Happy Halloween!

I made Shae put his loofah costume on one more time today so that I could get some pictures without all his layers of clothes on underneath (the high was 77 for today, much warmer than Saturday).

This is how he felt about that:

And of course he made getting a good picture of him almost impossible. He would have much rather been doing this:

Or this:

That's our Shae. Our crazy little puffy blue loofah. 

Happy First Halloween Shaester!

Fall Oh Fall

Fall food is my weakness. 

I was really believing in that whole "nine months on nine months off" thing that everyone told me about baby weight. We're almost to nine months and I'm getting really close to my pre-pregnancy weight but I think I might just have to put a hold on it for a few months because fall food is seriously my downfall. How bout nine months on eleven months off? That would put us right after Christmas. Yes, that's perfect. Except knowing me I'll probably gain a good ten to fifteen pounds on holiday food which might make things a little more difficult...

So you see where I'm going with this. FALL. FOOD. It's amazing. Really I'm going to try not to add any pounds but let's be honest, who ever tries  to add on pounds? And sometimes, when there is good food involved (like chilis and soups and pumpkin and apple everything), you just have to sacrifice a little. Food is one of my favorite temporal blessings and sometimes it just needs to be enjoyed.

Last night we had a super fun get together with some friends that was the epitome of fall. Cheddar broccoli soup, rolls, squash/sweet potato side dish, apple crisp, plum pie, apple cider. MMMmmmmmmmm. And on top of that, pumpkin carving. Doesn't get more fallish than that.

Now on to some overly yellowy-orangey pictures (my camera apparently couldn't handle the yellow walls, yellow curtains and orange pumpkins all over the room).

This little girl has become my new best friend. She was my pumpkin helper and also makes me want a little girl so bad! She's a doll.

I carved our last name into my pumpkin but made the S way to small and all the other letters way to big so really all you see across it is: ELF. 

Our wonderful host family! We sure do love these guys!

Loofah Baby

After picking out our pumpkins on Saturday morning we made our way to Darin's work where they were having a homecoming barbecue. We learned from last week that we don't need to be on time to these barbecues. We arrived an hour late and the burgers were hot off the grill. Perfect timing. We couldn't believe the traffic and groups of people that we saw around campus. Apparently the homecoming football game is a pretty big deal around here. I didn't even realize there were that many people in all of Williamsburg.  It made us laugh because in Provo EVERY football game has mad ridiculous traffic, but we have never seen it like this around here for any of the other football games.

After the barbecue we quickly threw some costumes together and went down to our branches Halloween party. The original plan was for us to all be loofahs. A loofah family, if you will. You know, what that you might find in the shower of a three-person family. However, after pinning three yards of netting into Shae's onsie I decided that I was just too lazy (and cheap) to turn all three of us into loofahs.

So we took the cheapo route and turned Darin into a box of Irish Spring soap (he was pretty adamant about it being Irish Spring. And I...I wore a towel. Yeah, kind of lame, but it was easy and went with the shower theme. A few of the kids at the party looked at me and then whispered, "why is she wearing a towel?" and another one said, "What ARE you? A towel?" 

Yeah well, I'm proud of my little loofa invention so that's all that really matters in the end. (Even though Shae HATED every minute of having that thing shoved over his head. Poor babies. They go through a lot on Halloween don't they).

Pumpkin Pickin'

This was the first year that we didn't just go to a grocery store to pick out pumpkins. I hope that we never do that again (go to the grocery store to get pumpkins that is). It was such a fun family outing to get out and explore some of the country side of Williamsburg. We picked our pumpkins at Bush Neck Farm which is right by the beautiful Chickahominy river.

It has finally  started to feel like fall out here which made our pumpkin picking all the more perfect.

And that was that. We found two big pumpkins for us and two little baby pumpkins for Shae. I'm all about holiday traditions and am so excited that we have this little boy to enjoy the holidays with this year. It's fun to think that next year he'll be able to pick out his very own pumpkin!

Wedding Dress

I let one of the Young Women in the Williamsburg ward borrow my dress for YW in Excellence this week. She interviewed me about my wedding, why I wanted a temple marriage and about some details from that day and then she shared some of those things during the activity. 

My dress is 3rd from the left.

It was fun to pull my dress out and see her in it. While at the activity I reflected back on our wedding day: The not sleeping the night before because I was so anxious and instead texting Darin while talking to my best girls all night who I was rooming with at the hotel. The arriving at the temple, meeting Darin in the parking lot and knowing that it would be the last time that I met up with him as his fiance. The sitting in the empty celestial room, just me and Darin, about to be sealed. The sealing. The family and friends that surrounded us. The Darin staring at me grinning over the alter. The me trying not to be emotional but not being able to hold back a few tears of joy there in the sealing room. The hot hot hot sun melting us while taking pictures. The quick run to McDonalds to grab a hamburger after the temple because we were STARVING. The driving away as Mr. and Mrs. Self. The air conditioning being broken at the reception. The food being forgotten. The toasts. The first dance. The friends that I hadn't seen in so long. It was a crazy day, but a beautiful, special day that I will never forget. It's one of my favorite days to remember.