::run with yo' rad self::

So we all know I love to run.  And probably that I love to run races...but this one takes the cake!!

It was so fun!!

We got up at 5 to drive 2 hours to Orem to run for half an hour.  Crazy?  Yes.  Fun?  H-yes!!  

Here's a little background on the race...

I found it online a while back (probably 3 months ago), and it was the big one "The Color Run" which they do NOT have in Utah :(  But they do have in Denver.  I called Dad.  He lives in Colorado Springs.  I told him about it, and that we might like to come visit.  He said "well come on!!"  We decided we were going to make a little trip out of it.  We were all excited about it.  We were talking about staying in Denver, he was telling me (all while he was digging out his work schedule to make sure he was going to be home) how Gayle (his sig. other) was running in it with her kids and a bunch of friends, and it was going to be a big ol' fun group, and I was getting SO excited!!  Matt was already off the Friday before, so it was perfect!  Then, the wrench.  "Oh, I'm sorry, Darlin', I'm working that weekend."  Oh man!!  Like the kid on Christmas who didn't get his new bike!!  So sad!!

Then my good friend told me they have one in Utah-not "the Color Run," (which is a HUGE deal and only goes to major cities) but close.  Color Me Rad (still a national race, but not at as major of cities).  I got on ASAP and got registered and sent invites to everyone I thought might want to run it with me.  We had a pretty good team, and a way awesome name...

Say hello to team Witness the Fitness 

(WTF??-haha)

(our color packets to throw at the finish line)

 We got there pretty early.  So we had to wait a bit.  We played around, danced (they had music on).  It was so happy :)

The finish line...

(the color throw at the finish line)

(now just a big cloud of color)

How rad do we all look??  Fun isn't even the word!  It was awesome!  We're totally doing it again!  I already told Dad I was coming to Denver next year.  We were such a mess afterward, but it was totally worth it!  It came off pretty easily, and it even washed out of our clothes!  Chloe did awesome!  It's tough to run 3 miles when you're 8, so she did great!  She was way excited to have pink hair!

::she's walking::

She took her first steps probably about 2 weeks ago (unfortunately we didn't get any photos of that), and she's been adding a few steps here and there ever since. She gets a little braver and will go a little further and will stand up all on her own from the middle of the room (with no help from the furniture).

She likes to walk! She wasn't too keen on walking back and forth between Matt and I. She absolutely would NOT walk to Matt. He'd have her walk to me, and then pick her up and bring her back to him and start her to me again. She's more of a do-it-yourselfer. She figured it out and now she's doin' it! Great job, Ave!

Don't you love when babies first start to walk?? They take those wide wobbly steps and they fall all the time. I think it's so cute! Matt said something tonight to Ava about her being our last little first steps. Oh! That's true. Kinda sad. She's growing SO fast!

She gets so excited when she gets going. We clap and say "YEA!!" and so does she. We beckon her with our fingers while she walks, and she does the same finger motion. It's cute.

Here's a little vid of our walking Ava...

(maybe keep the blog music playing...it drowns out my annoying baby voice :) )

::port's spaghetti::

...in a bowl, no sauce, and make the noodles hang out over the sides.

Thanks, Mom.

::easter::

Easter...

Our Easter was fun. We did our usual coloring of the eggs at Grandma Snowman's house on Friday night.

This year, we tried using Kool-Aid for the dye (pinterest) instead of the usual food coloring and vinegar or the kits from the store. It turned out pretty great! The smell was great! It smelled fruity instead of vinegar-y and the colors were pretty bright.

Saturday, we had our Easter party with most of Matt's family on his mom's side. We usually get together at his Grandpa Halling's house (which is now his Aunt Lynette's), and cook out. Sometimes it's too cold, though, so we have to move the party to the church. Not this year! Well, it was still cold. There was even snow on the ground in some spots, but we had it outside (I wore my winter coat), and it was fun!

(Looking for candy in the grass. Even Avie found some! She loves candy!!

Then Sunday morning, we woke up to find that the Easter bunny hid about a billion eggs all over the house. He also left a note...

So they found most of the eggs (we actually found a few that they'd missed a few days later), and we hurried to get ready for church at 9. We got all dressed in our Easter clothes, and I should've gotten a photo before church, but in the rush, I didn't. So when we got home, before the little boys were completely naked, I said "WAIT!!! I GOTTA GET A PICTURE!!!" They thought it was so funny that they were half dressed and I was taking a picture. They just can't stand to wear church clothes any longer than is absolutely necessary. :) Us girls stayed in our dresses though ;)

So we headed down to Grandma & Papa Kitty's house for an Easter lunch. We had some fancy chicken salads and lots of side salads. It was all SO good! Here's her beautiful table (as always), and also their Easter bunny. She gave us and Billy's family an Easter basket.

We had such a fun Easter. It's always fun to do our normal traditions that we love so much. The kids have so much fun with the Easter eggs and all that. We had a really great fast and testimony meeting. One guys testimony was particularly touching to me. It was about standing as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places. He told a story about reading his Ensign on the plane. It was a great story. We watched Testaments on the way down to my parents' house. The kids were pretty interested in it (well, Chloe and Port-Bubb wanted to watch Diego). Chloe kept asking why the people didn't believe He was the Son of God when they could SEE his miracles right in front of them. I told her I didn't know, and that wasn't it sad. And here we are, going completely by faith, and we believe in him. They understand the basics of the atonement and resurrection, and I love that.

Happy (late) Easter!

::Avie's party::

Last Saturday (the 31st) we celebrated Ava's first birthday with the rest of the family.

We sent out some invitations...

We put up a few decorations...

She opened some presents...

She "blew out" her candle (a pink sparkly "1" candle), and she didn't cry! She's our only one (out of 4!!) who didn't cry! All of the others cried with all the singing and clapping after the blowing out of the candle, but not Ave. Nice job, Baby Girl!!

We had some cupcakes, ice-cream, and cookies. Ave got lots of fun presents. It was a cute little party. Very Ava-ish, as Chloe would say.

We appreciate so much all the family who came to celebrate Ava (and those who couldn't). We are so thankful for such supportive, loving family. We are truly blessed.

Love you all!

::cITy creek::

A couple of weeks ago (I'm a little behind) a new mall opened downtown.  I knew it was going to be CRAZY busy, so I wasn't really planning on going right away.   But the more I heard about it and how amazing it is (!!) the more I HAD to go.  I knew Mom would be up for it, and I happened to mention it to my friend, Robyn, and she sad she wanted to go too, so we made it a girl's day.  It was so fun!

We got there early (about 9:45-it opens at 10), so we had a little time to look at the fountain, have some juice and a muffin,  and grab a few pictures (like dorks!!).  We had to get there early before the crowd was too crazy.  We just wanted to see it really, we weren't planning on staying too long.

Laney & Chloe.  Scrabble @ Restoration Hardware.

This photo doesn't do justice to the size of the crowd.  It was HUGE!  They were gathered around to watch this group sing and dance.  This was right before we left.

So we walked around a bit, shopped a bit, had lunch at Cheesecake (a new one at this mall!), and ended up leaving somewhere around 5.  We didn't stay too long.  It was so fun!  The girls were so great!  They shopped for somewhere around 8 hours!  8 year olds!!  Awesome!  They got a couple of things, which always makes it easier :]  Plus they had each other, which is just plain fun.  It's the nicest mall ever!  There were live statues, live music everywhere, a creek running through the whole thing, some parts of it even had fish in it.  Some of the mall was indoors, some was out, and you're right downtown, which was so neat.  You could look out from the mall and see any major downtown landmark. I can't wait to go back!  Would you believe I've had dreams about it?  Yup.