FREE CLASS!!

I thought I'd let everyone know that Jessicasprague.com is doing a free class again and registration begins on Monday! The class runs Nov. 16-23 (I think). I took her last free class and I really loved it. It was a 2 week photoshop class. I'm not exactly sure what this next free class will be going over, but I'm sure it will be good! Let me know if you are going to sign up! I am!

Boston + Leaves =

Really cute.

We went to the park a couple Sundays ago when we still had the swine flu and took some pictures of Boston experiencing leaves for his first time. We really needed to get out of the house and breathe some fresh air. I thought I was more recovered than I really was. When we got home from the park I was wiped out for the rest of the day and had to take a really long nap. We were only at the park for about 25 minutes too. There's nothing like being sick that makes you grateful for a healthy, strong body!

You would never know he was sick by these pictures. I wonder if he still even felt sick? I know I did, but maybe the medicine he got made him feel a lot better a lot sooner than me.

Cutest Dark Knight I've ever seen. We decided to dress him up in his Halloween costume in case we didn't get enough pictures of him in it, but turns out we got plenty already and it's not even Halloween yet! I'm not sure what I was thinking when I thought we wouldn't get enough pictures of him in it. ha ha.

He hates wearing that mask. Can you tell?

Boston to the rescue! I love this picture.

Eating the leaves. He found out they don't taste very good, but that didn't stop him from trying to eat every single one.

Because It's Snowing and I Don't Want to go Anywhere

I thought I'd do a random update of what we've been up to lately, and post some cute pictures of Boston for your entertainment in case some of you are also stuck inside not wanting to go anywhere, or have the dreaded swine flu. Speaking of swine flu, we are all better now, and Scott successfully survived living in the same house as two sickies while managing to stay healthy. Amazing.

We had a fun visit to Boston's grandparent's houses this past weekend. I love that both of Boston's grandparents live 5 minutes away from each other! Boston really liked this chair at Grandma and Grandpa Fitz's house. He was watching Baby Einstein in this picture, which is what he is doing right now so I can blog. He loves that show, and I love that he loves it. It comes in handy when I need some hands-free time. While we were in Layton this weekend we did a fun superhero 5K to support kids with cancer. Scott, me, Boston (in stroller), and his mom all did it. It was Scott's mom's very first 5K and she did awesome! Good job Heidi!!

Boston and I at the superhero 5K. We won Jazz tickets in the raffle! Sweet huh? I also won 1st place for the adult costume contest out of all 3 of the adults that actually dressed up, and 1st girl to finish.

It's getting harder and harder to keep this little guy entertained. I'm having to be a lot more creative these days because his toys are just old and boring to him now. This box was a good little entertainer for a few minutes until he stood up and tipped over and bonked his head and the box landed on top of him. (I know I'm a horrible mom for letting that happen.) He was ok though, it just scared him pretty bad.

Who knew a box could be so fun?

A little playhouse just his size.

uh-oh

Boston discovered the toilet paper roll, so if you ever use the bathroom at our house and the toilet paper is in a crumpled ball on top of the dispenser instead of rolled up, you'll know why.

I made Boston a "Book of Firsts" from shutterfly because it was free. It turned out pretty cute. I wrote it as if Boston were the one writing and telling about his first experiences doing different things.

His first time being held by his mommy and daddy.

When I was looking at this page I glanced up at Boston who was asleep in his car seat in front of me and it freaked me out how much bigger he was, especially his head!! I don't really notice the difference unless I compare him to a picture because to me he is still my little baby. He just used to be a lot more little.

I made collages with the last two pages. I loved this page. These are his lion pictures every month from 0-9 months.

He has been so cute from day one. I can't believe it.

And just for your entertainment here is a bedhead picture of Boston.

Other updates:

Scott's interview in Denver for Ernst and Young went well. I can't believe he graduates so soon! It's scary and exciting, especially because we have no idea where we are going to end up living!

I am doing the Halloween half marathon Saturday morning. I'm not excited to freeze my butt off, but it will be fun to dress up and see all the other costumes people are wearing during the race, plus I could use the exercise with all the crap I've been eating. ugh.

I'm sure there's a few more things, but my laptop is almost out of battery, and the charger thing has problems now because Boston kept sucking on it, so it has a short in the circuit or something.

Coming soon are some cute pictures of Boston's first Halloween happenings, plus some pictures of our family costumes!

