My Birthday

This year has been a hard one for me in regards to my BIG day.  Even though my life is far from care-free due to being married for almost an entire decade and mothering three little ones, I have always felt like I fit into the "younger group" of adulhood.  For the first time I am being forced to come to terms with the fact that I am now in the 30's group instead of the girls in their 20's. In some ways I haven't really felt young in a very long time (since Robby was born five years ago), but nevertheless I could still claim I was young in theory.  Now all of a sudden in my head I no longer sound like some "young thing" anymore. 

 Since I moved to New Hampshire in August, I have felt a renewed sense of young as I have celebrated multiple friends hitting thirty right alongside with me (and some have already proudly marched through this phase of life several years prior).  I feel like we are all still young at heart when we get together for girls nights; we can laugh hysterically at the ridiculous things that happen in small towns, share funny stories about our kids and hubbies, as well as enjoy "teeny bopper" movies while the husbands stay home with the children.  So of course I should have known that these friends would not let my birthday pass by without making sure I experienced a special evening out.  My goodness, did they ever deliver.  They threw me a surprise party that was veiled as a "Pinterest Party" the night before my actual birthday.  I walked into it excited to have a night out with friends with my official Pinterest fruit pizza in hand, only to realize that these girls had gone ALL out and decorated the community center with balloons, banners, cake, yummy treats, and the BEST coconut lime slushes all color coordinated in typical, perfect Maren fashion.  I was shocked and surprised and immediately gratified to know what great friends I have made here.  I truly feel so lucky to have gotten to know all these women over the past nine months and I am sure happy they will all be sticking around with us for another year longer!

 From left to right: Catherine Pyfer, Maren Layton, Kristie Barlow, Liz Igoe, Tiffany (me), Michelle Holbrook, Jen Fogarty, Ashley Kostle, Brittany, Andrea Dance

LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!

On my actual birthday I woke up and immediately joined several friends on the first of our "long runs" as we have begun to train for a half-marathon that will be coming up in middle May.  It was the perfect morning to go on a run and the first time I have ever really run without my Ipod blaring in my ears.  I have never realized how fulfilling it can be to just visit with friends while we go on a relaxing run together.  All in all, it brought out my running bug in full force and further motivated me to keep on training hard.  When I returned home, Jesse and the kids had decorated our front porch and downstairs with banners, streamers, and balloons.  The children were so excited to yell "Surprise....Happy Birthday Mommy" when I entered our house.  In came another influx of love into my heart.  In that moment, nothing could take away from the swelling in my heart of love.  I felt so loved and needed by my family.  And in that instant I was reminded of how close the five of us have gotten, since moving far away from our extended family and for that I am grateful. 

The presents soon followed and included new running clothes and shoes, and a brand new NINJA blender.  I have thoroughly enjoyed preparing tons of smoothies since then, anywhere from healthy green smoothies to ice cream infused fruit treats.  Not to mention how much better my feet feel in my new shoes; I can almost feel a palpable difference between running in old shoes and new ones.  The only downer to my birthday was that immediately following our "surprise party" I started to feel somewhat sick to my stomach, achy, and had some lovely GI issues.  I pretty much felt under the weather the rest of the day, that then translated into the whole weekend.....yuck. Jesse was so great with taking care of me, and allowing me to rest on the couch while we watched General Conference.  Even though he had to leave later that evening for Priesthood session, I still felt like it was a great day for me.

I have to admit that I am kind of a nerd when it comes to birthdays, including my own.  I look forward them with little child excitement and this year did not disappoint.  Although I cannot wait to be showered with more love next year on my birthday, I can wait awhile before tacking another year onto my age :)

Today

I have found out that there are two main things that must be incorporated into my daily life, in order for me to be happy.  The first is sleep (not a ton, at least 6.5 hours and not waking up until 7am), and the second is working out (not necessarily on a daily basis, but definitely at least 3-4 times a week).  I discovered just how important the second item on that list was this winter when I went through a monotonous winter filled with being cooped inside and snow/icy weather.  I ate my way through those days and came up feeling frumpy and blah.  About three weeks ago, I decided that a change was needed and registered for a 5K race.  Then I traded my pajamas and slippers for running gear and sneakers and out I headed.  I can safely say I haven't been happier in quite awhile and feel so much more energetic (like my old self).

Today was a really good day.  I was able to sleep well and go running this afternoon.  After surviving the first two semesters of J's school which included long days of classes and group projects and long nights full of studying and homework, I can confidently say I LOVE the third and final semester of this year.  He is home more, less stressed and able to help around the house like before.  He is really trying to be supporting of me training for my upcoming race in May (half-marathon....yikes).  Today he proudly announced that he felt pretty caught up with his studies and that I could go running if I wanted.  The internal debate lasted less than a second and I was out the door in a flash.  I feel like I am slowly returning to previous running shape and my lungs are getting stronger with each run.  Now I just need to learn how to tackle hills.....

Some other things that made today such a great day include:

*watching Robby at gymnastics this morning
*shopping at BJ's with my boys
*having Maddie proudly announce that there are only FOUR days until MY birthday (and yes I have trained her well)
*Going running
*Date night with Catherine to the movie theaters to see Hunger Games! (loved it)
*coming home to a clean kitchen with children nestled in their beds
*and last but not least, watching my boys play for HOURS with their new swim goggles on.....seriously was one of the cutest things ever :)

Shamrock Shuffle

This year for St. Patricks Day I headed out to the Lebanon green and ran a fun 5K race with some of my good friends here in New Hampshire.  It was the perfect race to participate in after a long running hiatus this winter.  It sort of kick started my workouts again and got me motivated to register for Half-Marathon that I am doing in May....yikes.  We all wore fun festive socks that Maren picked up from her Target trip and off we went.  I didn't end up running side by side with any of the girls but had a great time and was pleased to even have Jesse and the kids come at the end.  My time wasn't great (approx 30 minutes), but I was pleased to finally be out there running again!

*and Maren was amazing running at 31 weeks pregnant!!! She is sort of my hero :)

 Tiffany, Maren, Michelle, Ashley, and Kristie

 Me after the race with my "bigger two kids"---that is somehow how I seem to refer to Maddie and Robby when I am talking about my children :)

Maren, Tiffany, and Michelle

*I am seriously so lucky to have been blessed with such good friends that are living the same life as us right now*

Winter with Papa

My kids have been lucky enough to have their Papa come out multiple times to visit us.  Every time he comes they have so much fun together; this time did not disappoint.  Although he was only here for a few days, they built snowmen, went sledding, had a hot chocolate stand, cuddled, etc.  Thanks so much for all the time and attention you give to our children Papa......I know that they won't forget this.  XOXO

 Maddie is obsessed with food/drink stands where she earns money and is constantly come up with new ways to do this.  This winter she decided that she would do a hot chocolate stand to warm everyone up.  She made her sign, dragged the kid table to the corner by our house, pulled out a change jar, styrofoam cups, and lukewarm-semi watery hot chocolate.  Unfortunately there weren't too many customers lurking around to buy off of her, however she was excited that our neighbors the Dance's came outside and each bought a cup from her. 

 Eli was excited to get his own cup of cocoa and even sat out by Maddie for part of the time and helped "sell" with her

 Our poor pitiful snowman.  The crazy part is that this is literally the ONLY snowman that we made this year.  I guess we are officially Arizona wimps when it comes to the snow.  We have promised ourselves that next year there will be many more snowmen built.

 Papa was a trouper and slid down the hill over and over without any snow pants on.

February 12-18

I have somehow abandoned my blog this year and it makes me a little sad.  I love to record the little things about life, good or bad.  It somehow makes the bad feel more tolerable and I love being able to recognize my growth as an individual through those challenging times. I am going to attempt to catch up on February and then just move on with my life.

