A trip to the dentist & Running in beards...

Izzy has been to the dentist twice before. Both times she was too scared to sit in the "big girl" chair to have her teeth examined & cleaned. This time? She hopped right up into that chair, was lifted up, put on her sunnies, and allowed the hygienist to apply "fairy dust" to her teeth. She even got a few x-rays. All without a whine or a tear. She didn't need me. At all. I was so impressed with her bravery and I didn't even have to give her a pep-talk beforehand. She did it. All by herself. Maybe it was the help of her 6 accessories she chose that morning:

 Notice the garter belt she's donning on her wrist. Thanks to a particular Bridal Bunny she received last year when she was a flower girl in cousin Tim's wedding, she now thinks that is a bracelet. I do get some funny looks. But most moms of daughters look at me and smile. We know you cannot argue with a 4 year old who wants to accessorize. You just can't harness that creativity.

 Saturday morning (after a 7am sleep-in, which I feel is comparable to a noon o'clock wake up!) we had babysitters at our door at 7:30 while Mike and I trekked downtown for a festive Santa Hu.stle 5k with my Back on My Fe.et buddies. This wasn't any ordinary 5k. Rather, with our registration came a technical Santa shirt, a Santa hat and a Santa beard. Sounds like fun, right? You bet it was!

 Typically wearing the race shirt on race day is a bit of a runner faux pas; however, it was required at this race and made for an interesting time finding your party or your friend. Everyone looked alike. And everyone was having just as much fun as we were. The beards initially were a bit awkward, I was getting the pieces of "hair" in my mouth. Beth found that she was going to have a hard time spitting with it on. But we all quickly learned that it was keeping us warm! I had mine on until about a mile in and needed to cool off.

 We lined up along the White River and the scene was awesome...thousands of Santas ready to run!

 This was such a fun race and one I can see doing every year. Along the course were Elves manning water stations and candy stations. Cookies, candy canes and M&Ms were part of our fuel being handed out. Holiday music was piped in at the start and finish. Two reindeer were on hand. And we could get our pictures taken on Santa's sleigh. So much fun. Post race Mike and I took advantage of the sitters at home and spent a few hours at a pub to warm up. We didn't even get funny looks wearing our costumes into the bar (our sitters, on the other hand, did).

I did some holiday baking over the weekend; made a large batch of my favorite Scotcharoos and a double batch (150) of cake balls. Ready for our travels so I can stop eating these in the house and start sharing them with family!

 We left the warm cozy of our house to enjoy a few hours of swimming...

It's going to be a busy week - holiday parties, a special tea party with Natty & Granny Panties, traveling to the Fort and Michigan, and coming home with my mom and sister in tow. Let the fun begin!

Little of this, little of that...

Not too much is new in the McCulloch house these days. Busy with last minute shopping, crafting, wrapping, and baking. My body is so run down from the past 8 weeks (read: ear infection, marathon, wisdom teeth removal, and now the holidays) that I'm sick. Yet again. So that makes for a fun December.

Both girls are getting very excited for Santa's arrival next week. However. Laney has been a touch naughty. Or a lot. Let's just say it was perfect timing when my cousin sent me this to help get Bug back onto Santa's nice list. If you have small children, you must sign up for this. Izzy was on the nice list and Laney was on the naughty list. Judge away. I'm not mean. I could have checked every. Single. Reason for her to be on that list. Unfortunately they only allowed me to select one. Hmph.

On a lighter note, we saw this outside our back yard last weekend:

 Some of our close friends invited us over for breakfast and we decided it would be more fun if we were in our jammers. Turns out we had so much fun that we want to make a tradition of it. If you hadn't already caught on, I'm a freak for traditions.

 All jammed out

 Mike was at a business meeting tonight, so the girls and I did some baking followed up with some dancing by the light of the tree. Slow dancing to Dave Ma.thews' Crash with my girls on my hips was enough to make my cup run over. That is, until the girls actually touched ("She's touching me!") and then it turned into bedtime.

