Jeff's 29th Birthday

We celebrated Jeff's 29th birthday on Thursday. I got up early and made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast (the pillsbury kind, not homemade). Cheyenne and I drove to Elberton (where he works) and we went to lunch at Subway. Some of his students window painted his car, brought him a breakfast biscuit from Bojangles, and even bought him a cake! So we went back to his classroom after Subway and ate some cake. Then Jeff had to go to Study Hall and football, so Cheyenne and I went home. This is what we had for dinner:

This is the cake I made for him. I had way too much fun with it. I LOVED it when I finished with it, I didn't want anyone to eat it. It is funky tie-dyed. The candles also say 29. It was cool when he blew it out and all the lights were off, the 29 glowed for a couple of seconds. Cheyenne and I practiced singing Happy Birthday all day. She would sing the "Happy Birthday to Daddy" part, and I sang the rest. Before we ate cake, we put the song "ice cream and cake" on and we all danced around. Every day for breakfast since then, Cheyenne has said "ice cream and cake and cake!" I told her its all gone... haha, really I have been eating it all! I know it sounds mean, but if she knew there was any left, she wouldn't eat anything else! Ever since we gave her apple juice when she was sick, she wont drink water or milk. I have since told her there is no more apple juice, but she keeps asking for it.

For Jeff's birthday, I gave him sportspak from Directv, so we can get all the Husky games for Jake Locker's senior season. I think he liked it especially since I have been talking about canceling satellite altogether.

Hope you had a great birthday Jeff!! We love you and are so grateful for you and all you do for us:) Happy 29th!

Toddlers and Tiaras

So I decided I am going to enter Cheyenne in one of those child beauty pageants. Here is her ensemble.

Haha... just kidding:) I bought these Jessica Simpson hair extensions a while back, they were 80% off at Trade Secret after Christmas... I think I only wore them a few times, they are not very good, no wonder they were so cheap. Anyway, I found them and Cheyenne was just sitting there so I put them on her. I couldn't stop laughing, she looked so funny! She thought it was pretty funny too. I already got her Halloween costume, but I may have to change it so she can wear this on Halloween because it cracks me up... maybe I could make her a witch or something... so funny.

Uncle Aaron, Cheyenne, and Pregnancy

Look at me- two updates in the same day! Uncle Aaron (my brother) came to visit this week, which was such a fun surprise! He is a pilot for Delta which is excellent because he is based out of Atlanta, so that means we get to see him sometimes if he is on call. Cheyenne has been going through major stranger anxiety lately (see previous nursery post), so I was expecting her to freak out when I left her with Aaron so I could go to a Dr. appointment. But, thankfully, she warmed up to him right away... it may have had something to do with his awesome iphone full of games for her to play with... but I don't even think she noticed I was gone! She called him Uncle mostly, she had a hard time with the Aaron part, mostly it sounded like Uncle Jaron, but before he left she had it down. She said bless Uncle Aaron in her prayers and talked about him for the next few days after he left.

Cheyenne also had a Doctor appointment this week. Dora and friends are painted on the walls of her Doctor's office, and this was the first time she knew who they were, so she kept saying, "swiper no swipin!" followed by an "oh man!" I thought it was hilarious, but one of the Doctors (who I have never seen before, so she must just be one of the other doctors that practices at that office or a nurse or something) was like, "who is that?" I informed her that it was Swiper and then I pointed out Dora and Boots as well... she gave me this look like "who in the world are they?" This annoyed me because I think if you work with children you should be up to date on thing that children are interested in- especially when they are painted on the walls of your workplace!! Maybe the look was more like, "your daughter should not be watching tv yet." I don't know. But, seriously, I am home with her all day, we run out of things to do, I don't think there is anything wrong with her watching Dora, or Curious George or Sesame Street (or sometimes all three, haha)... she really only watches a few minutes anyway and then plays with her toys and randomly looks up and comments at the screen. Anyway, that was way longer than I meant for it to be...

