18 miles

18 miles up and down Arlington Ave.

The head on wind and hills about killed me. This ride was harder then the 26 miles we did on Saturday.

We've got lots of work to do.

Another Ride

Another ride under our belts along with a lot of rain and mud. Yuck!

This time we rode 26 miles. (kinda a big jump from 5 miles) and yes, our bodies were torn apart. Poor J.R. pulled Elliot in the trailer the whole way. Without having to pull Elliot I ended the 26 miles feeling pretty good, tired and sore, but still good!

I was super proud of all the kids that were with us. Seriously tough kids!

The more we ride the more we're pumped to reach our goal. I just hope my knees hold out. Advil and ice are my new best friends. :)

More rides to come.....

Our Latest Adventure

We have an amazing opportunity to ride our bikes 160 miles from Indianapolis to the Louisville Temple!! Are we crazy?? Maybe.

Crazy or not, it was a great excuse to get J.R. a new bike and kick our exercising up a notch! These pictures are of our first ride. We rode only about 5 miles, but it was a good starting point for us and Elliot. We're trying to get Elliot to love bike riding so we can take him with us on our trek to the temple. If we can time our rides just right he can nap most of the way.

Here's to a new goal! LET'S HIT THE ROAD!

More visitors!

What a blast we had with Grandma, Ty and Kenz! We played HARD for several days. The zoo, museum, spa day and SHOPPING! We did it all! And how could I leave out the CARRIE UNDERWOOD concert! Awesome!!!

Elliot loved the one on one attention he got from his grandma and aunts!

Thanks for the memories and all the fun! LOVE YOU!!

Easter 2010

We had a great Easter this year. Not our best egg decorating year (hence, no pictures) but Elliot had a blast hunting for plastic eggs and we all enjoyed eating way to much candy.

What great timing to have Easter the same day as General Conference. It was so relaxing not having to rush to church and being able to be filled with the spirit as we listened to all the speakers. There seemed to be so much that applied directly to my life. What a blessing to have instruction directly from a true prophet of God!

HAPPY EASTER!

Visitors

Sista LOVE!

The crazy kids!

Mommies and babies...and pretend husband (whit, you rock!)

My buddy HAYDEN

McKENNA JUNE! Love those cheeks

BROOKLYN RAE - Can't get enough of her baby blues!

Me and Kenna bug. I couldn't kiss them enough.

What a great few days with my nieces, nephew and sisters. Elliot loved the attention and I loved the company! It was so great having them here. We got to visit the museum, the zoo and of course the outlet malls! The kids did great and the moms did even better. Even though we were doing so many fun things - bath time was still the favorite part.

One night we stayed up till 2:30 am laughing our guts out! We are so funny...especially so late at night. If we weren't so old and had so many kids to look after and get up with in the night we probably would have done that every night.

Saying goodbye at the airport was the hardest on Elliot. He wanted so bad to get on that plane and go to grandma's house. He probably would have left me behind without a problem. If he was free to fly I might have considered it. jk:)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the visit. You have no idea how much it meant to me.

LOVE YOU!!!

Just cuz

What a crack up!

February Vacation Week

We had a great time during J.R's vacation week. We went to Cincinnati and Chicago to get second opinions on my knees and while we were there decided to enjoy the cities.

Cincinnati was less then exciting. I loved the doctor I saw there - Dr. Noyes - but Elliot was so terribly bored on the 2 hour drive there that he had a melt down when we finally got to the Dr. office. Once he took a forced nap in the car he was calm enough - and we were calm enough - to make a quick stop at the Gap clearance store. I got a couple good finds, but I was too exhausted to dig through all that so we were in the car on our way home in no time.

Chicago was a much more relaxing trip. We learned our lesson and bought a DVD player for the car. Thank heavens because Chicago is a 3.5 hour drive. We talked to Dr. Cole whom I didn't like as much as Dr. Noyes - he was very rushed and didn't seem too happy to see me, probably because Elliot was there and was all over the place. Ironically, he told me to do the opposite of what Dr. Noyes said....hummmm.....I think I have become more confused then when I started this process.

After the apt. we found a nice hotel and checked in early, ordered in Chicago Pizza from Lou Malnatis (thanks Andrea for the suggestion) and spent the evening in the pool. It was so fun. Elliot could have stayed there all night. He LOVES the water. He's a pretty good swimmer too. He uses his little arm floaties but gets around really well.

The next morning we woke up late, ate way too much of the continental breakfast, then headed to the Aquarium. Although getting into the place took FOREVER (thanks to school groups creating major problems) but once we got in it was fun. Elliot enjoyed looking at all the weird fish and loved the petting part where he got soaked. They also had a nice dolphin show to end our day.