 A few phone pictures...this one I felt like Izzy looked so grown up:

 We did some bouncing at Mo.nkey Joe's to celebrate a classmate's birthday. I flew solo with both girls and promise I will never do that again. Izzy nearly broke her neck coming off of a bouncer. Then she peed in her pants. Thankfully there was a pair of spare undies in the diaper bag (thank you baby Minnie Mouse for coming to the rescue!). Laney kept on asking for Natty (she brought them there several times over the summer) and cried when I told her Natty was at IU. That trip wore me out and I'll be happy if I never go back. For reals.

 The daily dress-up. I could make an entire photo book out of the pictures I have like this.

And a self portrait before we started baking. Izzy insisted on wearing our aprons. I obliged. Only to realize she had worn hers several times before and mine still had creases in it from being folded up in its package. Maybe that just means I don't mind getting messy in the kitchen. Yeah, I don't buy that one either.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun...

I remember when my best friends (Erin, Mary, Jenny, Ange) and I were growing up (junior high school days) we would take endless pictures of our crazy faces. I know every one of my girlfriends' crazy faces by heart. And I love that we can all be so silly and laugh at each other still, to this day.

We get together at least once a year for a weekend of gossiping, crafting, going out, and making silly faces while taking pictures. I vividly remember visiting Ange in California in 2005. We visited her older sister Paula (who is the queen of silly faces and taught us most of what we know) and met her husband and kids. We sat down for dinner with her and I'll never forget how fun it was. Dinner ended with everyone showing their silly faces like they were sharing what they did at school that day. I laughed so hard that I made a mental note to teach my future children this very dinner routine (I had just gone through a pretty horrendous miscarriage, so the laughter was much needed, maybe that's why it stood out so much). Think all of this is on my brain because we are in the middle of planning our next visit/girls' weekend and I have them all on my mind.

 This is a classic - was taken under the (closed) bed of Dino's truck sometime in 2005? But it clearly shows you how silly we get. Pretty sure we did the splits outside of the bar we were at this night, just before we hopped into the truck. 

 Same weekend, showing support for our favorite singer, Jen

 2006 with Jen

 Erin's Bachelorette party 2006

 Erin's wedding weekend in Vegas 2006

 Drag show in Chicago 2007

 The girls surprised me for my 30th birthday party in 2007 (I was 5 weeks prego with Iz here)

 Celebrating my baby shower at the lake in 2007

 Visiting Indy 2008

 The girls supporting me at a half marathon in 2010

 Go Cubs Go 2010

 Erin ran the last few miles of the Ch.icago Marathon 2010 with me

 Another Indy visit 2011

 Epic

 Given the amount of silliness I grew up with in these girls, I wanted to make sure to pass that quality on to my own girls. So I was tickled to see all the pictures the nanny took with the girls over the summer:

 Making faces with Nanny Natalie is second nature to them, and I freaking love it.

 And I've carried on the tradition of making funny faces at all times at home. Sure, we also talk about our favorite part of our day and what we did at school. However, we also share our favorite funny faces. "Oooh, that's a good one!" is said a lot in our house. Laney will bust out a silly face at any given moment and one of us is sure to comment on how awesome it is. We nurture silly in our house. Here's a few:

I'm so thankful for my girlfriends that I grew up with...for MANY reasons. But one of my favorite things my girlfriends taught me was how to have fun.

Gobble Gobble 2011

Goodness last week was a whirlwind for us and I loved every moment of it. Three day work week. Family and friends. Lots of visiting and eating and laughing. Yes, please.

The week started with Nanny Natalie spending the afternoon and evening with the girls on Monday. She took them to her house and Granny Panties (Miss Kay) and Mr. Dave spoiled them with a dinner and lots of play time. My girls adore Natty and her family and it simply makes my heart warm to know they love the girls just as much. Natalie also attended Izzy's Thanksgiving Feast at school, as Mike and I weren't able to attend. Izzy came home with an awesomely cool painted macaroni necklace while Laney came home with a card saying what she was thankful for: Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, Ben & Dave. Not sure who Ben & Dave are...but Lane claims they are chipmunks. Mmmkay then.

