Alma's Baptism

On November 3, 2012, Alma chose to be baptised.  It was a very special day shared by family and friends.  This was a first in our little family and will always be remembered.  It was Josh's first opportunity to baptize someone, and how awesome that it was our daughter.  That morning she was kind of emotional, I think because of nerves.  But I asked her what was wrong and she said "I wish I could stay little, I don't like growing up".  She is such a cautious, caring person and she really thinks about things.  She said she didn't like being the first to do things, because it's kind of scary not knowing exactly what to expect.  So, Josh and I tried to help her see all the good things there are about growing up and being the oldest.  And we told her that she was meant to be the oldest child in our family because she teaches Saralyn and Easton so much, and that Heavenly Father knew she would be a good helper.  When we were done talking, she seemed to feel better and excited again about her special day.



Just before the baptism



And after!

 

Grandma Briggs brought her some beautiful flowers

 


Such a pretty girl

 We love you Alma and are so proud of your decision to be baptized. 

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween and hope you all did too!  I'm not usually much of a dresser-upper, but since I am working at the school, I thought it might be fun...maybe.  Problem?  I didn't know what to dress up as (lack of creativity, I guess).  So, I woke Josh up early that morning and said "Help, I need a costume!"  And from nothing, he came up with something....a Pirate!  and a pregnant one at that!  The biggest fear is that no one will know what you are, but I didn't have that problem :)  So thanks Sweetie, for saving the day. 

The kids were: Alma - vampire; Saralyn - Rapunzel; and Easton - camoflauge moose.



Easton was being silly, and it took me a few tries to get a good picture of him.

This was after trick-or-treating and unfortunately we had grown tired of Rapunzel's locks and our vampire "just had to" get in the bath because her hairsprayed, ratted hair was driving her crazy! 

We had a fun time walking around town to the businesses first and then around a few neighborhoods. The weather was wonderfully pleasant and there was no snow leftover from the previous weeks crazy snowstorm, thank goodness :)

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you had as much fun as we did!

Daddy's Deer

So, hunting season.  Josh has a few opportunities to go hunting this year, and this was the first.  He went out with his friend early in the morning and even took Saralyn with him!  They didn't get anything until later that day, when he found this monster buck :)  Just kidding.  It's not really a monster, if you can't tell, but he was happy to get it.  He has been super, super busy with his business, taking in a lot of other people's monster bucks, so he didn't really have a lot of time to "shop around", he just had to take what he could get.  But like I said, he was excited to get it :)



Easton was the only one brave enough to get a picture with the deer.  The girls weren't too excited about the idea of holding up the head of a dead deer, suprise suprise :)  "no dad, that's gross!"  But Easton totally thought it was cool!



Alma's 8 !!!

Wow!  I don't know about any of you, but I totally cannot believe our little girl is 8 years old!  I always forget how fast they grow up! Little Alma is growing up, but she's still little to me :)  We are so grateful that she is a part of our family.  She is so smart, kind, caring, and fun. She loves writing notes to people and making people happy. Saralyn and Easton love her so much and really look to her as an example in all they do.  We love her sooooo much, and had a great time celebrating with her on her special day. 

On her actual birthday we had icecream cake and had some fun family time together.

Then, she had a fun birthday party with some friends from school.  We decided on cupcakes for the party, which she decorated herself with a fun cake decorator set that her grandma gave her.  She is very into cooking right now.  :)  It was our first attmept at a "friend" party and I'd say they had a pretty good time!  Thanks to everyone that came and shared this fun day with us :)

We love you Alma!  Thanks for being such a wonderful part of our family :)

Pumpkin Harvest!

So, the time for our garden has come to an end, for this year.  And we finally were able to pick the pumpkins!  Some of them were still green, but we figured it was good enough since we were cleaning out the garden and didn't want to put it off any longer.



He thought he could handle it all by himself, he just needed a little help :)



I love when the pumpkins are ready and Fall arrives.  Full of beautiful color, cooler weather, and lots of fun.  I am thankful we are able to have room in our backyard to be able to grow food for our family!  And I love how the kids love to help pick the fruits of our labors :)

Wildlife

Sometime in September, when the leaves were bright and beautiful, we went for a ride to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  We were so lucky because this is one thing we saw.  Two bull moose, and they weren't just standing there, they were fighting!  We could hear their antlers crashing together and everything!  It was so awesome :)  I love seeing moose, because they aren't something we get to see everyday.

First Day of School

This was an exciting year for the first day of school.  Alma started 2nd grade, Saralyn started Kindergarten, and I went back to work!  But the best part is, I get to go to school with the kids, at their school :)  Althought it is very busy, it is fun to see the kids around school and for now it's working out ok.



Outside in the front yard.  Saralyn actually still had to wait for another week before the Kindergarten started, but she was still excited :)



Alma in her classroom getting her supplies all put away.