The Most Epic Party I'll Ever be a Part Of

Vic and I are both weirdly slow about posting about her shower from a few weeks ago--so I thought I'd go ahead and start the sharing. I'll eventually put up more detail shots on the RV blog--but for now, here are a few of my favorites!



The theme of the shower was black and white stripes and rainbow confetti and GOLD--or basically, things we like. We held it in the Anecdotally Yours studio and it was perfect. Erica and Jeff are angels sent from heaven and were so accommodating. I made the guest of honor iron my skirt, as is the bridal shower tradition, which means I was wearing running clothes when she arrived...whoops! Erica teased me as she was shooting our details--I made her stop so I could move a pitcher a fraction of an inch, which didn't seem ridiculous until she pointed it out.



Vic's dress was amazing and if something happens to her wedding dress, I'm pretty sure she could rewear this one and look just about as fabulous. I loved it. As you can see, the theme was kind of just AWESOME THINGS. I tried to reassure guests that really, this is the pinnacle of the party planning mountain for me. Never will I have another excuse to plan such a ridiculous party. Well, I guess until Vic's baby shower... which will have to be epic-er. Vic has thrown more parties than you'd believe--so her friends are all chomping at the bit to give back and celebrate her!



I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures of the actual shower festivities--which is probably a good thing. It means we were all busy having fun. Or in my case, trying to eat as much cheese as I could fit in my mouth. I was so glad Kat got to drive in and bring her cute baby boy for the party! And Abbey and Tara were my amazing co-hostesses, who totally let me run amok and reserved (most!) of their judgment regarding some of my more crazy ideas.



I can't even begin to express how excited I am for #kiptoria and how much I'm looking forward to celebrating with them on November 29th. I'm so blessed to be along for the ride!

Chalk

I'm caught in a spiral of not blogging, and therefore forgetting to take pictures of anything, and then not having anything to blog... so I'm going to go ahead and put of some pictures of the kids playing outside. They aren't particularly nicely composed. They don't have a great story. But that's kind of what life is like right now.



We don't have big flashy things happening all the time. We spend lots of time driving around taking kids to and from things. We're busy with life and having lots of fun. I don't necessarily have the energy to write exciting things or think of thoughtful anecdotes... but I still want to remember drawing in the driveway with chalk. (Even though it's hot and there are ants. And mosquitos.)



I want to remember the solar system Finley made--and the way he likes to draw "Doctor Who World" with TARDISes and Daleks and the Doctor, saving everyone. And how Keaton LOVES to crawl on the driveway and gets all chalky and messy.



And Braden, with a mind of his own. He loves for us to trace his shadow and lay down and trace him. And he loves to run around and march to his own drum.

This picture doesn't fit anywhere--but I love it. I love his silly popped collar and the fact that he can't walk yet. But he loves to sit on that car and push it around. Life with these boys is busy and fun and a liiiittle bit exhausting.

Texas Pecan Festival

With Sol out of town, my mom and I decided to join some new Beaumont friends at the Texas Pecan Festival--which was, as my mother would probably say, a hoot. It was hot (as Texas seems to always be) and a bit muddy, but we had fun anyways.



We ate some delicious carnival food--boudain balls for my mom, and shrimp balls for me. And Keaton got really excited about a corn dog, a baby after my own heart. Our first ride was a kind of terrifying ferris wheel--it seemed a little too easy to get out at any point. Braden was adorably scared for the first few rounds--insisting I hold on to him tight. But both boys loved it and Finley kept trying to get higher to look out and almost gave me a heart attack.



On the left you can see me taking a selfie with the boys--and when I showed Finley the picture on the right he said, "WHOA! How did you take that with your phone!" He's awesome.



Braden rode this awesome pink car with his new pal Bennett. Bennett is smitten with Finley and its adorable. The big boys all loved the slide--even though Bennett looks a bit terrified!



The highlight for Finley was probably the bumper cars--which were surprisingly fun, even though I look terrified.



The low point of the outing was when my mom stepped in a fire ant hill and got eaten by ants. Fire ants are the worst, in case you've never met them. They seriously make me never want to go outside in this place--between that and the heat, I'm pretty happy enjoying life indoors!

Running Update

It's been quite the adjustment running in the Texas heat--but I'm surviving. I'm starting to get unreasonably anxious about the marathon (NYC on Nov 2) and just have a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head about it.

I ran the Plaza 10k in KC this past weekend (although I added 20k more to get me 18 miles) and it was glorious. I ran a 44:46 which was faster than I'd hoped. I was thrilled to finish so quick since I restrained myself a bit, knowing that I was still going to run 9 more miles after the race. The pictures below kind of crack me up... I ran the course twice--first as a race, then again just to get more miles in. Any guess which ones were the race and which were the extra fun miles?



I also really love these pictures too--me finishing my first lap and then my second lap when I caught up with Vic and Abbey! Love that the race let you download the photos for FREEE!



Back to the marathon--I've switched up my training schedule for the first time--all eight of my previous marathons have been done using the trusty Hal Higdon method (5-6 days of running) but this time I'm using the FIRST method, which is three VERY HARD runs every week. One track workout, one tempo run, one long run, two days of cross training. I've been doing the two shorter runs on the treadmill while the boys are in preschool and swimming two mornings a week. I try to squeeze in some Barre, but I struggle to make myself do it.

We (or maybe just me) were feeling exceptionally silly after running 18 miles and having a few adult beverages... Also--look at the sweet medal!

The long run is still a challenge--I can't leave early enough for it to be cool so I just struggle and sweat in the heat. So much sweat that I KILLED my iPhone and had to get a new one. Sad face. It doesn't show any sign of cooling down soon, so I'm taking the heat as a valuable training tool and hoping it means I'll be super quick running in the cool fall weather in NYC.

We've been friends a long time. 

I am not sure what I'm hoping will happen in NYC. First, I'm just excited to GO. Sol and I are going without the boys--so it will be a delight no matter what. I've wanted to run NYC for a long time and will probably never get the chance again, so I'm thrilled just to be there. I'm a little nervous about the hills--there's literally 3 feet of elevation change on my long run route, so I need to find a hill somewhere to get some practice on. Basically, I'm excited. I can't even guess if I'll qualify for Boston this time... it's still a 3:35 for me to qualify, and they let you in based on how much you beat your time by--so who knows how fast I'd actually have to run. All I know is I don't want to stress about it--I want to enjoy a trip to New York with Sol and I want to enjoy running in that amazing city! If I run fast--even better.

Braden and Keaton in Preschool

Braden and Keaton are BOTH going to preschool two days a week this year--do you know what that means??? It means freedom. Four sweet hours, twice a week where I can run, grocery shop, clean... and be in silence. Ahhhh...



Braden did not love preschool last year. He cried about it every day (and got over it within minutes.) His teacher this year is SO sweet and I think he really likes it--he willingly went on Thursday and asked to go back Friday! Such a huge victory for this kid. He loves his new backpack that's "just like Finn's."



Best thing about Texas? Preschool for one year olds!!! Keaton disagrees, but he really doesn't get a vote. He's got serious separation anxiety--I had to pick him early Tuesday and we're going to try slightly shorter days this week to ease him in a little. He's just in love with me. And who can blame him?? Our typical week will have two days of gym childcare, two days of preschool, a day a BSF and church nursery--so he will hopefully learn to love playing with other nice ladies soon!



Um, does this backpack just kill you? It's monstrous on him, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of him in it. I want to kiss him all the time.



Sol took some awesome pictures of me pretending Keaton is baby Simba and that I'm Rafiki. It's a normal game to play with your baby.



Just a quick family picture so that we can remember that we all exist in the same place and time occasionally. Happy school starting!

Keaton at ONE

Is this officially the latest post about a kid turning a year old? Yep, it probably is. Here's the important details...

Height: 28.25"
Weight: 19 lbs 4 oz
Head: 46 cm



If you can believe it, he's even smaller than Finley at 1. My little peanut.  He's still a stinker about eating and sleeping. He loves to nurse and will feed himself some foods (carbs are his jam) and pouches of pureed stuff. I've approached feeding all three boys very differently--it's so crazy to see how different they are! He's still waking up once at night and I'm trying REALLY hard not to feed him. Some nights have a couple hours of crying around 1--some nights he goes right back to sleep after I cuddle him for a minute. And some nights I'm tired and I cave.



He's serious about his crawling--and will finally walk around holding our fingers. He's not standing on his own for more than a second or two yet, but it all changes so fast, I'm sure he'll be chasing the big boys before they know what hit them. He pulls up well and will cruise around like crazy.



Keaton loves Finley and Braden the most and just wants to be around them. Finley still is friendly towards him--occasionally hamming it up when Keaton is laughing at him. Braden... still not Keaton's biggest fan. Basically, whenever Keaton gets near him Braden asks me to "take care of Keaton."



He seems to forget his tricks as quickly as he learns them--at points he's been able to wave and do SO BIG... but he's not so interested now. He says dada and that's about it. I'm still waiting on that elusive MAMA. Make no mistake, I'm his fave. We're working really hard to manage the separation anxiety so he can be a little more pleasant at preschool/gym/BSF/church... and I think we're making strides. Hopefully Tuesday goes well!



Love you little boy!