Roy's 5th NPC Body Building Competition

Well it has been a big weekend!  Roy competed in his fifth NPC Body Building Competition.  This time he followed a food plan given by Kiyoshi Moody, the three time Natural Mr. Olympia.  His last two weeks, Kyoshi, helped him with workouts, posing, and final tuning to get him ready for the show.  On average per day, there were four hours spent in the gym a day.  Between morning cardio, afternoon lift, and afternoon cardio. Plus time was put in practicing posing, preparing food and other essentials for the show.  While he was preparing, Roy was training others.  One was Karim Johnston.  She was going to compete in the Ladies Figure Novice and the Open Figure B.  This was her first competition ever!

When the big day came Roy was able to finish the competition with three trophies!  He came in 1st in the Ironman Natural Heavy Weight, 2nd in the Junior Masters and 2nd in the Open Heavy Weight division.  Karim Johnston placed 5th in the Novice division, and 2nd in the Open Figure B.  Pretty impressive!  They have worked so hard for this!

Also a huge thank you to Roy's sister, Vickie!  She made Roy's posing trunks and Karim's suit.  She did an amazing job.  She made her own pattern to make these.  She definitely has a talent!  Another huge, thank you goes to Roger & Gina, and Diana & Brian for watching our kids while this was all going on.  Amanda and Kaitlyn had a blast at your homes.  Thank you everyone for your support! 

Here are some pictures of the show! Enjoy!

 Karim Johnston in the middle

Roy receiving his trophy for 1st place. 

 Karim with her trophy

 Roy and Karim.  With her trophies.

The trophies all combined together.  We had to put in the Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs.  This was something they would have to prep them before they went on stage.

Dean's List

I was just thinking this past week I have been back to school for 6 months now.  It is hard to believe it is going by fast, but I feel not fast enough.  I am pleased to say I made the Dean's List this past semester at Stevens-Henager College.  I was pretty excited to see that.  I have been working very hard and has been quite a juggling act with working full-time, being a mom, step-mom, and wife, helping with kids homework, and piano practices, etc. Life is definitely busy at this time.  Yet I feel I am being very blessed to be able to do all of these things.  I know I wouldn't be able to do all of this without my Heavenly Father's help.  There are times I just want to give up or think I can't do all of this, but I am seeing I can.  There is definitely a lot of sacrifice taking place.  There is definite less sleep and I have to admit it is hard to not be training for running races.  This may sound crazy, but I miss the long runs running up the canyon.  I am trying to remember there is a time and place for everything. In the meantime, I am gaining more knowledge, and realizing I am able to do things I never thought I could. :)

Dress-up and Dance time

I had to share this little video of Kaitlyn.  She will turn the demo music on our digital piano and will dance around.  She put on some dress ups for the occasion. :)  Don't mind the toys all over the room.  Just makes our house look lived in. :)

Amanda's First Piano Recital

In January, Amanda was able to perform in her first piano recital.  We are so proud of her!  She has been taking since August of last year at Art City Music Academy.  She is in the Piano Pals group (4-5 year old children).  She has done so well practicing.  She usually gets up at 6 or 6:30 a.m. to practice everyday.  Here is a video clip of her two songs she performed.

Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday

It is hard to believe my baby is three years old!  She just had her birthday last week.  She is the sweetest thing ever!  She is always concerned when someone is sad and offers her blanket to comfort them.  She is my little helper.  I notice she will try to do the things I do, like help sweep the floor and help set the table.  She is a big cuddler too.  I love that!  She just recently learned how to climb out of her crib.  She will hop out and say "I did myself!"  I think we need to change her bed to a toddler bed. :)  She was pretty excited to have her birthday and I am pretty sure she had a great day.

November Birthdays

Roy and I both have birthdays in November.  It is fun since we are the same age for 21 days.  I always tell Roy the next year for him isn't too bad, since I had some experience. :)  We both had nice birthdays.  It is always nice to spend time with family.  Here are some photos on our birthday.

Halloween Festivities

 Foca, Iliana, Amanda & Kaitlyn

 Pumpkin Walk at Central Utah Water Conservany District

 Some of the pumpkins for the carving contest.

