{Perot Musem}

Last Saturday we took a family date to the Perot Museum. It had been a while since we last went.

On the way up Evette said, "Oh no! Sun coming.... Hot eyes...." and then requested sunglasses. She's cracking me up these days with how she's putting together sentences. So proud of her.

Evette really enjoyed this saxy-fone player by the parking garage as well. Best $2 ever spent. Evette got her own mini concert of the ABCs with some dancing as well. She was in heaven.

Evette really enjoyed the dinosaur parts of the museum, of course.

And we had to take a picture of Sean in front of this oil drill because that's what his current work case is all about!

Evette loved to play and build...

 ....and so did her dad.

The children's section of the museum is pretty awesome.

 Her favorite part was playing in the water. This picture makes me laugh - Evette is giving this kid the stink eye for making messes all over the places. He was spilling water, and not sharing, and being crazy - Evette was not a fan of his behavior was did not hesitate to scowl at him :)

Fun date!

{Nap Time}

This story just needs to be recorded because.... well, just because.

So since Evette is no longer sleeping with a paci she is a little bit more of a light sleeper, especially during nap time. During her nap today, just after I finished my nutella and jam toast [delish] the freaking doorbell rang. Evette had only been asleep for maybe 30 minutes. I cursed that blasted UPS man under my breath [or maybe outloud...]. Did he not see notice the masking tape all over the doorbell? Seriously? Furious. And then I hear Evette cry. For his safety, I did not immediately open the door - I let him place the package and leave. I was afraid I might have chewed him out... or worse.

Anyways... I let her try to calm herself back down and go back to sleep. After about 20 minutes I figured that letting her cry more would just get her so worked up that she wouldn't go back to sleep at all. I, also wanting a nap, decided to go climb into bed with her so we could both nap.

She was excited for me to nap with her and we lay there quietly for a while. Apparently I had fallen asleep. After about an hour I wake up to the sound of crunching. I open my eyes and Evette is sitting up in bed, staring at me. A huge smile appears on her face and she shoves a pretzel in my mouth as she says "Mommy Happy!!"

Turns out I did not put away the pretzels from our Joy School snack that morning and Evette and climbed up on the counter and taken the whole huge bag back into bed with her.

I have no idea what she did for that full hour I was asleep - the house was still in one piece and she was happy, so it couldn't have been that bad. Not sure how many pretzels she consumed, though! She was so happy and let me nap [which I desperately needed] so there was no way that I could be mad at her. Plus, who doesn't like to wake up to snacks in bed?

Silly Baby.

13.1

About one year ago Heidi inspired me to try running. She'd never been a runner before yet last fall she prepared for and ran an impressive half (1:57:58, here's her write up of the run), so I decided I should give it a try, too. I ran sprints in my earlier years and always poo-pooed long distance running, but Heidi convinced me to give it a shot. With that in mind, we ran a half together last Spring, on Valentine's Day weekend and had a wonderful time together, despite the fact that neither of us were quite as prepared for a trail run as we should have been - I think we got around 2:30 but I'm not sure - here's the post from that race.

Then late this summer Heidi randomly mentioned a 10k that went through one of our favorite places in Dallas, the arboretum, so I signed up and ran a few weeks later (photos in this post). I loved that race and immediately signed up for a half marathon, the same one Heidi ran last Fall. I actually trained for it and loved experiencing the improvement in my speed and endurance over those couple of months of training. Pretty crazy that I now consider a four mile run to be short... I also loved being able to run with Evette - "Daddy more run!" she'd tell me while I was stretching before a run - she loved it.

I ran that race on October 26th and got 1:57:21, practically the same time Heidi got last year! I had a wonderful time. I was able to drive down with a couple friends, the weather could not have been better, the course was great, I was in-shape and ready, and I even met a new friend along the way who I spoke to for a few miles of the run. And at the end: my favorite ladies in the whole world to cheer for me.

The Ayres and I before the race

Evette eating oatmeal at the train station on the way downtown

Waiting for Daddy

Just a half mile to go!

Final stretch!

Gasping for breath like a beached fish... But I did it!

Wahoo!

On the train back home

 Can't wait for my next race... Not sure which it'll be yet (or how long - 26.2 seems rather daunting) but I'm stoked.

{Life Lately}

Evette is loving School - as am I! She is learning a lot - academically and socially - it's wonderful. It's a great bunch of kiddos and mommies.

Garden is growing! Loving gardening during this second season - the weather is getting cooler and it's raining more - less work/sweat for me :)

  

Date nights! We were lucky enough to score some tickets to the Greater Dallas Youth Symphony - amazing! These kids are seriously amazing. What a lovely evening!

A couple of our friends have had babies recently and Evette is in love. She loves babies! She loves holding their hand, giving snuggles, and making sure they're happy.

Ours is growing...and growing... and growing! 31 weeks tomorrow! [this pic was at 30 weeks]

Google video chats with the Daddy - they like to use the google effects while chatting :) [please ignore my tired face and hair... end of the day...]

  

Being 2 is hard.

  

Hanging out with friends....

 Story times with Daddy

Sugar cookies with Mommy

And saying Adios to the pacifier! It's been about a week now and she's doing pretty great! Before with the pacifier she would climb into bed with no fights and went down quickly and easily. Now, she doesn't love going down as much, but only cries for a couple minutes and it's dying down. It's hard to grow up.

{Halloween}

I love Halloween. I love being able to dress up and look ridiculous and eat a ridiculous amount of candy. Our costumes in the past have been themed and thought out and I started planning them back in July. This year it turned out I was too tired and pregnant to think and plan and care about that sort of stuff. 

So...no matching costumes and Sean and I did the bare minimum and didn't even get a picture of us.

For Halloween this year our little pumpkin got dressed up as a witch! She looked adorable. She is wearing her "Fal-o-ween hat" which she loves, and the adorable miniature broom from her Great-Grandma.

These next few pictures are pretty funny - she was trying to fly fast on her broom....Sweet baby.

Checking out our pumpkins

And a picture of me as a 3 year old to prove our likeness.

We went to our church Trunk or Treat party and Evette was a fan - lots of fun, lots of friends, lots of candy.

Evette loving her loot from the trunk or treat.

On Halloween night we went trick or treating for a bit as well. Evette loved saying Trick or Treat and when she said "Boo!" or "Thank you!" she usually got more candy for being adorable :)

Happy Halloween!