Yoga and Soup

We learned some new things today

Hannah was a big help in preparing our turkey stock.

But she had to be careful because was hot.

Yep, still hot.

We did a little yoga before bed.

And when we got tired of yoga...

we had some "hot dog races"

Fun day. We're excited to eat our soup tomorrow! If you're in the neighborhood, stop on by!

Just an Update

We had a pretty fun week. The beginning was hard for me because I had two tests and a research paper all due on Wednesday and of course I didn't start doing work for anything until the weekend before. To make it worse, this was a really hard chapter of math for me. I'd sit and work for 20 minutes on a problem, want to bang my head against the table and then have to take a break. Devan was really good about taking Hannah away to let me study. This is how well that went...

There's more, but I think you get the point.

But now it's all over. I don't know how I did on anything, but at least its done.

This week we bought 33 pounds of wheat and took some of it over to Devan's friend's mom's house and she ground it into flour for us. Devan has been having a lot of fun playing with our whole wheat flour (He's the bread maker in the family. I'm still learning.) Monday and Thursday nights he made us some half-wheat cinnamon rolls and Friday he made some yummy rolls. I'm so proud of him. When we first got married it was a struggle just to get him to eat whole-wheat bread. And now, he was arguing that we should make whole wheat cinnamon rolls instead of half-wheat. What a guy.

They turned out delicious, so delicious that we had to make sure we gave most of them away immediately.

Cinnamon Rolls were dinner on Monday.

This was Taco Tuesday at our house

And Chinese food on Wednesday (and yes, she did wear the same shirt for like three days in a row)

This new independent eating thing is going swimmingly.

Thursday she finally changed her clothes and got a ponytail in her hair for the first time, and I didn't care anymore that she's a messy learner.

Friday we took Hannah for a drive. She had no idea how great it was going to be

We all went for a walk in the mountains around Draper

I love how it looks like she's glowing in this picture -- like a little angel

Friday night I went to an event called "Time out for Women", which is sponsored by Deseret Book Company. It's a two day event, but a friend of mine couldn't make it on Friday night so she gave me her ticket. It was a refreshing spiritual feast. Two very smart, very funny women spoke and then we got to hear from Jenny Oaks Baker, a concert violinist who I absolutely love. I didn't get the tickets until a few days before the event, so I wasn't able to find anyone to go with me. I asked 5 or 6 people (and then there were a couple I already knew were working or out of town) and they all had valid reasons why they couldn't go, but it still left me feeling a little like a loser. I almost didn't go, but I knew it would be good for me. As I got close to downtown where it was being held, I realized about half the women on the train with me were going there too. There was such an excitement in the air. I was surprised at how many people were there. I heard the total was about 3,300 women.

As I sat alone in the auditorium full of women, the realization dawned on me that everyone in that room was just like me. We all have the same fears of inadequacy and rejection. Most women find it hard to reach out to eachother and build meaningful friendships. Realizing this made me commit myself to being a better friend to those who may feel alone and not having such weird hang ups when I occasionally have to go to something alone.

This night was exactly what I needed. A lot was said about living up to your potential and finding out what you were specifically sent to earth to do and then doing it. I left feeling so wonderful and determined to be better than I am. I wish I could go every year, but the tickets are almost $60 for the two day event, so I'll probably never go again. I'm so grateful I was given this opportunity.

Now I'm off to bed. I have a 21 pound turkey half submurged in ice water in my kitchen sink right now. I really hope it's thawed by morning. I have to put it in the oven first thing in the morning for a Thanksgiving dinner at church tomorrow night. Eeek! Devan and I have an alarm set for every half hour all night long to get up and make sure the water is still cold and to flip the turkey. I'll let you know if our dinner tomorrow consisted of turkey popsicles.

First Snow

This morning we had an activities committee meeting at our house. We made pancakes and eggs and Lisa's amazing apple strudel muffins. When the other people got there I asked if it was cold outside and they said, "No, not really." Later that day we took a nap and woke up to this.

So beautiful.

Hannah got to go out and play in the snow for the very first time. She didn't quite know what to think of it at first.

She spent a lot of time staring at the ground. Then she got excited.

Dad "taught" her how to throw snowballs...

Look how ready she is to take it

Dad left to get the mail. We weren't too happy about that

All this fun snow and she still wanted to play on the playground

Then we went inside and that lucky little girl got some hot chocolate in her sippy cup.

So much to do, so little motivation

We didn't really do much this week. Honestly, I don't know where the week went. A lot of homework and a lot of baby chasing. It took us 4 nights to finish one movie and it was one we'd already seen so it wasn't even that worth it. Sunday night we had one of Devan's friends from jr. high over for dinner. They have a son who is about Hannah's age, so that was fun. Devan and I gave talks in church yesterday. It was the first talk I'd given since I was 17, so I was really nervous, but I think it went okay. That's about all I got accomplished this week. But it was a nice week. I think I'm finally out of my funk.

Hannah wanted to clip her own toe nails

Then she wanted to be gross

(I love Devan's face in this picture)

Then she wanted to be sad when the clippers got taken away

I got a hair cut from Devan's sister who is in cosmetology school. Hurray for never paying full price for a hair cut again!

And we discovered we have an enchilada fiend on our hands

I really only wrote this because I'm procrastinating homework. I have two tests and a paper due on Wednesday and all I seem to want to do is sit around eating creamsicles.

My Ladybug

What a kid...

I used to hate Halloween

It's just that once you're too old to go trick or treating, all the fun is gone and people just seem to try to make everything as disgusting as possible. And then you have a kid and BAM! Halloween is magical again.

This year we got to go to two trunk or treats. If you don't know what a trunk or treat is, it looks a little like this:

Kids go around to cars and get candy that way. It's much faster and requires much less exercise than going door to door.

The first trunk or treat was with my stay-at-home-moms' group. We met at a park and the kids played and then we had a potluck lunch. Hannah made some new friends.

And she really liked all the toys at the park. In this picture I'm standing on the ground underneath her and I'm looking up to take the picture

Absolutely terrifying. But I could not keep her away from that slide and I wasn't going to let her go down alone, so I had to keep sliding down with her. As I write this my hands are getting sweaty just remembering it.

Hannah didn't quite grasp the concept of trick or treating. She was more interested in the cars than the treats. Once, I wasn't paying enough attention and she climbed in the passenger seat of a stranger's car. Great.

She did much better trunk or treating later that night at church. Probably because by then she had a bright pink pumpkin head to put her candy in.

She did well. We definitely got better candy than we gave out. I've decided that this age is the best for Halloween -- she's old enough to walk and get her own candy, but not old enough to notice if we steal it from her.

After the trick or treating Chad and Ashley and baby Xavier came over and we had a great Halloween dinner. We had sloppy boos, (which are basically just sloppy joes with some pumpkin puree added in) and green pistachio pudding and a green witches brew drink.

Then we all fell asleep watching The Nightmare Before Christmas. I never could have imagined how great Halloween can be when you're a parent!