Valentine's Day 2014

Valentine's day was fun. After doing a couple early morning spin classes I came home to an eager Jaylen ready to make Aaron a surprise breakfast while Aaron and Gavin were asleep in our bed. We made Magleby's french toast with oranges and chocolate strawberries. It was fun to have a special little breakfast with my family. Jaylen was so proud of our surprise. 

Jaylen and Gavin gave Aaron a cute card that Jaylen wrote, "Dad, thanks for making my life fun. I love you." Aaron got the boys their own boxes of fruits snacks- Jaylen got Mario and Gavin got Despicable Me snacks. Aaron gave me a cute card with a bag of bite size Milky Way that said, "I love you to the Milky Way and Beyond."  I gave Aaron a silly gangsta poem and a heart felt letter. Later that day, we went out to eat with 3 other couples. It was great to have a much needed date night with each other. I'm glad I have the best valentine I could have ever hoped for!

February 2014 happenings

While potty training Gavin, he decided to pee in the boy's toy bin. Jaylen was not pleased with his decision so he promptly put a "No Peeing" sign on the bin and instructed Gavin to obey his rules. It hasn't happened since. 

Jaylen made a Valentine for Brody at school while I volunteered for centers. It was sweet to see him decorating his letter. 

 I went on a run last Saturday morning and wanted the boys to be part of it, so I pushed Gavin and had Jaylen scooter next to me. We ran to the park a couple miles down the road, played in the river, splashed rocks in water and then ventured down the trail and came back to the park for a picnic break. It was such a beautiful, sunny day and provided Aaron with some extra study time. A fun 6 mile jog!

Oh, I love the weather here! 

Addie, Ellie and CJ came over to hang out for the afternoon and we were playing around in the boy's room. They started trying on the boy's shoes. Addie who is 9, turning 10 wears the same size as Jaylen (size 4) and Ellie who is 7 wears the same size as Gavin (2 wearing size 13). Pretty funny. I'm raising some big foots over here!! 

Jaylen's 6th birthday weekend!

Jaylen is SIX! One fun thing about the boy's birthdays are that Jaylen, Aaron and Gavin's birthdays always fall on the same day every year- so this year it's Sunday. Which means, birthday festivities all weekend long. Jaylen's weekend was exciting. 

I came to his school Friday and brought Mario fruit snacks for him to pass out. Gavin was hilarious. He walked right on up to the front of the class, sat down on the "Sunshine Engineer" seat and proudly munched on his treats, not shy at all. Jaylen kept shyly giving me a smile while everyone sang him happy birthday at the front of the class. He melts my heart! 

After school he came home and helped me decorate some cupcakes. He added a Mario fruit snack onto all of them.

 Shortly after school, Brody, Henry, and Connor came over for a play date (Kelson was out of town). They had fun playing with some of Brody's legos, hitting a pinata and eating candy and playing outside.

Jaylen picked out this pinata he said was Yoshi. 

Gavin had 3 suckers in his hand that he was eating from the pinata. 

 Saturday evening, we took Jaylen bowling (he'd been begging forever!). He was so excited and so cute about it. He loves bowling!

Gavin was adorable. He'd throw his ball, sit down and watch it. So innocent and cute. 

Our excited 6 year old! 

Sunday morning we made him strawberry crepes. Jaylen gobbled these up! 

He'd slurp it off his plate. Such great table manners! :)

After church we opened his presents. He was extra excited to see what Grandma sent.  He'd talked to her earlier on the phone and he kept telling us, "Take a lot of pictures of me for Grandma, okay??" 

He was so excited for Mario party 9! 

 We all played together afterwards. He was so excited. Such fun and thoughtful gifts for him!

I love this sweet boy's face! 

I can't believe it's been 6 years since he came into our home! Wow, has time flown by! 

Jaylen made a picture of what he wanted for his cake. 

