We Got a New House!

Ok, so we didn't get a new house, but it sure does look like a new house. The painters finished painting today. I am so excited. We were sick of beige and darker beige, so we went bold! I love it! Our new roof looks pretty good too.

We had a huge hail storm in June and all my flowers were ruined. But with a little sunshine and a lot of water, they came back. Who knew zinnias grew as big as a bush? Finally after three years in this house, a flower garden to be proud of.

(FYI, the beige house is the BEFORE. The dark brown house is the AFTER)

We got new lights, house numbers and door handles too.

Where were you?

Do you remember where you were on this day eight years ago? We lived in New York eight years ago. Sam was 7 weeks old. I woke up early to feed him and turned on the TV. I started my day like any other day. Then I watched LIVE the first airplane hit, then the second, then the third. Then the towers fell. Then the fourth airplane somehow crashed into a field. We now know how that happened. It was so surreal. I couldn't believe it was happening. I looked in Sam's baby book to see what I wrote. It was originally thought that 10 thousand people were going to die. 2,985 died.

I was so scared that something was going to happen to Tyler. He was working at the capital and I could not get a hold of him. I finally was able to talk to him and remember screaming in the phone for him to just come home! I was scared he would die and I would have this little baby, and be all alone.

We went to our church the next day and participated in the national day of worship. Do you remember how you felt? I do. That is really when my passion for politics and this country took off. I love this country. I cry every time I see the Statue of Liberty. I am so glad I live here. I love the Constitution. If you have not read it lately, you should. It is a beautiful piece of history.

Fly your flag today. Fly it for the men and women that have died for our freedoms and the men and women who will die in the future to keep you and I safe. Pray to your God today and thank Him for the privilege of living in the greatest country on the earth. God Bless America!

Click on the picture to enlarge it. I took this picture in early 2001.

Maren the model

I wanted to try out our new camera and Maren was willing to model. This is up in the mountains, camping. She has slept on her hair for two days, and has barely put a brush through it. Don't you wish you had her hair?
Her cute friend, Mary, came camping with us.

Camping for Labor Day

So we went camping for Labor Day this weekend. I know most of you are thinking, "Stace, went camping?" I do hate camping, it is true. But when you consider all the terrible experiences I have had camping, you know why. Girls camp when I was a teenager sucked. There was never enough food, it was always sooo hot, and the other girls always whined.
Fast forward a few years.... Tyler and I had been married for about six weeks. Our old singles ward asked us to chaperon a white water rafting trip in Jackson Hole. The girls on the raft did not know how to steer the raft so they plowed my brand new husband into a huge rock. I thought his head had been taken clean off! ( and we didn't have life insurance on him yet)
Fast forward again.... Now we live in Houston, TX. Just in case you are not aware, Houston is the hottest place on earth. The humidity will strangle you if you let it. We would go camping in the summer in Houston. Seriously, Doone, what in the 'h' were we thinking??? We were in grad school and had no money, I guess.

So now I am a mom of two adorable kids who want to go camping. How can I tell them no? They love it. So it makes the 8 hours of prep time and the 3 hour drive up to the mountains worth it.
These pictures were on a 4.5 mile hike. This mountain is so beautiful.

Sam's a Bobcat now

Sam just joined the Boy Scouts this summer. He got his bobcat last week. Good job Son!

Master Bedroom

I spent the morning doing this. The pictures on the wall are from our trip to London, Belgium, and France. I still need a set of 5 keys to hang in the empty spot. Any suggestions?

Halloween Topiary

So I spent the afternoon making this Halloween Topiary. I saw this idea, but didn't love the one for sale. So I decided to improvise by making it myself. Tyler thinks it is too busy... I like it. What do you think? any suggestions on improving it?

The Triathlon

I did a sprint triathlon yesterday. It is a half-mile swim (or 36 lengths in a pool), a 12 mile bike, followed by a 3 mile run (that turned into a 3.6 mile run). I have been training for the last several weeks for this day. My sister, Misty, did it with me. She and I have talked about our training, obsessed about our strategy, and who we thought we could beat for the last month. It was so fun. A group of 15 women from our church participated.

So I knew if I wanted to beat Mist, I had to beat her on both the swim and the bike. She is such a good runner, that if it came down to the run, she would smoke me. I know I used to run cross-country back in the day, but that day was 20 years ago! Mist rocked the run. She passed four people on the run alone. I had a three minute lead on her after the swim, and another 3 minute lead on her after the bike. She made up 5 minutes of that lead on the run. I only beat her by 58 seconds! She was breathing down my neck. Good job Mist! You are my hero.

In case you wanted to know... I burned 1074 calories during the 1 hour and 40 minutes it took me to finish.

We are going to do it again next August, so come join us. And by the way, the lake water is a balmy 60 degrees, so train in the most frigid water you have ever been in.

Here are some pictures of the day. Mist is in the purple top, and the silver swim cap. I am in the hot pink top with the black stripes down the side.

Blog Jealousy!

I just looked at my sis's blog. She had 20 comments on ONE post!! I don't think I even have 20 people that look at my blog. Wow Tiff, how did you get so many friends. So if you look at my blog, leave a post, so I can beat Tiff!

"I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ....." (now you have this song stuck in your head)

When kids turn eight in our church, kids can decide if they want to get baptized and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sam decided he wanted to get baptized. We had all of Tyler's family come from out of state and half of my family come from out of state. Thanks for coming everyone. We love you! It was a great day.

Sam's Birthday

Sam turned EIGHT this year! I just don't know where the time went. He wanted a Lego Agent cake this year. If you are not up on your agents, this cake is Spy-Clops!

First day of School!!

So you would think with school in session I would have all the time in the world to blog and get caught up. I have been too lonely to blog. Seriously, my house is so quiet. I can hardly stand my lonely self. I miss the kids! I know some of you think I am crazy, but I have only been a mom for 8 years and I already have an empty nest. My mom was a mom for 25 years before her last one went to school! That is a long time.

Maren cried for me when she figured out I was going to be all alone. She thought that was so sad to be home with no kids. How right she is.

Sam came home the other day and said, "Mom, I love you more than legos!" ( wow, how do I rank? that son of mine lives, breathes, and eats legos. He will be the first to tell you how many he has and which one is his favorite.)

This too shall pass, and one day I will enjoy the solitude.

Here are some pictures of the first day of school.

Be Prepared

Be prepared... Isn't that the scout motto?
So we decided we would try a bit of emergency preparedness for family night last week. I wanted the kids the "practice" going down the fire escape ladder. We have had an emergency plan for such emergencies for about a year or so, but have never even taken the ladder out of its box.
We threw the ladder out Sam's window. That was the plan. The ladder was not long enough to clear the roof. We decided jumping the last 5 or so feet would not be such a great idea. So we tried the window in our bedroom. We darn near broke the window on the main level that is right under our window. We decided it would not be a great idea to climb down a ladder with no shoes on (because if there really is a fire, who has time to get shoes) and walk all over broken glass. So the third time we threw the ladder out our bathroom window. Ahh, success! Now we just had to climb down the ladder.
We had to convince the kids this little practice was a great idea. Sam, of course, was brave at first. That is until he looked down from the two story window. Then he proceeded to cry like a baby. After some convincing, he headed down the ladder and decided it was ok. He came back up for another try.
Maren was a bit of a train wreck. She was crying so loud the neighbor lady came out to see what we were doing. She tried to act like it was a good idea when I was explaining to her why our six year old was screaming like a mad woman.
Maren finally went down the ladder once I convinced her I would never let her fall.
I was next. Now some of you may know just how brave I am. I have been bungy jumping, paragliding over the Swiss Alps, and I have even done that crazy fly-through- the-air- at-1000-miles-an- hour-ride at some amusement park in Houston. I am brave! Seriously, I could have peed my pants climbing down this fire escape ladder. It was so scary. The ladder is oh, so skinny. You have to poke your butt out into thin air in order to get down the steps, of course all while the ladder is swinging and swaying. I tell you what, I ain't so brave anymore. No wonder Maren was screaming like crazy. I had to be the most brave looking mother on the planet. I had to convince all within the sound of my voice, that it really wasn't that bad. And if there really was a fire in the house, we would have to perform this task at mock speed.
Wow. What a night. I am glad we tried it out. We would have been dead if there really was a fire. To all of you that read this; be prepared! Practice on the ladder!

CAKES!

Tyler's mom decorated her kids a cake each birthday. So when Sam had his first bday, Tyler informed me that we were going to do the same. Funfetti cake was just not going to cut it. That is what I always had growing up. We were lucky if we got frosting. So needless to say, Tyler's family tradition has won out. Both of the kids just had a birthday and here are some of their cakes, that Ty and I have painstakenly decorated over the years. (Thanks a lot Judi!)