"we need dirt"

This morning, after a few intense innings of living room baseball Matthew told me in the most serious tone he could muster that we needed dirt around "homeplate" for sliding in. 

And here I thought I got extra points for playing baseball, in the living room, with him, before 7 AM??

Now he wants to import dirt...actually more dirt...into this house.

Gobble Gobble & M's first race

Happy Thanksgiving

Our little pilgrim

To continue our Thanksgiving tradition we ran the local Turkey Trot 5K, an awesome beginning to the day.  The boys rode along in their stroller and afterwards Matthew got to do his first race!!  He was super excited and had been practicing for weeks.  This is actually the first race he did (in his stroller) on his first Thanksgiving.  So proud of my little runner man!!

Our incredibly blessed family

About to cross the finish

So so proud of himself

Tired little trooper

Then we raced home to shower and change and help some friends put on an awesome Thanksgiving feast.

We were in charge of frying the turkey, concocting our annual giant batch of butternut squash chowder and the boys favorite dessert, Strawberry Pretzel Salad.  While the day started out cool, by the time we sat down to eat outside it was PERFECT.  Stuffed is not a good enough word.  All the adults were full, the kids had a blast playing for hours...and not a single fight or disagreement.

The menfolk erecting the turkey frying system

The beautiful bird

 We finally were able to get up and roll our stuffed selves home where we settled in for the Pumpkin Chunkin' Marathon on TV.

We certainly miss having family close but had a great Thanksgiving day with some of our Alabama family.

Wordless Wednesday

Shop, Salute, Slide and Sleep,,,yes there was some sleep!

We had a busy busy Veterans Day!

First on the agenda was stopping by the fabric store to buy some thread that was on sale.  The boys were not impressed, as was evident by Matt screaming "no mama" as we pulled up in the parking lot.  We made it out alive, just barely and headed to pick up our buddies Natalie and Lisa.

Then we were off to the running shoe store to pick up my packet for the following days race.

Back downtown to take in the sights and sounds of an awesome Veterans Day parade.  The boys LOVE this parade and we plan to go every year.  It is a humbling experience and a needed reminder of the fact that actual people fight day in and day out for our incredible freedoms.  I think it is great for young and old alike to see a face on these soldiers.  Of course, the boys loved the tanks, trucks and jeeps.  They have also been playing marching band around the house for days now.

We have yet to make it through the whole parade and when the kids were done we headed to "Moo" (Chic-Fil-A) to pick up lunch.

We then went to a local park and proceeded to camp out for the rest of the afternoon sliding, swinging, lunching and playing hide and seek. 

Needless to say, we had a big crew of tired little kids!!  So tired in fact that both boys were in bed and asleep at 7:30...which has N E V E R happened!!

Picture Day

We recently had picture day at preschool so I decided to attempt a few snaps of them since they were looking more handsome than normal...or so I thought until they started acting silly.

A few lot of the outtakes...

How we roll

We took advantage of what will likely be the last of this gorgeous fall weather we have been having and split a bunch of firewood, raked leaves, built an additional compost bin and giggled our way through an impromptu game of sonotube rolling.

13.1

I did it..or should I say we did it?

As the culmination of 4+ months of training I completed my third half marathon with a somewhat decent time.  I had a goal of 2:20 and overshot that goal by a bit but did cut 10 minutes off last years pace on the same course so I am pretty satisfied...though there is A LOT of room for improvement!!

Race morning was GORGEOUS if a bit cold.  A fellow faster runner friend chugged along beside me for the first 6 miles and I was actually on target to make my goal.  Unfortunately I didn't maintain that pace once she split.  Overall, it was a good race.  I was better conditioned this year than last but still not as conditioned as I would have liked to be.  Once again, the anticipation of seeing my 3 boys...and the finish line got me through!!

A little celebratory hug with my little fans.

Happy Halloween

In a nod to the end of the Space Shuttle program that spanned 30 years and propelled 300 astronauts into space, our little guys were astronauts this year.

Astronaut love

Strapped in and READY

After collecting way too much candy we struck a deal with the space travelers, with the exception of a few pieces, they traded their candy in for new costumes for their dress up bin!

Why yes, he has a nice six pack.

My sweet Superman!

Wordless Wednesday