Carving Pumpkins

This year it was my turn to choose our pumpkin theme. Every year we carve coordinating pumpkins and for this year's theme I chose beauty and the beast. Nate was good and found templates for us online and I went and bought pumpkins early yesterday morning. Then last night we carved. I think we get faster every year. This year took us just over an hour from start to finish. We're pleased with how they turned out and I hope everyone likes them when they come trick-or-treating.

Adoption Update

We are getting so close! Both Nate and I had our individual interviews on Monday afternoon. We both feel like they went pretty well. Now we are writing our adoption profile. Once that is done (our goal is to be done by Monday) we will schedule our home study. Then after the home study, the agency has a meeting about whether they will approve us. Hopefully that meeting goes well and then once approved, our profile goes live and we just wait for that special baby to join our family! Ahh! It's super exciting. As soon as we get approved we'll be posting a link to our profile on the blog and we'll make some pass along cards and everyone can start spreading the word!

Catch Up

I spent two straight weeks in September helping my mom pack and move. Talk about long days! It was nice to spend some one on one time with my mom. Now she's up in Idaho taking good care of my grandma. We just went up to see her this past Saturday and she seemed to be doing well. It's our year to spend Thanksgiving with my mom so we'll be going up to Idaho and my aunt and cousins may be joining us. It should be a good time.

October has been fun so far. I can't believe it's almost halfway over! The first week of October was General Conference and it was so good! We really enjoyed it. Last week we went to an adoption fair to educate ourselves on community resources. Part of last week and the beginning of this week have been full of adoption classes for me. Only one more class to go and I've got that one slated for tomorrow. Next Monday both Nate and I have our individual interviews with our case worker, so wish us luck! Also last week we went to see Meet the Mormons, such a good show. It totally leaves you uplifted and wanting to be a better person, both Nate and I highly recommend it.

Last week was this cute girl's birthday. This last weekend we took her out to eat for birthday. I can't believe she is getting to be so grown up. She was 9 when I first met her! Amelia is the best sister-in-law a girl could ask for.

I think that's it for updates on us. We are working really hard to finish our adoption preparations by the end of November. Prayers on our behalf are always appreciated!

Josh and Makayla Get Married

My little brother Josh married cute Makayla at the beginning of September. It was such a nice day and they were so cute together. I remember when Josh was just my dorky little brother who loved legos and ninja turtles, and now he's all grown up and married! It makes me feel old! Congrats to both of you and welcome to family Makayla!

Sorry, these are bad iphone pics.



Just to give you a little perspective, here's pic of a photo I found at my mom's house. In the photo is Josh, my older half sister Tori, and me on the bottom right. Look at Josh's expression, so scared! And the drool, oh goodness. Good thing he takes better pictures now.

Camping at Granite Flats

Our last campout of the summer was in August up at Granite Flats. Of course we reserved our favorite site. We took Jake and Amelia with us. We made tinfoil dinners for dinner and roasted both s'mores and starburst. Amelia introduced us to roasted starbursts, I don't get the appeal, but everyone else really likes them. The highlight of the trip for Jake and Amelia was knife throwing. We set up a target (a paper bowl with a bull's eye drawn on it) in a tree and the kids had a blast. Nate was the most accurate, but Amelia was really good by the end of the trip. Fun times had by all.

Josh and Makayla Engagement Pictures

So my little brother gets married in just a few weeks. He and Makayla (his fiancee) asked if I would take their engagement photos. Talk about pressure! I'm so not a professional photographer, I just take pictures for my own enjoyment and to have photos to scrapbook. Their request made me so nervous I kept getting headaches all week as I anticipated taking the pictures. Friday evening came and it was show time. We went to Salt Lake to the Garden Park Ward building and took pictures on the grounds there. Here are some of the ones they liked.

Spartan Race

Nate and several colleagues ran Reebok's Spartan Race yesterday. It's a 12 mile race full of obstacles. There is everything from tire pulling to spear throwing to climbing. If you can't complete an obstacle you have to do 30 burpees. The last quarter mile of the race is a straight up mud pit, Nate and his group were totally covered in mud by the end. The race also provides showers so people can semi clean up afterwards. Nate said he had so much fun and that he definitely wants to do it again next year. I'm so proud of Nate, when sets a goal he works so hard to achieve it. Way to go Landesk crew!

This is after they'd all had a chance to shower and get some of the mud off.


Nate's finisher medal.

Nate in Waco

Most of this past week Nate was in Waco, Texas for work. He went to Baylor University to do some work for his company. Overall he said he had a good time minus the humidity. He went running one morning and said he came back absolutely soaked. He and his colleagues had dinner at a nice steak house one night where Nate dined on a bison ribeye steak, they also had barbecue several times while in Texas. The worst part of his trip for me was that his plane home got delayed and he didn't get in until 1235 am! I was beyond ready to see him so I felt a little put out :). However, he's home now and I love having him back.

I had Nate take a selfie each morning and send it to me. Made me feel like he was a bit closer.


One of their trips to a barbecue joint.


A photo from Nate's run.

Camping at Moon Lake

This past weekend we went camping at Moon Lake with some of Nate's family. His mom, dad, and sisters Stephanie and Amelia came with us. This was our first camp-out of the summer. Nate was so excited to go. This was our first time going to Moon Lake so we weren't exactly sure what to expect. Our campsite couldn't have been better. We had a double site so we could fit both cars and both tents. We were decently close to the bathrooms and had a great view of the lake. Our luck did not carry over to our fishing though. We went out fishing three times and didn't catch a single thing, not even a good bite! Needless to say we were disappointed with fishing, but otherwise we had a good time. Moon Lake is definitely on our list to visit again.

Happy Anniversary

We celebrated our anniversary yesterday. Yay, love you Nate! We celebrated by getting a snow cone after Nate got home from work and then going out to dinner later that night. For dinner we went to Chin Wah, our favorite Chinese restaurant. We had a good dinner and it was just nice to spend time together. Nate is excited about having leftover fried rice for today :). I can't believe we've been married seven years now! Thanks babe for seven great years and lots of wonderful memories.