December to Remember

I have simply had to resign myself to the fact that I am not a consistent blog writer.  No matter how badly I would love to write more, I just have not found the time to do it, and I'm learning to be ok with that.  I also understand that I am probably the only one who thinks about this and is disappointed by it.

With all that being said, it is finally time to catch up on our December happenings.  We had the most epic December 1st ever, and the rest of the month lived up to the first day.  Seeing as we have already made quite a bit of headway into January, though, I will just give a few highlights of the month:

• Christmas with the Cave parents- we visited their new home and got to enjoy a weekend with them.  We helped around the house a bit and were able sneak in a date night while the parents were out partying. 
• RealLife Christmas party- (that's the college group at our church)  we had some delicious snacks, played a rowdy round of Bunco involving a whoopie cushion, and did the annual white elephant gift exchange.
• Quality Time with the neighbors- our neighbors invited us to their church's Christmas show.  It was pretty impressive, but we were mostly glad to have them over for lunch and get to know them a little better.
• Three Trees- this is one of the best events our church holds all year.  Over 300 families came to pick out Christmas gifts for their children.  The whole church shows up to volunteer and it is awesome!
• Open House- we decided to hold an open house, which was a lot of fun but not very well attended.  We planned it too close to Christmas, so most people were already out of town, but we LOVED getting to have friends over to visit for an afternoon.
• Christmas Eve- we prepared lunches in the same area I lead worship every week.  A large group of people from our church came down and we fixed boxed lunches to take to the people in the community who are homebound.  We loved it!  We also went to our church's candle light service, made ninjabread cookies, and created our *fingers crossed* first annual singing Christmas card.  (Be sure to make it all the way to the end of the post so you can see it!)
• Christmas Vacation- unlike the movie, it was completely wonderful.  We rented a one room cabin, watched a zillion movies, did a 1,000 piece puzzle, hiked, and rested a lot.  We came home ready to tackle another year.  
• Twin set #2 arrives in the world- bridesmaid two of four from my wedding gave birth to twins on the 29th.  Happy family!
• Christmas/New Years' with the Speegle parents- my parents came to the visit the same day the babies arrived, so we left them at the house and took off on a quick road trip to see the new parents and little ones.  Once we got back we were still able to go to the theater, a Chinese lantern festival, hit up the movies, and eat some steak and black eyed peas... their good luck, you know!

Whew!  Just thinking back to all this wears me out a bit.  January has proven to be much more calm so far.  Here are some picture evidence of last month:

Glad you were curious enough to read.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Dear December,

Can the rest of your days be as fantastic as the first was?  I would appreciate it.  We started the day with David and Karen at the parade.  It was awesome.

Karen and David live so close, we just walked from their house.  The weather is unusually warm after all.

We got there early and found a good spot to wait for the parade to start.

We brought yummy breakfast and games to keep us occupied.  The other three were first time parade goers, but I knew the greatness of what was coming.

There were fancy stepping bands.

Excellent balloons of all kinds, including, Mr. Potato Head himself.

There was the loudest band of the day.

And the Batman.

This guy caught a ride on the roof of a golf cart at the end of the parade.  His legs were too long to fit inside, naturally.

Ian Kinsler rode by and even waved at us!

The balloon handlers delighted the crowd by running in circles to spin their charges.  It's one of my favorite parts of the parade.

Another highlight was the entertaining singing of "The World Famous" Cowboy Band.  Always fun to have the ole Alma Mater around.













Seeing as today is the first of day of your great month, we were able to begin our Advent calendar.

This is a very special, home-made one just for the Hubs, who absolutely loves having this kind of calendar each year.

He was very excited to open the first envelope.

Inside he found that each day will hold a scripture reading to focus our hearts on the birth of our Savior, and a song that we will dance to... right in the kitchen!













A pretty wonderful start to the day, I would say.  But not even close to all that this marvelous day had in store for us.  The afternoon held a prayer meeting at our house.  I got to gather with a few of the girls from our newly marrieds group at church to pray for our hubbies.  It was a great time and something we plan to do on a regular basis.

After the ladies left, we had one last adventure to go on before the end of our festive day.  Our city did their annual Christmas Tree lighting, which also includes opening up Santa's Village.  We enjoyed getting to be part of our new community.

December, you've got two happy campers on your hands.  We have had a most excellent day and are looking forward to what the rest of your days will hold.

All tuckered out but ready for more,

Tim and Sarah

Thanks

This holiday season, we have much to be thankful for.  We wanted a way to display all the blessings in our life, so we have had a Thankful Tree at our house.  It's a very simple craft I got off Pinterest, but it has had much meaning.  We were able to write down things we are thankful for and also asked visitors to our home to do the same.  Here's a few things that made it to the tree.

The last picture is of a zebra ornament Tim's dad brought to us from a recent mission trip to Rwanda.  We are glad our families have the desire to share the love of Jesus with others around the world and that they have all made it back safely from various trips.

When I told The Hubs that we are going to have to take down the Thankful Tree soon to make room for Christmas he said, "What? Are you not thankful during Christmastime, too?!"  I love the giggles he brings to me.  :)

Thanks for being curious enough to read.

And The Winner Is...

The Great Gobble Hobble was a huge success!  We had perfect weather and everyone did a great job.  Tim mapped out a route in a beautiful nature reserve so we even had pretty stuff to look at as we gasped for air.

For those of you reading for the first time, take a look at the last post about the race to understand the full scope of what the Gobble Hobble was.