The other 4 days of J.R.'s break we just CHILLED AT HOME! Wore our P.J.'s till noon. Watched a lot of movies and played a lot of "Fumble" with Elliot. It was the perfect cleans we both needed after 2 VERY stressful months!

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Neighborhood snow fun

Matthew, Jacob, Elliot

Matthew, Elliot

Alexi, Elliot eating icicles from under the car....should I be worried?

Elliot & Alexi

It has been snowing nonstop for like 2 weeks now. We're so sick of the cold...unless...we get to play outside with the neighbor kids! We got all geared up and had a blast riding on the sled, making snow balls and eating icicles. I pulled Elliot around on the sled in the snow covered roads till my knees were absolutely aching. It was worth it though to see him smile and hear him laugh so much!

Valentines Party

Elliot's Valentine - although I'm sure she has many. What a cutie pie!

The kids had a great time playing together. They got to exchange v-day cards and look for hidden chocolate kisses. What a fun way to celebrate Valentines Day!

Residency is not for the faint of heart

I was excited to be planning our Valentine date this year. J.R. has been on call every other day this month so finding time to see him at all, let alone go on a date has been nearly impossible. Eventually we found a window and decided to go for it.

I was going to do the usual dinner and a movie, but decided we needed something more to boost our moral and release some good endorphins. So, I scheduled a private dance lesson at the Fred Astaire dance studio at 6:15pm SHARP. It was so fun digging through our boxes to find my dust covered T-straps and J.R.'s black dance kicks. I got a call from J.R. around 4:30pm saying he had one more patient to see and he'd be on his way. A quick half hour. Around 5:45 I still hadn't heard from him and due to the terrible reception at the hospital was unable to reach him, and so reluctantly had to call the studio and cancel at the last minute. Our babysitter got here at 6:00 and still no word from J.R. If this was any other time in our lives I'd be worried by now and wondering if he got in a wreck or something, but my heart new better. He's a resident (period.) So we waited and I considered using the babysitter while I had her and running pointless errands or spoiling myself at the mall to try to boost my spirits. But then, around 6:30pm my phone finally rang. He was alive, just got caught up helping with an incoming emergency. Where was the guy who was supposed to be on call? Who knows.

Needless to say we ended up going to dinner and a movie. I wish I was better at disappointments because I know it wasn't J.R's fault, I just hate that we really have no control over our lives. We are slaves to a legal contract called residency. I'm exhausted!

I love Indiana, but I'm ready to be done with this part of our lives. I want my husband back. I don't want to be so independent. I want to be able to depend on him, but that's impossible when he has no control.

Poor J.R. As hard as I think it is, it is about 100 times worse for him. I can't believe what he has to experience! Only 1 more week till he gets a much needed week vacation! WE CAN'T WAIT!

At the end of the night with or without a dance lesson, it was nice to spend time with him and joke about random stuff and talk about nothing in particular!

I LOVE YOU J.R. Thanks for your strength, love and patience in me!

Happy Valentines Day!

SUPERBOWL 2010

COLTS FEVER!

We went from being fans of the best college football team - GO BUCKS! To being a fan of the best NFL team - GO COLTS!

I had no idea I'd become such a football fan during these school years. It's kinda fun, especially when you're cheering for a winning team!

SNOW DAY

I love how smooth the snow is in our back yard.

The snow was sparkling like crystals. So pretty!

It is a white out. This poor little bush is trying its best to bring color to our yard.

Cool wind carved slope at our back steps

Our hidden mailbox.

It felt like we were in Utah today. It snowed all day yesterday, leaving us with mounds of piled snow along the roads. Usually after a big snow like that it's cloudy and dull, but today the sun was shining so bright and the wind was calm....it felt like a Utah snow day.

I shoveled our walks (with our neighbors help) around 5pm. J.R. shoveled again when he got home around midnight, then he shoveled again this morning. YIKES! If I didn't hate the cold so much I probably would have built a snow man with Elliot today. Hummm....maybe tomorrow.

BouncerTown

Elliot really wanted a dinosaur that was in there, but even daddy couldn't get it out.

Looks like he ready to play baseball...too bad it's actually skee ball he's trying to play.

Just preparing for the big game tomorrow. GO COLTS!

Another fun find here in Indy. This place has a bunch of blow up slides and things for the kids to crawl on. They also have games to play. Elliot loved running, jumping and getting out all that bottled up energy!

It's always fun when J.R. gets to play with us!!