So, updates on Cheyenne are that she is 32" tall and 23 pounds. Her Doctor never tells us the percentile thing, but when I looked it up on the internet, it said that her length is between 25 and 50 percent and her weight is between 10 and 25 percent. It is sounding like gymnastics may have to be her thing rather than volleyball or basketball! haha... she talks all the time when we are at home, but in public, it is hard to get her to say a word. She says sentences/phrases, and uses prepositions (in, of, under, over, etc.). She loves to say all the time "we goin to the beach, to swim in the wawa." She has started to replace wawa with water recently, which makes me sad, because I think it is so cute how she calls it wawa. She has also started to sing songs with me which is so fun. She sings I am a child of God the whole way through with me, although she only gets the last three or so words right in every line, but she definitely knows what words are coming. She loves to sing Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, really I sing it and then pause at the parts where she sing "sunbeam." She loves to run when she is excited. She loves the water and has absolutely NO fear of it, which is a little dangerous. She loves books. She loves the alphabet and can name about a quarter of the letters and the sounds they make. She loves swings and slides. She loves to eat. Her favorite foods are pancakes, hot dogs, cheese, strawberries, applesauce and yogurt. I only ever let her have one hot dog at a time, but she always gobbles it up and says, "more hot dog?" Today she kept asking for a hot dog for breakfast-gross! She loves to sit on the "little potty." Although, we rarely take her diaper off, we just let her sit on it, because I don't think she has any intention of actually going to the bathroom on the potty. I was hoping she would want to so I did a dance after I went to the bathroom a couple of times, hoping that she would want to follow my example. Now, every time I go to the bathroom, she does a dance. It is hilarious because I had forgotten about the dance thing, since I decided I am not going to deal with potty training until she is at least 2. Then I went to the bathroom and she started doing the dance, it made me laugh. Anyway... that's all I can think of that is new for her.

I am about 29.5 weeks along and have definitely entered the 3rd trimester. I feel way more tired all the time, I have to pee more frequently, I wake up at night all the time either because I have to pee or my back is hurting very badly, and I have now gained 15 lbs. I am hoping everything goes well when I go to Washington in a few weeks because I just found out I am not really supposed to fly when I am that far along, but I didn't even think about that. That would be a nightmare if something happened while I was on the other side of the country, with no insurance coverage there! Everyone say a prayer for me that little baby girl will stay put and stay healthy while we are gone!

This pregnancy is so different from Cheyenne's. With Cheyenne I was counting down the days and I was always so paranoid something would go wrong. As soon as we found out she was a girl, we easily found a name. With this one, I am more nervous for it to come out. I am not sure I can handle TWO babies! I don't feel any connection to it yet, like I don't really feel like there is a real human baby inside of me. With Cheyenne, as soon as we found out she was a girl, I felt a connection like it was my daughter. I worry that I won't love this baby like I love Cheyenne, and it almost seems impossible that I could. I worry that instead of loving and adoring each other they will be jealous of each other, make each other feel bad, and fight. I worry that because Cheyenne was so easy, this next one is going to be extremely hard to make up for it. I guess, whatever is supposed to happen will happen and I am just going to have to trust in the Lord that he has a plan for our little family. I know she was sent from God to be with us when we needed her. I will have to have faith that I can handle it! Are these normal feelings to have for your second baby? Or am I suffering from some weird thought syndrome? Help!

Young Women and Primary

I love this picture. I love it even more because it was painted by an art professor I had at Dixie, Del Parson. He was one of my favorite professors I ever had and is such a funny, down to earth guy. He would always ask me if all the boys were afraid to talk to me, because I was so buff! Of course that made me like him right away, haha! He also painted this infamous picture:

Anyway... the beginning of August we got a brand new beautiful stake center, which our ward gets to meet in. It is so pretty and everything is new, but it is also 20 minutes from our house (about 6 or 7 minutes further than the last building), so it is a trade-off. The last building was fine, but it was pretty old and it wasn't very big, so many classes had to be held in random places such as the kitchen or the chapel. Also, our YW room was in the giant storage closet behind the stage so there were no windows and it was teeny tiny. It is pretty refreshing to have a new place, I will admit.

