WHERES DADA

This weekend Rob flew to Denver to see the Williams kids while Brooklyn and a very pregnant mama held down the fort in San Jose. Weekends in our house revolve 100% around family so she was very confused to wake up and not see him here. It was darling all weekend long she seemed like she was looking around for him and saying dada with a little question in her voice. Even though she is a mama lover through and through she loves her dada a lot.

So this was our big weekend to go wild, just us two girls and I realized I may be the lamest person ever.

I am furiously trying to finish Brooklyn first year baby book before the new baby is born and was actually depressed all weekend that I had been lazy and ordered the prints to be delivered instead of picking them up from Costco. Worse.decision.ever. I kept imagining my glorious weekend of scrap booking, to no avail.

^^Friday night we got a pity invitation to a friend's BBQ that was all couples and no kids. Brooklyn and I got all dolled up and out we headed. She started melting down approximately two hours after her bedtime at 8:30 and home we went. I spent the rest of the evening begging my mom (who is three hours ahead of us) to stay awake on the phone and talk to me. sad.

^^Saturday we did what girls do best: shop. We hit all kids of home stores looking for some new additions for my very color lacking home. 

^^Brooklyn starring at the lights and/or fan. Her new obsession. For some reason she thinks seeing this is the funnest thing in her life right now. We did the usual Whole Foods run- bulk grains and organic fruits/veggies followed by some lunch there. I am kind of obsessed with their tuna sandwich. Surprisingly Brooklyn was not. 

^^Home for another recent favorite: Baby Einstein videos on YouTube. She was squealing and jumping on the bed each time a new barn yard animal would pop up. This lasts for about 3 minutes until she gets so excited she smashes the keyboard and closes the program. She yells mama mama and points to the screen until I get fix it for her. 

^^Baby goes down for a nap and I start with home repairs. That middle panel has been sitting in the guest room waiting to be "rehung" for about three weeks now. Husband, you should feel guilty that your NINE MONTH pregnant wife is picking up the slack while you are out having a grand old time in Denver. I sent this picture to Rob and he wrote back "it looks crooked" with a smile. Ha-Ha. I'm not laughing and I think it looks perfect!

^^Halloween decorating! Premature? Possibly. Do I care? Nope! For the amount of money  I spend on decorations and the amount of work it takes to put them up the longer they are displayed the better. 

^^Delta Queen car wash time. I am kind of obsessed with this car wash place because of the fun gift shop you get to walk through and the whole Delta Queen, Mississippi River thing they have going on. We walked back and forth, back and forth along that boardwalk about 100 times until the car was ready. You can put 25 cents into a machine and get food to feed the fish which was quite a sight! I wish I had gotten a picture of their huge open mouths. It was actually quite disgusting looking so maybe I am glad I didn't. 

^^Back for more shopping basically because Brooklyn was super fussy and hates being in the house.  Home Goods this time, one of my all time favorite stores. Brooklyn was digging her neck pillow. I almost bought it until I realized it would be good for about 2 minutes and then she would throw it on the ground. I don't even really enjoy those neck things, there is no chance a 13 month old is going to need one on a plane. 

^^Posing before church Sunday morning. Very pleased with our purchase of this full length mirror.  Notice I left the cardboard on the edges anticipating Rob would hate it. And he did. I talked him into exchanging it for a more gray color one. Picture soon on that one! 

^^Little girl continuing to torture me at church. She is teething her molars and having a really hard time this go-around. I tried to dress her as angelically as possible thinking it would maybe rub off on her attitude. No luck there.

After church we headed up to Danville for dinner with my in-laws and two of my nephews (totally forgot a pic) then picked up Rob at the Oakland airport. I was so, so, so excited to see him and leaped out of the car for a huge hug and kiss. He was less excited because he had been standing outside waiting for me for 45 minutes. Sorry, babe! I still can't believe we use to spend days and sometimes a whole week apart at my last job. I loved the start up idea but who was I kidding with that schedule?! I love cuddling and watching TV every night like we do now. And when we got home thats exactly what we did. :)

SPRINKLED WITH LOVE

Thursday night my awesome friends threw me a sprinkle. I love the name sprinkle, for a mini baby shower for the second or third born child. A sprinkle is for moms who have many traditional registry items already, but still want an occasion to celebrate with their friends. Since I love any reason to throw or attend a party when my friends brought up the idea I was in. 

