Triathalon 09

Annual Willow Creek True Grit Triathalon

400 meter swim

(Clark- did awesome),

13 mile bike ride

(Kimball- made a tough course look easy)

and a 5k run

(Jenn- you would have had a decent time if you would have left when Kimball finished. However, since you were a cheerleader, all the high 5's and pep talk was an easy distraction for you).

Kimball's number 2 fan- I can still cheer louder.


I love that Kimball was involved and is even thinking of doing the whole thing next year. Steph actually competed as an individual and did amazing- hence another reason to be inspired by the older sister.

Meet Cosmo

Our first game of the season. I love Kimball's spontaneity! He decided to just go down to Provo, take Benson and see what tickets he could get. It worked out perfectly. I took Andrew to a baby shower, then drove down to meet him at half time. Carlie watched Andrew, and we had a great time cheering on the Cougars to a victory. Benson LOVED the game. At first he kept saying, "that's ouchie". Then, he asked me to, "Tell them to kick it now, high in the sky". We were double lucky because the people next to my parent's seats didn't show, so we all got to sit together. It's close quarters in the stadium and I thought Benson would be all over, but he had proved to me that he's one of the guys and could watch sports for a longgggg time. This is a beautiful sight- a stadium nestled up next to the mountains.
biggest fans

Can you see how serious my dad is in the background? I hated those earphones as a kid, and now I love them. I'm always asking my dad, "What are they saying? What's going on?" and in his wisdom, he knows.

Will they get the first down?

Meeting Cosmo. Thanks mom for making it all possible!

This picture was a little rushed due to Cosmo's popular demand. We had a little 'in' you could say with Cosmo this year, and we were sure happy about it.

Honestly, I don't think I've set foot in that stadium before without wearing blue, but this time my Cougar pride was in the form of a jacket, and it was too sunny.

After the game, we decided to make it a late night and head over to the women's soccer game against Utah State. 3-0 was the final. The best part is that my dad was chosen for a half-time competition. He had to 'name that tune" We are still teasing him because he didn't get "My Girl", and "Coco mo" by the beach boys. However, he got 1 of 3. The worst part is that he got booed after he missed the first song. I guess those fans wanted the t-shirts. I could see him getting more nervous. Dad, I will never boo you. I may still tease you though. That was a fun memory.

on / off

This is Andrew playing a game with me at 10 months old. He still flips the light off every time I turn it on.

Busy Body

Andrew is crawling everywhere. Now he stands on anything he can reach and has started hand walking. What I think is 'out-of-reach', he stretches just that much further to reach. Unbelievable. We have to be careful around the house that we don't accidentally step on him. I'll go from one room to the next and before I know it, he's at my feet. I love seeing how explorative he is, and it's interesting to see what intrigues him and what he will carry around. He's also in that stage where he cries like a baby when we take something away. If you give it back to him, it's like hitting a mute button. He knows what he wants!

You turn your back for ONE second...

boy at work

"mama, look at the crocodiles out there!" Benson saw these huge diggers when we pulled up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. There's also a huge pile of dirt and lots of cones. All of these things are just up his alley. We went and got a closer look since they're practically in the front yard.

He's getting big- but he looks small.

Just LOVE this kid!

Who's the Cake Boss?

I’ve got a new favorite TV show: Cake Boss! Inspired by my new TV guilty pleasure I decided to make a cake for dessert. Rummaging through our cake food storage I found a chocolate cake that expired in Apr 2009. Sure, it’s still good. Next up was frosting… expired, but only by a few months but we’re still ok right?

With Benson’s help I mixed the batter, water, eggs and used applesauce instead of Vegetable Oil (trying to be healthy here), put it in the pans and into the oven. But just as I closed the door I remembered that I forgot to grease the pans! Erica made me dump the cake out, grease the pans and refill them… oops. I need to mention here that we didn’t have two 9” round pans so I had to use a 9” round and a 9x9 square pan.

Fast forward twenty five minutes and voile! we’ve got cake! Erica took it out of the oven and it wasn’t separating from the pans. It’s not the pans, they were well greased, trust me. She’s blaming the applesauce. Are you getting the idea that nothing with this cake is going according to plan?

