I've been trying to play more with the manual settings on my camera. Here's a few trail runs today.





Tuesday was Enrichment night. We were supposed to have a bonfire out at Stake Pres. Barlow's property but it poored rain! So we met up at my good friend, Lisa's house and had our hot cocoa and doughnuts inside. We all just mingled and shared favorite things; websites, shops, quotes, scriptures, etc.

Wednesday I opted out of taking Ashton to story time since he was such a bear at the last one. He had orange juice on the way there in the car and couldn't bring it in to the library. So when I shut the car door with his OJ inside and him standing outside, he dropped to the pavement in a massive fit. We're seeing a lot more of these fits lately. He waved and kicked so hard that my attempt to carry him in to the library and out from the street failed. So I ended up literally dragging him in by the arm. So embarassing. Usually entering a building like that instantly distracts him and he calms down but this time he flailed his body around going through the doorway so that his forehead whirled into the doorway and got a honking big goose egg on his forehead. He hollered all the way in to the bathroom where I tried to calm him down. We stayed long enough to do the craft and snack but missed the story and songs and I think I even had to drag him OUT to the car.

Wed. night we took the kids to Todd's mom's to stay the night since Todd and I had a flight making us leave town at 6:45am the next morning. His mom kept the kids for the full weekend with their cousins as well. My brother and sister in law, Kris and Amber, drove to Cedar City while we flew. We met up in the afternoon for the beginning of the conference we came to attentd at George Wythe University. They offer a Masters and PhD in subjects that Todd is super interested in. We were all SUPER impressed with the things we learned about the university, the teachers there, and the current students. We have a couple friends attending there right now who have spoken so highly of it. So anyway, we felt the trip was worth it. Todd is hoping to start working toward his Masters and then his PhD, beginning this January. They offer distance studies where the teachers come to your home town for a lecture once a week and you read at home, then discuss back and forth online with professors and fellow students. You have to have at least 10 students enrolled for them to come to you. And it looks like they will have about that. So he's excited about it.

On Friday night we were lucky to get to see my parents. They were driving through to SLC from Palmdale, CA to see my dad's brother be sealed to his wife and her two children (from a previous marriage) in the temple. We all met up at the Cedar City theater to see the new James Bond movie that came out that night. We bought the very last 5 tickets to the show and seating was rough. We walked in as some of the employees were asking people to scoot to the center. I was able to sit with my parents with Todd right behind us and Kris and his friend, True, who drove down for the conference with him and Amber sat in the very back. Their wives stayed home since it was the later show at 9:30. I had fun chatting with my parents afterwards. Just random icing on the cake to get to bump into them there while we were down there.

We had flown in to Las Vegas, then rented a car to drive the rest of the way to Cedar City. I'm glad we did that rather than drive the full distance there with everyone else because I got so swollen just sitting in the conference for 3 days. I never would have made it home in a car driving the full trip. There were no evening flights to get us home on Southwest, Saturday night. So we drive to Vegas and went to the Phantom Of The Opera and stayed that last night there. Then flew home the next morning. It was much needed time just relaxing. Honestly, my ankles were nearly as wide as my calves and I couldn't fit shoes on my feet. I could barely wear flip flops. I didn't get this swollen EVER when I was pregnant with Ashton and only in the very end when I was pregnant with Brielle. I was only 21 weeks along like this! Not good!

We got home yesterday and were very excited to see the kids. We missed them immensely. They had a blast with their cousins but it was nice to see they were excited to come home.

We spent the day unpacking and doing a deep clean on the living areas that got a little out of hand packing before we left. I usually can't even pack until the house is immaculate. As if my brain doesn't function with a cluttered home or something. But the kids left their mark on it while we were packing.

I'm really struggling keeping up with them! As soon as I get done putting one thing away, Ashton's pulled out and set down another. If I keep busy working on a certain task, he keeps busy breaking out the glue sticks and gooping up all parts of windows within his reach and dancing around in the cat food he's tossed all over the kitchen floor. He loves to apply Todd's deoderant to his lips for lip gloss, and a few nice smelling smudges on the counter top to spruce up the room. Then there's my make up he uses as crayons in my bathroom. No height or hiding spot is out of reach. Or too hard to climb. Brielle tries to help clean or at least inform me when he's into trouble, but she quickly loses focus cleaning or gets busy drawing at her desk as Ashton breaks away. When the baby comes and he sees that he actually loses more of my attention, I'm doomed. Any suggestions? Today, I got most of the work done during their nap time and then took them out of the house to get groceries so Todd could actually see it clean for a moment when he got home for work!

I'm guessing part of my problem with Ashton's messes is that it's getting too cold for the kids to play enjoyably outside. Ashton would still be out there all day in a heart beat. But Brielle hates the cold and Ashton doesn't like to be alone out there. So I'm used to them spending a good portion of the day playing to their hearts content outside and now they're inside all day trying to find interesting things to do and exploring drawers and closets that were never curious to them before.

I bought oragomy paper for craft time tomorrow. I just don't know how enthused Ashton will be about that. I know Brielle will love it. She's been really into making paper airplanes lately since her primary teacher made her one a couple Sundays ago.

Enough of my tazmanian tornado worries. I'm off to brainstorm Christmas presents. Things that make the least amount of mess...

For Halloween, I fed the kids a healthy hearty meal before heading to the Trunk Or Treat. I figured we'd eat the soup at the Trunk Or Treat for dinner last year and Brielle refused to touch it, pigged out on candy, and ended up puking on Todd's lap later that evening. So we learned our lesson! After eating, we loaded up and did the Trunk Or Treat thing, then trick or treated the grandparents here, went home, ate a few pieced of candy, and sent the kids to bed! It was the fastest smoothest Halloween ever! Brielle's Rapunzel wig kinda spun itself in cirlces around Brielle's head all night. So I fussed over and fixed it a lot that evening. Ashton never tried to strip, which was nice.

