Overwhelmed and under-blogging

Since it's been so long that I have blogged, I feel completely overwhelmed. Where do I start? What do I say? So much, but so little has happened at the same time. So here goes my attempt to get back...
December - Was a complete blur and STRESS. With photo shoot after photo shoot, I kept thinking I should be almost done, and then there would be more. I did manage to finish the week before Christmas, just in time to have family come and visit. Which was so great, but all the stress did cause me to go into total rebellion.
January - What was I rebelling from? TECHNOLOGY! I seriously couldn't even look at my computer without disgust and most days it wasn't even turned on (this was a serious rebellion) I also stopped answering the phone, when I could. No more playdates, phone calls, just me and the girls. I wish I could say that we did great stuff, and have tons of pictures from all the neat stuff we did but, I had also added my camera to my banned list, plus I don't know if there was a lot of fun going on anyway. So before you get depressed or worried about me, I think it was good I went through all this, because I started cleaning more, and really tried to figure out my priorities. I decided I can't do everything and I don't have to. I am learning and hopefully getting closer to figuring out when enough is enough for me.
February - I feel great now, I am now talking on the phone, seeing my friends (a little more), and I have turned on the computer, I have even edited a few photo shoots of my own children! So in other words...I'm back!

Confessions

Confession #1 - Okay, as you all guessed we are pregnant! My official due date is July 1st. We are getting more excited as this has been our only surprise pregnancy so far. I guess I shouldn't say it was a total surprise, we did plan on having a 4th but it just happened several months before I was even going to THINK about it. I am hoping for a boy, so keep us in your prayers. I guess I should add that if we have a girl I will be so completely content, it will just most likely end the Darrin Case line (Darrin says if it's a girl we are D-O-N-E! If it's a boy there is a 2% chance we will try for another boy.)

Confession #2 - Darrin has been blogging for the last 2 months, under my name. He wouldn't really want me to admit this to everyone, but I have to give him a shout out. I have been so swamped with Photography and Christmas cards I haven't been much of a mother or a wife. Darrin has been blogging, baking Christmas goodies, cleaning, and all of his normal responsibilities, he's been amazing. Even after all he has done, we celebrated our 9th anniversary over lunch (that was all we could squeeze in) and he STILL said that I was the best person out there for him. I really lucked out.

Confession #3 - I still can't decide if I am going to send out Christmas Cards. I guess it's like they say the Shoemakers kids never have shoes, the Christmas card makers family doesn't send out cards. I haven't officially decided yet (I just can't get past that nagging feeling that it's not right to NOT send cards) but since it is December 22, and nothing has been made, they definitely won't be Christmas cards. Sooooo, just know we love you all, we wish you a happy, merry Christmas. Maybe you'll get a New Years Card!!

Take A Guess

It is a contest to see who can guess which one is mine.

A)

B)

This Is Getting Out Of Control

Our life has been so out of control these past few weeks that I have not even had time to blog. So I am trying to just do some ketch up. These are just a few of the other pictures from our Thanksgiving Day vacation up to Washington.

To sum up the week we went to the beach, and had a camp fire to dry out after all of my kids dove in the water.

We went hiking to some water falls (I really don't remember the name but here they are)

We ate a lot of food!

We played games almost every night. Either on my nephew's Xbox as shown above(Darrin and I rocked at rock band) or we played card games.

When we weren’t hiking or playing games we went back to eating. It was a great trip, other than the flights see pervious post. Oh the flight home was almost as bad but not because we were getting the stink eye from anyone, it was because Eden was too tired and would not fall asleep.

Thanks For The Giving

I know it has been a while sense the last post, but we have been having too much fun for me to take the time and post. We spent last week in Vancouver Washington with Darrin's brothers and sisters. It was so much fun other then the flight out there, because it was like stake conference with the kids except your only 20,000 feet in the air and the sets aren’t as comfortable. I only had one lady that sat in front of me, turn and tell Baylie that she was being rude for kicking her set. Fortunately we all survived the flight.

Once we were in Washington everything was great. We stayed at Darrin's oldest brothers Bryan's house. It was better than my wildest dreams because between Janice cooking the best food ever and their 3 boys watching and taking care of our 3 girls I was left to play and just have fun. On Monday we went out to the beach.
Here we are checking out the sea urchin. The Girls had so much fun playing with all the cousins.

Here is my hot husband, with his brother and sister in the background; I am hiding in there also.

Here is Baylie's glamour shot. Yes she is licking her shirt, I don't know why.

Here Jaya is practicing her break dancing moves out on the beach, she is so dedicated.

Here we are stuck on the rocks because a big wave came in and trapped us. The weather was good and the water was cold, but the fire that we had on the beach made up for it. It was a great day. More from our Thanksgiving trip to come; this is just one day of the festivities.

Graveside visit

With our recent trip to Utah we decided to stop in LaVerikin Ut on our way home. Darrin's Grandparents are buried there and it had been awhile since we last visited. While Darrin was showing the girls the town and talking about his summer visits he used to take there growing up, Baylie was very intrigued about when she would get to see them again. I love that we have the knowledge of the Restored Gospel which teaches us that we can be eternal families, and that we will get to see our loved ones again. One other cute "spiritual" thing that happened while visiting was, as I mentioned before it had been awhile since we had last visited so it took us a little bit to find the headstone. The weather was cold, and Jaya didn't have a coat, she finally asked if she could go back to the van. I said sure, and she headed back. Just as we found the headstone, Jaya came running up with pure excitement and said "Mom! I said a prayer that the wind would stop blowing, and it did!" I love the FAITH of little children.

The finish line

Darrin, Darcy & Kendra (my BEST training partner)

The start of the race I felt there were lots of odds stacked against me. We got into St George very late, and stayed up even later visiting with our awesome friends The Poultons, then stayed up even later listening to our girls play. I prayed fervently that night that regardless of the hour we were going to bed, that I would have the energy and strength to run a good race. I woke up completely refreshed, no sick stomach, no stiff neck, I felt great!

The weather was beautiful, a little chilly, but you want that when you are going to run. We met up with Kendra, got our numbers and took the only pics for the day (I didn't have someone to take pics at the finish). Then loaded on the bus. Being bussed to the top is a little discouraging, I could swear that we had driven at least 30 miles by the time the bus stopped, I seriously tried hard not to think about the fact that we had to run all the way back. After about an hour of waiting the race began.

I kept thinking about my friend Debbie and how on her last run she loved every minute of it and so I was trying my best to be enjoying it, and for the most part I did. Darrin was AMAZING, he pushed and motivated me through the entire 3 miles of uphill that I thought was going to kill me. He was giving high-fives, counting people we passed, and of course making jokes along the way. At that point all I could do was look down and focus (if I looked up, I saw how far and high the hill was).

The rest of the course was either up hill or down hill, I don't think there was one flat section. Now, where we have been running it's pretty flat, so this was a definite difference. We persevered regardless, I felt pushed the entire way. It definitely felt like a race day, not a leisure run at all. I think that really helped though, because it made it more real that this is what I had worked for.

As we entered the stadium for the last stretch, I saw the clock. My time goal had been to finish under 2 hours, the clock read 1:59:20. We sprinted to the end, and finished at 1:59:38.

I just want to thank Kendra and Darrin for allowing themselves to be sucked into my dream, and making it there own, while pushing and motivating me along the way.

WE DID IT!!!!!