Londons Run 2010

Nate and I both Ran Londons Run this past January! Nate ran his annual 10k and I ran the Half marathon! It was alot of fun, especially seeing all the families from all over the valley get together for this great cause! Nate finished faster than he did the previous 2 years! woohoo, he has become a great runner! I finished faster than any other half I have ever done (47 min), 3rd place for my age group! saweet! It was the most painful run I have ever ran, I ran it 2 weeks after the Marathon and still had knots at the tops if my feet! I love this run and hope to do participate every year!

These are the girls that I run with in the morings! I love them!!

My 24th Birthday

I am making a semi weak attempt to update our blog (mostly pics that I can just copy and paste), Nate is watching the NBA Playoff games and so He will be "gone" for the next few hours!
My birthday (jan. 29th) was a fun one. Nate had to work so my girlfriends took me out to brunch, including one of my closest friends that flew down from Utah that day! I truly am so grateful for the amazing friends that I have. We went shopping, and then headed home. Nate told me to get ready and quickly learned that alll of our close friends were at Olive Garden waiting for us! Since he knew that I was running in the Londons Run the next day he made sure that we went somewhere that had ALOT of pasta! WIthout going into too much detail, there was alot of laughing, dancing, singing and videorecording done in Olive Garden and also the parking lot! lol. Here are a few pics from that day!

THE PF CHANGS MARATHON!

Are you kidding me! I ran a stinking marathon! It was nuts! Definitely something that I will never forget! it hurt but sooooooo worth it! The night before the race we went to the Runner Expo and I LOVED IT! Everything that had to do with running was there, my kind of heaven.
The morning of the race, nerves started getting to me , luckily my family was there at the start line to calm me down!
Standing in the middle of 6,000 people at the start, the gun fired and we were off! For the first 10 miles, I was averaging a 7:50 min/mile pace talking to the runners that were around me...seriously so much fun! I slowed down to 8:06 min mile and held that until mile 20 and WHAAAAM! I hit a BIG wall at mile 20! I saw Nate at the mile marker and just started to cry, I had been running for 3 hours and knew that I still had another hour to go! My feet were hurting because I had developed knots on the tops of my feet, and my hamstrings were cramping like crazy, but knowing that if I stopped my body would instantly cramp and I wouldnt be able to finish. I slowed waaaay down to 9 min mile. When I saw the finish line and all my wonderful friends and family cheering me on it was the most incredible feeling! I finished in 3 hrs and 52 min.
One thing that I didnt know about my body was that once it has been running for a long period of time, and then it comes racing to a dead stop, i get nausous and queezy and everything that I ate that day and the day before came spewing out! The entire rest of the day I felt MISERABLE! But I do have to say that it was well worth it. I cant wait until that next marathon!
Since my brother is still out on his mission, I made a video for him with all the pics that I took from the marathon and Nate surprised me and put it on youtube! SO enjoy. If you go to www.youtube.com and type in Tashina Birch it will pull up. Sorry these pics are out of order!

Run From The Sun Half Marathon!

This race was a very special race, one that I will cherish for a long time. The entire Birch ran this run in memory of Nates father who passed away from skin cancer. It was great seeing all the family get together for a great cause.
I felt good during the run, I hit a wall around mile 10, it was hard but felt great when I was finished! It rained from mile 5 -13! I finished with my personal best 1hour and 45 min! I cant wait until next year!

Christmas 2009

Alright here I go...
Well Christmas is a GREAT time of the year and this last christmas was no exception! We had the Famous Christmas Eve Santa gathering with the Birch family. Santa brought us our christmas PJ's...awesome!
Nate and I have the missionaries over atleast once a week, so we asked them to join us and luckily walmart was open to get them some of their very own ASU pajamas!
Christmas morning we got the oppurtunity to speak to my brother who has been out on his mission for the past year and it was so refreshing to actually talk to him! - one more year to go!
Few Pics of that night!

I'M ALIVE!

So sorry that I havent updated in awhile....okay, a LOOOONG while! :) I will soon, with pics and all! Just wanted to let you guys (anyone that still might read my sorry excuse for blog!) know that I made it through the holidays, through the Multiple races, and EVERYTHING in general! ;)
Update is coming soon I promise!

Upcoming events...

This time of year is always very busy...VERY BUSY! But a few things that our little Birch Family is looking forward to is...

