To Unwrap a Present

For being only 7 months at the time, Jolee got pretty good at unwrapping presents. The hardest part was keeping her from eatting the wrapping paper. Here she is unwrapping her present from Auntie Meg!

Mess = Bath Time

A few weeks ago we had the missionaries over for dinner. Jolee refused to wear a bib and proceeded to have one of her messiest dinners yet!

There is just something really fun about squishing cereal in between fingers and smearing it everywhere :)

One of Jolee's favorite things to do is to blow rasberries. Although this is slightly dangerous for whoever is feeding her (namely me this night)

I am starting to think that somewhere in that innocent little mind of her's she has come to understand that if she gets messy enough, then she gets to take a bath. My little girl loves baths so much that I think she might be part fish.

Here she is going for the soap. She would grab the soap, drop it over the side of the bathtub, then lean over the tub and try to reach it. It is definately a splishy splashy event when Jolee bathes.

Covered in cereal or covered in soap bubbles, either way is fun for our Jolee.

Jolee and I post bath. I am a little wet, but it is worth watching how much fun she has and for that mmmmm mmmmm clean baby smell.

Random Cuteness Courtesy of Jolee

Running Update, with a little bit of a twist

As Randy and I are not runners (but we will be), we are training using the couch to half marathon program. We have just entered our third week of training and today was our longest run of the year, 16 minutes of running. I know it doesn't sound like much, but as a beginner it is NOT easy. We are however getting stronger and able to endure a little more. You should have seen our first run, we could barely run 1/4 of a mile. Now we are running about a mile and a half! This morning's run was broken up by a less than pleasant sight. Just after the mile mark, I looked up and saw a dog running across the path a bit ahead of me, I looked back down and continued to run. Just then it occured to me that that was a weird looking dog. I look back up and realized that it was not a dog, but a coyote, and not just any coyote. It was a coyote with a cat in it's mouth! I put on the brakes and started to yell and scream. Poor kitty cat! Randy caught up to me about then and told me the cat was already dead. So the coyote ran off with its breakfast :( and we continued our run. Thinking of the coyote was enough of a distraction that I didn't even really notice the next half mile and I was able to run that last bit with relative ease. I am actually looking forward to our next long run (18 minutes) later this week. Compared to how we felt when we first started really training 3 weeks ago with our first 10 minute run (oh it was hard), tomorrow's 10 minute run seems a little too short and too easy. I am looking forward to getting my work schedule for March, hopefully I will have the time off and we can head up to Tempe for the first run of the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation!

Ok here it goes

I have been needing to tell this story for some time now. I just haven't been able to really come up with the words that I want to use, so I have been putting it off. First off, Randy and I are training to run our first half marathon (13.1miles) on June 26th. Second, we are running with my second cousin, and a personal hero, Anna Mortensen. She has undertaken the goal of 50 marathons in 50 states. Her reason for running is to earn money for the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation. This foundation was set up in memory of my late cousin Susan who passed away at the age of 25 from colon cancer. Her death was beyond shocking and heart breaking to me. Even though it has been over a year, I still think of her often. Here is a brief description of Susan's foundation... "In memory of Susan and as an extension of her loving nature, those who love her have formed the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation, dedicated to the support of young adult cancer patients and their families. All funds that are donated to this non-profit foundation will be granted to organizations to be used specifically to provide support, education and respite care for this unique group." More information can be found at http://www.susanmturley.org/. Third, as we are running and training, we are working to raise money for this foundation. Our goal is to raise $1000 through donations to support our half marathon. Donations can be made starting Feb 1st at http://anna-marathon50.blogspot.com/. If you choose to donate, please put in the comments that it is for Randy and Sarah's run. All proceeds to benefit young cancer patients and their families. Fourth, the run we are running is the Seattle Rock n Roll marathon. So if anyone is planning on being in Seattle on the 26th of June, we would love to have your support. Fifth, my cousin is looking for at least 2 more runners for our team to run the full ot half marathon and to help raise funds for Susan's Foundation. Let us know if you are willing and want to join us.

We will be posting updates for our training both here and at Anna's blog (http://anna-marathon50.blogspot.com/). For more information on the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon, please go to http://seattle.competitor.com/

Additionally, the first event for the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation will be held at the end of March.

