Everett's 1st Birthday.

A couple hours after the triathlon we got to have family and friends over to celebrate Everett's 1st birthday. Elizabeth did all the planning and prep work, we just provided the back yard and took lots of pictures. 

Everett likes balls a lot so Elizabeth made it a "Take me out to the Ball Game" theme. It was pretty great. There were balls everywhere and Baseball Game food. 

Everett didn't like that I took him away from his Daddy to take his picture. 

Lexi and Gwenevere. 

 I loved the themed food!

There were also sunflower seeds, corn nuts, nachos, and hot dogs. 

 

Just as the party was about to start, Max fixed a hole in our deck so no one would fall in it. He fixed it in record time, I guess it would have to be a record since he's never done it before. 

Charlie found these sunglasses and thought he looked pretty great. 

Miles got passed around a lot. 

The cutest little puppy. 

 Another fun party game was hitting the ball through the hoop. This is where Charlie hung out most of the party.

He chowed down his birthday pie pretty quick with very little mess!

 And then we got to hit the Baseball pinata.

This was one happy birthday boy!

Oh the candy!

It was an excellent party that Elizabeth put together and all the kids had lots of fun. Happy Birthday to Mr. Everett! That year went by really quick!

2nd Annual Women's Triathlon

If you remember the details of my life exceptionally well, you will know that last year I participated in my first ever sprint triathlon through Tualatin Stake. Last year I was 12 weeks pregnant and regularly running 3 miles a couple times a week, this year, I was not as fit. I have been consistently exercising but mostly lifting weights and doing in home cardio workouts. I also had/have quite a bit more weight on me post baby. I decided to try the tri anyway, It really is an amazing event and very non-competitive. This year, I did it with my mom again but also Elizabeth joined us and a bunch of friends from our ward which is in a different Stake.

I hadn't really been swimming and I borrowed my neighbor's bike that I practiced on once and couldn't figure out the gears. (Come to find out the day before the Tri, that the gears were actually broken so I used my little brother's bike again.)

We got there a little early but had fun meeting up with James and Elizabeth, James checked out our bikes and made sure they were all set. By the time we got in the pool we were some of the last swimmers to go.
I actually think I went a little faster this time just because I took shorter breaks. I really enjoyed this part, It was also fun to have Charlie, Grace, Gwenevere, and Everett cheering for us.

Sarah Frantz

Sara Jensen

That's me tuggin along!

My mom and Elizabeth

After swimming we changed into our dry clothes and met outside for a quick snack and some pictures.

 

We then said goodbye to our boys (and nieces) and left onto our bike ride. This is the one I was the most nervous for. I knew there were a couple hills on the course and I am not much of a bike rider.  

My mom zoomed ahead of us and Elizabeth stayed with my as we went along our merry way, it was really nice to not feel like we were racing. We were able to chit chat on the parts when I wasn't huffing and puffing!  

There was a photographer from the Tualatin Stake that Volunteered to take excellent photos of the event, (http://www.mikejulianaphotography.com/Community/2014-Tualatin-Stake-Womens-Tri/)

When we made it back to the park we met up with my mom and started our run. Right away I could feel that my legs were pretty tired and I had wished that I had nursed Miles sometime in the last couple hours because it made the running a bit uncomfortable. I still ran for about the first mile with Elizabeth then I walked the majority of the way with a couple spurts of running. I definitely didn't run as much as last year. My mom walked most of it and Elizabeth ran alongside my "speed" walking. But I kind of loved this part too as I could go on a nice walk with Elizabeth through the park and not have to worry about chasing the kids. Haha. When we got back, we chugged down some water and called Max and James ot come meet us at the park.

We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch provided by the stake and had a picnic in the grass.  

Max and James had a fun day of checking out the new Cabelas and garage saleing with the kids. 

I love these wild nieces. 

Charlie liked trying to play Hackey Sack with the missionaries. 

Anyway, I'm so glad I did the triathlon again even though I didn't feel as fit, It just reminds me that I have a strong and capable body that I can constantly challenge and improve. One of my goals is to not let my body limit me (to the best of my ability) This is especially in regards to playing with my children. I want to be able to play soccer or run with them for as long as I am able. Next goal....(4th of July 1/2 marathon...)

