I can't believe it is over

What a great Christmas. We have had such a nice time celebrating with family and now I am sad that it is over. We started with the Parker Christmas the weekend before. Pops, Nana, all 6 cousins and their parents, Granny, Granddad, and Uncle Dan. We ate, watched the kids tear open tons of great gifts, ate, played monopoly, ate, watched movies, ate...you get the idea. It was so much fun.

new riding toys from Pops and Nana

Pete, Mat, and Zach brave the cold for a little football action

Christmas Eve and Day were spent at home. It was SO nice to be just us. Santa was good to all of us and we played and played.

Soren's very own video camera!

Reese models her new outfit from Papaw and Mamaw

going to town on the Smart Cycle; that is a cool toy!

The day after Christmas, I took the girls up to Grandma Charlotte's house for their 3rd Christmas. We stayed until Friday and on our way home, Soren ended up staying with Pops, Nana, Wyatt and Ashton for a fun filled two days of big kid activities. She got home a couple of hours ago just in time to celebrate her birthday! Friends are on the way and we have a night of giggling girly fun ahead of us, but I will blog about that later.

Another blessed holiday has passed and we are so thankful for all that this season has meant. The Lord is good to us!

Visiting

We had an entire week of visiting. Pete's Dad and step mom were here from Friday to Monday and his mom came from Tuesday to Friday and his dad was back for Friday and Saturday...did you get all of that? Needless to say, the girls got very spoiled with all the attention.

We had fun visiting and EATING. Let the holiday season begin. The whole food thing won't end for me for a couple of weeks. This week the girls and I will do our holiday baking (that is a whole blog in itself). Here are some of the fun things we did with our company.

Christmas crafts at Nana's house after the marathon...thanks Nana!!

Bowling!

Reese LOVED her bowling shoes; she wanted to keep them so bad!

Saying good-bye

26.2!

The Whiterock Marathon. I did it! 4 hrs 5 minutes. Such an amazing feeling. Someone was praying hard for the weather because we only got sprinkled on slightly and I hear that it was pouring as near by as 4 miles. I had a great race; some knee pain started to get me down early on, but I prayed and God decided to let me have my day. I am so blessed, let me tell you. The weather was quite cold and very windy and despite all of that 13 family members made the drive to watch me finish this exciting event. That made me feel so special. Like they did not have anything better to do on this cold winter day. Thank you guys for your support, you will never know what it meant to me. I have also gotten many phone calls from people who were thinking of me; Grandma Charlotte got a nice wintry mix on the road and could not make it but she was there in spirit...thank you!

Pete, my coach, and the best partner anyone could ask for, ran with me. He decided this last night. He ran to encourage me and video me! He would run ahead every few miles and record me passing by and ask how I was feeling. What an awesome guy! The sickening thing is that he is in such good shape that this was just a Sunday jog for him. He will probably still need to do a workout this afternoon. What a turd. I love him!

I consider today a great success. Thank you, Lord for blessing me with the ability to do such a fun thing in my life. I recommend everyone try one of these at least once in your life. If I can do it, anyone can!

Thank you, Pops for these pictures. If it wasn't for Pops, my faithful readers would not get a glimpse of most of these exciting races!

a few of my brave supporters weathering the wait at the finish line

see Kara cheering me on? Not the lady running, the lady behind the barrier

Here I come! Nearly there!

Little hands admire my finishers medal

the best looking marathoner on the course!

Soren's last '8 & under' swim meet

swimmers take your marks....

go!




Soren will turn 9 on the 30th, so today's meet was the last time that she will compete with the 8 and under group. It was a wonderful meet with Papaw and Mamaw here to see her in action.





After the meet we went to walk around Cabella's for a while and got a very special treat...Santa was there! That was very exciting. No 2 hour wait at the mall! Love it!

Soren, Mrs. Claus, and Reese

Reese feeding the fish

and then...

Reese shooting the fish!

UIL Storytelling

Soren participated in the UIL storytelling competition on Wednesday and the awards ceremony was last night. She got 2nd place! This was a competition with the entire district, so she was pretty excited. Her school did awesome. They took first and second place in almost every event. We are hoping this is something she will stick with through middle school and high school because it can generate big scholarships! Congratulations, Soren!

Trail-a-Bike

Reese has graduated from the cart that is pulled behind the bike to the trail-a-bike! She was SO excited today as we went on a family ride. She kept saying "woo-hoo!" It is the cutest thing! Pete is glad because it is significantly easier to pull than the cart and Reese seems to have more fun. Soren fell off of it a couple of times when she was that age; here's hoping Reese has better control!

