Turning 29

Well, I am now 29. Twenty-nine. Two Nine. Thirty minus one. I am now on the brink of old. :) No, in all honesty, it was one of the best birthdays yet I think! And since I had run a 5k two days before, I think I am better shape than I have been in since who knows when.

Because I have a birthday around a holiday, I live by the motto: CELEBRATE EARLY & CELEBRATE OFTEN, because everyone seems to be out of town on my actual birthday. So, I think I got no less than 5 parties in. :) So here is a little overview of my brithday festivities:

PARTY ONE: First I celebrated with 16 friends, 7 of which also have November birthdays. :) We had a blast at the olive garden, just enjoying life together!



On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving my brother Micah came to visit and brought me THIS:


No, not the child.... a BOB!!!!!! For those of you who don't know, this is the cadillac of strollers, it has shocks better than my car! It is great for jogging, and so easy to steer. Awesome, so THANKS MICAH!!!

PARTY TWO: Friday after Thanksgiving, we got our tree and headed to my brother Ryan's house where he and his wife Meredith made awesome pork tacos and a carrot cake for a birthday dinner. :) Yumm! And they gave me an awesome Tupelo Honey cookbook! (Sweet potato pancakes are on the menu in the near future!)


PARTY THREE: Later than evening, instead of going out of eat, we splurged and got some of the pre-made appetizers at Sam's Club and decorated the tree and had chicken burchetta bites. :) Andrew, Ben & Naomi gave me a day at a local spa... yippee! And the book Bossy Pants by Tina Fey! Can't wait to read it.


PARTY FOUR: On my actual birthday, a few friends managed to get away, and I made black forest cherry cake and we watched Seven Brides for Sever Brothers... nothing better than singing along to "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" with seven friends. :) And despite express instructions to not bring gifts, I am now the proud owner of a "runner girl" bumpersticker, a PINK running top, a foam roller (if you don't know what this is, you should), some purple toe nail polish and Settlers of Catan!

PARTY FIVE: And for a final horrah, the day after my birthday the Z side of the family gathered for a make-your-own-sushi night. I love sushi and they went all out on the toppings, we had a blast!

So there you go, I think I am ready to be 29. And hopefully some time in the next 364 days I will be ready for the big 3-0. :) Yikes!

Naomi: 19 Months

Cheese!

Hi Mom!

Naomi & her doggy... early one morning. She loves everything dog.

I absolutely love this age. We are sort of beyond the baby stage. She can walk into a store, instead of having to be carried every time. She can communicate well, she has a personality, preferences, opinions, desires that are totally her own. :)

She loves animals, running, screaming, bracelets, shoes and her blankets.

She is still working on the words, but adds more every day. At Bible Study Fellowship they do a little thing with them each week, " ONE, TWO, THIS IS TRUE, GOD LOVES ME & GOD LOVES YOU!" She is great at holding up two fingers, and she can say "twuuuu." So sweet.

She wants to be part of everything, loves helping cook, clean and would love to be tickled every minute of the day if she had her way. We love our Na-Na!

Uncle Da-tah!

Despite her look in the picture, Naomi and her Uncle Da-tah (Very different than Da-deee :), had a ball when Uncle Micah came down for a 2.5 day whirlwind-thanksgiving visit. It took her a little bit to warm up, but once she did she pretty much decided he was there for her personal entertainment. :)

My brother Micah flew down early on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we manged to pack in Lunch at 12 Bones BBQ, squirrel shooting, Risk, Settlers, a Thanksgiving Meal (on Wednesday), a 5k race, and a huge Post-Race Cinnamon Roll & Quiche breakfast before he hopped back on the plane Thanksgiving afternoon. We love it when Uncle Micah comes to visit!

T-day Turkey Trot 5k

As I have blogged about a few times, my sister-in-law Becki and I started running back in June with the goal of running the Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving morning, and... WE DID IT!

My race buddies - Pre-race!
L-R: Becki, Meredith, Micah, Noah (Mers brother), Me, Brent (Lara's Dad) & Lara

Some cute spectators, watching for their uncles, aunts, friends and mama cross the finish line!

We we are huffing across the finish line.
Our goal was under 40 minutes and our official time was 35min 37sec.

Sweaty, post-race crowd. :)

The fireman ran in full gear... awesome!

My running buddy, without her I wouldn't have stuck with it! :)

My Little Turkeys!

We had a little homeschool craft day before Thanksgiving and made this amazing little turkeys. The body is a cut out of their feet, and the feathers are their hands. Fun, fun! (Even if I spent 30 minutes cutting. :).

