January 2012

Well, this should get us caught up. Here is a sampling of what we did in January.

On New Year's Day, Josh and I went ice skating for the very first time. I had never been. We both got the hang of it pretty quickly and had a great time! But it sure gives your shins a workout!



We went to the Stock Show Parade with some friends, and Lucas modeled his friend's hat.



Josh made a poster as part of his school's anti-bullying campaign. They held a contest for the students to vote on their favorite posters, and Josh placed 4th overall!

Lucas had to make a family tree for school. This was a terrible homework assignment, since of course he did none of it. (Nor could he; he's four and can't even write all of these names.) This was homework for the parents, plain and simple. Still, we love how it turned out.

(Remember you can click on the image and a larger version will open.)

Josh had to make a comic strip using at least six of his spelling words. I love what he did.



We received a Flat Stanley from the boys' cousin Sela and took him around Fort Worth one weekend. During our day out, the Markley boys all ended up resting head-to-toe:

And with that, I think I'm all caught up on my blogging. Only took five hours!

Merry Christmas 2011!

On Christmas morning we awoke to find our stockings full and presents from Santa left by the chimney:



The boys always enjoy emptying their stockings first, to check out all their loot!



Then, we started with the presents from Santa. Both boys had asked for the remote-controlled sharks from Air Swimmers.

And both boys received them!!

Unfortunately, mommy and daddy weren't very effective in getting the first shark operational:

But at least we still had a second shark in reserve! (and the boys were very patient and understanding about all of this)

Of course, they could afford to be patient and understanding regarding the sharks because they received SO MANY gifts from all of our family.

New Louisville Slugger bats with the MLB logo, as specifically requested, from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Shawn:

A Polar Express Lionel train set from Nana and Papa Mickey!

Lucas not only played with this endlessly (as did Josh), but we heard "This IS the Polar Express" over and over and over in the days following Christmas!

It's very cool. It moves forward and back, pulls passenger cars, has the hobo on top and the conductor and little boy figurines, and makes various sounds.

They also received hot wheels tracks:

Paper jams (which quickly required use of the available plug-in headphones...):

A remote-controlled helicopter:

Space shuttle and station:

And a ton of other gifts too numerous to photograph and post. Thank you all so much for making our Christmas so special and merry!

Christmas events - 2011

John's parents Gail and Gene came to visit us for Christmas. We had a very nice time. The night after they arrived, we went to see a children's play -- Santa Claus, the Musical -- at Casa Manana, the local children's theater. We all enjoyed it.

Here is our tree in all its glory, stocked with presents underneath:



Josh and Lucas looked very nice, all dressed up for the play.



And so did Gail and Gene!




On Christmas Eve, we hosted a cocktail party for some of our friends who were also in town for the holidays. It was low-key and a nice way to celebrate without too much work and without the night getting too late. Here are the boys exchanging gifts with some friends during the party:



After everyone left, it was time to get ourselves to bed so that SANTA CLAUS could arrive!

Decorating Our Christmas Tree

Our camera really started giving us problems when we were trying to photograph the tree. We played with the settings to try to deal with the tree lights, with some limited success, but pretty much all of our photos from Christmas (even those without the tree in them) are blurry or out of focus. I'll post some of the less-bad ones though.

Here's Josh hanging the first ornament on the 2011 tree:



Lucas selected a Thomas ornament for the second ornament of the year:



Our friends Sydney and Jonas joined us for tree decorating, and not only did the project go extremely fast with four sets of little hands at work, but they actually did a good job and we really did not have to move many ornaments (and those we had to move were mainly due to Sammy's tail-wagging posing a danger to some of the lower ornaments).

Our team after a job well done:

Christmas cookies

We had two dessert-making projects this Christmas. First, we made Christmas cookies. Second, we made Christmas chocolates, using candy molds and meltable chocolate discs. The chocolate-making required us to work very fast, so we don't have any pictures from that project. (The finished products didn't last too long, either!) But here are a few photos from our cookie decorating.

First up was our gingerbread men.

Next up was the sugar cookies. We finally got to work in color!

Josh wrote his name on one of the stockings!

Truth be told, these didn't last very long either.

November -- Fort Worth Half Marathon

On November 13, I ran the Fort Worth Half Marathon. It follows the trails along the Trinity River, so it is a very nice run. The weather was VERY warm. Too warm, really. I was extremely sweaty and thirsty by the time it was all over. And I had to change shirts at the 5-mile mark. I had worn a long-sleeved running shirt to account for the early morning start (and what should have been fairly cold weather during the early hours of a November morning). John brought me a tank top when they came to cheer me on at the 5-mile mark and I changed "on the run."

The course is out-and-back, so the 5-mile marker was also the 8-mile marker. Here I am coming through mile 8 (in the purple tank and black pants).



Getting my watch from my support team, Josh and Lucas:



Waiting for Mommy at the finish line:



The home stretch!

Celebrating my finish with my boys, very sweaty and facing the very bright sun:

The finisher's medal doubles as a belt buckle, of course!

Back at home, I discovered all my boys (especially my very supportive husband) had been busy preparing all my favorites for our post-race celebration: beautiful flowers, chocolate-dipped strawberries, limonata, toblerone, and bananas for potassium.

Who could ask for more?

Halloween - misc.

I posted a few pictures from Josh's school Halloween carnival back in October, but here are a few more.

Josh entered the dance contest and was the only boy in the top 5! Here is a video of him showing off his moves:




He's not really striking a pose here; this is an action shot, but it shows how much he commits to the dance:



Josh also placed second for Scariest Costume in the costume contest:

Back at home, Lucas stayed in his costume pretty much the whole weekend.

Josh has gotten very good with his bike.

Back in costume for a house party, here with their friend Johnny:

Boo at the Zoo

For a second year, we attended Boo at the Zoo. The Zoo sets aside a special area with games, trick-or-treating, and shows. We had so many Halloween activities (between the costume contest at school, the school carnival, Boo at the Zoo, a few house parties, and finally Halloween itself) that Josh wanted to change things up and not wear his vampire costume to the Zoo. So he went as a Rangers baseball player. The Rangers had just suffered their heartbreaking loss in the World Series (after being one out away from the championship in Game 6), and everyone at the Zoo treated Josh as if he were really a Ranger. They were all cheering for him and saying, "We'll get 'em next year!"

Here's my little Spiderman:



And my future all-star:



We started out with the games:

Then moved on to the shows, where Josh joined the conga line:

And eventually led the conga line:

We met up with our friends the Taylors, and Lucas and Jonas grabbed good seats for the animal show:

While Josh managed to get himself selected to be IN the animal show!

He knows no fear.

Then, because this is Texas and the whole year has been unseasonably warm (with the single exception of Super Bowl week last February, when everything was frozen solid for several days), we got snow cones (and held them like baseball bats, for some reason).

This sun bear reminded us of Sammy:

And the white tiger was VERY interested in my Spiderman: