Happy New Year!!

Hope you all had a fun and safe holiday! I was able to leave work early on New Years Eve and then I have today off- yippee!! Jon and I are always a little stumped on what to do on holidays when there are only 2 of us. Sadly, most of our good friends have either moved away or are out of state for the holiday break. We even looked outside last night and our complex was seriously deserted! I think we and one other apartment were home and that's it! That's okay though :-) We had a lot of fun.

This year for Christmas, Jon got me a really awesome book on Cupcakes. There are a lot of tips, recipes and different ideas on how to animate your cupcakes instead of just plain old frost them. We decided that we would make some cupcakes from the book. They were awesome! They are snowmen cupcakes with trees. I won't go into much details about what we did- just know that it took a long time and that I waited too long to frost the trees (oops). This resulted in frosting that was TOO soft but I didn't want to wait to have it stiffen up in the fridge so we just did the trees anyways. You know you love them! Also, the faces on the snowmen were supposed to be mini chocolate chips... but I couldn't justify buying a whole bag just to use them on 3 faces- so we just iced them on- so they don't look very "clean".

Now the problem is that we took so long to make them that we don't want to eat them!

Anyone want a snowman?

Christmas

Most of y'all already know I am an absolute Christmas junkie: I have been listening to Christmas music since just after Halloween and have been known to listen to it in July or so if I'm having a bad day.

My love for this season is added to by Crystal and I celebrating our anniversary the 23rd. When I hear the music not only do I remember Christmases past, but also when we first got married. We have now been married for 3 years, and every year is better than the next. I love you, Crystal.


Earlier this month I swapped some favorite Christmas memory stories/traditions with some friends. We laughed with each other and noticed that we all had similar themes. All of our stories and memories were about good times with our families. Years after the fact we do not remember the gifts we received or even the gifts we gave, but rather the love and happiness that can exist in a home as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ together.

We get the special feelings this time of year as more people open their hearts to Christ's healing power. Christ always reaches out to us as he asks us to "be converted, that I may heal you...if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you and whosever will come, him will I receive" (3 Nephi 9:13-14). During this season more people allow Christ's love to influence them.

Without Jesus Christ, each of us is lost in this life "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Only through the selfless sacrifice of Jesus Christ, called the atonement, can we be forgiven of our sins and look forward with hope to eternal life with God and our families. It is because Jesus Christ came to the world and loved each of us enough to die for us that we sing 'Joy to the World', the angels proclaim 'Glory to the Newborn King', and the wise-men watched the new star appear 'With Wondering Awe'.

Paul described his new life in Christ thus:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

I hope each of you are able to take a moment to pause from the commercial side this season and reflect on the life of Jesus Christ and how it blesses all of us. We love you all. Merry Christmas!

I'm married to a gourmet chef

For our ward Christmas activity, we held a service auction. Members could (if they wanted) offer service to other ward members. At the activity itself there were several carnival games where we could compete to gain monopoly money (I competed in an eggnog chugging contest - it was awesome!). After gaining money, there was a silent auction on most of the services followed by a verbal auction on 6 or so of the most desired services.

Crystal's offered service was a romantic dinner for two, or a dinner for a busy family. Because of her renown cooking skills, this was one of the verbal auctions. The games came and went and it was time to auction Crystal's services. What ensued was a brutal bidding war for Crystal's delicious dinner. When the dust settled and the fast talker yelled "SOLD!" this dinner became worth $450! It was monopoly money, yes, but when was the last time dinner for two cost you $450? It must be because I am simply married to an amazing chef. This Friday we're going to make good on that service with dinner for a couple in the ward. Hope it's worth the money!

Oh yeah, want to know what my offered service went for?

10 bucks

It's pretty obvious who the talented one in the family is :)

More than just a resolution

As 2009 comes to a close I have been reflecting on this past year and thinking of the new resolutions that I want to set for 2010. Can you believe it's already 2010???

For me 2009 has been about getting healthy again. I was really inspired by my sister, Shannon and my in-laws, Anne & Clyde. I was just amazed at their dedication to get healthy and it really helped me to get back at it. It hasn't been easy, but it has been so worth it. From my highest recorded weight in 2009 I have now lost a total of 28lbs. I've done it all on my own. I've just changed my diet and I exercise every day (minus most Fridays and all Sundays). I've really had to work on portion control, being consistent and figuring out what to do if things don't go according to plan. It has been so rewarding.

A lot of you have asked, "what's next?" and I know I've told a few of you, but I really wanted to write it up on the blog. For 2010, my health goals are to stay healthy, lose these last few lbs and keep them off.

The big kahuna is:

Salt Lake City Marathon on April 17th, 2010.

I signed up a month or two ago for it and I am so excited!!

Most importantly, I am running this for my parents. It was really my dad who got me interested in running. He didn't run races or anything like that, but he would always run "around the block" and I would go with him a lot when I was junior high and throughout high school. These were times that I really enjoyed- even if we just walked it. Heh, when I was in high school I had to beg him to do track and cross country. Eventually, he gave the O.K. and I can never thank him enough for letting me have the opportunity be apart of those teams. I honestly don't know if I'd be running like this if I hadn't participated in cross country or track.

My mom will always be my hero. In high school I was always wishing that she could be at the finish lines cheering me on. Although, she really did push me in all my races. Whenever a hill seemed too steep or I felt like I had hit my max I would think of her and just press on. I am running this marathon in memory of her. The marathon supports the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and part of my registration fee will be donated to that. Her memory is what pushes me every step of the way and through all those really long runs. :-)

My mom always told us, "Always have a dream!" and this is one of mine (as crazy as that sounds).

Some day, I hope to run a marathon that benefits cancer with any of my siblings (hopefully all!)- now that would be amazing. Are any of you up for it? I was thinking the 2011 National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer in Florida. I can always dream, right? hehe.

Now to work on all my other resolutions....

A really fun freebie

Today only you can download the entire soundtrack for Disney's movie, UP for free. Just go to this link- freebies4mom and then the code is: latimesdisney. I really LOVED this movie. I think it's one of Pixar's best. Enjoy!

Thanks to cnet for the picture :-)

I was awful at blogging this month...

Just wanted all of our "fans" out there to know that we are alive and well.... just really busy and there really isn't an end in sight at the moment. Life happens, right?

A few highlights of November:

-I survived the Snow Canyon Half Marathon on November 7th down in St. George! It was the hardest course I have ever run, but I did really well and I was so glad that I wasn't wearing earmuffs for this race like the one on Halloween!! Jon and I had a really great time in St. George. It was a nice little weekend getaway.

- BYU basketball has kicked off and we've been to quite a few games so far. I am so glad we were able to take advantage of season tickets!! Go Cougars!!

- I had a 4mile race on Thanksgiving morning. The race was called "Earn Your Turkey Run". It was so cold at the start! I passed a sign that had the temperature listed and it said 24 degrees! Burr! I really enjoyed the run and was happy I did it- hehe... I had a little less guilt when we had our thanksgiving meal later on.

- On Thanksgiving we were able to spend it with Jon's sister's in-laws. It was a lot of fun and the food was fantastic! We contributed 2 pies: Apple cranberry and pumpkin banana. Then "Black Friday" we went shopping and we pretty much got all of our Christmas shopping done (not that we have a ton to do.. haha)

- The rest of the weekend was relaxed and we had a basketball game. BYU vs. Weber- it was an awesome game and BYU won! Then on Saturday BYU football: BYU vs. Utah. Another amazing game! BYU won in overtime.

Other than that... Jon is really busy with school and is just counting down the days until finals. Once finals come- that means he is done with all his crazy projects. This has been his most stressful semester- so much for "senior-itis" hehe.

I have just been busy with work and doing my running thing still. So far I have lost about 25lbs. Crazy! Let's just say... I am need of some new clothes. I'm really in need of pants. It's bad. Which brings me to a very small rant... I am a petite. Why can't stores make better petite clothes??? People tell me- just go get regular size pants and bring it to a tailor.... that's a nice idea.. but I'd rather be able to buy my pants and have them be the right size the first time and not have pay extra. Did you know that the alterations for my wedding dress equaled the amount of my entire dress?? It's ridiculous. I know... a wedding dress doesn't fall under the same category as jeans... but still! Then you have the petite sections in places like Kohls and it looks like an old lady's wardrobe exploded.... elastic waists and all. Okay.. rant done. :-)

Again, sorry we didn't post much in November. We'll do better this month.

Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I'm not sorry that I'm late at putting these pictures up- hehe. I ran 13.1 miles yesterday and my quads are constantly burning and Jon has to help me up and down the stairs- so I have reasons for being late on this one. I am sorry that the post is a little lengthy.. but there are lots of pictures!! Enjoy!

This is us at our ward halloween party the night before.
Jon was Garth from 'Wayne's World'. "Party on, Wayne!" haha!
Happy Halloween!!!!

This race was one of the best races I have ever run. I woke up at like 5:30am and got ready and put all my gear on. Jon and I headed to the Riverwoods where the buses were picking up all the runners. They said the last bus was leaving at 6:45am. We got there a little after 6am and I waited for about 25 minutes until a bus finally showed up. This is probably the only thing I would've changed about the race. Tons of runners were in a line waiting and then when the bus came it passed us and ended up going to a different part of the parking lot. All the previous buses were stopping where we were all lined up so we were all confused and this just added to the mayhem. People were cutting people to get on the buses and I got elbowed by some chick (on purpose) but whatever, i'm over it.

