Mitch and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this weekend by running the RAGNAR race. I can't help but laugh at how Mitch and I are slowly molding and becoming one another. For example, when we got married he had nerdy glasses and had never run a day in his life. Now (thanks to kids) I am the one with glasses and he ran a 197 mile race! Life is funny.  Here are some pictures and our story of running the Ragnar.

 Mitch holding 'Shot Blocks', "This thing better take me 8 miles".

 This was at our 3 am handoff. Mitch had just run 7.7 miles from East Canyon down into Henefer. I was taking the chip and heading off to run my 10 miler from Henefer to the other side of Echo Resevoir. I asked Mitch how his 7 miler was and he said it was not too bad. He said, "don't be offended but this girl slowly ran by me and she smelled good so I just stayed with her and ran the rest of the way. I didnt even walk!" I could not stop laughing. Honestly, whatever got him through is just fine with me. Even if it was some smelly girl.
      At the checkpoints I could never find Mitch and finally when I would, he would be standing in the super long massage line. Let's just say, Mitch was a trooper but he didn't exactly have a smile on his face the whole time and he took advantage of every massuse there was. He ran leg 8 while I ran leg 9 so he didn't really cheer for me at all because he was pretty much wiped after his runs. What a great husband I have.  

 Here is Mitch pacing me up the Ragnar hill. ha ha Just Kidding. 

  This Speedo Man came up on me as I was trying to get up the steepest hill in the world! It was 86 degree's and way hotter on the pavement. Ryan was pouring water all over me every 300 meters while Melanie was giving me drinking water every 200 meters. IT WAS HOT! I was trying a walk/jog method to get up the hill but when this Speedo Man came up on my shoulder I looked him and said "Oh Heck No! (that may or may not be edited) No Speedo man is going to beat me up this hill!" So I started jogging with him. Come to find out he was hurting too and was actually pretty cool. We ran the rest of the way up the hill together. My brother's just ate this up and started the photo op. I thought they were going to fall over laughing when I said, "C'mon Speedo Man we are almost there!" I never did get his name. He answered well to Speedo Man though. Naturally when I could see the exchange point I left him in the dust. Like I said, 'I'm not getting beat by a man in a speedo with a cowboy hat, who is running bow legged due to chaffing'!

  Here is our whole team, The Honey Badgers "So Nasty". Looking back we had a great time. Mitch vowed to never do it again and I realized that things are not quite as easy as they once were when I was running in college. I've never spent so much time in a 'honey bucket' and who would have known that running at 4 in the morning could be so beautiful. It was a great weekend


From left to right (team pic: Melanie, Spencer, Aimee, Ryan, Tyler, Carlie, Robb, Mitch, Stacie & Jacob


P.S. I wrote this post right after the race, but now 3 weeks later, Mitch did say the other day, "oh maybe I would do it again" How easy it is to forget the pain when you are in good company!

Raspberries

As I was drying off from the shower my 2 year old snuck in behind me and blew a raspberry on my bum. Of course I screamed out loud as I was not expecting that! Of course we had a talk about doing things like that but that does not mean I can't laugh about it when she's not looking! Such a little firecracker!

Bye, Bye, Binky Gone Wrong.

We decided that it was time to get rid of Ellie's binkies for good. I chose the balloon method and we told Ellie that we were going to send the binkies to the other babies in heaven. When we went to wal mart and picked up ten balloons Ellie thought this was the greatest moment of her life. I stuffed her, Max and all those balloons in the car and you could barely see that there were kids in there! It just so happened that we were baby sitting my brother Robb's three kids so then we told El that we were having a bye, bye, binky party. I had real hopes for it all. But it all went wrong...

I spent most of the day telling Ellie how much fun our bye, bye binky party will be. "Our cousins will be there, we will have balloons, pizza, and the babies in heaven will just love having your binkies! It's just so nice for you to share with them!"

 Ellie was taking her sweet time. Getting one last fix before she kicks the habit.

 The epic release. It was flawless, at least we thought.

 Yea! This is so fun! look at them go!

 What a beautiful sight!

 A nice gust of wind and BAM! It all goes wrong! There they were the evil little binkies just tempting her from the tree. I think I said "oh crap" out loud.

 That's when Mitch grabbed the snow shovel and tried to hit them out of the tree. However they were way too high.

 So he put the POWER NOZZEL (sound effects added (think superhero)) on the hose to try to wash them out of the tree. This just made all the balloons sag.

