A little over a week ago I ran an 8-mile race with my friend Lisa. Here we are before the race.
There are no actual race pictures because the Rocket Scientist forgot to bring the camera. And I didn't post sooner because I was waiting on Lisa to send me her pictures but unfortunately she got the stomach flu that night.
It was a lot fun. The race trail wound through the pecan groves that surround our town. It was really pretty and so much fun to be among so much green. Cactus and tumbleweeds just aren't that green.
We ran together for about the first mile and a quarter and then when I looked back I couldn't see her anymore. I felt kind of bad about that but I got to cheer her on to the finish line!
My goal was not lofty - I only wanted to keep up 10-minute miles - but I did it! I finished in an hour and twenty-four minutes. See, what they didn't tell us at the beginning was that our 8-mile race was actually an 8 and a HALF mile race. I got to the eight mile marker and the finish line wasn't even in sight!
The kids came just in time to cheer me on to the finish line and to eat my orange. Then we cheered for Lisa 20 or 30 minutes later. Afterwards we let the kids go to the jumping castles at the pecan festival next door. Here they are on the train with their daddy.

I was just sitting here checking my blogs and email while the kids ate lunch when they started giggling a little too much. So I headed over to the table to discover applesauce piled on top of their heads. I give myself much credit that instead of yelling I just took a deep breath and turned away.
And then Cute Girl says, "You should be happy. It's the holidays."

Classic.

Things that made me happy yesterday

Finding a way to use the spinach and tomato I had sitting in the fridge when I was out of lettuce

My pretty Christmas table

Homemade bread, even if Jacie didn't come help me make it ;)

My Little Monkey

I'm impressed that he could get his leg up there.

Baby Entertainment

I'm a horrible mother. I spent the entire week of Thanksgiving in the kitchen cooking or washing dishes and I took a total of three pictures of one of my children. Awful, awful. So if anyone has pictures of my kids that week, send'em my way.
Handsome Face and Cute Girl were enraptured with their cousin Lucas. They LOVE babies. From these pictures of Cute Girl entertaining him, you'd think they got along great. Wrong. My kids tortured the poor boy. They were a little too rambunctious for his taste and he quite often dissolved into tears. Oh well. Someday there will be a cousin or sibling smaller than him that he can bug and make cry. The puppet show

Let the wild rumpus start!

Who doesn't need a little Max at Thanksgiving?

Blast Off

On Wednesday, after a very lazy morning, most of the Crapo clan went to the Air and Space Museum. I was planning on staying home with my kiddos but at the last minute Cute Girl got permission to go. Handsome Face was soooooo sad that he had to stay home and take a nap. But boy did he need it. He slept all afternoon.

This one is my absolute favorite!

While they were away, my sweet mother-in-law Karen helped clean up the kitchen and even went out for the last minute groceries (my fridge just won't hold enough food for 17 people for a week). I decided to get the dinner going. The Rocket Scientist was supposed to be in charge of homemade bread and coq au vin for dinner but I knew that if I waited until he got home we wouldn't be eating until 10pm! And it's a good thing I started too, because in true Neil Crapo Thanksgiving fashion, he injured himself the moment he came home. In some weird freak accident, a sliver of metal from his belt buckle pierced his nail and became embedded in his nail bed. Ouch. He spent the rest of the night trying to get it out while I made his fancy dinner and peeled the apples for his pie, a tradition that started on our second Thanksgiving. He has seriously been injured EVERY holiday since then, although it's usually happened during the Turkey Bowl. Next year he can plan on making spaghetti and a frozen pie because I'm done!!!

Another Tree

The day before Grandma and Grandpa left we let the kids decorate their own little tree. It has all their own ornaments on it. Seeing as they haven't been alive but six years in total, it didn't take too long. Supposedly they get to keep it upstairs by their rooms but everyday I find ornaments all over the place so I think it might soon make its way to the family room.

The little tree is from my childhood. We had a tiny tree we would keep upstairs in our one giant bedroom. It was fun having a little bit of Christmas to sleep by.

White Christmas

I have been berated for not posting in a week and a half but when your house is invaded by hungry holiday guests, computer time seems to disappear. More on those lovely people later.
Saturday we picked up a Douglas Fir to adorn our living room. Cute Girl loved picking it out. We set it up that evening in our new tree stand (which was $5 at Wal-Mart vs. $25 at Lowes - Score!). Then Sunday evening we set about decorating it. Cute Girl was beside herself with impatience. Here is Handsome Face in time-out for some type of misbehavior. He was probably touching something he wasn't supposed to.Unfortunately my camera kept wanting to set off the flash which made awful pictures. But when the flash is turned off on my camera the auto-focus doesn't work. And since I don't have a tripod I have blurry pictures. So sad!This one is especially cute. Too bad it's not in focus.

See the three red balls? This is typical of Crapo children decorating. The Rocket Scientist did his best to redistribute when their backs were turned.

While we were sipping hot chocolate and listening to carols we heard a loud blast of wind. This is what came with it.Lovely, lovely hail. It's not exactly snow but we'll take what we can get.

And just to prove I was there, here is a not so lovely picture of me unpacking ornaments. I think Handsome Face took this picture.

And now is where I put up a lovely picture of the finished product. Except that while we were upstairs putting the kids to bed we heard a huge crash. Apparently once all the ornaments went on the tree became front heavy and crashed to the floor. We got a wet carpet and three broken ornaments. Luckily the penguins were fixed with a little super glue. We adjusted the tree and the next day I redecorated the tree (I guess the Rocket Scientist didn't really need to redistribute the ornaments after all!). So I'll post a picture of the new and improved tree soon.