He's Back

True to form, Christmas has arrived early at the Bunger house!

Putting up decorations early has become somewhat of a tradition at our house since I have blogged about it in both 2011 and 2010.  We are usually in Nebraska for the Thanksgiving weekend and after that we get so busy it is just easier to get it put up before the holiday happenings begin.

And tonight when we returned to the house we discovered that our good friend Bobby, our Elf on a Shelf has returned to us for another Christmas Season.  Mitchell has already made a bed for Bobby's first night with us and Collin has already that Bobby will NOT hang underwear from Collin's ceiling fan again this year.  Everyone in the house thought this was hilarious last year....except Collin. ;)

Life Lessons Learned by Collin

Lesson 1:  Markers are for coloring on paper only.

Lesson 2:  There is a reason a little boy is not supposed to feed Mr. Bubbles without help from an adult.

Life lessons learned by Collin on a Friday afternoon!

Take a Rest

Tonight while I was making dinner, Collin was repeatedly asking me if I was finished so I could play with him.  Finally he said "Mommy!  You need to take a rest.  Can you play with me too?"  I just couldn't deny this kind of logic.

It seems I have also taken a rest when it comes to running.  I took about 10 days off after my last half marathon and have run several times since then, but can't seem to get back into a regular routine again.

I have to admit, I was starting to feel a little burned out during my training this past fall and thoughts of throwing in the towel after half marathon #6 started to enter my mind.  But the Waddell and Reed Half Marathon was a good race for me mentally.  While I know my mind and body needed to take a rest, I also know that I will definitely run my 7th half marathon in 2013.

Old Navy

I never noticed the total imbalance of the clothing selection between baby/toddler/children clothing until I became a parent.  I could devote several paragraphs surrounding this, but to some it up for those of you who haven't experienced this: In just about any major department store, the selection of clothing for little girls is about twice as large as the selection is for boys.  What does this say about our society and how it play into gender stereotypes....I'll let you decide, but as a parent of two boys, I can tell you it's a limited selection just about everywhere you go.  And if you are like me a refuse to buy anything with a skull & cross bones, it gets even narrower.

But every once in awhile, between the purchase of the standard striped or solid polo for the boys....I come across something the boys can actually get excited about when it comes to clothing.  The above Lego Star Wars shirts are the 2nd best find to date.  Playing second fiddle only to.....

THUNDERCATS!!!! Thank you Old Navy....for putting a little excitement into our world of stripes and solids.

Fall 2012 Pictures

I've meant to include some of these shots in recent posts.  Fall has flown by!

It's never a dull moment in a house full of boys.  There is much to be thankful for during this month of Thanksgiving!

Official Shots from October 20th

Here are some official shots from the Kansas City Half Marathon on October 20th....the above picture was within the first two miles of the half marathon and is my favorite.

Can you see me???  I'm right under the carefully placed yellow arrow. :)

This was by far the best course I have ever ran.  It took us through a lot of very cool areas of Kansas City including Union Station, Liberty Memorial (and the monster hill leading up to Liberty Memorial), The Plaza and Hyde Park....just to name a few!

I wasn't able to find my Team Endurance jersey for the race so I borrowed Chad's.  It was a little on the large side for me, but I figured I would wear my purple running jacket for the entire race with the chilly conditions at the start.  But as always, I forget how quickly a person warms up while running and shed my jacket within the first 5 miles of the race.  Even though I was photographed wearing red on a KSU Saturday...I was sure to flash my Wildcat Pride during the last few steps of the race before the finish! :)

Leaveapaloosa

One thing that is so great about our neighborhood are all the large, mature trees...then our grass disappears in October.

Today we started our rake-a-thon, and quickly had the back of our old truck filled with just one side of the front yard.

So we made huge piles of leaves....now if they would just magically find away out of yard.

Because after these pictures of a pick-up bed filled with leaves, we still had the backyard to contend with!

But the boys had a fun time in the giant leaf piles!

I haven't ran since the half marathon last Saturday....but raking leaves for 2+ hours has to count for some amount of cross training....right?