Welcome 2010!

I am enjoying a Sunday with the family and it occurred to me that I REALLY need to blog more! I think this will be my new years resolution...to take lots of photos and blog, blog, BLOG. The days seem to just fly by and before you know it you are sitting at the computer on January 24th making new years resolutions that should have been made 24 days ago. (sigh)

So I will start with my second Triathlon that I did with my sister in October...yes I know it has been that long since I have posted.

Triathlon #2 October 16th 2009

This Triathlon I had a better idea of how they worked. Endurance, Carb. loading the night before, hydration, energy packs, making transitions faster, what you needed and what you could do with out.
My first Tri was a mini Tri, 200 yard swim, 6 mile bike and 1 mile run but after I was Drained! After the high wore off I don't think I have ever felt that physically tired in my life! I knew I needed to prep my body better for the second one or they would have found me dead out on the bike trail. I read lots of blogs and forums on Tri's and everyone said that you needed to carb load the night before. Sounds easy enough. It was easy and yummy! Jerry and Marcia took our family to Olive Garden for yummy pasta and bread sticks. It sure did the trick because I didn't even take a nap after my second Tri and it was three times longer than the first one.
The water was freezing because it was October. It was hard to regulate your breathing and stroke pattern. If I do one that late in the year again I an investing in a wet suit! The bike ride was awesome. It was a foggy morning so they actually delayed the race by about 20 minutes but when I was out on the 18 mile bike it was so peaceful and beautiful. I rode on the back roads around Woodward Res. in Oakdale. The run was and still is my least favorite leg of the Tri. I don't like running on uneven packed surfaces. I twisted my ankle twice and I had to concentrate so hard on where I planted that I couldn't get into my grove.
Overall it was an amazing experience, one that I am anxious to do again.

Sat. Sept 26, 2009 TRIATHLON #1

We DID it!!!

My Sister and I did our first Triathlon today and it was amazing!! It was out at Woodward Reservoir in Oakdale. We did the Super-sprint distance and it was great for a first Triathlon.

We swam 200 yards, Biked for what was supposed to be 5 miles but someone who had an odometer on her bike said it was actually 6, and ran a mile.
We swam the 200 yards in a little over 11 minutes. Tamara had some issues with her bike, the chain kept falling off when she down shifted, so our bike was over 30 minutes, and our run was around 12 minutes. We finished in under an hour which was better than we both thought.

We are doing another one in three weeks! It is almost three times the distance in each sport. The Sprint Triathlon is a 500 yard swim, 16 mile bike and 5k (3.1mi.)run.

I am so thankful for my wonderful friends and family that got up EARLY to come and watch us. It really meant a lot to me and it will be something I will think about often. Thanks for the support Warren's, Gresham's, Dunn's and Dixon's!!!

It has been great training for these and even better to have finished one and see what we need to work on for the next one. I definitely need to dial in on my run.

On a related note to all the training I have lost 15lbs and over 8 inches total around my body! I still have a lot to go but it is exciting to SEE the effort in the mirror. I am on the brink of buying ALL new clothes. My clothes are super baggy now and in a couple weeks they won't fit at all!! What a great feeling!!!

Emma Lee Dixon 9-12-09

Garth took this picture of Emma while we were camping.

I love-Love-LOVE IT!!!

ME...a Triathlete???

Tamara and I decided we were going to do a triathlon. We saw there was one in Sept. and Oct. at Woodward Reservoir out in Oakdale. At first we were thinking that we would have a relay team but as we started training we deceded that we wanted to do the complete Triathlon. That way we could brag later that we were triathletes! The one in Sept. was only a super sprint. That is a 200 yard swim, 5 mile bike and mile run. No problem! As we started training we thought it would be fun to do a longer one. The one in Oct. is a 500 yard swim, 16 mile bike and 5k run. that is a little more challenging.

I have been working out every day for the past 6 weeks. Everyday I either swim, Bike or Run. I am swimming about 55 laps, biking over 10 miles and running about 2 miles. It feels so good to exercise with a purpose. I keep telling myself that I have to do it or else I will drown in the lake!

Our ward has also stared a fitness challenge that I joined. I thought it would be easy becuase I am working out so much already. The challenge is physical as well as spiritual. We get points for exercise, prayer, scripture study, service, sleep, water consumption, eating fruit and veggies and so on. We have teams that we weigh in weekly with and at the end of 8 weeks the team with the most points wins...what I don't know but it has been fun doing this with the sisters in the ward.

