Janson, Noelle & Lacee Pace

Happy Birthday Lacee!

2012-01-24T15:19:00.008-07:00

LOOK WHO JUST TURNED 4!!!

Lacee really wanted a Rapunzel cake. At first I was just going to make a plain cake and stick Rapunzel on top...but how much fun is that? So I decided to make Rapunzel's tower! The bottom part is all cake and the main part of the tower is rice krispie treats with frosting. The top is a waffle cone dipped in frosting and sugar crystals. She LOVED this cake and her princess party was magical! Since she turned 4, I had to take some pictures of course! :) I love photography.... and she loves the camera :)

Thanks for the best 4 years of our lives Lacee! For the smiles, laughs hugs, kisses, silly faces, funny sayings, and every moment we get to be together! We love you!!!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-23T16:40:00.003-07:00

New beginnings, resolutions and a wonder what this new year will bring. To kick off the new year, mom and dad came over for games and banging pots and pans as the clock struck 12:00. Surprisingly, Lacee stayed awake to scream and cheer as well! Oh ya, dad and Janson put in some lights for our gym!

"To health happiness and a wonderful new year!!!"

Dad shot the moon and beat us all...

Photography

2011-03-15T16:55:00.003-06:00

I hardly ever get on here, but I just wanted to let you all know that I just started a new blog where I can post some of my photos. I absolutely love photography and have for as long as I can remember. Now that I have a little time, I am diving in and wanting to learn as much as I can. You can view my blog by clicking on the side or just go to NoelleMariePhotography.blogspot.com. I'm not writing in it much...it's just a place to put some photos for now.

Have a great day!

Noelle

Wow...it's been a year

2011-02-27T22:05:00.004-07:00

So...since I'm sure no one really gets on here to see what I have to say anyway, a year isn't so bad is it? :) I can't believe it's been one year since I've been on here...and it's been a year since the Olympics!!!!!!! Time goes by way too fast. We grow up imagining a minute to last 10 minutes, an hour to last a day, a day to last a week and that a month or year will just never end...and then you blink and your 20 or 30 or 60 years old and you don't know how it all went by so quickly. When did time speed up? A minute to a 3 year old just isn't the same as a minute when you're older. Anyway, there's my moment of my mind rambling and I'm done now. :)

Here's what's new:

Lacee is 3! She LOVES to ride her bike, make funny faces, gymnastics, play with her "baby elephant", draw and color, sing songs, "read" (or at least look through) books, clean the house, kick or throw any ball, and dress up like a princess.

Janson is totally amazing as usual. He's such a great husband to me and dad to Lacee. He's just a stud. What more can I say. :)

This past year we went to Vancouver, New York, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Idaho, Ohio, London (Canada), and I'm sure a few other places that I can't think of right now. But today Janson, Lacee and I just returned fro a 4 day trip to Vegas. It was great to get away before the baby comes. We went to the Shark Reef Aquarium, Circus Circus for games, Caesar's Palace for gelato, South Point for bowling and a movie, and walked around 10 miles in one day at the outlets and down the strip. It was so much fun ...and Lacee had a blast.

SnowFire took up most of our fall/winter with shows every weekend, marketing plans and website orders to fulfill. It has been great to be able to come up with designs and styles, go through the process of making it come about and then going outside and seeing people wearing what at one point, you had only imagined. It has been very rewarding. The sale-season is slowing down as spring approaches which is just in time because....

WE'RE HAVING A BOY IN A FEW WEEKS! He is due to arrive March 26th. We (I) :) ....have been pretty set on the name Traycen. Janson has been back and forth with it. We were trying to think of how to spell it. We like Traycen and Traecen. I'm pretty sure will stick with the first one though. For a middle name we want it to be a family name so something like Layne, Stewart, Brandt, Pikus, Nickerbocker.......who knows. :)

Although I miss sliding and competing at the World-Class level....I have absolutely LOVED being home and having time to do other things that I have wanted to do for years. I was actually able to take down the Christmas decorations before St Patrick's Day!!! Wahoooo!

So to conclude this blog, one of the things I have always loved is photography. As crazy as it sounds, I actually have all of the supplies for my own dark room. Yup. A few years ago Janson let me dedicate a room to dark room developing...but now that it's a digital world...I have been wanting to learn more and do more with my SLR camera. So a few weeks ago I began taking a photography class through UVU and I thought I'd post a few of my pics. I love it, I love it, I love it. I have been playing around with the manual modes for the past few weeks and different lighting situations which has really helped me to understand more about photography.

Thanks for reading!

~Noelle

U.S. Olympic Athletes Begin Arriving In Vancouver

2010-02-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

U.S. Olympic Athletes Begin Arriving In Vancouver

The Perfect Workout

2009-05-28T21:47:00.011-06:00

Yup...I'm a slacker and update this every three to four months. Oh well. I'm actually doing another blog for the United States Olympic Committee which I'm gonna post on here and add a little bit to it as well...so here it is:

I think most people think that Olympic athletes have very different lives than the average person... eat, train, eat, train, eat, train….sleep…do it again. Okay, so at times this might be true. But for many of us, we have “normal” lives to live outside of our competition schedules as well. Bills to pay, loved ones to spend time with…and yards to maintain. An example of this is last month, my husband and I received some news:

Good News: After the snow melted away and the frost disappeared, we had a company come out to spray for bugs as well as fertilize our grass.

