Merry Pre-Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas twice this year--once with each of our families. We had a pre-Christmas Christmas with my family last week where we ate some ham, exchanged gifts, watched the little ones play, danced to Christmas music, and enjoyed each other's company in the frosty mountains.

Boot Scootin'

I'm not sure who likes my boots more: Clark or me. He dances around with them, carries them around, and sometimes when I go to put them on I find mysterious objects inside of them like toddler shoes and toys. He's a Texas baby, so perhaps his love of boots is innate.

Laundry Love

Getting laundry done around here is a breeze with my eager helper. When I tell him it's time to put clothes in the washer he toddles off to retrieve the baskets and happily pushes them around. The other day I put him in a full basket and pushed him around on the carpet. It must've been a fun ride because I turned around 2 minutes later to see him sitting in the basket again. ???? I grabbed my camera and asked him how he got inside. This is what he showed me:

Those little legs aren't tall enough to step over the sides but he still figured out how to get in and out without tipping the basket over.

15-Month Well Check

Clark had his 15-month check-up on Monday.  Still small, but he's not 5% small anymore. yay! and obviously his growing priorities are still on those brains.

Height - 29½" - 9^th percentile

Weight - 22 lb 6 oz - 20^th percentile

Head Circumference - 49 cm - 92^nd percentile

A Day of Thanks...and more

and now...our Thanksgiving Day recap as captured by a phone camera:

Our day started bright and early outside the Galleria mall to run the Turkey Trot 5k. The streets were flooded with other people that had the same idea. The middle shot below was just a small fraction of runners lined up for the race. I have to thank Steve's dad for the earphones I have in the photo below. In all my haste to exit the car as we were dropped off I forgot to grab my music. BIG mistake! Charlie walked a good distance back to the car to get it for me. what a lifesaver! 

 The "race" was much more a game of human dodging than an athletic contest for me. I was pushing Clark in my jogger through the sea of people--many of whom weren't so speedy--so Steve was able to easily leave us in the dust.

 I caught him in the end, though, and finished in 26:36. Steve finished just 13 seconds later. I didn't make my goal of 24:00, but either way I'm still champion of the year. and I didn't run over anyone with my stroller, so that probably counts for something.

 On our way back to the car we stopped to play with some ducks.

 Once home, we made our Thanksgiving contribution before heading over to the feast.

I had a wonderful helper in the kitchen to keep me company.

 There was some book reading as I finished getting ready, then we were off

 to play with family.

 I caught a few z's before we headed out to brave the frenzied midnight crowds on Black Friday. 

 We didn't last long at that early hour, so we got some sleep then took Clark out with us for more shopping.

 Here we are, a few dollars poorer, but looking so cute in our matching shirts.

the end.