Snippets// Keeping Busy

Many monumental things have occured the last few weeks. General Conference (which I will post about later), planning next years holiday to Lake Louise in Canada, and hosting our first fall BBQ. There have been smaller things too (or bigger, depending on how you look at it), like Cristian allowing me to pick out his haircut and him actually LOVING IT. I sat for a half hour with Violet playing with this bird toy riddled with anxiety because...what if he hated the style I chose for him, or what if the hair dresser messed it up? It worked out though, and he is rocking his new trendy look (maybe I'll post a photo of it later). Speaking of hair, check out hers! So gorgeous!

More on hair, but not in happy way. We bought this spin toy for Violet and the next thing I know it's tangled in those gorgeous silky locks with Violet screaming and crying in fright and pain. Clearly, I did NOT think this purchase through. I ended up having to cut the toy out, as there was no coming back from that. Luckily it was underneath so you can't see any damage, but I have certainly learned my lesson. No more spin toys in this household! 

Homecoming Parade! We strolled down to meet my family on the corner and had a good time showing Violet the ropes on nabbing candy being tossed from the floats as they went by. Such a fun time, and it seemed like the highlight was when everyone was handed a pocket Constitution. My family is weird and wonderful and I love them all so much. And despite what it looks like Violet had a blast!



I need to pick up a couple of books about the moon, Violet is really into them these days. Day moon on our way down to the parade.

We hosted our first fall BBQ. I've been needing something to keep my busy and this was the perfect thing to focus on. We cleaned the yard, scrubbed down the grill, bustled around scrounging up camp chairs, and prepping the menu. I made a huge batch of taco soup, Cristian manned the grill making carne asada and hamburgers, we drank pumpkin spice sparkling cider, and I tried out a pumpkin spice donut recipe which turned out fabulously. I ditched out to go do some visiting teaching for a few minutes and when I came back they had a fire started in the pit and were roasting marshmallows and making smores. All in all we had about 15 people there and had a wonderful time just hanging out and enjoying the crisp autumn weather. We are planning on doing something similar again, it was so much fun for both Cristian and I.

Another afternoon spent up at Tony's Grove. We took a $5 pizza up and had a picnic by the lake. We saw a multitude of chipmunks which Violet tried to capture, and enjoyed the peace and quiet. 

My little red riding hood checking out the forest and loving the small amounts of snow scattered too and fro across the forest floor.



She could sit and just throw rocks into the water for hours. Actually, she did.

There was snow, so inevitably we had a mini snowball fight. Cristian won, whatever ;)

Little red and the big bad wolf? She wants to do everything daddy does, little copy cat!

Autumn.

Goofing off.

As much as she tries to copy her daddy, she also does this with me. If mommy is wearing an apron, she needs to wear HER apron. If mommy is singing, she's doing her best to sing along, if mommy is painting her nails you can bet Violet is sitting by closely and patiently waiting for her nails to be painted. I love it.

One more from the lake, just eating some pizza with her dad. 

I never realized how many Hispanic restaurants were in town until I started dating Cristian. We went to ANOTHER one the other day and he LOVED the menudo soup he ordered, I loved the tacos, and Violet enjoyed a quesadilla the size of her entire body.

So many good things are happening right now, and I've been feeling refreshed and recharged from Conference. I will post more on this later but so many of the talks inspired me to move forward and do better in so many areas in my life, and that's one thing I love about the gospel, there's always room for improvement and you can always do more and do better.

 

With Halloween approaching we're looking forward to carving pumpkins, walking through a corn maze, watching Hocus Pocus, and enjoying a stew or two. Love to you and yours!