Family PIctures

Monday was Columbus Day and Aaron spent his "day off" scrapping the ceiling in the living room. Now all the ceilings on the main floor have been scrapped. Yay! He ran to the school and surprised Eli for lunch!

Austin had gymnastics twice this week to make up for a class we missed last week. He loved both days. I found these stickers in the dollar bin at Target and Austin played with them all afternoon.

Eleanor found these cups and it kept the boys and her entertained all afternoon. At bed time, Eleanor turned the cup into a hat and she danced around the kitchen as I did the dishes. 

Thursday evening: The weather was warm and perfect for family pictures. We quickly got ready and drove over to the temple grounds. This gazebo was a great location for pictures. I'll post more of them later. I was grateful the pictures turned out even when I used my phone and the timer on my nice camera. Haha. I love having updated family pictures but I don't want to pay for them every year. 

Thursday evening also included a pizza party and watching the Chiefs play the Broncos. We don't watch TV on Sunday and I miss football so much so I made a big deal about this game because it was on a week night and it was two teams that we love. We let the kids stay up past their bed time and they were thrilled!

Eli got out of school early on Friday and the weather was warm so we tried out a new park with our friends the Schows. The park was huge!

Friday evening Eli's school had a trunk or treat. Aaron is leaving on Saturday for a few weeks so he won't be around to enjoy any Halloween festivities with the kids so this was fun that he could see them dress up! He still dreams of getting a dog. I love that all three of our kids have worn this cute doggy costume when they were around 2 years old.

Saturday!! Aaron and I woke up early and headed to the city for our half marathon!! A babysitter came and spent the morning with our kids. At first I really wanted them at the finish line, but it worked out so much better that they could be at home. And it rained and was cold so they would have been miserable. 

The course was extremely hilly. I felt great for the first 10 miles and I was loving everything about it and then the last 3 miles I was miserable. My left knee and right hip hurt. I wanted to keep my time under 3 hours and I got 2 hrs and 51 minutes. Ha! I loved sharing this experience with Aaron. He was a great running coach. My favorite part of the whole experience was the training - I received so many answers to my prayers. I'm still homesick for Colorado and this training really was the therapy I needed to remind me that I can do hard things. 

Little toddler boots are so darling!! On Saturday night Aaron and I went to a couple's Halloween party. I didn't get any pics, but this is the mustache Aaron wore. 

Our new family tradition is going to be having a campfire on Sunday evenings. We just got a fire pit and we had the best time sitting outside together. We were all sad I didn't have any marshmallows, but s'more will be even better next!

Oh and Mary Beth PAINTED this darling card and sent us a good luck message. It arrived in the mail on Saturday, our race day! She's so talented. 

Our friends in Colorado lost their baby on Friday. He was 5 months old and was born with half a heart. I cried so much on Sunday about the whole situation. I was able to be at the temple when the family was sealed together before the baby was born, and I keep praying that they'll be able to focus on the peace that comes knowing we WILL be together again with our loved ones.