Christmas

Our day started with the opening of the first gifts of Christmas! I don't know about everyone else and your children, but mine have been asking everyday since Thanksgiving how many more days till Christmas?! When can we open a present? The answer was always the same, not until Christmas! They were thrilled to finally tear some paper!

Avery with her new doll, Julie

Jared's first big boy Lego set

Carson with his Medieval Village


John Parker and his DS

The children were thrilled with their gifts, and it kept them busy all day while I prepared for my family to come over for dinner. For the past several years, we have hosted Christmas Eve for my side of the family, there are about 23 of us altogether. We all pitch in with the cooking so this helps out tremendously! We always have more delicious food than a small army could eat!

Avery with her new, cute apron ready to help in the kitchen


Looking quite exhausted

Lesley looks nice and refreshed!


All the children in one picture- not an easy task!



Stephen & John Ashford discussing the new Lego set

Boys building Legos

Carter (9 months)

&

Ella Joan's (4 months) 1st Christmas!

Stephen was super excited about his own Keurig!

The traditional opening of the Christmas Pjs!

Avery modeling hers, notice the cute, little tutu!

All the kids snuggled with Kelly listening to The Night Before Christmas!


Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnite..............

The children woke up to another blessed Christmas!

It always takes them awhile to wake-up, they come downstairs and look at and analysis their gifts and then decide what to play or do first! Once awake, they're awake -full speed ahead!! We enjoyed a yummy breakfast of monkey bread, sausage/egg casserole and my favorite, mocha punch. We spent the whole day in our jammies just relaxing, playing and enjoying our family!

Still asleep

Oscar, so cute!

Checking out their stockings

The aftermath.........

Clean-up and time to welcome a New Year!

Christmas Fun!

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone yet another year!!! I am going to make an attempt to somewhat catch up on our Christmas happenings. The entire month of December is busy, busy, busy!!!! It seems like we are hopping from one place to the next and constantly making those list and checking them once, twice, three times........ you get the picture!

Jared, Oscar, Carson, Avery and John Parker excited to be opening an early gift!

They got the movie "Up!" Such a sweet movie!!!!

John Ashford and Ella Joan posing for their Christmas card pictures!

That was fun!!!! I think I took around 50 pictures! John Ashford doesn't sit still long enough to have his picture made! This is one of my favorites!

Here they are again with Santa!
John Ashford told him that he just wanted "twains" (trains)!


Avery, Carson & John Parker with Santa!
Jared was visiting with his brother in Jackson.


Avery, Anna Kate, Lilly Grace and Haley Brooke at the cookie party!
This is the 2nd annual party, and the girls love it! Leigh and her mom did a wonderful job hosting! Leigh's mom made these adorable aprons for them! Super cute!

Happy to be here!

Concentrating on getting those sprinkles just right!

Ready to do more baking with mama! She loves to help in the kitchen!

The kids and I made some treats for friends at church.

We made homemade hot cocoa, dipped pretzels, chocolate oatmeal cookies, and Hershey Kiss cookies!

Finished, packaged and ready for delivery!

Ladies' Christmas Brunch

This morning I attended our annual Christmas brunch and ornament swap. The ladies at our church always look forward to it. Each of us brings a dish, which always turns out to be way too much food, but it is all so wonderful! After eating, we play Dirty Santa! Some of us take the game pretty seriously, planning out our strategy to getting the ornament that we want, while others can be quite reserved!!! No matter what ornament everyone ends up with, there are always lots of laughs while playing!

Lesley (my sister), my mama and me

Heather, Shelia, Season & Roan

Leigh, Lesley & Season

Look at that spread!

Tammy & Heather

Becky, Amanda & Beth

Karen, Lesa & Shelly

Mrs. Dunk & Ella Joan

Getting ready to play!!



My ornament! Love it!

Roan & me

Thanks Shelia for hosting this year in your beautiful home! We had a great time!
We need to have a Christmas in July brunch, too!!!

St. Jude 1/2 Marathon

If I had to sum up the weekend in one word, that word would be AWESOME!!!! All the weeks of training were so worth it! What an incredible experience!

After dropping off the children at their destinations, Kelly and I started our fun-filled weekend! We picked up sushi to eat on the way, so yummy, but not a good choice for driving!!! We made a very quick stop at Target to pick up a few items to help keep us warm on our run. After arriving at our hotel and checking in, we headed over to the Expo, which was conveniently located right across the street. At the Expo, we picked up our race numbers, timing chips and t-shirts. I found Roan searching through hundreds of these cute little head bands called Bondi-Bands. She had already picked out a few for me to choose from. They are so cute! Who says you can't be cute while running! HA! We walked through the entire Expo and looked at all the neat running gear and apparel! I spent quite awhile looking at the One More Mile booth at all their quirky, fun little sayings on their t-shirts, hats, bumper stickers and more. I ended up buying one that said, "Running is a mental sport, and we are all insane!" There were so many to choose from! We were soon joined by Emily and Mark. Roan and I helped Emily pick a Bondi-Band, too! She against her own judgement, went with a very cute, colorful one! She also choose a black one in case she chickened out!

