The Little Things: Tree

It's so pretty. I like all the lights and homemade ornaments.

The addition to our family

We've had an addition to our home for the past 9 days. She is cute, funny and smart. The perfect addition to our three girls. Her parents are on a vacation to the Holy Land and since I couldn't go with them I decided to bribe them into sharing every detail of my trip by watching their daughter.




We absolutely love having her with us. Some of the things we have done is go to Winter Wonderland at the Portland International Raceway where we sung the "12 days of Christmas" at the top of our lungs. And while we were finishing up Alexis declared she was thirsty. I told her she would have to wait until we got home so then her, Heidi and Emma made up the words to "The 12 days of Thirstiness" . Their true loves gave them lemonade, root beer, eggnog, apple cider, hot chocolate and of course #1 was ice cold water.

Last Thursday was the Oregon Civil War college football game. We are duck fans around here but Alexis said she was for the Beavers. That was okay, we decorated and wore our duck stuff anyway. Then about five minutes before the game started Alexis says to me, "I think i got it wrong, i think my dad likes the Ducks, not the Beavers." I don't know who her dad likes but I think Alexis wanted to feel like she was on the right team, the Ducks team. So when the game started we were all cheering for U of O with our face paint and while eating our tacos.



On Saturday we inducted Alexis into the May family tradition of Portland Saturday Market. It was too bad we were in a hurry to get back for dance dress rehearsal because there was tons to see and we didn't get a chance to see everything. But Alexis did try on some fun stuff and we got some pictures of it. It was strange for me to have to watch a little one again. Heidi is only two years older than Alexis but it is a huge difference as far as running around touching things. For the most part Alexis only had to be reminded a couple of times to be "careful" or "not to touch." I was worn out trying to keep up with her. She loved everything she saw and even bought her mom a coming home present from the market that she picked out all by herself.

On Sunday we had another May Family Christmas tradition of decorating the tree. This isn't any old decorating the tree time, we have an all out party with lots of horsdouvers, music and the decorating. I bought a yummy brie from costco with pecans and cranberries wrapped in a phyllo crust. You bake it and serve it. The girls thought it was pie and it was hilarious to see them pick up a wedge and eat it like a pie. I told them it was cheese and they got the funniest looks on their faces. Alexis especially loved the brie.


Alexis goes home in a couple days and we will really miss her. She has been a perfect playmate for Heidi and it has been fun for Heidi to be the 'older sister' and for Alexis to be the 'younger sister' since Alexis is the oldest in her family. Nice for them to have the chance to switch rolls. And as I've heard Heidi gently boss Alexis around I have to say that I think she's enjoying it.

Sprint Reclaim

I got a new phone and I've never loved a phone like this one. This is what I love about it:

• It's made of 40% corn so that if I am ever lost in the wilderness and have my phone with me I could eat it to survive. I mentioned this to Chris and he very aptly told me that if I had my phone I wouldn't need to eat it, just use it to call for help.
• It's a cool color of green.
• It slides up and down, I just like this.
• It has a full qwerty keyboard for my texting delight. Not that I text very much but when I do it's so nice to have.
• It has a smiley face menu for my texts right on the keyboard. soo cool.
• It is easy to add contacts into.
• It doesn't pick up all the outside noise around me when I'm talking to someone on the phone. Anyone who has a Blackberry will probably know what I'm talking about.
• It has nice screen savers already included. Pretty waterfalls, oceans, fields, flowers and animals. It's an eco phone, remember?
• It has the coolest ringtones, ringers and sounds. I get a bird chirping when I have a new voicemail and my ring is a simple melody with crickets chirping. I love it! There are tons of cool ones to choose from.
• It has a great camera too.
• It came with a thin simple instruction book.
  
• It's so easy to use!
  

So if you can't have the iPhone like me because you are with a provider that doesn't offer the iPhone then I recommend this one.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving day this year was started with the annual Springfield Turkey Stuffer and this year our whole family did it including Ross, Chris' brother. Our good friends, the Cox family joined us as well. It can't get much better than that.

This is us before the race:


Hey, where's Julie?

Here she is...

We are getting ready to start running.

After the race we traveled in our cars down to Coos Bay to share tons of good food with family and friends.


Good times!

Annual Springfield Turkey Stuffer

I did it. I finished my 5K on Thanksgiving morning. It felt good, really good. I'm still in shock that I did as well as I did. I did stop to walk twice. Once at mile one for about 90 seconds and then again at mile two for again, 90 seconds. And that was it. I probably would have stopped again but when I had about a quarter mile left my brother in law, Ross, saw me and ran the rest of the way with me. That was a blessing because I was feeling so tired right then.

I thought I was the last runner to come in. There were walkers that beat me, a lot of them. But looking at the results there were ten more women in my age category that came in after me. I don't know where they were because nobody else was running anywhere near me. Walkers were passing me by. But I didn't care. I just wanted to run the whole thing. My Emma ran the whole thing and beat my time by 11 minutes. What a rock star she is. I'm proud of all my family. Even Makenzie said it was a fun way to start Thanksgiving, I about fell over with shock when she told me that.

So what's next? Not sure. I need to find a 5K to work towards in January I think. I need to keep going. When I crossed the finish line my good friend Julie said I could now cross this off my list. When I told her it wasn't on my list she said I should add it real quick! I laughed and then seriously thought about it! But what I do have down is running a 10 minute mile and doing the Fairbanks Midnight Sun Run. I will work towards both of those. It would be super cool if I could be ready to do the Midnight Sun Run this next summer.

We'll see. All i know is that today I got on the elyptical and did it for 30 minutes. Three months ago I couldn't even do 3 minutes on it.

Tonight on "The Biggest Loser" one of the finalists was wondering how she became a "runner" and wondering if she really was one, she had never seen herself as an athlete before. I wonder the same thing. Will I get to the point someday where I will say, "I'm a runner"? Not sure, but I do know that in the process I'm becoming more physically fit and being the kind of role model that I want to be for my family.

In the spirit of giving....

I just won a giveaway on one of my most favorite blogs. Homebased Mom. If you haven't heard of it you should check it out. She has fabulous recipes, great party ideas and I love her party decorations. One of the things I love best about her site is that she does it all on a budget and it looks fantastic.

She also just started an online business where she will help plan your party. And there are different levels. Basic is her helping plan the menu and it goes on from there with a deluxe package being that you get her for the whole event, start to finish. And her prices are reasonable.

So check her out.

If you go right now you can see my name as a winner of some darling personalized recipe cards. I hope this is a day that my mom doesn't read my blog because I'm having them personalized for her. She will love them.

Yay Me!

Blame it on the trees

Outside of my local grocery store there are Christmas trees. I went to the store today to pick up a few things and when I approached the front of the store the trees cast their scent on me.

They did.

I swear.

It's like they said, "here, have some of this."

And you know what? In that moment when the smell of rich Noble Firs permeated my body....

It was CHRISTMAS.

It's here, it's here.

Yes, I know Thanksgiving is not over yet but it's not my fault. The trees did it, I am blaming them for my early decorating.