Moley, Moley

Yes I am talking about Moles in this post. Ewwwwww, I know! Who the crap wants to hear about moles? Probably no one, but the one mole I am going to be talking about holds a special place in my heart, and my families hearts. I know it still sounds weird. If you are already freaked out you might not want to read any further. I will be posting a picture of this so called mole I keep talking about.

Let me take you back to my younger years. For as long as I can remember I had this mole by my right eye in the corner. It started off little and my mom would always call it a "beauty mark". Now that I am older I think she did that so I wouldn't be self conscious about it. My Grandma Zockoll would think it was something stuck in my eye EVERY SINGLE time I saw her. She would try to scratch it out, and every time I would say "Grandma remember I have a mole..oops I mean beauty mark there." As I got older it slowly got bigger. For some reason having kids made it grow super fast. For the last 3 years I have wanted it removed. I would have Dr.'s check it out and kindly ask them to tell the insurance that it looks "questionable" so they would cover it. Every Dr. said it was fine. Now I know they just didn't want to deal with taking it off. The spot is a tricky area. Finally I found a Dr. would fib a little and was confident enough to take it off.

I sent my family a picture of my eyes where the mole is and told them it was coming off. My Dad said "I am going to miss that mole". Weird, I know but I told you this mole is special. I even told my dad I would save it for him but he quickly declined. It has healed nicely and I love having it gone!! Here is a before pic

Bye bye Moley!

And after. Hello Beautiful!!

I know what you are thinking.....this post was weird. I totally agree. It's just something I have to have documented. Good thing I am private now or I would get a lot of weirdos coming to my blog because they googled moles.

Tinker Bell Half Marathon

Way back at the end of January I participated in my 4th half marathon. Who knew these things could be addicting? I truly enjoy half marathons. Just enough running that I don't want to die(well kind of). The last couple years I have struggled to find something I really love. Yes I am a mom and I love it(ha well most of the time), but I needed something else. Something for just me. I have friends who are amazing at so many things and I started to feel like I had nothing I was good at. I know sounds so sad, right? Just in the last couple months I have realized running/working out is my thing. Sure I might not be the fastest,skinniest, or best at it, but I love it and that's what matters. It's my thing!!! I have a great husband who totally understands it's my thing and does his best to make sure I get to do that. I have made a goal to participate in 2 half marathons a year. So far I have accomplished that. It's fun to try new ones in different cities and to run by beautiful scenery. I get sick of running by desert.

The Tinkerbell half was so much fun. Disney sure knows how to put on a race. There were fireworks at the starting line and characters cheering us on throughout the race. We started in Disney and then ran around Anaheim and then ended the last 2 miles in California Adventure. It was the biggest race I had ever done. I am used to smaller races with not a lot of people. The first 4 miles were crowded. It took me 8 minutes longer than normal to run 3 miles. Those 8 minutes cause me not beat my fastest time. If you are a competitive person(ahem...Rushelle) this is not the race for you. You most likely will not beat any of your previous times. It was so much fun though. Of course we wore matching outfits. It's silly but so fun! Makes me feel young.

Me morning of the race. I look tired...it was 3:30 am!!

The girls at packet pick up. Even the bibs were adorable!

I love the medals! This one is by the far the best. Its beautiful and so heavy! Love it!

The day before the race we went to the beach and tried to ride bikes but we all forgot our ID. We were bummed. Instead we walked along the beach and took some pictures. You guys I have tried for years to get an awesome jumping shot. I usually end up looking like  500 lb woman looking retarded! I finally got one. Boo Yah!!!People had to have been laughing at me. I think we took like 10 shots.

Oh and a normal one.

We stayed an extra day and went to Disneyland.....for FREE!!! We had some hook ups(thanks Cindy Lou Who). You might think we are mean for going without kids but it was awesome!! There were times when I missed my kids but then when 6 pm hit and all I heard were crying kids because they were exhausted I was A okay. Lucky for us Rushelle hurt her knee really bad and we were able to get a wheelchair. Which meant we went to the front of the lines. Dream come true. I have always wanted to do that. We got dirty looks and I kept telling people"oh we just ran the half marathon and she hurt her knee, so stop staring."Okay I might not have been that mean.

We went on Splash Mountain first and we got soaked. Well there went my good hair day. The rest of the day I looked like a homeless person.
Us on Splash Mountain ready for the drop.

One of my favorite rides is Tower of Terror. Love this picture.

Proof that my hair went crazy! This was at the end of the day after California Screaming which is really fast. We all had a good laugh about my hair. NOt one of my best moments...at all.

 I also got to meet up with my sister Amber and her baby Henry.
 
We had so much fun. I love my little girl trips with my running buddies. Can't wait until the next one! 

What the.........

HELL????

These are the words I catch myself saying over and over when it comes to Noah. This kid gets into everything. I could be away from him for 10 minutes and he destroys something. When I vent to Luke I can tell he thinks I am exaggerating or I am really leaving the room for an hour and not 10 minutes. Until one day when Luke was upstairs taking a quick shower and came down to Noah painting our wall with nail polish. I have to say I was ecstatic that this happened when Luke was in charge. He was able to get a little bit of what I have to go through with this kid.

Now before some of you get all judgy on me for saying Hell(Gasp!!). Let me present you with some evidence.

#1- This was done about a year ago. I for sure thought he would have grown out of this stage by now.

