A Thankful Heart

I've been back to being a stay at home mom now for 2 and a half weeks. To say I am in heaven would be an understatement.

Before I got my job at Zions, I was kinda down in the dumps about being home. (It didn't help I was still fighting a little bit of depression) But then I started working outside the home and I realized what a gift it was to be home with my girls. I realize it was only 4 hours a day, but it kinda made the whole day busy and stressful. Near the end my girls were suffering. Sam and I fasted and prayed and the next day, he foud a new job, applied, and the day after that had it. I know it was an answer to our prayers.

Now that I am home again I am trying to live my days to the fullest, because being home with my girls is a gift, and I want to enjoy every minute. Thank you Sam, for sacrificing so much for our little family and being willing to do it. You are the best husband in the world. Love you forever!!

Life Lately: Its been a while

Man, so much has happened the past couple of weeks to our little Tappana family! I quit my job and Sam got a second job. More on that later! The good news is I should be able to blog more. I am still busy building my Beachbody business and Abby and Maddie are all the sudden SO busy, but I enjoy blogging so I want to find more time.

So, here are little snippets of what has been happening with us the past few weeks. I would go back a few months, but this would be a very huge post. Maybe I will still do that though another day. :)

 Life lately has been two adorable girls playing in the laundry basket while I was doing laundry. Its been these cuties sitting together at a resaurant. Life has been a precious Abby fast asleep hugging her bear tight, and its been Madalyn chilling all cute like. 

 Life lately has been my adorable cuties zoned out to Curious George maybe? And Maddie is naked because she soaked through her jammies and I was going to get her in a bath. Life lately has been bringing in the new year with some sparkling cider. It has been a party picture of us, and its been a cute open-mouthed Madalyn getting cuddled back to sleep early in the morning after the New Year festivities. 

 Life lately has been Abby's first time in Primary! My little one is a Sunbeam. When did that happen? She is having a terrible time adjusting, and I think a lot of it is because I am in there. Anyone elses sunbeams struggle? Life has also been a cute Madalyn loving her new (to us) carseat. And life has been a couple of selfies with my cute girls. 

 Life has been saying goodbye to Sams beard, as he had to shave for his new job. I miss it terribly! Life has also been a sad Madalyn wanting more than anything for me to pick her up instead of fix lunch. Life has also been two sick girls, but both were extra cuddly and easy to get to take naps.

Lastly, life has been playing dressup and having daddy jump them. Madalyn is all the sudden huge into dressing up and when she sees her big sister in a dress, she is sure to bring me one to put her in too. Life has also been a trouble maker Madalyn spilling the fruit loops everywhere. And, no, she is not asleep. Life has been an angry Madalyn who wanted nothing to do with the morning. Neither do I kid. Neither do it.

I am excited for this new chapter in our life. I miss Sam, and its going to be hard somenights, but we had to do what is best for our little girls, and they needed me at home. They come first, and the perks of me being able to quit was just a win on my part!

Our 2014

2014 was another good year for our little Tappana family. It had its ups and downs, but really, what doesn't?

January

Nothing too exciting happend in January. I started my last semester at USU for the time being. I didn't know it was my last semester at the time. Somebody can't make up her mind about her big life plans!

February

February was a fantastic month. Sam turned 28 and Madalyn turned 6 months. 

We had a much needed and very fun vacation with my family in St. George. 

Later that month we went on our traditional Valetines date to Joe Morleys and Ice skating.

March

The biggest thing that happened in March was we put the girls in the same room. It worked wonders for a while, until it didn't. 

April

April was the month that after 14 years in the choir, my mom had to retire. It was pretty bittersweet!

I also ran my first 5k in a while and finished in 33:33, a time I was really proud of!!

May

In May, Sam and I celebrated our big 5 year anniversary! We had our first night away with just each other since having kids. We went to Midway and stayed at the Zermatt Resort, spent time in the Crater, eating dinner, and enjoying just us. We also had fun going to a Bees Game later that week!

June

I started training for a half marathon! 

Tim and Ashely came home for the summer.

We went to Taylorsville Dayzz of course.

Brigham and Kari came at the very for a vacation!!

July

I turned 28

I got my first Iphone. And I love it.

We had a fun staycation with the Tappana clan. We went to the temple, the mountains, parks, and had a fun 4th!

Abbigale Mae turned 3, and had a fun, small party to celebrate

We ate at Ruths Diner for the first time with Tim and Ashley on the 24th, we went bowling that afternoon, and had a fun BBQ and movie outside with my family that night.

August

The most important thing that happened in August was Madalyn Marie turned 1. We had family over to celebrate, and she hated her cupcake.

I also started work at Zions Bank on her birthday. 

