CAN WE GO SEE "SPIRIT?"

Our girls LOVE the movie, "Spirit" and so they beg to go and see the horses.

@ MALL

At the mall with our good friends, the Dardanos. Their son, Pierce, totally has the Tom Cruise look down- what a stud. One of our girls' favorite things to do at the mall is ride the carousel- so, we are $4 poorer for it, but its so worth it (which begs the question- who is the one making some serious bank off those one-minute carousel rides?)

GREAT ANTICIPATION

Christmas is SO much more fun after you have kids. Kate got a new bike (with training wheels) from Santa and Taylor got a crib for her babies.

CHRISTMAS EVE DAY

Thank you to Taylor for being a fantastic model for dad ...

ALL ABOARD!!

Tonight we went with some great friends, the Shumways to "The Polar Express"

ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW! ...

I've never been one to promote any certain political agenda and in fact, although I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, I've never even cast an official vote in my life. But, I received a link to this video and I think you'll agree that it is a must-see for any American- its a refreshing update on how religion fits into the American fabric. The words spoken here are moving and inspiring. Please take the time to watch this and inform yourselves.

Go to mittromney.com and the video pops right up.

THE NORTH AMERICAN DISTANCE SPRINTERS

check out our video from H2C 2007 - click on video (post by Brian)

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER ...

I know this is the lamest post ever, but I just found these pics of Kate and Taylor in all of their Halloween glory! So, since my family asked about it, I will post these for them. Kate was Dorothy and Taylor was officially a lamb, but ocassionally sported this lovely Snow White get-up. And the donuts, well, lets just say it is the Crofts' latest favorite treat and since there is a donut shop on every corner here, this works out great for us. Brian and I did a 9-mile run on this particular morning and then were starving, so we effectively cancelled out our workout after downing at least a dozen donuts between the 4 of us. Yum.

Taylor (aka Snow White) just finished a chocolate-covered donut. You've gotta zoom in on this pic- she looks had and she only ate one! :)

Mommy got fun one day and let the girls finger-paint. They had a blast.

Atlanta Half Marathon

Brian and I completed our first race together- the Atlanta Half Marathon, on Thanksgiving Day. My brother, Jordan, and two sisters, Emily and Claire, also ran with us. I wish I could say we did our best but, it didn't exactly start out perfectly...

To begin, we were 45 minutes late to the the start line! Yes, you heard right. We had to ride the Marta up to the start and the trains took alot longer than planned to arrive. Then, we couldn't find the start line once we got there b/c it was so late, so we ran at least a half mile all over the place looking for the start. Once we reached it, we realized that they had moved the mats back to accomodate the marathoners' split times. So, we don't know how far we ran, but it was much more than 13.1 miles. On top of all that, it was pouring rain- not sprinkling, not just normal rain, torrential rain. We had to wipe our eyes just to see in front of us. Kind of crazy. The one good part was that it wasn't cold. If it would have been, we might have just turned around and gone back home. Brian and I finished in great time, but you would have never known it since we were hanging with the fast-walkers by the end. It was decent to roadkill the entire race though! To explain my low-hanging clothing, I must remind you that I was carrying at least 2 pounds of water around with me on that clothing. Brian did an awesome job on the race, especially considering that about 4 weeks prior he got hit with bronchitis and couldn't train for 3 weeks. He really pulled it off and trained twice as hard at the end just to make up for it and pulled off an impressive time, all things considered.

Brian and I ran together until about mile 9 when I decided I was ready to be done, so I took off and tried to finish as quick as I could. I even sprinted in the last half mile. I felt great until about 10 minutes after the race and my stomach decided it had had enough. I didn't realize until several hours later that I was seriously dehydrated and I paid the ultimate price. We had to stop a few times on the way home to accomodate my little condition. Some "magic pills" and liquid helped me get better by bedtime. One of the other side effects of dehydration is loss of appetite- of all days! I had to FORCE myself to eat Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are some lovely pics...

Thanksgiving in Atlanta

We drove the entire 12 hours (each way) to Atlanta to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. I have two sisters and two brothers who also live in the area, so it ended up being quite a crowd. We had a great time there enjoying my parent's property. Brian took the girls on several canoe rides in my parents' ponds and spent alot of time pushing them on the tire swing. Since my parents live in the country- in the truest sense of the word- there are farms almost completely surrounding them, so we took the girls to check out all of the local "wildlife". They especially loved the horses. Its always fun to spend time with my family- and I just don't get to do it often enough. Brian and I also ran our first race together, the Atlanta Half Marathon. I'll post some pics of that later. Here are some pictures of our little vacation.

