CandEBahr

Good Bye, Old Friend

2011-06-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

We had been together a long, long time. It seems only yesterday that I drove you into the AFHS parking lot for the first time. A mere 11 years ago we came together. And last week, that time had to come to an end.

There were a few rough spots for us during those 11 years. Once I thought I had lost you for good. I was driving you home from teaching in Hartford one night when you died on me. Alone, in the dark, in a bad neighborhood, a nice passer-by warned me to "just stay in your truck, Ma'am. Don't come out til your husband gets here." Scary night. We thought you were gone for good back then, but in a fit of sentimentality, we dropped over 2 Grand on a rebuilt engine and kept you around for 5 more happy years.

Remember the hearts painted on your window? Those were from my wedding. They were all that remained of the car decorating by friends and family that night. I never could quite bring myself to wash them off. And then it became a contest to see who would last longer, you, or the hearts. You won, of course. I never should have doubted.

The weekend before you left us, we had to wash them off. They were still there, if only faintly. But I just couldn't bear the idea of someone else driving you with the hearts still on. So they had to go.

You really have been around the country. You have been

A Beehive Stater

A Constitution Stater

A We Dare Defend Our Rights Stater

A Show Me Stater

Alas, that was the end of the road for you, at least with us. You will move on to the Land of Lincoln and who knows where to from there.

Your hearts will always be with us. Damon now sees this picture and says "Oh look, our cute truck." Many memories will remain.

Good Bye, dear friend. Happy Trails to you.

For anyone still reading...

2011-06-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

There is no way I will ever get caught up on everything that I have wanted to write about in the last six months. So I may or may not try. There are a few things I do want to say, however. First of all, and drum roll please... Cameron found a job! He finishes his last year of training at the end of this month and after starting our job search last September, he finally accepted a position in Denver, Colorado. We are very excited about it. We went house-hunting last month and found a place that will work for a year. I should say that his contract is only for one year. There is a good possibility that it will be longer, but there is no guarantee. So we are all really crossing our fingers that we don't have to move again next summer. I am kind of tired of doing that. (5 states in 7 years). We will see. This is just the next chapter in this adventure of a life we lead.

And because I know that everyone reading this will be really wishing that there were some pictures of my cute boys:

Here they are in their Easter clothes, looking like they are ready for Oxford University or something.

Grady is a Preschool Graduate. Damon insisted on being in the picture too, and holding up a helicopter seed because Grady got to hold up something too.

Wonderful Christmas 2010!

2011-01-13T21:32:00.001-08:00

Christmas was Magical this year. Magical. I am NOT a big shopper, and I really don't like crowds, but this year was different. Even the all the shopping was fun! I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there was a certain 4-year-old in the house who was really beside himself with excitement all December long! I think 4 is the perfect age for Christmas. Grady just soaked it all in and loved every second of it in his sweet, innocent way. To him, getting mountains of presents wasn't the climax, but rather just another good part of an already great few weeks. I wish that could last forever.

Here he is starting the Season off right by letting Santa know what he wanted. We tried to get Damon to sit on Santa's lap, but he would have none of it. Apparently Santa can be a bit scary sometimes.

I always love Christmas music, but this year I went on a major Christmas Music kick! I couldn't (and still can't) get enough of it. Once again, the fact that both boys were as into it as I was made it all the more fun. Grady even had his first concert. His preschool class sang three songs at the school Christmas Concert. It was so cute! Here is a picture:

And here is a video:

One of the best parts about Christmas this year was that we got to spend so much time with Cameron. Oh we LOVED being able to see so much of him! One of our Christmas presents accidentally didn't get wrapped in time, and four little pairs of eyes found it a few days before they should have. It was probably better that way anyway, because it was thoroughly enjoyed all by itself. Apparently Damon thought the object of the game was to see how many red balls he could stick to his own target.

Santa had no shortage of sweets this year, thanks to these two fabulous cookie makers:

It snowed all day on Christmas Eve so we had a beautiful White Christmas.

Here are the boys sprinkling magic reindeer food on the lawn on Christmas Eve. It was supposed to guide the reindeer to our house. Apparently it worked, and we even found some "reindeer tracks" in the snow the next day!

On Christmas morning, Grady woke up early, of course, and ran into our room. I said, "Oh I don't know if Santa came to our house. Grady, why don't you go see if he did." He ran out to check, and then came running back. "He did! He did come! And I could hear the reindeer on the roof!"

I was too busy filming everything to get many good still pictures of the presents, but suffice it to say that the boys were in seventh heaven. Here are a few of the pictures I did get.

Here is Damon quite enthralled with the task at hand:

Amid the happy chaos:

Isn't this the perfect Christmas Morning view from our window?

One of the few things that Grady told Santa he wanted for Christmas was a train set. Well, Grandma and Grandpa actually supplied the train, and the giant box was delivered to our house a week or so before Christmas. We had to come up with quite a story to explain why the train was from Grandma and Grandpa, even though Grady only asked Santa for it. "It just must be magic," was our answer to that and a lot of Grady's questions throughout the season.

Here they are with the very well-received train set:

The giant box that the train set came in might have been as big a hit as the trains themselves.

Santa also gave the boys some snow tubes, which we tried out for the first time a few days later. We had a blast.

Damon loved being all decked out in his snow gear, especially the hat that kept covering his eyes.

Getting ready for the plunge:

After sledding we, of course, had to have a snowball fight. Grady loved it!

Damon, not so much. This was, of course after being outside for a while, freezing cold, and falling off of the swing at the playground (hence the fat lip), and getting hit in the back by a snowball, poor guy.

Overall, we loved the whole Christmas Season this year. We loved the music, treats, time with each other, and the Wonderful Spirit that stayed with us. The only thing that could have made it better was to be able to see more family. But we will be seeing them in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

Tattle Tell

2010-12-23T19:40:00.001-08:00

How can I not be totally in love with these boys?

I love their energy, excitement for life, and how they love each other. They really play together very well for the most part. We have reached, however, a new height of tattle telling. I can be in the other room and invariably someone will run in with something like, "Mom! Grady took my car! Mom! Damon sat on my foot! Mom! Grady is touching my toys! Mom! Damon is hitting me lots of times and it hurts really bad!" Etc. Since I am not always a whitness to the aformentioned offenses, it is hard for me to tell who is really at fault. Sometimes the story speaks for itself, however.

It kind of reminds me of a story from when I was growing up. My sister Jill and I were playing one day. After a while she ran up to my mom with tears gushing from her eyes, clearly feeling wronged about something. "Mom!" she yelled. "Elise hurt my foot!" My mom must have asked for an explaination because Jill innocently continued, "I was just swinging my foot, and Elise got in the way!" Hmmm. Do you remember that, Jill? :)

O Christmas Tree!

2010-12-09T19:42:00.001-08:00

Our wonderful 2010 Christmas Tree:

It may be small, but I really do love it. I love the pine smell it brings into my house. I love how excited the boys are to turn the lights on every night. I love the ornaments, because almost all of them have a story. Most of them came from a good friend of mine in Connecticut. She got new ornaments for her tree, and so handed these ones on down to me. I love them!

We also have a tradition to get an ornament for every state where we have celebrated a Christmas.

Here is the ornament for our home state of Utah. The Salt Lake Temple. It is where Cameron and I were married, and is probably the most famous building in Utah. The ornament itself is beautiful too. It makes me think of home.

Our next state was Connecticut. One of my favorite things about Connecticut was the beautiful fall leaves. It is Gorgeous! So bright and vibrant and beautiful. So, what else could we have for our Connecticut ornament but a maple leaf? It is supposedly made from a real leaf and then coated in copper.

Next we celebrated a Christmas in Alabama. Oh, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Alabama! I loved it there. It just seemed to fit. One of the things I loved about it was how the people were all so nice, open, friendly, willing to help. I learned a lot about service to others in my short 12 months there. Here is our Alabama ornament, an angel, kind of like many of the friends we met there.

