Scroll down- I've posted a lot today

Salt Lake

• We went to Salt lake after Christmas. It was cold :) We stayed with my parents for nearly a week and were able to do a few things that were really good for our family. My sisters, my mom, and the kids all went to the Aquarium. The kids loved it! It was really nice and a lot of fun for all of us.
• Mike and I were able to go to the Bountiful Temple. We were sealed in this temple and haven't been back to it since our marriage. While we were waiting to be married, we sat on a couch in the Celestial room for 40 LONG minutes until they called us in. We sat on that couch again for awhile and just loved having some time to spend together.
• We were able to take the kids to see my little brother, Nathan. He's had a tough time the past few years and we have not seen him for two years. He and I have kept in touch through occasional letters, but seeing him in person was so great! He had never met Brayden and that was so important to him and to me. The kids sang for him and played around while we visited. It was a great visit.
• Right before that, we went to Chuck e Cheese and played some games and ate dinner. It was a lot of fun.
• One of the last things we did was take the kids to Temple Square and spend time looking at the Nativities and touring the buildings. We went to the top of the Church Office Bldg. (a place I worked as a janitor in HS) and it was so pretty. We lucked out as the inversion had been blown out of the city from the storm the day before. It was such a clear view.
• That night (New Years Eve) we went with my family to a really cool restaurant and had a family style dinner where we each bought food and shared it with everyone else. We were nice and full. My sisters and bro-in-law made a cake and we ate it at the end of the dinner. Mike and I are losers when it comes to bed time, so we didn't stay up. We had our camera with us the whole time, but we were slackers and only got a handful of pictures. Here are a few of them...My cute yet freezing family
  

  The Nativity sitting in the fountain in front of the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
  

  The view of the State Capital
  

  Anna and Brayden
  

  Alex got a remote control helicopter for Christmas but most of the time the adults were playing with it. It got stuck in my mom's hair in this picture.

I can run :)

I gained 50 pounds when I was pregnant with Brayden. That's a butt load (literally) of weight. I hated it. When he was born, only about 12 pounds came off- the rest was up to me. After about a year of not trying very hard to lose it, I decided to start running. I've always hated running. I was known for my 20 min mile stroll in HS and MS as I talked to my friends. I would have a hard time breathing and hated how much I coughed after running. It was never enjoyable. But in June, I put all of that aside and vowed to run a mile. A MILE! It was going to kill me. As far as I was concerned it was the LONGEST distance known to mankind. I would come home from the gym beat red and would collapse under a ceiling fan for 40 min. I really was going to die. I thought about writing my funeral wishes down right then and there but something kept me going. I think it was how my butt would bounce every time I walked. Yep- that was it. Anyway, I did keep going and by the end of summer I was running 4 miles! I never thought that was humanly possible. I mean, I've seen the pictures of marathons and have "heard" the stories, but I have always known those "people" were really aliens from another galaxy. People could not possibly run that far. That's for CARS to do! But no, here I was running and NOT dying and I wasn't even behind a wheel. So, as school started and Tuacahn kept going on, I had to quit due to lack of time. When Tuacahn ended, I started running again, only to stop because of the broken toe craziness. So, with 2 1/2 months of recovery from that, I was left with only a matter of weeks to get my mileage back up before a 5k on January 23rd. I did the unthinkable and signed up for the race. I ran and ran and ran hoping to regain the miles I had lost. This past week I didn't run at all because of SUPAF and I was worried. I woke up this morning feeling like I was the biggest moron in the world for signing up for such a thing as a race- but I went anyway. I put on my warm clothes and stood among the 2200 people awaiting the 1/2 marathon and the 5k. It was exciting! I was feeling it and ready! The 1/2 marathon started and the 5k peeps took position. We did our count down and set off. I was feeling good for about 2 min. before I realized that this strange thing called "the cold" was setting into my body. See St. George is not cold and I'm not used to it and neither are my lungs. Happens that this whole week has been stormy. So I was having a hard time breathing and it took about 10 min before I really started warming up to the point that I could breath and feel my legs at the same time. I admit that I did not run the whole time, but the vast majority I was trudging along. It was great. The finish line was the best part (of course). I was still yards away and I could hear Anna's voice calling out to me. I looked and couldn't see them until I was passing them. I expected to end with a time of 45 min, but when I crossed that line, it read 37 and some odd seconds. 37 min! What? That was really great for me. My family brought me some flowers and I went and ate some food. We went home and I slept for a half hour and now life goes on. For that brief 37 min, I did something I never thought I could and I completed a goal I never thought I would. There's no ego here- I am pretty low on the running totem pole, but it felt good- really good. I'm shooting for a 10k pretty soon. I guess we'll see how that goes....

