Half-Marathon!!!

While I usually reserve postings for stories and pics of the boys...I have to claim a short one as my own. I ran the Cellular South Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) this past Saturday. This is something I've wanted to do for a very long time! I am so glad I did it, and so glad it's done!!! :-) My official time was 2hrs 15mins 40secs. I was lucky to have Annie as a great running partner getting ready for it...it was her first half as well. We made it through really well despite the 38 degree rainy weather! And I had a wonderful surprise to see Wes and the boys at the finish. My parents were there as well, and I'd expected Wes and the boys to stay home due to the nasty weather. It was awesome to look up as I was coming in to the finish and see Wes. :-) Just had to post a couple pics of it.

Please note that I've added two new posts about the boys as well, titled 'Halloween and Thanksgiving' and 'SNOW and Will's 5th birthday'. They were both long, so you might have to click on either "older posts" at the bottom of the screen (scroll all the way down) or you should also see them in the "table of contents" list on the right side of your screen and can click on the individual titles. Make sure to see those!!!

finishing!!! I was GLAD to stop running!

My training partner, Annie, and me after the race.

My friend and running buddy, Scarlett!

SNOW and Will's birthday

Ok, the next installment of all that has been going on with the McCleese's. Next on the list after Thanksgiving and Halloween was, of course, Will's 5th birthday! (Wes and I can't believe we have a 5 year old!! It's bittersweet. But Will is an amazing 5 yr old, for sure!) Will gets to celebrate his birthday over a week or so. We did his extended family b-day party at the Thanksgiving get-together. Then, on his real birthday he got his presents from us and we took cupcakes to his preschool class. THEN, he had his real b-day party at Build-a-Bear on Saturday, December 5th. We have, in the past, had really big birthday parties at our church (if you are in a gym, it's just as easy to have 20 kids as it is to have 10). Will really wanted to do something different for his party this year. He thought and thought and decided he really wanted to have it at Build-a-Bear. I thought that was sweet...he's always loved teddy bears. We told him he could only invite 4 friends (2 school and 2 church) along with his best buddy Caleb, who now lives in Tupelo, and our nephews. Surprisingly, Will easily agreed. I must say that the Build-a-Bear party was GREAT. The kids all got to build their own bear to take home, put a heart in it, name it, stuff it, etc. They did some fun things with the kids in the process and best of all...I just got to watch most of it!!! I highly recommend a party with them!

One of the best parts of his birthday was that Caleb came down from Tupelo to spend Friday night with us and come to the party with us. Will and Caleb have been best friends since they were 2 1/2 yrs old and started in Mothers Day Out at the FBCJ together. They were in SS together, Sunday night church, Wed night church, Rejoice bible study and mothers day out together. So they were together basically 5 days a week for some amount of time over almost 2 years. They are so sweet together and have a deep friendship that seems almost uncharacteristically so given their age. As Will says "no one is better than Caleb!" Caleb got here Friday evening and the boys played and played. They finally feel asleep about 10 and at 5:30 in the morning Will came in to tell us that they'd been up playing for "sooooo long" and could they please come in the living room. Sure enough, they'd been playing for awhile, b/c every toy in Will's room was out. And to top off having his favorite friend around...it's SNOWED Friday night. So we got the boys all dressed and headed out into the snow to play. Will said this was his best birthday EVER! I believe it, great buddy with him for the whole time, his closest friends at build-a-bear, and SNOW. It doesn't get a lot better!! Here are pics!

Best buddies

Doing the "shake the snow off" dance before coming inside

Will, Caleb and Owen all ate their share of snow!

The 3 boys and their superheroes!

Owen in the snow

Snowy woods

Gettin' the party started!

"waking up their bears"

Will with his almost finished product!

Everyone with their new bears (except Owen who kept throwing his on the floor...he likes it a lot better now!)