Bad News: They weren’t able to spray because grubs ate the roots of our grass so we had to tear apart our whole yard…

We have spent the past five weeks cutting, digging, pulling, filling, raking, planting, building, tilling, leveling and spraying our yard. I have no idea how farmers do it. Talk about an Olympic workout! I would wake up at 6 AM, do my workout for a couple of hours and then work on the yard until bedtime. Lacee (she’s 16 months now) would help me dig up the yard and ate a little of it here and there (which saved us an extra trip to the land fill). Over Memorial weekend we had a “sod laying party” and friends and family came over to help us lay 4,000 square feet of sod. Thanks to those that helped!!!

This week I built a couple of planters boxes and planted strawberries, watermelons, squash, zucchini, corn and my favorite….a pumpkin patch for the fall!!! I have planted over 200 plants, trees and flowers! (Okay so 100 of those are lily bulbs). But still! Our yard is almost finished. My brother owns “Pikus Concrete” and is going to come and pour a cement patio for our backyard sometime next week as well as the cement for the fence posts (yup…we’re going all out- New grass, new plants and trees, new walkway and patio… and a new fence) We are landscaping fools. I have been so sore over the past couple of weeks. I had no idea I had muscles in some of the places that are sore. I have come to believe that the “yard work workout” will one day become the new strength and conditioning trend. It’s the perfect workout. It slims, trims, and tones your body and if that’s not enough, it effectively increases the aesthetic appeal to your living area! J Gyms are seriously over-rated. (Okay, okay so I really need my gym too. But all I’m saying is that Rocky had the right idea.)

My break from training and working on the yard is playing women’s and coed slow-pitch softball. I love it! As the sliding season comes closer, I will obviously need to back off from playing so much to avoid any kind of injury. Most of the time, I play short stop or third base. Janson plays outfield or pitches. My two favorite bats (in case you’re interested) are the Mizuno Crush 2 and the Worth Mayhem. I hit a ball to the fence (320 feet) using the Crush 2 this week…yup, homerun for yours truly. We played in a pretty competitive tournament two weeks ago and have another tournament this weekend which my family is playing in. Trust me, when you play shortstop and a 300 pound guy steps up to the plate and whacks the ball in your direction, it forces you to work on your mental game because quite honestly, it can be pretty intimidating. You have to have confidence in your abilities. Whoever thinks that slow-pitch softball is easy or isn’t fun has most likely never tried it out. You should try it sometime.

Finally, it was Janson’s 29th birthday this week. (Happy birthday Jans!) I checked him out of work early and took him to lunch and golfing. Even though I had a double bogey on just about every hole, I had a blast. My main goal for skeleton this summer, going into the Olympic season, is to work on my mental game. Maybe I should golf everyday? What a tough mental sport. Kudos to those that golf without completely losing it.

Aside from working on the yard and playing softball, being a mom occupies every minute of my day. Lacee is growing up so quickly-she's 16 months (2 months until nursery!!!! :) ). She is so much fun. She loves to climb on everything and run from thing to thing. She is very fluent in her own dialect and thinks she is six years old. She knows exactly what she wants. Her favorite foods are chicken or scrambled eggs. She has more energy than Janson and I have ever had combined. I can't imagine a life without her.

Janson says, "nope". That's all he wanted to say when I asked if he wanted to say anything to our blog. -He's doing great. And even though I know he'll never read this, he is the best husband and father I could have ever wished for.

Talk to you later!

-Noelle

One More Race

2009-02-16T09:00:00.007-07:00

Wahoooo! I took home the Bronze on my home track in Park City last weekend! Thanks everyone for supporting me and cheering me on! GO USA!

I was able to come home from Europe for three days to celebrate Lacee's first birthday! The day we celebrated, she fell and bit a hole all the way through her tongue. I went into panic mode but luckily Grandma Pikus was with me and told me there was nothing the doctor's could do for it, her tongue would heal and Lacee would be okay.

Well, it did heal very well. Actually, that night at her party, the chocolate cake seemed to diminsh all signs of any pain she might have felt :)

Now I'm in New York getting ready for the biggest race (next to the Olympics).... World Championships! We have been sliding the past couple days and now we have a week off! Wahoooo! My neck is SUPER sore from sliding so much. The break will be great. My family is coming out to cheer me on! *Thanks, I can't wait to see you guys!*

Wish me luck!

Welcoming the New Year!

2009-01-03T17:06:00.005-07:00

It was great to be home for Christmas! Janson looked better than ever (he has always been a hotty :) ), the mountains in Utah seemed like they stood a little taller, and the cold milk from the fridge...and not from a box on a shelf...was so refreshing :)

We spent time with the Pace clan eating excellent food (great job with the smoked turkey dad!) and sharing gifts. The highlights of the night were the white elephant exchange, the cousins gifts, and Janson's 2008 funniest commercials reel.

