Ben's Christmas Party 2012

 There is nothing I look forward to more then Ben's Christmas party. He starts preparing and decorating in October. We all have special assignments and it's not to be discussed with anybody else in the family. This year Bret and I were assigned to sign a Christmas opera. There are prizes given out for Best Performance, Best Costume, Best Food Dish, and Best Christmas Spirit. Bret and I took first place in best performance and we tied for first in best costume. We had so much fun. It's an adult only party, which is fun because we never get out without our kids. We really missed Kurt this year. It wasn't the same without him. Last year he played the guitar and sang Christmas songs for our family. (he won best performance that year).

Mike Warren, Tayla Warren, Big Der, Jeff Heaps

Nana & Jude

Ben's decorating

Winter Wonderland

This is where you can take somebody else from the party and confess something to them. If you've wronged them, had immoral thoughts, etc... lol. Ben also had a courthouse this year at the party. He was the judge(of course) and you could take somebody to court and dispute your differences. Ben has always found joy in helping people solve their differences and he laughs at the drama. Court was really fun. I took Bret E to court for using some of my canning jars without paying for them. Cowboy took Emily to court for trying to kick him off the family softball team this summer. It was so funny. Ben is very creative!

 

 

Sisters

Albrecht Familiy Reunion Dec 2012

The Albrecht's came up north this year for Christmas. Almost everybody stayed at Natalie's house on Friday night. We had a fantastic dinner, exchanged gifts, and sang songs together. The next day the kids watched the The Polar Express and then we went to Heber and rode on the North Pole Express. The kids loved it and we had a great time. Emmett loves his cousins and couldn't be happier then when he's with them.

Aiden insisted on holding Adah for me. Surprisingly she let him!

Sister-in-laws with a handful of kids!

Grandpa Calvin doing what he does best!

Bret's favorite people!

Our future missionary. Weston is going to Baltimore, Maryland. He goes into the MTC at the end of Feb. This kid is such a stud. Some girl will be lucky to have him when he comes home. (old memory...when Bret and I first got married we went camping with his family in the Beaver Mtns. I walked over to watch the boys shoot their bows and Weston was carrying a chair out there. He was 12 at the time. I turned to him and said, " you coming to watch too", and he said, "no I"m just bringing you a chair". What 12 year old would think to bring a woman a chair.???)

Albrecht Grand kids

Adah didn't like Santa this year!

Emmett had a whole list of things he wanted from Santa.

Heber, UT

Sewing

Here are a few of my sewing projects that I made for Christmas gifts. I really love to sew and wish I had more time to do it. The only time I have is when I sacrifice sleep time for sewing. It's totally worth it.

Quilt I made for Ben's Christmas party. We ended up giving this quilt to him. I know he'll take good care of it and appreciate it the most.

Stockings for Jill's family

BYU Quilt for Cody. They remodeled their home and Cody's room is all BYU. I made two matching pillowcases.

Apron for my canning buddy. I ended up fixing the neck on this apron and made it shorter by using D rings. Then he can tighten it up to the length he wants.

Larry Evans

I probably haven't mentioned how much I love this man. Larry and I have been running together since 2003 and we've run 6 marathons together. He's the most dedicated runner I've ever met. Larry runs 6 days a week and is in phenomenal shape. He just celebrated his 60th birthday. Infact, the first picture below is when Em and I took him on a birthday run and had gifts and signs for him along the way. He is a wonderful friend and running buddy. We've had a lot of people join and drop out of our running group, but it's always me and him.

Nov 2012

St George 2009

About 4-5 years ago Larry donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger. He said he didn't need it and somebody else did. How awesome is he? Earlier this month when I was having kidney problems from my exercise induced rhabdo, I jokingly texted him and told him I was going to need his other kidney. He wrote back and said, "there are only a few people I would give my other kidney to, and you're one of them." I just love him. We ran St George together this last October and we were at mile 7 and both feeling good and I looked over at him and thought....here we are again. There isn't anybody I'd rather be running with.

Emmett

Emmett is such an obedient and loving kid. Rather then bursting into tears everytime he doesn't get his way, I can see his eyes fill up with tears and he fights his emotions and tries not to cry. It is absolutely adorable and makes me smile each time he does it. He usually does what I ask him to do (after the 3rd time asking). He's always willing to hug and kiss me, and he tells me all the time that he loves me. Emmett idolizes his dad and wants to be just like him. I love this little boy!

 Emmett 3 months

Adah Marie

Adah has started talking so much. She tries to say anything we ask her to say. It's adorable and we love her so much. She's a very happy baby, but does get frustrated when she can't communicate with us or doesn't get what she wants. We've already had some pretty bad tantrums. Adah runs on her tip toes and we smile every time we see her running. I love her size and her little body. I catch myself staring at her and can't get over how beautiful she is, and how much I love her. These pics were taken by Cortney Boice a couple months ago. She's 18 months in these pics.

This pic of Adah looks a lot like my baby pics.

Rhabdomyolysis

My friend invited me to try out crossfit. It was guest week and they put us in groups of 4 and our group had to complete 300 pull ups, 400 push ups, 500 sit ups, and 600 squats. I feel like I'm in pretty good shape and felt somewhat confident in the workout. I knew my arms would be my weakest area. I ended up doing 70 pull ups (which is more pull ups then I've ever done in my lifetime...ever). The push ups were hard also because my arms felt so weak from the pull ups. I did great on the sit ups and squats. After I finished I felt really shaky and felt like I had no control over my arms. It was a weird feeling. The next day was Friday and I was sore but nothing too beyond normal. Saturday morning I woke up and my biceps were very swollen and I couldn't bend or extend my arms. I started researching my symptons and decided to go to the walk in clinic at my doctors office. I was in a lot of pain and she tested me for rhabdomyolysis and gave me a really strong anti-inflammatory. We went to Minersville that weekend for Bret's family Christmas party. Bret had to help me blow dry my hair and he took care of the kids for me. Saturday and Sunday were miserable and my urine turned a brownish color. I knew I was in bad shape, and I spent all day drinking water. Dr. Taylor called me on Monday and said to come back in to get more tests done becuase my CK level was at 10,000 when it should be at 100-300. I was feeling much better on Monday night. Tuesday I went back in and my levels were up to 64,000. He said if I were elderly, I'd be in the hospital with kidney failure. Anyways, he tested my kidneys and liver 4 times total and finally gave me the okay to start exercising/running again after two weeks.

I had no idea I could do that much damage by pushing myself physically. I will be much more careful in the future, and I definately want to go back to crossfit but take it slower. It sucks that this happened to me, but I'm glad I'm aware of it and will take better care of myself in the future.

Also, yes my team won that night and we finished first at 31 minutes. (it wasn't worth it)