One year ago...

Yesterday marks one year since we had our stillborn baby girl. We decided to spend a fun day together as a family. No batteries for the camera, so this will be a picture-less post. We took the kids to Washington Park in Portland. It was lots of fun.

We drove around a bit first, which was nice. We walked down close to the amphitheater and Will showed the boys how the sound carries from the stage. Then we found a gigantic play structure I didn't even know was there and let the kids play for awhile. Afterward, we went to the monument and the kids got to go on the big slide, teeter-totters, and the giant swings. I don't know if the kids were prepared for how big those swings are! Will went the highest. We also told them about the date that Will took me on when we were dating, when we went to the monument and sat there talking while looking over the city. They thought that was a neat story.

We stopped at the store to get some flowers and a balloon for the cometary, picked up some $1 hamburgers for lunch, and then went to Margaret's graveside. We didn't stay long, but we sang her Happy Birthday. It was really nice just spending the day as a family. Will & I even got to go to the temple and to dinner while my mom and sister watched our boys for the evening.

As much as we miss our baby girl, and always will, it is comforting to have the gospel to know we will see her again and be together forever. It was nice to participate in sealings at the temple and to feel how real those blessings are. The last year hasn't been easy, but we have learned and grown so much through it all. This life is just one step on the road of forever. I just feel grateful to be a part of it all.

"Soup"er Dinners

So being pregnant this time has made me not want to cook dinner. Not much sounds very appetizing and my normal cooking brain has left me. One thing we've been enjoying a lot of lately is soup. I haven't made much soup in recent years because one of my children thinks it is a kind of torture to eat it. Lately he hasn't complained near so much, and the experience hasn't been all that bad. In fact, some of these soups have been getting 10 ratings(I have my family rate dinners so I know if it is a good idea to repeat recipes.).

So here are some of those yummy soup recipes we've been eating.

Tomato Soup
Potato Soup
Chili - recipe from a friend(if you want it, just ask)
Chicken Noodle - recipe in Better Home & Garden Cookbook
Hamburger Vegetable Soup - recipe in Better Home & Garden Cookbook
French Onion Soup - recipe in Better Home & Garden Cookbook

I'm sure there are other many delicious soups out their to try, so if you have a good one feel free to pass on the recipe. I have a hard time following recipes to the "T" so adjust them to your liking as I did(most of my alterations were small: more or less of spices I like kind of thing, although for the potato soup I just used milk and cheddar and in smaller quantities than called for and it was still delicious).

Happy soup making!

Halloween & Pumpkin Patch

This post is late, but better late than never. I got to go to the Pumpkin Patch with Roger's class. We had a lot of fun! Here are some pics.

Mom & Allen

Allen in the Hay Maze

Roger looking at animals

Allen with the animals

Roger's Kindergarten class with their Olders

Roger on the hay bales

Peekaboo! It's Allen!

Roger & Allen with his Older

Check this out mom!

He finally found the perfect pumpkin.

Pumpkin carving

Then for Halloween, it was a busy weekend. We started off at Will's work for their Trick or Treating. Then it was off to my parents house for a Halloween/Birthday party for my sister. We had a great weekend. We finished off with the Trunk or Treat at the church. The kids had a great time.

Mom(Humpty Dumpty), Roger(the Volcano), and Allen(Darth Vader)

Trick or Treating at Will's work.