Siblings

Tonight as I was getting my chatty Lily ready for her bath I had a flashback to a video I took of Tommy when he was almost exactly the same age. What you see here are Tommy and Lily, each about four months old, talking to me right before a bath. Do they look like siblings or what? Lily is a bit darker, Tommy was a bit bigger, but I'd say the resemblance is definitely there. The other funny thing is that Tommy's voice is the same now as it was when he was a baby. Too cute.

Tommy

Lily

Easter

We've been so busy this past month! I recently landed a job as a fitness instructor teaching aqua aerobics and cycling classes. Ben has taken a lead role in getting Gangplank Avondale up and running. We've been busy a lot more in the evenings than I think we've ever been since we got married. I'll try to get us caught up on the blog here soon.

Easter this year was wonderful. On Saturday Ben and I went to the temple and then we made cinnamon rolls. The perfect day. We dyed eggs later that evening. Tommy had a blast with this. He dyed at least nine of the twelve eggs I had prepared. Lily and I dyed one pink egg together. Ben and Tommy experimented at the end with mixing different colors. Just so you know, orange and green make a really gross color of brown together. Definitely not meant to be.

We had all been fighting off colds for several days, but that Saturday really did me in. By the end of the day I was so sick and tired that I lay in bed sobbing and moaning, "I can't do it anymore." Ben asked what I couldn't do anymore. My response: "Life!" I was serious, too. Luckily, Easter morning I decided I could do life for at least one more day. Tommy woke up excited and ready to search for his basket and the hidden eggs. It was so fun to see his delight when he found them. We had a great morning together, ate cinnamon rolls, and sent Ben and Tommy off to church. Lily and I were too sick to go to church so we stayed home and slept. When the boys got home I dressed Lily up in her Easter dress and we took some pictures. I'm pretty sure our kids are the cutest kids in the whole world. Sorry everyone else.

I put a lot of effort into making a nice Easter dinner. It didn't turn out quite like I envisioned, but it was still good. I cooked the ham in the crockpot a bit too long so we had pulled pork instead of ham. The funeral potatoes were made without sour cream, but the asparagus was good. It's funny to work so hard on a meal and then have it turn out weird. Oh well. It tasted good.

St. Patrick's Day and the Gladiator Run

I am trying to be a more fun mom.  In the past holidays come and I think, "Shoot, I guess we really should have done something to celebrate this holiday.  Oh well, maybe next year."  I finally had enough of being lame and decided to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  I rented about 10 books from the library about St. Patrick's Day and Leprechauns.  Tommy and I read them in preparation for the big day.  On St. Patty's Day we successfully made pizza with a green crust, green Jell-O, and two cakes with green frosting.  Tommy and Daddy each decorated one with Skittles, as you can see.  The Skittles tasted a little weird on cake that first night, but after they sat in the frosting overnight they softened up and were absolutely delicious.  A leprechaun came and dyed Tommy's milk green, which he loved.  His poop was green for at least five days afterward.  I had big plans of making a pot of gold with a trail of leprechaun footprints leading to it, but that didn't happen.  Maybe next year:)

Also on Patrick's Day I ran the funnest 5K known to man.  It was called the Gladiator Run and it was definitely the hardest and the most rewarding 5K I have accomplished.  We started out by running up and down a small mountain on dirt trails.  That was probably about 2 miles of the 3.1-mile race.  There were 16 obstacles scattered throughout the course.  They included everything from running through tires to jumping over hay bales to army crawling through mud to swimming through a pool of ice-cold water.  The hardest obstacles for me were the climbing ones.  One obstacle was comprised of 3 huge dumpsters that we had to jump in and then jump out of.  I was really glad to have done this run with some friends who helped give each other a boost in and out of the dumpsters.  The other hard obstacle was right at the end where we had to climb up a slippery wall with a rope.  Then we jumped over fire.  It was awesome and I can't wait to do another race like this again.  It took about 1 hour 15 minutes to do, but the point was to have fun and to do some crazy things rather than to finish quickly.  Below is a little video I made about the run.

Now I get to talk about the psychological benefits of doing something out-of-the-ordinary.  I used to think people who did obstacle runs like this were crazy.  I didn't see the point of running a 5K for anything other than trying to beat my PR.  I guess in the past running has always been a battle of me beating myself and improving over the previous race, running farther, running faster, etc.  My friend posted on Facebook that she was doing this run and I thought to myself, "She's crazy.  I would never do a run like that."

