josh + kati + marion

She is seriously always.in.motion

Which makes it really hard to capture a smile!

And explains why they are always so blurry!

But of course, she’ll be still when she’s making her serious face

Or her slightly worried face

But then it’s back to being in motion

Miss M is now two months old and time for our monthly pictures!

Yay for being two months old!

It’s hard to tell she’s grown when she insists on being like a frog!

Maybe she’s not so happy about being two months old

If you’ve ever wondered how I get her bows to stick ….

She likes it when he whispers sweet nothings – he likes it when she dribbles formula down the side of her neck

This might be one of my new favorite pictures

I think this is the first picture of all three of our babies

On Sunday, we took a walk downtown to the Via Colori festival.

It’s a street chalk art festival!

How amazing is that?

The colors were incredible

I think this was one of Josh’s favorites

This little guy was just a tiny part of a really large picture

This one is just gorgeous

This was probably the largest and most impressive one there

Marion wore one of her little Thanksgiving outfits

Hey – I’m no turkey!

Sweet little baby feet (that are actually quite enormous!)

She can hold her head up so well now!

Then it was bath time

She learned how to splash! Although it scared her at first

She’s also getting quite vocal! (Please ignore how ridiculous I sound on video.)

And proof of how big she’s gotten …

What two months of being a family of three looks like

It looks like bottles that always need washing, especially when you need one

It looks like clothes that don’t even make it out of the dryer now

It looks like lots and lots of coffee

It looks like diapers on the line

It looks like puppies that feel ignored

It looks like spending lots and lots and lots of time in the sling

It looks like a bed that is never made

It looks like sleepy time with momma

It looks like bedtime stories with daddy

It looks like big yawns

it looks like constant motion

It looks like the first road trip

It looks like a first holiday

It looks like sitting up like a big girl in the stroller

It looks like hair that is definitely red

It looks like puppies that want to play with baby toys

It looks like having long talks with the owls

It looks like hanging out with our friends

It looks like joy

Letters to my daughter, month two

We went on our first family vacation this weekend and we had so much fun! We headed to San Antonio because Josh was running the inaugural Rock n Roll half marathon there. We chose San Antonio because it was a pretty quick car ride (fourish hours) and a good test to see how the Little Miss will do on our big road trip at the holidays. She did awesome – we made the trip with just one stop. We timed when we were leaving with her nap time because she can do some seriously good sleeping in the car. Not so much this time – figures! She was awake for almost the whole trip. I sat in the back with her in case she needed to be fed and she passed the time just talking her head off, which was greatly amusing.

Josh registered kind of late for the race, so by the time we got around to finding a hotel room, they were all booked up. So he used one of our favorite websites to find a studio apartment at Madison Suites. I was skeptical at first since I was a little too busy giving birth to have any part in making trip arrangements, but it turned out fabulous. It was really nice to be able to make our own breakfast and lunch and have a real fridge for her bottles and such. Plus, the area we were in was amazing! When we got in Friday, the first thing we did was to stop by the Alamodome and pick up Josh’s registration packet. We then went to the apartment and got all settled in (and tried to take a nap, but someone wouldn’t cooperate) so we went exploring a bit. We were only two blocks from the residential portion of the riverwalk so we took a little walk on it and through the neighborhood. King William is a gorgeous neighborhood and some of the homes are just absolutely stunning.

Since the race wasn’t until Sunday, we were able to go sight see on Saturday. We just went to the Alamo and the riverwalk since Josh needed to be back and resting by the afternoon. Josh had never been to the Alamo before, but Papaw and Mamaw took Brent and me one summer. I thought it was pretty fitting that Marion’s first vacation was somewhere my Papaw took me.

Knowing how narrow the riverwalk gets in some places, we left the stroller at the apartment and I wore her in the Moby all day. Plus, it was the weekend of International Babywearing week!

This was my view all day

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning

Me and my girl

We stopped at Starbucks before going on to the Alamo and she was still snoozing away.

How we remember the Alamo … with one of our traditional self portraits. I love how you can barely see M’s head in the bottom of the photo!

One of the nice things about visiting in the fall versus in the summer is there are almost no crowds!