Annual Dixon Family Camp-out Sept 11, 12 and 13, 2009

We had our annual Dixon family camp out this past weekend. We camped at Gold Country Campground Resort in Pine Grove, CA. It is just East of Jackson. The weather was good, most of the weekend except for the thunder and lightning showers we had on Sat. for about 30 minutes. The kids were down at the water park playing in the water features and swimming in the pool when we heard the thunder. We yelled EVERYONE OUT OF THE POOL!! Gerrit wasn't happy about cutting swim time short because of the storm. We made it back to our cozy trailer just in time to beat the rain fall. I decided it would be fun to make cookies in the trailer so the kids and I hung out in the trailer playing Sorry and making Peanut Butter cookies.

After the rain stopped Gerrit went out with the boys and played basketball while Emma and I took a 3 hour nap!! It was heaven!!

One of our traditions is making tin foil dinners on Sat. night. Gerrit made one this time and actually ate it! Emma mooched some cereal off her Aunt Cheryl so she had cheerios, cheese and a yogurt...for Dinner!!??

Keith and Kaleen brought their Kareeoke machine and we projected it on a sheet we attaced to the pop up shade. we sang country songs for about an hour. I bet our fellow campers loved that! It was so cute because Gerrit and Emma knew a couple of the songs and they were singing along. Gerrit was reading the words off the sheet so he sang along with most of them.

Someone thought it would be FUN to have a marshmallow stuffing contest. We lined up in teams and saw how many mallows we could fit into our mouths. Beautiful. It was hillarious because everyone was laughing and the mallows started oozing out of our mouths. Not one of our finer moments but it was one that we will remember for a while. BTW I didn't win dispite what you all think (I apparently didn't have the biggest mouth there)

The next morning we had pancakes and packed up for the long trek home. It is always fun to camp, I just wish we had a little more time to spend with the family.

Garth got a lot of really cute pictures of the kids and cousins. I included some of our favorites. The ones of Bridget with the dogs are really cute so I had to post them as well.

Gerrit's Jog-A-Thon Thursday 9-3-09

I was so proud of Gerrit today. His school has a Jog-A-Thon every year to raise money. They get 5 minutes to see how many laps they can run and then they collect pledges from family and friends. For the past two years Gerrit only ran one lap. This year he ran 6 laps. I got there late and only got the last half of lap 6 but his teacher said that he never stopped running. He wanted to run 7 laps but I told him that he did amazing!

Grandma Vivian's 80th Birthday August 1st 2009

We had a wonderful time celebrating Grandma Vivian's 80th Birthday.

Time to get back on the wagon!!

Time flies and yet nothing is written down to show for it! We have been very busy as always. There have been a lot of changes in our life this past month. However...the biggest news is...


I know what some of you are thinking!!!
NO...the stork had something else in mind

A new JOB for Garth!

He is leaving the banking business and going to work for Geico. He will be a claims adjuster after about three months of intense training. He leaves on June 14th for San Diego for three weeks. Then if all goes well there he will head to Virginia for four weeks, then back to San Diego for four more weeks. It will be a very long and hard summer for all of us. Garth will miss me...oh and the kids :) so much and we won't know what to do without him here!

There is some good news to all of this training nonsense, the kids and I get to fly out to Virginia and visit him in July. We are excited. This will be the kids first Airplane ride, and a chance to get to see the White House and all the sights of DC. Garth's hotel is only 14 miles from the President's Front Door. We will take a weekend and sightsee. Gerrit has learned a lot about the government in school and with the election last year he knows who President Obama is. It is a good time for a trip like this. I am a little nervous about flying for 8 hours with two kids by myself but it will be wonderful to spend some time with Garth.

I also get to see one of my dear friends from High School while I am there! It will be so much FUN!!!

5-18-09 Miss-Chief is at it again

I can't even leave her alone to wash her hands without her getting into Mischief!!!







Sink is plugged and filling with water for her hands...



...while the other sink is plugged, filling with water for her feet!



Now she is showing off for the camera doing splits between sinks.

5-17-09--Emma's dance recital

Emma has been taking dance for about a year at Break the Barriers.

They got to dress up for their parents and show us some of the cute things they have learned.

Pretty in Pink!!!

Emma is yelling MOM! MOM!

Thank goodness she found me!

Miss social bee.

