Fall 2012

I've really been enjoying the colors of the leaves this year. The kids like to play in them.

This pic was taken a little before the leaves changed. We took a little day trip down to Letchworth state park. Its called the "grand canyon of the east." It was cool. Really pretty.

Becker Farms

I somehow convinced Doug to stop studying one Sat. and go with us to Becker Farms. He didn't regret it! Even tho the weather was a little rainy it was still so. much. fun. After going here I decided that halloween time wld be the best time for visitors to come because they cld see the fall colors and visit Becker farms. It was a blast. Don't even get me started on the delicious cider and donuts. I die.

We started the day off with a nice little pony ride . . .Krew does love him a horse ride.

The dads decided it would be fun to take the kids through the haunted house. We were all trying to decide which one of our kids wld be crying when they came out. Out they came and every last one was in tears! . . . and the dads were laughing :)

We went on a tractor ride to watch the pumpkin sling.

Got to watch the pig races. Almost felt like I was home in Idaho at the Blackfoot fair!

There was a little track for kids to ride these all- terrain trikes on. Krew called it his monster trike.

It was pretty cold this day. Brody didn't even mind that his blanket was pink!

We will def. be going back next year! . . .Maybe even this year to get more Donuts :)

First day of school for Krew

Krew started school! He loves it. I think its really good for him to interact with other kids his age. Even though I miss him like crazy it makes my day when he comes home and tell me all about what he did. I'm really impressed with some of the fun things that his teachers come up with to do. Krew goes to school with his friend Carter. Carters' dad and Doug are both dental students. Before school actually started there was a "meet your teacher day" for the kids. Me and Mallory decided to take the boys to lunch before we met the teacher and make a date out of it. So we took them to Pizza at La Nova Pizzeria which was AWESOME! I'm glad they have each other at school.

Krew had to get a pic with Ray before he went to school!

Two cute little pre-schoolers!

Randoms

We haven't been up to anything exciting lately but I'm pretty far behind on my blogging so here is a few random things that have been going on with us here in NY.

This Buffalo Bills sweatshirt that you see Brody in here was givin to Krew WHEN I HAD BRODY!!! Crazy to me that Brody is now wearing clothes that Krew whore when we moved here. I think Its just nuts.

One night we wanted to go do something fun as a family. So we got take out and took the boys to the park (Delaware park) to play. There is a cute little lake in the middle of Delaware park and we noticed that there were canoes to rent so we took the boys out and O my gosh Krew thought that he died and went to heaven.

Brody got sick again. I thought it was just a bad cold. One day was especially bad so I counted his breathing and decided I better take him in. He had RSV AGAIN! :( He was such a good sport to let me do his breathing treatments. The Dr. said that because he got RSV when he was a little baby, its alot easier for just "the common cold" to turn into RSV for him. So this should be a great winter!!

While I took Brody to the Dr. late one night my neighbor Rachel watched Krew for me. I'm pretty sure he wishes that Rach was him mom. Not to mention he LOVES Ragan. Rach not only watched him for me but he came home all ready for bed! Bathed with girl panties and jamies on! woot woot! What wld I do without such an amazing neighbor??

Me and Doug got called up from Nursery! I'm teaching primary now. One day Doug said he wld come in and help me teach. That turned into you teach and I'll go ahead and take a nap:

I love all these sweet little girls listening to me so intently and then Doug and Brody just passed out!

And I had to add a "crazy picture" of me and Krew man. He has been obsessed with my camera and always wants to take pictures lately. I have been thoroughly enjoying him and Brody lately. I think they are both at THE perfect age. :) Krew is really "getting" so much! He understands when I'm stressed and he tries to help me by making Brody laugh or cleaning up the house. He's also been great about his manors recently. Not to toot my own horn or anything because trust me there are lots of things he cld do better at but it just makes me smile when he is very polite. :) Krew is such a good boy. And Brody . . . my gosh he is the boss. He has been marching around here yelling HEY! or NO! or MINE! or I WANT! at the top of his lungs. We might still have some work to do on his manors but he is the cutest bow-legged chubby one year old I have ever seen. I'm in love!

The Mighty Niagara Half Marathon!