Marion started to wake up so we took advantage of the beautiful day and the gorgeous grounds and fed her lunch in the back of the Alamo.

It was pretty breezy and once she woke up, she didn’t want to keep her hat on, so we tried to keep her head covered with a blanket. She wasn’t a fan.

But then she was okay with it

Then she wasn’t.

A nice stranger took a real family portrait for us

This picture makes me laugh for two reasons. One is Miss M just looks silly. The other is that I very vividly remember being there in July with Pap, Mamaw and Brent, sweating buckets and having to walk past all this wonderful, delicious, chlorine smelling water and not being able to get in it. You almost wanted someone to push you in so you could have an excuse for taking a swim.

Josh and the Squidget on the way home again, home again, jiggety jog.

Also, not to get on a soapbox, but a little bit … if you saw or heard of this ad from Motrin

You should know that I happily carried Marion for over four hours and two miles with not a single ache or pain. Ask Josh. (And trust me, I surely would have told him and made him carry her if I felt uncomfortable!) So it’s not self-sacrificial or being a mom-martyr to carry your baby. It’s just really nice to have my hands free and not have to worry about my stroller falling into a canal with the baby strapped inside it. And now I’m done.

So we spent late Saturday afternoon and evening taking a family nap and eating some really good Mexican food.

I also spent the evening with an emergency knitting project. I knew it was going to be cold Sunday morning (we planned on being out to watch at 7 a.m.) and Marion didn’t have any really warm hats that fit her. And this is where being a knitter comes in handy …

The following morning, she’s all warm and ready to go watch Daddy run!

She’s very excited about it too!

We got a really early start – we were at the park at 7: 15, but not as early as Josh. He was up and out the door at 5: 30!

Another reason where we stayed was so awesome was the fact that the race ran right through the neighborhood. We were able to walk two blocks to this little park and watch him about mile 8, then walk up one block and catch him again at mile 9 (ish).

Also, Saturn had set up a little booth and was handing out free muffins and Starbucks coffee – score! Because the neighborhood is so unique everyone knows everyone else and could fairly easily identify me as a visitor so they were really friendly and chatty. It made for a really nice way to pass the time until the first racers came through.

And here they come!

The first guys through were the wheelchair racers. Those are some amazing, amazing athletes. (The bikers were support/medical aides riding in various places throughout the race.)

The first runner is Brian Sell – and he went on to win the half.

The lead pack

The first woman half marathoner

The first woman marathoner

Go Josh go!

Run Josh run!

Josh is happy to be done and Squidget is glad to have her Daddy back!

And so many thanks to Laura for the outfit – it was so perfect for race day! She was so warm and snuggly in it!

Then we came home and I left Josh and Marion together while I went with my friend Lexie to the Madonna concert. She was two hours late getting started and I’m still pretty bitter about it. (The concert was good though)

So here is where I need reader participation – email, call, or comment if you want Josh to start blogging about his running and training because my nagging isn’t working! He did such an amazing job at this race and worked so hard for it that I know my trying to tell yall about it just isn’t the same. But I’m going to try because this is really cool.

The RnR was a huge event – I think they capped it at 30,000 racers. When you registered, you had to put down what time you thought you’d finish the race in, and they made groups of a thousand based on estimated pace. Josh made his time a little faster than he thought he’d do and put down 1h, 45 min and was in the second corral (runners 1000 – 1999). His actual chip time was an amazing 1h, 40min, 52 sec and his official finish time was 1h, 42 min, 08 sec! He said he realized around mile six that he was ahead of his race pace and that he kept trying to slow down so he wouldn’t get burnt out. But then around mile nine when he realized he was feeling good and still ahead of pace, he decided to just go for it. I guess the finish was pretty awful (an uphill access road at the Alamodome) but the rest of the course was really nice and decently fast. His results were awesome!

