CHRISTMAS 2012!

Lots of pictures to share.  This is my last post before I can print another book for our family!  We had another wonderful Christmas.  I basically feel like we’ve been celebrating almost every night with some event or dinner party for the past two weeks, so as fun as it’s been, I am also wiped out and happy it’s all over! 

Grayson’s school had a little Christmas performance at the Christmas Village last Thursday, where we were able to meet Santa.  Although Colbie was not too thrilled about sitting on Santa’s lap this year, it still doesn’t beat her brother’s desperate cry for help a few years ago when meeting Santa!

Now that’s a bunch of goofy looking bank robbers!

Grayson is actually wearing Uncle Ryan’s corduroy jacket from when he was a little boy! 

Fixing Grayson up for a photo op!

Buddies!

Watching big brother perform his three Christmas songs with Grammy & Papa!  It was FREEZING this night!

Tall has been quite generous this year.  This particular morning, we found him hanging from our fan and brought us the Elf on the Shelf movie!

A little play date with the gang before Christmas.

Off to Church last Sunday!

Christmas at Buddy & Susan’s Monday with Blaine’s immediate family.  Buddy & Susan with some of the Grandkids!

Grayson with Aunt Stacy.

This kiddos with Great Grandma Morris.

Aunt Stacy & Uncle Kellan gave Grayson a bow & arrow for Christmas!

Grayson & Madysin

The next night we had the annual Morris Family Christmas Eve soup exchange.  Another nice evening out at Blaine’s cousin, Melanie’s house. 

Here is Great Grandma Morris with only a portion of her great grandkids!

This gives you an idea of how big Blaine’s family is, especially being that there were at least 14 people missing!

Making chocolate gingerbread houses with the kids……yummy!!

Tall bid us all farewell the morning of Christmas eve with this note!  We miss him already!

….AND SANTA CAME!!!

This was by far Grayson’s favorite gift this year!  He’s already had Dada drill a hole in the back for a trailer hitch so he can haul stuff or maybe pull sister if her jeep gets stuck in the mud!!

And this was Colbie’s favorite gift by far!  This was a re-gifted singing Santa from DeeDee which she always loves to play with when we go to visit.  I wish we had her opening this on video because she went absolutely CRAZY!  She started dancing and clapping and singing along “Santa Claus is coming to town!”  I have to hide it from her because she will play it all day and unfortunately there is no volume control!

Grammy and Papa joined us for the gift opening fun!

Watch out neighbors!  There are some crazy drivers on the loose!

We can’t forget Chasers…. wearing his “Nice” shirt! 

Then off to my parent’s for Christmas dinner with my family!

I just want to wrap this all up by saying how grateful I am for my friends, my family and the love that surrounds us.  With everything going on in the world today, we really have very little to complain about.  The most recent elementary school shooting has to have been one of the biggest, most horrendous wake up calls for all of us.  Life is entirely too short and too fragile and events like that just don’t make any sense at all.  My heart goes out to all those suffering right now.  This awful tragedy has made me take a closer look at what I DO have and realize how lucky I am to have such an incredible husband and two beautiful children that I get to hug every night before I go to bed.  I’ve definitely taken life for granted at times and I vow to cherish what I do have and enjoy the little moments more.  I wish that for everyone.  Here’s to a Happy Healthy 2013!

Marathon Weekend!

Marathon weekend in Tucson, AZ was a total success!  Grayson ran his first official kids race on Saturday, which took place around the U of A mall.  He ran almost the entire mile in 14 minutes and was awarded his very own medal and t-shirt for completion.  The weather was gorgeous and it was so great to be back on campus.  Although we took a trip to Tucson a few years ago, I hadn’t actually been on the U of A campus since I had graduated.  Walking around and seeing all these super young-looking students made us all feel SO OLD!   We even passed by two girls doing the dreadful walk of shame!  Pretty funny!

On Sunday, I ran my second marathon, which was out by where we were staying in northern Tucson.  I had been on the fence about running another marathon after my first VERY painful one; however, after taking a few months off, I decided to give it another shot.  I signed up for this one in June and started training in August.  I felt a lot stronger this time around and thankfully didn’t hit the “wall” like I did last time.  Although I am totally paying for it today with some pretty sore muscles, it was all worth it, as I finished in 3:31:31!!  Apparently a Boston qualifier!  This may just be our excuse to take a trip out east!  It was a beautiful course and the weather couldn’t have been nicer, and I loved that it was a much smaller-scale marathon.  However, going into it thinking that it was primarily a downhill course, there were definitely a few too many uphill surprises that did a number on muscles I didn’t even know I had!  Sometimes I think it helps when you don’t know exactly what’s in store for you.

Grayson doing warm-ups by the starting line!

  Picture by Old Main.

I still feel guilty for having this picture without the kids in it, but they were with my parents at the time and I couldn’t pass up a picture with Wilbur & Wilma!  I was so excited, I actually asked Wilma if she could take a picture of Blaine & I with Wilbur (so that we could be together).  Before she could shake her head no, I realized how stupid I must have sounded!

I’m not sure Blaine was as excited as I was!

We booked a room with two queens so the kids could share a bed this time.  We got a kick out of their various sleeping positions throughout the night.  Grayson was quite the bed hog, and Missy just sort of put up with it.

Ready for his big race!  Grammy and Papa at Old Main.

On your mark, get set, GO!

We did it!

U of A is where these two sweethearts met!

Mama gets a medal too!

Before we left, Grayson wrote a letter to Santa.  He wrote his name and his age and had me write down his various requests.  After reading it out loud, he sort of sounds like a little redneck cowboy…. and one that just wants a nicer little sister!  We did send the letter to the North Pole and actually already heard back!

We also did our Angels last week and I had Grayson go with me this year to the fire department deliver the toys. He was very proud to give this bike to “the little boy that doesn’t have any toys.” 

Mr. Tall has been very busy in our house these days too.  He actually turned up in Payson when the boys were hunting and also appeared in our hotel room in Tucson.  At home, he is a total clown, turning our milk green and making a total mess at times!  This morning, he brought us all Christmas night lights!  He can be super thoughtful when he wants to be!