Last Sunday, Jeff and I were called in to talk to the Bishop before church started. I figured Jeff was getting a new calling or another calling, because he is a teacher in Sunday School and a ward missionary. I was in Young Women as the Personal Progress leader, and I had only had the calling for about 9 or 10 months. I was so surprised when I was the one getting the new calling. At first, I was really sad, because I was finally starting to feel like I was getting a hang of the Personal Progress one. I had started to work on my own personal progress, which for those who don't know, is a great way to study scriptures! I had kind of a bad attitude about it when I first got the calling because when I was in Young Women I hated personal progress and refused to work on it. I thought it was so dumb and I would get annoyed whenever they had an activity just for it. I totally did not want to be the one making these girls do it! What helped me change my attitude and feeling toward Personal Progress and my calling was the Young Women. They liked personal progress, they worked on it without nagging (although when I instituted a chart with stickers and treats, they did get a lot more done faster, haha). I was just so impressed at the hard work the girls were putting in and I never heard them moan or complain about having to work on it. They were such a good example to me, and it convinced me to try it out myself and I actually really like it now. I am going to keep trying to finish it even though I am not in Young Women anymore.

Anyway, so I got a new calling to be a counselor in the Primary Presidency. I was in the Primary Presidency in the Elberton Branch, but I don't really count that, because there were only like 4 kids, so it was a lot different. I felt very overwhelmed and underqualified to receive the calling, but thankfully I believe that the Lord will make up the difference between what you are actually qualified to do and what you can accomplish. I am really excited to get to know the other women in Primary and hopefully I will be able to focus and apply myself and help the children to feel the spirit and gain a testimony of the Savior and his gospel. I am getting excited about this new calling and just hope that I can do my best. I will miss Young Women a lot, I loved the other women I worked with in the calling and the girls were all really great too.

Also, Cheyenne has been in the nursery (for kids 18 months- 3 years) since June. The first month or so she was great and went in with no problem. One Sunday she skipped her nap and was so tired and cranky and cried the whole time, and she hasn't been a fan of nursery ever since. It is so hard to leave her in there when she is crying "mommy" and reaching for me. It breaks my heart and makes me feel like I am abandoning her. She hasn't made it through a full 2 hours of nursery since June and has to be delivered to one of us before church is over, because she is crying. I wish she would like it. I think it is partly my fault because she is never not with me. She is with me all day everyday, we never get babysitters, so the only time she is not with Jeff or I is in nursery, and that is probably hard. I think I am going to need to get together with people who have kids in nursery so she will get to know the kids better and feel more comfortable. That is my new plan of attack! I love Sundays, they are so relaxing... this is our last week of a family Sunday together, then Jeff has to start having football meetings every Sunday:( That makes me so sad. Oh and these meetings are serious meetings, like he will be gone most likely at least 5 hours... here we go.

5th Anniversary

So on July 22, Jeff and I celebrated our 5th anniversary!! That is so crazy it has been 5 years. I remember when I first got married and people said they had been married 6 months, that seemed like so long to me. I feel so so so blessed to have Jeff as my husband and I feel like the longer we are married, the more I realize what a good decision it was to choose him to be my husband. He is such a good husband and father and really so perfect for me. He is so patient with me and helps me be a better person. I love our life together and I am so grateful that I get to spend the rest of this life and all the experiences that come with it, together with him. I am so happy that we got married in the temple so that our entire family can be together for eternity:)

Our engagement picture in my mom's backyard:

A picture at the temple on our wedding day:

A date night we had a few months ago... do we look any different??

