granny

My sweet Granny went to be with our Heavenly Father on December 29th. At the young age of 78. She has been sick for a long time so honestly I'm really happy that doesn't have to live the way she was anymore. She rest her heart and lungs and watch us from above.

I can't help but remember so many wonderful things about her.

Every year for my birthday (without fail) I would get a card from a granny. Growing up I would receive a card with money in it. The amount was always based upon how old I was. At 10 I got 10 bucks. I always looked forward to it. This lasted until I was 21 when I graduated from the money program and just got a sweet loving card. After all, she did have 15 grandchildren and 3 great-grand children. We got expensive!

In the last few years we have turned into email buddies. I always knew she was just an email away. She LOVED my blog. She is one of the main reasons I blog. If I would miss days or weeks of no blogging you better believe my granny would email me and ask if everything was okay. I was usually sure to post something quickly after that.

She would also email me with great parenting advice. Shoot when she was my age she already 5 kids so she has been around the block a few times. She always made things sounds easy.

I'm just thankful that I've known her my whole life. She was an amazing mother of 8 children. I can't even fathom being a mother of 8. It really takes a special woman to do that!

Here are two of my favorite pictures.

Grace when she was itty bitty and Granny Brooks.

Four Generations: Granny, my dad, me and Grace. Sadly we never took one with Emma.

I was also thankful that last Monday night (the night before she passed) I was able to whisper in her ear how much I loved her and hold her hand while she rested. She was ready to go. I pray that when my time comes I can go as peacefully as she did.

Love you granny!

Christmas-time fun

Grace had a precious Christmas program this year. But wouldn't you know I pulled out my video camera only for the battery to die within 3 seconds of it being on. I was lucky I at least had my camera. Unfortunately we didn't really have a fabulous view despite the fact that we were sitting close. So the best picture was of Grace after the performance. She did so great. Huge improvement from last year. From my memory I believe last year she just hung out and watched all the bigger kids sing their little hearts out, but this year she actually sang all the songs and did most the hand motions. I can't wait until next year. I promise to be more prepared!

We have enjoyed a cold and snowy winter so far. It has snowed 3 times this December. We even got enough snow this last time that a few of our neighbors built snowmen. Emma was battling a cold so we stayed indoors and watched from our front window.
Still can't believe all the snow we got!

We also had a lot of fun doing other Christmas stuff.

One morning we baked cookies - which turned into an entire afternoon of icing and decorating. I think its sure to be an annual thing.

And to go with the theme of the month I forgot my camera for most everything else we enjoyed. We made a gingerbread house which turned into a bit of a disaster. We will attempt it again next year! We also headed to Northpark mall in Dallas and visited the trains. So cool. The girls loved it and I think Adam loved it even more. :) One night we headed to the Frisco fire department and walked around their little town were the girls got to drive a sleigh, get a Rudolph nose painted on, get a temporary tattoo, try on firemen gear and even drive the fire truck. So cool that they do that. We also enjoyed a couple nights of driving around looking at lights and lots of Christmas movies. I think at one point Adam has 10+ Christmas kids movies recorded. Grace loved everyone. Emma on the other hand still doesn't like tv.

What did you do with your family throughout the Christmas season?

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas usually starts on Christmas Eve. For years now we get together with my mom's side of the family for a big dinner. We don't do gift exchanges anymore since there are 40+ people in the family but its always a nice night of family, food and fun.

Here are all the little girls (my cousins) and my girls.

Grace and Emma and Audrey and Lexi. The big girls are 8 months apart (Lexi being older) and the little girls are just 2 days apart!

A cute snapshot of Daddy and his favorite hip-rider saying "cheese".

December seemed to skip past me and before we knew it we had the video camera and were recording as Grace walked down the stairs Christmas morning. There really is something cool about being up BEFORE your kids and being able to see their eyes light up when the see Santa visited them. I'm sure we only have a couple more years that our girls will be up before us, but it sure was nice to enjoy that this year.

