Rockin' Ralstons

Mini Mission Reunion

2012-01-20T20:05:00.003-06:00

One of Mike's mission presidents (Pres. Townsend) passed away in the middle of December. He was a really great guy and I was lucky enough to meet him because he lived in Austin and his son is in our ward. So he and his wife came to visit a few times. His funeral was on a Saturday in Austin so Mike, Zoe, and I packed our bags and made a weekend vacation of it. Mike was surprised and SO happy to see some of his old mission companions there. They flew in from around the US for it. So nice! These are some pictures that I snapped a little bit after they all saw each other. So cool. Later that evening Zoe and I went back to our hotel and crashed while Mike went out with the guys to catch up. It was really fun for me to meet them and be able to put faces to the people in all of the stories Mike has told me about his mission!

Of course I had to throw in a picture of Zoe. :)

Preschool Christmas Pageant

2012-01-19T15:56:00.005-06:00

Zoe's preschool Christmas pageant was so cute! Too bad she didn't sing one single word. I'm not surprised though because Shannon (her teacher) told me that she never sang the songs during class either. But she knows all of the songs, I promise! She sang them all to me during the entire month of December. When Mike and I asked her why she didn't sing she said she didn't want to because she was scared. Our poor, cute, shy girl. Well, at least she didn't lay down on the floor and start to fall asleep like she did last year!

Christmas Cookies

2012-01-18T15:15:00.000-06:00

We made (and ate) LOTS of Christmas cookies this year. And I had the very best helper!

Thanksgiving

2012-01-17T09:46:00.002-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We first went to Lynn's house for a quick visit and then spent a couple days at my mom's. Somehow, sadly, these are the only pictures (and video) that we took the whole trip. This is at Lynn's house. I'm really sad we didn't get any pictures at my mom's house also.

Six Flags

2012-01-16T19:55:00.000-06:00

Back in November, we got to go to Six Flags with Blake, Jared, Jacob, and Emma. Fun!

The most important thing I wanted to do that day was ride Superman. I love this ride! That's me screaming the ENTIRE time. :)

After some adult rides, we took Zoe over to the kid rides. She had SO much fun!

Zoe and Emma riding the train that goes around the park.

Zoe rode this all by herself! She is such a big girl.

I love this picture of Zoe getting scared right before the ride started and Emma consoling her.

Here we go! Ahhhh!

Wheeeee!

Here she goes on the swings!

Guess who likes to vacuum?!

2011-12-10T18:10:00.001-06:00

Yesssss!

Camping in the backyard

2011-12-02T18:56:00.002-06:00

We didn't get a chance to go camping this year before it got cold. So we decided the put the tent up in the back yard a few weekends ago. It was so much fun! We roasted hot dogs and s'mores over the fire pit and then headed to bed.

Zoe being silly.

Good morning!

Boo!

Zoe was a good helper!

First REALLY cold day

2011-12-01T18:15:00.001-06:00

On her way to preschool!

2011-12-01T18:05:00.000-06:00

Here are pictures (finally!) of Halloween night. Zoe was SO excited to go trick or treating this year!

Before going trick or treating, we headed over to our street's Block Party. We have the best neighbors!

Can you guess which candy Zoe was the most excited about?

This was the BEST house! It was so fun and scary. (we made Zoe hide her face in Mike's neck so she couldn't see...)

Enjoying some candy the next day.

And I thoroughly enjoyed the full sized Snickers that I was brave enough to snatch from a scary clown.

Ward Trunk or Treat

2011-11-01T09:31:00.005-05:00

On Saturday we went to our ward Trunk or Treat. It was pretty lame this year because not very many people showed up for various reasons. But all the cool people were there! :) Oh well, we still had fun hanging out with our friends (remember, all the cool people were there) and Zoe had a blast trick or treating!

Mike and Zoe making the rounds.

I love trick or treating!

Our trunk.

Zach, Zoe, and Katie. These are Zoe's two very best friends from church.

Zoe and me. Yep, I have on black lipstick....and Mike thought it was cool.

He suggested I wear it more often...

Zoe and Katie.

Me, Ashley, and Kirstin. Yay! They are the best!

Happy Halloween!

Preschool Halloween Party

2011-10-30T01:48:00.000-05:00

Making cupcakes to share with her class

Taste Tester

Ladybug!

Zoe saw these wings at the store and yelled, "I want those!". (not in a spoiled, give me what I want kind of a way....more of a I'm So Excited!!! kind of way)

Bun

Ready with her cupcakes

Boo! Totally scared ya, right?

Mrs. Shannon didn't make it to school on Friday...but the witch did! Ahhh!

Singing some way cute Halloween songs. If you watch close enough you can see Zoe's mouth move involuntarily sometimes. It's because she's singing the songs in her head. Silly girl just won't sing here though!

The Witch's Brew

Mrs. Shannon is such a FUN teacher!

Zoe and her friend, Libby.

State Fair

2011-10-29T10:40:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, we went to the State Fair with some of Mike's family. It was a lot of fun however, it was VERY crowded. If we ever go again, I will really really really push for us to go during the week.

Zoe's very favorite part of the day was getting to ride on the train (DART rails) on the way too and from the Fair.

Emma, Zoe, and Jacob.

Two WAY cool people.

Emma, Zoe, and Big Tex.

It wouldn't be a day at the Fair without some Corney Dogs!

On the ride home.

Zoe Had a Dream

2011-10-23T15:33:00.002-05:00

Zoe woke up one morning and told me about a dream she had had that night. In the dream there was orange and red soup in the bowls and she liked it. Her description was pretty vague, but as we were trying to re-create it during lunch that afternoon Zoe took charge and made sure things were exactly like they were in her dream. We needed tomato soup, muffin pans (the regular size...definitely not a mini muffin pan), and each cup had to be fill to a specific point.

I hope this isn't the only dream of hers that I can help come true.

Fall Treats

2011-10-23T15:23:00.002-05:00

We are REALLY enjoying the cooler weather these days and are completely in the mood for all things Fall. Here are some pictures of us enjoying some Fall treats:

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T14:18:00.006-05:00

Zoe's preschool had their annual field trip to the pumpkin patch last week. Knowing what to expect, Zoe was SO excited! And she had a blast! Grandma (my mom) came up to go with us and that made it even better!

The silliest things seem to happen when Zoe and Grandma get hold of a camera.

Check out this outfit my mom got for Zoe. It was SO cute!

Hayride!

Grandma and Zoe

Zoe and me

Big pumpkin faces

Oink oink

Spider! Ahhh!

Taking a walk

Zoe and her classmates

Family Reunion and visiting Dad

2011-10-17T21:03:00.000-05:00

Back in August, we went to Mike's family reunion in northern Utah. It was a really awesome, cool, place that we had the reunion! It was at a cabin in a mountain that slept up to 80 people. And we filled it up! It was so fun to meet so much of Mike's extended family and also to be able to hang out again with his cousins. After the reunion was over we stopped by my dad and Janie's house for one night on our way home. That was FUN! One really cool thing was that Zoe got to see my dad's art studio. She thought it was so neat because, well, she's an artist too you know.

We took tons of pictures and videos. Most of the pictures were on Mike's phone...and they got corrupted. So this is just what I had on my phone.

There was an old barn on the property that had been turned into an activity center. It had this big rock wall on the outside and a basketball/volleyball court on the inside.

Viki and Zoe. This pond was right outside the cabin and it was full of hungry fish. Zoe wanted to spend most of her time here.

Zoe and Grandpa.

Ice cream cones!

We took lots of videos on my phone. The quality is pretty bad but at least they make up for our lack of pictures.

Melanie skeet shooting-part 1

Melanie skeet shooting-part 2

Mike and Phil skeet shooting

Zoe watching us

Playing basketball-part 1

Feeding the fish

Playing basketball-part 2

A herd of sheep crossing the road

More feeding the fish

Love

2011-09-27T08:18:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, Zoe and I were driving in the car. Neither of us was saying anything (you know...comfortable silence). I could see in the rear view mirror that she was deep in thought about something. Then all of a sudden she said, "Mommy, I just love you every day."

My Running Buddy

2011-09-22T10:12:00.002-05:00

This video is from last year. The quality is really bad because I used my phone. This is how my running goes a lot of the times that I take Zoe in the jogger. She still talks non-stop, stops for every stick, jumps over the cracks, and NEVER gets tired. Well, except for one time last week when she stopped about ten times to take a sip of water and then finally sat down in the grass for a five minute break. It WAS pretty hot and she had run three quarters of a mile. I guess she deserved a break. She's pretty much awesome.

Pictures from our phones

2011-09-21T22:10:00.000-05:00

I finally learned how to get pictures from my phone to my computer. Okay seriously, it wasn't that hard. Why did it take me so long to figure it out (who am I kidding, I didn't figure it out...Mike did it for me). Anyways, I found a few pictures that I thought were note worthy.

This one was taken way back in April 2010. We were at the Disney Store and look what Zoe found and FELL IN LOVE with! We didn't buy it but it was funny to watch her trying to hold onto it for a while.

This one was back in May of 2010. Madison was reading a book to Princess Zoe. Though I think she looks more like the virgin Mary.

This one is for you, Mom! One day back when I was training for my ultra marathon I ran into this guy. After I jumped over it, screamed, jumped some more, and cried a little, I ran back to snap a picture.

This was from this past February. We were at a consignment store selling some stuff back. After I finished handling the sale, I went in search for Mike and Zoe. This is what I found.

Isn't this the best?!

The costume was $1.50 and Zoe thought it was the funnest thing to wear it out of the store. She even wore it to a couple more stores that we needed to go to. It was awesome.

