the great pumpkin.

did you know the great pumpkin really came from where i live?

no joke, charles schulz is from santa rosa

well the great pumpkin brought brig this pumpkin and he was tickled.

feeling out the big guy before we dug in

then he willingly took some insides from me to play with

*note the binky? it's a godsend when you don't want something going into his mouth

he was really interested in the goop

of course we had to have smiley jack-o-lantern for our smiley boy

and

mom and dad's pumpkin carving skills aren't so hot...

nate admitted to only carving a pumpkin once or twice! 

so him with the knife was scary to say the least...

two little pumpkins

and cute dad who we both love

:)

sick boy

all these firsts for me...

my first really sick boy.

friday night he started getting ornery, saturday he wasn't quite himself, sunday he cried A LOT and had a fever, monday he cried ALL day, by tuesday his fever broke but he wasn't quite himself, wednesday i had my boy back!

such a sad and hard few days though. 

first time mother that i am, i took him to urgent care sunday night, then to my pediatrician monday night too. 

but all that crying and the high fever? there just had to be something wrong that they could fix.

lesson learned: 

they check eyes, ears, mouth, and nose and brig perks up to play with the table paper and stethoscope.

when eyes, ears, mouth, and nose all look good they say 'sorry' and give you the tylenol and motrin doses. well my little man's fever was barely touched by the medicine and i pretty much just held him and nursed him for 2 days. i felt so bad for little man.

i didn't realize what a smiley boy i have and how much fun it is

until...

he stopped smiling :(

it's funny, as parents we try to do what makes us feel better when we're sick. 

for me that was putting brig in comfy warm clothes (bad idea with the fever), lots of fluids, and reading.

for nate is was giving our boy tubbies. 

not sure our 'feel betters' helped but what did help was when the mail man came tuesday with all the junk mail. brig had a grand old time squashing papers for about 45 minutes.

brig, please don't go away again. i missed you. 

xoxo mommy

the most beautiful niece in the world does homecoming

i got to be a part of this.

she let me go shopping with her and we found the perfect dress

she let me come watch her get ready

she let me take pictures and send her out the door

and i?

i loved every minute!

bryce and lis have a very talented hairdresser friend who is super nice and did miranda's hair and make-up for the event. 

this is the step-by-step process

curls, pins, and a beaming momma

beauties final touch

of course asher bieber was there to do all the brotherly pests and jaunts :)

(we were barely ready when he arrived and asher so lovingly kept running and opening the front door to say he was there just to stress miss miri out)

mr date's first look

oh they were too cute, and they actually are bf/gf.

how nice is that to go to your first dance with someone you actually like

my taylor swift look-a-like niece has now been to her first dance :(

i can hardly wait for the next!

and 

i secretly hope mr clark asks me to homecoming so i can get all dolled up and giddy

of course briggy would be invited too :)

halloweenie jammies & 7 months

4 years ago on the family jackson trip my sister robyn brought picture frames for all the ladies in the family that said "our little goblins"

initially i didn't get one, not having a baby and all, and if i remember correctly i threw a fit and robyn gave me one. 

anyway, they took a picture of all the grand babies then in their skeleton jammies and they all had that halloween picture in their frames.

i don't know why but i love that frame and have held on to it for years. it just was a "i'll be there someday" reminder for me. well i am here!

and 

i bought my skeleton jammies in umm august?

i also picked these amazing halloweenie jammies up at the same time.

i love baby jammies.

and

 i love my baby in jammies. 

and

i now have this picture in my frame

on to 7 months 

brig- 

when i informed dad it was your birthday again today it went like this:

dad: how long will he have a birthday every month?"

me: "forever?!?"

i really think every 22 @ 7pm i will relive having you baby boy. 

i just love that moment so much 

 so cheers to your 7 month birthday!!

at 7 months you:

-say "oh.." amazingly cute and all the time and is both me and dad's favorite

-sleep beautifully during the day and at night :)

-eat 2 square meals a day, at least 8 oz each meal

-love phones and remotes

- you hand out smiles like they're candy

- everywhere we go people can't take they're eyes off you. literally, a customer at best buy couldn't even finish checking out cause you walked by and two straight men at the auto glass store googled over you for an hour while we waited.

