Christmas Recap (Part 2)

Here are the rest of our pictures from Christmas day.....

Wes and the boys head down the stairs to see what Santa has left!

Noah discovers the note that Santa left him next his brand new bike.

Liam and Noah with their new pillow pets.

Noah helps Liam discover his new workbench.

Noah really loves his viewfinder with dinosaurs - I really love that he loves such an old-school toy!

Noah's new, blue bike - complete with pedals that DON'T fall off!

Wes with the family's favorite new toy. We are loving the Wii!

These are Noah's new interactive dinosaurs. They were a big hit.

Cute little Gemma with her Christmas bow! I bet her parents think she is the best present ever!

Our family - and Liam sporting his "Blue Steele" look.

Jessie and Scott hang out and play video games with us on Christmas night.

Noah is very excited to get a strike while bowling.


And last but not least......Over Christmas is when this sweet little face...

....decided to do this for the first time!

He is off and crawling folks. I imagine life will never be the same!

A Christmas Recap (Part 1)

I took about a million Christmas pictures this year and have been a little overwhelmed thinking about putting them all up on the blog. So I guess I will start with Christmas Eve.

This year we celebrated with both sides of the family together. My Mom and sister and Wes' family all gathered at my brother-in-law's house for dinner, singing, and some early gift giving.  Cy and Carissa were nice enough to host and when we got there I decided to take advantage of their festive decorations for some pictures of the kiddos.

So, here is where Liam and Gemma started to engage in a spirited round of fisticuffs....

See, the expressions are starting to get a little cranky. It's hard to say who could be declared the victor.

Liam was definitely using his brute strength - and extra 6 pounds - to his advantage, but Gemma is quite nimble and flexible so the fighting kind of ended in a draw.  Although, from his expression here, I do believe Liam is contemplating how to handle things for the next go around!

Noah really enjoyed singing Christmas carols!

Waiting to open our stockings from "Santa Nana".

When we got home Noah decided that it was absolutely essential to write a thank you note for Santa. Believe me, I thought this was sooooo sweet BUT it took forever for him to write out that note. In the end it was worth it though, because he was very proud.

Finally, he got in his PJ's and left the milk and cookies (and thank you note) out for Santa. Then it was off to bed to eagerly await the arrival of Rudolph and the presents!

Merry Christmas!

To all our friends and family...Merry Christmas!

We hope your day has been as wonderful, and as full of blessings as ours has been. May you enjoy this day with your loved ones and celebrate in the birth of our savior.

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a women, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." ~ Gal 4:4

My Coach Says We're In A Tight Spot

Let's be clear about two things.

First of all, no matter how much I wish for it, I am neither fast enough or rich enough to have a running coach. The closest I get to any kind of coaching is the weekly chart that I printed off of Runners World that hangs on my refrigerator. That "coach" gives me my daily workout for 10 weeks as I train for the Charleston Half Marathon.

Okay, the second thing. Every time I look at that training schedule I hear the voice of George Clooney's character in O Brother Where Art Thou say, "Damn, we're in a tight spot!"

Because of the cold/flu virus that circulated our house I have now officially NOT run for two weeks. I am freaking out a little. One week was bad enough but two is kind of unthinkable right now. I only have 4 weeks left before the race and to have lost two weeks worth of training and fitness at this point makes me really pissed. And a little scared that I won't be able to race the way that I want to. I wanted to go into this race with really solid training underneath me so that there would be no excuses for how I preformed on race morning. I don't want to run slower than desired and be able to say, "Well, if I hadn't had that flu bug...."

But life very seldom gives us exactly what we want, huh? Soooo...... I am going to try to erase the last two weeks from my head and focus on getting some real quality running in over the next four weeks. Up this week: a 7 mile speed workout and an 8 mile long run (on Christmas Day!) I am hoping I can salvage what is left of my training and still feel confident about my ability to run well.

