go cougs!

on saturday we had the great opportunity to attend our last home game for a while at lavell edwards stadium to watch our cougars play. it's been a great season for us. we've attended every home game this season. benny has attended every home game since he was born except for one - there was one game last year that i stayed home with him because of a fever he had. there were a couple of games this season where we left early - once because of inclement weather (it started snowing pretty badly as we were walking home) and once because it was the late tcu game and benny needed to get to bed. benny had a great time getting all decked out in his byu apparel. and it was so fun to see him really enjoy his time in the baby bjorn walking to the games with his dad.

saturday's game was a great one to end on because it was a sweet win over the utes. we were all thrilled to

see our cougars win it. it was fun to see benny too. it was such a different experience with him this year during the u game. last year he was only about 4 months old and he was screaming at the end of the game in my parents' family room because all of the cheering scared him. this year - at the stadium - he seemed to love all the cheering and got in a much better mood the happier all the cheering was. it's nice to see him love his cougars.

at the end of the game we had a great time rushing the field as a family. we were sitting in the south stands east of the goal post on the twelfth row. as the game ended spencer had benny in the baby bjorn and i followed with the diaper bag holding onto spencer's arm so we didn't get separated. as spencer was going over the bars, there was a middle-aged man who was helping people over who asked if spencer wanted him to hold benny. it was a very nice offer, but spencer was all set and geared up for rushing the field that he didn't miss a beat jumping down to the grass. i am glad to say that i was able to follow right over without falling at almost 7 months pregnant (about 30 weeks along). we ran to the middle of the field (it's a good thing i've been doing all this walking - i didn't even waddle!) and had a great time cheering with all those other cougar fans out there.
after we left we thought that we should have gotten a better picture of benny and his first time rushing the field, and it would have been nice to let him get down and walk on the grass, but we are really glad that we were able to share that experience as a family. it's one that i don't think we'll forget in a really long time.

GO COUGS!!!

counting steps

a few weeks ago i got the pedometer i ordered in the mail. it's a really nice one - it has a seven day memory, it counts aerobic steps (a certain number of steps in a minute or walking for so many minutes consecutively), it tells you how many calories you've lost (i don't know how accurate that really is), and you can enter your stride length and it will tell you the distance you've walked for the day. i got it because my sister bethany kept telling me that i needed to get a nice one and keep track (i have a cheap one that i got free from byu last year when i was working there and doing the "tour across america" wellness challenge. it was one of those that you can hear clicking with all of your steps. they're really not the most accurate. my sister eden and i were joking about how they are notorious for giving you many more steps than you've walked and also not counting any for a fair amount of time. this new omron pedometer, however, is amazing. it consists of some amazing technology that allows you to not necessarily clip it to your waist band, but you can put it in a pocket or your purse - and it supposedly stays pretty accurate. this has become somewhat of a family thing - both of my parents have this same pedometer, bethany and eden have one, and graydon has one (although i don't think he uses it very often).

if i am correct, the whole thing started when bethany started doing "the step diet." it's a diet that consists of finding out how many steps you get on an average day and gradually increasing your average for the week - i don't know all the details because i haven't ever read the book. i know there's also a section on what you eat, etc. bethany did really well while she was pregnant. she had a week where she was getting an average off 16,000 steps/day. i can't imagine getting that many - my high is just over 12,000, and that's only one day of that - not my average for a week. bethany is a believer in the step diet. she was really healthy throughout her whole pregnancy and gained the least amount of weight of all 5 of her pregnancies. her labor and delivery was also the easiest she's had. what i can't believe is that she, of her own free will and choice, went home from the hospital nov 1 (the day after grace was born).
i heard from my dad that she (bethany) was also feeling good enough to work on a dishwasher repair the night after she was home. when i talked to beth after she was home, she kept telling me i needed to get a pedometer and work for 10,000 steps/day. i agreed, but didn't rush to get one. at one point she even told spencer that he should get me a the pedometer and push me to get 10,000 steps/day. i finally pulled out my cheap one from byu and it took a little coaxing to work. it was barely counting any at all, but if you shook it, it slowly became more accurate.
this is a picture of a pedometer you can get from amazon for under $2. it's basically like the one that i had (although mine did have a few more buttons, and maybe more features). it counts steps basically by the bounce of your body. sometimes you can get lots of steps just from standing up from a chair. if you keep it on while you change your clothes, you can get lots more! i decided i should get pretty serious about counting my steps, so i wore the cheap one until the better one came.

my goal for a while was 10,000 steps/day. last week i decided that for right now, 8,000 would work better with where i am. it's definitely within reach, but it's a little stretch sometimes - i don't want it to be too easy, but i don't want to be discouraged by not reaching my goal day after day. for the last couple of weeks i've even been getting up in the morning to go for a walk (something spencer's been telling me would be good for me for quite a while). it's been really nice, and my loop around part of campus has gradually gotten bigger. the walk i've been doing pretty regularly now is just under two miles. it's a great way to start the day. last week while we were in draper i even got up to go for a walk along the trail behind my parents' house. that was really nice - and freezing! - and i was able to get about 2.5 miles those three days we were up there. i'm really looking forward to keeping this walking up - even through the snow. i think it will really help with the birth of our second baby boy - especially because the goal is to do a vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean). i was walking a lot every day before benny was born (i walked to and from church the day before and to work and up to the fourth floor on the stairs the day of) and i think it really helped - the little monkey was just feet first!

this is a whole lot of talk about steps, but i'm really excited about it, and i've been feeling great. my back and sciatic nerve have even been feeling so much better since i've been walking more regularly. let's just hope i keep it up until february!

a few pictures

benny loves wearing hats. and he loves shoes. we have this beanie around that i made three or four years ago that he loves putting on. i made a blue and white one in hopes he would look less like a girl; unfortunately, we can't find that one, so we're left with the purple one. i don't think benny minds. while playing, if benny sees a shoe or sandal, he usually brings that up to me wanting me to put it on. sometimes we end up with one bare foot and the other with something on, but sometimes we get one shoe and sock and one sandal. it's pretty cute. i was able to snag a picture with the beanie and one sandal on a little while ago. not the greatest picture, but i think our monkey is pretty cute.