Sunday, February 12th: I taught Relief Society (a women's only meeting) at my church for the FIRST TIME EVER.  I was a little hesitant when they asked me to prepare a lesson because I had never done something like that before.  I am one hundred percent NOT a public speaker, never have been and never will be.  I'm also not one of those people that words come easily to with speeches or public events.  That is a talent that my husband has always had, not me.  But I put my faith in God that I would be able to speak the words that the sisters (and I) needed to hear.  Fortunately He delivers and was with me throughout my entire talk.  The topic I spoke about was "Loving Thy Neighbor as Thy Self".  I felt like I learned a lot more about what kind of Love I want in my life.  I want to have Agape (Godly) love in my life, I want that to be the kind of love that I give to others.  The kind of love that is non-partial, sacrificial, and unconditional, that expects nothing in return.  Not the natural man version that is weak in comparison, selfish and self-serving that is based on how other people behave toward us.  I hope that I can exercise more control over myself in the future and continually strive to develop the love that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father continue to show me regardless of my own personal failures and shortcomings.  I want to be able to teach my children by example of the kind of love I want them to have in their own lives. 

Monday: February 13th: The boys and I headed over to our good friend's house for an afternoon of cookie decorating.  We had a great time frosting cookies and laughing while the kids ran wild and played together. Maddie was pretty jealous when she found out about all the fun we had, but luckily I had some extra frosting and cookies for her decorate that evening as well.  She also was really creative this year and handmade her Valentines for her school class.  She cut out heart shapes with construction paper and stapled them shut with a few hersheys kisses inside.  She constantly amazes me with her creative side.

Tuesday: February 14th: LOVE day! Maddie had a great time at her school party, passing out candy and getting lots of treats in return.  She had gymnastics after school so it was somewhat busy from about 2:30-5:30pm around our house.  I did homemade pizza that evening complete with heart shaped pepperoni's on top.  I have to admit there was no romance this year on V-Day with Jesse busy with school work, studying, group projects, etc.  But still a great day spent with my children showing them how much I love them.

Wednesday, February 15th: This particular night I worked at the hospital and it was one of our doctor's last shift at the hospital. Good thing we had some fun goggles to model in to celebrate the occassion.  Christina is a crack up and was so proud to say that she owns her very own pair.  Dr Johnston, we will sure miss you!!

Thursday, February 16th:  Jesse picked up the boys early from the sitters and we happened to get a bit of snow in the meantime.  So needless to say they all had a good time goofing around together.  I am seriosly dying at how cute Mr E is with mis-matched pajamas, ski goggles, and his hat backwards.  I sure love that little boy:)

Robby had to take his turn wearing the cool ski goggles.  He thinks they belong to him now and wants to wear them whenever he goes outside to play in the snow.

Friday: February 17th: CHILI DAY. Jesse and I worked together to make some yummy Chili for Tuck's annual competition. It was fun to do this together in the morning, although I was quite tired because I had worked the night before. By that evening I was worn out and just wanted to relax at home, so Jesse took Maddie on a daddy-daughter date to the event. She had a great time running around with the other kids while Jesse manned the chili station. Unfortunately we did not win, but we still had a great time making it.

Saturday, February 18th:  Last minute Date night/girls night!! I ended up going to a girls night movie of "Breaking Dawn: Part 1" with a group of girls that live in my neighborhood: Michelle, Maren, Andrea, Liz, and Emily.  We had a great time laughing, talking and watching a total chick flick without any male gagging during the movie.  After I got back from the movie Jesse and I ended up going to the Tuck "Hoe Down" for a few hours.  It was pretty fun, even though we didn't dress up at all to suit the occassion.  I love the chances I get to get out of the house for something non-work related without children and spend time with adult contacts.  I had fun dancing with Lauren, Jen, and Natalia: I sure love my "fellow groupies" on the dance floor :) while listening to the T13 band rock out to some good old fashioned country music.

Five

A certain someone has been counting down the days until his birthday since beginning of January. 

He has also been planning his "airplane/jetplane" themed birthday party

And has been making a list of all of the 'totally awesome' toys he wants for this said birthday.

And been practicing the new way to show everyone how old he is.

Who is this cute little boy you may ask.....

