Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! (Warning: Lots of pictures!)

We have successfully completed three family Christmas celebrations with two more to go. One more in Athens tonight and then one at my parents house tomorrow!

Our Family

My mom, Aunt Shea Shea, and Me

Craig and Shea with Addie

Parker and Daddy

Craig with his new Christmas gifts from mom and dad.

oops.. put this one twice...

Pops and Parker

Uncle Kevin, Chad, and Parker

What's in this big bag???

Parker FINALLY got his very own basketball goal! He was thrilled!!

The calm before the storm... :) Santa came and brought lots of goodies!

That sweet Christmas morning smile. He didn't wake up until 8:15. He never sleeps that late but he was worn out. He didn't have a nap the day before.

Running down the hall to see what Santa brought!

Santa brought a train!!

Santa even sent snow too!!

Parker's "new" car! Santa bought it and a the train from a friend and got two great deals! :) Santa is thrifty!

Too bad this jeep doesn't come with snow tires! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to our sweet Saviour, Jesus Christ!

Last night my Aunt Judy and Uncle Mike invited us to their house in Sheffield for a yummy dinner. After we ate, we headed over to Spring Park for some fun. We took Parker there once this summer and the train wasn't running so he's never been able to ride it. HE LOVES TRAINS so I knew that he would be thrilled!

It was a perfect night to go because it really wasn't that cold. Parker loved the riding the horses too. Of course, my camera battery died before we got to ride the train.

Merry Christmas from Parker twice! Sorry, I can't get the second picture to go away!

More cookie fun...

I feel like all I have posted about lately is cookies... Oh well.... My hips will prove that's about all we've done lately is decorate and eat cookies. :)

We had a "few" :) friends over to help! Here are the kiddos enjoying their picnic lunch!

Here is a picture of the reindeer cookies that we were making, however most ended up with tons of m and m's and a giant pile of sprinkles... Callan won the award for the neatest cookies creation! :)

Sweet Marah

Melodie and Callan

Edward.. This picture made me laugh! He looks so funny with that blue in his mouth...

Parker

William is working so hard. He's such a sweetie!

Even sweet baby Ava joined in on the fun! Next year she'll be in the middle of all of the action!

Run, eat cookies..... Run, eat cookies....

First off, let me begin by saying, that I am not writing this to boast or brag... I am simply thankful to God for giving me legs and a body that are able to run. It's amazing what our bodies can do. I always said that I wanted to complete a 1/2 marathon by the age of 30. I made that goal years ago before I even began running. I realized at the gym on Thursday that I only had a few days left of life as a 30 year old, since I turn 31 on Monday. :(

I made the decision to go for it. I went into it with low expectations because I have not trained to be able to run that far yet. The half marathon that I am training for now is not until February. The longest run that I have completed in the last three months was only 7 miles. I ran the first 6 miles at a nice pace but needed to take a potty break. So I took a 5 minute pit stop at the house. I convinced Chad to ride his bike with me for a bit to get me motivated again. He hung around for about a mile and a half and he headed home.

The run was going well until mile 10.....

I just hit a wall. My ankles started hurting and my knees were screaming at me. I kept thinking, "I've done this much. I can't stop now." I did have to stop and walk some during the last three miles. They were really difficult.

BUT... I finished... 13.1 miles... I ran a half marathon except there were no cheering fans (except Chad) and no medal... The ONLY way I was able to do this was with God's strength during the run. I was praying often for help...

I have been running alot lately but I have also been eating...

Eating alot.... The holidays are going to kill me....

Parker and I made sugar cookies and decorated them on Wednesday. The weather was nasty outside so we just stayed in and basically ate cookies all day.

Isn't this cute! I love this new smiles he's been giving me....

New Blog that I Heart!

I found a blog that I love right now. THe sad thing is that most of you probably know about it and I was the last to find it.... That's how most things go for me.

The blog is written by a stay at home mom. I love her yummy recipes, cute crafts, and decorating tips... It's fun to read!

www.smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com

Happy Reading!!

Gingerbread House

We had plans to go to my friend Emily's house today to decorate Gingerbread houses. Parker LOVES to play with her son, Edward, or Edburd, as Parker calls him, however, a little stomach yuck hit him last night so I decided that we didn't need to spread any germs. Parker was so sad but we decorated our house at home anyway. He loved it. It was hard for me to put my kindergarten teacher aside because I wanted him to put the candy on the house in a neat and orderly manner but of course that didn't happen. He had a ball and is begging to do another one already. It turned out really cute.

The finished product. Parker was sad when we were done.

December Fun

We spent all day Saturday recovering from the birthday party Friday night. Parker was up until almost 10 pm after the party so needless to say, he was worn out on Saturday. He slept until 8:30, which he NEVER does. We had a quiet day at home with his new toys while daddy was working at the Toy and Coat Giveaway at church.

Parker's Mimi got him a tent and tunnel and he loves it. He put his blowup Lightening McQueen chair inside...

Parker in his new Christmas pj's that Aunt Shea gave him for his birthday! They are so cute! We have both been in our pj's all day today! Just too cold to get out!

I took a million pictures this morning and I couldn't get Parker to smile so I said, "I'll give you some marshmallows if you smile for me!" and this is what I got! That kid will do anything for marshmallows!

Blues Clues Blow Out!

I'm exhausted from all of the party fun so this will be brief... The party was tonight and Parker had a blast! We were blessed to have so many family members come and celebrate Parker's 2nd birthday with us.

Our cute Blues Clues cake-Parker loved it!

The food table before the pizza arrived.

Daddy had time for fun too!!

We sure do love Aunt Shea Shea!

Pipi, Nana, Grandaddy, and Corey who apparently didn't want his picture taken... :)

The kid table.

Happy Birthday, Parker!