Tanner Benjamin Mower

On Tuesday, August 17 2010, Tanner Benjamin Mower was born. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning and my blood pressure had been a bit high for the last week. Since I was so close to my due date the doctor told me to go to the hospital right then to get induced. It was a crazy hour trying to arrange child care for three other kids. I had people set up to help, but a lot were too far away or didn't answer their phone.

It was 2:00 when I was all hooked up to the IV and the pitocin started. Around 3:00 I got an epidural making everything wonderful and he was born at 5:40 after pushing through one contraction. It was an easy labor and delivery and I am feeling really good now. Here are some pictures of baby Tanner.


Tanner weighed 7 lbs. and was 19.5 inches tall.




Jacob, David and Madeline are very excited to have a new baby in our family!




All ready to go home!

Ben took a week off of work and it was so nice and fun to have him around. Today he went back to work, bummer. Tanner is a mellow baby and sleeps a lot. I hope he continues to be an easy baby because the rest of life(the other 3 kids) is a bit chaotic!

Could you please take the toys to the basement?

David and Madeline are so obedient and promptly took all of the toys to the basement. Aren't they great kids?

Utah Valley Marathon

Last Saturday Ben ran his first marathon. He said he wanted to run one to "check it off his list" but now that he has done one I don't think it will be his last. He was out of town the week before the race and flew into Salt Lake on Friday at 8:30 and had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning to catch a bus to the start of the race.

We went and watched Ben run by at about mile 21. Here he is running by and looking strong. The kids liked to watch for dad and see him racing.



Here he is after the full 26.2 miles. Ben said you can't forget the last .2 because it is the hardest. The first half of the race was in rain which helped contribute to the bloody nipples you see. There were a lot of men running with bloody nipples. Poor guys!



The kids didn't really want to pose for the picture, but here is the attempted family shot.


Jacob wanted to practice his photography skills with Ben's shirt and medal. Not too bad for a 6 year old.



Ben and I decided to run this race together last December and then 2 days later I found out I was pregnant. I am proud of Ben for doing it on his own, but some year we will do one together when I am not 7 months pregnant!

Daddy Daughter

I have been feeling a bit uninspired about blogging lately. But I don't want to go forever without a post so...

Ben and Madeline went to our ward's daddy-daughter activity awhile ago but I just came across this picture again today. Madeline had a great time going just with Ben. The boys and I had fun at McDonald's and getting ice cream.



It is always fun to watch children get older. Madeline has been growing up a lot lately. She now sleeps in a big bed, plays at the neighbor's house, puts her shoes and socks on by herself, and is attending her very first birthday party tomorrow. She will make a great big sister!

May 12 really??

Really it is May 12 and we woke up to snow? Where is the warm weather? We are having a birthday party this afternoon for David, I was hoping to have lots of it outside. I wonder if the sun will come out and melt all of the snow away?

It's a boy!

I had my ultrasound this past week and as you already know from the title, it's a boy! The baby looks healthy and everything is going well. Some of my friends and cousins are also pregnant and it seems like nearly everyone is having a boy. Girls are in short supply right now:)

Canyonlands Half Marathon

Last weekend I went to Moab with three friends to run the Canyonlands half marathon. It was a fun weekend! We drove through the mountains outside of Denver on Friday through a bad storm. It was scary in a few places and we weren't sure if we could make it up some of the hills. Luckily everything turned out OK and we made it to Moab in good time.

On Friday evening we picked up our race packets and then went out to dinner and had an early bedtime. This is me and my friends after we picked up our packets.



Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to run. We had to wait at the start for about an hour and a half. For one hour we had warm clothes on but when there was a half hour left we had to take our warm clothes off and put them in a drop back to pick up at the end of the race. It was so cold!

The week before the race I had a bit of spotting which concerned me a little with being pregnant. I debated whether I should run the race or not and decided to just take it easy and enjoy the run instead of getting a good time. I ran with my friend for the first 6 miles and was feeling really great. Between mile 6 and 7 I started feeling a bit more tired so I decided to slow down and let her run ahead. I put my music in, and zoned out. It was one of the BEST runs! I loved it! I didn't care how fast I was going, how many people were passing me, or any of the things I usually think about during a race. I just enjoyed the beautiful scenery, my music and a nice jog. The best part of the race came when I crossed the finish line and got a PR(personal record). I was amazed that I took it easy and still managed to beat my last half marathon time by 3 minutes. My final time was 2:06:52. Not super fast, but I keep getting better and I finished feeling great. Here is the 4 of us after the 13 miles.



After the best chocolate milk and other snack food we headed back to the hotel for showers. Then we went to Pasta Jays and enjoyed a delicious meal.



After our lunch we went to Arches and hiked a bit. Mostly just easy walking. It was good to stretch our muscles out a bit. I was thinking about climbing into this window but it was just a bit too much of a stretch.



We ended the night with a dessert party! We had tagalog ice cream and grasshopper cookies with hot chocolate. The best part of running 13 miles is all the food you get to eat after! It was a fun weekend away without kids or responsibilities. I need to do that more often.