Robby, of course :)  {not to be confused with Robert per the Birthday boy}

Some fun things we did to celebrate his birthday include:

*lunch at McDonald's

*birthday dinner of Spaghetti and homemade meatballs

*Yummy giant "Cupcake" cake with Spumoni ice cream

*BJ's to pick out a few extra DS games with money from GGma and Nona & Papa

*family party/lots of happy birthdays from family

Robby always dreams big when it comes to presents and this year he did not disappoint.  He announced weeks before his birthday that all he wanted for his birthday was a remote control airplane and batteries for his remote control monster truck.  I started researching remote control airplanes and coudn't find one that flew that cost less than $100---that didn't look like it would fall apart the moment we tried it out.  Luckily my friend at work contacted me and said that her daughter had two DS game systems that she never played with and offered to give me one of them for FREE.  We picked it up a few days later and it was perfect condition.  The result= Robby loved it and has really enjoyed his new "Mario Kart" game as well as his Amusement Park & Diego DS games.

We kept his actual birthday sort of low key this year with the plan that we would have a big party for him the next day, Saturday.  He didn't seem to mind in the least bit and we did have a lovely time together opening presents and enjoying time with one another.  In fact, we had so much fun that the kids stayed up WAY too late.  I glanced at the clock at some point and realized with dismay that it was 9pm and all three were still up playing.  Oh my goodness, it's embarassing to admit that this happens way too often at my house.

Five Fun Things about Robby include:

1. His favorite color is hands down RED.  He must have red plates, cups, spoons, and bowls in the kitchen.  This cracks me up because for years my favorite color was also red.  We just bought him one of my favorite books as a child called "Red is Best" that my mother also bought me because I loved that color so zealously :)

2. He is seriously so smart, he amazes me at times what he naturally learns (not from my wonderful parenting).  He has learned simple addition and subtraction from the older (not bigger) sister.  The other day I heard them practicing together while driving.  He knows 2+2, 3+2, 4+3, 2+0, etc.  He also can do very simple subtraction with using his fingers.  He has also really improved on his phonics and loves to tell me what words rhyme, what letter different words start with, can simple spell words based on the phonetical way they sound.  In fact, one of our favorite games we play is "Tell me what words start with the letter "T" or "R" or "S"..... This game can keep my older two entertained for a good 10 minute car ride and they get progressively louder as they grow more excited about what words they can come up with.

3. He is a total stuffed animal lover.  He has two different puppies on his bed "Raja" and "Maggie" that he loves to drag nearly everywhere he goes.  I have to admit, it makes my heart melt a little bit when I see him stroking them while he watches tv or as he falls asleep at night. 

4. Robby loves anything that includes races.  He will spend hours a day setting up and practicing having his monster trucks, cars, trains, planes, etc race each other.  He is very specific on who is going to win and who will crash during the said race.  He also likes to personally participate in races with his siblings, particularly when he wins.  He still isn't the greatest at good sportsmanship when he loses but loves to help others develop this attribute by trying to calm them down when they're not the winners. This is hilarious to watch!

5. Loves to play "Connect Four: Launchers". He makes up his own rules depending on who he's playing with and frequently ends up with way more turns than me----or maybe I am just a sore loser about always losing to Rubba's :)

A semi-ugly picture of part of the Bday dinner---I was mostly proud of myself for finding a recipe and making the homemade meatballs on the right of the plate.  This was a brand new recipe for me :)

Robby was so excited when it was finally time to open presents that evening on his Birthday!

I absolutely love how Maddie made him this picture for his birthday.  I loved how much time Maddie spend on this project, and how excited she was to give it to him.

Rubba in his brand new Fox Hat (that has now become E's because he is in love with that thing and Robby's semi-indifferent about it)

January Happenings

After ALL the complaining and whining I put into my last post, mother nature delivered.  Last Thursday (one week ago), Maddie's school was cancelled and we played and played and played while we received about one foot of snow.  It was heavenly to see my children expend so much energy outdoors digging, sledding, making forts, throwing snowballs, playing monsters trucks, etc.  We finally ventured back indoors for awhile until Daddy came home and then we headed back out for more fun.  Eli was the only one not quite so enthused and flat out REFUSED to come back outside.  He wouldn't put snow pants and had an emphatic shake of his head even when we begged and pleaded.  "Too cold" was his response.  He enjoyed a movie indoors while we joined all of our neighbors outside and eventually our cute neighbor girl went inside and joined him.  

