It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The decorations have been up since the day after Thanksgiving and now EVERYTHING that needs to be wrapped is wrapped and under the tree! We are really looking foward to Lilly's first Christmas this year. She loves balls and keeps walking up to the tree saying ball and reaching for ones hanging on the tree. She also finds the tissue paper in the bags and the bows very interesting, but she knows that she isn't supposed to touch them. It really hasn't been too bad keeping her out of things, but she may be hesitant to open her presents since I have been telling her "no" when she messes with them. Her Grandma and Grandpa will be in town Wednesday through Christmas. It will be nice for her to get to see them again. They probably won't believe how much she has changed since they last saw her. It seems like she changes every day. She literally runs around the house now and has pretty good balance now. She loves trying to take things apart and put them back together. I finally got her to stack the rings instead of just pulling them off tonight. She loves just about any food we let her try. When I am making food for her she will say mmmm mmmm if she is hungry. She also loves animal crackers. My Mom always keeps some at her house and Lilly will walk over to the counter, reach up and say "ki-kie" wanting someone to get her one. (My Mom calls them cookies.) She says even more words now. Her favorites are ball, mama, and duck-duck
Some new words are:
cup
shoe
apple
bottle
dog
bird
duck-duck
bow
poo-poo (when she goes potty on the potty)
cookie (pronounced more like I wrote above)
Thank you (not perfect but pretty good)
baby
hey (while holding a phone to her ear)
eye (while pointing to someone's or baby doll's eye)
nose (while pointing to nose)
no (especially when she is done eating and she shakes her head)
I may be missing one, but it's hard to keep up.

She loves to talk! Her Sunday School teachers talk about how much she talks to them. Maybe she is getting that a little from the Godwin side of the family. Sometimes instead of no I tell her "ah-ah" because that is what my Mom and Grandmama did when I was growing up. The other day I was trying to take something away from her that she shouldn't play with and she told me "ah-ah" while shaking her head no. She also tells the dogs that sometimes when they bark because she is used the me scolding them when they bark. She doesn't miss anything and always tries to copy us so we have to make sure we set a good example.

I also have everything except the balloons for her 1st Birthday party. It is going to be very small and mostly just family. I did go with the Minnie Mouse theme and I found some cute first birthday Minnie Mouse supplies. I am going to make her a cake. I will of course post some pictures after her party January 1st, but for now here are what the decorations look like:


It comes with matching plates, napkins, and cups. The invitations also match:


Well, I guess that's all for now. I will post some Christmas pictures later. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!
"...Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'" Luke 2:11-14
What a wonderful Christmas gift to the World and he wasn't born in a nice home, but in a barn and his only bed was a manger. This helps to remind me that sometimes the best gifts aren't the nice ones wrapped up in fancy paper, but the ones that come from the heart. Today, we get caught up in material things when there are much more important things in life. I think spending time with my family and just sitting back to enjoy the spirit of Christmas is one of the best gifts of the season. As a child you are most interested in the presents under the tree, but as I have gotten older I would much rather just spend the time with the people I love. This year I am going to make myself forget about trying to make everything perfect and focus on the things that really matter and enjoy this next week.

Thunder Road Marathon-Charlotte, NC

This past Friday I rode up to Charlotte and stayed with my sister for the night for the Thunder Road Marathon Saturday morning. Since my knee has been bothering me I was just planning on running the half marathon until Friday morning. I knew I would be disappointed in myself if I didn't do the full. I made the decision to just go for the full. I figured that worst case I couldn't do it and I would just turn off with the halfers. Brendan had Lilly for the night by himself for the first time. I think he was a little nervous, but she went to bed for him no problem and he just put her in the bed with him when she woke up around 3am.

