Pumpkin Carving Time!

 Joe and the kids did the annual pumpkin carving activity...

...while I bathed Hannah.

After some dental reconstruction, this pumpkin turned out pretty well!

Good work!
Side note- That thing next to Rachel is her soccer trophy that she slid into the picture.  She's pretty proud of it.

Half Marathon

Last Saturday my friend, Megan, and I did the Cincinnati Half Marathon.  We made a family trip of it and stayed in a hotel with a pool (with a broken heat pump:().  I think the kids had a lot of fun, especially hanging out with Megan's kids.

We walked around the city the night before.  It was beautiful!  Rachel took all the city pictures.  These are actually from right after the race.

Megan and I before the race in our winter running gear...It was cold!

The guys brought the kids to the 4 mile mark right outside the hotel.  That was convenient...

...especially for getting rid of some of our warmer gear.

Unfortunately the finish line wasn't as close to the hotel and the guys had a rougher time getting the kids there so this is us 20 minutes after we got to the finish line:)  Apparently I'm just as bad as my kids at looking at the camera.  Thanks to Joe and my family for supporting me while I was gone on long runs and Megan for being my running buddy! 

Another Salato Trip

Rachel had fall break last week so I tried to make it fun by going to the Solato Wildlife Center.  We had a lot of fun.

All the kids by the bison exhibit.

Lincoln started talking to the deer below and this is what he said in his 3 year old, labored speech, "Hey!....Aminals!... What you doing down there?  Come up here!"  He made some high schoolers around us laugh with his conversation with the animals:)

You know it's a good trip when the kids falls asleep on the way home. 

Off to the Races

 We wanted to experience the Lexington culture so we went to the Keenland horse races.  It was interesting to see how everything worked.  It was a beautiful day.

This was the first horse we routed for.  We picked based on his name but it turns out that wasn't a good tactic.  He got dead last.

The boy with the monkey boots started preschool!

Lincoln was so sad when Rachel went to school without him that I decided I should look for a preschool.  My friends recommended this pre-school that we both really like. It's just one day but he gets a kick out of having his back-pack and lunch box.  The lady in pink behind him is one of his teachers that was coming to tell me Lincoln wigged out at the end of the day.  Oops.  Normally Lincoln does really well and I think he was just tired.  Wouldn't you be sad if someone took your stickers before you were done decorating your place mat?:)

Happy Birthday to Me

I had a great birthday thanks to Joe and the kids and all the well wishers.  I've been training for a 1/2 marathon and the kids couldn't wait after my run to do the birthday festivities so that's why I look the way I do.

  I came home from my run to a clean house and they took me right upstairs to see my birthday "surprise" present.

A mirror to replace the one Lincoln broke!  Yeah!  It was very nice of them.

Then we had yellow cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting-my favorite!  I ate way too many of them.  Thanks for making it a happy birthday!

That's not normal

Here we see the tail end of a typical dinner time at our house.  Rachel and Lincoln both save their least favorite part of the dinner for last.  Lincoln scarfs his vegetables first and we have to force feed him his dinner, be it pancakes, pizza or whatever.  Rachel is the normal child eating the yummy carbs first.  I know Lincoln doesn't get his habits from me.  I'm grateful for my healthy child.