princess devil

that's what my mom calls her..."princess devil" and both names do fit her.  she can be cute and sweet and then the next minute telling me i am "poop" and she "needs her privacy".  ellis is actually writing a book about emery at school which i CAN'T wait to read.  she is the funniest little thing.  hilarious.  i wish i could record EVERYTHING she says.  bebe got in the car the other day and emery says to her, "you look ridiculous".  you just have to laugh right?  i could go on and on and on.  but i won't :)

here is ellis teaching her gangum style (up on the table)

her first haircut...it was SO long!!

she was saying to beckett "i not crying you poopy baby" because she has seen him cry before during a haircut :)  evil.

so happy in her snowsuit she borrowed from her friend taylor :)  i can't wait to see this one on the slopes in a couple weeks!!!

and finally princess day at school!  she has no fewer than 25 princess outfits but chose lalaloopsy instead.  works for me...

happy birthday brandon

i bought supplies for the kids to make brandon cards for his birthday.  i set up the poster board, markers, tape, scissors, etc and they got to work.  beckett announces 2 minutes later that he is finished.  um...no.  i don't think you understand.  i planned on this activity taking at least 30 minutes :)  okay he said and then asked me to write a message to daddy on paper because he didn't know how to spell the words.  he told me what he wanted it to say and he went back to work.  i assumed he was copying the message onto his poster board until i went in the dining room and saw this:

he simply TAPED the message i wrote onto the inside of the poster board!!!  all i could do was laugh.
lazy or genius?

houston marthon- the sequel

i ran in the houston marathon again on sunday!!!  the weather TOTALLY sucked.  rain, wind & cold...but i am happy to report that i beat last years time by over 18 minutes!!!  3:44:50.  my goal was to get under 4 hours...i hoped that i could MAYBE get under 3:50 but that was really a pipe dream.  to get under 3:45 was a shock...honestly.  i didn't wear a watch or take my phone with me...had no idea what my pace was!  i didn't even wear a belt :)  i just took off with my ipod and 3 goos in my sports bra.  i am a bit of a novice :)  BUT now i am pissed because i was so close to qualifying for the boston marathon...3:40 would have done it!  oh well.  maybe if i hadn't had to dodge puddles and other people dodging puddles for 26.2 miles i would have had it?!?!?  maybe if i hadn't stopped for that beer??  maybe if my shoes and socks weren't soaked?!?   :) anyways...it was a super fun experience.  completely different from last year because i was solo...music this year versus chit chat last year.  my partner from last year, debra. jumped in with me for the last few miles which was SO cool.  it was awesome to go across the finish line with her (i made her do it...she did not want to!)  i finished at an 8:34 pace...faster than i thought i could handle for that many miles.  yay for me.  so happy to have it behind me!!!  feels awesome.  everyone should do it!!!!  or at least a half :)  

oh and just a little perspective...25,000 people registered for the races...12K for the half and 13K for the full marathon.  i came in 284th place for the females.  not too shabby right???  thank you to my cheerleaders- you know who you are ;)

yes, she is still out of her mind

she is still up to her old tricks...shopping in beckett's closet...wearing shoes that don't match and don't fit the occasion...and just generally being bad :)

her christmas wish was granted when we let her wear 2 different shoes to school.  i can't tell you the HAPPINESS it brought her!!!

here she is in the morning...beckett's jammies, cleat and rainboot!

if you can't tell what's going on here, look closer.  she will also wear shirts as pants.  seems to work for her...

she had fun showing her friends the squirrel i won from our white elephant bunko exchange.  is it not amazing??  they all took turns petting it :)

she also dresses all of her dolls with non-matching shoes

 fake smile

she doesn't like the way i dress (matching) and comes into my room to "help" me.  also, she isn't a fan of matching earrings and thinks i am a loser for wearing them....

christmas!

we had a perfectly wonderful christmas...the kids are at the BEST ages!!!  i think i say this every year but i feel so lucky that my family and brandon's family get along so great.  makes holidays SO easy :)

we decorated cookies on christmas eve...the kids even had a surprise playdate with ainsley and reese.  can you see the peace sign in the middle of the angel??  what is it about 1st graders and peace signs?!

i got to run in my faire isle running tights...only 11 days till the marathon.  i have major concerns since all i have been doing is eating & drinking too much and sleeping too little.  ugh.

 the kids were super spoiled...here is emery on her pony

 and me on kareoke where i spent all of  christmas morning annoying everyone

gangum style

 this might be my favorite picture...ellis with her souped up 64 GB ipad and cash.  nish gave them each a box of cash to open...$100 in ones and they all thought they were RICH!!!  hilarious.

 she loved christmas...she watches the videos and says "can we do that again"...so cute

we had chef charles clark cooking for us again.  AMAZING paella. to die for.  he is a ton of fun too..

we busted emery in the pantry with beckett's DS

these are just my iphone pics....will upload real ones soon!