Being Grateful

Since THANKSGIVING is tomorrow I thought I'd list all the things I am grateful for. Most days I feel like my life consists of feeding little kids, doing laundry, picking up after little kids, and chasing them around. I will admit that sometimes I become a little negative and forget how lucky I am really am. So here it goes...

Alisa is grateful for.........(drum roll please)

-These Little KIDS!

-For a wonderful husband that is a great father and understands me the best out of anyone

-My awesome parents. I wasn't the easiest kid to deal with in my younger years and they always stuck by me.
-My brothers and sisters, yes we don't always get along, but
I have the funnest memories with them.
-My in laws. I feel really blessed to have a great Mother and and Father in law. My brothers and sisters in law are awesome too. I hear these awful in law stories and it makes me realized i really got lucky!
-Great friends. Friends are an important part of my life.
-The church. I am still a long way from where I want to be but I feel that i am trying my hardest.
-Blogging. As stupid as it sounds I really love blogging. It's my little getaway.
-Pink, no not the color but the singer. Yes, some of you are rolling your eyes but this woman can seriously keep me running. When I feel like i am going to drop dead on the street i turn her on and i can keep running and running....you get the point!
-Birthdays. I have always loved celebrating them. Especially my own. Ask me when I turn 30 and i might feel differently.
-Cafe Rio
-The Internet. Really people what we do without it? I guess my house would be a little cleaner....yeah it's not worth it.
-That Families can be together forever. This means so much to me now that I am older.

I don't normally get this cheesy on my Blog but i have been thinking lately about my life and how i am so lucky. I needed to write this down so when i am having my hard days i can come back and remember all of this.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

6 Years!

Six years ago we did this:
And six years later we have this:

These past 6 years have been amazing, hard, crazy,fun, entertaining but most of all wonderful. We have had our ups and downs but we have always made it through. Happy anniversary Luke! I love you!

A Little Itty Bitty Tri

Today Rushelle, Emily and I did the Turkey Tri in St. George. Before you think we are the most amazing girls ever,
I must tell you it was a really itty bitty Tri. They call it the beginners. It's a 200 meter swim(8 laps), 5 mile bike ride, and a 1.5 mile run. It basically gets you used to how these things work. Hopefully we can do the Sprint Triathlon in Lake Las Vegas this May. After A LOT (3 weeks) of training we finally completed it. I have to tell you it was a pretty awesome experience and i really really enjoyed it. I was a nervous wreck and honestly thought i might drown in the swimming part, but thankfully I survived to tell you all. I am actually really proud of my times. This was my very first race ever and we didn't train properly at all. So here are my times.

SWIM: 4min 56 sec (i finished 23 out of 72 people, male and female)

BIKE: 24min 54 sec

RUN: 16 min 23 sec ( not the best)

TOTAL TIME: 48 min 41 sec

I finished 30th out of 72 males and females, and 12th out of 37 females.

I thought i could ride a mountain bike with no problem but man those things are heavy and sooooooo hard to race in. So hopefully next time i can get a nicer bike, anyone want to loan me one??


Before the race, so happy and ready to go!!

Finishing the race with a guy behind me yelling "Come on you can do it!" I must have looked bad!

3 tired girls!

I had to have a picture with my numbers.

Brothers

They are so lucky to have each other! Even though they are a little under 3 years apart they still have so much fun together. I am so glad they will have each other throughout life. Nicholas is always looking out for Parker and I'm sure in about 10 years Parker will be watching out for Nicholas. I love these boys!

National Holiday!

For those of you who don't know, today is my brother Aaron's birthday. Which means it is a national holiday. No really he thinks everyone everywhere celebrates his birthday and tells people about 9 months before to get ready for his party. He takes about 2 or 3 days off of work, because well it's his birthday.....of course! Aaron turns 32 today. He is the oldest child in my family but most of the time stills acts like a kid. Most of you know Aaron pretty well and probably get multiple phone calls a day from him(i promise i didn't give him your number). We love Aaron and my kids really have a lot of fun with him. He is a great uncle and the older i get i realize he is great older brother and i we are really lucky to have him in our lives. Here are a few funnies about Aaron.

1. He still calls me Chris Echols. Which was a boyfriend i had about 13 years ago. Seriously, every time he calls Luke he refers to me as Chris Echols.
2. He loves to touch ears. When i was pregnant with Nicholas he said he can't wait to hold him and pinch his ears all the time.
3. His theory is: If you served a mission you are going to have boys.
4. When Adam was getting married he said he was going to turn into an ant so he can go to the sealing.
5. He loved his big white truck in high school and wearing his Letterman jacket.
6. Him and Wendy Galella ( enough said)
7. He calls my youngest brother gay(which he isn't)
8. When i was younger i hated bringing my friends over because i knew he would ask them over and over if they had a boyfriend and then he would ask them on a date.
9. Starring at Emily Richardsons chest while we eat would dinner
10. Helping us do drive bys in 8th grade

Happy Birthday Aaron. We love you!!!

I know there are a lot of you out there that know Aaron really well, maybe you can leave a comment about a funny memory you have of him.

Halloween X 5

I love Halloween I really do, but does anyone feel like it takes FOREVER for this holiday to come? The years in the past have been really easy. We went to 1 thing and I got to pick their costumes out. Let's just say that didn't happen this year. The kids dressed up 5 times in a matter of 4 days. We had a birthday party, playgroup party, school party, Mama and Papa Z's Trunk or Treat and actual Halloween night. By the time Halloween came i was not in the mood and sick of fighting with my kids on what costume to wear. One day they wanted to be a storm trooper, the next day it was a black ninja, then spider man, and last Batman. Don't worry i didn't buy any of those costumes. I borrowed them and some were dress up clothes. I am thinking next year I will not even mention the word Halloween until a couple weeks before and then their costumes are going in the closet until it's dress up time. That way they won't get sick of them. Even though it was crazy it was fun to see the kids actually get into their characters. They had a lot of fun and are already talking about next year. I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

My little Storm Trooper with his make believe gun. Oh and please don't mention that these are bad guys. Luke said something to him about it and he freaked out and came crying to me that Storm Troopers are the good guys. Yea we aren't a Star Wars family.

This was not her original costumes. She was supposed to be Tinkerbell but she had this dress in her dress up box and wanted to wear it.

The great thing about my husband is he will dress up as anything just to make me happy. We weren't planning on dressing up but last minute i found these in our costume box and i thought it would be cute. After about an hour of him wearing i told him he could take it off because it looked pretty gay.

Parker was a Dragon, NOT Barney!! Luke doesn't like this costume because it looks like Barney, whatever it was free! I still think he looks cute!