Justin and Kristin

A Pop Quiz For You

So we just had our ultra-sound on Friday. I was nervous the tech wouldn't be able to tell what we were having and I would have to wonder for 4 more months. Fortunately, the results were pretty clear. 

Soooo.... What do you think we are having this third time around?

A Boy or A Girl?

a) A Girl

b) Not a Boy

c) A Female

d) XX

e) A Little Sister

f)    A Daughter of Our Heavenly Father

g) All of the Above

Well, I thought I would make it easy on you.....I mean really was there ever any doubt that it would be another girl?

Now the hard job of coming up with ANOTHER girl name lies upon us, when coming up with the previous two was already a chore. So the bad news is we don't get to use any of our MANY adorable boy names we liked. The good news is I don't have to change our entire baby wardrobe for this last baby. Sage is very excited and has already started telling people that she is having two sisters. I'm sure if Cadence could understand she would be happy to know that there will soon be a little sister she can pick on using all of Sage's tricks.

Poor Justin with his 5 sisters and now 4 females that he has to endure the rest of his life with. He must have really pissed God off before coming to earth. :)

We hope there are no problems and this one comes to us as perfectly as the last two.

p.s. Don't feel like you need to share your condolences about us not conceiving a boy, because I really don't feel incomplete without a son. Contrary to popular belief girls truly are just as great as boys!!!

My Annual Domestic Project

Seriously I'm not all "Mormony" and domestic like so many think every mom should be (and I'm ok with that by the way). But about once a year I do something really domestic and creative, and even then I either have to be WAY motivated, or have some super great idea. So this years project was motivated by my great friend, Missy, who is having twins. I thought it would be "fun" to make her a nursing cover. Ok, fun is a loose term....I guess I'd say not so much fun, but more like I had absolutely NO ideas of what to get her and when I thought of a nursing cover I didn't want to pay 40 bucks for one. So I got the pattern (or as my undomestic self likes to call it, the "recipe") on line and went to work. I know some of you out there are thinking how easy and simple this is....but it was hard for me, so back off!! I struggled quite a bit. It would probably be easier if I got my 1970's sewing machine out more than once every 2 years (seriously it's from the '70's). I think in the end after quite a few swear words, unstitching quite a few seems (is that what their called) without even one of those picker things....it turned out ok. Just hope she doesn't look too close at it! Here's the outcome.

 

Halloween 2009

I really like unique costumes for Halloween, and I also like dressing up in a theme as a family if possible. I know that this won't last forever since 1) Sage will soon realize she should probably get to pick her own costume and 2) I'll get even more tired and lazy and won't want to spend time creating unique costume ideas. Until that day arrives, this year we came up with these.....

 A FAMILY OF SPICES

Obviously Justin and I were salt and pepper (we bought those costumes). And the girls were unique little spice bottles. We made their costumes. Sage was....can you guess?

Obviously, Ground Sage, and Cadence was...

  Herbes de Provence, but to personalize it we changed the Provence to Cadence (since in French they rhyme).

 

 It was fun trick-or-treating the real way; house to glorious house. These two were a hit at every one we went to. You can't even imagine how adorable it was to see them walking up to each home. Especially little tiny Cadence. What a trooper too! She ran to every house! That's my girl. She was even saying "Trick-or-Treat" by the end.

The girls costumes were pretty easy to make, in case you were wondering. We just bought some foam and sewed a circle on top. We cut out arm holes and a hole for their neck. Then we cut the back open and stuck on velcro.  Justin did the cutting and sewing and I did the design of the labels which I printed on iron-on-paper and then ironed straight onto the foam. Simple as that! I haven't had the chance to take any really good close up shots of them in their costumes so you can at least see the cute labels I designed here they are:

6.66

...miles that is. That's what we ran today in the Devil's Chase "10k" in Salem! How cool is that?

Anyone who really knows me knows that my favorite holiday ever is Halloween (yes even more than Christmas), so what a treat to be able to run a Halloween race in the capital of Halloween itself - Salem! It was so fun! Tons of the runners were dressed up like devils so we joined the festivities of it all too. We were able to run with the girls this time so that made it added fun as well. It was a beautiful run through the quaint and erie town of Salem. Even though we ('I') had to take it easy again we still ran it faster than our first 10k little more than a year ago (Not bad for 17 weeks pregnant)!

 

 (That's Justin's scary face by the way.....not very scary...)

 We definitely got some oo's and aaaw's regarding the two cute little devils we were pushing along. They are cute aren't they?

 

I think we should definitely do it again next year.

More on other Halloween festivities to come......

Now I Know

So a few things I know now to look for the next time we are deciding where to live (I mean besides the obvious things like crime rate and school quality):

• A town with more than one grocery store in it (who then uses that monopoly to their advantage and jacks up their prices to ridiculous levels).
• And therefore a town that is closer than 20 minutes to any other shopping centers/grocery stores.
• Ummm a town with garbage pick up. I mean seriously! What kind of town doesn't have garbage pick up?! Like I want to spend every Sat at the dump!
• I should probably make sure that there are some good running routes, especially stroller friendly ones.
• More than one major public transportation route in and out of the town.
• Closer than 20 minutes to more than a few yummy, and reasonably priced restaurants that are family friendly
• No wild fox in my backyard that could potentially devour my children (oh and a fenced backyard is always nice)

Just a few thoughts to keep in mind if we ever get the chance to buy that dream house someday, or just a house that is ours again.

....with another one headed into the terrible two's?

Oh who could think such a thing about our SWEET, ADORABLE Cadence?

She turned 18 months a week or so ago and I can't believe looking at her that she is as old as Sage was when she was born! She is constantly on the go...and yes the tantrums are already starting. But she really is our sweetheart. She has a little edge and fight to her, but for the most part she is easy going, sweet, giving, and giddy-happy. She's a little bit more like...(wait for it) her father. She really has a way of bringing out in me parts that aren't on my natural side. The thing I love the most about her is that she loves to cuddle. I hope she doesn't out grow that too soon!!

 

 

Out of the Terrible Two's?

I finally got around to taking Sage's 3 year old pictures. As you can see, she is easily bribed now to pose "correctly" for a photo shoot, or maybe we're just on our way out of the terrible two's.

Here's our little Sage......

 

But not really......THIS is more like "our Sage."  Though Sage has such a sweet, loving, sensitive, and caring side....I think the first words that actually best describe her are "gregarious," "energetic," "sassy," and "fun." You could say she is a lot like her....father.....ok just kidding...... she's just like her mother! :) And she's just what we wanted her to be like! We love her to death!

Oh and a side note: Her hair is au naturale. We gave her a bath, she took her nap later, and she woke up looking like this! Not fair. We haven't even trimmed it since she was born, and I'm just too scared that if I take a pair of scissors to it then all that lovely curl will vanish! Sometimes I look at her and think she is just too gorgeous to actually be my daughter! How did we create something so beautiful (sorry, I really don't think I need to be humble here)? Well, hopefully she out grows it before her teens!

 

5 Years

Every year a new adventure. Looking forward to all the more to come!

Happy Anniversary to my "as perfect as humanly possible" husband!!! :)

If you told me I was crazy, I.....

would DEFINITELY agree.

After 5 months of training the day finally arrived.

The Top Of Utah MARATHON.

Some of you might understand the amount of dedication and hard work it requires to prepare yourself for a marathon. At our last Half Marathon our finishing time was right on track for us making our marathon time goal (somewhere just under 4 hours), and even maybe put me close to qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

However, the day after our half marathon I found out I was PREGNANT, and everything changed.

My father, the OBGyn HIGHLY discouraged me from running it. My brother-in-law, the OBGyn, somewhat discouraged me from running it. My OBGyn in Boston definitely didn't encourage me to run it.

I went back and forth. Should I? Shouldn't I? I kept up with the training cutting WAY back on the intensity, and missed my 20 mile run. Training pregnant/tired, pushing two kids in a stroller by myself was quite a challenge......not to mention, feeling morning sickness 24 hours a day!