Just to let you know, all of the pictures will be ones that I swiped from either Roan or Megan's blogs! Jimmy and Megan thankfully took lots of pictures! I don't think I took one the entire time! So it's not Deja Vu, you probably have seen them all before!

Russ, (Megan on the phone!) Mark, Emily, Me, Kelly, Roan and Jimmy

This was in the lobby outside of the Expo!

Look who we ran into!
Thanks Santa for taking time out of your BUSY schedule to take a picture with us!

Roan, Me and Emily

After the Expo, we headed out to eat at the Spaghetti Warehouse for our pre-race meal! It is such a great feeling to load up on all those carbs and not have a guilty conscience while doing it! We enjoyed good food and lots of laughs! We had so much left over, that we made a to-go plate for Stephen, who had to work and got a late start heading out. He actually came in right as we were leaving! He came back to our hotel and we all hung out in the lobby while he ate! We had the best time! I really can't remember when I have laughed so much and so hard! We decided we should head up to our rooms, get everything ready for the morning and try to get some rest! I personally didn't rest much at all!!! We should have just stayed in the lobby and laughed some more!!! Ha!

We all met back in the lobby at 6:00. We were joined by Russ, Megan, Stephen, Julie and Yonea. We enjoyed coffee and M&M's for our breakfast!

Me, Roan & Emily

We are all wearing the new Bondi-Bands that we bought at the Expo. You can tell from this picture that I didn't sleep much the night before!

Stephen & Kelly enjoying muffins before their run

Kelly & Me

Megan and Russ

(Hope she decides to run next year!)

Jimmy & Roan

Okay, game on, it's time to get serious!!!! As if four layers on top, two on bottom, and two pairs of gloves weren't enough, some of us also added a cath lab gown! Jimmy was kind enough to bring some to suit up in for our 1 mile walk to the race start! We may have looked goofy, but they really did help keep us warm! It was a freezing temperature of 26 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrr...... I am thinking this is totally nuts, but so much fun!

This is complicated!

Russ, Yonea, Julie, Roan, Jimmy and me all suited up and ready to brave the cold!

Julie and Yonea had on new headbands, too! Julie's said, "Start off slow, then back off!" Yonea's said, "Running is cheaper than therapy!" Super cute!

After a few more pictures, we all headed out to face the cold for the mile warm-up walk to the stadium. After checking our bags, we walked together to the corrals where almost everyone went to different ones. Emily, Yonea and I all started in corral 9. The official time started at 8:00, and by the time our corral started, which seemed like no time at all, it was 8:15! We threw our cath gowns over to the side and it was time to RUN!!!! Wow, all the talking, discussing, planning and anticipation and it was finally here! I was so excited, I mean really excited!!! It didn't take long to warm up! I ditched one pair of my gloves at about mile one! That was the only thing I shed the entire race. I did get hot and wanted to take off my outer layer, but my race bib was pinned to it! I loved this race! There were supporters and entertainment along the entire course! The most inspirational and emotional part of the race was running through the St. Jude campus. There were family members and a couple of patients outside holding up signs and shouting encouraging words to all the runners! Very humbling experience, my prayers go up for these families!

I enjoyed almost every mile of this race! The first 10 miles were awesome, the last 3 were hard! My legs tightened up pretty bad, but I pushed through! I finished a couple of minutes short of my goal at 2:17. At race start, my Garmin GPS didn't work, so I only saw my time, not my pace or average pace, which I am sure is the reason I finished a little short! I am totally okay with my time, I had a super race! Right after crossing the finish line, I was handed a thermal blanket and crossed over onto the field to join Kelly, Stephen, Yonea, and Roan to cheer the others in! I was so excited to be finished that I forgot to get my finishers medal! I went back and got one, I worked hard for it! Ha! Kelly did awesome with a time of 2:09 and Stephen rocked at 1:51!

When we finished our race, we enjoyed some delicious, hot soup and cocoa! When our bodies started cooling off, it was sooooo cold! Oh my, I have never in my life been that cold and three days later, I think I am still thawing!!!!! We all found a seat either in the stadium or on the field at the full marathon finish line to cheer Jimmy in! He came in looking strong with a finishing time of 3:46! Way to go Jimmy!

Jimmy, Stephen & Russ outside the stadium

This was Russ's first half, too and he did awesome finishing under 2 hours!!!

All of the runners after the race!

This whole weekend was a wonderful experience! I am so thankful for everyone who encouraged me to do this, to my training buddy, Emily, to my family and friends who helped care for my children while Kelly and I enjoyed our time together stress free! Congratulations to all my friends who accomplished their goals!

Happy Running!