Happy Halloween From All of Us

Baby #3 is on the way!

My pregnancies are not easy to hide...I know that this is not going to be news for many of you out there!  Still, we are thrilled to be officially making this announcement.

I am now 15 weeks along (almost 4 months).  

Still feeling pretty sick, but thanks to a good doctor and modern medicine, the world's most empathetic husband, and TONS of support from family and friends (THANK YOU so much!), I am getting better every day.

We are all very excited and are looking forward to the big day: April 22, 2013!

Triathlon (Again)

I completed triathlon #3 today.

It was fun, tough, challenging.

Me setting up my transition area

Don't know my results yet; only that the entire event took me about 2 hrs. 45 mins. to do (way longer than I took to complete my tri last Fall), but here are some highlights:

The event began at 1:45 in the afternoon...the latest I have ever begun a race.  With 90 degree temperatures outside, the 750 meter swim at the beginning felt SOOOO GOOD! No panicking this time.  Just puurrrre pleasure....ahhh.

My heat (yellow caps) beginning the triathlon

 Finishing the swim 

The bike portion of the race, which was originally planned to be 17 miles long, evolved into 23.6, due to road construction.  That part was brutal for me, given that I had hardly trained for the biking, and also because the weather took a crazy turn...into heavy rain and high winds.  It was exhaustingly wild.

Natali on her bike.

Me biking.  

(HUGE THANK YOU to Kathy for loaning your road bike to me for the weekend.  It made such a difference!)

The 5K run, well, uh, hurt me.  My legs were programmed to keep doing their 24 miles of biking thing and didn't want to change, and by that time in the afternoon, the rain had stopped and we were back to 90 degrees...on a dirt trail.  I was super tired and super ready to be finished.  I'm just happy that I reached my goal of not quitting on the run!

Through all my adventures, today was overall a blast.  You can't beat these blessings:

-I got to race with a good friend, Natali (who kicked my trash, I might add.  That woman is tough!)

-Andrew and my boys were cheering me on and taking pictures all along the way.

-I was racing a triathlon...one of my favorite things to do in the world.

Last but not least, I loved that I got to race for a cause for this event.  It felt really meaningful to know that I was both having a good time and doing good for others while I raced today.  I couldn't have done that without the large support that I had from friends and family.  With our combined efforts, I was able to raise $180.00 for the Waldo Canyon wildfire victims!  THANK YOU to all of you--you know who you are--I was so deeply touched by the selfless generosity that you gave.  There are some among you whom I know have very little to give, but gave so much anyway.  Your friendship and examples are tremendous blessings to me.

First Day of Preschool

 I feel old today.

This morning, I dropped off my FOUR YEAR-OLD son at PRESCHOOL.

My carefree days of not having children in school are over (at least, for the next 20 years, give or take).

Taylor was so excited he could hardly stand it.

Last night, he mentioned his school preparedness checklist to me at least half a dozen times:

Can I choose my clothes for tomorrow?

May I pack my snack?

Where is my backpack?

Do you have my school supplies ready?

At 6:00 a.m., my little boy was knocking at my bedroom door, fully dressed in his prechosen racing shirt with backpack already on his back.  I wonder if he slept at all.

"I'm ready for school!" he told me.

I told him (and his little shadow, Russell) to go back to bed.

Try as he might, my little adrenaline-loaded boy couldn't manage.

So a little after 7:00, I rose myself from attempted slumber and dressed myself and Russell, fed my boys...and twiddled my thumbs a little until I could finally put the kids in the car to go to Mt. Carbon Elementary School-- a.k.a. "Taylor's Preschool."

His teachers Ms. Becky and Ms. Sarah were waiting for him.

So were tables full of building toys, some name tags,

and his friends.  

Madeline and Emmalee are in Taylor's Sunbeam class in our ward at church.

When I picked him up two hours later, my little preschooler had a smile on his face, but as is so typical of him, had little interest in conversation:

"How was it?"  I ask.
"Good. I could only eat one of my snacks, so I should eat the other one at lunch."
"That sounds like a good idea.  Why couldn't you eat both?"
"I don't know."
"What else did you do?"
"We ate snacks and read a book and stuff."

After prodding him, I managed to get a few more bits of info out: that the title of the book was Clifford's First Day of School, that he played on the playground, he sang a song about animals, and he learned that this month is called August.

My conclusion: that I am definitely raising a boy (aren't boys weird sometimes?), and I think that he likes school.   

Good outcome, I'd say.

Countdown to Triathlon: 12 Days

I am getting ready to participate in my third triathlon...in just twelve more days!  As usual, I am feeling anxious and excited as the big day approaches.

This tri will be somewhat unique this time.  

