Thanksgiving.......

     This year has been such a poignant time for me. I think this year has hit me especially hard because I'm starting to realize that I did not make this life for myself. Nothing Tom or I did, no decision we made, no intelligent move on our part, gave us the marriage and family that we have. Literally, EVERYTHING we have has been a gift from the Lord. We try to keep Christ as the center of our home and marriage, and the change has revolutionized our home. We by no means have the perfect marriage/family (10 days on the road together illustrated that, believe me) but with a Christ focused outlook, our lives have changed. I am hesitant to even publish this because there's such an opportunity to appear hypocritical. And I know there are times when I haven't lived out my faith. I know it and it makes me cringe. But I hope that anyone reading this will realize that those flaws are mine alone and not those of "the church" and certainly not those of the God I try to serve.  But realizing what's been done for me has made me very thankful for all the blessings in my life.
   There is another reason this year has been so special. It's the first time I've every been able to focus almost exclusively on my family.
                                                        These three people.

My days are centered on their care and I love it more than I ever could have imagined.

So, let me sum up our trip. TEARS.

     This little darling was not a happy camper. I think we finally figured out why. He's allergic to dogs.  Almost every place we stayed had a dog. His nose would be running, he was coughing and sneezing. But as soon as we would move someplace without a dog, all of it would stop. Granted, he probably would have been a little grouchy anyway because he had a cold (and found out yesterday he had an ear infection) but the difference in the nose and coughing was dramatic. This is a bummer. He's an animal lover and we assumed we'd get another dog when the boys are older. I realize it's not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but it's disappointing for him.  When he's 2 we'll get him tested to confirm and see what else is going on but for now at least we know about it.
     Even with Walker's drama, the trip was good. We got to spend good time with our family. It is such an undertaking to in new places with little ones but I'm glad we made the effort. Things will be low-key around here while we recover. We got home Sunday afternoon and by Sun night, everything was unpacked and put away and almost all the laundry was done. It was an unpacking/cleaning/folding FRENZY. But now we're settling back in our little routine and it's so nice.

"Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people." 1 Chronicles 16:8

Finally. Mission Accomplished.

   This past Sunday was the half marathon I'd been training for. I FINALLY finished it!  With NO walking.  This had been a goal of mine for so long that it was really bothering me not to have done it. I didn't particularly even want to run one anymore, I just wanted to do it because it was an uncompleted goal. I got hooked, though. I remembered why I had enjoyed running in the past and loved the race day experience. The crowd and volunteers were awesome and it was fun to run with a good friend.  Tom was a trooper to watch the boys while I was running, then let me take a nap that afternoon b/c I'd gotten next to no sleep. I'm doing another one next weekend in Tulsa and should be able to run it faster, and training for one at the end of January with a goal of  2 hours. That's a stretch for me. I mean, a HUGE stretch. We'll see. Anyway, I cannot believe we didn't get a pic of the 3 of us that went. Darn. You could get your pic taken at the end of the race but since I still felt like vomiting, I chose to stagger through the food line and try to settle my stomach. Free beer was an option. I have no idea how someone could drink a beer after running 13.1 miles. Or worse, 26.2. I saw a shirt that said "I thought this was 2.62 miles!" Cute. There was also one that said "If you can read this, I'm not last." I need that one. One of the signs someone was holding said "Run like Tiger's wife is chasing you." I feel sorry for that poor woman but the sign was funny. There were several cheerleading teams along the route and a marching band. All the distraction definitely helped.

   Saturday was awesome. Our friends are adopting two kids from the Caribbean. They hosted a thanksgiving lunch for us in a gorgeous house on the river and all the food was Caribbean themed. The weather was absolutely perfect so we spent all afternoon outside. The older kids played on the canoes and Walker took a long nap so Tom and I could relax a little and enjoy the day. Harris was thoroughly occupied with his partner in crime.

I probably shouldn't say partner in crime, it was more like victim that day. They were playing in a sandbox and Carter started crying, and said Harris tried to push him. Harris immediately said "IN THE WATER" (as in he was tryting to push Carter IN THE WATER) and then put his hand over his bottom in preparation for the spanking he knew he deserved. There were a couple of incidents that afternoon. Not his finest hour. In his defense, he missed a nap, but still knew what he was doing was unacceptable.

The picture below is so funny to me, because that's what the girls decided to do while we relaxed. All the pics of the guys are of them playing washers or hitting wiffle balls and we felt the need to find a spot and pose.  But I love this pic because I LOVE these women!

It was such a treat to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather with good friends. Living so far from family, I'm incredibly thankful to have people in our lives that we can depend on. And every Monday, I'm so thankful that I'm able to stay home with our kids. Harris is on a kick of asking me if we can do things together. And I love that it's ME he's asking to read books or work puzzles. Walker played pretty independantly this morning while I was in the kitchen, but randomly came in to be picked up for awhile, then was content to go do his own thing again. I do not take for granted that I'm the one that gets to hold him when he wants some affection. But I'm always excited for naptime, don't get me wrong :)  Anyway, I'm clearly in the mode of Thanksgiving. I hope you notice things to be thankful for today. And my spell check doesn't seem to be working, so when it starts functioning again I'll be even MORE thnakful. I just spent a couple of minutes trying to spell definitely. And I still don't know if it's right.

