I Did it. I have nothing else to say.

Hurricane, Utah Half Marathon.  Maybe I do have a little more to say.  It was cold.  Not just kinda cold.  Like 35 degrees cold when we woke up.  And windy.  And dark since they had a start time of 6:30 and a arrive at the bus time at 5:30 am.  Utah time.  Thats 4:30 Vegas time.  Wow.  Good thing we went to Walmart the night before and I bought these awesome black aerobic spandex throw backs from the 80's for $3.00.  I'm not sure the short shorts and tank top I brought to wear were going to cut it.  I even wore a long sleeve running shirt and then a zip up jacket over that.  It came off at mile two.  The running shirt stayed on until mile 11.  Crazy.  I hadn't planned on the cold.  I did plan on the hill, but not the *#^!* kickin' hill that occupied all of mile 5.  It was a killer.  I survived.  I finished under my goal of two hours.  (1:59:50) to be exact!   

The group....Mary, Michelle, Marquessa, Melissa, Jill and Geneva.  Melissa and Jill (sisters) were the inspiration behind this race.  I'm so glad I did it!!! I've wanted to do this since I had Cole 2 and 1/2 years ago.  Its been a long time coming and little by little I felt I was finally ready to do it.  Will I do it again?  Probably.  Will I do a full?  NO.  Love you girls.....I love that you push me to do hard things. 

Little Miss Abby

Lucky me, I got to photograph Abby last week in her beautiful blessing dress. We couldn't resist after the dress trying some fun shots too. Don't you love her fairy wings?!

8 Weeks

The flags have been on display in our front room by the entry way now for about 2 months....reminding us of what lies before us. 

This year my Word of the Year is COURAGE. Courage is defined as bravery; quality of spirit which faces danger without flinching.  Fortitude, Valor, dauntless, fearless and daring. 

Why did I pick this word?  Because Courage is what it takes to think about moving to another country.  Praying to know if it is the right thing to do for your family and then accepting this challenge and adventure.  Courgage is what it takes to downsize your life.  Put things in storage.  Donate a bunch of things you really don't need.  Courage is what it takes to explain to your children that this is move is going to be a great thing that they will look back on forever and remember fondly.  Even though they LOVE their lives here in Las Vegas and are not sure they want to accept this great change.  It takes Courage on their part to accept and trust our judgement and opinion.  Although, I wouldn't say we are perfectly dauntless, fearless, or always brave about this upcoming change......I will say that we are learning a lot about trying to be COURAGEOUS and what it takes to trust the will of our Father in Heaven as we face the next big move for our family!  The CHUGG's are in the final countdown.  8 more weeks until we move to GERMANY!!  Ramstein AFB here we come to start our final three years and adventure in the US Air Force.      

Reno Visit

We spent our Spring Break mostly in Reno visting Grandma and Grandpa.  The weather was windy and cold most of the time, but the kids played in the backyard for hours! 

Sunday Easter Best

We love the park by the library near G'ma and G'pa's house.  We played there one afternoon despite the wind. 

Carter Froggy

The rain drops were good for something:  a brilliant double rainbow.  (you can really only see one of the rainbows in this picture.)

Hanna was not happy when the rained started ruining her chalk drawings. 

The last morning we were there was beautiful.  The kids must have a lot of faith.  It had been too cold, windy and rainy all week to hike to the "G".  So I told them IF it was nice we would make time and hike in the morning before we left. 

Thank you "WIPEOUT"  TV show for teaching my daughter the refined behaviors in life. 

Its always hard to actually spot the house once you are up on the "G", but we were able to do it this time!  As a sidenote:  The G doesn't really stand for Grandma and Grandpa, its really for Galena High School which is right next to them, but we like to pretend! 

The VIEW of Reno

Easter Time

This pretty much sums up how Cole felt about Easter this year.... Plastic eggs all over the grass filled with chocolate?  What's not to LOVE?  The Ward Easter Egg Hunt at Prescott Park has become a fun tradition.  Its a perfect spot for it with lots grass, a gazebo, and play structures.  The only problem however was the weather.  So windy and cold.  The sun was out and it was beautiful, but boy was it chilly!  And guess whose mom forgot to bring Jackets??

It was a little hard trying to get him to pick up more eggs.  He kept trying to sit down and eat each egg as he found it.  After the Easter Egg Hunt, he found the kid's baskets hiding out in the dining room.  It wasn't long until a lot of chocolate had been diminshed from their eggs. 

Preschool bestest buddies; Josh and Sam

Clark and Carter were a little too cool to collect eggs, but not too cool to eat a donut or two or three!

Carter Johnson, Jake and Jack Taylor

Hanna and Paige....hard to believe these two are the same age.  Hanna grew a ton this past year and sweet Paige not as much. 

A few days before Easter found us at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Reno for Spring Break.  So we of course had to decorate some eggs.  The kids are getting really creative and experiemental with their dying. 

The white crayon is always a favorite tool for decorating easter eggs at our house.

I love how Cole just stood up to the counter and threw an egg into the dye.  Two year olds do not quite understand that these things can break or spill....ahhhhhh!

Carter drew Munchlax on this egg with white crayon.  It turned out really cool

The finished product.  Yummy...they made up to be very nice deviled eggs!

Sawmill Falls Street

Its always hard to know when you move somewhere if the neighborhood is going to be a good fit. After searching and looking at over 30 houses on our house hunting trip, we found this neighborhood and street. Our friends the Taylors came up to look at houses the same weekend and fell in love with our floor plan and the neighborhood we were thinking about. We both ended up buying the same house right across from each other. It has turned out to be way better than we could have ever planned ourselves. Lots of fun families and kids to play with. Our end of Sawmill Falls Street has turned into a pretty close knit group. Thanks to the wonderful Gabriel family, we are always having fun block parties in the street. Lori is the master social mind behind it all. So Friday after school let our for spring break, found our "block" in the street playing and having dinner. We are going to miss our fun friends on Sawmill Falls Street.

Another fun thing about our street is that we have very entrepenureal (is that a word?) minded kids. We take turns selling goods to the neighborhood and having little stands. So far we have had lemonade stands, cotton candy (Allreds), Hawaiian Shave Ice (Gabriels), Dippin Dots (Jadyn), Chugg Chillers (shakes and hot chocolate), and the cookie and cupcakery (the Andersons). It is a great way for the kids to have fun, advertise, and earn a few dollars!

There were quite a few chocolate faces thanks to Jen's famous dipped strawberries!

Tiffany and her mom Leah.  Tiffany lives right across the street.  We often fight over her for  babysitting.  Its so great because at the end of the night we just walk her back home!  Easy and she's awesome with the kids. 

The cute Gabriels.  They are such a cute family.  Bria and Hanna do HollyWood Kids and Koby is so fun to play with for Jake and Josh. 

The "Corn Hole" game came out for the first time.  Its a very popular game in Ohio where Jen and Darin lived before moving to Vegas. 

Goofy Cole was trying to play catch with Carter and Daddy, but was more silly than anything. 

Chalk drawings Always dot the street and sidewalks here on Sawmill Falls Street.