Julia's First Visit to Santa

We visited Santa at the Dixboro General Store last weekend with Julia's friend, Keilyn. Santa was there with his reindeer, Vixon. We had talked about Santa and showed Julia pictures before going, but when we got up to sit with him, she did not want anything to do with it. So, I unexpectedly ended up in the pictures too. Keilyn did better than Julia, but still wasn't too kean on sitting on his lap. Here are a few pictures of Julia ... they seem to tell the tale.


"Who is this guy, I'm not letting go of mom or getting any closer. But wait, he does have a book (Santa's Good Book) ..."


"OK, I'll take a quick peek at him...."


"OK, that's it, mom get me out of here...."

Shoulder Surgery

I'm a little late on the update, but Jeff's shoulder surgery went well. He is off work recovering until the New Year, or possibly longer. He was out of his sling after a day or two and hasn't been in much pain unless he tries to use it. It's still very weak and has limited range of motion, so can't pick up Julia or conveniently, can't change diapers either. ;) He's in PT now.

The only advantage is that he wore his sling to his masters class final last Monday to get some sympathy points - it must have worked, he got the B he needed! Just one more class to go and his final project.

Our Castle

We've finally begun our first house project (besides the pole barn). We now live in a castle - that is if anything with a moat qualifies as a castle. We are re-doing the drain tile lines at the foundation of the house and are replacing them with new tile lines, gravel and sand. This BETTER stop our basement leaks, so we can someday finish off the basement.

We planned to haul the dirt away from the end of the house so it will be ready to convert into a walkout, but that may wait until spring. The drainage tile has been run appropriately, but we may fill it all back in for now. I don't know - I let Uncle Tom and Jeff figure that out - I just pipe in on the important stuff - like spending money!

Julia has enjoyed it, she loves watching the digger and bobcat - she calls them tractors and constantly asks to go watch. We spent a lot of time watching through the windows. We still have plenty to do, but the new drain tile is in and gravel is poured. Now they need to hang the protective covering on the outside of the basement walls and finish filling our moat back in. ... This all has to happen before Wednesday when Jeff goes in for shoulder surgery. He'll have some of a bone shaved off to allow for more room for the tendons to move in his rotator cuff area. I hope to put him on the quick recovery plan - we'll see. He plans to be off work on medical until the new year - I'll keep you posted.

Leaves

I went for my first run today since the marathon. Wow, it wasn't fun at all. I need a new goal to work towards to motivate me as I almost called Jeff to come get me about 3 times and then walked the last mile. My knee still bothers me, so I guess I'll have to lay off it for a while longer anyway. Guess I'll have to stick with my bootcamp class, that kicks my butt anyway.

We had a beautiful weekend here and went down to the neighbors to jump in the leaves. Julia enjoyed watching the other kids, but didn't like being in them herself. Maybe next year.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Julia enjoyed her 2nd halloween, dressed as Winnie the Pooh's Pot of Hunny. I took her into work and later we went out trick-or-treating down the street with the neighbor boy. Julia caught on quick on how to trick-or-treat, it was fun. You'll see in the picture below, she was adding up her loot after we got home.

The above pictures were taken at Grandma L's when we visited last. She wasn't very happy as we were cutting up her pumpkin. She loves balls, and of course a pumpkin is a ball to her. She'd cry when I'd cut into it, ruining her ball - silly kid. You can see she got over it since she's smiling in the picture.

Detroit 1/2 Marathon

I did it! I finished the Detroit 1/2 Marathon (13.1 miles) on Sunday and had fun doing it! It was the first time in over a month my knees didn't hurt while running and it felt great. (You can see I'm all taped up like a mummy, of the 18,000 other people there - I didn't see one other person with any tape on!)

I finished in 2 hrs. and 18 mins., that's kinda slow but a good time for me! Best yet, my time during the last 6 miles was faster than the 1st 7 miles. Although, the man from Kenya who won the full marathon completed, all 26 miles, 2 minutes faster than it took me to run just half - amazing! I didn't enjoy training for the race so much, but did enjoy the actual race. We ran from Detroit over the bridge into Canada, along the river and then back through the mile-long tunnel under the river back to finish in Detroit. Don't know if I'm ready for another one, but definitely want to do some more smaller races next spring and summer - maybe even a Turkey Trot yet this Fall. Here are a couple picts. ... I'm in the bright yellow so Jeff and Julia could find me, this is at the 9 mile mark, still smiling. ;)

Growing So Quick

It's been awhile, all is good here. Julia is super fun, but getting more and more vocal and demanding about what she wants every day. She's busy learning new words and things, and growing tall. She still loves balls! Can't get through the produce section at the grocery store without her stealing an apple, orange or tomato because their all balls to her! Actually her new favorite food is grapes, and of course, animal cracker cookies. She can now blow kisses, signs I Love You, and says Night, Night. She still just has the two teeth on the bottom and one on the top - three others are on the verge or have just barely started coming, finally!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend: We went up to Cadilac, MI Friday drove around the little town and walked along the lake there. Then Saturday we motored on over to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Here are some videos and pictures taken on the beach and of the huge, awesome dunes.

