Thanksgiving 2011

As usual, when I sort through pictures from a year, November is pretty dry on the picture end. At least for pictures of family events. It seems like November gets swallowed up in pictures for others and there aren't a whole lot of things going on between Halloween and Thanksgiving, so therefore, I don't ever pull the camera out at home. So, this is my one and only post for November of 2011. But luckily, it was a fun time! We were SOOOOO lucky again this year to have visitors for Thanksgiving. Grandma and Grandpa Thalgott came out for a week and we looooved having them here! A quick picture recap of what went on while they were here. First off, we had a delicious feast, of course! It was so nice to have help in the kitchen and great people to share the meal with. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude for such great families that day. We are so blessed!

After the meal, we all ventured outside for some fresh air. And it felt so good! The weather was absolutely amazing! Check out the boys wearing shorts on Thanksgiving! Amazing! In fact, they were jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler & buying ice cream from the ice cream truck just a couple days before this!

We ended up in an impromptu game of football that was so fun! Tyler and Sam have become completely obsessed with sports this last year and they were definitely high on football at Thanksgiving time. So they thought it was the greatest thing on the planet to have us all playing football together. It first started out with just a big game of catch and then we turned it in to a 3 on 3 game. Grandpa, Tyler, and Sam against me, Garrett, and Grandma. I'm not joking when I say Tyler was serious about this. It was hilarious! He was really getting into it and Grandpa was doing a great job of coaching. I didn't get any pictures of our actual game since I was so busy playing, but let me tell you, it was intense! Tyler's team won, although he claims we never finished and it was only half time when we went inside and we still have to finish. So, Grandma and Grandpa, I think you need to come back so we can finish the football game!

(this is Sam and his 'witching stick'. Grandpa was explaining to him the special powers of a witching stick and how you find water under ground with one. As you can see, he was listening intently and taking it alllll in!)

And the next item on our list was hunting for and bringing home a Christmas tree. Just like last year when my parents were here, we were so excited to have family come along for our fun little tradition. And again, the weather was amazing. And our guests from Idaho thought it was kind of fun to get a tree without bundling up and tromping through the snow! And we were lucky to have them assist in picking out the perfect tree!

And we picked out just the right one! Lucky for Garrett, he had lots of little helpers to help him cut it down!

And lucky for all of us, Sam never lost that witching stick (see the next several pictures. He didn't let that thing out of his sight! In fact, it came home with us and hung around here for a LONG time!). Phew! I don't know what we would've done without it. Although we still haven't found any water with it. Hmmmm...

And on to the trailer,

and home to the house. It was a perfect tree for our Christmas season!

And this Thanksgiving, I was so grateful for wonderful families and that they are so willing to travel far to come visit us. We love you all!

October Wrap Up

So, let's go ahead and close out the month of October, shall we? We're gettin' there, folks! October at our house brought the first tooth lost and the first Tooth Fairy visit we've had (October 4th). And the second came within a week after this. And of course, we were quickly told that all sorts of kids in Tyler's class got FIVE dollars for a lost tooth. Well, the economy has been rough on our tooth fairy and he only got ONE dollar...and he survived! Phew! And just 2 months shy of turning seven, we were beginning to wonder if he was ever going to lose any teeth!

And October also brought the Halloween costumes, in case you forgot. Here is a photo to jog your memory, just in case. Look at all that cuteness! I still crack up looking at their Halloween costumes.

October also brought a few other things that I don't have pictures of. Like a raccoon. In our attic. That we managed to force out and chase off at the beautiful hour of 1:30 a.m.--an adventure that included me in my slippers running around the yard, talking on our intercom phones while I was inside & Garrett was outside, opening the shutters in my bathroom to find the raccoon sitting on the window ledge (outside) staring at me (inside), and pine cones. Lots of pine cones. One of the most hilarious nights of my life, one that is permanently recorded in my brain. I still laugh about it, and am so glad no one had a hidden camera anywhere! And so glad that raccoon is long gone! (it tore through the soffit vents and that is how it made its home in our attic, by the way. Pesky bugger.)

