A successful Halloween season

Well I'd have to say that this was by far the best Halloween season ever!! I seriously live for holidays. My goal is to someday be the most festive household around and take part in as many holiday festivities  and have as many family traditions as possible. These are all of the fun things we did in the month of October!

1. 2 Halloween half marathons! I hope to be able to stay in shape to do this almost every year! I had so much much dressing up and running with hundreds of people in the spirit of Halloween! The first one I ran with one of my best friends, Sharsti! I dressed up as an 80's rocker and Sharsti went as a bee! This race was in Salt Lake city and started up in Emigration canyon. It was beautiful up there, but this was by far the hardest race, maybe even the hardest thing period that I have ever done lol The website said that this course was a gradual decline of 1,400 ft. but failed to mention the 3.5 miles of killer HILLS you had to climb. I went into thinking it would a cake walk like the last one I ran, but was glad to even finish! I was hoping to PR but finished around 1:52. I ended pretty bitter, as they didn't even have water bottles at the finish line. They had bags of animal crackers and pretzel just open on tables to take handfuls of and they ran out of most of their food 2 minutes after I finished. You had to wait in a line with a plastic cup to get water out of a water jug. Not cool...



Salt Lake Haunted Half

 The second one was in Provo. This one was just one week after the SLC race. I wasn't planning on running this one, but I was so upset that I didn't PR and didn't want to end on that bad note, SO I snuck into this race because it was like $70. Hopefully the wrong person doesn't read this and report me, but I really don't feel that bad because all I did was run- I didn't eat any of the food or take any of the race swag. All I stole was the good company and halloween atmosphere... I PRed by 15 seconds finishing at 1:48 exactly!

Provo Halloween Half

2. Jakers Pumpkin patch!  This was perfect for Luke! They had a sand box full of corn, a petting zoo, a mini corn maze, and hayrides all for free!

3. I decorated my window for a contest and made the house all cozy for fall! Although I didn't even place, I still had fun decorating our window for Halloween lol I made candy corns out of paper and hung them all over with jackolanterns, apple cider candles, and fall leaves. SO cozy! Brandon said I was acting like Cindy-Loo-Hoo's mom from the Grinch in their Christmas Decorating contest

4. Pumkin parade at the Riverwoods! We had so much fun with my sister in laws Natalie and Cassidy looking at pumkpin displays, taking a haunted carriage ride, playing carnival games, and stolling around the shops along with the headless horseman.

5.Jack-o-latterns! This year, I carved a ghost pumpkin. I even got Brando to help out a little bit!

6. Cornbelly's corn maze! I loved visiting Cornbelly's with my cute little family. We watched pig races, went down giant slides, rode a cow car tractor ride, duck races... so many fun things and I can't remember them all!

7. I got to watch all of my favorite Halloween classics... BeetleJuice , Halloweentown, Hocus pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas, Harry Potter, The Little Vampire...

8. Two Halloween parties! We went to our ward halloween party/chili cook off where we enjoyed delicious food, good company, and looking at all of the kids decked out in costumes. Our has TONS of kids Luke's age, so it was quite the show! Also went to a party with some of the married football couples! Everyone besides us had amazing costumes lol WE played a newly wed game, ate halloween candy and watched Hocus Pocus!

9. We dressed Luke up as a raccoon and went trick or treating! Luke really got into character  by growling at each door we knocked and ate the candy from their hands, wrapper and all!

10. This is Halloween, but we had 3 birthdays! Brittany, Natalie, and Brando!!! For Brittany's birthday, we went hikinh up rock canyon and got scalp treatments! For Natalie's birthday, we went out to eat at Olive Garden :) And for Brando's birthday, Brandon got to go to all 3 hours of church (Luke-free haha) and he got some new GOLF CLUBS from me and his family! My parent's also sponsered a western date night consisting of the movie Lonesome Dove and Texas Roadhouse.

Well I think that wraps up the festivities! Can't wait for the rest of this holiday season!

Late summer update!!

