Snow Day!

Yesterday during church, it snowed for the first time this season!  I was also released from my calling in Beehives yesterday and was called to be in nursery (which was devastating at first, but now I'm actually pretty excited), so I was with the little ones when we discovered the white stuff falling from the sky.  The kids were really excited, and they climbed up on a table to look out the window.  Damian had no clue why there were kids on the table, but he wanted to be one of them.  I was excited to introduce him to the snow, but by the time church was over, it had stopped and there wasn't much evidence.  Luckily, today when we woke up, the world was white again.  As soon as we'd had breakfast, we bundled up and took a walk outside in the snow. 

Damian had a lot of fun exploring in the snow.  He looked up at the sky at the falling snow, he picked it up and dropped the cold stuff immediately, and he took me for a walk through our neighborhood.  But he got cold pretty fast, so we came inside after ten or fifteen minutes.  Then I let him discover hot chocolate, which he is definitely a fan of. 

Here's the messy, happy face as proof.  PS, it's also partly messy because he discovered yet another thing earlier.  Gluesticks.  He thinks they're chapstick.  I should stop him, but it's hilarious.  They're nontoxic, right?  :-)

The Big Event

This last Saturday was a big day for Marty's family. His sister got married in the Manti Temple, and now all of his siblings are married! We always love any excuse to get together with their big family, and this was the best excuse of all.

During the sealing, which was beautiful, Damian's cousins watched him. Apparently Damian hit a clingy stage immediately upon arriving in Utah. He usually gets distracted by other kids and loves to play with them and totally forgets that he even has parents. But the girls told me that after a little while, Damian just wanted to look out the window and say, "Momma? Momma?" over and over again. Then during the photo shoot outside the temple after the ceremony, he was definitely the LVP (least valuable player). Look at his face and imagine him screaming for Mommy and Daddy every time they tried to take a picture. Good times. :-)

But he wasn't miserable all day. Just when we tried to tell him what to do. Typical, right? But just as proof that he did smile at least once during the day...

Don't you love his vest? It's actually more of a sweater dress. It was very big on him. He'll be wearing it for the next three Easters. (Joke courtesy of Becca.)

Now I would like to brag about my in-laws a little bit. Not only are the the most fun people in the world, but they are also incredibly talented. Here are a few samples of their work.

Rosemary (Marty's mom) MADE this dress. You probably can't tell how beautiful the lace is, but it's amazing. Now I wish I had asked her to make my wedding dress.

Dindra (Marty's brother's wife) made all these skirts for all the nieces. Imagine big bows on the bums for the littler girls. Aren't they adorable?

And Jamie (Marty's sister) made these cute little shoes out of paper for favors at the bridal shower. Super cute! And I won't even mention how cute my niece is.

And finally, I don't have a picture for this, but Marty's parents and one of his aunts made all the food for the reception: orange rolls, fruit and yogurt parfaits, and yummy steamers, to name a few. (If you've never had a steamer, it's basically sweetened hot milk with autumny spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. DIVINE!!!) The whole trip was fantastic, and I've never been prouder to be part of their family!

Halloween

So. It's been over a year since the last time I blogged. I've decided to try it again. Hopefully this time, there will be more than one post per year. We shall see.

For Halloween this year, we had a costume party to go to and I had a new sewing machine. Put 2 and 2 together, and I decided to go all-out making our costumes. We decided, after much deliberation, to do a Toy Story gang: Damian as Buzz, Marty as Woody, and me as Jessie. It turned out to be pretty cheap to buy the Buzz costume, so my mission was to create the two cowboy costumes. Here is what the three look like in the movie:

And here is how ours turned out:

I sewed my chaps, Marty's vest, and the yellow parts of my shirt. We spray painted my hat and stitched red yarn into it for my hair, but we didn't get a picture of that part. :-( We used existing shirts, but we got to draw the lines on Marty's. And yes, Marty is wearing my Uggs. :-)

I keep trying to decide if this was really worth all the effort. It was fun, up until about midnight on the 29th with lots left to do in less than 24 hours. I mean, we only wore them for maybe 5 hours. We'll just call it practice for when my kid demands some obscure costume that can't be bought. Plus, I found out how dearly I love my new sewing machine. We look like we had fun too, right? :-)

The Pilot Episode

Finally! I know some of you have been waiting forever and ever for me to post something on here, so here we go! Obviously I'm no good at starting a blog, so we'll see if I'm any good at keeping it up-to-date.

About a week and a half ago we celebrated the 4th of July by going to Vancouver, Canada. Pretty patriotic, right? We enjoyed just relaxing and exploring a little bit. There's so much to do there, though, that we'll definitely have to go back!

On Saturday we went to the aquarium in Stanley Park. Marty was thrilled by the jellyfish, I was brave and touched a slimy sea cucumber, and Damian was just fascinated by everything. We were just hoping that Damian would be a good boy, but he loved staring at the colorful fish and everything. Oh, and we had THE best soft-serve ice cream in the world! I don't know if it's a Canada thing or what, but I'd go back just for that!


Sunday we went to Lighthouse Park. There were signs warning about bears and I've recently become terrified of bear attacks, so I was just glad we survived! :-) But we walked out to the coast and sat on a huge rock in the water. We dipped our feet in the ocean, then decided it would be fun to see how Damian would react to the chilly water. He surprised us again: we fully expected him to cry or at least recoil, but not so! He just stomped his little feet and really liked it.


Finally on Monday, we underwent a self-induced torture session, AKA, the Grouse Grind. Marty was dying to do this 2 mile hike that ascends 2800 feet. I agreed on the condition that Marty carried Damian the whole way. Having been through childbirth only three months earlier, this hike was a little intense for me. Okay, I hated it. But Marty loved it, as I knew he would. Damian loved it too, actually, even after it started raining about halfway up. He was hungry for a good chunk of it too, but he didn't start fussing until we were on the gondola ride back down to the parking lot. (Thank goodness for the gondola, I never would have been able to walk back down!)

Ultimately the trip was tons of fun, and we can't wait to go again!