I actually spent money on these...

I wouldn't say I crave things. Probably because of years of having to have eaten certain foods at certain times of day, but since I have been pregnant I did actually buy these two items (I think only Twinkies can compete with the shelf life and foreigness of the ingredients) Not so much because I was craving them but because I could buy them and I did and I ate them while saying outloud, "I am seriously eating this junk and enjoying it!"

What I truly truly want is this. You can only get these round circle of maroonish/chocolaty colored goodness in Utah at the gas stations or Dan's. My mom used to buy the "cripples" from Salt Lake Donut and that was a happy day when you'd see the familiar brown box on the counter.

Terrific tales of a Tuesday...

Had to wake Chloe at 7:20. She usually is up before 7 but not today when we had some plans!!
Filled her tummy with milk and a bowl of cereal to munch on as we drove.
Drove past tornado devastation and wondered, again, how some were spared and others were hit.
Saw a sign for Milan (not Italy)
Passed through Lancaster (not Pennsylvania)
Passed through Memphis (not Tennessee)
Pulled over quick so I could catch Chloe's throw up in my hand and a diaper. Poor thing got car sick. And who wouldn't on these windy, hilly, curvy roads.
Kept going, though.
Saw many signs of planting time on the numerous farms.
Still driving in Missouri after 1 hour.
Enter Iowa for 5 minutes.
Enter Illinois. Conquered 3 states in 2 hours.
Made it to the temple with moments to spare (it's always like that right? or am I the only one?)
Started the drive home.
Saw a billboard that said something or other about Jesus and hope.
Got excited once again about the Mule Festival on September!
Had to go around more than a few cars that were going about 10 under the speed limit.
Drove behind a moving truck that had to be going atleast 15 over the speed limit at some points.
Had to slow down about 4 different times to pass through a little town with a charming name like Wayland or Ashton and see their run down stores but without fair a blazing yellow DollarGeneral sign and a flaming red PizzaHut roof.
Saw another billboard that had a picture of the bottom half of a man and it said "Flys spread diseases...keep yours zipped! Yuck!
Still driving, listening to gross Phil Collins and others that I could catch on the breezy fm station.
Gorgeous sun to help me sing with delight and hum with happiness.
Arrived home at 5pm.
Dined on grocery store pizza.

2 things are 2!

These are a few more of Chloe Blue's 2 year old photoshoot.

This was when she was not her happies self but still so cute to see her cry in that little dress.

Happy Girl...happy to be 2. She loves Dragon Tales, grapefruits like her mom, suckers, being outside, playing with "friends", being in the car, Shrek, "teebee", Max and where the Wild Things Are, butter (peanutbutter) and jam, cuddling starsky and her mom and dad, and talking.

And...the other thing that is 2 is the number of kids in our family. Yes...we are having another baby in November. Pretty excited about this 2nd miracle.

A Fun Run.

So my friend Aimee and I have been training for the St. Louis half marathon for the past little while. We took advantage of doing all of our training runs together. It totally made the training go by fast and it was such fun to have her to talk to when we ran.
Luckily, Ruthie came into town for the previous week and she was able to end her trip in St. Louis. She watched Chloe in our luxurious hotel as we ran in pouring rain.
I don't think I've ever run more than 3 miles in the rain and here we rain 13. It was an experience. Brad finished in an amazing time of 1:34 (that's 7 minute miles folks!!) so he waited for us when we finished.

Here is the group. We were sad Aimee's husband couldn't run with us but it was fun to go out to eat together the night before and also meet up at Costco (gotta love Costco when it's not near you)

Here's to many more happy running adventures.

12 days of pure fun.

i GUESS i'LL BE DOING THIS POST AND PICTURES IN REVERSE ORDER.
aT THE END OF OUR TRIP WE WENT TO THE ZOO IN ST. LOUIS. MOM WAS ABLE TO TEND CHLOE WHILE BRAD AND I RAN IN THE ST. LOUIS HALF MARATHON. ST. LOUIS ZOO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES. LOVE THE HIPPO (YOU JUST CAN'T LOOK AWAY!) LOVE THE PENGUINS. LOVE THE CHIMPS (HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THEM DO THIS?)
GRANDMA RUTHIE TREATED US TO A TRAIN RIDE. GUESS WHO LOVED LOVED LOVED IT?

IT WAS SO PRECIOUS TO HEAR GRANDMA TELL CHLOE ALL THE STORIES WITH ALL THE FUNNY VOICES THAT ONLY A GRANDMA KNOWS BY HEART. CHLOE GIGGLED AND ASKED FOR MORE.

