Thanksgiving 2011

This year we made turkeys for family home evening. Crew had something stuffed in his mouth for this timer shot from the couch.

Below you will find the only picture I took on Thanksgiving day. We had quite a delicious feast at Josh's parents house. This picture is of Jane with Josh's brother, Danny. Jane just loves Danny. She likes to be right where he is. In this pic, she sat herself down right next to him, played, and shared crackers for quite some time. One of Danny's favorite things is to play with these squishy balls, and Jane loves to stand right in front of him smacking her own squishy ball right in sync with him. Danny even gave Jane one of his squishy balls to borrow because she couldn't part with it - and she carries it around our house every day. It is her current favorite toy. I just think their friendship is so cute.

Flashback

We recently went to a murder mystery dinner that had a 1930's theme. Thanks to a borrowed dress from Katie, a borrowed fedora from a ward member, and a you tube "how to finger wave" video, I think we looked pretty good. It was a fun evening.

Videos

Jane is fearless when it comes to slides. This one is small compared to many she has attempted of her own free will and choice.


Just a cute one of Crew playing in the leaves. I'm told that Crew's most requested song in nursery is "Leaves are falling all around," and that they usually can't get away with doing it just once if he has anything to do with it.


"I had to hide behind the couch to get this one. I've tried video taping Crew singing SO MANY TIMES. He knows lots of songs and sings all day long. Its so cute, but as soon as he sees me video taping, he starts talking baby talk and says nothing that anyone can comprehend.

His current favorite song is "Praise to the man" which he calls "The Grandpa Song" and asks to hear it literally every 2 minutes when we are in the car. The version we have is a group of adults singing, and at one point, there are only adult men singing. He has told me several times while listening to the song . . . "There are 5 grandpas and 2 grandmas singing to me."

This is a combination of "the more we get together" and "here we are together". You'll hear him saying Zoe (Jane), Cookie Monster (myself), Big Bird (Ryan), and even Super Duper Elmo (Crew), amongst other jibberish. Super Duper Elmo is even wearing his cape :)

Jane's Birthday

Sweet Jane turned 1 this last Sunday. She had a little bit of a rough day and didn't get a good nap, so by cupcake time she was getting tired. But she got totally spoiled, and has had lots of fun having girl toys. She got babies with bottles and binkies, a crib and stroller, and even a my little pony. Crew loves her new toys just as much as she does. I did not do a very good job of photographing the day, so here are the few that turned out OK.

She has been able to take several steps for some time now, but still favored crawling most of the time until about 3 days ago. She learned how to get up on her own, and now she is a walking machine. I can't believe how fast she has gotten in just a couple of days . . . and she always prefers to walk now instead of crawl.

We gave her that bottle and she knew right what to do with it.

AND, the birthday video. . . that is kind of sad. We scared her when she tried to grab the flame and we all kind of freaked out. I was holding the camera, and didn't even think about that being a potential hazard. . . DUH MOM! Oh, memories.

Costumes 2011

Crew was Bob the Builder, and Jane was a Kitty Cat. Crew had a blast this year. We only did a few houses, but he kept saying "Should we go to another one more house????" His official favorite candy after trying so many. . . suckers.

Thanks to Selden thrift and Target for really coming through for me this year. I had already planned to do both of these costumes, and while shopping at target found BOTH Crew's hat and Jane's cat ears in the $1 section. Booyah!

Race Day (The Long Story)

I have been wanting to do a half marathon for a while now. After we got a running stroller, I started running several times a week. Once I realized that I was in shape enough to start training, I found a half marathon in Hartford, CT and signed up. It was a very exciting step for me. The first 2 nights after I signed up, I could hardly sleep because I had running dreams all night. I felt lots of anxiety and excitement. It was 7 weeks of training, and I felt pretty good about it. Just really excited to finally tackle this long time goal of mine.

Ryan and I drove out Friday night, without the kiddos. Huge thanks to Katie&Josh! It made things much simpler for us, and I got a good nights sleep for the Saturday morning race. (As good as can be expected. . . There were more running dreams). It was so nice to have Ryan there with me, who ALMOST ran with me, but hurt his calf in the weeks preceding the race. He was quite the supporter.

Pre race. . . in the very long line to use one of the hundreds of stinky bathrooms.

Thank you Ryan, for getting this lovely shot of me coming out of the port-a-potty pre-race. Just wanting to document all of the special moments :)
Getting lined up. It was pretty chilly, but minutes before we took off I handed over my sweatshirt.
5200 people ran the half marathon, as well as 2000 something who ran the full marathon. We all started together and split up after the first mile or so. It was A LOT of people.
Waiting for me, checking out the capitol building.
Post race. During most of my training I ran a 10 minute mile. My goal since this was just my first half marathon was to run at my own pace, and finish. During the entire time I trained, I told myself not to worry about time, just to worry about finishing. Once I got out on the course, I couldn't help but run my best. I ended up running the first 9 miles much faster than I normally do. I felt pretty good until mile 10. My knee started hurting very suddenly, and just got worse and worse. The last three miles were really tough. I had to slow down quite a bit. I was a little frustrated because I hadn't had any problems with my knee up until that point, and it got very painful. I finished in 1hr 57minutes. I was really surprised and happy with my time. It was quite an emotional finish for me, partly because of pain, partly because I was SO HAPPY to have done it.
I have to have a pony braid when I run. Its just one of those things. But in case you wanted to know what happens to my hair after I run 13.1 miles with a braid. Sheesh. I lost a lot of hair trying to detangle that thing.

Punkins

Went to the "pumpkin patch" to pick a pumpkin. Not quite what I was looking for. . . but Crew was in heaven. Couldn't get the kid to stick with us for a second. He was giddy running up and down the rows of pumpkins. Sam joined us for the trip - we have really enjoyed spending more time with her. And my goodness, Crew & Jane are crazy about her!

We settled on this beauty. "Hold up your pumpkin Crew!"