Homemade pizza..

We have always loved making Pizza, but last year a friend of ours invited us over for pizza at their place.  They used this recipe from Barefoot Countessa for the dough and I really love it.  I like it brushed with fresh garlic and olive oil, baked and then topped with fresh basil, fresh mozzarella and roma tomatoes and then baked again to melt the cheese.  It is so fresh and yummy.  Here it is with pesto in place of the basil.  Yummy still!

Sleeping Chaco

Here is Chaco in his kennel sleeping.  This guy is loved by our family (not so much Nate).  He smells, and sheds and is always in the way...and sheds...and sheds...and has peed in the house a few times.  However, he does not do anything to be mean or naughty and he loves us all so much.  He is Jake's best friend, and we love him for that.  I need to get him in obedience school this spring.  Maybe Jake and I will take him together!

Family work day

After the kids had such fun skiing this week I wanted to send them out again on Saturday with Nate.  We had good weather all week and I really wanted a family yard work day, but I knew it could wait and there were a limited number of ski days left, and Nate could not take off next week as we would be leaving for our vacation on Thursday.  So I decided to put my plans aside and had it in my head that they would ski and I would do what work I could at home alone with Mikah.  

Well, the kids were pretty snotty and ungrateful on Friday and I really had a hard time.  I nixed the ski day (Nate was even sad, but I needed him here) and declared it work day. The kids did not have much work the needed to do, just Nate and I, but they were sure to complain if I asked them to help with something that was not so fun. 

We have been buying wood for our raised bed garden.  I need to seal it and then build the beds.  In the next few weeks I think it will happen.  A friend has an organic sealer I can buy.  I also wanted to level the high spots in the garden area so the beds could be set up better, and we had to replace a broken lock on the gate and our mail box that was smashed in my kids a few weekends ago (they did the whole street!).  I sent Maes in Jake with Nate to get wood while I made breakfast and recovered from my 8.6 mile run.  Nate got new work gloves and go the same pair for Jake. (I have several pr that I've gotten for a $1 for him lost around the house...this pair cost as much as Nate's! The things dad's do). He was thrilled to help with the hard labor, but picking up toys sucked in his opinion.

Nate had a hard time getting the lock on the fence.  He did not have the right drill bit and the wind was being a pain.  I was able to level the garden, clean up the yard, pick up more oak leaves for compost and clean up the sand pile so I can eventually get it to the sand box in the back yard!  

I was amazed with how much my tired body could do. 

I think when I put it up to the hard physical stuff I can do it.  It is just the mundane that kills.  Sitting doing laundry makes me sick!  Reading, watching TV...but I end up doing the easy stuff.  I need to find some more hard labor to do. And I love working in the yard.

Jake's Ski Debut!

I hesitated to send Jake to Ski school.  Because he is younger it cost more than Maesyn's and I was not sure how well he would participate.  Once he gets mad he shuts down, and with learning something new there was potential to get mad.  He had to show me that he could go to regular school with out a fuss and not complain about his chores.  He REALLY wanted to ski, so I took the risk, and it worked out great.  There was only one other kid in his class.  

He was so excited to go rent his skis too.  

Nate said he is slower than Maes but seems to have more control. 

I hope they get one more ski day in before the resort closes for the season. Then next year we will take them on the Mtn again!  They might need a refresher lesson, but it is worth it.  

Spring Break visitors!

Last week Mesa was on spring break.  I got a message on Facebook from Laurie asking me about the snow up on the Mtn.  Laurie is Payson's Mom, and Payson was Maesyn's best friend at Franklin School in Mesa.  Morgan, her older daughter, would be turning 13 on the 14th of March and they were thinking about going skiing and had never been to Sunrise.  It had been pretty warm here, but Nate had just gone skiing with Maesyn on Saturday and it was decent on the Mountain.  I insisted they come up and stay with us!  

It was just a last minute idea Laurie had and things all worked out.  I love having guests and told them they would be in trouble if they came up with out staying here!  I did explain I was not feeling well, and my house would not be the cleanest and we would have to go out to eat. 

Thank goodness Laurie knew what I was going through!  

I did not tell Maes that Payson was coming up until after school.  She was so excited.  I let Maesyn take Wednesday off of school to go ski with her friends.  She had a blast.  The even went to the Movies that night.  

Thank you Morgan for sharing your birthday with us.

Sunday Hair.

Maesyn has been liking to have her hair down curly, but some of the curl is falling out.  One day at church I was messing with her hair and did this braid.  It is now one of her hair do's that we will do every now and then.  It really does not take that long, and I think she wants it for her baptism hair!

What we do when dad and Maes are at sunrise.

The first time Nate took Maes to ski I had him take her out of school.  I wanted her to go on a weekday so it would not be crowded.  Thursdays are a half day, so I did not feel so bad about her missing.  We had a little snow fall and Nate took Maes on a Saturday.  I felt bad for Jake to have to stay behind, but he had yet to have a lesson and I did not want him to have his first ski experience on a Saturday.  So I tried to make the day fun.  This is something I could do better at.  

