Halloween Time 2011

I know, it's almost December and I haven't posted about Halloween yet. My excuse: it's nearly impossible to get some solid computer time! I'm sure most people know it takes a long time to find all the pics, enhance them and post about them, probably about an hour per post. Unless I blog just from my phone, then it's a lot shorter. Sorry folks, in particular to grandparents who have been asking for Halloween costume pics :)

Our first Halloween adventure was a birthday party for Fox, my friend Paige's son.

This was the coolest Halloween party EVER!

Brian the Cub Scout Master

Brian's calling at church is the Cub Scout Master. He takes his job seriously! This past month the scouts did a rain gutter regatta boat race.

Kylie's Baby Blessing

We blessed baby Kylie on Sunday, September 18th (on Mariah's birthday!). Brian's family was still in town for it. And we also had help from some friends in our ward. Usually people wait a little longer to bless the baby but we wanted family to help, so it was either now or during the holidays in Boston! Here are some pictures from the day:

Spring Break 2011: LA Temple Trip

 As members of the LDS church, we are encouraged to go to the temple regularly. Brian and I have made it our goal to go once a month (but have yet to go this year!). We finally arranged babysitting with a teen girl in our ward, so we could finally go together. It was awesome to be able to experience the temple again as a couple since the past few times we have had to go separately. The church is true!

General Conference Weekend Fun

The LDS church holds a semi-annual conference for all its members called General Conference. It's a weekend filled with inspired talks given by our church's leadership. All church members (and non-members) are encouraged to watch (on-line, at church buildings, or, if you're lucky, at home on the BYU-TV channel).

Since it is so important, we treat the weekend like a holiday. We have special traditions held only for this weekend so we can teach Mariah to look forward to this time. I wanted to share a few of these traditions with you:

LA Temple Lights and Tito's Tacos

Last night for YW Activity, we took the young women and young men to see the lights at the LDS temple in Los Angeles. So pretty! And it's cool because they let people from the local wards decorate. Last year people from good ol' South Pas. got to decorate some lights.

Trunk or Treat 2010

Happy Halloween! We decided to do a Monsters, Inc theme for Trunk or Treat this year. Mariah was Boo and Brian and I were CDA people (Child Detection Agency). Our car had little doors like in the movie. It was so much fun! I taught Mariah how to say "Trick or treat" and we went around to get candy TWICE! Then we went inside to see all of the holiday games and treats, which were awesome. At the end, we won "Best Overall Theme (including car). Sweet!

Erika's Baptism

A few weeks ago, our friend Erika got baptized. We first met her through the missionaries when they asked us to go teaching with them. She's a local to the area and is studying to be a dental assistant. Brian got to baptize her and Melissa, Lisa and I got to sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives". We love her so much! Let the fellowshipping begin.

The "No Cussing" Club

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sign a petition for "Cuss-Free Week," a campaign that a youth in our church ward, McKay Hatch, has pushed for with the big guys in the California State Senate. So far it has passed for South Pasadena and LA County. Though it wasn't voted in this week, next year he will push for it to become a state-wide and hopefully a national event.

As I was flipping through channels, I saw him on The Early Show today! Check out the video here. And check out his No Cussing Club website.

Can I just say that I am so impressed with this guy! He started this club 2 years ago when he was only 14. He is definitely going places; people, remember his name!

I Started a Genealogy Blog

So over the past couple days I reopened my curiosity for family history. I recently met a cousin of mine, Stacey, and she gave me a TON of new information. Stacey (from Ohio where my family is from) is an avid genealogist herself. She gave me a bunch of information for my mother's mother's side (the Thomas family).

Applying my New Years Resolution: Spiritual 4x4 Plan

I am taking my resolution seriously! I really need to start getting on track with my spirituality. So to aid in my spiritual voyage, I will reinstate a little plan that we used a few years back at church. When Brian and I were members of our BYU married student ward, the bishop gave us a plan to follow called the "4x4 Plan," comprising of 4 things we should be accomplishing weekly and monthly:

Resolutions

Happy New Year! I'm sure this post will be just a little cliched but as it's New Year's Day, I thought I was due for a little reflection on this past year. I wanted to evaluate how well I did on last year's resolutions and make new ones for the year.

Merry Christmas 2009

I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Since members of my family were having such a hard time right now, we decided to forgo sending out Christmas cards this year. Instead, we spent the money we would have used on postage on a worthier cause. And we are sending you a Christmas blog post instead!

Trunk-or-Treating 2009

Here are a few pictures from Trunk-or-Treating 2009 at our church parking lot. It's an annual event held for kids young and old, for anyone who wants to participate. Basically you give out candy from the trunk of your car in a big parking lot. And the best costume and best trunk win a prize. For Halloween, Mariah was a monkey, Brian was an evil doctor, and I was Harry Potter's twin sister.

I took Mariah around to all the cars to trick or treat.

Here are our friends Chris and Jenny, who came as umpa lumpas.

Here are Blake, Erica and baby Brooklyn as the Flintstone family.

Mariah loved going around to see all the other children that were there.

Here was our trunk. Brian designed it to be an evil operating/autopsy room, complete with eyeballs and severed hands. We won best trunk!

It was a fun event! Next year we hope to win best trunk AND best costume :)

Ward FHE: Where's Waldo at the Provo Towne Centre

Last Monday we did a fun singles ward FHE activity. We went to the mall and searched for three Waldo look alikes. Brian and I won 4th place. It was lots of fun! Thanks guys for volunteering to dress like that. It was awesome.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Mariah's Church Blessing

Mariah was blessed at church (similar to christening) the Sunday after Thanksgiving when there was still some family in town. It was such a cool experience, and Brian did a really good job. Afterward, all our family left and we were left with an empty nest again. But it was good because we needed to catch up on some sleep.

Iceskating Ward Activity

Iceskating! This Friday, we went to Brian's singles ward activity to Seven Peaks Ice Arena. Veronica totally forgot how to skate, it's been so long. But neither of us fell! We only threw ice shavings at each other as we skated by. It was a lot of fun and great exercise too. We even got to see a little of a BYU Hockey game, it was a close one.