Loving Life and Parenthood

Alora is 3.5 months old. She is babbling away, learning to roll-over, and holding up her head very well. Garrett and I find parenthood exhausting and enjoyable all at once. We've been married 4 years today! Here are some pictures.

We got her pictures taken at a photo studio. She was so happy on the way to the studio in the car and even while I was changing her into her nice dress. As soon as we put her in the little seat so the photographer could start taking pictures she started crying and wouldn't stop! I fed her, let her take a 15 minute cat nap, and then tried again. She was all smiles!!!

She loves chewing on her fingers and wrists. She doesn't seem to have a favorite so far. Whichever finger makes it into her mouth first gets chewed on.

Alora wearing her first head band (thanks to Aunt April)

Hanging out with cousins at Grandma's house

She met my dad for the first time when she was about 2 months old

Celebrating Daniel's 18th birthday

The Many Faces of Alora--3 Weeks Old!

It's hard to believe--but our daughter Alora is 3 weeks old. Here are some pictures of her.

A Joyous Christmas Season

The Christmas season was pretty eventful for Garrett and I. The first big event occurred on December 16th...

After all--he graduated with his Bachelor degree in Physics!

This is the cutest picture! The big balloons were dropped onto the graduates after they had all walked across the stage. Some of the balloons were bounced into the seating area so the audience could take some. Our nieces and nephews loved the balloons. I don't think very many of them got to go home with them because they took up a lot of room in the cars.

I love my physicist!

Garrett and his mom and dad

Garrett had "cap head" in this picture with my mom

The post-graduation luncheon with family. Garrett is opening his graduation gifts.

My dad and my brother Daniel drove down from Canada and arrived on December 20th. On December 21st we had an early birthday celebration for my dad and went over to Uncle Eric's for dinner. My brother Daniel got his cousins to play "Settlers of Catan" with him.

It's his favorite board game right now.

The cousins and my brother Daniel agreed to pose for a picture

My dad turned 55 on his birthday (December 25th)

We opened Christmas presents with my family on December 22nd since they were leaving for California the next day. In this picture, we're all sporting a least one new Christmas gift item we received. We took this picture with a timer so we could all be in it at once and send a picture of all of us to my brother, Elder Cassinat

My brother Daniel and me

Daniel liked his Angry Birds toque

My mom got me a book called "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas". Love it!

We spent Christmas in Chino Valley with Garrett's family. They got a horse named Sally.

Here's Sally on her first day with the family. Garrett's mom is helping one of the grandkids feed Sally some carrots.

[Sally only paid attention to me if I had an apple in my hand.

Once she at the apple, the interaction was over as far as Sally was concerned.]

Garrett's mom had to negotiate with Sally to get her bridle on.

Mrs. Claus brought Christmas pajamas for the grandkids to wear to bed on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning! Time to open presents.

So many gifts and treats!

Garrett was very excited to open his presents.

And so ended the year of 2011. It was a good year for Garrett and I and we are looking forward to the new year.

Christmas is Coming!

Elder Cassinat and his missionary companions have decorated for Christmas.

Elder Cassinat posing in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building

Elder Cassinat with the Mission President and Mission President's wife

Garrett and I at one of the musical concerts on the Mesa Arizona temple grounds. The lights are beautiful!

I find it very beautiful to see the lights shining off the citrus fruit on the trees at the temple.

The days are going by quickly and I'm enjoying the feeling of the Christmas season. I'm making an effort to remember the "reason for the season"--the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. I am grateful for Him.

Elder Cassinat Update and Halloween Fun

Here's an update about my brother, Elder Cassinat (Jared) serving in the Winnipeg, Manitoba mission. He is enjoying the work and working hard. The following is an excerpt from his latest Weekly Update letter to go with this picture:

"Tuesday morning we had district meeting. It was about how we can become better teachers and how to do better at our job. After that I went on exchange with Elder S. Smith. He is from Idaho and he is the youngest of 6. We tracted in St. Paul, it was a nicer neighborhood. I think I ran into a Jets player, not 100% sure. We were doing a Bible Survey. There was this one house with a helicopter on the front. It wasn't working. But we were let in by Kristina. She is taking Biblical Studies in college and so we talked about the Book of Mormon and how they connect. Exchanged numbers and left her with a copy of the Lesson 1 pamphlet and Book of Mormon. Went in for dinner. After dinner we ran into Jon. He is a geologist here in Selkirk and he really interesting fellow. Very well educated and knows his stuff. He used to have missionaries come into his home. We asked if he had a copy of the Book of Mormon. He came with the Book of Mormon but also a case. And inside the case was bagpipes! He played Scotland the Brave, the tune for which Praise to the Man was taken from. Amazing grace, Flowers of the Forest, and more Ride and Dangevar. He then let us try it out. Hence the picture. I can't believe the lung capacity and power you need to play that thing. But I guess it is the same as the baritone or trombone, it got easier the more I played it."

Garrett and I also had fun preparing for a Halloween Party that was hosted by one of the young couples in our ward. Garrett made "Witch Finger" cookies. We had to modify the recipe a bit--instead of sticking the almonds onto the cookies with red gel icing we used pumpkin butter. Gave the nail-bed a festering infection sort of look and tasted delicious! Since we only received the invitation the day before Halloween we didn't have time to get a pumpkin until after work on Monday (Halloween Day). Garrett bought one of the last remaining pumpkins. It was rather small, and its skin was VERY thick. Garrett eventually resorted to using his electric drill.


Our "Puking Pumpkin"
I dressed up as a Polar Bear for the Halloween celebration at work. Those grey plastic sheets hanging from the ceiling at work were garbage bags. They were supposed to form a haunted alley around our cubicles but the decorators ran out of garbage bags halfway through the project. We had Jordan over for a small Birthday dinner on Garrett's birthday (and celebrated Jordan's b-day too). Garrett opted to have ice-cream sandwiches for his "cake".

Chloe and the Chickens

Garrett and I went to Kingman and stayed with his Papa and Maryjane overnight on Friday. We had a wonderful time visiting them. Papa taught Garrett the first steps involved in laying a stone walkway. I got a picture of Garrett working with a pick to level the ground. Maryjane showed us some of the beautiful glass artwork she has done. I got some Christmas shopping done while admiring her handiwork :)

Next we stopped in Chino Valley and toured the property that his parents are going to rent for the next few months. One of the highlights of the tour was the chickens. Chloe (Kristy’s dog) did pretty good with the chickens at first. Check out this video:

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