Tri-athlete

Micheal was the first in our family to be a triathlete. He did a kids triathalon on Sat. (I say the first because the whole time Jeremy kept saying "I'm jealous!")
Micheal started with a 100 yrd swim. He had to do 4 laps (one way). He hadn't been in a pool since the end of last summer, nor has he had any swimming lessons, so this was his weakest part of the tri. The pool was heated but it was only 74 degrees so it was cold.

Then 2 mile bike. His race started at 7:20pm so it was starting to cool off, there was a cold wind blowing and he was wet. When he finished the bike portion his lips were purple and he was shivering. We gave him a dry shirt so he could continue, but he was struggling because he was so cold. Poor guy!

And last was 3/4 of a mile run.

He was the youngest in his age division (11-12yr olds) so he was at a disadvantage to begin with (there were some serious kid triathletes in his group, they had actual street bikes) but he still tried and he finished! That is the most important part of doing any race, that you don't quit when it gets hard, you keep trying until you cross the finish line. After a race, it is a tradition to reward the racer with a treat so we planned on a trip to Smoothie King, but he decided that he wanted hot chocolate and a warm shower instead. He slept like a rock that night and fell asleep at church too. He gave it everything he had but the cold just zapped him. He said he wants to do another one but only in the summer. We are so proud of him!

Hullabaloo

I can't believe it has been so long since the last post. We have been pretty busy living life. Here is a quick recap of the last 2 months.

I celebrated my 31st birthday. I made some healthy fudgy brownies and topped it with pudding. Our home teachers showed up unexpectedly with store made cupcakes that had 3lbs. of frosting on top (yes, I weighed it after I scraped it off) and a couple of gifts to make me feel like a princess, they thought I was out numbered or something:).

Micheal turned 11! He is getting so grown up. Scary but exciting too.

Micheal had a homemade carrot cake with vanilla pudding.

He got a model rocket for his birthday. We set it off one morning and I have it on video but.. I recorded it with the camera turned so the video is sideways. I'll get it next time.


Clayton had his birthday a week later. Clayton chose to have a hot fudge pudding cake with ice cream.

Then we had the pinewood derby. Clayton's car was a hammerhead shark.

Micheal's was a tank. Jeremy had to hollow out the inside of the car to make it's weight legal for the derby.

Notice that Tanner had to be accounted for so he added his "Mack" to the picture.

Fun times!

Let it Snow!

We are really blessed to live somewhere where it snows but only a couple of times each winter. Just enough to still like it. This past weekend we had 5" of frozen precipitation fall, some snow then some sleet then more snow.


It didn't pack well for snowballs or snowmen so we picked up chunks and were throwing them at each other.

We had to make it a rule that we threw it at each others backs or we had to be prepared to catch it so you didn't have the breath knocked out of you.

Tanner was convinced that it was a big snowcone so he just ate it.

Micheal and Clayton realized that if you threw a snowblock and someone tried to block it, the icy block would explode all over the victim.

I happened to be the victim once, and boy was that a cold awakening, like having someone throw snow right in your face. It was fun though! Especially when I got them back:)!








Then Saturday night it got down to 13 degrees and all the roads were a solid sheet of ice so the Stake cancelled church to protect us. So we took the opportunity to make a big pot of Gumbo and then finished it off with some King Cake. That was the perfect meal for a cold day in the snow.

Christmas in Arizona

We went to Arizona for Christmas and had a blast! We saw all 11 of our cousins/nieces or nephews (including our boys that is a total of 14) and played with all of them. The boys got to meet 3 new cousins this visit, one of which (Elise, Jason's little girl) was only a month old when we got there.

Jason arranged for all the kids to go to a fire station on Christmas Eve for a tour. The firefighters were so kind to spend an hour and a half showing the kids everything and answering questions. They let the kids climb all over the ladder truck, try on equipment, opened up every box on the truck, and even showed them all the gear they had to wear. It was funny to watch some of the little kids get a little worried when a firefighter came out all geared up, but when he took off all of the gear they weren't afraid anymore. It was a great day, one that all of us will remember that we were together to experience. I'm not sure if the kids had more fun or the adults...hmmm...it's a toss up!

We were able to carry on Chapman tradition of doing a LIVE Nativity. All the kids were dressed up to play the parts. It was really cute to see them all together. We even had some impromptu "sheep" that were allowed to disrupt (Rylie and Paxton), they were very fun to watch crawl around.

Diana went through the temple for the first time on Dec 26th and that was an incredible experience. For me, it is always a very special experience to go through with family since I live so far away from all family but to go through with Diana was AWESOME!

Mom wanted to get some family pictures taken since it had been 4 years since our last one and the number of grandkids doubled. We did that on the temple grounds and most of us thought we were smart and only packed short sleeve shirts for Arizona weather. It ended up being 43 degrees while we took the pictures. Some of us froze! But it was all good.

My mom, sisters and I, except for Sarah, went out to "surprise" Mark. He actually lives in Surprise, AZ which makes that funny. Anyway, he wasn't able to make it out due to his work schedule so we went to see him. He was very shocked when we jumped out at him, he totally didn't have a clue we were there. He thought for sure that I wasn't going to get to see him and I couldn't have that! We didn't have much time to visit but it was better than not seeing him.

I had lots of late night chats with my sisters, which I love to do. I value my sleep but I'll stay up late just to spend time with them. It is always worth it!

Monday night we went to Nate's for a bonfire as our last get together. We played as long as we could before we had to say our see ya laters. That is always the hard part. I cried more in Arizona than I had in almost an entire year. I just don't cry, it gives me a headache. Then we went to see Jason, he was on call so he showed us around the ambulance. He even cut a penny to show my boys how strong their special scissors are. As Micheal put it, "Cool!"

Lots of fun memories! I had so many pictures to share I had to do a slide show.
Enjoy!

Gingerbread cookie's

For a fun family activity last Sunday we made some gingerbread cookies.


They were so yummy!

My Marathon Man

On Saturday, Jeremy ran a marathon! That's 26.2 miles to be exact. He spent many, many, many hours preparing his body and mind for this goal. He had a few moments when he thought it wasn't possible but he kept pushing on. There were scary moments when he would collapse from exaustion, I watched him carefully, wondering if this goal would kill him, but remained supportive. When race day came, we both approached it with excitement and nervousness because he had some challenges that he would have to face on race day like the temperature being 25 degrees, and pain on the top of his foot from tieing his shoes too tight, and his knee still isn't perfect either but he had to try.

The boys and I met him at mile 14 to cheer him on.

I worried for 4 hrs. and 33 minutues about whether or not he was injured somewhere on the course and then all of the sudden, there he was giving it his all at the end.
WE were so proud! He got his finisher's medal and we immediately had to get him out of the cold. He couldn't feel his hands (the hand warmers didn't work) and the temp only warmed up to maybe 30 degrees so he needed to get out of his wet clothes. The cold temp took more out of him then we expected but he did it!

3 new blessings!

Our Thanksgiving weekend was a nice break away from the craziness of life. We enjoyed the family togetherness, food and quiet. Then on Sunday we got 2 text messages. Jeremy's sister Ali delivered a little boy and... my brother Jason's little girl was born. Within 20 minutes of each other. Who gets to be an aunt/uncle/cousin 2x in one day without the birth of twins? Isn't that awesome!
Then on Friday Jeremy's brother Rich announced his new little boy had arrived too. We are so lucky to have all these sweet new little people to get to know. Unfortunately, we get to meet only one during the holiday's but we hope to meet the other 2 soon. Congrats to the new Mom's and Dad's. Welcome Walter, Elise, and Little Rich, we can't wait to meet you!