the pit stop in st george

ultimately i drove to utah because i needed to see mr sullivan for myself

so once we got to st george we spent the day with robyn and sullivan 

just lounging around the house and packing for the trek up north

brig and sully enjoyed some tummy time together

and then we loaded in the car around 3:30 to start our trek

.....

that's when things got interesting.

just outside beaver the lamoreaux van broke down

it happened right about 6 pm so when we tried to call around for a rental car all the shops were closed.

consequently, we hitched a ride in the lamoreaux van on top of a tow truck all the way to provo

it really was too funny.

robyn and her 10 day old baby

me and my 3 month old baby

bob and tucker

in the car on the tow truck.

i really can't stop laughing as i am typing this 3 weeks later 

the worst part was the hour stop in beaver.

apparently ron (the tow driver) had to attend to another job in beaver before he delivered us up north

but we spent the time taking pictures on this giant rocking chair

giant rocking chair for 4?

then we sat in the car waiting for ron.

once he arrived it was smooth sailing

the babes did terrific 

and

7 hours later we made it to nannies

bye bye baby

this is to be the preface post of a very long game of catch-up

and so:

we've just returned from a lovely trip to utah for the fourth and such. what a different pace of life it is by my family. and how crazy is a holiday weekend with a child and no husband? it was a lot of fun but i would be lying if i said i wasn't glad to be home. back in our space. back in our life.

our journey began with this.

brig's last nap in the family cradle before cass arrived to load it up to take back to utah

yes. me, cass, cleo, and brig drove to st george together.

we were pretty much pros... except every stop we made took at least 45 min? we're still really confused how that happened but i guess feeding and changing two babies, taking two doggies potty, and taking care of ones self takes about... um 45 minutes.

we made it to st george 12 hours later no worse for the wear.

and that was journey part I

now this... this makes me sad

but it's probably good that it was a "now or never" type of thing in returning it cause i think i may have kept brig next to my bed forever :)

i have absolutely loved having him 12 inches away from me when i sleep

these past two nights have been REALLY hard. 

i don't sleep.

partly because i'm afraid of my baby monitor (ever seen white noise?)

and partly because i'm afraid i won't get to him soon enough

but we've both survived two nights even if i'm the one not getting sleep

anyway... much more to come

mckay turns 3

this is one of my favorite 3 year olds

and his mom throws him fantastic parties

fortune kooki

the balloon phenomenon 

don't be deceived by her "butterfly" costume this lady was a wiz with a balloon.

my personal favorite was an ariel balloon bikini top and all

how cute is that?

and then i couldn't helo but photo carie sitting in the baby seat to cut the cake :)

oh carie... 

but what a fun party

for a very fun boy

who we love very much!

a trip to the zooo

we went to the zoo!

i'm going to say brig didn't enjoy it much and was a bit fussy whole time 

but 

i

 felt like a real mom!

cass was nice enough to invite me along with some of her friends and i am sure glad she did cause i thought it was quite fun

brig's twin

mr turtle

however i couldn't get a head on shot....

see the resemblance?

1st off

cass was hilarious with her front pack... i've never seen a mom and baby loaded in more complicated ha

2ndly we walk over to the chimps and cass is talking to cleo telling her to look at the chimps when i look at cleo and she's doing this

ohhh... i <3 that girl

there was a bengal tiger somewhere behind us

and what's a trip to the zoo without a stuffed animal to go home with?

cleo and brig got matching monkeys for their car seats....

brig's lasted less than 24 hours when redford discovered said monkey

 i wouldn't talk to redford for a couple of days

needless to say the monkey belongs to redford now

3 months old!

3 month old already?

i can hardly stand it... but your just getting a whole lot cuter so i guess its okay

here are a few birthday bits for you:

-my scale seems to think you weigh 14 lbs!

