Happy Thanksgiving

Oh the joy of spending the day with family. We went to Jeremy and Cindy's house today to celebrate Thanksgiving...We truly have so much to be thankful for. We had an amazing day with an amazing family. We ate way too much, but boy did we enjoy our family. The girls probably put on 3 different dress up outfits each....all adorable. I didn't take a bunch of pictures, so I might have to steal Cindy's pictures for a more comprehensive post. Cindy's house looked amazing, the table was perfect, and the food was spectacular. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato balls, rolls, cranberry salad, green bean casserole....whoever came up with that combination is a genius....I am stuffed as I type this, but yet, my mouth is watering just thinking about the great meal we had - I had it twice - today....yummmmm

I pulled Caleb away from playing the computer with his dad and uncle to play a little bit with his cousins. Good thing Mario was there for him to be another boy in the room....They all had fun playing together.

We did some crafts, stained glass and sand art, lots of fun for the kids....and not too terribly messy.

Here is what I am most thankful for.....

My husband - oh how I love him....

My In-laws - amazing and giving people who I love dearly

Sweet Victoria

Adorable Chloe

Beautiful Bella

Amazing Keira

Cindy -an awesome sister-in-law and amazing hostess.

My sweetheart Caleb

and if I have to, I am thankful for Jeremy - seriously, he is a great uncle and brother-in-law and I am so thankful that we are privileged enough to have him in our family :)

and last, but certainly not least, I am super thankful that Josh and I came home alone tonight.....kids are staying with Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Cindy tonight and Josh and I are going shopping at midnight....woo hoo.

Happy Thanksgiving. Count your Blessings!!!

It's that time of year.....

It's that time of year when we get out our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving (I know, but we don't turn the outside lights on till after), so we can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday and not spend it trying to get decorated for Christmas. This year I got the kids a 2 ft tree for their room. Then at the dollar bins in Target I found some bulbs and star toppers....very excited :) The kids love having the tree in their room.

Chloe was probably the most eager to help out with decorating. We have 4 trees in our house this year. The two in the bedrooms, one in the kitchen, and one in the family room.

In front of the decorated tree in the kitchen - the kids' tree that has all their ornaments on it...

In front of the family room tree...

Getting ready for Christmas is always so much fun, I hate how quickly it comes and goes, but alas, we are going to enjoy every minute of it and you should too!

Family Pictures

Okay, so me, being the planner that I am, had this great idea to get an awesome family picture on the beach and use it on our Christmas cards. Well, the two older kids acted great, but my little sweetheart wanted nothing to do with pictures....so, I thought this one was funny, and wanted to share it with you. Needless to say, the planner was not a happy camper...(yes, that would be me....) that smile you see, totally a frustrated and trying to be happy kindof smile.

this one turned out okay, minus the fingers in the mouth and hood on the head. Still not my favorite.

The magic of Grandma....she at least got her fingers out of her mouth...

And of course, the Mason family had a perfect photo shoot...

McGregor grandparents...

Mom and Dad - nice eh?

Mother and Father in law - very nice too!!

This smile is the "I love my husband and am so lucky that he is in my life and the father of my children and that he is still alive after the race" smile...

All of these shots were taken within about 8 minutes :) We left early the next morning to head back home....back to normal chaos....

The Big Race

Finally, the much awaited photos of the Big Race. Here is Paul and Josh before the race, before the, "oh crap, what did I sign up for?" feeling......

and now, the feeling, there were 2700 people in this race, 2700 absolutely crazy people in my mind, but absolutely amazing too....It was insane watching all of them run into the water at the same time...how half of them didn't end up with black eyes, I don't know..

We couldn't see Josh at all during the swim, understandable so, they all looked the same....He had an amazing swim though and I was so excited to see him finally come out of the water (to be honest, I was super nervous about the swim - just seems like you can get lost in the crowd there). He looked great and swam 2.4 miles in just over an hour....amazing.

Here is Paul coming in on the bike. At some point, he passed Josh and was about 25 minutes ahead of him on the bike. He had an amazing ride also.

Here he is my hero, finishing the 112 mile bike ride...just typing that makes me tired....anyway, he did the bike in around 6 1/2 hours...again, making me tired...

After we saw him finish the bike, he started his marathon. We went back to the hotel because they were going to run past the hotel several times. When we got back, the rest of the crew was out there cheering on the runners. Here are the kids waiting for Josh to run by....

Here are the dads and Carly waiting for Josh...

Ben must have been tired.....you know from all that, um......I guess I don't know.... - okay, to be fair, the kids were jerked out of bed quite early and were awake for a very long time. They all did really great despite, the cold weather and the long day.

Paul looking good on the run......right now.....

Josh doing great....and looking good too.

Finally finished. It was super hard to get a good shot of the finish line, cuz you know there were thousands of spectators there and not very many of them were willing to let you get in to take a picture....But Johnny did AWESOME and I am very proud of his work (Johnny's). Josh finished in 12 hours and 49 minutes. Quite an amazing time for his first ever triathlon. It was so awesome to see him cross the finish line.

Here he is with his helper man. Each finisher had a person there to "catch" them or help them keep moving....Definitely a needed job....

I ran up to Josh and gave him a hug and his first words were, "don't lean on me"....He then used me to get around for awhile and I got him some food (pizza, water, etc..). He was getting cold, so we went inside where he started to shake and thankfully, my mom had an extra blanket that he used. After awhile, oh about an hour, he was ready to move again. We were waiting for Paul to finish.

The kids were so excited to see their dad....Chloe still to this day (you know about a month later), calls her dad the ironman...which he completely is, and always will be to her (and the rest of us). Paul finished quite a ways behind Josh because he had an ankle problem and walked the last half of the marathon. We had so much fun, it was a long day and we were all very happy to go back to the hotel and go to bed.

Friday in Florida

Friday was a super windy day, thankfully it was just Friday. We really didn't do much on Friday, so here are some more fun pictures at the beach.....Enjoy

Randee, Johnny, and Parker

You could hardly get Eli to leave the beach...

Yes, she is in her winter coat, stocking cap, and sunglasses, at the beach...I know...

The waves were amazing - I will post another one of the dolphins and boogie boarding.

Fun sand pictures

Can't forget Mario

Johnny loved the water...He needs to live closer to the beach.

Josh getting loose for the big race......

Grandma and Grandpa arrived and we went to the beach with them

This was just one of our amazing sunsets that we got to see each night.