Blaine at Wildflower Tri

What a Decade!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET, SILLY WHITTERBUG!

We got to celebrate Whitney's birthday over the Thanksgiving holiday and I am blown away by the fact that my baby is 10 years old.
Whitney, you are such a unique, amazing and talented young woman. I can not wait to see what you do with the rest of your life because it is so much a part of your nature to make the rest of world stand up and take a look at you. Wherever you go, you bring your own perspective and leave a mark unlike that of anyone else.

Looking back on the last ten years, I wish I had your memory instead of mine. You have an uncanny ability to remember detail that I really am jealous of, as I can't remember yesterday half the time. Watching you go from chubby cheeks and pig tails to a very independent and "cool" big sister has been such a joy. I'm so happy that our friendship has grown so much over the last couple of years. Now, I love being able to talk with you about grown-up kinds of things, and I'm excited that our interests are getting more the same. You are a wonderful big sister and cousin, and I love to watch you play with all the babies- it just makes a big smile come to my face. You are just one amazing girl! Daddy and I love you so much as does all the rest of your huge combined family. And Yes...you will always be my Little WhitterBug- Happy Birthday!

Whit playing "Sing It" on the Wii- she LOVES music and singing!

Catching up with the Holidays

Halloween has come and gone, and I have little to show for it here on our family blog. Here are some pics to catch up. Whitney was a Ninja, Ethan was a skeleton, Jaylee was an angel, and Brecken only dressed up the night of halloween when I forgot my camera of 'course! He was a super cute doctor. We had a good time trick or treating with Cameron and Lyndsay and their kids. Uncle Taylor even set up a movie screen in the driveway and we watched Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin. Super fun! Believe it or not, television trumps candy. The kids were done after only going around one block because they wanted to watch the movie. Who knew?

Brecken is Walking... Across the Room!

You know how people say that babies just crawl for ever, and then suddenly just take off across the room walking. Well, that's really the case with this little guy. I guess because he looks like he's almost two he's got to live up to people's expectations a little. He totally surprised us the other night when he took five or six steps all together. I finally got him on video this morning and he went even further than I expected, again!

Sorry for the sketchy video and the really annoying "mommy voice" (it even annoyed me, so turn down your sound. Although, it's fun to hear his little giggles at how excited he was!) If you hit the HQ button, the video is a little better. I'm an awful videographer though- sorry people!

Here he is though- this is so fun!

Jaylee's Ballet Performance

Jaylee had her first ballet and tap dance performance. She loved the class and got to go with her cousin Ella. You have to check out what a ham this girl is, it's hilarious (well, at least to her Mommy.) It was a lot of fun, all the little girls got to dress in their Halloween costumes for the dance. I wish I had gotten Ella in the video too, but she was on the other side of the room. Anyway, it's a little long, but she's just a cheese face the whole way through. I LOVE IT!

Turn up the sound for this one so you can hear the music :)

I love these faces! They are growing up so fast.

Brecken's Birthday

Well, I am getting rather behind here in keeping the blog updated. Brecken's big one year old birthday was on Wed. the 21st, but we had his party on the Saturday before. It was a whole lot of fun with lots of blue frosting everywhere, but he loved it! Daddy was in charge of the games, so he decided to do games that were on Brecken's level. We started out with a race to see who could smash a banana with their forehead the fastest & pick up the paper plate with it, then onto crawling races, and then seeing who could still say "Mama" with the most crackers in their mouth. Grandma Jean especially liked this game when Grandpa sprayed her with chewed up cracker! Needless to say it was lots of fun and VERY messy!! Way to go Daddy :D So now the big bub is one year old, and looks more like he's almost two. I get my daily arm workout by carrying him around since he's decided that walking is not his style yet. He can totally do it, but I don't know if he knows that he can do it. Anyway, lots of fun!

When I grow up, I want to be my big brother.

Anyone who knows Ethan, can see he has been busy at work teaching this little guy the in's and out's of his favorite pastime.

