It's a BOY!

One of Greg's best buds, Jonathan Brough, and his wife Lindsay are expecting a baby boy (Hudson) in February.  And ever since we found out about their little bundle of joy this past summer, we have wanted to throw them a baby shower to celebrate.  Jon and Lindsay are from Louisville, KY.  So we planned for them to drive down to Birmingham, stay at our place for the weekend and we'd host them a baby shower.

It was such a fun weekend!  We cooked breakfast Saturday and Sunday morning, Greg took them out shooting (with his new shotgun I gave him for our anniversary), and to Dave's pizza for lunch while I finished prepping for the party.  Thank goodness my friend Leah came over to help me set-up/decorate because we were scrambling to get it all done before the rest of the guests arrived.  I was popping one thing after another into the oven to cook and we were hanging banners and burlap everywhere.  It turned out super cute, if I do say so myself!

 

 We mostly just hung out for a while, eating food and watching football games.  The Notre Dame game was a huge hit, and finally after 3 overtimes, that game ended, so we took a break to let the mama and daddy-to-be open their gifts!

 

 

The guys all chipped in together and bought Brough a really nice pocket knife.  Greg got it engraved with "Brough" and "Live for the moment."  The idea is that one day, Jon will pass it down to Hudson when he's older.  It was a great night hanging out with friends, and of course we always love seeing the out-of-towners every chance we get! 

 

 

Later, I'm going to post some recipes from the baby shower and a DIY tutorial for a mod-podge letter!  So check back for those!!

loving NOLA

After the half marathon, the runners wanted to rest for a little bit and shower.  So we went back to the hotel, while Greg's parents, Jordan and Eric went to hang out at the pub next door.  We met up with them for lunch at a restaurant near the boardwalk.  It was so yummy!! I got a burger which was seriously SO GOOD.  We ordered some crocodile hushpuppy-type appetizers, and get this...I actually ate one!  And it wasn't terrible ;)  But one was enough.  And we just had so much fun together!  I'm so thankful that I love spending time with Greg's family.  I can't imagine having "the dreaded in-laws."  Thank goodness that is not how either of us feel about each other's families.  We just laugh and have a good time.

 After a while, Greg's legs and feet were really starting to hurt again, so he headed back to the hotel to rest some more.  Kendall wanted to hit up the casino again, so her and Mr. Boggs hopped on a rickshaw and got a ride back to Herrahs.  So then it was just Jordan, Eric, Callen, Houston and me, and we decided to walk to Cafe du Monde for some delicious beignets.  And I don't want to speak for everyone, but I know I was certainly a little tipsy at this point...and I'm pretty sure we were all having a good time ;)

 

Once we sufficiently enjoyed out beignets and made a total mess (although who doesn't at Cafe du Monde), we walked to the other side of the French Quarter to stop in a fancy bar for a quick potty break.  Well that quick stop, turned into 4 hours hanging out in this river walk bar.  It was so nice because the main bar was downstairs and pretty typical, but there was an upstairs bar that had huge doors that opened up onto a patio that overlooked the river.  And there was hardly anyone up there. So we decided to stay and have a drink, and then decided we would just stay forever!  The breeze was blowing in off the river, football games were playing on a few tvs, and we had no agenda.  So we just made ourselves comfy, and eventually Greg and his parents met up with us to eat dinner.

It couldn't have been a better weekend!

I'm So Proud!

I'm way late with this post, but I wanted to write about our trip to New Orleans 2 weekends ago for the Jazz Half Marathon.  Callen (my sister-in-law) ran it last year, and challenged more of us as a family to run it with here again this year.  So around the end of this summer Greg started training to run the half marathon.  He ran several days a week for about 3 months (and lost about 25 pounds in the process!!).  And at the end of October we all headed down for a little family bonding weekend in NOLA!  I realized once we got down there that I had never hung out with Jordan and Eric without the kids.  It was so fun!

The first night we all rolled into town, checked-in to our hotel, and started out grabbing appetizers at a pub next to the hotel.  We were still waiting on Jordan and Eric to get into town so we could all have dinner together.  After appetizers we headed over to the casino so Kendall could have a little fun at the Black Jack tables ;)  How many times do you go to a casino with your in-laws??

 Once Jordan and Eric arrived, we all went to a really nice dinner at a steakhouse (really wish I could remember the name!).  We had so much fun.  Mr. Boggs actually got the reservation by telling them it was to celebrate an anniversary (total lie!).  So of course when we arrived they congratulated the Boggs and even took a celebratory picture of them once we sat at the table.  Too funny!

The next morning it was race time.  Greg was sooo not thrilled about doing this, but he did a GREAT job.  When we saw him at the half-way point, he didn't even look that exhausted yet.  I was so proud!!  Callen and Houston were trucking along too doing great at their own paces.  We caught all of them at the half-way point which was in a park, and then we caught Callen and Greg at the finish back downtown.

 There goes Houston!

 These firemen did the whole run in their full uniforms and even had a tank on their back, AND carrying flags!

Here comes Callen, and then we saw Greg!!

 After the halfway point we headed back downtown to catch them at the finish line.  Since it was Halloween weekend, there were several funny costumes that the runners came up with.

 

HE DID IT!!!

They all three did such a good job!  I'm seriously so proud of my husband.  He put his mind to it, trained for 13.1 miles, and made it to the finish line!!!  Now I just need to get MY butt in shape ;)