Sorry I don't have any pics from Christmas or the Pace party. I'm in Austria and my pics are at home. But just trust me on this one...it was the best Christmas ever.

Lacee had so much fun with the wrapping paper. She really didn't care what was underneath it all. She loves her little baby doll and her Dora scooter thing :)

We had a blast sledding in Brigham City with the Pikus clan! We once again ate our way through the day and tried to burn a little off by sledding.

New Years eve was spent at Amanda and Taylor's with mom and dad. We had a great time playing the Wii and lighting fireworks. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

On New Year's day I flew to Germany...where I sit here in my hotel room typing. We are in Konigssee this week and will travel to St Moritz, Switzerland for another week. Following those races we will have a week of training and then a week for our competition in Vancouver, Canada...home of the 2010 Olympic Games. We will come back for 2 races in Park City on the 11 and 12 of February (yea!!! I get to be home!!!!). Then it is off to Lake Placid, New York for World Championships. SEE YOU IN MARCH! Hey, you should see my skymiles :)

Of course...a new year calls for reflection and renewal. 2008 will go down in history for the economic slump and "official recesion". However, 2008 held more joy for Janson and I than we could have ever tried to comprehend. Lacee was born January 19th. She has brought so much into our lives. We couldn't ask for more. If everything around us was destroyed, stolen, or lost, it really wouldn't matter because we have the greatest family imaginable. That's our treasure. I'm not saying this to brag...not by any means...but more to give thanks to both sides of the family...his & mine...our family. 2008 was a great year I will never forget. I can't imagine how 2009 could be better. I always wonder where everyone will be and what we will be doing one year from now, and then I realize that it will be what it will be...but today is here and now. No regrets. No missed opportunities. Live life. Live it the best that you can. Give 100% in EVERYTHING you do. Why settle? Do one thing each day that scares you. Be grateful for what you have. Smile. Do one good deed each day. Have charity. Get to know your neighbors. Eliminate self-doubts. Exercise. Enjoy the moment because you'll never get it back.

I miss you guys! It is beautiful here and I wish you could see it. The sky is clear blue with ice crystals in the air. It is almost as if there is glitter all around. The lake is pristine and the mountains are high and jagged. This track is so much fun I can't help but smile as I go down.
I love you guys. I miss you, but I will see you soon!!!!

MWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Thanks for the support that you give me!

Italy

2009-01-03T16:21:00.003-07:00

After Amanda's week-long trip, mom, Lacee and I sadly took her to the airport in Torino to go home to her family. On our drive to the next competition sight, Mom, Lacee and I went through a blizzard where I...yes me...Noelle...single-handedly put chains on our tires so we wouldn't fly off the sheer cliff just inches away. (Okay, so maybe a nice Italian man helped for a second). Once we arrived at our hotel in Sestriere, Italy the snow seemed to duplicate by the second. In two days we were surrounded by ten feet of snow! Not ten inches... TEN FEET!

You can see part of a van under the snow. All the vehicles just looked like little mounds (which is probably why many of them got hit when the snow plows came through to clear the roads). It definitely provided for some of the best snowball fights ever.

Lacee didn't mind being cooped up inside the hotel. Her friends Billy and TJ (Bobsledders) kept her company and Elmo even came out to play once in awhile :) She is officially a walking maniac. She took her first steps at nine months. A few steps (10-15) at ten months. And she is a cruiser now, at eleven months, practically running wherever she goes. I can't believe she'll be one in a couple weeks!!! Wow. Time goes by too fast. Enjoy every moment.

Me...and about 7-8 feet of snow at this point. I really wasn't exaggerating :)

So... I have the absolute best mom in the world! Thanks for traveling 5,000 miles to change some poopy diapers and wake up at 3 in the morning to get a bottle! We had a great time in Italy despite the snow...and power outages...and avalanches surrounding the hotel... Okay, so we were REALLY happy to get home for Christmas. But this is one memory I will never forget.

After 3 days of waiting for the avalanche warnings to subside, a ten hour van drive, an "accidently cancelled flight" by the flight attendant, lots of money to buy a new ticket, a 10 hour flight from Munich to Chicago with an 11 month baby(4 diapers left), an hour long wait in the customs line, a missed flight to SLC (3 diapers left), the airline not offering any help stating that we'll be lucky to get home for Christmas which was 5 days away...then telling us the farthest she could get us was to Las Vegas ("we'll take it") but we only have 20 minutes until it leaves...going through security and getting "randomly selected for additional screening", sprinting to our gate and being told they gave our tickets away because we weren't there, (but miraculously two men decided not to fly out and gave us their seats), a 4 hour flight to Las Vegas (2 diapers left), buying ANOTHER airplane ticket just to get us home, spending the night on the airport floor (1 diaper left), and taking a 6 AM flight to SLC (Out of diapers).............. WE JUST FELL TO THE GROUND AND KISSED THE HAPPY VALLEY DIRT. So what if it was a run-on sentence. That doesn't even compare to what we had to endure. :)

Good times mom. Let's not do that again-k- :)

December

2009-01-03T15:31:00.003-07:00

Mom, Amanda and Lacee came to visit me! With their cow bells in one hand and a bottle in the other, they cheered me on in Igls, Austria! It was SO good to have them there with me. We had a great time eating pastries at every bakery we came to, touring castles, playing games, and going in circles in Milan, Italy (we forgot a map) until we finally found "THE" church of Italy (because we got a map). It is one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen. Thanks for the great girls trip you two!

