My girls love to dress up! We gave Ella a tea set for her birthday and I think every sip of water she had for the next week was out of her little tea cup. She had some friends over a couple days ago and they had a ball getting dolled up for their tea party. 
This Valentine's we had fun making lots of treats for those we LOVE!
To Mom, (pretty much the only one who reads my blog) I am trying to put up my pictures from the last couple months. (back-blogging) So you'll always see this race post (becaue it's the most recent). Just scroll down and see if anything new is posted after the race. OK.. so can we please stop the "when are you going to update your blog" phone calls? :) I love you! Sand
Last year Karen impressed me by finishing the London's Run half marathon, a charity race to benefit children fighting cancer. So this year she tried dragging me into it. Which, actually, wasn't too hard of a sale, I've been wanting to run a marathon for years now, but my knees haven't had the same goal. But I started training at Christmas time and was really enjoying it. The weather on Saturday morning long runs was ideal and I think it's the longest I've ever been alone post twins.
The last mile I was ready for the race to be over and then I saw Troy. I thought he was staying home with the sick kids, but there he was cheering me on the last leg. It felt so good to round the corner and have the energy to sprint home and see Karen & the kids.
* Apparently Karen needed some make-up tips.. which is always so successful with 7 kids running around. 
*And the biggest project of all... Whit decided to fix my kids. (They are slow as molasses and so I end up doing everything for all four of them... gets very wearing.) Whitney knocked on the front door one morning before school and introduced herself as "Miss Independence". She was all dressed up with the craziest get up and make up. My kids' eyes were like saucers... they'd never seen anything like it. She explained what "independence" means and showed how she got herself dressed that morning. She had made up a little incentive program (magic beans... which they still think will "grow a surprise") for them to get dressed every morning by themselves before the timer rings. Dallin and Ella ate it up and took right to the idea. Way to go Miss Independence!
It was a Stapley Christmas this year and the kids made a cameo appearance in the nativity play. I secretly loved Ella's scandalous angel costume with her bare mid drift showing!
Thanksgiving weekend was quite enjoyable this year. We started the morning off at the gym trying to offset the damage we were going to do to our bodies that afternoon. I guess we pushed the twins a little too hard on their exercises because this is how we found them during lunch. 
And although dinner wasn't at Grandma & Grandpa Farnsworth's home like usual, we still had a Farnsworth size feast. (Not that I ate anything other than rolls, mashed potatoes, and pie... why waste my stomach room on the "extras" like turkey and vegetables?) 
After our meal we went on a family stroll to take advantage of the nice weather. Although Auburn decided she was done walking and would prefer a full blown tantrum on the side walk.
By the end of the lovely day, Auburn's attitude seem to spread to the rest of the family. Troy did spend the evening in the ER with Ella and ear infections...so at least she had an excuse!
Nevertheless, I am grateful for all the wonderful blessings in my life...I have many.
I just got my first 
For Veteran's Day we went to play tennis with Karen. All the courts were locked except for one that was being used. By the time we made it around to check all the other locks, the unlocked court became available. We tried playing but were horrible! We thought we had lost our obvious "skills" but then realized that it was so dark we could barely see the ball. (At least that's our story, and we're stickin' to it.) 
