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!!!!!

Making history, and what I've learned along the way.

I have been training for a half marathon (13 miles), which I will be running on Nov 8th. The other day as I was running 8 miles on the treadmill (yes you read that right) I had A LOT of time to think. Some days I will zone out to smut on the gym tv (please don't ask what smut...Annie) but most of the time I just turn off the tv and run. Other then my marriage vows and the daily mothering I do, this has been the BIGGEST commitment I have made. You don't really think that the training for something like this could be that big of a deal (and for some it's not) but for my training partner and I it's been 12 weeks of daily training (minus Sundays). I am blogging about this so most of you will know what has been happening in my life, because for 12 weeks now running has pretty much been my life.

Little did I know when I started running, that I was entering a WHOLE NEW WORLD, which includes some of these little insights: wearing cotton is a definite no, no. chaffing occurs anywhere that fabric repeatedly rubs on your body. bloody nipples are normal (I am NOT talking to the ladies here). waking up at 6am or even 5am is NORMAL. running for longer then a hour is a given and often times 2 hours is normal. after awhile your legs just go numb. certain songs can REALLY motivate you and it's not always the ones you think will (I had a really good run to church music one day). Saturdays are no longer a sleep in day. gatorade really does help (the commercials are true!). stomach cramps are normal, and no you don't stop, you just keep running. there is a whole new group of friends, waiting for you. my body has ran further then I ever imagined. power gels are amazing. gps watches are your new best friend, or worst enemy (if your routes not as long as you thought). body glide will save your skin. I would rather talk, then listen to music (this really shouldn't surprise me). the first 2 miles are my hardest. I get nervous before ANY long run. shoes make a world of a difference. you cannot look at a person's body type and judge their endurance. I prefer running in the cold.

My sister in law asked me the other day why I am participating in this self induced torture, and my one response was, when my body does something I never thought possible, it's empowering! I am making history, it may not be history for the marathoner down the street, but the first day I ran 10 miles I made history for myself.

So watch out world Nov 8th, I'm making history again!