Summer 2010

Ever since we made our blog private, I have been such a slacker about updating! I really want to blog more, so I am setting a goal to update every Sunday:) It is really fun to have these posts to go back and look at. This summer was so much fun, but it felt like it only lasted about one day! We took way too many trips this summer and have vowed to stay home next summer and save our money!! We will see if that actually happens...j

We started off going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee with some good friends in our ward, The Clantons and the Weidlers. My sister Heather's in-laws own a cabin there, and were able to get us a great deal for a weekend stay. My favorite part of the trip was tubing down the river... my least favorite part was losing our 3 week old camera!! I am still so mad about that! Here is a picture my friend Wendi took with her camera, but sadly that means she is not in it!

A few weeks later (I think, it has been so long, I am getting the order of things all mixed up...) I turned 26! Jeff threw me a little birthday party and we had delicious shish-ka-bobs and he even made me a cake. He also got me a new camera since I lost ours in Gatlinburg.

Then a couple weeks after that, my best friend since my sophomore year of high school came to visit me! Carlos and Natalie are expecting their first boy a couple of weeks before me (the beginning of October). We had such a good time with them. We all went to Hilton Head, South Carolina and Savannah, GA for a little weekend getaway. The beaches on the atlantic ocean are much nicer than I expected, but Florida gulf beaches are still my favorite. This picture is us in front of Jeff and my favorite restaurant, Sonny's. The girl taking the picture for us kept telling Natalie and I we looked like sisters, we get that all the time and I love it!

After Natalie and Carlos headed back to Utah, Jeff had a coaching clinic in St. Simon's Island, which I think is in Georgia, but it could be in Florida, I don't remember... We stayed there for a few days and hit up the beach in the rain. Then we went to Gainesville to visit our good friends from BYU, Trent and Amelia Savage. They had just had their first baby boy, TJ (Trent Junior), a few weeks prior. He is the cutest little baby and we had a great time there. We got to go to a Godfather's pizza buffet, which was a childhood favorite of both Jeff and I. Jeff and Trent got in several games of x-box football of course, and Amelia, the babies, and I took a long walk to the park which was some much needed exercise! They are hopefully coming to visit us again in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for more adventure stories! Oh, this picture was at the national park where gators roam free, but they were all hiding in the water this time around... we only saw a couple of heads floating...

One of the biggest highlights of this summer was a visit from Jeff's mom, dad, sister and nephew. Jeff's parents stayed for about 2 and a half weeks and Jenny and her son Will came out for the weekend and we all went to Myrtle Beach! It was so much fun and went by way too fast. Unfortunately Cheyenne got too much sun, because she got sick the last night at Myrtle Beach and it lasted for about a week until she was fully recovered. Here is a picture of the Bennum clan outside a restaurant in Myrtle Beach.

We stopped by University of South Carolina on the way home and right when we pull in, Steve Spurrier pulls up in his black BMW! Jenny was so brave and hopped out of the car, "Steve! You'll never believe it! We came all the way from Washington and Utah just to see you, so you gotta let us get a picture." He of course said yes, but insisted he stand by Jenny!! She was so smooth and said it as if she knew him, I could have never done that! haha... he had a three minute conversation with us and was on his way.

We had to get a picture of all of us before Jenny left, so we got this one on timer. It turned out great!

We had such a great time! I am really lucky to have such great in-laws... whenever I told people my in-laws were coming for 2.5 weeks, they were like oh no! I was like, no I am really excited! It was so much fun to have them here, we didn't want them to leave. We are still trying to convince them to move out here by us! Frank mowed the lawn every week for Jeff, Connie was always doing some sort of housework, and they both weeded our side plant area, which was a big project, we got to go on walks in the morning (or they would take Cheyenne and I got some time off). They also babysat for us so Jeff and I got our first real date night alone in several months and it was awesome!

Jeff went back to school the beginning of August, so our summer is sadly at an end... we were so spoiled getting him home all the time (he only was gone 3-4 hours a day in the summer)- now it is hard to have him gone again:(

I wanted to write more, but Cheyenne just woke up from her nap, so I better go get her. Stay tuned for more regular updates in the future- hopefully!!

Cheyenne is getting a little SISTER!!!

Girl Parts

she was moving a lot

she liked to have her hands by her face

We got the 20 week ultrasound and most importantly she is a very healthy girl! We were so relieved that everything looked like it was supposed to. We are excited to have two little girls and we think Cheyenne is going to just love her. They will be about 23 months apart, so probably 2 years in school. We are already planning on them playing on the same sports teams together (volleyball, basketball and soccer... soccer is in the spring in Georgia). We are now starting to brainstorm names, let us know if you have any suggestions. Especially city names that are cute for a girl. Such as "Cheyenne." We are not stuck on naming her after a city, but if we find one we like that would be cool. Oh- and aren't the 3d pictures awesome?? Our ultrasound technician is a mother of one of Jeff's former students, so she hooked us up with a disc of 45 pictures, plus showed us a 4d ultrasound video of this little girl moving a lot. It was so great and we were in there for like 30 minutes or more!

My Eggo is Preggo

Can anyone name that movie???

Anyway, most have probably already seen it on facebook, as I am having a really hard time keeping up with this blog. Anyway, I found out I was pregnant after I had already signed up (and paid for) a trail half marathon. I decided I wanted to try to still do it, mostly because I didn't want to waste my $30 I had spent on an entry fee! haha... anyway, I trained with a friend from church, Rachel. She just had a baby in December when we started to train in February.

{To warn you, this is really long, and may be boring for some so feel free to just look at the pictures.}

When we first started out, I was slightly faster than her (not much though, as I hadn't run since Octoberish...), understandably as she had just given birth which was followed by a big surgery shortly after. Anyway, I thought it would be great because I could just take it easy and run at her pace and I wouldn't have to push it. Well, as the weeks went on, she kept getting faster and faster and I was struggling more and more. I could definitely feel a huge difference trying to get in shape for something when you are pregnant. I felt really really sick the first trimester. Not in the mornings though, the mornings I felt great, then around 1-2ish each day I would start to feel so nauseous and disgusting. I never did actually throw up, unfortunately, because I really felt like if I could just throw up that feeling would go away. It didn't matter what I did or didn't eat, I felt great in the mornings and horrible in the afternoons/evenings. The only time I didn't feel gross is when I was running.

My running partner Rachel and I:

I got the clearance from my Doctor (it was actually the nurse practitioner) to train for the race, who said to just keep going with my physical activity and thought it would be fine.So around 12 weeks, Rachel and I did a 8 or 10 mile run, I don't remember... anyway, we went really fast. I felt HORRIBLE afterward. My whole body ached, I felt sick, I felt extreme exhaustion. I thought I could just take it easy, but I am just too competitive, I decided I needed to tell her so that she could help me take it easy. So I told her I was pregnant and after that we kept the long runs around 9:30-10 minute mile pace, which I felt bad, because I know it was so slow for her, but I didn't want to feel exhausted after. She was so supportive and would run my pace with me, then we did our short runs separate and she would go so fast during the short runs and my short runs were so hard and I would go just as slow or slower and I would skip runs all the time. If I wouldn't have had her to meet for my long runs on the weekends I probably would have given up because I was just feeling so crappy.

When we had only 1 or 2 long runs left I had another Dr. appointment where I met with one of the actual Dr.'s (there are 3 and you rotate each time). Anyway, I told her about my race, just because I wanted her to tell me things I needed to be careful of and she told me I shouldn't do it! I was so annoyed because I had already gone through the hardest part of the training and after one more week it would be tapering (where you start cutting down miles and resting more). The reason she didn't want me to do it is because she thought I would fall while I was running. I was so annoyed, in my head I was thinking "who falls when they run? I have never once fallen when running." I kept asking her for other reasons why I shouldn't do it and falling was her only concern but she was adamant that I not do it. This stressed me out big time. I made a temporary decision not to do and I asked, "so what is the farthest I should run?" She asked me what I had recently run and I told her our last run was 10 miles and she said, "you can run up to 10 miles then." That is when I decided I was still going to do it. If I can run 10 miles, 13 really is barely any different. Her only concern was me falling which I felt I had control over, so I decided I was just going to do it (plus I had already bought the shirts for the race).