By now the tree had lost a lot of leaves and the kiddos started collecting. Then it turned into singing and dancing, "bye, bye binky, bye, bye, binky!"

  We thought we would break out the Pizza and lawn chairs and enjoy the extended party.  The whole process of Mitch putting on a silly show was about 45 minutes.

 Then Mitch took a heavy metal rake and chucked it at the balloons. The rake too got stuck in the tree. So we had, balloons, binkies, and rake all hanging from the tree. That is when Mitch decided he would lasso the whole thing down which he successfully did. Go Mitch!

 Hurrah! Ellie is relieved, "my binkies came back!"

 After a few repairs,3 additional balloons, and more explaining to Ellie, we decided to let Dad do the honors. We made him go out into the middle of the street for the release.

BYE, BYE, BINKIES! THIS TIME FOR GOOD!

 It did not take long for reality to sink in.

That is when Olivia ran inside and grabbed El's replacement gift. A new 'Tangled' doll and blanket. Which she loved.

Every now and then we catch her getting a quick fix from Max's bink, however when she is caught she shamefully puts it back in his mouth. Hey, cold turkey can be hard for anybody, right!?

We had a busy weekend! On Saturday we went to Spencer's graduation from Idaho State where he received his Doctorate of Audiology. Great job Spenc! Then we came home and started pulling things together for Max's blessing day. We had lots of family support and we sure are blessed with great family on both sides.  Later that night we had our new niece, Sadies blessing. It was a very fun weekend.

 The proud Dad with handsome Max. Notice the matching ties! Matchy matchy!                                                    
Also,  Mitch does not have his glasses on! He had lasik last month and is LOVING his new eyes!

 One day we'll get a good family pic. but this will have to do for now!

 A close up of the cute little guy....Yes I know....HE'S VERY DORIUS!

That same week we enjoyed the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving point. It was very pretty, I think we'll go every year. Ellie really does smile but just not really for pictures, little turkey. Happy May!

We went to Disneyland a week and a half ago and had a great time. A few other words that could describe the experience are FREEZING, hilarious, magical, and yes, exhausting. We went down there because Mitch had some business meetings in Anaheim. We thought, 'they pay for the gas and the hotel? We are in!' However, when we were in Cedar city Mitch received an email that said that all of his meeting had been cancelled. Figures. He asked if I wanted to turn around, "heck no" I said, "it took me 3 days to get this car packed up, we are going!" So we did. We stayed at a great hotel across the street from Disneyland. This was perfect because come 1:30 PM we simply walked the 5 minutes back to the hotel and took naps, making for a much happier experience.
       We were there for three days and saw all there ever was to see! Max was a trooper and hung out in the front pack or in his car seat. He still sleeps a lot but didn't seem to mind the magical commotion.

 Ellie LOVED the carousel. The first time she rode it, the castle was all lit up and she screamed "Look dad a castle!" Then the carousel would go around again and with teary happiness she screamed "Look dad, ANOTHER castle! according to her, there are about 8 castles at Disneyland. That was probably one of our most favorite moments. Another favorite one liner was when we were riding the Disney Ferris Wheel. I don't care much for heights so when the cart would swing from side to side I was white knuckling the seat with my eyes closed. I think this made Ellie a little nervous because on one big swing from one side to the other Ellie screamed with her hands covering her binky plugged mouth, "HOLD ONTO YOUR BINKIES!" She is so darn funny right now!

 We did enjoy one day of warm weather. Ellie made a day of it as she just about waved her hand off. It seemed like everyone was her best friend that day.

 Areil's ride was by far the favorite. We rode that ride 9 freaking  fabulous times. It really was quite cute.

Disneyland was pretty awesome with this bad boy. Thanks to Ellie's broken leg, We were able to go to the front of the line on nearly every ride! Ellie really was illegitimately having a difficult time walking. She had the worst limp ever and attracted many on lookers. At one point we were standing in line and I heard a man say presumably to his wife, 'oh, look at that little crippled girl, that would be so hard.' I looked around to see who he was talking about. It was Ellie! I chuckled inside because he obviously did not know that I was her mom. He must have been mortified to see the lady standing right next to him go and pick up the little girl.

 On Sunday, we went to church and had dinner with our good friends Ryan and Diane. She took us for a fabulous tour of the area and surprised me by showing me the 'Father of the Bride House" This show and it's sequel are 2 of my all time favorites.

Our little trooper Maxwell. Disneyland was truely just a dream to him.  We kept him nice and bundled up most of the time. Since when did california get so cold? According to the locals, it was really rare for it to snow/sleet/and rain. Lucky for us, we got to experience it all.

