Three

Wednesday was Ryan's THIRD birthday! I absolutely cannot believe my little girl is THREE! I blinked and now she is no longer my little baby! Now she is my fun little girl! I can't believe that she went from this little beautiful baby to this darling little girl!

Here are the top reasons I love this little pocket turd!

10. Look at this face! I mean, wow! How could you not want to just hug and kiss that all day every day!

9. She is a complete tease! This little girl never tells you anything serious the first time! She is always playing little tricks on me! I love it!!

8. She's loves all the good things in life that I love! Jared tells us that sugar is bad for us, but we know it's good for our happiness and sanity!

7. She is strong-willed. I know that this can be a bad thing, but my little girl is strong. She knows what she wants, and how to go about getting it. She is very good at thinking of creative ways to get anything that is appealing to her!

6. She is so maternal. If you saw her with her toys and her little brother you would just die! She is always so fair. If she plays with one toy one day, she will be sure to play with another the next. She really genuinely cares about them!

5. She is so sensitive to those around her. She can sense when people are struggling and she is always there to love them through it.

4. She sings and dances all day every day! As of late she is singing popcorn popping, and dancing like Rapunzel on the movie Tangled. It's so cute!

3. She genuinely wants to do what is right. She really does have a strong desire to do what is right. When she does something bad, you can tell how embarrassed she is. Normally, she learns from her mistakes and we don't have too many problems with her doing it again.

2. She is so full of personality! I can't say enough about this! You can just see in the pictures alone that she is full to the brim with personality. She just goes, goes, goes all day long and is so happy doing it!

1. She is the most beautiful blessing in our home. We consider both our kids the best things in the world, but she really is my little sunshine! I just love her so much! I wish that the English language had a word that would be capable of summing up my emotions for this little girl, but there just is no such word!

We love you Ryan! Enjoy being THREE because we are never going to let you get any older! I can't bear to see you get bigger, smarter, and more beautiful! Happy Birthday!

New News

So there is news for everyone... well almost!

For starters, McCallum finally broke his two bottom teeth through two days ago! He has been fairly miserable trying to cut these little teeth. Now the wait is over, and he has two new little white teeth in the bottom of his mouth! Now his is one step closer to being able to eat all the steak that his dad will share with him!

Ryan, is turning Three this week. On the 23rd she will be three! I can't believe she is already there! It seems like yesterday we were just holding her in the hospital! Now she is THREE!! I'll post more pictures of the birthday when it's over. For now this is the cake that I made for a party with my side of the family. You would think that someone is turning 353 years old, however, the two girls turned 3 and my dad turned 53. So that's why we decided to do 353! The cake was inspired by none other than Ryan herself. I thought about doing a princess cake, but then I thought what would be Ryan's favorite thing in the world? . . . Sweets and treats! So that's why I did this cake! We also had little owl cupcakes for the girls to eat separately so that they felt like they had their own little cakes.

As for Jared, he finally got an interview for a real job! That's not to say that we are not grateful for the work that we have had, but it was no career! So to be interviewing this week for something that he actually wants is a big deal. So good luck Jared, I know that they will love you! They would be crazy not to hire him. So if you hear news that we got a job, then we got the job. If nothing, then we are still looking!

Video from Fitness Elevated

This is a small peak a "FRUN." The first workout I did with 65 pound Thrusters and pull-ups. The rounds went like this... one thruster, 2 pull-ups, 3 thrusters, 4 pull-pus, all the way till the 4 mins ran out. I ended up getting to the 11th round but only doing 10 of the 11 thrusters.

This is a taste of the third workout that we did with the 75 pound atlas stones. I think that I am most proud of my snatches though. It's the hardest lift you will ever do because you have to go ground to over head with a wide grip. It's killer! I know if I were more fresh and had better form I could stick the 105 pound snatch! Dang!

Finally, the Sandbag sprint. This is actually the entire event. It was short but not that sweet. I think that this and the 2 mile run were by far the worst!!

