2011 Recap - Part 2

March
It's hard for me to remember what I did last week, let alone a few months ago :)!  But we started March off with a Relay run with some of our good friends.  We have done several runs/races with Jason and Katie over the last few years and the LR Marathon has been one we have been doing with friends!  Davin has done the Little Rock Marathon 5 out of the 6 years (missed last yr b/c our sweet babies were only a little over a month old) we've been married, running either the half, full, or relay. This was either my 3rd or 4th time doing a form of Relay at LR. 
This was our first time to run as a team with our husbands, so it was fun.  Davin came up with our team name "Chips and Salsa"!  I ran first, followed by Jason, then Davin, and Katie finished!  Our goal was to finish under 4hrs and we did it in 3hrs50mins, so we were excited about that.  It's always a fun time with friends!

Davin has been wanting to do the Rock-n-Roll Marathon Series for a while now.  So after talking with one of his friends that also runs, they decided this would be the year.  You do 6 races.  I think they are doing 2 fulls and 4 halfs?!  Our first one in the series was in Dallas.  I was SO happy b/c it was very cold at our house, but by the time we go to Dallas it was in the low 80s, sunny, no humidity, PERFECT!  Plus it was the end of March, so it was like our first warm weather after so much snow.  It was a quick trip. We got there Saturday around lunch time and shopped around at the Outlets and then met up with Mark and Jill and went to the Expo.  The next day the guys ran while me and the girls, and Jill and Kellen cheered them on.  They did great and then we all headed back to pack up, shower, have lunch, and head home.

April
We went to Branson with 3 other couples for our 3rd Branson Annual Getaway.  We started out with 6 adults our first year and this year we had 8 adults and 5 kids under 2!  It will be fun to watch this group grow and change over the years.  We hope we can continue this annual trip b/c it is such a nice getaway and good quality time with friends we love.

Beth Moore came to our state for a Seminar and I was SO excited to be able to go.  My mom and I went and had a great time!  I've done several Beth Moore studies, but hadn't ever seen her in person.  She had a great message and the Worship was wonderful. 

We switch off Holidays with our parents and this year was our year to spend Easter at Davin's parents.  Davin did a lot of golfing with his dad and the whole Hicks' group.  And of course the grandparents (they chose to go by Grand and Pa) had lots of fun soaking up time with the girls.


Payton looking at the goats on the 'farm'

 

Parker just loved being able to run wild



Payton checking out the toys in her Easter bucket




Parker was taking her time




Easter morning at Grand's house

The next weekend we went to Nashville, TN for RnR race number 2!  This time my parents kept the girls for us and we had a little getaway weekend!  We got there early afternoon on Friday and checked into our hotel and headed for the Expo.  After that we went downtown and ate at a really neat place and just walked around Music City!  Saturday morning we headed out bright and early to the run.  This was the first Full in the series and after I left Davin at the start line I made my way to go see him at a few stops along the way and cheer him on.  Jill had decided to run the Half and so I was on my own trying to navigate my way through a city I didn't know where half the roads were blocked due to the race; little stressful but I made it and they finished!  We had lunch with Mark, Jill, Kellen, and Jill's mom. After lunch Davin and I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and then walked down Broadway and went in a few little shops.  We also went to Opryland and walked around the hotel/resort.  It is beautiful! We walked down to the Grand Ole Opry and found a Christmas ornament in the gift shop.  We like to collect ornaments from all our travels together.  Finally we met up with my childhood best friend Whitney.  She lives in Nashville and was out of town for a wedding, but made it back Saturday night.  We had dinner together and stayed the night with her.  It was great seeing her.  Sunday morning we got up bright and early to make the 5hr rainy/stormy trip back to my parents.  I sure missed my girls, but we all had a great time!