October also brought the Ward Trunk or Treat. And there are no pictures. Why, you ask? Oh that would be because we got to the Trunk or Treat/chili cookoff and Tyler started to say he wasn't feeling all that well. We brushed it off a little and he moped around some and to make a long story short, it all ended as we rushed out of the church Cultural Hall while he was throwing up everywhere. It was NOT awesome. And honestly, one of the worst moments of my life (how's that for dramatic?!). I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I'll spare you all the details, but I will say that a day that started so amazing (I ran my half marathon that morning) definitely ended in a not-so-amazing fashion. And the stiffness/soreness was definitely setting in from my race and getting down on my hands and knees scrubbing throw up out of the church carpet was not on the top of my list of must-do items for the day. Ugh! And of course, he was feeling totally fine the next morning. But we still chose to lay low the rest of that weekend and stayed home from church, hoping he'd be okay to go to school on Monday (Halloween). Now if I could some how just erase that memory from my mind...

Since we stayed home from church the next day, making sure we were totally over the stomach issue (and let's face it, I didn't exactly want to see everyone from the ward less than 12 hours after my son threw up in front of every single one of them. Remember how I wanted to crawl in a hole and die, yeah...), I worked on making these mummy treats to send to Tyler's school for his Halloween party. They were made from Rice Krispies treats, dipped in melted almond bark. Easy peasy, thank you pinterest for the inspiration! But as I made them, I laughed at myself doing this for a classroom full of 1st graders who probably won't even realize what they are supposed to look like, and if they did realize it, they probably really wouldn't care. Oh well! They were fun to make!

And by Halloween, everyone was feeling top notch so we headed out for a little trick or treating. And I definitely mean a little. Our street was so dead! It was pitch black with very few lights on but we didn't want to drive to any other neighborhoods. We probably only hit 5-6 houses with people home. But you know what? My kids thought that was great and still thought they got a ton of candy! So it was a win/win, just the right amount! So, it ended up being a very quiet Halloween, but that's all right. We managed to end on a good note, so that's all that matters!

I will say, I was very proud of Sam's treat 'bag'. To tie it in to his costume, I took a box and cut one of the sides off and added some handles. And voila! The UPS man carried a package the entire night, and filled it with candy. Win, win for sure!

And there we have a wrap on October 2011!

New Orleans Jazz Half Marathon--Oct. 29, 2011

October 29, 2011 came and with it came the New Orleans Jazz Half Marathon (and my mom's birthday--Happy Birthday, Mom!). I look back at these pictures now and almost can't believe I really did this. I set out with a goal and I accomplished it! I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be able to run 13.1 miles. I have mentioned before that I never enjoyed running, but the last two years have been a change of tune for me and I've finally stuck with it to some degree. :) In August I started training and I'll be honest, I had good weeks and bad, I doubted myself, thought I was crazy, wanted to hide under my covers on the morning of a long run, but in the end, I did it! And it felt amazing! My goal was to just finish, to run without walking and finish...I definitely wasn't going for an amazing time. I knew I hadn't been training long enough to work up my speed too much. I was just concerned about endurance. I was very nervous going in to it, not knowing what to expect, but it honestly couldn't have gone better. Once I passed mile 12 and knew I only had one more to go, it was like a new wind in my sails and it was great knowing I was so close. And to see the finish line in my sight once I was getting close, it actually kind of made me get emotional. I just couldn't' believe I had actually done this! Such a great feeling! And now, looking at the pictures again, makes me think I'm crazy enough to want to do another one. Hmmmm.... :)

I gotta say, I was pretty proud of myself. I don't say that very often, but this is one time I will say it. I was pretty proud to wear that medal when I finished and my race bib is hanging on my fridge, reminding me that I actually can accomplish anything I put my mind to!

And I won't even try to describe how it felt to see these two guys and Garrett standing right across the finish line waiting for me. They were cheering me on and I was so thrilled to see them!