This is kind of fun

I haven't posted anything about a little side hobby of mine in quite a while, and since this one turned out so darn cute I thought I'd post it here. I love this fabric! I owe all my sewing skills to my Momma!
-The Nursing NeckTie-

Fun Peach Canning

Lyndsay and I decided to be all domesticated and undertook the challenge of canning peaches. After researching on the web- because let's face it, everything you ever needed to know about anything is on there, and where else would savvy women like us go to for our domestication skills???- we found some blogs that gave us step by step info. We had a good time and mind you we even accomplished this while entertaining three small kids and a baby! I think they just look so good all lined up right there- okay, now I can check that one off my list... I actually canned something! I told Blaine that we were doing this for food storage purposes, because if there was ever some kind of natural disaster and we were scrounging for food- AT LEAST WE'D HAVE OUR PEACHES! He didn't think I made a whole lot of sense seeing that we don't really eat a lot of anything where peaches are an ingredient. Oh well! You just wait and see, Honey! You'll be so glad when that day comes and you're sitting there eating out of that peach jar!
Also, thanks Lynds! I couldn't have done it without you :)

What a personality

"Look, Mom, I can do dishes!"

"Ahhh, more food... and what's better than a whole tomato?"

Brecken discovered that he could stand up and reach in the vegetable drawer, if someone leaves the fridge door open long enough. Just enough time to reach in and swipe a whole tomato, which he proceeded to eat like an apple. You can see how juicy it was all over him, but did he mind?? Not a bit!

I can not believe that he's eleven months! Wow, how this year has flown by. This big guy is finally on to normal crawling after army crawling (or basically dragging his heavy little tummy on the ground) since he was eight months old. He's cruising along the furniture really good and loves to raid all the kitchen cupboards on a regular basis. Not quite standing alone yet, but every once in a while we catch him standing freely for a few seconds when he doesn't notice it himself. He loves, loves, loves our two cats and is really good at chasing them down when he's in his walker. What a fun little personality he already has, just sweet as can be and loves to laugh. My baby boy's growing up so fast!

Finally a Family Picture!

After 6 years of marriage, hard to believe we have only ever had two real family pictures. So two kids later we decided it might be nice to get another one. It was a fun thing taking these. We also took family pictures with all of Blaine's side of the family on the beach in La Jolla, CA. It was so much fun, especially trying to get all of the 7 grandkids to at least look towards the camera! I'm so excited to get these back and put them up on the wall!

Summer's Over

We've had a great summer and the kids are back in school now and loving it- as am I. Life is so much smoother with a regular schedule. Also, Blaine is back to work at UOP and doing very well. He's glad to be back as a new and improved Blaine. It's nice things have slowed down a bit, but come Thanksgiving he's most likely going to be trying to achieve his ultimate goal of racing in the IronMan Tri here in Tempe. This is the big one! and almost one year to the date from him coming home from the show. It's exciting for him. I'm also trying to get my butt in gear and start training for some really scary event, but nothing's planned yet.

So Far, SO FUN!

We have loved every minute of our fun together. We have basically lived in our swimsuits at one pool or another to survive the triple-digit heat. Boy are these Floridians going to be sad they came for a visit in July! We don't have the humidity they do, but man can we toast 'em!



Blaine was invited to attend another open casting call that Biggest Loser was holding at Ft. McDowell Casino and resort. We all decided to tag along to play in the pool and have a little "stay-cation." Ended up that we got three hotel rooms for free and stayed the night even though we really had only the clothes on our backs. It was a great time though, and you can't beat free! (One of the few perks we actually get from Blaine being a so- called "celebrity"... ha ha.) Only a few melt-downs so far :) I'm just so happy my kids are getting some quality time with their cousins, and it's so great having my sis around.

Red, White & Blue

Here's the intro to the month of July for us. Just before the 4th, my sister Krista arrived from Orlando with her three kids, Alyssa, Alex and Addison. Our big bunch started the month with a really fun 4th of July celebration with the Cotter family and friends. We had a great time! Grandpa and Grandma rented out the club house near their condo for us all. They had swimming, a huge Rock-Band set up, movies and of 'course lots of friends and good food. This was a great way to start off our fun-filled month for the seven kids!