1st Steps

Julia took her first step probably in front of grandpa S. at the race track in IL back in July. But she didn't start taking more than 1 step at a time until just before her 1st birthday. Now she'll walk about 5 feet, and every once in a while across the room. Soon she'll be running! Here's a real short video of some of her first steps.

1st Birthday Celebrations

Can't believe our baby girl is one year old! We traveled to grandma and grandpas houses' to celebrate both Julia and my birthdays. We enjoyed our time and below are a few pictures of the weekend.


Grandpa L. taught Julia how to say "moo," she can still say it and can now quack too!

1st Time on the Boat

We finally got out on the boat Sunday, it started getting cool so we didn't stay long but Julia seemed to enjoy her trip. We fed some ducks; she thought that was pretty funny. All went well, the life jacket is a little over-powering, but we'll have to try it again soon!

Scary Fast Race Car

This car looks kind of mean doesn't it? One guy came up to Jeff yesterday and told him it sounded angry - I told Jeff he better treat it nice then!

Below is a video of Jeff driving the black super fast race car - this one makes me pretty nervous. We'll be going to Joliet, IL with it next weekend.

At the races

Mom, Dad, Michelle, Jeff and Alec were all here in June. We went to Jeff's qualifying rounds and then the NASCAR race on Sunday. Mom stayed home and babysat Julia. Unfortunately Jeff lost in first round on Sunday, but did well despite that.

We all enjoyed the NASCAR race, not to many crashes, which is good - but not as exciting that way. Next time we'll all make sure we bring radios so we can all follow what's happening - and maybe try a different track that's got sharper curves, the front straight away in MIS is curved so, again less excitement. Alec stocked up on Earnhart Jr gear and it must have been lucky for Jr cuz he won the race. It was fun - glad we got to check out a race live!

Summer 08

Here's a few picts from that last month or so of Julia loving her swing, her new car (of course we had to get her a car, even though she's a little small for it), and eating whatever she can find. ...

4th of July

We enjoyed the 4th and Julia enjoyed the fireworks - never took her eyes off of them. Tobin, Karen and Carter were here for the weekend so we had fun with them and seeing how much both Carter and Julia have grown. We went to a old village and to a petting farm - I had to give Julia her first pony ride. I don't know what she really thought of it, but I thought it was cute and fun, that's all that matters right? Here are a few picts from the weekend:

1st Drag Race

This past weekend was a BIG weekend of firsts for Julia! Julia and I flew to St. Louis to meet dad at the Gateway International Raceway for her first drag race. The flight went well, Julia slept most of it and was all smiles the rest of the time, but a little antsy - whew! Grandma and Grandpa Smith came for the weekend too, we all stayed in our "nastalgic" motorhome - it was fun. Julia did great will all the noisy cars, she kept my ear plugs and ear muffs on! The ride home was an adventure, we spent at least 4 hours trying to fix the motorhome, we had some issues with the fuel lines. It wasn't very fun, good thing Jeff can fix stuff. I won't even go into the contraption he created to get us to Auto Zone!

Below is a picture with grandma, Julia was like a puppy dog all weekend with her tongue hanging out when it was windy - it was pretty cute.

Below Jeff's warming up the tires in a burn-out before he races.

Here's a movie of Jeff's semi-final round. He did a wheely and his car got crooked in the air so he had to let off the gas halfway down the track. He lost, but beat the other guy off the starting line. The other car won in the finals.

We're getting ready to head home ... can you see Julia'a new onsie? - She's now Jeff's official crew cheif. Until next time!

Spring has Sprung

It's finally spring and we've been outside enjoying the weather. I got a jogging stroller and Julia and I have been going on lots of walks around our little neighborhood, it works great on the gravel. Can't wait to have more beautiful days like today in the next few months!

Thought we'd take the below photo just for the grandma's - I know they'll just love it!