It was over in about 2 minutes. It ended with Emma losing a shoe and Ms. Krystal had to carry her out.

Monday 3-2-09 Kids Day

What cute guys I have in my life. Gerrit woke up to kids yelling outside and didn't know what it was. I told him it was Kid's Day, where kids get to sell news papers to people driving by for $1.00. Gerrit told us he wanted to buy one. Garth said he was so excited to get his paper. He didn't want Garth to take it home, he said he could leave it in his backpack and show his teacher after school so he wouldn't get in trouble. Mrs. Johnston saw how excited he was and took this picture and posted it on the school's web site.

Saturday 2-7-09 Our family vacation

We decided to go visit family and friends in Idaho and Utah.

Here is a map of the route we took.

2 kids---who were such good travelers

2 parents---who were happy to spent so much time together

1 Toyota Truck---with 2 DVD players...why the kids were such good travelers

and about 2,500 Miles of Memories

Thursday 2-12-09 Emma reading the newspaper

We were on our way to show the kids Temple Square. We stopped at Wells Fargo Bank to check on some things and while Garth was at the counter Emma found a newspaper. I thought it was so cute because she was so wrapped up in her jacket that is really three sizes to big. She managed to get on the chair and get the paper.


So Intent on the happenings in Utah


I love how she is 'reading' the paper...sideways


No we can't go yet guys...I am almost finished with this article


You are such a cute girl Emma!

Monday 2-9-09 Aprons for the girls, Wahoo's for the boys

I brought up a pattern and some fabric to make aprons as part of the girls birthday gifts. I wanted to make matching ones for the mommies and the girls to bake in. I also wanted to make them double sided so we could change them up from time to time. Well I am not good with reading patterns and I was hoping a nice lady at the cutting counter at Jo-Ann's would tell me how much I needed for 8 aprons in four different sizes...that isn't hard to do is it??? Well as luck would have it I got the boy they called over from another department who didn't know anything about patterns. I didn't want to NOT get enough so I over guesstimated. I think I bought around 11 yards of fabric! Oh well at least we weren't going to run out.

So Monday morning we started making the aprons. All was well and we had enough fabric to make two extra aprons for a friend of Kim's and her daughter. Kim made four, well actually 8 aprons and I made four. It was a fun project and now we have these cute aprons to always remind us of our trip to Idaho.


Hailey and I made a birthday cake in our aprons and Hailey got to lick the bowl!


Garth, Eric, Orion and Gerrit got to go to Wahoo's for the day. It is a mini golf/arcade place. The golf was closed because of the weather but they got to play arcade games and they won 1,500 tickets! They were able to get some cool stuff and they had a fun time.

2-7-09 to 2-11-09 Eric and Kim's

We got to Eric and Kim's around midnight on Saturday. We got the kids settled and everyone went to bed. The next morning we woke up to blueberry muffins with crumb topping! Yum yum!! Then we got ready for church and actually made it on time! It was nice to see where Eric and Kim spent their Sunday's.

After church the kids came home and got their pj's on. I guess that is the tradition at Eric and Kim's. I would love to have a lazy day in my pj's. Nice and cozy.

Eric borrowed Rock Band from a friend and the kids (when I say kids I mean Eric and Garth too) rocked out. Note Chase rocking it on Guitar!










Rock On My Brother!!!

Friday 2-6-09 WICKED in San Francisco

I was so excited to see WICKED!!! I have had the music for almost 4 years thanks to the Penrod's and Popular! I have video of Gerrit singing that when he was little. We wanted to give the girls a night out on the town and to take them to the play for Christmas. We got the tickets on August and had to keep that a secret for FOUR months. IT was worth it to see their faces. Natalie actually cried!

We all met at Grandma Dixon's house and carpooled up to our hotel. The Hotel Whitcomb in San Francisco. Right across the street from the Orpheum theatre.

We got our rooms and had an hour and a half to get ready and meet in the hall to walk to dinner. We ate at Max's Opera Cafe. I had the Sweet and Sour Spinach salad. IT WAS YUMMY!!! We decided to get a taxi on the way back to the theatre. we had 10 people but the cabs would only take four so Tamara and I opted to walk instead of hailing a third taxi. It was a nice walk and a good time for us to talk.

The Play was Amazing! The music, the costumes, the set!!! OMG it was awesome!I think we were all singing the songs for weeks after.

