Early Halloween

We decided to dress in our costumes and take Dylan trick or treating to family tonight instead of tomorrow. Dave has to work tomorrow night, and I like to hand out candy to the sweet little kiddos....hopefully some come to our place way back yonder...it was nice visiting my grandparents who I haven't seen in a long time. My grandpa Purser is having his 80th birthday this upcoming weekend which I can't make it to. :( So it was nice to see him this evening. Dylan is a Hamburger, Dave is Ketchup, and I am Mustard. This is the most Dave would get dressed up, and it was probably the cheapest costume too, which is nice when poor.

18 Months!

Dylan is now 18 months old! What a little stud we have on our hands. He has said many more words, but only says them like once a week. We ask him to say something or teach him a word and he just gives us his usual look like-"I don't think so." He is getting into more things, and it has been hard now that the weather is getting colder, because he loves being outside. He is still obsessed with books, and is breaking in another moler, which now makes 3. We're are so excited to have him officially in nursery now, so we can actually listen to the lessons being taught in church. :)

Twice as much to Love, Two Blessings from Above

My mother and I hosted a baby shower for Traci and twin boys. It was alot of fun to put it together!
Here is the invite- (I made it through Sam's Club)

Here is the food table...after it got devoured...

These are oreo suckers. You just use a sucker stick, one oreo, and dip it in chocolate and tie some ribbon around it. Cute eh? I did this for my other sis-in-laws' shower too.

I made these puff balls with tissue paper and learned how to make them online, but a couple of years ago from my other sis-in-law.

These were the plates and napkins, so cute!

Here are the hostesses and mommy to be.

Traci opening some presents. She got lots of cute stuff!

Later that night Dave left for work and my family went to Papa Kelsey's for sandwiches, yum, and us girls went and saw Footloose, great movie! Then we went to the pumpkin walk. Overall fun weekend with fam, and excited for more holiday parties coming up soon!

Pumpkin Walk 2011

I loved the pumpkin walk this year! I was lucky enough to go twice, once in the day with my little family and again at night with my family. It was bigger and better, and Dylan was amused with everything. He even said pumpkin! He is growing up so fast. Here are some of my favorites from the walk...
Gilligan's Island; so creative using the sand volleyball pit.

These snowmen were so cute!

Winnie the Pooh

This was really creative, they made a waterfall and painted some zucchinis to look like fish near the bottom.

Tangled (my favorite movie of all time)

Bambi

The ever classic "A Christmas Story" (got me even more excited for Christmas!)

Here are the attempts at poking Dylan's head through the pictures...

Energy Suckers

Do you have some energy suckers taking it all out of you in your life? I had one a few years ago and I finally took the responsibility to choose not to let them suck the energy out of me. I have accepted the fact that I'm not being rude, I'm just trying to move forward and live my life to the fullest. :) I have an amazing old roommate that I had a discussion with and she does what she does best, which is a big slap in the face into reality. She made me realize that I can only give so much with nothing in return for so long, and it's not worth it. You will never be able to live to your fullest potential if you don't let certain people go. YOU are responsible for the energy that you allow to bring into a space. Awh, I love this. :)

Blessed.

I am very happy to announce that Dave has found a job! These past 5 months have been extremely stressful yet humbling. It has been especially difficult since both of us have been in school, and finding a job as a full time student was much harder for Dave as well. He will now be gone from 8 a.m. until 11 or 12 p.m. during weekdays, but his job also requires him to work weekends as well, with a couple days off during the week. So at least I'll see him a couple nights a week....maybe, depending on studying for school and other activities. It's definitely not going to be easy, but there wasn't very many other options. We are trying so hard to get Dave his degree, and I know that this small sacrifice of not being together as often for the next 7 months or so, will be worth it in the end. So if we decline any invitation from family or friends in an activity, you now know why. We're so grateful for this learning experience, and we're glad it's happening in our life now, so we can learn from it and be prepared for future struggles. One of the biggest things we have learned from this is that, we don't need things like a house, fancy cars, updated electronics, or any other thing the "world" thinks we should have. The most important thing in this life is our little family, and boy are we glad to have Dylan in this time of struggle, he has lifted our spirits and made us forget the stresses of life more than anything else ever could. We have alot to be grateful for and with the holidays approaching, it couldn't be better timing. :)

More of our Family Pics!

Thank you Erica for doing these! They make my heart happy. :)

Undeclared

It has taken alot of thinking and consideration for my decision to be an undeclared USU student. There are so many things that I would like to get my degree in, and I thought that I had figured it all out...I talked to some people and did some research about my first decision, and realized that it would be really difficult, and I would be 40 by the time I started my career in the field I was pursuing. So here I am, back at undeclared, I have three main ideas of what I would be interested in, so I'm planning on taking classes next semester in a couple of those, just to see if they are something I would want to do. I also want to see my kids grow up, and school would take over my life, and I would miss out on so many great things. I'm so glad I am able to be a stay at home mom, it is an amazing opportunity to watch Dylan grow and learn, every minute of everyday.
Hopefully I can do some online classes next semester, it's been hard going to class and having to do out of class work with other students and other assignments. It would be nice to do the work on my time (while Dylan is sleeping), instead of on the Professor and other students' time. I'm also not a fan of your group determining your grade. I feel like it should be my work that's graded by the professor, not a combined effort, or graded by the group members. I understand that in most jobs, working with other people is required, but it would be nice not to deal with 18 year olds deciding my grade. :)

Assumptions, and Confrontations

"If you didn't hear it with your own ears, or see it with your own eyes, don't invent it with your small mind and share it with your big mouth."

Making assumptions is one of my biggest annoyances, and I usually try to avoid the type of people who make them. I can't deny that I used to or even make the mistake now to assume as well, but it's something that I have worked on, and have found to be a good thing NOT to do. I find it less drama to actually confront the actual person you are making the assumption about, then to make the assumption in the first place. Confrontation is a good thing, it shows your ability to communicate as a mature adult, and it shows your confidence. So if you are afraid of confrontation, don't make assumptions. Easy as that. :)

"Family" isn't always by blood... It is the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you as you are... The ones who would do anything to see your smile. :)

General Conference Fall 2011

Wowzer! What an AMAZING last couple of weeks! Conference felt a little different this time around, probably because I felt like at the Relief Society Meeting and all Conference sessions there was most definitely something that pertained to my life, and the struggles I have had these past couple of years. On a side note, did anyone else watch the news Saturday at 6p.m. about how President Monson had a security guard with him at all times, even right there next to him at the pulpit? And he was an hour late getting to the morning session on Saturday? Maybe this is normal and I just never knew it, but the security guard thing pretty much scared the living daylights out of me. I mean, I know President Monson had someone stalking him awhile ago, but I didn't know that these extreme measures needed to be taken. It made me think of the Prophet Joseph Smith and all of the mobs and people who were out to get him. It just makes me realize even more how terrible the world is becoming, and how much closer the Second Coming is. I hope he and his family are kept safe, and free from anymore stalkers.
With all of the trials that Dave and I have been facing lately, Conference is exactly what we needed to lift our spirits. We may not have any money, literally we have no money, but we have the Gospel and each other, and that's all that truly matters. :)

Family Pics!

The girl who did our pictures is Erica Naegle. She has been a friend of mine since High School. She is graduating this upcoming spring in photography, let me know if you need family pictures done and I can get you her info! :)