What to do peeps?

What the heck:( What do you do when you are out of photo storage space? I guess I have to start a new blog? Any other options? What a pain! I am already over a month behind in my blogs!

Fort Bennum

Berkeley got the movie Beauty and the Beast for Christmas and I really have been wanting the girls to watch it, but movies are really hard for them to sit through so I had to get them pumped. I let them stay up WAY past their bedtime to watch it, which was a good enough incentive right there. I also read them the book first, with the same Disney pictures so they would recognize the stuff in the movie and stay engaged. I built this fort on to the TV and popped some popcorn. Berkeley made it about 3/4 of the way through and then came to me wimpering so she may have been a little scared, but she didn't want to watch it after that. Cheyenne made it the whole way through but never wants to watch it again because she doesn't like the beast or the "guy in the red shirt" (Gaston). It was fun though and we left the fort up for about a week...

Halloween 2012

A couple days before Halloween, Jeff decided he wanted to carve our pumpkin with the girls. Neither of the girls were interested in touching the guts, so we all just watched Jeff do it. Then we all went outside and watched him light it and looked at it in the dark. Jeff suggested I make Halloween cookies, but I was being lazy and I really didn't feel like it. I am such a bad wife/mommy.

Berkeley in her bee costume ready to trick or treat!

Cheyenne in her duck costume ready to trick or treat:

The girls trick or treating in the wagon! So much fun!

It was cold on Halloween night so we switched from Fairy Princess Costumes into the warmest ones we had which happened to be a duck and bee... I thought they were pretty cute too:) We met Cheyenne's little friend Layla and their family and trick or treated around a neighborhood near our houses. About halfway through, a man came up to me and asked if I had dropped my camera. I checked my pocket and sure enough, my camera was gone! The man told me where he lived and I sprinted back to get the camera. Thank goodness for honest people. Seriously so sweet. The only way they knew it was my camera was because they looked at the pictures and then found the duck and bee! What is it with me and cameras? 

After we finished that neighborhood, Jeff was on his way home from football practice, so we decided to meet him at home. I pulled the car in the garage and sent the girls around front to trick or treat to Jeff. I closed the garage door and Jeff opened the front door, gave the girls treats and then we all went out the front door to trick or treat around our neighborhood. Jeff had his car keys in his pocket and so he locked the front door on the way out. As soon as he shut the door he remembered that he had taken his key off to give to my brother when he was visiting and had never put it back on his ring! We tried everything we could and we even were stopped by our neighbors who thought we were burglars! We have awesome neighbors by the way! 

We called my dad and our friend Steve as we were walking around the neighborhood and got the number of a locksmith. We called him and he said he wouldn't be able to come until about 10:30. It was 8. After we got done trick or treating I think it was about 9. So we went to our friends house thankfully, because it was pretty cold. The girls emptied their trick or treat buckets and chowed down on some candy. Then, since we both have the same visiting teacher, Robyn, she came over to bring us even more candy! 

Robyn gave us a ride back to our house and we got there about 15 minutes before the locksmith came. I don't know what I was thinking, but I thought locksmiths had some sort of Master Key that they just came and unlocked your door. Nope. He tried to pick the lock for half an hour! It was the worst grinding sound too. The girls fell asleep in our laps while we were waiting. Finally, he said he could just drill out the old knob and put on a new one, but he didn't have any the right color so it wouldn't match. I told Jeff to make the decision since he had to get up early in the morning and Jeff told him just to pick the lock a little longer. Well, the patience paid off because about 10 minutes later, we were in! It was $85, which sucks, but really they could pretty much charge whatever they want because our only other option was to break a window! We finally laid the girls down around 11:30 pm. It was our most eventful Halloween yet!

The girls get to pick two pieces of candy a day, and it is so funny because Berkeley will randomly say throughout the day, "Soobee doo buttet" The first little while I could not figure out what she was saying for the life of me. Finally I understood, "Scooby doo bucket." So every time she wants her candy that is what she says. Oh yeah and they also got these king size pack of skittles from a cop who was driving around handing them out. I thought that was so sweet. He pulled up to us and I thought he was going to say, "Have you seen this man?" I was a little creeped out, then he gave the girls the candy, so funny!

