Hooray!

Tralee peed in her potty for the first time today! We're making progress people. It's slow, but any progress is good with my head strong little girl.

Holy Crap

My legs hurt. My little walking/running group and I have started doing strength training videos every other day. We walk/run the alternate days. Anywho. . . yesterday we did one of those p90X workouts for our arms and legs and o-boy do I feel it today. I can hardly walk. I still woke up early to walk, but it about killed me. I somehow powered through, and after my muscles warmed up it didn't feel so bad.

The thing is, this all feels really good. . . in a painful way. I know my body (hopefully) will thank me in a few months by allowing me to fit back into my favorite dress I haven't worn in I won't say how long. I'm so grateful for my fellow exercise partners. For without them, I think I would lay in bed every morning until the kids forced me to get up. The other positive that cancels out how sore I am, is how proud Jim is of me. He tells me all the time. It makes me feel good.

Now I have to go tend to my crying baby. . . that is if I can stand up.

Labor Day Hike

We decided to hike to the little waterfall on Monday. It was a nice day for a little family hike. Here are some pics:

I love it when Daddies wear the baby carrier.

Not too sure what's happening here. I think my finger prematurely hit the button to take the picture.

There we go.

At the waterfall. She's pointing at someone's "goggy." Do you see the necklace Tralee's wearing? It's mine. She won't let me take it off. She's been wearing it for four days.

Waiting for Daddy to get ready to do a little fishin'

Smiling at the doggy.

This is the first time Jim and Hunter fished together. Special.

Tralee wanted to fish too


It was a fun Labor Day.
How was yours?

Dress Up

Tralee has just started playing dress up. She wants to try on almost anything. If she's not dressing herself, then she's just running around naked. Seriously. I either can't keep clothes on her, or I can't get her out of something. The other day it was ninety degrees and she wanted her flannel pj's on. I think my favorite outfit she came up with was this:


Two of my necklaces, a shirt fashioned around her waist, and a winter hat on her head. She looked kind of gangsta to Jim and me.


One Sunday after church Tralee got into Jim's ties. She must have seen him putting one on earlier and wanted in on the fun. I think she managed to wrap every one of Jim's ties around herself.


I'm just throwing this last picture into the mix because I want to. It has nothing to do with dressing up. Look at how cute my kids are sleeping next to each other. I was feeding Hunter in bed one night, and Tralee crawled in and fell asleep. After Hunter fell asleep I couldn't help but take this picture before each baby was placed in their respective beds.

Midnight Snack?

I made these from scratch the other night:



They were chocolate puff pastries with whipped chocolate cream filling, and dark chocolate ganache topping. I'm not a chocolate lover, but these were pretty darn good.

Just imagine yourself getting up for a snack. You wander into the kitchen, open the fridge, and this is staring you in the face:

What would you do?

Jim, Tralee, and I dove right in with recklessness. One time I wandered into the kitchen and found Tralee sitting at the table with three of these in front of her. She had licked off all ganache and had a face covered in chocolate. When she realized she got caught, all she did was look up at me, rub her tummy, and say, "Mmmmmm." I couldn't get too mad at her because I'm sure she was just indulging the same way she saw Jim and I do it.

After these babies were consumed I kicked up my daily walks to jogging and walking intervals. Later when I asked Jim, "I've stepped up my workouts, but I still haven't lost anything." His only response was, "chocolate eclairs" with a sorry-babe-they-got-to-you look on his face. Yup. Those darned eclairs must have canceled out any calories I burned on my daily jaunts. So, as good as those little devils were, I don't think I'll be making them again anytime soon. They were far too addictive.

That being said, I highly recommend them to any chocoholics out there.

100 Miles Down the Salmon River

Jim returned home LATE Saturday night. Technically, it was early Sunday morning. He had three full days of paddling 100 miles down the Salmon River with his Uncle and some of his cousins. Jim had a blast.

The whole group AFTER the trip -- notice the broken paddles.

Adam, Dave, Zach, Rob, Jim

As far as the rest of these photos go, I don't know if they're in order. But, you get the general idea of the fun that was had by these five guys over the course of three days.

Fishing

Going through some rapids

In the next three pictures it shows Adam and Rob jumping off this bridge. Jim had already jumped, so he grabbed the camera for the next few pictures.

Rob just hanging out

Rob is right in the middle of the picture in mid air. He's kind of camouflaged.

Adam is doing a back flip off the bridge. Again, you kind of have to look for it.

That's all folks!

When Daddy's Away

We too will play!

Jim's on a river rafting trip. He'll be back soon enough, but while he's gone I've been trying to find fun things to do with Tralee.

Last night Tralee and I went out for some ice cream, Hunter tagged along too but mostly just slept in his car seat. After ice cream, we stopped at Kohls since I had two coupons to use there. I let Tralee pick out a stuffed animal. She picked a gorilla. Whenever she usually plays with toys at a store, I make her put it away before we leave, and wave "bye bye" to it. This time, she kept trying to put the gorilla away after I already paid for it. She got mad when I told her she could take it home with her. I never heard of a kid crying because the parent actually got them something. Anyway, with my two coupons my total only came to seven dollars. Not to shabby since I also got a couple of outfits for the kids, and a pair of shoes for Tralee.

This morning we tagged along with one of my walking partners and her kids. They had to go milk goats at another member of our ward's house. I've never seen a goat getting milked before. Very fun. This house also had bunnies, kitties, dogs, a tire swing, and playground. Tralee was in heaven. I smiled when I watched her run as fast as her little legs could carry her, arms pumping, to the next activity -- so innocent and full of life.

This afternoon we went visiting teaching. The house we went to also had kitties, doggies, and a fenced in back yard. Tralee went out back with the animals and I didn't hear a peep from her up until we had to go.

We were invited over to someone's house tonight. Tralee will be able to play with their kids, and the women will watch an old Carey Grant movie. Sounds great to me! I said we'll go unless Tralee falls asleep before then. She hasn't been napping lately, and so she's been going to bed earlier. If Tralee doesn't nap today, I'll stay home, put her to bed early, and curl up in bed with a movie of my own. I've been renting chick flicks while Jim's away. I haven't been cooking or cleaning much either. Just the basics to keep my children taken care of. Actually, I did clean out my car this morning while Tralee ran around collecting leaves and sticks. Other than that, we've been having fun and relaxing. If Jim gets to go have an adventure with the boys, then the kids and I should be able to have some fun of our own.

Okay. . . off to TRY and take a nap. Hunter's sleeping, and after I put a show on for Tralee, I hope to get a few minutes of zzzz's. I don't sleep well at night when Jim's gone, thus my tiredness right now. Night night.