Bailey's First Birthday Party

I had such a great time planning Bailey's birthday party and getting everything all ready. We invited the whole family including my family and Omai's family. With so many people coming we decided to have it at the church, which worked out perfectly.



The kids brought bikes or scooters so they kept themselves and some of the adults entertained for the afternoon.



I ran the Riverton Half Marathon in the morning so I prepared as much as I could the day before so the party would be as stress-free as possible. My plan worked because everything turned out great and I wasn't stressed like I usually am for things like this. I made 4 dozen cupcakes and decorated them with my new cake decorating skills (not very impressive, but very fun to do). Turns out 4 dozen cupcakes are too many for 20 people to eat in one sitting. We had tons left over so we got to celebrate Bailey's party for a whole week and she got plenty of practice eating cake and making a total mess.



I also decorated Bailey's Giant Cupcake which was really fun too. I made a mistake though and left it on the counter in the sun before we left for the race in the morning so some of the frosting melted, but I was able to fix it for the most part.



My mom showed up to the party with a car load of birthday decorations. She got hoola hoops for all the kids and tied balloons to them and spread them all over the gym floor. It looked really cute and filled the gym with color.



We ordered pizza from The Pie that was incredibly greasy and expensive, but oh so good.

After pizza, Bailey got to eat her cake. I think she was a little freaked out with everyone gathered around so she didn't dive into her cake like I was hoping.



We gave her a small cupcake after the failed attempt with the giant cupcake that was more in line with her eating ability. She loved it and made a good and healthy mess all over.



We got her all cleaned up and then she got to open presents. We had bought Bailey a stuffed soccer ball from Ikea a couple weeks before her birthday that she had been eyeing all week. I was tempted many times to give it to her before her party, but I resisted. When we finally gave it to her to open she buried her face in it and was so excited. It has become one of her favorite things to play with.



She got lots of fun toys and books from the whole family that made her day. She sits and plays for hours roaming from one toy to another pretending to read her books and talks to her toys or dances to her music.

Thanks everyone for helping to make Bailey's birthday special. I had a fun time and I'm sure she did too.

Bailey's First Birthday Cake

I found a giant cupcake mold at Walmart and was really excited to try it out for Bailey's first birthday cake. I had made one for Bailey's family birthday party a few days before this cake eating to give her a little practice, but she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of smashing cake all over herself. She was more scared than anything. This go around was a little better and I think she actually had some fun. She was so cute and we had a great and messy time.

Riverton Half

In January a bunch of girls in the ward decided to train for the Riverton Half Marathon that took place on March 26th. Many of us had run the St. George Half so we thought it would just be a matter of keeping up our training. Winter is a very tough time to train for a race and I don't think I could've done it if I didn't have my friends Randi and Susie waiting for me every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday to go running.

This was Randi's first Half and since we were training partners my goal was to stick with her and help to keep her going. It was actually a pretty tough race because of the number of hills along the course--I will have to have a really good reason to run it again. Our plan was to stop at every water break and take our time to eat our Sports Beans and drink water rather than rushing our breaks. It was hard to walk and let other runners pass us, but I'm glad we did because at the end of the race I felt really good and think a large part of it was because we stayed hydrated and had refueled often.





Omai was a great support. Including the starting line, he found us four times throughout the race to cheer us on and take pictures. The last place he stopped to see us was at about mile 10 at the top of the hill. It was so awesome to see him and Bailey waiting for me. Bailey had a big smile on her face when she saw me and reached out for me to hold her. It was such a sweet moment and gave me a burst of energy.



There was one hill in the race called Devil's Slide (or something like that) and it was the steepest hill I had ever seen. I'm not kidding. I think many cars older than a 1980 would've had a hard time up this thing. At the bottom of the hill there was a water station and Randi and I were discussing our plan of attack. I just kept thinking if we just keep going and don't stop, the pain will be over that much faster. Sure enough. We made it to the top of the hill--we didn't die and it felt good to have pushed through it.



For me, mile 11 was pretty tough and I knew Randi was struggling as well. To keep our mind off our pain I told her the story about Hazel Powers who I met on my mission in Virginia. She was 81 years old, had diabetes, and only one leg. My companion, Sister Roundy, and I had to give her a bath one day because her maid had been fired and Hazel had just gotten a perm and needed the chemicals washed out of her hair. That was an experience I will never forget and it made for a good anecdote to get our mind off our aching joints.



We finally made it to the last mile of the race and I got my energy back and felt great as I crossed the finished line with a time of 2:09:55. Omai was there waiting with Bailey and it felt so great to see them and give them a big hug. We took a few pictures and were off to set up for Bailey's 1st Birthday Party. Phew. What a day.

Kiwanis 5k

I'm attempting to catch up on recording the events of our lives before they're completely out of my memory.

Some friends and I ran in the 1st Annual Kiwanis 5k on April 9th held at Gardner Village. I have been running with my friend Randi and I think we make a pretty good running pair because we run the same pace and we have good conversations. We had run the Riverton Half Marathon back in March (more on that later) and have been running on average three days a week so we weren't too worried about a 5k. It was a little chilly when we arrived at the race and were anxious to get going so we could warm up. Randi gets a little nervous at races so when the race started she took off at a faster pace then we were used to. After about a mile we were both a little tired and started to slow our pace, but I wondered to myself if I could keep the pace the whole race. I decided I would go for it and see if I could do it. I was feeling pretty good at the half-way mark and felt I could keep going. I think I was mostly running on adrenaline because of all the people I was able to pass. In my mind I kept thinking just pass that person, you can pass that person, you can catch that 7-year old (there really was a 7-year old girl in the race who almost kicked my butt). Towards the end of the race I was still feeling pretty good, but was very anxious to see the finish line. There were many people who were running about my pace and I wondered if this pace was normal for them because I was almost ready to die. I didn't die however and finished with my best time of 26 minutes. After the race they gave us our print outs with our times and race standings and as we were all comparing our times we realized they had totally messed up because no one's were correct. Randi had gotten a printout with my time on it and I had gotten hers. We found out the scanner used to scan everyone's bibs wasn't working and then when they tried re-entering them, they dropped the stack of tear-offs so they got all out of order. During the medal ceremony my friend Randi had gotten 2nd place so we thought for sure they would call my name, but they ended up awarding the 1st place medal to a boy for the Women's 25-29 division. I was bummed because I had never run so fast for so long in my life. We headed home after the race and it took me almost four days to get over my headache and to get rehydrated (all for a 5k... ugh).

Well, guess what came in the mail the other day?!!!

Ta Da!

I'm A Big Kid Now

I went out to dinner with some girlfriends tonight and Bailey got to spend the evening with her Nana and Papa and Aunt Keri. When I pulled in to the house Keri and Maryanne came out to meet us. I got Bailey out of the car and handed her to Maryanne and immediately Bailey turned to me and said "ba bye" and waved. Oh what a little cutie. She makes me laugh and she's getting so big. It's quite amazing all the things she's learning.

I was making Bailey's lunch this afternoon and I guess I was really into her cheese bread because all of a sudden I hear her on the landing of the stairs. I rushed up the stairs when I heard her and when she saw me she just threw her head back and laughed. She thought it was so funny to make her mommy panic. I think I'm going to install the baby gates so they're permanently attached to each end of the stairwell.