Emma's 1st time in the sandbox and other activities...

The kids played in the sandbox for the first time this year since I finally got them some fresh sand (no more cat litter box!). Emma had lots of fun and Morgan was actually pretty nice to her. He only poured sand on her head a couple of times. I also got a couple more pictures of Emma with her walker. She is getting very agile now; able to walk pretty well holding onto only one of our hands. Just a few more weeks until she's 1 - I bet she'll be taking steps on her own by then.








Morgan wore his cowboy hat all afternoon - he looks like Huck Finn!

I don't know if you can tell what's going on here, but Morgan is "feeding" all his Little People and animals with his plastic fruit. He's very interested in pretending right now.

I Ran from the Cops!

Today I ran my 3rd race, the "Run from the Cops" 5K benefiting the Midland Police Department. It was quite a bit warmer today than it was at my last race, so I was a little concerned about that at first. My goal was to take 15 seconds off my 23 :16 PR from last time. But I ended up finishing in 22:31 - 45 seconds faster than before! The crowd today was a little bigger and more competitive, so although I won my age division, I finished 3rd place overall (female). I'm very happy with my time however; it seems my extra training is paying off.
We forgot the real camera so we had to settle for the cell phone. It messed up while Matt was trying to get me crossing the finish line. But he did get a lovely shot of me looking all trashed about 10 seconds afterwards. Enjoy!

Weekend in Austin

We took the family down to Austin this past weekend. The kids did pretty well in the car, considering how long the drive takes. Morgan had a lot of fun helping Papa Wes with the bird feeders, mowing with G.G., looking at the goats, and "cooking its" in the kitchen (standing on a step ladder). Emma got a kick out of crawling over the bar underneath the dining table again and again.
Matt and I were able to go out on a date Saturday night- a movie and Cheesecake factory. Thank you Papa Wes and G.G.



Emma attempts a getaway.

Afraid of flowers again?



I can't believe they're both looking at the camera!

Emma's curiosity finally overcomes her fear...

She amused herself by crawling back and forth over this bar.

Morgan helps prepare a salad.

Later, he gets seed for the bird feeders.

It's Been Awhile

It's been a little while since our last post. So I assembled a selection of photos taken recently. Most were taken in our backyard. Emma has been pushing her walker around a little bit. But she is pretty unsteady. She's going to have to log some serious training if she wants to be walking by her birthday.
Our backyard is looking really green right now and we have some nice flowers. But trying to get a decent shot of the kids in front of them was like pulling teeth. And when I moved Emma closer to the plants for some solo shots, she panicked. I think she was actually afraid of the flowers. She kept looking over her shoulder at them and then she'd pull her body away and cry even harder. So much for that.
The final shot in this series is of Morgan posing with his schoolwork. Today when I asked him how to spell his name he not only selected the correct letters, but he lined them up in left to right order on his own!

Here she is, almost 11 months old.


This is the only one where they were looking anywhere near me- forget about smiling!

Drama!

He's very proud of himself... see his name to his left?

Emma Gets Her Wave On

Emma is really scootin' around and getting into stuff these days. She's even started responding to some of our requests (when she feels like it). Here's a video of Emma getting her wave on.