This story has a brave knight,
a beautiful princess on her unicorn,
and finally a ferocious dragon.
It ends with a Happy Halloween!
Actually, I think my kids are happy that Halloween is over. There were so many Halloween events to attend this year that I actually had to bribe Hallie with candy to put her costume on for trick or treating tonight.
running a half marathon. Tired!
I started running 5Ks after Zeke was born. After Hallie, I did a few 10Ks. So it was only natural that I had to do a half marathon after Rock was born. Well, he's 1 now and I finally did it. It was really hard! But I'm glad I did it. It wouldn't have happened without my treadmill, Damon watching the kids on Saturdays while I did my long runs, and my parents making the trip with me to Mackinac Island and watching the kids for me! They are the best. My dad did the 5.7 mile run. He is a huge part of me being a runner.
I was a little nervous when we arrived in Mackinaw City Friday night and they had shut down the ferries to the island because of gale force winds. It felt like a hurricane. My mom actually was blown down by a gust of wind when we arrived at the hotel; we had a good laugh about that together. The rain didn't stop all night and it was still going when we boarded the fairy Saturday morning. After a quick trip to the island and checking in, I was ready to run. The rain finally let up and didn't start again until after I had finished - thank goodness. It was windy and the hills were killer! But the island and the course was beautiful. Whenever I would get really tired I would think, "just look at where you're running - it's amazing!" The fall colors were just peaking.
I wanted to finish in under 2 and a half hours and I finished in 2:22. It was much slower than my training pace, but I was relieved just to finish and run the whole thing after I saw some of the hills I had to conquer. I'm so glad to have had the experience. I guess this means I'll have to run a marathon after our next baby!
Question: How do you celebrate a baby's first birthday?
Answer: Kegs of whole milk, all the peanut butter and honey you can eat, and a box of tissues.
What more does a one year old really want than to be able to pull every tissue out of the Kleenex box? (Thanks to my sister for starting this tradition!) It was either that or let him play in the toilet water. Both seem to be his goal in life right now. He also likes to eat Damon's nasty hospital shoes and tear into a good tube of Desitin. Yeah, I think the Kleenex was definitely the way to go.
Happy Birthday, Rock. I am so glad you came into our lives one year ago today. You have brought us nothing but joy every day since!
Life has gotten busy around here. I loaded kids in and out of the car 8 times today. Thank goodness Damon was home to take Zeke to football practice or it would have been 10. I'm feeling more and more like a chauffeur and less like a mom. And when I playing the role of a mom, I'm usually saying, "hurry, get dressed!" or "get in the car right now!" I'm definitely not the mom that I want to be. I need some down time at home with my ninos!
both literally and figuratively.
Last week Zeke decided he would practice his scissors skills on the battery charger cord for my awesome go phone. I wasn't too upset because I hated my phone. So I ended up with a new cell phone and entered the world of texting. I know, there's a reason people call me "Granny Annie."
Zeke also started kindergarten which was like cutting the cord for our little mommy/son relationship. Okay, it's only half day kindergarten and he's been ready to go for the past six months, but it still feels like a big deal! I was supposed to go to class with him on the first day and stay for the hour. Before I even turned the car off he was saying, "bye, Mom!" I had to explain that I wasn't ready to leave him yet.
Since school has started, Zeke has decided that he's an independent minor. He no longer takes baths with his brother and sister: only showers. And before the shower, he shaves. It's hilarious; I heard him turn the water on and sigh, "I've got to shave before I get in the shower." Big kid. He also received his own library card and has been dying to go to the public library and use it. Again, I still haven't turned the car off and he tells me that he'll meet me inside. He quickly picks out his books and goes to check them out. Then he strikes up a conversation with the woman working there and asks for a bag. I'm wondering what happened to my little boy. Is he really all grown up that fast? He still looks little out in front of his big old school!
