Brew to Brew 2013

 

4:30 AM wake up call

43.5 miles

10 legs

6 hours and 27 minutes

To support a great friend and a great cause 

More than $50,000

Donated to Cystic Fibrosis

Ledbetter's Army was up and at 'em bright and early this past Sunday to participate in the Brew to Brew running event.

  

For having a team that had barely trained (well...the better half of us), I'd say we did pretty darn good. We completed the 43.5 mile race in 6 hours and 27 minutes, averaging right under a 9-minute mile.

 

We ran on pavement, dirt and gravel, and one team member had to cross a river on a boat. Some members got stuck with legs that had endless hills and nearly died, but I think we made our team leader proud nonetheless:).

You see, our team leader is an athletic-doesn't miss a day-fit bad ass that happens to have a rare form of cystic fibrosis. He is definitely an inspiration to all of us. 

He ran four legs of the race (totaling 18 miles) just because he's a nice guy and wanted to give his wife, mom and brother-in-law a running buddy.

We had a great time, lots of laughs, and not too much complaining:).

Great job team! Next year, I think we'll train. Right!? 

If that's the case, we should probably veto Brian and Josh cracking open beers at 5:30 AM.

Mile High Twenty Twelve

Our vacation trip to Colorado was very different from last year.

We had just as much fun and soaked up just as many friends and family members, but the addition of the new guy made it...busy as ever.

I had forgotten how much work it is to watch your child 24/7 for 10 days straight. Actually 12 days straight considering he got sick towards the end of the trip and missed his first couple of days back to school.

It sounds terrible, but when you get used to taking your child to daycare during the week, you forget what it was like on maternity leave.

And when they're crawling everywhere and at houses that haven't been baby proofed, well you have to watch them nonstop to keep them from seriously injuring themselves.

Mile High again treated us well.

Summertime in the mountains (a first for yours truly), outdoor activities (no run-ins with fires thank god), loads of delicious food and cocktails, cooler weather than Kansas (hooray!), much needed catch up time with friends and family, and quality time with the hubs.

Just kidding. That last one was a lie.  At least for this year's trip.

Last year's trip was when Big Boy was conceived. TMI? Sorry, it's a special city for our little family. We contemplated naming him Denver or Aspen, but then decided we liked Carson better.

Ready for a butt load of pictures of our trip? Because you know I can't just take a few.

Jungle Animal Baby Shower

A couple weeks ago, I helped host a baby shower for one of my bestest friends. Baby B should be making his debut sometime at the end of March.

I've decided that baby showers are much more fun than bridal showers. Sorry soon-to-be-brides out there, but baby gear is just much more exciting to watch your guest open!

She's having a boy and her nursery theme is jungle animals, so we took that and ran with it.

I was on maternity leave, so I had some extra time on my hands to design the invites and include a few DIY touches.

 Front of Invite

Not gonna lie, I found this invite somewhere online and then re-created in Illustrator/InDesign with minor changes.

Don't you just love the elephants?

 Back of Invite

Is that not the cutest idea ever? This is a great way to help start a baby's book collection. My shower included this very same idea, and I loved receiving books for Carson!

Small touches of blue, green and brown were scattered through Megan's large open living room and kitchen area. "Advice for the new Mom" cards greeted guests at a table by the front door. A DIY "Baby B" banner hung on the fireplace mantle and Megan's chalkboard in her kitchen made for a nice touch.

Lucky for us, Megan's daughter, Grace, has an animal-themed nursery, so we snuck a few decorations from her room:)

Cute onesies (facing both ways) were hung in the door frame to mimic a clothes line. Baby B is going to be one stylish kid!

The spread was simple.

• Crab Cake Muffins found on Pinterest - Highly recommend.
• Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip from Skinny Taste - To. Die. For. And a healthier version.
• Fruit skewers - Always go over well
• Mexican Corn Dip - Always a hit at our gatherings. Heather's staple dish.
• Mini Pigs in a blanket - Can't get much easier!
• Desserts - cupcakes and cookies
• Baby Blue Punch (with rubber duckies!) - So fun! Megan did a great job with this.
• Blackberry Tea - Delish.

Heather arranged a nice jungle-themed vase that made the perfect centerpiece for the food table. So fitting.

All dishes were adorned with cute folded placards including elephants, a monkey or a giraffe. We fancied up the fruit skewers by hot gluing animal tags to each side of the stick. 

 

 

The dessert table was my fav. I just love sweets. And these sweets were nothing short of ordinary.

 

Cupcakes from Gigi's. Oh my gosh. So good. And SO cute.

White chocolate dipped Oreos and chocolate chip cookies (dyed blue of course!). I think I had two of each.

To switch it up from other recent baby showers, we played the baby food game. It was something different and fun to guess the kinds of food. The worst was the chicken noodle dinner. I may or may not secretly like the pears. 

Julie got some great gifts. One of the books she received is called "Goodnight iPad", spin off of "Goodnight Moon." Hilarious! What is going to be the newest technological advance when our kids are our age?

 

Carson soaked up lots of cuddles from everyone. And had some playtime with his girlfriend, Maggie. :)

Hootie Hoo! Love me some owls.

I just love this pic of Julie and her mother-in-law. And Carson:). So Candid.

Guests took home favor bags filled with animal cookies. I borrowed a Noah's ark cookie cutter set from a coworker to make the cookies (similar to this set found on Amazon), then filled the bags with a little green raffia paper confetti (to look like grass) and attached thank you animal tags.

Mags and Carson. Destined to be together.

Adriane and I shared the same Pledge Mom in Chi Omega. Does that make this relationship incest?

 

Mags flirting!

The hosts and guest of honor

Mommy-to-be and her moms...and sleepy Carson:)

Congrats to Julie and Josh and Baby B! 

We are anxiously awaiting your arrival!!

One.

Say hi to Matt.

One of my best friends.

With the biggest heart.

The Godfather of my child.

Passionate about a lot of things.

One of them being biking.  

Carson and I were lucky enough to watch him in his first bike race of the season this past weekend.

Biking is exciting to watch.

Especially Matt, because he's a stud.

Carson enjoyed the action.

Intently watching sleeping most of the time.

We all cheered him on.

And hoped that we didn't witness any crashes.

Matt took 2nd in the first race, 3rd in the second race, and 1st in one of the intermediate races. He placed 2nd overall.

 

Like I said, he's a stud.

We were all so proud of him.

Fast forward to Sunday. Matt was involved in a serious crash with a car slamming on their brakes to miss hitting a deer.  

He's OK and will recover, but underwent extensive surgery on his nose and face.  He is extremely lucky his injuries weren't worse.

It takes only ONE second to have your life taken from you. 

Life is short.

Matt, you're in our thoughts and prayers. We love you. You are ONE special person and wish you a speedy recovery.

36 weeks & Busy As Can Be

Can you believe I am only two days shy of being 36 weeks!? I can't. It's just crazy how soon he will be here.

We've been extremely busy lately and on the go non-stop. I don't know how we have found time to finish the nursery between sporting events, family in town, showers, work and other miscellaneous things.

I went to my first Sporting KC game last week. It was quite the experience. The score ended at 2-2, and that was it. I was confused by that, but I guess that's just soccer. My favorite part were the fans. Soccer fans are SO loud and energetic. The entire game. I also enjoyed watching "The Cauldron" section. And the suite we were in thanks to Brian's company. I indulged on pretzel sticks with cheese, chicken wings and an ice cream bar. Baby K was in heaven.

Here's a few pics from some other things we have been up to:

How about them cats? Ranked 11? Unbelievable.

The Royal is always a great time. I didn't get to partake in the beer and dance party, but it was a good time. The smell of my clothes and hair when we got home was all to familiar to college...specifically Pats.

Mmm...beer. Root beer that is. I had never been to Noodles & Company before, so we tried it last week. I was stoked they had Root Beer in a bottle!

At class last week, the guys got to try out "The Empathy Belly." It's supposed to give them an idea of what the gals are going through. A body suit that weighs 25 pounds. LOL. Brian was a trooper. 

Belly to Belly pic. I look Chinese. I was laughing so hard because the body suit looked so small on him compared to some of the other guys.

And...here's a 35 week pic, with our new awesome stroller!

I don't know how my husband seems to always get his way talk me into purchasing something different than what we had planned, but it seems to happen a lot. See everyone, I'm not as bossy and dominant as you all think!? LOL.

Anyways, we went to the store to get our stroller/car seat travel system and ended up leaving with something completely different than what we had planned. I will say that Brian is extremely functional and always looks at the parts and pieces of things. This stroller was way more compact, lighter, and a lot easier to fold up.

I suggested we put Jake in it and give it a whirl around the block, but Brian didn't let me. He's a fun hater sometimes.

How far along: Almost 36 weeks
Size of Baby K (according to Baby Center): 6 pounds, 18 and 1/2 inches long
Fruit/vegetable comparison (according to Baby Center): Crenshaw melon...whatever that is
Total weight gain: Probably 25
Sleep: Getting better, but I now get up about every 2.5 hours to go to the bathroom. It's just preparing me for when he is here!
Movement: Still active. He is head down and should stay that way. The doc said it would be hard from him to make a turn at this point.
Unglamorous body changes: Some stretch marks just started popping up. Seriously. I am not happy.
Food cravings: Nothing in particular these days. Still just ice and anything cold. 
What I miss: Being able to easily pick my self up off the floor or get out of bed. It's so hard these days!
Strange experiences: Stares from strangers. It's quite odd...haven't you ever seen a pregnant lady before?
Milestones: At the end of week 36, I will be considered full term.
Best moment this week: Feeling accomplished. We have just about everything ready and it feels so good.