The Hubs and I are really proud of how our parents have been taking care of themselves by exercising and loosing weight, so we wanted to do something together as a family to encourage them to continue.  And now, without further ado... I present the 2012 Great Gobble Hobble!

 Tim and I went out the morning of Thanksgiving Eve to mark the way with sidewalk chalk.

 We also put distance markers along the way.

On race day, before we left the house, everybody put in their money and wrote their predicted time on the super official time card.

 Some had to make a pit stop before the race ever started, but we finally all got to the start line.

 Tim finished first, with me pretty close behind and then we grabbed the camera to capture all those photo finishes.  Poppa Cave smashed his predicted time of 60 minutes by running a race of 40:30!

 The Mommas finished together with smiles on their faces.  They also had a cheering section of sons and barking dogs.

Jonathan did some stretching to keep himself loose after the race while cheering everyone else on.

He correctly predicted that he would be the last to finish, but Poppa Speegs finished well under his predicted time!

So who was the winner?  According to our super official time card, Mom S was the closest to her predicted time.  She was only off by 24 seconds!   

Here she is with her prize money!  And the lucky winner of the autographed commemorative race day photo is Cheri!  She is the only reader who had voted for The Cloggin' Momma.  

This may just be the best family photo ever.  Cheri, be on the lookout for your copy... it's coming soon!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of blessings to be thankful for.  As the day progressed and my body began to rebel against me for having put it through a 5K, I reflected on how much I have to be thankful for- a healthy family that loves each other and is willing to spend time together, a house that we have made our home, college students who keep us on our toes, friends who teach and encourage us, understanding of my Savior's love and grace... well I probably won't understand that fully until I get to see my Jesus in person.  So much to be thankful for.  My heart is full!

Thanks for being curious enough to read.

Place Your Bets Now!

Here's the skinny... it's time for the Great Gobble Hobble!  Read the details and all about the participants to choose who you will root for.

The Race: Thanksgiving Day 2012, 9:00am (subject to change), homemade 5K run/walk at a local park

The Stakes:  Each participant will pay a one time fee of $5.  The fees will collectively become the prize for the winner.  All participants will predict their race day time and the hobbler who finishes closest to their prediction (faster or slower) will win the cash prize.

The Hobblers:

I'm-Almost-Back-Down-To-My-High-School-Weight Poppa Speegs- He is the poster child for weight loss at his church.  An early morning exerciser, will he win it all?

I'll-Clog-Your-Face-Off Momma Speegle- Some call her the tapping titan, others tell her to do a basic.   Blowing in like a west Texas tumbleweed, will she take out all the competition?

You'll-Hardly-Recognize-Me Momma Cave- She is a treadmill stompin', clothing size shreddin' maniac.  Recently free of 59 pounds and counting, will she leave her competition in the dust?

Stain-A-Deck-In-A-Day Daddio Cave- He trains in Rwanda and chases Debbie around the house with his two trusty hounds.  Will he make quick work of the other hobblers?

I'm-A-Goober Goober- The youngest of the competitors with a lung capacity to put Pavarottii to shame.  Will he bellow his victory cry at the finish line?

I'm-A-Ninja-Crossfit-Assassin Hubs- He makes his own weights in the garage so his muscles can get even bigger.  Will the man of the house lead the way amongst the hobblers?

Queen-Of-The-Turkey-Trots Wifey- She's a little fox and hungry for the competition. A natural runner and tickling-fiend! Will she dart passed the hobblers at her own game?






Further Instructions: Hobblers, leave a comment with your projected race day time.

Readers: PLACE YOUR BETS! Leave a comment and pick your favorite hobbler.  If your hobbler wins you will receive an autographed commemorative Great Gobble Hobble photo.

Let the games begin!

Where Has The Time Gone?

October came and went in a hurry!  We packed lots of different things into the month and it was awesome!  Here's just a few of the picture documented things we got to do:

I got to go with some of our college girls on an overnight trip to The Lane Farm.  It was such a great time of relaxation, exploration, laughter, and bonding.  We were thankful for cool weather, even though we haven't seen much since then.

The following weekend we went to my college homecoming.  I had never been since I had graduated and it turned out to be pretty fun.  It didn't hurt that we stayed with two of my old roommates and their husbands.  Cheri is preggo with twins at the moment and Tasha was secretly preggo as well but didn't tell us until later!  Don't worry, I have no plans of jumping on the pregnancy bandwagon any time soon... especially the twin one.  Two of four of my (adult) bridesmaids now have twins.  This makes me hesitant.  This weekend was also made even more enjoyable by the fact that we got to see my parents and The Goob (my brother).

The Wednesday before Halloween, our church hosted a Trunk or Treat for the community.  Our college students went with a pirate theme, as seen below.  They turned The Hubs' Danger Ranger into a pirate ship complete with ramp to climb in so you could get some candy out of the treasure chest.  It was awesome!  All the kids wanted our candy... we had a line all night of kids wanting to climb into the ship.  And, there were judges at the event (unbeknownst to us) who gave us 1st place.  Yeah!

We also had the chance to go visit my parents and celebrate my Granny's 90th birthday.  Quite an accomplishment!  There were tons of family members there that Tim got to meet for the first time and try to keep straight.  I have quite a big family.  We also had some great quality family meal time and game time at home.  We can get a little loud and rowdy.  It's great!

Now, you may be thinking to yourself (self), what will they do now that October is over?  Well have no fear, November has brought with it a whole new set of adventures that I am definitely excited about, but I don't want to give away too much today.  For now, I will leave you with this... there's never a dull moment at our house:

Glad you were curious enough to read.