Kids are smarter these days...

A couple of weeks ago I babysat my niece and nephew. They are so stinkin' cute even if my 5 year old niece can beat me at pool on the Wii. I was terrible at pool and my niece was getting impatient with my lack of Wii skills, but to my defense I did beat her in ping pong, but only by 2. So, I'll keep my day job. Here is a cute picture of us. I was trying to hold the camera in front us while trying to take a picture. After each picture I took my niece wanted to see the results. I usually cut off part of us and she just laughed and laughed and thought it was so funny.

Here is me trying to take a picture of the three of us.

They are getting so big. I wish I could just make time stop so they don't get any bigger. I had a nice evening babysitting them. We played the Wii and then Uno and yes I lost to my 5 year old niece in the first game and lost to my 4 year old nephew in the second game. I was not letting them win either. I guess I need some practice on the Wii and in playing Uno.

Job Offer...

We are so very excited. Mat got a job offer today- yeah!!! He was unemployed for exactly 4 weeks and finally got a job offer. He had several interviews this week and one that worked out really well. He will be a client accountant and will be working downtown. He starts next Thursday. We are so grateful for how blessed we are.

Halloween Festivities of Fun

On Friday night we were babysitting and we took some of our nieces and nephews to a trunk-or-treat. Sydney was a cute little witch, Will was a skeleton, and Drew (not pictured) had a little ghost bib.

My brother and his wife came to the trunk-or-treat as well. They wanted to take Payton our niece. She was a little fairy. She is getting so big.

Here are the kids in the trunk before it started. They are sure adorable.

Trying to stay warm in the back of the car with Drew, Syd, and Will while Mat was still passing out candy to other kids at the trunk-or-treat.

Last Monday night at Family Night we carved pumpkins. Mat and I look pretty intense and serious about carving our pumpkins.

Here's some of the fam carving away.

Cute baby Drew sleeping through most of the pumpkin carving.

Will was having a good old time dancing around while I was taking pictures of him. After each picture I took he had to come and see it. It was really cute.

The kids jumping in a big pile of leaves.

Aidan and his pumpkin.

The kids pumpkins. I think this is a great idea because it is less messy and easier for kids because they don't have to carve anything.

Here are just some of the pumpkins that the family carved that night.
Cinderella (I think)

Captain Jack Sparrow

Yoda

Cat

This is my pumpkin. I always do very simple because I don't like to spend forever carving pumpkins. I just stuck with the traditional jack-o-lantern look. It works for me.

Mat spent a lot longer on his pumpkin and he did a little gremlin. He did a great job.

Next Halloween activity we did a couple Saturday's ago was the Fun Fall Family Festival which this year got changed to the Freaky Family Fun Fall Festival. It has too many f's if you ask me, but we had a nice time. We started out with pumpkin carving. Mat and I passed, but it was fun to watch the others carve their pumpkins.

Me just chillin' and snackin' on some yummy food.

Very cute picture of my cousin Mindy and her niece Lilly.

This was an attempt of mine to take pictures of the pumpkins in the dark. The picture kind of turned out cool looking.

Here is another attempt at taking pictures of the beautiful carved pumpkins.

We had a nice time and had lots of good food to eat afterwords. We had fun with all of our Halloween festivities this year.

Unemployment Rate in Utah Has Increased

Mat got laid off yesterday morning. So we are currently looking for employment for him. Mat's degree is in Business Finance and he is looking for something related to this industry, but is definitely willing to seek other opportunities as well. He is a great example to me because instead of sulking around he took the bull by its horns and started networking with family, friends, and old co-workers to find a new job as soon as he found out. So if anyone hears about a job opportunity please let us know. We are doing just fine and know that everything will work out because it always does. God is in charge of our lives and we will put our trust in Him. We appreciate the prayers and support that so many have already shown. We are not worried, stressed, or afraid. We are looking at this as a growth opportunity and the sky is the limit.

Conference Weekend

Conference weekend is always a great treat. We enjoy listen to the words of the latter-day prophet and apostles along with eating lots of good food. Sunday morning before Conference started we had a huge breakfast at my mom's like we do every conference. This time we had egg casserole, hash browns, sausage, egg and bacon wraps, waffles, muffins, OJ, and apple juice. We usually also have caramel rolls, but my mom did not do them this time. Everything was delicious.

Snacks for after the first session and for the second session. I don't even remember everything we had. I always eat way too much.

Another delicious "snack" we enjoyed in between sessions. This is a raspberry, pudding, brownie dessert. I don't know the official name, but I do love it. It has cool whip, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, raspberries, and brownie chunks in it.

Cute Ellie and Ben.

Cute Payton.

Mat playing with the kids.

Cute Mat and Michelle

After snacks and before the Sunday afternoon session started Mat and I went to Mat's Dad's home to watch Conference and eat more food. I got the lovely task of carving the turkey. It was a big task, but someone had to do it. We had lots of good food to eat as well. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, zucchini, and some peach cake. I probably gained 7 pounds on Sunday alone. We had a really nice Conference weekend. We felt uplifted and know have a greater desire to do good and to do what is right. We will also be increasing our exercise habits.

The break-in...

So last week at work my car got broken into, well kind of. Someone from the IT department noticed someone rummaging through someones car, open the trunk, and then just walk off down the street. They reported the suspicious activity and then they called me to let me know that someone had broken into my car. Well, they actually didn't break in because my car was unlocked. I remember pushing my little clicker to lock the doors that morning, but it was unlocked when I went to check to see if anything was missing. My clicker's batteries were apparently dead and so my car was unlocked which was good because my car was not damaged in anyway. So I checked to see if anything was missing, but nothing was. The almost thief did not want to steal my 3 library books that were in my car, a burnt Secondhand Serenade CD in a compartment, or some scrapbooking paper in my trunk. I am grateful for that. So the moral of the story is: thieves don't like to read because they don't steal your library books.

Home Sweet Home

So we are moved into our new beautiful home. We moved in last weekend. It is so nice to be in a home where everything is new, nice, and clean. Every time I walk in our home I am amazed that this is really where we live. We are so grateful for our many blessings and being able to get into our new place. One of my favorite things about our new home is the view. It is just absolutely phenomenal. The view of the mountains and valley is perfect from my back windows. We just love it. I really enjoy that I don't have to go up 2 flights of stairs to put away my groceries. Just a few steps from the garage. It is fabulous. The house is bigger than our condo and I keep thinking Mat is talking to me in the other room, but he is not or Mat will be trying to tell me something from another room and I can't hear him because the house is bigger than we are use to. So that has been an adjustment. We still don't have any blinds up and we are currently taping old sheets up in our bedroom and bathroom windows. There is a park right behind our house and there is a walkway right behind our house. So we are like fish in a fish bowl for all people to see. We should be getting some blinds up in about a week or so. Things are coming together, but now I need to decorate and that is going to be a big challenge because there is a lot more space to decorate now and I don't know how to do it. In time it will all be nice and decorated. We've been to our new ward once. We really like it and people were really nice and friendly. Our neighbors are great and we are excited to get to know all of them better. We really like this new area where we are living at. We are happy, healthy, and grateful for all we have. We are truly blessed.