And our current state of residence, Missouri. St. Louis, to be exact. Now, all you Cubs fans in the family please don't dissown me! This is NOT a St Louis Cardinal as in the baseball team. But tell me honestly, what do you think of when you think of St Louis? Besides the arch? Cardinals, right? So, what better to remind us of our time here? Besides, we see a ton of these beautiful birds flying by our windows.

And here is our ornament for next year:

It is supposed to be a question mark, not a candy cane, in case you were wondering. We have no idea where we will be next year. It is kind of scary. Kind of exciting. Kind of driving me crazy. Cameron finishes his last year of training (YAY!) in June and now we are in the midst of a nationwide job hunt. Up until this point in his training, we have not been able to choose where we would live. We kind of just moved wherever Cameron got in. I used to think that once we were looking for a job then we could choose where we wanted to live. Well, it isn't really working out that way. There are not as many openings as I thought there would be, and not any in our top two states, Utah and Colorado. So we will keep looking. Something has to turn up eventually, right???

Really, all I am asking is for somewhere with mountains and trees and mild winters and nice people and good schools and lots of running trails and a choir and orchestra for me to be in and closer to family and lots of parks and a really good job situation for Cameron and close to the town library and pool. Is that too much to ask?!?

We Are Alive

2010-12-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

Alas, three long months have gone by and I have not written about any of it. There is so much I want to write, I will have to be as concise as possible. And use a lot of pictures, if I can have the patience to download them all. (By the way, does it take forever for all of you blogspot users to download pictures or am I just doing something wrong?)

In August, Grady started Preschool! Hard to believe. He loves it, and looks so handsome in his uniform. I know. Uniform for preschool is a little much, but it really was the best (and cheapest) school we could find.

Damon was sure it was a big day for him, too. I guess in a way it was.

September was a fabulous month. Cooler weather, beginning of fall, fabulous visit from Grandpa Dale and Grandma Sharon. Oh how we loved having them here.

There was lots of story reading. Note Damon's two fingers in the mouth and the other hand twirling his hair. Typical pose.

We went for a few walks. This one downtown by the arch.

The walks weren't always on our feet.

And afterward, a few of the men in the house took a much needed nap.

It was a wonderful visit! Grandma and Grandpa we are so glad you could come!

October was eventful this year, as it always is in our house.

I ran my 6th marathon, the Kansas City Marathon on Oct. 16th. My time was 3:25:50. Not a PR, but for the amount of training I was able to do, it is alright. It was so fun to see the boys cheering for me at the end!

I have a goal to run a marathon in every state I have lived. I have done it so far, plus one in Massachusetts, so if next year we move to Utah, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alabama, or stay in Missouri, I won't have to run another marathon! If we don't, well, then you can expect to hear about another one next fall.

I turned 28!?! It was a fun day. A big and belated thank you to all the friends and family that called or emailed. It really made my day!

As did this fabulous cake that the boys made for me. My favorite part was how Cameron mistook a tube of red gel food coloring for frosting and used it to write the words, which then was enough food coloring to turn the whole cake blood red. Oh well. At least red is my favorite color.

Then Cameron turned 37!!??!! As you can see, the boys were all quite excited--and relieved--that Daddy could still blow out all those candles!

Cameron had a lot of supervision and help while opening his presents.

I got this idea from my wonderful sis-in-law Klarissa. I took the boys to the dollar store and told them that they could pick out anything they wanted to give to Daddy for his birthday. Damon chose a balloon rocket car. Grady chose a Lightning McQueen jump rope. But then they really wanted the punch balloons too, so I said I would make the punch balloons from me. As you can see the presents were a big hit. And Cameron enjoyed them too.

And then on Halloween, there was a ferocious dragon in our midst. Luckily, two noble knights rode up just in time to finish him off...

...and the beautiful princess was saved once again.

And now skipping to Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for. Jill and Grant were able to come visit for a few days. And although a blizzard robbed us of one day of the trip, we still had a wonderful time. Jill and Grant, we are so glad that you came to see us! We had a blast! And the food turned out pretty good too!

Whew. Well, that is at least skimming the surface of things that have been going on since last August, but I had to get it all in before Christmas was upon us. Lets just hope that I can post something about that before March. We will see...

Summertime

2010-08-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Oh what do you do in the Summertime

With a heat index of 109?

You go swimming! What else can you do?

Here is some footage of my two little fish. All I can say is, watch out Michael Phelps!

Terrific Twos!

2010-08-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

It is true. I now have a four-year-old AND a Two-Year-Old! Hard to believe. We started the festivities with a family party on the actual day. We woke him up that morning with a round of Happy Birthday's, by which he was much less than impressed. In fact, he seemed to care less whether it was his birthday or not. There was a certain older brother in the house, however, who was beside himself having to wait until after church to open presents. First we had the cake.

It is supposed to be a beach ball, in case you are wondering. We went swimming the next day for his party, so I was trying to keep it all in a water theme. While it didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, Damon seemed to like it, and that is what matters.

Then came the presents. As you can see, Damon had A LOT of help opening his presents. He was not always happy about this help.

Here is a picture of his favorite present of all. No, it is not the tricycle that he is sitting on, it is the monster truck in his hand. A big thank you to Will and Jake for sending it to us. It has been a big hit with both boys.

The next day we went swimming with some friends and the lucky dude got to blow out even more candles.

And eat More cake!

And here is a little bit more about this Terrific, Tremendous Two-Year-Old.

He loves cars, ice cream, following his big brother's every move, making us crazy sometimes, and making us laugh. He definitely has a mischievous streak in him. For example, one day I walked into the room to see him coloring on the computer with a pencil. He looked at me and said, "Oh, no Mommy. Don't draw on computer." And then proceeded to draw on the computer. On the other hand, he has moments when he is so sweet. He loves to give hugs and kisses, and is quick to say sorry if he does something wrong. He is learning new words every day, and is starting to form sentences. His favorite book right now is The First Rule of Little Brothers, quite fittingly. We read it several times a day, and Damon can even quote some parts of it. We love him so much and are so glad that we have him in our family. He brings us such joy and makes our lives complete.

Happy Birthday my sweet Two-year-old boy! I love you so much!

Birthday! Birthday!

2010-07-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

How can it be that I now have a 4 year old?!?

Yes, last Friday was a very important day in our house. Grady celebrated his 4th birthday. And celebrated it in style. The requested theme of the day was fire trucks. So, I put my cooking skills to the test (and did a quick google search for instructions) and came up with this masterpiece:It turned out pretty good, I think!

We invited a few friends to meet us in a park for cake and ice cream. It turned out to be quite a group! It was so fun to have so many people there. It really made Grady feel important! I wanted to have just one activity for the kids, so I went with something I have already expressed my love for on this blog: Pinatas. Thanks to another quick google search for instructions, I was able to paper mache up this other masterpiece for the party:

Once again, the pinata fun did not disappoint. It was fun to make (even though it took upwards of 6 hours!!!), but watching the kids concentrate so intensely on destroying my masterpiece in a matter of minutes was pretty hillarious. Here is the Birthday Boy in action:

And, of course, Little Brother couldn't pass up an opportunity to copy Big Brother:

Then came the cake and ice cream:

To say the least, the day was a roaring success. Grady has been talking about it ever since. We want to give a BIG BIG Thank you for all of the calls, cards, and presents that we received from family. It really made Grady's day, which means it made my day too.

A little more about this fabulous four-year-old:

He is such a sweet little boy. He tries so hard to do what I ask him to do, and he is my big helper. Of course he has his moments that are not so helpful or sweet, but don't we all? He is learning his letters, and can identify almost all of them and their sounds by now. He has a sharp eye for other Hondas on the road, and also for PT Cruisers. He says the funniest things sometimes and keeps us laughing. For example, when his Aunt Kallie called him on his birthday, he described the party thus: "We are going to a park, and we have a pinata, and a fire truck cake, and so many kids are coming, and we are living in an old musty house." (Which is true, but what did that have to do with his party?)

