I love October (continued)

This month is just so beautiful! Everywhere I go there are bright colored leaves fluttering to the ground and the days alternate between dark grey clouds and bright crisp air. There's the promise of holidays to come without the dead feeling of January. It's the perfect month for babies apparently! As stated on the previous post, Sarah adopted her baby! On the 13th she and Daniel were sealed to their baby. It was the most precious thing I've ever seen! How beautiful to hear all the blessings pronounced on this new family and to feel all the love in the room for such a special child. There were so many people there to celebrate this occasion. When they brought the baby into the sealing room she looked around and just smiled at everyone. It was like she knew why everyone was there and wanted to thank us. The only thing that could have made the day more perfect was that my dear little sister and her husband got sealed just moments before Sarah and Daniel did. It was so perfect! When the sealer had them kiss they could hardly reach each other over the altar because Erika was nine months pregnant! After the ceremony we had a big luncheon to celebrate. My family all hung out that evening and there was just such a good feeling with all of us. The next day Sophia was blessed by her father. Six days after the sealing, sweet Jaron was born. Isn't he adorable? Such a good month!!

So alert just after birth

Decided to relax now that the fun is over!

On the 20th we had a Halloween party! It was my first time hosting anything other than a birthday party and I wanted everything to go perfectly. Not to toot my own horn, but it did go pretty well! The Watkins came and so did Garrett's cousin Ashley and her husband Spencer. Last minute Garrett invited his friend Ryan who came even though he was unable to get a date on a couple hours notice. He was a trooper and put up with all of us couples really well! We took a pinata out and beat her (it was a witch) in the dark, then brought her inside to spill her delicious guts all over the living room floor where we promptly devoured every edible part! She had some silly glasses in her which made for good photos!

Poor Ashley and Spencer got told to dress up but nobody else dressed up. They looked awesome!

Bekah loved being a pumpkin!

This photo makes me think of Garrett when he was this age.

After the pinata we ate chili, bean dip, corn bread, cupcakes, pop, and pumpkin dessert. So good! Then we played my new-and-improved game of pin the spider on the web. I added point values and the person who had the most points after three turns won. Guess who won? Yep, the girl who somehow wins everything: Chelsey! She got a giant symphony bar. Lucky. I should have gotten two. It was hard to say goodbye to it! Then we played catchphrase and murder in the dark. We had such a good time and Bekah was awesome and stayed happy the whole time. She got a little goofy toward ten pm and started showing off. She was so much fun.

On Sunday the 21st, Garrett found a Hyundai Tuscon for a good deal on KSL so Chelsey drove down with me on Monday morning so we could snatch up that deal! We've been casually looking for a good deal on a small SUV and it was a little sooner than we planned to buy, but when you find the one, there's no point delaying! I love it! It's so much newer and nicer than our last cars. Bekah's favorite part is the sun roof, but she gets a little nervous when I put my hand out!

As you can see, we got some snow this week! Bekah loves to watch it out the window.

On Friday the 26th I got to get to know my little Hyundai better as I drove it out to Vernal for the weekend. Garrett was on a field trip out there so Bekah and I followed. We spent the day holding and kissing little Jaron. He's so special. I looked into his face and decided 3 things: He's going to turn into a big boy who watches out for his mom and tries to take care of her, he's going to be a little spunky, especially between the ages of 2 and 4, and he's going to love hearing stories of Jesus and serving his family. When I told Erika that she just smiled. She said that his daddy is just like that so she wouldn't be surprised if that happens. Friday night, when Garrett was done exploring the oil field with his geology buddies, we headed to his parents house where we showed off our new car and had a delicious warm dinner waiting for us and warm cookies! Bekah was so much fun with her grandparents. I think she enjoyed having them all to herself and not sharing with other cousins. When Sherrie asked for a kiss Bekah looked at her then ran away saying "Scary, scary!" Sorry Sherrie! Ha ha!

Saturday morning Garrett went out on the rest of his field trip (the lucky guy got to sleep in a warm bed with his wife instead of a cabin at the KOA). My sisters and mom all got together and we have 5 kids now! It seems like just last year when we were thinking that poor James had no cousins but now he has 4. It was so fun to all be together and for all of us to be moms. We ate Cafe Rio and chatted and drove poor Ian crazy since we took over his house! That night we all got together (my family and Garrett's parents) at Sarah's house to celebrate me! I turned 23 and got so so spoiled. My mom gave me a couple of cute outfits, Sherrie gave me a set of really cute serving bowls, some shower gel and lotion, and cash!!!! Garrett gave me a kitchen aid and a car. I felt so loved and so grateful to have such generous and supportive family all around me. Sometimes I get scared thinking of having more than two or three children, but then I think of how much love and support you get from a big family. I want my kids to be able to build the strong support system for each other that my sisters and I have and that Garrett and his siblings have. When we got married we suddenly each had enormous amounts of love as we adopted each support system and we get to pass that on to our children. So when I really think about it, five or six kids is what my heart wants. Now I just have to convince Garrett's heart to agree! ;)