A little Christmas fun...

I am so happy to have my Patti and Cal home with me for the next couple of weeks! I've missed them while they've been off at school. Unfortunately, I don't think they feel the same. Sure, they love staying up later and sleeping in... maybe even staying in our pjs most the day. But, they miss school.... a lot! At school, they have dozens of kids to play with, they are constantly engaged and have so much more to do. So, I've tried to keep them entertained the best I can without going completely nuts!

Patti insisted that we try to make a Christmas tree out of bread (she learned it at school).... it turned out really cute... and yummy! She was so cute... she knew every single step of the recipe and basically did it all herself.



The other night, we had our Annual Gingerbread House Showdown. Team Feliz Navidad (aka... Mommy and Calloway) vs. The Reindeer (aka.... Daddy and Patti). We should really rename them "Team Impatient" and "Team Take-All-Day". Cal and I were done before Team Reindeer even had their house together.

The picture above and the picture below were taken seconds apart. Cal was so bored, he played his DS while Team Take-All-Day finished up. Mommy just took pictures.

And..... the finished products! Aren't they cute? The gingerbread houses weren't bad either.

We had to try them, of course.

Fast forward to the next day..... The houses were out on the counter, and this 19 month old just. could. not. keep. his. hand. off. of them! I finally had to hide them in Patti's room.

And, when he couldn't find them later.... he was so sad.

But, we quickly got distracted by the car in the house....

Thanksgiving at the Ranch

We spent Thanksgiving at the Ranch. I'm sad I didn't get more pictures of the kids with their cousins! I always do that! I have this massive camera and it's a pain to pull it out all the time. I think I might need to get myself a smaller (but still nice) camera for Christmas. Anyway, some of the pictures were our "suppose to be Christmas card pictures".... but I decided that it wasn't the look I was going for after all. Nonetheless, they're cute...

Half Marathon update

Well, I did it. I ran my first Half Marathon... and possibly my last. It actually went a lot better than I anticipated (since I hardly trained for it). I realized two things while preparing for this race.... 1) I get crazy bored after running for more than 45 minutes (especially when I'm by myself) and 2) 13.1 miles is a looooong run. I might run one more in March just to see how crazy I really am... and Daniel said he'd run with me. So, we'll see.


The first part of the race was a little rough.... we had to wind around a neighborhood for a few miles before getting to the sea wall. There were hundreds (maybe 2,000) people in the race.... so it was a little crowded those first few miles. And, I had to go potty... of course. But, once we hit the sea wall, it was good.... we found our pace and we were feeling good. Oh, the "we" I'm referring to is my pal and running buddy, Shelley. Another friend of mine, Charissa, ran it too but we got separated at the start. By mile 9ish, we started to slow down a bit.... but I was still feeling pretty good at 10. Then, came 11.... oh boy. My body started screaming at me to stop. I hurt all over... feet, legs, back, head.... did I mention it was HOT and humid? Anyway, I made it to the finish line in 2:49.... not terrible, but not great either. My goal was just to finish :)