Sweet Sunday

Today was a really nice day. Instead of our regular meetings, we had stake conference. It was actually a broadcast, so we watched it from our church building. It was actually being broadcast from the Dee Events Center at Weber State; it made Ben and I nostalgic for our days back in "O" Town (that's Ogden for all you non Ogdenites). We missed the first speaker due to Shelby sleeping in longer than usual but the other three were Elder Oaks, Sister Thompson from the General RS and Elder Eyring. I really enjoyed all of the talks, I especially liked Elder Eyring's talk on what he called "wise optimism."
The rest of the day was really nice, Shelby took a 2 1/2 hour nap as soon as we got home so I got to read a big chunk from "Fire of the Covenant," by Gerald Lund. I highly recommend it, a great read. We've also had home and visiting teachers and a nice dinner together consisting of homemade split pea soup and crusty toasted sourdough bread- yumm-O!

Our neighbor, Ang, went fishing today and brought us back some fish. Ang and Ben are pretty good friends since they had a class together last semester and their daughter Li loves Shelby. Anyway Ang gave some fish to Ben because he said he only knows two ways to cook it and he gets tired of the same thing--but he likes fishing anyway. Ben took those two fish and went to town! He has talked of his days back in scouts fishing and such but I got to see him in action. He gutted and cleaned those fish right there on the back porch. He's a pro and I didn't even know. He cooked them right away and made fish cakes. They were pretty good. If I ever get stuck alone on an island, I would take my husband because then I know we won't go hungry.

Halloween Carnival

Tonight was the annual Halloween Carnival for the married student housing. Every RA area was in charge of doing a station and we decided to do bobbing for apples. Although a little unsanitary, I tried not to let too many kids stick their faces too far down so that they touched the water as little as possible. There were a few teenage brothers, however that decided to race each other and stuck their whole faces in and got water everywhere. One of them must have just gotten their hair cut because there was tons of hair in the water after that. Needless to say, I changed the water and rinsed out the tub after that. Shelby had lots of fun watching the kids get the apples and looking at and playing with the water. Since we had a lot of apples Shelby was curious about them so I bit off the peel (from one in the bag) and let her scrape the pulp with her teeth. I think she really liked it.
I also took Shelby to the bale of hay to get her picture taken, she didn't like the feel of it and wouldn't sit there though. All in all, it was a fun night. We didn't get home too late, we have some tasty ice cream to eat with the yummy chocolate sauce from grandma, and Ben and I get to spend some time together after being separated while Shelby and I were at grandma and grandpa's house.

Grandma's House

So we went to grandma's house today and this evening we got to play out on the trampline with aunt Laura. Shelby loved it, but she couldn't figure out what happened to Laura when she went beneath the trampoline. We had a blast looking for her.

Pumpkin Walk

Tonight Shelby and I went to the Pumpkin Walk, unique to Cache Valley. It is set up in a local park and different groups from all over town create scenes out of pumpkins. Some of them are so creative. Here are some of our faves.









I think this is my 3rd year and obviously Shelby's first. Ben had to work so we went by ourselves. It has gotten so big and crowded over the years, with its growing popularity, they are now shuttling people there.

So, Shelby got to ride the bus for the first time. She liked watching the other kids on the bus more than riding it, I think.

Fall Fun

Yesterday was the perfect day! Ben didn't have any classes so he suggested we go and take family pictures on campus. So we got dressed up in our Aggie gear and found a couple of spots on campus where you could see the beautiful fall trees. We didn't have anyone to take our pictue so we borrowed a tripod and used our remote to take the pictures for us.

Shelby Tricks

OK, so we are going a little video crazy with this thing, but we are so excited to share our happy and fun moments of Shelby. On the way home from church today, Shelby just started sticking out her tongue. I think she was feeling out her new teeth but she kept doing it when we asked her to.


Shelby's first animal sound! Ben always thought he was going to teach Shelby her first animal sound and he wanted it to be a hyena. Well, sorry but it was a pig. It's really cute.


Not only can Shelby clap her hands now, but she can do patty cake!



So, I think Shelby is going to be our soccer star. She actually started kicking on demand quite a while ago. When Ben would hold her he would tell her to kick her legs and would move them until she understood what to do. Now she knows how to kick the ball and throw. How fun!!



I promise we won't go so video crazy from now on but enjoy.

Falling down, gently down

YEAH! We have been trying for two days to post video on our new blog. Ben was so smart, he figured it out this morning. Anyway, Shelby loved to stand up and pull herself up on things. When she was in her crib, she didn't know how to get down from a standing position so we made it a game and now she loves to fall down and bounce. Enjoy the video!