He is learning and growing so much. He is a wonderful big brother, and is so good to share with Damon, and say sorry quickly when he does something wrong. He makes me so, so grateful everyday that I get to be his mother. He teaches me so much and I am so glad to have him in my life.

Happy Birthday my Grady Boy! I love you so much!

Meet Me in St Louis!!!!

2010-07-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

We are alive and well in St. Louis! It was a crazy few weeks filled with lots of packing, driving, goodbyes, and other not-very-fun things, but now we are more or less moved in and settled in our new place. It was very sad to leave Alabama. We really enjoyed our time there and will miss it. Today I saw a Roll Tide bumper sticker on a truck with Missouri plates. It warmed my heart a little bit. Not that I care whether Alabama wins football games or not, but everyone (I really mean everyone) in Alabama does!

I also have about 10 blog posts that I should have writen before, but didn't of course, so here is the abbreviated version of all of them.

We had such a fun few months with a lot of travel. Cameron's brother Christian got married in California in June and we were lucky enough to go. We are so happy for them. It was a wonderful event and a wonderful trip. Here is the happy couple with all the 30-something Bahr grandkids:

Here is my handsome man on the California beaches discovering that sand doesn't taste very good: Here is my other handsome man discovering that sand is fun to play in as long as it isn't windy:
And here is the whole family on the Pacific side of the country:

After the wedding the boys and I drove up to Utah to spend a few days with my family. It was such a fun trip! We went to the zoo, were Damon showed off his cool side:We got to ride Grandpa Dale's horses, which was a much anticipated event for the boys. Grady was so excited about it that he named his stuffed doggies after the horses.
We also got to hike in the beautiful Utah mountains. I don't care where you are from or where you go, there is nothing more beautiful in the whole world.

The weekend before the wedding we went to Gulf Shores to enjoy the beaches. Here is the family on the Atlantic side of the country:

Here are the boys staring off into the Deepwater Horizon:

In case you are wondering what tar balls look like...

We loved seeing the beaches, but were so sad that the oil made it all the way to the coast. And it will be there for decades. It really is discusting on so many levels.

But enough of that. On to something great! Cameron and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Can you believe it?!? I am so glad that I am married to the best man in the whole world. He is so perfect for me in so many ways. I really lucked out when I got him!

He planned a whole date, which is a big deal for him! :) We went out to dinner, then we went roller blading, which is something I haven'd done in probably 10 years. It was so fun! We went on a trail that goes down through the woods. It was dark by the time we got there but we went anyway. The fireflies were so amazing. It looked like Christmas lights in the trees! It was so romantic it was almost like he planned it. I'd think he did if the mosquitoes weren't more plentiful than the fireflies... Since it was dark, sometimes we couldn't see where we were going. We just had to go down the hill in the dark and hope that there were no branches in the path. That is kid of how I feel like our lives are right now. We have no idea where we are going to be a year from now, but all we can do is hold hands and move forward into the dark having faith that things will work out. And I think they will, one way or another. And if not, atleast we will still be together.

Speaking of changing plans, here is the story of our "camping trip." We had planned to go camping over Memorial Day weekend, but our plans were blasted to bits by scattered thunderstorms. So, plan B was to camp in the play room,

Make tin foil dinners in the oven,

Roast marshmallows on the stove,

And really enjoy eating them,

Well, it wasn't what we thought it would be, but it was fun. I am so glad we did it. The boys probably had more fun sleeping in a tent in their own room than they did outside. Maybe not, but at least we salvaged a great memory from some soggy, rained-out plans.

And last but not least, I had to share my Mother's Day surprise. So the boys said that they had to go on a walk, and that I couldn't come. A few minutes later they came back and presented me with these beautiful bouquets:

They had gone to the field behind our house and picked a bouquet of wild flowers. I loved it! I loved it so much more than anything grown in a greenhouse on the other side of the world and shipped in. It was the best present they could have given me. I loved it! And I love them. Cameron, Grady, and Damon, you make my life complete. I am so grateful everyday that you are the best part of my life! I love you so much!

Superpower Addendum

2010-05-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

I can restore security with a single hug.
I can cure bruises with a single kiss.

Now if only my superpowers would allow me to create a meal that all 3 picky boys in my house would eat with a smile.

Superpowers

2010-05-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

There was a thunderstorm today. The big kind with flashes and thunder every few seconds. It started gradually. First the wind started to blow, which brought in the clouds. After a while we could hear distant rumbles, which gradually got louder. As it got darker, the lightning was more and more noticeable. And then the rain started pouring. We were outside playing for a while, just as the clouds were starting to blow in. But when Damon heard the first loud thunder clap of the storm, he cried and started running for me. I picked him up, held him close, and he was fine again.

Grady was playing inside today and fell and hit his back on the dresser. He cried and came over to me with an angry red mark on his back. I rubbed it, gave him a hug, and kissed the red mark. And he was cured. No more hugs for him, he needed to get back to his cars.

I think the explanation for the above events is quite clear: Moms have superpowers.

2010 Greenwood Family Reunion

2010-05-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

Every other year my family has a big family reunion/vacation somewhere in the country. In 2008 we went to Palm Springs, CA. This year we went to Asheville, NC. Why Ashville? Well, it is a gorgeous place. The mountains are amazing, and since we are living in the South, the family decided that this was a good year to see the Great Smokey Mountains.

My parents rented a house just outside of Asheville that was big enough to fit the whole family. The house was amazing! It had a huge yard--big enough for a backyard baseball game--, a duck pond with thousands of fish, a play structure, which quickly was renamed the "pirate ship", and beautiful azaleas. Inside the house, there was a play room with tons of toys, and lots of movies. There had to be at least 10 TV's in the whole house. Damon quickly found a favorite toy which provided him--and us--with a lot of entertainment:

The little boys didn't want to even leave the house. They would have been content to just stay there and play the whole time. Luckily, the adults won out and we ended up going on some great excursions. We spent the first day at the Chimney Rock State Park. I guess this is where they filmed the movie The Last of the Mohegans so we got pretty good at singing the theme song from it during the day. Here is a view of the beautiful mountains from the top of Chimney Rock.

Grady and Grandma Sharon just taking a little rest at the top of the trail.

Damon and Grandpa Dale perfecting the art of shooing away bees and flies.

Here are three handsome boys at the waterfall. It may be hard to see in this picture, but Will is wearing a Cubs hat, and Grady is wearing a St. Louis Cardinals hat. Now, Will is a HUGE cubs fan. He watches every game, knows who scored, who pitched, who struck out, for the whole game! Grandpa Dale bought Grady the St. Louis hat shortly after we found out that we would be moving to St. Louis. We wondered how the appearance of the Cub's Rival hat would go over. It only took about three seconds after Grady got out of the car wearing the hat for Will to go to his mom and whisper in a concerned voice, "Mom, Grady is wearing a St. Louis hat!" Luckily, they were able to put this little difference behind them, and enjoyed the trip in spite of representing rival teams!

There was a nature trail at the park that was guided by none other than Grady the Groundhog!

Two cute boys (Jake and Will) sitting in "acorn shells" along the nature trail.

On Saturday we drove to a small town called Sylva, North Carolina. It was the annual Greening Up the Mountain town Festival and we were lucky enough to be there that weekend. There were a lot of local artists and musicians that came and set up booths along the street. Perhaps one of our favorites was the booth called "Deep Fried Goodness" where they served deep fried oreos, snickers bars, pickles, and other delicacies. Only in the South.

There was also a 5K, and being from a family of runner geeks, we couldn't pass it up. Our numbers were few this year since my dad, Amy, and Chris had to sit out because of injuries, but Jill, Grant and I ran it and did well! I forgot how much fun a race that only lasts 20 or so minutes can be! Throughout the course I kept going back and forth with a guy who seemed to think that he needed to blow a snot rocket every ten feet or so. Honestly! How could he really have that much snot in his nose! Anyway, I beat him in the end, without having blown one snot rocket. Grant won his age group, and Jill came in third in her age group, which was men and women combined! I was the first woman overall and look what my prize was! A beautiful azalea plant! Unfortunately I don't have a yard to plant it in, so I gave it to my friend Meaghan. I was a great prize, though.