A couple months ago Jared asked me if I would take Emma dress shopping. Uh, hello! Yes! And it was definitely necessary to stop for a treat.

The girls playing on the tractor.

Also a couple of months ago, Zoe wanted me to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a hamburger bun. But SHE wanted to decorate it. Sprinkles!!!

And now, this is actually kind of huge news. August 23rd was Mike's last day working for Bank of America. After MUCH thought, prayer, pros and cons lists, etc. we decided to take a huge leap of faith and leave the corporate world. Mike is now the Practice Administrator for his brother, Jim's, dermatology practice.

These are pictures of him packing up his stuff to send back to BofA.

We are really excited about this!

Endocrinologist

2011-09-08T23:50:00.002-05:00

Zoe had a growth check-up with her endocrinologist on August 1st. And once again we got GREAT news! She is still growing like a champ! She weighs 31.8lbs (15%!!!) and is 39.2in (25%!!!) tall. Oh. My. Goodness. Mike and I are seriously just so thrilled with how well her body is responding to the growth hormones.

And Zoe continues to take the shots like a pro. She very rarely complains about having to do it and the only time she cries is when I do something wrong (sniff), like push the needle in to far for example and it must hit a muscle or something. When this happens I usually will very quickly leave the room and go to another part of the house while Mike comforts Zoe. I still can't handle it very well when I hurt her. But...the shots are working. She is growing and guess what, Zoe is a REALLY good eater. She eats plenty of food and she really tries hard to eat healthy. She knows that good food makes her feel better, grow better, and makes her stay healthy so she will almost always ask me if something is healthy or not and if I say it's not then she won't eat it. It's so great! I feel so lucky that I'm not having to fight her all the time with food choices!

Here are her stats since beginning the growth hormone therapy:

2/5/2010: 21lbs 32.8in

5/5/2010: 22.5lbs 34.1in

8/5/2020: 23lbs 34.9in

11/4/2010: 27lbs 36.1in

2/8/2011: 28lbs 37.3in

5/12/2011: 28.8lbs 38.2in

8/1/2011: 31.8lbs 39.2in

And now....some videos of what Mike and Zoe do when I'm not home:

This one is kind of long...just warning ya.

AJ Goes On a Mission

2011-09-06T14:51:00.000-05:00

My brother, AJ, left for Ireland and Scotland a couple of months ago to serve a 2 year church mission. Zoe and I were able to make it to my mom's house to be with him when he got set apart and when he left the airport. So exciting!

We had a little hiccup on the way there. My car completely stopped working just outside of Cameron (where my mom lives) but luckily there was a gas station right where it happened so I was able to glide into it. And double luckily, Eddy was home and was able to rescue me. Eddy was my hero that day. It took three jump starts to get the car to my mom's house and then the next morning Hyundai towed it to their nearest location and fixed it (alternator and battery).

As soon as Eddy got my car to the house we all jumped into Mom and Eddy's car to head to AJ's setting apart appointment. Doesn't he look so sharp?! I love this guy!

Zoe running around with my young cousins.

Petting one of my mom's chickens.

Hi.

AJ at the airport ready to hit the ground (air?) running. This was one last, quick phone call to Dad.

Waiting to board the plane!

This one is kind of a short, random video of Zoe running around.

Zoe feeding grass to the chickens, roosters, and turkeys.

Zoe Reading

2011-08-24T10:05:00.000-05:00

We have been doing a LOT of reading this summer. I haven't really been trying to 'teach' Zoe to read (I don't do site words and stuff like that)...I just really read to her a lot and also give her a lot of opportunities to read to me. A lot of times it's her repeating words after me or me moving my finger under the words as I read so that she sees the word as she hears it. And she's really picking up on it all. I'm so proud of her!

Zoe was sitting at the table having a few weeks ago and I walked into the room and discovered the cookies were untouched and she was reading her books. So cute.

I thought I was done recording but she insisted that I keep recording her reading. :)

Peach Tree

2011-06-27T21:33:00.001-05:00

Okay, so this isn't actually our peach tree.

This is a baby crepe myrtle that Zoe is standing in front of. But she's enjoying a peach from our peach tree in our back yard. Late spring/early summer our peach tree is dripping with peaches and we have to quickly harvest them before they go bad or fall to the ground and become property of our resident ants or bees.

Zoe does her share of eating the peaches.

and LOVES peaches....

Did I mention she loves peaches?

This is our peach tree! It's fun watching the peaches grow! They grow very quickly, and it seems overnight the tree is full of them.

Zoe photo bombed me!! But that's okay, she's such a......well, peach!

Preschool Graduation/End of the Year Party

2011-06-25T08:30:00.000-05:00

Zoe had her preschool graduation/end of the year party on May 28th. It was the cutest, funnest party! Mrs. Shannon really is such a great teacher. The program started with the kids singing some songs for us. Of course, Zoe wanted nothing to do with any of it. She didn't sing, didn't dance, and at one point was just standing up there crying. She made it through though. Whew. But then came two plays that the kids put on for us: The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. Knowing that Zoe probably wouldn't want to say her lines, Shannon gave her the smallest part in the play. Sure enough, Zoe didn't say a word. Thank you, Shannon, for being so patient with her! And then each child got an award. Guess what Zoe got?! Look here:

She one the Best Artist award! Go Zoe!

After this part was over the kids had a dancing party. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Zoe finally opened up. As soon as that music started playing she was like a different person. She had SOOOOO much fun and still talks about it. Here is a video of her dancing:

It was such a fun night. We are excited for summer break but really can't wait to go back to school in the fall. Yay!

A visit from LMT

2011-06-17T16:46:00.000-05:00

LMT stands for Lisa, Megan, and Travis. And they came for a visit! Yay!!! To start things off, Lisa and I decided to wake up early the day after they got here for a run. When I walked downstairs and saw Lisa sitting on the couch wearing the exact same outfit as me, I knew good things were in store. Seriously though, Lisa packed the EXACT same shirt and shorts that I happened to decide to wear that day. Crazy! After our run we decided to have my take a picture of us. And then this happened:

Later that afternoon we all went out for some gelato. YUM. I don't remember what flavor Megan got but Zoe LOVED it. She ended up eating most of Megan's cone. Sorry Megan! We owe you gelato the next time you're here!

And, of course, we had to make cookies that night! Lisa and Zoe are so silly.

It was a fun, quick, visit! They were just driving through here on their way to visit my mom. Thanks for coming to see us, LMT!

Pom Poms!

2011-06-16T19:29:00.001-05:00

Somebody left their pom poms at our house the day of Zoe's birthday party. Zoe discovered them the next day...

Zoe's Birthday Party

2011-06-15T18:28:00.000-05:00

We had a rockin' birthday party for Zoe. It was seriously so much fun. I have tons of pictures! This is not even half of them. I just had to choose and it was so hard! Thank you, Mubeen, for taking all of the pictures for me during the party. On a side note, you will all get to know Mubeen very well while looking through this post. She had the camera the whole time. And now you will see why she is one of my favorite people in this whole world. :)

The day before the party. Birthday girl gets to lick the bowl!

Yum!

Look what I did! It's a ladybug cupcake!

And look what my friend, Becca, did! She made Zoe a butterfly cake! (close up picture below...)

The party finally got started. Who says the mom can't have fun too?!

Kids playing Kinectimals.

Ladybugs!

Becca is amazing. Seriously, just look at this!

Picture time! We had the bounce house up in the front yard and I wanted to snap a picture before Zoe got in. Isn't that the cutest butterfly dress?!

Cake time! We were singing happy birthday here. Zoe would never admit it, but she was totally giggling into my neck. She just wanted everybody to think she was embarrassed and crying. ;)

Say cheese!

Can't you just see the anticipation in their eyes?!

Caaaaaaaaaake!

Caleb and Mubeen!

Oh Mubeen!

Done with my ice cream!

Baby Caden and Nana Lynn!

Time for presents! (as Emma contemplates life)

Awe! Such sweet friends!

On a present high!

A little exhausted.

Pulling a string on the pinata. Of course she picked blue (her favorite color).

Candy!

Mubeen gave me permission to put these pictures on my blog!

Snicker

Teheehee

Gross!

Hopscotch!

Zoe getting some air!

After the party, Madison and Emma decided to do Zoe's hair. I don't think these girls can get together without some girlie girl time.

Endocrinologist

2011-05-24T13:18:00.000-05:00

Zoe had a checkup with her Endocrinologist. More good news! The girl is still growing! She is now 28.8lbs (3rd%) and 38.2in tall (20th%). Yay!

Here are her previous stats for comparison:
5/12/11 28.8lbs 38.2in
2/8/11 28lbs 37.3in
11/4/10 27lbs 36.1in
8/5/10 23lbs 34.9in
5/5/10 22.5lbs 34.1in
2/5/10 21lbs 32.8in

So since we started the shots, Zoe has gained 7.8 pounds and grown 5.4 inches. Wahoo!

Once a year we need to do blood work to check Zoe's thyroids and her IGF1 levels (I might have just made that IGF1 up...it's something like that...you get the point). These can be affected by the shots. But we just got the results back and everything looks normal still. Whew. So we're going to keep trudging along like we have been. Zoe is still taking the 'princess medicine' like a champ. I only almost freak out every once in a while when I feel the needle go through the skin and Zoe cries. :) But seeing how much Zoe is growing makes it worth it!

Field Trip to the Zoo

2011-05-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

Zoe's school took a field trip to the Zoo. Awesome! And more awesome because it was on Zoe's birthday!

Zoe's friends Kailee, and Allie (and their mom, Mrs. Shannon (Zoe's teacher)) carpooled with us. Fun!

The gang! (there are boys in Zoe's class but none of them could make it to the zoo that day)

So excited!

