First Santa of the Year!

The kids saw their first Santa of the year at Pamida Thanksgiving weekend (and I say first because we know will see him few more times before Christmas!) Chloe said she wasn't going to be scared this year and tell him what she wanted for Christmas and she held true to her word! It was the first time she didn't reach out for us or cry! :) She was still a bit nervous, but she did really well. Caiden of course was fine!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our traditional Thanksgiving is a lot different than most people and some think we are crazy, but it has been our tradition since we moved to South Dakota and I don't see it changing anytime in the near future! We start off at the Turkey Trot 5K in Rapid City, which is a race put on by the Black Hills Running Club. This year, I ran the race as my November race and Chris decided he would push the kids in the stroller for fun. We all ran together for a few minutes and then we the people with strollers and dogs and the walkers went one way and we went another. The race started off well for me, but I had to many layers on this year (the temp reached to 60 degrees later in the day!) and I got pretty hot. The course seemed to be a little long too, and for every .1 of a mile that the course is long, it feels like you are running an extra mile! So, my time was pretty slow (32 something) but Chris ran a 24 something pushing 80 pounds! After the race, we all stood and listened as they called off the 350 names of the people who had won pies - we were not one of them. Which makes for 2 years in a row. The first 2 years, we did win one, therefore, we will win one next year for sure! It was a fun race and I got see some of my "running friends" - most of who I only see at the local races. After the race, we headed to The Golden Corral for our Thanksgiving dinner. I know, I know - a buffet at the Golden Corral for Thanksgiving?! But it's actually really good and the kids don't like turkey and mashed potatoes anyway so it works out for us because the kids can eat whatever they want :) And they have some really good desserts too! So, we were stuffed and headed home to watch some football and let our food digest. Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for all of you who read what is going on in our lives!

Halloween Through the Years

I thought it would be fun to look at all of the pictures from Halloween past and post some pictures here! It's so fun to see how much the kids have grown! This starts with Chloe's first Halloween in 2005 as I have no idea where the 2004 pictures are! But Caiden was a lion and a really cute one! :)

2005 - A Tiger and a Duck

2006 - A Monkey and a Bunny

2007 - Mickey and Minnie Mouse

2008 - Sleeping Beauty and a Seahawks Football Player

2009 - Dorothy and Bumble Bee

I thought it would be fun to look at all of the pictures from Halloween past and post some pictures here! It's so fun to see how much the kids have grown! This starts with Chloe's first Halloween in 2005 as I have no idea where 2004 pictures are! But Caiden was a lion and a really cute one! :)

Sweet Tooth 5K

Chris literally found this race on Friday afternoon on a flyer in a Starbucks in Rapid. I was all set to drive to Gillette, WY for another race, but opted to do the one in Rapid because it's a lot closer and I would be able to sleep 2 extra hours by going to the race in Rapid. The race was put on by the Dental Hygienists Association with the proceeds going to Breast Cancer so it was for a great cause too. Since it was on Halloween, there was a costume contest and I knew I needed to come up with something cool. I decided on a road with double "no passing" lines and cars pinned to me and 2 runners on my shoulder as we run on the shoulder of the road. I also had two signs on my back which you will see in the pictures. I have had a cold for a good week now so I wasn't feeling 100% going into the race, but I figured it was only 3 miles and I would just go slow if I needed to. The first mile was great - 9:42 - but that was the only great thing about this race. I started coughing soon after the first mile and had to stop and walk a lot to cough. At the turnaround, there was some water (thankfully!) and that helped a little, but I was still going really slow and my next 2 miles were in something like 11:21 and 10:45. So, it was a slow race with me finishing in 32:06. But I was happy with that after being sick and not being able to breathe for most of the race! I won 2nd place in the costume contest too and got a really cool medal so it was all worth it! There was Starbucks coffee and Halloween cookies afterwards too! It's definitely a race I hope they do again so we can continue to go!

Halloween 2009

Halloween was SO much fun this year! Caiden wanted to be Bumble Bee from Transformers (mainly because he is yellow and yellow has been Caiden's favorite color his whole life!) Chloe was Dorothy and I have no idea why she picked this costume because she had never seen the movie. So after we got her costume, he watched "The Wizard of Oz" and loves Dorothy even more. :) Halloween started on Wednesday night with a Trunk or Treat at our friend's church and the kids had a blast playing games like pumpkin bowling, decorating cookies and bags and of course getting candy :) On Thursday, the kids both had parties at their schools with even more treats! On Friday, we had a Day Care party and did crafts all morning and then got into our costumes and had a costume party. Oh, and MORE treats! On Halloween, we went up to Rapid for the Sweet Tooth 5K(that will be a separate post) and then went to the parade in town and got to trick or treat at the downtown businesses. Then we headed up to the Rec Center for lots of games and more trick or treating. After a couple of hours of trick-or-treating in town, the kids ended up with 10 pounds of candy (yes, we weighed it!) and probably a couple of cavities! :) We picked our friend, Avryl, for a slumber party and came home to watch "Monsters vs. Aliens" and eat some of that candy (but not a whole bunch!) Click on the link below for pictures of all of the fun!

Bronc Football Fun

The kids love going to the football games and we have been to all of the home games plus an away game in Deadwood. I think Chloe loves to go the most for the popcorn and the cheerleaders. We have a fun time cheering for our Broncs! Tonight, they play in their 2nd playoff game and have to beat St. Thomas More who already beat us in the regular season. But hopefully they can pull out the W and continue their journey this season. Here are some pictures from our fun at the games!

A Visit from Smokey the Bear

For Fire Prevention Week, Smokey the Bear came to visit the Day Care and the kids loved it. Well, most of the kids loved it anyway! :) A few were afraid (Chloe!) but everyone had a great time giving him hugs and getting a whole bunch of goodies from him!