We went to the "Golden Roof" that dates back to the 16th century. While we were learning about a very selfish king, Lacee was imagining the knights on horses. She loved this rocking horse.

Courtney and I cheering the guys on in Altenberg, Germany. GO USA!

Three words:

Doughnut eating contest.

Three more:

...bring it on.

Me, Courtney and the Aussies.

November

2009-01-03T15:14:00.005-07:00

Let's see...two months ago... I competed in an America's Cup race in Park City where I took second. Janson's church basketball season began. I flew to Europe a week before Thanksgiving. Janson had a great time with Lacee on Thanksgiving at my brother Rob's house and then down to his grandparents for "the best homemade rolls in the WORLD!"

This was after a not so good race day in Altenberg, Germany. The first time I competed here 5 years ago I took 9th place...two years after that I took 9th... so I couldn't mess with the tradition right? Yup...I took 9th. But the bratwurst at the finish line was amazing. :)

This is me and my team at Thanksgiving dinner in Winterberg, Germany. I took 5th place there. I was really happy with it.

Meet one of my coaches: Martin Rettle- Austrian Native, Olympic Silver Medalist, Air-Traffic Controller and the number one fan of the Donald Duck fan club. This is us in Dresden, Germany at the Christmas Market eating curried bratwursts. They were the best brats I have ever had. The Christmas villages in Europe are amazing.

So...I just noticed that all three of these pictures I attached for the month of November are of me eating... what does that say??? THE FOOD IS EXCELLENT OVER HERE!!! :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-01-03T14:26:00.002-07:00

The disco divas... Halloween was awesome! -yes, it is January right now and I'm obviously behind a bit on my blogging- :)

Winner winner chicken dinner!

2008-10-28T19:56:00.007-06:00

Jayden and Skyler slept over... We made Mickey Mouse Pancakes :)

Grandpa Wright, Jayden and Dad at the outlets in Park City
Lacee watching mommy slide!
The U.S. National Team Trials for skeleton concluded this past weekend... and I finished in first place! Thanks to all my wonderful family and friends that came out to support me, I was able to win both races in Park City. Thanks everyone! This weekend is the first international competition of the season: the Americas Cup Race at the Olympic Park in Park City. I will compete on Saturday at 2:30 if anyone doesn't already have plans! :)

Lacee is helping Janson fix my sled.

Amanda, mom and kids at Hogle Zoo!

Janson and Lacee!

Hello from New York!

2008-10-13T13:54:00.005-06:00

Amanda Bird, Annie O'shea and me having ourselves a fondu night! Chocolate is SO GOOD! The fruit is a bonus.
Such Goofballs.
GO USA!
Run for your life!!!!

Me pushing in the Semi-Final Race

Me...again... and the BEST journalist in the world, Tim Reynolds (AP)
The track in Lake Placid
Like my socks?
Race day smiles!
Winner winner chicken dinner! Me and Luke Schultz (he was first for the men) after the race!

Pikus Pace Plays in Placid

2008-10-13T10:02:00.005-06:00

Hey there!

This past week was the first week back on the slippery slopes for the season! It was a blast! The ice was the fastest its been for the first week of training! Typically it takes a few weeks for weather conditions to allow for fast ice... but the track crew has done an amazing job. I have been away from home for eight days now, but I'm coming home this week!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahoooooooo! It has always been difficult to be away from Janson and family... but now, with Lacee, that difficulty has dramatically increased. I really have to learn to be here when I'm here...and there when I'm there. Does that make sense? Anyway, training has been going well. It feels great to be back and although initially it felt as though it had been years since I had last slid, now it feels like I never left. After four days of training, it was time to compete in the U.S. semi-final skeleton competition. Many of the girls had a bye for the race which automatically qualified them for the races this coming weekend, but since I took last season off, I was asked to compete on Saturday. I love to compete. I love to allow (but limit, of course) the increase in my heart rate, the butterflies in my stomach and the hope for the unknown. There is a thrill to the anticipation of standing at that line as the green light goes off and the clock begins to tick. People begin to shout your name but as your mind shifts from what is around you to what is before you, the sounds fade out and all that you hear is the pounding of your heart and every breath you take.

I love to compete.

I wanted to put more pictures on, but the internet is really slow right now, so I'll add more later.

Our little girl!

2008-10-01T15:48:00.002-06:00

Isn't Lacee just so freakin cute!!! Okay... so we're a little partial.

