It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I ADORE everything about it. I love the colors it brings, the crisp air, the traditions, the clothes, hot chocolate, the food...everything! Yesterday after conference we drove the Alpine Loop. If you live in Utah, please go do it this week. Our timing was perfect as you'll see in the pictures. The leaves on all of the trees were spectacular! Unfortunately they'll be gone soon. If you can't make the drive yourself enjoy these pictures. I wish I was a better photographer so I could have really captured how beautiful our surroundings were. As badly as I want to move closer to my family, I will miss this part of Utah if we ever do.

Enlarge this picture. It is the debris left from an avalanche last year. Pretty crazy!

I'm so glad we went on that drive last night. I think it's just what we both needed. We have been in a rut lately. We've both been working a TON, have been stressing over the market and finances, and haven't spent time outside in a few weeks. It was so great for us to breathe that fresh, Fall mountain air. The air was so crisp and clean it was refreshing to let our lungs get a sample of it. We are so lucky to have this landscape in our backyard. We live within 10 minutes of 4 canyons that look like this. We are blessed. After our drive we went home and had homemade cornbread and chili. It was a perfect Fall day.


Yesterday was conference. We went to Joe and Tori's for breakfast and the first session. Breakfast was delicious! Tori made German Pancakes and cinnamon rolls. Joe made yummy breakfast potatoes. It was awesome! Thanks Joe and Tori for having us over.

Conference was great as usual. I especially loved President Monson's closing talk in the morning session. He spoke about enjoying life's journey. I feel like I spend too much time looking forward to the next stage in life. I want a house, kids, my husband to be fully established in his career, etc. His talk was just what I needed to hear. He encouraged us to not worry about the things we can't change but to try to enjoy them and learn from them. Eventually we will all run out of tomorrows so it's important that we enjoy today. I am really going to make an effort to do this more. I'm going to take time to breathe everyday, to meditate, to reflect, to enjoy life's simple pleasures. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to hear from the leaders of our church. They are inspired men of God. To find out more about our church click here.

Cheesecake Factory

Friday night we went out with our friends the Ostlers. We went to Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed good food and good conversation. We got to meet a new friend, Angie. She and Steve are a darling couple and we're excited to have new friends. After dinner we went back to Cassi and Allan's for games. Once again Cassi gave us all stomach aches from making us laugh so hard. We had a great time with them as usual.

Me, Angie, Cassi

Chloe, Allan, Steve, Josh

Steve and Josh couldn't resist talking about the market. This is what they looked like 90% of the night.

Here is the little muffin pie Chloe. Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks? She is such a doll, I just love her.

Girl's Night Recipe Exchange

On Monday night my friends from work and I got together for a recipe exchange night. The theme of the dinner party was Italian food. We each made something and brought the recipe to share. Melinda hosted it in her big, beautiful home. We had so much fun eating yummy yummy food, chatting and laughing. I love my friends from work. It's a guarantee that we'll have fun if we're all together.

I made homemade butternut squash ravioli with a butter sage sauce. We also had homemade meat sauce, Alfredo sauce, French bread, a delicious salad, and "better than sex cake".

Here are Kristi and Cassi enjoying their delicious meal.

Mandee and Brooke

Me and Ali

Here is my favorite Cassi. She is hilarious. Whenever Cassi is around you're going to have a good time. She is a great story teller and is very entertaining when doing so. This particular story was one that I can't tell you all about in case the main character happens to stumble upon this blog. The story included a crazy drunk, a water slide, and a cat fight. Just know she had us all rolling. I seriously thought I was going to pee my pants at one point.

I love my girlfriends. It was perfect timing for us to have a girls' night in. If you want me to share the recipes I came home with let me know and I'll post them.

Our Weekend

This past weekend our nephew Eli was baptized and my mother-in-law had a birthday. It was a great family filled weekend. Here are some pictures of what went on.

Little Miss Sassy Pants was at the baptism.

Cute hugging cousins, Abbie and Lauren.

The whole family right after Eli's baptism.

Sunday was Bonnie's birthday. We had family dinner and opened up gifts.

Kennedy put on a fashion show with her alligator toe shoes.

Check out Lauren and Abbie's faces.

This was my favorite part of the weekend. Our first biological nephew is due on Christmas Eve and I can hardly wait to meet him. On Sunday I got to feel him kick! I can't wait to love and cuddle this baby boy. He will be a new joy in my life and I just want him here.

The little girls love having a strong Money Josh. He was bouncing them and throwing them in the air, and they loved every second of it. He'll be a cute dad some day.

Today

Pearl and Pauper is featured on Tutus and Turtles! Take a look at why they wanted to feature us.

What I've been up to

Last night I had my first house party for the Fall season with Pearl and Pauper. It went really well. I have been working my tush off to get ready for this season and I am beyond exhausted. I have several more parties in the next couple of months so the work continues. Luckily Mari will be helping me fill orders, she is a life saver. Check out my Aunt Cynthia's jewelery at the bottom of this post. Her stuff is beautiful!

Here are about a quarter of the hats

Here are the boy hats and binkis. I love them!

This is a really bad picture, I hadn't had these set up when I took this picture. These are some of my aunt's necklaces.

Don't you just love

a good thunder storm? Something about them is so enchanting. I'm enjoying a heart healthy, post Saturday morning run breakfast, and a view of the earth-cleansing rain. Life is good.

What the...

So, last night I had my first mutual activity with the youth in our ward. We went up to a cabin in the Albian Basin. I went up about an hour after the rest of the group because I stopped by Kennedy's birthday party. I had to park in a little dirt lot and walk up to where the cabin and my group was. I didn't know exactly where the cabin was but I thought I'd be able to figure it out. I ended up walking too far and turning off the main road onto a smaller dirt road. I knew I was lost so I tried to call someone in my group. My phone service wasn't great so my call was getting cut up. The call was ended when I lost service. I started to walk toward the main road because I knew they were going to come look for me. I looked up and about 50 feet in front of me I saw what I thought was a huge bear. What I was seeing was this:

I about peed my pants. Once I realized it wasn't a bear I felt a little better for about a split second, then I thought, "Holy crap, that's a bull moose! It can kill me just as easily as a bear!" I was terrified. It was about 100 feet in front of the road I needed to get to. I was definitely NOT going to cross that huge sucker so I just sat there waiting for it to move. That's when I pulled out my camera. I was so stupid and didn't realize my camera was going to flash, and flash it did! The moose turned to look at me as soon as my flash went off. I was ready to run. Luckily it didn't seem to mind my presence. I still wasn't going to move an inch closer to that thing so I just waited. About 5 minutes later it crossed the street I needed to go to. About 5 minutes after that my search party located me and I met up with the rest of our group.

Here are some of the cute girls in my class. I blend right in with them.