Sorry for the nasty pictures of my half white half tan leg!!!

Just thought I'd share my beautiful, sexy leg with you all! These are my bruises

from physical therapy. Many of you know I've been training for a half marathon. Well on my long runs, my right knee really started hurting. I made it most the way through my 10 and 11 mile runs and it just hurt the last couple miles and afterwards. Then a couple Saturdays ago, I had my 12 mile run. I only made it 3 miles before it started hurting. So I walked for about 30 seconds or so and it felt better so I started running again. After about another mile I had to walk again. It went like that for a while until it got to the point where it hurt bad to even walk. I finished the whole 12 miles but was in pain. I was SO frustrated. I've worked so hard to get to this point and I'm so close to my goal. So I went to a sports physical therapist. I guess it's my IT band. There is a treatment called astym (go to the patient's section at the bottom to watch a short video) that he is certified to do. Basically he scrapes my whole leg with special tools and it hurts SOOOOO bad. I have such a hard time going back and sitting still while he does it. It's supposed to stimulate an inflammatory reaction and make my leg heal properly. I don't totally get it, but I've totally put my trust in him that it's going to work. I've had to take a break from running the past couple weeks. During this week I've done a few 2-3.5 mile runs on the treadmill at the gym and my knee has been fine. He assures me that I'll be able to run the half marathon (only 8 days away) and finish. He said it may not be totally pain free, but I'll be able to do it!! I hope so. Meanwhile, I get to go twice a week and get my leg scraped and have these beautiful bruises all over!!!

Week in review....

Utah County Fair...

It was in Spanish Fork, so we went over to check it out. Claire had a great time!
Someone made a lego replica of Utah county and Jeff thought it was pretty cool that they even put "Xango" on the Dinosaur Museum...pretty realistic. It was no comparison to LegoLand, but whoever did it was pretty talented. I was impressed!
If I was going to be a farmer, I'd have a cool pink tractor too!

Chloe's First Day of School!!

Wow...Chloe is in first grade! She is loving it! She got to be the first "Star of the Week" (thanks to having her last name start with C!) I wasn't sure how it would be having her gone all day, but it is really nice to not have the day cut in half with kindergarten. It is so quiet with no fighting! I love it! I LOVE Chloe, but it was nice to have school start....it's good for her (and me)!!

I was trying to get a picture of all the kids together, but Caleb was being a stinker!

He finally decided to get in one!

Claire is eating Cereal!

The past few weeks Claire has started waking up at night a couple times. So I thought maybe I should start giving her some cereal at night. She liked it pretty well I think. I've given it to her the past few nights. I was excited because she didn't wake up the first night at all, but the last couple she has. Bummer, I guess it didn't work. Hopefully she'll get over it soon or I'll have to let her cry it out and I don't like doing that!


Claire likes to eat toes!

I finished feeding her last night and she decided she wanted a little dessert...so she went for the toes! Someone the other day was asking me if she eats her toes yet and I said no, but as of last night, she does!

Claire is so cute and is getting more fun all the time. The last couple days I'll lay her down on a blanket while I do something and next time I look at her she's way off the blanket. I haven't actually seen her roll off of it though, she's pretty tricky!

And in case anyone is wondering what we'll be doing every Saturday for the next few months.....FOOTBALL! Yes, we again have BYU football season tickets for the whole fam...surprise, surprise! Hopefully Claire does well sitting there for 3 or so hours! Jeff's already getting the kids pumped up. He makes them practice their cheering and keeps telling them if they're the loudest fans at the game, we'll go to Coldstone afterwards!

family pictures....

We got family pictures taken a few weeks ago and I just wasn't happy with how they turned out. Mostly because the pose had my legs right in the front of the picture and it just looked wierd. Anyway, Jeff's bro Ryan has a nice camera so he took some last night for us (Thanks Ryan) and here are some of them. (I was just playing around with the editing tools)....

Catching up...

It's been a while, so here are the happenings of the past couple weeks....