I rode to Charlotte with my brother and his wife. We went to the expo first to pick up our packets and buy some gels for the race. It wasn't a very big expo, but they had what we needed. Then, we met my sister and my brother's friend a Olive Garden for dinner to load up on carbs. We woke early Saturday to get ready for the race. Brendan drove up that morning with Lilly to watch the race. I was so excited that they were coming because Brendan wasn't able to come to my first marathon because of an exam the same day. It was pretty cold out, but it was good weather for the race. My brother was nice and slowed down to run with me and his friend who was also battling a knee problem. The course was beautiful and it was nice to see so many supporters out cheering us on. It was hilly though. My knee wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bothering me too bad until around mile 11 after a down hill. I could tell that something wasn't exacty right with my knee, but I tried to ignore it to see if it would just work itself out. Running up the next hill the pain dulled some and I felt confident that I could do the full. From there I was doing well until after mile 20 when my right IT band and my left calf were getting really tight. My calves never bother me, but I guess it was the way I was running because of my knee. I had to stretch out a couple of times through the finish. I was disappointed because when I ran Kiawah I didn't stop at all. Not even when drinking water. I was going really slow though because I also got an injury about a month before that marathon due to wrong shoes. My brother and I finished together in 4 hours 36 minutes. It was the worst run of my life, but I finished. The medal was a good incentive to get to the finish line. I guess I will wait until Lilly is a little older before trying to train for my 3rd marathon. That way I will have more time to train and hopefully won't get injured. Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Around the halfway point:

Lilly all bundled up:

Coming in at the finish!

Checking our watches (not planned!):

With our medals:

Give Thanks!

I know this is a little late, but better late than never...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to Cheraw, SC Wednesday night to see family. We have been going ever since I can remember and probably before! This was Lilly's first year. It is always nice to get together and to get to see distant cousins. Not as many are able to make it anymore as our families grow, but we still look forward to it every year. We had wonderful BBQ as we do every year. Then, Thursday we went to my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner with my Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and sister. My Mom cheated and cooked her Turkey 2 days early and fed some to Lilly then. So she got it a little early, but she loved it. On Thanksgiving she had more turkey and sweet potatoes. She liked the turkey the best because she could feed it to herself.
Brendan was off Friday so we took Lilly to the zoo for a little while to see the penguins especially. They are her favorite. Then we came home and Brendan helped me get the Christmas decorations out the attic and I went to work. I think it took me about 10 times longer than usual to get everything done because Lilly was "helping". All the decorations are up and now I just have to find some time to wrap presents.
Lilly walks most all of the time now and has gotten quite fast. She loves baby dolls and will hold the baby close and pat her back when you tell her to love the baby. She can also find the babies eye and say it. She tries to say dog and said apple the other day after hearing me say it a few times while feeding her apples, but I think she was just copying me because she hasn't said it anymore. She also tries to say shoe when I tell her I am putting her shoes on. She is such a sweet little girl and loves to pat everyone. Today we were in the almost deserted mall by our house so Lilly could see the singing and dancing bears near the Santa Claus display. There was a little girl older than Lilly that goes to our church watching also. Lilly walked over to her and patted her back. Then the little girl pushed Lilly. My poor baby! She didn't know what to think. She couldn't understand why the little girl did that. The mom apologized and explained that she has older siblings that she has to defend herself from. Then, at My Gym a little boy Lilly was playing with hit her. She was okay and just looked at him confused. I hope she doesn't pick up those kind of things. At least not yet anyways.
Sorry this is so long... Last few things... It doesn't look like I will be running my full marathon December 11th. I will have to do the half instead due to IT band issues. I was so frustrated! I have never had any problems with my knees and I have been running for almost 14 years. I was running with Lilly the weekend before Thanksgiving and about 3.5 miles into a 10 mile run my knee started to bother me. I finished 5 miles and could barely walk the rest of the day. It has gotten better, but still bothers me some. I feel like I wasted so much time training. Oh well, maybe one day when Lilly is a little older I will train for another full marathon.
Here are some pictures:
Lilly helping me do laundry:

Lilly with her Great Mama and Great Papa:

Lilly checking out the birds at the zoo:

Lilly training to be a Starbucks Barista:

Enjoying some turkey on Thanksgiving:

Sweet Lilly: