Happy Halloween

Well, to me today is unofficially the last day of the year as it seems that from today through New Year's day is nothing but a blur! In less than four weeks it will be Thanksgiving, which of course will be followed by the beloved shopping day known as BLACK FRIDAY at which point all reason flies out the window and chaos ensues until Christmas Day, after which pretty much everything is returned to the store from which it was purchased. One short week after that, there is yet another party, one that goes until midnight (or maybe a little later) and before anyone realizes what has happened, a new year is upon us! Whew! Now please don't misunderstand me, I LOVE the Christmas season! I love the smells, the music, the food, the wonderful opportunity to spend lots of time with family and friends, and most of all I love to remember the reason for the season- that my beloved Brother, Savior, and Friend was born on this Earth to glorify God the Father and to teach me what true unconditional love and mercy are all about. There is something truly magical about a season where a larger percent of people take the time to think about what they are thankful for and spend a lot of extra time and energy giving to others, sometimes I wish the season lasted longer for these reasons only--definitely not for the frenzied shoppers syndrome! So with that I look to the upcoming season with anticipation but for today I will enjoy carving pumpkins, making Halloween cookies (thanks for the recipe Amy!), dressing my cute son in a costume and enjoy watching other children in their costumes as well. Ah...life is good! I will be posting some Halloween pictures soon here after--probably some time later this evening, enjoy!

More nostalgia!

I used to love watching this cartoon and listening to the music. It scared the carapace out of me!

Weekend Travels and Five Months Old (and another year older too!)

Well the title pretty much says it all! We got the awesome opportunity to go to Boise to visit Murray's sister Kirsten and her little family--it was so much fun! Also, Andrew is officially 5 months old and is growing like a weed. I can hardly believe that another month has come and gone! As for the "another year older" (or younger as the case may be :-) ) That would be me, I had a birthday yesterday. To celebrate Murray and I went and saw "The Ark" at the Grand Theater, it was different that I thought it would be but well worth it nonetheless. I have lots of pictures of our weekend and such, so here they are:

Peaches, Peaches Everywhere!

About a week ago Murray and I learned how to make peach jam from start to finish. Murray's mom came down from Idaho and taught us, or mostly me, how to can my own jam- here's the picture proof:

The peaches after they had been skinned
Murray stealing some peaches???
Mashing the peaches
Stirring the pot of soon to be jam.
Pouring the hot jam into the bottles
Ta-da!!! All done!

Picture Tag!!!

My friend Liz (former mission companion) tagged me in a game of picture tag. The rules were to take my sixth picture folder and post the sixth picture in that folder. So here it is:


Burrr!!!! A picture taken last December 1st showing all the beautiful (cough, cough!) snow that fell overnight one evening. Unfortunately with the recent weekend snowstorms, things might look like that again really soon! :-(

I tag anyone who reads this post and would like to play along!

Random Sampler

Here are some cute pics of our adorable little boy, Andrew (as well as some other people). No particular reason or occasion, just him in everyday life and happenings since our last post.


Andrew really enjoys a good bath as well as the quality time that he gets to spend with his daddy while taking it.

Daddy and Andrew taking a nap together

Andrew with his Grandpa Whitehead

Smiling for daddy again while getting ready to go out! (this one is unusual because he generally HATES being put in his carseat!)

Mmmmmm! Andrew has really taken to the taste of rice cereal mixed with anything but water! He likes to both eat and wear it as you can see :-)