Eryn's Half Marathon

I was kinda starting to get desperate to loose weight after having my sweet little Chant man.... I needed to do something drastic.....So I had decided to run The Cedar City half marathon with my frined and co-worker Gynene. She is so amazing! She introduced me to all of her running friends (the summerlin striders-they are amazing too) Every Saturday I would wake up and leave the house at 4:30 to meet my new running friends at the bottom of Mt Charleston. All of us would pile into one vehicle and ride up to the top for some great downhill training. Oh, and I forgot to mention...I only had 9 weeks to train for this. So I found a 12 week training schedule on active.com and modified it just a bit. Each Saturday I would add 1 mile. I could finally tell that my training was starting to pay off. In fact...here is one of my FB posts, "Running down mount Charleston was so pretty today! I even ran right by 3 dear! I ran 10 miles and surprised myself w a time of 1hr 25min. Average 8.5 min/mile. YEA! :) its gunna be a great day!" Not only was I making good time...I was really starting to enjoy running! Two Saturday's before the race I was planning on running 12 miles...Yeah that didn't happen. At the begining of my run that day, my knee really started to bother me. As I got to mile 10 that's when the I really started feeling pain.  But silly me I pushed myself one more mile and finished 11 miles that day. I had to walk the last mile because my car was parked at mile 12. Even walking that last mile was painful. My knee seriously felt like it didn't want to work anymore. It felt so tight and I could hardly even bend it. I don't have the best knee to begin with anyway. Here is a visual for ya. My beautiful knee is the one on the right so lets just say that I've always kinda had issues. lol

So during that week I kinda took it easy in hopes that I wouldn't feel that same knee pain again next Saturday. So the Saturday before my race I wanted to taper off a bit so the plan was to only run 9 miles. I took an 800 IB profen, rubbed tigers balm all over my leg, and stretched really good before my run. My knee held up okay for the duration of my run but  the pain I felt afterwards was too much. The rest of the day was kinda tough, It hurt to go up and down stairs (I had to go down them backwards) and It even hurt to bend and to straighten my leg. Walking kinda bothered me too. My parents were very concerned and convinced me not to do my race that next weekend and to get my knee better before running a half marathon. So I finally came to terms with the fact that my knee just wasn't ready for a half marathon. The thing that killed me most was...I knew that could do it! My body was conditioned for running long distance and I didn't feel over exerted. It's just because my stupid knee wasn't 100%. And I just kept wishing that my body could be perfect again!....

I had offically decided not to run. (yes i cried about it.) 

I have a friend (Steve Mathews) that happens to be a certified marathon trainer. When I told him I wasnt going to run, He asked why. After telling him my symptoms he said,"Eryn i've got good news...you can still run!" I was beyond puzzled. He told me about the "IT Band" and show me how to treat it. I did some research on my own and realized that was a big part of my issue. I had decided to RUN AGAIN!! However, "time" was not on my side. With only 5 days left I treated my IT Band the best I could. Still not recovered, I went anyway. In our group (the summerlin striders) there were 14 of us. We all carpooled up to Cedar and shared hotel rooms. The night before the race we all ate at pizza factory and loaded up on carbs. Then we went to the park to pick up our packets.

I
I got number 207, so I set that as a goal time. Even though I secretly wanted to finish in under 2 hours.

We all woke up early that morning and met at the park where we took shuttles up the canyon to the starting line. It was pretty cold up there so they had a few of these fire pitts ready when we arrived.

Here is the whole group at the starting line just moments before the gun fire.

Feeling just a tad nervous... The race began. The first 4-5 miles of the course was a pretty steady downhill. Naturally you would want to open up your stride and soar down the hill but in order to preserve and protect my knee I had to do just the oppisite. The first 3-4 miles people were just passing me up. That totally sucked! I felt as if I was going to come in dead last. Right around mile 5 I started passing people that had passed me earlier. picking them off one by one made it kinda fun.

Here I am coming out of the canyon. It was so beautiful! I specifically remember passing this girl in the yellow. She had somthing that was rattleing on her feet everytime she took a step.

(very annoying)

Chant is 8 months (sept 9th)

Look how big he's getting!! Slow Down buh ba!! He turned 8 months on September 9th. He weighs almost 20lbs and has been wearing size 4 diaper for a few weeks now. He Loves Dogs, Balls, Baby Enstien, other kids, and rolling over. In fact, changing his diaper is like a rodeo! haha He gets on his knees but hasnt quite figured out how to crawl yet. He is quite the talker too. No teeth yet but I have a feeling they are on their way.

This Sweet little guy makes me wanna have 10 kids!

Mommy-hood is the BEST!

Goodbye Cougar.... Hello Camry!

I tend to hold sentimental value to things. So to be honest, I was kinda sad when we sold the Cougar. This was my second car that i had bought. My first car was an infiniti G20 that I kinda totaled on the freeway. Needless to say I learned a very valuable lesson that night. Always have FULL COVERAGE! Anywho... back to the Cougar... I've had this car for 7 years and the beauty of it was it's been paid off for 3. It was a great car up until this last year when we had to rebuild the transmission and replace the altinator 3 times! Good thing my husband is amazing at everything! His mechanic skills sure saves us a ton!

This is our new car!! It's a 2007 Toyota Camry XLE (luxury addition). We bought it from a lady in St George on August 29th. We absolutly love it! It is fully loaded with every feature you could think of, sunroof, keyless entry, push start, navigation, bluetooth, grey leather (looks tan in the pic), seat warmers, dual climate controls, power everything, and the back seats even recline! The best part is...we bought it for 3,500 under blue book! I'm not that crazy about the ext color but oh well... this was too good to pass up!

(I'm sorry if it seems like I brag too much....but this IS our family journal and we absolutly LOVE our lives! I, especialy feel SO blessed to have Randy and Chant!)