From left to right: Blaine, Brecken- 9 mo., Jennie, Jaylee- 3, Ethan-5, Whitney-9, Alyssa-8, Alex-4, Addi-2 & Krista.

Being a Baby is so hard

While Whitney and I were baking, here's what Brecken was doing... I guess he had a rough afternoon :)

FHE Treats

Whitney had treat this week for FHE. We have not been very good at having it every week, but she and I had lots of fun this week baking special Choc. Chip Gems for dessert. I had to take a couple of shots of my big girl- she's growing up too fast.

Our Fun Camp-Out

Two weekends ago, we had a really fun backyard camp-out, and finally I am getting the pictures posted. Whitney had her friend Brooke spend the night for the first sleep-over party of the summer. We did it up right with the big family tent, and roasted smores. We even had our little family devotional around the campfire, all in all, lots of fun... and hey, the kids actually even slept a little bit, so that's a bonus! This really just made me want to get up in the pines for some real camping though- hopefully that will come soon too.

Nothing cuter than a naked baby!

Breckers loves his bath time!

Swimming at Grandma's pool in San Diego. 

Actually, we took all the kids to the community pool to play because it was already 100 degrees, and Brecken was hilarious.

We put him in the water and he started splashing, and right away and got his face all wet. The funny thing is that he's the only baby I've ever seen that giggles when we gets his face wet instead of crying! He was busting up! He's got a great laugh too :)

Interview following the finale

My sister found this clip from hulu, an interview immediately following the show... If you look really really closely I was there!- Look between the guys' shoulders and way behind them- I'm in the purple sweater. Hee hee! Blaine's such a softy ;)  

If you wait for the player to load again after you view this first interview, you can see a whole bunch of other clips of other contestants also.

The Big Day!

It's over.... what a ride it's been! So now we are experiencing what I would term post-reality TV disorder. What do we do with ourselves now that the world continues to turn in it's normal rotation and we are forced to once again live life in real-time instead of TV time? Well.... we have yet to see what lies ahead. We had a great extra few days in San Diego after the finale, and just returned home last night. So really today has been our first post-BL day. Wouldn't you know though, Blaine was a good boy and got in his two hours at the gym even though he seems to be coming down with a cold the kids have passed onto him.

So I thought I'd recap a bit of our last week.

Blaine flew out to LA for the finale last Friday and we left that afternoon to drive over to San Diego for a few days with his parents. Doesn't it always seem to happen that when you go on vacation, one of the kids will inevitably get sick. In the middle of the night Jaylee started with a burning fever, and unfortunately she was down sick for the next four days. My sister flew out from Orlando for the finale too, and it was so much fun getting to spend time with her. On Tuesday we drove up to Studio City for the finale. It was a tough decision and I went back and forth deciding whether or not to take Brecken and Jaylee with us, but in the end I left them in SD with a babysitter. Probably a good decision considering the noise level of the audience would have completely freaked out Brecken, and while we were gone, Jaylee had a horrible case of montezuma's revenge. (Here's where I completely apologize to our babysitter Jennifer!!! Nothing like diarrhea from someone else's kid to give you a good dose of birth control for your first year of marriage. Thanks for putting up with them! We owe you big time.) Anyway, being at the finale was even so much more fun than I thought it would be. We got to see a lot of the previous season's contestants, and when Blaine came out on stage I was so proud of him and so excited I almost burst into tears right there. So, yes, we were there in the audience, even though we were never on camera. We were sat in the exact spot where the camera almost never shot, and the darkest place in the theatre. I think they knew were bringing kids so they put us up in the nose-bleeds to keep them quiet. Oh well! Ethan and Whitney had a blast anyway and they were standing on the chairs shouting their heads off for their big hero. It was worth a million dollars just to see how happy Blaine was and to see how far he has come on this journey. 

