Cake Decorating

My friend Missy is a very talented cake decorator. She's been teaching me and a couple other friends some cake skills. We used the wilton cake decorating manual. It's been so fun to learn some of the basics.

Whitney, me, Rachel after our first class.

Me and the instructor Missy.

Thanks Missy!!!

More Visitors

Derek's brother Matt has been out this direction on a business trip and his wife Stephanie flew out this past weekend and they stayed with us. We were so excited to have some visitors! It was a short trip, but we still managed to have some fun.

I took Stephanie to this cute store that has lot's of decorations especially holiday decorations. We came on the right day, because it was their Christmas open house. Stephanie found some great deals and even won a drawing. The above picture is a carriage ride that takes you to the store.

We went to the most AMAZING chocolate store. Part of the reason this store is so great is they gave us a ton of free samples. See that little bag Stephanie is holding they gave that to us to fill with free samples. It was saaaweeett!!!

And of course we went out to eat to our favorite restaurant "Grizzly Peak" (one of the few we have actually been to here).

Let it snow! Let it snow! We had our first snow fall this weekend. I was just excited it came after Halloween, because in Rexburg it always came way to early. Here is Stephanie in the snow, she was so excited to see snow.

Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship

I read a talk by Elder Hales that my friend Kelly had posted on her blog. It was really comforting to read, because of all the heat the church has received lately. Especially to be reminded of how we as latter day saint should react.

"Experience shows that seasons of negative publicity about the Church can help accomplish the Lord's purposes. In 1983 the First Presidency wrote to Church leaders, "Opposition may be in itself an opportunity. Among the continuing challenges faced by our missionaries is lack of interest in religious matters and in our message. These criticisms create . . . interest in the Church. . . This provides and opportunity [for members] to present the truth to those whose attention is thus directed toward us."

Elder Hales also says " true disciples of Christ see opportunity in the midst of opposition."

This really provides a time for us to stand up for our beliefs and share the gospel. By reading this talk and from everything that's happened the last little bit has really made me appreciate the gospel and my testimony even more. I hope we can all remember to react with love and in a Christ-like manner to those who are still God's children also.

It's all about Brookie!

At our house it really is all about Brooklynn! What can we say we are definitely first time parents and every little new mile stone she does is way exciting for us. I have literally taken hundreds of pictures, and since I don't want to bore you all to tears I have narrowed it down to my favorites. So here they are, enjoy!

Brooklynn's attempt to help fold laundry.

Lately when I pull out the camera, she chases after me to try to get the camera (look at that determined face).

At the beginning we had a hard time getting Brooklynn to like her solids, but now that she has it figured out she can hardly wait for the next bite (she's a much cleaner eater now).

We have a basket full of toys for Brooklynn and once she hits the ground she goes straight for the basket. I swear she could stay there all day picking toys out of the basket and putting them back in. It completely fascinates her little mind.

The two above pictures are frequent facial expressions we get from her.

Derek thinks Brooklynn looks like a women in a baby's body in this picture. I would have to agree she just looks so big here.

Here is Brooklynn and her uncle Matt. Matt came and stayed this past weekend with us. He was on a business trip a couple of hours away. We weren't expecting anymore family for while, so it was a nice surprise when we got the call. Next time we hope he brings Steph. Derek especially loved showing him his lab.

Our Halloween

I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween. One of the best parts of our halloween was the weather it was almost 70 degrees and it felt amazing! We started our halloween with cider and muffins with all our neighbors, and then the housing we live in had a huge halloween parade. I couldn't believe how big this parade was. I kid you not there were about 200 people. It was fun for us to walk in it with our friends and their kids and socialize a bit. Brooklynn enjoyed seeing all the other kids. She loved to look at all of the costumes. After the parade we came back home had a pumpkin dinner. I used the recipe from my Hale family cook book and it turned out pretty yummy. This was our first halloween handing out candy so I had fun doing that while Derek chased/tortured all the tricker treaters. I didn't take too many pics of the night, but here are some pictures of us at the pumpkin patch.

Some of our friends in the ward we went with.

Motivation for blogging

My friend just made her blog into a book. It turned out so nice! She did it off of blurb, and said it only took 2 hours to make, because you just upload your blog...(it's that easy). This gives me plenty of motivation to try to keep updated with family events, and make this blog our family journal. Anyway, if your interested check out www.blurb.com. I am sure most of you have already seen this, and know other great sources for a blog book.