She is the fastest crawler we have ever seen... If we raced for a bottle, she would DEFINITELY win! She is great at going up the stairs but hasn't quite mastered coming back down... She will stand up and lean against anything and you can tell she really wants to walk...already. I'm hoping she'll wait a few months.

Sliding for skeleton begins Monday in New York. I can't believe it is already here! I am excited, overwhlemed, anxious and sad all at once. I hope my emotions settle once I get in the flow of things again. I know I'm gonna cry once I get on the airplane and have to leave Lacee. Amanda is such a great sister! She is taking care of Lacee while Janson works.

My first races are next weekend! That is so soon! After two weeks, I get to come and race in Park City! Wahoooo!
Training hasn't been going as well as I had hoped. When I was in high school I had a partial ACL tear and a complete MCL tear. After surgery, my ACL recovered, but I have a one in a million chance where the MCL never recovers. Long story short, it's been great over the past few years, but a few weeks ago my knee started swelling and has forced me to take it easy. Hopefully my push for skeleton won't suffer too much. Injuries are always frustrating. But you never know what the future holds. Maybe something worse would have happened if this didn't happen??? Who knows.

The two softball teams that we play on are in first and second! It has been so much fun to play with our family every Friday night! I can't believe how well we're doing! We definitely have to do it every year!

Football pretty much sums up Janson's extracurricular activities. He is doing awesome in fantasy football :) He walloped my team. He plays flag football Saturday mornings and BYUgames are a must-see in this household... They play Utah State this Friday. Depending on the poll they are 7th or 8th in the nation right now coming off of a back to back shut out!
GO COUGARS!

Have a SUPER day!

Family, Friends and Scenery

2008-09-12T22:26:00.004-06:00

Hey there! It's been awhile since we've updated... So here's the 411:

The Pace Reunion was (as usual) Awesome! It was a fun filled weekend of four wheeling, horseshoes and the best dutch oven desserts in the state of Utah. Lacee loved the four wheeler and the dirt. She was a mess by the end of the week... but it was nothing a little soap and water couldn't fix :)

The Pikus Family at it's best :) Need I say more? And here we are... Little Lacee is growing SO quickly! Look at those cheeks!!! :) She is so much fun. We can't believe how much she learns and grows every day. She is climbing over everything and will pull herself up to stand next to anything that she can reach.

A friend of mine- Katie K came to visit from New York! It was great to see her as I haven't seen her for nearly two years (she does skeleton as well).

We made mac 'n cheese and brownies for lunch... we live in style :)

Thanks for visiting Katie!

This is the view from our bedroom- Awesome huh!? You can't tell, but it was a full moon and the reflection on the lake was incredible.

Finally, in the past month I had to travel to Milwaukee for a few days and Calgary, Canada for a week for skeleton... Training is going really well, and I'm getting excited for the season...but I'm also really sad already to have to leave Lacee and Janson. New York training begins in three weeks! It came so fast! Janson is doing really well! Although the economy is down, work at the company is staying strong. He hit two homeruns this week in softball and he won his last fantasy football game :) (my team got clobbered). Well...that's our update!!!

We are so excited for autumn!!!! Have a SUPER day!

~us

John Mayer, apricot jam and teething

2008-07-23T22:41:00.010-06:00

On Monday night we went with some friends (Tony and Whitney) to Colbie Callait and John Mayer at the USANA Ampitheater! It was SO good! We had VIP seating... Thanks Zion's Bank! :) We were so close to the stage and could see everything! The last time I saw John Mayer was.... let's see when was that.... oh ya... it was when I was on Jay Leno with him! :) (Okay... so I'm bragging... ha ha ha... oh well) Anyway, we had a great time!

YUP......more Jam! So my parents have neighbors that have two GIGANTIC apricot trees and they asked if we wanted to pick any. After 10 minutes, I had enough apricots to FIVE TIMES THIS JAM RECIPE!!!!

Lacee was a big help once again- she wanted to be the taste tester.

Now that we have strawberry shelf jam and apricot freezer jam.... we just need to stock up on peanut butter and we'll be set for a decade!

Other news: Lacee is crawling... AND getting her first tooth! I can't believe how fast she is growing up! I love the age she is at (6 months last Saturday) and I really wouldn't mind if she stopped growing for a little while :) Although I hear that most parents feel that way and then they say the same thing at the next stage and the next... until they're teenagers :)

Here's a recent play by play conversation:

Noelle: Do you want to write anything on our blog?

Janson: Ummm, I don't think so.
Noelle: Come on, just say something.

Janson: (*ha ha ha*)

-Pause-

Janson: Happy Pioneer Day... tomorrow....
Noelle: Is that all?
Janson: yup

So there you have it. That's why this blog has so much about me in here :) Sorry....but it's really not my fault...as you can see :)

Okay, so as for some quick updates- Summer softball is over but fall ball starts in two weeks. :)Jared, Jodi and kids (my brother and sister in-law) are coming for a few weeks from Georgia! He's in his fourth year of med school and he just did an amazing job on a very critical test that will help him get into residencies. Good job Jared! Janson is "my agent" to help get sponsorships for skeleton, he mows the lawn and he loves vanilla bean ice cream. I spend my days taking care of Lacee, doing my workouts and other random things (such as making jam).

