Leah's Halloween drawing

Leah wanted to draw a picture of her and Cameron dressed up for Halloween. I drew the picture of Cameron and she drew the picture of herself. Then we drew some pumpkins together. I drew the shapes and she made them into pumpkin people.

She also helped me draw the candy in the Halloween bucket. That's all the candy she will get when she goes "trick or treating".

My little artist

Leah has always liked drawing pictures, but she always asked for help drawing the body or other parts of her pictures. But now she can draw a princess and prince all by herself. For example, today she pulled off some stickers of Tiana and Naveen from her "Princess and the Frog" book. She put them on a separate piece of paper so she could look at them to draw. And here is the result. She even wrote the names above her pictures (I told her how to spell the names and she wrote them). She makes me one proud momma.

Leah's Birthday Celebration

So I'm a week late getting Leah's birthday posted but better late than never, right? We had such a good time all weekend celebrating with both sets of grandparents. She is one lucky girl to be loved by so many people. I just can't believe it's been 4 years since we brought home our tiny Leah from the hospital. She had quite the personality to be born on Labor Day that year. And now she is growing up so smart and tall. At her 4-yr check up she was measured in the 98 percentile for her height and 95 percentile in weight. We had no idea how much love we would have for this little person coming to our family. (it's so fun looking back at all the pics of her as a baby)







































Now she is our grown up 4-year-old who is learning how to write her letters and numbers and always being a little mother to Cameron and other kids around her. She is our little princess who loves dressing up, loves anything pink or girly and has her own sense of style. She is my little helper and always there to give a hug or a kiss to us.













Leah's birthday weekend:

After our trip to the zoo (Sept. 3), the kids, my mom and I went over to Logan's mom's house to celebrate Leah's birthday. Carolyn had made a princess cake out of cupcakes, and Leah was so excited to have a cupcake when we got there. But she had to wait until Cameron woke up. Carolyn was so sweet to make this cake for her and to watch the kids while my mom and I went to visit some friends in downtown Salt Lake.



































The next day (her actual birth day) we celebrated with my parents after I ran my 10k. She really wanted a princess cake this year so I decided to order her a Princess Tiana cake. The outside looked wonderful but the actual taste was just okay. She only had a few bites of the cake and was more interested in playing with the rings and the Tiana figure that came on the cake.















She was thoroughly spoiled in the present area. And she even got a new bedspread and matching pillows from my parents for her bed. She was really excited about that purchase and sleeping in her pink and purple bed. She also loves playing the Candyland game that Nana and Papa got her.















































Logan's dad also came down on Sunday to celebrate with Leah and got her some great learning tools for writing her letters.

My race

Last Saturday when my parents were in town I ran a 10k run that morning at 7 a.m. My friend Nancy and I had been training for it for the past month. I had only run a 5k before that. She was so nice to run with me the whole time and it helped push me to not stop and walk.

We finished the race in 57 minutes and 27 seconds which averaged about 9:14 mins per mile. I was pretty proud of myself.

Here's us coming in right before the finish line.















Nancy and I after the race. Just don't look too close at my sweaty shirt.











And this picture is with my dad. He is my inspiration for running. He ran a half marathon with my sis-in-law Kristin and then ran a marathon in March right before his 60th birthday. I hope I can one day run these races. We'll see.

More pics from last week

I still have lots more pictures to post of our fun time with my parents last week.

Day 3 (Thurs): My dad, mom and Logan went golfing AGAIN this time without me. Logan took them to Sleep Ridge, the course he's been practicing on all summer. He actually beat my dad's score for the 9 holes they golfed. He said it was some kind of fluke because he rarely beats him.














I stayed back at home to prepare for our picnic lunch up the canyon.Then we all went up to Bridal Veil Falls up Provo Canyon. It was pretty chilly next to the water before the sun came over the mountain. The kids had a fun time as usual throwing rocks in the water. It was a beautiful, cool morning and then that night we met up with dad's aunt and uncle for a visit and then dinner with my dad's old college buddy.
































Day 4 (Friday): We got up early and made it to Hogle Zoo right when it opened. This was a great idea because there were no crowds to see the animals. We did have to wait a little bit for some exhibits and the elephant show but it was worth the wait. We even rode the train (which went a little too fast and you couldn't really get a good look at the animals along the way).
This is one of my favorite Cameron faces. He does the best "cheese" face. They were measuring to see how big they were next to the monkeys.


















This guy was looking at us right up close. It was a little bit freaky to see a gorilla that close.































The elephant show was awesome. They have a mother and baby who they had taught to do tricks. They said that elephants are really social animals and they use a reward system to teach the animals certain things. But they always stay on the outside of the elephant enclosure to keep everyone safe and give the elephants room. The baby named Zuri was our favorite. She is so cute.



























The zoo has a really great playground for the kids. Leah was pretending to be a turtle.

Nana and Papa's visit

This past week my parents came to visit, and we didn't stop having fun the whole week. It was so nice to have them visit. They last time they were town was when my grandpa died last year, so it was nice to take them to all of our favorite spots and eat some good food. They spoiled all of us, especially Leah who celebrated her 4th birthday on Saturday (more pictures and details on her birthday to come).

Day 1 (Tues): Meet them after they fly in at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy











































Day 2 (Weds): Play golf at Hobble Creek Golf Course in Springville - the course and weather was beautiful. I didn't golf very well but it was fun to try and just spend time with my parents without the kids.













































We also went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe to meet my three aunts who live up in the Sandy/Murray area. It was fun to see them but the kids grew pretty restless at the dinner table.