After the play we went singing to bed and agreed to meet at 9am for breakfast in the hotels cafe. We were all still buzzing about the play, what we liked, what we loved and quoting the many funny lines.

After breakfast Tamara, Marcia and I said our goodbyes to the group and headed back to Modesto. Marcia wasn't up to walking around S.F., Tamara wanted to get home to see her Hubby, and I was meeting Garth and the kids at Jerry and Marcia's to head on our vacation to Idaho.

Thursday 2-5-09 Train Ride to Modesto

I decided to ride Amtrak to Modesto. I was going to go to San Francisco to see WICKED with Marcia, Kaleen, Cheryl, Renee, Tamara and all my nieces. It was a Christmas present for the girls. Marcia got us a hotel room for the night and we all got dressed up and went out to dinner then saw the play. But I am getting ahead of myself...first there was a train ride.

Garth and I were going on a vacation and we didn't want to have two cars up in Modesto so we thought it best if I rode the train up the night before the play. Tamara would pick me up and we could spent the day Friday together.

I guess we didn't prep Gerrit enough that they were taking me to the train station and I was the only one who was going on the train. Gerrit stated crying and saying that he didn't want me to go and that he would miss me to much. It was so hard to board the train and look out to two crying kids. Poor Garth.

We told Gerrit that as soon as he got back in the car he could call me. By the time they called me I was already in Madera! The train ride was fast, we only stopped three times for a total of only about 7 minutes. I left Fresno at 8:15 and got to Modesto by 9:50. About the same time it takes to drive there. Tamara met me there and we had a fun day Friday before we went and saw WICKED.

Gerrit called me the next morning and said that he really missed me, he said that he wanted me to come home and never leave him again.

To this day he still says that he didn't like me going on the train and leaving him.

--Such a Mama's boy--

Wednesday 2-4-09 Happy Birthday Gerrit

Gerrit is 7! We had a party with some of his friends from school. He wanted a batman party so of course we went to Party City and got hooked up with all the cool things.
His birthday fell on a Wednesday which was a short day at school so I decided to have it right after school. That way I could just walk the kids home with me from school and the parents would only have to pick them up after.
My Mom came down the night before and watched Gerrit in Tae Kwon Do so she was there to help with the prep work. My morning went something like this.

I dropped Gerrit off at school in the morning with a big smile on his face and some cookies to share with his class.
I had to do some reports that morning, I was leaving the following night and had to get all my work done before I left. I was all caught up but I got a call saying that I had about 15 rushes that were due that day that I never got. So that threw a wrench in my plans but we got them done. The babysitter wasn't coming until 12:30 so I had Emma with me while I did my work. Luckily she was a good girl for me. Sitting in the car for three hours driving around town isn't fun for a three year old.
I came home at 12:30, dropped off Emma with the babysitter and picked up Katy to take her to PetSmart. I wanted to take Katy to the Groomers so she wouldn't be under foot at the party
and also she needed a cut and wash so it worked out beautifuly.

I got the balloons, the cake and some snacks for the party in under 30 minutes and made it back to the house by 1:10 to head to school and get the kids. My mom stayed with Emma and got the table arranged with the food. Then I brought back about 6 kids with me and the fun began. They were all outside most of the day which was nice because I didn't have a big mess to clean up after. We had cake, played games and had a Pinata. I asked that the kids didn't bring presents because we were trying to teach Gerrit about the tough economy and how sometimes the best things aren't store bought, sharing fun times with friends was more than enough. Gerrit thought that was cool. He did get some hand drwan cards from friends that were very special to him.
The party went from 1:30-3:30 and by 4 the house was empty and cleaned up! I had awesome firends there who helped my clean up the party mess.

I can't believe Gerrit is 7! Where did the time go? Man the days fly by!

Happy 7th birthday Buddy! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Room switch-a-roo

We finally gave Gerrit and Emma their own rooms. I think it was time to make the switch when Gerrit started asking Heavenly Father every night he said prayers to please help Emma to not keep him up, stay in her bed, not be loud...so on and so on.

We knew when we put them together that is wasn't going to last forever, but I thought it would last longer than a year. It was around February of 2007 that we combined them so I could have an office. We thought they still could use a playroom so we opted to keep that at the time. They really didn't go in there all that much because I had the gate up to keep Katy off the carpet when she was potty training.

Fast forward a year and we decided that their bedrooms can me multi-functional; bedroom/playrooms. Ingenious! I mean what did we do as kids...I know I never had a PLAY ROOM.