Life is great isn't it?

AMERICAN IDOL TOUR!

2008-07-17T10:53:00.005-06:00

On Tuesday night Janson, my mom and dad and I all went to the American Idol Live Tour! Our good friend, Doug Bagley invited us to go with him and some of his family. We had amazing seats too! We got to be in a suite overlooking the stage. It was awesome!

The E-Center was packed. Janson and I tried to guess how many people were there and we figured it was close to 10,000. I wonder how good our guess was?

Well, Janson and I are officially old... we had to wear ear plugs the whole time. (Except of course for "Archie") David Archuleta is such an amazing singer... and he has such a great personality.

We had a great time and got pretty much a year supply of Stride gum (they were giving it out by the handfuls).

Thanks Kristy for watching Lacee!

2008-07-06T19:59:00.006-06:00

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Okay... so it was two days ago...

Here are some fun facts:

*On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.

*On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

*One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.

*In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.

*The United States Government keeps its supply of silver at the United States Military
Academy, West Point, New York.

*The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

*27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

*A Californian doctor has set the record of eating 17 bananas in two minutes.

*Approximately 35 million Americans are linked by blood to one (or more) of the 102 pilgrims
who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

*There are five US states with no sales tax. They are: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.

*Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work.

*It was once illegal to take a bath in the wintertime in Indiana.

*Ohio is the birthplace of more Presidents than any other state - eight.

So for the fourth, we stayed at my parents house and had an amazing homemade breakfast with some yummy Maglebys Fresh syrup (homemade :) )

1 C Sugar
1 Cube butter
1 C Buttermilk
1 T Vanilla
1 T Corn Syrup
Bring to boil. Then add 1 tsp baking soda and boil 10 seconds then remove.

After breakfast we had a good 'ol American picnic with some KFC, then off to a Pace Party for some swimming, a good 'ol American BBQ & of course some fireworks. It was an awesome fourth of July. Lacee loved the colors of the fireworks and really didn't mind the noise... which was surprising. By the way, Lacee really doesn't know what to think about all the "milk substitutes"...peas, carrots, chicken & rice???
So we have about a thousand strawberry plants in our front yard. So what do you do with all those strawberries? You can have strawberry shortcake, strawberries
dipped in chocolate, strawberry rhubarb, strawberries in your cereal..... and of course..... strawberry jam! Lacee and I made about 15 jars. While I pulled the tops off of the stawberries....Lacee kept reaching for and pulling the bowl towards her trying to get a taste. She talked me through what I needed to do and now we have the best strawberry jam ever! I usually put the recipes on here, but there are a few more directions then I would like to add- so here's the link: http://www.pickyourown.org/jam.htm.

Life is SO good for the three of us right now!

Olympic Training Center

2008-06-23T22:38:00.003-06:00

This past week was cram packed with sprinting, lifting, seminars, games, food and lots of hot fudge sundaes :)
I spent a week at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs with the rest of the Skeleton and Bobsled U.S. National Team. It was really hard to be away from Janson and Lacee all week, but at the same time, it was really good for me to re-gain some competition focus. It is hard to train day in and day out by myself and going there and seeing everyone else training and headed for the same goal reinforced my desire to continue to work hard and stay motivated. So... this picture of the insanely steep hill is "the incline". We had to do sprint intervals up it. My quads were pretty sore afterward... then we went to the weight room...

One of the activities we did while we were there was a cardboard boat race! It was awesome. We didvided into 9 teams and had to come up with a plan to get members of our team across the swimming pool with just cardboard and duct tape . Some teams built pontoons, others built bobsleds and we went with the traditional canoe.... Needless to say the canoe sunk when all was said and done. It was a blast though. That night we all got dolled up and went to "the Gala". The week went really well and I am refreshed and ready to continue my training program! It is really good to be back home with Lacee and Janson. There is no way that I could do this without them... or without the support of my family. My mom, Janson's mom and my sister Amanda all took turns watching Lacee. They are the best! :) I love my family.

Simming, Baking and Family Fun!

2008-06-08T23:37:00.007-06:00

Okay, so here's the 411 of our past month:

Janson has decided to go on for his Master's Degree! He has a LOT of pre-requisites, but has started on the long road with trigonometry. As you can see from the picture... at times it is a little hard for him to stay focused :)
He is looking into the civil engineering MS at the University of Utah. Structural and mechanical are the two areas that he is looking into but we'll keep ya updated as the classes go on :)

Our nephew, Kyler Morgan Smoot graduated!!! Go Box Elder Bees! We went up to Brigham City and Logan for a weekend of fun with the famliy. Kyler is thinking of going to Utah State. He is awesome with anything that has to do with computers and has thought about engineering of some kind. Congrats Ky! Here's a picture of me and my girls :) My sisters: Amanda, Gege, (me) & Shauna at Ky's Graduation.