This truck was one of the many parked at the festival. Now, I have seen many-a-vehicle so adorned in Alabama, but I never seem to have my camera with me when I do. Luckily, this time I got a picture. Unfortunately, the bumper stickers are a bit hard to read. Among my favorites are: Proud descendant of a Confederate Soldier. or Happiness is a North-Bound Yankee.

The next day we went to the Biltmore Mansion, which was built by George Washington Vanderbilt. It is the largest home in America. It was HUGE! And very ornate. It was fun to see, but at the end of the tour, the little boys had had enough of being quiet, and walking slowly, and not touching anything, so we went out onto the lawn in front of the house and had a lot of races around the fountain.

On a side note, President Obama and his wife were vacationing in Asheville that weekend too. As we were driving on the freeway to the Biltmore, we noticed that the other side of the freeway was completely closed off and there were police cars at every exit and at every place where a car would be able to cross the median. There were people lined up all along the other side and at first we weren't sure what it was for. And then two motor police rode by, then two more, then two more, then a police helicopter, then a motorcade of about 20 cars, all with flashing lights (the boys were in heaven). So, now I can say that I have seen the President of the United States, well, at least his motorcade. Can you imagine having all of that to-do everywhere you go? Ugh, I am glad that I am not the president!

Later that night we played a game of Survivor, boys against girls, as if the boys ever really had a chance! Here they are dressing up trying to impress the judges (my mom and dad).

But as hard as they tried, they were no match for the superior skills possessed by the ladies of the family.

The next day we went back to the Biltmore to tour the gardens. At one point the estate included 120,000 acres of land, but now is a mere 1800. Most of it was sold to the government to create a national forest. The gardens were beautiful! The tulips were just past their peak, but still so pretty.

The azaleas were at their peak, so beautiful! The gardener had travelled all over the world searching for different varieties of azaleas to plant here. The color was so varied and vibrant!

But, of course, what impressed Damon the most was when he saw an airplane in the sky, and had to make sure Daddy saw it too.

The next day we went to the Du Pont State forest to see some waterfalls. There were three different falls, each one so pretty, and the pictures don't do them justice. Here is one of Jill and I at the first falls.

Here is Damon throwing rocks into the water. What is it about rocks and water? My boys could spend hours just throwing them in and watching them splash!
Here is Grady and Jake by the second waterfall.

The last morning was spent cleaning things up and saying good-bye. It was such a fun vacation, and as always, much too short. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for all of your hard work to put it together! It was practically perfect! We Love you!

Whirlwind Update

2010-05-06T20:18:00.001-07:00

Hey Y'all. The problem with being a procrastinator is that the further behind you get, the bigger job it is to play catch up! Well, once again, I have not been very good at keeping up with blogging, so what you are in for now is a really long attempt to fill you in on the past few months. I am mostly going to let the pictures tell the story. So here it goes...

Mother Nature must have read my blog post about how much I dislike winter, because shortly thereafter she sent 80 degree weather. Here is the fam on one of our many hikes. This one is at the Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve. This is one handsome dude by our beautiful azalea bush in front of our house. The spring time flowers are so gorgeous! I love how they make the air smell. Honeysuckles are blooming now and I love to just go outside and breathe in their scent.

Here is my other handsome dude in front of another azalea bush in our yard.

It sure was nice of Mother Nature to send those nice temperatures and flowers, however, I recently learned that she also has a sense of humor. Along with the great things about spring, she also sent pollen, Pollen, POLLEN which coated everything with a greenish haze. Below is a picture of my car, which is supposed to be black, but is covered with the previous night's pollen. And please understand that the fact that I can't spell does not undermine the point of the picture, which is, warm weather rocks; allergies stink.

Easter was a wonderful time this year. We were able to have two Easter Egg hunts! One was at the church, where they served cupcakes afterward. I think Damon really enjoyed his cupcake, don't you?Then a few days later we had our own Easter Egg hunt in our yard. Grady was so cute with the eggs. He would go around looking for them, but then occasionally would say, "I already have an egg like this one, so you can have this one, Damon." What a great older brother! Most brothers would just take as many as they could get and run!

In March I ran my first 50K trail race! It was actually 33 miles long, and it was so fun! I ran it with my good friend Nicki who now lives about 2 hours away from me in Mississippi. We stayed together the whole time and crossed the finish line side by side. It was so different from a marathon! It was slower, much more scenic, and surprisingly much easier to recover from. It was on the trails in Oak Mountain State Park so the views were incredible! Our official time was 6:56:40. Below is a picture of Nicki and I at the starting line. Here I am cheesing it up while I think Nicki's face shows how we really felt about the impending race.

We got to go to the Georgia aquarium in Atlanta with Danielle, Avery, and Lara. I really liked this picture in front of the tropical fish exhibit.

Damon got his first hair cut!!! Good-bye mullet! To tell the truth, it was kind of hard for me to cut it. I had to run my fingers through his soft sweet baby hair for a while before I could bring myself to cut it. But, the mullet had to go, and so I cut it off and saved it in a baggie for the scrapbook that I am eventually going to make.

One last story. Several weeks ago we went to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens to feed the fish in the pond. However, upon arrival, a giant goose jumped out of the water and charged, flapping his wings and hissing at one of the other little boys with us. He quickly retreated to his mom, and we decided to go the other way. This goose was on to our plans, however, and followed us around the entire pond. We later noticed that there was another goose in the middle of the pond sitting on a nest of eggs and the aggressive behavior made sense. The event obviously made an impression on Damon because for several days he could be heard telling both friends and strangers, "Conner, Goose! Goose, Conner!" As a story follow-up, we went back to the pond a few days ago and the picture below is what greeted us. They were more than willing to let us throw our bread in to the pond this time!

Whew! Well, that is my attempt at filling in the past two months. And that is hardly scratching the surface! There is so much more to write about including:

-Our WONDERFUL family reunion in North Carolina

-A random man telling Grady he can't cry because he needs to "roll with the Tide"

-Cameron joining a softball team called the Fire Boys

And Much, much more! But they will have to wait for a later post. I will just leave you with two pictures of the knights in shining armor that continually save my days.

Good-Bye Birmingham Concert Chorale

2010-04-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight was my last concert with the Birmingham Concert Chorale. We have put on 5 concerts this year: Mozart's Requiem, Handel's Messiah, A Broadway Showcase, Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, and tonight was Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Not too shabby for a community choir to put together in one season!

The Bach is incredible music! I love listening to the harmonies, the counterpoint, and to the subtle musical elements that make Bach a true genius. For example, Jesus has just told the disciples that one of them will betray him. Then the chorus sings a short number where they repeat the words, "Herr, bin ichs?" ("Lord, is it I?") But they only repeat it 11 times, not 12, because only 11 would be innocent.

Anyway, there are so many incredible musical moments in the piece. The only problem with it is that it is 3.5 hours long. That can make for a really Long night. And after a while, all of the incredible musical moments start to sound the same. So tonight during the concert, I started to get kind of antsy for the evening to be over. Somewhere in the second half I was looking at the score thinking, "AHHH! We still have 100 pages left!" I sat there counting down the pages until we were done. When we were nearing the end, I tried to make myself savor it since it was the end of the season. The last number is an incredible chorus where we basically sing a lullaby to Jesus: "Sleep Sweetly, My Jesus" It is so beautiful. Tonight when we sang that number, it was so powerful! The music, the Spirit, everything came together for one of those magical moments that sometimes happen. When it ended, the audience was silent for probably 10 seconds after the last chord, and then at last jumped to their feet applauding and yelling Bravo! Some were crying. I was so touched by how moved they were by the work. Here I was wishing it to be over, and the audience was so touched by the story, by the emotion, the Spirit, and the power of the music. Even after 3+ hours of sitting through it, they were so moved by it.