It was always; go to your room and play!

We started talking about all the different posibilities of who could go where. Gerrit picked out his room when we moved in and Emma could care less so Gerrit got to stay in his room. We went back and forth on where Emma and the office should go. It would have been easier to just put Emma in the playroom and be done but there was a little problem. Garth took out the closet shelving to build a shelf and that is where we have our food storage. We have a lot of food storage and we didn't want Emma to get into it. But it was going to be a BIG pain to move my BIG desk from one room to the other.

Garth finally talked me into taking the time to move the desk and put emma back in her room. It made more sence to have my office where the food storage was anyway. We started this huge task at about 5pm on New Years Day. We would have started earlier but we had company down because we went and saw Neil Diamond in concert the night before...parting with ND late into the night...AWESOME!!!

By around 10:30pm, the beds were just being put together, the kids were so wound up about sleeping in their own rooms and Garth and I were exhausted from 5 hours of non-stop manual labor. Mind you that I sit in a car all day and he is now behind a desk so we aren't used to this. We get to a point where we can call it a night...FINALLY! What a day!

So in the end we have Gerrit where he started, his bed against a different wall, his dresser (a big 8 drawer solid oak monster) moved across the room, his hutch (used to be mine growing up) is now Emma's awaiting a new coat of paint so it had to be moved out and the big red couch in the corner.

Emma got a room with a closet full of my craft/scrapbooking stuff, a bed, a chair that is actually part of our couch that doean't fit in the family room (another long story) and her play kitchen in the corner.

We broke down my BIG mamoth of a desk and moved it into the far room that used to be the playroom and had that basially put back together. The task for me the following week was to clean out Emma's closet, which really meant clean out the small computer desk in the alcove so I could have that be my craft area, find Emma a dresser, paint the hutch, organize the toys between the rooms and make sure all my work stuff was where I needed it to be.

Here we are two weeks later and I can say that I am pretty much caught up, except for painting the hutch. I have half of the first coat of paint on it and it has been that way for a week now.

The only room that hasn't had major rearranging done is the master-bedroom. We are getting a Cedar Chest next week so I have to find somewhere to put that...probably in my room.

I didn't take pictures of the before...I know bad Angie!!!

But here are some pictures of the hutch -- two-toned

Old blue color from Gerrit's room

New Green color for Emma's room
I am going to paint her walls a two tone purpley-pink color

It has hearts all over it -- it is totally a girls hutch

Our silly Katy

I had Garth's suits laying on the bed because I was taking then to the cleaners. Katy jumped up on the bed and started smelling the suits. I thought as to why she was doing that and it occured to me that they smelled like Garth. I was right in the middle of doing my makeup so I went back in the bathroom to finish. When I was done with my makeup I went back to check on her and

This is what I foundSilly girl missed her Daddy and she cuddled up with his clothes because they smelled like him.



You are cute Katy

Posting options

Has anyone else been having trouble with the photo uploading to Blogger? I used to be able to upload the photos and they would show up on the post as photos and I could move them around the journaling. Now I only get text where the picture is. Does anyone know how to get the pictures to show up when you are creating a post?

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

GO KART FUN

Garth and I wanted to get something that Gerrit and Garth could have some GUY bonding time with. I wanted something that Emma and I could join in the fun with as well so we decided to get a Go Kart. That way Gerrit can ride in it with his dad for now and then in time can learn to drive it himself. The boys can work on it together and we can take it camping with us.

After many months of searching and narrowing down our options we decided on one. Garth and I went out to get it and we only told Gerrit that we were getting a surprise for him. Garth and I were so excited to see the look on his face that we could hardly wait to get home and show him.

We surprised Gerrit with just the racing helmet at first and the sweet boy was just so excited about getting the helmet that he thought that WAS the surprise! Little did he know that there was a cool Go Kart in the back of Garth's truck!

We all had to take turns riding in it. With our helmets on of course!










We even had Addie, our friend from across the street come over and have a turn riding in it.

We can't wait to find some dirt and take it out for some FUN!!!

I love you Cookies

I was out working hard today and when I got home Garth said he made me some cookies. He gave me this plate of cookies...



You are the best Garth! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. Santa ate the cookies, drank all his milk and even left a note for Gerrit and Emma.

The kids had a great time opening presents and they were very happy with what they each got.

Garth and I opened our presents the night before so the morning was all about them. They were so cute