NOW WE HAVE FRESH FROZEN STRAWBERRY JAM.

MY FRIENDS MADE THESE REALLY CUTE SUPERMAN/BATMAN CAPES FOR THEIR BOYS AND I WANTED CHLOE TO HAVE SOMETHING SO MOM AND EYE WENT TO WALMART AND COMBINED OUR CREATIVE BRAINS AND CAME UP WITH THIS "SUPERHERO" (AS CHLOE CALLS IT) CAPE.

GRANDMA BOUGHT CHLOE THESE CUTE GLASSES. SHE PRETTY MUCH WEARS THEM DAILY. WE CALL HER "HOLLYWOOD"

THE BACK OF THE CAPE.

WE SPENT A GORGEOUS DAY AT THE PARK.

I WILL REALLY MISS THOUSAND HILLS PARK. ITS SUCH A TRANQUIL PLACE.

SHE IS GROWING SO BIG. SHE LOVES TO PUT HER HANDS IN HER POCKETS. SHE SURE MIMICS EVERYTHING WE DO RIGHT NOW.

GRANDMA WAS A GOOD SPORT.

DOES LIFE GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

iN KANSAS CITY THEY HAD THIS RABBITS SET UP ALL OVER THE PLAZA FOR EASTER. WE STROLLED ALONG THE STREETS. ATE AT PF CHANGS. AND LET CHLOE PLAY PLAY PLAY.

WE WENT TO THE WIZARD OF OZ EXHIBIT AT THE CROWN CENTER. IT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY COOL. AFTER THE EXHIBIT WE ATE THE BEST FROZEN CUSTARD AT A PLACE CALLED SHERIDANS. GO THERE. IT'S A MUST ONE DAY. GET THE GRASSHOPPER.

MORE OF THE OZ EXHIBIT.

CRAYOLA STORE AND CAFE FOR LUNCH.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. GRANDMAS ALWAYS COME BEARING GIFTS...WELL ATLEAST THIS GRANDMA!! SHE SACRIFICED SUITCASE SPACE AND FILLED IT WILL SEVERAL GIFTS FOR CHLOE AND EASTER SURPRISES FOR ALL OF US.

lOVE YOU MOM. MISS YOU NANA ROOFIE.

Some Easter...

A little bit of this...
A little bit of this..

A whole lot of these...

Smiles...

...made for one great EASTER
We were so grateful to have Nana Roofie in town for Easter and other fun. I will post more pictures of her visit later. This bottom picture was one of our 2 year old photo shoot shots. It isn't the official one but a cute one. Right after this picture my mom, me, and Chloe had a run in with a grassy field covered with mud, a shed, and our car.

Some mud!

Today, the little one and I decided to go for a walk around the block. It's quite commical to see us. She carries her purse and her waterbottle and I struggle with the dog. The Block takes us about 15 minutes. Today, we were picking up rocks and sticks and noticing lots of mud. There is this one road that has no sidewalk and Miss Independent doesn't like to hold my hand so I have to usually force her in the grass so the dog and I are not in the road. Well, today the grass was muddy so I told her to walk higher up on the lawn with the mud seperating the two of us and I was on the edge of the road and grass. This plan worked fine until she spotted the big trucks up ahead and started to gleeful run towards them. She got down to the road and walked pretty close to me and the mud. In between her enthusiasm for reaching the trucks, she took moments to look at the mud. She'd say, "mommy, whaas that?" I would say, "it's mud". We'd walk some more. Then she'd say, "mommy, whaas that?" I'd say, "it's mud". We'd continue walking. Then she said, "mommy, whaas that?" Ah...the persistance of a 2 years old, I turned to say, "it's mu...? This time she had completly stepped in it. Her entire shoe went from pretty pink to barfy brown in seconds. At this point we were about 10 feet in front of the 3 city workers taking a smoke break standing in front of the big trucks. I told Chloe to keep walking with the mud. But seriously, folks, it was like 2 inches high off her shoe. It kind of resembled a little mud pom-pom on her toe and it extended back to her pants and socks. Well, of course, she wasn't about to go one more step so I knelt down and calmy wiped the mud of her shoe and onto the road. It wasn't until this time that I noticed that the mud on the side of the road was very brown and the "mud" on her shoe was not so dark brown. I was halfway through the cleaning, with the laughs of the workers behind me, when the thought occured to me that this mud may just be something other than mud. We were standing up wind so I didn't get a whiff of anything strange but that doesn't mean anything because my smellers aren't what they used to be. I just kept wiping till little Chloe Blue was satisfied and then we went on our way. i got to the next block before I dared sniff sniff my little finger and much to my relief...it was just some mud!