We decided to go for it, but to just take it WAY easy. Now my goal was just hopefully to finish, and hopefully before they stopped giving finishing medals away (7-8 hours). We thought it would be nice though to finish before the volunteers/aid stations left (6 hours).

The first 14 miles were down a beautiful canyon, where the fall colors were starting to change. We saw two Moose. Nice and cool with the wind at our back. It was very enjoyable. This is just after mile 14 when spectators could finally come and cheer for us!

I think this was about mile 21. Still feeling pretty good, but it was getting mighty hot - somewhere in the mid 80's.

My OBGYN(s) said that staying hydrated was the most important. I'd have to say I succeeded at that since I had to stop for a pee break every 2 miles.....no exaggeration!!!

I know it looks like we are walking...but we actually are jogging. Let's not mention though, that we're jogging so slow that a speed walker passed us at mile 3, never to be seen again!

About 1 1/2 miles left. Still feeling ok.

We did it! Under 6 hours! Actually I think the hardest part was forcing myself to hold back the entire race. Especially those last few miles, I wanted to just bolt! I had quite a bit left in me! Being 11 weeks pregnant though, I wanted to keep my heart rate under 80% MHR.

Still laughing and smiling. That's a good sign. And see, we weren't even the last to finish! Good sport Justin, ran the entire thing with me (at like 60% of his MHR). He said this was "OUR race." I think he just wanted to make sure he was there to force me to not push it. Good man.

Let's not even get into our stats this time. They were horrible. Maybe next time I can do better! I think it's a pretty safe bet. Not running for two should hopefully make a difference! 

FYI: I went with my dad for an ultra sound after the race....and everything with the baby still looks good. PHEW!!

Sage's Birthday List

 

Sage wanted a few specific things for her birthday this year:

1. A birthday cake
2. A candle
3. Balloons
4. A "party hat" (not a birthday hat but a "PARTY hat")

We knew this birthday would be one of the less exciting ones since we had just moved to Boston and didn't know anyone. No friends or family to share in the festivities with us.

I don't think Sage cared....but I did. 

Also one of the biggest bummers for me was the day after our moving truck left Utah I realized all of my cake making stuff was packed and will be in the storage warehouse for a month! Stuck in this corporate apartment with no cooking accessories, I had no means to make one of my traditional "cool" cakes. We had to settle with a store bought one.

I don't think Sage cared.....but I did :(

We couldn't find any cool "party hats" so had to settle with an ugly Target one.

Once again, I don't think Sage cared...but....I guess you get the picture.

I think Sage had a good birthday. I hope to make her 4th bigger and better.

One More Year

From Subway to Subway

Which Subway do you prefer?

I think that I'd have to say the first. Though the fast life of the busy city does have some appeal, I think that I will always prefer the natural beauty of that carved out sandstone.

We finagled a way to get our favorite hike in before heading out to Boston. Here's a taste of this years adventures!

 .

After one of the swims through a slot. I have to say the water was colder than I think I've ever had it before. I could barely move my arms to swim. Thankfully the air was warm enough to help us not freeze once we got out!

We did it without ropes this time. That always poses a new adventure!

I think we finished in record time. 5 1/2 hours....and we loved every single minute of it! We will miss you subway.

We left for Boston that same weekend. Still getting used to the new subway.

Not such a loser!?

As many of you know we have been living in Utah with family in order to compensate for my lack of income.  Meanwhile, Kristin has been working at LDS Family Services as the sole provider for our family. Not being able to secure employment immediately after graduation made me question whether it was the economy or just me being a loser.  Thankfully, our prayers have finally been answered (even if not all of our prayers like those asking to move back to Denver).  So if not Denver where to, you ask.  

Boston, Massachusetts.  I received an offer from Deutsche Bank about two weeks ago to do equity research for them.  I got a job doing what I wanted, the pay is good, the company is strong, and the location is about 2,000 miles off.  I guess three out of four isn't bad.  We are excited to finally move on to the next chapter of our life with the hope of returning to Denver in the not too distant future. Thank you to all of those who have helped and prayed for us. The next time you hear from us we will be on the other side of the country, again.

we're only HALF crazy

In the midst of our marathon training we thought it would be "smart" to run a half marathon as kind of a "test" of our preparation.....Yeah....like I said....we're only HALF crazy. So we ran the Provo River Half Marathon this past weekend. 

