Only One Seven Year Old

Life with twins is always crazy, exciting and can be frustrating. Mornings seems to be VERY DIFFICULT around here for them. Maybe it is because by the time I have seen the other three off I am just plum tired of the reminding, coaxing, and cajoling that goes with getting kids to school.

Caroline has the flu, and she stayed home today. I was down on the computer getting some work done and looked up and it was 7:30. The bus comes for the twins at 8:00. Allie is ALWAYS up earlier than 7 and snooping around.

I jump up to see if she too has taken ill. Oh no. She is upstairs WATCHING TV. When I figured out what she was doing, I did respond in all caps to her little face.

Anyway, we were able to get dressed, brush teeth/hair, read our reading assignment, practice spelling words, eat breakfast and still be ready for the bus. Wow - one 7 year old is MUCH easier than 2! Most mornings do not include spelling words or reading.

Oh well, tomorrow we will be back to two 7 year olds. It was fun while it lasted!

Sophie is 12

It is so hard for me to believe, but Sophie is now 12.

I remember the day she was born - it was bitterly cold. A wicked cold front had come through, and I was glad to be snuggled in the hospital with my new baby girl. Here is her newborn pic. She looks really chunky, but she was my smallest singleton at only 8 pounds 2 ounces.

Here she is now.

Sophie tested us her first year - she had colic and cried and cried. Kelsey and Ryan asked us to send her back. She tested my patience as well, but we endured!

That is all different now. I am so proud of her. She is a smart, caring, sweet young woman. She is such an example to all of us - we can't get away with much without Sophie telling us what we are doing wrong. She is always asking us questions we can't answer. When memorizing the Articles of Faith (13 statements of the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), she asked Eric and I what the Admonition of Paul was. I have said the 13th AOF a million times, and never even wondered what it was. We had to do some research, but were able to give her answers.

She manages to play club soccer, keep excellent grades, and still find time to watch 24 with her mom. She is funny and wacky and just plain great (and I am not just saying that because she is mine). She loves being outdoors - but does NOT like the color pink. I told her she could wear makeup, but she did not seem to care. She loves Pei Wei, Rootbeer and watermelon.

Happy Birthday Sophie. I love you!

2009 Houston Half Marathon

We finished! Yeah!!! In case you are wondering, A half marathon is 13.1 miles. And I felt every step of it!

The race was great - it was so much fun. I have been running with a group each Saturday. And as a breakoff of the group, I have gathered a group of four women who run with me a couple of days a week. They make it fun. We laugh and enjoy our time out there - it makes getting up prior to 5AM to prepare for the run worth it. And, as some have pointed out, it is cheaper than therapy.

One of our group is new - and she was not planning to run the 1/2 with us. Since she has completed a marathon before I know she could do it. The rest of us were just trying to finish - and as Jennifer would point out - enjoy the journey.

We went out for some carbo loading the night before. Here we are dressed with makeup.

Before the race hitting the port-a-pottie BEFORE they got too stinky.

Now if you looked closely you might see some of these folks, OK everyone by me, put makeup on BEFORE the race. What the heck??? I wipe sweat off my face on my arm too much and it would not be a good look to have makeup smudged all over my shoulder.

After. All medaled up. We did it!!!

Allison served as photographer - Thank you. She even got one of Eric and I after the race. He of course did the full marathon - his 45th. But, I have decided the full for him is the same hit on his body as the half for me. He hasn't grown five kids inside HIS body - am I right?

If you had told us 10 years ago we would be able to pose together after a race having both completed it, we would not have believed you. But, here we are.

Now I need to keep running. I need to add in some Pilates to help my core as well, but we are going to keep going. I have run a half before, and then I just fall apart, get fat and have to start all over again when training begins in July. Not this year! My posse won't let that happen.

Next up? Maybe the Cowtown Half Marathon! Watch out Fort Worth, here we come!

Happy Birthday Mom

My mother turns 39 again.... I won't tell you how many times she has turned 39. This picture is not even recent - she has lost another 40 pounds since this was taken, but I don't have a current picture of her. Note to self, get pic of mom.

This woman had 10 children and she is still sane. Although, she spends her days teachining middle school children (and likes them), which would be a reason to question her sanity. She is a great example!

I love you mom!

Just Keeping On

I wish I had a great picture to post, since they are way more fun than my boring rants, but alas I was too lazy to take a picture of Caroline's outfit creation this morning. It included leg warmers, and a scarf. Allie, bless her heart, just can't keep up. She prefers Sophie fashions - jeans and a crappy tee-shirt (most of the time with some sort of reference to soccer written on it).

This week has flown by in a wave of sameness. School, work, kids, etc. etc. We went to the HS to see about Kelsey's classes for next year. It was the learn how this works night. Since I made lots of mistakes with Ryan, I am getting smarter now (much to Kelsey's fear). By the time Allie and Caroline make it up there I will really have it down. Now, if Kelsey and I can get through the course selection without a major knock-down drag out fight I will consider it a success.

I think Sophie might have had a migraine. I got a call from school she had a headache - she was crying it hurt so badly. She threw up. She had vision issues. This does not bode well for her long term. We will just have to watch her and see. Another thing to add to my ever growing list of things to keep track of.

Off to the Houston Marathon Expo today. Marathon, and for me 1/2 marathon, day will be here soon. Of course, they are predicting rain at the start. Not my favorite, but oh well. Since I am on the "lets just finish" team, I think it will be great. No stress, just fun!

Why?

