Dam that Dam Run...I mean... "Dam 2 Dam Run!"

Well I did it! For the first time since I was in high school (almost 7 years ago) I completed my first "Fun Run!" As you know, one of my New Year resolutions was to get in shape and start running again. Well I thought what better way to do this than to start competing in the races around town. Not only does that motivate me to keep running and training, but each race, I get a FREE T-SHIRT!! (that I will probably never wear!) What better motivation is there!!! Any way on Saturday I ran my first race. It was the annual Dam 2 Dam run put on by Hurricane City. The course was 5 scenic miles around Sand Hollow Reservoir. It started on the north dam and proceeded around Sand Hollow Reservoir across the west dam to the finish in the parking lot.

Here I am before the race started waiting for the shuttle to take me to the starting line. Once at the starting line we had to wait in the freezing weather for an hour before the race was scheduled to start. As you can see from the picture the sky was very overcast and threatening to rain the whole time. I was praying for no rain at least until after I finished running. Finally it was time for the race to start so all of the runners were just huddled around the starting line just talking and then we hear "GO!" and the race had started! It was so funny because the race coordinators didn't call us to the line or say "On your mark, Get set," or even fire a start gun! They just said "GO!" and we were like "Oh OK lets start running." So we were off.

I felt pretty good during the race. It was cold but not too bad. I started to get warm so I took off my jacket but then I froze so I had to put it back on! I just tried to keep up a good pace so that I didn't wear myself out too quickly. While I have been training, I have been averaging about a 9 minute mile which is not bad for not running in 6 years. So my goal was to finish the race in 45-50 minutes.

Here we are coming across the west dam toward the finish line. I am the one in the pink clear back there.

Here I am again. Don't I look fast passing this little kid! J/K this little boy was waiting by that pole and then ran to the finish line with his dad. It was so cute! Keep in mind this guy in front of me #114.

The kick at the end! The finish line is now a few yards away. I look so focused! I was concentrating on the finish line and on the #114 guy in front of me. I told myself I had to pass him before the end and I did it! Yeah!

And here I am at the finish line... I MADE IT!!!! And I made my goal. I ran the 5 miles in 46:43 (9:20 min/mile). I was 47th overall and 7th in my age group. Pretty good I think for my first race. This race was definitely fun and I felt very accomplished afterward. Thank you everyone that came and cheered for me. By the way, my prayers were answered and it didn't start raining until after I had finished the race!

I am looking forward to my next 10K race in March. That course will be through Snow Canyon Park.

Happy Valentine's Day!

While I was growing up, I never really liked Valentine's Day mostly because I never had anyone to celebrate the holiday with. Now I love the holiday because I have a great husband that spoils me. Russell worked the night before so when he got home, I was still asleep. He took this opportunity to hide red roses all over the house.

This is one of the beautiful roses I found when I woke up.
Russell even gave Emily a pretty rose. However he hid it a little too close to her crib so when she woke up, she found the rose and by the time she was done with it, the rose looked like this. HA HA! I was wondering why she didn't cry when she woke up and when I went in to get her out of bed, I found out why. She was too busy destroying her Valentine rose. The funny thing was that she was so proud of herself because of what she had done!

For breakfast we had heart shaped pancakes. They didn't really turn out like I had hoped. A few weeks ago our grill broke so I had to use a frying pan to cook the pancakes and unfortunately they kind of burned. ;( But they were still pretty good especially with our homemade pomegranate syrup!

Here are all of our Valentine gifts.

Emily got a new Valentine dress, a stuffed puppy, and her favorite gift, two balloons. She LOVES her balloons. She carried one in each hand everywhere she walked that day (except for church). She even had to take them with her over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to show them her balloons.

These are my beautiful flowers Russell gave me. They smell so pretty. I love them. Thanks dear!

Emily gave this picture to her dad for Valentine's Day. He loved it.

I made Russell a CD of all of our favorite songs including songs that have special meanings in our relationship. I also made this CD case to hold the special CD. Russell loved the CD; each time a new song would play, he would say " Oh I remember when..." or "I love this song!" I was glad he liked it.

This is my latest project and I think it turned out pretty good. It actually took longer to make than I thought it would because I sewed the tie inside of the pocket instead of outside so I had to unpick the whole thing. I was mad at myself but what can ya do. It is inevitable that I will unpick something when I sew.

I have to give credit where credit is due so thank you Jill for the great Valentine's idea. If you want to make one of these cute cases, check out homemade by Jill: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2010/02/simple-cd-wallet.html

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

More Projects...Church Book

I just finished this cute scrapbook of gospel pictures for Emily to have at church. I got the idea from my mom. Her ward Relief Society did this for Enrichment one night. The first section is My Gospel ABC's. Each page is alphabetical and has a picture and either a saying or scripture to go along with the word. Emily loves looking at the pictures in this book. She will point to the ones of Jesus and say "JESUS" she can also point the the pictures of me, Russell, herself and her grandparents and say "MAMA, DADDY, BABY, GAMA and PAPA" The picture of the church and temple are "CHUCH" and I am trying to teach her the names of the other pictures. So far Ammon is the only one she has tried to say. She is getting so smart! I put in a few pictures of my favorite pages.

A is for Ammon; B is for Baptism

C is for Chruch; D is for Dad

E is for Eternal; F is for Family

G is for Grandparents; H is for Helaman

M is for Mom; N is for Nephi

O is for Obey; P is for Prophet

Q is for Quiet; R is for Resurrection

Y is for You; Z is for Zion

The next section in the book is "Our Primary Colors." This section has colored pages so Emily can learn her colors.

"Our primary colors are 1 2 3...

Red, Yellow....

and Blue!"

The last section is the "Presidents of the Church" This section is probably still a little old for Emily but she still likes the pictures.

In this section I dedicate a page to each of the latter-day prophets...

From Joseph Smith and Brigham Young...

To Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson.

As you can tell from this picture, Emily loves her new book. I think it will be great to take to church and help her learn the gospel. Even though Emily is only 16 months old, she gets to go to Nursery on Sundays. She LOVES Nursery. She especially loves singing the primary songs. The way I get her to go to church is I tell her she gets to go to her cute class and sing songs. She will then get all excited and run to the door to leave. After Sacrament meeting on Sundays, I say lets go to class and she runs to the Nursery room. She loves it.

Girl's Day

This weekend was fun. Russell's female relatives try to get together at least once a year and have a Girl's Day. This year we got together and got manicures or pedicures and then had lunch.

Emily and I got a manicure. It felt so good to have my hands massaged. I was almost falling asleep in the chair. Emily loved her pretty hands too. She kept showing them off to everyone.

Emily's favorite part of the salon was the "fishies." The salon had a little pond inside with three fish. She loved watching them swim back and forth; she even tried to pet them a few times. She was so excited; anytime someone walked by, she would point at the fish and say "FISHY!"

After pampering ourselves, we went to Olive Garden for lunch. Of course it was so good. I had a great time with everyone. Thanks for inviting me ladies!


Here are a few fun pictures of Emily over the past few weeks:

Emily loves Spaghetti O's. She also loves feeding herself. But sometimes it is hard to get a scoop with her spoon so she does this...

Yeah it is much easier to eat when you tip the bowl up and slurp the Sketti-O's.

16-month old Emily in her pretty ruffly dress handed down from cousin 'Ca.