Reese is the word

Tonight Reese and I were in the car and the theme song from Greece came on. When the chorus came on (Greece is the word is the word...) she got so excited and said "they just said Reese is the word!" She sang and sang "Reese is the word! It's my word!" So funny.

Santa Claws

Soren volunteered for Pete to be Santa at PetsMart for pet photos and today was his day. It was pretty funny. He got peed on, but not bit. Reese and I took Tiffy to have her picture made. She LOVED it, let me tell ya. She shook the whole time; such a weenie

Lights lights lights, yea!

You know, the song? Never mind.

Pete and Reese finished putting up all of the lights today. I tried to take a picture that showed how high Pete climbed and how steep the roof is, but it really does not do justice to the extremes that he had to conquer to do this task for me.

Then he took Reese hiking at the state park and Soren and I met them after school for a quick "camping dinner" of hot dogs and marshmallows. A really fun day.

A Bountiful Thanksgiving

my christmas sweeties

As usual, the Parker clan had an awesome Thanksgiving. The kids have had a LOT of togetherness and have done really well consdiering the weather has kept us all inside.

Monday, Pete went fishing with Pops, Zach and Grandma Freda. When he came home, he brought Avery with him and she stayed with us until Wednesday. Wednesday, Soren, Reese, Avery and I headed to the mall to meet Kara and her kids, Jodi, Grandma Freda, and Granny. We took Christmas pictures of the kids and then went to Kara's house for some play time. That night it was fish fry time at Granny and Granddad's. I have been asking Zach to catch some crappie for me for 3 years; I finally got my fill - there was so much fish!

the gang

After stuffing ourselves for the first of many times, we crashed at Pops and Nana's for the night. Thursday morning we got up early and braved the cold for the Forrestridge 5k. Our family had participants aging from 8 to 83! Amazing! We had 3 people do the 1 1/2 mile and 9 do the full 5k. Nana was excited to have jogged farther than she ever has; Wyatt, Soren and Kara jogged with her; Pops did his speed walking (he walks as fast as I jog!); Zach and Mat did sprint/walk rotations; Jodi, Grandma Freda, and Granddad strolled briskly together; Pete was the first person to cross the finish line, setting a new PR for himself and I was the first woman across! A very successful event!

Then the cooking and eating began and it did not stop until we left the house late that night. As we loaded up the car, Nana decided that the three oldest kids needed to stay an extra night so they could go to the movies. So we came home with one of our two kids. Friday was a sleep-in day (no shopping for me this year) and then the last of my long training runs! All I have left is a few taper runs! I cannot believe I made it through all of those 20+ mile runs. So cool. I am pumped for the marathon...bring it on!

Today we are decorating. The girls have already put up their 3 trees up stairs. The weather is perfect for the project and we are getting excited about the holiday season. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and we are anticipating a very blessed Christmas season with lots of loving family and friends.

Reese and Avery stopped to say hi to Santa at the mall

Happy 100th Birthday Oklahoma!

2007 is Oklahoma's Centennial. Grandma Charlotte and a few others from Madill decided that the town needed to celebrate, so they put together a parade followed by a "1907" themed carnival. The girls and I went (instead of going to Soren's race down in Brenham - yep, we bailed on the junior olympics this year!). When Charlotte found out we were coming (last week) she made these dresses for Soren and Reese. They were adorable! Everyone stopped them and asked if they could take a picture. It was such a great event. I don't know how Grandma Charlotte has survived these last few weeks of waking up around 4 am and working on this thing well into the night. She did such a great job that she has been offered jobs and told that the town needs to do this every year!

successes

We are trucking right along; very much looking forward to Thanksgiving break! Soren ran the first qualifying race for the junior olympics last weekend and qualified to run in the second race next weekend down in Brenham. Like many other activities in her life right now, that race coincides with a centennial celebration in Oklahoma that Grandma Charlotte has been working hard to coordinate. This event has had Soren's attention from the start and Grandma went so far as to sew dresses for all of us (except Pete :) ) to wear for the "1907" themed celebration. So we gave Soren the choice: race or centennial bash. After weighing the options she chose to go to Oklahoma and give the olympics another chance next year. Pete and I encouraged this because she is at the very bottom of her age group for the race this year and will do much better over the next two years. She is 8 years old but turns 9 on December 30th. You have to race the age that you will be at the end of the year, so she always has to race a year older than she is. The only day she can race her age is on December 31st and there are not many races on that day. All that to say that she races 9 and 10 year olds as an 8 year old and next year she will be in the same age bracket but will have another year of running under her race belt.