 Ellie was going crazy in line she was so excited for her turn to meet Princess Aurora. However, when she got close, she must have seemed a bit more scary and wouldn't let go of my neck

 Ellie could not really walk at Disneyland. She got her cast off the day we left. All the princess' and Prince's were really great to dance with her and help make sure she had a great time.

                                         Dad and Ellie at the princess show. Naturally, Mitch couldn't leave Disneyland without cracking the same old joke about Disneyland and it's mouse problem. Very funny Mitchell, Very funny.

Can't leave that place without this picture! We loved seeing Mickey slay the dragon during Fantasmic. That little mouse is amazing!!!

Lemonade...

WHEN GIVEN A LEMON, MAKE LEMONADE. 

Thanks for the reminder El. Nothing slows you down little bug. Love You!

OH ELLIE!!

I'm afraid our little Ellie is always going to be one of those children who keeps us on our toes. Naturally, this week has been no different. Last Saturday was Grandma Sherrills birthday and the in-laws decided that we would have an all adult dinner. I was looking forward to getting out because the whole week I layed on my couch with a few daily doses of Perkiset from having Max. We had made plans to take Max and Ellie to my brother's house so we could enjoy some adult interaction. However, Ellie had other plans. As we all headed toward the garage, Mitch opened the door out to the garage and Ellie ran out, he then pushed the garage door button and turned to grab the baby. As he did so  Ellie thought it would be a great idea to grab on to the bottom of the garage door and ride it to the top. Mitch did not notice her do it until he heard the garage door stop AT THE TOP, then a loud "TING" as Ellie's little fingers slipped off the tin edge she was hanging on to. He then turned and saw El sitting in a crumbled mess on the garage floor crying. Not knowing how bad it was, we tried to see if she could walk on it but she just cried and tipped over. It was so sad to see her tip over. So we headed to WeeCare (because everything medically related has to happen on the weekend or during the 'afterhours' for clinics).
      At the clinic we had a 2.5 hour wait so we took Ellie and met up with the family at Rooster's while we waited for our appt. time. While at Roosters Ellie sat on Mitch's lap without trying to move the entire time. That's when we really knew something was wrong. :)
   When we finally got into the doctor we told him told the storyand he just sat there with his mouth wide open and kept saying "I can't believe she would do that! That is crazy!" I just sat there thinking "yes it is unfortunate but really it's not that unbelievable, c'mon doc". Really with Ellie this kind of thing is something I would be surprised if she didn't try. We should have been expecting it but the little turkey caught us on our heels.
   So after a few X-Rays, and literally 6 suckers the doctor confirmed that she broke her leg and sent us to an orthopedic specialist.

 The following week we headed down to Bountiful to the specialist. Because I couldn't lift Ellie for another week or so Grandma Sherrill joined us at the doctors office. This was where the doctor confirmed that the break went from mid-shin down to her growth plate. He also told us that she would have a full leg cast and that she would be non-weight bearing for the next 5 weeks. Did I want to cry? Yes, yes I did. But I didn't... Not yet anyway.

 She had to have a Purple cast which looks great might I add. As I nursed Maxwell in the lobby afterwards Grandma took Ellie for a ride in her Wagon (our new mode of transportation). During this time she went through the Lobby exclaiming "Hello Everybody, I broke my leg! Hello Everybody, I broke my leg!" She officially calls it 'her purple sock'. However, it did not take long for her to realize that the whole cast is not as fun as she thought. Naturally, she is taking it in stride and has learned to army crawl across the floor, and yesterday she even pulled herself onto a bar stool using her 3 working limbs!
     Mitch has been a super dad helping out at home. Ellie and I scoot together down the stairs but Mitch becomes King as he carries Ellie everywhere the moment he walks in from work. I would be in big trouble without that guy. Ellie also has had a hard time sleeping with her cast. After being up with Max I went back into my bedroom and Mitch was gone. I found him laying on the floor in Ellie's room. So I snapped this picture.

 So with the mix of jealousy of a new brother, daylight savings, and dealing with a broken leg, Ellie has had a long week. However, looking back I'm sure we will all be grateful with how much we get to stretch and learn when trials come upon us. Perhaps we will feel that way when we are all a little less sleep deprived...perhaps.

Also, Thanks for the help that our family has given us with Ellie and Maxwell along with the tasty meals from the ward. Like they say, it takes a village to raise a child! Thank you again everyone! We really are happily blessed!