Skiing!

Just before Christmas we took the kids skiing. David has been skiing many times but none of the rest of us had ever skied before. Colin and Connor elected to snowboard and had a blast. Sybella, David, and I skied. Cooper got to play in the snow a bit but mostly he hung out at the lodge or with the other young kids at the lodge childcare center. Our best friends, the Oswalds, went too and it was so much fun to vacation again together! It was a short two days of skiing but it was an awesome family time.

Visit with my Young Cousins

On New Year's Eve, I got a special & spectacular treat: I got to spend the day and evening with my littlest cousins. They are 10 and 8 and yes, they are my first cousins. My dad's older brother Carl got married for the first time a bit later than his brothers. He and his wife, Susan, although my Aunt and Uncle, have always felt a bit more like cousins since we have gotten married and had kids in the same general time frames. So, it was a bit surreal (yet totally amazing) hanging with their family on Friday and spending time with Sienna and Cade who are younger than my oldest children. We had a great time and had the blessing of spending some time with Susan's family as well.

Candy for my Stocking

As a child, I got a LifeSavers Storybook (8 packs of LifeSavers) in my stocking every year. This year, my mother gave me a singular pack of Wild Cherry LifeSavers (my favorite flavor) in my stocking and I could't be happier! I am on the way home from NYC (an awesome trip) but the " NYC blizzard" has made returning home significantly longer than expected. We are on the 'express train' but it is still taking much longer than the regular train normally would. My wild cherry LifeSavers (and the fact that I could still be sitting in Penn Station waiting for a train) are doing a great job at keeping me positive!
~Sharon

Christmas 2010 - TIMES SQUARE

Sharon and I ended up in New York on December 26th during a major snow blizzard. We ran around Times Square and Broadway while 6 Inches of snow blanketed the city!

4th Birthday

Really, It's not that I don't want and need to post about Sybella's 4th birthday but oh my goodness, I just realized that I have been so busy, I haven't posted a thing in December!
So here goes:

On Dec 1st Sybella turned 4 years old. I can't believe it's been 4 years since our only girl, a princess, and a perceived 1st born (both the boys were in school by the time she came along) came into our lives. Amazing.   [Note: I intended to put a photo here from when she was born and I just realized that I haven't transferred them from my other computer...oops]

This year Sybella had a birthday week of fun and adventure.
On her birthday, her preschool went on a field trip to a local Tiny Tots Concert.
Then, after dinner we opened her gifts from our family-- it was a lady bug year as requested by the birthday girl.

On Dec 2nd, I braved Chuck-E-Cheese to host a party with all of Sybella's friends from preschool. She had never been to CEC before but clearly marketing works because she spent months telling us that she wanted to have her party there. (she must have seen a commercial?)

On Dec 3rd, we took fancy cookies to class to celebrate at school. They gave her a crown and she was the center of attention for the day.

Sybella had an awesome birthday week- hope she's not expecting that kind of fan fare every year! :0)

Blogs I Follow

David set up this blog long ago and I slowly but surely I began posting to it; now, I post 80% or more of the items but interestingly, I have never really known anything about design or settings. Today, I finally spent some time exploring and while I am not yet brave enough to change the background, I finally put a "blog roll" in place. There is now a list of many of the blogs I follow on the left side of the homepage. Check it out!

2010 Army 10-Miler

It was another year of fun at the Army 10-Miler (Oct 24, 2010).

Last year I ran by myself. This year- David, my brother Joel, and my sister-in-law Stephanie, all ran too.

It was beautiful weather, which is always a bonus on race day. I also ran much faster than I did last year-- a hard earned accomplishment!

This year I also got the chance to catch up with several folks that I hadn't seen it a while: Todd Little (LTC and TCU grad), Misty Cornett Lever (another fellow Horned Frog), and Jennifer Brown (an Ob-Gyn that I worked with at Madigan).

Here is a shot of the of us after the race:

Frying Pan Park

In late October, we had the chance enjoy a play-date with the St.Clair cousins (all the kids that weren't in school). We visited Frying Pan Park in Herdon, VA.

We saw lots of animals, ate lunch, and played. The kids loved the sheep, pigs, cows, horses, turkeys, ducks, and peacocks. A beautiful sunny day and fun with the family. We couldn't ask for anything more!