The girls found a huge ostrich egg.

Chillin'.

Taking a fake nap.

Free elephant ride!

Zoe is totally posing here. See her sticking her right leg out? Awesome.

Butterfly princesses!

This penguin was so cool. It was swimming right by the window and all the kids though it was awesome! The girls named it Barbie. :)

Tall girl!

The Dallas Zoo has a new-ish monorail system that takes you around the park. It was REALLY fun!

We got to see so many animals while sitting and relaxing and most importantly...riding a train!

Sweet friends!

Zoe's 4th Birthday

2011-05-22T22:10:00.000-05:00

Zoe turned 4! Whoo-hoo! She is totally a big girl now and reminds us on a daily basis. "Mom, I'll do it myself. I'm big now." "No, Mom, I'll do it. I'm big now!" We hear that a lot these days!

We are having tons of fun and are loving life right now. Remember when Zoe used to be so quiet and shy? Not anymore! She is outgoing, playful, and the sweetest girl I know. :) Seriously though, she sits in the grocery cart at the store waving and saying, "Hi" to everybody that she sees...even when she sees somebody 50 feet away (then she yells, "Hi").

She really is a good girl. She is very obedient and on the rare occasion that she needs to go to time out or needs to get in trouble, she is VERY upset. She does NOT like to be in trouble or to have done anything wrong. It's very sweet...and I consider myself very lucky.

We started Zoe's birthday with her very favorite breakfast: donuts!

Zoe had the best birthday ever because we went to the Dallas Zoo! It was for a school field trip that just happened to fall on her birthday. Totally lucky girl! And it was so much fun! I'll post pictures of the zoo in the next post...

For her birthday dinner, we had pizza (another Zoe favorite)!

Cheese! Okay, side comment...Zoe lost her shorts sometime between getting home from the zoo and eating dinner. My best guess is that they were sitting on the bathroom floor having been taken off in an effort to get onto the toilet by herself (which she insists on doing because she's a big girl now...I feel like I should explain that we have those taller than average toilets. That combined with Zoe's short-ish stature makes it difficult for her to get up). Anyways, now I need to explain why my four year old who is potty trained is wearing a pull-up. She had been having a few accidents in the days leading up to her birthday and I didn't want to worry about that at the zoo so I totally put her in a pull-up for the zoo. So there. No judging!

Opening presents!

Already mastering her 'learn to draw' book.

Look at the cake that I slaved all day on. Just kidding! It's totally a Wal-Mart cake and it was REALLY REALLY good!

"If I'm smiling then maybe you won't notice that I'm going in for another bite while you're trying to take my picture, Dad".

Sugar rush!

Zoe, how old are you?

The next day. Zoe is such a girly girl now. She loves to wear dresses. Here, she's sporting a new birthday dress from Grandpa Alan and Janie.

Mother's Day

2011-05-17T21:21:00.006-05:00

We went to my mom's house for Mother's Day weekend...

Can you guess who was so excited?!

Zoe!

I just can't figure out why she has so much fun there...

I'm sure it has nothing to do with getting to ride in a trailer to go see the REAL trains!

Getting ready for church.

Making sure everything is perfect. (if you look close enough, you might see a hint of green on Zoe's eyelids :)).

Modeling the Rapunzel dress she got from Grandma.

I love the way she 'hides'...

Silly girl.

Easter

2011-05-16T23:02:00.001-05:00

Happy Easter!

Thank you Grandma (Mom) for the gorgeous Easter dress! Zoe had a lot of fun this Easter. On Saturday we went to a local, HUGE, Easter egg hunt with all of the cousins and got lots of candy. Zoe is still trying to figure out what the Easter Bunny is all about. It's kind of like Santa...but not really...but it brings her candy and hides eggs around the house...so the Easter Bunny must be pretty cool. And I'm pretty sure we just added to the confusion every time we tried to explain the real meaning and importance of Easter...

Coloring her eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide.

Um, I forgot to have her draw on the eggs with crayons BEFORE dying them. Oh well, it still kind of worked.

Working hard!

Look what the Easter Bunny did while we were sleeping!

Zoe lined up all of her candy.

Going for the big chocolate bunny! (but not to eat yet...only after the candy was all lined up)

Now it's all organized! (we couldn't get her to smile for this one...)

After a day of candy and eggs, Zoe decided fish should be on the menu too.

And now for twirls!

Girls Night

2011-05-02T19:02:00.000-05:00

We had a girls night with all of the cousins and aunts (...plus Jake. He was here with us but would have nothing to do with all of the nail, hair, and make-up stuff).

Madison doing Emma's nails.

Zoe and Diana riding horses.

Zoe just had her nails painted.

And now it's time for her toes!

Inspecting the end result.

My turn!

And now my fingernails.

And then I had my make-up done by Emma with Madison supervising.

Zoe taking a break to hold Caden.

Emma and Madison discussing very important girl things I'm sure.

Jacob and Zoe made some time for a game of Candyland.

Now Madison gets the royal treatment!

Field Trip to the Fire Station

2011-05-01T21:44:00.002-05:00

Zoe's preschool took a field trip to the fire station. The fire fighters who gave us the tour were so good with the kids...and the kids LOVED it!

Waiting in line to go inside the fire truck.

Up she goes!

You can't tell by the picture, but Zoe thought it was SO cool to go inside the truck.

Checking out the chairs in the recreation room (we had permission for the kids to get on the chairs).

The outdoor patio.

Posing on the back of the truck.

Front Yard

2011-05-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

We redid the bushes in our front yard! We forgot to take 'before' pictures. But this pretty much shows what we've been dealing with. Actually, this looks better than it did because this is after Mike raked out a LOT of underbrush:

Here we go!

Zoe enjoyed a picnic dinner while watching us work.

Can't. Keep. Eyes. Open.

Done!

Check out Zoe posing. :)

Isn't she awesome?

This is all we did to the other plant bed. This one was out of control, crazy full of weeds and weird bushes and underbrush. So we cleaned it all out and then just stuck a few small flowers in for color. It's pretty plain looking but we're going to enjoy it like this for a while. Maybe next summer we'll put more flowers in.

Scott's Visit

2011-04-16T22:24:00.008-05:00

In the middle of March, my brother, Scott, ran a race in Chile. On his way back home to Washington, he had a layover in Dallas. Yay! He got to hang out with us for a few hours. To surprise him, my mom, Adam, and Jen all came up for a few days. The day that Scott was coming in, we spent hours making posters to take to the airport.

Here we are at the airport waiting for Scott!

Awe. The mama bear and the baby bear hug it out.

It was fun getting to see Scott and to hear all about his trip. Congratulations, Scott!

The day after Scott left, the rest of us went to the Third Monday Trade Days. Zoe took a break on this huge turtle.

Chillin'.

Grandma and Zoe.

"Go Mommy!"

2011-03-26T20:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday while I was mowing the lawn, Zoe was on the other side of the yard yelling (at the top of her lungs), "Go Mommy, go! Go Mommy, go! Go Mommy, go!".

And this morning, on the way home from the donut shop, Zoe told me, "Mom, I will eat all the donuts, you can have chicken nuggets, and Dad will eat bread."

I love that girl.

Randoms

2011-03-25T18:19:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from the past couple of months:

We saw these bird foot prints on our front porch one morning after it had snowed. Cool, right?

Emma and Zoe are inseparable when they're together. One day when we were over at Mike's dad's house I peaked around a corner to see what they were doing and saw Zoe sitting on Emma's lap. Emma was showing her a game on her DS. It was SO cute. (for those who don't know, Emma is only 2 years older than Zoe)

They spotted me!

After Zoe finished coloring this picture she ran to me and said, "Mom! Take a picture of this!" It was pretty funny.

And then she wanted me to take a picture of what she drew on the back.

Here she is painting!

Growth Checkup

2011-03-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

Zoe had her growth check up on February 8th. We got great news again! She now weighs 28lbs and is 37.3in tall. At her last visit back in November, she was sitting at the 6th percentile for her height. Well guess what?!?! Now she has jumped up to the 15th percentile! Wahoo! She is totally catching up. We are so happy that her body is responding to the medicine so well.

A few people have asked me if we will stop the medicine soon. The answer is no. We won't stop the medicine until Zoe is finished growing...when she's a teenager. If we were to stop giving her the medicine before then, she would stop growing and not reach her full potential in height. So she will continue to get the shot every day for many years. We'll just adjust her daily dosage according to her needs. Her doctor recalculates the dosage every time we go in for a checkup.

Here are Zoe's stats since we've started the medicine:

2/5/10 21lbs 32.8in

5/5/10 22.5lbs 34.1in

8/5/10 23lbs 34.9in

11/4/10 27lbs 36.1in

2/8/11 28lbs 37.3in

So, in a nut shell, Zoe has grown 4 1/2 inches and gained 7 pounds in one year. And she is no longer the obviously smaller kid in her preschool. She looks just like the rest of the kids. Yay! Go Zoe!

Water Heater Damage - Fixed!

2011-03-23T22:05:00.000-05:00

Do you remember way back in November when our water heater busted causing our bedroom floor to flood and a big hole in our downstairs ceiling? Well, it's all fixed now! Yay!

We got our insurance approval right before Thanksgiving so we asked Dry Force, the company who fixed the house, to hold off until after the holidays were over. They were totally fine with it and we got started on the floors the second week of January. It was a much bigger project than Mike and I ever could have expected but we're very glad to know that our house is dry and everything is fixed.

Here are lots of pictures from the two weeks that it took to finish everything:

Zoe checking out the upstairs after some of the old wood was removed.

Zoe's closet.

The media room with the stage lifted up. Those are rolls of the padding on the floor to the left.