Boston wants to say...

I'm 9 months old!

Ya you heard me.

And guess what else?

I have so much energy my mom doesn't know what to do with me!

I weigh 18 pounds (15th percentile). I am 28 1/4 inches tall (50th percentile), and my head is 17 3/4 inches (45th percentile).

I like to open drawers and pull out whatever is inside. I also love to explore the house and climb on everything. I'm getting really good at climbing! I have a fascination with the laptop, especially when my mom is trying to use it. I like to try to grab the screen, cords, or bang on the keyboard. Pretty much anything to keep her from paying more attention to the computer than me, and I'm really good at it!
My mom discovered that yogurt is my new favorite food, but I'll pretty much eat anything that is edible, and even some things that aren't edible. I especially love real people food. I appreciate it when my mom shares her dinner with me instead of feeding me boring baby food.

The Halloween Tradition

Carving pumpkins while watching Hocus Pocus and hanging out with friends. We did all of the above except the friends part this year. For some reason, no one wanted to hang out with us after we told them we had the swine flu. :)

Scott carved the skeleton.

I carved this little monster.

And here they are looking cute and festive on our porch for about one day until they started to shrivel up.

I love Halloween. So much fun stuff to do. We missed out on way too much this weekend being sick, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that Scott stays healthy so we can party this weekend!

Piglet Influenza

This little piglet has the H1N1 flu, and so do I. It will be a loooong week of cuddling, sleeping, watching movies, and avoiding people. So far Scott has miraculously stayed healthy. I don't know how because this flu spreads like crazy. People are getting it if they know someone that knows someone that has it.

(cutest, sweetest puppy-dog eyes in the world.)

It's so sad that Boston is sick, but I love cuddling with him! For the first couple days he was sick it was like he was a newborn again. He would sleep on my chest for hours, and he was so calm and sweet. He didn't even really cry, he just whimpered because he was too tired to cry. He is doing much much better now though! His fever has gone down a lot, which is a huge relief! He also has a lot more energy and is more smiley. He's acting a lot more like the Boston we know. So far it seems like he's not going to get as sick as I got because he is getting better so fast. (Thanks to everyone for their prayers, help, and concern. I think your prayers really helped) I'm still really worried that he might get congested though because I didn't get congested until I had been sick for 3 days. I'm thinking that maybe I've already built up a bunch of antibodies and Boston is getting them from me since I'm still nursing him, so hopefully he won't get the full fledged sickness, plus he got medicine from the doctor and I didn't.

This is a weird sickness. I know it affects different people differently, but for me it's like a mixture of the flu and a really bad cold. It started with a cough, really achy muscles, hot and cold chills, and a really bad headache. Plus I sweat like crazy when I sleep. Just my back though. It's weird, and I'm sure you all wanted to know that. A couple days later I got a stuffy nose and watery eyes and I'm really, really tired all the time. I thought I was going to be insanely bored staying home for a whole week straight, but the days fly by when you sleep all day and that's all you really feel like doing. I thought I would read a lot too, but I haven't picked up my book once because my eyeballs usually hurt from the headache. So I'm not insanely bored, but I can't say that going outside to check the mail isn't the highlight of my day. I miss the fresh air, and people interaction. Luckily we don't have to worry about dehydration because I have not thrown up and Boston has only thrown up once.


We carved pumpkins last night, and Boston hung out in his bouncer.

This was the second day he was sick, and as you can see he already feels better.

He even smiles when he's sick!
I'm glad we have Boston's 9 month check-up on Monday! It will be nice to get him all checked out by a doctor again just to make sure everything is ok.

Stay tuned for pictures of our awesome pumpkins we carved! Thanks again for all your love, concern, prayers, etc!

Don't You Just Want to Squeeze Him?

It's getting cold on our morning runs, so I had to get out this awesome coat that Boston got from his Aunt Jill. It's a little big on him, but it keeps him cozy. Both times he's worn this coat on our morning runs he's gone right to sleep because he is so snug and warm. (Thanks Jill for the coat! We love it!) I had to take a picture before I left because I thought he looked so dang cute and cuddly all bundled up. It reminded me of the little boy on A Christmas Story. I love that movie. You should watch it this Christmas. It's a classic.

