26.2

Run Pop run!  Yea Pop!  The whole family packed up and went to Memphis last weekend to cheer on Bill as he ran his first marathon.  And for a great cause too - he raised money to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Jon and I have only completed half marathons, never a whole, so we give him props for sure!

This is the pre-race pajama party with Anna and Ben practicing their cheering

The start line

We caught up with Bill around mile 15 to cheer him on...

Anna and Ben had fun playing in the dirt and leaves

Then we ate lunch and went to the finish to meet up with Pop and cheer him on in the final stretch.  While waiting for him, we saw a banana, and it was necessary to take a picture.

Here's Pop rounding the corner at the finish line

The guy on the left tried to give him a high 5 but Bill was too focused to see and totally left him hanging ...too funny

Congratulating our Pop after the race.  Then we went back to Clarksdale for a short trip to see some friends at church Sunday and watch UGA's amazing first half and then sad loss to LSU (sniffle sniffle)

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Atlanta with family and definitely packed a lot into our long weekend trip!  Anna and Ben's favorite activity at Grandmommy and Papa's house - climbing the stairs.  We often had to make a barricade because they are not so good at going down!

Anna having special time with Papa

This is everyone except our hostess with the mostest my mom, and we're also missing Uncle Ralph.

We were able to see two of Caroline's basketball games that so conveniently were in Atlanta!  Anna and Ben had fun crawling around on the court after the game.  Go Panthers!!  Doesn't Ben look cool in his jersey Aunt Caroline bought for game days?

This is back at home, but a cute picture of our Anna bear 

Our latest trick - playing peek-a-boo.  Here's Anna hiding while Ben plays in the storage bins for Christmas decorations.

Peekaboo - here I am!!  Except Anna says "ta".  We think she's trying to say peekaboo but not too sure!

What we've been up to

We celebrated our first birthday and dressed up for Halloween, and now there haven't been many events to justify a blog post...so we figured we would give you an idea of what we do on an everyday basis.  As one year olds who are trying to walk but not quite there yet and generally into everything!

We clap and play patty cake!

We cheer for the dawgs...woof woof woof

We make big messes and enjoy mealtimes!

We are so big drinking out of sippy cups now and no more b-o-t-t-l-e-s

We play with our friends - this is a fun playmate with Annaliese who is a month older

We cheer for daddy who just completed his 3rd half marathon - this time a trail race at Oak Mountain State Park

We eat mommy's iPhone

And learn how to use the cheerio "no spill" snack cup

We play with the toys we got for birthday

And we wrestle with our brother!

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving in Atlanta, so stay tuned for more Gleason updates.

Halloween 2011

Anna and Ben were just 2 weeks old last Halloween, so we pretty much just took pictures while they were awake!  I remember Ben cried if we tried to take the paci away.  Here's our pumpkin ballerina and black cat.

Look how much we've grown!  I figure until they're old enough to have an opinion Halloween is our chance to dress them in ridiculously cute clothes and take pictures.  This year we thought it would be fitting for Anna to be a princess and Ben a dragon.  Jon actually wanted a white ninja costume for Ben, but dragon was cuter and easier to find!  Anna did not love getting her costume on and wouldn't wear her tiara hairbow.  But she still may be the fairest of them all!

I think Ben made the cutest dragon, and he didn't seem to mind how bulky his costume was.  Both enjoyed trying to eat candy...I think the chocolate was slowly seeping out of the wrapping.

Eating the candy.  I did let them try a kit-kat bar so they had a taste of chocolate for the first time!

Anna and Ben had a great time watching the other kids and hanging out in the front yard while I was lighting the luminaries.  I did have to monitor some attempts to eat acorns!  When Jon came home, we loaded up in the stroller and went on a walk to see friends.

Dinner time and costumes are over.  I still think Ben is so cute with his dragon pants!

Happy Halloween everyone!  It feels like the beginning of the holiday season which will be so much fun with Anna and Ben this year.  Love you!

First Birthday Party - Part III

We were too busy enjoying the day to take many pictures, but here's a good one of the handsome Gleason men...kind of dressed alike

We were honored by a special performance of "Ben and Anna" by Joe.  It's a great song that he wrote for them:

"You just started life today

And I was a hundred miles away

Watching early fog roll out

You are what I thought about"

Anna and Ben with Grammie and Aunt Caroline - very tired by this point

And the after shot of birthday boots - this illustrates a difference between little boys and little girls, at least in our family!

First Birthday Party - Part II

Our guests!  We are so thankful for our family and friends who have helped us throughout the first year with twins!  We hope this was a time to thank you for your support and prayers and babysitting time, and we missed those who couldn't come.

Grandmommy serving as waitress to Anna and Ben so Jon and I could eat.  Uncle Tim and Aunt Rachel gave us a favorite book Gossie about a gosling who likes to wear red boots...Anna was super excited to be like Gossie for her big day!

Eating lunch - what a handsome fella!

And beautiful girl...this is before she discovered the hairbow

Eating the "smash cakes" - before

And family shot after.  Neighbor Rachel was the perfect photographer - thank you Rachel!!

Anna had no trouble slowly destroying her cake, but she was more fascinated by the texture and playing with it than actually putting it in her mouth!

Silly face

Ben was vaguely interested but tired out by this point.  He had some energy left to inspect the cake.

Then he said "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" aka "please get me out of this chair and why is everyone staring at me and taking pictures?"

First Birthday Party - Part I

Jon and I think Anna and Ben were born at the most perfect time of year, so their birthday party was a celebration of fall!  The only thing missing was GA football, but we had an off week.  Here are Pop and Gran posing on our new deck.  We had such a perfect day for the party!

Jon did a great job setting up the backyard for the party.  We had apple bobbing, pumpkins to decorate, turkey decoys and lots of great fall-inspired food.  A good friend Chris came early to help out...he's here with Ben exploring the party setup.

Isn't Ben so handsome in his little man clothes and boots?!

Birthday cake for guests and smash cakes for Anna and Ben