Boxes and boxes of wood.

Starting to lay down the new wood. I love it! I was so excited!

Zoe's room with no wood on the floors.

There was a lot of action going on upstairs so Zoe and I hung out downstairs all day. Mike went and worked at his dad's house for two weeks.

We got Zoe's tent out and played lots of games, puzzles, and read LOTS of books.

Zoe is really into dressing herself and doing her own hair these days (well, I do her hair then she gets to accessorize).

More of the new wood!

The media room became a storage room for the workers.

Getting started in mine and Mike's room.

Mine and Mike's bathroom was the storage area for all of our extras.

And then more workers came to start on the downstairs. This is looking from the kitchen into the living room.

Looking from the dining room into the living room.

Zoe's play room.

Play room from another angle.

Looking into the living room.

Living room from another angle.

Zoe and I were quarantined to my bedroom for about three days. All day. We got a little stir crazy.

We finally got to go back downstairs again!

The ceiling is fixed. Yay!

Zoe was a trooper throughout the whole process.

New floors!

Another angle of the new floors.

And another angle of the new floors.

When it's kind of dark outside.

And when it's bright outside.

January Snow

2011-03-21T14:10:00.004-05:00

Back in January we had a good snow fall and decided to make a snow man. Yay! This is a video of Zoe getting outside to check things out.

I couldn't get Zoe to lay down to make snow angels with me. So she just watched.

A whistling Snow man!

After making the snow man, Zoe and I took a walk to see how the rest of the neighborhood looked.

A winter wonderland!

Christmas

2011-03-20T17:56:00.009-05:00

Okay everybody, pretend it's the week after Christmas and mine is the first of all the blogs that you read to have the 'Christmas' post up. Not (probably) the very last. Thanks for being accommodating.

Christmas was weird this year. It was just really hard to get into the Christmas spirit after Krista passed away. But Mike and I faked it for Zoe. She had a great Christmas!

Zoe's Christmas program at school was the same day as Krista's funeral. We were actually really glad about that. After having a heart wrenching day, it was nice to spend the evening watching Zoe and her class mates sing songs and be SUPER cute.

Can you guess what song they're singing?

It took Zoe a while to warm up and get her red nose on.

She mostly just sat there and watched Mrs. Shannon. I'm pretty sure she didn't sing one word.

Then about half way through the program, Zoe laid down on the ground and started saying, "I'm tired". Poor girl. She really was exhausted. It had been quite a week and and exhausting day for all of the cousins.

Zoe and her class! Yay!

********************************************************************************

On Christmas Eve, the whole family met over at Krista and Jared's house for our traditional Christmas dinner/present exchange/cousins nativity program/Grandpa The Night Before Christmas reading event. It was weird this year without Krista there. We still had a good time though, Krista loved parties and family get togethers so we knew we just had to have a good time enjoying each other's company.

********************************************************************************

I share this very long video with you all so that you can get a feeling for how Christmas morning went at our house this year. I think Zoe got out of bed at about 8:00am, we promptly began the opening of presents, and we finally finished at around 11:30am. Yes, 3 1/2 hours. No, we didn't get a lot of presents. It took Zoe soooooooo long to do, well, everything. You'll see.

I won't make you watch any more. :) Oh my goodness, will she ever get excited and jump into the presents like Mike and I used to do when we were kids (and still do)?

Superman!

Princess dress/nightgown!

How can three people make such a big mess?

Another tradition that we have (Krista and Jared started it), is to go caroling at a retirement home on Christmas afternoon. We all meet over at Krista and Jared's house and drive over to the retirement home together. It's really a great way to spend Christmas afternoon. This year Jared said he still wanted to do it even though it was going to be so hard. And we had also lost our best singer. :) I'm glad we went because it was very uplifting. The best thing about it was watching Jared talking to the residents, wishing them a merry Christmas, and making their day a better one. Nobody there knew how much Jared was hurting. He wanted to make their day brighter. It was cool.

Krista

2011-02-03T09:25:00.007-06:00

Krista and Jacob

Okay, I'm just going to be honest. I have had time to blog the past week and a half. I just haven't wanted to because of this particular post that I really needed to write, but haven't really known how to say it. It's odd because it's easy for me to talk about, and I really don't mind talking about it. But putting it all on the computer just seems so hard for me. So, here I go.

Many of you know that Mike's sister, Krista, suffered from brain cancer. Stage 4 Gioblastoma Multiforme to be exact. She was diagnosed with it 5 years ago in December. 5 years ago, the doctors gave her months to live. People just don't survive this type of brain cancer. Well, Krista was having none of that. She had too much to do like spend more time with Jared, teach her kids many, many things, write a book (Fertile in Our Faith), write another book (Jake the Puppy and Emma the Cat (will be published soon)), continue with her 2ofusfornow website that she and Jared created, etc. She beat the odds BIG TIME.

She had been in remission for years. In September 2010, however, she discovered that the cancer had spread to her spine. So, let the treatments begin again. She handled the treatments well. She had just finished her last treatment and was looking forward to getting good test results the week of December 12th. But she didn't make it that far.

Very early in the morning (middle of the night) on December 10th, Krista was having trouble breathing and was rushed to the hospital. It was determined that she had blood clots in both of her lungs. Despite the doctor's best efforts, she didn't make it. It was her time to go. I have no doubt that she was welcomed with open arms by Christ and all of the family members that preceded her. I also have no doubt that she is happy, safe, healthy, and pain free.

For the past 5 years, since Krista's diagnosis, we all have been mentally preparing ourselves for the time when Krista would get so sick from the cancer that she would need a lot of help, possibly be bed ridden, etc. We were NOT prepared for her to die suddenly during the night, and not even from the cancer. This was a huge shock to us. However, as hard as it was, this was a blessing to Krista, Jared, Jacob and Emma. Krista never had to suffer in those ways that I just mentioned. And Jared and the kids never had to see their wife/mom suffering in those ways either. The kids don't have memories of their mom sick in bed at home or in a hospital. Instead, she passed quietly in the hospital with Jared at her side holding her hand, the kids at home asleep. Jacob and Emma's last memory of her is reading scriptures, saying family prayer, and kissing their mom and dad goodnight. This is all a tender mercy from the Lord.

This has been a difficult time for us. One of the things that Krista worked really hard on over the past years was getting all of her family around her. It worked. All of her immediate family lives in Texas and most of us live within 30 minutes of her. This has been a great blessing as we have all been able to surround Jared and the kids with love, help, understanding, and fun things to help them get through this time.

How are Jared and the kids doing? Well, they're doing okay. They each have strong testimonies that everything happens for a reason and there is a plan for all of us. This is a trial they must endure on Earth and will be blessed for it. And they will see Krista again. So will I. So will Mike. So will her other brothers and her parents.

So as the tears are flow again as I write this, I realize that the pain will be temporary. Though I can only imagine what it is like for Jared and the kids as they make their way through each day. And for Mike who quietly misses his only sister. And for Lynn and Phil who miss their only daughter. And for Jim and Blake who also miss their only sister. Anyways, you get the point. She is missed by many. She touched many lives.

Krista was strong and faithful no matter what happened, or might happen. She was a strength to everyone around her. She was happy and didn’t complain about any of the trials she was going through or about how sick she might have felt from the chemo and radiation treatments. To me that is one of the greatest things about her. She was just 100% willing to do whatever the Lord asked.

Krista kept a blog as a type of journal that she started back when she was first diagnosed: www.onkristasmind.blogspot.com. Jared took over the blog for her and now we can read about his strength and faith and how he’s willing to do whatever the Lord asks.

Krista, God be with you 'till we meet again. I can't wait for our next Sunday dinner together.

Lisa and Travis' visit

2011-01-23T19:30:00.000-06:00

Lisa and Travis came to visit from South Caroline for a few days after Thanksgiving. Yep, it was a blast!

One night we went over to the Shops at Fairview to see the dancing Christmas lights.

The three of us!

Video of us watching the dancing Christmas lights.

The next morning Lisa, Travis, and I went out for a run. We took some videos of each other running. We are so cool. You'll see.

Lisa

Travis

After we got back from running, Zoe helped me to grind some wheat.

And then later Lisa and I made a Spiced Apple and Pear Crisp. Yummmm. Here is Lisa cutting the pears.

Cutting apples.

And then the next day we made homemade pretzels. Oh. My. Goodness. They were so good!

Lisa testing out the first pretzel.

And then we decided to work off all of the food that we kept eating during a friendly game of boxing on the Kinect. Yeah...Lisa kicked my butt.

Video of Lisa kicking my booty...big time.

On Sunday we got to go to baby Caden's blessing.

Awe! Aren't they such a good looking couple?!

On their last night here we decorated a gingerbread house. Zoe had fun testing the icing and candy for yumminess.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-01-18T20:27:00.000-06:00

For Thanksgiving weekend, we went down to The Woodlands to visit Lynn and Serge (Mike's mom and step dad). It was SO much fun. All of Mike's siblings were there and so were all of the cousins. Yay! Zoe had a blast (so did Mike and I)!

Taking a walk to the park.

Zoe checking things out.

We played lots and lots of games. Especially Connect Four.

Random video of the happenings on Thanksgiving day.

We are cool.

We visited Mike's Grandma (Grandma Key) in her nursing home. And Krista brought her Karaoke machine so we could sing for all of the residence. It was so much fun.

Krista always knew the right songs to sing to get the residence perked up.

Lynn, Zoe, and Grandma Key.

Emma and Zoe were inseparable the whole time we were there.

Cousins Christmas pajama picture...thanks to Rachel!

Crazy face!

Heading to lunch on the River Walk.

Playing at the splash fountains.

Fun!

The kiddos eating lunch.

Zoe being silly in her room

2011-01-17T17:32:00.000-06:00

Pre-Thanksgiving Feast

2011-01-15T09:07:00.000-06:00

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we met over at Mike's dad's house for a pre-Thanksgiving feast! It was so much fun. Most of Mike's siblings, and his dad & Viki, live in the Dallas area, all within 30 minutes of each other. So it's great that we can do things like this. Blake came up from Houston for the festivities.

Zoe playing with Tinker Toys while waiting for her cousins to show up.

Zoe, Emma (5), and Jacob (9).

Phil (Mike's dad) pulling the turkey out of the fryer. By the way, have you ever had a fried turkey? It's SO good!

Viki (Mike's step mom) doing an activity with all of the cousins (left to right: Madison (11), Zoe, Emma, Jacob, and Ethan (8).

The activity is really cool. It's a chex mix type of snack and everything in it has a message about Thanksgiving. I think it's called a Blessing Mix.

As Viki poured each different item into the bowl, she told a story about it. For example, the bugles represent a cornucopia which is a symbol of our nation's abundance. The pretzels are arms folded in prayer, a freedom sought by our founding fathers. The candy corn represent the sacrifices of the Pilgrims' first winter when the food was so scarce that the settlers only ate a few kernels of corn a day. The nuts represent the promise of a future harvest. The Hershey's Kisses are the love of family and friends. Something like that.

Emma and Zoe took turns holding baby Caden the entire night. They are so cute and sweet with him.

Pilgrim hat cookies that Zoe, Mike, and I made!

These next few are random pictures during dinner. Left to right are Diana (Mike's step sister), Viki, Phil, Clay (Diana's husband), and Rachel (holding Caden).

Jared (Krista's husband), Krista (Mike's sister), Diana, and Viki.

Jim, Mike, me.

Camera wars!

Blake (Mike's brother).

Caden, Rachel (Jim's wife), and Jim (Mike's brother).

Diana and Viki.

Grandpa Phil and Zoe.

Zoe Playing Kinect

2011-01-14T08:12:00.000-06:00

Water Heater in the Attic?

2011-01-13T08:31:00.002-06:00

Back on the evening of November 5th, I had Zoe in my bath tub, I was in my shower (it's separate from the bath tub), and Mike was in the hall shower. We were rushing to get over to Jim and Rachel's house (Mike's brother) to meet their newest little bundle of joy, baby Caden. Mike had finished his shower and came into the bathroom to get dressed in the closet. Upon entering the closet, he heard a faint ringing coming from the attic (the entry to our attic is in our closet). "Huh?" he thought, "I wonder what that is? Wait!" He realized it was the water leak alarm that he had placed in our water heater bin. It was going off! That meant water was leaking!

Mike raced into the attic with a trash can and one of Zoe's bath buckets, tried turning off the water heater (that didn't do anything), and started desperately moving water from the bin and into the trash can. I, in the mean time, jumped out of the shower, threw on some clothes, then ran over to our next door neighbor's house with soaking wet hair. On the way out of the house I could hear water pouring through the walls. It sounded like somebody was just sitting in the attic dumping buckets of water through the pipes. I knocked on the door and exasperated, "Is Mr. Barton home?! I need help turning off the water to the house! Our water heater is leaking!". Luckily, he was home and ran over to our yard and turned the water off for us. Whew!

When I ran back up to our bedroom I noticed a huge puddle of water sitting on the floor in our bedroom, coming from the same wall that I heard the water pouring down. I then went up into the attic and found out from Mike that there had been water pouring out of the bottom of the water heater. It had busted. I ran back down the ladder, grabbed every towel we had and began to soak up the water.

Thank goodness we were home when it happened and were able to get the water to the house turned off!

Also, incase you were wondering. Zoe was playing in the bathtub this whole time without any interest or care in what was going on outside of her little area. :)

So, we called our home warranty (American Home Shield...we highly recommend them...they have been great so far) and told them what happened. Because this happened on Friday evening, they weren't able to get a plumber out until Saturday. No big deal. We saved the water in Zoe's bathtub and had plenty of water in our food storage.

The plumber came out the next day and confirmed that we needed a new water heater (duh) and had our home warranty order one. We didn't get a new water heater until the next Tuesday. No big deal, right? Well guess what? We couldn't turn the water to the house back on because when we did try it the water heater started spewing water again. Ho hum. Mike's dad lives nearby so we crashed at his house for a couple of nights. And for the rest of the time we just got really good at flushing toilets with buckets of water and used a lot of hand sanitizer. (It was a great trial run at testing our water supply storage! BTW, we highly recommend doing a test run of 48-72 hours, maybe over a long weekend, of using only water from food storage or your emergency supply. We found that we were underestimating our daily allowance need for water--unless we drastically changed our water usage habits. So we've increased how much we will store for emergencies per person per day.)

Anyways! We didn't really know what to do about the water damage and we didn't know how bad it might be. So we got the name and phone number, from the plumber, of a water restoration company and gave them a call. Dry Force is the name of the company. They have been GREAT so far. They came out the very day that I called them and did a water damage assessment. We still had a lot of water inside the walls and under the wood floor upstairs so they brought in huge, loud fans and de-humidifiers to dry the place out. And boy were they LOUD! It was like we had an airport runway upstairs. So for three days this is what our house was like:

So, basically the large de-humidifiers pulled moisture from the air, walls, and floor and dispensed it via tubes down our bathroom sinks. This left the air extremely dry and hot. Our lips and skin got really dry! Mike already has an addiction to chapstick, and this nearly had him eating a steady diet of lip balm. There were also large floor fans used to help speed up the drying process. A technician would come by on a daily basis and use some cool tools to measure the moisture. For three full days, the machines dried out our house with deafening sound, but by the end our house was dry to the bone. While the house was drying out, we came to the conclusion that the damage was worse than we had originally thought and decided to go ahead and file an insurance claim. Our insurance company, Metlife, sent an adjuster out to see what the damage was. He was a super nice guy. We have been really lucky to work with great people so far. Anyways, he came to the house, checked it out, and sent a report back to Metlife.

We found out that they are going to, in short, replace the wood floors for us, paint our bedroom wall, fix the hole in our living room ceiling, and repaint our downstairs ceiling.

By the time we got our final report back from Metlife explaining what would be covered, it was after Thanksgiving and we asked our contractor if it would be okay to
wait until the holidays were over before starting all the work.

So, be on the look out for another update on this!

Princess Medicine is COOL

2010-11-28T20:08:00.001-06:00

I took Zoe in for a check up with her Endocrinologist on November 4th, and we had GREAT news!

Zoe is now 36.1 inches tall and weighs 27 pounds. Yay! She grew 1.2 inches and gained 4 pounds in 3 months. Amazing.

The past two visits had Zoe sitting right on the very bottom of the growth charts. That was pretty good because she has been well below the charts her whole life. But guess what?! Now she is in the 6th percentile! Yipee!

So this is what her progress looks like since we started the growth hormones:

2/5/2010: 21lbs. and 32.8in.

5/5/2010: 22.5lbs. and 34.1in.

8/5/2010: 23lbs. and 34.9in.

11/4/2010: 27lbs. and 36.1in.

We also increased her daily dosage of growth hormones again. As Zoe gets bigger, we'll continue to increase how much she gets so that it'll continue to work. And she's still taking the medicine like a champ. She still gets stickers (thanks Libby!) every time we do it. She has also started to help prepare the medicine. She dials the pen to the correct dosage for me. This helps a lot because she feels more included in it.

Every once in a while, thought, as soon as I pull the pen out of her skin she'll bury her head in Mike's shoulder and have a good cry. It breaks my heart. I know she doesn't like doing it and I know it hurts. As we're getting ready to do it she'll often say something like, "don't hurt me this time, okay Mom?". Ugh. Mike has to keep reminding me that it would break my heart too if Zoe were coming home crying from school every day because she was picked on for being so small. Or if Zoe had health problem related to being so tiny. I know, but still...I'm the one forcing the pain every night.

Okay, enough with the venting! The medicine is working so we'll just keep plugging along and being grateful for modern medicine!

Scott the Machine

2010-11-24T17:50:00.000-06:00

My brother, Scott, will be running the Atacama Desert Crossing this coming March. Why is this cool? Because it's a six-stage, 250-kilometer RUN in Chile! Cool! He is so awesome!

He hasn't even run it yet and I just really needed to take a minute to brag about him. :)

Check out his blog post about it here. He posts about a lot of his training runs on the blog...so you can pretty much watch him train. It's cool.

Did I mention he's going to run 250 kilometers?

Shout out to Scott!

Halloween

2010-11-23T17:15:00.000-06:00

Remember in my Race Report (two posts ago) that I mentioned my sister-in-law, Jen, was really sick during the race? Well, she passed it on. Thanks Jen! On my last night in Utah my throat started to hurt a little bit. By the next morning it was a little worse but not too bad. On the plane ride home I was starting to feel a little icky all over and then by the time I got home that night I had full on body ache, chills, and a fever. Mike sent me to bed as soon as I got home and I stayed there for a couple of days. I was finally feeling better by the end of the week until Friday night when I got pink eye! Gross!

Mike, Zoe, and I all washed our hands a gazillion times that week and used up one and a half (big) bottles of hand sanitizer, and we all wore surgical masks any time I was out of the bedroom. Hahaha! It was pretty funny. But Mike and Zoe never got sick. Yay!

So anyways, I was able to make it to Mike's Dad and Viki's trunk or treat on Friday night (before the pink eye flared up) but then we missed all the festivities we had planned for Saturday.

On Sunday night I was feeling tons better so we took Zoe out trick or treating around the neighborhood.

She. Loved. It!

