Happy Halloween.

Well. It is now 10:12 p.m. Our door has been graced all of 4 times by masqueraders looking for a sweet treat. I guess it's time to turn out the light, and soak my depression up in the remaining chocolate.

I had high hopes for my new home.

The girl

Sometimes that's what we call her. Here are some of the latest:

She sucked on her thumb a few times. It hasn't really become a habit though.

She wakes up with bedhead:

She smiles:

And frowns:

Sometimes Husbands are Nice

Look what Todd bought for me.

Dread Callings

So remember how I posted a while back about dread callings? Well Todd got out of his. Got a new calling. A little more busy but much more his kind of calling. But me? Well I'm just getting into the thick of it.

I put off my choir directing duties until September. A lot of wards take the summer off so don't judge. Anyway, so far we have had 5 rehearsals. A total of 1 male has come. Luckily he has come every week, but we had to make practice at 9:30 a.m. just to accommodate his meetings. Pretty sad when you have to change your whole choir time for 1 male voice. Besides that we had 4 ladies. 4 gals and 1 guy doesn't make for much of a choir. And then there's the thing where my pianist can't play the piano. I love the woman, I really do. And I am so grateful that she practices the songs. But it is just hard to teach a choir their parts when they can't even hear the piano play it right. So now my dread calling is a little more dreadlier.

However, I have seen a bit of light today. So the first several weeks we were working on "This is the Christ." I am so smart that I thought it was a hymn and we were just singing a different version of it. I thought it wouldn't be too hard because the notes and the print was big. Ha Ha. Shows how much I know! There is a nice little acapella section, we change keys I think 3 or 4 times, and the sopranos end on a high F. I guess I should have looked at it a little closer! So the good news is that we will probably sing it for Easter (yes, I typed that correctly), and we moved on to a hymn from the hymnbook. My pianist is playing that beautifully, and we had 3, yes 3 new ladies join us today. And one of them can comfortably hit that high F in This is the Christ. We sounded so much better. One of them is going to bring her husband next week. And there are 2 members of the bishopric that will sing with us. We might have a choir after all!

Welcome home, Elder Darren

My little brother came home! He was on a mission in Canada for 2 years. He got back 1 week ago today. It was weird, I wasn't sure what to do since I have never been there for anyone's actual homecoming before. And there is a possibility I might never have another sibling go on a mission, so the pressure was on to get it right!

Here we are anxiously waiting. There was one missionary who came down by himself about 10 minutes before Darren did, so we were all worked up over that for a while.

Then later, we finally saw the group of black suits through the very small area that we could see people walking before they got to the escalator, and then down he came!

So I love this picture because of my dad. I wish you could see his face a little better, but I watched him for a few minutes and it reminded me what a wonderful dad I have. He had tears in his eyes and you could see that while I'm sure he was glad to see his son, that's not why he was so happy. I know my daddy was so proud of his son for completing an honorable mission, and thats where his real happiness was.

Lila Meets her uncle! A little rocky at first, but when mommy got close she warmed up.

Mommy and Lila hangin out while everyone else gets to say hello to Darren.

Lila is 8 months old!

Here are some things about her:

loves to crawl and roll. stopped taking a bottle. still no hair improvement. still in size 2 diapers (until we run out). likes to swing and slide with mommy at the park. loves her daddy. curious. can't sleep if it's too cold. climbs up on furniture. still loves to pull hair. starting to turn her nose up at any food but grain cereal. stayed in the chapel for a whole sacrament once. is always loud (happy or sad) in sunday school. met her uncle Darren! squeals with glee any time you help her walk. loves other kids and trying to grab their faces. mommy is her favorite. still doesn't sit more than 5 seconds. when she wants to be held she will try to follow mommy around a room, changing directions every few seconds as mommy runs around cleaning or getting ready. probably still hates binkys but we stopped trying. can play with electronics, cords, CDs, paper, or other no-no items forever, but gets bored of her normal toys in less than a minute. wears size 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes. tried a sippy cup- no luck. Won't put small items in her mouth. parents say HALLELUJAH! to that. doesn't like baths but stays quite and mostly holds still during them. we think she is starting to recognize mommy's voice on the phone when she calls from work. still loves the outdoors. brightens every single day in our home.

I worked today, so my pictures are limited to the short time I've been home, but here's what I got. Please take note of her playing with my lunch for tomorrow. A burrito in a baggie. That kept her entertained for at least 10 minutes-we had to take it away from her- while her toy landed on the floor only a few moments after she stuck it in her mouth.

Addendum: after posting about my little lady, I was feeding her some applesauce (not very successfully), and she started clapping! It was so cute. I love her.

Bum Sleeping

One of the cutest things babies do is sleep with their bum in the air. It is just so dang adorable.