Later that night we went on a fun date to Cascade golf course and Cafe Rio with our ward. Oh, and while we were at Cafe Rio we discovered that Boston LOVES black beans. Or maybe he was just starving, but I was feeding him tiny bites of beans and rice and tortilla from my salad and I couldn't feed him fast enough! He would cry and get all impatient if I stopped to feed myself. It was funny. He even liked the salad dressing! He gets that from his daddy. He's not going to be a picky eater like his mom. He's never refused to eat anything we've tried to feed him thus far. He even eats magazines or any type of paper he can get his hands on. I'm slowly Boston-proofing our house. We now have only one magazine in the entire house and it's on the counter where Boston can't reach it.

Lovin the Fall

Gotta love the cool crisp air of Fall and pretty mountains with colorful leaves! I'm so glad we live five minutes from the canyon! I wish I could take it with me wherever we end up when Scott graduates. Is there anywhere else that is five minutes from the canyon that has a paved running path, and a waterfall, and drinking fountains every few miles? I'm feeling a bit attached to where we are living right now. I think it's because Scott has interviewed for a few companies that would require us to move away from our safe little comfort-zone haven. He doesn't have any offers yet, so I'm not saying we are for sure moving, it's just a likely possibility. Sad, very sad, but kind of exciting too.

We drove up to Sundance a couple weeks ago and had a nice walk. It's my favorite thing to do on Sunday nights. It was already dark by the time we got there because we don't get out of church until 5:30 now. But we got to see the leaves on our way up and for about ten minutes after we got there.

Sportin the hoods

I'm trying to soak in as much of this Fall weather as I can before it turns to bitter cold and snow. Last Tuesday I went on a walk up Provo Canyon with my old roommate Maija-Liisa and her baby.

It looks way better in person.

I love all the leaves on the ground! It makes me want to eat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and drink cider!

Boston loves being outside.

Maija-Liisa on the pretty path.

Baby Ava slept the whole time.

It's what 8 week old babies do best.

I love having so many stay-at-home moms so close by to hang out with. Another reason why I am feeling attached to where we live now.

Pretty Bridal Veil Falls.

Perfect weather. It makes me want to go running, and carve pumpkins, and eat crock pot stew, and watch a movie in sweats with hot chocolate and popcorn, and go on a hay ride. Fall is the best.

St. George Marathon

We loved our mini vacation to St. George this past weekend! We started out the weekend with our very first trip to the Tuacahn where we saw the play Annie, and we loved it. We both love plays and being outside, so the Tuacahn was perfect for us. We definitely want to go back there sometime! We decided that we want to make it a tradition to always go to a play there the night before I do the marathon ( if I do the marathon again). But chances are I will do the marathon again because I have been saying that every marathon I run will be my last marathon ever since I ran my first marathon, and this was my sixth marathon. I kind of feel like the boy who cried wolf too many times, except I'm the girl who cried I'm done with marathons too many times.

Scott's parents let us stay in their time share with them and they also babysat Boston so we could go to the play. Thank you thank you thank you Heidi and Barry! You guys are the best!

Waiting for the play to start

The stage with the awesome red rock background

When the play was over Scott took me to a cabin to stay with my friend Sarah who was also running the marathon the next day. We stayed at the cabin because it was close to the starting line, so we didn't have to wake up extra early to get on the race buses. (I say that like we got to sleep in, but 5:00am isn't exactly sleeping in. It's better than 4:00am though!) That was my very first night sleeping away from Boston! I left for the play around 6:30 and didn't see him again until the next day around 11:00. That was a new record for me! I missed my little guy.

This is me and Sarah at the freezing cold starting line.

(I took these starting-line pictures with my cell phone, so that's why they are all blurry.)

Me wearing Scott's huge sweatshirt at the starting line. I really don't like freezing my butt off at the start of races, but I would much rather do that than run the entire race in the heat.

My friend Sarah that I did some of my training with.

These next pictures were taken by the marathon photographers. I just copied the thumbnails instead of buying them, so that's why they're so small.

Hanging in there

Feeling nauseous

Incredibly ready to be done, and seconds from being there!

I made it! This is the finish line!!! I finished in 3:55, and was really happy to finish under 4 hours!

It turns out watching a race is almost as tiring as running the race. Both Boston and Scott could barely stay awake the rest of the day.

just happy to be done, and happy to hold this little guy again

and this not so little guy too

Scott is such a supportive husband even though he thinks I'm crazy for running marathons.

The rest of the trip we enjoyed listening to General Conference, relaxing, and eating at Texas Roadhouse.