Me before leaving the house and before the earmuffs went on!

Anyways, before I got on the bus I was in line and I was standing by an older woman (at least she looked older) and the whole scene reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite! She was like "can I touch your tutu?" It was a bit awkward. I was waiting for her to say "I like your tutu, it's real big and puffy". Then the lady I sat on the bus with was another awkward character. She kept staring at my tutu and then she started jabbering about the race start time. Heh, then there were some old guys in front of us singing "the wheels on the bus". It's amazing what kind of people you run into at 6am, most dressed in costumes and prepared to run in 30 degree weather in a canyon- hehe.

After the scary bus ride (imagine doing switch backs on a bus!) we got to Aspen Grove (above Sundance). They had one of the buildings reserved for us which was really nice. I went in and picked up my timing chip and got situated. There were even a few people who asked if they could have their picture with me- I looked that good! I ran into some people I knew and hung with them until the start.

Please don't judge me... I was making a "woo!" sound/face and um.. the picture
doesn't do it justice. Haha! I should've just gone with
the "thumbs up" ;-)

The costumes were AMAZING! Although, I have to admit- there were a ton of tutu's.. but mine was by far the best! The guy who won the costume contest was dressed as Wonder Woman! It was pretty great. There were a few "runaway brides" who wore wedding dresses with long trains (honestly.. how??) and one of my favs that didnt' win a prize was a guy who was dressed in a blue dress shirt, pocket protector, name tag that said: Bill and! he had a briefcase w/ a Microsoft sticker. Hehe.. he was Bill Gates and he ran the whole thing w/ the briefcase! Crazy!

The race ended up starting about an hour late (9am). It was due to the buses. The bus company were prepared for about 300 people and there were actually 800 people who ran this thing. So, we had to wait until all the buses got there. I was grateful though! A later time = a little warmer weather. Well, as warm as you can get at 7,000ft!

Wahoo!! I'm done!!

The first 5 miles were all down hill. It was intense! My quads are in agreement on that one ;-) I loved every minute of it though. The view of the mountains was unreal! It was so beautiful and breathtaking. Corny sounding, I know. I really mean it though. It is always so wonderful to see all of God's creations and being able to soak it all in. Anyways, after the first five miles, we ran on the side of Provo Canyon Rd. until Vivian Park and then we entered the canyon running/bike path and that took us back to where we got on the buses. They didn't have any mile markers on this course and I'm kind've glad. I just felt like I was just running and not in a race. I wasn't getting all caught up in "how many miles do I have left?" and I was just running and enjoying the scenery, other costumes (haha), my thoughts and music. At one of the last aid stations they yelled out that we were at 10.5 miles and I was like "woah! I only had a little less than 3 miles to go!" I kicked it into gear and finishing this time vs. my first half marathon was really awesome. My finish time was 2:02:04! Granted, we had the big down hill, but I ran the 2nd half of the race faster than the first half- go figure ;). I am so excited about this race. Even though my whole body is in a good amount of pain, I am really proud of myself.

After the race with my finisher's medal!

I also have to give another shout-out to Jon. He is my cheerleader and my most favorite person in the whole world :-) I told him he didn't have to come until the finish, but he insisted that he wanted to be there for the whole thing. I am so grateful for all his support. There are probably a million things he would rather be doing than go to a race- but he goes happily and cheers me on. I am so lucky to have Jon as my husband. I know of other husbands who were not so happy to be standing at the finish line yesterday and it made me sad when I saw how un-supportive they were. There were no "congrats" or even high-fives. I mean really! Your spouse just worked their butt off (literally) to run 13.1 miles and trained really hard for it and they're met with a grumpy husband way after the fact of finishing. Not cool.

I am hands down the luckiest woman in the world. I wish Jon could run with me, but due to knee problems, it just isn't an option. As much as I would love for that to happen, having him there supporting me is just as great. I love Jon and he needs as much recognition as I get- he's a real trooper putting up with my training, races and weird eating habits while I'm training. After the race yesterday we went up to Corn Belly's (a corn maze) and these next few pictures are from that :-) I love Jon- you are awesome and I know I thanked you like a billion times yesterday- but really, thank you for being there for me and helping me up and down the stairs, cheering me on and loving me no matter how I do. I appreciate all you do.

Jon before we started the maze

After a 3d fun house hehe- awesome glasses!

Here is a sign at the start of the maze... I don't think I could've run that fast
at that point anyways.. haha! I was very slow going (still am)
when we took this picture!