SNOW...Birthday....SNOW...Birthday and then 1/2 Marathon

Not sure why this picture turned out pink....but maybe that's fitting :).  We kept with our streamer/balloon tradition for Lucy's actual birthday.  

I don't think she knew quite what to think when she woke up to balloons everywhere in her bed.....love this face!

maybe this is more chaos than the balloons....bed full of brothers!!

And it's official now....she's 1! She's just so fun.  She has brought so many smiles to so many people this first year of her life!  She seems laid back and just goes with the flow of our crazy family :).  She just watches her brothers and joins in when she can with them.  She loves her Mama but definitely loves her Daddy too and does not like when he leaves her.  She sucks her thumb a lot.  It can just melt you when you are holding her and she sucks her thumb and snuggles her head against your chest.  I love my days with her and don't wish a single one of them away.  We love you Lucy Marie!

It was freezing cold and even snowed some for her special day.... but we bundled up and played outside as long as we could.

check out this hair....there just isn't anything like Caleb hair ;)

I let her have a few more bites of her leftover cake.  She of course loved it but wasn't sure what to do with that candle!

This ham has my boots on.....all on his own initiative....which makes it so much cuter.

And then the snow!!!!  She was trying to catch it on her tongue....

and Tyson too.....

and Caleb too....

weather doesn't stop those 2 from riding their bikes and being outside though...

We had her well check on Friday.  She is healthy as can be :).  Each well visit I am learning NOT to take this for granted.  I have some close friends that have some very sick kids right now and it continues to remind me to be thankful for the healthy times!  I just am so grateful that Lucy is healthy and happy.  She weighs 21 lbs and is 28.25".  

After we got home the REAL snow started......and gosh it was fun and beautiful!  Snow angels....

snowball fights.....

sledding down the hill in our backyard on the trashcan lid :)

cuddling on the couch and LOTS of board games!

We all bundled up several times and played out in it as long as we could. 

The only snow that would stick was in the street so we made "Olaf" in the middle of the street.  Well you probably don't have for me to tell you how long Olaf made it......not very long.  Once we went inside and it started getting dark poor Olaf was just a pile of sticks and a carrot :(.  Caleb was so sad he almost cried.....

We celebrated Tyson's birthday on Saturday even though he really didn't have a birthday again this year.  Next year on the 29th we'll have a BIG party for him :).  I made a comment to him that he has 2 birthdays this year.....he's been repeating me over and over....I'm sure that is totally confusing to anyone that hears him.  Oh well.  So he woke up on Saturday to his balloons and streamers (he refers to those as his car wash).

He picked a cookie over more cake so we put his candle in his cookie.  

This boy can just melt you with his cuteness.....which makes it a tad bit difficult sometimes to get on to him when he stares up at you with those cute eyes ;).  His personality has really started coming out this past year.  He is talking SO much and learning so much so fast.  He loves to wrestle and be active all day long.  You would never know that he is younger than his brothers when he is playing with them because he just acts like he is as big as them.  He is all boy...that is for sure.  It's funny to think back on the sonogram when I found out that he was a boy.  I remember sitting in the waiting room afterwards and just crying and crying.  Funny to think about because I wouldn't trade this cutie pie for anything in the world.  I love him to pieces.

So for his birthday we spent the day playing in the snow and just hanging out.  It was so pretty in our yard and looking out the back to the creek.  We took several pictures of all of it. 

We did a self timer family picture and I might should've had us get a bit closer.  For once we are actually ALL looking too!!!!  

Lucy was fascinated with the snow.....fun to watch her try to pick it up.

And this was maybe one of our not finer parenting moments.......we bundled everyone up (2 younger ones in stroller) and started up our street to find a place to slide down.  It had sleeted on top of the snow and refroze so it was so slick that morning.  I could barely walk without sliding.  We went behind one of the houses under construction and tried to sled their hill but it didn't work so well.  So we kept walking all the way up to a big hill in our neighborhood.  We finally got there and our box that we were using to slide on basically fell apart and everyone was freezing :).  The boys were just trying to slide in the road on their pants....it was sorta working but not really.  By this time it's raining again and most are starting to cry :).  Awesome time.

Tyson got to ride on the snow shovel and that was big fun :).

like our box??!?!?

On Sunday I ran in the Cowtown 1/2 marathon in Fort Worth.  My sister knew someone that had signed up for it that wasn't able to run in it so kinda last minute I found out about it and got to do it for free.  It was a bit icy and very cold but very fun too!  I hadn't really trained for it but I've still been running quite a bit so it went fine.  I almost beat my fastest time....1 minute off so I was happy for that!  My cousin Ashley, Rick (my other dad :), and my sister all ran in it too so it was fun to actually finally do a race with all of them!!