For Nelda

Nelda, thanks for encouraging me to blog! Here's a summary of the past five months.

August:

 

Enjoying the last bits of summer, having breakfast with Sweet Pea. He ate my gravy and I ate his cinnamon roll. Good trade.

 

Soaking up some cuteness.

And hours and hours spent running with these folks.

September: 

 First all family outing to the zoo.

Indiana loves school! Of course, what does he always say that he did, "Play with friends." And learned about the body, apparently. :-)

Not a great picture...but at least we're together. Being back at work was a crunch. Trying to get work done, take care of the kids, keep up my running, and spend time with Casey, and sleep! That's about it. And at work, implementing lots of new techniques and re-doing every lesson plan, to boot!

October:

Twinkies. My Handsome boys.

 

Hot date!

 Checking out the turtles at the Aquarium!

 Baby girl turned six month! And began cutting her bottom two teeth, too!

November:

 Before the Turkey trot, a family tradition.

 Enjoying time with Nana Cindy!

 OMG this kid is too cute! He's getting to the point now where he's not just a cute kid to be taken care of, he's good company, a buddy.

 And this one is all smiles. She smiles and laughs, all the time. Such a sunny disposition. She sleeps from 6:30 pm until 8:00 am, most mornings, with one 5:00am feeding before Mommy goes to work. She's not a great napper, though, and still sleeps in the swing. But, she loves to eat. Mum-mums were a revelation. It took about two tries to learn to feed herself, and there was no going back. Avocado, sweet potatoes, puffs, banana, peanut butter, pasta...if it can be eaten by two teeth, it is!

The last long, long run, 22 miles, before the Dallas marathon. It only took 3 hours, 4 minutes! ;-)

December:

 Love these sweet kids. So blessed to be their mom!

 Baby Gigi!

 Give me that cracker! Seriously, she pulled it from my fingers. This baby loves to eat!

 

This is how we read books sometimes before bed. Truck jammies are required. 

 

 And this happy smile ends the picture show! Decorating cookies at school. I got to go, since my school got out early. It was some serious cuteness.

The marathon was a bust, unfortunately. I started too fast, the weather was too muggy, and slipping on  wet roads was wasting momentum, so I called it quits at mile 17. It had always been the plan to sign up for two marathons close together, hope for good circumstances for the first, but if it wasn't a good day, to cash in the chips and go all in at the next race. It's hard to maintain motiviation and gear up for another race post-holidays, but I've heard such good things about the Houston marathon (flat and fast!) that I'm willing to give it another go. :-)

It's Christmas Eve and time to go deliver some homemade gifts to neighbors and friends. Merry Christmas and many blessings to you.