* Run From the Sun, November 14,2009
This is a run that the entire extended Birch Family is participating in. The run is to promote the awareness of skin cancer. Unfortunately, Nate's father passed away 7years, due to Milignant Melanoma Skin Cancer. My mother in law made t-shirts for the entire family, in honor of L. Dean Birch. Its this saturday, in mesa. Most of the family is running the 1.5 mile, Nate is running the 5k (3miles) and I will be running the 1/2 marathon...everyone should come out and support this great cause!

* Thanksgiving...
Nate and I will be running the Turkey Trot 10k (6 miles) Cant wait to see all of our friends there! And of course, anticipating the yummy food. ;)
AND Nate and I get to have 6 days off together!

* Christmas...
We get to talk to my brother who is on his mission!! yippee!
All the fun Family Christmas festivities: caroling, gingerbread houses, decorating my house with lovely christmas decor etc...
and presents! :)

*PF Changs Marathon, January 17,2010
Wow...its coming up so fast!!!

*February 26th-27th, Del Sol Ragnar
We are hoping to come in 1st place this year! 2nd place is for losers!!

*April 23rd-24th Southern California Ragnar!

Ragnar Reunion 2!

The group of girls that I ran the California Ragnar with, decided to have another reunion...dinner at Oreganos! Delicious! Seriously, words cannot express how much fun we all have when we get together! I cant wait until next years! Here we are sporting our medals that we got! I love you girls!

BEWARE!! Stick people on the loose!

Nate and I decided that we were going to dress up this Halloween! The costumes: Stick figures! lol I got this idea from a girl at the salon, this was her costume last year!(Thanks Alli!) Two words: SOOOOOO FUN! We had a block party, and boy did our neighbors really go all out! They are the best ever...they decorated their homes AMAZING! They also set up canopies and set out enough food and candy for the entire neighborhood! Nate and I spent the night chasing around little kids in our costumes...nothing scarier than having a stick person chasing you down the street! We even made a dance video! lol...We loved every minute of it!

Pumpkin Carving at the Gissel's.

This year we went to Tessa and Jamie Gissel's house for some pumpkin carving...we had a blast! Nate and I didnt do too bad, Although nate did win this years worst pumpkin, ( he carved a giant star, we ran short on time ,hehehe.) We had fun and cant wait to do it again next year!

A reminder...

It's always good to have these little reminders to brighten our day and remind us we are so loved. What an amazing quote:

"The answers to our prayers come in the Lord’s due time. Sometimes we may become frustrated that the Lord has delayed answering our prayers. In such times we need to understand that He knows what we do not know. He sees what we do not see. Trust in Him. He knows what is best for His child, and being a perfect God, He will answer our prayers perfectly and in the perfect time."

--President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

It's been a looooooong time.......Sorry!

So we had a pretty mellow summer but we did manage to make it to good ol' Idaho Falls, ID! Steve and Danni were kind enough to let us stay at their home for the week. We had dinner with Trevor and Calyn and watched the fireworks with Ryan and Heather for a 2nd straight year! So fun! I was able to run in the Firecracker 5k and placed 15th of 300! This was a blast. I love to run. Like any vacation, it had to end too soon but we accomplished our #1 goal and that was to relax! Thanks Idaho, we'll see you next year! As soon as we got home, it was back to work. Oh yeah, did I mention that my brother Hunter returned from serving an honorable 2 year mission in Birmingham, AL! Welcome back Hunter! It is so nice to have him home.

RaGnAr REuNiOn!

Talk about a PaRtY!! Last friday night, all the mommas that ran in ragnar (go motor mouth mamas!) got together! Of course, nothing but a good time! We re-created Costa Vida and it was amazing...and the dessert...heavenly! (thanks Hil!) Aubry made a movie from allllll the pics that we took and put them to some of our fav. running music! This girl is so talented! Thanks Aubry! The whole trip was an experience of a lifetime! Hopefully we do another run soon...I cant wait! Lova ya girls!

This one is loooong overdue!

I just got these pics, so now I am able to post about it! This was from winter formal, my neice Lexee asked My other neice, Rachelle and I to help her with hair and makeup for her first DATE!!! yay..it was so fun, she is so BEAUTIFUL and growing up SO fast! It is always a blast when we have a chance to get together and have our girl moments! I am pretty sure she had to have been the most Gorgeous one there that night! Love ya Lex!

Wedding Fun/WORK!

This past weekend was a busy one for me..I was asked to do makeup for a wedding from one of my regulars that visits me in Scottsdale! 6 girls in 3 hours!! these girls were a blast...and the bride....Beautiful! Congrats Jill!