Country Music Marathon

Last weekend, Scott ran the Nashville Country Music Marathon. It was his 5th marathon. He has been training for a sweet forever (not counting the days or anything), so we were all ready for him to get out there and run. The weekend was even more special because Paka, Uncle David, and Aunt Terri (Paka's sister) were also running (Uncle Mike was there too, not running. My kind of spectator). And to make it even more special than that, Aunt Karen (Paka's sister) and Uncle Jerry came to see us all in Nashville. It was a fun weekend visiting and catching up, with just a minor amount of worry and anxiety:)

When we arrived, Mary & I quickly made our exit and went to the Puffy Muffin. Because of course. It was just as good as I remembered and I loved getting to catch up with Mary on all things. Uninterrupted.

On Friday night, all 15 of us went to eat at Buca di Beppo. When I made the reservation for FIFTEEN, I got a little nervous in my stomach. 10 adults, 5 kids, in a restaurant. But I gotta tell you, it was fabulous. The kids were SO good and it was so much fun to be together, talking, eating, and laughing.

The boys.

The whole family! In case you need a key, from left - Noah (7), Nate (9), Gavin (6), Me, Lila (4), Scott, Mimi, Paka, Uncle Jerry, Aunt Karen, Aunt Terri, Uncle Mike, Amanda, David, Levi (2).

After a good night's rest (ha!) (Scott tossed and turned, I slept with Lila who cried in her sleep and gritted her teeth all.night.long), the runners were off to the starting line. 

So proud of all these runners!

The rest of us made our way to mile #14 to see the runners come by. Our little cheering section! The kids were again, SO good. 

Scott finally ran by us and we were all very excited! I enjoyed seeing him but it just made me worry more. I'm not sure I'll do any sightseeing of him during marathons again. I think I'll just see how it turns out at the finish line:)

Done! Nate, Lila and I barely made it to the finish line to catch him (Nashville was crazy with closed streets!) but we made it. We were all very glad for him to be done. Big sigh of relief!

My phone died, so I didn't get any pictures of David, Kevin and Terri crossing the finish line. But let me just say, I am so proud of all the runners in the family! It was a long (and hot) day for all of us (non-runners included) and let me just say again, the kids were SO good. They were such troopers and I was proud of them too. 

That night, we hung out at the hotel and rested. I took this picture because all I could think was "marathons by day, reading books by night." #allinadayswork

The next morning, we posed for a picture before going our separate ways. David's yawn is how we all felt. Promise. 

On the way out of town, we swung by our old house. Love this house. Such a special place in our hearts - our first house, where we brought Nate home from the hospital. And Kitty Paus too of course. 

Now on to the next marathon...I think I'm gonna need some Valium for this go round:)

#14

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary. In honor of the upcoming date, we stopped by the Riverlore Mansion on a mandatory scenic trip thru Cairo this past weekend while on the way to Nashville. The kids were not impressed. But this house will always be special to us, for it is where we celebrated our wedding with family and friends. I wrote about the story of our wedding a few years ago, to catch up on those details, you can read here.

Fourteen Years. Wow. So much has happened, yet so much remains the same.

I love you Scott...Today. Tomorrow, In 14 more years. And beyond.

New Winners for the Rotation

I'm on a new recipe kick lately. I'm tired of the recipes I make all the time, so I consulted Pinterest and came up with a few new winners for the rotation. 

Parmesan Chicken Bake (Recipe found here)

Photo Credit: www.mykitchenescapades.com

I made this on a Sunday night when I wasn't particularly feeling like cooking. It was very easy to make and everyone loved it! I only used 1/2 cup mayo (maybe not even that much, since some people in this house don't like mayo) and it worked perfectly. I used my method of covering the whole dish with parchment paper (tucking in sides) and cooked for the recommended 45 minutes and the chicken came out tender and juicy. I served with some leftover angel hair pasta noodles and this dish was definitely a winner!

Sausage Skillet Bake (Recipe found here)

Photo Credit: www.hwescott.blogspot.com

I made a few tweaks to this recipe. I did not use the can of Rotel because my kids probably wouldn't touch it if they saw green peppers in there. I used a dash of red pepper flakes instead. I also didn't have heavy cream on hand, so I substituted half the amount called for with low-fat cream cheese. Finally, I didn't put the Monterrey Jack cheese in at all and I didn't bake it. My kids are not fans of melted cheese, and I didn't think the recipe needed it anyway. We all ate this up and it was definitely another winner!