Earlier that week we helped at Maesyn's school.  They were making beards for St. Patrick's day.  So Jake and I made a beard.  We also made a car out of a skateboard, a card board box, a bowl and construction paper.

Date Night with Dad..

We have a new tradition to do a date with Dad (or Mom) each month.  So every weekend one of the kids gets to have a night all about them.  Poor Mikah has been left out a few times, but sometimes I think she is OK because she does get a lot of one on one time with me, and date nights are all about one on one time.  Jake said Mikah could go with him on his date this month.  They went to Grumpy Jake's for ribs and then off to wal mart to play on the toys.  Little kids make dates really cheap!

Innagural Phoenix Marathon. March 3rd 2012

I was very excited to find out about the Phoenix Marathon that would be in March 2012 last fall.  It is not in Phoenix at all, but the east valley, in the areas that I used to run.  They only had the half this year, and because I was expecting to be pregnant by March I was excited to sign up for just the half.  On New Years eve I was able to run the course (before they made a minor change) with some friends from the Las Sendas swim, bike run club.  I like to get together with people from there when I am in the valley.  I know I won't run alone and get in a good quality workout every time.  I knew it was just a training run and took it easy.  I stopped to tie my shoe, at a traffic light and to ask for directions (i had them written on my arm but was a bit confused) after all of that I finished just one minute slower than my half marathon PR (1:53).  That was even after a hard Friday workout.  I normally rest the day before a long run.  I was the last of our group to come in...those las sendas people are fast, but very happy and excited about the race. 

By the time race day came around I was 10 or 11 weeks pregnant and about 10 lbs heaver! I had been really feeling the extra fatigue that comes with pregnancy but I knew I could do the distance.  I had been training for distance only with my girl friends and although I had a bad week I wanted to give this an attempt and drop out if my body was not up to it.  My sister in law paced me and we did not run faster than a 10 min mile.  I conserved energy and finished with a 10:42 average pace.  26 minutes slower than my training run.  It is hard slowing down.  However, I had a lot of energy the rest of the day.  

The race was well organized and they had a fun area after the race...even though it was windy and colder than I would have liked!  The kids ran a free 1k fun run, and even got shirts with it!  

We are all signed up for the full next year.  I will be just 5 month post postpartum.  I have run a full just 3 months after having a baby, but this time I want to do more than finish.  I want to break my PR, and I think I can on this course!  I have to be under 3:59:46 to PR! 

Mikah

Sometimes Mikah is a kitty cat, when she has shoes on both her hands and feet!  Also, Mikah has little desire to potty or poop in the toilet any more. She might for the baby when it comes.  She also would only say her name 'ah ah"  I felt bad because there is no way anybody would bet Mikah from Ah Ah. So one day I asked her if her name was Mikah or ah ah?  She said "I don't want to say Mikah, I say ah ah!" All this time we thought she could not say her name, and she was pulling our chains!  We made a big deal about it and now she thinks it is a big deal that her name is MiKah.  There is a lot of "K" when she says it. 

Mikah is also very polite...sometimes.  She likes to say "thank you mommy, or "thank you daddy."  She also likes to tattle on the dog- mostly lies... and say "I had that first!" and that is usually a lie too!  She is a fun sweet girl to have around and loves to snuggle with her mom!

Maesyn can SKI!!!

In October all the kids can get season lift tickets for free if they go recite a safety rule and bring in a canned good.  Nate has been enjoying having the resort only 45 minutes away and this year we let the kids learn to ski.  Nate and I have no idea how to do it, and Nate is just getting the hang of snow boarding himself.  So we decided to put the kids in ski school.  Maes was the first to go.  She spent the morning in ski school and then went down the mountain several times with Nate. She really took to it well.  In fact, she has been able to get to the bottom of the hill before him, ride the bunny lift, ski down and meet nate by the time he finishes his run!  Super proud of her.  It only cost about $14 to rent skis from the local shop, so between that and her lunch it is a cheap day.  Nate is considering a season pass for himself next year.  

Maesyn is loosing all her teeth!

 In January she had most of her teeth, but then they just all started to fall out! 

She is still beautiful, even without teeth!

P90X Nate...started in January

Nate started P90x with one of his buddies in January, and to date (March 18) he has lost over 15 lbs.  He gets to eat quite a bit and we are making good food choices as a family, but once I started getting sick I was not cooking as much for him and he has been having protein shakes for breakfasts.  Here are some of his dinners.

Jake the Helper

This year I really wanted to get started on the garden.  I sent Nate on many trips to home depot or Lowes to pick up wood for our beds.  I got cheaper wood and then sealed it with an organic sealant.  Nate took Jake with him to be a helper and bought him some awesome gloves (the dog ate them later) that cost as much as adult gloves.  Jake loves to help out with the man work so he was pretty excited!