Christmas with the Paynes 2012

We always have such a great visit with Justin's family when we are in Nashville. This year, Cassie's family was in Turkey for Christmas, but we still got to spend time with Nonie and Pops and Katie's family. 

Playing with Daddy at Nonie and Pops house. 

Watching some tv

We went to Aunt Katie's house too!

Me, Reese and Rebecca 

The kids opened their Christmas gifts!

Julianna and James play a new game!

Christmas morning at Nonie's!!

Opening gifts!!

Reese talking to Nonie

Giving Papa Blair his gifts

The traditional ride upstairs with Papa :)

Christmas morning jog!

More playtime with Daddy

Reese loves her Papa Blair!

James and Nonie being silly!!

Church in Downtown Franklin

What a great visit!!

Leiper's Fork Christmas Parade

We came to Leiper's Fork for Christmas this past December. Nonie and the "Friends of the Leiper's Fork Library" were in the Christmas parade this year again. We went to historic down town to watch!

Waiting for the parade to begin!!

Playing in the rocks

Here they come!

Mike Wolfe from American Pickers!

James loved the big tractor!!

We saw everything you could imagine!

A porta potty??

Yay!!  There's Nonie pushing the library cart!!  She was a Who from Whoville!

Great job Nonie!

Merry Christmas!

Sonny the Elf

This year for Christmas we decided to purchase the "elf on the shelf". We thought it would be another fun thing to add to the Christmas spirit. Lots of people use the elf to help remind their kids to have good behavior over the holiday, but since our little ones are so young, we just made it a fun little extra daily event. 

We named our elf Sonny, and every evening when the kids were asleep, Sonny would "come to life"and get into mischief. So when the kids woke up the following morning, they would go look for Sonny and find him doing something silly. The one rule we had was that the kids could not touch Sonny.   We tried to have Sonny in a different spot every day up until Christmas when Sonny would fly back home to the North Pole. 

Here is Sonny getting into mischief. 

Hanging on the wreath

Stuck in the Christmas lights on the tree!

Guess he had a sweet tooth this night. 

Play time!

Midnight snack.... And he made a mess!

Swinging like a monkey!

Climbing upstairs. It must have been dark that night bc Sonny had a flashlight in his hands. 

I asked James what Sonny was doing this morning and he said, "Sonny wanted to see Jesus!"

 So sweet. 

Sonny got stuck on the fridge. 

More climbing

More swinging!

Looks like Sonny watched some tv. 

Playing with Santa 

And Sonny actually slept one night :)

St. Jude Half Marathon 2012

The St. Jude Half Marathon was sooo much fun this year!  So many family members ran in it!

Rachel and Eric came in town with their two kiddos and spent a few days with us.

Nonie and Pops also stayed with us!  

My dad was running the Half too, so we would meet up with him on race day.

Payne and Reese look out the window of the Cook Convention Center down town.

The day before the race, we had to pick up our race packets and bib numbers.  

Payne and James couldn't stop looking at the cars on the road.

Adde and Reese manage to look at the camera :)

More watching :)

Playing at home- going for a quick wagon ride while waiting for dinner!

Adde is always so sweet to Reese :)

Just hanging out

Reese and Payne having breakfast.

Love having the Harrisons staying with us!

On Saturday, December 1, the whole family rode to the race together!

Justin, Dad, Me, Rachel, Eric, Dad Payne

before the start of the race.

(and a big thanks to Mom and Mom Payne for watching all the kids while we raced!)

Eric and Rachel

Rachel with Rachel's friend Rachel!  Haha.

Rachel and Me

Dad and Me

(Dad's first half marathon!)

So excited to race this with him!

Justin with his Dad (who also is running a half for the first time!)

Justin and Me :)

And we are off!  (I think this is about half way through)

I had such a great time SPEED walking with my dad.  We talked a ton and had a fantastic experience together.  He is a great racing buddy!

Yep, Dad being silly.  We needed some of that around mile 8/9 :)

Around Mile 10 we see Dad Payne!  Way to go!  Still smiling!

I ran ahead of Dad to capture him running past mile 12!  This is the longest we trained, so just one more mile to go ;)

We see the finish as we make our way into AutoZone Park!

Dad Crossing the finish line!  

 Dad finished in 2 hours 50 minutes!  Amazing first half!

What a great day.  Lots of family racing for St. Jude.

I know this sounds cheesy, but this day totally warmed my heart, and I was teary eyed many times.

I never want to forget it!