 Jessica carving her pumpkin. 

 Ammon carving his pumpkin.

 Daddy with a mischievious look. :)

 The end results

We had the chance to go the Pumpkin Walk my work offered to the public.  This is the second year they have done this.  Amanda and Kaitlyn had a great time last year, so we thought we would go again. We were able to have Jessica and Ammon go with us this year, so they were able to experience it. :)

We also went trick or treating.  Amanda was Ariel and Kaitlyn was Belle.  It was fun to see them get all excited and dressed up. Of course we ended up with lots of candy!  Towards the end of the evening, we had to stop by Ilana's house.  She is the awesome lady who took care of Amanda before she was in Kindergarten.  She did an amazing job!  She just stopped doing day care so she could be there more for her family.  We will definitely miss her, her mom and family.  They have touched our lives so much! 

Back to School - Fall Time

We have had quite the busy Fall time.  At last minute in favor of a friend, Roy helped coach the Springville 9th grade - Team B football team.  He had practices every night and games on Saturday.  He would even spend several hours watching the recordings of the past football games to see where they could improve.  I never realized how serious football can be especially for 9th graders.  Roy and Jim Brau, did an incredible job with these boys.  They were able to have them meet past BYU players and played better than they ever thought.  The boys were able to come in 3rd place in the season and were able to play in the semi-finals.  They did a great job! Here are some pictures of one of Roy coaching.  He is the one with the red hat. 

Also during this same time, we decided I would go back to school to get my bachelors degree.  I have an associates and have been working towards a bachelors for quite sometime.  My only hold back was my associates degree was specialized and a lot of my generals didn't transfer to UVSC.  So I felt like I was retaking classes I had already taken.  I did some research and decided to go to Stevens Henager School of Business.  Financially, I was able to get some pell grants and financial aid, which I am grateful for.  I wasn't sure how I was going to fit this all in with me working full-time, dedicating my time to my little family, and church.  We have so many things we are doing.  I liked the idea of doing school online.  I knew I would have to do a lot of sacrifice with my time.  So far I have been able to make it work.  I have been getting up at 3 a.m. in the morning to do my homework.  Most of the time, I am able to finish my school work by Friday morning so I can relax from school stuff for the weekend. I will be going to school straight through for a little over 2 years.  I will finish before Kaitlyn goes to kindergarten.  :)  Hopefully this will help me be a greater asset for the company I am currently working for.

We also enrolled Amanda in a class piano course.  It is at Art City Music Academy.  She is doing a great job in there.  They have a parent sit in with them in their group class.  So I am able to see what she is learning, and be able to help her.  We were able to set a routine for her, especially now that she has started Kindergarten.  She will usually wake up around 6 or 6:30 a.m. and we will practice the piano first thing in the morning.  She gets pretty excited when she passes a song off.  One of her favorite things to do is doing the flash cards.  She will have her first recital on January 21st.  We are excited to see her perform. :)

First day of school!

Amanda & Kaitlyn's first day of school.  Amanda's first day at Kindergarten

and Kaitlyn will be going to Iliana's Daycare/Preschool.

 Showing off their backpacks.  I had to laugh that they are bending over.

Kaitlyn's backpack is a little ballerina frog that says "tippy toes" on it.  My sister, Diana, gave this to us and thought it would be perfect for Kaitlyn's diaper bag when she goes to Iliana's.

I was able to take the morning off to get my girls off to school.  It was fun to see Amanda excited for school and even her excitement when she came home running say, "Mommy!  I have homework!"  She said she had a blast!. :)



Funny Little Things

There are times you see things happen and just bring a smile to your face.  Here are some photos that made me smile with our kids.

 Kaitlyn cuddling up to her lady bug pillow pet and all of her blankets on the floor.

 Amanda hanging out and playing with her stuffed dog.

 Look what I found...oreo cookies with the filling eaten out of them.

Looks like Jessica didn't hide them very good.

 There's the culprit in action.

 She seemed a bit surprised when I walked in.  I wonder why? lol

Looks like Kaitlyn was taking care of daddy while he was sleeping. :)  What a lucky dad!