Pumpkin Patch, Oct. 15, 2011

On Thursday, October 13, my mom flew in to spend a week with us. How lucky are we! It was her first trip here since we moved into this house, and our first visitor. We were so excited. She got here late on Thursday night and on Friday, she was able to go to Grandparents' Day with Tyler at his school (which I didn't even get a single picture of, darn it!). We were so excited that she was going to be able to be here for it since Tyler has had several Grandparents' Days at school and of course, he never has a grandparent in attendance. Darn that living 2,000 miles away from them all! But she was able to see his school and go to lunch with him and they had a great time.

The next day, Saturday the 15th, I woke up and went for a long run, and came home to start getting ready for a fun day out. We decided we were going to take the boys to a pumpkin patch for our fun activity for the day. As we were getting ready to go, the phone call came...my brother Charlie called my mom (all the boys were on a hunting trip at home while my mom was here) to tell her that Dad had been in an accident and he was headed to the hospital. Ugh...it didn't sound good. And of course, here my mom was, a million miles away. My dad is the man who never took a sick day from work, has never been in the hospital, is as strong as an ox...and he chooses now to get in an accident?! :) So, initially, we were just waiting on pins and needles because we didn't know any details, other than he had been riding a horse and was thrown from the horse, then the horse came down right on top of him. Sounded pretty bad, but we just didn't know how bad. My mom was immediately thinking she probably needed to try and get her ticket changed to go home (she still had 5 more days she was supposed to be here). But we just didn't know! I just felt so bad for her and the situation she was in!

So, we figured we'd still head out to the pumpkin patch and make phone calls along the way and try to find out what was going on. So, finally, she got to talk to my dad after the doctors had seen him to find out that he had a punctured lung, 8 broken ribs, and a broken shoulder. They were going to keep him in the hospital for the night at least, possibly longer, and find out if they needed to do surgery or what. And mostly, they were going to manage the pain. He was in a tremendous amount of pain. And my mom was stuck here with me. It was heartbreaking. She got to work right away on changing her ticket, but wasn't going to be able to make it home until Monday. Luckily, all of our siblings stepped in and took the greatest care of my dad in her absence. To make the rest of this long story short, my dad went home from the hospital Sunday night, in a ton of pain, but still got to go home. My mom made it home Monday and she must have done a great job of nursing him back to good health because he made a miraculous recovery. It was a rough go in the first few weeks, but he was able to heal without surgery and is doing amazing. We were all so blessed and so blessed that Dad is okay. Lots of prayers were said on his behalf, that's for sure!

So, all that being said, I have to say our day at the pumpkin patch was a little stressful. But it was either go out and do something or sit at home, so we chose the former, obviously. Looking back at the pictures, though, makes me realize that I didn't remember much about the pumpkin patch itself. :) There are many other things about that day that I remember, but not the pumpkin patch! But it still needed blogged, so here are the pictures.

I do remember that it was actually very hot that day, so the boys were beat before too long. Needless to say, they weren't too cooperative for getting a picture taken...not a lot of smiles!

I'm so glad I was able to see my mom, even though the trip took a down turn really quickly. But I am so grateful that she'd come all the way to see us. But I'm also glad she was able to get home to my dad, where she was needed the most!

September Wrap Up

Just a few last pictures to wrap up September 2011. On September 8, Tyler had Black and Gold Day at school to mark the opening weekend of Saints' season. It is kind of a big deal since normally he has to wear a uniform every day. But for this day, he was able to pay $1 to wear a Saints shirt. Yes, it is a big deal! :) So I had to snap his picture while he waited for the bus!

Sam most often waits for the bus in the mornings with Tyler and he has taken quite a liking to Tyler's bus driver. He was very shy and reserved at first, but Mr. George has been working on Sam to open him up. :) This particular day (the same day as Tyler's Black & Gold day), Mr. George invited Sam up on the bus to honk the horn. He timidly went up there, but he did it. It was so cute! The horn was really loud, so of course, then Sam was a little freaked out, but he was so excited to tell everyone about it!