Here are the bullet points of information in case you are curious about how it went...

Why is it so dark? Because we had to be there by 4:45 in the morning so we could take a shuttle to the beginning of the race!! We froze our butts off for over an hour and a half before the race finally started.

A beautiful race....if we could even concentrate on anything else besides not passing out.

There were over 1200 women runners and about 600 men.

Oh my HECK! Can anyone tell me why so many "gosh darn" women in Utah County want to run this half marathon?

We actually felt a lot better during this race then the half marathon we ran in Raleigh just less than 4 months ago.

Maybe the lack of 99% humidity had a little bit to do with it. 

Ok our training hopefully had a little bit to do with it to. I mean look at us! We're ripped!!!

...but around mile 3 I did start feeling a little inkling of pain on the outside of my left foot.

By mile 6 I knew I was in trouble as it then started to feel like 

SHARDS OF GLASS

rubbing into my foot!!

The last 7 miles were a mental war with the pain. Here is the blister. You can't really see it but man it hurt.

(FYI the tape on those two toes is where I lost my toenails about a week prior to the race. Isn't running fun?!)

Notice the shorts I chose to wear.....had to show my true colors while in Utah County!! :)

Though we had set our expectations low (considering training was interrupted by a 2 week illness just preceding the race) we still beat our last half marathon time by more than 7 minutes!

We ran this one in 1 hour 45 min (8 minute miles!!)....better than we needed to do to prove to ourselves that we're right on track for our marathon in a month!

According to Justin's spreadsheet I placed in the top 9% of my age group and he placed in the top 33% (his best yet!)

That's good right?

I think we established that this was the first race that Justin actually could have ran faster than me. Poop on me.....  :(

Ah well. We still did well. We can't walk today still, but it's a small price to pay!! hee hee!!!

Buddies

So back in the busy month of July we had a great treat. Our very special (and by special I mean short bus) friends from NC came out to Utah. Since we have left NC we have missed them so much (and when I say "missed them" I mean missed the free homemade pizza they made us). We were lucky to have these great friends while in NC who lived just down the hall (a.k.a free babysitting) and they had a fun playmate for Sage (to steal all his toys and piss him off on a regular basis). No but really, ever since we moved back to Utah we were looking forward to their visit. They are one of the few things we actually miss about NC. We didn't get to spend nearly enough time with them while they were here, but it was great to see the Hemmerts again. Sage was so glad to be reunited with her little buddy!

Brotherly Love

I know I'm a slacker and haven't written anything for a bit. I guess with being a mom, working, training for our marathon, and trying to have fun with family and friends while we're in Utah is just gobbling up all my time. This 4th of July was super fun. Not only did I get to take another trip to Lake Powell, but I got to spend half the week with my little brother Nick, who came in from New York. I don't have a favorite brother....but if I did..... Anyway. We took a few hours and did an "America's Next Top Model" shoot with him. Talk about fun! It was great to be able to do something a little different artistically. Here are some of them. If you want to see a few more I made a photo album of him on my photography blog.

He's a little hottie, hu?

Run, Drive, Sleep?, Run

At the last minute (one week before the race) I had the opportunity to join a women's team who was running the Wasatch Back, Ragnar Relay. I've thought about doing one in the future sometime, and my chance came sooner than expected! Thanks Rachael for thinking of me!

It was quite the experience and I really didn't know what to expect going into it. For those of you who don't know, the Wasatch Back Relay is a 188 mile race where a team of 12 (sometimes 6) runs in turn for over 24 hours straight. Each team member takes 3 different legs. It is quite an experience. You run a certain section hand off your wrist band to your next team mate, jump in your van and follow each runner until it is your turn to run again. You are suppose to sleep between legs, but lets face it, you don't really sleep for over 24 hours straight. It's a lot of fun energy and team camaraderie. You all decorate your vans with your team name and just cheer each other on!

My first leg was Friday afternoon. It was suppose to be my easiest leg (3.2 miles) but due to the heat and the altitude it was my hardest. The best part of it was seeing a surprise cheering squad for me at the end of my first leg!

 

  

 The end of my first leg! Then back in the van!

I didn't get any pictures of me running my second leg which was a 7 mile run at 11pm!! What a thrill that was! Very chilly but beautiful with the millions of bright night stars!!!

 Then I ran again Saturday morning, 6 miles. Justin, the girls and my mom were there to cheer me on! This leg was cool and even rained a bit on me. I finished before the torrent of rain pummeled the next 4 runners.

 

The exchange at the end of my last leg!

And then into the finish line as a team!

Go Team Tortuga! 

(Lock up your men and children!)

Still alive, but DEAD TIRED!!! 

Totally would do it again.

12 Years Overdue

One of my favorite places ever is Lake Powell. It has to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world! 

I hadn't been there since before my mission! What a shame!! We were so lucky that Grandma Gina was willing to watch our kids so that Justin and I could accompany my dad to Lake Powell for a quick trip.

It was so great to be back there. Even though it was very windy most of the weekend we still managed to get a few ski runs in. We even managed to get Justin up on a slalom ski for the first time! The magic of Lake Powell. I know that Justin prefers wake-boarding, but I was so proud of my man! If we can get some more practice in he'll be a mad skier in no time.

 

I also did a little skiing myself. Man, water-skiing has to be one of my favorite sports ever; especially at Lake Powell. Look at the gorgeous water and amazing scenery!! I LOVE LAKE POWELL!

I Always Knew I Didn't Like Utah County

The reason for the bitter title to this post is that the job Justin has been working his tail off to get, fell through this week. They strung us along, made Justin prove himself over and over again, wasted our time and energy, even gave Justin a contract to sign before 4 days later saying "Oh wait, never mind." I keep telling myself that I didn't want to be in Utah County anyway. But now we're back to no insurance, and no income. Seriously how long is this trial going to last?

On a different note. We have made good use of ALL this free time. Last week we made it to the mountains for our first hike of the season. Sage hiked up by herself and even about half way down the hike before wanting a ride. We're glad that she likes to hike!

Grandma Gina came along for the fun.

Catch Up

Well, I'll catch you up to speed. These past few weeks have been crammed full.

First and foremost on May 10th Justin graduated with an MBA (or as we like to refer to it, his Master's in Unemployment!! :) ) I'm so proud of him for going after his dreams and working hard. Though there have been many sacrifices in our decision for him to go back to school, the things we have gained are immeasurable. 

 

Justin and I agree that graduating itself was kind of anti-climactical since he doesn't have a job to show for his efforts yet. But what was really great was that all of our parents were able to make it out (and one of Justin's sisters too) for the ceremonies! We enjoyed our time with all of them. Oh and um, hello? Doesn't Justin look just like his dad!! Crazy!

The week following graduation was spent packing up our apartment for the big trek back across the United States. The moving truck miraculously turning into Mary Poppin's bag and some how fitting EVERYTHING into it! Justin headed out alone with the truck (pulling the car) and due to a last minute change of plans, I stayed in our empty apartment with the two girls for a week. I couldn't have survived without all the help from friends, so thank you! Truthfully we won't miss the bugs, the humidity, the heat, or the 20 minute drive to decent shopping of Chapel Hill, NC. But we will miss Justin's schedule that allowed him to be home so often, our simple life, the Loop, the gorgeous trees that made our runs so enjoyable, and our friends we made in our 2 year adventure. It was hard saying goodbye to some of the best friends we've ever had, and that is what we will miss the absolute most!

So I made the 6 1/2 hour flight alone  with the two girls (too traumatic to relate) and we find our self living in my father's basement. Justin is still looking for a job....help!!! and my LCSW license just went through so, I'll be starting up at LDS Family Services here any day now. For more about how we feel about our move back to Utah please refer to a few posts from last year

Here and Here

We are signed up for a 10 mile race in a week and a half, another half marathon in August.....and (gulp) a marathon in Sep. Wish us luck with the training!!