Gracie's crazy party

Here are the pictures of Gracie's fun party. I had a lot of spooky food and Gracie loved the party (as much as a one year old can). It was so fun to watch her eating her cupcake- I generally don't give her much sugar so she was in heaven. Gracie was better at opening her presents than I expected she would be.
This party was actually the day before Gracie's birthday. On her real birthday we hung out, went to the store, and in the evening we went to the arena with Justin and Gracie got a birthday ride on Buddy (the pony). We had her all ready to take a picture and the camera battery died. Too bad.

Maggie's Birthday Celebration

Here are the pics of my birthday celebration. It was a great day. Gracie took 5 hours of naps, I went on a date with Justin, I got a lot of nice phone calls from friends and family , and I even got a party that night. Justin's sister, Carrie, made me a broom cake and we ate the cake and ice cream over at her house. It was tons of fun and I felt really special.

Straight from the experts

The Birthday Girl

What a great day! Gracie is one year old today. It has brought back a lot of memories of sitting in class and feeling labor pains, going to the hospital and experiencing how incredible it is to welcome a little spirit into the world. Nothing could have prepared me for the love, responsibility and joy I feel for this little soul who has brightened our lives and who warms our hearts every day. I love being a mother and I love sweet Gracie. Here is a little spotlight on her.

Favorite game to play: Any game with mom and dad chasing her

Favorite Toy: Currently she has been enamored with a rolling horse that Justin's parents have, but she received a doll stroller last night from her cousins and was in heaven strolling it around and using it like a walker.

Favorite person: This is a debate. She loves to go to mom but says hi to her dad and says his name constantly. I think it's a tie.

Favorite food: anything mom and dad are eating. She loves cold cereal.

Favorite room in the house: The bathroom. She charges for the bathroom at every chance to try and swish her hands in the toilet. Gross.

Justin and I love that Gracie is a cheese. I wish I had a video from last week at church. She was saying hi to everyone all through the meeting and flashing huge cheesy grins. It was hillarious.

Happy Birthday Gracie.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

"Far Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much becuase they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."- Theodore Roosevelt

Here are a few photos of the St. George Marathon. In spite of seven (yes 7) potty stops, I finished in 4:44:49. I ran the first ten miles with Jen Martin, met up with my friend Betsy for a few miles, and then ended up running a bit by myself as well. It was really great to have my parents and Justin's family there to cheer me on, and I ran through the pain so that I could see my sweet baby and amazing husband at mile 23.

I am grateful that I was able to run and was even walking quite normally after 3 days- before that, I was referred to as Frankenstein because I wasn't really bending my legs when I walked. Sounds glamorous, doesn't it. The pictures are compliments of Justin's dad, who was my personal photographer for the marathon. I was the last of all the runners in the family, so he would just ride his bike down the trail and wait to take more pictures. My favorite signs were, "run for the cure of rabies", "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever", and all of the incredible

motivational quotes that kept me going that I have long since forgotten. Right after the marathon I swore that I'd never run a marathon again, but I might reconsider now that I'm starting to forget the pain. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

Fun at the Park

The other day, I came down to St. George and went to the park with Justin's sister Carrie and her girls. The sad part was that on the way to the park Gracie fell asleep and slept through the first hour of all the fun. That's okay, we had a great time anyway.

The Horse Whisperer

Justin has been working on training two colts- Chip and Dale. The other night Justin was working with Chip so Gracie and I went to watch him. Gracie had so much fun and I am always amazed to watch Justin take an animal that will hardly let anyone touch him and within a few days be able to climb on its back and also let Gracie pet him. Now if we could just tame Gracie...
The air in Pine Valley has been getting colder, so we put Gracie's favorite BYU hat and her new mittens to use.

Duke

This is Duke, our adopted dog. Justin's dog, Oscar, died this summer. It was sad because Oscar was a good dog and was my running partner in Pine Valley. Lucky for us, Duke has been hanging out with us all summer long. Justin's cousin, Garrett, was Duke's original owner. Garrett (23)died a year ago tomorrow in a trucking accident. It was tragic, especially because Justin and Garrett had been so close. Having Duke around has been a nice way to keep Garrett in our memories and she has been a good little guard dog and running partner. We've been excited to see that Gracie likes Duke so much and she has actually learned how to say Duke's name. So here is Gracie with her dog "Duke".

Cows

The other day I looked out my window and saw a bunch of cows in my yard. Gracie and I were just getting ready to go on a walk, so I snapped some pictures of them at the neighbor's house. I didn't get a good picture of them all together, but there were 7 cows in all. That's one thing that I really like about living in Pine Valley. Where else do you go outside and just find cows in your yard? This summer and fall I have also seen the following animals in my yard- snakes, rabbits, dogs, deer (does and bucks), and I had cows in my yard another time.