puke and pooh

i know, you're probably thinking, "do i want to read a post with this title?" ...my whole family is sick with the stomach flu today. well, except for me. it hasn't been too bad so far, at least not compared to past experiences with my boys and the flu. joel has just had "the runs" and kadin has only thrown up once. they are being such good boys. they haven't complained at all and they haven't asked for even a bite food, which makes not being able to give them food easier. kadin actually asked to take a nap earlier today. here he is laying on the couch watching "dumbo," meanwhile joel is taking a long nap.

ben, on the other hand, isn't doing too well. he's had "the runs" since yesterday and has been throwing up all day. his body hurts so bad, that he hasn't been able to get much rest. for the last two months, ben has been going back to school, after a full day's work, to work on finishing his thesis at 11pm at night and staying until 4am. he then wakes up at 8am the next morning to head back to school and do it again. he usually does this a few times a week. i think his body is just too tired. poor guy. i appreciate so much his willingness to work so hard for our family so he can finish school and get a job, but i think i'm going to have to nix his late night thesis sessions or he's going to kill himself... or something. what a good husband. here's hoping this post finds you and your family a little more healthy than mine. :)

i'm a brownie... what are you?

You Are a Brownie

Decadent and intense, you aren't for the weakhearted. Those who can deal with your strong flavor find out how sweet you really are.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

happy america day!

what's the best way to celebrate the 4th of july? eating lots of food and lighting things on fire, of course! well, for joel the fire part wasn't so fun. he freaked out when we tried to give him a sparkler. he was considerably calmer once the sparkler was gone, but he still wasn't happy until he was safely back inside. so sad.

here's the firetruck firework that joel picked out. it was pretty tragic for him to watch us light it on fire. on top of that, it was really loud and annoying. very terrifying for a 2 year old, i'm sure.

we had a BBQ with morgan, doug and jackie, and our friends, sarah and dave aller, and sarah's brother, jake. we ate lots of yummy food...




played the drums...






played with the busy ball popper - a favorite with the adults as well as the kids...




...and enjoyed lots of fireworks. thank goodness for america and the wonderful blessing of freedom that we enjoy here. hope your 4th was awesome.

a run for freedom

on the morning of july 4, ben and i ran the provo freedom run 10k. it was incredibly fun and i'm excited to say that ben has caught the race fever. he usually doesn't enjoy running, but he loved running the race so much that he proclaimed to me after we finished, "i want to run another one, ...like tomorrow!" yes! ...yet another loved one has succumbed to keeping me company in my running endeavors.  the only problem...  ben is like a million times faster than me.  on the saturday before the race, we ran 6 miles together and he was practically running circles around me.  yeah, it really bugged me.  here i am, a year and half of running regularly and two marathons later and i couldn't keep up with ben who had seriously been running for ...a week.  dang those boys.  that's okay, though.  i'm convinced that running with ben can only be good for me and will help push me faster than i would be able to push myself.  plus, it will be a fun thing to do together.  ben really wants to run a marathon this fall and hey... i'm always game for a marathon.  hopefully we'll find out where we are moving soon so we can pick a marathon to do.  

i really wanted to get under 54 minutes for the 10k and i did it!  just barely...

whitney's time:  53 minutes 56.6 seconds

ben's time:  53 minutes 56.2 seconds

i was really pleased that i had met my goal.  and thanks, ben, for pushing me and especially for sticking with me even though we were going way slower than you were capable of.

carter and cookies

at the beginning of june, joel, kadin and i took a little jaunt on a plane over to washington to visit kadi, ben's sister, and her husband, joel, and their two boys, carter and mason. unfortunately, ben had to stay home to work like mad on his thesis. we had such a great time. joel and carter are best buds. all week long before we left for our trip, he kept reminding me that we were going to go on an airplane to carter's house. when kadi picked us up at the sea-tac airport, joel literally screamed with glee when he saw carter and then carter screamed back. it was hilarious. we also went to stay with ben's parents, who just live about an hour and a half away from kadi and joel. here's grandpa mike pulling kadin around in the wagon.
joel loves grandma shawn and he ESPECIALLY loves for her to make him cookies! so, of course, grandma shawn had to make a couple batches of cookies.


here's joel rolling the peanut butter cookie dough ball in the sugar.



...and here he is after putting it on the cookie sheet. my child is such a gourmet!

ode to santa cruz

this is like a million years late, but... the day after my fam ran the ogden marathon, we all hit the road for home sweet home - good ol' sac town. nothing like a 10 hour drive to soothe your aching running muscles, eh? the day after we arrived home in sacramento, my mom, morgan and i (with kids and puppies in tow) left for our annual memorial day camping trip at new brighton beach in santa cruz! this is seriously one of my favorite things to do ever. we get to hang out with the family, eat lots of yummy food, visit with all of our old pals that we don't get to see very often, and, of course, go to the beach! morgan didn't get to stay very long because she had to a wedding or something stupid like that :), but it was fun to have her and asher there for at least a little bit. joel absolutely LOVES dogs, so needless to say, he spent most of his days in santa cruz in the position above. my mom keeps telling me that i'm going to have to get a dog someday for joel, but that is just not going to happen... sorry joel. he'll just have to enjoy other peoples' dogs.
while joel was hangin' with the pups, kadin spent most of his time around the food cabinet, getting in to the animal crackers and the fruit snacks. kadin is a serious snacker. both joel and kadin probably didn't eat a single nutritious thing the whole week, but i just had to keep telling myself that we were camping and that their eating regimen would return to normal when we got home.
they were both constantly filthy the entire week, but hey what's a little dirt, right? although, i enjoyed our trip, i was relieved to get home and wash the campfire smell and the dirt out of everything. unfortunately, the campfire smell lingered for about another week... a sweet memory of our trip. :)
kadin totally ripped it up on the long board. he's basically an x-games child prodigy. :) good times. i can't wait for next year.