Susan's Run

5k, 1 mile fun run, Kids Dash
Saturday, March 27, 2010 8am
Kiwanis Park- Tempe, Arizona

The entry form for this race can be found here http://www.susanmturley.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/1st-Annual-Susans-Run-Entry-Form.pdf. You ca also register online through following the links on the foundations website. If I have the day off of work, Randy and I are going to be running the 5K.

Any support of any amount would be apprecitated! We will have a running total of the funds we have raised. Thank-you and lots of love!

A TOOTH!

Jolee has been super cuddly and cranky and she had a slight fever yesterday, so I was worried that she might be getting a cold. Well, Jolee broke her first tooth yesterday afternoon! Her right front lower tooth and the left front lower tooth is on its way! I tried to take a picture, but that was a disaster, all I got was blurred pictures of a crying baby (don't worry, she is happy now, still cranky, but happy). Hopefully the teeth come through the rest of the way quickly and she won't be hurting for too long. All I can say is hurray for cold teething rings, tylenol, and Humprey's 3.

O Christmas Tree

Here goes starting the old game of catch up

Every year for Christmas we go to the tree yard and find the perfect tree. I grew up with plastic trees, Randy grew up chopping down his own tree, so to compromise, the tree yard is where we go. This year Jolee helped us to find the perfect tree.

Randy and Jolee in front of "the perfect tree"




Sarah and Jolee with the tree at home 

Jolee helping to show off our tree

Our tree after decoration

The family. Jolee was getting tired and would play and cry, then play and cry, clearly we thought she was a little bit funny. She got mad at us for laughing.

Us with our presents.

Stealing a kiss while Jolee is focused on her new clapper :)

I, of course, couldn't wait to decorate our tree. It is one of my favorite traditions. I love all of the funny and weird ornaments that we have collected over the years. Each year we look for an original ornament and some sort of Santa ornament. Jolee actually did a great job at not stealing ornaments (too much). She loved staring at the tree. Once she realized that the boxes under the tree were covered in paper, it was a bit more difficult to get her out from under the tree. She actually really enjoyed unwrapping presents and trying to eat the wrapping paper.

Christmas was very enjoyable. We ended up celebrating early because I had to work on Christmas. Randy's favorite gift was his new laptop (I told him he wasn't going to get one, then I sneakily worked it out with my mom and surprized him with it. Thanks again Mom and Dad for helping me :) ). My favorite gift was the magic bullet and my fairy tale book (I love old classic fairy tales, especially ones I have never heard before). I am not sure what Jolee's favorite is. It is between her popping ball toy (not pictured, but I will post more later) from Meg and her bath toys from GrammE and Grandpa. My favorite of her's is her booster seat high chair (it is so much easier to feed her without making a huge mess). Thank-you for our gifts, we love them all, but so much better than gifts is the love of family and friends. This past year was completely full of blessings and love!

Out the nose

Me being the brilliant Mommy, thinks, "Ooo, if I can set Jolee down, I will be able to type with both hands and then I can get so much more typed out." So, I very carefully set Jolee down, she starts to wake, so i lay down next to her to cuddle her and she goes back to sleep. I think "yes!" and as I am thinking "yes!" Jolee pops open her eyes and gives me a huge grin. My thought "oh so cute," and then Jolee spits ups and sneezes at the same time and milk comes flying out her nose at me. So now I have a very awake baby who is completely cranky because of having spit up come out of her nose and she won't let me clean it off, of course.

Well, I finally got her cleaned up and happy and she is playing with her toys, but now she is doing some serious grunting, so I don't think I will get to type anymore for now. Off to diaper duty.

A goal... two posts a week

As I sit here, with Jolee sleeping on my lap (finally), I am feeling very overwhelmed by all of the stories and pictures that I want/need to post about. Hmm, deciding what to post about first. So much has happened in the past 2 months. Jolee has grown so much. She is way beyond scooting around, she has mastered crawling and is becoming more apt at causing trouble, leading to the purchase of a child gate. She is now trying to learn to walk (she is not even 8 months yet). She can pull herself up to standing in the blink of an eye and she loves to walk along using the furniture. How can she have grown up so speedily from my tiny (well relatively tiny) infant to this almost toddler. Time seems to be flying by so quickly and I never have enough hours in the day. So here it goes, I am going to try to post at least twice a week on days off and try to talk Randy into posting at least once a week.

It's official

We are official private. I will be posting many more updates and much more frequently, but for now, I need to get myself to bed. I am one tired Mommy!