Mail

Thanks for the birthday present Grandma Connie and Grandpa Frank!

ECCHS Football Season 2012

My Brother Aaron, his wife, Andrea, and their kids Audrey and Austin came up for the BYU vs. Georgia Tech game. They had planned to stay with us the night before so they could go to one of Jeff's football games. Sadly, my brother Aaron got called for a short flight on Delta so he had to miss the football game. My dad and I went to pick up Andrea and the kids at the airport and we saw the BYU players and team busses there. Anyway, we headed to the ECCHS/Hart County game which is a big rivalry. 

Everyone thought the team this year would be better than last year's team. They were loaded with some extreme offensive talent. Namely, senior Tyshon Dye who has committed to Clemson and Meiko Hardeman who is the new freshman quarterback, and one of the best on the team. We expected they would at least get to the 3rd round of state. Well, they had some tough opponents in their first games of the season, had some close games, but started out 0-2 (they played Buford who wins state every year and Cedar Shoals a 5A school). Anyway, then they were doing well in their region until they had a tough close loss against North Oconee. They got pretty beat up in that game and several injuries, which included Tyshon breaking his ankle and Meiko pulling a hip flexor. They were both out for this Hart County game and we ended up losing 6-0. Then we barely lost the next game as well to Jackson County, which ended our chance of going to the state playoffs. They just had their last game of the season against Franklin County and won to finish the season at 5-5.

I was thinking about it and it is so unbelievable how much work by so many people goes in to just one football season. All the coaches and players doing the spring season, then all summer long lifting and practicing and 7 on 7 leagues. All the boosters fundraising and the parents cooking and caring for their kids. Taking care of the field and equipment. The hopes were so high for this season and it is just nuts how fast things can change and a season can be over like that. 

Regardless of the sad outcome, we had a great time! We brought all the girls candy leftover from the trunk or treat and pigged out:) 

 Cheyenne wanted to take a picture of Audrey and I... she missed the tops of our heads, but it wasn't blurry at least!

After the game this kids ran around like crazy on the field of course. That is the best part of the whole experience:) Looking forward to basketball! Tryouts were the last two weekends and the first game is this Thursday, a scrimmage at Banks County, can't wait!!

Berkeley is officially TWO!

Well, this was about 2 and a half weeks ago, but Berkeley turned two on Thursday October 25. My dad was visiting and he wanted to go to the JV football game in Hartwell and the girls wanted to go to the ward trunk or treat. So I drove about 45 minutes to Hartwell and dropped Dad off at the game. Then I drove about an hour and 10 minutes from Hartwell to our church! We stopped by Burger King for chicken nuggets for the girls and a whopper for me. The trunk or treat  was AWESOME. They had all these little fun stations and games. The girls also got a huge bucket full of candy. Then on the way home I stopped by WalMart and got this little cake. We all had cake and ice cream and sang Happy Birthday to  Berkeley. Berkeley LOVED it and had a huge smile on her face the whole time. It was great that my Dad could be here too, since we rarely have family in town with us for these special occasions. And Berkeley totally blew out her own candles!!! Go Berks!

Johnson's Fall Party

Our friends in our ward host this big Fall Party every year in their beautiful backyard. They live on a bunch of acres and have horses and just a beautiful yard that they decorate with lights and hay and it is seriously awesome. Everyone brings soup, bread, a side or a dessert. It is so much fun. They had a huge screen with the football game playing and they had music and dancing. Jeff was swinging on their little swing with about 6 kids on it and all of the sudden the chains broke and it fell. All the kids were screaming, but luckily Jeff was able to catch all the kids and make sure their heads didn't get slammed in the ground! Cheyenne still keeps talking about when the swing broke, I think she was slightly traumatized. She thought it was daddy's fault because the swing was only supposed to be for little kids, we had to explain to her that it wasn't daddy's fault and it was just an old swing. She kept saying, "why did Daddy do that?" Poor Jeff! Haha... it was a great time though!

Berkeley's 2nd Birthday Party

So when I was pregnant with Berkeley, my due date was October 27th. I was really hoping she would come before Halloween, because I thought it would be awesome to have costume parties for her birthday! Well, last year she was a little young for that and we had family in town, so we just did a small family cake and ice cream party. This year, I am not pregnant or nursing and had some free time, so I decided to throw her a big birthday bash!

The hardest part about being in the best ward ever with the coolest people ever is narrowing down the guest list! I wish I had the funds and space to invite everyone, because we have so many fun families that would have been fun, but I had to be realistic and narrowed it down to invite 9 families. Then there were 2 families who couldn't come. This is seriously the biggest party I have ever thrown and I was talking to members of my family about planning it and they were like, "Holy cow! Why are you inviting so many people?" but I still felt like I was leaving so many people out.

Anyway, it was so much fun and I spent so long looking forward to it and pinning for it and planning it. I had a bunch of fun games planned, but I decided since I was inviting parents, I wanted to enjoy myself, I didn't want to be stressed out the whole time, so I decided at the last minute to just make it low key and we just ate lunch, the kids played, then we sang happy birthday and ate cupcakes then opened presents.

Each little boy got a knight helmet and each little girl got a halloween flower headband. I used her birthday yearbooks for decoration as well. The book is her birthday present from us each year.

I got this bail of hay for $5 at the pumpkin patch, I thought it made the perfect seat for pictures! Then, my friend had this banner from her daughter's birthday and let me borrow it. It fit perfectly!

 I took a picture of each family when they came, and I included the picture of them in their thank you notes.

Here are our awesome neighbors, Mark and Katie with their son, Knox:

Here is an adorable new family in our ward, The Hendersons. Their daughters ages align well with Cheyenne and Berkeley's:

Lena, Scottie and little squirt in Lena's tummy: 

Chelsea and little Evie as matching ladybugs:

Lindsey, Zac, Brielle and Savannah (Berkeley is obsessed with S & B):

The Nelson girls... 

Andrea forgot it was a costume party, but luckily I had some extras just in case!

The Clantons:

and us:)

I thought it was going to feel so crowded, but I was able to fit both tables in the dining room (along with the tiny kids table, too) and it wasn't too bad.

Opening presents! My favorite part was to see how excited the kids were for Berkeley to open their presents! My personal favorite was a homemade child size apron for the girls made by Hannah Henderson. It is so cute! Why can't I be so crafty?! Berkeley LOVED all the gifts and both girls have been playing with them non-stop ever since.

I forgot to take a picture before, but these were the cupcakes leftover after the party: 

 The black sprinkles totally turned everyone's tongues black!

Candy dishes! The purple Jolly Joes were my favorite!

My re-usable birthday banner... I think I probably should have done it in more neutral colors though!

It was so much fun and I am so glad we did it! 

UGA volleyball game

Cheyenne, Berkeley and I went to the UGA/GA tech volleyball game a couple weeks ago. It was the first UGA volleyball game I have been to since we moved here. It was in the Colosseum which they haven't played in a really long time. It was so much fun! UGA ended up losing in 5 I believe, but it was  so fun to watch. Urban Meyer's daughter is the libero for GA tech and is pretty good. It was fun to see her play. The girls liked it too, but it was really late for them to be out, we had to leave after the 3rd or 4th game. It was also my first experience with red lipstick...:)

Wizard of Oz

I hurried home from my race to take Cheyenne to the matinee of The Wizard of Oz, put on by a local community theater. Two girls in our ward were in it and also our neighbors were supposed to be in it, but had a death in the family at the last minute. I was a little concerned about Cheyenne, because it was like 3.5 hours long! Even I was losing my attention span by the end, but it was so good! We also had awesome seats about only 2 or 3 rows back, although it was a little loud for Cheyenne since we were right by the orchestra pit and the speakers.

Cheyenne loved it and was asking me questions throughout the whole thing. They had a real dog for toto which I thought totally made it 100 times better, especially for Cheyenne. There were a few scenes that the dog wasn't out there for that he was supposed to be because I think he got a little worked up, and every time, Cheyenne would loudly ask, "where is the doggie???" Can't get anything by her I guess!

Here is Cheyenne and I at intermission:

After the show they said all the kids could come up on stage to meet the cast and get pictures (just with Dorothy, the good witch, the tin man, the scarecrow, and the lion. So we went right up there and when they came out all the people were just standing there clapping for them and we were the only ones on stage. I was confused and started to go back down, but they said they were there to take pictures. I still don't really get why no one else came up there. Anyway, Cheyenne met them all and got a picture with Dorothy. She was disappointed the dog wasn't up there though! This Dorothy was SO GOOD! She was exactly like Judy Garland in the movie and she is a voice major at UGA so she sang really well too. All the acting was good and it was so fun to watch!

We just checked out the movie from the library and Cheyenne watched the whole thing. She and Jeff are going to watch it together again this weekend.

Firefighter 10k

A couple weekends ago, some friends and I ran a 10.2 k in Madison, GA. We have been getting together for about 2 months or so on weekends to do a long run and sometimes during the week at the track to do interval workouts. It was so much fun! We all rode to the race together in my van and it was so fun to all be together:) Everyone set a goal and everyone met or exceeded their goal! Beckie had never even run before she started doing this and both her and Chelsea it was the longest they had ever run before when they finished it. It was actually 6.4 miles according to all of our gps devices. They also got faster than the time they had set as a goal according to their training! Lena told us all after the race that she was in fact pregnant! She also did great. Then Andrea only had a baby 4 months ago and ran the whole thing in under 10 minute miles! Lindsey wanted to beat an hour and did and also got second in her age division. And Robyn won her age division!

Before the race:

I set a few goals for this race... I really wanted to win first overall female and I wanted to get top 10 overall. I also wanted to do it at 7:30 pace. The race started out fast and I felt really good. My watch was fluctuating between 6:45 and 7:45 for the first 1 or 2 miles. For mile 3 and 4 I was pretty steady at around 7:15 pace. Then about right 4.5 miles I was dying and slowed down a little to about 8 minute mile for about a mile. I started feeling chills and goosebumps (I always get that lately, like I am dehydrated or something, but I drank so much water before the race!). Around mile 5 to 5.5, I got a second wind and started feeling great again and was able to keep it around 7:30-7:35 pace. I really started kicking it in at 6 miles and passed the guy I had been about 10 yards behind the whole race. I totally thought he was going to catch me, so I was giving everything I had the last quarter mile or so and was able to hold him off! And guess what? I finished exactly 10th overall!!! I was so excited about that, because I never thought I would get that guy. My time was exactly 48 minutes and when I calculated my pace per mile, I was a little disappointed because it added up to 7:34.8 pace, so I thought I didn't get my pace, but later I realized my watch said 6.4 miles and so did a couple of other people's so I took it! That equals exactly 7:30 pace!!!

After the race:

I also won first overall female and got this little trophy and these little firefighter hats:)

We are planning to do another race in December which is an 8k (about 5 miles). I want to try for 7:00 to 7:15 pace... I took the week off after the race and then hit it hard Monday. I had kind of backed off lifting for the last race and decided I wanted to implement it again. I did a great workout with squats (4 sets of 6 at 105 lbs, lunges (2 sets of 8 each leg at 65 lbs), good mornings (3 sets of 8 at 65 lbs), calves on the leg press machine (4 sets of 25 at 90lbs), then the abductor/adductor machine. Then I headed over to complete some intervals and I did 4 x 400s at 6:30 pace with rest pace at 9:15 for 400 m. I will never do intervals after a leg workout again because I am really lucky I didn't eat it since my legs were so shaky. Then, I did 4 sets of 25 floor wipers (best ab workout I have ever tried) with 65 lbs. OH MY GOSH! The next day I was so so so sore, and the next day I honestly thought I injured myself I could barely move. I pretty much couldn't accomplish anything. Soooo.... moral of the story, I got much more out of shape in two months than I thought possible and I need to ease back into it apparently. Also, it helped me realize if I am going to help other people get into shape like I sometimes like to do, I need to ease them into it because it is very un-motivating to be so sore that you can't even accomplish your daily tasks.