May 20th- well, that post never made it to the page. So I decided to update it before I posted it. We actually don't have a lot going on now. Blaine's still looking for a job for now, and we are just trying to re-organize life. We are planning a big garage sale on Sat. which I totally hate getting ready for, but really needs to be done. We've collected so much junk we don't use! Someone else's treasure right? Anyway. After we got back every one of us as gone through this cold, and I have it right now. It's been rough. Brecken is seriously the best baby though. Still gives those sweet smiles even when he doesn't feel good.

Lot's of love to all our loyal BL supporters- glad it's over! Blaine's still doing great and is continuing to lose every day. He wants to get down about 25 more pounds. What motivation!

Alright! They Did It!

Blaine at the Wildflower Triathlon

Swim 

(It may be hard to see, but I love the determined smile on his face here.)

Bike

Run

What can I say except, WAY TO GO BLAINE AND DANE! It was very exciting to hear all about the tri once they got back. The Avia Wildflower Triathlon is a huge event in the triathlon world and Blaine couldn't say enough about how friendly, inviting and supportive everyone there was to them. Because this is still a growing sport, current pro's and athletes of all levels of experience are very welcoming to new-comers. This was awesome for these guys. Blaine said that many competitors there also started doing triathlons to lose weight and get healthier too, so there were tons of people who knew what they were going through and rooting them on like crazy. 

I don't have exact numbers right now, but Blaine finished in just over 7 hours I believe, and Dane was shortly after him at around 8 hours. This was the biggie! I am so glad that they have had enough drive and endurance to make this goal their final success before the finale next Tuesday. 

Now, it's good-bye one last time tomorrow. They head back to LA to get all ready for the finale, which means that it's been a tough WEEK of LAST-CHANCE workouts. Blaine just keeps telling me that he wants to say he did everything he could before the final weigh-in. I just keep telling him back that he needs to not die in the process :)  Anyway, he's doing great and we are both excited, but definitely ready for Tuesday to come. It's been a very long road, yet well worth the adventurous ride!

p.s. The last picture of them is with a Felt Bike company. They gave Blaine and Dane those awesome bikes to use for the race. Sweet bike man!

The TriFecta is almost complete!

Well, I'm writing tonight at like 10:30 PM and I'm all anxious for Blaine and Dane. Tomorrow morning they are set to compete in the Avia Wildflower Triathlon in Lake San Antonio, CA. It's a tough course, actually they've been told it might well be THE hardest half-IronMan length triathlon course anywhere. 

I have to explain why I'm anxious. Many of you well know that Blaine and Dane have been working tirelessly to make a statement about what someone can accomplish when they focus on a goal and try with all the energy they can muster to push through the pain. I'm anxious because I know how much Blaine has focused on this race, and more than anything, I wish I could be there to watch him and root him on. I know without a doubt that he will do great- that's not my worry. I just want to know if he's gonna be happy with how well he performs. Blaine's an all or nothing kind of guy, anyone who knows him knows that. He has set his sights on this triathlon as sort of a culminating mile-stone in his weight-loss journey, and I hope that once this moment passes, that he will look back on it with joy. That he will be excited to do it again (and again!) I can not wait until I get that call tomorrow to hear how it went. Then the "Trifecta" will be completed.

The "Trifecta" has been a half-marathon (13.2 miles) in Salt Lake City,UT; a full marathon (26.8 miles) in Nashville, TN; and then this the half-IronMan length Triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run) in  CA. I'd say that surely there's no arguing with the accomplishment of these three events in just THREE weeks' time. Sheesh! When he gets something in his head, there's no changing his mind.

I could not be more proud of this man- way to be Black Team! 

All I have left to say, is MAN!-We are going to take a vacation after this! 

Easter was great :)

We had a great time in St. George, it's always so beautiful there, rain or shine. We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa Northern and Blaine's parents. We got to see their new house they are building, and that's going to be the party pad when it all done, I tell ya! The kids had so much fun swimming at the clubhouse up there too- Especially little Brecken. I think he just thought it was bath time in the heated pool or something.

It really was so nice to get away and actually get to spend some time with my husband. I have to steal him and leave town to see him these days. Thanks "Grandma & Grandpa Grape" for an awesome holiday, and for your sweet hospitality! It was so much fun to see you again!