One year later

He's dancing on a Tuesday night.

He's early morning cheerios and late night lullabies.

He's my back patter and little splish-splasher.

He stole my heart one year ago when I received this most precious gift.

He is my Evan from heaven and I am forever blessed.

Happy First Birthday my little man.  

It goes without saying that my life has changed over the past year in ways that I could never have imagined.  The days have gotten so much longer, yet time is moving entirely too quickly.   When I think about Evan's birthday I find myself reminiscing about the day was born and meeting him for the first time.  It was hands-down the best day of my life.  One look at him and I knew -- despite all the good I had thus far experienced, life had truly just begun.   

Happy Birthday To Me (a post from Evan)

Don't tell me its not my birthday.  Its my party and I'l  turn one if I want to.

Truth is, I wanted lots and lots of people at my party, so I begged my mom to have it when we were visiting Louisiana for Thanksgiving.  I pretty much get whatever I want so, of course, she agreed.

After much deliberation, I decided that I needed to have a year in a flash birthday party.  Considering that my mom constantly has a camera in my face and I am already negotiating my first modeling contract, it was pretty much a no brainer.

I worked my charm on my aunt MeMe and talked her into hosting my party (Thanks Meme).  Then I had a long talk with my Aunt Ashley and explained to her how much my mom needed her help in making sure my party was the bomb diggity (do people still say that, or is it just my mom?).  Ashley understood and thanks to her, the decorations and cupcakes were awesome.  Without Ashley, my first birthday would no doubt have been held in a ball pit next a scary clown with red hair and big feet.

I enlisted the help of an amazing photographer (hi Andre) and planned a perfect photo booth for all my guests.  Hey, I figure if I have to get my picture taken everyday by the momarrazi, the least these people could do was take a few pictures for my birthday.  I gave them photo props, so I think they had fun. 

My parents are dorks and my mom needs to iron her shirt, but man I am cute!

  

We also had lots of snacks, and frito chili pie (thanks Aunt Manny).  

There was enough food there for 1000 people and we didn't have any left overs, so I am assuming it was good.  I wouldn't know, I was too busy tasting cake for the first time.

WOW, that was delicious.  Oh, and all you relatives who are supposedly looking out for my best interests, want to explain why you have been holding out on me for so long?  You could have slipped me some of that sugary goodness a long time ago.  I am not sure I can forgive you for holding out on me.

I also got lots of great presents for my birthday, which I have been enjoying ever since.

Mom tells me that I have to wait an entire year before planning another birthday.  Is that true or is she just trying to deprive me of cupcakes and frosting goodness?

11 Months

As in almost a year.  As in almost a toddler.  No, Never.  I will not let it happen.  Seriously, I don't think I can handle it.

Evan is such a big boy these days.  He tries to repeat everything you say, from Baxter and Bailey (who he knows well and loves), to uh oh, mama, dada, yes, no, hi, bye.  The kids says it all.  He doesn't always say the right words at the right time, but he talks ALL DAY LONG.  And I love it.

He is also a comedian.  Case in point, this afternoon he put a dishtowel over his head, laughing continuously while running head first into the kitchen cabinets.  Another example, at his birthday party (more on that later), he was uninterested in eating birthday cake because more concerned with entertaining everyone and was keenly aware that all eyes were on him.

He also loves to pose:

And explore:

Little Evan has five teeth these days, and I think the six is soon to follow.  He is still not walking, but gets around just fine.

I cannot believe that it was almost a year

Oklahoma Aquarium

Our trip to Tulsa for the Half Marathon wasn't all spandex and time clocks.   We also managed to do quite a bit of sight seeing and shopping on Saturday, including a trip to the Oklahoma Aquarium, which Evan loved.

He tried to talk to the fish:

Met the cast of Finding Nemo (which I explained was an excellent movie)

Harassed the stingrays

And jellyfish

While the Aquarium was small (and overpriced), we had a great time.

Picture Time

Finally! I figured out this "you have no space on your blog" problem and can upload pictures for you guys.  First up is the monthly photo shoot.   Yes, we still have been taking pictures of Evan every month, although I have been horrible about posting them.  It looks like I need to update you guys starting at Month 8.  So, here it goes:

8 MONTHS:

9 MONTHS: (sorry, totally slacking here)

10 Months: 

And now for a behind the scenes look of what these photoshoots are really like:

Good Times, Good Friends (and Family)

Last weekend, my brother John and his family came for a visit. They have traveled to see us almost at least once a year since we moved to OKC and we really appreciate that they take time out to come. Plus, we love hanging out with them!

Friday evening, Evan showed Eli and Isaac all of his and told them what a great weekend it would be. Saturday, Savanna and I took all three boys to hobby lobby to pick up craft supplies. Yes, it was a circus. I know you wanted to ask.

After lunch, my brother wanted to watch the Texas A&M game, so Savanna and I left all three boys home with the dads and went shopping in downtown Edmond. Translate to looking at tons of stuff I cannot afford for a mansion that I do not have. window shopping at its finest.