Jaylen is awesome. He's such a tender little boy, always saying the sweetest things. "Daddy, I want to be just like you when I'm big." "Mommy, you're our little family princess."  "Gavin, if your belly hurts just crawl into my bed and I'll rub it for you."  He's so loving and expressive with his feelings. He loves being snuggled after he eats, saying "I'm cold!! I need snuggles!" He has the cutest little voice and has been leaving us little love notes around the house or under our pillows. It's so cute. He's crazy about Mario, but we keep his video games to a minimum. He loves to play with his friends after school if they come over for a bit. He's into basketball, jumping on the trampoline, anything Mario. playing educational computer games and reading books. He's lost two teeth and loves having his bum scratched. He's super silly and cute.

We're so happy he's in our family. We love our little Jaylen!

Work

Here are a few pictures from work lately: 

Jan and I during treading class. They were doing a promo on hydration. 

I have a client who gives me these cute shoe gems as gifts. I love them. Every time I put on my shoes I smile. They say, "Best Trainer Ever, I love Burpees, 70.3, 26.2 Boston Bound." 

Teaching Mountain class at the Biggest Loser Resort. 

A note from one of our guests that left. Getting these sweet notes are common from the guests leaving. This is exactly why I love what I do. 

Teaching on exercise recommendations during mountain class. 

Work has been good lately. It's been way busier. I added an all day shift on Wednesday to help free myself up the rest of the week, but so far it hasn't really freed up anything, so I need to work on that. I work from 5:30 am to 4:45 pm at the Biggest Loser on Wednesday, drive to the new Summit location and train from 5-6 pm there and then at the Summit by our house from 6:15-7 pm. It's a long day and I miss my family terribly on Wednesdays, but I'm glad I can help provide for our family and feel flexibility the rest of the week.

I've picked up a lot of new clients from our ward after doing enrichment on health and fitness and also keep getting referrals from past clients at the Summit. It's all good, but tricky to manage with my own life/work balance. Hopefully things will level off a bit with the New Years rush calming down. I hate when I get too busy with work and feel unbalanced!  Although, I do feel fortunate and blessed to have something I love to do that also helps keep our family afloat.

BASKETBALL and Jaylen's first basketball season!

Jaylen started on his first basketball team- The Knicks in January. A lady who lives a few houses down, Julie Mathews, and her adopted son, Tyler, plays and coaches the team. Jaylen was nervous at first to do something new, but came home beaming and excited after their first practice. 

Aaron took Jaylen to get his first pair of basketball shoes (size 4). He was so excited about them! 

Their first practice

Jaylen's first game

Jaylen can jump up and hang on the rim. Too bad he has no idea what he's doing out there to take advantage of his height! 

Jaylen randomly got assigned number 21- Aaron's number throughout high school. Pretty neat for both of them! 

Tuesdays we go from Jaylen's game to Aaron's game (reigning league champions). 

Jaylen's games are almost painful to watch. He skips, leaps, twirls and is completely aloof and non aggressive. He has gotten a lot better week by week though. After he finally scored, he got the idea that he could score and how to play so he's been a little more mentally in the games since. We've been trying to practice with him a bit at home so he knows what's going on. The most important thing: he loves it and we're happy he's enjoying himself with his team, no matter how he plays. 

Our Relief Society started playing in a basketball tournament recently too- our first game we won 48 to 11. I'm amazed at the athletic people on our team! 

A cute video of Jaylen's game: 

St. George Half Marathon

I ran the St. George half marathon this year with my buddy, Stephanie. It was a beautiful day (January 18th), a challenging course and was happy to have a pair of healthy legs to carry me through it. 

I finished in 1 hour 43 minutes (average 7:55/ mile). I was the 60th out of 612 females to finish, in my age group I was 7th out of 50. 

My amazing running buddy, Stephanie. She is half my size and runs twice as fast as me. She's amazing. She finished a few minutes before I did. 

My sweet, supportive family

Jenny and I after the finish. 

Emily and Christian were at the finish to cheer me on before they headed off to Nevada. So awesome of them to stop by to support! 

Excited for the Dogtown half marathon this coming weekend!