I learned a great lesson tonight, or was reminded of this lesson. As a performer--especially when performing sacred works like this--I have the opportunity to touch lives through music. Even when I have put in hours and hours of rehearsal and am so sick of the music that I never want to hear it again, the audience hasn't ever heard it. The performance is my chance to create something beautiful, something spiritual, something wholly memorable for the audience. If I treat the performance as a chore, just one more thing to check off my list, then an opportunity to uplift will be lost. I was reminded again tonight of the power of music. And I am so grateful that making music, and reaching out to others through it is a big part of who I am.

And last of all, I will miss the Birmingham Concert Chorale. They were so wonderful to welcome me for the one season that I will be able to sing with them. I have made some good friends through it. I wish them all well, both as a choir and in their individual lives! They will continue to enrich the lives of the Birmingham area through their music and through their influence. I will always remember fondly the one year that I got to be a part of it.

A Few Random Thoughts

2010-03-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

First of all, Let's vote. Where do you think this picture was taken?

A. Connecticut, where winter lasts half the year

B. Utah, home of the Greatest Snow on Earth

C. Ala-stinkin-bama where we are not "supposed" to have any winter!

If you voted C, then I am sad to say you are correct! Also note that poor Grady doesn't even have a winter coat. I didn't buy him one because I thought he wouldn't need one here in the South. Well, I was wrong! It has been so cold this year. Everyone says that this is such an unsusually cold winter and that it is hardly ever this cold. Grrr. Why did it have to be the one year that I was here? The one year that I was so looking forward to not having to deal with winter? Oh well. I still haven't had to shovel my driveway, so I shouldn't complain too much. Besides, it was pretty fun to play in the snow. It is so rare that it really is a novelty around here. Schools were canceled (which cracked me up because the roads were completely clear) and we had a blast playing "fox and geese" in the snow and building self-portrait snowmen:

(I am the tall one on the left) So all in all (and especially because the snow only lasted a few hours) I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Things could be much worse. And probably will be next year in Missouri, so I will just try to take things as they come and love it!

Speaking of Love, Valentines was a fabulous day this year. We had so much fun decorating sugar cookies:

Also, my boys surprised me with all kinds of chocolatey treats and some flowers. Sometimes I just feel so lucky because I have the three BEST-LOOKING guys in the WHOLE WORLD as my Valentines. I love them so much, and I am so happy that they are my family!

Last Random Thought of this post:

Pinatas rock! For Grady's preschool class I had to pick a country and teach the kids about it. So I chose Mexico. I went to several different stores looking for a pinata, but they were either huge or way too much money. So we resorted to homemade measures. We used a balloon and paper mache and the drawstring of Cameron's pants to create this masterpiece:

It was a hit with the preschool class. (no pun intended) Seriously, it was messy, but the boys loved making it, and then loved hitting it with a stick even more, and then loved eating the candy out of it even more than that! It was well worth the mess to make our own. If you are ever bored some afternoon and wonder what you should do to fill the time, I say make a Pinata!

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY!

2010-02-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

So, Michael Jackson or Michael Flattely aint got nothing on this:

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-05T19:43:00.001-08:00

Well, as promised, here is our Christmas post. It probably consists of way too many pictures, but remember that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think I would rather see the pictures than read that many words! :) We had such a fun holiday this year! It all started out on December 19th. Santa knew that we were going to be in New Jersey on Christmas Day, so we arranged with him to come to our house in Alabama a little bit early. The boys had so much fun opening their presents. Here they are enjoying their new toys.

And here is Damon enjoying some Christmas Day Treats:

Grady's favorite present was a big truck named Mack from the movie "Cars" that had all of the cars from the movie in it. Here he is showing off his new cars.

And here is Cameron and Grady checking out the new cars:
We spent the rest of the day making cookies that we then delivered to our neighbors, and then we went out to dinner that night with Elise's friend from college that now lives in Mississippi. It really was a wonderful day.

And then, on the 23rd we made the trip up to New Jersey to be with Cameron's parents and a few siblings for the big day. Cameron had 6 of his siblings there, and it still gets me that that is not even half of his family! :)

We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. Here are some pictures of some of the highlights of the trip.

Santa, being magic as he is, knew that we would be in New Jersey on Christmas Day, and so delivered a few presents to the boys there, even though he already gave them their main gifts on the 19th. Here is a picture of the boys and Avery reading Damon's new book with Grandma Bahr:

I was hoping that there would be snow in New Jersey since we probably won't get too much here in Alabama. Well, I got my wish because the week before we came there was a big storm that dropped about 10 inches. The boys had so much fun playing outside, having snowball fights, and building snowmen. Here is Grady with his snowmen. He named the first one Jeremy, and the second one Avery.

And here they are having a rip-roaring snowball fight with the neighbor boys. (Side note: at church on Sunday, I happened to overhear Grady telling his nursery class all about the snowball fight he had in New Jersey. It must have really left an impression! :)

Even more fun than just getting to build a snowman, Grady got to build it with his Grandpa. I really liked this picture.

Another highlight of the week was when we acted out the Nativity. Avery was Mary, Damon was Joseph, and Grady got to be a sheep. It was very cute, and a lot of fun. Here they are in costume:

Here is Narrator Grandpa and Wise Man Christian with Mary:

Here are the two sheep, Jeremy and Grady:

Here is a close up of Joseph:

And here is Wise man Brooks and Wise man Christian offering their gifts to the baby.

Here are a few photos of the family after baby Lara's baby blessing. It was a neat experience, and it makes me very grateful for the family that I have. It also makes me so grateful that my boys have such wonderful examples to look up to. Top row: Christian, Brooks, Brigham, Members of the bishopric

Bottom row: Adam, Grandpa, Jeremy and Lara, and Cameron

What great family!

And here is a picture of all the girls who were there. Kallie, Grandma and Avery, Danielle and Lara, and me:

And here is Grandma and Grandpa Bahr:

Another of Grady and Damon's favorite parts of the trip was playing with their uncles. They are so lucky to have so many fabulous uncles to play with. They taught my boys how to wrestle, and now they have been doing that ever since. Grady thinks it is great, and Damon is learning how to defend himself better every day.

Overall it was a wonderful Christmas. It was so nice to see family, play in the snow, eat way too many delicious sweet treats, and reflect on the True Meaning of Christmas. Yes, I'd say it almost had all the parts that make up a perfect Christmas. The only thing that could have made it better is if we could have seen my family too. It is hard to not be able to see all of the people you love on Christmas. Thank goodness for cell phones, though, so we at least got to talk. And we will get to see my family in April, so we can look forward to that.

Catch Up

2009-12-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

A wise woman (my mom) once told me that it is much easier to keep up than catch up. Well, as is all too often, I haven't heeded that advice and am now nearly 2 months behind in updating this blog. So much has happened in those two months that I feel like there is no way I can go back and bring this blog up to speed, which I have been using as an excuse to let it go unupdated even longer. But no more! Here is my speedy, probably inadequate but hopefully sufficient run-down of the last two months of our lives. It doesn't include Christmas. That deserves a post of its own. So stay tuned. And don't worry, it will be sooner than two months from now when that post arrives.

So now, our past two months...

Grady started Joyschool! Four of us moms got together and decided to do a joyschool exchange group with our kids. It is so much fun and the kids love it! Grady especially thinks he is pretty hot stuff. So does Damon, although he doesn't realize that he actually isn't in the class. Here is a picture of a field trip the the fire station.

Over the Halloween weekend we rented a cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with Cameron's brother Jeremy and his wife Danielle and their two girls. It was so much fun! Here is a picture of the fam hiking in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

During the trip, Cameron, Danielle and I ran the Navy Seal Extreme Offroad Challenge 5.5K on Halloween. It was CRAZY fun. When I signed up for the race, I thought to myself, 3.7 miles, Ha! How hard could that be? Well, take a race course that goes straight up the mountain for at least a kilometer, then straight back down for a kilometer, add some hurdles, walls, monkey bars, rope bridges, and other obstacles to manuver, swim/wade through a pond, run through a river bed, climb a near vertical cliff holding on to a rope dangling from the top, add rain and leaves all over the trail and that is pretty much what this race was all about. It was the slowest 3.7 miles of my life (56 minutes!) but it was so fun! Too bad none of us could walk for a week afterward! Jeremy was the true hero of the weekend, though, because he stayed and watched the kids while we ran. Thanks Jeremy! Here is a picture of Cameron sprinting it in to the finish line:

Happy Halloween! Have you ever seen cuter/more ferocious lions or cheetahs?