"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."  2 Corinthians 5:20



This is all over the place

     I don't really have much to say. But apparently I'm not going to let that stop me. This morning I asked Harris to give me a kiss. He sweetly replied, "No tank you." He might as well have been turning down seconds on dinner, rather that crushing my heart. At least Walker has started giving kisses now. It's super sweet but he has had a runny nose for a week. I mean, really runny. So he goes in for the kiss with snot just dripping. Sometimes motherhood is gross but there is no way I'm denying that little boy a kiss from his mommy. Especially when I see how fast things change! Walker seems like a full-on toddler lately. He's trying his hardest to do every thing Harris does. Spinning in a circle, saying no, climbing on things, you name it. It's fun but he is all over the place. One of his favorite things to do right now is put his hands over his face and wait for you to say "Where's Walker?" It just cracks him up. Every.Time. He imitates you saying. "There he is!" It's so funny to me how big of a kick he gets out of it.
     Harris totally has the concept down of gifts and his birthday. We've only been to a few parties lately but I guess that's all it took. He's been looking through catalogs and pointing out things he wants. He even took one to Target with him and read it while we were getting groceries. He also has a sense of ownership about his birthday party invitations. He saw someone with one and demanded it back. With all the hype about gifts, Tom and I want to be sensitive with how Christmas is handled. I think we're going to give 3 gifts, as the 3 wise men did.  Something to wear, something to read and something to play with. We both want him to understand that Christmas is about Jesus and that is more than enough reason to celebrate. Maybe with his birthday so close, we should have a birthday party for Jesus too? Maybe I'm over thinking what an almost 3 year old can comprehend. I think he is starting to understand that baby Jesus is not like baby Walker. For awhile he was extremely suspicious of any talk of baby Jesus. Let there be no doubt that he is not ready to be a big brother again.
    We have been SO BUSY lately and I'm over it. Usually, we really aren't all that busy and that's perfect with me. Our weeknight things should slow down soon. That will help. Last night I went roller skating. It had been 13 years since I'd done it and it was so much harder than I remembered! But fun. There were some people there that were roller derby professionals, I'm pretty sure. They were more graceful on skates than I am on shoes. Even some little kids were whizzing around, totally fearless. And the roller rink was decorated for Christmas already, complete with a tree stacked in cinder blocks. I am not making that up. My decorations are mostly up too, no cinder blocks involved. Yet. I'd post pics but Walker's awake and from the sounds of it he's ready to eat.

The verse below is a reality check for me because I'm a planner to the Nth degree. It's not about me and my plans. I forget that SO FAST.

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1

Halloween

We had a racecar driver and a monkey for Halloween. The monkey didn't even make it out of the gate though.

I'm so glad I  had this pic from a few weeks ago.

It's not the greatest but it commemorates the event. His picture from last year was outstanding.

So was Harris'. He had that pose for a nanosecond and I was so happy my camera got it.

Anyway, Walker ended up staying home with Tom and handing out candy. I took his costume off pretty quickly but he never really got over his irritation. So Harris had the ladies all to himself.

Here he is with our neighbor, Minnie Mouse, who is happy about the festivities.

And here he is with another neighbor who just hid her head when he came up to make his move. He had his arm around her for a minute, but she wasn't into it. Harris didn't let that get in the way of his candy grabbing though. He was front and center at every door and had to be reminded a couple of times that it's not acceptable to just grab a fistful from the bowl. Since he never eats candy, he really didn't know what he was getting. I put the bucket up where he can't see it and he's never asked for it, so I guess he hasn't missed it.
Typing that reminded me of the candy stash so I just took a quick break to see what we had in there. Yum.
Oh, here are two things I found in the candy bucket.

I shouldn't be surprised, because we found a Sonic mint in an Easter egg at the neighborhood Easter party. Seriously.

Anyway, our weekend was pretty busy but all with fun things. We had pictures taken Saturday morning at the Corn Maize in Hondo. There were some cute places for pics there. I was dying for some on this old red tractor but the boys just weren't into that. The corn maize was fun but I think it will be more fun when I'm not pushing a double stroller through the dust, while doling out kettle corn and sweating in the 80+ heat. I was relieved to see the end and we skipped "Phase 2" entirely. There were a few things for toddlers to play on and a little tractor ride, so it was a fun morning. Here's a preview.....

MAKES.ME.MELT. 

Harris has been asking for a belt to wear, so we got him one. Threading a belt through the loops on a squirming two year old is just what I wanted to do each day, but it looks so cute on him. This was on the way to church. I would have loved to have Walker in the picture but I was choosing to pick my battles that day. Moments after this Harris somehow knocked a pretty big picture frame off the wall. I'm just glad it didn't hit anyone in the head. 





He immediately started telling me it was an accident. I was only a few feet away when it fell but I didn't see what caused it. I have doubts about it being an accident......I think he learned his lesson though.

I've started planning a birthday party for Harris. I am anti-extravagant parties for kids, so I'm trying to only do things that Harris would enjoy and not random things that I think are cute. Definitely staying away from Etsy.  I feel pretty confident that personalized water bottle labels will not make Harris' day any more fun. Even though they're super cute. Anyway, hope everyone is having a good week! In my book, it is officially the holdiay season! Yay for the best time of the year!

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.”
– Haggai 1:7