Evolution of a Yard

We have been busy this month putting in our back and side yard! We hired a guy do the sprinklers, grating, and concrete curbing. Then we laid the sod. Wow. That was a lot harder than I thought, and I didn't even do much. I just cut pieces along the edging and rolled some out. I did try to lift one, and it was so heavy. I wish I could have done more to help.

Back and side yards before work began


Bringing in dirt and grading the yard. James LoVeS tractors, dump trucks, and such, so he was in heaven watching.


On one of the days the workers had gotten to a late start, so I told the guy Zach who was working on our yard that James had been waiting all day to watch the "tractor", or bobcat, move dirt. He said, "Well, if he's been waiting all day, why don't you take him for a ride in it?" It turns out I got drive the bobcat while James rode with me! It was lots of fun for both the mommy and the Jamers. We went around the block and picked up his buddy Cole, who is just a year older and they are the best of buds, and I took them both for a ride. Seriously heaven for these little boys.


After the yard has been graded, the concrete curbing has been added around the whole house, and now we are laying sod.

We were able to bribe a few of our neighbors with pizza and frozen treats to come and help us lay the sod. The yard ended up needing eight pallets of sod to lay! Holy cow! Our niece Kira also came up for a few days, and we put her to work. She was a great helper, and did a lot.

Mommy and James after helping to lay the sod, what a big job! Gotta love the dirt all over us too :)

Now the developers are putting in a side fence, so once that is done we'll be good to go.
And I'll add the complete "after" pictures.
Stay tuned!

It is now a tradition...

...to hike Y mountain while pregnant.
I had my nephew Tanner stay with us two weeks ago for a few days. He is such a great kid, love him to pieces. I had to go to Provo anyway for my monthly chiropractic appointment (I swear by those, it has helped me so much, I'll probably never stop, anyway), so I talked to Kirstin, and we decided to hike the Y. I did this when I was pregnant with James too. Now it is a tradition, every time I'm pregnant, our unborn child will hike the Y, instilling in them cougar pride, or something like that. Thanks to Kirstin and Tanner who carried James in the new hiking backpack up. At the Y we had a picnic lunch, James liked all the "white rocks", then we started down. James did NOT want to go back into the backpack, but instead wanted to hold Tanner's hand the WHOLE WAY DOWN. I am not kidding. Our 22 month old hiked the whole way down the Y. We even passed another mom who was carrying her child in a hiking backpack. When she saw James she was astounded and asked how old he was. When I told her he was 22 months she said "What?!? Mine is 3 1/2 years old!?! He is doing awesome!!"
I think so too :)

Going Hiking

During Memorial Day we found this great deal at a store in Logan called Al's Sporting Goods. It's a hiking backpack that James fits in. We were finally able to use it on a small two mile hike up the plateau by our house then down into the neighborhood. It is a winner, everyone loves it. We'll be using this thing a lot I think.
We also found a hawk feather up on top of the plateau, which James insisted on carrying back.

Nathan and James with his feather

Kendra and Lady

And those pictures are in our neighborhood, isn't it so gorgeous and green? Love it.

Boise Half Ironman 70.3

Last weekend we went to Boise for the big Half Ironman race that Nathan has been training for months for. It was awesome that Tom also signed up for the race and that they did it together. Nathan originally got involved because a few people in our neighborhood said they were going to do it. There were supposed to be a lot of people who were going to do it, then Nathan was the first to sign up, then many decided not to. A total of 4 guys from Mountain Green did the race which was neat. Thursday night we drove partway up to Twin Falls and stayed with Jason and Nicole. The

Daddy, James, and Mommy at the falls

The Shoshone Falls, these were impressive especially with all the runoff!

Daddy and James checking out the huge waterfall

Thank you Jason and Nicole for taking us! Then we drove to Boise where we met Kristie and Tom in Boise after race check-in so that the boys could go drop off their bikes where they needed to be and the girls and babies could go back to Rick and Sherri's (the Tanner's are Kristie's parents, and Nathan's aunt and uncle) house a bit earlier.
Race day was then on Saturday! I think everyone was a little nervous, even those of us not competing!
The swim was at Lucky Peak Resivor, and was really cold, a whooping 53 degree water that day! Nathan said that any skin exposed like your hands, feet, and face, just hurt from the water being that cold. However, both Nathan and Tom did really well! We were able to track to see how long each leg of the race was, and how long transitions were via our iPhones and the Ironman website. I love technology (when it works of course).
We didn't get to see the swim as it was farther away, and harder with the two babies. Nathan's Aunt Sherri works at the Institute building on Boise State Campus, which ended up being really close to the bike-to-run transition area. We made that our home base, and on race day went downtown, had Lilah and James take naps at the Institute building while Sherri stayed and listened for them while Kristie and I went down to transition to watch the boys come in.
Nathan coming in on the bike.
Check out those awesome wheels that Shawn let him borrow for the race.
That combined with the new handlebar tape made his bike look *swa-eet*

After they came in on the bike, we went back and got the babies up from their naps, then walked back to the finish line. I loved being able to watch Nathan come in. The race atmosphere there is incredible, the crowds all cheering for everyone. Wow, it was great, and I felt pumped up and I wasn't even racing!

Nathan almost to the finish line!

Tom almost done!

Nathan with Mountain Green friends Cade and Shawn, who also completed the race


Daddy, Mommy, and James post race
Way to go Nathan!!!


