Hello Again

Peek-a-Boo Payton

A day at Redrock

A Visit with Grandpa Tony and Grandma Stacy

The girls last performance of the year.

Cool chic!

My Smiley Biker

Riding around in Yuma

Makena and her Singing Buddies

My Girls

I wish it wasn't so hard for me to stay on top of the blog. I have such good intentions on filling friends and family in about some of the day to day(or at least month to month for crying out loud)happenings of the Haughs. Anyways, I'll try to recommit myself.

For now, here are some funny recent thoughts and words from the Haugh girls.

Makena- Recently I was doing a photo album project on the floor. Makena was walking by me as I said "where am I?" You know, like where was I on the pictures! She said "Mom you are home, you know that!" Silly girl. We laughed for a while. She must have thought I had finally lost it.

Brinley- Last week Brinley and Payton were playing with their dollhouse. Payton, as she usually does with her two year old self was taking every doll Brin had. Finally, as Payton took her Mom doll, Brinley handed her a Barbie "Kelly"doll. She then said in a firm, but precise voice. Payton, use the Kelly doll instead as your Mom, and pretend like shes a little person. Oh, that girl cracks me up.

Payton- This girl is all two right now. She's either sweet as pie, or sour as a lemon. Not much in between. But when she's sweet, she's really sweet. She was sitting next to Makena today, as Makena was playing Webkinz on the computer. She layed her head on her shoulder and said I love you Kenna. Too cute.

Here's some new pics of things we've been doing.

Grateful

Payton's 2nd Birthday

Tree Decorating

All the cousins on Thanksgiving

Kelly and I on Thankgiving

Makenas's new room

We are in a place of gratitute. Like many of you, we have had a challenging year. It's been full of the unknown, frustration, financial strains and hard desisions. But through it all we are ending the year on a high note. We've chosen happy. Happy because we have so much. We've got an amazing family of three healthy, happy, high-spirited girls that fill our life with joy and excitement. We're also grateful for a solid, loving marriage. It's wonderful to have a relationship where we still have lots of fun together(when we get to be together : )), and make eachother laugh. We've got a great extended family who we love dearly, and who loves us too. I feel blessed to have some incredible friends, who we can count on for anything. Our blessings and opportnities go on and on. I'm truly grateful for the truthfullness of the Gospel in my life and the comforts and guidance of the Spirit. I'm grateful for the reason for Christmas, our Savior Jesus Christ. We want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. It is such a great season to remember all we have.

7 years old, and eight inches to give away.

I never had a chance to do it on her birthday, but Makena turned 7 last week. Happy Birthday Mak! How time flies. She is such a kind, funny, sweet girl. It's funny when your kids start turning ages that you feel like weren't very long ago for yourself!

She's been growing her hair out to donate for the last year and a half. She was so brave, and ready for it. She had eight inches to donate. But it was hard for me, even as a hairstylist. She looks so cute! And I'm very proud of her. Some child out there will have such a pretty haircolor! : )

Half-Marathon, Start of a New School Year, and Other Adventures.

Well, I haven't had a chance this week to post the pictures of my race last week. I am sooo glad I did it. It was fun, and intense! It was harder, but more exhilarating than I expected. As I finished I realized how happy I was I didn't know exactly what the course would be like. It may have had me much more nervous. I had heard there was a pretty good hill at the beginning. Little did I know it was 4.5 miles strait up through Parley's Canyon. It couldn't have been a more beautiful run. The weather was awesome. We even got a little rain coming down the canyon at mile 8 or so. The view was beautiful.. There was a couple times looking around helped me push through. The elevation definitely added a new obstacle. My friend and running buddy Jody both got some crazy rib cramps from it. ( I love the picture of her looking at me like I'm crazy as we are running!)It was definitely a rush coming in at the finish line. I can now understand how people get the race bug. I came in at 2 hrs 2 min. Now... I've almost got Matt convinced to do one with me in November in California!

We had a great time in Utah spending a few days with my sister and her family. And the girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. I barely saw Makena for three days. It was a special week too because my parents and my sister Kelly were there for a day or so on their way taking her to college. By the way, we miss you tons already, Kelly! We took a quick trip to Temple Square on my way out of town.

