30th Annual Cowtown!

This past Saturday we had a team of 8 that competed in the Fort Worth Cowtown Half Marathon!! Many of you may not know that we have been training to complete a half marathon (which is 13.1 miles).

Matt has wanted to do one for several years, but I had always said, "That's great for you, but I don't want to do 13 miles of anything!" I do not enjoy distance running, and never have! The cowtown always fell on the last weekend of February, and usually, the Big Brothers Big Sisters Walk for Kids Sake was the same weekend. Matt is on the board of directors for BBBS, so he couldn't miss the walk. The scheduling just wasn't working out.

Well, this summer I started getting Weight Watchers magazine. They had a walking challenge that would train you to walk a half marathon. Somehow walking it sounded like fun to me! Once the date was set for the BBBS walk, and we knew that it didn't conflict this year, we started training! My sister said she would train with me, but she didn't want to walk in the race. After about of month of training I talked to Matt's sister Amanda and my friend Sara Hoover. They both said they were interested in walking with me. Not much later Stephanie said that after all the training she wanted to race as well. (I use the word race very loosely!) My brother Eric decided to run it with Matt. By race day the runners were Matt, Eric, Ray and Mary (Sara's brother and his wife). Sara, Stephanie, Amanda, and I all walked and even jogged a little!

After all the months of training, we were all a little nervous! The walkers wanted to complete it in at least 3 1/2 hours and the runners wanted to come in under 2 1/2 hours. I can't remember everyone's times, but we all beat our goals by at least 15 minutes! All in all it was a great weekend! I think that this will become an annual tradition!

Big Balls

Grandad and Grandma had given the kids giant balls for Christmas that they bought at Disney World. They are really a giant balloon that you blow up inside a cover. So, they are very light and bouncy! We had a fairly warm day last week and were playing outside, so out they came!

Preston's is just about bigger than he is, and he thought it was great fun! He loves Mickey Mouse, and as I was blowing up the ball he started yelling, "Mi Mou!!"

Tristan loves her princesses and says that the two balls are family! She bounces them around and says they are chasing each other!

First Trip to the Library

This week we made our first trip to the Booker Public Library! Preston has been with me before, but Tristan has enough books to read a different one every day for about a year. So, we've never needed to go to the library. I needed to go today to recheck my book that was due, so we loaded up in the stroller to walk to the library. It's only about half a mile away.

First, I was so pleased that Preston left both his hat and his sunglasses on! Isn't he so handsome? It may be that he was tired, but I'll take it.

Tristan found a Spongebob Squarepants book and one about Aladdin! She was very excited! For those of you who don't know, she is going to marry Aladdin. We plan the wedding almost everyday. He comes to play with us all the time. Her creative and imaginative play are in full swing. She is very dramatic with it as well.

Computer Time

I am amazed at how Tristan has recently improved on her computer skills. She can now completely play her games and navigate from show to show. She mostly plays games on the Noggin site.

Recently she was playing a robot building game from the show "Wow Wow Wubbzy". There is a character named Widget that guides the game. It's a puzzle solving and matching game where there is a shadow of the robot. You have to pick up pieces and put them in the right spot. She's really good at it! As you play, Widget says, "Good job, way to go, etc." She also prompts you as what to do if you haven't moved anything in a while. As Tristan started to play and get them right, she would turn to me and say, "Widget said good job to me!" "She called me little buddy" and so on.

Later in the game, Tristan's mouse got messed up as we all know it can do. She needed to jiggle it so that she could move the piece to the right place. I could tell she was getting frustrated, but I didn't want to step in. As she continued to try, but the mouse wasn't cooperating Widget's voice came on and said, "Pick up a piece and move it to the right place on the robot" In a very exasperated tone Tristan replied, "Widget, I know...I'm trying to move it!!!"

It was all that I could do to not laugh out loud! But, I'm glad that she was standing up for herself!

Funny Jokes

Tonight was a beautiful night. A little chilly, in the upper 40s with very little wind (which is rare in the panhandle). The kids and I had been playing outside, and as it was getting cooler, I decided to build a fire in our fire pit on the patio. It was the perfect evening for doing so.

Matt soon arrived from his evening run, and the four of us sat around the fire roasting marshmallows. (Before dinner...it was great!!!) Tristan said, "Let's tell stories and jokes!" We agreed that would be great. She told a very brief story about two ghosts. Then it was joke time. She told me to go first, so I told a couple of knock-knock jokes. You know, the one about the cow says moo, not who...and the one about the orange. She thought they were great.

Then she busted into her joke. I'm going to tell you exactly what she said so that you can appreciate it as we did!

Tristan, "Who was the chicken that crossed the road?"
Me, "I don't know. Why did the chicken cross the road?"
Tristan, "Because it was clumsy!!"

The of course was followed by a great deal of laughter on all our parts! I guess she has her fathers sense of humor! I have no idea where she even heard of the chicken jokes, but it was still pretty funny!

Bella Dancarella

Tristan received a princess dancing dvd for her birthday. Recently we are dancing to it everyday!! Sometimes, as you can see, we even put on our dance clothes. Preston is getting more and more into it. He loves to dance! Every princess needs a prince to dance with, so it's great!

Jump -n- Jive

Well, I got low scores in the mom department for not bringing my camera, but high scores for fun! Preston went for his 18 month check up yesterday. I can't believe that he's already that old!! After all the errands were run we went to a place called Jump-n-Jive. It's a big space filled with about 6 or 7 giant inflatable jumpers. Tristan and Preston both had the time of their lives! I was so upset that I had forgotten the camera!!!

My shy, timid, little daughter just ran with all the kids and jumped her legs off. She even went down the giant slide! I took Preston down it, and when you're at the top, it is very steep! I couldn't believe that she was doing it by herself! I sent Preston down it by himself once. He screamed and laughed like it was the greatest thing he had ever done! It was a shame that he wasn't quite big enough to climb everything on his own. As for me...climbing jumpies not designed for an adult is even harder when you're carrying an 18mo. old!! I'm sure that I was quite a sight! Thank goodness Grandma was with us. It would be impossible to keep up with both of them in a place like that!

As for the check-up, Preston is an example of good health and growth! It's so nice when you can say yes to all of the developmental questions! It reminds me of how blessed we are. Not every parent can say yes, and I know that must be hard.

Actually, I couldn't say yes to being completely off the bottle. He still refuses to drink milk out of a cup. They gave me several suggestions on how to take him off it, but I really don't care. I'm sure that he won't need a bottle for much longer, and he'll be fine. Tristan was the same way. Then one day I asked her if she wanted her milk in a cup. She said ok, and that was the end of that! Preston just hasn't said ok yet!

He is talking up a storm these days. Granted, I understand him much better than anyone. He is making great strides. Sometime (not often) he'll even say please of thank you unprompted! It sounds more like, "Peas" and "Take U", but I'm still pretty proud!