The rest of the day was blog worthy but I will save Everett's birthday party for its own post.
At the end of the day, Elizabeth, my mom, and I all went to get pedicures...which we think needs to be a annual triathlon tradition.

Happy Birthday Max!

On Thursday last week we got to celebrate Max's 28th birthday. Max wasn't expecting anything big for his birthday he even asked me to not spend any money. He is pretty set on adding money to our future house fund, so I decided to only spend a little money :) He actually hadn't even hinted at anything he's been wanting so that made it a little challenging, Luckily I figured out that he wanted an apple pie and it turned out that my cousins had an apple tree that produced a million (or so) apples that were excellent for pies. I had my little pie helper help me bake. He was really good at squishing the crust down, (a very unnecessary step)

Yes, our house was super messy right here. 

 I was a little stressed this day because there was so much I wanted to get done and I wanted Max to come home to a clean house and have my workout and shower done, I had also volunteered to bring a meal to a large family in need so I wanted to make that happen. As the day was getting busier I reminded myself of Our Love Language gift lists that we made about a year ago, on the list, Max had written that he feels loved and attracted to me when I choose to spend my time serving others, so even though making a large meal for someone else gave me a little stress, it ended up being a great gift for Max. The meal was for a family with 7 kids (5 are foster children) and the mom was just put on bed rest and the dad works full time. Anyway, we were able to make them a big pot of Chili and a large pan of corn bread.
  
Charlie had the idea of making Daddy a birthday hat...for some reason I don't have any pictures of him wearing the hat but it was pretty exciting. Charlie decorated it and I taped it together, it doesn't get much classier than that. And we just got him some simple slippers because he has wanted some.

Another gift from Charlie was this...

 Another way to Max's heart is back scratches, he even inspected my nails to make sure they were suitable before we got married. Over the last couple weeks we've been training Charlie to give good back scratches. So when Max got home from work, We had this set up. Charlie got distracted and never gave Max a good back scratch.

Miles enjoyed some daddy time!

We then went out to eat at the wonderful Mongolian grill. We ate well, Max got a free meal, (we were really being frugal this birthday, can you tell?) Charlie's meal was even free.

I like this picture because he looks so much like Max with his sweet little eye wrinkles.

We came home and met Max's parents and Justin at our house to have pie. Apparently I didn't take any more pictures the rest of the night. We then put the kids in bed then went to bed early as a gift to ourselves.
So overall it was kind of a random birthday celebration but Max had a good time and felt the love!

Max's 28 random and not-so-random facts.

1. Max practices yodeling in the car and wants to become better
2. He was Prom King, and voted Best Personality in High School.
3. He was Co-captain of the water polo team.
4. He owns a pair of tap shoes and a pair of ice skates.
5. He wants to own a duplex or triplex so our tenants pay the mortgage.
6. He can do some awesome tricep pushups
7. He has some really cute freckles
8. He loves learning new things (yodeling, roofing, budgeting, business management...)
9. He can do pretty amazing braids.
10. He supports me in everything I want to do and try.
11. He is a very competent and involved daddy!
12. He has an extreme amount of patience with me and the kids.
13. He likes spending his time doing visual productive projects....yardwork, painting, etc.
14. He is pretty great at budgeting and providing for our family.
15. He has a gift with languages, he excelled in Spanish and probably knows more Armenian than me now.
16. He's very social and loves to be around people.
17. If he doesn't know how to do something he will figure it out, he has become quite the handy-man recently.
18. He says he has never been bored!
19. He will tweeze my eyebrows since I'm apparently too blind.
20. He can clean the house much better than me.
21. He is always busy doing something that is improving our quality of life.
22. He thinks of others before himself
23. He has recently been enjoying finding new music artists that play wholesome music
24. His love for his family is evident in all of his actions.
25. He physically needs more sleep than me.
26. He can type about 75 wpm...(yes, we have done online typing races in the middle of the night)
27. He takes great care in making sure his nails and cuticles are neat and clean.
28. He is the most wonderful Man, and I feel completely and overwhelmingly blessed that he is my husband and we get to be partners throughout eternity and raise our children together.