Thanksgiving was fun, but I unfortunately didn't take any pictures! We drove to Atlanta to be with Jeremy and Danielle and had a wonderful time. It was so nice of them to put us up for a few days!

Damon is a funny kid. I am not sure what was going on in this picture, but I had to share it because it is so great.

One November afternoon we tried to take some family photos after church. Well, the ones of the boys turned out pretty cute:

Damon, however, was more interested in using Mom and Dad as a jungle gym than taking cute pictures:

December 5, 2009: Our first snow in Alabama?!? I thought we weren't going to get this stuff here! Good thing it only lasted a few hours.

Grady discovered the joy of climbing trees.

Damon discovered a really fun hiding place.

And here are the lumberjacks hard at work in search of the perfect Christmas tree. We cut it at a local tree farm. It was a new experience for me to be wearing a t-shirt with no coat and swating the gnats away while cutting my Christmas tree. Oh I love Southern winters! And I don't even miss the snow yet!

Well, there you have it. That is at least a taste of what has been going on for us over the last two months. Crazy how time flies and here we are at the half way point of our time in Alabama. We are just trying to soak up every minute while we can. And now I promise to be a better recorder of a few of our adventures. Stay tuned for our Christmas post...

Birthdays!

2009-11-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

October, although it is gone (and along with it a third of out time in Alabama!), is a great month for us because is has both mine and Cameron's birthdays! First was my birthday on the 18th. It was a very good day. It was on a Sunday so we did the main celebrations the day before. We got a babysitter and went out for dinner and ice cream. It was just really nice to be able to have an uninterupted conversation for a few hours! Then on Sunday the boys made me a chocolate cake:

Whew! 27 candles is a lot to blow out! But don't worry, training for that marathon at least did me some good! I got them all in one breath! (And I had a little help from the guy in the left of the picture.) Overall it was a wonderful birthday.

Then Cameron's big number 36 came on the 27th. But our preparations started before that. Here are the boys hard at work creating their birthday cards for Daddy:

I, on the other hand, was sneaky and invited a few friends over for cake and ice cream that night, unbeknownst to Cameron. I took him out to dinner after work and arranged for people to be at our house before we got back to surprise him. The surprise didn't really work because most people were late and got there after we did but it was still fun to share the day with friends. Here he is showing off his lung capacity. Man, I thought 27 candles was a lot! Good thing he had TWO helpers!

Mostly, I just wanted to say what a wonderful guy Cameron is. Here is a small and certainly not all-inclusive list of why I am so glad that he is my Honey.

1. He is my best friend. There is nobody in the whole world who I would rather be with. Every day at around 5 I start getting excited because I know he will be coming home soon.

2. He is a wonderful Daddy. He is so amazing with the boys, and it is obvious that they adore him, too. He is so great to come home from work and to get down and play with them. At night, Grady has now been requesting Daddy to tell him a story. Mommy is not allowed any more. He wants Daddy. It is so fun to see how excited Grady and Damon are to see him when he comes home.

3. I love that he likes the outdoors. We both love to hike and camp and be outside. I love that that is something that we can share together. I just wish we had more time for it.

4. In college Cameron took a Preparation for Marriage class for which he had to write an essay entitled, "What I have to offer in a marriage". One of the things he wrote was, "I am not an ugly man." I have to say I agree with him. I think he is pretty darn good-looking!
5. He is so good for me. He has a way of just staying calm all the time and helping me to calm down when I get worked up about something. He is so patient with me and I feel like a better person when he is around.

6. He is very supportive of me. How many guys would give up every Saturday morning for 4 months just so their wife could go on marathon training runs? He is great to allow me to work for and reach my goals. Be it earning a Masters, running a marathon, getting a crazy hair-cut (Luke Skywalker ring a bell?), playing with an orchestra, or anything else, I couldn't do any of it without his help and support!

7. He works very hard for his own goals. That is obvious. By the time he is done with all of his training to become a Radiologist, he will have spent 11 years AFTER undergrad to get there. I admire how he is willing to put in the time to follow the career path that he has always wanted. He works so hard at the hospital when he is there and I am proud of him for it.

8. He is a perfectionist. I admit sometimes this atribute can drive me crazy (i.e. when the kitchen wall has been knocked out down to the studs and hasn't been fixed for 6 months because he doesn't have time to do it right.) On the other hand, when he does a project, he puts in the time and effort to make sure that it is done right, and the finished product usually is fabulous. The above picture was actually a different wall in our house that he knocked out. This one took 4 years to get all finished, but it looked great once it was!
And this picture is cute because it is of two cute boys, but also note the nicely painted kitchen wall in the background. What a relief that was to have done!

9. He has a great family, and he treats them all with love and respect. His family is huge, so family get-togethers are a really big deal. But they are so much fun! It really is great to be able to be with the whole Bahr clan. They are wonderful people and I am glad to be a part of their family.

Here are all of the Bahr siblings. Cameron is #6 of 15!

10. He gets to be mine Forever! I am so grateful to know that we have the chance to be with each other for the rest of eternity! I just hope that he can stand to be with me that long!

Wow. What a man. To Cameron: I am so glad that you are my sweetheart! There is no one better for me than you! I love you!

St George Marathon Madness!

2009-10-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a little timeline of my 2009 St George Marathon experience. It is just another testament to the fact that even the best laid plans...

May 2009: Found out that I got in to the Marathon. Yeah! Now the training starts.

Sept. 2009: Start to feel really good about this race. I am ready! And ready to run FAST!

9/30/09: We fly into Las Vegas for the race.

10/2/09(Day before race) about 3:00pm: Grady starts throwing up and continues to do so every 10 minutes or so for the rest of the evening. Poor guy!

7pm: I think, Hmm, I don't feel so hot.

9:30pm: We leave for the starting line.

10pm: We have to pull over so I can throw up.

10/3/09 2am: I am still throwing up and seriously debating whether or not to run the race.

5am: I make peace with the fact that I am not going to run a PR, and I feel a little bit better.

6:45: The race starts, and I decide to just try it and go as far as I can.

7:15: About 4 miles into the race I wonder why the heck I am doing this and seriously consider quitting.

8:30: At the half way point I think, Hey, if I can come half way I might as well try to finish the darn thing.

9:45: About 21 miles into the race I question my own sanity, cry, tell myself I never really liked running in the first place, but can't bring myself to quit when I have already gone so far. This continues for the next 5 miles.

10:25: I finish the race with an official time of 3:38:56.

10:30: I throw up two more times.

So there you have it. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't all that fun. And it wasn't fast. (at least as fast as I wanted it to be.) But, as with all hard things we do in life, I learned something about myself and about life from this little mini-trial. The first thing I learned is that sometimes, no matter how hard I have worked for something, or how well I have planned it, there are other factors that are out of my control that can come and "ruin" everything. Now I can react two ways to this. I can either cry and scream at the unfairness of it all, then sit down and pout. Or I can try to roll with it and do the best I can with what is left of my plans. Now I am not saying that I didn't have my moments of self-pity through this whole experience, but I at least tried to do the best with what I had left. 3:38:56 is about 20 minutes slower than I was hoping to run, but given the circumstances, I am pretty darn proud of myself for qualifying for Boston anyway!