Nov. 1st was my nephew, Jayden's baptism. He was so excited! And it was the first baptism Brielle's been to since she's been old enough to understand. She thought it was awesome. We all met up at Fiesta Guadalajara where they have a large group room upstairs for dinner. We gave Jayden a birthday/baptism gift of a picture of the Savior walking a little boy along.

Tuesday was election day. Todd and I are Constitutionalists. We've been very dissapointed but not suprised by the lack of understanding of the constitution in our polititions. The majority of Americans are not taught very much about it or about which things occur in our nation that are accepted today as normal and even embraced by the people, yet are very unconstitutional. It's been a slow and steady deviation, leader by leader, from the diety-inspired document that made this country free. Suffice to say, election night was no party for us. But we could at least appreciate the monumental achievement for our country that an african american man was elceted president. As well as the overwhelming joy that flooded the nation and the globe, really, upon Obama's victory. I think the first step to healing any wrong doing in our country should be a positive attitude and an outlook of joy from the people, even if I disagree on the tactics of how the leaders will make changes.

On a meagerly positive side, Proposition 8 passed by a hair. The tidal waves of rage, indignation, media, desicration of sacred temples and churches is rampant. My family has been roughed up, you could say, over the issue. My brother is gay and lives in Holleywood, CA. My family is devout LDS. You can imagine the struggles felt on both sides within my family. I've exhausted the subject lately in heartfelt e-mails between my brother and I, conversations with friends and community members, and hearing the saddened tone of my parents telling how my brother will not be coming home to visit for a while- not even for Thanksgiving- his decision. I've never been more broken hearted. But have felt the love of my Heavenly Father for my brother, and my family members. I am grateful for God's loving reminders that the opposition is not against myself, or my church, but against God Himself. And as I stand up for values the Lord himself designed, while others try to alter them and make strenth of faith look evil and wrong look right, I can rest assured, I stand where I belong.

On to the happiest part of the last two weeks... The 7th was my Dr. apt. and ultrasound. It's a GIRL!!! I'm super excited. As of right now we're planning on naming her Lainey. We're not sure on the spelling. So let me know if there's different variation you think makes more sense or looks better. I'm taking a poll. I'm not one for super creative spelling, I like it to be straight forward- something people would assume the spelling to be if they heard the name in class, for example, and needed to write it down. But I can't decide which version is the more straight forward (Laney, Lainey, Lanie, etc). I'm officially over half way done with the pregnancy. The depressing part is that I've felt much farther along than that for some time now so to think I have all that same amount of time to wait STILL and being larger and more uncomfy, yes, all the other moms can sympathise.

Sat. the 8th we had our ward's Primary Program Practice and ice cream party afterward. I was asked to take pictures of the ice cream party for a slide show to be shown the next day after the kids did the program in church.

When that was over, I headed home to work on my chicken project. Our ward does an e-mail chain if anyone hears of extra special sales in the area or news of free apple picking in orchards, etc. Red Apple, our local Western Family grocery store had boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for something like 1.29 per pound and the option to buy large cases full of 40 pounds each. A bunch of friends and family members jumped on the e-mail and reserved a few cases for food storage. Myself and two other good friends went in on a food saver to package it up and freeze it longer term. I got 80 pounds of chicken and trimmed and bagged it all in under 2 hours! I'm liking this food saver!

Sunday Brielle participated in the Primary Program. Her sunbeams class talked about the things they enjoyed doing with thier families. She said, "I like to go 4-wheeling with my family." And she sang a lot more than I usually see her sing. I always thought I'd have a Foster singer since all of my family was singing sonnets before they could walk! But Brielle has been shy with her voice.

I brought the 2 dozen cookies I was assigned to Sharing Time and the kids ate them and watched their slide show. They all chanted the names of whomever they were seeing pictures of the whole time!

Ashton is really roaring into the terrible twos. He's cutting his hair every chance he can get (he did it 4 times last week, each by unearthing a lost pair of scissors), he's still into the bathroom soap, except for today since we are completely out of it (his doing), he has discovered pushing his toddler table chairs to certain mischevious locations. His favorite being the counter in the kitchen with the wooden knife block up on it so he can play with knives (Brielle NEVER did this) and pushing the chair just under the key rack so he can push the panick button on my key chain and sound the car alarm for all the neighborhood to hear. He does this DAILY now. He climbs out of his crib and bangs on the door at least once, sometimes more when we put him down for bed, he throws fits if I try to change his diaper so I have to scissor pin him down across the chest with my legs to have one arm pin his arms down and the other free to actually change the diaper. He's just CRAZY!!! And he loves Todd's electric shaver. So many more with no time to mention. I'm suddenly SOOOOOOO relieved to be having a girl. My boy is proving to take more energy than I can muster up in a day! Yes, he's still the apple of my eye and cute as can be. A cute little apple with far too devilish an imagination!

The leaves are almost completely fallen off the trees now. It's starting to get cold enough out for scarves, which I love wearing! I feel like Christmas shopping already! But anyway, it keeps raining on the leaves before we can rake them into pouncing piles. So the other day when I caught a glimpse of Ashton and Brielle jumping in the leaves that had fallen on the trampoline, I quickly peeked the camera through the cracked open back door and snuck a few shots of them playing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to watch my children play happily together. That is my heaven.