Halloween

She is a princess if you can't tell. I love the look on her face
She just wanted to eat the netting
Jack Bauer & CTU agent
It's a bat, not a spider
His usual Holiday expression. Love you babe!

This is what we have been up to this week. Our weird ward did Trunk or Treat on Wednesday, so we carved our pumpkin Tuesday night to be ready, brought our bowl of candy, put on our costumes and headed over to the church. Well you would have thought these people had never seen rain because they moved the festivities into the gym (it rained all morning, so the asphalt was damp but there was no rain during the party) so I did not get to use my trunk decor and the pumpkin stayed in the car. Smitty went with much protest because he started Microbiology and Physiology last week and it has been intense so he did not want to miss any study time. BUT I thought I would need him there so people knew what we were (Jack Bauer & side kick from 24) but it didn't matter because no onewatches that show (It starts up in January again, HECK YES!!)

We'll see how the real Halloween goes. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Happy Birthday Smitty!!

I didn't want to take the Halloween banner down. LAZY!!
Smitty's loot from my fam

Hand made card from my mom

As most of you know, Smitty says he does not like his birthday. So I try and make it a big deal MMMMHHHHAAAAAA! I think that my birthday should last a week so I kind of did that with Smitty's this year. We went to the Outback for a birthday dinner on Wednesday, I bought him Transformers 2 and couldn't wait till Sunday so we watched it Friday night. Smitty just finished his Anatomy class and is now starting Microbiology so he had some time off on Saturday so we were able to make it to the temple for the first time since we have been in Erie. It is a three hour drive to our temple in Palmyra, NY. It is very cool that our temple is Palmyra! It is much farther away than we are used to but we have a plan to make it there every couple of months at least. It is the smallest temple I have ever been in! I was hoping to also walk thru the sacred grove again and take some pictures of the leaves but we had a big storm the night before so the leaves were nonexistent AND Smitty was eager to get back and watch the BYU/TCU game because he had given up watching the Utah/ Air Force game.

On Sunday we had Stake conference which is also a faith tester, the stake center is about an hour away back in New York. (we are in the Jamestown, NY stake & yes, we live in PA) After church Smitty opened his gifts. My favorite part is the package from my family because you never know what will be in it. We had a couple of friends over for dinner and cheesecake.

I am so proud of Smitty and I know he is working so hard so become a good doctor.

LOVE YOU BABE!

Waiting, just waiting

my shirt after the stencil came off
the stencil
GO COUGARS!!
GO UTES!!
Sorry to ruin the surprise Maren, but these are your's
Hooded towel
the start of sock monkeys
my new curtains- poppies will make them sleep

So for those who have not heard I finally got a job!!! I'm really excited but there is a catch- it's in Ohio. I am ok with this, and the commute is only 20 minutes. The bad news is I now have to get a license in Ohio!! AWWWW! I just received my PA license last week in the mail and I had been working on that for 6 months. So while I wait I am trying to keep myself busy with craft projects. I have so many friends and family having babies so most of the projects are about the little bundles of joy but I did make curtains and now that I have discovered freezer paper stencils I just took the shirt off I was wearing and gave it a little sparkle!!

On a side note- Smitty just finished his first med school midterms and he did amazingly! He will no longer have anatomy which I'm sure is a bummer for him because he liked it so much but I'm not minding so much since this means he will not come home smelling like cadavers anymore.

Smitty also received a calling in Primary a couple months ago, teaching the 5/6 year olds. I love that he has this calling because I love the stories! He is sllllooowly starting to admit he likes it. HE has three girls and four boys that he team teaches with another brother in the ward. We think the reason they have two male teachers is because they have some "difficult" kids. (one of them swore in class last week. I know this is not suppose to be funny, but the story is still making me laugh)

We are enjoying the great fall weather and colors out here. The only disappointment was the pumpkin patch. The ones back in Utah and Washington are way better. You don't get to pick your pumpkin out of the patch, more like out of a row of pre-picked pumpkins. Smitty's favorite part was the pumpkin sling shot.

What's that noise? It's called a blinker!!

Leaves on the way home
Cutting the nasty cake
First dance
Cousins
Wedding party
Cake
Spencer built this and proposed on it
Fallingwater
Lake Erie
Cascade Falls, Ohiopyle PA
Phil the groundhog

Meadsville, PA art

I have been on a road trip with my mom and grandparents for the last week. I was excited but a little doubtful because we took the scenic, scenic route. We did not take one highway it was actually really fun. No traffic, no cops and we just took out time and we saw a lot of cool things. We started by driving in pouring rain to Meadville where we found all this recycled art it was very impressive. Then we took the back roads and ended up in Punxsuatawny where we saw the actual Groundhog. We played road trip bingo that we made up as we went our board game included- plastic lawn animals, road kill, yellow school bus, red barn, waterfalls, and 20 foot statues of God and Moses with the 10 commandments of anti- abortion. We ended up in Ligonier, PA where we ate at this restaurant that used old thrift store books for menus. We walked around the shops and went to a replica fort form the french and indian war. They had George Washington's real pistols that he passed down to Andrew Adams.

The next day we went to Fallingwater- a summer house for a wealth family built by Frank Lloyd Wright. We stayed the in Uniontown, PA and on the third day we made the last leg of out trip to Virginia. I drove across four states in less than an hour (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia) We spent time with family and on Saturday drove to Richmond, VA for the wedding!! Carra and Spencer did a great job with everything she looks so pretty. I had a great time with my family. I don't see them all very often but I am fortunate I had the time to spend with them.