The girls big gift was a trampoline from Adam's parents and boy do they love it. Too bad the weather has been SUPER cold otherwise we might be out enjoying it more. Hopefully warmer weather is to come.

Here is Adam lovingly putting the tramp together on Christmas Eve in a wet cold snow. I helped for bit, but then went inside to dry off by the fire. Oh how I love a fire on a cold day.

And here is the tramp on Christmas morning. Would you believe it snowed 3 times in December. This was the first white Christmas that Dallas has had since 1927! It was beautiful. Bummer we had to wait to enjoy the tramp. Plus Adam still had to add the safety sides. OH and did I mention we put it together wrong and Adam and had to take it all apart again! Ooops! Read ALL the directions when putting one of these together!

Santa brought Grace her beloved paints (aka watercolors) and a fun marble game, plus some fun stocking goodies - you know new undies and socks, new sunglasses, etc :)

Santa brought Emma lots of baby doll stuff. This girl really is my little mommy rocking all her babies to sleep and "shooshing" in their ears.

The girls also got a few things from us as well. Spoiled - never! :)

By 9am we were at my parents house opening gifts and enjoying a yummy breakfast. My parents got all the grand kids cute little chairs. The girls LOVE these chairs and drag them all over the house!

And finally a cute family shot. What more do I need on Christmas than a little family like this!This seriously is probably one of the only pictures of all 4 of us where everyone is smiling. Too bad Emma isn't looking at the camera, but it is cute none the less!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Christmas cards

My super cool neighbor took pictures of the girls this year for our Christmas cards and we are totally going to have him do it every year! The girls had a blast and we fell in love with all the pictures!!

"The one" - this is just so their personality. Smily and serious!

Christmas cuteness

I just wanted to get a few things down on paper before I forget them...

*After we finished decorating the house Grace informed me that I forgot to decorate her room. I felt so sad so I ran out to Walmart and got her little tree with lots of pink decorations! She loves it!

*After finishing the whole house and her room Grace said "Santa's gonna love it" - she was being VERY serious!

*Emma proclaims anytime she sees Santa. Yelling "Santa!" and followed by a "Ho Ho Ho". She has got it down!

*We have a house in our neighborhood that decorates their house like something out of Christmas Vacation... wow! It has everything from Santa and his reindeer, to lights, to carollers and even a full nativity. The girls love it. Really that is an understatement. If I drive past it too fast Grace will yell at me - "I didn't get to see baby Jesus!" Unfortunately for me this house is on the way in and out of the neighborhood so there is no avoiding it. So if you are neighbor and reading this - sorry if you get behind me, we have to take note of every piece of yard art before moving on.

check

Well I can finally check off that I have completed a half marathon. 13.1 miles done. And it couldn't feel better!

The entire race/run was amazing. It blew me away at the number of volunteers and police officers and spectators that were out there cheering for the runners. Pretty much the entire race there were people holding signs and cheering on strangers.

Mile 12 was a bit tough because I was pretty tired but somehow pushed through it. My chip time was 2 hours 24 minutes and 47 seconds. Just under an 11 minute mile. I was really just hoping for under 2:30, so I was happy with that. But would really like to be closer to a 10 minute mile since I know I can do that!

Thank you for all the encouragement and support during this training. I couldn't have done it without it!!! And to my sweet husband for coming home early, going into work late, and helping with the girls to make my training my possible. I couldn't have done this without you baby! Love you!

And yes I'm hooked - thinking my next race will be the Dallas Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon - March 14th. No desire yet to run a full marathon... but not ruled out either! :)

5 days...

Sunday is the big day. 13.1 miles here I come.

More later. We've been busy with Christmas shopping, running, planning Christmas parties, going to parties, etc. So much to update no time now.

I will update next week after the race. For now I'm tring to have a quiet week and rest for the big run!

Have a great week!!

ps... I'm done Christmas shopping!! Lots to wrap, but I'm done!!