Zoo Break

James was nice to give me a break last Saturday and took Carter to the zoo (Preston was napping of course). They had lots of fun while I got to just lay around, finish my book, and procrastinate all the things that needed to get done. I have been in such a reading mode lately, I don't know why. Anyway, here are the cute pics of Carter on his fun day out with Dad.

Cool Picture huh? Face to face with a snow leopard (I think) James thinks it is a jaguar. Which one of us is right? Anyone know?
He wanted to ride on the elephant's trunk but then got scared and wanted to get down which gave the crowd a laugh. "Get me down Daddy, get me down!"
The albino crocodile again(I posted a pic about 3 months ago), but a way better picture on this post. I am not a very good photographer I admit it, James kills me in that department. It must be a guy thing.
Carter was so scared to go down this slide last time we were there, but James said this time he didn't give it a second thought. Go figure.

Flower Farewell

Here are all of the annuals that I dug up out of my yard this morning! It was a sad day to pull all of the happy yellow flowers out, but I didn't want to wait until there was snow on the ground. I also didn't realize how many weeds that had grown in the last little while. Morning glory is the bane of my existance!!
Now for the bulbs...my favorite flowers, tulips! I only bought this small pack to see if they come up in the spring. I am new to this whole gardening thing so it is all trial and error. I am glad I got this project overwith. Saturday's duties are now weeding the backyard and getting CLR to get all of the rust water off of my fence. Thanks Lehi City!! We shall see how much I actually get done...

Carving Pumpkins

Family Night=Pumpkin Carving. It is amazing to me that we started this blog about the same time a year ago. We have pictures of us carving a pumpkin with Carter and I am 9 months pregnant with Preston. Weird. Here is Carter sitting next to "his" pumpkin, with Preston's on the bottom step and Mommy and Daddy's on the top step.
We are proud of our pumpkins! (I look weird I know)
I love putting candles in them to see their faces glow. Happy Halloween!

Hand Me Downs

Strike a Pose
Having fun together
Preston's signature move-Grab the face!

Since the first snowfall happened last week, I decided it was definitely time to put away the shorts and tshirts and get out all of the fall/winter clothes. I found the box for Preston of Carter's hand me downs and it was so much fun looking through and finding all the cute sweaters etc. that Carter used to wear. Having two boys close together has really come in handy! This was one of my favorite shirts that Carter had, and I am happy that Preston now gets to show his cute self off in it too. They are so funny together. Preston loves to bug Carter in any way possible, I think it is to get back at Carter for bossing him around all the time! In case any of you were wondering, Preston is no longer my little vampire. He has grown a front tooth, so now he just looks like a jack-o-lantern (see bottom picture). I love my boys!!

Who do they look like more?

Family Night Phantom

Tonight for family night we decided to continue a tradition we do every Halloween since we were first married and living in England which is "The family night phantom." You bake three plates of cookies or any goodies with a little note telling the person they have been tagged. They then have to deliver goodies to three more people etc. You deliver a little note with the goodies with a picture of a "phantom" to put in their window to let others know they have already been done. Carter loved baking cookies with his Dad and we had so much fun ringing the doorbell and watching to see if they saw us or not. In one instance they totally caught us red handed because their little girl had been looking out the window and said that someone was coming. Dangit. Oh well, it was fun anyway and is a great way to make your neighbors feel loved!

Triathlon #2 Complete

Last Saturday James finished the Pleasant Grove "Viking Tri" all to raise money for the Pleasant Grove Highschool swim team. It was a blustery 37 degrees outside with 30mph wind gusts! This was a backwards triathlon in that they ran first, then biked, and finished up swimming in an outdoor heated pool. The run was a cross country course with some good climbs in it. The bike was only 10 miles but had two good climbs and alot of biking into the wind! I only got to watch the last leg of the race, so all of the pictures are of him in the pool. It was freezing! We busted out the coats and warm socks! He finished 10 minutes faster than his last one in July, so he is improving dramatically with every race. Once again, my brother in law Carl participated as well and shaved three minutes off his time. They both felt that this course was a lot more difficult than the Logan one which was all flat, and nice weather. Good job boys! James finished in 1 hour 18 minutes (as seen from the picture at the bottom) and Carl finished in 1 hour 6 minutes.

