When it's Christmastime you're supposed to take pictures of your kids in front of the Christmas tree, right?

Christmas Eve Castagnetto Style

Castagnettos comin' atcha from the alley

Mace and K-dawg

I think Marcus beat me. He's good.

Mom, Macie & Kaiden

Charlie rocked it.

Five!

Charlie turned 5! Hip hop hooray!

Cincinnati Bengals cake. What else?

The party goers: Charlie, Norah, Benny, Millie, Lucy, Marc & Gwen

He loved the gifts, hanging out with cousins, cinnamon rolls, a trip to the Dollar Store and his dinosaur puzzle.

Dude,

I'm glad that's over with.

I hope I post pictures soon.

So, our house is decked out in lights. Clark is at it again. Thankfully, we both agree on nice clean white lines. But this year our little tree out front has lots to say like, check me out, I look like a flippin' firecracker!

Today I am Excited for This...

Crafty Girls Christmas Preparation Fiesta!!!

Ann Dee and Holly gettin' crafty

Ann Dee, Kathy, Holly, Jen and Mill

Millie's hat was hot!

Kathy teaching us how to make flowers

'Til next year, ladies!

Today I am Thankful for This...

...An awesome review at Patina Market. Check it!

Guess what just happened?

I posted on my blog again!
(Are you kidding me?)
Nope.

I recently started missing my blog. Weird.
Today felt like a good day to start it up again.
I'm not going to worry about all the bajillion things that have happened in the last 7 months and I'm just gonna start up right here, right now on Dec. 2, 2009.

And this is how it starts. With this very post.

Dear Blog...

I'm over you.
Maybe for time, maybe for eternity.
We'll have to see...
Love,
Megan

The Race...

I just registered for the race. It's pretty painless. Except for the part where you have to pay. But for only $30 I am now registered AND I'm having my shirt shipped to my house so that I don't have to stand in line.
I'm considering getting a hotel room in SLC the night before. Just for fun. And to make it a big, fancy deal. More info to come. On second thought, maybe I want to sleep in my own bed. hhhmm...
I've been training. If you call running a few miles a week training. I'm trying to get my booty ready. And to maybe get in shape a bit.
FYI- During the race I will not be competing with anyone. I'm just out for fun. If you're planning on competing with me or anyone else, enjoy yourself! I'm just going at my own speed, listening to my own music and I'm not going to stress about a competition. There you have it.
So.......are you in?
I'm also doing a fake triathlon. Should be fun except for the swimming part. But since it's fake I don't think anyone will mind. Do you want to do it too?

Super Busy...

Spring...

Turns out maybe I don't like Spring as much as I thought.
Bugs are everywhere. Bees are out. Spiders are in.
There is a mouse in my car. I'm not even kidding.
My face was sweating today and I hate that.

On Green...

A Leprechaun made a trail of green M&M's across our living room floor last night.

What? You don't have a Leprechaun that visits your house on March 17th? Weird. Well don't be mad and don't think Ah, man, I shoulda done that.
I'm never too mad when you have elves visit your house for the 12 days of Christmas. Although, things get crazy when I try to explain to the kids why elves don't come to our house.

Leprechauns are crazy little magical guys. Some years they come and some years they don't. This year... this was one of the good years.

Now if we could just figure out how they get in. Sneaky little guys, I tell ya.

Something we definitely have in common:
A love for FLASHY shoes

His:

Hers:

Channeling Spring...

I want Spring to come SO BAD!
And in preparation I've done the following:

*Hung this candy colored wreath on my door
*Painted my toenails a REALLY hot pink
*Cleaned and organized the pantry

2 weeks people, 2 weeks!

What went down in the month of Jan.

An excessive amount of this:

What did you expect?

Happy February.

I'm like a Cow...

Charlie: "Are you like a cow?"
Me: "Uuuuuuhhhh... what do you mean?"
Charlie: "Cows give us milk and you give the baby milk so you're like a cow."
Me: ".............................Yep. I guess I'm like a cow."

Swagger...

This is my favorite commercial. It's hysterical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrSNzSkvi70

I bought some Swagger for Brent. Not that he needs any help at all but we'll see how it goes (not with 'the ladies' but with HIS lady, you silly.)

Dissed By The Blog Gods...

Lately my lack of posts is due to the fact that I was dissed by the Blog Gods.
It seems everywhere I turn there is someone telling me that I shouldn't be blogging because I'm not good enough to blog.
I've heard everything from "I've been blogging since '91 and that makes me better than you" to "Mommy Bloggers suck because their lives revolve around their kids"... blah, blah, blah.
Let me tell you, I was shaken for a moment.
I thought maybe this blogging thing wasn't right for me. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a blogger.
But then, I was like "Hold the phone!"
Why do I care what the Blog Gods think? And if they hate the Mommy Bloggers so bad then WHY are they reading their blogs? They don't have to, you know.
And the main reason I am keeping this blog is for ME! I want to remember these days and my brain can't do it alone.
It's not (for) you, it's (for) me.

More info for the race...

Here's a link for more information on the race:
http://www.komenslc.org/RaceForTheCure/Registration/tabid/81/Default.aspx

So far it looks like we might have a fun little team to run the race. I'm totally so excited.

Race For The Cure...

I'm running the good race again this year and I'm going to run it with grace and ease. (I pray.)

I try to run this race every year but let's just say I've missed a few years due to babies. I'm not blaming them, I'm just saying.

I will be back in full force on May 9th (exactly 4 months away.) It's a 5K. Nothing too difficult. The hardest part is the people that turn out. The last year I ran it ('07) there were 16,000 people there. That's a lot of people. But it's my favorite race because of the people. People fighting and running for the same thing: to find a cure for breast cancer. So I'm on the look out for my new pink tenni-runners for this year (and if I have no luck finding any, I'll wear my old ones from 2 years ago.)

So, wanna join me? We could have a team or something. Maybe make t-shirts.

All I'm asking is that you want to do it and you're willing to wear pink and run beside me (I might wear an ipod.)

What do ya say?

Before there was Christmas and 2009...

Charlie had a birthday and turned 4!

Can I just start by saying "Thank Heaven for 4!"
The Terrible Twos and the Horrible Threes are gone. And for that I am deeply grateful.
I love my Charlie.
We threw him a birthday party with cake, ice cream, balloons, streamers, pin the tail on the donkey, presents, 6 friends (no girls), a green dinosaur pinata, Batman, Transformers, Darth Vader and Spiderman. It was a wild good time!
Here's the documentation:

his Batman birthday cake

with his gifts

The line-up for Pin the Tail on the Donkey

blowing out the candle on his birthday breakfast of oatmeal

New Year's Resolution...

I'm not usually one for resolutions.
This year may be my first year.
These are my resolutions:
Simplify
and
Minimalize
everything.