Christmas in DC Means...

decorating my Mom's sugar cookies... one of my favorite childhood traditions

 being with my whole family!

matching Christmas shirts!

making creme brulee and playing games...

going to church in Christmas morning then enjoying Christmas brunch, featuring the BEST quiche Lorraine, pumpkin bread and fruit...

lots of love from everyone for this Christmas boy...

presents that weren't quite as exciting as the wrapping...

Wade's specialty holiday punch.. he has made it every year since he was 6

roast beef Christmas dinner with my favorite roasted beet salad? (can you tell where I get my love of cooking from?)

 visiting the national Christmas tree!

 always so magical! Scott wouldn't take his eyes off the trains in front of the tree for a picture...

I hope your holiday was wonderful too! Happy New Year!

Lately

For those of you who don't know we moved to Utah a month or so ago. We moved up there for Nate's job and will probably be in Provo for a few years - then hopefully somewhere else (like Virginia or back to San Diego). The move all happened really quick. We had the idea of moving up to Provo for a number of reasons but originally ruled it out because we loved our life in San Diego! But more and more if felt like the right decision. It worked out great to move when we did because our current lease was up and we were able to move before Nate had a big conference in November. 

We had a hard time finding a place in Provo mid-semester... We found a place on craigslist that looked ok, but when we got up there it was not ok. We decided to live out of suitcases until we found a better place and sold the contract we got. Luckily we were able to do both of those things in about 2 weeks. Now we love the apartment we found and are all settled! 

We miss our San Diego friends, the weather and the beach but have been loving living in Provo. Mostly because lots of people we love live here! I've been reunited with some of my best college girlfriends. I got to throw a surprise party for my BFF Jessica earlier this month (read about it here!). It's also been great hanging out with Nate's brother and sister who are in Provo. How lucky am I that one of my best friends is also my sister-in-law? I've loved being reunited with her because of our shared love for shellac nails, spin class, and spontaneous late night outings to Target. 

Mike, Emily, Nate, Scott & I at Thanksgiving

Celebrating Mike's Birthday

Scott's first CougarEat Experience

Scott now loves his puffy snow suit!

Right now we are in San Diego! Since we didn't know we'd be moving to Provo we got our tickets to see my family for Christmas out of San Diego months ago. It actually worked out well because Nate's siblings are in town and Scotty got to see his cousins! The night before we left my friend Kasee flew into Salt Lake to visit her Mom. My girlfriends and I drove up to pick her up from the airport and hung out after. It was so good to see her!

Love these girls!

 

In San Diego we've been able to see some of our old friends. Nate's friend from high school Julia came to visit us with her husband Brian. 


I also got to visit with my best friend from work Erica. I missed her!

We've had a great time with Nate's family!

Sarah is 3 weeks younger than Scott and is the sweetest baby!

Scott loves his cousins!

John and Vanessa came from Long Beach and brought presents for all the kids!

 

We are off to Virginia in the morning. Scott has had an ear infection so wish us luck. We had to see his doctor here in San Diego after the drive and got some medicine/ I hope he has been on it long enough to be feeling better. Flights with infants are NOT fun. But definitely worth it to go home from Christmas! 

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Boy

 We are at Nate's parents in San Diego hanging out with his family that's in town before flying to Virginia on Monday. 

Today we took Scott to meet Santa!

No tears for him. 

Santa and him are equally plump and jolly!

9 Months Old!

Besides Scott turning 9 months much has happened since my last post! 

I'll start with an update on Scott. And do another post about life things later.

Luckily I make notes in a Google Document that is kind of like a journal (just a line or two every few days), so I have record of what he did at 9 months. 

Because he will be 10 months in less than a week! 

Currently Scott is: 

- Crawling all over the place! He started officially crawling at 8 1/2 months. Now he is really fast and can get anywhere he wants. If you go into the next room over and call his name he will come crawling as fast as he can to find you! We've given him the nick name puppy because he really does seem like a dog, panting and happy to follow you.

- He can pull up to stand on anything. He is "furniture cruising", which is not limited to furniture. He will try and stand and move along anything he can reach. It results in multiple daily falls which I hope will end soon when he is able to stand on his own. Scott already thinks he can stand on his own. Sometimes he will just let go of whatever he is holding on too expecting to stand. At least he is not lacking in self confidence!

- I can tell he is starting to understand words. He knows what the ceiling fan is and if you say "Scott where's the fan" he will look up at it. He has even pointed at it a few times!

- He LOVES reading books now. It is the only time he will be completely still and cuddle with us. He loves seeing the pictures and looks carefully at the things you point out on the page.

- He is trying to say words. He keeps saying Mama and Dada but I'm still not 100% sure if he is intentionally saying that to me and Nate. I think it might still be part of his babbling. But I'm excited for real first words to start soon!

And look at all those teeth! He is really into that cheesy crooked smile these days. And I love it!

Happy Halloween!

Little shark!

And we wore Lifeguard t-shirts... slightly low effort on our part.

 But Scott looked cute! And that's what matters, right?

Happy Halloween!

8 Months Old!

 Scott thinks it's great to be 8 months!

Right now he is...

 Army crawling in his own way,

and crawling backwards the classical way. 

He can also get himself into sitting position from his stomach.

 He loves to stand holding onto things.
But can't get up on his on yet!

He also babbles constantly!

Particularly around large groups of people. 

He thinks he is part of the conversation.

At church he thinks all the hymns we sing are especially for him, and goes crazy trying to "sing" along with them.

Scott is very social. On the airplane ride back from Virginia he would stare at the people the row behind us waiting for them to look at him, then give them a huge smile. 

While he prefers his Mom and Dad, he has no problem happily greeting anyone from nice old ladies at Costco to sketchy-looking-gangster men in the elevator. 

 At the grocery store he will stare at someone way down the aisle waiting for them to approach, then kick his feet and go crazy smiling. 

Such a funny boy.

Happy 8 Months Scott!

October in Virginia

A few weeks ago we went to Virginia!
We were supposed to go to the beach in North Carolina with my family in August, but Hurricane Irene hit the week we were supposed to go.
We rescheduled our flights for October.

I was NOT happy about it in August.
But of course I changed my mind when October rolled around!

October is my favorite month in Virginia by far and I'm glad Nate and Scott got to experience it.

On this trip...

 

Scott LOVED hanging out with his Grandpa and Grandma. 

I think they loved it even more. 

And I think I loved it the most.  

Scott played silly games with Grandpa.

And went to watch his Uncle Wade swim.

  

And was a trooper when my Mom and I dragged him to the outlet malls.

My Mom and I sewed a beautiful dress for me (skills I don't have). And made washcloth elephants like my Grandma used to make.

 We played games like Ticket to Ride and cards.

 And my Mom made delicious food a desserts for everyone.

 

We went to Georgetown.

And Nate went to DC with my little brother.

 I caught up with old friends in the area.

We also went to Busch Gardens which is an upscale theme park that goes all out for Halloween!
It was such a fun day but all the pictures we took were on Nate's phone and his SD card broke.

 We ate at a few of my favorite places back home - the Bagel Cafe and Thai by Thai.

 Scott got to meet his Uncle Sam who came up from Charlottesville for the day.
They are kindred spirits.
You know Scott's adorable dimple?
Well he doesn't get it from me or Nate - but Sam has the exact same one!
Instant bonding.

It was a great trip. We love family and Virginia.

We did not, however, love the 6 hour flights with an 8 month old.  

He was a good boy overall. But when is traveling with an infant ever fun?

Luckily as always, the journey was well worth it!