The second thing I learned was that sometimes success is not running a PR. When I was very sick the night before, Grant and my Dad gave me a blessing. In that blessing, it simply said my body would have strength to overcome this sickness. It also said that the Lord was mindful of me and knew my circumstance and my talents. It never said that I would miraculously recover and run a sub 3:20 marathon liked I had hoped. But that blessing said just what I needed to hear. It wasn't in the cards for me to run a PR that day, but I was given just enough strength to still be able to try, and to finish that race. No, it wasn't a PR, but I still feel proud and grateful to have finished.

The third thing I learned was that it is by relying on others that we are able to make it through the hard times. I had a lot of help in this race. There were signs up all along the route that said things like, "GO MOM!" or "You can do it, so-and-so!" or "We love you, so-and-so!" or "Almost there!" Every time I saw one of those, I imagined that they were for me, because I knew that I had a lot of people at the end pulling for me. I also knew that I had people praying for me. That gave me enough determination to give the race everything I had and to keep going when I wanted to quit. I could not have done it if I didn't have so many people that I love praying and cheering for me the whole time.

The rest of my family did well in the race. Amy finished first with a 3:16. Jill came in second with 3:35. Grant did amazing for his first marathon, finishing in 3:56. The true heroes of the weekend, though, were my Mom and Dad for getting everything ready to camp, and then watching the boys while the rest of us ran. Thank you guys for working so hard to make the weekend a memorable one!

Luckily for everyone, this little bug turned out to be just a 24 hour affliction. Grady and I felt much better the next day and were able to enjoy the rest of the weekend with my family. It is so good to be able to get together with everyone! We camped at Snow Canyon, and despite the extremely dry air, the wind that broke two tents, and the blowing dirt, we really did have a fun time together! We also got to do a musical program for my Grandpa that was a wonderful experience. So even though the race was not what I had hoped, it was just so good to be with family the whole time. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Here is a picture of all the handsome boys in the family (minus Grant, who had to go home early.)

We were lucky enough to be in St George at the same time as Mary Lynn and David and their family. We had fun swimming with them at their condo!

This is a picture of all the girls with Grandpa Art after the musical program we did for him.

Here is sweet Grady enjoying the Southern Utah red dirt. Those dump trucks were the hit of the week!

Me and my boys. How lucky can a girl get?

Cute little Damon enjoying the dump trucks.

Not sure what was going on here, but it looks like they were having fun!

I love my family!

Happy 1st Day of Fall!

2009-09-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

While it really doesn't feel like fall yet here in the South, I thought I would just acknowledge the change of the season. I love summer time for many reasons, but fall holds a special place in my heart. Here are some reasons that I love Fall:

1. Cross Country Season. I know all you Alabamians and other people think that Football is the only sport in the world, but no, you are wrong! Fall is CROSS COUNTRY season. Everytime I feel that crispness in the air and the leaves begin to change, I always get a little nostalgic for the good old days of Cross Country. I love the training runs that are full of crunching leaves. I love the cooler temperatures on hard workout days. I love seeing all of your hard summer work pay off once the races begin. I miss all of the CC trips we used to go on in College, even (or maybe especially) the ones we had to drive to. Yes, Fall always makes me remember the fun times we had with my old Cross Country running buddies. So here's a shout out to all of my running buddies, and to everyone who feels the same way every Fall!

2. Beautiful Leaves. Since the leaves haven't started changing here in Alabama yet, I can't say what autumn is like here. But I can say that growing up in Utah, and then living in Connecticut for four years, Alabama is going to have some pretty stiff competition! It really is hard to beat the beautiful leaves in American Fork Canyon. And truly, Fall in New England is something that everyone should see at least once. The leaves are so gorgeous and they stay colorful for so long, and then when they fall off the trees, you can make some killer leaf piles to jump in! I will miss fall in Connecticut so much this year! However, lest I make any judgements too hastily, I am willing to give Alabama a chance to win me over. If they leaves haven't yet changed by Christmas, then I declare Connecticut the winner!This picture is of the leaves at one of my favorite places in CT: the reservoir where I used to run all the time.

3. Halloween! This holiday has become so fun again since I had kids! I love dressing them up, because they are just so darn cute! I haven't decided what I am going to dress them up as yet this year, but rest assured that they will be adorable. Grady is just this year figuring out that Halloween is something fun and full of candy, so he is really excited about it. Here is a picture from last year. You can see that one boy was a little more excited about his costume than the other.

4. Fall Clothes! While I love summer clothes, and I love not having to wear real shoes for three months and wearing shorts and t-shirts, I do love being able to pull out all of my sweaters and long pants again. Since I haven't worn them for 6 months, it is almost like getting new clothes! I also love getting out my jackets and coats. More often than not, there is some sort of surprise in the pocket of my coat. Sometimes it is a good thing, like money! Sometimes it is not so good, like a linty piece of candy. Either way, I love being able to pull out the jackets and expand my wardrobe to include long sleeves and pants.

5. Football. Yes, Fall is Cross Country, but a lesser highlight of the season is college football. I love going to college games and cheering for my team. I remember when I graduated from college I was driving on campus and passed the football stadium. I remember feeling so sad that I would never go to a game again as a student (at the student price too, which was free). Now I can still watch them, but it just isn't the same. I love watching the games on TV, and it really is fun to be here in the south where lots of other people are so into college football too. I still haven't picked Alabama or Auburn yet, but if I had to, I would say Auburn since they are the underdogs. Go Tigers!

6. Birthdays! I loved having a fall birthday all while I was growing up. And now it is even better because Cameron has a fall birthday too! It is so fun to plan something special for the big day. And it is always fun to feel special for a day. Here is a picture of me and Grady getting Daddy's cake ready last year. Grady already told me that this year Daddy probably wants a car cake with sprinkles for his birthday. I am sure that is exactly what Cameron is hoping for!

7. The World Series. One other thing I miss about Connecticut is being in the middle of baseball country. On the radio, sports news would consist of "Yankees win, Red Socks and Mets lose." October was especially exciting when either the Yankees or Red Socks were in the playoffs. Even if I don't really care who wins, I love watching the World Series. The only thing that could make it better is if the Cubbies could finally shake that curse and make it there again! Oh well. Wait 'til next year.

8. The Harvest. While in some ways it is nice to not have to take care of a big yard, the garden is one thing that I really do miss. I love planting a garden and seeing the fruits (and vegetables) of my labors. I love the fresh fall lettuce and the last of the tomatoes. I love the squash and pumpkins. I love digging the carrots up just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. I love feeling at least a tiny bit self-reliant.

9. Pumpkins! I love carving pumpkins, and now that Grady is getting older, it is even more fun. I love scooping out the seeds and then saving them to be toasted. I love having a festive jack-o-lantern on my porch. Word of warning to all of you who like to smash jack-o-lanterns: When I was little I carved a pumpkin that I thought was perfect. It had heart shaped eyes and star-shaped ears and a big smile. I loved my pumpkin. And then, on the first night that it was out on the porch, some punk kid came by and smashed it to bits! I was devastated! To this day, I carry no sympathy for anyone who thinks it is fun to smash another little kids prized work of art. So don't do it! End of lecture.

10. Holidays. Fall is really when the excitement for Thanksgiving and Christmas begin. It is when the planning should start, at least in theory. I usually start planning more around December 23, but I am working on it, alright? I love seeing family around the holidays. I love getting together for the traditions that make me feel like a kid again. I love having a christmas tree with the wonderful scent of pine filling the house.

So there you have it. 10 Things I love about Fall. It is now after midnight, but I swear, when I started writing this post, it was September 22, the first day of Fall. So may your Autumn season be a happy one, full of fun memories, cooler temps, sweaters, jackets, beautiful leaves, and cross country.

Exciting New Steps at Our House

2009-09-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the big news at our house in the last month. Damon is now mobile, agile, hostile. With some help from his big brother of course!

Y'all have a blessed day, now!

