Happy 3rd Birthday Little Man

Jacob Liam!  I can hardly believe that you are 3 years old today.  It seems like yesterday you were entering our world, our sweet, cuddly, yet high tempered little man.  You have grown so much in the last year and I have loved watching every second of it.  You started the year behind verbally, biting, and anxious and you have finished your 2s with a full vocabulary, friendly and outgoing.  You are my sensitive one.  You get your feelings hurt easily (like your mommy) but you express them freely and I admire that about you.  You also worry excessively about those you love when you think they are hurt or upset and seek to comfort them.  Like when I was getting a flu shot and you ran to my side, held my hand and said "I want you be safe momma."  You held my hand and stroked my arm the entire process.  It was the sweetest, most compassionate gesture that even had the nurses oohing and aahing over you. 

Jacob, I have loved watching you blossom at your new school.  You are friendly, love to share, and have excitement over everything.  You are a gentle soul little man, who loves a good cuddle.  You are quite inquisitive and your favorite things to say are "What's that boy/girl doing?" and "Why?"  You could ask "why" all day long if we don't cut you off.  You can throw a temper tantrum with the best of them but are easily reasoned with.  Most importantly, you have learned to express yourself so you are no longer a biter!  Yippee!!! 

Little man, you are such an incredible joy.  I love seeing the world through your eyes, they are filled with wonderment over the littlest things and are so appreciative when you receive gifts and get to go somewhere with mommy or daddy one on one.

At your 3 year check-up you were excited about everything, especially the exam table that moved up and down and the pictures of your eyeballs!  Your stats, you ask?

Weight: 32lbs 8oz (60th percentile, my back can attest to that!)
Height: 37 inches (40th percentile which surprised me because you seem big!)
BMI: 16% (70th percentile)

Favorites:
Movie: Monster's Inc and Despicable Me
Word/Question:  Why?  (We can go on for hours doing the Why game)
Food:  Hot dogs and ice cream (you go nuts for ice cream!)

I'll love you forever and ever and ever again!

Monster Bash

To say Jacob likes Monster Inc is a bit of an understatement.  He is obsessed with Mike and Boo, he likes Sully but Mike and Boo are definitely his favorites so it only seemed fitting that we ring in his upcoming 3rd birthday with a Monster's Inc party.  It was ROAR-some!  Jacob had so much fun, we lucked out with the monster-sized storm we got this week passing through just in time for us to keep the jumpy house on the schedule.  Jacob was so excited to have a jumpy house and a party in his honor!  He requested a funfetti cake over cupcakes so I had my first attempt at a cake, I did it Friday because I needed time to make cupcakes if it was a fail.  I only had on small frosting mishap but Jacob couldn't tell or care and he loved his cake.  We had an awesome time and I can't believe my little buddy is turning 3 in less than a week!  Since pictures are worth 1000 words, I'll let the pictures from yesterday do the talking!

The kids went through "scarer" training!

An official Scarer!

Jacob's birthday twin Brycen! (they are a few hours apart!)

Brycen's beautiful sister McKenzie!

My first attempt at a cake

Happy Birthday Boy!

Jacob's face is pretty par for the course around here!

Big birthday wishes

Thankfulness

So I'm a little behind, my parent came up for the week and it was pure chaos with the kids excitement.  They had so much fun and Riley even got to sleep over at the hotel (and ride in a booster seat since cousin Daniel is in a booster seat now).  Jacob was especially excited to have a whole week of stay at home days even though he talked about all of his school friends all week. 

Off to the hotel with Nana and Poppy

We started Thanksgiving Day off with our first Turkey Trot, I think we are most definitely going to have to make this an annual tradition.  Marc and I ran the 10K and it was great!  I actually had my personal best time for a run averaging a pace of 9min 15sec per mile.  After our run we had about an hour before Riley ran in the kids' 1/4 mile run, next year I'll have her do the 1/2 mile as the 1/4 mile was too short but because of her age they kind of talked me into having her do the 1/4 mile. 

This is what I get for pictures these days

And she's off

She took off at the finish line, she smoked me!

So proud of her!

She loved it!

My running buddy

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for many things but I'm especially thankful for Riley being able to run in the Turkey Trot.  I'm thankful for what looks to be a future that is cast and surgery-free and I am thankful for her ability to accept her clubfeet and not let it affect her life.  She could very easily use it as a crutch and an excuse to not do stuff but she shrugs her shoulders and just says "Yeah, I had clubfeet, so what."  I'm thankful for her resilience, ability to face adversity and most of all her contagious smile that despite countless casts, AFOs and a pretty major surgery, never stopped smiling.

Cheers to all of that and more!

After our run, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for us, which I failed to capture a picture of.

Friday, we woke up early and hit up the Outlet Mall for a little Black Friday shopping.  And then went to the regular mall for more deals with kids in tow, they were good sports and we got lots of great deals!

Black Friday shopping!

Riley got a nice Buster Posey jersey earlier in the week so we let Jacob get a Build-A-Bear

The kids literally go nuts for this store

Jacob made BuberBear - his new Spider-Man bear (he calls Spider-Man "Buber-Man")

After shopping, I made Marc go for a run with me!  Needed to run off that gluttony!

Jacob loving on his poppy

Dinner with my pretty girl!

And just like that another vacation is over and now onto the next big activities...Jacob's birthday AND Hanukkah!  Let the holiday/birthday season begin!

Girl's Weekend Away

Last weekend I met my very good friend of 15 years down in Anaheim for a Girl's Weekend and Half Marathon.  She convinced me about 6 months ago to sign up for the Inaugural Avenger's Half Marathon so she's to thank for getting me addicted to running.  We met down there on Friday and raced (no pun intended) to the Expo to pick up our bibs and a most importantly park hoppers and then we hit the parks for some adult fun at Disneyland.  Saturday morning we slept in, went back to the expo to check out the vendors and then off to the parks for the day.  Sunday morning we were up bright and early for our run which started at 5:30 (yes, in the AM!).  The race itself was actually awful.  There was a major Santa Ana rolling through SoCal and the winds were ridiculous and blowing at our faces.  The course was awful and we spent much of the race running along a sand-filled aqueduct with the sand pelting us on the face due to the winds.  There was no on course entertainment so it made the race drag on.  Still, I'm glad I ran it despite the poor conditions.  We finished in about 2 1/2 hours, so about the same time as my Nike run.  Anne is a super competitive runner so I felt like I held her back a little but there was no where to run, the path would only fit 3 people across for most of the race.  They even cancelled the post-race Expo because of the wind.  So after the race we got our stuff and headed straight for CA Adventure so we could get FastPasses for Radiator Springs Racer.  (Wow, so much fun!).  We were hard core and stayed at the park for a few hours before heading back to our room for a shower and then back to the park.  We did about 22 miles that day according to my FitBit!

Even though the race was disappointing, we had so much fun, it's been 6 years since we had seen each other we picked up where we left off and had a blast.  It was nice to get away and Disney is so much more fun without kids.  Of course I had a high level of mommy guilt being at Disney without my two favorite Disney fans so there were lots of pictures and lots of presents for them!

The Holidays really is the best time to be at Disneyland!

Love this picture of Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouses' hand with the castle in the background

It's still all about Anna and Elsa

I think people were judging our cones!

Quick pic with Lightning and Mater on our run!

Snow White and the Seven Drawfs (not pictured)

Finishers!

Captain America

Mickey's Funwheel from the Secret Drink menu at the Cove Bar.  YUM!  I recommend the lobster nachos