A really good quote I stumbled accross says, "You don't find a happy life....You create it!

Chant's Friends

Chant always has a great time with his friends! (he loves other kids) From left to right we have Luke, Parker, Chant, and Sammy. What a cute little bunch!!!

Lake Trip Aug 27th

Randy is A STUD! He hasnt been wakeboarding for very long but he is amazing! This prob isnt the best

picture but here he is doing a filp!

This is me, and I never did land a flip....I was trying to a couple summers ago and have kinda given up since then. Summer of 2010 I was pregnant with Chant man, and summer 2011 has been so busy for us we've only been out once. So this was my first time since pregnancy. Looks like I need to work on a few things before even trying to flip again. (like getting air) lol

Girls Trip

On August 19th My wonderful mother took us on a girls trip to St George to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn (outdoor theater.) Too bad Sara couldn't come, It would have been even more of a blast with her there. We still had a ton of fun though and will probably make this a yearly tradition. Sara....You better mark it on your calendar!!

I had some fun taking pictures of Xayla jumping from bed to bed. I think she is gunna be really good at dance...just look at that toe point! lol

I tried doing all of this fun stuff with her.....It was then that I realized i'm just too old, and too big :( (my inner child says differently tho)

I just love my little Xayla she is such a beautiful girl inside and out! Very talented! And very Smart! Oh and did I say she is absolutly georgous!!

WE LOVE PIZZA FACTORY!!! We got all you can eat salad that came with a breadstick. Also I love their ice!! Now we just need one in Vegas!

The special effects were amazing! Puls Little Mermaid is just a good story to begin with. You can never go wrong with Disney:)

Waiting for the show to begin....

We also met up with the Shumway girls! Too bad our seats weren't closer together.

At this time I was also training for a half marathon, so the next morning I got up early and ran 9 miles before anybody even woke up! Then we all ate at the continental breakfast together which was surprisingly pretty good.  Then I introduced all my cousins to pinterest (the best site for getting super cute ideas)

4th of July Fun

Swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Joseph's house is way FUN!!

After swimming, Chant demonstrated his independance by holding his bottle all by himself. Kinda ironic since it's independance Day!

Chant Man has some beautiful bule eyes. love him<3

We had a really nice view for the fireworks

Who are these Handsome guys??

We were excited to spend the 4th with Randy's parents

We are so proud to be American, and to live in a country the is free! There are a lot of men in our ward that are away from their families, over seas, fighting for our country. One of them recently passed away in service. I have seen the sacrifices they make and am truly grateful for their stregnth and courage! I think this is my favorite holiday. Defiantly an emotional one for me. HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

CHANT MAN vs BABY FOOD

In the RED corner....BABY FOOOOOD!!!

And in the BLUE corner.....CHANT MAN LEEELAAAAND JOSEPH!!!

Oh man...This fight looks like it might be a MESSY one!

Doing GREAT! Hang in there Chant MAN!!

OoOOoo It's a direct hit!!! I don't know if this baby food is going to last!

What's This???.....DADDY steps into the ring!!! Here we go with round 3!

Oh NO I think Chant MAN Joseph might tap out!!!

Ladies and Gentleman we have our winner!!!.......by unanimous decision!!!.....

CHANT MAN LEEELAAAAAAND JOSEPH!!!!!

lol I know, i'm a huge DORK! But I had a TON of fun feeding him and blogging about it :)

Chant at 5 months

Here is the monthly Giraffe picture. Can you believe is is this big already? By now Chant has discovered how to grab stuff and he is very interested in the world around him. He loves to use his legs to bounce on your lap and can now stick his feet in his mouth

Silly Man! OoOo I just wanna squeeeeeze him!

He's really good at tummy time! Before we know it he will be taking off crawling!

There is never a dull moment with this kid! He sure knows how to have a good time!

Father's Day

I'm am such a lucky kid to have this guy as my faher! I have some of the best memories with my dad. Growing up he always took the time to swim with us, or get down on the floor and let us climb all over him or take trip's to the lake (which he still does). I know it's kinda clesha but my dad actually wanted ties for fathers day. Also he just got called to be bishop of the singles ward (lucky kids) so we hooked him up with 3 really cool ties...like the one in this picture lol Randy and I also custom made cards for our dads from tinyprints.com. (i think they liked their cards better than their gift's)

We had dinner with Randy's parents on Father's Day! It's been really nice having them in town and spending more time with them. One thing is for sure, Chant has a wonderful Father and Grandfather and it is such a blessing to always have the priesthood in our lives! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Randy loves to golf! (he's really good at it too...sorry I love to brag about him) So for Father's Day I sent Randy Golfing with my Dad, K.C., and my uncle Klark, They had a good time playing two on two and ended up tying right at the end. This will probably lead to a rematch if I know these boys. Of course I didn't go with them...so that would explain why I don't have a pic to post lol

Chant's 4 month pic's

So here is a 4 monh pic of Chant. I never did his 3 month picture and now that i look back i'm thinkin..."Where did the time go?" I always heard people say, "They grow up too fast" and now that i'm actually experiencing what they mean, it is SOOOOO TRUE times 10! I really wish it would just slow down (but that's out of my control) hummm if we could just have another one..... oh wait.....WE CAN!!!

I added a few more super cute pic's. I'm a happy snapper. Now that he smiles a ton, he is so fun to take pictures of! EAT YOUR <3's OUT!!!

Heavenly Father decided to share one of his spirit son's with us to lighten and bless our lives. Chant is always happy! We absolutly LOVE everything about this guy! He brings so much joy into our home, we feel so blessed to be his MOM & DAD!

This is Chant's crib quilt and also the inspiration/theme of his room.