the first visit back

i have decided that you don't realize how much you miss something until you see it again.

that is how this friday was for me.

my cheerleaders are in the heart of competition season and since i haven't been able to make it to either of their competitions it was really important for me to be there for their fall performance. 

since a drive to san ramon is no walk in the park.... we made a day of it

brig and i began the trek around 11, stopped by ikea for some house essentials [and non essentials] then met cass and cleo at the plaza where i used to work.

it was a rainy day, i was late, cass was leaving he next day for thanksgiving, but my i'm sure glad we got to spend some time together!

i was famished so cass kindly sat through a 3pm methany's lunch

these two didn't mind though

they worked their way through puffs and french fries

stop it brig.

:)

after lunch we fed the duckies and took some cousin pics.

they love each other.

really cleo, you stop it.

brig, still a gentle guy, just had his hand on cleo the whole sitting

cleo just wanted to eat that leaf and the puffs her mom was scattering around the lawn for the duckies :)

smoochies

i'm really a little concerned brig knows what to do here...

and then he needed to give cous some loves

yes, i do have a cuddle-er and i <3

and then cleo was off!

i stopped into the salon and saw all my old people, who i really miss.

then i stopped by greg and carie's, who i really miss.

then it was on to the cheer gym to see more people i really miss.

the salon goes on and changes with out me

mckay and jayden grow up with out me

my cheerleaders are getting better and better with out me.

and me?

i thought i was doing really good up north here

then i had my first visit back

i realized

i really miss it there in 1125 waterstone place

i had people

i was a part of things.

it's so hard to get to that place when you move somewhere new.

so

to all my people in the east bay...

i love you. i miss you. thank you for being so kind.

my bister

my big sister robyn.

i have loved her forever.

And know what's funny? she's my oldest sister, but at this point in life, the sister i spend the most time with and have a closest relationship with as an adult. we always find ourselves visiting my mom's at the same time which results in fantastic late night and getting ready talks. and the cherry on top? 

we just had babies together. 

it is the most fun.

she is my go-to for everything

bob robyn had a fantastic idea of her coming to visit with sull's

and

she did it!

really, we had to too much fun doing pretty much nothing.

she got in late so brig and sully didn't get to say hello till the next morning

they were really excited about eachother ;)

and sully found his toes for the first time that morning!

brig had his 'dumb' smile on the whole time we were on the bed

we bathed them together.

she has a dolphin in the tub.

it was all too cute
and
surprisingly, brig was super gentle with sully

we went to the beach because fall is the best time of year to go beaching in northern california
really... it was nearly 80 degrees.

we went with bryce, asher, and miranda

cute asher... he used to crawl like this when he was a baby

amazing mr sulls seemed to quite like the beach

or maybe it was all the mommy holds

my pretty pretty sister

oh and this?

i didn't intend to let brig play in the sand

but

he loved it

that is until i took his binkie out and he put a mouthful of sand in his mouth.

he immediately turned to me and started digging his head into my chest.

i obliged... i guess he needed to wash all that sand down.

all i have to say is

robyn

come back

i need more late night girl talks, stroller buddy-ing, cooking companionship, and braids in my life

way too much fun :)

thank you for the visit sister bear

i love you!

utah man

what?

our baby is a utah man.

in honor of the big tcu-utah game we decided to get real excited about it at our house.

which basically just means i decided to get excited about it cause natey boy is always excited about all things utah.

so i garbed our boy up and prepared some football foodies for us.

this however... was all before the disappointing game began

but brig has never looked cuter in his ute garb and daddy for some reason loves him in jeans, and this track jacket? 

i prefer the more sweet baby boy look. 

nate just can't wait for him to be 'his boy'

i guess that's when he'll stop being my 'baby boy' :(

i had to hold my boy tight when nate took off this weekend for the utah-notre dame game

he was trying to take him with him!

no no no

anyway, we both have stars in our eyes for this one.

the beginning of something great

last night

...

we took brig to his first football game

it was momentous in my book

although nate is what you might call a 'sports fanatic' football does mean more than just hitting people and catching balls. 

football was nate's childhood, football bonded the family, football and nate's love for his dad go hand-in-hand in all the good ways. 

almost every weekend when nate was in jr high was spent traveling around the country with his dad watching his brothers play and from what i can gather, they are some of his fondest memories.

 naturally, this love will be emulated in our home with our boy. i have no doubt when nate found out we were having a boy little footballs were circling around his head. 

so brig, i hope you find as much joy sharing football games with your dad as he did with his.

indeed, the beginning of something great....

we just have to work on making your bedtime a little later :)

our halloween!

what else was he going to be?

brig had to be a turtle for halloween

 because there pretty much aren't turtle costumes for babies and i like me a little craft

he got a homemade turtle costume.

well, needless to to say, he was adorable.

can't keep my hands off a brig

can't keep my hands of a turtle brig

we had two days of halloween,

unfortunately the big 'party' was our ward trunk-or-treat

i'd been thinking about it all since you know... mid september... and i decided we would go as an ocean theme. so nate was a shark, i was an octopus, i decorated our car with an ocean theme, and i handed out bubbles.

in hindesight?

crappy idea.

go for the candy, and scary cheap halloween decorations, and don't bother costuming.

maybe it was because i had been planning and expecting the trunk-or-treat to be a blast, so it couldn't do anything but let me down.

so for next year:

- do our own halloween festivity

- don't prepare two months in advance

our car for trunk-or-treat

(note i only put up half the decorations i brought because it was a pain and way not as fun as i'd thought)

and

brig goes to bed at 6:30

the party started at 6:30 and they did trunk-or-treat last!

poor baby was one exhausted turtle.

but he stayed pretty chipper for evening

the real halloween was much more up my alley!

it was a low key day but i had invited bryce and lisa over for my try at 'dinner in a pumpkin'

it was so fun to pull a pumpkin out of the oven, and although my witches brew (rootbeer), and sugar cookies were a failure it was just fun to be with family.

asher, miranda, and brig all went trick-or-treating with eachother.

too cute and our neighborhood was bomb for trick-or-treating

matter of fact we ran out of candy :(

brig made it to just one house

but i'm pretty sure he thought it was super cool

miranda as a gypsie, brig as a turtle, and asher as a ninja IN character

oh and see the game on in the background? 

let's go giants!! super fun to live here right now!

the final game you could hear all the neighbors cheering

tired brig, still enjoying his spoils :)

happy halloween!

thanks to brig, best halloween in 5 years!