Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving Day. It was our year to eat with my side of the family, so we headed down to Lake Jackson in the morning. We stopped in to say hello to Sam's family and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving first. We visited with Nanny, Kyle, Kyleigh, and Pam at Nanny's house.

It was such a nice day, we spent most of our time outside. We were playing and enjoying the day, so I hardly got any pictures. Just a few when we were inside by the camera. Here's Paige in the middle of the day getting tired with Grandpa.

And she was tired of waiting for all that good food! She would go get in her chair and yell "bite!" When it was time to eat, she gobbled it up.

Along with pie and ice cream, GG bought this fun turkey cupcake cake for the kids. They loved it of course!

We have so much to be Thankful for, and it was a great day to be with family and enjoy our blessings.

There Goes November...

As always, the end of the year is flying by. Here are some fun things we did in November.

I went to Austin on a much needed girls weekend. It was so fun! We did way too much shopping, plenty of eating, and had lots of play time at the hotel.

We also went to see the latest Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn, and I can finally say it was good! Much better than the 3 before it. Twilight is always a hit on girls' weekend!

Jaxson finished his football season. He's no longer scared of "tackle football!" He did a great job, and wants to play again next year.

Shaye's team made it to the championship tournament. She played so well this year. They lost in the tournament after the game went into overtime and they had to shoot penalty kicks. We love to watch her play, way to go Bobcats!

Sam took the oldest 2 kids and went hunting on opening weekend. He shot a great buck, but it cost him a finger.... well, almost. When he was skinning it, he got a little careless and the knife slipped and he sliced his left hand pretty bad. He had to go to the local emergency room, but they couldn't do much for it except clean it and put in a few temporary stitches. When he got back to Katy, he went to see a hand surgeon. The tendon of his ring finger was completely severed. The surgeon had to stitch the tendon, and the finger. He will have to wear this brace for 12 weeks to keep the tendon from bending and snapping apart. He's healing okay, but the brace is an annoyance.

Marathon for Adoption

On October 29th, I ran my second half marathon. Chosen: Marathon for Adoption was held in New Braunfels and was a full and half marathon. The marathon raises money for adoption. You can choose to make a team, and all the funds from your team sponsor an adoption of your choice.

Bernie Calcote is a good friend of mine from high school. He and his wife Leslie live in Austin and organized the Ninja Running Team to support an adoption for a friend of their's who was getting a little girl named Zuri from Ethiopia. It was fun to run with them!

I had been really nervous about this run because it had 6 miles of HILLS! There's not a lot of hills to train on in Houston, but we tried to add some where we could.

I finished in 1:55, one minute faster than my first half. I was a little mad at myself when it was over because I probably could have pushed a little harder, I didn't even feel too tired at the end. It was a great race. It was a lot of fun and a perfect day. It was cold when we started, about 40 degrees - perfect running weather!

I think the thing that made it so fun was running with friends. Brooke, my running partner, and I ran the first 5 miles together talking and enjoying the race. Since it was an out and back ( a race where you turn around at the half way point and come back the same direction) we got to see everyone during the run. It really broke up the time and made it fun!

These are the great gals who ran for the Ninja Running Team from Houston:

Me, Janet Bartlett, Amy Griffeth, Amy's cousin, Michelle Stansel, and Brooke Brooks.

This is Zuri! I'm honored to be a part of her finding a home in this very small way.

Halloween

Halloween started with out with nothing other than Sugar, of course! Homemade cinnamon rolls by Sam.

After school, we did one more craft while we were waiting for the much anticipated trick or treat hour.

Rapunzel and my beautiful fairy!

It did not take long for Paige to tear into her candy!

My little Syd had the most fun of all. She could comment on all the decorations in people's yards. "Oh, look at that cool ghost!" or "wow, scary pumpkin!" It was so fun to watch her excitement.

But as soon as we walked in, it was off with the costume, and in to the candy!

Halloween Happenings

I love Fall! First up in Fall, Halloween. What a perfect kids' holiday. Candy, costumes, wild kids.... what more could they want! We did some crafts and a little decorating a few weeks back.

Holidays are a perfect reason for baking. We love treats around here. We all made some fun Halloween cupcakes!

And of course there's pumpkin carving. And while I was snapping pictures of this happy little girl, I didn't notice all the fun she was having banging those spoons around was leaving gashes in my table. Nice.

Roasting the seeds has become a tradition around here. But I'm not sure why, nobody really eats them. I think we just all like the idea. "Yum, roasted pumpkin seeds with seasonings on them after we carve our pumpkins." Well, they smell good anyway!

Sydnee has a parade and party at her preschool. The kids got to wear their costumes and walk through the school showing them to all the kids, parents, and teachers. She is always so shy at school. She seems to love it, but she gets all quiet and is a perfect angel there.

She also had a party Friday morning at her dance class. They did a cute little dance for us to Monster Mash. Look at all those Rapunzels!

Dewberry Girls

I got to take the little girls to Dewberry Farms on Friday with playgroup. I love that place - perfect fall outing! First things first, off to the pumpkin patch. They only got to choose from the miniature pumpkins, but it didn't see to bother Paige or Syd.

Just one Paige!

There are slides, rides, swings, and bouncers. Plenty of fun to play!

Sydnee is such a great big sister! She is always taking care of Paige. There were not seat belts on this train ride, so I told Syd to put her arms around Paige to make sure she didn't get up. She rode the whole ride with her arms around her, smiling and taking care of her "baby." I hope they continue to be best friends!

Syd loved feeding the goats and seeing the animals in the little barn.

Paige wasn't so sure. She stayed back even from the baby chicks. And when I did find her close up to a stall, there was nothing in it!

We had a great time with our friends at Dewberry. Now we've got to find a time to take the big kids, they are excited to go!