Happy Birthday Erin

Yesterday we had a great meal at Grandma Barfuss' to celebrate Erin's 18th birthday (yes, she's a young one). We had pork and cranberry sauce, twice-baked potatoes, and asparagus. Dessert was cherry chip birthday cake with cherries in it! And cherry chocolate ice cream that was so delicious. Also, Jeremy's friend Tiffany, and Erin's friend Russ, and Nita, Grandma's sister, were there--which is always a lot of fun. Thanks grandma for a great meal and Erin we are glad you were born :)

First Presidency Christmas Devotional and Temple Square

Last night we were able to go to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and then see the lights on Temple Square (briefly--it was very cold). We loved it, especially hearing the wonderful music (always the best part!). We went with Erin and Russ, and enjoyed having Jeremy and Tiffany and Annie and her friends there too. It was a great night and a good start to the Christmas season.

Thanksgiving Week

On Tuesday we headed home for Thanksgiving, quickly stopping in Provo to visit Grandma Challis and Grandpa Henderson. After a looong car ride we made it into California at about three in the morning. We spent Wednesday hanging out with the Penrods and even started Thanksgiving dinner that night. Then we went over to the Yee's to play games and have yummy dinner!

Thursday Jim went and played sports and I went to the beach. We reconvened for dinner with the Penrods at two, then dinner at the Highams at four. Then we watched movies at the Highams and then went back to the Penrods for games. Busy day!

Friday I got really sick so it was kind of a wasted day for me, but it was Jim's birthday! He went and played in the guys' ping-pong tournament and then we went to the Highams for dinner and his party. So fun!

Saturday morning my sisters had a big breakfast and then we got some of the little things we planned on done. Then we went to Wahoo's to celebrate Jim's and Erin's birthdays and then back home. Family picture, then cake and presents. Fun day, but busy.

Sunday we went to church with the Penrods then headed home. Many hours later we finally got back home! What a great weekend. Thanks everyone!

Gardner Village

On Friday we went to see Gardner Village. It's a historic mill that was turned into a little shopping/historic village kind of place. It's a lot of fun, and it was all decked out for Halloween. They are sort of famous around here for their witches--they are all over the village and we had fun seeing them all. We also had bought Tori shoes (thanks Tami!) right before then and so we had fun testing those out too. She was a little uncertain with her first few steps, but soon she realized we would let her walk all over and she loved it! And we got tons of compliments on how well she was walking (it helps that she's so small she looks way young). Lots of fun!

Trick or Treat!

We did Pumpkins on the Monday before Halloween and had a lot of fun doing the patterns we found online. I know people say the patterns and the little saws and stuff are too time-consuming, but we think they pay off really nicely :)









Halloween was a lot of fun with Tori this year. Unfortunately, our ward didn't do a trunk-or-treat and Tori wasn't really up to doing all the streets in our ward, so we just "spot trick-or-treated." We went to about six houses and called it a night, but it sure was fun getting her dressed up and seeing everyone else's costumes! We had a great time and hope everyone else did too!

BYU Game

We went down to Provo this weekend to catch the BYU vs. TCU game. Adam and Shannon had given us their tickets (Thanks guys!) and we went down early to beat traffic and hang out with my siblings a bit. We were really worried about how Tori would do with all the noise and stuff, but she did great! Unfortunately the game was really sad. So we left early and headed back home--luckily beating a lot of the traffic (people had been leaving since the first quarter, so I'm not sure how much traffic there would have been anyway). But it was fun to be back in Provo for the day!

Tori's Birthday

Tori turned one year old on the 26th, so we had everyone over (Annie, Erin, Jeremy, Scott, Debbie, and Gr. and Gr. Barfuss) the Sunday before for dinner and cake and presents. It was so much fun. Grandma brought a wonderful pear salad and we had tacos for dinner (I know...slightly casual). We had cake and opened presents and then just had a fun time hanging out. We also did a little bit of jamming thanks to Jeremy playing on my missing-a-string guitar :) It was a lot of fun, and thanks everyone for coming and for the birthday wishes!

On Monday we got the presents from Grandma Penrod--some really cute clothes and lots of fun toys! She was so excited--thanks Grandma!