Top Ten Reasons Why Meredith Has Stopped Blogging: 10.  She has laundry coming out of her ears (winter laundry – yikes!). 9.  She is busy teaching Samuel his ABC's – his favorite?  Q 8.  She spends half of her life in the gym or on a run – still training for the Half Marathon that…

Playtime in the sun and a picnic – a cure for anything that ails ya!

Do you ever walk through a room and all of the sudden stop and wonder how you got there?  Not there, like that spot in the room, but there – the place of your life that you brought you there.  How on earth did I get here?  And then I remember all the wonderful little…

The Hicken's were once again gracious and invited us over for NYE this year.  Some of our favorite NYE memories will be of their pajama parties.  It was us, the Hicken's (and Nick's friend Aubrey), the Crawford's, the Tanner's (Shelley and Austin only) and the Dalebout's (boys only - girls were at the NYE dance).  As always,…

This is my view as I train for the upcoming half marathon that is now just one month a way. My trusty feet that need to go further and faster, but who require patience. And my waterboy! He rode his bike today while I ran. Jacob did the same for me for 5 miles the…

We headed down to Austin for a few days the week after Christmas so we could check on Dad and exchange gifts with he and Christy.  It was fun, as always.  We took walks to the park and went to the movies.  We also roasted s'mores – and Austin tradition.  Samuel got a pillow pet…

My friend Anne and her friend Danielle started a photography business a year ago and are now super successful.  Anne was able to squeeze me in to their busy holiday schedule for some pictures of my boys.  And boy are there some great ones!  Too many for me to post here…!        …

Jacob and Caleb both continue to take piano lessons from the amazing, Ms Mae Morton.  Jacob has always loved to play by ear.  This year I think he's learned more about how to put pieces together and how they tell a story.  He has always loved "Carol of the Bells" but has never seen actual…

Christmas morning was low-key and lovely!  The big boys got a basketball goal and basketball from Santa.  Samuel got some GeoTrax.  Both gifts were BIG hits.  That plus some books and stocking stuffers made up the bulk of our Christmas this year.  Light and lovely!  Derek got a Blendtec blender and I got a Monster…

We were sad that Mark and Anne couldn't join us because of a bad case of food poisoning for Mark (terrible way to spend C. Eve!).  But we were glad to be able to host Mom, Steve, Grandma Haymond (from San Antonio) and Audra for a lovely meal (tamales and chicken enchilada casserole) and a nativity…