Thanksgiving and More

I know it has been a while and instead of playing "catch up" I am just going to start with the most current events in the Alexander household. For Thanksgiving at Jill's school we enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast prepared by the kiddos themselves. We made fried Navajo bread, cranberry relish, apple fritters, and homemade butter - so yummy! All the children made Native American themed t-shirts and wore cute little head dresses with their given Indian name. Jill's name was very fitting - Dancing Butterfly! She was very proud of her name!

Mrs. Conn and all her little ones - We LOVE Mrs. Conn!!!

Luke had his first Thanksgiving program at Mom Day Out and he was such a cute little pilgrim! He did so good on stage and I must admit I was a little nervous because this little boy loves the spotlight. I was afraid he may use the stage to get a few laughs but he did perfect!

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated at the Nanny & PaPaw's house in Childersburg. As usual, we ate entirely too much but it is all soooo yummy, it is hard to resist!

Aunt Leesa and Uncle Aaron on their first married Thanksgiving.

The Man - PaPaw!

Trying to clean up and divide ALL the leftovers! Even as much as we ate there was still food left over! I don't know how that is possible!

After our Thanksgiving feast we headed home where we meet Donna and her family. They spent the night with us so that Donna and I could hit the stores at 4am for some Black Friday madness! We made it back home by 7am and then Jamie and I were on the road by 8am headed to Orange Beach for me to run my first half-marathon. This has been a dream of mine for so long and I can't even express the emotions I experienced! It was pure joy to see a dream become a reality!

I had the most amazing friend and running partner to run with. Angela Laughlin, who until two years ago cared nothing for running, agreed to train with me and run with me! I could NOT have done it without her! She encouraged, motivated, suffered, and hung in there with me for the past three months while we trained and on race day we completed 13.1 miles together!!!! Angela, you will NEVER know how much you mean to me - Thank you just doesn't seem like enough!

Here I am at mile 6 - Jamie and Angela's husband Brian, were at this point on the course to offer words of encouragement and snap a few pictures. It was so good to see them standing there!!!

And the finish - there were tears of JOY for a dream realized!

My sweet kiddos had a card for me and a 13.1 decal for my Suburban at the end of the run. I have to say thank you also to my sweet sister Donna and her family for keeping my three munchkins while Jamie and I were at Orange Beach. They had a blast!

And now to this man...thank you! Thank you for allowing me to train the countless hours necessary to prepare for this run! Thank you for taking me the five hours to the race and back. Thank you for cheering for me, for encouraging me, for supporting me, for being there when I crossed the finish line with a smile on your face! I love you more than words could ever express and am so thankful that God brought you into my life Decemeber 2, 1994! Thank you, Jamie for being the most amazingly wonderful husband on the planet!!!