She quickly caught on that she was going to get candy at each house. So she played the game just right. She knocked on the door and would yell, "Trick or Treat!" before the door even opened. Then she would say, "Thank you!" then walk away. And EVERY time as we walked away she told me, "She (or he) is my friend!". It was so cute!

Here is a picture of Zoe helping me make popcorn hands for her Halloween party at school.

And here is the hippee (90% of the people thought she was Pocahontas, oh well)!

Giving a peace sign.

Gangsta!

Silly face!

Scary face! Ahhh!

Cute face.

While I Was Gone

2010-11-22T22:02:00.000-06:00

Me being away in Utah was the first time Mike and Zoe had ever been alone for several days. On the flip side, this was the longest I had ever been away from Zoe. Both Mike and I were kind of nervous. Mike was mostly nervous because he had to do the princess medicine by himself. He hates needles!

I am happy to say that we all handled it great! Mike and Zoe had a fun time together and I can tell that they are closer now, not that they weren't close before. It's just that Zoe has Mike wrapped around her little finger a lot tighter now. And I was so busy with family and running that I was able to keep my mind busy.

So, here are just some of the things that Mike and Zoe did while I was gone:

Zoe and Mike checking out Founder's Plaza at DFW airport after dropping off Melanie. It's an observation park right outside of DFW airport to watch planes land and take off. You can also listen to the radio tower talk to the planes.

At Founders Plaza

Awwww!

Zoe and Squawkers discuss high brow comedy.

Zoe and Mike decorated our pumpkins for Halloween. Zoe is ready to get started!

Spray paint!

Now it's time to decorate them!

All done!

Zoe picked out what to put on her blue Pumpkin. After all, flowers and ghosts go together like PB&J.

Not sure, but this might be the first time Zoe discovered what people did before the Ipod was invented.

Other Things We Did in Utah

2010-11-20T19:52:00.000-06:00

The day before the race, while waiting for Megan to arrive, the rest of us went to Kennecott. It was really cool! It's one of the largest copper mines in the world. And IT WAS HUGE! Here are Adam and Scott looking down into the mine.

This picture doesn't do it justice. Here, you are looking down into the mine. There are HUGE trucks down there that look like little dots.

This is the size of a wheel that goes on the HUGE trucks. See? I told you they are huge!

The gang. We were waiting to watch a movie about the mine. From left to right: Adam, Jen, Travis, Lisa, Me, Annie, Dad, Scott.

We saw this rainbow on the drive back to the hotel after the race. It was the first time I ever saw an entire rainbow from beginning to end. It was so cool!

This is the other side of the rainbow. Seriously, we could see where the two ends were! No pots of gold. :(

Scott!

When we got back to Dad and Janie's house the day after the race, we were joined by lots of family! Scott has his arm around Grandma and that's Grandpa smiling behind her. So cute. Oh, and Hi Annie!

Even some of Janie's kids were able to come see us! From left to right: Jen, Me, Abigail (Jefferson's wife), Jefferson (Janie's son), Cleopatra (the baby), Grandma, Lisa.

Here are Jared (Ellen's husband), Ellen (Janie's daughter), Grandma and Grandpa.

Aunt Chris and Grandpa!

Grandma and Dad!

Travis, Megan, Dad, Adam, Me, Lisa, Jen!

Later that night we all settled down to a game of Imaginiff. It was SO fun!

Oh silly Adam!

And guess what?! We were there for their first snow of the season! It snowed the night before I left. Cool! And Travis was crazy enough to go play in it...in his shorts and t-shirt!

Me, Dad, and Megan at the airport. My flight home was just about an hour after Megan's so I got to hang out with her while she waited for her flight. That was fun!

Goblin Valley 50k Ultra Race Report

2010-11-19T19:58:00.001-06:00

Running in the Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon was unquestionably one of the greatest, most exciting days of my life! How could I not have a great day while running with so many of my family members?! Here is the scoop of who I ran the race with and why they are so awesome:

Dad: He is still recovering from a quadruple bypass surgery (end of 2008). This is his is 'come back' ultra.

Scott (brother): He could have been one of the top finishers this day, but he stayed with us so that we could run together as a family and ended up pacing/coaching/helping my dad be able to finish the race.

Sadie the Ultra Dog (Scott's): Yes, Sadie completed the entire race. She is truly an amazing dog.

Adam (brother): Not only was this his first ultra marathon....this was also his first marathon! We had a little celebration for him when we hit the 26.2 mile mark.

Jen (sister-in-law): Remember Adam and Jen's car accident a year ago? I'm choking up a little right now thinking that this all could have turned out so differently. Love ya Jen! Also, Jen had a VERY bad cold and still ran. Also, Jen hurt her foot during the second half of the race and still finished!

Lisa (sister): Lisa didn't have quite the training that she had hoped for due to some injuries and ran on a hurt knee this day. And still finished.

Me: Going into this race we all decided that we would stick together and go as fast or as slow as needed. My secret goal was to not be the one that everybody was slowing down for. And guess what, I had the most amazing fluke of a day. Not only was I not going very slow, I had so much energy and could have just kept going and going. I felt like the energizer bunny. I'm pretty sure I could have run the whole thing again right after. Weird, right?! It was awesome!

Travis and Annie (brother-in-law; friend): They ran the 10k! And they did amazing! You guys rock!

Megan and Janie (sister; step-mom): Our crew. You two are so awesome! Thank you for coming to watch and wait for us!

That's the short version of why they are all so awesome. If you want the long version just give me a call. :)

Okay, now on to the pictures!

We all met at my dad and Janie's house in South Jordan. Then on Friday, the day before the race, we headed down to Green River for the pre-race dinner and to sleep. We all split up into two cars. Travis, Lisa, and I were with Dad and Janie. Adam, Jen, Megan, Annie, and Sadie were with Scott in his car.

We got a little stir crazy on the way down.

Pre-race dinner. Getting really excited! Scott, me, Adam, and Megan.

Travis, Dad, Jen, Lisa, Annie.

Scott, Janie, me.

This is in the hotel room. I had everything ready to go for the next morning! Notice the card at the front of everything. When I got to my dad's house and opened my suitcase I saw this laying on top of my stuff. Mike snuck it in there before I got on my plane! Isn't he so awesome?!

On Saturday morning we all got up and drove about an hour to Goblin Valley. Group shot before the race!

The three 50k girls! Jen, me, and Lisa.

All of the 50k newbies! Jen, me, Lisa, and Adam.

It was weird. I didn't have any nerves before the race. I was just so excited. And really cold! Dad, Lisa, me, and Travis.

On your mark, get set (we were in the very back, you can't see us here)....

Go!!!

Yay! Having fun!

Part of the trail was pretty wet and muddy.

Official picture from the Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon website! Cool, right?! I bet they don't even know that we're all family!

That's Dad and me down there.

Oh dear. We saw this a few miles in... (that's me and Dad)

Fuel station! My very favorite thing about these fuel stations were the Girl Scout cookies! Yummmmmm!

Jen, me, Lisa.

Lisa, me, and Jen hopping through the mud.

Lisa, me, and Jen at the top of a BIG hill.

Group shot right after the turn around!

There was a time limit of 9 hours to finish this race. We were all chilling and having a great time hanging out while slowly moving forward. At about the half way mark my dad was starting to get pretty tired and began to worry that he wouldn't make it to the finish line in the time allowed. He wanted to make sure those of us who were running our first ultra were able to finish in time, so he told us to run ahead without him just incase. Scott and Sadie stayed with my dad to keep him company and to help encourage him during the long, lonely trails.

Jen, me, Lisa, and Adam going down into the Valley of the Goblins. This was right at the end of the race. We only had about a mile left!

Megan waiting for us to climb up out of the valley.

Our path was marked with pumpkins. I touched each of them. It made it more fun. :)

Here we come!

Wait for it....

"Nnnever give up! Nnnever surrender!". Yep, we said that and walked like the Thermians as we passed through the finish line.

Side note. During our training for the ultra, Lisa, Jen, and I started telling each other "Never give up! Never surrender!" as motivation. Then one day Lisa and Travis were watching the movie Galaxy Quest and they realized (and confirmed) that the scene where Jason fights the rock monster was filmed in Goblin Valley. Coincidence that we used a line from the movie as motivation?! Maybe. Maybe not?!

We did it!!!!! Our official finishing time was 7 hours 31 minutes 5 second.

Dad, Sadie, Scott, and what a view!

I love this! Dad is giving Adam a high five before he, Scott and Sadie head down into the Goblins! Guess what?! Dad, Scott, and Sadie came into view just about 30-45 minutes after the rest of us finished! They were doing so awesome!

Haha, Lisa pushing Dad up the hill. Now why wasn't I in the front for a push?! Incase you're confused, some of us went down into the valley to run it with Dad, Scott, and Sadie.

Scott jumping off a goblin. Yeah, we think he's awesome too....he did this near the END of running a 50k.

So Lisa and I decided to give it a try.

Scott, Dad, and Sadie (you can only see her leash) going through the finish line!

Janie and Dad

The whole gang after the race (minus Janie who was taking the picture). Jen, Adam, Scott, Annie, me, Lisa, Travis, Dad, and Megan.

Hanging out at the hotel after the race. I realize this is a most unflattering picture of me. But I had to share it because it was the BEST stretch I have ever had in my life!

Lisa and Travis! And Scott, Janie, and Dad!

The day after the race. On the drive back up to South Jordan. I didn't take my medal off until I got to the airport the next day. Well, I took it off to shower and sleep too. But it slept with it by my pillow.

Tired!

Look what I saw when I walked through the door at home! Mike is the BEST! Even though he couldn't go he still supported me 100%!

For Scott's race report, click here.

