Connor

 Connor is the middle triplet.  He had a lot to say when he was fighting to survive in the womb and still always wants to give you his opinion.  He cracks us up a lot.  He is not hesitant to let us know what would make him happy.  This list of A "Connor" day especially made us laugh!

He decided we all needed to be reminded of some family rules and posted these up

 A while back he made this timeline that included the dates of all of our births, our marriage,  and the date Trey got his car and then the day Allie got the car when Trey went to college.  We're not sure why the car made it on the timeline (:

The other day he made up these posters for his door.  If you look closely he has quoted 2 family members.  Maybe if you say something really intelligent you can make it on his wall of quotes too!

Something else that cracked us up was last Monday Connor was in charge of the FHE lesson and he made up a great game of pictionary using gospel words like temple, Holy Ghost, etc.  The spin he put on it was that each clue was worth different points.  He told us there was one clue that was worth 6 points while all the others were between 1-3 points.  We cracked up when we got to the 6 pointer word:  eternal damnation!  When we started to crack up he said "what?! It's in the scriptures!"  We love you Connor!

TREY comes home for Thanksgiving and surprises lots of kids!

Surprising the Cruze kids at the bowling alley:  David thought it would be hilarious to see if we could fool some unsuspecting cousins and tell them that Trey was actually a wax statue.  But how to do this???....He came up with a brilliant story: the bowling alley wanted to be a part of Hoops for Hope but they found out about it too late so they decided to make a wax statue of Trey and display it in their establishment.  Sure, what kid wouldn't fall for that?

Josh will reminded of his hilariousness many times for the rest of his life.

 Scott thought it was hilarious too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving has been an extra wonderful one because Trey got to come home for a visit! (I will post some awesome footage of the surprise reactions from siblings and cousins soon!) My heart is so full of gratitude for family.  It couldn't have been a more perfect day!

RAGNAR!

So, about 2 months ago my friend Crystal said "hey do you want to do Ragnar with me?"  At the time I had never heard of it.  After she explained that it's a relay race between Chattanooga and Nashville (196 miles) where 12 runners trade off running non-stop.  I thought it sounded fun.  Then she explained that it meant you have to run 3 legs in 24 hours and would probably not sleep in between.  Hmmm, now I wasn't so sure.  I told Lori about it and even though she was like me and really didn't run at all she said "Wow, I'd like to do that!"  So, Lori talked me into joining the team made up of other Farragut Ward members.  Lori and I started meeting at the gym and running outside 3 times a week.  She had looked up the training schedule and made sure we stuck to it.  And I have to admit I would not have done so if she had not been there!

After training for 2 months we finally had the big race last weekend.  I was plenty prepared for the running (I drew the easiest leg:  4.4 miles, 1.6 miles, and 4.5 miles), but I wasn't prepared for the no sleep part of it. It was hard.  And it was fun.   The amount of times I used port a potties during this one weekend probably quadrupled my lifetime usage.  The dance of hydrating, eating and peeing at the right times between your legs was interesting.  I was surprised that after 24 hours of no sleep I felt great running, I could have gone a lot further I think.  Adrenaline is a powerful thing.

Biggest positive of the whole experience:  my kids were so proud of me.  Trey called while I was on the race and told me he had been bragging to all his friends about me and how hard core he thought I was.  The kids made a sweet sign and David ordered a trophy for me.  It's a good feeling to accomplish something hard.

Two of my legs were through little towns, which was fun.  The trees were in perfect color changing mode so the views were amazing!

 At the three major exchanges we were able to go into real bathrooms inside a high school and wipe down with baby wipes and change into clean clothes.

 This was at the end of my last leg.  The six fingers represents "kills" or how many people you pass

 I was the last girl runner and Scott was the first guy runner so it was fun to be able to pass off to him each time.

Happy Halloween!

 70's costume party!!

Notice David's chest hair (:

Notice what my hairdresser did with my hair

ROME

This is what was right outside of our hotel:  The Pantheon

Trevi fountain:

The Collosium:

Caesar was killed:

Roman Forum:

Bath made out of marble from Nero's garden

We gained a new appreciation for the amazing sculptures created by Michelangelo.  The Peita is the only sculpture signed by him (1499).  It is inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Outside the Vatican:

A few evenings, after a long day of sight seeing, we would sit out on the rooftop of our hotel and watch the sunset, watch the happening in the piazza down below and play cards.