Anyway, so the next day was our 11 mile run which we had decided to do on a trail for practice. I told Rachel the story of what happened at the Doctor's office and we were both laughing and making fun of her that she said I might fall, like who falls? So we do this 11 mile trail run (our first trail run of the training), and I tripped like 5 times! I never did fall, but Rachel ended up falling about 9 miles into it. After that run, I felt bad for making fun of my Doctor and not trusting her. I also hurt my leg really bad on that run and couldn't walk or run for almost the next whole week. I decided I would not do anymore trail training runs and when I got to the race just go really slow so that if I were to trip, I would be going slow enough to catch myself.

The week before the race I had a last minute opportunity to go to Disneyworld with my brother and his wife and two kids who are close in age to Cheyenne. He is in the military and got tickets for 4 days for $100 ($25 a day) to all 4 parks! It was such a great deal, I couldn't pass it up. Plus, they live in Texas and I never get to see them, so I was really excited for it. The first 2 days I wore flip flops all day and by the end of the 2nd day my feet were KILLING me! So the 3rd and 4th day I wore these sketcher tennis shoe things, that are more for looks than support I am sure, because I got horrible blisters! The day before the race I rested all day, but my legs were killing me from walking all 4 days and my blisters hurt and I wasn't even able to do any of the runs I was supposed to do the week before.

On the way to the race I was just dreading it. I knew I was going to go so slow, and I was worried my blisters were going to hurt. I kept telling Jeff, I am probably going to get last place and my time is going to suck, and I just have to be okay with that. I was more excited just to finally announce that we were pregnant, that is what I was so excited for. It had been so hard to keep that secret! I kept telling Rachel before the race that she needed to go ahead and not wait for me, because on all of our runs she was so much faster and wasn't ever as tired or sore as me afterward. I told her I wasn't going to try to stay with her and that she better go ahead because if the roles were reversed and she was pregnant then I wouldn't stay back for her. I told her it was a race and I really thought she was going to win it. I know she could have. This is Rachel nursing her 5ish month old baby 10 minutes before the start of the race:

The problem was that she had researched the course beforehand and I had not. People kept telling me there was a brutally crazy hill that climbed like 850 feet or something in 1 mile. Well, luckily I had no idea what that meant, and I had run up hills before so I couldn't imagine it being something I couldn't handle. Anyway, so the start of the race Rachel is feeling great, I am trying to just stay with her, but not push myself too hard. We get to some hills and we talk about how we need to pace ourselves up the hills and let ourselves go downhill. For some reason, I don't know when I started doing this, but naturally when I run, when I get to a hill, I pick up the speed going up hill.

I remember back in high school forever long ago, it might have even been middle school I ran a couple of times with this awesome runner, some of you may know, Sara Thon. She would always go faster up the hills, and I would get so annoyed, because I wanted to slow down. She said she loved the hills. I never understood that. I thought she was crazy. At that point in my life I didn't really enjoy running at all, I did it to stay in shape and because I wanted to win races, but I never really liked it. Anyway, I don't know when I started that same strategy but I know I have been doing it for several years. I guess I just think going uphill sucks whether you are walking, going slow, or sprinting, so you may as well get it over with as fast as possible.

Anyway, so whenever I get to a hill, I naturally just push really hard up the hill. In my head it is me vs the hill. Its like my competition is that hill and I am not going to let it win or slow me down! So back to the race, we get to the 3rd mile (the start of the monster hill) and every other person around us is walking. Rachel says "everyone is walking, they know how long this hill is." In my naive mind who doesn't know how long the hill is and have never walked in a race in my life, I say to her, "that is crazy, I don't want to walk!" She said, "I do!" I was so surprised because she is so tough. She had told me that she freaks herself out in races, so that coupled with knowing about the hill ahead of time I think psyched her out.

