Sabrena's Sealing

Paul and I were able to attend Sabrena's sealing in Colorado with my parents. Alec got to hang out with his aunts and uncles for the weekend. Her sealing was Saturday, December 12th in the Denver, CO temple, so we flew out Friday morning. It was only 8 degreees colder in Denver than Vegas, so no big deal. Friday was pretty easy, until the evening when we had to prepare the flowers. I was taught how to make corsages and boutiennieres, and that kept me up a bit later than planned.

Saturday morning was the sealing and it was beautiful! It was so wonderful to see her sealed! She looked gorgeous.

Afterwards, her luncheon was at a great Thai restaurant. I think Paul, my parents & I stuffed up on the first course ('make your own spring rolls'), so the following 6 courses were way too much!

Family Pictures

My friend Erin agreed to take some family pictures for us! We headed out to Floyd Lamb State Park and had a great time! I had a hard time picking out my favorites, but here are a few.

Ultrasound

I had my long ultrasound today and the tech took some 4D pictures of little James. Here's his little legs up against his face and holding onto the cord:Here he is stretching out his toes. Check out those toned arms!

Nice facial shot, he looks a lot like his big brother:

Weeks of Halloween...

Alec got to be a train conductor this Halloween (it just HAD to involve trains, right?). He loves pumpkins and anything to do with Halloween, so we really spread out the fun this year. 3 weeks before, he got to attend my parents' 8 year old Sunday School class party...which he also got uninvited from, for chasing one of the boys around.The next weekend was Uncle Christopher & Auntie Joleen's community Apple Fair. Alec got loads of cool toys and had a blast playing all the games.Catching butterflies with Uncle Christopher:Later that afternoon was Border's Halloween Party for kids, so I decided to take Alec. The games were designed for older kids, though, so he had a hard time trying to participate. He loved the stories, cookies and treat bags though!Finally, on Halloween weekend, we took him to the ward trunk-or-treat. Alec loved the cake walk with Uncle Christopher and games with his daddy, but his favorite part was definitely trunk-or-treating for candy.Posing with his buddy, Cannon:Finally, on Halloween night he got to carve a pumpkin with daddy and do some trick-or-treating.Whilst trick-or-treating with Auntie Kelsey he had 3 houses mention they'd worked at railways or as a conductor and those families gave him extra-way to work it!Despite all the candy he got, we've been limiting him to a piece a day and he seems happy with that. :) Actually, most of it got recycled as we were bombarded with trick-or-treaters this year!

Visit from Granny & Grandad

Paul's parents were able to come visit for a couple weeks and hang out with Alec:

Enjoying Temple Square after the Saturday morning session:

My cousin Brynn's little boy, Kendrick:

Alec inherited his love of swimming from his granny:

Picking out Halloween pumpkins:

Apart from the seasonal and day-to-day activities, we were able to make it to SLC for a weekend and St. George to see some church history sites.

Alec's First Camping Trip

After a summer of attempts, we finally managed to go camping...in September! Our friends, Matt & Tessie booked a site and we happily headed up with a loaded car to Mt Charleston. Alec had a blast with the campfire, collecting rocks, sticks, pinecones, etc. Of course, the dogs thought they were in heaven. :)
Enjoying some of Matt's chili:
First (ultra sticky) s'mores!
Although he got scared when we turned the lantern off, he certainly enjoyed sleeping between mommy & daddy!
Cuddling Molly (Matt & Tessie's lab).

Happy (Early) Halloween!

Alec is really into Halloween pumpkins, so we let him pick out some Halloween pajamas-he chose a skeleton and LOVES them. He looked so cute in them I had to get some early photos, so Happy (early) Halloween!!

5 Years Now...

Although we'd celebrated our 5 year anniversary in July (Cedar City), Paul still remembered to get me some flowers and we had a babysitter for an hour, so we made a mad dash to fill my Mexican beef craving at Cafe Rio.

Alec, sniffing one of my roses: