Trip to Utah: Annie's Wedding and Thanksgiving

The wedding seemed to go just as planned. Maren loved that Annie looked like a princess.

We got the chance to go to a BYU basketball game. If you donated cans you could get free tickets. Many families filled the new broadcasting building where there were all kinds of fun activities including meeting Cosmo!

They had a green screen set up where you could appear to be in the Marriott Center. Spencer had on a green shirt so you could see right through him.

Maren had a blast shaking her pompoms and wearing her "YU" stickers. She leaves off the B for some reason.

The face doesn't tell you but she really did have fun.

The friday after thanksgiving we went to Temple Square to see the lights. This is taken inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was quite a cold night.

The beautiful Salt Lake Temple

You cant quite tell but the tree above us had gold lights with golden leaves. It was quite amazing in person.

Once we returned home to Oregon, we went to a Christmas tree farm to buy our very first live tree! It was a bit more expensive then we anticipated hearing you could get trees for $15, but the experience was worth it. We felt good helping out this elderly gentlemen that ran the farm. He was so kind and helpful.

This is our Noble fir tree. Pretty small but fills the space in our small apartment nicely.

Maren was so excited about the tree. She helped me decorate.

All the festivities made Maren want to dress up so here she is matching the red on the tree. A detail she probably noticed herself and why she chose this dress. This little girl sure knows how to pay attention to detail. Christmas is officially underway and we are excited for it. We hope you capture the season in your lives as well!

Proud Mamma

Can't say that I love having pregnant pictures taken of me but I couldn't pass this one by. Maren was telling us that she too has a baby in her stomach. we tried to explain that doesn't have a baby inside but that we could put one there. She liked that idea so inside her shirt her baby doll sits. You can tell she is a very proud mamma.

Maren's Photo Shoot

I decided to wait to have pictures taken of Maren until after the baby comes so I took Maren to Pacific University to take pictures myself for fun. I got 10 free photo cards online as well and wanted to send a cute picture of Maren to you.

I love this line of trees.

These next three are my favorite. They were taken last over by a restaurant called Maggie's Buns. They have this cute painted wall she stood in front of. I am glad we were parked near there or I would have never captured these shots.

The Royal Family

On Sunday night, we decided to join Maren in her royal adventures in becoming the Royal Family. Yes I look like I have been hypnotized.

Daddy made the crowns and Maren loved every minute of it!

On Halloween night I gave in a decided to let Maren be what she REALLY  wanted to be, a princess. She had worn the costume I made her twice already so I was quite over it all. She couldn't have been happier.

Daddy joined in on the fun as her King.

The end of Trunk-or-treat. She had a blast.

Making Grape Juice

Brother Mitchell has been growing grapes for the last few years and informed us that the grapes needed to be picked and juiced. I felt like I was done canning but at times like this you don't have a choice.

We borrowed a juicer from a family in the ward and it was quite amazing. It took us 5-6 hours from start to finish doing three batches of juice taking an hour at a time. Luckily we had the afternoon and evening one Saturday to do it together (Spencer and I) or it would have been a frustrating process.

Some of the Concord grapes we cleaned up and prepared for juicing.

When you stir the juice it gets really frothy. We got 15 quarts out of it all and glad we had the experience. The juice is a nice addition to our Italian meals!

PAVA Halloween Party

I love that we have this fun organization called PAVA for the optometry families. It gives us a chance to have fun activities throughout the year including a Halloween party. Trunk-or-treat is great but it is dark, cold and most likely raining, and the kids don't get much of a chance to interact with  each other in their costumes. Maren has been looking forward to dressing up for Halloween all month as we have built it up in her mind. Her idea of the best costume would be a pretty princess. In fact when I first dressed her in this costume I took the time to make she through quite the fit. I think this is officially the last year I will have any say in what she wears for Halloween which isnt saying much considering she is only 2. My the end of the night she felt cute after plenty of people gawked over how cute she was. We had a good time.

Quotes of the Month-October

1. On the way to church today, the day after the BYU football game, we drove past a field where they put up a new fence. I made a comment about the fence and in the back seat Maren started chanting: "Defense, defense!"

Maren rocking her baby pumpkin

BYU vs Oregon State Game

We had a great day down in Corvallis Oregon, home of the Oregon State Beavers. Spencer was excited beyond belief. He had the jitters all day. Not something I will ever fully understand but it must be a football player thing.

Maren did surprisingly well. She had a great time yelling: "YYYY-U" or "defense"

We sat down low before the game started so Spencer could watch the team warm up. We lucked out with a beautiful fall day of no rain.

We were surrounded by many BYU fans so it wasn't so awkward. I was a little worried we would be harassed not sitting in the BYU section. The BYU section was on the opposite end just behind Maren's head in the picture above. You can see a large patch of blue.

I thought the football sculpture was cool so I made Spencer take a picture in front of it after the game. This is his victory smile as we won the game on Beaver turf.

Carving Pumpkins

We bought a large pumpkin at Safeway.

This pumpkin cost $75.00. Maren tried to lift it with the help of daddy but it was so heavy!

This is just the job for a 2-year-old. She loved helping us dig the pulp out of the pumpkins.

It was great fun.

Yeah, we are Optometry nerds. Spencer carved the glasses and I carved the eye. It's hard to tell but my pumpkin was white.

Maren thought it was so cool that we lit them outside.