Dallas!

When Daddy went home to work hard, Finn and I stayed to hang out with Anna and Jamie and their cute kids who were visiting from Wyoming and Idaho for the week.

 

 Played with Pugga a lot! Went to the Stock Yards in Fort Worth, went shopping, and went to the Dallas Zoo!!

We have loved all the time we've had with cousins this month! Coming home to be with just Mommy and Daddy is Bore-O.

OCTOBER

 We have bucket lists and we are checking them off! This month was short and sweet.

 The Pumpkin patch- and it was well worth the long drive out of the city! We fed goats, ate corn and fried Oreos, played in the hay, played on the play ground, picked out pumpkins, and Finn got bit in the leg by a goose! Despite the fact that it was 85 degrees and I was completely bitter about it, we had a great time.

Then we took those pumpkins and carved the crap out of them :) Kylie and Zach came over and we ate homemade applesauce, spider Oreos, and at least tried to listen to Halloween music (turns out it's all pretty much terrible).

 I worked on our costumes and made Finn a little mad scientist jacket out of a men's button down shirt,then I fashioned some leather gloves and some goggles to finish it off and we were a family of freaks! Two Frankenstein monsters and the Mad Scientist that created us! We were set to go to Grant and Callie's Halloween party!

It was such a blast and all the detail work was amazing! Callie is a pro at throwing parties and at making costumes, this was their "Minion" costume and Finn was convinced that it was Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba and was starstruck all night!

 We finished the month off with some cupcake decorating and trick-or-treating with cousins. It was a fun year of Halloween with Finn, he was mesmerized by the idea of running around outside past his bed time, knocking on doors and getting candy from complete strangers!! (and I realized that this holiday is seriously weird...)

 Earlier in the month we had a party with my Boy Scouts and Finn quickly caught on to the doughnut on a string game :)

When Nona comes to visit...

 Nona surprised us with a visit last month!! She was staying for a full week and we were absolutely ecstatic!

We introduced her to the finest fajitas Texas has to offer at Lupe Tortilla, then just played and played! This included story time at Discovery Green, feeding ducks and riding the train at Hermann Park and going to the Houston Zoo. Finn was in heaven, he looooves his Nona.

 

At the end of the week we sadly and SLOWLY drove Nona back to the airport and there Finn would not let her go. He just held her and said "no Nona, no Nona!" 

Who can say no to that sweet face, definitely not Nona and at times not even me!

SOOO........

I sent him on the plane with her? yep, yep I did. With nothing but the clothes on his back, and a few diapers and snacks that I had packed for the day, he was put on a plane to Utah for another WEEK with Nona and this time, PAPA!

of course he had SO much fun with his fun cousins, a ton of toys, snacks and treats whenever he wanted, and unlimited time with his Nona and Papa. Adding a lot of calls home to Mommy and Daddy to ensure that we survived too!

Airport reunion!

Then as an extra bonus, I got to visit Utah at the most beautiful time of the year!

The End... Right? 

What a couple of weeks, there couldn't possibly be more?

WELL, we got such a good deal on my ticket because it came with a 24 hr layover in Colorado. So we got to see Cory and Mindy and more of our fun cousins!!

 We stopped by to see Cory in action and I just couldn't resist taking a picture of his name on the door in HUGE letters. He's so professional it's crazy, I'm so proud of him!

these children are adorable and I am officially wrapped around their little fingers!

Finn completely adored his cousins they were so sweet to him and we had so much fun! 24 hours was NOT enough time!

a of fit spontaneity.... and now it's all gone

 After one night of no sleep

followed by a long day of flying

followed by a full day of church

I made an important decision....

being the impulsive spontaneous person that I am, I acted on said decision without quality meditation and contemplation.

I. cut. Finn's. hair.

I know I sound like I'm regretting it--I haven't decided if I am or not. I think he is stinkin' cute no matter what (obviously, but mother or not, with one smile this kid could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves). 

He was a trooper through the whole thing. Getting mini M&M's handed to him even though they entered his mouth with copious amounts of hair, while he sat still, seemed like a fair trade to him!

FTW

Airline buddy passes (despite the fact that they were with United gag me) have been moved to the very top of my favorite things list.

 Show up to the 5 am flight 30 minutes early so that the "gate keeper" 

can take one look at your ticket reading Stand By and snub you to the side despite

 your completely full arms and screaming baby. Then wait while every single person boards

 the plane to see if by some chance some ticketed traveler pushed snooze one 

too many times on their alarm clock that morning. 

It all being worth it because....

Thanks to them we were able to spend time with two of my most favorite people in the whole world (drum roll pleeese...) my sister Aunt Betsy and her ridiculously cute son Cam-bo!!

