Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

Emma really seemed to get the hand of trick-or-treating. At first she was shy, and would hesitantly grab a treat. But from door to door she began to hold her bucket, then grab a handful of candy, and wave bye-bye. Toward the end she began knocking on the doors herself. We only hit 10 houses, but she came away with a haul. Now it's time for daddy to impose his "Daddy Tax". This was really fun.

Snowbird

We love Snowbird. Especially during the summer. It is so nice to escape the summer heat, and relax in the beauty of nature. It was so nice to relax there after a long three months of Justin's graduate program. It's fun to just spend time together as a family without homework coming into the equation.

We had fun at the new mining rock shifter activity that they had there for children.

The flowers were beautiful. There were fields upon fields of flowers.

We did a lot around the lodge, but we also went for a hike. We took the tram up the mountain and hiked down. It was fun, but tiring. I think it took us four hours to get down because of wrong directions from other hikers that led us to taking the longest way down. Needless to say Emma was sick of hiking in the backpack, and we were very sore. But all in all Snowbird was the rejuvenation that we needed before school starts again. Thank you Grandma and Papa for the letting us use the last bit of your week.

Favorite Things

Here are a few of Emma's favorite things.

Banana's! Yep, and when we run out we have to go to the store to get more. We have to limit banana's to only one a day. Otherwise, she would eat them every meal, and nothing else.

Going to the zoo. Here we are at the zoo with Nana, Jenny, Blaine and Eli. The new baby giraffe was born, and we had to go see it. They say that giraffe's can grow up to an inch every day (at least that's what the keeper said).

The park! Oh, how we love going to the park. We love swings, slides, and sand. It's hard to say which is her most favorite out of the three. She does like to turn boxes at home into slides, and will say "whee" as she slides down.

New Cousin

Yeah!!!! Baby Jade Spencer Cross is finally here. New babies are always fun. We were lucky he was born this week, otherwise we would only have seen pictures of him. Jade was 8 lbs 1 oz, 20 inches long, and healthy. He has two loving older sisters (Mikayla, 5, Natalia, 3) and two proud parents. They are moving to New Hampshire in two weeks. So here is our chance to meet and hold Jade.

Happy Birthday Emma

It's strange how time seems to fly. I can remember so clearly when the doctor told me that they were going to induce me that night because she had stopped growing in the womb. That was all a big shock. I guess that must be kind of how other women feel when they go into labor unexpectedly. Since Emma loves the zoo so much we (okay me) decided to go with a jungle theme.

It was fun to decorate for her birthday. I think the hardest part was just trying to find a cake recipe or mix that was gluten free. (Yeah, Emma seems to have gluten/wheat sensitivities) For her birthday she got way too much stuff. The nice thing was just having everyone there to show their love and support of Emma. It's so nice to see children loved and celebrated. It was such a good day.

Great Grandpa's and Big Dogs

While we were heading back from selling Blue we stopped at Great Grandpa Cross'. It's so fun to see Emma with different family members. She is super gentle with her Great Grandpa Cross. I'm glad that she has had the chance to meet him. He served in the Second World war, came back and found that his wife left him and there daughter, served a mission in England while being a single father, and later met my Grandma. They then had 13 children together, but only 11 lived. He raised his family of 12 children and wife on a school teacher's salary. He has so many stories, and is a great person.

Also in the picture, is his sister Laurel. They have been taking care of each other since my Grandma died. Laurel is currently serving a mission from home doing family history, and answering church phone calls. Great lady. She also owns a big stuffed dog. Emma loved Buffy.

No More Blue

Another change in life. Blue (our car) has become old. So naturally, Justin has taken it upon himself to look for a new (new to us) car. Of course this was a painful task for him. :) After a couple weeks of looking and praying we came up with our options. In the end we decided to go with another Saturn. Its silver, 2002, sl series with only 36,000 miles on it. To pay for it we had to sell Blue. :(

We'll miss you Blue!