Our little girl went swimming for the first time! Janson, Lacee & I went with all of our family (the Pace Clan) to 7 peaks. Kristy and Troy won a 20 person pass and pizza in a contest and invited us to go! It was a little cold and windy, but we had fun. And even better... we got free passes to come back because some of the slides and pools were closed! Lacee loved the water and we all had fun on the slides. Here is a picture of Janson's brother Bryce on "the freefall".

Thanks Kristy and Troy! We'll have to go back with our free passes on a sunny day when the lazy river works! :)

So...
These are the best cookies in the world. They are "homemade" oreo cookies. The reason I had homemade in parenthesis is because you use devils food cake mix :)
I made both a cream cheese filling and a mint filling.

Here's the recipe:

2 devil food cake mixes
4 eggs
1 1/2 C shortening

Mix well. Roll into balls and bake 8-10 min @ 350 degrees.

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese
2 3/4 C powder sugar
1/2 cube butter
1 tsp vanilla

My family entered into the Pony Express Softball Tournament! It was a blast. The team was 90% my family! I made the cookies as a treat for us. Here's the roster:
Dad
Mom
Kevin
Frank
Shauna
Rob
Amanda
Taylor
Janson
Noelle
and our friend Shawna Rassmussen. We also had amazing subs when Rob and Kevin were sick and Shauna couldn't make it down for a game: Greg (and AJ Rich :) ), Durran Fewkes, Delana Smith and Kylee Sharp.

WE TOOK 3RD PLACE!

We did so good! It was so much fun to get together, have a barbeque, get out on the softball field and play some ball. Good job everyone!!! We are freaking awesome! :)

Well, life is great. Lacee and I are best buds and we just get to hang out every day. She lets me workout while she takes a pretty consistant 3 hour nap each morning. Janson is enjoying what he does for work and at the same time he is excited about what he is learning in school. Our yard still has a bunch of dandelions despite our best effort to get rid of them. But my favorite color is yellow so it doesn't bother me too much. And finally our trusty little Honda Civic gets 40-45 miles to the gallon.

Hope your day is as good as ours!

Our memories!

2008-05-13T12:34:00.001-06:00

spiders and smoke detectors

2008-05-13T11:10:00.004-06:00

So first of all we had sloppy joes last night and they were pretty amazing if I must say so myself. I totally forgot about the artichoke that I had steaming and I don't think the bottom of the pot will ever be the same. So we think we have a spider or something in one of our smoke detectors because at midnight every alarm in our house started going off. Janson jumped out of bed to make sure there wasn't a fire anywhere (I told him to come back and wake me up if there was :) ). About 10 minutes later he returned without having found any signs of smoke or fire. We fell back asleep and about an hour later it went off again! It was so loud I'm sure every house in our neighborhood was awakened. Again... I stayed in bed and Janson checked... no fire. I guess the moral to this story is: you may as well get an extra half hour of sleep when your alarm goes off cause chances are that 99% of the time it is a false alarm... I really hope that 1% comes on a night that I can't fall asleep :)

WORKOUTS

2008-05-07T21:45:00.003-06:00

So I have been doing my workouts for skeleton and they're kicking my backside. Here's what I did today:

10 min Bike or Jog

Dynamic Warm-Up (10 each) =
Forward Skip LHR
Backward Skip LHR
Shuffle
Shuffle w/ Pivot
Karioca Quick Step
Forward Skip HHR
Backward Skip HHR
Drop Squat
Drop Lunge
Leg Swings (F/B & S/S)
Standing Hurdler
Squat & Thrust

Olympic Bar Warm-Up:

2 x 5e done consecutively

Clean Grip Deadlift
RDL
Muscle Hang Clean
Push Press
Squat
Good Mornings

LIFTING:

Olympic Complex #2 =

3 sets of 4 reps:

Split Snatch
Snatch Grip Deadlift
Snatch Grip RDL

3 sets of 10:

Bent Over Row
Wt. Dips

Hyperextensions
Cable Rhomboid Row

Cable Wood Chop

Tabata Squat & Press (4 min: 20 sec. on / 10 sec off) ----THIS ONE IS INSANE!

SO, there's 2 and a half hours of my day :) Only 139 more days of this until sliding starts.... wow...that's a lot of lifting. I should add up every weight I lift until that day and see how many pounds I have lifted.

I AM SO READY FOR SUNNY SUMMER DAYS!

So much for Janson's update :)

2008-04-24T11:55:00.005-06:00

Okay... so the reason it has been awhile since the last update is because I said that I wouldn't write until Janson wrote- We can see how that went. To his credit... he's been really busy. He works in Salt Lake at a Steel Fabrication Shop, he's been working on the yard and has been an awesome dad and husband in the mean time. Now that springtime is here, softball is in full "swing". Ha ha... cheesy, I know. Anyway, I play Women's on Tueday, Janson plays Men's double headers on Wednesday and we play coed Thursday and Friday. Okay.... so it's a little much. So far, mom and dad Pikus, Grandpa Wright, my brother Frank, mom Pace and Lacee are our biggest fans! Janson plays pitcher and Center Field. He likes playing outfield. I've been playing Center, third and Pitcher. I love playing anywhere there's a chance that the ball will be :)

