July 24th

To celebrate Utah's Pioneer Day, we as a family headed up to Silver Lake. It's one of my favorite places to visit each year. It's so calming and beautiful. The kids ran around looking for bugs, chipmunks, fish and deer. After walking around the lake we had a picnic. It would have been a perfect day but it wasn't quite without Benton who had to work. Hopefully we can make it up once more so he can join us while the weather is so nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've decided to stay home tonight and forgo the fireworks. It's so much work and such a late night to take the girls. Hope you had a great 24th!

11 Months

Another month has already passed us by. I have enjoyed Addie's small size since it makes me feel like she is a baby even though she's getting closer to one years old. I think people look at me and think "Why are you giving that cracker/chip to your tiny baby?" or "Why would you let her crawl through the pool like that?" Even family makes comments to me like that and I have to remind them that she's almost one years old, even though she's tiny she thinks she big and can do things others think she can't quite yet.

So here's what she's been up to for the past month...

Right now whenever we put her in her highchair she's always trying to wiggle out. She's so small that she can jimmy herself out of our highchair or if we are at restaurants she can wiggle out of their seat-belts as well. I'm always really close because I'm afraid one of these days she's going to topple right out of it.

 

She still loves baby food. She starts begging for it once she sees me holding the container. She has a love for food that Cambree didn't have at her age. I just wish it would make her gain more weight because as of yesterday she was only 13.6 lbs.

 

Cambree and her play together a lot more than they use to. I love to see how they interact with each other.

 

Unfortunately Cambree thinks she can carry her around like a baby doll. It scares me every time she does it. I keep telling her she's not allowed to carry Addie around but being a little 3 year old she doesn't listen very well.

 

The other night we had family over and Carol was tickling Addie's naked body and it was amazing how still Addie stayed.She was in heaven, just laid in her arms ever so still. You can see on her face how wonderful it felt.

 

Addison is still struggling sleeping at night. She has both of her canine teeth coming through which makes for a long night for both of us. But during the day she is taking 2 naps both about 2 hours long and is happy otherwise.

 

She loves going to the park and swinging, she just giggles and giggles. I love seeing her smile, melts my heart.

 

 

Love our little love! Only one month left till she's one...I'm not quite ready!

Happy 4th of July!

We started off our morning at the parade in Kaysville. I brought my camera but it wasn't working, so I only took a few pics with my phone. It was scorching hot outside watching the parade. Afterwards we had no idea that they, as in the crowd and the city had a water fight. Needless to say we got soaked. I have never seen anything like it before. Trucks had huge hoses spraying the crowd. Next time we will come better prepared, even if it's wearing swim attire.

 

 

 

We were able to come home and all take a nap. We kept it pretty chill and did our own fireworks in our backyard after we all woke up a bit.

 

 

 

Later on we went to the city fireworks, which both girls loved. I was a little nervous since they didn't start till 10pm but both girls did wonderful. I enjoyed smooching on both my girls while watching such a pretty display.

 

I hope your 4th was as good as ours was!

Race for Grief

Back in January I decided to start training for a 10K called Race For Grief. This was the 3rd year that it took place. The woman who started it lost her baby girl after 5 hours and decided to put something together to honor her daughter. I thought it was inspiring and something positive for myself, family and friends to join together to remember Allie.

As a mother who has lost a child, one of my fears is that she will be forgotten. Very few people had the opportunity to meet her, so it saddens me thinking that because they never met her that she didn't exist. Our time with her was truly special and I wouldn't change how our time was spent with her. I know I haven't shared too many details of our time together but to me it was so special, even too sacred to share. This event was so special to me because I wanted Allie to know that I am always thinking of her and that she won't be forgotten.

I had never ran further than 4 miles, so running 6.2 miles was scary to me. I knew it was something I had to do and I did my best to train for it. Thankfully they had a 2 mile walk option for those who were unable to run 6 miles. We had so many family members as well as friends who came together to support Benton and I.

Before the race we registered and stretched a bit. We arrived an hour early and it flew by. Aimee took some pictures with her camera, so when I get a group shot I will post it because I didn't get pictures of everyone with my camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benton finished in 1:03:21.6, I finished in 1:09:26.5. Benton got 3rd place for his age group! And my goal was to finish in 70 minutes and I did by 30 seconds, yay! My running partner was my good friend, Kimberli Green. I was so glad to have someone to run with and to keep me motivated. I was for sure I would have a breakdown while running because it has happened to me many times while training but I held it together and just had a small one afterwards.

 

 

 

We had a bunch of posters made for Allie, which turned out great!

 

 

 

 

After the race we found out that both our siblings who lived out of state and their families joined us where they lived and did the 2 mile walk in honor of Allie. It was so touching to me that they even bought shirts like the rest of us. Benton and I had no idea, such a sweet surprise.

 

 

 

 

My body hurt for the next 48 hours but it was well worth it. I know it will be a tradition that Benton and I will continue to do each year. A special thank you to all my family and friends who joined us bright and early to do the race. It meant a lot to us that you made such an effort to come out and be apart of something so special to us. Love you all!

Always thinking of you Miss Allie. I know you were there watching us. Whenever I see a butterfly I think of you, so pretty, unique, free and flying with wings. Love you baby girl.
"Butterflies are kisses blown by Angels."