So James and I have had some pretty fun weekends recently....which is totally the norm, but  here's a post about it anyway.

The weekend of Oct. 18-20 our dear friends Jimmy, Charina, and lil Tyler Willis came into town! Tyler is my fav, but I'm not exactly his. Charina says he prefers men to women, which is why you won't see me holding him in any pictures. :) It was a quick visit, but we squeezed in a Saturday morning breakfast of crepes, a pre-game BBQ at the park, the most amazing football game (BYU vs. UofH), and then dinner at home and some catching up. It went too fast and we wished they lived closer.

First time in an NFL stadium (Reliant). It was large and muy espacioso.

The UofH "coogs" versus the BYU "cougs." Haha. It threw me off to hear the cougar roar...because it was never for us.

Don't worry, that UofH fan giving Tyler bunny ears....we know him.

I'm such an artistic photographer; in this picture Tyler's head looks bigger than James'.

He's pretty cute. I claim him as a nephew.

One of my absolute besties. Also we're wearing the same shirt.

A mighty happy scoreboard.

James has tired eyes...probably from wearing his prescription sunglasses indoors because he forgot his real classes. Hehe.

After the game when we were emotionally exhausted and my vocal chords were suffering.

Chairna and I both married blond boys named James ("Jimmy") and moved to Texas. Her son is cute and ours is nonexistent.

I should probably confess here that before marrying James I hardly knew a thing about football. To be honest, I don't know a ton now, but I am far beyond where I used to be. In college it never appealed to me to give up 4-6 hours of my Saturday to watch a game and fight the crowds to and from the stadium. I went to about 3 games total when I was single and in college. Yes, I know, I am a huge disgrace to all of you die-hard bleed-blue Y fans.

When James and I got married and he started talking about woohoo college football season coming up I thought to myself "self, you're going to lose him for many hours every weekend for several months if you don't learn to enjoy football and watch it with him, because taking it away from him isn't a viable option." So I asked him to teach me. And he did. And I am really liking it. And so is he of course.

The weekend after that we had the ward trunk or treat. After much deliberation, we decided on dressing up as giant grapes by safety pinning balloons to our clothes.. The wind blew the balloons into our faces and off our bodies at times, and when we chased them we popped other balloons and scared all the kids around us. So fun.

Just a couple of grapes.

Hahaha. Notice the lil grapes in the background? Not our offspring. Also, not a very original costume I guess.

We thought this costume was awesome. Baby in an ice cream bucket.

James felt really cool dressed up as a giant wad of grapes.

Best and simplest idea of being double-stuffed Oreos! Brilliant! Their car was cool too.

James lost a few balloons.

Because grapes hug.....??

Super nerds. Loved Andy's fake weight at the bottom of his shirt.

The sisters own orange clothing? I don't even own anything orange, much less did I have it on the mission. We love our missionaries!

So, the weekend after that was....this weekend! It was preceded by the rul Halloween. We decided not to dress up as giant grapes again since we'd popped all our balloons and didn't think it a convenient costume to wear in a crowded party scene, so we quickly thought up a few more ideas. We obviously have to work on our creativity for next year, although I have to admit dressing up like Miranda Sings was a pretty ingenious and inexpensive idea. James is Bronco Mendenhall. Or, as you can see, James is attractive and I am hideous.

I've never actually seen Miranda stand like that. Not sure why I'm doing that.

Working the red lipstick, middle part, fully-buttoned men's shirt, and high-waisted workout pants. James was so thrilled to have that hanging on his arm.

For those of you wondering who the heck Miranda even is, she is a character/girl on YouTube created by actress and comedian Colleen Ballinger to poke fun at people who get on YouTube thinking they're all that and famous...but aren't really. Here are a few to get you hooked on wasting your time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeNXtRk9Wpo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydTGW34R2ms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPwwNu68My8


The people who recognized me thought it was hilarious. The people who didn't just thought...."she buttoned up a shirt and did a poor job putting on super bright lipstick." Those people are missing out on some awesome YouTube videos.

This weekend James and I also went to a work party. It was the same work party I went to with him a year ago when he spontaneously invited me to Houston to spend the weekend with him and paid for my ticket. We had a fancy and delicious dinner at the home of a McKinsey partner, a home previously owned by an NBA player. It has a black chandelier and identical staircases right upon entry that encircle a baby grand piano that looks like it was painted by Picasso. Pool in the backyard in front of a lake with a fountain. There were hor d'oeuvres and everyone but a a few of us sipped wine and then we ate and....we'll skip to dessert because it was the most delicious creme brulee! I got really excited about the food because it reminded me of the Food Network and how everything always looks so perfect. They did introductions of all the newly hired folk. Last year that was James. This year he introduced a few people. He's a big man now.

We took a picture on the couch just like we did last year after the party, but this year it's our couch.

On the way to the dinner James and I noticed he was wearing the same shirt he wore last year! Haha. Now it's tradition.

Last year on this same weekend we also went to a park, so this past Saturday we had a lovely picnic at the same park. It brought back such sweet memories. Crazy to think that was a year ago. The weather felt perfect like last year. At the time I thought "living in Houston wouldn't be so bad." That was before I met summers in Houston. But it really isn't so bad. It's very good, and instead of nearly six months away from marriage and living in different states, this year we are together and happy in Houston, celebrating our 6 month anniversary tomorrow. :).........although technically we are still in different states because I'm in Houston and he's currently in Florida.....haha oh well.

(If you want to see my post about this weekend a year ago you can find it under November 2012)