First Food ~

Declan tried his first food this week ~ rice and oatmeal ~

and loved them both ~ his smiles say it all!

 

 

 

Happy Halloween ~

Another fun filled season of Halloween at the Anderson's.  Here are several snapshots of our month...

We made sugar cookies and had fun decorating them 

Odin  ~ Hawkeye Avenger

Quinn ~ Batman

Corrigan ~ little Miss Ladybug

Declan ~ our little skeleton

Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch behind our house

and dad carving the pumpkins with the kids

I did It ~

My new journey ~ running.  After having 4 beautiful babies in 5 years I decided while pregnant with Declan that I was going to take up running after he was born.  So instead of shooting for a 5K or 10K race, I decided to go big.  Knowing I would need some type of competition to find my motivation I chose to run the Mankato Half Marathon.  My only goal was to cross the finish line...and I did it!  I'm looking forward to continuing running and entering my next race.  Here are some pictures of the crazy weekend. 

 The last 4 miles were by far the hardest. 

Seeing the finish line was a sight for sore eyes.

 My biggest fans! 

The kids participated in their own races on Saturday at the expo.

 My Mankato training buddy, Jenna.  At the beginning neither of us could run a mile and often questioned why we were doing this!  So happy we stuck it out.  We went from being two scared girls at the beginning to already planning our next half marathon.  The picture to the left is us celebrating the completion of our 12 weeks of training and on the right, the race is done!!

 My sister Teri helped me do several training runs and ran

with me the last mile of the race (when all I wanted to do was quit!).

4 months old ~

Our sweet baby boy Declan is 4 months old ~ time sure flies when you're having fun!  He weighs a whopping 14.4 pounds and is 24 1/4 inches long. He is wearing 6 month clothing already and is the first of our children to be wearing bigger sizes than his age. He continues to be a momma's boy (ok, I don't mind it a bit!) and receives constant hugs and kisses from his siblings. As you can see from a couple of the pictures, they are often placing items on him and using him as props when they play. The best thing about him right now are his constant smiles and his crazy hair!

Swim time ~

The boys and I took advantage of one of my perks as an adjunct at Mankato State today ~ free swimming!  It was fun and we got some much needed exercise.

Quinn was plugging his ears because the diving board was "too loud". 

Safety First ~

The kids and I took advantage of this beautiful day to check out firetrucks, ambulances, police cars and the Mayo One helicopter at one of our clinics in town. The kids loved seeing the chopper come in, land and take off again. 

Excitement ~

I've noticed more and more lately Quinn 'reading' books!  His interest in learning is starting to take place and it gets this momma excited. Tonight he counted each finger on one hand up to five and couldn't have been more proud of himself.