September

I hit my 10 mile mark in running

Abby started preschool and had her first field trip to Wheeler Farm

We spent Labor Day freezing our bums off at Mirror Lake

October

October was a big month!! I ran my first ever half! I made a goal, worked out a plan, and finished! One of the highlights of 2014 for sure.

I also made the jump and became a Beachbody coach, and it seriously has helped me so much!

November

November wasn't a big month. I continued on with my fitness journey by starting Turbo Fire.

I had almost a whole week off of work and it has made it hard to keep going every. single. day. since.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family.

December

We had our yearly progressive dinner

We thought we wouldn't be able to attend the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, but lucky for us my mom got some tickets!

My girls sat on Santas lap. Abby was ok about it. Madalyn wanted off.

We had a fun Chrismas with family, food, and fun.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 2014, and I hope you all have an even better 2015. For us, I think 2015 is going to be awesome. I just have a good feeling about it.

Time

I don't have much time to write now days. I am trying to juggle working at the bank, trying to start up my Beachbody business, and still trying to be the best mom I can be. I've had the week off work so being a full time mom again has been the best thing in the world, and I don't know how on earth I am going to go back to working next week. I don't want it. I don't want it at all. But I guess such is life, for now. Until I can become worlds best coach. :)

Until then though, I am blogging far less then I want to and I don't have time to do anything fancy, but here are some of my favorite pictures lately.

 A week before my half, I was on a mile 3 of a 6 mile run...wen I saw this on the sidewalk. It made me laugh really hard.

 These crazy girls first thing in the morning make me smile.

 Little Miss Maddie loves finding anything to sit on that is just her size. The stairs, the treadmill, and this stool are just a few of her favorite places to perch.

 Again these two. They make me happy, and they are the reason why I do what I do.

 Madalyn loved her blue sucker!

 Our yearly pumpkin picture was a bust this year, but hey. Great memories!

 This tiny human sure loves the swings.

 As does this one!

 The girls got in a fight over the bumbo. This is the aftermath. 

These last few days Abby has been extra cuddly with me. I think she likes me home just as much as I like being home. And that is why I will do what it takes to be here once again!

And even though he isn't pictured somehow, I have a pretty wonderful guy helping me along in this life.

Abbyisms.

It has been way too long since I posted an Abbyism blog, which is a shame because she says hilarious stuff every day and sadly some of it has been forgotten. But here are the things she has said recently that I do remember to share:

• Earlier this summer, my niece Bree asked Abby if she wanted to be a mermaid. Abby replied: "No. I don't have boobs."
• After my other niece Keighlee got baptised in July, Abby asked "Did Keighlee get Abertized? It happens." I can't believe how much her vocabulary has improved since then!
• "My hair is crazy and my bum is crazy and my bagina is crazy. I'm a crazy girly boy!!"
• Sam: "Abby, you're so pretty." Abby: "I know silly goofball."
• "I wanna draw a rainbow. I wanna draw a freakin rainbow!"
• After crying because Sam left for young mens, she noticed her fingernail polish was smudged. She stopped crying for a second, then suddenly broke down again and wailed "MY NAILS ARE BROKEN!!"
• One day when she had to go to the bathroom: "Can you watch me plop a poo?"
• Abby frequently talks in her sleep. One night she suddenly started singing "I said no, no, no, no, no" (from the song Don't You Forget About Me, even though its really la's, she sings no's)

I know there are many, many more things she has said. The problem is I text them to Sam to remember, and then I can't find them as I go through my texts. But these just show who my little spunky daughter is. She is one of a kind, thats for sure. And she is all mine!!

The Haunted Half

Earlier this year both my sister and my father in law challenged me to do a Half Marathon. Sam's dad has bothered me before and I've always brushed it off. "That's way too long" I would scoff. Then when my sister wanted to do one with me, I decided to do it. We found the one we wanted to do and I printed off my running schedule that started the 2nd week of June. Unfortunately, my sister got sick partway through the training and had to put it on hold. Someday though we will run one together when she is feeling better!!

Anyway, all summer long I trained. Each time I got a mile further, it was a huge accomplishment for me. I posted a while back about finally making 10 miles. Now I have ran 13.1 and I am still on a high about it.

My morning started early, 5:30am. I got myself up, ate my breakfast, made sure I had everything and headed all by my lonesome to catch the shuttle up to Emigration Canyon. The race didn't start until 8:45 but the last shuttle left at about 7:30. Being the nervous person I am, I wanted to make sure I was there with plenty of time to spare, just in case something went wrong.

Waiting was the worst. It was cold and I had butterflies and the bathroom line was super long, but it was also really exciting people watching! At about 8:40 I made my way to the starting line and at 8:45 we were off!!

