MLK Day

We got lucky today to have 2 groups of friends come over and play....Jamie brought over Reid and Reece in the morning to play...We tried going outside but it was crazy windy and wasn't very pleasant....We played inside and let the kids eat lunch....

Kresee and I took a much needed nap....Then Ashley brought Jude and Ezra over later that afternoon....I was determined to play outside since it was a gorgeous day!!!....

Ashley got stuck pushing the girls;)

Ezra

Kresee

Kohen

Jude

We are having such crazy pretty weather for January....And the kids love having friends over:)

Cayden Paige

My cousin, Kimberlie, and her husband finally had their 1st baby on Monday the 9th...Cayden Paige was born at 1:25pm weighing 8 lbs 2 oz....I couldn't wait to get up to the hospital that evening so I could take some pics and hold her:)

Papa and his newest great-granddaughter...He does not hold babies...This was a big deal...I don't recall him wanting to hold my two---he would just peer over Nana's shoulder and look:)
Sweet face.....

Proud new grandma...I know she has been waiting a good while on this:)

Very proud Daddy....

Sweet girl with her mommy

Family of 3

Nana with her great-granddaughter

And I needed to hold her a little bit before we left:)...

Kresee and Kohen can't wait to go and meet her...They were both coughing this week (from allergy drainage) and I didn't want them to be around the baby...Hopefully this week!

And I can't believe this is my 1st post for 2012...I better get on it!....But with getting back to work and everything else, we've been super busy (as always)

2011 Accomplishments

I never make New Year's Resolutions. Never really have. But I did have one main thing that I wanted to accomplish for 2011 and that was a 1/2 Marathon. That was something that I always thought was crazy. Something I thought I could never do in a million years. And I proved that even in 5 months that goal was attainable. I ran my 1st ever 5K in October of 2010 and my first 1/2 marathon in March 2011. I'm not very fast. I will probably never run a sub 2 hour 1/2 marathon, but it's awesome knowing I did it:)

I also wanted to run/log as many miles as I could in one year's time. I ended up with 641.5 miles for the year and 118 hours of Zumba/bootcamp classes. I was pretty proud of myself for all of that. The most exercise and the most healthy I've been in who knows how long. The best part was finding a new love for running. I LOVE Zumba, but I also like mixing it up during the week. And I'm so happy that I completed not only 1, but two 1/2 marathons in 2011. Completing White Rock and beating my previous time by 9 minutes was an awesome way to end the year. And then 6 days later having a PR in my 5K was also pretty great.

I plan on keeping my running mileage and gym class hours for 2012 as well. Maybe I can do the same or even better this year. We shall see:)

2012--I would like to complete a few more 1/2 marathons. I would like to sign up for a few more races too. I only did 1-10K and 2-5K's this year.

And my main thing would be for Kerry to be able to join me again in 2012. He got hurt several months ago. Tore his patella tendon in his knee (not from running though). So he has been out of running commission for awhile now. It was weird training for White Rock without him. It was hard I know on him letting me go and run it wishing he were there with me. He just now gave it another go and has ran a mile 2 or 3 times on the treadmill. So I'm really hoping it holds up, that it heals completely and that it doesn't cause him too much discomfort. I know he is tired of doing the elliptical at the gym for his workouts.

Go Cart

Since the weather was so pretty over the Christmas break, the boys got a lot of use out of their go-cart...They spent several afternoons over there driving around and around:)

Kerry was not going to let me snap a picture of him....

Sweet girl likes riding around too....

Jaxson taking Kresee for a ride

Fall Family Pics 2011

We had Family pictures made back in October so that I could have them ready for our Christmas cards...I've not had time to upload them all on here so I will have to come back and add to it...

We had to attempt one OU family picture for our study:)

Red River #3

We went on our annual Red River Ski Trip last week....We got up and headed that way early Sunday morning so that we could be in Red River by dinner time...We made great time and were there around 6:00 or 5:00 their time...We met up with Dad and Sallye at the Auslander Condos....Unloaded all our junk...Headed over to Sitzmark to rent all our boots and skis...Then went back for some yummy hamburgers that Dad made....We were all pretty exhausted and hit the sack pretty early knowing we would be up and on the slopes at 9 am....
We knew there was a pretty bad winter storm headed our way...Red River was expecting to get several inches on snow throughout Monday and into Tuesday...But we woke up and yes it was pretty chilly out there...The snow was coming down too bad...We ate some good breakfast...Piled on the layers and headed over to the easy lift/slope so Kohen could practice a few times...It was pretty windy...The lady took our pictures before we even had time to put on our skis...As you can tell, the wind and snow were really coming down at this point....