New Laptop!

I got an early Christmas present and I couldn't be more excited! I love my new laptop and it's so nice having 2 computers in the house. I figure this will just be even more necessary as the kids get older and want to use the computer even more than they do now! Caiden already knows more than I do about computers and he's 5! :)

Kindergarten is Tiring!

This is a picture of Caiden snoozin' on a Friday afternoon after 5 full days of Kindergarten. He usually only goes 4 days with Fridays off, but they have school on a few Fridays and this week just really wore him out! He did get a 2nd wind though as was able to cheer on the Broncs to victory in Deadwood that night! :)

10/10/10K at 10am

On October 10th, Chris ran the 10/10/10K at 10am as part of the Black Hills Trail Series. He ran awesome of course and the kids and I got to go and watch him because their soccer game had been cancelled that morning. It was a VERY cold morning so we played in the car and watched a movie while we waited for Chris to get done. They had yummy soup at the end of the race and Chris won a $60 watch! He was 8th overall and 5th in his division, which keeps him in 1st place in the Trail Series. If you want to read more about the race, you can go to his blog here:

http://runaholic-chris.blogspot.com/

Caiden in the Paper!

Because Caiden was the Student of the Month in the Kindergarten for September, he was in our local newspaper - he's the short one :)

Student of the Month!

Caiden was named "Student of the Month" in the Kindergarten for the month of September! We are so excited and so proud of him. This morning, Chris and I were both able to attend the presentation where they surprise the kids with their achievement. He received a shirt that says "Student of the Month" on it and his last name on the back of it. His picture will even be in the local paper! :) I'm not really sure he understood it all, but he knew it was for being good in school. :) Hopefully it stays that way too! Yay Caiden!

Chloe just had to have a picture with me too! :)

YellowJacket 5K

Sunday was the 2nd Annual YellowJacket 5K/10K. Last year I ran the 10K and ran my PR(59:59) at that race, but last month, I beat that PR(58:31) so I decided to run the 5K this year. That, and the fact that since my marathon, my training hasn't been the greatest. :) I could say that I wanted to beat my 5K PR, but I really knew that was not going to happen at this race. My New Years Resolution was to run a Race each month, but I never said I had to run the farthest distance each race offered! This was my 15th race of the year so I thought slacking off just a little was okay. My friend Amy also ran this race pushing her 2 year old daughter, Avryl so like my children, Avryl is another child that spends a lot of weekends at races. We started at the football field and then race on the bike path to the city park where we found the turnaround and headed back to the football field. The route was relatively flat with a few up and downs, but no real hills to speak of. My kind of race! I was hoping that I could run it in under 30 minutes as that my general goal for all 5Ks, but I really didn't know what was in store for this race. The Garmin wouldn't turn on right before the race so I had no idea how fast I was going at all. Amy runs 27-28 minute 5Ks so I just tried to keep her in my sights for as long as I could because then I knew I would be under 30. The whole thing went by really fast and before I knew it, I was back at the football field with the scoreboard reading 29 minutes something....I still had to go around part of the track so I wasn't done yet. I booked it at the end to make sure I ended up with the clock saying 29 something and not 30 something and I finished in 29:49 - an average mile pace of 9:36. Not too shabby for me at all. I was very happy with that. After the race, Caiden wanted to race me around the track and I must say after running 3 miles, I was a little tired and he was speeding around that thing. Chloe was right behind us though and never gave up. She is getting really fast too! I even won an Olive Garden gift card at the door prize giveaway! After the race, me and Amy headed to the Spearifsh Chophouse with the kids for their famous breakfast buffet. We hadn't been there since last year after the race, but it was just as good. Caiden said that pancake was the best pancake he had EVER had and Chloe ate her plate clean. It was a great way to relax after the race. I KNOW I ate way more calories than I burned in that 5K, but each calorie was well worth it! :)

Go Broncs!

If you know us at all, you know that we love football - any football...from JV to NFL; we will watch it all. And we love our home team, the Belle Fourche Broncs! The Broncs had a great season last year and we are hoping this year is just as good or even better. The 2nd game of the year was against Hot Springs, which means it was our first conference game of the year. We took a very early lead, but then lost some of it, but it ended in a win for us, 31-28. It was a really fun game and the weather was semi nice, with a little drizzle, but the kids just loved that. My friend Desiree came to the game with us too as her girls got to dance at halftime with the Dance Team. That was really cute to watch. Here are some pictures of our fun night of football!

Time for Fall Soccer!

Both Caiden and Chloe are playing soccer this year and they get to be on the same team, which was the only way Chloe agreed to play. :) Caiden started off where he left off last year and is having a great time. Chloe is enjoying it, but would prefer not to kick the ball if she doesn't have to. She does like to chase after the other kids though. Here are some pictures of their first game - it had rained all night so it was nice and slippery and very cold!

Labor Day Weekend

We had an awesome Labor Day weekend! Caiden had 4 days off of school and we took advantage of that and the beautiful weather we had the whole weekend. On Friday night, we headed to the first Belle Fourche Broncs home game of the season. They lost, but they played a good game against the defending Wyoming state champions. On Saturday, we practiced some soccer in the yard and watched the Montana Grizzlies win their first game (very thankful for the Internet so we can watch these games!). On Sunday, we headed to the Spearfish WaterPark for one last day of swimming for the summer and we brought along our friends Amy, Avryl, Jackie, and Semele to enjoy the day with us. It was 95 degrees so we picked the perfect day to go. On Monday, we went out to lunch at Pizza Hut and then headed out for a hike on the Iron Creek Trail. It was a great hike (except for Chloe tripping a few times!) and we had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of our fun-filled weekend!