Another fun thing we started up this month is ski lessons for Maddie and Robby.  Every Wednesday we load up all of M's gear, pick her up from school, and head to Whaleback Mountain.  She has loved all of her lessons thus far.  I always enjoy her huge grin on her face after finishing lessons and she has been very enthusiastic.  This excitement makes the two hours of pure torture with the boys during the lessons completely worth it.  I have found out the hard way that there is NOTHING for two little boys to do at a ski resort lodge other than movies and running around like crazy.  The longest we have lasted is about 45 minutes, and then I give up and sit in the car the rest of the time with them.  Robby also started skiing and has his lessons on Saturday mornings at 9am.  It was a little shock for him that he actually had to learn how to put on his skis and figure out how to walk sideways up the hill, before they would let him "fly down the mountain".  I have been so proud of his positive attitude while learning something that isn't easy at first.  I know he is going to love it once he learns how to ski a little better and can go down "speedy fast".  Last Saturday I came to his lessons kid-less and was able to capture a few photos of him.

We have also had Natalia (our next door neighbor) over quite a few times and she is obsessed with Maddie.  She is so cute and comes running into our house whenever we leave the front door open calling out for Maddie.  The other day Maddie put on her Sundevil shirt and J was trying to get a picture of her.  Natalia immediately ran over and wanted in on the photo shoot :)

 {never mind the rag-muffin hair on Miss M. At the moment she insists on brushing her own hair and doing it "all by myself" most days.  Don't worry, if we are headed out, I nearly always do her hair before we leave}

With all the cold weather we have had this month (including several days where it was below zero--11 degrees below to be completely accurate--for a good chunk of the day) I have really tried to encourage a joint play time activity with all three kids.  Luckily the boys love to play all the same things {sometimes a good thing, sometimes not so good} and Maddie is extremely laid back when it comes to playing.  She is not a toy kid and so she doesn't own very many girly toys, but she is always willing to sit down with her brothers and play what they want to, even trains.  I took this upcoming picture last Saturday when I was cooking dinner.  At that point I realized that we had had very little fighting all day long.  I walked into the front room to check on the children and my heart melted when I saw them all playing trains together.  This was exactly what I envisioned when I found out I would have three kids in three years.  I thought about the strong bond and friendship they would all share together.

One of the things I am constantly reminding my children of is that they are all "built in best friends for life".  As hard as it has been to move all the way across the country and start a new chapter in our lives, I know one thing that has grown stronger is our friendships within our family.  Maddie doesn't have the same friend structure she had in AZ, so when she is home from school she spends a good deal of her time playing with her brothers.  Robby went from having a whole street full of boys to play with to literally no friends out here, but has really learned to play more with Eli during the day.  Those two boys fight a lot, but they also play a lot.  Even through all the frustrations of having a pesky brother, Robby sure likes having a play mate that wants to race cars, drive trains, play pretend, etc.  I feel so lucky that my children can experience such a completeness in our home.  I rarely have my children telling me they are bored or begging for friends to come over and play.  Number one, they know that really isn't too many options of friends near us, and most importantly number two, they fell fulfilled with their friendships in our house.  On the day of the above picture, they all played with the trains for about 2.5 hours without any fighting or tears....yeahhhh!!

Last but not least, a cute picture of Mr E in the kitchen "helping Mommy" cook dinner.  He is a sweetie that's for sure!

In Memory of a Snow-less Winter

Since New Hampshire has decided she doesn't want to provide us with snow this winter, I figured that I would instead remember the "good old days" back in November when Mother Nature decided to send snow our way.  We had a good time out there sledding....seriously a great time even though Maddie sledded snow-pantless (we hadn't purchased this necessity item at that point).  We spent tons of time on the hill next to our house, sledding, throwing snowballs {Robby}, and shoveling.  It has sure been nice to have a mild Winter, but really how much longer must we suffer through winter in New England without snow on the ground and temperatures in the 30-40's?  Just saying.

Maddie's cute little tush....yes that's right tush.

 Robby with our neighbor buddy, Damon.  They spent much time hurling snowballs back and forth, Damon even went as far as throwing the snow glove-less

Truth be told Maddie wanted NO part in the snowball fights and was perfectly content "posing" for me.