Liam Lou Who

Because of the season I can't help but think that with his cute little hair sticking up, and in his striped outfit, that Liam looks like a Who from Whoville! Plus, I call him Liam Lou anyway, so it is very natural to call him Liam Lou Who.

Well, Mr. Lou Who is 8 months old today. Crazy how fast time flies. I can hardly believe that before I know it, his first birthday will be rolling around and he will be walking and getting into all sorts of trouble. Well, he may walk. If he ever decides to crawl. You see, he could totally crawl if he wanted. He will see a toy that he wants and get on his hands and knees and rock back and forth....and then he will anti-climatically sit back on his bottom and reach for a toy that is closer to him. It's as if he just decides that it is really to much work to crawl anywhere, no matter how intriguing the toy may be. We have decided he may be slightly lazy.

At 8 months old he has 3 and 1/2 teeth (the second top one is almost in!) He also weighs in right at 20 pounds. I know this because of all the doctors visits we have made recently. A funny fact about that - Noah and Liam are so close in weight that they were given the same dosage on their antibiotics. I keep warning Noah that one day (soon) he better watch out - his brother is going to sit on him! 

Sickness and the King of Dormir

The above picture pretty much sums up our family's feelings about the last 5 days.

We have been hit, and hit hard, by some random flu-like virus. Body aches, chills, fever, cough, congestion. Yep, all those wonderful symptoms have shown up at our house.

It started with Noah on Thursday and over the weekend spread to me and Liam. Finally last night Wes was taken down as well. I tell you what, I have a new found appreciation for the fact that my family is, for the most part, a pretty healthy bunch. I can count on one hand the number of times that Noah has been this sick. (I am sure that is because of his excellent diet, right? Peanut butter must be a super food!)

Anyway, I hoping that we are all on the mend. We have a fresh supply of antibiotics and cough syrup and so hopefully the boys will be feeling better (and sleeping better!) soon. Because let me tell you, three nights in a row of no sleep is draining when you're healthy. Neither one of them have been able to sleep because of the coughing and congestion. Wes has literally slept while sitting up holding Liam and I have been in and out of Noah's room every 30 minutes because of all his moaning and thrashing.  Finally, yesterday, Wes rigged up a place for Liam in a our bed.

Being propped up on pillows seemed to help him a lot. We laugh every time we look at him though. He looks ridiculous all propped up like the King of Sheba. Or, as Wes has been calling him, the "King of Dormir". (We really like to speak a mangled version of Spanish in our house!)

So here's to hoping we all feel better soon. And to being thankful that the germs hit before Christmas and not during!

Dave Matthews Band Concert

Okay I know this a very belated post. This concert took place over a month ago and I have been meaning to do a post about it for awhile but I haven't been able to import any pics onto my computer until now. Anyway, for Wes' birthday I surprised him with tickets to Dave Matthews Band. We were super excited to have an adult night out at a concert (which we haven't done in forever!) and it was even better because we got to enjoy it with friends. Before the start we headed over to the North Charleston Coliseum for some tailgating with wings and beer.

Here is Wes chowing down on a wing!

The ladies...Katy, me and Tamera

The guys - Wes, Zach and David

After the tailgating we headed in for the show. It was soooo good! I have to say that I wasn't sure what to expect. I am a Dave Matthews fan, but I only know the stuff they play on the radio. Well, of course, Dave avoided almost all his real popular stuff so I didn't really know many of the songs. It didn't matter though. They were such great entertainers that it was really fun to just sit back and enjoy the music. (When I wasn't on one of my 7 million trips to the bathroom that is. I definitely burned off all the calories from the beer that was causing my bathroom runs when I climbed up and down the stairs on every trip!)

We had a great time and I think Wes was really happy with his birthday present. I can't say that he was all that happy about the wing sauce on the upholstery of the car though. But I guess that is what happens when two crazy blonds decide they are starving at 11pm on the car ride home!

PS....This whole post was done using my new MacBook and I am in love! For someone who is completely indifferent to technology I am surprised by how insane I am over my new toy!