3 Tornados Hit Virginia on Monday

My in laws home is fine, but the houses around have been hit, some are gone. Setsuko was home at the time, heard some noises and after seeing it outside her window, grabbed the dogs and went for cover. She's had no gas or electricity since yesterday. John is on foot this morning, waiting for the ok to get back into his neighborhood. He was as work at the time.

Poor Sports Breed Poor Sports

My very smart brother in law posed the question, "I wonder if being a poor sport is genetic?" referring to me passing on my poor sportsmanship to my kids, particularly Koji. He is not a graceful loser.

Today at Levi's first soccer game, after we told him to stop playing with the grass and go get the ball and score, he actually got it. The final score was 7-2. Levi scoring four of those seven points.

He went around telling a few people how many he scored. I was impressed that he was keeping track! Needless to say we talked to him about that. But, I'm guessing it was a four year old version of what I was doing mentally on the sidelines:




Now on a more serious note, I disagree that it's all genetic. We can't leave out the very important environment piece of it all. A lot of who we become is due to how we're raised or not raised and to leave out the environment piece of it doesn't make sense.

White Lies

Things I've said:

Oh, no.......It's broken.

I don't know where it is.

There's no more. I'll buy some next time I go to the store.

This old thing? No, honey it's not new.

It's bed time. (kids: But, it's still light outside). No it's not (as I put sheets over the windows).

I'll only be a minute.

Happy Earth Day

My thoughts on the Salt Lake Half Marathon 2008

Saturday, April 19th

Let's just say it was a lot of running.

We had a late start since our shuttle got there just as the race started. The wall of runners was cool to see but it was a little sad not being in it. It would of been easy to go faster than we should with everyone around and the excitement. There weren't many runners behind us so we were able to go at our own pace and keep it up the whole time. Another of the benefits of being last was that we kept passing everyone in front of us and mentally it felt good.

I felt really good up to the 10th mile. The last three miles were really hard. The last mile was painful and emotional but I knew if I stopped I wouldn't be able to start jogging again. So I kept going at the same pace, and booked it right at the end. The crowd cheering on both sides was encouraging.

I ran with a friend and her friend. It was really good at the beginning but towards the end we were all feeling differently and needing different things. One needed to stop, I needed to go. But, we all ended up finishing really close together.

Chris and the boys met up with us at the half way mark and a couple of other places thereafter. Way to go fam!!! Others around as well as myself were picked up by their support. It was awesome and kept me going.

Just as I was doing the last couple miles the first full marathon runners passed us. It was amazing. What athletes!

I'm feeling pretty good today. I've taken it REALLY easy. After Chris left on business yesterday, I put the kids to bed shamefully early and delved into the Kite Runner. I don't know how anyone can read that book in public, I cried like a baby. Any book that gives me a headache isn't my favorite, but it was a good read regardless.

The same friend is now conning me into doing the Provo half in the summer. We were told it was beautiful. Now that I know what to expect I would love to improve on my time. We'll see......

This April's Conference Pictures

What it would look like if I had four sons. This picture was taken at the mission reunion. Our friend Kara really does have four boys and this is her oldest.

Elder and Sister Evans (Chris' mission president, now general authority)

Besides having Doug's family, we were graced with Elsina's presence and her friends. Since one looked just like Bobby, we had him join in the family picture as a replacement. We miss you Bobby! He's featured at the bottom left. And of course Uncle Quin, Loyd, and Angela are with us as well.

All the men who attended priesthood together featured above. Some are very quick to change back to normal clothes. It's nice that Chris can take along his family.

Happy Birthday to L

The decision to have our second was around a crazy time. We were poor and still working through school. But just as soon as the thought crossed our mind, it was too late to take it back, we were pregnant just like that. I was miserably sick for three months which was a step up compared to the first pregnancy. I thought it must be a girl. Yeah right. Keep dreaming.
After laboring for a couple days, I thought maybe, just maybe we should go to the hospital. Since my contractions don't hurt to the last couple hours, it's hard to know. We went in with enough time to settle down before he was born three hours later. It was fast but still the epidural should of done its magic. Nope, not my lucky day. Ouch.

He was my chunkiest baby (7 lbs 11 oz). I remember thinking, "wow, he's so plump." It must of been the layers of pancakes with lots of melted butter, powdered sugar and syrup, I feasted on towards the end of this pregnancy. No doubt I was much bigger than the first time around.

The two above pictures remind me a lot of his older brother around the same age (2 wks to 1 month old).

Look at that belly!!!!

He was a breath of fresh air having had no health problems, and being a good eater and sleeper.

He was a binky boy. I weaned him off of it when he was a year old and we moved back here from L.A. I kept losing that thing and I was just as addicted to it as he was. I was so sick of stressing over them disappearing so I had to do it. After three very difficult days, he was just getting use to not having it to sleep when he found one underneath something. He put that sucker so fast into his mouth and began to run when he saw me.

He is also my fairest. Oh, how I wish I had beautiful baby skin.I thought this was a cute pic of Kate and Levi.

What can I say........he's a cutie! And look at that gorgeous hair.

This is a picture of Chris and Loyd as little boys. Levi looks more like an Ericson than my other two. But I am bias......he's much cuter.

His Big Day
(A special thanks to Collette. If it wasn't for her, this day wouldn't of been documented very well due to mass chaos. Thanks again!)


After bouncing off lots of birthday party ideas, we settled on Cars which was one of the few options at Walmart for invitations. Levi was happy anyways. Our pinatas are usually made out of our cereal boxes. Hey, it saved me 10-15 bucks.

This set up for opening presents was nice at first. But it didn't last very long. The kids get so excited about having their gifts opened first, we got eaten alive. It was precious.

Lets just say there were a lot of kids. I know, I know, I've read magazine articles about how many kids we should of invited. But, hey, I'm not perfect and I think am allowed to indulge a little sometimes. It's worth it when his emotional bank account is filled to the max. And the whole day he's so pleased that he's special, loved, and important.

New York last weekend

A big thanks to mom and dad for staying with the boys and working on the house.


I made Cafe Rio taco salads for them. Although the pork is tasty, anything with that much coke and sugar isn't healthy; so I'll try the chicken recipe next time.

On Friday, C and I went for a walk through Central Park. Where did everyone go? We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was awesome. That night we had dinner at an Asian restaurant. I've never been a fan of Thai food, but that night I was starving and now I've been craving some of that yummy food again. After a carriage ride pulled by a bike (well worth the $25.00 after walking all day long), we made it to Grand Central Station and headed back to where we stayed (Tarrytown House Estates).


We met up with Chris' parents on Saturday and spent the whole day together.
We saw the Statue of Liberty from here and called it good.
This is made out of Legos. It's so nice to go to the toy store and not have kids.
We visited Ground Zero, which was sad. We saw N.Y. from the top of Rockefeller . We went to Canal St. (at China Town) and I'm sure were close to being arrested for being in a van with counterfeit purses. Scary!




Wicked was absolutely AMAZING. Thank you to John and Setsuko for the birthday gift!!
It was a pleasant get away. Why haven't we done this before?

I'm Very Pleased With Myself Here

So what do you think, is this a look alike or "Napoleon Dynamite" ?