Saturday Soren had her first swim meet with the new swim team she joined in August. It was a great meet and Soren did very well. The parents are so encouraging of the swimmers; it is a great atmosphere. Soren swam in 6 events in 1 hour so it was tough. She was disqualified in the IM because she flipped over to touch the wall when she was doing the back stroke. Her coach was so great; he said you are not a real swimmer until you get a big DQ in a race. She took it well and had a great time.

As of Saturday I have completed the longest run that I have to do in my training for the Whiterock marathon. I am so encouraged and excited to have made it this far. Only 4 more weeks!

Catch Up

As usual we are going, going, going Here's what's been up with the Underwoods'...

3rd Grade Musical

Last Thursday, Soren's school had their 3rd grade musical. The music teacher is so awesome. She lets the kids choose the theme and write the words to the songs. They chose a pirate theme this year and each class was in charge of a different song. I was impressed. Soren got to do the introduction. She was so excited to go on stage alone and speak. The play was called "Seeking the Treasure of Success"

Soren and her teacher, Mrs. Ettle

World Series Game 3!

Last week we were among the 8 million people online trying to buy tickets to the world series. We were not successful. While out running, Pete got a very exciting call from Denver; his sister-in-law got through and bought tickets to all of the remaining games and invited Pete to come up and go to game 3 with his brother. His manager gave him Friday and Monday off so he could have a long weekend; Charlotte came and stayed with the girls, and at 5:00 am Friday morning, Pete and I headed north! It was a fun trip. Quick and tiring from lack of sleep, but fun none the less.

Pete has in his mind that he wants to run the Pike's Peak Marathon next August. You run 13.1 miles up to the peak and then turn around and come down. It is supposed to be incredibly difficult (duh!). So we went trail running on Sunday to see what it is like. I could not get a breath! It was such a weird feeling. My lungs were on fire. I am definitely NOT running that race. Not without some major training up in the mountains, which is not going to happen.

Thank you so much to Charlotte, for being on duty 24/7 for 4 very full days, to Hilary for offering a very valuable ticket to Pete, and to Danna and Trey for letting us crash at their place, even though we did not get to hang out very much. We had a great mini-get-away.

posing with the fam before the boys headed off to the game.

Back Home

Now we are back home and have full weekends ahead of us. Soren is running on Saturday the 1st of a series of qualifying races for the Junior Olympics. She could be out on Saturday and she could make it all the way to the final race in Kansas on December 9th. We will see.

I always have to work on Halloween, which does not bother me, I do not care for the holiday. Pete and Soren do their thing and Reese hangs out with Pops and Nana. This morning I asked Soren if she had fun trick-or-treating and she said "yes. And don't worry mom, even though I ate lots of candy, I brushed my teeth." Great. So reassuring.

There ya go. Updated.

The goings on

We had a nice, relaxing weekend with not much that we absolutely had to do. We had our quarterly night out with the neighbors on Friday. This time we rented a Hummer limo and went down to Sundace Square. Believe it or not, this was my first time in a limo! We had a great time. Reese went to spend the night with Avery and Soren went home with a friend from school, so we could have gone anywhere and I would have been happy.

On Saturday I was able to go Denton and watch an old friend get married. Mike Speck and I were in the youth group at Singing Oaks together for 5 years and made a pact that if we were not married by the time we were 25 then we would marry each other. I had not seen him in years and did not even recognize him; his mom had to point him out to me. He looks great and he and his new wife seem very happy. Congratulations, Mike!

While in Denton, Pete and I cleaned up Pop's boat and took pictures because he wants to sell it; anyone interested in a 1993 Malibu ski boat?

Soren got some exciting news at school today. She was chosen to be on the UIL Storytelling team. She did this event last year and loved it. She was very glad to have the opportunity to do it again. The cool thing is that her cousin Wyatt was chosen for the same event at his school in The Colony. Pretty neat. The problem is that practice is at the exact same time as swim team, so we will have to train at home for the UIL competition.

Reese continues to crack me up. Today was rainy and cold and we laid around the house all day which allows for many conversations. I noticed that she is using the words "sweet" and "cool" a lot. We were watching out the window and a guy rode by on his bike. He was sitting backwards on it; I have no idea how he was able to pedal and steer but he was doing great. Reese said "oh mom, that's sweet! How is he able to make that?" When the mail came she had a package from Papaw and Mamaw and each item that came out of the bag was "so tool (cool)". I love that she says tool instead of cool and I do not even correct her.

So that's what is going on with us. Just living day to day and trying to soak up every minute with our kids who continue to bless us in every way.