I hate when I get behind on blogging!!! I have a novel's worth of updates, but I'm going to condense it as much as possible. Let's start with the cutest and most lively part of our family: Luke. haha WOW Well in the last week he's cut 3 new teeth! That was a beast, but I'd rather just rip the bandaid off and get them all done at once. He can say mama, dada, and uh oh. He hates wearing clothes, so he spends most of his time in his diaper. He loves moving around. Right now his legs travel faster than his arms can keep up with so he's had a lot of face plants. He's so tough though- he just makes a pout face for a second, then moves on to his next plan of destruction. He loves pushing buttons- he turns on the playstation and the printer over and over and thinks he's like a little technician or something. He hates being fed- if you put something in his mouth, he'll spit it out and then put it back in himself, and he also thinks it's his job to feed other people. He also can clap his hands and raise the roof. Anytime people are clapping he thinks it's for him. For example, at Tyler's graduation, everytime the audience would clap, he looked around wondering why people were clapping for him and then start clapping for himself. He is ALMOST walking! He can stand by himself for like 10 seconds, but hasn't taken any steps yet. He's 31 inches long and weighs 17 lbs which puts him in the 98th percentile for height and the 9th percentile for weight. Brandon has been making a double batch of his protein shake for Luke, but he still can't seem to keep weight on. He's also a daddy's boy lately. He used to cry anytime I left the house or anytime brandon would even try to hold him, but how it's the opposite! He cries everytime brandon leaves in the morning and makes this cute excited noise when Brandon comes through the door. He loves falling asleep on dad and playing basketball with him. He's such a happy kid, loves playing with anyone, and is always making us laugh. And our favorite acheivement.. Luke can dunk! On his fisher price hoop of course, but how many babies can dunk a basketball before they can walk... haha enough bragging, but I am SO grateful we've been blessed with Luke in our lives. It's really unfair how many breathtaking moments of pure joy I get to experience on a daily basis with my little boy.

Brandon played awesome in his first and second game! It was well deserved after a summer and fall camp of hard work! It's going to be an awesome season! He was also voted as a team captain and you can his picture is on the city busses!

We've been super busy with all of our family's missionaries! Bethany, my sister-in-law came home from her mission in Brazil a couple of weeks ago. Kenzie, my other sister in law, left for her mission to independence missouri last week, and Maddie, my other sister-in-law, is leaving in a month for her mission to Costa Rica! For Bethany's first day home, we made an Ogletree family spa and pampered her with a facial, mani/pedi, delicious refreshments, hair styling, massage and  relaxing music for 18 months of hard work! It was so much to catch up with her and learn all about Brazil! She brought us all back delicious Brazilian candies and Brazilian soccer jerseys! That Sunday, Bethany gave a homecoming talk and Kenzie gave her farewell. Afterwards we had delicious mexican food with all of their friends and family! They both did amazing- such good examples to everyone! As we were dropping Kenzie off at the MTC, we ran into Hunter!! He was working as a host/escort to the new missionaries! He looked so good and was just glowing!!  We were so lucky to see him because he left for Mexico just a week a later! His first area he's  serving in is the poorest area of Veracruz!!! In his first letter he said that he's serving in this village up in the mountains where everyone lives in 2 room shacks and most people are very uneducated. He said you can't even knock doors, because they don't even have any!! You just kind of say hello into their open homes to start conversation! He's really excited to get work. In his first week, they've already had two baptisms! I can't wait to hear about all of his amazing experiences!!

I'm currently training for the Halloween Half marathon! Hopefully I actually do it though because I lost my running partner Brittany and it's not half as fun training alone! It sounds really fun though- everyone dresses up, so I think I might go as a yodeler! haha this was inspired by attending Swiss days a couple weeks ago!  I'm still teaching English to Koreans and loving it! My students are the sweetest people! And now I have a country to talk about when all of my family talks about the places where they served their missions lol Well I'll stop there before I have to start dividing this into chapters! 

A week of milestones and parties!

Last week, Luke reached 3 new milestones! He learned how to crawl, pull himself up on things to stand, and clap his hands! He also bobs his head side to side which is the cutest thing ever, but I don't think that counts as an official milestone. This must be due to something in the Texas air! We've been in Texas for the last 2 1/2 weeks and Luke's just been getting busy on growing up! It's been so fun to hang out with my family and friends from Texas. We've done so many fun things like fishing, singing with my dad's band at Ace Hardware's parking lot dance and BBQ, watching fireworks, going to the fourth of July parade, swimming in the pool, and getting hunter ready and sending him off on his mission! I also got to visit some of my best friends, who I haven't seen in ages! It was so fun catching up with Kelsie, Chad, Laura, Sammy, Rachel ,and Caitlin. They are all turning into amazing people and doing great things with their lives! I'm so glad I've been able to stay in touch with them all.



Mad man Jeff ripping it up on the keyboard



Me, Laura, Susan, and my mom singing Pontoon



Rick made the BEST brisket EVER!



Luke on the prowl with his new crawling skills

Brando also caught a large mouth bass

Brando catching a catfish in the creek behind our house

new outfit from grandma

eating plenty of chocolate at grandma's

4th of July parade

My first half-marathon!

This last Saturday, I ran my first half marathon with my sister in law Brittany! I have trained for one before, but got a stress fracture a month before! The whole experience was so much fun- I'd have to say it started from the training. It was so much fun running with Brittany and getting caught up with her and also having some time to "relax" without having to worry about Luke. I also loved enjoying the warmth and sun rays of the outdoors!