For the past couple months I have been training for a half marathon. When I signed up for it I knew that it would be alot of work to get myself ready, and there were times that I wished that I didn't have to spend so much time running. But, Running is like a bug that you catch: it hurts so good! There is nothing like waking up sore the morning after a hard run, digging in that last mile when every joint and muscle in your legs wants you to stop. Its so rewarding!! So after weeks of going to bed early so I could get up early to run, dragging myself out of bed in the morning to go run, and packing on the miles- I did it! And I want to do it again!:) (Tho I'm just now starting to feel that way) I wanted to blog about it while it is still fresh in my memory so I won't forget. The week of the race Krew and Brody got a nasty cold. I mean nasty. Of course I had to contract this cold. Thats what being a mom is all about! I did my best to stay away but the day before my throat felt like a million knives were slicing it :) Then I got my race bib. My number was 666. I had no Idea what this meant until one of my friends informed me that it is satans' favorite number or something. Fantastic. On Friday I went to the grocery store and something caught my eye -5 hour energy drink. 5 hours of energy? This looked very promising to someone who is about to run as hard as they can for 2 hours straight. I bought it and came up with a cunning plan to drink half of it that afternoon and if I liked it I would drink the other half before the race. So, that afternoon I drank half of the magic potion. For a girl who doesn't even drink pop this 5 hour energy kinda lit me up. I started sweating profusely, I was hotter than hell and I just was shaking. I couldn't stop. I did not like it one bit. I tried to stay positive. I spent 60.00 on this dang race and Heaven knows how much time preparing for it- I was going to run it come hell or high water! The husband took me out to Olive Garden the night before and we did a little carb loading which I had been looking forward to. I tried to go to sleep early that night but it was so hard because I was so congested I literally couldn't breath! Finally sleep came. But not for long, I woke up and looked at the clock 3:15- wide awake, puking my guts out, congested, and SO NERVOUS. I got my stuff together and off I went. While I was waiting for the race to start I forced down a peanut butter and honey sandwich, grabbed a fist full of cough drops and tried to make use of the ladies room a couple times. When they told us to line up at the starting line I WAS SO EXCITED! There were pacers for people to run with and I decided I would do just that because I usually have a problem with going out of the gates fast. This race was no exception. I wanted to start with the 1:50 pacer and eventually pass him. I started running thinking that because I was sick it would be alot harder but I was feeling good so what do I do? I pass the pacer 1 mile in. . . By mile 4 I was barely in front of the pacer. I was pounding my cough drops and breathing like a horse. I didn't want the pacer to catch me so I hung on for another 3 miles. At mile 7 I was running right with the pacer. I could tell that my body was having a harder time that it should when I still had 6 miles to go. by mile 7.5 I let that pacer get in front of me. Doug met me at mile 8 to run with me. When he started running the pacer was about 100 yards in front of me and he knew that was my goal time. "Lets go chase him down!" he said. I had envisioned that at this point in the race I would just want it so bad that I would turn it on run the last few miles the fastest. All I wanted so bad was to stop! haha So, When doug said this I just started crying! I think he realized how spent I was, how tired I was, and how disappointed I was to watch that hour fifty min pacer slowly run away. He was a good coach tho. I dug deep and hung in there for the last few miles. I learned to love my husband on a whole new level that day :) I know that sounds silly but I really did. I was so grateful to him for helping me and motivating me through the last few miles. I knew that whatever time I got he was going to be proud of me. I crossed the finish line 1 hour 55 min. And I'm not kidding crossing that finish line was like getting to heaven. I seriously felt the spirit! I was absolutely exhausted. I knew that I had givin it 100%. Everyone was clapping- I ran right into my friends Denyse that I ran it with and she gave me a big hug. Best feeling in the world. Here are a couple pics pre race, feeling good.

On the way home I kept telling Doug that I was sore. He said well you did just run 13 miles. I told him no my bones hurt, my spine! He felt my head and I of course was burning up! I had the flu bug! I spent the next 2 days curled up on the couch freezing cold yet burning up and my spine ached like you wouldn't believe. (i'm sure that running for two hours in the rain didn't help the cause) So I missed out on all the post race celebrating which I was a little bummed about but my one in a million husband took good care of me. Did I mention that I love him on a different level now. I wouldn't trade him for the world! :) He's a keeper. I'm already itching a little bit to do another one . . . but then I remember how much it hurt and I think twice. lol. I'm sure its just like having a baby. Once you forget how hard it is you sign up for another one.