Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day with your friends and family!

Happy Turkey Day!

Love,
The Delano's

BONKERS!

This may be one of the reasons why Thanksgiving is beginning to be my favorite holiday!

These ornament hangers drive me BONKERS! One minute they are nice and neat, and the next minute they look like this.

What's a girl to do...

Halloween!!

Halloween started off bright and early for me as I headed to the Marriott Shoals to run in my first 5k for the UCP "Life Without Limits" event. I ran with one of my friends and coworkers Lisa Stamps, and about 10 of my 5th graders (Honor Club students) ran in the 5k as well. I also had about 20 kids and their parents that did the 1 mile Fun Run in honor of one of our preschoolers, Madelyn Willis. I was SUPER proud of my Honor Club kids for raising almost $3,200 to donate to the UCP in honor of Madelyn! They did an awesome job. I was also proud of two of my students who tied for 5th in the 5k in their division, Lisa placed 6th in her division and I place 3rd in my division! I could not believe it!

Once I left the Marriott, I flew back home, changed clothes, loaded Lane up and we headed to Macedonia (my parents church) for their Fall Festival. Lane had a blast! His cousins Rylee and Michael were there as well as several as his friends from preschool. Of course, Lane enjoyed riding the train and the hayride more than anything else!

After the fall festival we came home and both took a much needed nap. Once we woke up, we played and got ready for the Harvest Festival at Crosspoint. Lane was my little cowboy and I must say a pretty cute cowboy too! He loved his outfit and enjoyed wearing it. Lane's great grandma Nell from New Mexico sent him the Wranglers and the belt when he was born. My mom made the chaps and vest and I found the boots at WeeSwap for $5! We had a much better Halloween this year than last, considering I actually got to be with Lane instead of running around like a crazy woman!

Halloween 2009 was a great time!

YeeHaw!

Pumpkin Days

We have been pretty busy this month, so this post will include a snapshot of several different activities in the dandy Delano days! Lane is now 18 months old and is VERY, VERY busy and VERY, VERY fast. It is so hard to get a good picture of him now because he is constantly on the move. Somehow I have managed a few good ones the last few days.

Last week we visited McGee Farms with Lane's preschool. He goes to Macedonia SonShine School two days a week from 9-1. We decided this would give my mom a little break through the week and give Lane a great chance to socialize with other kids his age. While at McGee Farms, Lane did enjoy himself. Of course the first thing he spotted was the "TACTOR!!!" He loved the hayride, the cotton picking and playing in the shelled corn. He was exhausted when we left!

On Saturday, after the insanely crazy Alabama/Tennessee game, we baked Halloween cookies, carved our pumpkin, and Lane painted his pumpkin. It was great to see him cut out his cookies (what a mess), and paint his own pumpkin. It was hilarious to see him cringe when he touched the pumpkin "guts". The picture of the jack-o-lantern is sideways, but I think you get the idea.

On Sunday instead of going to Sunday at the pavilions at CPCOC (I know we are aweful), we headed out to DeerStep for some quiet time as a family. We have not been out there together as a family in a while and it was a much needed few hours away from everything. DeerStep is absolutely gorgeous this time of year and I was able to get a few good pictures of Lane doing what he does best. The first picture is of Lane "driving" daddy's Bad Boy Buggy (yes, that is what it is really called!). He is in this kissing phase and felt the need to kiss the stuffed turkey! This is Lane standing in a "TACTOR" wheel. Standing on the tractor and sitting in the tractor wheel (do you see a pattern?). And my sweet boy finally decided he should take a quick rest and sit on the steps before he navigates the porch. We had a great time this weekend just being together before Austin begins one of his busy seasons. These are the days that I love the most!

Life Without Limits

It is official...I am going to run in my first 5k on October 31st. This 5k is special to me because it is the UCP 1/2 marathon and 5k event. I, along with a few of my coworkers are going to run in honor of one of my coworkers' (Tina Willis) 3 year old daughter who has Down Syndrome. Not only are we running, but we are getting our Elementary Honor Club (5th and 6th graders) students involved by raising money for the UCP in honor of sweet little Madelyn. All of our Honor Club students have also committed their Halloween morning to be at the event with their parents, and some are even going to run/walk in the 5k and in the 1 mile Fun Run. I am so excited about the support that we will have from Wilson and from the school's community. Ms. Lisa at Goodman's Sports has also worked a great deal with us and we are all going to wear T-shirts with sweet Madelyn's picture on the front with the caption "Moving for Madelyn".

This event has given me a purpose for running and for sticking with it. Some days I dread going out and running, but I keep sweet Madelyn's face in my mind and realize that I have to. I have been blessed with a healthy, beautiful baby boy that does not have the physical/mental limitations that Madelyn does. And for that, I am grateful. But, I know that with the support of UCP and her parents, Madelyn has overcome and achieved so many obstacles and has been a blessing in the lives of so many that know her.

The events logo is "Life Without Limits" and I feel that is a logo that I can live by in every aspect of my life. I need to set the example to not limit myself with God, do not limit myself with AUstin and Lane, and do not limit myself with my family and friends. This is a kickstart to living my "LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS"!

The event website is http://www.lifewithoutlimits.racesonline.com/. I encourage all of you to look into getting involved in this event. If you are running...find your purpose to run and know that you doing it because you too want to live your life without limits!

Goodnight Moon

This video is one of my favorites because Lane loves this book and loves to "read" the book after we read it to him.

And the next video is just funny to me, because Lane finally has a water gun that he can operate thanks to our wonderful neighbors!

Cells

I absolutely LOVE teaching Science to my 5th grade students! Life Science is definately my favorite part of Science. This week my students have learned about the parts and functions of plant and animal cells. On Friday, we got the Play-Doh out and each student had to make a plant cell and an animal cell. They had to mold each part out of a different color and then show me the parts and tell me their functions. My students did a wonderful job of showing and explaining the cells and their functions. I hope that they were able to better understand cells by actually getting to create them.

FYI: I did not get any faces in the pictures b/c of legal purposes.