We love Michigan in the Summer. Something about the long, dreary winter makes us want to live it up in the summer. This summer was very mild - but you won't hear me complaining. Usually we hear lots of complaints about the humidity, but this year everyone is complaining that it never really warmed up. That brings up another beef I have: I hate when people tell me that it is a dry heat in the Southwest so it doesn't compare to the humidity. First of all, I don't think the humidity in MI is THAT bad and secondly, a microwave is a dry heat but it's still dang hot (thanks to my brother for coming up with that one.) The point is, I would take a Michigan summer over an AZ summer any day.
Here's some more reasons why we had a great summer:
*Soccer! Zeke scored 26 goals in 5 games. It pays to be one of the oldest kids on the team! 
*The Ice Cream Social! Free ice cream and free fun. (Poor Rock was happy just to have the leftover Popsicle stick in his hand.
Hallie actually braved the moonwalk.
*Swimming and Swim Lessons! Having a pool to go to for free everyday always pays off (I say free, but that's only if you don't count the horrendous taxes we pay!) I feel like we lived at the pool this summer. Zeke did swim lessons and literally went from not putting his head under water without plugging his nose to swimming! It was so fun to see him progress so quickly.
Rock loved trying to catch the water in his hands. He would try so hard to hold it or to bite it with his teeth.
*Late nights! We had a hard time getting to bed before 10:00 most nights. It stays light until so late and who wants to go to bed when it's the best time of day. Zeke and Hallie thought it was hilarious to get into Rock's crib.
*Gardening! We tried to do mostly heirloom seeds this year. The flavor is supposed to be better and then we can harvest the seeds and get the same fruit next year, which isn't the case with hybrids. These tomatoes were multi-colored and had a great smoky taste.
*The beach! Besides the swimming at out community park, we also have a fun little beach. My kids actually prefer it to the pool on most days. We had a lot of fun making sand castles and in Rock's case just eating the sand. I had a lot of fun washing sand out of every item of clothes that came within a 1 mile radius of the beach. I swear that stuff migrates independently!
*Making Roly-Poly Houses! When we were at home, the kids were usually catching bugs and making accommodations for them.
*Race For Kids! This was another fun and FREE activity for the kids. We had fun, except when this race car did a pit-stop demonstration. It was so loud; the car would race about 20 feet, slam on the brakes and then the crew would race in, change the tires and then the engine would rev up again and race off. All the kids were covering their ears and Rock was screaming with fear. The worst part of it was that they repeated it about five times. We were seriously trying to run as far away from it as we could after the first couple of times.
Hallie was a little too good at striking a pose in front of all the fancy cars.
They had some amazing cars at the event. I kept thinking, "I should be really amazed to be seeing all these sports cars, but I just don't know enough to really care!"
*The Michigan State Fair! The kids loved seeing all the livestock. We watched a fun live animal show and then a show with magic and circus tricks. The kids had a great time and enjoyed a big bag of cotton candy on the way home. 
Summer was great, but bring on the Fall!
Today my (sometimes) sweet little girl turned 4. Hallie has been planning this birthday for the past six months. She wanted to have a pajama party so she could just get out of bed in the morning and not have to get ready; she is a girl after my own heart. The sad truth is that staying in our jammies for most of the day is pretty common around here. When I asked her who she wanted to invite she said, "Only girls, but Zeke can come and open the doors for us." She ended up inviting one other boy - I guess to help with any double doors.
After I read the kids a bed time story, they all pretended to go to sleep. Then I woke them up for breakfast.
They had fun decorating pillowcases and then we had some sleepy games. In this picture they were pretending to fall asleep any time the music stopped.
Birthday cake - pink of course!
After her party we went to see G-Force with some friends. It made for an awesome birthday!
Here's Hallie at the very beginning.
She had the cutest little blond tips on her hair when she was born.
Birthday #1
Birthday #2 - she has the same amount of hair as the year before!?
Birthday #3 - Still working on the mullet
I'm looking forward to many more bithdays with my little girl. She is such a special little girl and we love her so much!