- you have become drool king, yes i have started putting bibs on you to alleviate outfit changes :(

-you have created your own bedtime 7:30 sharp... early bird

-your most common baby sound is a gurgle

- you do NOT push yourself up on your hands when on your tummy

- your a mommas boy... naturally since i'm the only one you see most days

- you still have like 6 poopy diapers a day

-you love your lullaby, and smile really big when i start to sing it... even when your so dang tired

- you are staying true to baby clothes sizes ie your wearing 3-6 mo

- you've become quite the grabber ie hair, necklaces, toys etc

mostly your just cute though

oh and this?

you helped mom make the bed today.

when i pulled the sheets up you grabbed on and snuggled in.

it was too cute

love you 3 month old boy!

our first fathers day

i love these guys

....

{especially in sunday attire}

now that we're parents i really do have a testimony of the divinity of our roles. i as the mother and nate as the father play very different rolls that are both uniquely important. i love watching nate with our boy. sometimes i wonder what he is doing and need to bite my tongue, other times i spy in awe at how cute they are together. at the end of the day, nate is the most perfect dad for my boy, well our boy :)

i want you to know natey that i feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have your baby. who knew we'd make something so amazing? who knew we'd just fall into these rolls? who knew it would be the most fun we've had yet?

i'm so glad your the father of our house.

thank you for all you do

and remember

we're always on your side

oh and did you know this daddy sure loves to kiss this boy?

two cute kids

today i loved having a sister in law

really  a lot of what i do is on my own

shopping, errands, outings and the such

i don't have a problem with it and i've actually become quite independent for a paige

however, when i do have company {like today} i am reminded how much i miss having friends to do things with. me and cass have gotten together twice this week! 

and it has been very fun :) 

we lunched and shopped around the plaza

then stopped at tuttimelon for a sweet ending to our afternoon

we couldn't resist a few pics with this orange backdrop

contemplation

cleo was helping support brig in his sitting position

a girl can only last so long ...

brig thought it was pretty comfy here though :)

love you two

swimming with our cous

since my last night of work was last thursday (it was very sad but i failed to take any pictures)

i feel like my days are extra long and sunday i basically begged cass to play with me sometime this week. 

she kindly obliged :)

she made a pool party on tuesday!

i was so oober pumped and started getting ready to go at like 9:30 (supposed to arrive 11:30)

then i started heading out to the car with my load and thought.. hmm its a little chilly. 

then i got in my car and the thermostat said it was 65 outside!

i wasn't backing down though and thought worst case scenario me and cass could just hang at her place

so when i arrived at the pool cute cass had bought a big old delicious togo's party sandwich and had chips and drinks and i was the only one so far. everyone else wimped out cause it was to cold.  however, cass's pool is like a bathtub and it started really heating up by about 1pm which is when more of cass's friends arrived.

overall it was fabulously fun and i think may be happening again next week.

he was awake when i got there so i decided to sunscreen him up and put on his suit

he looked amazing of course...

and cass made a very good point about swimming suits

he needs several so every pool day doesn't look like the same day in pictures

my philosophy on buying swimming suits will never be the same

this is cleo

and yes she is this cute

can't wait till she and brig can actually start playing with each other

:)

momma and brig

cass had bought a couple of these blow up things and surprisingly brig fit in it

so i twirled him around for hmm say 10 minutes? then his feet started looking pretty pruney so i got him out  and pretty much he just napped on me the rest of the pool day.

but overall? 

success!

did you hear?

utah was invited to the pac 10!

needless to say there are 3 utes in this home that are thrilled

okay a few more shots... because he's so adorable in these 

AND

 they will make his dad love him even more

that's 4 games every year that won't be 12 hours away!

*amazing utah onesies courtesy of our fellow california utes 

jon, cass, and cleo

my boys big week

this week

brig started playing with toys!

well...  he grabs on to them and kind of swings them around

i'm not sure if he really is enjoying it but it makes me feel a lot better as a mom when i need to set him down to see that he actually has entertainment.

my wide eyed boy just gets more and more fun

at times i don't want him to change a bit and when i replace 0-3 onesies for 3-6 onesies i kinda wanna cry... but then every new stage is so exciting. his coos? my favorite. 

today in sunday school i was thinking about all this while we were studying 1 Samuel

there are so few women in the scriptures but the women in the OT are such incredible examples

hannah wanted a child so badly, even if she could have him for just 3 years.

