"Just Another Day in Paradise"

We spent Christmas in Mobile this year. We had a fabulous time - especially the kids who had a blast hanging out with all of their cousins.

Here are a few pictures to recap the trip:

the night before Christmas Eve we made our annual visit to Ruth Chris' for dinner and had a ball as usual. Mary and Phillip had headed out to meet their friends when we took the picture.

Christmas Eve we went to mass at 4:30pm. The kids did great believe it or not. No one even had to go to the cry room. After church, we came back to the house and had Sissy's yummy gumbo for dinner and got ready for Santa to come!

A cute picture of the kids in their Christmas outfits

Mommy and Mae

our one family picture for the week but it turned out pretty cute!

they were not too excited about taking a picture together

family pic

Big E is loving life!

Baby Elle

Mae is pouting about something

Mary is busy making her squash casserole for Christmas day

all the boys are working REAL hard!

Sanders and Austin

Mae riding the train with her tutu!

Alex eating a yummy bowl of Sissy's gumbo

Mary and sweet Elle

all the daddy's helping the kids decorate their cookies for santa

Sanders loves decorating cookies!

all the children nestled in their beds . . .

and all the stockings were hung by the fireplace with care

Looks like Santa was good to Mae this year

and Sanders too!

Sanders digging into his presents

Maddie's new princess shoes

Mae seeing her new princess dresses for the first time

putting on her new make-up!

Sanders opening up his presents

Sanders stocking from Santa

Sissy soaking it all in!

Rudolph Sanders

Mae is in amazement of all of her new toys!

Princess Mae and Princess Maddie

Santa Big E handing out all of the presents

Phillip and Emil with their girls

Mae and Daddy

Emil and Grace opening up her princess CD

Alex got a remote control helicopter

Sanders opening up his new remote control airplane

Sissy opening up her watercolor painting

she loves it!

Princess Mae

Sanders coloring the car he got from Santa

such a little artist

the proud grandparents!

Ready for the party at Judy and Judson's

Pop Pop handing out all the presents

Judson, Laney and Shelby

Mae loves her new baby doll that Pop Pop got her

Opening up another present . . .

she loves the jewelry case Pop Pop got her too!

she is showing him her bracelet

Mary and Elle

Scott, Judson and Sanders

Mae and Sanders posing in front of the Christmas tree

Sanders and Maddie

sweet Mae

Pop Pop posing with all of his great-grandkids

Mae is having fun sitting next to Pop Pop

one of my favorite pictures from Christmas!

Back at the house now and getting ready for Christmas dinner. The boys are in charge of getting the turkey ready to fry!

Sanders loves baby Elle!

Everyone loves baby Elle

Mae loves baby Elle

Helen Marie's new bag we gave her for Christmas

The turkey is ready!

Helen Marie and Emil

Sanders and Helen Marie

Sanders carving the turkey

all the boys trying to steal a bite while Sissy wasn't looking

Helen Marie taking a swig of Pop Pop's liquor

Big E had to join in the fun!

Sarah is busy making her yummy salad

Emil and Maddie

Big E and Sanders

Sanders with Big E and Sissy

Mae agreed to pose for a picture with Helen Marie

Mae in her cinderella dress

dancing with Maddie

everyone in their matching pjs!

Emil and Elle

Sanders and Mae halfway cooperating for a picture

Mae and Grace disappeared at one point and we found them on the couch going through old photo books. It was too cute!

Mommy and Mae

Mae's blisters from wearing the "princess" shoes all over the house

we made them better by putting bandaids on. Didn't stop her from wearing the shoes though!

coloring time!

Grace pushing Mae in the baby stroller

Sunday night we went to the Graf Christmas Party at Katy and Emil Sullivan's house. It was a huge turnout!

Here is a picture of all the Graf cousins - it is definitely a big group!

this is one generation

with their spouses. . .

another generation

and their spouses

Phillip, Elle and cousin Clark

Sanders and Mae

He looks guilty!

All the young cousins - Gigi, Sanders, Helen, Emil, Clark and Phillip

Sanders, Emil, Clark and Phillip

this will probably be the last time she ever puts on a football helment. She is much more the tiara type!

Big E and Sissy

I think little Sanders had a crush on his older cousin!

Sanders and Helen Marie

Maddie being silly with uncle Sanders

Yes, we completed the Dallas White Rock half marathon! We ran it in 1 hour 41 minutes which was 3 minutes faster than last year. I was pretty excited about our time - I didn't see how we were going to beat our time from last year but somehow we did it! We definitely ran pretty fast the entire race - our average pace was 7:48. Sanders and I definitely balance each other out and push each other. I always start off fast in the beginning and he ends the race fast. He definitely had to push me this time - I was dying by the last mile!

The race weather started off REALLY cold and windy but after a few miles it felt great. The cold weather definitely makes it easier to run. Our pre-race regiment was a little hectic considering we couldn't find a Starbucks that was open at 6:30am on a Sunday morning, then we got stuck in crazy traffic on the way to the race, Sanders realized he left his race bib at the hotel (thankfully he had his chip) and once we got there had to totally cut in line to use the bathroom before the race. Every bathroom line was 20 people deep. Somehow we made it to the start line just minutes before the race started!

There was a great group from Shreveport running the race - Alexis & Rob, Neal and Stephen, Holly and Lance, Jennifer Doege, Ronda Trawick, Nora and Candy Watkins were just some of the ones I knew running the race. Everyone finished great!

It was a huge accomplishment. Now, I'm taking the week off from running to rest my weary legs and figure out what I am going to do next!

Here are some pics from the race that I took on my Iphone:

right before we took off: