Farewell October...you were good to us

Here are pics of our October festivities!

painting pumpkins

at the pumpkin patch! We went with my parents and had a blast

the little hayride we took

She made it to the middle!

We offered to get Juliette's face painted, but she opted to have her hand painted instead. This is her "rainbow pony" (a.k.a unicorn as we adults like to say)

Vienna went down this slide over and over for like 20 minutes. She was loving it

and last of all....our tiny trick-or-treaters. Their first year going. Juliette is wearing a snow white dress and cape that my mom made for me 23 years ago which I wore for a couple halloweens. I'll find the picture of 5 year old Brittany wearing it and post it with this one soon. And of course, Vienna is the cutest kitty cat that ever graced the planet. She did a lot of "meowing" that evening.

Half Marathon!

Yesterday Mark and I ran our first half marathon. It started at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown VA, and looped through historic Antietam (which was beautiful) through Sharpsburg and then back to the university. It was an awesome experience for both of us. Weather was perfect, 50 degrees and drizzling. The scenery was amazing, it was neat to look at the mountains in the distance and the rolling green hills around us. Mark made it into the top 100, finishing 89th out of 786 runners, with a time of 1:45:39. I finished with a time of 2:07:23 (3 minutes faster than my goal time!) We both finished well into the top half of total runners, which was exciting. Being in an actual race was a cool experience because there are so many other people doing it with you, and the spirit of comradery (and casual competition), really added a fun element. All in all, we both had great runs and it was fun and exhilarating. We're planning on more racing in the future!

Mark finished well before me, so he could snap a pic of me coming to the finish

This and That

Vienna is still a pretty messy yogurt eater, but she looks cute messy!

Juliette's playdough masterpiece! First time I've made homemade playdough

After she realized it didn't taste good, Vienna played with it a little too

I let Jules help me dye the dough

Vienna prancing around in one of my shirts....a little less modest on her!

Sisters.....and friends!

Happy Birthday Juliette! And Happy Easter!

Happy 3rd birthday to our sweet Juliette 2 weeks ago! Here are some pics of the event. I made her an ice cream cake because ice cream is her favorite treat. She would probably have been happy with just ice cream for her birthday, but I thought she should have a cake. Her best friend Mayumi is featured prominently in these pictures as well :) The pictures after are of Easter, which was also lots of fun!

Birthday hugs!

She got the complete collection of the Beatrix Potter books, as she already loved the Tale of Peter Rabbit, Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddle Duck.

new bike!

Vienna took a ride on Juliette's old ride on toy

And now for the Easter pics...this one of Jules decorating eggs

Easter dresses

Vienna's 1st Birthday!

Our lovely Vienna turned 1 on Saturday! We are so glad she came to join our family. It has been a year full of fun times with her. We've enjoyed her smiles, giggles, new discoveries, and most recently her new words. She has become a little bit sassy and has started saying "no" to mom and big sister Juliette. But she also says hi, mama, dada, go, uh-oh, cool, moo and baa which are much more pleasant communications. We love her tons! Here are some pics of the party.

This last pic we took of Jules a couple days after the party, when she wanted to put on Mark's scrubs, and he obliged.