Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great day! We stayed home and got to celebrate Thanksgiving, just with our little family. In the morning, Reid ran a 10k and did awesome! Brooke and I did the fun run and Brooke loved it. Then we came home and got dinner ready. I got most of our Thanksgiving recipes from the Pioneer Woman and man were they good, that lady can cook! We had some delicious stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, caramel apple pie and pumpkin roll. Then after dinner we all took a nice long nap and then set up our Christmas tree. It was such a great day, we had so much fun together, I certainly have a lot to be thankful for. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Half Marathon

Reid and I ran a half marathon this morning. The actual race didn't quite go as I was hoping. We were hoping to be under 2 hours and we came in at 2:20. I am pretty dissapointed because we had been feeling so good on our runs, last week we ran 11 miles in 1:25. But mentally I was not really with it today and I just never got going. My sweet husband could have done so much better, but he stayed with me and kept me going. But we finished and it was kind of fun! Anyways, getting ready for this race has been so fun. We have really loved running together, we both agreed it is one of the funnest things we've done together. And we are so appreciative to all of our friends who watched our kids so we could go on long runs on Saturdays, you guys are the best!

Get the Job Done

I had been thinking a lot lately about making Brooke a job chart, but I didn't want to do one that we constantly had to be putting stickers or checks on, I was wanting something that she could be more independent with and this is what I decided on. I took pictures of Brooke's six jobs: get dressed, make bed, brush teeth, set table, clear dirty dishes, and clean up toys. Then I made two magnetic hooks one for her jobs and one for when they are done, so when she finishes the job she just switches the picture over. We've been using them for about a week and I really like it. I feel like she understands more that these are her responsibilities and she has to do them before she can play and she is able to do her "job chart" by herself.
So now I'm wondering about a reward. Should we pay her for doing her jobs (I'm thinking a dollar or two a week), or should she be learning that helping out is just something that everyone needs to do? Is this a great opportunity to start teaching her about money or would it just make her think she has to get paid to do anything? I'm not really sure where I'm leaning on this, any thoughts?

Getting A Ride

I bought this little push/ride hippo several months ago at a garage sale and I forgot we had it until this week. I got it out and Owen has been going crazy walking around with it. Obviously, Brooke also had to find a way to get in on the fun and they have been having a ball taking turns pushing each other up and down the hall.