Fitness Elevated Results

If you didn't know, I participated in my first ever Crossfit event. Fitness Elevated was a local competition to determine who was the fittest man and woman this winter. People came from all over the state, and even some from NV, to get their butts kicked at the event. As for me, I did better than I had hoped. I ended up taking 34 out of 56. So I didn't qualify to do the last workout, but once they announced what it was... lets just say I was glad I didn't make the top twenty. Here were the events

I'm working on getting the videos up soon!

First, was an event called "FRUN." This event was a timed work out. You had 4 mins. to get as many rounds of 65 pound thrusters and pull-ups. The rounds counted up. For Example: One Thruster, 2 pull-ups, 3 thrust, 4 pull... all the way till the 4 min. clock ran out. I ended up getting to the 11th round, but fell short one thruster. I completed 10 pull-ups and 10 out of 11 thrusters! That was better than I had hoped for. I would say that was a little better than average for the women.

Second, we had to complete a 2 mile hill run with obstacles for time. It was actually a little longer than 2 miles, but toward the end we had to hop a 4 foot wall and hurdle 4 track hurdles set at the lowest setting. I didn't know if I was going to make it over the hurdles at the end. My legs were killing me! I managed to get over them all and to the finish line in 17.03. I had hoped to do it in 16 mins or less, but that was just not going to happen with the last freaking hill! I was really glad to just get what I did! I would say that my time was a on the lower end of average for the women, but that's great for me! I hated every second of it!



Third event was really kind of cool. This event was also timed. You had a six min running clock. The first two mins were to get as many atlas stones to your shoulder as possible. Then you had the remanding four mins to get a one rep max snatch. In the end they would add 3 pounds for every stone lifted to your snatch weight. The atlas stones weighed 75 pounds, and are really just a solid ball of cement. I had never lifted an atlas stone before, but it was really awesome. I ended up getting 16 stones. I would say that was on the high end of average. The most anyone got was my friend Sharee and she got 30...what a freak! I would bet that 10 was average. Then I moved to my snatch. I got three attempts. First I nailed a 75 pound snatch with no trouble. Then I attempted a 95 pound snatch. I did get it, but I fell to my knee and had to lunge it up. It still counts as long as you don't rest the bar on any part of your body. Finally I tried to get 105 pounds up. I did get it up, but I rested it on my head so they could not count it. Although they didn't count it, it was freaking awesome! In the end I scored 143 because I got 16 stones worth three pounds each...48 added to my 95 snatch... 143. I would say that this was above average. Most women did not snatch 95 pounds, the heaviest snatch was 115 pounds.

Finally, the last event was a sand bag sprint. I thought that this would be really stupid, but it kicked my trash!! You had to sprint the length of a basketball court as follows: run down and back, pick up a 40 pound sand bag and run down and back, drop the bag, run down and back, pick up the bag and run down and back. Man was I winded. It took me 1.03 to run this, I really struggled to keep my pace. Oddly enough I did better running with the weight than without. I hate to sprint though, so go figure! I don't think that was a bad time, but it was not the fastest. I think most people got it in about a min. So every second over killed me!

In the end I placed 34 out of 56! I was really proud of myself. I didn't make the top 20 so I didn't get to do the final workout, but I think that was a blessing. It was as follows. 30 wall burpees (an up down with a jump and clap at the top only you had to kick your feet up on a wall much like a handstand), 30 push press with a 40 pound sand bag, 30 double unders, 30 calorie row, 30 Russian Kettle bell swings at 1.5 pood or 53 pounds(this just means the arms are parallel instead of above your head), 30 box jumps at 20 inches... walk 5 feet and do 15 more box jumps, 15 kettle swings, 15 calorie row, 15 double unders, 15 push press, and 15 wall burpees! All for time! It was crazy. I hurt just watching!

Ryan's View

Here are some of the pictures that Ryan has taken with her camera as of late. She is constantly taking pictures of McCallum and her toys. However, we got Bree and Alex to come over a bit ago, and so Ryan wanted to capture that moment too!!