Mission call and Counting down for baby!

My mission call came Friday and we opened it tonight. I will be serving in the Maryland Baltimore mission and my report date will be January 20. I am so excited! We also only have 6 weeks and 3 days til our little princess comes! I saw Holly tonight at dinner and she has got a baby belly and makes such an adorable pregnant lady!

Friday the 13th

I donated blood that afternoon and wasn't sure how i would do being I usually do platelets and I haven't done it for several months. I did fine but was just pretty tired as a result. Mom and Dad bought us tickets to the Banff film Festival. It was pretty neat. We basically took up the whole row. Parking spaces are usually pretty scarce so we took our chances and parked in an "illegal" spot.
After the festival we were getting ready to cross the street and the hand was blinking red and counting down showing that we only had three seconds to cross the street. Jake yelled, "Quick let's go!" I kind of thought he was joking so I didn't go well he was actually serious so he waited on the steps while I waited for the next green hand to cross the street. Haha!

Friday the 13th also means it was my cousin Kelden's birthday! Happy Bday Kelden!!!! This little guy came and visited us a little bit this summer and can you say sweetheart! I love him to death and he is just very cute! I hope you had a great birthday!

The adorable Mr.T!

During a sunday dinner Tristen came out to see what was going on. he was interested in my camera so we took a couple of pictures. He would look at himself and just get this big grin on his face that was sooooo adorable!

The above look seems to be Mr. T's signature look. He has that stare and his mouth open with that lip out. Haha I just love this little guy!

Right now he is walking around great. He cracks me up because he knows how to eat and he has the cutest little cheeks. he also gives kisses now and he even puckers up his little lips!

Hindsight is 20/20

When I was in elementary school Dad went South for a work convention. He came back and had brought us souveniors. Mine was a long necklace with the above beads strung on it. He gave it to me and told me that ALL the girls wear those necklaces in New Orleans. I wore that necklace to school and showed it for show and tell telling everybody that all the girls wear these kind of necklaces. Haha now I laugh when I am older and realize that I had a Mardi Gras necklace.

Congrats!

So I am already going to be missing three weddings. I expect lots of pictures (hint hint) i hope the couples don't mind me using their photos but I just thought they were beautiful pictures to go along with the post. So congrats to Jordan and Roni!
Congrats to cousin Deana and Ken who will be married in August!

Congrats to Cousins Sammi and Rusty who will be married in July!

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween! I love the colors and I love the excitement of the children who are getting their costumes all ready and getting excited for their candy. I had festive nails during the weeks in October. Above are my jack-o-lanterns and below are my neon green spiderwebs.
Here is Mr. T in his costume!
Jake and I went to the haunted house at Kranz. It was my first Haunted House and they did a good job at decorating. There were some funny memories at the Haunted House and as we stood in line outside freezing we sipped our cider and hot cocoa. Jake also bought me these beautiful flowers. They are some kind of mum and they just look like big puff balls. It is now November 16th and they are still alive! I wake up and they just seem to grow. They are beautiful and I think they just might be my new favorite flower!

A Vaughan conversation

Sunday after church we were all just hanging out at the house. Benny asked me if I would do his seminary makeup homework for him. I shook my head no and told him that I didn't even get mine done when I was in seminary. He told me he just had to answer simple questions, "like what is the name of David's adulteress?" I answered, "Bathsheba." I had to laugh and then shared with him an experience I had when I was teaching a sharing time for the primary kids. We were talking about how the prophets in the Old Testament all had faith and did what Heavenly Father asked them. I held up a picture of David and Goliath and asked the kids who knew the story. One boy raised his hand and described in great detail the story of the young boy and his defeat of the giant. I complimented his storytelling and went to move on. Then this boy's hand shot up, "Then when David was a man he looked out the window at a woman who was in the bath." I told him we weren't getting into that story this week, but unfortunately in a room full of 5 boys the comment was anything but shoved under the rug. Hands shot up with questions like, "Why was he watching her in the bath?" "Was she naked?" "What did he do next?" I just ended all questions and told them to ask their dad.
The next week we were asked how the boy was acting in primary. His dad informed us that he'll probably act more grown up because they had THE talk. I laughed because the boy is only eight. I told benny the story and he then branched off of it, "I am going to tell my kids early on about the talk so there are no awkward moments later on." I made fun of him saying, "Oh right so you will say,'look son do you see that bird? Well speaking of birds oh and do you see that bee? Strangest thing.'" Benny looked confused and i said, "You know the birds and the bees, the squirrels and the. . . " I asked what the squirrels went with and mom said, "trees. Wait squirrels don't do trees. But then again birds don't do bees!" Benny and I lost it. We were laughing so hard. Then Benny asked Mom if she had had the talk with me and Barrett. She said she couldn't remember it but she did remember in elementary school when I came home and asked her what white trash was. She said she asked me, "Who is white trash?" and I told her it was me. By this time I was in tears laughing as I remembered in first grade this little black peer of mine who let me know she thought I was white trash. Mom talked about how she was going to go to the school and have a little talk with this gal. I told her that I had forgiven her because she is the little girl who was being abused and had showed me some of her scars and wounds. I came home and told Grandma and I remember fighting with Grandma not to call the police because I had promised this little girl that I wouldn't tell. My how little I knew. I still remember Grandma telling me that it was okay to break a promise if it was going to prevent somebody from getting help. I remember getting after Grandma as she made the phone call to report it. I let her know that I was never telling her any secrets ever again but it didn't stop her. The next week this little girl and her brother were taking out of the home and removed from our school. Years later I ran into this girl and she was doing fine, couldn't seem to be happier. I asked her if she had seen her dad and she let me know she never saw him since elementary school and let me know how great it was. I am so grateful for my grandma who made that phone call and taught me that lesson. I am also grateful for the opportunity to laugh at times that may have been hard in the past or had hurt feelings. They were memories I had forgotten and it was fun to share them with Benny even though some of the conversation wandered into the inappropriate zone. I needed a good laugh.