SUPAF

Here's my dumb thing for the year. I put the whole festival online this year so individuals could print out their own forms and mail them to me instead of me having to do so much busy work in putting packets together and making sure everyone got forms (next year we will be making online submission available- YEAH!). Well, I saved a bunch of time by creating this process, but I left off a vital part of the registration. The string and piano students have to tell me what level they are before I can schedule them- this way they are judged fairly with their own age and skill group. Well, I left that off the registration and ended up having to call all of the private teachers (which total....I don't even know...lets just say a LOT) and get the info from them. It was really a blast telling everyone how stupid I was. Hey, but on the bright side, I met a lot of great people. I am glad that if I have a job as big as this one that it is supported by really good people. Anyway, I'm almost done scheduling (I will finish today) and I have met with the graphic designers in re-creating our 20 page program. Next steps are to make the final contact with the adjudicators, create the participation certificates, touch base with all of my venues and volunteers, and figure out babysitting for my own kids. Almost there......

Christmas Day

Santa was very good to us on Christmas. He gave our family a Wii (something the boys int he house have been DYING to get their hands on). Somehow Mike and I had a hunch that we'd get one so we bought the kids (and us) some games. Lego Batman, Mario Kart, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Music, Wii Sports (which doesn't work BTW) and a few others. I think Mario Kart ranks as the favorite right now with Lego Batman coming in at a close second. So, back to Christmas. It was rather enjoyable and relaxing. I think we were all in our pj's until at least 1pm and we played games most of the day. Here are some of the pics.... Discovering the Wii and the note from Santa.
A little out of order, but this is when they came downstairs.

This is Bray seeming very uninterested in his stocking- oh, and doesn't my hair look lovely. Christmas pics are just the best.

Anna opening a bin full of barbies (from Grandma Bradshaw's house).

I just think this is a cute pic of Ty.

All Bray wanted to do was eat the candy from every one's stockings- and he did just that.

Papa Winslow came over around 9 and had a big, yummy breakfast with us. He brought the kids a huge box. They had to dig through it to find their gifts. They each got a very nice bowl with their name on it. Thanks Papa!

Grandmas Winslow and Mathew came over later and the kids opened some clothes and toys. They were very excited.

The night before Christmas

These pictures are not really in order, but you get the idea. The kids wrote the letter to Santa after bath time. They wore the pj's that the Elves gave them a week or so before. Some how those Elves knew about the pj parties at school. Amazing little creatures :) We had been given some Reindeer food from a neighbor this year, so we were sure to spread that on our front lawn so they would see where to land. I also put a picture of the letters-the close up is Tyson's. I thought it would be a good thing to remember. He's so dang cute. The letter reads (in kinder writing)- "Hi, Santa I have been trying to be good this year. This is what I want for Christmas, a D.S. and a Wii. You can bring any of these. Thank you. From Tyson"

We always have hot chocolate before bed on Christmas Eve. This is one of the kids favorite traditions. Brayden just drinks a little of every one else's.

So Far Behind

Hi everyone. Our camera is dead right now so I can't get Christmas or our Salt Lake trip pics off it. I am very busy with SUPAF and school right now so I haven't posted a dang thing. Sorry for that. I have a lot to update you on. It'll be coming soon. Thanks for your patience.