For Lisa's race report, click here.

For the official results, click here.

We're still here...

2010-11-13T13:27:00.002-06:00

I promise I haven't forgotten that I need to post my Goblin Valley race report. Things have been pretty CRAZY around here ever since I got back and I just haven't had the chance to sit down and sort through the pictures and write up my report. However...I just might get a chance to work on it this coming week. Hopefully.

Here is a picture of just one of the things that has been going on around here. This is in our family room. I'll explain what this is all about in another post....after I get my race report up.

These past few weeks seem to be making some of us do silly things:

Ultra Marathons are Awesome

2010-10-25T10:07:00.003-05:00

I did it! On Saturday I ran my first 50k Ultra Marathon! Pictures and a race report coming soon...

Here I go!

2010-10-20T18:35:00.008-05:00

Well, this is it! Tomorrow (Thursday) I will fly to Utah to run my first ultra marathon (50k!) (Saturday). I'm really excited for this experience because 6 of my immediate family members will be running with me! So awesome!

Mike and Zoe are staying home. Crazy! I can't believe I'm leaving them for 4 days! Mike has been practicing doing the 'Princess Medicine' with Zoe. He has never done the shot before (it's always me doing the shot with Mike holding Zoe) and this weekend he gets to do it by himself.

As I increased the number of miles I ran each Saturday (that's the day I did my long run during the week), I noticed that my pile of 'things' kept growing. I typically would start getting my stuff together on Friday morning and throughout the day would remember things I would/might need for my run in the morning. By the time I did my 28 mile training run, this is the pile of stuff that I had ready for Saturday morning. Crazy, right? I'm excited to just run with a single water bottle this Saturday and be able to rely on aid stations every few miles that will be stocked with all of these things.

Zoe is posing in front of my pile of things in my bathroom. The more organized and ready I had everything for Saturday morning, the faster I could get out the door and start my run. This really helped on hot days when I was racing the sun and trying to run during the coolest part of the day.

This is my motivation poster. I started this when I was training for my first marathon a year ago. I love adding new quotes, pictures, and my favorite...cards from some of you (shout out to Natalie and Jen!).

Also, a big shout out to Sheri who ran many, many miles with me over the past few months. Sheri and Rachel who let me drop stuff off on Friday nights so their houses could be my aid stations. Mike who is my biggest fan and support (I look forward to being able to function on Saturdays again).

And to Dad, Scott, Adam, Jen, Travis, and Lisa: Nnnever give up! Nnnever surrender!

Crazy Hair!

2010-10-20T13:23:00.002-05:00

Today was Crazy Hair/Hat Day at Zoe's preschool. We did crazy hair. Zoe loved it and thought it was so cool. Her response when I finished and she looked in the mirror was, "I have 12 ponytails! Cool!".

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-18T19:32:00.009-05:00

Zoe's preschool class had a field trip to a pumpkin patch on Friday. It was so much fun! Zoe thought the whole thing was great, especially because Grandma (my mom) came went with us!

Zoe was a little overwhelmed at first and it was hard to get her to focus on the camera. So no smiles from her here...but it's still a cute picture, I think!

This is about as close as Zoe would get to the animals.

Each of us got to pick a pumpkin to take home. Zoe looked at lots and lots of pumpkins, examining them, and picked out three great pumpkins.

This looks like a good one!

I can hold it!

Kaylee and Zoe picking pumpkins!

She picked out a pumpkin!

Grandma and Zoe

We got to go on a hayride!

Zoe on the hayride with some of her friends from school.

Hayride!

Zoe and some of her classmates!

Later that night we all got to hang out with Jacob and Emma. We had popcorn, watched a movie, played games, danced, and had tons of fun.

Emma and Zoe

The cubscouts had a Fire Safety night with the firemen. Zoe thought the engine was SO cool. She's jumping up and down with excitement here!

Zoe's Bathroom

2010-10-17T15:10:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Mike and I decided to make our first cosmetic change to the house. We painted Zoe's bathroom. It is a little difficult to see the original color from these pictures. But trust me when I say it was just a bad color. It was a yellowish pea color. Gross. Now it is a pastel green!

Zoe loves it! In fact, the first time she used the toilet after we finished she said, "You fixed the door! I love it! You fixed the walls! I love it! The sun isn't in my eyes any more! I love it!". We think the whole 'sun isn't in my eyes' thing is because the previous color was yellow....

Here are some before pictures:

During:

Ta da!

Zoe's First Haircut

2010-09-21T14:30:00.009-05:00

Zoe got her very first hair cut today! Yes, I said "very first". Mike and I both really love her long hair and up until recently we hadn't even thought about cutting it. But lately her hair has become really hard to do anything with. It was just too long. And the ends were starting to look a little scraggly. So I made an appointment with my friend, Becca (she's cuts my hair too), to cut Zoe's hair. When I told Mike about it he just about had a heart attack. He did NOT want me to cut her hair. He was so afraid I was going to have it cut really short. But, alas, I like long hair too. So here are a few pictures to document the experience.

Here are some 'before' pictures:

Getting Zoe prepped!

There were a few tears.

Here is the first cut!

She looks kind of miserable, doesn't she?

Her friends, Kailee and Allie, just showed up. She's trying to see them without moving.

Being patient (kind of) but REALLY wanting to be done.

And she survived it!

Good-bye hair!

It's not that much shorter...just healthier looking.

Whew.

Ta-da!

Zoe's Tent

2010-09-17T08:30:00.003-05:00

Zoe and I came home from running errands one day and look what was waiting for Zoe! Mike surprised her with it...he is the BEST!

She is a little excited!

It's starting to get dark outside and she's STILL playing in the tent with her flashlight.

Sometimes she gets to watch a movie in the tent. She LOVES that. Her first choice is always Finding Nemo.

We have let Zoe sleep in the tent two times. They both were disasters. The first time we left the tent downstairs in her play room and it took her about two hours to finally fall asleep and then she woke up in the middle of the night freaking out because she didn't know where she was. The second time we put the tent in her room. But at midnight she STILL wasn't asleep so I finally put her in her own bed and she immediately fell asleep. I sure hope she does better sleeping in it when we actually take it camping!

After the Cabin

2010-09-06T20:00:00.006-05:00

After our trip to Arkansas, Lisa and Travis decided to extend their vacation and come to Texas for a few days! Yay! Here is a picture of Lisa, Travis, and Zoe playing:

And here is what happened when Zoe ate some chocolate pudding:

Watch Me Train

2010-09-06T06:56:00.003-05:00

Check out the new training widget I added on the right hand side of my blog...right under our profiles. Now you can watch my training for the Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon (what is an ultra marathon, you might ask? It's any race longer than 26.2 miles, and this one happens to be a 50k (31.1 miles)).

Any and all encouragement is welcome! And if you REALLY want me to feel your "Go Melanie! You can do it!" vibes...then I suggest coming out and running with me any Saturday morning (you can usually find me running somewhere in McKinney). :)

Frannie's Cabin on the Buffalo

2010-09-05T22:44:00.002-05:00

Oh my goodness, this post is WAY overdue. During the second week of August we were able to meet up with Travis and Lisa in Arkansas for some much needed R&R. We rented a cabin in the Ozark Mountain area (near Buffalo River). It's called Frannie's cabin and we recommend it for groups of 6 or less.

I see you! (This was a swing set/fort that was on the property and Zoe loved it!)

Inside the cabin, we ate plenty, including big juicy steaks that Travis and Mike cooked on the outdoor grill.

Zoe looking on as Travis fills the deer feeder.

A little later we decided to just fill the whole thing. We wanted to see lots of deer. And it worked! We had deer there almost all day every day. Because it was a large private forest these deer had probably never encountered a hunter. They were pretty brave (for deer). We thought we might see one or two, but they were always around. Mike took a nap on a hammock near the feeder and he awoke to a large doe walking right by him. If he had stretched he could have touched it. He said that must be what it's like to see a unicorn.

We waded in the Buffalo River. The water was really cold and the ground was really rocky. You can barely see a butterfly sitting on the ground on the left hand side of the picture. Zoe chased it for a while. Here's a tip...if you want to experience the buffalo river in all its mighty power, don't go in the middle of the summer when it's dried up.

This was at one of many lookout points. I was standing at the top of an old, rickety, scary tower while taking this picture. It was the highest point on the mountain. Notice Mike stayed down below. Actually, he did climb up after this photo to impress Zoe, but he turned around as soon as he reached the top.

We had lunch one day at this Cliff House restaurant. It literally sat on the edge of a cliff. I don't think my nerves ever really calmed down the whole time we were there. But...the food here was SOOOO good. Highly recommend the chicken fried steak and the green beans cooked with bacon bits.

Mike is deathly afraid of heights and so it was fun seeing him react to all the high spots.

View from our table inside the restaurant.

Of course, everywhere we went, Zoe hammed it up for the crowd. She had such a blast the whole trip. So did we!

We made a campfire every night and ate LOTS and LOTS of s'mores. Yeah, even though it was hot, we didn't care...we wanted s'mores!!! Aside from those gooey treats from heaven, Mike shared a ghost story from a book that he found in the cabin's library, and we all star gazed. (The little touches that Frannie, the owner of the cabin, provided were great--including binoculars, deer food, books, games, dvds, travel guides, local maps, etc.)

There was a hot tub sitting on the huge wrap-around porch. We spent a lot of time in there. Zoe thought it was really cool that we had a pool on our porch. :) The coolest was sitting in the hot tub watching the deer eat and listen to wind rustling through the trees....very relaxing!

Lisa and I ventured out for a couple of runs while we were there. This run was on a trail that followed the Buffalo River.

We asked a deer to take a picture for us (just kidding....it's just the camera timer)

Let's get ready to run!

