I had a great idea of doing nice individual posts to try and get myself all caught up but the idea was just a little too daunting so I am doing one massive post with the "major" happenings from the last few months.
First up-the St. George Marathon-at the beginning of October! Lovely little Ilene decided she did not really need sleep the night before so I was up ridiculously late out in the car/parking lot trying to get her to sleep until Ryan and Phil came to the rescue at 12 or 12:30 :(.
These pics taken by Alli as Ryan and Phil went from mile 23ish to the finish.
The day after the marathon
And just so when I think I may want to put myself through that again here is a little run-down of my "experience" and this is my 3rd one so maybe I would be "getting the hang of it" by now, but nope this way BY FAR the worst one EVER!!! I don't know if it was the lack of training-because I had seriously done the minimum to get by and that had ended about a month prior before trips and other stuff so I basically quit running for a month-prob not too smart. Or maybe it was all the delicious cheese fondue I consumed the week before :) who knows, but I started out doing pretty good. A few aches and pains, but nothing too major. About mile 7 my legs were hurting, but I was feeling good-so good I thought that maybe I would want to truly train and see if I could get a good time... Well we just kept trucking along and about 17 I thought I may want to die-legs hurting every.blasted.step. but somehow I was still doing a decent time so I was just hoping that maybe I could maintain my pace. Well that lasted for the next few miles-I may have been delusional as I was imagining two of my brothers at the top of one of the hills, but it got me to the top so I don't care who they were there to cheer for! At this point if the marathon had ended at mile 19 I would have been a happy camper, but nope no such luck. I was just thinking I had to make it to see my little girlies at 22-23 and by the time I finally saw them I was SOO tired. I gave Ryan the thumbs down. But they gave me a little boost that I was hoping would "take me through" and that whole excitement took me approximately 2 blocks!! I was still doing my pace and really thinking I would be about 3:56 if I just kept going. I got to mile 24 at the clock read 3:38 so I figure I will be in great shape. I got to the mile 25.2 marker and the clock read 4:00! And nope I had not stopped somewhere I had ran the entire mile. So my ending time was 4:09 I think which is pretty lame, but I was just thrilled to be done so I did not and still do not care one bit. I am still wondering what the heck happened-other than wanting to just lay down and quit in that mile-to make it so slow. Anyway so it was super hard, we will see if I do another one??
After the marathon we went back to the hotel, watched conference, and then Ryan and I went and met up with some friends for lunch, watched more conference, did a little shopping, but my mom and I were both soo tired that it was shortlived and hung out at the hotel while the boys went to priesthood.
Sunday was more conference followed by meeting up with some more friends and our little family headed to Las Vegas for a night so Ryan could stop by an expo Monday. We went swimming and it was just nice to relax. And there are no pictures of our Vegas stay, but I loved our hotel-Southpoint where Ryan usually stays. It has a movie theatre, awesome pool, bowling, arcade area and a bunch of restaurants/buffet. While Ryan was working Monday the girls and I went to see DolphinTale. I actually really liked it. Alli really liked it except for when she was a little concerned that everything wouldn't actually work out. Then she covered her eyes and told me she didn't want to see :). I love her perceptive she is and how concerned she is able people and animals and their feelings.
Outside her preschool teacher's house.
With most of her class.
The crew at my mom's school. Dancer, Scientist, cute baby, and Cowgirl Alli. Sadly/Fortunately I did not get a pic of Phil in his costume before he left for class :).
Next up would be a little holiday called Halloween. When we were in San Francisco we got some outfits in Chinatown so we were a Chinese family for trick-or-treating and Alli was a cowgirl with her horse for pre-school and the earlier in the day Halloween. After trick-or-treating we had yummy "Fingers with dip" "Mummies" and Pizza for dinner.
The day after Halloween Ryan headed to Vegas for an expo and we got snow here! It was fun playing outside even though I am kinda wimpy-I think I need better snow clothes. But both girls through the snow was great so I am excited to have more snow to play in.
(These pictures from October)
And my favorite things to remember are the random times and random funny things my girls do that make me laugh. Alli is so fun! She is so sweet and she tells us the most elaborate stories sometimes-especially at night when she is trying to stall going to bed :). She will play dress up with just about anything she sees-capes are great when made from the tulle for wedding prep to the Christmas tree skirt while decorating the Christmas tree-she told me (complete with a first pump!) that she was "Super Alli" and that if I needed help with anything just call and she would come save me. 
(See that panicked look-that is usually accompanied by some uh-uh-uh sounds, like oh no I don't know what to do now)
Ilene is so busy busy busy. She loves to climb on anything and everything she can, pull books down, tear books/paper. But she is so sensitive to anyone being upset. If you tell her "no" for doing something her lip quivers and tears immediately come. Unless of course she is teasing and then she turns and literally runs off, little stinker :) But she will give you things when you ask her to and she gets so pleased with herself. She loves clapping and loves if you clap for/with her. One of our favorite things is how she watches Alli sometimes. This morning Alli was doing a gymnastic trick and jumping onto the carpet from a stool and Ilene just sat on the floor watching with this look of awe at just how cool her big sister is. Most times she loves to do and be exactly where Alli is and most of the time Alli is really good at playing with her and helping her. If Ilene gets stuck somewhere and needs help Alli is very quick to run over and carry her/lift her/move things. Or at times she is also super quick to block the way so Ilene is locked out :). Last week we were getting ready to go somewhere and I needed to get ready. We had been playing in the loft so I came down to finish up and left the girls up playing. Alli said she would watch Ilene and I was downstairs for a few minutes, but the whole time all I heard was laughter from both girls. They were sitting in Alli's tent playing and Alli just kept entertaining Ilene. Seriously one of the best sounds ever is them laughing together, I could listen to that every second!! Oh man I am so in love with my two girls, especially when they are happy together :). Ilene has now mastered the stairs which is so nice, she goes up great and comes down pretty good too!
Love that raggedy hair that falls out of her pigtails!
And lastly-thank you Ilene for sending your phone for a little "swim". I am glad the toilet was clean! Surprisingly the phone still "worked" but it is no longer in the played with toys :).