Lazy Day Cookies (Recipe found here)

Photo credit: www.isinginthekitchen.com

I may be late to this game, but this was the easiest recipe and I like the bars better than chocolate chip cookies. And I can think of many ways to change up this recipe and make lots of fun desserts! They were gone very fast. Not gonna say how fast.

Weekend & Castlewood

We had gorgeous weather last week and were able to spend lots of time playing outside. On Friday evening, I rocked on the front porch and the kids played in the yard. Full disclosure, it wasn't quite as peaceful as that last sentence sounds, but it did look like this, so there's that. 

I couldn't let this picture get lost. Lila's new headband. AKA Scott's leg brace.

On Saturday morning, I decided to take the kids out to Castlewood State Park for a hike. When did Lila become a teenager??? Her legs are so long these days. 

It is a beautiful park and both the kids were very into the hike. Especially Nate.

Castlewood was a resort area back in the 1920s when the city folk wanted to get out of St. Louis. There are some ruins of the resort still there and Nate was enamored. He imagined what every piece of rock could have been.

My peeps. We are excited to take Scott back to Castlewood on one of his off weekends.

After hiking, we had a picnic and the kids played at the playground. They had to work together on this swing. Y'all can imagine what that looked like.

Great day! I'm so thankful for warm spring weather.

Go Cardinals!

I've been remiss about posting about baseball season! We kicked off the season on Easter Sunday. I had Nate snap this picture to send to my Mom & Emily to tell them I was ready, were they??? They were in Spain, so they sadly didn't get to watch. 

We've had a lot of off days since the season started, so it's been a little hard to get into the swing of things. But Scott & I went to the game on April 15th with my parents, and now I'm back to thinking about baseball all the time. I got the tickets back in February when it was cold and I was dreaming of baseball. They won and we had a great time!

Now as my kids will tell you, we are not only back in baseball season, but we are back in the season where Mom answers every request for assistance with, "After the Cardinals bat."

They love that answer.

Sam A. Baker 2015

Last weekend was our annual Sam A. Baker weekend. It's funny because we don't stay at the park cabins anymore, since we have the rental cabins at my Mom & Dad's, but it'll forever be called the Sam A. Baker weekend. 

Nate & Lila didn't have school on Friday, so we made the short trip after we loaded up all our stuff. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we hopped in the Ranger with Mom, Dad, Hamil & Thane to explore. 

We went to see twin calves that were just born. Lila is a natural cowgirl. Note that she is inside the fence with these cows. Note that I am not.

We explored a few creeks where the kids were ecstatic to get wet.

Me and my beautiful Mama.

Truly, you'd think they'd never seen water before, especially Lila. She was wet from head to toe.

Our friends arrived later that night and we were so happy to have Michael, the Baker clan including Emily & Justin, the Pooleys, and Ryan & Jamie (Sarah's brother & SIL).

Early Saturday morning, we loaded up and went for a canoe trip. Me with my fabulous Dad, who does his very best to keep my feet dry every year. I'm happy to say he held up his promise again this year. I'm spoiled.

Scott coming down one of the harder spots. Where is Nate? Oh he jumped out at the top to walk down. He doesn't trust Scott very much not to dump him:) Actually now that I said it was Scott, I think it's Hamil. Oh well, pretend. Scott was there and he did in fact keep Nate dry.

The Pooleys! We were so so glad to have them all here this year. And Ryan did a fantastic job of keeping them all dry.

The water and the weather were nearly perfect. It was such a pretty day to be on the creek.

I love this picture. Dad was trying to get Lila to put her hands up in the air and scream. She didn't get it. That's all I can say.

Be still my heart. Love them.

Discussing the plans for the upcoming rapids. Everyone was listening intently:)

Where did the time go????? Quinn (8), Nate (9), Myra (10), Lila (4), Sullivan (6), Thane (2), Reid (6) 

On Sunday, we went to the park to do a little hike before heading home. Looking for salamanders. 

But why look for salamanders when worms are so much more fun!

It was truly a fantastic weekend and one I look forward to every single year. Until next year!

Lately Loves

I haven't done a Lately Loves post recently. And I wanted to do one today, but I could only find 2 things that I have loved lately. So in lieu of a third item, here are some random thoughts that have been swimming around my head. You're welcome. 

1. I am losing the war in my house right now. The war that puts me & my broom on one side and pet hair & dead grass on the other. Anyone else? 

2. Lila has taken to saying, "Mom, that is sooooo last season." She's 4. Enough said. 

3. I had Nate start washing his face with our soap in the last few weeks. He's 9 1/2. Poor thing has a long road ahead of him with having 2 greasy parents and all. 

4. I'm convinced one of Truman's parents is a dog. He is a dog in a cat's body all day long, every day. 

5. Why is home ownership so attractive in your 20s when you are living in an apartment??? We're nearing our 40s and apartment living is looking pretty darn nice right about now. Could have to do with the torrential down pours we've had in STL this week. You wanna know something that doesn't go together? 100 year old house basements and torrential rain. 

On to my lately loves...I have always been very skeptical of the "tan in a bottle" products. And I have never used one. But this year, I decided I'm going to try to be more conscientious about my skin. But I didn't want my tan game to be affected. You know. Important stuff. 

I was reading a blog a few weeks ago and the author said that the Jergens Natural Glow was a really good option because it is a daily moisturizer and basically fool proof. So I decided to try it. I am a skeptic no more. 

There are 2 options - Fair to Medium and Medium to Tan. After much deliberation in the Target aisle, I chose the Fair to Medium. Now, I'm fairly dark complected most of the year, so I'm probably not Fair. And probably not even Medium. But we're coming out of winter and I didn't want to orange myself on the first try. 

The bottle says you should see results in as little as 7 days. I just started using it as my daily lotion after I got out of the shower and I started to see results in about 3-4 days. When I finish this bottle, I'll probably try the Medium to Tan to head into summer. I have not tried anything for my face yet. That's up next. If you want to have some color without a lot of fuss, this is it!

Photo credit: www.jergens.com

One day last Fall, I was randomly in Wal-Mart (I don't go there very often) and I was also randomly in the athletic wear aisle. I don't even remember what I was there to purchase. But I stumbled upon this Danskin Now workout top on the sale rack and I was intrigued by the cut. It has a drawstring bottom but is tighter on top. The only color they had was neon orange and it was a medium. It was only $3 so I decided to try it out anyway.

It quickly became my favorite top and I have since worn it slap out. I couldn't find any more at my Wal-Mart so I went online and found them there. I got a 2 pack for $10. I mean that's a deal. And I looked them up today and it is a 2 pack for $9. A steal. Quality work-out top for like very little dollars. Score.

Photo credit: www.walmart.com

That's all. Only 2 loves, but I really love both of them. I'm not getting paid by either company to share. Promise.

If anyone has a face color "enhancer" that they love, hit me up!

Easter Sunday

We've of course been talking a lot about Easter's meaning over the last few weeks and I have to brag on Nate because he has asked so many good questions and really tried to "get" Easter this year. Lila has been a good listener too, but it's just a fact that she's 4 and understands on a different level right now. 

So on Good Friday at the breakfast table, Nate and I were talking about the word Good and it's meaning. Lila was eating her breakfast quietly and I didn't think she was really listening. I ended my explanation to him with a phrase that I had seen several times over the last week, "It's Friday, but Sunday's a comin!" 

It was quiet and Nate was processing. 

Lila looked over into my eyes, made her little hand into a fist and said, "Fist bump to that, Mom." 

Yes, my dear, you're so right. Fist bump to that. 

 

We shopped our own closets this year for Easter wear. And I think we did a pretty good job. I got this dress for Lila last year, but for some reason I didn't choose for her to wear it on Easter. So add some leggings, and we're in business for another year. Sadly, this will probably be the last smocked anything that she wears. My dress was purple too, so we coordinated well! 

Truly. They are truly so funny. Roll the out-take footage...

Really? Is something wrong with your eyes?

Like really.

 Seriously. Open your eyes.

Okay, eyes open. I have a question!

Mom. Really. Call on me, I have a question?!

Nate telling her to get in line.

Now trying to make her get in line. Does her chin look like a Corse here or what??

And my very personal favorite. I've lost all control.

But, alas, they smiled pretty for at least one picture. We had a great church service and came home to hunt eggs in our backyard. For the 63rd time during the weekend.