A Very Standen Christmas

This past weekend we celebrated an early Christmas with the Standen side of the family. We had a blast spending time with family, opening great gifts, eating and even doing a little singing!

Merry Christmas!

10K All The Way

Last weekend Michaela and I completed a 10k in the North Face Endurance Challenge. It had been a while since I had laced up those running shoes so it felt like a real accomplishment crossing that finish line. It was just the right amount of commitment and in the end we really felt good about ourselves!


I took my camera on the run with me so that I could snap some shots during the run. The race information said that the views were 5 star so I wanted to capture and remember this experience. I felt a little silly taking pictures while running but who cares, I'm glad I have the pictures from it!

All smiles before the race!

We stationed ourselves right in the middle of the pack and it worked well for us!

Getting into our stride.

Michaela crossing the finish line!

Smiles of accomplishment!

A Taste of Christmas

A few weeks back the Shulls and Standens went to a Christmas Tree lighting. In the end everything turned out wonderfully and we have a lot of fun memories to add to our book.

Watching a very tall fairy!

Giving kisses under the mistletoe!

(Notice Liam gives nice tight lipped kisses and Nora gives full on open mouth kisses!)

Let the Christmas season begin!

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving to you All!

We were blessed to spend the holiday with Paul's family in Carmel this year. We had a wonderful time doing a lot of the normal holiday traditions: eating, sleeping, talking, shopping and eating some more!

Here are few pictures of our relaxing and much appreciated holiday.

I'm ready for some turkey!

After dinner we took a walk down to the beach.

The motley crew!

Windy & silly!

Nora loved her first taste of pumpkin pie!

Helping Noni with the Thanksgiving dishes.

A Posting From Nora

When I am at work with Mommy I like to...

crawl and see each office,

play with my toys,

talk to people as they pass by Mommy's desk,

but most of all....when Mommy isn't looking I like to get into her food drawer and EAT!!!

I even like helping Mommy throw away all the fishies even though I spent all that time dumping them on the floor!

Part Monkey Part Girl

Another climbing picture...

Nora used to just like to pull open the pots and pans drawer and pull out the contents but now she gets a kick out of climbing in herself...whatever!

Look How Much I've Grown!

Every two months we took Nora's picture in her highchair. Here is her progress from the perspective of her highchair...

2 months

4 months

6 months

8 months

10 months

12 months

Birthdays Around!

October 30 was not only Nora's 1st birthday but it was her daddy's birthday as well. One year ago the Lord gave Paul the amazing gift of a daughter and also the gift of his birthday forever placed in the background. I still tried to honor Paul in little ways but he is pretty content with very little hoopla and fanfare for his birthday.

Nora, on the other hand, will have to accept that her mama loves birthdays and to expect lots of surprises and festivities when her special day comes around.

Here are some pictures of Nora's 1st special day.

Waking up and getting sung Happy Birthday to by Mommy & Daddy!

She got a very fun airplane from Ms. Bethany (in the background)
which is helping her learn how to walk.

Party time! PTL for good weather!

She loved her first cupcake! She liked the cake part better than the frosting...who would have thought it!

Playing with her special toy with her special friend!

Opening presents!

Overwhelmed by all the lovely gifts!

Thank you everyone for your abundant generosity!
Nora's 1st birthday was a success and a great benchmark for many more birthdays to come.

Halloween

The weekend of October 30 and Halloween was so packed full of activities that I needed a week to recoup! Honestly, I still don't feel like I am back to normal yet but hey, life goes on!

October 30

On October 30 our church had our annual Family Fun Night (an alternative to Halloween). There are games, bounce houses, trick-car-treat and of course lots of candy! We participated by providing candy, Rice Krispie Treats, and we had our car in the trick-car-treat. Not to mention Paul was in-charge of making sure everybody had enough candy at their booths. It was a great event full of kids, costumes and lots of candy!!!

Our little Pumpkin turned into a pink poodle for the evening and she did remarkable well considering all the activities and commotion!

Here's the evening in a nut shell.

Birthday buddy's forever!

My parents were in town to help with the impending 1st birthday, so we roped them into also helping with Family Fun Night.
(Thanks Mom & Dad!)

Picking out the best piece.

Trick-Car-Treat!


October 31

The next evening, Halloween, we stayed in and greeted Tricker-Treaters with warm welcomes and handfuls of candy. We had dozens of guests but there was one who knocked on our door that was extra special!

We didn't actually give them candy to eat but they liked the feel of the crinkling wrappers!

What a day! Or as our munchkins would say, bark bark woof woof!

Almost 1

My Little Pumpkin is going to be 1 this week.

Where does the time go?

Adventures and Lessons Learned

October has been a beautiful month weather wise and this past weekend was no exception. Downtown Campbell was putting on their annual Oktoberfest so we decided to go down and participate.

Heading out on our adventure.

I thought it would be authentic to have a turkey leg at Oktoberfest. Lesson learned, I can tell you that there was nothing authentic or appetizing about it!

Paul got a brat with sauerkraut...I think he liked it, he ate all of it.

A good day was had.