Time to jump in the pool and swim

Canning Day

I can't even begin to tell you all how proud I am of myself for deciding to can these tomatoes. Okay so I can't take too much credit, in reality I just cut up all of the tomatoes but I was still there for the whole process. Remember the post with the picture of the 3 tomatoes? Well those three multiplied into about 103! We had so many tomatoes I didn't know what to do with myself. We still have about 20-30 that aren't ripe yet. Luckily Megan and her sister in laws were canning tomatoes today and asked if I would like to join. These are all the jars I came out with, and I am so happy that I actually did something with all of these tomatoes that have been sitting in bowls around my kitchen for 2-3 weeks! Even better, I got to discuss the Twilight series with the girls there and gush about Edward and Bella. It was a blast! Thanks to Gary, Theresa, Megan, and Allie for making the day so fun and so productive!

Brick Oven

I know I did a post a while ago about how much I love the Olive Garden, but I have decided my ultimate favorite cheap Italian place is Brick Oven in Provo. My cousin Megan had her birthday last week and decided to have everyone go there to celebrate with her. Great choice! Single service pasta bar every time (this also includes garlic bread and the house salad with their yummy ranch!) Here are some pics from our outing yesterday...

Leah, Megan, Heather

Happy Happy Birthday Song!

My Cool Pink Vacuum

This is my new Dyson vacuum and I love it! They had them on sale at Target and if you bought the pink one they donated 40 dollars to breast cancer research, plus you got a $100 gift card there. A pink vacuum and a $100 gift card? I'm sold! It picks up so much better than my other vacuum and makes my carpets fluffy. It was invented by a British guy so there was another reason James was cool with me buying it. Yay for Dysons!

The Next American Idol

Carter has been practicing Twinkle Twinkle for some time and has finally managed to sing the whole song by himself. Watch out Simon here comes the next Idol superstar!!



Twinkle Twinkle from james_english1 and Vimeo.

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done

This past Saturday I ran the Salt Lake Half Marathon! My sister-in-law Bethany and I have been training for this since June and we thought we were totally prepared for it, which we were...kindof. This is us before the race started. It was at 7 so we were freezing waiting for it to start.
James was standing on Little Dell Bridge the starting point of the race to take this picture. And we're off! This was the hardest part of the race and what we were completely unprepared for...4 miles of straight hills!!
This was us about 7-8 miles in. We were feeling good at this point, the hills behind us and just pushing it to the end.
The last mile was the hardest part of the race for me(besides the hills). I hit the 12 mile marker and was totally spent. I had to stop and walk and Bethany was in a rhythm and said if she stopped she wouldn't be able to start again, so we got split up the last mile. I started to run again and then saw my mom and sister up ahead cheering me on. I almost started to cry just seeing them there, it meant so much to me. They ended up running with me to the finish line and I really needed them! I had visions at the beginning that I would be "sprinting" the last mile, yeah that didn't happen, but I did sprint for about the last 20 seconds of the race. I did it!!
Here is the whole crew that came (except James taking the picture). Megan and Leah came with their TEAM HEATHER shirts which was a crack up. They got lost and didn't get to see me finish which they were bummed out about, oh well, the shirts were awesome and it was the thought that counts right? This was such an awesome experience and I am hopefully going to do it again next year. We are talking about doing the Provo one next time to see if it might be a bit easier with less hills! Thanks to all who came, it meant so much. Thanks especially to Bethany for being my running partner and pushing me the whole way through. Without her I probably would have quit a long time ago. Also thanks to James for watching the kids every Saturday for my long runs. He was my biggest supporter, what a great husband I have. I made this goal in January to do this and am so proud of myself for sticking to it and accomplishing this REALLY HARD goal!!

