Wrestling.

Random pictures, and I'm 28.

I'm so close to being done with Christmas preparations, I can taste it! (Literally... I am licking my fingers from an early morning in the kitchen making cute Christmas tree Rice Krispy treats for Carson's pre school class PLUS peppermint topped fudge. That stuff is good.) On the to-do list today are to finally address and mail those Christmas cards and finish up some home-made gifts.

A few things we've been up to...

Making gingerbread houses...

Twice!

Having a few Christmas-y playdates.

This was a fun game: roll the dice to see which part you put on your snow man.

Our church's Christmas party.  Rick is singing with the boys.

I love this: note the sheep who are getting a little wild, and the shepherds putting them back in line. And then there's my Carson, being a good little sheep.

Yep, there he is.

BYU baby. Watch out: she walks!!

And jumps off of couches!

Lots of holiday baking. Everett is always up on that ladder with me.

One morning, as soon as we got back from taking Carson to pre-school, Everett wanted me to teach him how to take pictures with the camera. Here is his best shot.

And then he asked for some pictures to be taken of him! He wanted pictures of himself smiling,...

doing tricks, and...

dancing.

The other day Carson was SO excited that I had forgotten to make my bed, because it meant he could do this!

All I wanted for my birthday this year was to go to the Golden Corral. It was only my second time ever going to one, but I love everything about that place. I love that everyone gets exactly what foods they want. (Carson: mostly mac and cheese, a little pizza. Everett: olives. A hamburger was the only other thing he said he would eat, so I grabbed a roll and a piece of meat and put one together for him. Faye: pieces of ham, cheese, grapes, etc. Rick: A lot of everything. Me: A huge salad with everything on it, and then little tiny tastes of most everything else.) And I love that my kids can be noisy and play under the table and no one cares. And I love the people-watching at this place! And I love that someone else cleans up all the food Faye throws off her high chair. See why I wanted to go there?!?!

AND I love that the meal includes dessert! Cotton candy!!

And now Faye even pulls her ponytails out. What are we going to do with this girl? I had a great birthday, and now I'm 28!

We are a family of runners!

So I know some sisters of mine would deny it, but these photos prove that the Dicksons are total runners!!

My mom, little sister Mackenzie, Rick and I ran the Mistletoe half marathon, and Mackenzie's husband Beau ran the 5K. Pappy was on kid duty. My mom decided the week before to run it, and although we had to wait around for a bit, she finished strong! I hope I can do that when I'm her age!

Last year I ran this same race (the 5K) 8 months pregnant with Faye girl!

My friend Emily and I trained together for this race. We finished at 1:47, and although it's what we thought we would do I was quite disappointed since the only other half I have run was a 1:46. I was also a little disappointed that Rick majorly beat us (1:34) without much training. Emily and I are confident we can crush that time, though, and are ready to do some speed workouts!

We all ran out to run the last stretch with Grandmama.

We are totally a runner family!

The girls. We just need to convert Reagan and Ashley. :)

Family Pictures 2011

I LOVE taking family pictures each fall. Getting everyone all dressed up and then having fun together while someone else worries about the camera is just so fun. Luckily I scored an awesome Groupon deal for our last two family photos shoots for Ashley, who is so talented. Here are some of my favorites from a few weeks ago.

Ha!

Thanksgiving + Football.

We had a nice little Thanksgiving. I decided I should practice cooking in case we start playing host in years to come, so I cooked EVERYTHING! Then we ended up eating at our neighbor's house, so we saved our turkey and some other sides for a meal the next day. I am realizing now that we took no pictures of all the beautiful food! Sad! Let's just say that injecting your turkey with a little butter goes a long way. This recipe was awesome!! I had some good learning experiences (bake the rolls for less time, don't drop the pumpkin pie toffee cheesecake on the floor while pulling it out of the fridge, etc.), and Rick and I seriously had fun cooking up a storm in the kitchen together for two days straight.

The kids' table at our neighbor's house. Again, no other pictures is breaking my heart! But thanks to the Walton's for hosting a lovely meal.

Ok I did find one more picture. The salvaged part of the dropped cheesecake, and an apple pie. (I am a little bit proud of my beautiful crust.)

The boys were pretty excited about these little candy turkeys we made. We stuck name card in them for the table setting.

I convinced BFF Carrie to go Black Friday shopping with me. We headed out at 9:30 p.m. and got back before 2. We had SO MUCH FUN, but let's be honest: the deals were just not worth it to me. I actually have now returned most everything I bought that night.

We got to go to a Wake football game Thanksgiving weekend. (The last of the season, which means it was our last chance ever to attend a game while living here! Thanks Jared for hooking us up!!) The game was just perfect. Beautiful weather, all three kids had a blast, Rick got to watch a football game, and I got to chat with BFF Etta. (I have a lot of BFFs.) You can see how the kids felt about the game:

So maybe we don't look thrilled, but I'm sure we were chatting about something important.

We learned that big pretzels keep Faye occupied for a long time.

The loudness of the game plus the threat of the Deamon Decon mascot coming near had Carson doing this for the first half of the game, but he loosened up eventually.

If you look, you can see Everett hugging the Deamon Deacon. Lately, Everett wants whatever is exactly opposite of what Carson says or does. So, I ask Carson if he wants to go meet the Deamon Deacon, and of course his answer is, "No way." Everett immediately says, "I do!" And there he goes.

And now we are feeling all Christmas-y around here! Off to work on some home-made gifts!!