At first, so many people were passing me. SO MANY PEOPLE! I though for sure I was going to be last. But, I just kept running, pacing myself, and concentrated on how I was doing. At about 2 miles in, some people who had passed me started to walk, so I zipped on past them and as bratty as that sounds, it made me feel better. At about mile two, my bladder all the sudden decided to fill up, so just a little after mile 3 I had to stop and go to the bathroom. I was so mad!! In all my weeks of training I NEVER had to use the bathroom during my runs. I have a really overactive bladder when I am nervous though and it proved itself at that pit stop. There was a line too, so I had to wait, probably 5 minutes. After the pit stop, I was on my way again, and I feel like I made up some of that time stopped. From there on to about 7 and a half miles, I just kept running. I never had to stop and walk. I just kept going. I kept playing chase with a ninja turtle. She would pass me, then I would pass her and so on. It was a fun game to play and kept me going. Eventually, I killed her and she never passed me again. The scenery was also fun to look at and kept me going.

Shortly after mile 7, we hit a HUGE hill and I had to walk up it. The next two miles were like that. (not constant, but they were still hard work) So during those two or three miles, I had to stop and walk, and use the bathroom again! (so annoying!) But by about mile 10 I think it started getting easier again and I was able to run more. The last two miles I basically ran the whole time. In fact, I was so lost in my thoughts that all the sudden I was at mile 12 and realized I only had 1 more mile to go!! I started thinking about those people at the finish line and I just kept running. At this point we were running down Memory Grove, so it was a pretty easy downhill run. It was nice to end going down.

The view running down memory grove

 As I was nearing the finish line, I saw my dad standing there. He was standing away from everyone so he could get some pictures of me. I couldn't help it. Seeing him there supporting me brought unexpected tears to my eyes and helped me push myself further. It was a great feeling know the people I love were there to cheer me on. Right before I got to him there was a Haunted 1k we were able to run through, and a spook jumped right out at me. Good thing my bladder wasn't full again, because he got me good. Right as I got out of the haunted part, my dad was there snapping pictures of me.

Shortly after passing my dad, I saw my mom, sister, my friend Jess, and Sam with my girls standing there. Abby was so excited to see me and ran right up to me. It made my whole day! Again, cue the water works. Maddie was there bouncing in my sisters arms (i think?) and I know if she could have, she would have ran up to me too.

Seeing my family there made me full on sprint to the finish. I did it. I finished my first Half Marathon. And not in bad time either. According to my Nike+ app, I finished in about 2 hours and 40 min. My official race time is 2:49:12. My app paused at my potty breaks, my bib timer thing didn't. But I am still so proud of myself!! After months of training, of sacrificing my time of sleep, sacrificing my Saturdays, (because those were my long run days which meant I usually was useless the rest of the day) I did it. And I did it was my family (and Jess) cheering me on.

I never thought I could do it. But I did. And you bet I will be doing it again.

A quick update

I haven't been able to blog in a while, seeing as our computer crashed and it took 2 weeks to get the new one. (thank goodness we bought insurance on it) Also, we have been really busy. But, I wanted to do a quick update on our little Tappana family, because I know you are all DYING to know what the delio is with us.

Madalyn is adorable as ever, but she is already getting a tiny little temper. One day she was mad so she took her binkie out of her mouth and chucked it. It didn't go far enough for her liking, so she crawled up to it and chucked it again. It. was. hilarious. She is such a cheese face, and her tounge is always out. Most times when I point the camera at her, I am sure to get a cheesy grin. She still refuses to walk, because why bother when you can crawl so fast? However, she is good at climbing and sure gets around our house.

Abbigale is a spunky, adorable, smart little 3 year old. She is doing fantastic at preschool. She recognizes most her letters, a lot of her numbers, and all her colors and most shapes too. She is still a little preformer and will frequently sing and dance for us. She is very social, and loves to be around people, and she still says the most hilarious things. (an Abbyisms blog is coming up soon since it has been WAY too long.)

Sam is still working hard for us and also working hard as young mens prez. Since I am gone at work during dinner time, it is his job to make dinner and I think its great for both of us. He doesn't mind making dinner, while for me its the worst sometimes. Its a win win. Right babe?

And me, well I am just enjoying my job, getting excited/nervous for my  half this coming Saturday, and just dyed my hair red this past weekend and I love it.

So thats us in a nutshell. I realize this totally sounds like a Christmas card update, but when you have been M.I.A for a while you gotta do what you gotta do. Stay tuned for that Abbyisms and a life lately blog, because even though I haven't been able to write much, I have taken lots and lots of pictures.