ALEX, Get Back HERE NOW!!!!

I had Alex this morning, this picture is from last week, and he can look pretty cute, but he is a runner. Twice today he bolted on me, and until Alex has bolted on you, you really can't realize how fast he is! The second time he ran off on me was at Kohls, and my two were in the stroller and he was walking along side it holding on, all of a sudden, he took off through the clothes, as I ran after him screaming ALEX!!! Luckily my two stayed in the stroller and I caught up with him halfway through the women's workout clothes. So for the rest of the time in Kohls, every two seconds I said, "Don't let go of the stroller." Or, "You listen to your Aunt Lynn." in a loud stern voice. (Markie would not get out of "his spot" in the stroller, which is the topic of a whole other blog to come.) Anyways, once I am shopping, I am not gonna let some little four yr old red head cut my trip short, so I kept shopping. Oh, then a lady came up to me and recommended a web site that sells bracelets with room on the inside for the child's ID in case they really get away. She said her grandson has one who is autistic. Of course, I immediately forgot the website, something ID.com. I am sure she was trying to be helpful in her own way. Soon enough Alex was in the stroller and I carried Bella, who started crying and did cut my trip short. Upon arriving at the checkout, she let out a huge burp and spit up water all over me, she had a particularly tough swim lesson today and took in a lot of water, so I knew it was coming. The cashier gave me some tissue, and checked me out rather quickly. At least Bella stopped crying. When I was about to leave, pushing Markie and Alex in my stroller, no easy task, while holding Bella, the cashier said to me, "Your a good mom." Somehow that little comment really made my day. I think most moms would not have attempted Kohls with those three, but hey, I had an exchange to make!

Talent Show

Lizzy and her friend Anna performed their level four floor routine for the school talent show. The clip is the first portion of their performance. They performed it for their school earlier in the day at an all school assembly as well as in the evening. They did a great job. It was great experience for them performing in front of an audience. They had a lot of fun and came up with the idea and modified their routine for the stage all by themselves. I am so proud of Lizzy, she started off so shy, she is still quiet, but she is certainly not shy anymore, and she loves to perform!

Markie 5 year picture

Markie had his picture taken today at Kiddie Kandids. I will be sending out pictures shortly. He was really good for the pictures. These are just two of them. Enjoy.

Lizzy's fishy performance

Lizzy's second grade at school did a fishy performance last night. It was really fun to watch. I have tried unsuccessfully to post a video clip from it, so for now will post pics. Lizzy had fun, Bella loved the music. They sang the Yello Submarine among others. Stay tuned for more, Lizzy got picked for the talent show next Tuesday. Pretty amazing that she auditioned with one of her friends and got selected. She does have a lot of confidence for a 7 year old. Someday I can use the picture of her with the pink octopus hat as blackmail.

More birthday stuff

The first video is of Markie decorating his cake on his birthday. He had baked it earlier in the day. He was really enjoying himself. The second video is at Ichiban. This was Markie's first time there. He loved it. It was his choice where we went for dinner.

Markie's Birthday Celebration

Markie was born 5 years ago. I had thought my water was leaking for a day or two, and finally decided to go to the hospital. Mark was coming back into town in a few hours from a business trip. Before heading to the hospital, Kim, June and I took our little ones and had a nice Mexican dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. As we all know, they won't give you any food at the hospital til you push that baby out, no matter how long it takes. June took Ben and Lizzy home with her for the night. Upon arriving at the hospital, Kim and I settled into triage at 7 ish to watch American Ido. Of course the nurses doubted my water leaking and tested me. Once the test came back positive, the nurse checked me to see how far along I was. Well, the nurse broke my water, and there was water everywhere. So I quickly called Mark and said get here quick. Off to a room I went and Mark arrived. THings moved quickly and Mark was the easiest labor and delivery of all three, and for that I always will have a special place in my heart for the little guy. At 11:30 ish out he came with about two pushes and Mark, Kim and Deanna all welcomed him to this world. 9 pounds 2 ounces, Markie had arrived! Life was changed forever for the second time in my life. It's been a great 5 years Markie, may God bless us with many more!

The Parrot

One of the best things about having siblings is getting to enjoy their birthday presents. Lizzy and Bella gave Markie the furreal parrot for his birthday. As you can see from the video, they love it. I know, it looks a little like shaken baby in the video, but Bella was really having fun.

Markie's 5th B-Day Party

Markie had his birthday party at Laser Quest today. We played two games of laser tag. The bummer was that Markie only wanted to play one game, however he seemed to have fun just hanging out in the party room with Bella and Alex while the second game was being played. I only know that from hearsay, since I took his place in the second game and for twenty minutes walked around a dark room getting shot and shooting at people with my laser gun. Enough said. Anyways, Markie really liked his pizza and opening presents. He loved having all his friends there. He especially likes the boys across the street, and was glad to have them there. Not to mention all of his cousins and Nicholas and Carter, who are almost like cousins. He was the youngest person at his party, most of his friends are older. I guess that is why one game of laser tag was enough for him. He was a little young for it, the pack he wore for the game was almost as big as him. He had a spongebob birthday cake, although he didn't much like eating the cake, I guess that is why he stays so skinny, very picky on his sweets. (wish I could say the same) It was a great party place all around, very fun party. Markie has more to look forward to anyways since his birthday is actually Tuesday and he will have Mark and I's presents to open and I am going to try to make it a fun day for him. I can't believe he is almost 5. Where does the time go?

