October Update

October came and went faster than I expected. We had a great month and I am going to spare you a lengthy blog post and share with you a few snippets with the photos we took! (Grateful for my iPhone.)

 Nephi gave me my flu shot! I haven't had one in years but decided to take the plunge and haven't had any bad side effects. 

 Of course we had General Conference. This was my favorite spin-off out of all of them. Classic. (Our thoughts on missionary work.)

 Nephi's Grandpa passed away on October 9th. The funeral was that next weekend and Nephi gave a great talk at the funeral. I also got to meet the Richin's side and that was so great. This was the first death that Nephi and I have gone through as a married couple and it was a good experience for us to learn from each other. Nephi was very close to his Grandpa. In fact, the day before he followed a prompting to go visit him--so grateful for the Gospel! It's been a while since I have attended a funeral and it was a beautiful funeral and the family paid a great tribute to him .

 Of course we had to carve pumpkins! We went on a big group date to the pumpkin patch with some friends and picked up pumpkins to carve.

Here are the pumpkins! I carved the "G" and Nephi carved the Gangnam Style guy to your right of the "G". It won for the "Stupidest" and I won "The Most Creative". HA! Pretty sure those awards should have be reversed.

 My family came in town for a few days! My Aunt Jeni was visiting the states from South Africa and I haven't seen her in years! She also hasn't met Nephi yet so they took a few days to come visit us. We went to Yellowstone, Snake Bite (of course), and visited campus. It was so great to have her here as well as my Mom, Dad, and Jack (our family dog)! It is always hard to see them go, especially since we are not coming home for the holidays this year. I am so grateful for them!

 And...they brought this! We have been saving up all year to buy a new car and we finally did! We set a goal to buy it in September but ended up purchasing in October. AZ had way more choices so we bought it there and then my Dad drove it up. He also did all the negotiating and research on the car which was a huge burden lifted off of us--thanks, Dad! It's a 2006 Mazda 3 with only 75k miles on it. It will be Nephi's car that he uses to commute back and forth to Rexburg. Yes, I am a little jealous. Don't worry--Nephi detailed my car so I would feel like I got a new car too :) Anyway-feels good to have our first "big" purchase under our belts and done! We bought it in cash and now we are looking to replenish the savings account...anyone wanna buy Nephi's Jeep?! It's going on Craigslist this week!

 Home decor--per usual. My dad built me this valance! I've been wanting one for a long time and I love it. I covered it with fabric, which was a lot harder than I expected. (Don't judge my imperfections.) But I really like it and it completed that room. I still have to fix up a few things throughout the house before we do a "house tour", but it's happening. Soon.

 Date nights! We've still manage to fit in our date nights every week. We are officially over the year and 1/2 mark but feel like we've been married forever! (In a good way.) We love our little adventures and definitely don't have enough time together but we make it work.

 Halloween is a HUGE deal where I work. Each department had a theme and decorated and we had kids walking through all day trick-or-treating. Our area was a forest so we had a "Girls Camp". It was a fun day!

We've been seeing some movies with friends lately, of course. We went and saw Pitch Perfect with the Cook's and LOVED IT! I even bought one of the sound tracks on our way home. Ha! It's a great song to work out to.

 I'm currently living "carb-free" and trying to find ways to enjoy food without getting bored! Hence, I use spaghetti squash for just about everything. This meal with chicken sausage, spinach, onions, peppers, and marinara sauce was divine! I highly recommend it.

 We went to the YURT! Yes, that is what it is called. Had a nice night stay at this yurt in Harriman Park with our good friends, the Hendersons. We had a blast! The next day we hiked around and visited Mesa Falls and a few other places along the way. We will definitely be returning! Who wants to come?

 This is the inside. It stayed toasty :)

 Our candlelit dinner..very primitive...not. I am working my way up to actual camping.

 I won $20 for the weight loss challenge at work! Woo!

Had a "Smith Family" early Thanksgiving. Sheridan won't be in town for Thanksgiving so we had it early. We won't be making it home to AZ for Thanksgiving (or Christmas) this year. Work for me is too demanding to leave for an extended amount of time but I am going to really embrace the holidays this year and Nephi and I are excited to start our own family traditions! I am so glad that Sheridan and Caitlin live here. We've got half the kids in Idaho now! Now we just need to get the other 3 here! :) 

And of course--our church calling. We missed two Sunday's in a row and realized how much we LOVE our kiddos! Today we taught them about Christ and spent some time explaining the resurrection. We told them to draw a picture of it and this is what one girl drew--me! See the resemblance?

The nice thing is that they love us, too! Their parents have been telling us that they talk about us all the time and hated the sub they had (we secretly loved to hear that). We look forward to seeing them every week. Stay tuned for our new blog series "From the Mouth of Babes".

Sorry this did turn into a long post...oh well!