Pumpkin Carving Contest

Matt and his family have an annual halloween carving contest. They take it really pretty seriously (but not as seriously as the Gingerbread House contest). Here are some fun pics from the night. We lost to Matt's dad. Who had a pumpkin shape inspired design (its the one with the thong and tattoo).

Club

I screwed up on the club date! All friends please check the club blog! So sorry!!!

Conference Weekend

Matt and I had a wonderful conference weekend. It was really laid back and for once not totally busy. At the end of the morning session we decided to make crepes, which were AMAZING and we ate way too many of them! Our favorite ones are always with Nutella!

My mom and I had a girl’s night while the boys went to the priesthood session. We went to dinner and we seriously stood in line at rod works for 1 hour and 10 minutes, to get some killer deals, I have to add. They had a girl’s night out sale, and it was good!

On Sunday we went up to conference, for the second session. It was great to be there and feel the amazing spirit. My dad of course could not resist talking back to the protesters, thank goodness he was not mean, but if you know my dad, he could not keep his mouth shut.

My favorite thing about being up at conference was when the congregation sang with the choir, not only were we singing the same song, at the same time, in the same room with The Prophet, but it was so loud and just sounded like a choirs of angles!! We are thankful for the wonderful experience we had. We really had a great weekend.

Baby Victory!

Matt and I are the proud new Aunt and Uncle of baby Victory!! She is so adorable. He dad has been serving our country in Afghanistan, and arrived home last Thursday, his little girl waited for her dad and broke her mom's water Friday night, then came to us Saturday morning (after 15 hours of labor)! We are so happy her dad made it home and everything went well! She is such a cutie!

A Romanitc Anniversary!!

Well, I have to say my husband is absolutely AMAZING! He was in charge of planning our anniversary this year and he did a wonderful job. Our 4 year anniversary was on August 27, (I know this post is a little late). That was Labor day weekend, so I had school off on Monday. Matt told me that I needed to take off Tuesday and Wednesday for our "anniversary get away". I hesitated taking off school so early in the year, but he assured me that it would be worth it.

Saturday morning we set off for Italy!! (Totally worth it)! I could not even believe it!

Our trip started off with me insisting we washed the dogs before we left (because they would be very stinky when we got home), therefore causing us to be running a little late, causing Matt to speed and get a ticket, therefore causing us to miss our flight to Rome! Oops! Instead we ended up taking a flight into Venice and I am so glad! It was very romantic and just so beautiful! We were able to go on a gondola ride and see the magical city on the water! We then took a train down to Rome! Most of you probably don't know, but I teach ancient Rome for Social Studies, so Rome is somewhere I have really been dying to go. It was so neat to see the Coliseum and the old Roman forum. It was crazy to think about how old everything was and how many historical events had happened right where we were standing.

Just like our Paris trip I enjoyed the food again (the food in Europe is really amazing). I started every morning off with a chocolate filled croissant, ate Pizza at least one a day (heck, we were in Italy), amazing pasta on a steet ouside with candles listening to live music, and last but not least a lot of gelatos (even ones with nutella).

It was truly a dream come true! We had an amazing time! (We did miss our travel buddies, the Woolfords!)

Say Eight!

Happy Birthday Matty!! As part of Matt's Birthday presents, he got Brian Regan tickets!! Matt and Riley both LOVE Brian Regan. Kandas and I got the tickets, secretly, for the boys and surprised them at different times. We had so much fun. We laughed so hard. It was a great night.

Paris

Paris, Belguim, and Holland were amazing!! They were even better than I imagained. What beautiful places! Kandas gave a wonderful summary on her blog of everything that we did, so there is really no need for me to repeat it (thanks Kabes). I will just mention a few things. It was so much fun for Matt and me to eat with people from Sister and Elder Birch's missions and see what an impact they had on the over there. You can tell they really changed lives and are really loved. It was fun to experience there culture by eating with them and being in their homes. We would have never had that experience if we just traveled there on our own.


The trip started off great! It was fun to see New York again, I have never been before this summer, and now I have been there 2 times in 2 weeks, I felt a little spoiled. First Class was amazing!! Really amazing, I have had in on domestic flights, but it was nothing like this. It was really fun to watch our friends reactions, when they kept feeding us and waiting on us like royalty. We had such a great time though out the entire trip. We ran the entire time, living on an average of four hours of sleep a night. It was great to see some many beautiful places and meet so many great people. The food was also amazing!! Thanks to the food, I do have a few new "loves" in my life. They include: Nutella, Paul (which I will name one of my children after, it was that good, jk), Kinder, Fries, oh the fries, Pizza, Baguettes, and so much more. I tried to make a list in order of my favorites and I could not even do it.

I am not going to write anymore. When I get home from vacations, I just love to look at the pictures, I think they tell the story. Just watch the slide show and you will see all of our adventures. I would like to thank our travel buddies for the most amazing trip. Kandas thanks for organizing everything, leading us around, and just being the fun ,cute girl you are. Birchy thanks for the best fries in the world and for some of the funniest moments on the trip. Ri thanks for falling behind the crowd with me, therefore leaving plenty of opportunity to discuss Paul and all of the other yummy foods. Matty thank for being the best Hubby I could ever ask for and treating far better than I deserve. Thank you for working so hard to provide these experiences for me, and thanks for loving to fly, so the experiences are a lot cheaper. I love you Matt and I love you travel buddies. I would like to end with one final word "Charlie". It is a good story ask any of us about it.

P.S. Soldes rocked!!