leaves

 

fall is here!

 

and as quickly as we were enjoying all these beautiful leaves, they were all blown off our two giant trees in the front and backyard with a huge windstorm last week. bummer.

 

good thing i got a few pictures of the trees before they became naked.

 

Bridger loves the leaves. he kicks and kicks and kicks his feet and likes to hear them crunch.

he even likes to eat them. well, at least put them in his mouth. (i don't let him swallow them, of course!)

 

today, while i was cleaning the tray off his high chair, i just sat him outside the back door on the door mat, and let him play in the pile of leaves. he was in heaven. he crunched them in his hands and brought a bunch into the house unknowingly...they were stuck to his bum :)

 

i wish fall would last longer.

it is by far my favorite season.

and one of the reasons why i LOVE colorado so much.

 

p.s. isn't he the most handsome devil you've ever seen?
thanks Honey for the cute outfit!

bears

in case you didn't know, this boy likes loves stuffed animals.

so much so, in fact, that when we were at Costco the other day, he went from fussy to ecstatic in a matter of seconds as soon as he saw these GIANT stuffed bears.

i tossed the boy in the box with the bears, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.

...until it was time to get what we came for...which was not a GIANT stuffed bear.

maybe for Christmas, Bridger....maybe. 

texas

Bridger and I took a little trip down south to Texas last week to visit Marianne, Brian, and little Hailey bug. They moved down to Pflugerville, Texas in May and bought a great house. They had talked about having me come down to help with the decorating, and we finally got around to scheduling a trip! Life was a little crazy and the summer just wasn't going to happen with us moving to Denver. Now that we are both all settled, we decided that October would be a great time to come, which I was happy about because then it wouldn't be a million degrees! Austin seems like a great area, and a place that they will love living for a long time. Aaaaand a great place for us to come visit!

Bridger and I had such a fun time down in the warm weather with some of our very favorite people. Bridger is finally at an age where he can start to play with other kids, or at least be interested in what they are doing :) Needless to say, Hailey sure kept him entertained! They were so great together. One evening, while Marianne was trying to get dinner going, and I was busy hanging pictures and art on the walls, we put B and Hailey in the bedroom and flipped on cartoons for a little while. Surprisingly, they just stayed in the room, Bridger didn't cry or get fussy, nothing was destroyed or broken, and they just laid there together on the floor. It was a pretty cute little moment. 

The majority of our time was spent decorating, which I thought was fun. I think poor Marianne was a little exhausted by the time it was all said and done....except it's not even quite done yet! Hah! I think their house looks really great though. I'm excited to see more of the house come together when they get a few more missing pieces! Bridger and I had a ton of fun just hanging out with them. Steve was feeling a little left out, I'm sure, but we are hoping to get down there in the spring sometime for another visit.

The last night we were there, they took B and I to Rudy's. I had never heard of it. This place was authentic Texas BBQ, apparently. We walked into this place, (which by the way, on the front of the restaurant in big, neon lights, says, "worst BBQ in Texas") and I literally felt like I was in a different country. It was hilarious! Who knew a bunch of slabs of meat would round up so many people! Oh, and I'm convinced that this place keeps Wonder Bread in business...they must go through 100 bags of that stuff a night. They gave us like half a bag of bread for just us 3 adults. And they told us to come back for more if we needed! Crazy I tell you. And even crazier that we went back for more! (Bridger was loving the bread) Picnic tables slid together to make giant tables for family style dining, plastic bags of water hanging above our heads (I'm still not quite sure what that's all about), plastic pop bottle crates used for our food tray, pieces of wax paper for "plates," bathroom style paper towel dispenser for napkins....and the list goes on. Crazy I tell you.

Rudy's was s o . m u c h . f u n .

Here's a few pics to prove it:

Thank you Brian, Marianne, and Hailey for letting Bridger and me come visit! We sure miss living with you guys, but we're excited to come see you again soon....and we may have to make a little pit stop by Rudy's again when we do.  

climber

we've got a stair climber on our hands!

look at this little dare devil! He keeps crawling over by the stairs, so now, I've decided that instead of taking him away from the stairs each time, it's time to teach the boy to go up and down.

we started today by just going up the stairs, and we'll work on going down, really soon!

he did so great though! he climbed those stairs like a champ, and didn't wobble or get distracted by my constant cheers of encouragement--or by my hand that was there, just in case :) i was so surprised that he caught on so quickly; i thought it would take a lot longer to teach him, than it did.

do you think he was a little exhausted after the big climb? i think his face says YES!

one more month has flown by!

Bridger is at such a fun age right now! He's on the move, so obviously that makes my life a little more hectic, but that's ok. Bridger is exploring every nook and cranny of my mom's house and just today, discovered the stairs.

He started crawling over to the top of the stairs, so I took him to the bottom, and had him climb up. I thought it would take him a little bit to figure it all out, but he caught on super quick! He didn't even really wobble much and surprisingly, wasn't distracted by much either. His motivation? a J.Crew shopping bag and my mom cheering him on at the top of the stairs. We've climbed the stairs now a few times, and each time, he's getting better and better. Now, the trick is to get him to go down the stairs. That one might take a little more time.

At 8 months, our little bug:
-is crawling like a maniac! he's all over the place, like I said, and so much happier now that he isn't confined to a little square blanket in the middle of the family room.
-has 3 teeth: the first came in on the bottom, the second on the top (is that normal??), and now the third has finally popped through on the bottom, after a week of crankiness and a runny nose.
-loves graham crackers, goldfish, cheerios, bananas, applesauce, chicken, cheese, toast, and apple juice.
-not a huge fan of baby food anymore. He likes to be able to feed himself, and hasn't figured out how to use his spoon exactly, so he just gets mad. If I use a normal spoon, though, he'll sometimes eat his baby food. It's almost more of a hassle, so we might be done with it pretty dang soon.
-loves to roll around on Honey's bed. I think it's the soft, silky blanket!
-claps his hands whenever we start singing and playing pat-a-cake
-so close to being able to say Mamma and Dadda! Sooo close!
-LOVES, LOVES, LOVES being outside! Loves sitting right in the leaves, or grass, and loves to watch the cars pass by.
-likes to swing
-loves the kitty still, but now he's able to keep up a little better, so the kitty is even more annoyed, I'm sure
-gets the biggest smile on his face when Daddy comes home from work
-pulls himself up onto furniture...including his crib. This is a new trick as of two nights ago. It could be a rough few days (hopefully) until he figures out how to get down after he's pulled himself up.
-loves to read books
-likes to be sung to
-sleeps from about 8:30-7:30 and takes a couple naps each day
-finally figured out how to use a sippy cup! (thanks Marianne!)
-likes playing peek-a-boo
-figured out how to play with cars, and likes to spin the wheels
-likes playing with tupperware lids, spoons, spatulas, brushes, bottles of lotion, door stops, and toothbrushes
-learning how to give kisses...more like open-mouthed, face attacks at this point :)

Steve and I find ourselves talking about Bridger a lot when he gets home from work at night, and I sometimes wonder, what did we talk about before this little boy entered our lives. Needless to say, Bridger has brought so much joy and happiness into our lives, and we couldn't be happier.


In other news...we are still living at my mom and dad's house. We hope to get this whole house hunting thing underway soon, though! We have been driving around and have been online, looking at homes in the area frequently though, so hopefully, once we get the ball rolling, we'll have luck finding a great home for our little family. Until then, we are grateful for my mom and dad's hospitality. They really are the best, letting us crash their basement. We are lucky to be living with them, and I know Bridger is loving all the attention....we might have a monster on our hands when it comes time for us to go though! Hmmm...