- you like to try and drown in the tub by rolling on your tummy or head diving while sitting

- you sit up in the grocery cart

-watch cartoons while mom gets ready

- still have both mom and dad wrapped around your finger

the facial expression that accompanies the "ohh..."

nose dive

dogs?

dogs!

love you my boy!

happy 7 months!

grammy visit

all us california clark's bought coleen a plane ticket out to visit for her birthday.

finally in october she came!

she did two days with the dublin group and two days with us windsor people.

it was short and sweet and a little damp 

jon and cass brought coleen up to our place saturday. i maybe had been preparing all week?  you know hanging all the pictures i never hung, and putting away all my final pieces of 'not moved in yet'. it always takes something like company for me to get in gear and get things done. 

saturday we stayed in and order pizza and sunday we stayed in and watched the pouring rain, then took a drive through our wine country for coleen. 

i think she fell in love, if only we weren't so difficult to get too...

but brig and the dogs definitely got some much needed grammy love.

grammy, cleo, and brig!

a highchair for brig

we've been meaning to make this leap

i just couldn't decide which highchair to get...

after much much debate

i finally got the chair i'd had my eye on from the beginning

so far...

it's a hit!

is there anything better than a baby in morning?

of course after the 7 o'clock hour...

but you just can't beat those smiles.

and what a big boy i have!

oh and brig?

i hope you enjoy this chair for the next 20 years.

that is about how long you have to use it for me to feel okay about my decision.

pumpkins.

even though i feel perfectly comfortable decorating for halloween before october

getting pumpkins is an october only festivity.

and once again, having a baby makes everything in life better.

we loaded this boy up, on another 100 degree day, and headed down the street to olufs

the local farmer with a pumpkin patch.

another benefit of living in the country: cute rural pumpkin patch less than a mile away

briggy liked the whole affair.

but the whole time i kept thinking "he's going to love this next year"

family shot #3

and again, horrible lighting

lonesome dove brig

why nate likes taking pictures/ doing things like this with our boy?

silly. 

but cute pictures

they had lots of fun things for little people, like the petting zoo. can i say how much i love dairy calfs?

they also had a toddler hay-maze.

we'll be back for sure next year :)

 oh, and we checked out the corn maze for a potential yw activity.

let me re-phrase that.

we checked out the corn path for a potential yw activity.

it didn't pass.

but

thank you olufs

and 

thank you lady picking pumpkins for giving us an extra whitey on the house

ambridge harvest party

welcome to the ambridge harvest party!

one very nice thing about living in 'wine country' are what i like to call

gentlemen's farms

(normal people with lots of land and a handful of farm animal and crops)

our friends from church, the ambridges, have such a farm.

they are the nicest people and they invited us to their annual harvest party

it was simple and beautiful covered in harvest decor from their land 

and a potluck table full of deliciousness

and it was petting zoo too

nate thought the goat was cute..

that is until seconds after this shot he tried to eat brig's shoe

"oh"

i wanted a harvest picture because opposed the the word "harvest" and our apparel in the pictures it was 100 degrees.

i'm wearing flannel.

it needed to pay off somewhere

anyway, trying to get brig to smile is easy.

but at the camera?

not so much :)

and alas, a family picture!

this would be the 2nd family shot we have 

the disadvantage?

taken by a kindly passerby in horrific lighting

but what a fun harvest party

overnight at grammy's

can i just say this...

i love my in-laws

and i know that is something a lot of people can not say.

but i say to nate allll the time

"you're family is a better deal than you" ;)

really though... nate comes from great stock and i am oh so proud to be a Clark

even though we visit utah a lot, we always seem to miss visiting someone. 

there never is enough time you know?

our trip back in september we didn't get to see the clark's so this time around it had to happen.

nat and jake were up in midway for the weekend and kindly gave me a ride down to the clarks on sunday.

and guess what?

brig loves grammy's house :)

well he loves grammy actually...

and i think he holds a special place in her heart too

 being her baby's baby and all

kind of the end of an era or something?

her house, and life i would say, is pretty much dedicated to her grand babies.

i mean when you have 6 in one year this must tend to happen :)

but this play pen? genius!

she has is set up in her kitchen and brig was in heav-en

while at grammy's we ate wonderful food, walked, brig slept beautifully, he ate in his dad's old highchair, and jaydee and coleen always always spoil you... i'd feel bad about it but it's kind of really fun. 

monday afternoon coleen went to play the piano for her hour in the conference center,

so i went and picked up jaydee at the market and we headed over to see grandpa cliff

brig was a little unsure of great grandpa at first :)

but he warmed up.

and grandpa cliff was in excellent form.

and

we found out he, margaret, and jaydee lived not to far away from where we live now for a year during the war! they actually celebrated jaydee's first birthday here!

i'm determined to go visit the little town.

after grandpa's we picked up coleen and they treated us to dinner at redrock

it was scrumptious and delightful and i couldn't have asked for a more fun day!

it's always bittersweet being dropped off at the airport. 

i'm always ready to get home and back to my guy

but then i'm always leaving these really fun people.

oh well... at least mr clark is making is possible for me to visit!

jaydee and coleen

thank you for the wonderful stay!

we sure love you guys!