And one last picture from September (from the 23rd), just a completely random snapshot. But I like it, nonetheless. :) And that's a wrap on September!

Alligator Stomp, Sept. 24, 2011

In August of last year, I pretty much decided that I wanted to run a half marathon in the Fall. So, I signed up for one at the end of October and started training (more on that later!). And in the training schedule, it suggested running a 5k about 5 weeks into the training. So, I got looking for a 5k to run and found the Alligator Stomp in Luling on September 24. And as a bonus, they also had a 1/2 mile kids run. I saw that and thought this might be something my boys would really like to do. So, I asked them if they wanted to and without hesitation, they both said 'sign me up!'. I was actually surprised at how excited they were about it! They talked about it non stop for the few weeks leading up to it. We ran a little bit to practice, but not all that much, and when it came down to it, I think I almost got nervous for them. Silly, I know! But I just didn't know if Sam would handle running all by himself if Tyler got ahead and all that stuff. I'm a mom, what can I say?!

But September 24 arrived and we got to the park, got checked in, and the boys didn't seem to be nervous at all. There were probably about 20 kids total running it and they said the parents could run with them, but I really wanted to take pictures and I had already told them I wouldn't run with them and they were okay with that, so I let them go at it...alone!

And they're off!

I love this picture of Tyler because of his face of determination. I was actually quite impressed with him, if I do say so myself. All along, Sam has seemed to be the one who enjoys running more and comes by it a little more naturally. Sam tends to pace himself better and when we ran in practice, Tyler seemed to do a lot of sprint, then walk, type of running--he seemed to have trouble pacing himself (as I think most kids do). But when we got there, he was so determined and just left the starting line and got going and was definitely 'in the zone'. Love him!

And of course, let's not forget about Sam! I think Sam was born to run (don't know where he gets that, because I know it's not from me or Garrett!!). He loves to run and seems to be able to do it for a long time. But of course, his tongue has to be positioned just right, as you can see!

Pretty soon, they were out of sight and we waited for a couple of minutes until they his the turn around and we could spot them on the home stretch. We realized that Tyler was actually making pretty decent time! And that he was also ahead of Sam, but Sam wasn't too far behind him!

Go Tyler!

After Tyler finished, Sam wasn't too far back.

And there he is! Just a bit before the finish line! And I cracked up because he hit the finish line and just kept running. He didn't realize he was supposed to stop. He just kept running all the way down the hill and I had to go catch him before he got away. Ha ha! But seriously, I was so proud of my boys!

And after their finish, it was time for me to start. Let's just say...going into it I thought "oh, a 5k, that will be so easy!" because I had been running so much. I thought I could really knock it out of the park and beat my previous time, etc. BUT then one week before the race, I caught strep throat and it literally knocked me out for 5 days. I haven't been that sick in forever! I forgot how bad strep is! It was terrible. So I finally started feeling better Thursday and tried running a little bit to get ready and I realized just how much strength was taken out of me being sick that whole week. It was HARD! So, this "easy" 5k ended up being much harder than I thought and I felt like I dragged myself across the finish line. It was hot, I was weak, and I just couldn't wait to be done. But all that aside, it's always a great feeling to cross the finish line!

Shortly after we finished, they started announcing that they were going to award prizes to the winners in the age categories...even for the kids. I knew that obviously, even on a great day, I wouldn't ever in a million years be in contention for a prize, but the boys just might! So we checked and sure enough, they each took first in their age divisions! What a pleasant surprise! The picture above is Tyler being awarded his prize. His time was 5:15, 1st place for ages 5-6, 7th place overall.

And here's Sam, so proud of himself! His time was 5:48, 1st place for ages 4 & under, 8th place overall. They each got a towel as a prize and unbeknownst to us, the race was being held in conjunction with the Alligator Festival so they also won wristbands to the rides for the festival. What a great prize!! They were thrilled! So, we hung out for a little while, ate some great festival food and rode some rides.

Such a great day!