Matthew 14 months

I haven't posted in such a long time about Matthew. He finally started to walk when he was about 14 months. Now he's 15 months and its more like a run (all my kids go from a walk to a run. Of course its to get away from me as fast as they can and laugh while they are doing it).
I love this age. He's such a sweet little boy and feisty at the same time. Hates to have to sit still and get clothes on or his diaper changed. Screams like a Pterodactyl when he he's hungry or someones teasing him. I'm going to have to get him on tape doing this. He also loves to sing. My kids have taught him how to sing the Indiana Jones song. Da ta da ta da ta da. Everytime someone starts to sing this song he'll start up. Its really cute. I'll have to get him on tape doing this also. I just love this boy so much. I love his hugs and high fives. The other day I said to him "Give mommy some kisses and he planted one right on my lips. Even though I said it I really didnt expect one.
He's all boy loves playing with balls and pushing a cars around the house.

Matthew loves stuffed animals especially this bear and will spend ten plus min. hugging and kissing it.

Mothers Day

Mothers day was great! I was still on a high from the race the day before. Earlier in the week I got asked to give a talk at church. I warned Bro Payne in case he forgot that I might cry the entire time since my mother was gone. He told me he felt strongly that I should do it. I couldnt think of anything to write down till after the race. The race consumed me the few weeks before.(You should have seen my house) So basically I did my talk the day before. One of my favorite talks is Mothers who know by Julie B. Beck. I hadnt written anything down but had been thinking about what I wanted to say. I also prayed that I would be able to help a friend I knew that was struggling with her role as a mother. This talk seemed to be what Heavenly Father wanted me to say.
The talk begins talking about the 2,000 stripling warriors and there mothers who had once been the most Laminites and the most vilest of sinners. My favotite part of the Book of Mormon. Just to think that they had once been evil bad people and they gave up everything to be and know Jesus Christ. My eyes are getting watery just thinking about it right now.

I would put a link in if I knew how, but look it up. Its an awesome talk. As I was reading this talk I couldnt help but think about my own mother. That, of course, changed my life by having a testimony. I would like to write down the things I learned from my mother and father, so I dont forget the spirtual feeling I felt that day. I said some things that day that just came to me when I was up there. One of those things were: I knew my mom had a testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She spoke about her testimony often. She also told me once that she had been offended by someone at church and had the option of not going back to church. But her testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would not let her stay away. She believed! My mother(and Father) taught me I could do hard things. They taught me I could finish things and not quit. I'm not sure I would have said this as a teenager, but I thank them for it now. When there was girl drama going on in school my mom was my friend and when no one wanted to hang out with me, because my crazy hitting and biting 2 year old my mom once again my mom was my friend. I didnt say this in my talk, but because of her death I know that I need to live my life in a way that I can see her again. After she died I really questioned the things that I had believed my entire life. It was a test of my faith. They suddenly seemed like a nice thought, but did I know them. I can say I do now. I cant describe the feelings I felt the whole day. But I felt like I was on a high for the entire week.

Sherox Triathlon

The Sherox Triathlon went well. I actually had a lot of fun! My time on the swimming was probably one of the slowest in my age group. But I truly didnt care. I was out in the water hoot and hollering at the beginning trying to be positive and get the others excited about the race. I think they thought I was crazy. I had the frame of mind of Face your fears girl. Its my favorite quote by my daughters friend. I use it quite often for myself. The water felt good and I was ready to start the race. Quiting wasnt an option for me, especially at that point so I thought I would just get it done. There was a poor lady that I spoke to at the beginning of the race when we were out of the water. She had only swam in a pool before. She was definatly a faster swimmer than me. I would see her swim ahead of me and then scream for the boat to come and save her. I saw her do this at least 3 times. I wanted to yell out to her you can do it you're a better swimmer than me. I kind of knew she might have trouble. Swimming in the lake is quite a bit different than a pool. You cant see the bottom obviously and you dont have a chance to stop and hold on to the side. My friends that I did the race with suggested that we swim in the lake before we went out there. I'm so glad they did, because I would have felt the same way as the lady. Like I couldnt make it, like I was going to drown. Unfortunatly its all in your mind whether you can do it or not. I swam the whole thing with different strokes. Mostly breaststroke, everytime I swam freestyle I bumped into people or they bumped into me. That was the hard part. I knew getting kicked and bumping into others was part of the deal. But, my mind still couldnt get a handle on it. I would get flustered and start breaststroking again.
One time I was resting and floating on my back and going the wrong way and a lady stopped to help me. That was the cool thing about this particular race, everyone was so helpful.


Me floating on my back

My favorite part of the race was the biking. I think I had a smile on my face the whole time. Maybe I was glad to be done with the swimming. I just kept thinking the whole time I never thought I would attempt this in my life. I'm so glad I did.
After I got done with the biking I went to run and my legs felt like led. I had heard of this happening, but had never experienced prior to the race, even though I had practiced. I started to walk and drank some gatorade and soon I had some energy once again. Just needed some electrolytes I suppose. That day seemed to be the hottest I think we have experienced this year. Even though I had energy the last three miles they seemed the longest of my life. I kept running and walking. One of the things I enjoyed about this part is these two ladies next to me. I ran past them walking and then as I was walking they ran past me and said "Hey, we are running to the bridge over there. So I ran to the bridge with them and a few other places. They dont know how helpful they were. One of the ladies got a bad stitch in her side so she stopped. I kept going and finished the rest of the race thinking just run to the gray building or the next water station etc. They dont know how helpful they were. The other part of the race that I liked was they write your age on your right calve before you start the race. One lady had age 45 written on her right calve and on her left mother of 4. So I heard her say as another 45 year old passed her. You go 45 year old and the other lady say back to her "you go 45 year old, mother of 4" Everyone in this race seemed so helpful and positive. It was awesome!
Another favorite part was everyone that came to support us.

This is a group of family and friends that came to support all of us. When I would hear them yell my name it would make me want to try harder. The whole race was kind of an emotional thing for me to see my son Derek with a rose and my dad holding my baby. Kind of like "Wow I did it I finished. Now I'm hooked and Mark wants to do one with me in October at Lake Powell. We've been looking for bikes and found one for me. My new baby I'm so excited. Now we just have to find one for him