Makena is loving second grade. She has a wonderful teacher, and great friends in her class. She's doing great in her practices for "Little Wolves", the dance team at her school. Brinley started her new preschool last week. She is loving it. That girl cracks me up. As I drove her there the first day, I said "You are going to have so much fun!" She said, I know Mom, don't worry about me." Apparently she thought I was worried. And Payton. Well the terrible twos are well on their way. Actually, I'm hoping they're making an early entrance, and exit. She has some comical tantrums, and hitting fests that we are taming. ; )But most of the time she is still our sweet baby who is getting big too fast.

Matt's busy with work, which is good. He's a great Dad and husband. And I am gearing up for another Fall Festival at Makena's school. I took on the role of co-President again of PTSO this year.

I also posted some pics of Matt and I from a few week ago. We decided to play tourist for a night. We did dinner and a show, and as you can see even a picture with the weird shiny guy! : )

Las Vegas 10k

I ran the Las Vegas Fire/Police Dept. 10 K yesterday. What a morning. It was almost comical how interesting it was just getting there. I've been training with my good friend Jody. We actually set this race as our goal, but it's turned out to be our halfway mark to our half-marathon. Just the day before we had actually ran our 12 miles on our training schedule. It had been figured out that her teenage neighbor would come watch her kids 5:00 Sat. morning since her husband had to work. She texted me at 5:oo that she was banging on her door trying to wake her up. We were stressing knowing we had to leave to make it across town to get there by 6:00. Poor Jody tried everything, calling the house, early wake up calls to friends, no luck! She told me to leave without her. I felt so bad

Just the night before, Matt and Makena said they really wanted to go. I told them it wasn't a big deal, but very sweet. My awesome sister Kelly said she'd spend the night so we didn't have to wake up the littler girls. So after Jody's absence I was really happy they were coming with me.

I didn't print off a map, because my dear husband said he knew exactly where we were going. But it was equally my fault for not being more prepared. We left just in time that morning, because of the babysitter fiasco. We drove to the outlets Matt was sure it was, and no one. PANIC! Anyway 10 minutes later, we found it. It was five miles away or so. Hence we pulled up at strait up 6:00. I still had to turn in my paper and grab my chip and number. After the registration lady was bugging me with trying to place my chip in my shoe. I decided against it, since the other runners had taken off 4 minutes before! I took off knowing my time and name wouldn't register. I thought at this point it really didn't matter. I don't think I've ever run so fast to not be so far behind. Nothing like a little adrenalin. I caught up to at least the middle runners.

I was so happy to have Matt and Makena cheering me on along the way. It's a lot harder to run alone when you've been running with friends. My ipod wasn't staying nearly loud enough, and I wasn't willing to mess with it and lose more time. All in all it was a fun experience. It was fun to see a little of what the half will be like. Without my four minute delay, I ran it in 53min. 51 seconds.

Where's my ocean breeze?

Well, we're back from our Oceanside vacation. We had such a blast. It was so nice to get away for a few days. It was especially nice getting out of this crazy heat. We rented a house a half mile from the beach, with a perfect ocean breeze coming through the windows.
Our friends the Simpsons and their cute niece Celeste joined us. We had lots of laughs, a lot of sand in places sand shouldn't be, and an ice cream parlor poo episode which will definitely be remembered. As all of you with kids know, a vacation with them is way fun, but not necessarily relaxing. It's easily the same amount of work, if not more. but well worth it!My girls loved running around the house and hanging at the beach. We were happy when Payton finally got over her fear of looking at the waves ( even when they were 20 yards away). Brinley loved playing in the sand, of course; because she likes anything that makes her dirty! And Makena got to learn how to boogie board with Matt.
We also went on a whale/dolphin watching boat ride. It was so pretty. The whales unfortunately didn't make an appearance, but we saw lots of different kinds of dolphins. It was so amazing getting to see them in their own environment. I'd say it even beat SeaWorld! It was fun getting to see my children watch the beauty around them.
I think there's something so peaceful and healing about being near the ocean. It gave me simple joys that I really needed. It reminded me to look at the good around me, whether I'm on vacation or not. It was hard coming back to the awful 111 degree weather. But it was also nice coming home to a home I love, family who missed us, and a life that's pretty good.
Happy last few weeks of Summer, and enjoy the pictures!