That evening we decided to make the boys felt Christmas trees that we found on pinterest. The idea behind this craft is to make a kid-sized Christmas tree out of Green felt and ornaments, lights, etc. out of various colors. Kids can then decorate and redecorate their own Christmas tree, and hopefully leave yours alone in the process. I hung Evan's tree up and the first thing he did was eat the ornament. Eli then began yelling, "He's messing it up!! ". So, I am not sure how successful this craft will be as Eli will probably never touch his and Evan will likely poop his out at some point, but hey we had fun making them. (I am only kidding about the poop part. After he tried to eat one piece, I packed up the tree until next year.)

John and his family left Sunday afternoon (after hanging up my flatscreen - Thanks John!). We really miss them but thankfully we will be able to see them this week at Thanksgiving and Evan's Its My Party and I Will be One if I Want to Birthday Party.

P.S. - I would love to post pictures on the blog of the boys, but Google is being stupid and wants me to buy storage.  First time I have seen this, so I will have to look into it. Hopefully, I can figure something out.

For Once.....

Running goes right! (WARNING -- this is a long narcissistic post about how I am the best runner in the universe and will be training for the 2016 olympics starting tomorrow. I will understand if you want to puke on your computer. )

As you know from my 30 under 30 challenge, running a half marathon in under two hours has been on my goal list for a while now. Actually I have been wanting it since I ran my first half in 2009.

On Sunday, I ran the Route 66 half marathon in Tulsa. I had planned this event for sometime and for once actually did all of my long runs. This is the first race I have trained with a running group and I think it really helped me. Mainly for those times during training when you want to stop, but you can't because then your friends will leave you. And, I don't like staring at my friends' butts.

Anyway, back to the race. I felt prepared. I felt trained. But I was nervous. It seems that lately I have been crashing and burning in the race department. (Yea, that 10K in under 50 mins - no where close to that goal). So, I tried not to set my expectations too high and thought, my PR is somewhere around 2:06, so if I come in 2:05 or under, I am going to be happy. In fact, at the expo I grabbed the 2:02 pace tattoo (which shows your splits for each mile) and thought if I hit these, I will be thrilled. I plan to race at least 2 more halfs before my 30th birthday, so I knew I had some time to reach my goal.

As we were walking to the start of the race, my garmin (AKA running watch/bible) decided to crash. I tried to keep my cool thinking, I am running with three friends who all have Garmins. Do we really need four different watches telling us how fast and far we are going? No biggie, I do not need a watch.

Then, my bluetooth headphones decided not to work. UGGH, what I wouldn't have gave for a pair of $5 headphones at that moment. Don't think I didn't contemplate asking everyone around me including other runners if I could have their headphones. Instead, I thought, I could be a traveling boom box. What's the big deal. So that is what I did -- provided music for everyone running around me.

The race started out great. I knew there would be two huge hills, each almost a mile long, at miles 1 and 4. I also knew that once I got past those hills, the race would get easier. So, my plan was to run conservatively for at least the first half of the race.

Around miles 6 -8, I really had to concentrate on not going too fast. I always take off at this point in the race then crash at the end, and I didn't want that to happen again. However, once I reached mile 10 and knew I only had a 5K left, I decided to stop concentrating on pace so much and just run.

Now for the fun part. I had been using Cliff Shot Blocks (basically gummy candies) for energy during the race. I had never used them before, so it was an experiment if you will. I took my last one at mile 12. Shortly after I past mile 13, I could see the finish line and the timers. I knew we had started somewhere around 7 1/2 minutes after the gun time, so I just kept telling myself that I had to cross the finish line before it said 2:07. As soon as I saw the clock, it said 2:05, and immediately I thought, CRAP, I have to go or I am not going to make it. So I sprinted. I mean sprinted. I don't think I have ever ran that fast at the end of a race. As soon as I crossed the finished line, I could feel it. Yes, I was about to puke. I tried to hold it in, cover my mouth, pray to the barf gods, etc., but nothing worked. So, I just puked. Everywhere. It was classic. The best part - all I could think was, OK, this is fun. I really gave it my all. Here you go, this is how you know when you really really tried your hardest.

I did not know my actual time until approximately 30 - 45 minutes later when I got back to the hotel and Bill (who had been watching the online tracker), met me a the door, saying "You did it!" To see him so excited for me was the best feeling ever!

My final time was 1:58:26 and I couldn't be happier. I ran a smart race, felt strong the entire time, and would not have changed anything. I relished in my victory all day Sunday and woke up Monday morning making a training plan in my head for the next half.

Two-timing Casanova

Well, Evan had his first kiss(es) today.  And not with one but two pretty little ladies at daycare.  You see, for months Evan was the only boy in his class and had all the ladies to himself.  Now that there are three other boys competing for the ladies' love, Evan decided to step up his game.  

First, it was the lovely Lilly, a charming  7 1/2 month old little doll whose mom works at daycare.  Evan and Lilly were having a cute brunch date consisting of felt food and wooden blocks when he decided to plant a sloppy open-mouth kiss on Lilly, who reciprocated.  I think she is now planning their wedding.

A little concerned that he had upset his first love Hadley, he promptly crawled to her swing, bent over and tried to plant a wet one on her cheek.  She was not impressed and apparently we have to bring flowers to daycare tomorrow to make it up to her.   And all of this while Sadie, whose mom insists that Evan is her boyfriend, is on vacation in San Diego.  Oh, little Casanova, I don't know what I am going to do with you.