Mud run 2012

I do have friends here!!  A group of us from church decided to team up for the 5K mud run that was held this weekend in Rock Creek Park in Maryland (or perhaps more accurately, these other 4 girls decided to team up and I joined late, as a team of one).





                                                                     Before




                                                                      After

When we got to the race, my only thought was "what was I thinking?  I paid money to do this??"  The morning of, I checked my phone and the current temperature was 48 degrees....what the what??  Isn't it spring?  And how can I go get muddy and wet in cold weather?  It was pretty cold and a little wet, but it turned out to be a blast. I felt like I was at girls camp, but I got to take a shower afterwards.  And for the record, the shoes and few other choice articles of clothing didn't make the drive home.  Some things just can't be saved.

cherry blossom festival

Two of my favorite people (most of the time).

My Chinese teacher told me that this weekend was going to be the peak for the cherry blossom trees this year and suggested we take the kids downtown. I'm sure glad we did. It was a great day. We went in the morning, before Michael's class on Friday. The weather was great and the kids had a great time. Once we made it through the crowds (downtown DC during spring break season is insane!), we stopped for a little picnic lunch. Ian killed his sandwich.

As you can see, I didn't actually get many pictures of the cherry blossoms, but they are lovely. I hope to go back next week to get more pictures.

Here is Michael and his mini me. I guess their looking alike-ness isn't going to change anytime soon. It's a good thing I like both of them.

I guess Michael killed his sandwich too. What a fun day we had. Afterwards, we accompanied Michael to his class where Leah and Ian met Michael's laoshi (teacher). She loved them, especially Leah when she started singing in Chinese. Michael has been training her well (Leah, not his teacher).

getting rid of the christmas pictures

Is anyone else so tired of the lame Christmas pictures that have been front and center for about 3 months? I am, so here is one snapshot from our recent trip to see the cherry blossom trees in DC. There are many more pictures that I'll post later. Just had to stick this one up here first. I love that little boy and I don't care who knows it.

more christmas 2011

Trying to get all of these pictures uploaded. Time seems to pass so quickly and our kids are growing up so fast. It makes me sad. And it makes me want to get lots of pictures of them so I can remember them at every age.


These kids really loved Christmas this year. Leah is still walking around the house singing the Rudolph song, and she gets pretty excited whenever she sees a Santa Claus (usually a doll or a figurine of some sort and not the real thing).

the play kitchen

I got a *good idea this year to make a play kitchen for Leah and Ian. I saw some really cute pictures online and decided to take it on about 2 weeks before Christmas. I had an old toy chest that we had acquired (this is just a fancy word for me seeing a craigslist ad for free and running out to pick it up before Michael could get home from work and tell me to stop bringing junk into the house. I might be a hoarder) and I decided this was the perfect project for it. It took lots of work and only a handful of trips to the hardware store. In the end, I'm trying to embrace the imperfections and I hope it will be something the kids will get lots of playtime out of. It was fun to do. Maybe next year I can start a little earlier than 2 weeks before Christmas. (Of course, next year, I'm sure I'll just hire someone else to fill my Santa's workshop with goodies since we'll be in China. Should be interesting...)

We wrapped it up in a blanket and the kids pretty much ignored it until I pointed it out as the last present to Leah and then she went at it.

They both started playing immediately.

It has only caused about 63 fights between these two since Christmas morning. I thought new toys for Christmas were supposed to help keep the kids happy longer. Not so much here. Maybe when we get them off the sugar they will be better.

some random christmas part 1

Working on getting all of our pictures from Christmas posted for all of you who want to feel like you spent Christmas morning with us. Enjoy.

christmas eve

I am posting all of the pictures we took on Christmas Eve. We had a great time celebrating with an old friend we know from Corpus and her sweet family, who allowed us to crash their party. It was so nice to be able to see Diane and her family (here in the unfriendly northeast, where we don't have many friends : ) and have a fun celebration. Everyone was so nice and the food was amazing. The kids had a great time playing with all of the visiting grandchildren and we may have met a future babysitter for us here in Alexandria. Bonus.

After a family wide talent show (which was great) and acting out the nativity, where Leah was quite an inspired angel, we headed home and everyone received their matching pj's.

I'm not sure how much Ian realized about Christmas, but Leah was super excited. It's really fun to be a parent for Christmas. I was almost too excited to sleep as we went to bed that night.

Leah was funny on the way home from our Christmas Eve party. I asked her if Santa was going to come bring her presents. She said yes. Then I asked her what he would bring. She said "Toys, musics, and boxes." I think she may have watched one too many Christmas movies this year. Michael is pretty determined to introduce her to all of the claymation Christmas movies, even the creepy ones.

The kids ended up not getting up Christmas morning until 8am, which made for a pretty hectic day for us. Church was at 11, so we hurried through opening gifts, then rushed to get ready for church, suffered through an insane Ian at church, and ran home so I could get the ham into the oven in time for dinner. Busy day!