To make a beautiful two story stacker Erica cut the fragmented cake into a mold using Tupperware. I added the buttercream frosting and the special ingredient between the stacks: strawberry jam! If you love PB&J's you love jam between everything except your toes. The frosting wasn’t going according to plan because we had to cut the cake, plus the butter and cream from the frosting had separated, eewwwww. And since we had to redo the pouring -the cake mounded in the middle and the jam acted as an earthquake fault line so the cake shifted. I’m feeling a lot less cake boss and a lot more cake novice by this point.

Let them eat cake!

Round hole, square peg.

Honey, Should I be using this buttercream?

We did eat it. Truthfully I was hesitant to eat some -I think I mentally just wasn't into it. Erica was happily enjoying her slice and laughed at my "Yuk" face during my first bite. I quickly got through that phase and enjoyed a full slice. The strawberry preserves from France really do make the cake.

So, who wants cake? C’mon over, we’ve got a beautifully aged, modern art, delicious dark chocolate strawberry buttercream cake to feed you.


P.S. Andrew turns 1 on Oct 5th, guess who's making his birthday cake?




No, not the cake boss. The cake novice! Or Harmon's. We'll see.

COPY CAT

We have lots of nicknames for Andrew- one of them is kissy face, for 2 reasons. First, his face is so kissable, and also because he makes THIS FACE. Just this week he was exploring with different sounds. He made this sound, I did it back, and he did it again. We did this back and forth about twenty times. Oh, and I have to add that I laughed every time he did it back to me. When Kimball came home from work, I showed him Andrew's new trick. You can see it for yourself. He is so dang fun!

You want a kiss too mom?

Labor Day

We had a fun barbeque in Kimball's parents backyard. I'm loving September. The weather is a bit more mild, but it still feels like summer. I didn't manage to grab a picture of the whole gang, but here's Andrew's face smothered in carrots. Do you notice the twisty tongue? He has the most active, flexible tongue of all time. It's hilarious. Andrew broke in his top two teeth today. He got his bottom two teeth about two weeks ago at ten 1/2 months old. It seemed like we waited forever for these teeth. It totally changes his look. He does this wide grin and shows off those bottom teeth- he's so loveable!

This is the train set that Benson loves these days. Grandpa is so cute to get down on the floor with them and watch it go around and around. Andrew was concentrating on catching the train, waiting for it to come within reach. Kids are so cute.
Benson wanted the train to carry the tennis ball.

Adorable

Persistance. It would probably have taken a week to condition Andrew not to reach for the train. He'd watch it like a predator, and reach for it everytime. We laughed everytime and then he'd look at us like, "Just wait, I'll get it next time".

Baby Connor's Blessing

My whole family, minus the Cannon's (in Tucson). Do you notice all the BOYS. Connor is the 11th grandson of 13. We are so thrilled he is here safe and sound. Dan did an amazing job blessing Connor. Connor is such a sweet, easy baby, and the greatest thing about him is that he brings out the best in his older brother Luke.

Personally, I think there is a resemblance here. This is my dad, or "Bompa"

Zach, Angie, Austin, Clark, and Tyler..where's Cooper?
P.S. Angie does True Religion jeans and shoe parties if anyone's interested- way cute and awesome deals.

WaHoOooOO!!!!!!!

I know you're all wondering about our reaction to the big upset... watch it for yourselves.

That is a great video of Benson and cousin Luke in celebration yelling, "Cougars win!" What classic 2 year old energy captured on tape.

WAY TO GO COUGARS!! That was an awesome and intense game to watch- close the entire time. You should have seen us all cheering at the progress and biting our fingernails at the fumbles and turnovers. The greatest part about the start of football season is "hope springs eternal" instead of "better luck next year." What a great way to start the season. I hope this will be a pattern.

Football Season

It's football season! Better yet it's GAME DAY!

BYU vs. Oklahoma

I know that BYU is not picked to win. . . . . by pretty much anyone on ESPN, but they're my team of choice and I like to root for the underdog anyway. Hope we have a great season. We can't wait to make a trip to the LaVell Edwards Stadium and cheer on our cougs!

I'm not kidding, Benson took this picture of me and Andrew. When I finished taking pictures of the boys, Benson said, "my turn to take pictures". So I let him. He took two pictures, then said, "one more, smile" and he got down on one knee. I couldn't believe that we're both actually in the picture, let alone in the center.

Kimball came home and found Andrew's BYU onesie... gotta have everyone in blue and white. GO COUGS!

Crazy Camping

We went camping with the Barrus families to Currant Creek. Lots of fun was had. We still need to add pictures of our sleeping arrangements and the hail storm. Wow.