Going up...

...and going down.

Check this out. Those are real motorcycles hanging from that tree! We just have a peach tree in our yard...maybe we should plant a motorcycle in our backyard. :)

Wilderness explorer Zoe and her walking stick.

Zoe loved feeding the fish in the Coi pond every day.

Travis and Mike grilling some steaks. YUM.

This cabin was great. It was very clean and comfortable. We enjoyed having some down time to play board games and watch some T.V. (the So You Think You Can Dance finale to be exact).

Zoe looking for deer.

Zoe playing

First Day of Preschool

2010-09-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

Zoe went to her first day of preschool today! And....she LOVED it!

She was a little apprehensive when I was dropping her off saying, "Mom, just stay with me." She never cried though. Her teacher told me that Zoe did great during the day and seemed to have a lot of fun. When I picked her up she totally didn't want to go home. When I finally convinced her to come home with me :), I asked her what her very favorite thing was that she did at school and she said, "My friends!". When I asked her if she wanted to go back to school again she shouted, "Yes!". And when I asked her what she had for a snack she said, "I'm just still hungry." Good! Those are all great answers. I'm so happy that she likes it!

Anyone curious about what I did while Zoe was in school? Good, I'll tell ya. First I went to Super Target and got some groceries. Took them home. Did some work (I don't think I ever blogged about this...I do data entry for my brother-in-law's dermatology practice). Poked my head into Mike's office and said "Hi" and got him a snack. Went to the bank to make a deposit. Went to Kohl's to return some clothes. Went to Academy to get some GU gels for Saturday's 20 mile run(!!!). Then picked Zoe up.

Zoe ended up taking a 3 hour nap today. I think the girl was exhausted!

Preschool

2010-08-29T21:52:00.000-05:00

We got Zoe into a really cool preschool and we are SO excited about it! This opportunity just kind of fell into my lap and I jumped on it--well, a student moved so a spot opened up. The teacher is certified in elementary education and is CPR certified (that adds a certain level of comfort). She has a daughter Zoe's age, so in an effort to be a stay at home mom and also teach (which she loves), she opened her preschool.

She lives in the area and does the preschool out of her house. I was a little skeptical of this at first so I took Zoe to visit one of the summer school classes in session to check it out. And it seems REALLY awesome. Mrs. Shannon, the teacher, has transformed her entire living room and game room into a preschool. And she runs it just like a school. I'm pretty sure Zoe thought she was in heaven that day. So she's pretty excited about it too.

Check out Mrs. Shannon's blog here.

Cutie Pie

2010-08-29T21:38:00.001-05:00

My mom was here the day I took Zoe in for her growth checkup. She snapped some pictures of Zoe right before we left for the doctor. Somehow my mom worked her "grandma" magic and got Zoe to ham it up for the camera.

(Isn't this the cutest dress?! It was a present from Adam and Jen. Too bad you can't see the bow because it matches the dress and is SO cute.)

Zoe's growth check-up

2010-08-29T19:55:00.002-05:00

On August 5th, I took Zoe in for her her growth check up at the endocrinologist. We go in every 3 months now to get her measured and weighed to see how the progress is going.

Here is her progress so far:

Start 2/5/10: 21lbs. and 32.8 inches

3 months 5/5/10: 22.5lbs. and 34.1 inches

Now 8/5/10: 23lbs. and 34.9 inches

As you can see, Zoe didn't grow very much since May. She grew a lot in the first three months on growth hormone therapy and the doctor expected her to have grown a lot again since she has so much catching up to do.

So we talked a little bit about ways to increase Zoe's calories. That's nothing really new to us, she gets to eat pretty much what any kid wants to eat like ice cream and cookies. I really don't want to clog Zoe's arteries though by the time she gets to kindergarten so I try hard to get her to eat good fats like bananas, peanut butter, and avocados. Luckily, she likes all three of those things. She's really good at eating fruits and veggies....so it makes it a little easier to hand over cookies and ice cream cones. Also, you know when your kids won't eat their dinner, so to teach them a lesson you just send them to bed hungry? That's not an option for us. Zoe NEEDS the calories and she NEEDS the full stomach to help her sleep. So dinner time gets interesting (and I might get a little desperate) sometimes.

We also talked about Zoe's sleep habits. I know a lot of kids Zoe's age who don't take naps any more. But the growth hormones work best when Zoe sleeps so we still do naps every day AND try to get Zoe to sleep 12 hours at night. Her sleep is SO important. The problem is, Zoe doesn't want to sleep that much any more. She has better things to do, right?! I always put Zoe down for a nap in the afternoon. Sometimes she falls asleep, sometimes she doesn't. And we usually have Zoe in bed by 8:00pm but lately she doesn't fall asleep until 9:00 or 10:00. She just lays in bed talking to herself for TWO HOURS sometimes! The doctor suggested having Zoe drink a whole cup of milk before going to bed (we had stopped doing that when we started potty training) so that she has a full stomach (also, milk contains tryptophan which makes you tired). So we've been doing that and it seems to be working. The one problem is that Zoe's pull-up is F-U-L-L in the morning. Oh well, we'll deal with that later.

The last thing we talked about with the doctor is increasing her daily dosage of growth hormones. The doctor wanted us to increase Zoe's dosage by .025ML a day. That's not very much. But it'll be interesting to see what kind of an impact it makes!

Zoe is still taking the shots pretty well. She hated getting it on her stomach so much that we finally stopped doing it there. Now we rotated between her butt and leg. We still haven't tried doing it in her arms...they are just too dang skinny.

Our next appointment is November 4th!

I'm a grand prize winner!

2010-08-25T21:00:00.003-05:00

A few Saturdays ago I went to Luke's Locker to try on some new running shoes. They were having a huge event going on where you could spin a wheel to win a prize, munchies to eat, and they were doing a raffle. So, I spun the wheel and got a coupon for $10 off a pair of shoes. Sweet. Skipped the munchies because once I eat one chocolate covered strawberry, something happens inside of me and I can't stop. I wake up the next day surrounded by strawberry stems and a severe stomach ache......must eat chocolate covered strawberries! After skipping the munchies, I put my name in the raffle and finally tried on some shoes--the shoes were really cool by the way. I tried on the Brooks brand Cascadias shoes; however, I didn't get a pair. Maybe when I become a more serious trail runner.

Anyways, I got an email the next day from the Luke's Locker store manager telling me that I was a grand prize winner! What?! Cool! She said I won a lady's Under Armour coach's bag with stuff in it. I couldn't contain my excitement. Remember that old Mervyn's commercial with the lady standing at the door before the store opened chanting "Open. Open. Open". That was me the next day. And check out what I got! (Mike said I reminded him of when the dad won the leg lamp in Christmas Story)

It's an awesome bag, 6 pairs of female running socks, 2 pairs of male running socks (yessss...they are helping me in my quest to get Mike to start running), and a really cool water bottle.

Thanks Luke's Locker!

Zoe's evaluation at the Early Childhood Center

2010-08-25T19:54:00.001-05:00

Mike and I have read a few articles recently about children with Russell-Silver Syndrome having developmental delays. We mentioned this to Zoe's pediatrician during her annual check-up in May and mentioned that we would like to have Zoe evaluated by the ECI (Early Childhood Intervention).

Remember when Zoe was evaluated by the ECI when we lived in Charlotte, NC?

Well, it turns out that the ECI only evaluates kids up to 3 years old. After that, they are evaluated by the school system. Well, lucky us, we happen to live really close to this brand new school building that is called the Early Childhood Center for McKinney School District. That's exactly who we needed.

So I gave them a call, explained Zoe's syndrome and why we wanted her to be evaluated, they sent me lots of paperwork to fill out, and then Zoe was evaluated.

Now, going into this, Mike and I really didn't think that Zoe was behind in anything. We've been working with her on a lot of educational type of stuff (ABC's, numbers, writing, reading, etc.). Our goal is to keep her on par (or maybe a little ahead of the curve) so that if she does have learning challenges down the road then she won't fall too far behind. Having said this, we wanted to get her evaluated early and annually (based on recommendations by Zoe's doctors).

So, evaluation day (July 27th). The first thing the social worker, Laurie, said to me was that after looking through the paperwork they could already tell that Zoe wasn't going to need any therapy. But because the doctor ordered the evaluation they wanted to go ahead with it. Okay, that's a good start.

So Lauri took Zoe and me into a room and tried playing with Zoe a bit. But Zoe would have NOTHING to do with Laurie. She was totally ignoring her and being SO shy. So Laurie sent Zoe and me into another room by ourselves to play. It was one of those rooms with a one-sided mirror and hidden microphones. And LOTS of toys. They wanted to be able to watch and hear Zoe play without her worrying about them. So after playing in there for about 10 minutes Laurie came back in and said she was so impressed at what Zoe knows and what she can do. By this time Zoe was talking to Laurie. :) So Laurie quizzed her on a few more things and then we were done. It was all really quick and painless.

The best thing is that Zoe passed with flying colors. Yay! Even though that is what we expected to happen, it was still a huge relief.

So, we'll take Zoe back in one year to be evaluated again. Then after that she'll be in school and won't need to be evaluated any more.

A day with Madison and Ethan

2010-08-21T21:59:00.000-05:00

On July 23rd, Madison and Ethan (Zoe's cousins) came over to spend the day with us. Before it got way too hot, we went on a hike and a nearby nature trail.

Ethan was trying to catch a pretty, blue dragon fly.

Zoe collected sticks along the way.

Madison was calling the animals.

After the hike and some lunch we decided to bust out the bounce house. By then it WAS way too hot so Mike got the hose out and cooled the kids down in a super, slippery bounce house.