies getting giggly and ready for bed

May has begun, and Noah has got some serious super-hero worship going on lately. From sleeping with his Batman to dressing up like the Hulk, the moments are few and far between that this kid is not thinking of something hero related.

I loved catching him talking tough in the mirror

Of course Chloe has to try on the outfits too

Girly time takes over fast for her though. Chloe and her friend Apsen are adorable little play pals.

Playing princess dress up, getting ready to go to a ball with handsome princes

These girls are way too fun to watch playing together

During Noah's most recent hair cut (his hair grows fast and straight up, so he gets them regularly) Dad gave him a temporary new look. Noah wanted to keep the look, but Mom made him get rid of it. Before it came off though, he looked at himself in the mirror and said:

"Looking good in the neighborhood!"

The weather has finally begun to get warm enough to find it enjoyable to play outside. Noah is ready to learn to ride a bike with training wheels

and Chloe is getting ready to learn to ride a bike without

We have enjoyed a wonderful, warm, playful first week of May, now if only we can get that snow off our mountains.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

My birthday came and went last week. Another year, another celebration in honor of me! This year I enjoyed a great day including lots of well wishes from friends and family, lunch with sisters, a brother, and dad, and just getting to relax with my favorite people:

My three favorite boysAnd my favorite little girl, who, in honor of the day, insisted on trying on my boots.


We did some of the usual things, opening presents (can you tell that many were picked out by the kids) and blowing out candles
My favorite part of the day was going on a walk by the river.
We have had a LOT of rain this year and the river at this point had gotten very high. We were curious to see it up close.

Those bushes in the river? Yeah, they are trees and used to be at the bank of the river.

That bench there? Yeah, last time we were here, you still had to walk past the bench and down a slope and several yards to get to the river.
As of last night, that bench was completely under water.

Joe and Chloe went closer to investigate and are standing just inches above the waters.
Yesterday, that same area looked like this:
On my birthday, our walk ended when we reached this point and found the tunnel had about 6 inches of water in it
This top view shows what that same pathway looked like yesterday.
The parkway, completely covered and the parking lot to the right submerged as well

Although my birthday was a fun day and seeing the river rising was interesting, yesterday became a scary day as the water kept rising and eventually found it's way into neighbors homes. Joe spent the hours before and into his work day working with so many wonderful neighbors and volunteers helping as best he could, and spent the rest of the night in uniform trying to do the same.

Chloe watched Joe go in and out of the house, heard his reports, and saw the emergency vehicles at the end of our street working to help. During one of Joe's last stops home, he asked me to clear our basement out, bringing the computer and any other valuable items upstairs on the chance that we got water too. Immediately I went to work but was stopped by the sound of whimpers and followed them to Chloe who was worried that our house was going to flood and float away.

Sometimes I forget that she listens to our adult conversations and comprehends more than I know. What she gleaned from Joe and my talks caused her great fear. We went outside to talk and show her that so far there was no water near our home yet. We looked up and saw a beautiful rainbow. I reminded Chloe of the story of Noah's Ark and the promise that the rainbow represents. As her tears dried and she stared in awe at the rainbow, I promised her, that even if water got into our house, our family would be safe and that Heavenly Father would take care of us. We went up to get ready for bed and as she said her prayer that night she asked that "our neighbors and our home be kept safe from water and that we would all be okay because of the rainbow."

Although, I wish we didn't have neighbors who had water in their homes and the threat that some of it could reach us, I am always grateful for teaching moments, when I see my children understanding and developing faith in the things we have taught them and they have learned at church. This was a sweet experience on a not so sweet night.

Someday soon I hope this path is clear again to run and spend peacful afternoons on, until then, I hope our homes and neighbors stay safe.

*Special thanks to my friend Jamie, who is not only awesome for having a quote on the cover of Richard Paul Evans new book, but also because she got much better shots of the flooded river yesterday and allowed me to copy some of them! Thanks!