Just another reason why we LOVE this girl so very much!!

After reading several blogs about picking out pumpkins at a pumpking patch, I decided that picking out pumpkins that way sounded much better than sorting through boxes and crates full of pumpkins at the grocery store or walmart. So tonight for Family Home Evening we headed down to the only pumpkin patch that we know of in town. Despite the fact that it started raining on us, we did have a good time and hope to do it again next year.

The Haunted Barnyard

Today I woke up and decided that, after staying at home all week because we were sick, Claire and I needed to go do something fun. And since I absolutely love Halloween, we ended up at the Haunted Barnyard at Gardner Village. My mom, sister, and neice came along too.




She wasn't too sure about riding the pony but did stay on for a minute.




She loved petting the goats, lambs, pigs, and calf.




Steph, Rilynn, Me, and Claire




Claire went through the hay maze several times.




And she cheated a couple of times trying to get to the end.




???? I don't have a clue what she is doing here ??????

Seeing the Leaves Change Color

We started a tradition the year that we were married of driving up to the top of the Oquirrh Mountains to see the leaves change color. So on Saturday two weeks ago we hopped in the truck, stopped for drinks and something to eat at Subway to take with us, and were on our way. It was a beautiful drive and the road ends at the top of the mountain right above the Kennecott copper mine so if you look one direction you can see Tooele Valley and the other direction you look over the Salt Lake Valley and down into the Copper Pit. It was beautiful!!

A New Temple

Just a few weeks ago I was telling someone that I would love to go back to my mission and visit my dear friends and that I plan to do that when a temple is built there.....whenever that may be.
So I was just a little bit happy (okay, okay, I was totally shouting with joy) when I heard that they are planning on building a temple in Concepcion Chile. I can't believe that I came home six years ago!!! I love the people in Concepcion and can't wait to go back in a couple of years when the temple is dedicated. I guess I better start brushing up on my spanish.


Visiting an orphanage on P-day




Hna. Cariqueo and I standing in front of our casita....or more commonly referred to as the "doll house" since you had to be pretty short in order to enter without ducking your head. Hna. Cariqueo and I loved this place. And what is not to love....especially when, if situated a certain way in bed, you can look straight up and see the stars at night.

An Apple a Day

Did the birds eat our apples??







Did we happen to get a bad box of apples??








Here is the culprit….and caught in the act.


Apparently, apples are only good for one bite.

Let the Embarrasing Moments Begin

Embarrassing Moment #1
Last week while changing Claire’s wet diaper at a public restroom, a lady walks into one of the stalls and within moments she is stinking up the entire place. Claire instantly starts sniffing and loudly saying, “eew, stinky”, “eew, pooh pooh”, “dross mama” (dross = gross). And every time the lady made some sort of bodily function sound, Claire would loudly announce for all to hear “POOH, POOH!!” I was totally embarrassed…..but I bet that poor lady was mortified.

Embarrassing Moment #2
So ya know how when you need to check your little ones’ diaper to see if it is dirty, you just pull the diaper back a little bit and look down to see if it does indeed need to be changed and perhaps you will sniff their cute little bum. Well Claire has starting this new thing that is quite embarrassing but even more so when she does it to some stranger in a very public place……

We were recently attending a high school soccer game since one of my Mia Maids is on the team. Claire and I are sitting on the grass next to a bunch of other people and Ms. Social Bug Claire is just going around saying hi to the people near us when I notice that she is leaning down near this lady’s rear end and is pulling the lady’s pants back as far as she can and getting closer and closer so that she can look down her pants and smell to see if this lady needs her “diaper” changed. And of course, even though this lady doesn’t need her “diaper” changed, Claire starts saying “eew, pooh pooh” while looking down this lady’s rear end. I am sure my face was bright red!!! And we left the game soon after.

I didn’t realize how big of a slacker I was until I realized that our last post was three weeks ago. Man, time flies!!
Well we had a really fun weekend. A Friday night can’t get much better than a husband getting home from work early, taking Claire to the swimming pool for the 2nd time this week…..(and who would have thought that the swimming pool offers a Friday night-date night discount), chinese takeout, a stack of movies, diet pepsi, and a sleeping little munchkin in the other room.


Have any of you watched Chuck before? We hadn't until friday night when Luke rented the first season of it. Its not too bad of a show!!


And we also bought some Kookaburra licorice. Luke recently got me hooked on this stuff and now nothing else even compares.

And Continued Again....

I should have just made this one really long post but I didn't. Instead you are getting several smaller ones. Anyway, for date night on saturday Luke and I went to a Jon Schmidt concert at the Thanksgiving Point Ampitheater. I must admit that the only reason that we went is because we are obsessed with the Taylor Swift/Cold Play song that he does. The concert was well worth the mile walk from our parking place and then the 30 minutes of standing in line even though we had already had our tickets. The lady behind us in line jokingly said that there must be only one person with a barcode scanner checking the 3000 people in. She was right!!!

Not only was the Taylor Swift/Cold Play song amazing in person but Luke and I laughed so hard our sides hurt when they then combined The Man from Snowy River Song with music from the Terminator movie. Then after that, they combined Phantom of the Opera with the 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' song. It was so funny.

Labor Day Continued...

So here is the rest of what we did on Labor Day Weekend....and the only "labor" part of the weekend. Saturday we spent the afternoon working in the yard. I had asked Luke to tear out the flower garden next to the driveway earlier this summer so I spent saturday working on putting that back together and Luke added a couple new sprinklers in the backyard where they were needed. Claire started out in the front yard helping me but once she discovered that her dad's job included playing in the water and mud, she left me to go help him. I should have taken a before and after of the flower garden but of course I don't ever think of things like that in time.