The Garden-Part 2

Carter and I have been checking every day to see if there are any tomatoes ready to eat yet. Today was our lucky day! Three all came at once! We have now tripled our tomato supply since our last attempt at a garden two years ago, since we only had one that grew! :) We still have atleast 50 on the bushes just waiting to ripen. It has been so fun to have a garden this year. My strawberry plants have already doubled in size but won't bear fruit until next year. The pepper plant grew but I never have gotten anything off of it. I think it might be because the tomatoes kindof took over, who knows. Any good salsa recipes you know of? I am going to have a lot of tomatoes pretty soon!

Day 2 and counting...

I don't know how single moms do it! James has been out of town since yesterday and I am dying for him to get home! Yesterday I went and hung out at my mom's house all day so it wasn't too bad, but today Carter woke up with a bloody nose all over the crib, and has been super whiny and bored. Any ideas for some fun things to do that a single parent can handle? Just thought I would include pictures of the kids that I took today for proof that they till have smiles on their faces!!

21 Things everyone should know from Tony Robbins

I was sent this as a forward on my email and almost didn't read it because of course at the top it said, "Forward this to 10 people you will be lucky, forward this to 20 people and it will make your day" etc., annoyed, I read on. I was pleasantly surprised by the list! I have already sent it to some of you, but to those who haven't read it, here you go...

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or> sleep all you want.

FOUR. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.

FIVE. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements> involve great risk.

FIFTEEN. Say 'God bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

Pretty good list huh? What do you think could/should be added to it?

Our Little Vampire

Preston has his top teeth...Not his front two, his fangs! I think it is so funny, whenever he flashes a smile I cannot help but just crack up laughing! Anybody else have a child that had this happen?! We think he is the cutest little vampire around!

I Vant to Suck Your Blood!

Is it wrong of me to laugh at my own child?! hehe

Hair Change

I was getting really bored of my hair and definitely needed a cut. Cousin Kelly to the rescue! The night before I went I was looking at my huge forehead and wondered how bangs might look. The last time I sported the bang look was in 9/10th grade with "the bubble". Ahh the memories, yikes! Anyway, I think "the swooped over look" is definitely more tame. I love it! Thanks Kelly for working with my crazy things on a whim! What do you think? If you hate it, I don't want to know, so just tell me you love it and it's adorable, thanks. :)

Nathan's 8th Birthday party

Nathan decided he wanted a Monster Truck Extravaganza!!! Here is the Pinata... (Also notice that the birthday boy is in the red shirt fighting with light sabers. This was what he did the entire party!)
Here it is after a few hits to it
Carter got a fun goodie bag with a watch that had pieces of gum in the face. His cousin Kaitlyn was such a big helper with him always making sure that everyone knew that "he was the youngest" so he got the first piece of ice cream cake, first hit at the pinata, etc. Very cute.
I was not wanting to get wet so Mike took Carter in the pool with all the big kids. He was terrified with all the splashing and the water was not very warm. He stayed in for all of about 45 seconds.The face is priceless. This party was a whole different experience than the last due to the fact that Nathan is nowhere near Carter's age! No competition, and another big reason was we gave him money in a card so no worrying about another Walmart outburst! I have learned quickly!

The Race is On...

Here is the official registration email

for my half marathon!!

2 1/2 weeks...No turning back now!
This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Registration:
Sports-Am SALT LAKE 2007 HALF MARATHON AND RELAY
Purchase Date:
08/15/07
Category:
Half Marathon
Event Date:
09/01/07
Name:
Heather English

Kale and Carter...Friends or Foes?

Is this the funniest picture ever? Check out the plumber's crack!!

These two have quite the love/hate relationship. Today was a love day...Tomorrow who knows!

A Night Away

The Dawning of Time room at Somewhere Inn Time

We had so much fun on our anniversary. James was so thoughtful and planned the whole thing and I was completely surprised which rarely happens. After James was cooking for 2 days we finally dropped the kids off at Melanie's house (thanks Mel and Carl) and headed off to our room at Somewhere Inn Time. We actually stayed at this place on our first night as a married couple but haven't been back since. We stayed in a different room this time called "The Dawning of Time" and it had really cool painted clouds on the ceiling. He then served me a five course meal which was so yummy (the pics will be on his Chef James blog) and we went and saw the Bourne Ultimatum because we never see movies together anymore! It was really good, I recommend it. It was so nice to relax and be together, thanks to all who made this possible!!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 6th anniversary!! Man, lots has happened in six years...Here are some of the things you might not have known about us-

Met: Camp Echo-Burlingham, New York, June 2000. He was the tennis instructor and we both were in charge of the 8th graders. I had to be the aggressive one since James at this point was SUPER shy and quiet. Like I said, a lot has changed in six years.

First Date: Woodstock, New York. We walked around and loved this little hippie town.

First Kiss: that night! That sounds terrible,but I guess I do kiss on the first date! At camp the days seemed like weeks, believe me.

Engaged: March 31st 2001, Las Vegas. He proposed on a gondola ride at the Venetian hotel. The gondolier then sang an Italian love song to us, precious.

Honeymoon: San Diego, California. We had so much fun and so many memories from this trip...Padres Game, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, La Jolla Cove, roasted corn on the cob at the beach...

Other travel destinations in the past 6 six years: Sestriere, Italy. Baltimore. Vegas. Grand Cayman. Cozumel. San Francisco. London. Denver. NYC. Stratford-Upon-Avon. Hawaii.

Jobs: James 8, Heather 2 (3 if you include being a mom)

Places lived: Norwich, England in the cutest little townhome ever! Orem, Ut with my parents for a month while we waited to move into our apt. Lehi, Ut Mayflower Harbor apartments. We had a drug dealer living underneath us, classic. Lehi, Ut currently.

Cars: Vauxhall Corsa. Nissan Sentra. Mazda 626. Chevy Trailblazer. Ford Escape. Honda Civic. Jeep Grand Cherokee. Mitsubishi Galant. I think that's it?

Kids: 2 boys, Carter James and Preston William.

Pets: see above

Years in love: 7+ and counting...

Birthday Party

It was Carter's first real experience of a birthday party today at his friend Lance's house. How cute is this Cars cake?

We played red rover, red light green light (Carter just wanted to run and not play by the rules),London Bridge, and Duck Duck Goose. This shows all the kids participating in Red Rover...Where was Carter?
Over at the picnic table eating chips. It seems lately like he just likes to have kids around but not play with them one on one. Whatever floats his boat I guess!
He also got to hit a pinata
And get tons and tons of candy, wahoo!

Now for my rant about birthday parties and my child-This whole experience of the birthday party has not been my favorite. All the pictures look like he was having a great time, which he was, sortof, kindof. Let me back up about 5 days. So we go to walmart to pick out a present for Lance and Carter was really excited about it. We decide on a gumball machine and playdough. Does he really want Lance to have the gumball machine? No, he wants the pink gumball inside it and is screaming at the top of his lungs in Walmart because I won't open it. Awesome. I ended up taking him home, put him to bed, and put the present on top of the fridge so he would forget about it. He did until about an hour before the party when he had to put it in a gift bag to give to Lance. The whining began again and I thought, "Is this really worth it?" We head off to the party with him crying all the way about the pink gumball. I realize that Carter is only 2 1/2 and this is normal for kids at this age to not understand why they aren't enjoying the present. On the other hand, I remember feeling the same way even when I was 10 or 11. You get so excited to give the person their gift and they open it and never like it as much as you would have. The only consolation is the favor bag you go home with. I know I sound like a birthday cynic, I really do love birthday parties, but I just wish that everyone could enjoy the presents, blowing out the candles, and attention. In a perfect world right?

Cousin Lunch

April was here visiting from Denver so we decided to all get together for lunch at the Olive Garden. What is it about those breadsticks that make them so addicting? I seriously ate atleast 4 by myself, then "helped" Carter and Preston finish theirs. I have also decided that I order the same thing every time, pasta fagioli soup, salad, and those irresistable breadsticks. I also love the Andes mint you get with the check. What is your favorite thing to order? Is it just me that loves this place? It was interesting with all the kids, but so fun to see April and Bailey-she is getting so big! L to R Me, Carter, Bailey, April, Melanie, Shannon, and Matt