Temple Time

Sunday after church, we decided to go up to the temple to really bring the spirit into our Sabbath day. We went up and watched the Joseph Smith movie and walked around the Visitor's Center. It was so peaceful and we could see they were beginning to put up their Christmas trees for the holiday season.It was so nice to share this time with Jeff & Jill and to think about how through the Savior our families can be forever and our friendships eternal as well.

Jeff & Jill Come for a Visit!

We have been missing Jeff & Jill since they moved. We wished them well when they left and secretly (or not so secretly) hoped they would return here someday after Jeff's studies were completed. This hope was not to be realized. Jeff took a job in Utah after he completed his MBA and now the cute family has a lovely home and roots they are planting too far away from us.
That being said, we vowed to keep our friendship strong and do everything we can to get together at least once a year.
This time it was their turn to come to us and we were glad to have them for the weekend. First order of business was to have fun and we decided to go to Montpelier to visit the home of James Madison.They were having a steeple chase horse race on the grounds that day so we would hear the crowds cheering and the steeple chase call and it really set the mood.
We took a tour of the house and realized that they were still in the process of restoring this landmark and consequently much of the house wasn't furnished yet. That didn't matter, it was still interesting and the grounds of the house were fabulous.We strolled the gardens and took lots of pictures and took in the lovely scenery that is the countryside in Virginia.On our way back, we stopped in Manassas to have dinner at The City Square Cafe (somehow in all the years we had been friends Jeff had never been to my Uncle and Aunt's restaurant) and enjoyed the company of our friends.

Halloween 2010

Halloween fell on a Sunday this year. Normally I am not sure if scouting for candy while dressed in fun costumes is a Sunday activity but since we were doing it as a family, I decided it was OK and God would be fine with it.
I dressed the girls in the cute costumes again and I decided that I would dress up too - I had forgotten that a couple of years ago, I had gotten a costume at Target after Halloween for really cheap and I found it in the closet and decided to wear it. Thus I became a snow queen for the night. The girls were thrilled that Mommy joined in the fun with them.Lorne stayed at home to give candy to those who came to our door and we headed out for a couple of hours and the girls got tons of candy. Everyone raved about how cute they were and I got a couple of compliments too!After we got home, I let the girls eat their fill of candy and changed them into their oh so cute Halloween PJs. It was a nice night and we had fun.

Pumpkin Carving

For the last 9 years, we have had a Pumpkin Carving party with our friends and family and always have a great turnout and lots of fun. It seems that this year everyone had something better to do and no one came to our party except for my parents. We decided we would have fun anyway and hope that people will come next year.We decorated the house and ordered pizza for dinner and got ready to carve our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. Everyone except Ava carved a pumpkin and Abuela helped Jasmine with hers.
Our pumpkins came out great and it was fun to light them up and line them up outside and see the fruits of our labors.