Mugshot

It was hard not to laugh. This girl and markers! I had already taken them from her because she decided to make a design on her furniture. Apparently she saw where they were and got them out a day later. And used them as makeup.
I told her I needed to take a picture so I could show Daddy why on this third strike I had to throw away the markers. He completely understood.....and appreciated the photographic evidence. :)
The thing is, I think she was more upset that I didn't show her the picture than she was about the end of her markers.

She said she was making Cole into a cat. Looks like he let her get halfway done.

Superbowl 5K

Well, now, isn't that a flattering picture. Eesh.
Oh well, I'm proving I was there and that I finished.

It was cold. Oh my goodness. Cold. Cold. Cold. But it was still great. There were over a thousand people who ran this thing, and the positive energy is infectious.

Backing it up: I was doing pretty well after my award winning run. I started making a schedule for myself and was feeling good about it.

Then I got sick. For a few weeks. If I can't breathe, I don't exercise. And then after that I got spotty about running. It's been cold, I got sick again, excuse #4, excuse #18 and excuse #36.

Anyway, I signed up for the Superbowl 5k in Richardson and decided that even if I hadn't been running regularly that I would go and do it anyway. It was my fault for not being completely prepared. My goal was to beat my last 5k by at least a couple minutes --which would be a breeze for most people, but I don't care.

I beat it by 4 minutes! Hooray! I wanted to puke at the end. But then I got a free Snickers bar and Sun Chips! Plus, my family cheering for me was awesome.

I was really proud of myself. I had been getting down on myself for not being where I want to be in my goals and efforts, but I was reminded again to take it a day at a time and just keep trying. It's okay to keep starting over. As long as effort is taking place, I'm still moving forward.

I came in at 31:22, and my goal is to get to a 30 minute 5k run.

Again, pansy effort for some. But I don't care. Personal goal. Personal growth.

I can do it! One day at a time.

Instead

We had plans on New Year's Day to rake leaves, paint a couple things for our bathroom, vacuum, and so forth.
Instead, we did this:
We forgot to bring a hat for Cole, but since his sister was watching TinkerBell in the car with Selina, he was fine with this one.

We flew! How cool is that? Thank you Jeff, Liz, Selina, and Chloe for inviting us to join you for one last hurrah. We will miss having you so close by.

Tessa was afraid to let Selina touch the steering stick because she thought it would make the plane take off. She finally calmed down when we reassured her it wasn't going to happen. Cole would make the sign for plane and flying sounds, but he wanted no part in actually getting in it.

Jake was good enough to get a couple of videos of me in the plane. He was way more on top of capturing the moment than I was. Thanks, Jake.

What a fun adventure. Jacob and I both agreed that although we were initially scared at the idea of going up in a small plane, we weren't afraid once we got in the thing. We felt totally safe with Jeff as the pilot. He had each of us try steering the plane up in the air (the set up reminded me of driver's ed, where he still had control over the plane while we tried). I'll be honest --that's when I got nervous. All I could think of was the night before, playing Mario Bros. with them and my killing Mario within the first 7 seconds with my mad skills. I just wanted to enjoy the view, go fast, and do a couple stomach flipping dips --which, happily, we did.

After flying we went into downtown? Justin, Texas for lunch at "The Lonesome Spur". It looked exactly like you are imagining a place named that would look. They had the best onion rings I've ever had. One of the workers brought over half deflated helium balloons for the kids (from New Year's Eve?). The kids loved the dying things. Cole wouldn't touch his lunch after that and was prepared to dig the eye out of anyone who looked like they might take his balloon away.

As always, we had a fantastic time with the Ereksons. Thank you, again.

Christmas Morning

We had such a nice laid back Christmas morning. We didn't get out of our PJ's until 4pm. Santa came and brought Tessa the doll house she'd been asking for and brought Cole a riding train, big dog, and some Sesame Street toys. Happy kids are fun.

This blurry picture is a little odd, but isn't that doll house awesome? Santa even glued most of the furniture in, and I believe that to have been a fantastic idea. Tessa's Grandpa and Grandma R sent a princess doll collection, so this house became what we like to call the Disney Sorority House.

The web cam visits with grandparents, a yummy breakfast, movies, talking with family, a Just Dance 2 dance off with my husband and more--what a great day.

Christmas Eve

The center picture was actually from the Sunday before Christmas in their new clothes from Grandma. Lookin' good. Lookin' good.
For Christmas Eve this year, we had a couple of friend families over to celebrate with us. Each family has a daughter Tessa's age with whom she is great friends. We started out our little party with the dads helping the daughters make a mini gingerbread house. Christmas dinner was up next, at which time our ward's missionaries joined us.
Afterward we reenacted the nativity story with the kids. Two of the girls wanted to be queens instead of kings/wisemen and their choices for gifts were a little unorthodox --Is that an Ariel doll being presented I see? Cole was the third wiseman. I made the missionaries be shepherds, who were great sports. Tessa was Mary, Jake was Joseph, and Britton was the angel, with a little help from her dad. Jeff read the story for us. I love this tradition. We sang "Away in a Manger" at the end, which was especially cool because the girls were able to sing along with us for the most part, and it closed this activity with no doubt in my heart as to what exactly we were celebrating.
We then pulled out desserts and a big gingerbread house for excited missionaries to put together and decorate-- Elder Edwards was excited, but he let his companion help a little.
Then we finished up the festivities so that kiddies could get to bed and Santa could get moving.
What a pleasant evening with good people.