Christmas Treats

We decorated a gingerbread tree with the missionaries the last time they were here. I stacked it a little lopsided, so I guess now it looks like the tree in our house! Not the best picture of Jed, but he wasn't really into taking a break from decorating Our finished product

Adding green icing to the branches. Grace was helping spin the plate.

On Friday, we had a friend spend the night. She was nice eough to bring cookies for us to decorate. It got a little messy, and I am still finding sprinkles in the cracks of the floor, but we had fun.

Our finished cookies. Even better since I didn't have to bake them!

Little Indians

About a week before Thanksgiving, Jed came out of school dressed like a little Indian. He loved his outfit and has worn it on a near daily basis since. He decided that he and the girls should hunt animals for their "buckskin". They trooped off into the trees behind out house in search of their prey. They ended up in the driveway of a sweet older lady that lives behind us. She has 3 cats. We have had a problem with cats in our yard, and the need they have to poo on our trampoline. As they were talking to this lady, I came out to find them and see who they were talking to. Jed and Olivia told her they were hunting cats.

Jed said they were going to kill them for the skin, and Olivia said she was "going to knock their teeth out!" I don't know what the lady was thinking, but I am sure it was along the lines of how crazy my kids are and how sad it was I am going to have another one soon.

We still do not have any cat skins or teeth for our collection, but we also haven't had any unwanted carts for a while. They go cat hunting on most days. Yesterday Olivia was carrying around a bat and Jed had a toy ax. I guess they mean business.

My little hunters. They are outside and happy and busy, they can kill all the cats they want.

Halloween

Hiccup, a witch and Dorothy before trunk or treat
We went trick or treating at the mall because the neighborhoods here stink and you have to walk to about 10 houses to get one piece of candy, so anyway...Grace was a witch, but she didn't think it turned out very well.

Jed was Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon, he didn't want to wear his viking helmet beause it always fell off, but he still carried his ax.

Olivia as the cutest Dorothy there was. Instead of saying "trick or treat" to people, she would say "I am Dorothy"

Stats

I was "lucky" enough to be able to take all 3 kids to the Dr. last week for annual checkups. They pricked Grace and Jed's fingers to run blood tests, which was new for me. It was interesting. Jed went first and couldn't see what was going on. Then he watched Grace and I could see him losing color. I told him to leave the room and went out to find him 15 seconds later. He was white as a sheet and gagging. I had him start to put his head between his knees when he puked down the front of his shirt and in my hands. Thankfully there was a bathroom about 10 steps away, so we could both wash up. Poor Jed had go through the rest of the appt. with no shirt on. On the bright side, their blood work was great!! Jed was sad to get 4 shots and Liv ended up with 2. A night of fevers and Advil later and they were all better. Here are the current stats:

Grace
46" tall (can you believe she is almost 4 feet tall??)
46 pounds

Jed
42.5" tall
41 pounds
can not handle the sight of blood

Olivia
37" tall
32 pounds
believes you have to limp for 3 days after shots

At least they are all healthy and growing. Baby 4 is growing and will be coming on the 7th of February if I am induced, but lets all pray for an earlier day.

Miss Olivia turns 3!

Friday was Olivia's 3rd birthday. I seems unreal to me, but she was super excited. We dropped the older 2 off at school and came home to some fun girlie time. She is in love with pink right now, so we painted all her nails bright pink. As you can see, she was very happy about it. She also wanted to wear a dress so she looked extra pretty.

She chose to go to McDonalds for her birthday dinner, then we cames home, sanitized, and opened presents. Here she is digging in a box from grandma and grandpa.

What could be better than a pink and purple pillow pet???

She also requested a pink cake, so we had funfetti with pink frosting. I think she had a good day. On Saturday we took her to get her ears pierced. She loves them, and of course, chose PINK flowers.

It's a ...

We learned today that we are having another

GIRL!!

I Finished 39.3 Miles!!!

Not only did I finish, but i finished ALL 40 miles without help from a motor vehicle. My awesome friend Joy helped me pretty much every step of they way.
Here we are giving a little love to John Wayne. He was at the top of a VERY steep hill, so a little picture break was in order, along with a wet rag to tie around our neck. Surprisingly the first 20 miles were pretty "easy" except for the hills, but foot wise there were no problems. Mile 13.1 of day one. It was about lunch time and we were still going pretty strong.

The very end of day one. There was a huge line to take pictures by the official sign, so we grabbed a nice person cheering and used their sign. The last five miles of this day were terrible. My feet and ankles were throbbing and we were walking on horse trails and busy roads. Thankfully Joy was willing to go as slow as I needed even though I am sure she just wanted to be done.

After seeing the doctor for some swollen ankles and blisters, and sleeping in tents, we started again the next day. Mile 7 of day 2, or mile 33.2 for us. Fanny packs and pregnancy do nothing for me!! This was when the ankles started swelling and feet started hurting again.

The finish line. We were so ready to be done. It was a great experience and very emotional. It was hard, but it made me realize I can do pretty much anything with enough determination and a good support system.

Thanks to Joy for letting me join her for the weekend and for everyone who donated. I am awed and honored.