one of my favorites

this past week, one of my favorite people was here to visit.  i'm a pretty lucky girl to have really great relationships with my cousins.  i grew up with them, even roomed with one of them in college.  but, my cousin sydney and i have always been really close.  she's more like a sister than a cousin.  since i graduated school and moved from utah, i haven't seen her nearly as much as i would like.  so, when she told me she was coming for a visit i was super excited.

to say that mae was enamored is putting it lightly.  she absolutely adored sydney, or "shyd".  and sydney is so amazing with kids.  she and mae had a blast.  which was awesome, because i got to sit back and watch!

this picture was taken maybe an hour after sydney got here and mae was already attached.

 of course we made the obligatory trip to downtown austin.  it's fun to have visitors and visit downtown.  i never go down there otherwise.

 mid-airplane ride.  this girl was in heaven with all of the attention that she got while sydney was here.  she was glued to sydney's side.  she even cried when sydney closed her door to change one morning.

 while sydney was here, we were able to make a trip to the san antonio temple.  i hadn't had the opportunity to go to this temple, so it was really wonderful to be able to go.  lucky for me i have an awesome husband who watched mae while sydney and i went to the temple.  i love the temple and the uplifting, happy, peaceful feeling i get as i make the effort to go.

 

another fun thing about having visitors is a break from the norm!  some days i feel like mae is just bored of our routine.  so it's nice to one have someone else to add variety, and two switch up the activities!  

of course we made some shopping trips.  which surprisingly, mae was a well behaved child during.

 and we made trips to the park, which are a must in this household.  although, i'm pretty sure mae won't want to swing by herself after this!

we had so much fun with sydney.  she is such an awesome person.  it was so fun  just to sit, watch movies, and catch up with her.  i've missed her so much.  and am so lucky that we have been able to keep our friendship going strong even though we are so far away from each other.  thanks for coming shyd.  we love you

hook 'em horns

since living so close to UT, it's hard to not jump on the longhorns fan wagon.  especially during football season.  seriously, UT stuff is everywhere you go.  it's a lot of fun  and boy do they love their football down here.
this past weekend BYU came and played UT.  so, of course my parents decided they wanted to come out so they could go to the game.  and they treated us to some good seats!  cody found the seats online, and when he was picking them out my dad said, "i dont want a view of the city from my seat", so we got some awesome seats.

 6th row!  

we were right in on all the action.  and if you saw the score, there was a lot of action on the BYU side of the scoreboard.

 cody and i decided to root for the longhorns.  they got worked bad, but, this is our new home and we want to embrace it! 

of course before the game my dad and cody had to pregame with some texas BBQ

mae had a blast while gram and gramps were here.  she was definitely spoiled.  i love to watch her with them, and to see how much she loves them.

we had to get a picture of mae supporting uncle reid in her utah state shirt!

we love when my parents come to visit!  it's hard to say bye to them, but it makes seeing them even more special.