but i couldn't agree more. 

having a baby is such an incredible gift and each day is worth the world to me.  i feel like all the hard work i've done in my life and the sacrifices i've made  (as small as they all are) being able to stay home and take care of my baby is my great reward. 

i hope i get to have many years with brig but i would, like hannah, give my baby to the lord for the gift of those three years.

her prayer is mine as well

how grateful i am for a loving heavenly father

who loves me 

enough to give me this gift

1 samuel 2:1-9

time with dad

what a week... and what weeks we have to look forward to

nate is working his tail off commuting, studying, and then actually working

his brig time has been fewer than usual and will probably become even less in the coming weeks.

so friday night when he got home at 6 (hooray!) he was extra loving his boy and wanted to take loads of pictures. it made me kind of chuckle cause the things that he was loving i see all day everyday but because he hadn't been around as much he wanted to capture every moment. sure glad we did though cause it's all flashing by before my eyes.

this was "kyle korver" brig

wide eyed brig

big boy brig

and cold boy brig

nate loves this reflex.

so do i.

so dang cute.

i guess i'll divulge our life update while i'm at it right? need to document things as they come right?

we bought a house.... well we're in escrow.

remember how i've been crying about a house for ages? literally ages? well now that it's almost a reality it seems the farthest thing from it and i'm taking the not going to "count my ducks till they're all in a row" or whatever that expression is approach. wanna know the biggest kicker? i haven't even seen the place my self!  i mean pictures yes of course and nate has seen it but me no. and more and more kickers? nate's new job is all demanding at the moment and i get to do a lot of this by myself. like um.. inspections? weird. i never envisioned it being this way but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. hopefully we will close and be in our new home by the end of july. until then, i hope we come out of the next 30 days alive cause natey's got a lot on his plate and i will either live by myself m-f or live in a hotel with nate m-f. probably the prior due to a lovely thing called dogs.

who knows but i've got my gloves up ready for whatever is coming

and blog, i'll let you know

oh

*my dog just peed at my feet.*

 terrrrrrrific.

our m.o.

it seems our m.o. for a new job goes a little something like this:

it's going to be a change in life style.

when will we ever get to go on a vacation again?

let's go now.

recall: 

summer in indy = italy (it was actually our belated honeymoon but i'm counting it as both)

move to california = ny

move to new job = tahoe

so thats what we did this weekend.

nate finished his last day of work friday around 12 and we just hopped in the car for a short weekend

we literally didn't decide where we were going until we hit the freeway interchange and nate went right instead of left. 

3 1/2 hours later, beautiful tahoe!

it was all excitement until we hit tahoe and nate got a call that reminded him of something he was supposed to do.

the remainder of the night and until the next day around 11 when things got resolved our vaca was no fun

a shining example of the no fun part

one thing both nate and i were highly impressed by was the excellant service in tahoe... almost too excellent, like at heidi's where our check was delivered to us before we finished eating. lucky for heidi we nate likes that kind of service.

at one restaurant we were simultaneously seated, brought warm bread, and ice water. 

impressivo tahoe

problem almost resolved.....

weekend being enjoyed!

although we weren't dressed in beach attire 

(because 75 degrees seemed cold to me?)

we headed to the beach and enjoyed laying in the sun and looking at this vista

for maybe... 10 minutes? but they were a very enjoyable 10 minutes :)

____

then we headed back to our hotel  for an afternoon nap and to let brig have his first swim

he did good but it wasn't the warmest of days so if he wasn't being held very close to your body he wanted out.

however...

love these two guys

swimming with me wasn't nearly as fun for brig cause...

i couldn't touch the bottom without being in shoulder deep which meant brig would be in shoulder deep.

i hadn't foreseen my height being an issue with little swimmers.

i think it may be 

we got him changed and bundled quickly after his swim though and he enjoyed kicking around in his bassinet. 

btw brig, you love your bassinet

overall

successful first family trip

did our trip ease any new job jitters and worries?

no 

week one began monday and let's just say life is not good until we move 

nate woke up at 3:30 this morning to be to work on time.

but alas... the journey begins