TriathaMOM

I have wanted to do a triathlon for years. It's been this little nagging thought in the back of my brain that I could never quite get rid of. I have had 5 years of really great excuses, my kids are to little, I don't have enough time, mom was sick and I was traveling and this last year I was PTA president and started working more often. But despite all of that a couple of months ago I decided that now was the time, I was going to take the plunge and do the TriathaMOM.

GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! That pretty much sums up how I felt after I signed up. But these last few months have been an awesome experience. I have learned so much about myself. I even joined a couple of different triathlon training groups, one of them made up of women right in my own neighborhood who are training for the same triathlon as myself. Talk about awesome support :) and the other group is full of every level of athlete from beginner to pro card holding ironwomen.

So August 18th is the big day, but with the way I'm going I might have to sign up for one in July :)

So In January I lost 10 pounds and I won a treadmill. Thats what got me thinking I could do a triathlon...I figured if I could do that I could use that same determination to do a triathlon. Guess I should thank Melanie for the inspiration :)

Valentines Day!

SO we had a great V-day! Did I take pics? NO! Do I ever take pics? Nope, its in my DNA apparently to always forget to use the camera.

Oh well I can still tell you all about it :) We had a fancy candlelight dinner for 6. We all celebrated together! It was so cute. I put on the nice tablecloth, red heart napkins, and the candlesticks. We even used our glass goblets. (K they are from the dollarstore so thats not really as cool as it sounds) I set the table and lit the candles and put a valentine on each of the kids places. They LOVED it. And we didn't even knock over the candles and light the house on fire.

And no one died, which sounds morbid, but could have happend. First Sydney choked on a piece of sausage. She managed to help herself, but geesh kid smaller bites. Then 2 minutes later Carter tried to swallow a chunck of chicken without chewing! He even started turning shades of blue, but never fear Jeff got it out and he was fine. But SERIOUSLY kids!!! who taught you how to eat?!?!

On Saturday we made chocolate drizzled rice crispy treats for Jeff and my primary class. We also gave some to our own kiddos so they thought that was pretty neat. I just love my cute little family, and my completely wonderful husband. I am so lucky and blessed to have them.

3:33 pm

Sofia watching the pony rides at Thanksgiving Point.

Playing at the Dinosaur Museum.

Rockhounding yes I said rockhounding, as in really looking for rocks. I know, I know! But they really love it.

Hamburger night! A favorite at our house!!

Monday thru Thursday my girls walk through the front door at 3:33 pm like clockwork. And by 3:50 my house is a disaster area, backpacks, shoes, socks, papers, toys they couldn't wait to play with, snack crumbs and probably spilled water juice or milk. By 5:35 when Jeff walks through the front door we generally have it mostly back in order, but by 8:00 I am wondering why I bothered, and we do the clean up thing yet again. (SIGH!) The kids go to bed and I pick up some more, do some deep cleaning and go to bed. (Those sweet girls can mess things up even after they are in bed :) In the morning by the time they walk out the door I am looking around and wondering how we can do so much damage in so short a time.

And yet I find myself at the window by 3:30, waiting in excited anticipation, for my little tornados to return to start the cycle all over again. Its funny what being the mom does to you. I wouldn't trade a minute of the craziness......even for a house that stayed clean longer than 5 minutes.

I am so GRATEFUL to be a mom, and so happy I have my four little whirlwinds!!

Pictures with Santa

Every year it seems like I end up with less than perfect pictures of my children and Santa. It doesn't bother me though. I feel like this is just one of those things that my family will always be known for...bad pictures. We have bad pics of us everywhere. Someone not looking at the camera, someone not smiling, or more often than not someone has a big stain on their shirt or smear of something on their face. Oh wells...right?!?! Like I said this doesn't bother me. Half the time we don't even do their hair before taking the picture. I like to think that this means I am laid back and relaxed, that I must spend time on the important things in life (and only a little lazy) Still I treasure all of my imperfect photos because they really capture what we are like any given day, and not what I WISH we were like on any given day.

Blue Sky Please!

It's official, the thing I miss about St. George the most is the blue sky. I have an amazing view out of my kitchen windows and from my little deck, but what good does it do me when there is so much haze I can't even see the mountains. I was really spoiled living in St. George all those years. I just took it for granted that the sky was blue everywhere. Well it isn't, up here in good ol' West Jordan, the sky is grey for at least half the year. Plus the sky up here is broken, it keeps on leaking white stuff.

A food blog

I have a couple of hard and fast blogging rules. One of them is that I do not blog about food, the reason, I don't want people to think "well, no wonder she is fat!" But I am throwing that rule out the window today because I might be officially obsessed. There are two things that I just can't seem to get enough of right now.


The first is this Pineapple black bean dip. Jeff found the recipe in "The Friend" magazine a year or so ago, and I just can't seem to get enough of it lately. I made it Saturday night and had to make another batch last night cuz I ate it all and couldn't get through the day without some more of it. Bad I know! However, I am going to give myself some credit for all of the fiber. Plus all of the ingredients are healthy, I'm just not sure it counts to eat my healthy ingrediants on fried chips.

The second is Pumpkin Cheesecake. I needed a new recipe for piefest and that was it. It is really easy to make and really great to eat. But once again, a recipe with 5 or 6 Tbls of butter and a couple packages of creamcheese should be eaten in moderation. (For the record although I know the definition of moderation I generally don't use it in my daily life)


I am really hoping that this post will work the same way as getting a song out of your head. If I sing the song to you and you get it stuck in your head maybe it will stay out of mine. Same theory with sharing the recipes. Hopefully someone else will become obsessed and they will get out of my head ;)

Pineapple and Blackbean Salsa

1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatos with cilantro and lime juice
1 can corn (Jeff likes the super sweet variety)
about 16 ounce of crushed pineapple or pineapple tidbits drained (this is a texture decision)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup Italian dressing


Mix, chill, tasted best the next day.



Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 sleeve of graham crackers crushed into tiny pieces
5 or 6Tbls of butter melted
1/4 cup sugar
Mix together and press up 2/3rds sides and bottom of 9 in pie pan


2 8oz pakages of cream cheese room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs room temp
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cloves
or 3/4 to 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

First cream together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla until smooooooth. Add in eggs one at a time. Spread one cup of the batter over the crust. To the rest of the batter add remaining ingrediants, stir gently. Smooth over the plain batter. Bake at 325 for 35-40 min until the center is almost but not quite set. turn off oven, open door let cool for approx 1 hour in oven. Remove from oven and put on counter to continue cooling. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, top with whip cream and enjoy!

Ahh, hopefully this post will curb my enthusiasm for these yummy treats.

Someone hit the grumpy button...

And I don't like it!! I am now convinced that kids have grumpy switches. I am not sure where they are located or how I am supposed to turn them on or off, but they are there. And someone hit both Carters and Sofias today. W-O-W!!!! Double whammy. They were fine in the tub before church, we had a good time bathing and getting dressed, but then things started going downhill...rapidly. Church was a nightmare, getting changed after church was a nightmare, and now waiting for dinner, a nightmare. Im currently ignoring grumpy gus 1 and grumpier gus 2 but I bet Jeff won't let me for long. All I can say is "Please Please Please flip the switch...soon!!"