2011 Recap - Part 1

January
So 2011 started off with me having surgery to remove my thyroid on January 4th. About 2 1/2 years prior to surgery I had found a lump in my neck and after ultrasounds and a biopsy it turned out to be a nodule on my thyroid. So I was told to just watch it over the next several months. Well a year went by and I didn't pay much attention to it because my life was consumed with being pregnant with twins and then having them. All the exhaustion and craziness that comes with newborns soon set in and I just didn't think about the lump. Last summer I had gone to the Dr. for a cold and while I was there asked him about the lump again. He decided to get some blood work and more Ultrasounds done. They found that I had more nodules on my thyroid and so I had a biopsy done on 3 different ones. 2 came back normal, but 1 came back with the potential of it being thyroid cancer. Dr.'s were pretty certain it was so the best option was for me to have the whole thyroid removed just to be safe. So I hugged and kissed my sweet babies on the morning of the 4th and headed out to the hospital. This was my first time to leave them overnight, so sad. Thank goodness my parents and Davin's mom were here to take care of them (and me) and I was only going to be a few minutes away! After many months of praying and prayers from family and friends the surgeons removed my thyroid with no problems and to God be the Glory the Pathologists could not find any cancer! Praise Him!! The Doctors were so surprised; oh what a great testimony to show of God's Faithfulness and Healing power!!

After the surgery I had to focus on the girls 1st birthday party that was coming up in just 2 short weeks. I decided to go with a pink sock monkey theme. The party was pretty simple and we just had some family and close friends come and be apart of this special day.

February

Davin has a work convention trip this time every year.  We missed it last year b/c the girls had just been born.  We've been to NYC and Chicago for this trip.  The convention we missed last year was in Orlando one of the only WARM places it's held.  This year it was in Vegas.  I knew it would be good for me to get away, but I was dreading leaving the girls for that long and to go that far away from them. 

We stayed at the Palazzo on the strip.  It was one of the nicest places I have ever stayed.  Davin just had to be in classes for one day and it really wasn't the whole day.  I met up with him and his group and their spouses for lunch at In-N-Out burger.  It was good!  Then when he went back to class for an hour or so, I went to the casino in our hotel with some of the customers Davin brought with him (they didn't have to go to the classes).  I'm not a gambler, but I thought since I was in Vegas I should at least try it once.  I did a slot machine and won a couple bucks, but then I played roulette and won $75 dollars!  I stopped there and I was happy with that especially since I had started with 5 dollars!  We were able to do and see a lot in our 4 days there.  That's the good thing about these work trips.  The company's that put on the convention have dinner parties each night at really cool places.  One was at the top of the Stratosphere.  After a little convincing I rode the ride that's on the very top of the building.  It just shoots you straight up and down.  It was scary, but I'm glad I did it. 

While there we also walked the strip and went into all the hotel/casinos, we saw a show, 'O' at the Bellagio, and it was amazing! We got to see the fountains too, so pretty. Davin and I rode the gondola in the Venetian hotel. And on our last day we actually went on a tour to the Hoover Dam.

It was a great trip and I was happy to have a break and not have any responsibility except for ourselves. We actually had to stay an extra day in Vegas b/c that was when like 33 states had snow.  So our plane could not make it to Vegas.  We were able to find a flight the next day to a different city from the one we flew out of, and then make it to my parents.  Thankfully the two guys that rode with us to the airport stayed another day in Vegas until they could make it back and they drove Davin's truck back for us.  So it all worked out and I only had to go one day longer rather than 2 days not seeing my babies.  I was SO happy to see them, hug them, and kiss them!  I know they had fun at my parents though!  We came back to some snow, but little did we know the next week we would have the biggest snow ever.

It was crazy!  Record breaking snowfall for us with over 24 inches of snow in places! We were literally snowed in.  The snow just kept coming and coming!!  Too bad the girls were too little to enjoy it.  After a couple days when we were able to get out more easily, Mandy's mom and Andrew's parents graciously volunteered to watch the girls and few other friends kids while all us 'big kids' went sledding.  It was a lot of fun.

Hopefully the next post will get me all caught up with this year!

A First

I have decided to join in on the blog craze! I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now, actually when I found out I was pregnant we talked about it, but life soon became busy and the idea faded. Now that our twins are 17 months we have decided that this is the best way for us to keep a scrapbook of our lives. This blog will serve as just that; a scrapbook/journal for our family. And maybe our family and a few friends that don't get to see us will check in and see how the girls are growing and changing daily. This is a first for me. I am by no means a writer, so this will not be free of spelling or grammar mistakes, but that's ok :)!
Since I am starting this blog in the middle of the year, I am going to recap the last 6 months. So the next couple of posts will be dedicated to that.