I didn't know she stopped to walk but I went into the me vs the hill mode where I don't notice anyone or anything around me and just kept running. This thing was straight up hill! I mean, many people if only walking would have to stop and take a break. I felt like I should be grabbing on to the hill like I was rock climbing to keep from sliding back down. I kept going slower and slower but forced myself to keep the running motion. I was the only one still running for a long time, finally my breathing got the better of me and I started worrying about enough air getting to the fetus. I was so annoyed because I didn't know taking it easy in this race would mean that I had to WALK! Anyway, so I would walk bent over at the waist to get as much air in as possible for 30 seconds then I would run for 15-30 seconds or as much as I could and alternated that sequence until I finally made it to the top of the gruesome hill. When I got to the top I looked down and didn't see Rachel and was confused because I had thought she was right behind me.

I didn't know what to do. Should I wait for her? We were running partners and I had no intention of winning this race or even getting a good time. But, to me it was still a race and I couldn't just stand there or continue to walk, it is just so against my nature. Anyway, I decided to just go slowly because I knew she would catch up to me (after all the hill was over... or so I thought). Then this girl passed me that I didn't know. I looked down at my watch and I was only going like 10 minute mile. I looked around me and there wasn't anyone else in sight. I have a history of getting lost on courses, so I decided to just stick with her to be safe (as in not getting lost). Another guy came up behind me and passed us, so it was the three of us running in a row for about a mile or so. Then we got to another hill which in any other run I would think was a monster hill, but after completing the previous hill, just thought of it as a little hill. The other two started to walk. I did not feel like walking anymore so I went around them and just steadily made my way up the hill.

The next 5 or 6 miles I was all by myself going up and down more hills. I had no idea it was an out and back course, so after a while people started passing me going the other direction. Every single person I passed would say to me "you're 2nd female." When the first person said that I was really surprised because there were at least about 50-75 people in front of me at the beginning of the giant hill. I figured I was middle of the pack female. At first I was like oh that is cool and I was thinking "good when Rachel catches up to me she can totally win." Then after a while, I started to become worried because I still hadn't seen Rachel. I started thinking "oh my gosh what if she fell down the hill and I was not there to help her."

Anyway, I finally made it to the halfway point got some water, ate my gu shot blocks and turned around. Luckily only about .10-.20 miles after the turn around I saw Rachel and she looked great. I was so relieved. Of course after I turned around I kept passing more and more people and every person would tell me 2nd female. After a while, my competitive nature took over and every time I heard that all I would hear is that I was not the first!

I still had about 5 miles to go, so I just kept telling myself just relax, take it easy, I didn't want to push myself too hard. Anyway, I finally came up on the 1st female. When I was in high school track my racing strategy was to stay behind the first place person, right on their shoulder and make them do the work, then pass them right at the end. I just figured I would do that. When I started coming up behind her she moved off the path, I said "oh I am not passing you." then I stayed right behind her for about a quarter of a mile. Then we got to a hill and were about half way up and I think she was probably annoyed that I was running so close to her, haha... I don't know if anyone races like that in long races... anyway, she pulled off to the side and said "go around me" I was really surprised and said okay, then I looked back and she had stopped to walk, so hopefully she was just tired and I wasn't being annoying, haha... after that there were many more hills and I did have to stop and walk a few more times, but it would always be 15 seconds walking and 30 seconds running.

The last 3 miles or so were steep downhill and since it was the end of the race my competitive nature took over and I did what I promised myself I would NOT do! I sprinted downhill and I was totally out of control. At one point I was going 6 minute miles downhill which is very fast for the shape I am in right now. I was even going "whoa whoa whoa" and holding my arms out like an airplane for balance. This guy was sprinting behind me for about half a mile then he finally passed me, he said, "congrats on the baby, you are one hell of a runner." I wondered if he would have thought the same thing if I would have ate it right in front of him! haha... There was this pond thing you run by and I was hot so I want to get my legs wet so I purposely stepped in a puddle thing right by it and it was SO SLIPPERY. I almost fell! If I hadn't been praying and praying that I wouldn't fall for the previous two hours before that I think I might have fallen! At that point I made myself slow down and be in control the rest of the way down.

