Memory Lane: Halloweens gone by...

Who doesn't love reminiscing about fun memories?? Well Janette had this fantastic idea to start a little feature on her blog called "Memory Lane" where she'll share fun memories from the past...I knew I had to follow her lead! And today was perfect to share our costumes from Halloweens gone by...

Halloween 2007:

Chess Club Member and her smokin' hot Nerd boyfriend ;)

Halloween 2008:

M&Ms...I am plain and he has the nuts. Get it? heehee ;)

Halloween 2009:

"Peace and Quiet" (hippy and mime)

Halloween 2010:

(Brooks' first Halloween!)

Peter Pan, Wendy, and our little Lost Boy

And last year we hosted the annual Halloween Party for the managers from Adam's work (Jeremy & Camary, Luke & Becca & Samson, Eli & Alla & Avin). Adam's brother Ben and wife LaCol came too :) All of these people are our great friends, so we had a blast of a night!! We enjoyed soda with "dead, icy hands"..."freaky fajitas"..."deviled eye balls"...a "veggie graveyard"..."creepy caramel apples"..."ghostly fingers"...and other scary treats :) And after we had a blast playing Minute To Win It games, in our costumes and all!

We love our little Lost Boy!! :)

That was fun walking down memory lane...and *cheers* to more many memorable Halloweens to come! And I'm excited share this Halloween's happenings tomorrow :)

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!

***********************************************************************

Spiritual Health:

Read Helaman 5

One of favorite verses of scripture is verse 12, "...remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Physical Health:

It's a holiday so I'm taking the day off ;)

I spy with my little eye...

Leaves bursting with color...

A momma and her little boy, all bundled up on a walk, ready to collect some of those leaves...

...sweet kids raking those leaves...

(who's with me and hopes they jumped in the piles after?)

...a stroller crunching those leaves...

...a little boy smiling because of those leaves...

...a gorgeous sunset with the colors of those leaves...

PS - Do you see my knit hat??? (remember I wore it for these baby bumps pics?) Well I got it from Meggie's Love...an awesome shop that everyone should check out. Ready, go :)

****************************************************************

Spiritual & Physical Health: see previous post from today :)

Sweet visits in Orem

Yesterday Brooks and I spent the day visiting some of my favorite ladies :)

First we went to see Kersie (old college roommate) who is here visiting in Utah. It was a super short visit, but oh-so sweet!! I love that girl. And I love that we enjoyed a frapp and hot cocoa together.

Starbucks goodness + Kersie = a sweet morning indeed :)

Then we went down to Orem to spend the afternoon with my girl Makinzie!! She's one of my very best friends from my teenage years in Washington. And oh, we're both pregnant with little babes due in March and April (and so is our other bff, we miss you Shay!)! How awesome is that!? We first went out to lunch, and my prego-ness thought Zupa's sounded good...but once we walked in, Kinzie and I laughed because the smell some how made us both lose our appetite (or it may have just been me;). So we decided on JCW's, and it totally hit the spot! We took our lunches to the park for Brooks to run around and play...but the fact that it was freezing, and Brooks kept needing me to help him get up to the top of the swirly slide, made enjoying our lunches a little difficult ;) So we headed back to her place for Brooks to enjoy a little bit of Tangled and we visited some more. I can't wait for our next get together!!...a girl's night full of Netflix and junk food :)

And we ended the day with visiting my sweet Grandma Smith :) She is an absolute treasure!! I really need to get down to visit her more often...she is the most thoughtful person, asking me a million questions about how my family and I are doing, and listening so intently to everything I had to share. And she was so patient with Brooks who was at the end of his rope with all the car seat time he had that day. We both had a few laughs after Brooks put on her tennis shoes and tromped around the living room :) That's the only picture I got of our visit...but I plan to visit again soon, and get many more :)

Each visit with those 3 lovely ladies just seemed too short!! Love them all...and I am determined to make a better effort to see (video chat in Kersie's case;) them more often!

********************************************************************

Spiritual Health:

"Women of Church Have Great Positive Influence"...article and video full of messages from various church leaders of the divine nature and potential women have.

“In the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, a woman . . . occupies a majesty all her own in the divine design of the Creator.”

Physical Health:

The SELF workout

Bucket List: 30 before 30

So there are these 3 incredibly sweet, beautiful girls I knew back in college (wish I knew them better back then!)...Kylie, Lisa, and Megan are sisters, triplets actually (awesome right??). They have this awesome blog called Traveling Triplets. That's where I got the amazing recipe when I made coconut rice with stir fry, remember that? Well, their blog is just full of all sorts of goodness...for example, they made this fab bucket list they declared their 30 Before 30: 30 things they want to do before they turn 30. Awesome idea right?? Check out their list here. And I thought I'd follow their lead and make one of my own! Some are personal, some are paired with Adam, and some are with our family. It was fun creating the list, and I'm excited to work on it!

