Happy Birthday Brigham!

Today is Brigham's birthday and he turned 25 years old. I hope that his birthday is a good one. Some fun facts about Brigham as he is now are the following...

He loves spiderman

Brigham loves different languages, especially French

He makes facts up because he thinks they sound correct, even though he really has no idea

Brigham won't eat sweet potatoes

He has crazy eyes! (That are beautifully blue as well)

Brigham has weirdly jointed body parts

He is really smart and always knows such random trivia

Brigham loves his family and will do so much for them

He tries really hard in school even when it's hard to focus

Brigham is pretty dramatic

Brigham is a really good dad and loves his little girl

He has a really good testimony and knows a lot about the gospel

Brigham is a meat and potatoes kind of guy

He likes big dogs, but not little ones

Brigham is the best husband in the world and I love him!

I hope you have an awesome birthday dear and I am glad I get to grow old with you and experience birthdays until we are both too old to know how to count that high anymore ;)

Happy Birthday!

and as Buzz Light Year would say...

To Eternity and Beyond!!

or something like that :)

A Baby's Laugh

There's nothing like a laughing baby to put a smile on your face. Lydia loves to tilt her head to the side like a dog. We don't know why she does it but it sure is cute. We tried to catch it on video but as soon as the camera came out she stopped. Brigham tried to tilt his head to get her to follow his example, but he just looked like he was dying. However, she found him hysterical, so we got a video of that instead.

Maple Valley

My mom found this maple leaf on a run outside. This shows a little bit of the beauty of Maple Valley and why it got it's name. This photo reminded me of how much I love Washington, and especially Maple Valley. It's so beautiful there. I love walking outside and seeing trees everywhere. The air is so fresh and clean that immediately when I step off the plane to visit home, I take the biggest -deepest breath possible and savor it for a moment. I love that I have the option to choose between a walk to the creek, forest, or lake from my house when I want to be alone, or to just have some fun and adventure. I'll miss being able to walk to my spot on the creek and have a good cry, or think about things, like I used to when I was a teenager. I love being able to walk down the street and pick fresh, wild blackberries off the side of the road. I love being close to civilization but being able to escape it just as fast. I miss that most of all. I miss being able to explore the nature around my house, completely alone, singing to my music and in my own little world. I feel so close to God outside with the sun warming my face or the breeze cooling me through my jacket. Nature is so pure and primitive, and I feel the Spirit in all of it. It is wonderful in the beauty and freshness it offers. It's no wonder my favorite hymn is "How Great Thou Art" when one of the verses reads as follows

"When thru the woods and forest glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art!"

I feel like whoever wrote these words, could see into my soul. I miss Washington and Maple Valley, always will, and hope to return someday.

Party on Halloween Night

Well it was time to once again throw our annual Halloween party. Instead of trying to squeeze into our little apartment, we had it in the primary room at our ward-house. There we played games like pumpkin bowling...

and candy corn toss,

... and finally Witches Brew. Witches brew was my favorite because I made up gross names for common drinks and everyone had to guess what the actual drink was. For instance, frog juice was limeade, mummy guts was egg nog, and rotten onion extract was lemonade with food coloring. I think I just had so much fun making the labels and disguising the drinks.

Of course we also had our costume contest. This year it was fun because Lydia was a lady bug and she was so adorable. She, however, was not a fan of the games or costumes. Halloween was a little too scary for her this year and I think next year's party will include a babysitter.

We were a family of bugs with Brigham being a Daddy-long-legs, I was the queen bee (of course :)), and we had our little Lydi bug. I made all the costumes myself except for Lydia's which we borrowed from a friend at my work. Brigham's costume was the biggest pain and took me forever. It didn't turn out how I wanted and I ended up really frustrated with it but in the end it made me realize I do like being crafty.

other costumers we had at our party are the following . . .

Sam and Caitlin as nerds, Tim and Ashley as aviators, and Brittany and Scott and bats

Katrina was Violet from the Incredibles, plus Michelle and Cody as cat

and gangster. We also had couple that came as imfomercial actors in snuggies, haha (Clever), Chad and Syndey (they can be seen in previous pictures). Nonie was a jester and Dan came as himself. Overall it was a pretty fun party and we had lots of fun celebrating Halloween!

Too tired to play anymore

We put Lydia in her crib to go to bed and of course she started playing. Well, I went in to check on her and found her asleep with her burp rag in her mouth. She always plays carrying it in her mouth and must gotten tired and fallen asleep that way. It was so funny, I had to document it.