Our future cowgirl and cowboy!

Well,  I am more than a month behind on my blogging.  It stresses me out to get so far behind so I am going to do my best to play catch up the next couple weeks.  I have so many pictures/topics to blog on from Thanksgiving and all of December leading up to Christmas...I can't believe Christmas is only 2 days away!

The weekend after Thanksgiving when so many people were crowding the malls to work on Christmas shopping we chose to have a relaxing, stress-free weekend.  We went out to visit Uncle Beau and Ashley and their horses.  They have the perfect set up, just want they both love and I am thankful for that...a home surrounded by acres of land with lots of horses, ponies, and cows.  They love horses...they enjoy riding, training horses, roping with them and they even give riding lessons on occasion.  We wanted to let the kids go on their 1st horseback ride.  We weren't sure if they would be up for it...but as long as daddy or mommy was with them they were great.    

First Horseback Ride was a success!!   

Morgan and Daddy rode first...  

Uncle Beau showing Bryan and Morgan around...

After Morgan took her turn, Graham got on with Daddy.  

And then we all rode as a family.    

It was a perfect morning....So peaceful out there!  We need to do this more often!  

Maybe she will grow up to be our little barrel racer??

Graham was a natural!  Possibly our future little roper or bull rider??  

Look how little he looks...Too Cute!

Graham LOVED riding.  Love this picture of my boys! 

Love my girl!

Gammy came out to see the kids on the horses and she even rode a little with Morgan!  Family Fun Day!

Gammy and Uncle Beau

Howdy!

Graham learning from the best of them...

Bryan and his brothers grew up around horses and they are so comfortable with them.  I didn't get on a horse until I met Bryan and to this day have only riden a handful of times.   This is all new to me but I really  enjoyed watching Bryan and Beau with the kids.  I hope that we can continue to take the kids out to ride...maybe even start them in lessons with Uncle Beau and Ashley when they get a little older.  :)

Fort Worth Half Marathon

On Sunday, Bryan and I ran our 1st Half Marathon.  It was quite the experience!

The weathermen were forecasting high winds (gusts up to 40 mph) and rain with a cold front moving in.  I was a little nervous about the forecasted conditions because during my training runs I would run mid-day when conditions were pretty perfect.  Luckily, the rain and cold front held off until we finished.  We did have some wind but all in all...conditions were pretty nice.

We arrived at the race site about 8:00 and the race was scheduled to start at 8:30.  I ran to the restroom while Bryan was still at the car getting his shoes on.  He said he would meet me up at the start line.  When I walked out of restroom they were making announcements for all runners to make their way to start line and they were going to get us out a little early because of weather conditions.  The start line quickly became super crowded and I couldn't find Bryan and he couldn't find me!  We didn't have our phones because of the forecasted rain...we didn't want them to get ruined.  I was a little sad, nervous and unsure about what to do.  They made a second and final call to line up at the start line so I did.  I jumped in the middle of the crowd...thinking that if Bryan was behind me he would catch me on the trail.   Seconds later the gun sounded, the half marathon had begun and I was missing my hubby/my running partner.   I ran and ran looking ahead, waiting for him to run up from behind me.  On mile 2 I saw him up ahead running towards me.  Bryan waited until everyone started and made sure I wasn't still there, then hoped in the car and drove to a Trinity Park and ran the trail backwards looking for me as runners were yelling at him telling him he was running the wrong direction.  HaHa!  My sweet hubby said he wasn't going to leave without me.  I guess he is sweeter than me.  I didn't know what to do either but I just figured we would meet up on the run somewhere!

Once we were reconnected, I was so happy to have him by my side from mile 3-13.  We had a fun run and ran at a great pace.  We finished the half marathon in 1 hour and 55 minutes which was an average pace of 8 minute 46 second per mile.

Since Bryan never crossed the start line his time chip wasn't activated so he said I was the only official finisher.  After finishing the 13 miles we then had to run another 3 miles back to the car that he left at the park...in my book he is an official finisher of the half marathon too!

Hear are my stats from my 1st half marathon...

Total time...1 hour, 55 minutes, 29.9 seconds
Overall  - Finished 98th out of 576 half marathon participants
Female 30-34 - Finished 9th out of 56 runners

Here we are TOGETHER after our 1st half marathon!  It won't be our last half marathon...we might even have a full marathon in us!

Halloween Night

Here are my little cuties on Halloween night before heading out to Trick or Treat...

Notice - that we did make a couple tweaks to their costumes from my previous post...a real football helmet for Graham (the cloth helmet just wasn't cutting it), football socks and they both got new tennis shoes.  

Love these pictures!  A sporty little football player and a sassy little cheerleader!

All of us!

This was our 1st Halloween in our new house...Bryan and his dad stayed at the house and passed out candy (we didn't want to leave the house dark) and me and Gammy took the kids Trick or Treating.  

Trick or Treating was a little challenge for us this year.  They were both super shy!  Graham didn't want to hold his pumpkin and neither of them would say "Trick or Treat."  Morgan loved screaming "Trick or Treat" as she rang the neighbors' doorbells but them when the neighbors opened their door she would stand in silence.  

After they had enough Trick or Treating we headed home and they handed out candy, which they loved!!

Morgan putting candy in her friend Hudson's pumpkin

Tired eyes...

The kids with Gammy and Pops...

Graham and Daddy played football...

while Morgan watched

And cheered for them! :)

It was a fun night indeed.  They have already told us what their costumes will be for next year...Morgan said she will be Tinkerbell and Graham said he will be Superman.  We will see if that sticks! 

Sneak Peak...

Here are some pictures from last week of the kids in their costumes at the pumpkin patch.

This year we have a Minnie Mouse Cheerleader and a Football Player.  

They are very excited about their costumes and are looking forward to Trick or Treating tonight!

..

 We carved our pumpkin on Monday night...

 The kids decorated pumpkins while daddy carved the big pumpkin...

They also made a spider craft with their little hands... 

Daddy did a great job on the pumpkin.  The kids love it!

 I love our little pumpkins to pieces and can't wait to have some fun with them tonight.

 Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween!!