Post-race Tom with Lilah and Kristie
Way to go Tom!!!

I like these next two shots though, because it shows how the boys really felt after the race...



Each not feeling too hot in their own ways.
Back at the Tanner's house Nathan kept eating everything in sight while Tom crashed on the couch.

***
I'm so proud of Nathan for not just completing the race, but doing great too.
And for all the training that went into the race.
I'm not sure if they'd do it again, but I can't wait to get out there and work on my running after the baby is born, that race got me pumped!
Big Thank you to the Tanner's also for letting us stay with you that weekend!

First Scrape

Poor little James, this is his first scrape really, and it happens to be on his nose :( He tripped in the driveway, and we thought it was just his forehead that had a goose-egg bump until the next day when we saw his poor nose.
And if you look closely, his bottom lip is fat and black and blue too.

James pointing to the "owie" on his nose

Forehead with a bruise, nose with a scrape, lip swollen and black and blue.

What was a little funny was the next day at story time at the library, three other kids had this EXACT same sort of scrape, I guess it is a common thing for kids this age to do.
That made me feel better and that this sort of thing happens a lot.
It is part of growing up.
Which also makes me sad that he is growing up, but this a fun stage so we shall enjoy it.

Salem SpRiNg Triathlon

Nathan decided on a whim to do a triathlon this weekend in Salem, UT. It's the Salem Spring Tri, and he's done it before, likes the course, and it was a good workout in preparation for the Boise Half Ironman next weekend. Tom decided to do it to, so Friday night we drove to Provo to crash at the McConnon's place so the two boys could go to Salem in the morning. Kristie and I then went a little later with the babies to show our support. It was a sprint triathlon, which is 750m swim, 13.1 mile bike, and a 5k run. Kristie and I witnessed a pretty bad crash while watching the bike portion. I was a bit scared for our boys because there were spectators that didn't get the concept of staying off the course. The boys did great though, and all their training is paying off. I was really proud of how Nathan finished too, check it out:

Nathan won his age division! The picture is a little inacurate and the second place guy was actually in another age group, so he beat the next guy by six minutes. That is pretty good. He even got a trophy with a "spring" on it. He loves that thing, and said he has never gotten a trophy for an athletic event, ever. Nathan has said he wanted to win a race sometime in his life, but thought that he'd have to go to some really remote race. He didn't, and we are so proud of his hard work! Way to go honey!

Jamers and Daddy after his race

Tom and Nathan after the race.
They aren't dying, and feel pretty good. A good sign for next the half.

Finishing the run strong

On top of the podium with his trophy

Daddy the awesome triathlete, Mommy and James holding the spring trophy

Thank you McConnons for letting is stay with you, and for being fun friends. And for the yummy cauliflower mac-and-cheese. Not going to lie that I was very skeptical, but now I need the recipe! See you next week!

Memorial Day Weekend

First of all, are you kidding me?!?

Snow on Sunday, May 29th, 2011
The weather is so weird this year, cooler, and WET!

Waking up to snow was not a pleasant surprise. And that didn't help the flood warnings around here or in Northern Utah as well. And we had mowed our yard and trimmed the bushes on Saturday! Anyway, moving on to the rest of the weekend...

We actually spoke in church on Sunday on the talk given by Elder Eyring Opportunities to Do Good. The Lord does bless those who are served and who do serve, and there have been tons of opportunities lately to serve our fellow man. I learned more of course by preparing, and it was good to be home for part of the weekend. Sunday after church we drove up to Franklin to spend some quality time on the farm. It was a memorable visit, and we spent the time with Grandpa and Grandma Haworth. There were some old family photos that I started looking at that Grandpa's sister Alice had brought over. Grandma were telling me stories and a who's who from the pictures. I needed paper to write down a quick line, but now I understand! I have a talent for family history, and a desire to know about ancestors. I can clearly see now where James gets his name, stories about him and the old farm, Grandpa's grandpa, and so on. Check this out:

James Haworth---Harriett
Tom Haworth---Blenda
Horace Haworth---Ruby
Robert (Bob) Haworth---Henriette
Kathy Haworth---Alan Manwaring
Nathan Manwaring---Kendra
James
So James is seven generations from the founder of the farm, James Haworth, and three generations from Grandpa Haworth where he gets his middle name. Grandpa and Grandma took us then on Monday to the cemetery to see the Haworth plot. After looking at all the pictures the night before, and understanding the line, it meant so much more to us. These were now real people with faces and stories that we could match to the headstones. We've known many of the stories already, but this trip really meant something concerning our ancestors.

Daddy showing James his great-great-great-great grandpa's James Haworth's headstone
The other thing that James LOVED were the cows! He really likes farm animals at the moment. On Sunday when we were putting him to bed I said that we could see the cows in the morning with Grandpa in the barn since we didn't see them on Sunday. He woke up really early the next morning, crying to go outside and see cows! And he kept mooing, then crying cows.
He didn't care at all that it was cold or anything, he just wanted to see them.
So Nathan took him out on the four wheeler to the barn, through the muck, for maybe an hour to see the cows. As soon as they walked back in the door, James cried for the cows again.
What a cute and silly little boy.
So we went out again.

Going out to the barn on the four wheeler

Grandpa feeding with James and Mommy looking at the cows

James eyein' the cows while Mommy smiles for the camera

Grandpa and Grandma were as always great hosts, and we really loved seeing them. Thank you for the legacy to live up to, and for sharing stories and pictures with us!