Halloween and Thanksgiving

Yes, I know I am so past overdue for some posts. There will be two here...this one with pics from Thanksgiving and Halloween and then the most recent happenings will be posted next. First, for Halloween Will wanted to be Snake Eyes (ninja from GI Joe) and Owen wanted to be Bumblebee the Transformer. Can you tell what the interests in our house have shifted too? I'm surrounded by action figures! We had several opportunities to dress up this year since we went to 3 different Halloween Carnivals around town (and Will got to dress up for a fourth time at his preschool). Two of the three carnivals succeeded in giving me a few more gray hairs (due to Owen, of course)...and the third, actually ON Halloween was much more manageable! The short run-down of events went like this. The first carnival was put on by my parents church at a big park in Madison. Games, inflatables, lots of food, etc. Wes couldn't be there until later so Mom and I were juggling the boys in the crowd. After 20 minutes of games, we said "hey boys, let's go to the inflatables!" In the 3 seconds it took us to grab candy buckets, we looked up and Owen was...gone. We really couldn't find the little guy in the crowd for a couple of minutes. (probably 3 or 4 minutes, but it felt like an hour!) I was so terrified he'd run out into the nearby street that I just paced up and down the parking lot where the games were hoping he'd gotten back in line for the games. Mom and Will were looking up closer to the rest of the carnival. I was really sick for those couple minutes trying to find his short little self in the crowd of kids and costumes. Thankfully, Mom had gotten a couple of friends to help look closer in to the rest of the carnival and it turns out that he, as we had suggested, had marched his little self across the fields to the inflatables. We found him happily jumping away in one of the big "bounce houses." He is SO independent...it wouldn't have occurred to him that he was lost until he got hungry or tired. He'd even talked the lady at the door of the inflatable into holding his sucker for him while he jumped. He never knew anything was wrong. That was at least 10 new gray hairs for me! (I'm sure the same for Mom). The second carnival was in Clinton. To say that I was on Owen "like white on rice" is an understatement. I considered a retractable dog leash attached to a belt loop, but refrained. More inflatables. Hyper alert Mommy. Here we go. Owen is completely unafraid of anything that looks fun. He did the BIG inflatable obstacle course for big kids and adults (pics below)...nothing but sheer determination and a nice older kid that helped pull him to the top of the wall climbing portion got him through it. He LOVED it and did it over and over. The he did more inflatables. Then we realized we had a problem. He wouldn't come OUT of the inflatables to give other kids a turn. So Wes started having to go in and pull him out, or sometimes Will would lure him out. After playing that game about 10 times, he got a spanking for not minding at all and we headed home with a screaming 2 yr old. Oh, the injustice in the world when you are 2 (and a dramatic 2 yr old at that)!! I was flat out dreading the 3rd carnival...on actual Halloween night. It was really big (1600 people was the count I heard) at Wes' brother and sis-in-laws church. We usually spend Halloween with them so Will and Owen can play with our nephews and it's always great fun. Praise the Lord, this year proved no different. It was fun...and Owen did really well. O and I stayed for just over an hour and made a bail-out to my parents house so that Will and Andy could continue playing until later. Overall, everyone had a good night, and I learned that Owen could put away approximately his own body weight in cotton candy. When I put him in the car he was holding a stick of it about the size of his own head (I'd look in the rearview mirror and see Bumblebee's body with a big cotton candy head). When we got to my parents 5 minutes later, he handed me an empty stick and said "I'm sticky." No kidding, kid. Sticky and levitating from the sugar high. A successful night overall! Also in the pics you'll see Will's preschool Halloween carnival. We had fun putting that on for the kiddos and Will had a ball with his friends!!!

Will with some of the other boys in his class at Preschool Carnival (Will is in all black)

from left: cousin Andy, Owen and Will at a fishing game

Will and Andy

Wes and Will at a game with Owen watching in the back

Owen climbing up the ladder of the BIG inflatable. He ain't scared.

He Made It!! Down the big slide, now!

Can I do it again, Daddy?

Owen with PopPop (my dad)

These next pics are from the Thanksgiving Pow Wow at Will's School. This is a big deal and they practice hard getting lots of songs ready to sing. It was really great!

10 Little Indians

Playing his Tom Tom. This is a like a rite of passage. Only the 4-K kids get to play Tom Toms. He's been waiting ever since last year for his chance to play the drums.

Marching with his Tom Tom (notice how tall he is-even though he's slouched- compared to his classmates!)

Mommy with my Indian!!!

And here are a few other random fall pics...

Will has learned to read and I heard him say "Owen, do you want me to read to you?" HOW CUTE IS THIS?!?!?!

Karin and the boys

Wes and Will decided they needed a guys night camping out in the yard. :-)