 The night before the race was an event in itself. Brandon and I went to Pizza Factory, where I carbo loaded BIG time- then went to pick up my packet, where it was fun to see all of the racers and eat free samples. Then I went to my in-laws where I added a whole new play list of music for my run. My iPod hadn't been updated for like 3 years, so this was a real treat. lol That night, Brandon sent me to bed at 9:00 and took care of Luke since I had to be up by 4:45 to make the bus ride. It was like Christmas Eve- I didn't fall asleep until midnight and then woke up every 30 minutes, thinking I had slept in!

Although I probably got about 2 hours of quality sleep that night, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning! My energy escalated when I got to the buses and saw the hundreds of people all anxious and excited to run this race!  When we got to the start line, Brittany and I went to the very front of the group so that we wouldn't get caught in the crowd and start 10 minutes later. The guy in charge called us out on the megaphone and said "It looks like we've got a couple people in the first 5 rows that shouldn't be there!" How rude!! We just moved over to the side once it started to let all the hard core people pass us. unfortunately this move caused a pain in my foot from running on the curved side of the road that later turned out to be a stress fracture :( I thought I was totally screwed when I first felt it, but pushed through and after like 5 minutes the pain went away. The first 7 miles were in the Provo canyon and it was beautiful! That part of the race went by so fast- too fast! I wanted this race to last forever- I felt like a 5 year old on a trip to Disney World. It was so fun too see my family for the last part of the race- it was so nice of them to drive all around Provo to see us for literally 5 seconds! I had tons of energy throughout the entire race, but the last half mile, I started to feel the pain in my foot again. Luckily I could see the finish line, and knew that I was going to make it. We sprinted at the very end and as soon as I crossed the finish line I could barely walk on my leg! I was so so so grateful that I was able to finish AND at the fastest pace we've ever run at! Our 2 goals in this race were to finish in under 2 hours and to beat this girl who looked like one of my old roommates, and we did both of them! Our final time was 1:48:10!! We ran at an 8:15 pace.

I was a little disappointed in the after party. The last race I attended, there was a tons of vendors giving out free food and legit SWAG, but all we got was nasty fruit, a single piece of french toast, and chocolate milk in tiny sample cups. The website advertised it as a huge cinco de mayo party with free Magleby's breakfast, fresh fruit, and delicious chocolate milk. What a freakin let down! That was seriously half of why I wanted to do a half marathon... lol So we went to Magleby's restaurant instead for some REAL food! 

That about sums up my half-marathon experience! I would LOVE to do that again! 



Sleep training: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

After two previously failed attempts, I am proud to annouce that Luke finally sleeps through the night in his own crib!!!!! I seriously feel like I've just won the lottery! The first two times we tried to get Luke to sleep in his crib, he hated us for like a month and would wake up like every 30 minutes so, I caved in and let him sleep in our bed. I thought maybe sleep training wasn't Luke's thing, and that I could get away letting him sleep with me for the first year. But as I starting thinking some not-so-nice words in my head after waking up for the 5th time to Luke screaming in the middle of the night (I promise I normally do not think of cuss words like this!) I knew had to give it one more try! It took about 5 days to work, and I almost caved in everynight of it! I hate the concept of crying yourself to sleep- I'd much rather him fall asleep in the security of his mom's arms. I was also afraid that Luke wouldn't trust me or feel loved anymore and get baby depression, but with the moral support of some of my best friends and family, I made it through!! Now Luke sleeps from 10pm-9am and is a happier baby because of it! I also get some time to relax and do whatever I want at night without entertaining a tired fussy baby! I appreciate and take full advantage of the time I have to spend with him during the day now, and have so much more energy! Life is good :)

Time flies when you're having fun!

This weekend consisted of a few events that really made me feel like time was on fast forward! Friday, March. 23, Luke turned 6 months old! It seems like every time I blink, he's growing bigger, reaching a new milestone, and developing more and more personality! Luke is getting so tall, but pretty skinny. He fits into 12 month old clothes length-wise, but they fit totally baggy in the width! He's super talkative right now- he says mama over and over and makes these Donald Duck noises- probably from all that Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! He can sit up on his own until he decides he wants a bite of his toes, and tips over in the process. He smiles and laughs on demand when you say words that rhyme with "poopie"- haha real mature of us! He loves getting little nibbles of what mom and dad are eating, and loves playing with all of his aunts and grandparents!

Also on Friday, Hunter opened his mission call! He's going to Veracruz, Mexico and leaves on July 5th! I'm so proud of his decision to serve the Lord for two years and for the good choices he's made that have made him the person he is today! Ladies, watch out in two years! He's a stud! Saturday, we had huevoes rancheros for breakfast and pork tacos for dinner to celebrate his call to Mexico!

Saturday, we went to the Spring scrimmage- unfortunately Brandon didn't play due to a broken foot :( But it was a beautiful day, and it got us all excited for the 2012 season!

Sunday, we took our first official family pictures! Brandon's sister Kenzie did an awesome job as our photographer! She nailed some shots that just put Brandon and Luke's relationship in a nutshell!