Is it that if I take one day off (well sort of) the house falls apart? Yesterday was one of the days - did not feel like making much of a contribution and I didn't (besides two soccer games, a library run, and going to grocery store to get food for today). So I came into the kitchen this am to get dinner in the crockpot (so this hungry brood can eat) and I can't see the bottom of the sink. It is full of dishes. And the diswasher is EMPTY.

I think this shows I am too easy on my kids. I do not make them do enough. I let them be slobs. No more! We are going back to chores if it kills me (and it might just do that).

I Wanna Be A Cowboy

Who knew Fort Worth had a cattle drive every day. It takes having family in from out of town to find these things out. We packed the Californians up and took them down to enjoy some real Texas activities.

I hate to tell you Matt - Josh told me he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up!

Why does she give that look with every pose???

Showing some Texas pride - now if we could just get the Heningers to move out of California and join us in, as Allie has said, the United States of Texas!

Boy cousin bonding.

Yes, we do rock!

American Girl Place

Since the twins had received their American Girl dolls, I decided we would take everyone to the American Girl Place for lunch (they recently opened a store in Dallas). Let's be honest - I love that place as much as they do!

Since we were in Dallas, we had all the girl cousin come with us. It was estrogen city. The store is not as big as New York, but we got our fill of American Girl. Fun was had by all. Kelsey and Hannah even came - pretending to be too big, but loving every minute of it.

The whole crew waiting for lunch (and waiting, and waiting).

Here we all are posing. It was very fun - even for the older ones.

The Wedding

Michelle, my babiest of sisters, was married on Dec 27. It was crazy being right after Christmas and all, but it was fun. She was married in the Dallas Temple. Her reception was that afternoon in Flower Mound - right next to Matt and Julie's new house. Here are some of my favorite candid pics. Of course, I forgot to get the bride and groom - isn't that what the real photographer is for?

This was in the lobby of the temple waiting for the bride and groom to come out. It could have been anywhere, however, since Blake (Megan's husband and Caroline's boyfriend) had these girls all over him all day long. It was a sea of polka dots! He is a good sport.

Hannah and Kelsey at the reception. I love this picture of the two of them. I can't believe they are getting so big!

Crazy Uncle Patrick with Sophie and Kelsey.

Rich Uncle Mark with toothless Allie. It was good to see him since he left us to go to school in Chicago - jeez what does Chicago have that Houston doesn't??

Laurie and Erika (Michael's fiance).

Sophie and Shelby. Shelby reminds me of Sophie at the same age - and I think Shelby has decided that Sophie is her personal friend!

The bride was gorgeous - you will just have to take my word on that. (I guess the groom was handsome too). It was a crazy few days, but fun to be surrounded by family - everyone was there except Steven who was enjoying Christmas in Brazil. It is hard to get that many Linfords in the same place - so we need to enjoy it when we can.

Christmas Day

Up at 7:00 AM (not bad for a house full of kids). It was a great morning - I think everyone was very happy with what Santa (and mom and dad) brought. One of the favorite gifts - the Coco-Latte machine. I think we have had hot chocolate EVERY day since then. We then packed up and left for Grapevine at noon.

We were there in time for dinner and fun with the Linfords. We broke out Seinfeld Scene It. To date I would like to say I am undefeated.... I'm just saying. (even Mark could not defeat the Seinfeld Champ).

Some pics of our Christmas morning....

Ryan's Grillz.... Maybe we have been in H-Town too long...

Kelsey got a new ipod - pink and ready for fun.

Sophie and her DS.

Allie loves Kit!

Caroline and Julie. All my girls can only get the historical American Girl dolls. It is just a thing I have. So, when Caroline wanted Julie it was really hard for me - she is not historical she is from the '70s. I was a girl in the '70s. It is hard getting old..... (and nasty right Ryan??)

Christmas Eve

I know it is January - lets pretend OK! It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

I spent Christmas Eve doing my best impression of Martha Stewart - and anyone who knows me knows it is not one of my better impressions. We had put off the baking/homey type of Christmas stuff to the last minute. So, we made gingerbread houses, decorated sugar cookies, made buckeyes, I whipped up a batch of rolls to take to the parental units house on Christmas, and of course I did the Thane Twiggs Whole Wheat Waffles for dinner. To say the least I was exhausted for the Pinata, Christmas story reading, Luke II watching, PJ opening festivities, but I did manage to make it through!

And I did manage to get a few pictures of all the fun.

Sophie getting the art of using the pastry bag.

Now I must say, Allie really excelled at her pastry bag use. I usually do not even try to ice the cookies this way. My sister, the true Martha of the family, always does this. She told me to try and let my kids try. Well we did, and I was pleased with the results. Allie and Sophie really figured it out. The other two not so much. But there is always Valentine's Day!

This was the funniest part of the day (for me at least). I look over and Allie has her head bent over this paper working on math. Which of course, begs the question, "Allie what are you doing?" Well, she wanted a cookie. I told her we needed to see how many were left after we took them to various friends and families houses. So, she added up how many we had, and then was subtracting out the number for each family to see what was left. Sophie came along to help her out by writing family names... of course it was a moving target, but I did reward her with a cookie!

Kelsey's friend Brooke (or Brooklyn as I call her) had never done a gingerbread house. So, she came along for the fun. Notice that Kelsey's house has no roof? Well you see, while I was cutting out the house parts, I counted to make sure I had the correct number of sides, roofs, front/back etc. Well, I counted wrong. We just said it was post Ike.

Caroline not sure where to start!

I won't get sappy with my thoughts that my boy will be gone the next two Christmas'. But, I did think it. I am glad he got a crack at the pinata this year! And he did indeed break it.

All PJ'd up and ready for sleep!

Then, off to bed to await Santa!