My final Ironman Post (I hope)

Bella LOVED watching her daddy! Although she wanted to go with him on the run and cried when he couldn't take her with him! She was a trooper, she watched her daddy start and finish the race, and a bunch in between. I would say, your Daddy is coming soon, and she would perk up and start watching for him.

This is my third video, but I think the videos say it all, they take you through the morning, afternoon and evening. They are a little out of order, the running one in the dark was about 16 miles into the marathon, this one was during the transition to the run after the bike. This is my final post on the Ironman.

More Video of Ironman

Video of the start of the swim

More Ironman

The Ironman starts with a 2.4 mile swim in Tempe Town Lake. The pros start early, and then the "age groupers" get in the water, and tread, tread, tread, for 15 - 20 minutes until they start the race at 7 a.m. The start line is in the water, so all 2,000 competitors are in the water waiting. The smart ones wear wetsuits, that are naturally bouyant. Mark finished his swim in about an hour and 36 minutes. When they get out of the water there are race volunteers that rip the wetsuits off of the competitors. It is fun to watch. Then the athletes head into the "transition area" where they have a bag waiting for them with their bike clothes and gear. They suit up, have a little something to eat if they're smart, and head out. There bike is waiting and off they go! Mark's transition took him about 15 minutes. When your talking about a race that could take over 16 hours, you want to be ready to get on that bike for 112 miles. The bike portion of the race took Mark from 9 a.m. til 4:30 ish p.m. Temperatures on the race course were sunny and over 95 degrees in the afternoon.

We are an ironman family!

At the finish line at 11:30 p.m.

Mark completed his second ironman on Sunday. I will start from the end and work back to the beginning. He finished the race at aprox 11:30 at night. They allow kids to sign up and run in with their irondad or ironmom, I am pretty sure they will never have an ironmom unless Mark remarries and his new wife does ironman and the kids call her mom. Anyways, sorry for digressing, but I am that sure I will never do an Ironman. Plus, why do a race named after a man? Anyways, Markie got signed up at about 10:45, because I thought the earliest Mark would finish would be 11:00 based on when I last saw him running or rather walking about 6 miles from the finish. Well, for the next 45 minutes Markie asked me every 30 seconds how much longer til his Daddy would run up. He was sooo excited to run in with his Daddy. When he saw his Daddy coming, he took off running for him and grabbed his hand, and started running with him. Markie and Mark rounded the corner for the final couple hundred yards and the crowd was cheering and people from the stands were high fiving Markie, it was very thrilling to watch, so thrilling there was no time for pictures. The pictures you are seeing are right after. I really cannot put into words what it is like watching your husband finish a race he started 16 and a half hours earlier. It is very thrilling. Fore every finisher the announcer shouts out the finisher's name (if he has it visible on his bib) and says, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN! He will also say a few words about some of the finishers, like while we were waiting for Mark to come in they announced the oldest woman finishing, 65 years old. It is worth dragging your 4 year old and 1 year old down at 6 a.m. and back and forth until 11:30 at night. Markie, Bella and I were heading to the car at 11:55 when we heard a finisher come in, so we stopped off near the finish line at 11:57 to see if there were any last finishers. There were a lot of late finishers, but nobody else came in in the last three minutes, but it was fun to stay and see if anyone would make it. See, at midnight the race is just over, if you are still running the marathon, you can't finish. It is just over until the next time. An ironman is not really a spectator sport, you wait for hours and hours to catch a glimpse of the one you went to watch get out of the water, or zoom past on his bike, or jog past. But all the same, something draws me back down there throughout the day for that glimpse. I told Markie and Bella they were iron kids, they watched their Daddy start and finish the race. I have to say, I am glad it will be another 18 months until the next one, it is exhausting for everyone. He will try for his third in November of 09 in Tempe again. Another post another day with more race pictures and details of the start when I can!

Yuma County Fair

Lizzy, Markie, Bella and I headed down to Yuma on Tuesday morning for the fair. We had a lot of fun. Christian, their cousin, was showing two lambs in the fair. We got to watch him get second place in his group with one of his lambs, his first purple ribbon! Lizzy loved the rides, she went on a couple of her favorites four times each! Lucky Nana got so many ride tickets! Markie just wanted to play the fair carnival style games, he got to play the duck fishing game, which netted hima teeensy stuffed animal. Next year he wants to play the shoot out game. Bella was too small to go on rides, although she did have fun in a sand box in the kids area. By Thursday morning I was exhausted from keeping up with the three of them and we headed for home. Chris auctioned his lamb on Saturday morning for $11 a pound. (120 lb lamb) Great job Chris! Oh, my dad bought his other lamb, anyone for lamb dinner?