December Catch Up

We are still without our camera, but thanks to borrowing my mother-in-laws & getting some pictures from friends, I can do a little December update. We have been so busy with all the fun holiday activities, birthdays for 7 little friends, a cookie exchange plus keeping up with Bitsie. If anyone has been thinking of adding a puppy to their family, just let me know & you can borrow ours for a few days instead. :)

These first pics are of Tom's big race. He ran the half again this year & we were so proud of him! We are thankful that he, Pappy, Uncle Corey, & Charley all finished - and selfishly I'm glad that the long training runs are over! It was a cold day to watch, but the girls were distracted for a little while by making signs for the runners. I agree with Anna - our Daddies rock!

Our amazing Pappy kept the girls by himself Sunday night while Tom & I went to our small group Christmas party. The poor guy ran 13 miles & then we left him with two kids & a very high maintenance puppy! He was such a good sport about it. We missed Nana, she had to stay back at the ranch sick. Thankfully we'll be seeing them very soon for Christmas.

Mae had a sweet Christmas program at preschool last week. Her turtle class sang Gloria in their wings & halos. Mae mostly smiled shyly & stuck out her tongue, but she sang a little. Too cute.

We also had the annual Happy Birthday Jesus party at Aunt Julia's. This year it was during the day while the big girls were at school, so it was a big group of preschoolers, toddlers, & babies. Julia read the Christmas story while the kids acted out the nativity scene, the kids did a craft, & had a layered birthday cake. Choatic, but so fun.

Maelyn had shed her "Mary" costume, but Cam was still dressed as an angel. Is it really naughty to pull off an angel's halo?

Mae also had a preschool Christmas party on her last day... they decorated gingerbread cookies & exchanged books. Gotta love your very own bag of icing.

These last two pictures are on our Christmas cards this year. We had a really hard time getting a good one because our Nikon kept blurring them before we sent it in for repair. Anna really wanted Bitsie to be in the picture, so we did our best with a neighbor's camera one day after church. The next week we all got very needed haircuts, so I'm not in love with these, but at least it got done!