Kid Chatter

Ben: Mom, is Jesus as strong as God?

Leah: Yes Ben, he is! God and Jesus are actually one being, but three separate persons, kinda like water...

(and then like any good, slightly-unhinged mother, I broke into song)

L: My God is to GREAT, so STRONG and so MIGHTY, there's nothing my God cannot do! My God is to GREAT, so STRONG and so MIGHTY, there's nothing my God cannot do! The Mountains are His, the Rivers are His, the Stars are his Handiwork too!

B: Handiwork? That's a weird word. What does that mean?

---

30 minutes later after we do our errand and get back in the car...

B: Mom, can you sing that song 20 1/2 times please?

L: My God is to GREAT, so STRONG and so MIGHTY, there's nothing my God cannot do! My God is to GREAT, so STRONG and so MIGHTY, there's nothing my God cannot do! The Mountains are His, the Rivers are His, the Stars are his Handiwork too! My God is so GREAT, so STRONG and so MIGHTY there's nothing my God cannot do, for you!!

B: Umm, that is one time... I said 20 1/2, so keep singing...

L: My God is so... pause (I love to have Ben fill in the words)

B: GREAT

L: So...

B: STRONG

L: And So...

B: FIERCE!!!

L: Oh, really? I think the word is Mighty...

B: Yes, but Mom, Fierce is a type of Mighty.

Bet ya didn't know that! :) Never a dull moment here!

Bumperstickers of the Day

SOMETIMES I AM THE WINDSHIELD
SOMETIMES I AM THE BUG

----

HOMOPHOBIA IS SO GAY

----

I EXPRESS MY INDIVIDUALITY
THROUGH MASS PRODUCED BUMPERSTICKERS

---

JESUS LOVES YOU
the rest of us think you are an a**

Leaves!

Well, since we have about 100 trees in and around our yard raking is always a major ordeal at our house. Thankfully the kids have a blast! (And mama gets her exercise, so I guess that is good). It has taken Ben 4 years to enjoy the leaves. This is the first time he really played in them, he is my clean boy! Naomi, on the other hand, jumps in head-first, crawls on her belly through the WHOLE pile, and then rolls around until she can't tell which way is up.

Mama's helper.

Here we go...

THIS...


OR THIS...
That is the question....

I just registered for my very first 5k race. My sister-in-law Becki and I (and hopefully my brother Micah and some other friends too) will be running the Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving morning. (I picked the race with the least intimidating name - no "iron man" here...)

As I blogged about a while ago, Becki and I started walking back in May, and started a program to run 20 minutes back in July. We fell off the wagon for September while I had a booth at the fair and she took a Nurse Assistant class, and we got back on the wagon in October. We have been running about 25 minutes, and hope to get to 30 or more before the race...

Ready or not... here we go!

I guess the only question left to answer is whether or not I am going to look more like turkey 1 or 2 by the end of the race.... (although neither one is very attractive - I am hoping for alive rather than dead) ... we shall see!

Trick-or-Treat

We had our first Halloween last night. Until now Ben hasn't really been old enough to care, or really enjoy it, so it wasn't really worth the effort. But this year... we were invited to a party on Vermont Street in west Asheville by our awesome friends the Whipples. And we had a blast!

So here are a few pics...

The dinosaur and the bear.
I really like warm costumes... and even better warm HAND-ME-DOWN costumes!

The little dinosaur all ready to go out!
He was so excited he couldn't sleep for his nap. :)
Can you blame him?


As we were walking to the car on the way to the party, Ben started to panic...
"Mom, how can I sit with a TAIL!!"
After we got home and were in pajamas he reached behind him and said,
"Mom, I kinda think I still have a tail." :)

Naomi's costume was a 3T, but who doesn't love a wrinkly teddy bear?
Oh, and that tail! I just LOVE it!
We might just use it again next year. :)



And here are my friend Lara and I.
And I somehow didn't get a picture of her precious Juliet... 6 weeks old and dressed like a tiger!



We saw some awesome costumes!



I didn't get any awesome shots of actually trick or treating, but we had a great time. After the first house Ben was hooked! Vermont Ave in west Asheville is the place to be! (Our friends went through 20ish bags of candy!) In addition to candy people were handing out fresh-made popcorn, animal crackers and raisins (Rachelle, you can tell Mike we like them!)... which was a nice break from the candy! And once we got back to the house, we loved watching all the trick-or-treaters and seeing all the cool costumes!



The kidlets. :)