Puppy Love...

We have a new family member to introduce, but first let's get caught up.

Nov. 9 was our Young Women Evening of Excellence. It was cool to see all the displays of our girls! They have been working hard this year on their Personal Progress. Rachel's display was of her Guys and Dolls performance at Dixon, her Junior High.

Rachel just finished her time in Joseph. She had a blast and the production was terrific! The whole family went to see her.
I was amazed at how much of a young lady my daughter is! I know I'm biased, but she is an amazing dancer, singer, and stage performer. It's been such a big part of her(rehearsing every day for three months)life that I know she'll miss it!

Thanksgiving was awesome. Lots of yummy food and the whole day spent in our jammies. Heaven! We missed all of you and hope your Turkey Day was as good as ours. We are very thankful for the many blessings we have and we consider friends and family to be right at the top!

And...Introducing...Simon!

We have wanted a puppy for a long time. Allergies always seemed an insurmountable obstacle. After seeing the kids take care of Beatrice so well and knowing we would have to find her another home because our cat allergies are really bad, I really wanted to see if there were any breeds of dog that we could all have around and still be healthy. I had a Shih Tzu growing up and never reacted to him at all.

After many trips to the pet store we narrowed down possible non-allergenic candidates to Shih Tzus and Maltese. Both breeds were really expensive in the store and we weren't too impressed with the way they took care of their puppies so we looked around and found a local breeder who had our adorable Simon.

He is half Shih Tzu and half Maltese. His coloring, tale, and eyes are more Shih Tzu but he has a Maltese snout and is super soft. The breeder already had begun house training him and had socialized him really well.

He is pretty mellow at times and a fuzzy Tasmanian Devil at others.(In other words, a typical, healthy puppy.) Overall,he has behaved so well! No accidents in the house yet at all. He loves the kids and they cannot get enough of him. They knew this would be most of their Christmas the year but they don't care at all.

Grandpa Brown footed the bill for him, so he is the most loved and appreciated Grandpa in the world right now! Thanks so much, Dad!

Am I blue...

Nah, not really. I just was getting a headache reading my own posts with the black background. So, we'll try blue!
Andrew had the beginnings of a root canal today, so he's a bit black and blue.

Daniel is switching jobs and he is NOT blue about leaving Macey's grocery store.

Rachel has a dress rehearsal today and she's a little blue about missing Young Women.

Matthew is playing a little of the Blues on his trumpet.

Jacob will be wearing his blue Cub uniform tonight for Pack Meeting.

Aaron looks fabulous in blue and is wearing it today.

So I guess we are kind of blue, so it's all good!

Picture TAG! I'm it...

Christi G. tagged me so I get to play and tag some more people. The rules are that you go to your photos on your computer, chose the fourth folder, then the fourth photo in that folder. Then you chose the sixth folder and photo. Here are mine. (Keep in mind that there are way more photos of shoots I've done than of my family on my computer.)






My number one is: A black and white photo from a wedding shoot I did.
Number two is of Rachel at the Godfrey's photo shoot letting me snap pics of her to adjust lighting and so forth.




I'm done. Let's see...I tag TNT!

Our (kind of) Cat

Meet Beatrice. (So named by Daniel.) She is a very pretty, sweet, and persistent kitty that has adopted us. She hangs out in our all-you-can-catch mouse buffet(backyard) most days and goes nuts if she gets any attention. She must count anyone being home as getting attention because as soon as she knows we are here she hangs out by the doors meowing her head off.
Jake gave her a little milk today, so I think we are doomed. I took the camera out to take pics after I realized what had happened and just getting that close to her made me break out in hives and have trouble breathing.
Aaron has had a discussion with her and they agreed that as long as she keeps mice out of the house she can hang around. We just aren't feeding her or anything. Right.
Anyway, she really is a very nice cat and I guess she is kind-of ours.

Leave Your Print...

I had the opportunity this past Tuesday to be a poll worker for the election. My precinct was PR08 and my polling place was the Provo Library that is pictured in the slide show. (The gorgeous old Brigham Young Academy building that has been restored and added onto.)
I showed up at 6:00am, was locked out until 6:30am, but eventually got in and got situated. :) I really enjoyed this experience!
The flow of voters was steady but never too crazy. It was perfect because I was busy without being overwhelmed. For my first election, it was a terrific training experience.
Most of the voters were BYU students, many of them voting for the first time. They were so cute and excited to vote and their enthusiasm was contagious. Many were clueless as how to use the machines but we were able to take our time and explain in detail so I think most had good experiences.

We were out of there by 8:45pm, so it wasn't nearly as long a day as I thought it might be.
I am really grateful to be an American! I have even more respect for the process and those who get involved because it's a lot of work. It was cool to be there and see it all first hand.

Halloween Craziness...

What a week! I put all the photos in the slide show, so check them out.

We started off with our ward Halloween party on Tuesday. The YM/YW were in charge of the game booths and helping to decorate. Rachel manned the Fishing Pond.
Matthew won the costume contest for his age group (he was a ghoul) and Rachel won the most "green" costume because all of her costume pieces were recycled from past Halloweens. Jake was an adorable nerd. I was a princess and Aaron was a really tired database administration dude.

On Thursday we carved pumpkins. Daniel and Andrew are too cool to carve now, but Matthew and Jacob really got into it. I cleaned out Rachel's pumpkin for her and she carved it when she got home from musical rehearsal. I love watching them create their masterpieces.

On Friday there was a costume parade at Jacob's school. A lot of you will recognize one of the teachers that I snapped a pic of. :)

Daniel got to dress up for work and originally wanted to go as a disgruntled worker. I suggested we just punk him up. He did the faux-hawk thing with his hair and we added some eyeliner and about 12 fake piercings and he was good to go.

That afternoon Jacob and Matthew and I were off to Aaron's office to trick-or-treat. We got a lot of comments from Aaron's co-workers that Jacob was dressed up as his dad. The kids got tons of candy, as usual.

Rachel had a party at a friend's house and Andrew was on door duty. Aaron took Matthew and Jake out with a bunch of friends and they cleaned up! They were gone for 2 1/2 hours and did a lot of walking to earn their candy.

Now we just have to endure the sugar highs for the next few days. Rachel is the only candy-hoarder, so the others should be out pretty soon.

We hope you all had a great Halloween too!