November 19, 2012 was my last post...gee whiz. Well I am back to a schedule and hoping to get back to writing. We have had a whirl wind of appointments the last 6 weeks and with the Holidays that doesn't leave much time for writing, and other activities. However we are home now are going to back to solid routine. Lord knows the girls and I need it. :) Lydia will start weekly physical therapy.Her first step is to start strengthening her core so when standing she isn't soley barring weight on her upper body. I have some activities I do with her at least once a day that include using an exercise ball. Our goal is to have Lydia walking by her 2nd birthday which I think she can do! Isabelle will go to child care on post while Lydia is at her PT appointments. If I am lucky Isabelle will start gymnastics this week (hoping there's a spot left for her!) Otherwise we will wait till Feb. In between that we will have play dates and story/craft time at the library. I am lucky enough to have found two sweet mommies with girls around the same age as mine. Needless to say there is plenty of play dates to keep our girls occupied. The family and I were in Wisconsin over the Holidays and we enjoyed it immensely. The day we arrived we were hit with a big snow storm and the snow lasted the whole time we were there. The snow hit just 15 minutes from my in-laws and it couldn't have come at a better time. We had our white Christmas, snow man in the front yard, and Jake did plenty of shoveling/plowing, etc... Although I didn't work out for 2 weeks (shame, shame, shame) I did squeeze in a 5K the Saturday before Christmas. HOLY CRAP WAS IT COOOOOOOLD. Jake and I left about 7 am for downtown Milwaukee, temp a 'warm' (yea right)8 degrees. My aunt and I planned this a few weeks prior and upon getting out of the car I thought we were nuts! There was a sea of red Santa shirts, hats, and beards...nothing like Santa to get you in the Holiday spirit. Unfortunately there were no heating tents and the bathrooms were a mile away...I mean people we are downtown, off the lakefront, in 12 degree weather! Poorly planned if you ask me, but what are you gonna do? Fortunetly my aunt saw a crowd gathering by the Milwaukee Art Museum which was along the running path and the garage below was HEATED! Praise be to Jesus, you bet we ran there to heat our frozen toes and tushi. Our hot hands only worked to heat just that. All said and done we had a blast but I don't think I will ever do a run in the extreme cold again.

I finished 31st place out of 304 women in my age group, and if not for the icy trail I do believe I could have made the top 20. I came in at 28:39, not my best time. Just glad I didn't break a leg! We did a lot on our trip back. Isabelle went ice skating for the first time, we enjoyed a few Sunday fun days with friends and family. Ate entirely too much and thoroughly enjoyed our selves. I am a little late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!