Lacee is three months old now! Time flies. She has quite the chubby cheeks and is smiling all the time. She's over 14 pounds already! She was blessed on the 13th. It was a perfect day. The sun was out and all of our family and friends went to a pavillion for a pot luck picnic. Also since I wrote last, Lacee took her first flight! We flew to New York and went to Niagra Falls, Palmyra, and Lake Placid for a couple skeleton races. Lacee did so good the whole trip! I had no idea that Niagra Falls wasn't just one water fall... It's three! In the city of Niagra Falls! We also had a great time visiting the church sites in Palmyra! It was amazing to go into the Sacred Grove and think what had taken place there. As for the races in Lake Placid- it felt so good to get back on my sled and compete! I was worried that I wouldn't feel the same about sliding or that I wouldn't do that well- but I took 2nd and 3rd! It was great! We still don't really know how it's going to work next season with Lacee, but we know that this is what we're supposed to be doing right now and it will work out somehow.

Last weekend we went to Southern Utah (Moab and Arches) with my family. It was a blast. We hiked to Centenial Arch, camped in little "dorm-style" cabins at the KOA, went riding on dirt bikes and four wheelers, saved an old man's bumper that flew off and almost hit our car as we were driving down the highway and..... had a midnight ice cream run to the local Diner. :)

Lacee just woke up. Gotta go!

SLIDESHOW HELP!?

2008-03-18T16:10:00.002-06:00

Okay... so I am FINALLY figuring out how the slideshow works. I am a little "blogger illiterate" and couldn't figure out how to put our own pictures on the slideshow. So now that I have figured it out (kinda) I can't figure out how to choose the pictures I want to put onto it... So I look really vain cause pretty much all of the pictures on the slideshow are of me. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) Can you put more than 20 pics on a slideshow? And how do you pick the ones to show? MOVING ON.... Well- Lacee is about to take her first flight and her first vacation! We're all going to New York.... next week.... holy cow....Is it really next week??? We better get our flights! :) We're going to Niagra Falls and Palmyra then over to Lake Placid for the America's Cup race. I am SO not ready to compete!!! Since Lacee was born I was trying to recover for the first two weeks...then I got that awful three week fever/flu... then I sprained my ankle got a cold and sprained my ankle again! I've only worked out a handful of times since she was born. Oh well. I'll just try and have fun and get back in the mental mode of competition. I'm gonna make Janson write the next post cause I feel like every blog is about me.... the pictures are of me....the writing is about me.....me me me. That's it.... I'll tell Janson.....

What's new?

2008-03-14T18:48:00.002-06:00

So... We're all feeling better :) Janson and I just finished our church basketball seasons. Janson's team took second and went to regionals. They just got out last night. My team took fourth... I sprained my ankle in our game last night. Grandpa Wright, Uncle Mike, Mom & Dad Pikus, Amanda and her kids came to watch... and of course... I got injured. Blah. It was a bummer but I'll get over it. Lacee is doing great! We took her in to see the doctor early this week because she lost her voice and he said she had laryngitis (is that how you spell it?). It was really sad and really cute at the same time. Anyway, she is back to crying like normal now. Tomorrow morning (6 AM!) I am flying to Colorado Springs to speak at a luncheon with members of the United States Olmpic Committee and Sponsors. It's a quick trip - I'll be home Sunday morning. Hopefully Lacee will be good for Janson :)
Have a Great Day!!

-Noelle

We're all sick!

2008-03-07T22:30:00.004-07:00

So it has been FOREVER since we last posted. We finally decided to join the craze and update our blog site. Right now we are all sick. Well... I am just starting to feel better (Just getting over the flu)... Janson is feeling worse (In the middle of the flu)... and Lacee is the same with a cold. Lacee is now 7 weeks old! Time really does fly when you're having fun :) She was 7 pounds 12 ounces when she was born and now is well on her way to 12 pounds. Janson and I are both in Church basketball tournaments right now which probably isn't helping us to feel better but we love to play and won't give it up :) Anyway, Lacee is hit and miss for sleeping through the night. She slept for 7 hours, then 9, then 5. She is smiling and giggling and rolling over. Lacee has been so much fun and Janson and I love being parents. We'll write more soon but right now it is 11 PM and we both have games at 8 AM tomorrow....... Adios!

Ciao!

2006-02-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the support!

I just returned from Italy and we didn't have internet access over there. It was a bitter sweet trip. Bitter obviously because I couldn't compete. That was really hard. I had tickets to go watch but knew it would be too hard. So Janson (my husband) and I just watched from the TV. It was sweet because I was there with most of my family, I got to tour Italy (Rome, Pisa and Venice) and... it was finally over. As strange as it might sound, I was just happy it was over. I had been anticipating going and then I wasn't, then I was, then I wasn't. So now, for the next few months, I look forward to assisting in coaching track and field at Utah Valley State College, playing golf,and enjoying life every day.

Brings words and photos together (easily) with
PhotoMail - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail.

New Blog for Noelle

2005-12-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

This is a blogging site for Noelle.