What’s really awesome about this race is they use this thing called age graded scoring and essentially, it tells you how you rank based on others in your age group and what level you can compete at and excel. For instance, if you got a score of 91% then you could successfully compete at the world class level. Josh’s score was 58.7% – putting him right below the local class level (60-69%). The runners who got in the 60th percent had times of 1h 30min to 1h 38min, so if Josh had taken two minutes off his time, he would have ranked in that 60th percent. I think (and this is where I’m speaking for him since he won’t blog about it!) this ranking system is really neat because it shows him how close he is to being able to be a really serious competitor in the half marathon at the local level. So I think his goal for the Houston half marathon in January is to break into that 60th percent. He’s been struggling for a while to come up with new goals for his running and training and I think this is going to be a really good tool for giving him new direction with his running. And for me, well I have my first 5K in like five years Thanksgiving day and I’m just hoping not to come in last

And if you’ve ever wondered what 30,000 runners looks like

(I wasn’t quick enough to get video of Josh, so random strangers will have to do.)

I’ve got some catch up posting to do – but it’s going to have to wait. Miss M had her two month shots today and now has a fever So once she gets better, I have lots of fun things to share!

We’ve been working on tummy time around here

And enlisted the help of pink elephant

Marion has started to flirt when she sees the camera – I think we might be in trouble

She’s smart enough to realize she doesn’t have to lift her heavy head to see the elephant if she just turns herself around

She’s thinking that the elephant probably isn’t worth all this work

There she goes! Well, kind of.

A note on her bald spots. She doesn’t have the typical one on the back of her head – oh no – her’s go all the way around her head from temple to temple. The reason? She spends so much time in the sling and wrap with her head laying on my chest she’s worn all the hair off all the way around! So we call them sling spots, not bald spots. And because of all the time we spend tummy to tummy (and all the time she spends doing push ups off my chest resisting nap time) I’m not sure why we even try to attempt tummy time. I guess because it makes for good photos

Our family (like most I imagine) has had it’s fair share of veterans and soldiers. At least one in every generation – actually, my brother Brent is the only male of my generation not to serve (sorry dude, don’t mean to make you feel guilty.)

My Mamaw’s brother Donald Hoobler (click here to read his wikipedia entry) was killed in World War Two.

While going through family pictures when we were home for Papaw’s funeral, we found his funeral service booklet. Filled in by his mother.

Can you imagine writing in the names of your own son’s pallbearers?

There are always friends who remember

And family left behind

Today is a day to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and for those who made the sacrifice of letting them go. Thank you.

I’ve cast on for (and almost completed) my first holiday present

The first of like eleventy million projects to knit …

I also was faced with the sad truth that it was time to pack up Maid Marion’s newborn items

Yes, I did cry. But they are going to a good home and I can’t wait to see pictures of them on the new baby they are destined for.

Lest I commit the unspeakable act of a blog post without a picture of Marion

Pink puppy says “Wake up and come play with me!”

Like mother

Like daughter?

Or like father

Like daughter?

She definitely has his legs though

Pretty sure she’ll have my hair. (Eye color is still up for grabs)

And that?

Well that’s all momma.

So who gets your vote?

Yay! Fall has come to Houston (well, close enough) and we made sure to enjoy it this weekend.

On Friday, Marion took her first visit to Daddy at work and was thoroughly doted on by everyone

Josh has moved back up to the 39th floor (for good now) and has his own fancy office! No more cubeland for him!

On Saturday, I met up with my girlfriends for some knitting – our first time to meet since before the stupid hurricane.

Which resulted in the first installment of white trash baby.

White trash baby results when momma forgets to pack a change of clothes and M pees all over herself while being changed. Please note she kept her bow on though. But I didn’t let it stop me from knitting – since she was in the Moby Wrap, she was warm and comfy and I just kept on. Although this was the first knitting group where I didn’t actually knit a stitch …

Then we came home, I watched football and she and Josh napped

We also did some baking

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and fall leaf sprinkles

These were so delish – in Josh’s words, they tasted like pumpkin pie in a baked good form. I just wish Martha had called them “muffins” instead of “cupcakes” and I could justify eating them for breakfast better that way.

We spent Halloween night decorating them

Because Marion thought Halloween was a great excuse to fall asleep early – so no trick or treating for us.

I also got some new running shoes and we broke them in with a family walk

Someone also used this weekend as an opportunity to learn to squeal!

Now for random weekend cuteness: