Homemade Applesauce

Mom and Dad went to Logan to pick up Grandma Baker for the holidays and while there they picked some apples from Grandma and Brenda's trees.  I went to Mom's house one afternoon and we made and canned 28 jars of applesauce.  Elizabeth loves the applesauce and I am kind of proud that I was able to make it!! 

Boulder Stake 40th Anniversary Concert

The Boulder Stake celebrated their 40th Anniversary this year; for the past year they have had groups of people writing a history of the stake and when they finished they commemorated with a big concert.  The concert was a selection of living pictures from Christ's life (the backdrops are painted and then people pose and hold still to portray the people in the picture) with correlating songs.  There was a full orchestra and a beautiful choir. Ben was invited to be part of the choir for this concert. He went to a lot of practices and had three performances in one day.  It was a wonderful concert!

The lights are out so you can not really see the choir (but believe me, Ben IS in there) but you can hear how amazing it all sounded!

Ben's Business Trips

9 Months in and OUT!

Elizabeth is 9 months old! The other day someone asked me if these nine months went as slowly as the first nine month (pregnancy) and it made me stop and think about it. I was so miserable and sick for the first half of my pregnancy that I just wanted it over and then I was so excited and anxious for the second half because I just wanted the little squirt.  It all felt like it took FOREVER.  Having Elizabeth in our lives the past 9 months has been a wonderful joy; there are days I am tired and wanting some sleep but then I look down at my 'finally' sleeping baby and want that moment to last forever. I miss having her so small.  I am sad that I have already packed up and put away boxes of outgrown cloths.  

1 Month Old

 

 

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

Halloween Festivities

It is fun having a child for Halloween because there are so many fun things to do with them.  Although we didn't do everything we eventually want to do (no pumpkin carving or trick-or-treating) here are some things we did do. 

She refused to look at the camera- but the idea was cute!

Elizabeth and I went to a pumpkin patch but, as a previous post shows, she wasn't interested in anything but eating the dirt- hopefully she will enjoy this more when she gets older.  But it was fun to go. 

The Friday before Halloween (Oct 25), we ALL dressed up for the church Trunk-or-treat; we were a Newson Pumpkin Patch.  Elizabeth was a pumpkin, I was a scarecrow and Ben was the farmer/cowboy.  It was fun dressing up Elizabeth and putting make-up on her (I gave her freakles) and it is always fun to draw all over my face.  The Trunk-or-treat started with a chilli cook off with delicious bread, great friends and it was a great way to see all the costumes.  Then we went out to the parking lot to get the goods.  I stayed by the car to pass out candy and Ben took around Elizabeth BUT she fell asleep on his shoulder within 5 minutes (so we didn't get a ton of candy-oh well).  As always, there were some cars decorated really fun. 

The next day we went to the Turner's house for a fun Cousin Halloween Party.  It was cute seeing all the costumes and seeing the kids all dressed up.  It is getting more and more fun watching Gwyn and Elizabeth together because they are getting old enough to play; well Elizabeth actually just follows Gwyn around and Gwyn is super patient with her little crawling shadow.  

The following Monday we made sugar cookies for FHE but we didn't end up frosting them until the next day (all baking takes longer with a baby at your feet) and took some to neighbors and got to do some doorbell ditching. 

The day before Halloween we had a festive 'spooky' dinner at the Newson's house with all sorts of scary food; including spider web tomato soup and a jello brain!

On Halloween we stayed home to pass out candy and we invited our neighbors over to watch a scary movie.  We watched 'World War Z' a zombie movie and it was pretty scary but very cool. 

The Saturday after Halloween I went to a fun Hasboro Game Party at Mat and Andi's house (Hasboro sent them a bunch of new games to try out) and it was a blast. This is included in our 'halloween' events because they loaded us up with some of the kids Halloween candy (more than we could possibly eat)!

It was a fun halloween and so great to start new traditions with Elizabeth!

Fall Photos

I tried and tried this year to get some cute pictures of Elizabeth playing in the fall leaves or enjoying the beautiful fall weather BUT she was more interested in inspecting and EATING the grass, bugs, hay, dirt and leaves to look up and smile.  Here are some of my attempts!

Black Hawk and Central City

Every fall we go up to the mountains to look at the Autumn colors.  This year, because of the flood and road damage, the options of 'mountain driving' were HUGELY decreased but we decided to go up I-70 to find some fall colors.  But we soon came to realize that Evergreen has its name for a reason because it is FOREVER green (aka no Autumn colors).  

See- no fall colors!

So we decided to go to Black Hawk and Central City, because Ben had never been up there, to check out that  part of Colorado.  Black Hawk and Central City are the only gambling towns in Colorado so they are FULL of casinos (it is like a mini Las Vegas in the mountains).  There was not much senic to look at (seriously casinos everywhere) so we decided to go to a buffet for lunch.  Ben loves buffets and the idea of a buffet in a casino was even cooler to him.  BUT we did not take into consideration that Elizabeth is not yet of gambling age so we had to have a security guard escort us everywhere we went  (that sounds absurd because she can't even walk- how could she gamble? But I rule is a rule).  It was even weirder when I had to take her to the bathroom to nurse her and the security guard had to take us and then wait outside the bathroom door the entire time we were in there (talk about uncomfortable pressure).  But the food was good (well.... casino buffet good), we had a fun time and we can now say we've been to Black Hawk and Central City!

October General Conference 2013

We had an opportunity to watch the October session of General Conference together.  As always it was fantastic and so uplifting and inspiring to hear the words of the Prophets. I am so grateful for the gospel and the continuous revelation we have. 

 I am also so grateful that I can learn, watch and grow in the gospel with my family!!