"I'm a Winner" half-marathon

When my sisters and I were in middle school my Dad decided that it was important that we have high self esteem. So every morning he would wake us up at 5:30am and we would meet outside of our rooms and he would make us yell together, "I'M A WINNER! I'M A WINNER! I'M A WINNER" I'm serious. We really did this. Of course we hated it at the time. We whined and complained, but eventually grew to love it. And I have great memories of it and really feel like it taught me a life-long lesson.

So a few years ago we started the tradition of running a 1/2 marathon on Thanksgiving morning in honor of the old I'm a winner days. My mom even made us all "I'm a WINNER" sweatshirts one year. Ty even got a sweatshirt because he ran the whole thing with no training that year.
So with Betsy on her mission, Heidi in Virginia and everyone else with knee excuses, it was just me and Dad this year. My 54 year old Dad basically dragged me through the run, but was beautiful and fun and I survived.

Thankful

I have so much to be grateful for this holiday season. Especially these two:

We went to California with my family for Thanksgiving. I missed my sisters so much but we still had a great time. Don't be fooled by these few pictures, it wasn't all fun and games- every single one of us (except Miss Milly, thanks to my liquid gold breast milk) had the stomach flu and were throwing up one day during the trip.

Thank you Otis for FINALLY playing at the beach without eating handfuls of sand

It is so fun to see Otie's imagination at work. He loves to pretend. He's always telling me, "not yet" or "wait a sec, I'm doing something" or "actually, I'm going to build a water fountain". I don't know where he comes up with some of his ideas.

This morning this was our conversation at breakfast:

Otie: Does Milly have teeth?

Ty: No she's too little, she's just a baby

Otie: Does she need to go to the store to buy some teeth?

Me: Umm... no I think she'll grow some.

Now he's always asking me what grows and what we buy.

Go Jazz go!

We had a fun family night at the Jazz Game

Otie loved screaming, "go Jazz go!"

Milly loved it too.

Oh, you like her headband? I made it. Call me Martha Stewart.

Happy Birthday to my big sister!

Still love her and look up to her like I did when when we were little!

Meet my best friend

This is Lily.

Milly was excited to have her bff over to her house for the first time.

Watch this mom!

Otis is always asking us to "watch this cool trick". Whether is jumping off furniture, drawing something or riding his scooter- he is always so proud of himself. I love what a free spirit he is.

Happy Halloween!!

From Spiderman and Superwoman