They surprised us with a fun visit all the way from Tennessee and we could not have been happier! 

These little guys are like kindred spirits and it kills me that they live so far apart, so we made the very best of their time together!

We:
read lots of books, went on walks, played in the Texas rain, played in the play place, ate yummy lots of Texas food!

When it came time for them to leave we couldn't take it!

SO we hoped on the same flight back with them!! (thank you buddy pass again!)

We looked a bit ridiculous with our large load and two kids but it was SOO worth it

In Nashville we stayed busy with all of the fun things there are to do there. Not that I'm surprised, but who knew Nashville, right?!

It is so so green complemented by the large rolling hills that makes it gorgeous. 

They live in such a fun area complete with a huge pond filled with turtles. I'm convinced it's where Bowser (conniving Mario Brothers super villain) lives.

The downtown scene was only about 1 MILLION times better than Houston's and even the most country-music-hating person would find it hard not to have a blast with all of the live music!

And um, turns out there is an exact replica of the Parthenon in Nashville....? Right?!

I love you Bets and Cam-man and we already miss you so much! Thanks for an amazing 2 weeks!

Busy Busy

We have been quite the busy bees here in Houston! Upon leaving our brand new house still full of boxes with nothing on the walls, we headed to Utah in the CAR (no type-o--Finn and I drove). Luckily we had Pugga, and cousins Hanny and Jus-Jus to keep us entertained! D flew up and the Anderson's headed off into the wild for their annual Uintah camping trip while Finn and I stayed for Aunt Sadie's wedding, which was AMAZING! 

We made it back it one piece without any time to slow down--we have been busy un-packing in an effort to make this new place feel more and more like home. 

This weekend's project was giving our dining room table a face lift: With Daniel's amazing tape skills and my well worked spray painting muscles, we were a perfect pair.

Sadly it has looked like this for almost 2 years!!... it was time

$40 and 1 LOOONG Saturday later I'm sat-is-fied!

As if that didn't make this week exciting enough we were sure to make our first 4th of July in Houston a memorable one, so we wrung out every second of fun we could from Daniel's mid week vaca! 

PHASE 1: Bellaire City parade! this consisted of a lot of streamers, about 10 "Back to the Future" cars, a live band, a school band, and A LOT of candy. Wholly Moley they just kept chucking it at us when were clearly swimming in it, and all for Finn. At one point someone came up to him as he sat in his stroller clearly satisfied with a dum-dum in his mouth and a fist full of jolly ranchers in each hand, and insisted that he take HER sucker, which he did gladly.

PHASE 2: BBQ. Pool Volley Ball. Water Polo. Banana boats. 
                   'Nough said

 PHASE 3: Fireworks at Hermann park that didn't end up happening until 11:00. Awesome. An already exhausted Finn was a trooper and was content eating blowing bubbles while we all played cards. #sweetheart.

Film Festival

Daniel and I dabbled with iMovie this past week for a film festival that our radical friends put together.
The event was last night, it was full of high fashion, delicious treats, and some amazing films!
There was horror films, sit-coms, and everything in-between!

Here is our entry:
 *major shout-out to Jamie for the incredible french voice over!

Texas has its perks

Where did I get this Man Cub?

Despite the fact that Finn is far from being raised by wolves (despite his grandparents' rebuttals) he is quite a natural in the wilderness. He loved the campfire, slept better than we did, and took pride is his first scraped knee. Thank you Texas for your state parks every 10 square miles, particularly Huntsville State Park with it's beautiful surroundings, and your great weather in February!

My two handsome boys snuggling, my heart melted

 CrafTy Tuesday! 

Finn and I made fruit loop necklaces this week, and he was an absolute pro at stringing them on. 

1on the string-1in the mouth. I was curious to see if he would even be interested in eating it when it was finished because he snacked on so many while we were making it.

 What was I thinking........

 Demolished!

2 words--Houston Rodeo!

Finn and I went to check things out before we embark on our family trip and Finn would give it one thumb up and one thumb in the mouth (even when its covered in animal drool)

He loved the shuttle ride over, something about being in a moving bus with no car seat got him really excited....?

Our first stop was the petting zoo and "zoo" was an understatement!! This was Finn's face when we first walked in and it pretty much explains it all.

 They really seemed to like him a lot, he wasn't too thrilled about it

But he eventually started to warm up and I got him to sit by some baby goats

Then even PET one!

Thank you Texas for you're extreme obsession with 10 gallon hats, riding, racing, and touching extremely stinky animals, and frying everything. It makes for a pretty great day!