Neices and Nephews are Wonderful!

This is Lily. She is my oldest neice and she just turned 7 years old. She is in first grade and probably the best reader ever (surely not partial because she's my niece?!?). She read out of the scriptures to us during the middle of January, and you would seriously think that she must be at least 9 or 10 years old with her fluency. She didn't really trip up, have to sound out much, and it was so fluid! She loves to read and she loves anything pink or purple (I think she still does at least!). She likes to have fun and be in the middle of the action. She always has a story to tell. She also collects beanie babies. We're so glad she's our neice!

This is Emma. She is the next oldest neice. She is also Lily's sister. Emma was born just under a month after I married Aaron. So she is the first neice I remember being born. Emma started crawling really early. Like 4 months I think. Emma is very caring and a pleasure to be around. She gets along really well with Rebecca. I think she gets along with almost any other kid too. Emma also loves pink and purple and I'm sure she will be a great reader like her sister in the not too distant future. She plays the piano, and even makes up her own songs on occassion. Emma is helpful and sweet. We're so glad she is our neice!

This is Tate. He is my first nephew. He was born 1 month and 1 day after Rebecca. Tate is quite adventuresome and likes to learn new things. I think one of his favorite subjects is and will continue to be Science. He loves to know about things and how things work. Tate is also a flirt. He is always telling girls (even Aunts!) that they are pretty. He wants to know who he is going to marry now, and really can't wait until he is older. Its going to be a long 18 years for him! Tate is good at crafts and I hear he is good at the Wii too. We are so glad he is our nephew!

This is Alana. She is my first neice on my side of the family. She is 4 1/2 months younger than Rebecca. Alana has a beautiful singing voice. She recorded a song with her dad on a cd for my mom for Christmas. It was the song from Polar Express. She did a great job! Alana likes princesses and dressing up. She has beautiful naturally curly hair which she just recently cut short. She loves her new brother Brigham and makes sure he always has toys (at least when I am around!). Alana can sometimes be feisty, and sometimes just darn cute and lovable. We are so glad Alana is our neice!

This is Peter. He is 5 months older than Anson. Peter is a boy after Anson's own heart. Peter LOVES superheroes, and tools, and cars, and ... you get the idea. He is a BOY. Peter is really cute when you ask him a question and he answers "yeah!". He kind of dips the word and it starts low and goes up then down again. Not sure if that makes sense, but if you hear it you will know what I am talking about. It is so cute! Peter was brave enough to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at our Christmas program. He and Anson are best friends. We are so glad Peter is our nephew!

This is Brigham. He is actually almost 1 now, but I don't seem to have any recent pictures! I better bring my camera with me next time and snap a few! Brigham is 3 days older than Katie. He was an early crawler and walker. He was crawling at just before 6 months and walking at 9 months (I think). Brigham is good natured and seems to just take things in stride. He hurt his face pretty bad when I was at his house, and he barely cried at all! He was over it so quick. We are so glad he is our nephew!

This is Benjamin. He is just less than 1 month younger than Katie. Benjamin is already walking too. Benjamin also seems pretty good natured. He just started drinking from a bottle and seems to be doing pretty good. We are so glad Benjamin is our nephew!

Brag Time

Ok, so I figure it is finally time to brag about my husband. In the last 4-5 months Aaron has lost 40 lbs!!! Can you believe that?!? He pretty much would put on 10 lbs. every time I had a baby. I would gain like 35 lbs, but then lose it again right away. But he never lost the 10 lbs. he gained every time. I tell you, I had my doubts when he told me he was going to do it. He has decided in the past to lose weight, and nothing happened. Can you blame me for my doubts? But this time was different.

For one thing, he decided he was going to participate in the C.G. Mini Triathalon. It was a 400 meter swim, then a 10 mile bike ride, and ending with a 3 mile run. Aaron used to swim in High School, so he loved the swimming part. It was hard at first, but he eventually got to where he could swim the 400 meters in just over 7 minutes. The biking was hard since he didn't have a road bike. He used his mountain bike, and he said people were passing him left and right. Apparently the road bikes are super light and with each pedal you are seriously propelled forward. Mountain bikes aren't really built like that. He was probably least prepared for the run, but still he practiced that too. He was pretty much exercising at least 4-5 days a week. So by the time of the triathalon (Nov. 3), he was ready to do it. He had already lost about 25 lbs. by then as well.

The other thing he did was track what he ate. He only ate like 1200-1500 net calories. So if he exercised, he was able to eat more calories than that.

So after the triathalon, Aaron decided to keep going. He signed up for the Sedona 1/2 marathon coming up next Saturday. He has recently been training for that. He ran for 2 hours yesterday morning. He still really enjoys swimming too. He now does the exercises his swim coach comes up with each day. He can easily swim 1-2 miles now.

Aaron's birthday is coming up on Saturday, so we got him an attchment thing for his ipod. He puts it on his shoes, and it has a wireless signal to his ipod as he runs. He can enter how far he wants to run, and it will tell him how far he has gone. He also got new shoes for his birthday so he can start breaking them in before the race in Sedona. We learned that your feet swell after running for 30-45 minutes, so you have to get bigger shoes if you run. Didn't know that before. He also got a road bike. He'll have more time to ride it after the race. Right now he is concentrating on being ready for that.

So I now have a fit husband. He is now in the normal range (as opposed to overweight) on the BMI scale. He still wants to lose 10-15 lbs. I'm really not sure that I will recognize him if he does. He already weighs less than he did when I met him! Anyway, way to go Aaron! I'm so proud of you!!! And now we'll have many more happy years together now that many of the risk factors for bad health are gone. Hooray!

