The boys got me some really cute Christmas toe socks for my birthday. Although, someone else seems to be keeping their toesies warm instead of me!!

Our Santa pic from breakfast with Santa. Ok, is it me or are the boys getting really big....yikes!

My little shepperd dressed in blue! How could I miss this smile!!

One  morning Mark the Elf left a note on a yellow something that told the boys to plug it in with Mom's help. Once it started to inflate Bry was so happy....it's SPONGEBOB!!!

More Elf antics.

This week has really flown by! I can't believe the boys only have 1 week of school left until Christmas break!! I have most all presents bought and wrapped so that's good! Just working on a few stocking stuffers and I"m done. Mike and I aren't exchanging gifts this year. With all this moving business, it's best that we focus on what we need and not what we want. Plus, we are taking a trip to FL over the Christmas break to check out our new area to live. So our trip will kinda be a present in itself. 

Hoping to drive around tonight to look at some Christmas lights. Then tomorrow we are joining some friends for dinner and then going to check out a light display in New Orleans. It should be alot of fun!

I've been in a cookie baking mode lately. We made some this week and I hope to make some this weekend and next week too. It's sad that this is my 2nd year in a row to not have a Cookie Exchange party. Boo...a friend in MS is having one this weekend and I'm sad that I'll miss that too. I hope by next year we will be settled and that I will have met some people so that I can restart my yearly tradition. It was so much fun planning and hostessing the parties! I sure miss it!

On a sad note: the tragic news today in the CT school is just heart breaking and there are no words. I have been teary eyed all afternoon watching the coverage of the terrible event. At times it was hard to hold back gushing tears.  Unimaginable! It is just unspeakable! It does serve as a reminder though that you must live in the mindset of today! You can not dwell on yesterday or wish upon the future. You never know what each day will hold and you must cherish each day and live life to the fullest!! Have no regrets and remember to show and tell everyone in your life how much they mean to you!! Love to all!!

Mark strikes again, he copied Dev's evening activity of making snowflakes! The boys loved it! 

I had a great birthday on Friday! I had the day off from work, perfect. Mike spent the day with me and we went downtown to pick up my race packet for the 1/2 marathon. They had this board with all the registered racers' names on it. I was able to find mine after some searching. Pretty cool. The weather was set to be pretty fantastic for the race. Then Mike and I enjoyed a nice lunch in a Greek Lebanese cafe downtown. It was great to have a nice relaxing lunch just the two of us. Then a little shopping and then quickly time to pick up the boys from school. I took some me time in the evening and went to the school to help decorate for the Breakfast with Santa. It was fun, me and another Mom created the backdrop for the Santa pics. Drawing, cutting, gluing and designing...right up my alley. Lots of fun. Then I went home and enjoyed a nice evening with all 3 of my boys. My birthday wish was for Mike to handle everything that had to do with any meal for the weekend. Ah....what a nice relief, and he did pretty good! I didn't have to think about what was to eat, shop for food to eat, cook any food to eat or clean up any food that was eaten...what a great gift! LOL!

Race day! Mike dropped me off so I wouldn't have to worry about parking and then came back later to see me cross the finish line. I have to say 3 times might be enough for me! I didn't train as much for this one and I could sure tell. Actually I did great up to about mile 10, I had maintained my goal time at mile 10. But then it went downhill from there. I got tired, had to do some walking and then mile 11 my calves starting cramping. I have never had that happen in the other two races! So I did a good bit of walking and running and finally crossed the finish line. It was not my fastest or my slowest time so I guess that's pretty good. I'm happy it's over and I will not fall pressure to my friend wanting to do a full marathon! NOT GONNA DO IT!! In fact I really don't want to do more than a 10k (6 miles) or 10 miles in any other races. Hey...it's tough. I'd rather run the shorter distances and have fun, than run longer and be cussing the last 3 miles...ha ha ha!! But...happy... my 3rd 1/2 marathon done!!Yay!! It was also so great to have my boys and Mike watching me cross the finish line!!

AWESOME MEDAL!!  I think it's the biggest of my medals and the heaviest!! Wowzer!!

I'm looking forward to Christmas!! The boys are so fun this year and very much in the spirit! Especially with Mark the elf! They are always talking to him about what they want, and even left him a note to take to Santa...which he did!!!

Tonight is Bry's Christmas program at school. I went the other day for the dress rehearsal. I have to admit, I missed when his class sang their song. I mean really....75 kids all dressed in the same exact sheppard costume...I never found him!! I got confused that it was two classes up there and not one so I missed him...boo! When I told him I couldn't find him because they all looked the same, he sweetly looked up at me and said, " MOM, don't you know my face looks like thisssss!!" (With the most adorable smile!) It was priceless. Anyway Mike is going to watch tonight, I'm telling him exactly where Bry is! They only give 2 tickets per family due to limited capacity so that's why I went to the dress rehearsal and Mike is going tonight. I am staying home with Dev to work on his computer Math. He has the 5th highest points in the whole 3rd grade (75 kids). So we are trying to get him in the top 3. He loves Math and thank goodness I enjoy it too, or he'd probably be in the bottom 3...ha ha..

Well this is it for now, I have a few pics to post of Mark the elf and some from Breakfast with Santa on my next post, so keep a look out. I'm really trying to stay more frequent on here, for those of you that are still out there! Toodles. 

Our red friend

Our Elf Mark has been busy. He got into the candy canes and started to hang them on the tree.

He TP'd our tree! LOL

He got a little creative!

This was funny. Mark is in the bathroom. Our house is on the market, so Dev was worried that someone might come by and touch Mark while we were gone, so he left a note.... too cute!

The boys are really enjoying finding Mark every morning.

Well this is my short post for today. Gotta run and get started on homework with the boys, get a treadmill run in, cook dinner, work on computer Math with Dev, then make sure they take showers, clean up the house, and get settled for bed and ready to start tomorrow...whew...just a little to do! ha ha...

Shame on me

I know, I didn't get back on here to post like I said. boo!! Time just seems to fly by so quickly!!
Biggest news...most of you already know. We are moving again! I know...I sure hope this next move becomes a permanent home for us. I don't want to keep moving the boys around once they get older. Bry is very excited to know that there is a beach...too funny! "What?? Florida has a beach???" And of course we will be much much closer to Disney!! whoo hoo!!! We will somewhere in the vicinity of Tampa once we get moved.
My work is going well. It's very flexible and I really love that. I sure hope I can find something similar when we move. I've been helping out in the cafeteria at the school once every couple of weeks. I enjoy being able to help at the boys school and it's funny to listen to what all the kids have to say about what is for lunch. The 2nd 9 weeks is almost over at school and so far both boys are on track to make straight A's again!! yay!! so proud of them!
Our Elf Mark has arrived again this year. He did make an appearance earlier in the year when he snuck into our suitcase for our trip to Houston. The boys opened up a zipper pocket and yelled...Mark!! ha ha ha....yep I guess he wanted a mid year vacation. He has been really entertaining the boys this year. I hope to get some pics of the action on here this week of some of the things he has been up to.
This coming Sunday I am running my third 1/2 marathon! Unfortunately I will be running solo this time, no buddies to join me...boo hoo! But luckily Mike will be in town so he and the boys can be waiting for me at the finish. I haven't trained like I planned for this since we've had so many things happen in the last few weeks. But I'm going to get out there and just truck along until I cross the finish line.
Well this is my short update for now.I hope to get back on here with pics and more chatting this week. Toodles....