Happy Holidays!

Such a busy, FUN time of year!  We have had so much going on!  Family parties, Nate's work party, holiday group runs, and lots of shopping and Christmas movies.  I love it all!  I am SO excited for Christmas this year.  The kids get more fun each year, and this will be the best one yet!  I can't wait to see their faces and watch them be so happy!

My gift to my Savior this year was to finish the Book of Mormon by Christmas Day.  I was in Alma, so that put me reading 19 pages a day.  It's been tough, and I've had to sacrifice some tv time to get the pages finished at night, but I DID IT, and it was amazing.  I learned SO much.  The Lord truly opened my eyes and gave me new light and understanding.  My love for my Savior grew, and my desire to serve Him and trust His wisdom increased.  I love the Book of Mormon!

Sunday was a beautiful Church service.  The music and messages were perfect.  I felt such a reverence for our Savior's birth.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Eleven-Eleven

So apparently I just don't blog anymore!  :(

Nate takes the laptop to work now, and we don't have the PC set up here, so it's not quite as convenient to blog.  But I don't want to get too behind!

Nothing new on the job search.  We press on. We are so blessed!

#Salemlife is great!  The weather this season has been unbelievable.  So warm!  We are taking advantage like crazy!  Lots of walks and hanging out with new friends....animal friends!  Allie has befriended every horse within a mile of here.  We take them apples and carrots.  We have also met kitty friends and a black lab named Kohl, who used to bark at us, but now when he sees us, he gets SO excited to play fetch!  And there's Bruce.  Allie wrote him a letter and put it in his mailbox (without my knowing), and he "wrote back" and gave us a Twix.  Awesome!  I love our neighbors!  Sigh.  We need pets....

Halloween!  It was a blast.

On a whim, I decided to run the Saltair Half Marathon with Cathy and Sonja.  It's a completely FLAT course, and we ran it in 2:26:52.  Pretty happy with that!  Sonja was sweet to stay with us, it was more of a training run for her.  Cathy and I did our best to keep our pace under 11:00.  The aid stations didn't have cups (SO lame), so we had to stand there and drink from the big thermos at aid stations.  Ate up some time.  It was fun to see Wan, Joshua and Meridith too!

Finally, some random pics.  Mostly of Claire because that's who I hang out with the most!  :)

Deseret News Half Marathon

I signed up to volunteer at the Deseret News Marathon.  The course runs down Emigration, up Foothill, right past our complex, then down South Temple to the parade route to finish at Liberty Park.  Awesome course, but I thought it would be fun to be at an aid station and give back for a change.

Well, a few days ago, my awesome friend, Meridith, got some bad news about her ankle injury, and she needed to back out of the race so she could rest up.  So she took my volunteer spot, and I took her race spot.  I felt so bad for her!

So yesterday I ran my 10th half marathon!  And it turned out to be complete perfection.  I will forever be grateful for the gift that this run turned out to be.  It wasn't even close to my fastest half marathon (I finished in 2:40:59), but it was so memorable and fun for so many reasons.  It was a race that I will always remember.  Very special to me.

I ran the whole race with Joshua, and we really enjoyed ourselves.  We met up with Joycelyn around Mile 7, and it was so good to see her!  Mile 8 was right by my apartment, but unfortunately Nate and the kids weren't out there yet.  I was bummed to not see them, but it was good to see Christy and Meridith!

When we turned down 300 East, we ran along the parade route for about 2 miles to the finish line.  There were so many people!  By then, my calves were cramping up, and Joshua was literally pulling me to the finish line at one point.  It was hot, and I was DONE!  It was a solid training run.

Our medals were awesome. The best part of these races is always the end.  Relaxing in the shade with so many great friends.  Monte got a marathon PR.  Vince and Johnny paced the 4:00 marathon time, and it was amazing to watch them flank this first-time marathon girl to the finish line.  SO emotional.

I have set up a pretty tough training plan to get ready for Nebo.  A few more races until then, so stay tuned!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun 4th of July weekend in Glenwood.  Bill, Steve, DeAnn and their families were there.  The cousins all had so much fun together!  July 2014 will forever be known as "the year Daisy ate all the bread".

We did the usual 4-wheeling, horseback riding, BBQ routine.  It never gets old!  I love it down there so much.  I slacked on taking pictures this trip, but Bear sure looked patriotic on Sunday!

We did the Richfield Liberty 5K for the 3rd year in a row.  My dad placed in his age group for about the millionth time, and Natalie placed in hers!  She and Jonathan have turned into awesome runners this past year!

Merry Christmas 2013

We have had a wonderful past couple of days.  Lots of family parties, good food and just time spent together.  The children had a wonderful Christmas and were spoiled rotten by their grandparents.  They woke up at FIVE in the morning, which was lame, but what can you do?  We had French Toast for breakfast.  We opened our little family presents.  A few hours later, Nate's parents came over with their gifts.  Then we headed down to Sandy to see my family.  We relaxed, ate yummy Mexican food and the kids enjoyed their cousins.  After we got home, I snuck out this evening for a little run, which felt so good.  Busy, but fun day!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Nate made me a rack to hang my race medals on!  I LOVE it!  And I gave him that shirt, haha!

Cute little face begging me to open her treats.

Allie has not put down this pirate telescope ALL day.

I think Nate had more fun with the remote control car than Cam did!

Haha, Gary did not want his picture taken!  We love you, Grandpa!

Gifts from Grandma and Grandpa!

BEST PICTURE EVER right here!  Cam has been waiting for this Lego set for over a year.  His face!!!!  Hilarious.

I've been wanting this JMC shirt for a long time.  John Mayer's website had a 60% off sale on Cyber Monday, so I snatched it up and told my mom to give it to me.  ;)  Nate got a JM shirt, too.

Pictures

Last weekend I took Cameron to a BYU basketball game here in SLC.  They played Utah State, and it was an INTENSE game.  Neck and neck the whole game.  We pulled ahead at the end and WON.  Go Cougars!  It was fun having Cam with me.  He is starting to understand the game more, and now that he can read, he liked studying the roster and stats.  I love my little dude!

Earlier this week, I went to Cameron's class to help them decorate their bears for "Books & Bears".  They are going to write stories about their bears.  Cute.  It was so fun to spend some time with Cam during the day.  He has a cute little "girlfriend" named Lizzie.  I've met her a few times now, and every time she sees me, she rushes up and smiles and says, "Hi, Mrs. Wood!  Cameron and I have a crush on each other!"  She is adorable, and I'm 100% serious when I say that I hope she sticks around for another 10+ years!  She's a keeper, Cam!

Poor Nate has been CRAZY busy and stressed with school lately.  His semester ends next week, so then we'll get our hubby/daddy back.  I'm so proud of him!  TWO classes next semester and then we are DONE!

Running to Daddy for hugs!

We got our tree put up.  The kids get better and better each year at hanging ornaments!  It's such a fun time of year!  Claire is SO excited to put up the tree!  Fists clenched and all!

Man how I LOVE my babies!  Um...this was Cameron's doing.

Makeovers.  Claire-style.

Mostly pictures for this post!  Hope you are all having a lovely December!