Family Pics

We got our family pics taken by the most amazing photographer- Angela Weedon. Here's a sample...they mostly do children shoots, so we may not have a Christmas card here, but we think they turned out great. If you want to see more of their work, go to weedonphoto.blogspot.com.

Game On!

So, I've been "tagged"- I've been seeing people get tagged all over the place and finally I am now in the in-"tagged" crowd. Thanks to Nora! Here goes: 6 facts about myself - I'll try not to bore you.

1. I absolutely LOVE where I live. If anybody is looking for a great place to raise a family- check it out. The church is really strong (but not too strong), great family atmosphere everywhere you go, and fairly decent weather (that might be a stretch come July/August).

2. I have learned more about myself, the gospel, love, and well, just everything in general since June 2, 2004 than I have in my entire life combined (thats in the last 3 1/2 years- or since my first daughter, Kate, was born)

3. I come frome a family of eleven children and I'm a twin. Wait, the fun doesn't stop there- I was also a middle child. Hmm, so basically I had no identity of my own growing up, as I was simply referred to as "twin".

4. I love to exercise- its the one thing I do everyday that I feel is just for me- but it also gives me more energy, enthusiasm, and just plain go-ism, which in turn, makes me a better (and well, lets face it- less cranky) mom. Lately, I've taken up running and I love it- there is a major rush following a 10-mile run with no running partner and yes, no ipod! And, I might as well post this too- I'm starting up an indoor soccer team and if anyone is interested, we still need a couple of players. Let me know ASAP!

5. My husband is my best friend- if I had the choice of hanging out with just one person every moment for a week straight (no kids!)- it would definitely be him. Eternity will probably be pretty nice...

6. Like my sister-in-law, Natalie, I LOVE giving birth. Sounds crazy, right? It is the coolest, most amazing, thrilling thing that can happen to someone (provided an epidural is involved- I'm a wimp!) I guess it helps that I have had two very quick (under 4 hours) labor and deliveries. Its the stuff that follows that can get a little crazy (Kate is our exhibit A). But, so worth it!

The Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

We made the annual family trip to the pumpkin patch- the very fancy (as pumpkin patches go), very popular, Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina. We had a great time- on account of the amazing weather (wind excluded), beautiful drive, fun farm animals, the ever-popular hayride, and of course, picking out our prize pumpkins (or "punkins" as Taylor adorably refers to them). Brian couldn't get enough pictures and the girls couldn't get enough of the cows, goats, donkeys, and sheep that were corralled all over the place. The best part of the day was when the girls got to pick out their very own pumpkins to take home. Here's a peek into our day at the "punkin catch" (Taylor's words- again).








Kate loved feeding the goats- but it was a delicate process. If you let the goats get a good grip on your cup, they'd rip it right out of your hands. Fun nonetheless!














Daddy and his girls on the hayride.



Taylor would have taken every pumpkin home, if only she could have lifted them all- you gotta admire her for trying. She hefted this one up just long enough to say, "Momma, its heavy" and then dropped it altogether with a big thud.











Needless to say, we took two of the smallest we could find. The girls had a blast painting them right after we got home.



I apologize for the over-abundance of pictures- if you know Brian, then you know why...'nuff said.

Family Home Evening...

We held FHE last night- we are trying to make this a regular occurrence as we have not been great at doing it thus far. So, here goes the first week- I taught the lesson on "Being Kind". Teaching two and three year olds can be intense for a parent who's trying to get a lesson across- Taylor lasted about one minute (this picture was obviously taken within that time span) and Kate is our star student- always aiming to please and very attentive- so sweet. I taught them what "kind" meant, then read Luke 6:13, and finally we sang "Kindness Begins with Me" from the Primary Songbook. I actually drew pictures to help them remember the words- but I'll spare you those-they were pretty bad (I am NOT an artist).


I don't know why Kate has this scared look on her face-maybe I was being a little too intense! :)

There's something in the water...

For anyone looking for a cheap, fun way to entertain your kids this time of year, here is your answer: go to Wal-mart, have a $5 bill with you, and buy a blow-up pool. They are so much fun- and they are on clearance right now. So, I got ours out yesterday and the girls had a blast. I took tons of pictures b/c I was having fun watching them have so much fun. Taylor- who is a wimp in a normal pool- would do nose-dives right into the water, roll around a few times, and then come up beaming. Kate is a fish already, so she is clearly in her element here. I hope I caught enough of their happiness on camera for you to see.