{ image 1, 2, 3, 4 }

1. Do a home exchange vacation with someone from a different country (like in "The Holiday"...still warming Adam up to that idea;)
2. Visit at least one new LDS Temple a year.
3. Go back to Belize and help build "Domes For the World."
4. Have a college roommate reunion getaway...to New York :)
5. Go on another cruise with Adam.
6. Get fully equipped with camping gear beyond our awesome companion sleeping mummy bags that zip together (wedding gift from my mom & dad:)
7. Take that equipment and go on a fantastic, multi-day backpacking trip
8. Combine video clips and photos for a yearly family video
9. Go to Disneyland either during Halloween or Christmas (or both:)
10. Take another sushi class
11. Plan and throw a sushi making party at our home for friends
12. Buy bikes for our family, with a kiddy trailer attachment
13. Learn to sew...and complete at least one outfit for me, Adam, and our kids
14. Hike the Y.
15. Have a few more cute kiddos :)
16. Create some personal artwork together to display in our home
17. Cut my hair for Locks of Love
18. Continue our family's annual Spring Time Silhouettes
19. Get a caricature of our little fam :)
20. Take Adam to Seattle...soak up the goodness of Pike's Place fish market and eat a romantic dinner at the top of the Space Needle
21. Keep growing our collection of Disney Movies
22. Take a road trip down the Washington/Oregon Coast
23. Finish building up our food storage supply...especially water!
24. Research and purchase an SLR camera...and a polaroid camera
25. Travel back to Japan with Adam and meet the people that influenced him most on his mission...and stuff ourselves with sushi and delicious Japanese cuisine
26. Totally finish making our house our home
27. Learn to refinish/repaint furniture
28. Refinish, repair, and revive our old piano
29. Finish "Operation: Backyard" (BBQ, fire pit, swingset, and volleyball/badminton set)
30. Hike to Havasupai Falls

PS - Pretty sure I maxed out the amount of links you can have in one post ;)

PPS - Mu better half is almost home after 6 days away on business!! Brooks and I can't wait to be with Adam tonight :)

**********************************************************************

Spiritual Health:

"What the Book of Mormon Teaches About the Love of God" by Elder Russel M. Nelson

A beautiful message that shares how "some of the most sublime examples of [God's] love are recorded in the Book of Mormon" and how "these examples can apply in our own lives as we strive to become more like the Lord."

weekend happenings

FRIDAY:

We fed our park-addiction with sweet friends.

SATURDAY:

Ran errands to Deseret Book, Costco, then Mickey D's.

SUNDAY:

After church and naps, we went to Kira and Mike's for a delicious dinner followed by pumpkin decorating! Thanks so much for a fun night you guys!

*************************************************************************

Spiritual Health:

Ephesians 6 - Put on the whole armour of God :)

Physical Health:

Mowed our back forest...er, I mean lawn. Yea, it had been a while ;)

much needed kisses

The picture above is of Brooks and I walking into church...daddy-o is MIA on a business trip so I was flying solo with our little man today. Lately Brooks can't sit still for longer than 10 minutes in Sacrament Meeting (once the first two songs are over, he's done;) and Adam is always so sweet to let me relax and enjoy the meeting while he roams the halls with our boy. Today that little boy and I were late. So after barely getting the sacrament out in the hall, we stayed out on the couches and I tried to simultaneously listen to the talks over the speaker and read him some new books we got just yesterday :)

Did he want to read them? Any of them? Nope. *sigh* He wiggled right out of my lap and was on the run...bee-lining it straight for the drinking fountain, his own little water park. After a few minutes he got tired of that, so off he went. Running all the way around the church (always 10 steps in front of me) until he came back to his beloved little fountain. In between his fountain/hallway run relay he noticed an open door and slipped into the empty children's primary room. He quickly spotted the piano, and began to "play" not-so-reverent accompaniment...yikes. As I carried him out of the room he wiggled and reached with all his might back to the piano, saying "No! No! Noooo!"

To say that my Little B tired this mama out is an understatement...it was only an hour at church, but I was at the end of my rope. Thank goodness there was nursery next :) We headed on in, and of course he stuck like glue to my leg 'til I sat him in his little chair, at the table with the rest of the little kids, and sat right behind him. It was play-doh time. Brooks was happy as could be, using the little rolling pin to smash the clay. And his favorite was when I'd make him play-doh snakes for him to whip around and then tear apart into tiny pieces. Sorry Mr. Snake.

Out of the middle of no where, he turned around with puckered lips, and leaned in for a sweet little kiss. Oh I about melted right there on the floor. I always have to be the one to ask for a kiss, and he gives them to me only half the time...but today was different. He turned around for about 10 more kisses within a 5 minute time period. Smiles from both of us followed each one. And I honestly had to hold back the tears. Pregnancy hormones anyone? Maybe. Or it could've been because my little boy somehow knew that I desperately needed those kisses...today he had been more challenging than normal, I must have had less patience, and I was missing his daddy a lot. But those kisses fixed it all.

That sweet boy of mine fell asleep on the way home from church...he was more than ready for his nap. And so am I. Sweet dreams and Happy Sunday :)

***************************************************************************

Spiritual Health:

I read this as soon as I got home and it was just what I needed.

"Because She Is a Mother" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Weekend with New Friends :)

Last weekend I joined Kira (thanks so much for inviting me!) and some of her wonderful girl friends for a night away. Adam was so sweet to watch Brooks alone over night and take some work off on Saturday so that I could enjoy a fun girl's night, that was much needed! I've mentioned before that Kira knew Adam in high school, well so did most of these girls :) It was so fun getting to know a piece of Adam's past, they are such a fun group!!

We enjoyed a fun evening at a Mexican restaurant in Park City (hence the pina colada:) then we headed to Katie's family's beautiful cabin in Heber. Katie started a cozy fire and we snuggled up in blankets and sleeping bags as we chatted, laughed, cried, ate the Peachie-O's I brought (I most definitely overdosed on those bad boys), and laughed some more 'til the wee hours of the morning. When we all woke up, we enjoyed a breakfast of muffins and apple juice from Katie's sweet mom while we talked and laughed some more. I didn't get much sleep, but it was oh-so worth it. And the drive back home was beautiful...fall time in Utah's mountains is breathtaking.

Thanks again ladies for such a great time!!

**********************************************************************

Spiritual Health:

Watched this sweet little video with Brooks (twice:)

"We would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things which matter most. ... Strength comes not from frantic activity, but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from paying attention to the divine things which matter most. ... Diligently doing the things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the World." -- Deiter F. Uchtdorf

Physical Health:

Going to the park with Brooks...and I'll do my best to keep up with him on the playground :)