spiritually fed

What would we do without Conference?

I am just not sure what I'd do without it - without the two-day spiritual feast, the chance to hear from our living prophet, the beautiful and inspiring music by the choir, the sweet time with our little family. To me conference has always been a great family holiday, complete with lots of {sometimes random} traditions and lots of food. We of course missed being with family, but had a sweet time as a little family watching all four sessions, and even incorporated some must-have traditions - frying tacos and getting a Marie Callender's pie (and because we had so many of their pie tins saved up, it was completely free!). James even camped out on the living room floor and actually watched a lot of it with us...

welcome, October!

Oh how I love October! Something about it just makes me so happy. General Conference.....my birthday....autumn.....Halloween.....I just love it all! This morning James and I opened up some windows in our house to let the cool morning air in. We can't wait to watch General Conference tomorrow and Sunday, but will surely miss being with family! This morning James and I got to Skype with my Dad all the way on the other side of the world in Ukraine.

Life is good! Jonathan is working hard at school (and holy moly, he has at least one exam per week until the end of November!), we are loving our new home and are so grateful for the technology that allows us to keep in touch with family over the long miles, and to hear from the leaders of the church over the internet. Happy October!

Great message

I am so grateful for wonderful messages like this, and so excited to hear from the prophet and apostles this weekend for General Conference. We are so blessed to have living prophets :) Can't wait!

Sunday

Sunday evenings are kind of nice. And sleepy.

sometimes...

...dry erase markers take so much effort to open up that you end up with a blue mustache.

EYES

James and his Daddy studying the anatomy of an eye...
Seriously, look at that little scientist!

I have a feeling that James and I are going to get a LOT of eye exams over the next four years...

Always such the hard decision.....1 or 2? Which one is better???

28

Happy Birthday, Superman. I love you!

Jonathan's birthday consisted of a lot of studying....but of course we had the obligatory birthday signs
(optometry style: "eye love you," "which is better, 27 or 28?" etc.), a yummy birthday dinner and then watched some "Psych" (great show!).



My pie sort of didn't turn out.
But we had a backup treat. And then I made him cupcakes yesterday to make up for the pie...and they may or may not be ALL gone already...







We love you, Daddy!

splish splash

Is there anything more fun than bath time??

(Since moving to San Antonio, I have learned to do a lizard check in the bath tub, because you never know when one of those little guys will be hiding underneath the bath toys.....creepy!)

easy as pie

When we bake things, James must help.
He is ALL over the "fun" jobs, which are any jobs that involve sugar or flour, or scooping.
If I ever dare do a "fun" job without him, he reminds me, "But I am the fun one!!"

We made a banana cream pie for Daddy's birthday.
Except it didn't turn out. It was delicious, mind you, but the darn thing would not set up. (Suggestions?)
However, if you are ever wanting to make homemade banana creamies - just make a non-set-up banana cream pie and then put it in the freezer.

Oh well. At least we got some yummy pie crust cookies out of it!
(Roll out the pie crust, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, cut into squares, and bake!)

The Amazing Adventures of Bames and Bapa

James and his Bapa are great buddies.

They love to play with the "little people" at Jukie's house, and they have names for all of them. The little people always have great adventures.

Bapa surprised James with a package in the mail with a book that he wrote (complete with photos of the "little people") about "Bames and Bapa." James absolutely loves it! We read it every day and he can't wait to get his next chapter in the mail!