I cut Chloe's hair

I had wanted to try the short look on Chloe for a while so I finally did it a couple weeks ago (although this pic is from today!) I think she looks cute! And I think I did a pretty good job...it's layered and everything!

The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

Jeff got some tickets from work so we went up to the Gardens. It was beautiful and fun!

This is the largest man-made waterfall in the world, or at least the U.S. I can't remember which!


This was in the "Secret Garden". It was our favorite one!

Our little Claire is FIVE months old

As of August 5th, Claire is 5 months. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. She is such a little angel. We couldn't ask for a better, happier baby! A few things she's doing....She has started grabbing her toes the past few weeks. She rolls over in her crib and falls back asleep on her tummy. Every time I lay her on the ground on her back, she almost immediately rolls over. She likes it for a while, until she gets tired of holding her head up. She's getting really strong though.

Chloe learned to ride her bike without training wheels!

We probably should have done this earlier. It took her about one try to get it, but she was really excited about it! Check out the video!

Drive up the canyon

There was a fire a couple weeks ago up Payson Canyon and Jeff wanted to drive up to see the damage. It actually wasn't bad at all and most of the damage wasn't really in the canyon. It's such a pretty drive!

COUGAR Kick Off

Anyone who knows Jeff know that we would for sure be at the Cougar Kick off. It's where all the BYU sports teams come out in a big grassy field and you can meet them and there are lots of activities for the kids, free ice cream, a band etc. It's a lot of fun.

Claire just enjoying the kick off! She sat totally content the whole 2 hours or so that we were there and didn't make a sound!

Caleb running and knocking over the football thing (whatever it's called)

This is not one of my kids. I was trying to get a picture of Chloe running and knocking it over, but right as she was hitting it I noticed the little kid (I'm guessing 2 years old) pushing on it from the back and she totally took him out. I snapped the picture right as I was trying to get him, so I didn't get Chloe but instead captured him getting taken out. Poor kid....but it was kind of funny!

Jeff and the kids playing water balloon volleyball

Chloe of course had to get a picture or two with the cheerleaders!

One of the BYU Volleyball players teaching Chloe how to bump!

Goodbye...

to our next door neighbors! They moved yesterday. Chloe and Caleb have spent many hours playing with Mariah and Luke. Our backyards are connected with no fence so they would often j

ust knock on the back door instead of the front. Several times I'd hear a knock and nobody would be at the front door, then I'd hear it again and it was the back door! Chloe and Caleb are sad to see them go, as am I because I've become really good friends with Liz, their mom. It's always sad to say goodbye to good neighbors, but we're excited for them and their new house. Hopefully our new neighbors will be as good as they were!!!

Caleb, Mariah, Chloe and Luke

Dancing outside together! They had a few late nights playing outside while their parents were packing up and getting their new house ready.....our kids totally lucked out, they never get to play outside after 8. A couple nights they were out til after 9!!

If you're wondering why Chloe is wearing that silly outfit it's because she's Clo-mo. Her penguin identity. Have your kids discovered CLUB PENGUIN? My kids were introduced to it by Kyler, their cousin, last time we were in California and they are totally hooked. The last couple mornings, Caleb has gotten up and the first thing he says is, "Can I play Club Penguin?" They can play without actually being a member, which costs $60 a year. But there are a few things they can't do without being a member. One of them is buy super hero clothes for their penguin. Every day I hear, "I so want to be a member." I told Caleb we don't have enough money to be a member (I'm not wasting $60 on that!) so he thought when Jeff got home from work we would have enough...sorry Caleb!

So now they have expanded their Club Penguin game to outside, and now they are the penguins. They set up little "rooms" and "games" just like on Club Penguin, and they all have penguin names...Chloe is Clo-mo and Caleb is Calebbuddy! It's actually pretty cute to watch! Anyway, that's what they were playing in the pics.

So thanks to all the Club Penguin inventors for giving my kids another reason to sit in front of the computer!! (It's actually kind of nice when I need to get things done....I'm such a good mom...really!)