1 month

Rook turned 1 month yesterday. It has flown by and I have felt like I have been running on autopilot for most of it. He hasn't been sleeping all that well yet, and I feel like I am never going to get caught up with things. But then he will snuggle with me and it makes it all worth while. He is such a cute little boy and I am so grateful to get to be his mom.

Pat's Run

I love Pat Tillman's story. My first year at ASU he helped take them to the Rose Bowl. I honestly don't remember watching him specifically, even though I watched some football games that year, but I love that I was there at the same time he was. I love that he maintained a 3.85 GPA while there, I love that he stayed in Arizona and played for the Cardinals. I love that he turned down a $9 million contract offer with the Rams out of loyalty to the Cardinals. And I love that he turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist after 9/11. I have wanted to do his run for a couple of years and since it fell on my birthday this year I decided I was going to. I knew I would only be 3 or 4 weeks out from having the baby but I decided I would do what I could and if I had to walk part of it that was okay.
I was incredibly blessed that Rook came a week early and my recovery was much faster than with my other kids. I think maybe because I didn't have the epidural. Within a week I was running 1/2 a mile and had built up to 4 just 3 and 1/2 weeks after having him. My goal was just to run the whole race - to not have to stop and walk even if I had to run really slow.
Wyatt, Dawn and Wacey ran it with me and it was an amazing experience. It is pretty cool to see 30,000 people come together in honor of 1 person and what he stood for. It is awesome to be a part of something that is bigger than you are. These pictures are before the race.

 During the race.

 The finish line.

 After it was done.

I ended up running the whole thing. I ran the 4.2 miles in 40:57, 27 days after Rook came. So I was pretty proud about that. Honestly, it was easier to run that 4.2 miles than it usually is to run 2. Just being there, and the atmosphere, and that many people.... I don't know. It was incredible. I feel like as a mom of 5 little kids that I spend most of my life doing what someone else wants me to do. It was good for me to work towards something and do it just because I wanted to.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Rook finally got his first bath on April 10th.

A couple days later Jamie got carried away with the soap and he had his first bubble bath.

Dressed Up

Ready for church on Easter.

Easter

We had a nice Easter. We started off by reading the Easter story out of the bible, and then the kids got to come downstairs and see what the Easter bunny had brought them and find candy. Evie even got into finding the candy. Then we went to church and then to Jamie's sister's for dinner. The food was really good and it was a good day.

I always try and get the kids something "churchy." This year they got new Book of Mormons and hymn books.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Saturday afternoon we got our Easter eggs dyed. The kids enjoyed it.

Horton Creek

Wednesday we met my parents at Horton Creek to pick up the oldest 3 kids. We had a nice picnic with them.

This picture pretty much sums up the last week of Evie's life. She and her dad are really close and it has been pretty hard on her for Rook to come. On top of that she got the flu and threw up for almost a week right after he was born. So she didn't feel good either which did not help matters. But I think she is finally starting to come around to thinking he might be okay. I hope so. They are only 16 months apart and I really hope they learn to be good friends.