The Spooky Old Tree

Have you ever had the pleasure of ready The Spooky Old Tree by Jan and Stan Berenstain?

It is by far one of my favorite Berenstain Bear books.  Anna loves it too.  She started "reading" it the other day.  I it was so stinkin' cute.  I feel bad I missed the first part.  But it is adorable all the same.

Grow Baby Grow!

Do you remember this???

Then it was this.

You probably haven't seen this one yet.

And now it looks like this.

Not too bad.  In a few weeks I think we are going to have yummy veggies coming out our ears.  I can't wait.

The Runner Girls

I love to run. Anna also loves to run. We have both had fun running races lately.
A few weeks ago I ran the American Fork Half Marathon. It was great! I loved it! Nothing like running a race that is all down hill. Even better was the fact that it was so close to our house. It has been a long time since I haven't had to drive a long way to get to a race. Another thing that made the race great was that I ended up running with a girl from my ward. It was great to run and talk and have a great time. It reminded me of the good old days at BYU. Devin was so nice to get the kids up, fed, and to the finish line by 7:30am. I love having them cheer for me. This was the first year for this race and I hope they do it again. I would be there again in a heartbeat.

Anna had her big race on Monday, July 4th. She ran the Freedom Festival 1 mile run. She "ran" this race last year, well ran part of it and I carried her through a lot of it. We figured she'd know more of what was going on this year. We also decided to run it as a family because last year Devin ran the 5k and Anna was worried where he went and if he was lost. Anna has been SO excited to run her race. Quite frequently she will say, "I'm a runner!" She was thrilled to get a new "runner" shirt. Too bad it is HUGE on her. Even though it is huge she still wants to wear it all the time.
So Monday morning we woke up ridiculously early so we could be to the race on time. Anna was ready to start running!

She did great! Anna ran the whole way. She only cried once, when she tripped. But she got right back up and kept running. We loved running as a family. Nicholas loved his ride in the stroller. It was great to see Peter and Zach running too. Anna tried to keep up with Zach, maybe next year.

Anna ended up kind of getting 3rd place. (She was awarded 3rd place at the race, but then online it says that another little girl got 3rd so we might be giving her crystal back.)
She loved getting her trophy.

We can't wait to run this race again next year. Watch out Nicholas, you'll be running too!

Baking Cookies

Independence Day was a full day in the Baldwin home.  We got up at 5:00 to make it to the Freedom Festival to run the 1 mile fun run as a family.  We came home, took showers, and Anna and I went outside to plant 2 rows of corn while Julie made a batch of Triple Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Bars (our current family favorite).  As we were finishing up, Anna got to go in and lick the beaters.  After all the tools were put away and I killed a wasp (minor detail), I came in to see Anna taking a little nap.