my sweet ben

so, in honor of my wonderful husband and the father of my children, i wanted to post a tribute to ben on this father's day. here are some of my favorite pictures of ben...

ben has an awesome sense of humor. he's always doing silly things and making me laugh. and he makes a really hot "wolverine." :)



ben loves to play with his boys. he wants them to wrestle like he in did high school soooo bad. i can't say i'm too stoked for my children to be wrestlers, but they have so much fun doing it with their daddy. :)

ben is amazingly helpful around the house. i must admit, i have not cleaned our bathroom since we have been married. you're probably thinking, "eeww gross, their bathroom must be disgusting." but no, it is spic and span 24/7, thanks to ben. he really likes to make things shiny. i have to actually tell him that he can't do the dishes sometimes, so that he'll get other things done, like...eat his dinner, for instance. he's a dream.


ben treats me like a princess. i've had way more massages (compliments of my sweet hubby) than i deserve. thanks ben, for putting up with me and my brattiness. we have so much fun together. i always feel young when i'm around ben, because he's always thinking of silly things to do. he's like a kid on christmas morning, but all the time. what a great example of optimism to me. :)













here's some of my favorites of ben with the boys.




happy father's day sweetie! i love you more than words can express!

the marathon has been conquered!

so, my marathon report is shamefully overdue. for those who are not updated on my life, my family and i ran the ogden marathon on may 19th. it was great fun and i'm already trying to decide which marathon i will tackle next. i have to say, my favorite thing about the whole experience was sharing it with my family. they all did so well and i'm so proud of them... and the family members that didn't run were the most FABULOUS cheerleaders! so here's an introduction to "team busath":


here we all are running together somewhere near the beginning. we are all very fashionable in matching yellow tank tops and my dad has a coordinating shirt with yellow down the sides. don't we look great? :)


bill - the paternal unit:
finishing at 5 hours 5 minutes and 37 seconds. my dad is soooo awesome. he's always been a good runner and he probably could have kicked all of our trash time-wise, but he stayed with all my sisters right to the end.

whitney:
finishing at 4 hours 19 minutes and 10 seconds. i really like this picture of me because it makes me look like i'm schooling those girls behind me. haha! :)

morgan - my inspiration:
finshing at 5 hours 5 minutes and 29 seconds. here's morgan waving like she's miss america! i was so impressed with morgan because she had just had a baby and had like zero experience running when we started training and she totally did it. she's pretty much totally awesome.


jillian - the speed queen:
finishing at 5 hours 5 minutes and 28 seconds. all throughout our training jillian was always leaving us in the dust. she's a pretty fast runner ...well, by our standards. :) i love this picture of jillian because she looks so triumphant - like she's just finished a marathon or something. :) jillian's pretty much totally wicked awesome, as well.

hailey - the amazing:
finshing at 5 hours 5 minutes and 35 seconds. this picture of hailey totally cracks me up. :) i have to say, i was MOST impressed with hailey. she's 16 years old ...and she gets up at 4:00am every other day to do a paper route ...and she goes to ballet class like three times a week ...and she's in a performing group that practices two times a week for several hours ...and she goes to school everyday, etc, etc, etc... wow, this girl is also completely awesome.

so, i have to share this one funny story. around mile 4 or 5, we were literally like 100 yards from the porta-potties and this lady just dropped her pants about 2 feet from the side of the road to go pee. i'm talking full on frontal nudity shot. she totally didn't even squat down before she pulled her shorts down. she couldn't wait to get to the johns, i guess, nor could she wait until she got behind the trees that were only 10 feet away from her. we were all totally shocked. it was pretty hilarious. the best part was that this random lady running next to me, turns to us and says, "where's a camera phone when you need one?" amen sista. then again, i'm not sure i want a picture of a naked lady peeing. eeeeww!


here we are at the finish line. i remember thinking around mile 20 or so, "why do i like doing this again?" so, needless to say, we are all very relieved that we don't have to run anymore... today. :)

so tuckered out...

more proof that joel just loves to cuddle... our church gets out at 4:30pm every sunday and pretty much kills all chances of my children having an afternoon nap. usually by the time we get home from church, they are total basket cases. so, today after church, we put on fantasia 2000 for the boys. joel was so tired, he climbed into my lap and totally crashed. so cute. there's nothing better than your sweet little angel sleeping in your arms. :)

hot or cold?

ben and i went to check in on the boys tonight, as is our routine before turning in. this is how we found joel. he had got into the bottom drawer of his dresser, pulled out every single blanket in there and put them all on himself. he's a cuddling man after his daddy's heart. :)

this is how we found kadin. kadin is more like his mom, i guess. "don't touch me, i'm trying to sleep here."