Too many topics for one title

I'm considering changing the title of my blog to "What we did this weekend" as I feel like that sums up  the majority of my posts! Kidding on the actual name change, though.

Our long weekend last weekend was a fun one. We had a fun at-home day with J on Friday. We went to the new West Elm store that opened a little ways from here. It was heavenly! Only downside was that the sales staff were a bit overwhelming. We were approached by no less than 6 sales people who not just asked if we were "finding everything ok," but shook our hands, introduced themselves, asked our names, asked what we were looking for, explained that they were taking donations to help St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and offered their assistance if we needed anything. I get that they're a new store and want to be super helpful and friendly, but we're not actually friends. As a shopper, I loathe anything more than a passing smile from a sales person. Let me shop! So this was completely overboard as far as I was concerned. I did not feel like discussing my baby's name, shoe size or how many teeth she has with a chubby girl in an apron working at the West Elm. The store was great though :)

We also wandered into Pottery Barn, a store where I rarely buy things but rather prefer to find inspiration and re-create those things for half the price :) Here are two examples-

 Cranberry topiaries, how easy would they be? I think I'd use a shiny metal pot though to make it more fancy/festive.

Knit pillow covers! So cute and cozy. I'd have to brush up my knitting skills but nonetheless, it's still just a big square. 

I always hope no one is going to get upset that I'm walking around the store taking phone pictures of their displays. They publish them in catalogs and mail them to my house, so what's the difference?

Saturday we went to Nick's birthday party. I can't believe he's 2 already! The scariest part is that it means C's birthday will be here before we know it. She's not even one month past her half birthday, I should calm down. The party was lots of fun though. C had a blast running around with all the little kids there. She was so busy she couldn't even be bothered to eat a piece of pizza, and this girl loves some peeeesa!

She snoozed the whole way in the car and then took a regular nap when we got home. J met up with his parents for lunch, and then we stayed home for a quiet evening. We ended up watching the movie, Horrible Bosses. It's a bit off-color and used more bad language than I cared for, but turned out to be really hilarious.

Sunday morning was quiet. Once football games got started J had some friends over. I went to one of my friend's house to take pictures of her and her family. I had never done an actual photo shoot for other people before, but it went really well. They have a back yard full of trees and leaves so the backdrop was perfect. It was also overcast so the lighting was nice- no squinty sunny faces. Here are a few of them...

It helps that they're all super photogenic. I had a lot of fun taking their pictures, to say the least :)

Autumn Glory

Aren't the very best weekends, without fail, the ones that start out with no plans whatsoever? Then on Saturday morning you wake up and think, "it's a rather lovely day out there." So you throw the two cutest people you know in the car and haul them out into the middle of the woods and take pictures of them playing in the leaves all day. That's the kind of fall day I can appreciate.

 I really wanted pictures of us sitting on this rock with the stream behind us, but it was too sunny and no  matter what I tried our faces got washed out.

 I really wanted us to sit on this rock across the stream in the shade. There was just no safe way to get across with the baby. 

 Still too much sun making crazy shadows even though I really liked this spot too.

 "Crunch crunch crunch!"

 J, always the comedian, helping me set up a shot. Man I love this guy :)

We took our time getting home since C was asleep before we could get her car seat buckled. It's a pretty drive so we just relaxed and enjoyed some quiet time and conversation. Later that night we went out to our favorite local pizza place. So. Good. It was one of those days when you stop and think, "Wow, this day could not have been more perfect." I got to spend the whole day with just J and C relaxing and having fun all at the same time. I love that we have close family and friends that we almost always have plans with on the weekends, but sometimes a weekend of "nothing" is really the most special.

On Sunday we ended up visiting my brother and SIL and their new baby, Eli. We had some dinner and watched the first half of the Ravens/St---ers game with them. It was pretty stressful game but always fun to watch with fellow die-hard fans! Some people just don't understand the love and it's not the same watching a game with them. We left at half-time since it was late (and super late for C thanks to the time change on Saturday night). When we got home we watched the rest of the game. I went to bed with about 3 minutes left because we were down by 4 and I couldn't bear to watch. At whatever time J came up for bed he woke me up to give me the good news that we had a 92-yard drive for a winning touchdown. Talk about a cherry on top of our sweet weekend :)

We've kept it low-key today as I woke up with a splitting headache. I got some coffee in me and have been trying to take it easy. When C wakes up from her nap we have to make a trip back to my brother's house because I realized I left my phone there... oops! I'm pretty much a mess without it. The only phone number I knew to call from my landline this morning was my mother's house, and that's because it was my phone number for 10 years! She had to give me my SIL's number so I could make arrangements to retrieve said phone. I don't know, it's almost not worth the gas. I should probably just go ahead over to Best Buy and pick up my iPhone 4S now for an early upgrade.....

Anyway, the rest of this week is quiet. I can't even tell you how much I love Mondays now that the week ahead is wide open for anything I feel like doing! Tomorrow my mom is coming down and we're hitting up one of my favorite places- Hobby Lobby! Other than that we have no plans thus far for the rest of the week. Guess you'll have to come back to see what we get into!

Anyone do anything fun/fallish this weekend? Any fun plans this week?