Over the river and through the woods...

This is the song I often sing in my head when taking the back roads near our house. Sometimes I can't get over how picturesque it is.

We found our 9 foot Noble for 20 bucks fifteen minutes from our house! How great is that.

Grace has been trying out some humorous posses lately, with her boots on backward.... always backward!

Jake helped with the saw this year. Again with the posses....

After: I wish I knew how to photograph this tree so I could capture how truly sparkly and beautiful it is. My favorite part of the day is coming downstairs to turn the lights on, well it actually is a close second to bedtime for the kids.

Avery's nutcracker ornament:

My favorite 1$ ornament from Wallyworld

My early B-day present to myself. Sadly, it was time to replace my fave black table. I just was getting a little too cozy at dinner time.... not enough elbow room. I love the benches and extra room!

Happy Birthday to me in a few more days!

Turkey Trot on Turkey Day

I'm Thankful for so many things on this Thanksgiving Weekend.

I'm thankful for a great mom.

I'm thankful for a body that moves.

I'm thankful for healthy kids.

I'm thankful for a kind, loving husband.

Before the race. I wish I could say that 32 was my age....

What I've Been Doing

Working on Christmas Crafts:

The Before
The After:

I've seriously been collecting jars for months now. I cleaned them up and painted the lids and the front with chalkboard paint. I'm going to fill these with spiced nuts and include a piece of chalk so they can continue to write on the jars.

Making ruffle pillows out of shirts:

Before, extra pillow and a ruffle shirt from my sister. I just could never make the shirt look right on me.....

So I put it on an extra pillow instead.

Still loving my new boots! And the dirty mirror too.

Loving Scarfs and bangs:

Visiting my parents for sloppy joes when Bri's out of town.

Taking pictures of rainbows out my back door:

We're the Same Age

We're the same age for one month of the year. I know can you believe it? I ask myself how my mother coped with this throughout our childhood???? She is a Saint, but we will save that for another blog post.

I had been trying to get a "good" picture of Hill and me the whole night..... And in looking through what I got, I decided that these were the best because this is what we are usually doing. Laughing (Bri refers to it as cackling). These pictures are more telling than the better posed ones. They are telling of our sisterhood (only wish all the other sisters could have been there, Kir, Mags, Denise).

She said tonight that when she gets old that she wants to live by me, not with her kids (you had to be there for that funny conversation! She's not letting her kids get her things DI ready!). What better compliment?

On a talk show the other week a guest was talking about a conversation she had had with her grandmother. She had asked her grandmother how she had stayed married for so long. Her grandmother replied, "I had sisters". She didn't get it until later in life. I get it. I agree with it.

I love Hill. We understand each other.

This is before dinner. The grand kids with their In-n-Out burger hats from Cali.

Our dinner! Crab.

Yes, we wore the bibs.

The shark hanging on the ceiling.

Beautifuls!

Washed out by the end of the night. But had to include it. Is that sweatshirt from Aberdeen?

Happy Birthday to two of my all time favorite people.

13.1 x 3

This was my 3rd year attending the Girlfriends half marathon....unfortunately I was not there to run this year (I deferred my registration in hopes of healing my lower back). I seriously wanted to cry..... but it was good because I was there to support a dear friend doing her first half marathon. It was especially meaningful as her mother had just completed her last round of chemo for breast cancer.

It was Sunday after all... Had to get a picture in front of a church.

I seriously LOVE these girls.

At the finish.

It was an amazing day. We were surrounded by inspirational, strong women. Andrea was beaming over the finish line..... I think she is now hooked.

An old man, a cowgirl, and a witch.

At our friends after stew and bubbling, smokey homemade witches brew (root beer with dry ice).

Jake can be such a character:

This was my grandfather's hat.

Getting the first of their loot:

The weekend before we had our friends over to carve our pumpkins. We've been carving pumpkins every Halloween with the McIntyres for TEN years..... pre-children....hard to believe.

Me and Les with the final product.

Don't mind the short bangs.....had just had them cut and it takes a few days for them to look normal again. This is my "peace - out" symbol, given to Grace with the camera.