ragnar relay...

a couple of weeks after my gno i went back up to santa barbara (yes my husband is a saint) to run the ragnar relay. it is a run from ventura to dana point. it's a 200 mile run down california. we had a team of 12 runners and 2 vans. each runner runs 3 legs of the race. our team name was "south bound fiesta" and we dressed like the guys of running from the bulls. we decorated our cars to look like bulls. how do you like the nose ring? and the tail?

ha ha ha.

this is our team
"south bound fiesta"

this is me on first leg of the race. i had a 7 mile up hill run in the dark.

fun times :)

we started the race friday morning and ended saturday evening.

this is lindsay and i saturday morning after running 2 legs, getting no sleep, and both getting sick to our stomach.

the southbound girls from van #2.

jenni, lindsay, and vern

southbound fiesta at the finish line.

our team did awesome!!

we beat the "tutu mama's" so that's all that matters.

yay team!!

santa barbara annual gno with my girls :)....

every spring i get together with my girlfriends and we take a little vacay to our dear friend caitlin's hosue in santa barbara. vern and gina ALWAYS make us fun t-shirts and saturday night we go to dinner and dancing all dressed alike.
it's pretty funny since we are all now in our mid-30's now. it's fun to have a group of friends that you can still act fun and goofy with.
sunday morning we went to breakfast at the best breakfast place in town (in my opinion). they have the BEST french toast :)

thanks girls for another amazing weekend.

love you all.

st. patty's day run....

for st. patrick's day i ran a 10k race

down in san diego with some girlfriends.

ofcourse we dressed up and all wore matching outfits.

we decided to make a little weekend of it
and get a hotel room for the night.

we dressed up (again) and went out to dinner.

these girls are always so much fun.

sorry..

i have been so behind on my blogging latley. i think it has been about 6 weeks since my last post. i am going to go back and try to update on what has been going on. i don't think i can do it all at once but slowly but surely i will get caught up :)

my hero...

isaiah had a writing assignment where he had to write about his hero. here is his essay...

my hero

by isaiah beasley

my hero is my dad, aaron seth beasley, but he goes by seth. he is my hero because he stays at work until 8am to 6pm and when he gets home he plays with my brothers and i. my dad and i like to quote funny movies like Mystery science theatre 3000. he is very smart, so sometimes we talk about history. we love to watch war movies like Band of Brothers.

my dad and i love to go to fun places. we go to disneyland and go on almost all the roller coaster's, our favorite is big thunder mountain. when we go hiking at peter's canyon we bring my toy guns and play army. i hope you all have a great hero like mine.

12 years.....

*happy 12 year anniversary seth*

12 years ago today was seriously the happiest day of my life.

my wedding day in my eyes was perfect.

i felt relaxed and happy.

seth and i smiled the whole time.

our faces hurt by the end of the night.

i love my husband more today then that perfect wedding day.

tj..

this week has been a great week for tj. on sunday at church his little cubscout troop got to hand out programs at the door, and they introduced them on stage.

then today he was honored with an award for being a great learner and very respondsible.

we are so proud of you!
love you!!

tj lost is 2 front teeth..

tj is our little toothless wonder right now.

in the past few months he has lost 4 teeth!

he looks so cute!

last week he lost his 4th one.

the second one on top.

now he has a cute little lisp.

chores....

we have really been enforcing the chores again. i feel like we got a little lazy about it for awhile, but now we are back.

we sat the boys down and told them that we are a family , and as a family we all must help out. i don't believe in paying kids to do chores, i believe more in rewarding for good attitudes and good hearts.

i feel like we all live in this house and we should all take care of it.

i think part of the reason we have gotten so lazy is we didn't given our kids enough credit for what they can do. i sometimes just have the attitude that it will be faster and better if i just do it myself.

but what does that teach them?

nothing.

so the other night i tested tanner to see if he could do the dishes. he's 7.

and guess what?

he did a fantastic job.

so now, tanner and isaiah

take turns clearing the table, putting away clean dishes, and putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

they also have to clean the table after we eat and sweep under the table. it has been great and they are doing a fantastic job. we still get a whine or complain now and again but for the most part they are having really great attitudes.
smoosh takes the trash out and cleans the toilets.
he is also doing a great job.
he likes to scrub and scrub the toilet until the bowl is shiny white.




the other day my girlfriend came over for dinner, after we ate the boys got right to their chores. she asked isaiah " how much does your mom pay you?"..........
isaiah-" nothing. it's a hard knocked life for us"
ha ha ha. love it :) so funny!

friends christmas party...

i have been a total slacker with my blogging lately. this party happened over a month ago. better late then never :)

every year we do a highschool friends christmas party. this year the jevec's hosted.

for those that don't know, my good friend vern got married while we were in hawaii. she had asked me to be a bridesmaid, i said yes, but told her i would have to be there in spirit since we would be on vacation. she asked if we could do pictures before i left so i put my bridesmaid dress on and she put her wedding dress on and we did pictures. well, i had no idea what she was going to do with those pictures. ha ha.. she made a life size cardboard cutout of me so i could be at her wedding. it was hysterical. so anyway, at our friends christmas party someone brought "cardboard jenni" as a white elephant gift. seth was very excited :)me meeting "cardboard jenni". ha ha ha!

it was a super fun night. we laughed ALOT and ate good food.
fun times spent with life long friends.

a little video that we made of all the boys (6) in hawaii....

hawaii....

the day after christmas we left for a week away on the north shore of oahu with our great friends the clarks. we lived here for 7 days... it was amazing!! this was our bedroom
and this is our balcony looking over the beach. it was wonderful waking up at sunrise to the sound of crashing waves. heaven on earth.


this was our view .. every day it was surreal that we were actually there. i am so thankful that we were able to take our family on this vacation.

the boys loved snorkeling. they were in the water everyday at 7 am. we had sea turtles and beautiful fish right in front of our house.

seth was also able to surf while we were there. he also got to see pipleline and sunset beach break. it was truly amazing.

tanner liked to eat lunch in the hammock :)

all the boys at turtle bay

we ate shaved ice every day! it was so good!

one day we took a trip over to pearl harbor. isaiah was in awe. he has been reading about pearl harbor for over a year now. he studies world war 2 more then anyone i know.

on new year's eve the locals told us that everyone does fireworks. so we ofcourse had to participate :) it felt like 4th of july.

isn't smooshie's hair awesome! ha ha ha!

all over the north shore they have these shrimp trucks on the side of the road. they were everywhere, smelled good, and were always crowded. we knew we had to stop and we were so glad we did. it was amazing.

we had such a great vacation. it was really hard to leave.

**aloho**

christmas 2009...

we had a great christmas this year. we celebrated the whole week, so on christmas day we just hung out, ate a great breakfast, my parents and seth's sister came over and we just chilled. it was very relaxing. we also went on a family bike ride later in the day :) da boys in their matching pj's :)
every year we have a tradition of going to yen cheng's on christmas eve and then going light looking.

i was so bummed that i didn't take more pics on christmas day. we got a new video camera so we were playing with that. this is THE ONLY pic i got of the boys in front of the tree.

i was so proud of the boys this year and their attitude regarding christmas. they truly understood the meaning and were very selfless. they focused on jesus' birth and the blessing of giving to others. :)

FINAL DAY: 12 days of christmas (video)...

UPDATE: first week of the 12 days of christmas...

when we first started 'the 12 days of christmas' i was so excited that God was using our family to bless this homeless family, i had no idea the huge blessing that i would recieve. yesterday as we were dropping our meal off to them the middle boy ran up to me and gave me a huge hug, he then grabbed isaiah's hand and they took off. i was so blessed and filled with joy! then the husband told us that they wanted to join a bible study and start going to church. we haven't witnessed to them yet but we have just been showering them with love and friendship, and by God's grace Gods love has been shining through us. i feel so humbled and blessed that God is using us. THEN....remember how i said in my last post that i was hesitant at first cause we don't have alot of money right now, and how God told me HE doesn't need my money.....well, today he showed me even more that he is the ULTIMATE provider. two families came up to me today and gave me money and giftcards for gas and groceries!! isn't that awesome!! today at church our pastor was talking about mary and how God's plan made no sense to her, it was confusing and impossible. but she was obedient. that is how i feel right now. at first we were a little hesitant and even a little confused by what God was asking us to do. there were some things that happened that made us question if we were doing the right thing. but we put all that aside and just walked in obedience with what God was calling us to do despite our reservations. thank you God for blessing this family and for blessing us!

the 12 days of christmas..

two years ago (october) seth lost his job. he was out of work for 4 months. it was a very hard time for us but we made it. by God's amazing grace we had family and friends supporting us financially, and emotionally. one family (who still to this day is anonymous) did something a.ma.zing. the 12 days leading up to christmas they would leave something on our doorstep. every morning we would wake up and a present would be waiting. the kids LOVED IT!! we were so blessed. we always said that when things got better for us we would do that for someone that was in need. well, it's 2 years later and things are better but not huge where we have tons of money to give away. seth does have a job, actually owns his own business now, but we still live paycheck to paycheck and every week we get on our knees praying for God to provide. but as i look on my life and everything i have i am so RICH! praise God we live paycheck to paycheck, atleast we have a paycheck to live on. i have a house, healthy kids, medical insurance, 2 cars, a refrigerator full of food, cable ect...i could go on and on. anyway, i felt like i was waiting until we were wealthy for us to be able to help someone. God stopped that way of thinking real fast and i am so glad he did. who am i anyway, he doesn't need my money to help someone, he just needs me listening and willing to follow HIM. so, this year w/out alot of money we have commited to helping a family in need for 12 days (just as that anonymous family did for us). a few weeks ago we were talking to the kids about the importance of giving and how we wanted our focus this christmas to not be about us and our needs. we told them how we wanted to help someone out for 12 days. they were very excited. smooshie mentioned a family that we had seen in the stater bros. parking lot a few months ago (surprised he remembered) , a family of five living in their car. with much enthusiasm he says "let's buy them a house!!", how sweet the heart of a child. i told him we couldn't buy them a house but we could provide them with food and necessities and hopefully some toys for christmas. so as a family we prayed and all agreed that this would be the family we would help. i was talking to a friend a few days later and she said she wanted to help to. after a few people hearing about it we now have 4 families and a friend helping. so from dec. 13th-dec. 25th we are doing something for them every day. not only are we providing them food and shelter (helping pay for a motel) but we are praying and hoping that they will see the light of Jesus through us. just last night a friend of our's gave us some money for no reason. my first thought was , hmm.. what can i buy with this, and then God knocked me upside the head :) and i realized i should give it away. that was God's way of providing so we could use it for the family. we were able to get them 4 nights in a motel for the week of christmas. they will have a bed and a shelter for christmas, i am so excited :) praise be to God for all of his provisions!! i am not writing this to be prideful and to show what an amazing family we are, far from it. God has humbled me in ways i could never imagine. i don't naturally have a heart for the homeless, and giving is actually very hard for me to do. i am smart with our money almost to a fault where i get stingy with it. i am so blessed though that God has called our family to do this. he always uses the weak , right?? and that is DEFINATLEY us. we are walking in blind faith being obedient to what God has called us as a family to do. this year has been a HUGE year of obedience and trust for us and i am excited to keep living in faith and trusting in God almighty.

"we know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. so we also ought to give up our lives for our brother's and sister's. if someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion- how can God's love be in that person" 1john 3:16-17

thanksgiving...

we took our annual family trip to tuscon for thanksgiving. what a blessing to spend the week with all our family.we did a ton of fun stuff while we were there. we went to old tucson, pima county air museum, and pinnacle peaks.

every year after we eat we all take a walk down to the wash. we have been doing this since i was a baby!! it's so fun to be carrying on these traditions with my kids now :) i think this is the first year we have ever gotten a picture of all of us down at the wash. i decided to use my timer on my camera! why didn't we think of that before?

thank you sissy and uncle jerry for being such gracious and generous hosts. we love you!!