Picking Pumpkins at Gilcrease Orchard

For our second field trip, we went to Gilcrease Orchard and picked pumpkins. We had a really good time! Lots of families came, including a family that we met at the Lied Museum who wanted to join in on the fun! Later, we carved the pumpkins as a family. Preslyn really enjoyed eating the seeds and sucking on the rind!

My wall is finally decorated!

I have a big wall in my living room that has been empty for the past 3 years. Every time I walk by it I think to myself, "I wish I had a shelf for that wall." Well, my dad made me a shelf and I painted it to match the frame of a picture I recently bought of the Logan temple, where we got married. I finally feel like my living room is complete! In fact, it is interesting how my thoughts are more centered around the temple, just by putting a picture on the wall. Thanks, Dad, for making the shelf! I love it!

Primping Preslyn!

Happy Fall!

where's demarie?

prize to the first person who can find a silly little girl hiding in this picture

so, i'm a little late with this posting, but a few weeks ago we spent the day cleaning up the yard. we planted peas, broccoli, and flowers, fixed broken sprinkler heads, and of course--played in the leaves! demarie was such a big helper with the rake this year. i love this time of year when things start to cool off. it reminds me that halloween, my favorite holiday, is just around the corner!

hooray! you found her!

hope you all have a very happy fall!

Preschool Field Trip: Lied Discovery Children's Museum

For our first preschool field trip, we went to the Lied Children's Museum. We had a good group and such an enjoyable time! There were lots of interactive displays for the kids to do including painting, shopping, going to the bank, and a performing arts stage. Demarie was in heaven when she found a white sparkly dress with a veil. As soon as she put it on she was transported to her own world! She just stood on the stage with a dreamy look in her eyes...feeling pretty. Johnny Richardson came up to her, gently took her hand and said, "May I have the pleasure?" He led her out to the dance floor and they started dancing. It was the sweetest thing!

Thanks to everyone who came! We had a great time!

Group photo: Bac: Youngest Braithewaite, Jensen. Middle: Demarie, Bailey Stirling, Johnny Richardson, Spencer Jolly. Front: Ainsley Braithewaite, Alexis Jensen, Sarah Richardson

General Relief Society Meeting and Conference

These past two weeks have been very uplifting for me to be able to listen to the prophets and general authorities of the church. There is such a feeling of unity, peace, and comfort as I listen to their counsel and direction. I especially appreciated President Uchtdorf's address in the Relief Society meeting. I felt like his words of comfort were directed to me. I also enjoyed Elder Wirthlin's counsel to remember to laugh!

I had such a good time attending the Relief Society meeting with my mom. I am grateful she has been in Las Vegas as a support to me. I will miss her next year when October rolls around and she is not there to accompany me.

QUIRKS

So, I was reading Katie Godfrey's blog and saw that she had tagged me to blog about my quirks.... Thanks, Katie! I guess to be a good sport I will go ahead and do it. The rules posted, however, are that I get to tag six other readers, so read on and see if you share any of my quirky behaviors and if you are one of the lucky ones to be tagged!

1. Aaron always laughs at me when I do this--the tips of my fingertips are really sensitive and feel funny when they get really dry. I will often lick my fingertips to make them feel better. Sometimes my toes feel the same way and I will put a little water on the ground, just enough to wet my toes to make the annoying feeling go away. Funny thing is that a few months ago, I was putting Demarie to bed and she licked her fingertips. I asked her about it and she said, "Sometimes my fingers feel funny and so I lick them so they won't feel that way anymore." I guess "funny feeling fingertips" run in the family!

2. Sometimes when I put things away, if they are not just how I want them to be, my mind will obsess over it until I go and fix it. For example, today I was unloading dishes from the dishwasher. When I put the cups away, there was a stack of cups that was touching another stack of cups. For some reason, in my mind this appeared totally wrong! I tried to ignore it, but I continued to think about the cups until I could not control the itching desire to open the cupboard and move the stack of cups slightly to the right. I felt much better after that.

3. I cannot do laundry. I can be so careful to follow care instructions, but somehow I ALWAYS ruin MY clothes. I buy a new shirt and when I wash it for the first time, TA DAH! It comes out with a stain. The funny thing is, the stain is always in the same place on all my shirts and always looks the same as well. Aaron has clothes from high school that he still wears that are in perfect condition. My clothes, however, that is another story!

4. I HATE thunderstorms! I am surprised how often we get them here in Vegas. I remember when I was little, my mom took us outside to watch the lightning. "Isn't it pretty?" she asked. Yeah! Real pretty! When I shared a bedroom with my younger sister, Milin, I would climb in her bed and tell her not to be afraid. Really, it was because I was afraid. Things have not changed. I still lay in bed...shaking! I try to wake Aaron up, but he just says, "Isn't this awesome?' and rolls over and falls back to sleep.

5. I gave a pedicure to Aaron last night and... I really enjoyed it! He has the most disgusting feet in the entire world! Honestly, if you saw his feet, I am sure you would get the urge to hurl! His big toenail has died so many times and he has been putting medicine on it so now it is really thick and yellow. It has curled around so much that the edges are digging into his toe. I was able to dig underneath and get a bunch of disgusting crap out from underneath the nail. I razored all the dead skin off and... now they are actually kind of...uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, I guess you could say they are kind of... pretty! Yeah, pretty! Maybe this quirk gues along with my obsession to pick pimples and watch bloody surgeries on TV.

6. I hate walking on cracks in the sidewalk or road. I will purposely take a larger step or a smaller step...just to avoid the crack. I'm sure other people do this too, right?

Ok, now that all my quirks are out on the table and you are all going to think of me differently, here is the lucky list of people to be tagged:

--Stacy Moon
--Jan Southwick
--Nicole Boyd
--Jilene Ray
--Blake Berrett (I'm sure he can come up with six quirks! j/k)
--Milin Chandler (maybe she will write that she used to jump in my bed because she was afraid of the thunder)

RULES:
-Link the person who tagged you
-List 6 of your quirks
-Tag 6 other bloggers by linking them
-List the rules on your blog