Turkey Trot!

I've been doing the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K since 2004. I did by myself until 2008 when my Dad first did it with me. We've been doing it ever since and the girls joined us when they were born. Each year we ask Ross to come along but he politely declines. :) This year he decided to come along and I think he had the best time of his life. hahaha.......he did have a good time, though. The weather wasn't too cold and the sun was shining. It was a very nice morning to start off Thanksgiving Day.

Ross was behind us and filmed Lucy, Molly, Dad, and me crossing the finish line! You can watch us win here!

Posing with the turkey when picking up our packet.

This is the funniest picture. I was taking a video of them and also taking pictures at the same time. I got this picture and think the look on Lucy's face is hilarious!

Turkey Trot 2017

Every year we've been doing the Turkey Trot, my Dad makes his way over to shake Ned Reynold's hand. Ned is the event emcee and was a sports reporter at our local news station for 40 years I believe.

We won!

My Christmas Present From Lucy

One day Lucy came home from preschool with a Christmas present for Ross and me. She was so very excited for us to open it! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Poor Rudolph, Poor Lucy

I found Rudolph like this one day and just had to laugh! Molly got a hold of some "bookmarks" Lucy took home from Gumma's house and put them all over Rudolph. I should have known something was up when I realized Molly had been upstairs and it had been very quiet for a while. I was dreading Lucy seeing this, knowing she would be upset about her bookmarks being used like this. But, to my surprise, she wasn't as upset as I thought she'd be. Molly is such a silly little one. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Lucy and Molly!

Lucy's Play

Lucy has such a fun, interesting way of playing! Here are some examples of how she likes to play.

Lucy's Treasures

A few weeks ago Lucy and Molly spent the night with my parents so Ross and I could go out for my birthday. Mom took the girls to the dollar store so they could pick out a birthday present for me and she also let them get a little treat themselves. She only wanted to spend about $1 each for the treats, so nothing big, just something fun. Molly picked out some Paw Patrol paper plates...so fitting for Molly. :)

Lucy, on the other hand, got a treat that was a little more than just $1, but my Mom said she couldn't resist after hearing Lucy talk about her treat. Here's what Mom said about it via text:

BUT Lucy! Oh my goodness! I hadn't planned on spending $5 on her ...BUT ...Oh My Goodness! She fell in love with a Frozen coin purse that came with 2! lip gloss and 2! nail polish - pink and clear sparkles. She was "over the top" EXCITED!! Walking around she kept talking about it looking at it like it was gold! We got in the car and she tore into it! As she put each item in the purse, she'd say, "this is awesome!" or "I can't believe how neat this is! 2 lip gloss and 2 polish!" Then she'd put the lip gloss on the top of her hand and rub it in saying, "This smells like a flower!" It was so cute watching the feminine little girl enjoy a girly toy! It was Wonderful! And Molly was totally thrilled with her paper plates!

My Name Is ________.

I've realized a huge pet peeve of mine is when you meet someone for the first time and they don't tell you their name!! For example, the last time I took the girls to the doctor we had a new nurse helping us. She didn't introduce herself and her name tag was turned backwards so I had no idea what her name was! I've been in countless situations like this and do not like it at all! I think it's rude, especially in the doctor office setting, for people to not introduce themselves! So, if you meet someone new, tell them your name!

Summer 2017

This post is a little overdue and was actually started mid-August, but oh well......

We had a really fun Summer 2017! This was the first summer since graduating college that really felt like summer vacation to me. Since I haven't had a last day of school and first day of school to mark summer vacation, summertime has just felt like any other time to me, not summer vacation like when I was a kid. Lucy was in preschool last year and now this year, so we had a definite summer vacation.

We still went to the gym every MWF morning from 9-10 for my class, but Tuesdays and Thursdays were completely open for us to do fun activities and relax. And I made sure we soaked up those sleep-in mornings and relaxed, too! After having to get up and be somewhere at a certain time Monday-Friday mornings during the school year, it was nice to have those lazy mornings. Sometime in June, Lucy started coming in our room and crawling in bed with me around 5:30-6am. I think she could see the sun coming in her room (even though the shade was pulled) and woke up a little. I didn't mind her coming in with me, especially since she would fall back asleep right away. We became "snuggle buggles" during the summer and still are today. :) Ross would often wake Molly up and bring her into bed, too, when he went downstairs to start work, so many mornings started off in our bed together.

We did lots of fun things like swimming in our neighborhood pool, at Gumma and Poppy's pool, toddler splash time at local city pool, vacation to Florida, Vacation Bible School for Lucy, spending the night with Gumma and Poppy, story time at the library, playing outside, riding bikes, going to Gramma and Grampas, going to Omaha, going to the zoo, playing with Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Nathan, Trevor, and Cody, and lots and lots of other fun things. It was a great summer!

Ross took this picture one morning without me knowing it and I'm so glad he did! We were all three asleep in this picture and I think it will be one of my all-time favorites!

A New Way To Grocery Shop

Last month I received a coupon in the mail for $10 off a $30 purchase of groceries from Walmart using their online ordering process. I decided to give it a try and I LOVE IT! It's so easy! You order your groceries online and choose a time to pick them up at the store. You receive an email letting you know your order is ready and then just check in on the Grocery App when you're on your way to the store and when you arrive, someone will bring your order our to your car and load it for you.

I love this process! It saves time and I think it saves money, too, because I see the total in my shopping cart as I'm adding groceries to my online order. When shopping in the store, I don't keep a running tally of how much I'm spending. Seeing it as I shop makes a difference! And not seeing all the items like you do in the store makes it easier to not impulse shop. I highly recommend it!

Details

My Mom gave these to us last month and when looking at them it hit me how good she is at paying attention to details and making things extra special. The first is a cinnamon roll for Ross to have for breakfast on his first day of work at his new job. The next container has cookies that she made with the girls one day when they spend the day with her.

She could have just sent both items in a container with no note and now fun decorations, but she didn't and that's some of what makes my Mom, my Mom. She's very good at going the extra mile and doing things like this to make people fell special. :)

Top of the Rock

In October Larry and Wanda, along with two of Wanda's sisters, were vacationing for the week in Branson. They invited us down to visit and go to Top of the Rock with them. It wast  a beautiful day and a really fun time. We had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant and took in the pretty scenery via a golf cart tour. The trees had just started to change colors for the fall, perfect timing for us to be there. I had wanted to go to Top of the Rock for quite a while and am so glad I got a chance to. Ross and I plan to go back in the spring, sans kids, to enjoy it a little more!

From left to right:
Walt and Marilyn (Wanda's sister), Connie (Wanda's sister), Ross, Lucy, Molly, Libby, Wanda, Larry

This is a sinkhole that opened up on the golf course.