 My dad & step mom arrive Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days with us. Mike took dad to his first Butler basketball game against Gardener Webb (who? doesn't matter...turns out it was quite an amazing game). Dad came home telling us how much fun they had. Anna and I were sharing a bottle of vino. That's my idea of a relaxing evening.

 Thursday morning we trekked down to Br.oadripple for the Dru.mstick Dash 4.5 miler. There were about 15,000 runners in attendance (a record) and needless to say the course was jam-packed. Not going to lie, I did enjoy a nice (slow) run with my husband and best friend; however, I will not be running this race anytime in the near future. Too crowded. Poorly managed. I'll stick with the smaller, less swamped races on turkey morning. Dad & Anna walked with the girls along the shorter course and we finished about the same time. Felt good to get my legs moving in preparation for a day of eating and drinking!

 Jaime and I ran with our BoMF buddy Eric

When I turned my watch on I noticed I hadn't worn it since my marathon. As we all know that I'm not proud of my time, I'm pretty proud of my mileage. It was bittersweet to delete. No matter my finish time, I'm thankful for my health and for the two kiddos in the background of this picture. I run for them. Not for time.

 

We came back to warm showers, naps and Mike cooking up a delicious meal. The day turned out to be beautiful so I had to take advantage with a few pics outside.

 Jaime and I have a habit of dressing alike. For a run or for a dinner out you can bet we're matchy-matchy. Love the stripes and polka dots. Love her! (And if any of our Perfect Stranger buddies are reading this, we are sporting the "skarm" in this picture versus the dreaded "farm." We talk about deep stuff on our runs. Or rather, when we take pictures during our runs!)

 Dad!!!

 Kiddos eating turkey

 Feller fam

 We headed up to the Fort after a late breakfast to spend the weekend with Mike's dad & step mom. As soon as we arrived we found out that Laura's dad passed away. Grandpa Cliff was 93 years old and led a full life: he was a WWII pilot and Captain, SVP at Linc.oln Life, father of 7, grandfather of 18 and great grandfather to another 18. We loved seeing Grandpa Cliff at the holidays and he simply adored the girls, always telling us how beautiful they were and how blessed we were. He will forever live as a legacy in our house, as Laney has some wickedly crazy hair that we dub "Grandpa Cliff" hair. Too funny. He will be missed!

We were able to spend a few hours with Bob, and the girls helped him decorate his mini tree upstairs in the loft. They both got a kick out of it...

 And the silly faces never end

 We cut the weekend up north short, for obvious reasons, and were able to get a quick visit in with Mike's mom before we left. Upon our return home I was excited for a little surprise I had in store for Miss Iz. I bought tickets for a local theater's rendition of Annie several months ago and told Izzy we were going to see the M.uppet movie. We got all dressed up (Izzy's favorite part of the day), met up with our neighbors Jill & Sam, and headed out to the theater.

 This adorable dress was a hand-me-down from the Tynan family and ever since Izzy saw it over a year ago she's been asking constantly when she could wear it. Was holding out for Christmas service this year, but she begged and pleaded and I just couldn't tell her no one more time. I did talk her out of her dress up beads and into her "wedding" pearls...ha!

Izzy still thought we were at the movies when we got into our seats. She didn't really realize what we were doing until the curtain went up. And oh boy did she giggle and wiggle and dance and sing. She kept on looking at me and telling me it was the best day ever! The first half of the show was an hour and 20 minutes and by that time the kids had already taken 1-2 potty breaks. Jill and I attempted to go back in for the second part..until we heard Izzy say, "I don't want to watch the movie anymore." Done. We booked it out of there and chalked it up to a great attempt.

lf on our Shelf. Coca. Tonight after the girls found Coca I overheard Izzy say, "Please tell Santa I'd like a castle. And that I took a nap today." Followed by a blown kiss. Laney asked me to bring her to Coca to tell him, "We don't hit our friends. I'm sorry." I couldn't help from laughing out loud. I'm one lucky mama to be these girls' parents!

And in the spirit of thanking, I'm thankful for: my devoted and ever-present husband, my silly and loving daughters, my patient and forgiving family, my awesomely amazing girlfriends (old ones, new ones, running ones, best ones), my job that I love and my health. And my foam roller :)