Another "savior on Mount Zion".

Last night, Ryan and I had the special opportunity to be able to attend the temple with Acadia.  She turned 12 earlier this year and this was her first time going with the youth in our ward to perform baptisms for the dead (1 Cor 15:29, D&C 124:33). 

She has been anxiously awaiting her opportunity to go to the temple and Ryan and I both wanted to be with her when she did.  It made it even more special when Ryan was assigned to be the one perfoming the ordinance; it helped her feel more comfortable having her father with her, performing the baptisms, just like on her own baptism day.  I was assigned to be with the girls as they entered and exited the font, so I was able to stand right there and watch the whole thing. 

It was just a very, very cool experience and one I'm looking forward to having again. :)

These are a few of her favorite things...

For the last 11 years, our stake has hosted an annual Festival of the Nativities and a few years ago, my mom started coming up that weekend to attend with us.  This year she brought my brother, Andrew with her.  We had a really nice visit!

On Saturday, we headed into the gorge for a small hike to Punchbowl.  My mom loves nature and she loves the green Pacific Northwest, and I think she really liked the hike.  It was really pretty.  It was easy to imagine it even more green in the spring or more vibrant with fall colors just a month or two earlier, but even as it was, it was beautiful.

On Sunday, after church, we went to the Festival of that Nativities.  My mom loves nativities as much as I do; that's probably where I got it from.  We loved seeing the beautiful displays, listening to lovely music, and checking out the hundreds and hundreds of nativities.  I had several of my own displayed, including one from the Philippines.  I want to collect a nativity scene from the countries where we have family history, and the Philippines is one of them (my mom's father was Filipino).  There were a few Filipino nativities and my mom didn't know that one was mine, so I was so glad when she showed me her favorite one... MINE! :) 

Another really fun part of visiting the nativities is the children's room.  Rori always loves it!  There are lots of things for them to touch and play with.  And they can dress up!  

After the Festival of the Nativities, we invited the local family to come say hi and visit a little with Mom and Andrew.  I know mom likes seeing her siblings and neices and nephews.  And Ryan made a cake that he has made a couple of times before for my mom and she really likes.  It's a super rich, dark chocolate cake.  Visiting family, eating rich chocolate... yes, these are definitely more of her favorite things.

And I like to think that we are some of her favorite things, too. :)  We were so glad to have them come visit and hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Be Thankful

We made our normal drive down to Sacramento for Thanksgiving this year.  The weather was great and the timing good, so we stopped in Reno for the weekend before ending up in Sac for the rest of the week.

One of the stops we made along the way down to Sacramento, was at John's Incredible Pizza to meet up with Heather and her kids for lunch.  It was a lot of fun!

The fun didn't stop once we were in Sacramento.  We stayed with Ryan's mom for the first couple of days and while we were with them, we visited the zoo...

The weather was SO NICE!  We took a walk down by the river and enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon...

We spent the last couple of days at my sister's house and that is where we had our delicious Thanksgiving meal. 

Our visit for the holiday is always too short but we had a really nice visit and loved being with family for Thanksgiving! 

Just doing her homework...

One day, after school, while I was out raking leaves in the yard, Aurora got out a flier she had brought home from school.  It was about healthy habits.  When I came back inside, I couldn't find her, but I saw the flier laying out, with "checks" on each thing that a person should do to be healthy. 

We happened to have some grapes out on the table to snack on that afternoon, so she must have eaten some, then washed her hands, coughed into the crook of her arm, and then...  I chuckled to myself and went to look for her in her bedroom.  Yep, sure enough...



She was getting some sleep, just like it said to do in her schoolwork! 

Winter Orchestra Concert

Last week, Acadia's school orchestra had their winter performance and I think it is my favorite of all their performances so far!  They did a REALLY good job!  I think they outplayed the 8th graders, even.  But I don't have that performance to show you, I just have her with her fellow 7th graders. 



Acadia has really been enjoying orchestra.  She is getting very good at the violin, and she is hoping to start learning the cello soon, too.  On top of that, she is still playing piano and getting A's in all her classes (except for one A-), which, by the way, are all Excel (advanced) classes.  We are so pleased with her for the choices she is making. :)

Two Weddings and a Front Door

We had the opportunity of celebrating two new marriages today!  The first was for a woman that Ryan home teaches in our ward.  It was small and quiet and really nice.  The second was for a young woman that used to be in my Mia Maid class years ago... I just can't believe how grown up these girls are now!  She was absolutely beautiful and I'm so happy for her!

Almost nine years ago, we moved here and bought this house.  It has had a banged up front door with poor weather stripping around the sides and a scratched up door knocker that says "LEE" on it.  Well, finally, today, we bought a new front door.  It will be installed in a few days and I am excited!  I know, it is slightly pathetic to be excited over a new door, especially since this is not a super fancy door in any way... but I am! 

Today is one week away from Christmas Eve and I'm really looking forward to this week.  We're all ready here, and I love it because it lets us just enjoy the season with no stress or crazy shopping trips to fight our way through.  I think instead we'll do some caroling, spread some Christmas cheer, visit with friends, and watch some holiday movies. :)

What are your favorite ways to spend the last few days before Christmas?

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This is Halloween... or was... or... you get the picture...

Acadia dressed as a nerd... quite a stretch for her... NOT!  She is not a "nerd" but is very smart and loves to wear those socks no matter what day it is... and may or may not have sported those glasses just for fun for days before and also days after Halloween... oh no, not a nerd at all. ;)

Aurora was Minnie Mouse and it was extra fun this year since we had just been to DisneyWorld and she had several chances to meet Minnie in person.  It was fun to "be" her for a night! :)  And for the record, she did not wear the vampire teeth with her outfit, lol.  She got those trick-or-treating and really wanted to wear them as soon as she got home (and washed them). ;)

Ryan took the girls out trick-or-treating and they had great weather - which meant they were out for quite a long time!  They ran into lots of friends along the way and ended up trick-or-treating with them for part of the time.  Extra fun! 

I stayed home to pass out candy but we didn't get as many trick-or-treaters as we normally do.  So the ones that came got a handful each! lol

Our girls made out pretty dang good and had a lot of fun... it was a pretty Spooktacular day!