I thought it was going to be a miserable day, but we got going...Kohen was a little more reserved than we expected...Last year, we could hardly keep him reigned in...This year he was definitely more cautious...We worked on the easy slope all morning and went over to the big lift to get one ride to the very top of the mountain...By the time we skiied all the way down, we knew it would be lunch time....

After lunch, it turned out to be a pretty day...The snow really had stopped...That storm ended up going more south and east of us...It was good weather all afternoon...

We skiied the rest of the afternoon and Kohen did really well...We had some great spaghetti that night...I ate 2 huge plate fulls:)....We went to bed early again and was up and ready for Tuesday...We walked straight over to the big lift and skiied the big slopes all morning...Kohen finally got his groove and was doing great....

We ate lunch, then Sallye, JJ, Kerry, Kohen and I all headed about 5 miles out of Red River to a snowmobile place...Dad, Chris and Joscelyn all stayed and skiied the afternoon...

Kerry and I loaded up, Kohen rode with JJ and Sallye had one to herself.....

They took us across the street on like 1,100 acres of land...You had to follow the trails they made for you since the snow was so deep in places and you couldn't just venture anywhere...But you had 2 hours to ride and do what you wanted...It was a lot of fun....At first, I wasn't too excited...I thought I was going to end up being cold...But I had a great time...They had this tall hill that you could ride to the top and get on one of those plastic bowl type sleds and slide down...It was probably the funnest thing I've done in a long time...I have several videos of us sliding down that thing....The guy said Kohen definitely held the record on the farthest he's seen someone go...Probably a good 2 football fields worth...

Here we are trying to get a picture after we were done...The sun was shining straight in our eyes and Kohen was NOT into having his picture made....

We headed back and met up with everyone...Got changed and ate a very good meal at Timbers restaurant...We ate there last year as well and enjoyed it....

We really lucked on getting there on Sunday b/c the pass/stretch of road into Red River was closed all day Monday and half of Tuesday...We got out in time on early Wednesday morning b/c they got more weather that night and Thursday....So we couldn't have timed it more perfectly...

The only bad thing was that we left around 6:15 am Wednesday morning and b/c of the snow storm there were road closures and we had to go really out of the way to get home...Basically took us right at 11 hours to get home...We were very ready to be back in Wichita Falls!!!

We seriously have the best time going on our yearly ski trips...I'm so glad Dad/Sallye invited us 3 years ago...I'm not sure Kerry and I would have braved doing that on our own..And it's something I think we will continue to do every year...We really look forward to it...

Kohen from this past January (4 1/2 years old)

Kohen from our 1st time in December 2009 (3 1/2 years old)...I guess if we take Miss Kresee next year she will be 3.5 then as well...Should be interesting with the 2 of them!

Christmas #6

Our last Christmas was at my Nana and Papa's house for lunch...We had the usual turkey and dressing with all the fixings:)....We then opened the last of all the presents....The kids are patiently waiting on Papa to return to the house so they could open theirs....

Kresee giving me a silly face....

Sketch sitting on Kohen...

Kohen got another PS3 game and 2 more wrestling guys and some art supplies....Kresee got a Fur Real penguin, a Dora game for the leapster2, some colored pencils with some art paper and stickers and a barbie doll....

Needless to say we were pooped by the time we were done with all our Christmases...We got home around 4:00...Kohen got to play on his PS3 for the 1st time....He and Kerry competed in football for awhile...I picked up the house while Kresee played with all her toys....We went and grabbed some leftover soup at Kerry's parents for dinner...Then went to the Lavender's that evening to let the boys and girls all play together for about 1.5 hours...The kids went to bed and I wasn't too far behind....

We did sleep in a tiny bit today (if 8:15 counts as sleeping in--I did lay there for longer though)....I finally went and got donuts around 9:15....Then we put up all the Christmas stuff today...

I was just looking through old pictures...It made me realize this was our 3rd Christmas without Biskit and of course our 1st without Sage....Kresee wasn't even born here (Christmas 2008)....Kohen was 2 1/2 (Kresee's age right now)....As you can see they were all tuckered out and taking good Christmas nap together....Hunter and Biskit laying with Kohen...While Sage and Parker were with Kerry....

I had to really step back and concentrate on appreciating Hunter this year....I have a sinking feeling that this was probably his last Christmas with us....