Finally....another blog entry

So, it's been awhile since my last blog entry-something like 5+ months! Everyone in my house is in bed so I decided to seize the opportunity. I'm sorry for all of you who have been patiently awaiting an update! I'm going to try to do better, but Im not making any promises! Since my last entry we've had Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Valentine's Day along with a few other "banker's holidays." We had a nice Halloween celebrating Reba's birthday with her family, a nice Thanksgiving, and a good Christmas. New Year's and Valentine's Day are just good excuses to drink sparkling grape juice, eat lots of chocolate, and buy your wife flowers :)

The kids are growing like weeks and are keeping us plenty busy. Kailee is enjoying 5th grade and loves tumbling. She seems to be doing quite well in tumbling and can't wait to meet every Monday. She constantly practices and has progress quite rapidly from not even being able to do a cartwheel to almost doing a back handspring without a spotter. As for Elli, well, she is a mess! She has so much energy and personality that I just don't know what to do with her sometimes-she's such a blast and is constant entertainment! She goes ninety to nothing and is meeting new milestones as I wrote. She still loves to eat, loves to slide, tries to do front rolls, likes to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and " I Love You...." (The Barney Song), and talks a millions miles a minute saying things like "Daddy go" and "It's cold outside." She is so full of spunk and a bit of mischeviousness-you can't take your eyes off of her! We all lover her so much-especially her big sis. Here are a few pics from the past few months.

P.S. Joel got a couple of really nice deer this fall: 1 8pt and 1 12pt! Also, I finally did that run that I blogged about 6 or 7 months ago.....14k. I'm looking forward to more long distance runs in the future!

Kailee as Dorothy for Halloween.

Aunt Reba and Elli as a ladybug for Halloween.

Two Little Indians: My nephew, Keiryn, and Elli.

Elli on Thanksgiving Day.

Keiryn, Kailee, and Elli on the Polar Express.

Kailee and Elli on Christmas Eve.

Artistic Photo Shoot in November: Check out these models!!

Fun Family Photos

Just a few pics of Joel, Kailee, and Elli.

A Weekend with Family

Elli being silly:Elli teasing & laughing at Keiryn:
My sweet nephew, Keiryn:

A few weeks ago Elli and I made our first long distance trip alone. We went to Lubbock and had a very nice trip. We saw my nephew, Keiryn and my mom and sister, Misty. Until this visit Keiryn typically ignored Elli because he's always too busy playing with Kailee. During this visit though, Keiryn and Elli had tons of fun chasing each other around. Keiryn was thrilled with the fact that he was able to make someone laugh and Elli was glad to have someone to tease and someone to tease her. These are a few pics from our trip.

Our Last Night As a Life Group

At Mid Cities Community Church where my family attends, we have what we call Life Groups. Our life group gets together to "do life" every other week and has been doing so since 2005. We've had couples come and go but our "core" couples attended the majority of the time. This group has been so amazing and instrumental in healing addictions, marriages, and various other issues. Each of us have developed wonderful, deep relationships with one another and cannot imagine the group being separated. God, however, has called several couples to move on and be used as leaders of new life groups. I wish the new life groups good luck and am looking forward to getting back together with those of you who are still a part of Jami and Camron's group. Pictured above left to right: Jenna, Lana, Allie, Carrie, Me, Melody, Jami, and Crystal (missing: Bridget, Sheila, & Tiffany)

Illness Might Have Saved Me

Some of you may be wondering how my 10K went.....well, lets just say that I spent that morning in bed instead of attempting to conquer the 10K. I came down with some weird cold or something that caused all of the lymph nodes in my neck to swell. Needless to say, not only did I look like I had been taking steroids, but I was in some serious pain. I decided that it was a good enough excuse not to go kill myself in the run. I have continued running, but have not entered anymore races. I'll let you know when I do.

I Made It!

So, today was the day that I was supposed to go run 5 miles with my workout Nazi friend, Alison. We went for an early morning run at about 7am (I know, some of you are thinking I'm even crazier because I really like my sleep!). I made it through the whole run and she didn't take off and leave me (she was being nice). I'm pretty sure that 1.2 additional miles would have killed me....guess I'll find out next weekend!

My Newest Venture

For those of you who have the privilege of knowing me well, you know that I am somewhat fickle. With fickleness comes new fads, trends, ideas, addictions, etc. Here's my latest idea: I will attempt to run in a mini-marathon (10K or 6.2 mi.).......in 12 days. I know what some of you are thinking, "You?! In a marathon? I didn't even know you ran. And for goodness sake, how on earth can you possibly be in shape to run a marathon? After all, you don't exercise and every time I see you you have a Dr. Pepper in your hand!" To answer your questions:
-I used to run (it's been 2 years since I've ran and about 11 years since I've ran more than 1 mi. at a time).
-Am I in shape? Absolutely not.
-And yes, I do have a Dr. Pepper in my hands at all times.
So, to see just how out of shape I was I decided to go for a little run this evening. At 1 mi. I had been running for 11:47. It seemed to pass by pretty quickly. At mile two my time was 21:46. I felt pretty good and could have continued, but had some serious rawness on each of my ankles. I later discovered that they were bleeding (I decided not to take pictures for those of you who have week stomachs)-it's a good thing I ordered some actual running shoes today, which I can't wait to get in. I'm going to continue to run every other day and see how much progress I can make by August 22nd. I'm supposed to go on a 5 mile run this Saturday with a girlfriend of mine (the one who inspired me to give this a try) who's a workout Nazi and runs in marathons every few months. I'll let you all know how that goes......if I'm still alive.