2009-09-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

I went to the grocery store today and as we were loading our cart and getting ready to leave, the cashier said "Y'all have a blessed day, now!" Just another wonderful phrase that you probably wouldn't hear outside of the south. I love it! And I have been feeling very blessed lately. There are three main reasons why: This is a picture of when we went to Oak Mountain State park a few weekends ago. I ran a race there (and won. Yeah me!) and then we went for a hike, about which Damon was totally enthused:

Grady loved it, and ran all the way up the trail. Not surprisingly, this is how he came down the trail: Then we rented the paddle boat in the picture above. It was such a fun day, and it is days like that that really make me so grateful for the three wonderful boys in my life. They make me smile. And I definitley feel like I have had a blessed day!

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

2009-08-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

This is just a birthday shout out to my Fabulous older sister Amy. She is my hero in so many ways. She is the kind of person who sets a goal and no matter what, she gets that goal. For example, one year we all had a goal to run the Boston Marathon together. The problem was, that she didn't have a qualifying time yet, and she had just had a baby the July before. But of course she wasn't going to let a small thing like that stop her. So she got back in shape and ran the Death Valley Marathon 4 months to the day after her beautiful baby boy was born, and she qualified for Boston with time to spare! She is amazing. She has two wonderful little boys and she is such a great example of what a good mother is. She is so loving, patient, and so willing to serve. I am so glad to have her example so that I know where to turn to when I have questions about raising two boys, (and I have A LOT!) The same determination she had to qualify for Boston shows in how she gives so much to help her boys succeed. She is my best friend, and the best sister I could ask for. I love you Amy! Happy Birthday!

Elise, Jill, AMY, and Dad after finishing the Boston Marathon

Great Picture

2009-08-15T16:54:00.001-07:00

I found this picture in the August National Geographic. The caption said that he does this every time he smells food. I thought it went well with my last post.

The Little Things

2009-08-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

Grady and I were talking the other day, and I said something about moving to St. Louis. (We are moving there next summer, by the way, for those of you who didn't know that yet. Crazy huh? We are excited, though.) He got a kind of sad look on his face and said, "We are going to move away from Alabama?" It was one of those heartbreaking moments when you know you are going to have to tell your kid something that might be hard for him. "Yes," I said. Then we got on the computer to see if we could find some pictures of Missouri so he could see what it looked like. We found some great ones of Busch Stadium, the Gateway Arch, downtown St. Louis, and other attractions, but the ones that finally convinced Grady that it would be alright to move there were the pictures of the airport and of a bridge over the Mississippi river. Yes, he decided that if a place has an airport and a bridge, then it must be an alright place to be.

So I have been thinking about that a lot lately, because, truth be told, I was a little bit disappointed when I found out that we were moving to St. Louis. I decided that it is just a matter of loving the moment you are in, and looking for the small things that really makes life happy. Another example of this came on an early morning run I went on a few weeks ago. One lady in the running group brings her dog with her every day. He does great with the miles, and usually sets the pace for us! When we get on quiet residential streets, she usually takes him off his leash and lets him play. It is so fun to watch him because you can tell that he is just thoroughly enjoying himself. He splashes in any and all puddles, runs after cats and squirrels, sniffs the trees and fire hydrants, and marks those that need marking (all of them), and then when he sees that his master is getting to far away he sprints back up to her. You can tell that this dog is just loving life every time you see him.

So, the moral of the story is, it really shouldn't take too much to make us happy. Be it an airport, a bridge, a squirrel to chase, or a new tree to pee on, it is the simple joys of life that add up to make it worth while. You just have to be willing to sharpen you view to see the smaller things that make up what happiness means to you.

View of the Downtown St. Louis Airport. Oh, and the city, too.

Observations/Things I like about the South

2009-08-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

So we have been official southerners for about 5 weeks now. For the most part we really like it. Here is a small list of observations about life in the south.

1. Our neighbors have been really nice. In Connecticut we talked to one of our neighbors maybe three times in the four years we lived there. Here, everybody walks by and stops to say hi, introduce themselves, and say, "If y'all need anything, just let me know!"

2. I took the boys to the zoo one day. Grady's hat blew off and a maybe 12 year old kid stopped and picked it up for me. He handed it back and said, "Here you go Ma'am." My first thought was, Oh how nice. My second thought was, wow that makes me feel old!

3. I went to the grocery store looking for some spinach. I looked and looked and couldn't find any. I found mustard greens, collard greens, and turnip greens, but no spinach.

4. I was informed that come fall I will need to pick either Auburn or Alabama football to cheer for. I so far have not had the guts to say that I am actually a Utah Utes fan for fear that they would shun me for being a Mormon AND a Ute. Right now they just think I am a "damn yankee" from Connecticut.

5. I really like the Southern style graffiti:

6. Grady is potty trained. So this isn't really about the South, but it happened in the South. He loves the movie Cars, and has some "big boy underpants" with Cars characters on them. One minor character is named Snot Rod. He was wearing them one day and I had to say, "Now Grady, don't pee on Snot Rod." Somehow, in all my planning and dreaming about motherhood, saying that phrase never came up...

7. I LOVE that our lawn is now small enough that we can mow the whole thing in about 30 minutes. In Connecticut it was at least a 2 hour ordeal. It also helps that here we have a gas powered mower, while in CT it was a 40 year old electric mower with really long extension cords. I know I should feel at least a little guilty for all of the carbon emissions released by my gas powered mower, but then again, a 40 year old electric mower that runs on power generated at a coal fired plant can't be that great either. So here's to Gas mowers and small lawns!

8. Much to my pleasant surprise, the curb-side recycling program is much further developed here than in "progressive" CT. We can recycle almost everything here! (At least we can put everything in our little recycle bin. I always wonder how much of it actually ends up being recycled.) One downside is that they do come to collect garbage 3, yes 3 times a week. I always wonder what people could possibly be throwing out that would need three pick-ups a week. Oh well. At least we can recycle.

9. One BIG downside to life here are the bugs. I must note that while we hate the cockroaches, our cats are in heaven. Regina especially loves to catch them. Not only are there cockroaches gallore, but poor little Damon has probably at least 30 mosquito bites on his arms, legs, and face. Its funny, because nobody else has so many. He must have really sweet blood or something.

Birthday Boy #2!!

2009-08-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

August 1st was a very important day. Damon Greenwood Bahr turned 1 year old! It is so hard to believe that it has already been one year since he was born! We had a very fun day with Jeremy, Danielle, Avery, and Lara who drove in from Atlanta for the big event. We are so glad they could come!

Here is Damon's cake:

And here is what he thought of it:
Damon had fun opening presents, (aka watching big brother open the presents for him, then playing with them to test them out.)
Damon got a big ball from his cousins and Grady quickly volunteered to try it out. When asked, Grady was quick to point out that, "We're sharing, Mom!" Sometimes Damon didn't agree.

Cuzco even got in on the festivities:

All in all, it was a very succesful birthday. To Damon: I love you my big strong and handsome boy! I am so glad that you are my little sweetheart!

Birthday Boy!

2009-07-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very important day at our house! Mr. Grady Greenwood Bahr turned 3 years old! We had a fun day. We invited some friends over to had cake and ice cream with us. Here is a picture of the cake: I know, it is a true artistic masterpiece. Grady was more interested in playing with the cars than eating the cake. Here is another picture of the birthday boy himself:

And here are a few with all the presents:

We loved hearing from all the family members who called to sing! It made the day very special for Grady!

To Grady: I love you my sweet 3 year old big boy! I am so glad that you are in my family! Happy Birthday!

Quick Update

2009-07-19T15:16:00.001-07:00

Now that we have a blog, there is so much that I feel like I need to catch up on. For now, I will just focus on our move. So we left Connecticut on June 25th for the last time. It was a bittersweet moment. Here is a picture of our little family in front of our old house. Then we made the long drive from CT to Alabama with two cats and two kids in the car. This picture captured an exciting moment for us:

Now we are slowly getting settled here in Alabama, and have a favorable impression of the place so far. I have found some great running groups, a choir, and an orchestra to join. We are liking it so far. Here we are in front of our new house:

That is about it for now. Our last 4 weeks in a nutshell.

2009-07-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogging World, We have arrived! Stay tuned for more amazing, thrilling, and exciting posts from down in Alabama!