November in Review

November started with a Brea Blunder; while putting away laundry I kicked the side table in our bedroom and broke my second to baby toe. At first we thought it was a bad bruise/sprain but after inspection from Nurse Mom we decided it was broken.  It hurt for a couple weeks and forced me to wear sandals in the snow (no other shoes would fit) but I finally was able to get a real shoe on and it has healed great!

The weather got warm enough that we were able to spend more time outside (11/9).  Elizabeth loves being outside but when the ground is cold and covered in wet leaves I don't let her crawl around much!  We also got our first snow (11/20) and Elizabeth got to go outside in her snow suit and sit in it.  She didn't really understand why I was so excited and just kept looking at me like, "It's cold and I can't move!" 

On Friday Nov 15, Ben took the afternoon off at work and we went to the temple.  We took Elizabeth with us (so one of us went in and the other stayed out and babysat and vise versa).  It was the first time I was able to go since Elizabeth was born and it was great! I am so glad that we live so close to the temple and hope to be able to go more now that she is getting older. 

The Louisville Ward Elder's Quorum adopted a lake in Louisville to take care of a clean.  On Nov 16 we went with the Elder's Quorum and got to pick up trash around the lake.  It was a little brisk but a good reason to take a nice early morning walk.  

I tried taking Elizabeth swimming at the Louisville Rec Center and it was not fun (the kiddy pool was lame).  So I convinced Ben to go with us for FHE to the Lafayette pool (11/19).  This is the pool where I went growing up and it is so much fun.  Elizabeth LOVED it and she laughed and played in the water.  I think babies come out naturally swimmers because she could kick and move in the water like it was so natural!

Ben and I got CU tickets to the last home football game of the season; CU vs USC.  Rachel and Nedra watched Elizabeth so that we could go.  It was FREEZING but so much fun.  The first 5 minutes of the game were pretty intense and then we got behind and lost pretty bad (as expected this year).  The highlight of the game was during half time when one of the male cheerleaders broke a world record and did 70 back flips in a row across the football field; It made me dizzy just watching him.  After the game we went to a concert at a bar to hear our friends Forsyth and Gee play. It was a fun night!

Here is a video of the Cheerleader- seriously amazing!!

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!