My friend Natali and I will both be racing for a cause of our choice.  I feel like my choice of cause was a no-brainer...after witnessing the most disastrous fire in Colorado's history this June, it just made sense to try to help those whose homes were among the 346 that burned in Colorado Springs!  I am still shocked and saddened that it happened to so many.  

Next Saturday, I'll be racing for them with help from an organization called "Colorado Springs Together."

To whoever is reading this, whoever is interested, whoever also feels like they would like to help the wildfire victims but don't know how, I would love to have your support. 

You can read more about my upcoming race and Colorado Springs Together HERE.

Devin's Graduation

The party doesn't end quickly in the Macfarlane family...

...the day after Kyle came home from Brazil, my youngest brother Devin graduated from Timpanogos High School!

We're so proud of him.

Getting his diploma.

 Dev and his adorable girlfriend Lisa before their graduation ceremony.

Me, Kyle, Devin, Larry

The four of us.

I LOVE these pictures of my brothers and me that we've been taking this week.  Words can't express how much I love all three of those guys.  And it's SO great to be together again!

Family. <3

Kyle is Home!

My little brother Kyle returned home from Sao Paulo, Brazil yesterday after giving two years of missionary service to our Savior.

It was such a happy day for me and my family.

Here are Larz and Andrew the night before...making "Welcome Home" posters in anticipation for our Elder's arrival.

My cousin Madison helping her super crafty mom and sisters decorate the outside of my parents' house before Kyle arrived.  (Megan, you're amazing!)

The decorating team at work

Here's our first glimpse of Kyle after two years...on the escalator at the SLC airport, with my parents and brother Devin--who were lucky enough to go to Sao Paulo to get Kyle and spend a few days with him before returning to the states!

Taylor at the SLC airport.  He was pretty happy to see his grandpa.

Larz is our family comedian.  It only took seconds after Ky's arrival to get him to laugh (at the funny poster he made for him on Sunday night).

Kyle and Grandma Mercer

Cousins Brittany and Bobby with Kyle, holding the fun poster Brit made for Kyle.

Kyle meeting my littlest guy for the first time--ever.  Russell was born only a few days before Kyle left home.

Siblings reunited!  Kyle, Larz, me, Devin.

Cousin love. Allen, Bobby, Larz, Brittany, me, Devin, Aaron, and Kyle

Russell insisting on helping Papa carry his suitcase out to his car.  Cute kid.  Sore grandpa.  Adorable pair.

Dad, Kyle and Mom at home.

We stayed up until midnight talking about Brazil, reminiscing, and just soaking-up every second of having Kyle here again.


I'm telling you, this guy is really great.  We've really missed him and are so proud of his great work and example.

Birthday Central

My baby is 2.

TWO!

That's amazing to me!  

For me, it seems like he got to two quicker than his older brother did.  Crazy how quickly these kids grow.

Russell and Taylor's birthdays are only ten days apart, so we plan to have a combined "buddy" celebration in June for both of them-- similarly to how we partied last year. 

When I greeted by boys yesterday morning with a "Good morning!" and "Happy Birthday, Russell!", I reminded Taylor of their party coming in the near future, in hopes that he wouldn't completly spaz over the absence of cake and ice cream that day. 


Okay, well, Taylor still had a cow.  But I'll give him a little credit--because his defensive reaction had nothing to do with cake.  He was trying to protect his brother.  Taylor made a clear argument that not having any celebrations for Russell on his birthday was definitely not an okay thing.

It was a good point.  Way to stand up for your little brother, Tay.

So we made plans.  After Russ's annual check-up with the pediatrician,

we would bake cookies so we could sing "Happy Birthday" to Russell and enjoy a special birthday treat together after dinner.

It was perfect, and Russell loved it...a lot.

We had to sing twice. 

It was a crazy time two years ago when I was in the hospital with just hours-old baby Russell.  Dare I admit?  In that moment, I had actually forgotten that it was Andrew's birthday!

Thankfully, I had a lot of help that year (thanks again to Donna, Andrew's mom, and my mom especially).  But hopefully that's as crazy it will ever get in our family of back-to-back-to-back birthdays.  I don't want to forget any of these three special guys in my life...even if it is just for a moment!

So here we are, two years later...and as I mentioned earlier, I am not pregnant or having a baby, so the Andrew Par-tay has been in full swing.

For starters, last weekend Andrew and I had a birthday dinner/movie date with two other couples in our ward (wish I had taken pics of that), and had a lot of fun.

Today, at Andrew's request, I managed to turn our favorite strawberry lemonade cupcakes 

into a delicious two-layer round cake in his honor.  It was just as tasty as the mini version.

And of course, we didn't forget gifts. :-)

I totally dig this guy! 

(and the little guy behind him, and the littler guy in his lap...)

I'll say for me, one good thing's for sure about having everyone's birthdays together: I am reminded about how blessed I am.  It can't get much better than this!