Not 1, but 2!!!

We're going to have 2 new nieces or nephews in September!!! My sister-in-law, Christina, is expecting her first baby around September 19, and my sister-in-law, Carrie, is expecting her fifth baby at the end of September (not sure of the date yet). Yay for new babies!!!

Lion King Play

Aaron and I took Anson and Rebecca to the Lion King at Gammage on Saturday afternoon. Anson took his nap in the car on the way there, and Aaron carried him in while he slept. He woke up just as we got him in his seat.

We had the brilliant idea to bring in Rebecca's booster and Anson's car seat for them to sit on. Not only could they see better, but Anson was strapped in! He actually stayed put and was really good the whole time. Well, except for that time right after intermission...

We forgot to buckle him in before the show started again after intermission, so he wanted to walk around and make noise if we tried to hold him on or laps or anything. I could tell he was going to be yelling and screaming if I tried putting him in his car seat right then, so I took him out in the lobby. We stayed out until he decided I could strap him in and he could be quiet about it. It took quite a while, but he did great once he decided on it.

No pictures, but it was a fun time.

Central America Trip

Aaron is FINALLY coming home from Central America tonight! He has been gone for 10 days. I'm thinking this is not going to happen again. That is definitely way too long. Especially since I only got to talk to him on the phone once. (I am grateful for that though!) I think he had a good time, but I'm sure he was so homesick for his beautiful wife (yours truly), and wonderful children.

He posted a few pictures on my picasa web album partway through the trip, so I will post some of those for your blogging enjoyment.

These pictures were taken at a live volcano near Antigua, Guatemala. My daredevil husband got about 4 feet from the lava. He said he felt like he was burning his skin off!

Manning Family Christmas Party

Every year we have a party with Aaron's dad's side of the family. The last two years they have started assigning seats. They didn't do that before, so it seemed the families would congregate with their own families. Since the assigned seats, I have gotten to talk to a lot of people that I only briefly would talk to before. I hope it sticks as a new tradition!


This was too cute. I saw Anson over by the manger with baby Jesus in it before the party started. He approached tenatively at first, then picked up the baby and gave him a big hug. What a sweetheart!


We did a Nativity, and Rebecca was thrilled that I let her wear the white wings I've had up in my closet (even though Angels don't have wings). Anson had a cool Shepherd's crook, so I had to dress her costume up somehow!


Every year Aaron's uncle Steve tells a really cool story. This year it was a cowboy story, and Anson was enthralled. The whole time. Pretty surprising considering the story was probably 10-15 minutes long. Really tells you what kind of a storyteller he is, huh?

Katie and Daddy. Rebecca roping during the Cowboy Cousin song for talent time. Anson was busy riding a stick horse around the stage. He's definitely my little cowboy!

Polar Express

We had the opportunity to take the kids on the Polar Express this year. We went 10 days before Christmas, and it was snowing! The roads were very scary, but we made it. When we stopped in Williams to get gas, the convenience store person told Aaron that the freeway was closed, so we would be stuck in Williams. Not too happy about that, we went to the train depot. The train was late with the first trainload, so we saw Santa and looked around the gift shop. They had a movie of the Polar Express playing, so we watched that for a while too. Finally the train came, and we ran through the snow to the second to last train car.


Getting on the Train (in their pajamas!). We were going to wear our pajamas too, but with all of the wet snow, we didn't really feel like changing into them.

Katie, Daddy, and Anson all bundled up on the train!

The story "The Polar Express" is about a boy that has a train pull into his front yard on Christmas Eve. The conductor invites him in, and they are on their way to the North Pole. The servers on the train give them hot chocolate and goodies to eat. When they get to the North Pole, the boy gets to ask Santa for the first gift of Christmas. He asks for a bell from the Reindeer's harness on Santa's sleigh. Santa gives it to him, but it falls out of a hole his pocket. He is sad, but on Christmas morning, he finds it wrapped under the tree. The bell can only be heard by those who believe.

The conductor and our "elf" giving us cookies!

So on our Polar Express ride, we had cookies and hot chocolate served by "elves" that were dressed like the servers in the book. They read the story over the speakers while the "elves" showed the pictures to everyone. Then we saw Santa out the window in the North Pole and he got on the train. We were the second car to see him. He gave each child a bell. Then we sang Christmas songs led by the "elves". The kids loved it and we all had a good time!

Santa visiting with the kids on the train.

They could hear the bells! This was a favorite toy for the rest of the Christmas season.

Disaster or Blessing?

So I posted a while ago that Aaron was in a car accident the day before Thanksgiving. He had taken my car to go work out at CAC, which he never does. His keys were right on the dresser (one of the two places they should be), and he decided not to disturb me and just took my car. Then he was hit by a drunk driver. Allstate originally was going to fix about $10,000 worth of damage. Then they opened the car up and found about $5000 more damage. They still were going to fix it. Aaron had to fight our cause (not being stuck with a car we could sell for WAY less than we owed on it, plus who wants a car that has been pieced together with old parts?). It took a long time, but 2 days before Christmas we found out that our car would be totalled! We have GAP insurance, so that should cover the extra that we still owe.

We ended up with nothing, but found a much cheaper minivan. I got a super deal on it. It is a 2007 Honda Odyssey with about 36,000 miles. It is really nice, and perfect for the family. It can seat 8 to capacity, but I took out the middle seat and put the 2 bucket seats next to each other so there is room to get in the back next to the door. It will get better mileage too. What a blessing in disguise!