Carving pumpkins

Last night we had our friends the Watsons and Meckleys over for Family Home Evening. We carved pumpkins and ate pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, ginger cookies, and apple cider. It was quite a festive night. The best part was all the fun conversation we had. I felt like we could have been up all night just talking and sharing stories. Very fun.

Here are some photos of our creations. Mine is the tree one....

Incredible movie

Rob and I just finished watching an incredibly inspirational movie called Emmanuel's Gift. Here's a link to the website http://emmanuelsgift.com/
It's about an orphaned, disabled boy from Ghana who changed his life and is changing the lives of millions of disabled people in his country and throughout the world. Rob and I were both teary eyed through the entire movie as we watched the story unfold. It's movies like these that everyone should see! It's rated G for crying out loud! So, please, go to your local movie rental spot and rent this one for me. Thank you.

Solids

I am just loving this little babe of mine more and more each day! I love being a mama. Rob loves being a papa. I started working two days a week, which was kinda hard the first day. I was sad to leave Jasper. I quickly remembered how much I enjoy my job and the arboretum, though, being with kids and outdoors. It's good for papa to have some Jasper time too. The first day I was back at work they went to the zoo together- NO FAIR!

So, Jasper has embarked on his journey into solid foods. Here are some of his recent meals:

Banana in a mesh baggie thing

Food grinder

Sweet potato

Papa and Jasper and mashed up carrots

Fun Weekend

We had a great weekend! Caroline and Seth came up to Seattle to visit! We had so much fun with them since they are two of our favorite people in the world.

We kinda felt bad because as soon as they arrived, we put them to work. Friday night, with the help of Seth Wiggins (another Corvallisite and friend who now lives in Seattle) we helped a woman in the ward move. It took from 5pm to almost 10pm. Thanks for helping you guys!

Saturday, we woke up, watched some conference, then went down to Greenlake. Caroline, Pepper, Jasper, and I walked the loop while Seth and Rob played some ultimate. It was so nice to catch up with Caroline. She and Seth are due to have a baby beginning of December and she is an adorable pregnant lady. We talked babies, life, work, family, church, everything. She's such a dear friend. I love Caroline so much. I often wonder why we weren't born blood sisters.

Anyway, later we watched some more conference, ate homegrown carrots from our P-Patch, did some second-hand store shopping, and had a jam session on our guitars.

On Sunday morning we made conference cinnamon rolls (which is a recipe that Rob and I got from the Sherry family and have since shared it with many friends including the Lubecks who too made cinnamon rolls on Sunday) They were delicious. We had the Durhams over too, which was great. Their two girls are sooooo cute! I'm secretly hoping that Jasper can marry one of them some day... Kathleen is a really great friend and a terrific mother. I really trust her advice on parenting and motherhood because I see the fruits of her labors in her girls.

In the afternoon, we took a walk to the Rose garden that is next to the Woodland Park Zoo. It's a great time of year to see the roses since they bloom into the fall. They smell so lovely too. The Sherrys had to leave for Corvallis Sunday evening... I felt so empty and sad after they left. Thanks for coming to visit, Caroline and Seth. It was a great weekend. Truly, "a dream come true"!