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.