This next few were just done in the last couple months.
#2- Noah had a little help from his older brother Parker with this one. They decided to paint their hands with nail polish and put them on my bathroom walls. Parker had to write his name on his hand.

#3-This was done an hour before my Bunco group was arriving. I had just spent all day cooking and scrubbing my floors.When I found this I still had to take a shower and finish up some food. Luke was very scared for my children's life at this point. Oh and yes Parker was involved in this too.

#4- I had left the cinnamon out on the kitchen counter from breakfast. It wasn't on the edge. It was back in the corner and he had to do some climbing to get it. I literally ran upstairs to throw a hat on and brush my teeth.
 
#5- I was downstairs getting lunch ready and Noah followed Sammy up to her room. So I of course thought he was okay. Wrong!! He sprayed my shaving gel all over my bathroom floor. Sure it would be easy to clean up if I didn't have stupid carpet in the bathroom? Who does that??
 
 It looked even worse after I tried to clean it up.
 
Obviously he wasn't alone in a couple of these. If that doesn't give you enough reason to say hell I don't know what is. All I know is that I hope this cute little boy
 
can grow out of this mischievous phase soon. I am so glad I took pictures and have documented it. One day he is going to have a little boy like him and I can show him the pictures and tell him it's payback!!

Update time

Alright so it's that time again. I have totally neglected this blog and I honestly don't have any great excuse. I have been going through and trying to organize my house and came across the kids school pictures. I couldn't believe I never put them on here. Now I am not a huge fan of school pictures. They are always awkward. This year they offered a really low price package so I bit the bullet and went with that. Now here is where my craziness comes out. The day before I showed them how to smile. Yes I really did!! The kids were annoyed but guess what??? It paid off! The pictures turned out great. I have to say my kids are the cutest. Okay enough of my gushing

Nick

Nick is in 2nd grade this year and is loving his class and teacher. She really pushed them hard but does it in a nice way. Nick is still in love with every sport there is. He is just finishing up basketball and has really grown in this sport. His team is really good. Right as he finishes up his last game tomorrow he starts up with baseball. Nick is still a sweetheart and really tries his hardest to do what's right. He is getting so old and I can't believe he will be baptized this year. How did this happen?

Sammy

How cute is this picture? Sammy is really loving Kindergarten. She is really excelling and picks things up really fast. She loves to write and draw. Her writing is precious, and her teacher has told me how she loves to read her stories every Friday. Sammy is in a music class and really enjoys it. She is my musical child. She also just started a dance class. Every day she asked me for a sister, oh goodness! Sammy is our feisty little girl.

Parker

Parker is in his last year of preschool. He is so ready for Kindergarten. Am I ready? Oh yeah! It will be good for him to have something every day. I know he will do fine academically but it's his behavior that worries me. He is a stubborn boy and that can get him in trouble. Parker can such a sweet boy though. He is my one child that always tells me I look beautiful. It melts my heart.

You are probably wondering where Noah's post is. Oh don't you all worry. I have a whole post dedicated just for Noah. My sweet sweet crazy child.

One last thing. I found these pictures that we took this last summer. I love them and wanted to make sure they make it on here. A lot of times my life is crazy and I don't take enough time to realize how lucky I am. Seeing these picture just confirmed it.

New Years Eve

We were still in Utah for New Years Eve and had a ton of fun partying up with cousins,brothers, and sisters. When I say party it up I mean let the kids stay up until New York New Year and then the adults hit the sack an hour later. Oh yes we are bad A. We ate way too much food and played games. Grandpa Nick thought it would be awesome to give all the cousins some noise makers. NOT A GOOD IDEA. The kids loved it though. It was a great way to spend our last night there.

Proof the kids were driving us crazy

Proof that they are still cute even after driving us crazy

We also had these 2012 glasses. Nick and Melissa looking good in them

Glad I got to spend the New Year with this guy. He's pretty awesome.

2011 Christmas Card

Christmas Utah Trip

We try to take the kids to see their grandparents and cousins in Utah every year after Christmas. It always ends up being a fun time and a lot of snow. Um....not this time. There was no snow. Kids were very sad that they didn't have snow to play with in the backyard. Actually the first couple days were close to the temps we had in Vegas. It was weird. We still had a ton of fun and again I only saw my kids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We had a little bonfire

Went up the canyon to find snow and found a a place that had some. It was old and slushie but it actually ended up being the perfect place for the kids to sled in. The hills were perfect.

 
 
 
Parker tried to snowboarding for the first time and he rocked it.

Noah LOVED sledding. I love his face in this one.

 
Sammy couldn't get enough of her cousins.

 
The kids went in the hot tub a couple times.

Noah drank entirely too much soda. Everytime I saw him he had a can of soda. I am sure half of the time it wasn't even his. I let him enjoy it because after all we were on vacation.

We tried numerous times to get a picture of the 2 year old cousins. This is the best we got.

Nick and his cousin Preston. I was sad when I realized I didn't get a picture of Nick with his cousin Kenzie. Nick and Kenzie really hit it off. They talked about Justin Bieber, and teased each other about the teams they liked in football and baseball. Kenzie is about 9 years older than him and she was so good to him. I loved it!

The posse. Zack,Parker, and Max

 

My kids are always sad when we have to leave. I don't blame them. 4 full days of playing with cousins and staying up late.No one wants to say bye to that. I am so grateful they have these cousins for life.