Then a day came about 8 weeks after Lily was born when I had a tough, tough day.  I had to drive to Mesa for my yearly gynie exam and I had to take both of my kids with me, despite having lined up two different babysitters.  The drive was long, Lily cried basically the whole time (she is not a fan of driving in the car), and I was totally worn out by the time we got home.  Ben was sick that day, so after a long day of mommy stuff I put the kids to bed and trekked out to Wal-Mart to get Ben some medicine.  It was a long, exhausting day.  As I walked into the store it hit me:  the reason why races like the Gladiator Run exist.  It's for people like me who get burned out of their daily routine, whether it be a stay-at-home mom or a person who goes to work everyday.  It's for people who want some reassurance that they are still alive, that they can still complete something challenging, that they can do something totally out of character.  It's for people who just want to do something crazy and fun.  Races like this exist so that people like me can bear the sometimes monotonous daily grind with a smile, knowing that although I spend my days cleaning up dishes, toys, and poop, there is this crazy warrior within who climbs slippery walls and swims through ice water.  I know this doesn't relate to some people, but it's what I needed at the time, and I'm so glad I followed through and ran that race.

I was nervous before we started and I kept asking Ben, "Why did I sign up for this?  I'm worried I'm not going to be able to do it.  This is crazy.  Who does stuff like this?"  I walked away from this race a different person than I was before it.  I needed this race.  Maybe that sounds weird to some, but I did.  In the week since the race I have drawn so much strength from it.  I can't tell you how many times I have thought, "I know I can get through today because I crawled through mud last week," or, "Even though I feel frumpy right now I know I am fit and sexy because I climbed in and out of a dumpster."  In Martin Dugard's To Be a Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking On a 5-K Makes You a Better Person (and the World a Better Place)he talks about how running makes you a better person because you accomplish hard things that you didn't think you could do before.  Of course, that knowledge can come in infinite other ways, but for me, it' comes through running and fitness.

Anyway, that's how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  Now time to get geared up for Easter...

It's a Good Thing We Have Two Arms...

...Because we have two kids who like to be held.

Here are some videos of Lily smiling and talking. She is the most sociable baby I have ever met. Anytime she catches my eye she starts talking and smiling. I love it. Also, she is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. No surprise there. We make 'em big around here. I love chubby babies:)

The Details

I love it when my kids play together. Mostly right now that is just Tommy falling down when Lily "hits" him or Tommy getting in Lily's face and talking to her. It's really cute, though, and it makes me really look forward to the time when they will really play and interact with each other. I know they are going to be best friends. There is a special bond between a big brother and his little sister (I know because my big brother has always been my hero). Below is a video of us playing "Flying Baby" together. Tommy wanted to play it again and again. Lily didn't seem to mind too much.

Lately Tommy loves talking on the phone. He likes to use this headset because he watches Ben use his headset at work, but really anything will do. He has been known to talk into calculators, batteries, old cell phones, and basically anything else that vaguely resembles a phone. I love to hear his side of the conversation when he is on the phone. It usually involves something about getting a paycheck in the mail, not having the details, or the paycheck getting lost. The other day I overheard a "conversation" he was having about how the UPS man stole our mail and took it to the UPS Store. I guess he was trying to work out those details. He is so funny and so creative. A couple of weeks ago he walked into Sacrament Meeting with his sunglasses on chatting on his calculator about his paycheck. Tommy is one cool dude. I marvel at the vocabulary he picks up just from listening to our everyday conversation.

Here is a picture of our little angel sleeping. She sleeps best on her Boppy pillow or snuggled up with me in our bed. I love our sweet Lily.

Grandma and Grandpa Chatterton's Visit

We were so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Chatterton come in February for Lily's baby blessing. We loved having them here with us and only wish they could have stayed longer. Tommy loved having constant playmates and lots of attention. Lily loved being held all day long. The Chattertons are always so good to us and we love them so much. Here are a few fun pictures and videos that show what we did.

Tommy playing cars on Grandpa.

Lily as happy as can be in Grandpa's arms.

What a precious picture of Tommy and Grandma.

Lily's blessing day.

Grandpa was playing "Flying Baby" with Lily. Everything was going well and we were having fun until Lily pooped on Grandpa's hand and we got it on film:)

We made these popsicle stick figures from pictures in "The Friend" magazine and taught Tommy the story of Nephi building a boat. He loved telling the story with Grandma. Tommy was Nephi and Grandma was his disobedient brothers, Laman and Lemuel.

Monster Jam

My big Christmas present to Tommy and Ben was tickets to Monster Jam. They went at the end of January and had a blast together while Lily and I spent some girl time together at home. Tommy's favorite part was when the truck fell over and his wheel came off. He talked about Monster Jam constantly for a few days afterward.

I love Tommy snuggles. And I love that curly hair:)