Way too fast!

I am a terrible blogger (Trace's birthday was on 12.31.09.), but an even worse mother! I did not take 1 picture of Trace on his 14th birthday! So I found one from when he turned 4. Where has the time gone!? We are so grateful for Trace in our family. Here's a blow by blow of his day.

- Rudely awakened and treated to breakfast at IHOP with his loving family.
- New bedroom furniture delivered & set up - birthday gift!
- Visit with Grandma & Grandpa Checchio.
- Sherlock Homes with Mitch & Barnes.
- All Nighter with a great group of friends, pizza, movies, treats!
- Bleary eyed breakfast at IHOP
- Back to Bed!
WE LOVE YOU TRACE!

From our Home to Yours

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

+ 1 bird

We have added to our pet cemetary today. Sometime during the night Ringo, our love bird, died. We are not sure why. We take comfort in knowing that he is not alone. He is in the company of countless fish, a handful of hermit crabs, an iguana, a bearded dragon, a frog, and one very good dog. His chirping will be immortalized on our answering machine...until I redo the message.

Look what I found...

and I am not talking about the dime. It's the hair next to the dime that I am referring too. No it isn't an eyelash and I didn't find it in my food. I found it on my FACE, on my right cheek. Not growing out of a mole or anything. ( which I do have on my left cheek) Just a random MAN whisker!!!! I have become religious about waxing my eyebrows & mustache, as I like to say erasing my Italian Heritage, but apparently now I have to do whisker checks on my whole face. Here is another thing - I have been having the hardest time with underground pimples lately too!! Is this what 35 is? It's like I'm trapped in between PUBERTY & MENOPAUSE...UGH!!
Well all I really know for sure is that if I were to slip into a coma Bill would have to hire someone to come wash & wax my face or I could be mistaken for an adolescent boy trying to grow a mustache & beard!

Happy Thanksgiving

Tate as an Indian Chief for his class play

We are so very grateful for all of our many blessings!

my 1 woman race!

So I mentioned in a previous post that I had decided to run a 1/2 marathon. About 1/2 way into my training I realized that the date of the race was the same as Tate's baptism date. Baptism will trump just about everything. So because I am very good at being told what to do, especially when there is a list involved, I committed to run it anyway. That is what I did this past Saturday! I ran 13.1 miles on my treadmill while watching ESPN's College Gameday & a bit of the old movie The Bachelor. The read out on my treadmill is a bit skewed because it only reads 49.26 minutes but it was really 149.26 minutes (my treadmill automatically shuts off when it hits 100 minutes, so I had to restart it), it reads 52.4 laps which = 13.1 miles, and it says I only burned 570 calories, but that should really be 1570 calories. I was exhausted and laid in bed for most of the afternoon. I also finished my Cheesecake Factory Godiva Chocolate slice I had used to carbo-load the night before! Pretty sure that's not the best thing to eat the night before a race, but it was a good enough excuse for me. All I know is that if I can do it, anyone can! I used to say that I could only run around the bases on a softball field - I guess I can go a bit further now...

Tate's Baptism

Joey & Jessica, Garn & Ronda, Bill, Tyson, Janet, Trace, Joe, Taylor, Amy, Chris, Tate

Our cute heads together picture - Thanks Mom!

Tate & Bill

Tate had a great Baptism. Taylor Rose gave the talk on Baptism and Trace gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. They did a great job! Both Grandma's gave prayers and the Grandpa's were the witnesses. We are so grateful to have Tate in our family and for his decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.
We are grateful for everyone who came to support Tate on his special day!

Halloween '09

Perfect Costume for a handsome almost 14 yr old - A Chick Magnet!

Taylor Rose is a baby as was most of the girls in the neighborhood
& Tate was a Zombie Soccer Player

Pumpkin Carving - one of my FAVORITE things to do - SERIOUSLY!!!

Blowing things up!

Bill took the boys out to shoot exploding targets.

Looks like the boys weren't the only ones shooting!

This video shows what happens when you mix a dishwasher and one of these

1 gallon exploding targets. Unbelievable!

BOY SCOUTS!

Tate was thrilled to attend his first wolf den meeting. He looks so official in his uniform!