Just a little behind.....

Since I have been back in the states, it feels like I have been going non-stop! Which is a good thing because it has somewhat taken my mind off of missing Cliff. I wish I had pictures of everything but unfortunately when I'm pregnant, I somewhat lose my mind in the process. So first off, my little brother took out his endowments in the Ogden Temple. It was so great to be able to go through with him. He has matured so much over the last year and is going to make such a great missionary.

On October 29th, we celebrated my brother Jeremy's birthday. We went bowling, ate amazing cheeseburgers and fries, and I baked him his favorite, banana cake.

Then of course we have my least favorite holiday, Halloween. I have never liked this holiday. My brother says it's the one holiday where we dress our children up like demons and devils and teach them to beg. Anyway, I do have pictures of Nyah in her cute princess dress though. I'm surprised she kept it on because when I went to get her dressed, she kicked and screamed and did not want to put it on. A great way to start the night! The first stop was at Grandma Herman's house for some trick-or-treating and then my mom took her to a couple houses on the street. Then we had the long awaited trunk-or-treat. It was cold outside so they just lined all of the adults up with their candy and had the kids walk from person to person. She wasn't sure what to think about it at first but once they started giving her candy she was good to go!

A couple days after Halloween, it started to snow and was beautifull!! So, I decided to be creative and make a gingerbread house from scratch. Usually my mom, grandma, and I make smaller ones and they take us about 3 days. Well I wanted to go all out so I drove around Evanston and took pictures of old houses and made a pattern for a gingerbread mansion. Instead of the usual double batch, we had to 7 times it. Needless to say, it took me a week to finish but it was a lot of fun and turned out really cute!!

This last Sunday was my little brother's farewell. He is going to the Cherry Hill New Jersey Mission. So, Saturday night I stayed up with him til about 4:30 a.m. to help him write his talk and then Sunday after the farewell we had a dinner so it was a fun day. All of our family came up so we had an all night, all day party. We stayed up and played games, had a ton of food, and just enjoyed each other's company. I truly love my family. Next up, having our second little girl!!