Toward the end of the race I passed this kid who was around 16. We were going downhill and he was walking. I told him, "you can do it you are almost there!" He said, "my hamstrings are hating me right now." I told him to keep running, walking would only tighten them more. He caught up to me and said, "I am going to try to stay with you, this is my first half marathon." I had a gps watch and the miles on the course were not marked so I told him exactly how long he had left. I kept talking to him and telling him he was almost there and no matter how tired he got to just keep running, even if it was slow. When we had about 1.5 miles left, he took off. I felt so good like I had helped to coach him:)

When there was about a mile left I passed a photographer, I was like, "are there any more hills?" (there had been about 3 or 4 more since the bottom of the mountain). He said just one more, you have about half a mile left. I said, "kill me now! There are too many hills!!" I was so hot, I needed water, I felt like I was starting to get the dehydrated goosebumps, my legs were so stiff from going down the hill, I felt like I was waddling.

Finally I saw the bridge and picked up the pace until I finished!!! When I saw Jeff after he looked so proud of me, he was smiling and he was so surprised to see me finish so early. Whenever Jeff comes to watch me play a sport he always looks like he is so proud of me. It is so cute and it makes me feel so good about myself. We took pictures and I drank an entire powerade, two water bottles and ate about 10-15 orange slices.

Rachel finished a while later and we cheered her into the finish line. She did such a great job. She was nursing which takes a lot out of you, and she had just had a baby and major surgery only 5 months prior. I ended up getting a cute medal and a gift certificate for a pair of trail shoes and Rachel also placed 2nd in her age group so she got a medal too! After the race the announcer kept announcing on the loudspeaker, the first female finisher is 17 weeks pregnant. That was kind of embarrassing because I felt like everyone was staring at me.

Anyway, I am now 18 weeks and we find out the gender in 2 weeks. We would be happy with either. I think it is a girl and would love to have a girl, but we want to eventually have a boy so it would be nice if it was a boy too because then I would feel less stressed when we have our next one, because I really want to have at least one boy.

Stay tuned for the gender. If you have facebook, I will most likely update that first because it is much easier!

Oh and the quote "Your eggo is preggo" is from the movie juno. The guy who plays Dwight on the office, is the worker at the convenience store and tells it to Juno when she takes a pregnancy test. I thought it was hilarious!

"I LOVE YOU"

Here is a cute video of Jeff and Cheyenne when we went out to eat earlier this week.

Jeff and Cheyenne trip to Washington

Jeff and Cheyenne had a great week in Washington. I was excited to relax and lay in the sun while they were gone, but then I started getting ambitious and ended up barely relaxing at all! But, I did get a lot of things done that have needed to be done for a long time, so when they returned I felt less stressed. I was also worried about being away from Cheyenne for a whole week because the longest I had spent away from her prior was one night. I missed her and Jeff a lot, but they did fine without me! I even skyped with them one day and Cheyenne was like "oh hi." haha... it was great though, she got plenty of attention and care! When they got back, Cheyenne was all obsessed with Daddy and even started to whimper when he left her with me to go to the bathroom and she couldn't see him anymore. After a few weeks of spending all day with Mommy again, she is now back to being attached to me. Here she is with Grandma Bennum and her cousin Haley at Haley's soccer game:

Grandpa Bennum, Haley and Cheyenne:

Grandpa and Grandma Crockett's house:

Grandma Anderson/Crockett (who knows?):

Great Grandma Blum and Cheyenne:

Reading with cousins Madesyn and Kyla:

Jeff skiing with his dad at Mount Baker (I am jealous!):

Grandpa Bennum reading to the grandkids (Haley, Hannah and Cheyenne):

Grandpa Bennum taking the girls on a walk:

Jeff reading a bedtime story to Haley, Hannah and Cheyenne:

Jeff at the Husky Basketball stadium (he went to a spring football practice):

It was a great trip and I am sad I missed out! I am so happy that Jeff and Cheyenne got to go on a much needed Washington trip to see our family there!