A Haunting We Will Go

Occasionally I get asked, "Do you celebrate Halloween?"  Oh yeah we do!

Today was fun.  First we did some very un-Halloween-y type stuff.  Ryan and I got haircuts and went out to lunch.  Then Ryan picked up an under-bed-dresser that a co-worker is giving us.  I haven't gotten a good look at it yet, but Ryan says it's in good condition and with a little refinishing it will look really nice. :D
But all that is not important because TODAY IS HALLOWEEN!!!  Acadia dressed as Aslan (from Chronicles of Narnia).  (Thank you Jessica, for loaning us the costume!)



Rori was a cute little cow.



Ryan dressed in his Hawaiian shirt, shorts, sandals, and a straw hat.  And I wore my Luau stuff.  And this made me...

A One Cow Wife!



For those of you thinking, "Huh?  I don't get it."... It's from a movie called Johnny Lingo.  It's really funny if you've seen the movie. lol

Here are a few more pics...







We hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!

Blessed are the Children

Yesterday the primary did the Sacrament program at church. They do this once a year and it's always very cute. This year though, these kids BLEW ME AWAY!!! I have never heard a group of kids sing so loud and strong. Seriously. It was awesome!

Acadia had a little part, she did great. She even remembered to slow down so we could understand her. :)

I liked the new songs. I know at least one of them came from past Friend magazines instead of the current Children's Songbook. I think I'm gonna have to look them up to see if I can print me out a copy. :)

They also had a couple of the kids accompany the songs. One played a piano duet for I Know My Father Lives and another played the violin during another song. (Dang, I can't remember which song it was.) It was great to see these kids sharing their talents!

3 Months Old

In keeping with the request to photograph Rori each month on her "month b-day", I took these pics:

got milk?

I have finally decided what Rori will be for her first Halloween. Actually, I didn't decide. It's more like, I saw a cute costume on sale that would fit her... so I decided to buy it! LOL

A cow. Yep, a cow. It's super cute though and I'm sure she'll be the cutest cow ever! ;) When I bought it, I looked at her and said, "Now you'll know how I feel." ;) But she won't. lol

So... we've got a cow and a lion. Oh, excuse me... Aslan (who happens to be a lion), from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Hmmm, Ryan and I? ... I'm thinking if we dress up it will likely be Pooh and Tigger again. We'll see.

Pics from our hike.

As promised, here are some pictures from our hike the other day.  It was a half day of school and the weather was cooperating, though it was overcast, so we went into the gorge with one of Ryan's friends and his kids.  We hiked up Multnomah Falls.  Rori needed to eat while we were hiking, so I didn't finish the hike.  I had to take her down early while the others continued on to the top.  Here are some pics...





















If you want to see all the pics, click here.

What a difference a year makes.

Would-be birthdays never go unnoticed, even if only by me. But I will admit that this one wasn't as hard as the previous ones.

Yesterday I had a moment with Rori that just solidified my faith in the Lord's plan for my family. We were hiking in the Gorge (pics from that will follow in another post) but Rori got hungry, so she and I quit early, headed to the car, and I fed her. I had some music on and when she was done feeding we just "played". I sang to her and she was just smiling and talking. She was so happy.

It just never ceases to amaze me how happy she is. She is a very easy baby to care for. And I just feel like she is just happy to be here. I almost feel like she waited just as long to come here as we waited for her to get here. (Does that make sense?) I know I appreciate what it means that she's here... I really think she does too.

"Come What May" came on the CD and I just thought how appropriate it seemed to be for me right then. I feel different now that I have Rori. I can't explain it but I just feel different. I think I'm happier. Maybe I have more peace? I don't know. But I do know that last year on this day, I was very, very sad. All I could think of what could have been, what seemed like should have been. Even though I trusted the Lord, it still hurt. Now I won't say the pain is completely gone. But it pales in comparison to how it was last year. I am so grateful that things have turned out the way they did. I am so grateful to have Rori now.

Come What May

Never knew I could feel like this,
Like I've never seen the sky before.
Want to vanish inside your kiss,
Every day I'm loving you more and more.
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?
Telling me to give you everything.
Seasons may change, Winter to Spring,
But I'll love you, until the end of time.

Come what may,
Come what may,
I will love you until my dying day.

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place,
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace.
Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste,
It all revolves around you.
And there's no mountain too high, no river too wide,
Sing out this song and I'll be there, by your side.
Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide,
But I love you, until the end of time.

Come what may,
Come what may,
I will love you until my dying day.

I blame my friend.

I don't know if I've actually come out and said this yet, but I think I'm ready to confess... I have a MySpace account. And I love it! Not because of MySpace, but because of the friends I've made on MySpace.

I agree with all the stuff that is said, it can be a very dangerous place for youth to chat because youth tend to not realize how much info they are giving out. And there are plenty of things on MySpace that I don't approve of. HOWEVER, it can also be a great way to stay in touch with friends, find old friends from school, or make new friends. I started my account thinking it would be another great way to keep in touch with a couple friends, but I have ended up making some awesome friends.

I joined a couple LDS married groups a few months ago and eventually found a group of women that not only are LDS and married, but really have the same standards and values that I have. Because in these LDS married groups we still seem to have lots of "drama" and contention due to some people choosing to post controversial thngs and trying to argue and debate the standards of the church, our little group decided to leave those groups and start our own. And so, we did.

We've been friends now for several months and are always trying to find ways to "meet for reals". Next weekend I will be meeting about 15 of these friends in Vegas and there we will attend Time Out For Women and spend some "girl getaway" time! (I'm very excited!!!) In the past, I've met a few of these girls... one here in Portland when she was here on business with her hubby, and two in Cali when I was down there for the temple open house. :) This weekend I was able to meet another of my "Virtual Friends" (Vfriends, for short), Dara.

Her hubby had business here, so she and her boys came along. I met her on Saturday when she came by to borrow a playpen. We visited for a little over an hour and it was great! I could tell we were really gonna have fun while she was in town. On Monday, Ryan, Rori and I met up with her and her family. We went to Chipotle for lunch and then cruised the mall for awhile. They came with us back to our house to get Cadi off the bus and then we all hung out for the rest of the day. The kids got along really well, the hubby's got along really well, and Dara and I had a lot of fun talking and laughing. It stank in a way, I didn't want her to leave! lol They left at about midnight that night.

Her hubby was taking a test the next morning and during the test, she and the boys were gonna stick around here and visit until it was time to go. But as it turned out, they gave him the wrong test so they told him he would have to take the correct test the next morning. That meant they had to stay in town another night, so they stayed with us! Yay!!! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't super clear that day, so we couldn't go out and do something cool in the gorge or anything. :( But we had fun just chillin' at our house. We barbequed dinner and then Dara came with me to a baby shower that some ladies from church were throwing for me.

It was so comfortable having Dara and her family here. There were no awkward moments. She and I both felt the same way. We knew we would get along, we just didn't realize just how natural it would feel!

I'm super excited too, because she will be back in town in a couple weeks. And we get to do it all again!!! :D

So... don't look for any blogs while she's here then either, we'll be too busy playing! ;)