I did feel a little guilty at the thought of receiving gifts for my second baby, especially because its going to be a girl however. We came up with a great, inexpensive idea of having me create a book registry and requesting just that. It was really fun to choose all the books and know my guests would have a simple, inexpensive decision to just pick the one they wanted to give. I loved that several of the books ended up being some of the ladies childhood favorites. Hearing the stories made me imagine reading the books to my little girls and them having those same fond memories.

Everything about this night was just perfect from the desserts to the games to the gifts and conversations. 

I loved the sprinkle games the most. My favorite was everyone brought a baby picture and put it on their gift so I had to guess who each present was from. Either I'm a bad facial profiler or people look way different because I think I got maybe two right. 

Thank you to everyone who came and made this night so exceptional. A special thanks to Emi, Tarin, Adria, Katie, Kira and anyone else who helped put this together. The party was so much fun and I truly felt showered in love. I really lucked out with such a great group of friends. These girls are my family away from home and I love them for that. 

  

^^gift table. <3

^^perfect sprinkle treats

^^opening some gifts 

^^{almost} everyone. an amazing group of woman right there 

A LABOR DAY ROAD TRIP

This long Labor Day weekend I really wanted to take a fun trip with our family of three. With only a few weeks left before the new baby arrives it feels really important to soak up all this time with Brooklyn as an only child. We decided to do a road trip north up the coast. Special thank you to my awesome husband who said this was "my weekend." He kind of hates this type of thing but he was amazing and agreed to every stop. Even the antique show, although he gave me a 5 minute time limit.:) We started out Friday night staying in San Francisco then drove to Muir Woods, Bodega Bay, and the Russian River. We worked our way up and down the coast until we arrived back in San Francisco Saturday night and spent the day there Sunday. We had SUCH a blast and were delighted how good of a road trip-er Brooklyn is. Next trip will be as a family of four!   

Getting it started Friday night! 

^^watching the street  performers along Fisherman's Wharf 

^^ ending the night with in-n-out shakes

^^ early start in the car saturday morning 

^^muir woods! a 4 year dream of mine to attend

^^a very curious brooklyn

^^ love these two always making the same faces

^^heading down to the russian river for a swim

^^such a fun and cool spot

^^look close thats me and brooklyn! 

^^we hit the antique show in town after. this was ..... interesting. 

^^rob was pretty opposed to attending until he saw this beauty

^^an antique hat for brooklyn, don't mind if i do

^^bodega bay was gorgeous but really overcast! 

^^definitely needed jackets to hang out in the cool/misty weather 

^^yes i received worst mother of the year award when i fed brooklyn ketchup to keep her from screaming until our food arrived. rob was horrified when he saw this and immediately instructed me to stop. 

^^brooklyn's very first kid's meal! she ate the entire thing... and some of mine

^^we saw lots and lots and lots of cows on our drive 

^^making our way back into san fran

^^and directly to chili pies once we arrived in the city. super cute little restaurant that blends a full slice of pie with ice cream into a shake. i would recommend trying it once for the experience but for the amount of calories and taste i wouldn't go back. 

^^lazer focused on all and every food

^^my baby is so big! she looks like a little kid now :/

^^and this is what we look like after a full day of driving. yikes

^^checking out the view from our hotel room

^^hotel whitcomb very much resembled the tower of terror elevator. i was just waiting to be ejected out the side of the building

^^family selfie shots. you know you do them

^^love those blue skies. we kind of like living in the bay area

^^walking the mean streets of sf

^^mel's "famous" dinner

^^last stop dropping off the husband to band practice in the city. yup, i'm his groupie ;)