Halloween Happenings

 To kick off Halloween spirit this year I got crafty, this does not happen often. I went to a craft night at a ward members house Kim Carrol and made these cute decorations. An organized event is the only way to get me to craft; where all the materials are provided and instruction is available!! My crafts were NOT perfect, but I had fun making them and being out with girls 

 Other celebrations included a pumpkin carving extravaganza with our pals the Grants and their kiddos, Jackson, Parker and Davis and guests Kingston and London.

 Meet the happy couple RS President Jaime and husband Jason . wink. They are fabulous. We have good times with the Grants.

Here is Barry at the height of his festivity-ness (it was fast fading). He wanted to use all power tools to make his pumpkin and that he did.

 

Mine on the other hand, involved a tad more patients and detail. She was called "lady in distress"

 Jason Grant went a different route with his pumpkin, he sculpted. So artsy.

 Then there was the Cooley station 1st annual Fall Festival. Held for all of the surrounding neighborhoods. ALL were invited. .It was intended to be a missionary tool. We had a good turn out!! That day I also made Posse Stew (no one from these parts knows what it is, kina funny) and rolls (which for the first time ever turned out like Moms. yeeees!)  I aslo make a pumpkin cheese cake for the cake walk!

 The Relief Society was in charge of a Cake walk and I sorta headed it up. I went to some work making these cute spooky, Kooky numbers that we stuck in the ground in a big circle. It was pretty cute.

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I threw together a last min costume. I was Flo from the progressive commercials (not gonna lie I wasn't that creative, I had seen one of my girl friends do it before, thanks Steph) I didn't get a good picture cuz Barry to say the least was being a bum and didn't go...

Mrs. Potato head and rest of the toy story gang.

TIME OUT!

 October 15th and 16th I went to "Time Out for Women" with my Relief Society Presidency and a few other girls from our ward. I had never been to one of these conferences before. If you have never been, it is basically a huge organized 2-day conference dedicated entirely to uplifting women! Time Out includes lots of awesome guest speakers like Sherri Dew intertwined with fabulous musical numbers. I loved it! This years theme was Infinite Hope. I left feeling humbled and grateful for how much I have. I also was motivated to rededicate my self to being holy, and measuring my success on the Lords standard instead of what the world tell us is success. I want to rejoice in others women accomplishment and know that I have my own special journey here that I am on.

It was wonderful to just be with the girls and feel sisterhood. I enjoyed myself and would like to go again.

If I knew you were coming I'd-a baked a cake

 Okay, okay so I am a tiny bit proud of this cake I made. I love German chocolate cake! I think it turned out fabulous and it was for a good cause so happy all around. I was able to donate this cake to a fund raiser for a teenager girl battling cancer. I am certainly going to make this one again but next time I am going to start a lot earlier (this one kept me up till 2:00am)

Fall

Last weekend Barry and I went to Pinetop Az again. Its becoming a favorite place to visit for a number of reasons. Tami my sister, husband Ryne and baby boy Blake live there along with Barry's Brother Trent and his whole family. We also love the weather and scenery there right now. Crisp, cool, refreshing, mountains, pine trees and stars in the night sky. Its a nice escape from the dull season changes of Gilbert.

This particular weekend was special because Trents Daughter Sydney was baptized by her Uncle Barry. What a great event to attend. It was special to see Sydney enter the waters of baptism. Barry did a great job performing the baptism. Barry's mom gave a great talk and Rustin gave a very special confirmation blessing.  The pizza and games that came after were very entertaining as well. Congratulations Sydney.

We also had fun spending time with Tami, Ryne and baby Blake. Tami my sweet little sis is always game for doing fun random activities and makes life so fun. From the moment we walked in their house it was Fall time. From the sent in the air to the fall decorations to the food we ate. She planned a gourmet caramel apple treat activity. 

 Barry participated by finishing off all the toppings. No, seriously. Tami offered him the last of the vanilla ice cream (a small scoop) and he then proceeded to load it up with every topping we had. He was "a little sugared out" for the rest of the week end to say the least. silly boy.

 The next moring Tami made pumkin french toast (delish)

We had fun loving on Blake.

Labor Day Weekend

Over labor day Barry and I headed up to Pinetop, Az. to see Tami, Ryne and sweet baby Blake for his blessing. It was great to see family and be out of the heat and...Tami made cafe Rio sweet pork tacos which was worth the trip alone. wink. We spent the night with Tami and Ryne where we took a stroll in their back yard, watched Americas funniest home videos, ate some razzelberry pie and played games. Then Monday Barry and I got our hike on!! We headed out for Strawberry to hike to Fossil Springs. Barry had hiked it before awhile ago and all he could remember is that all these girls were about to die of dehydration and Barry was determined to NOT be dehydrated and LOADED up a big hiker pack FULL of waters and gateraids and all our snacks, camera etc. I swear it was 100 lbs. So off we go down the 5 miles to the bottom. Of course down was an easy hike. It was so refreshing to be out in the mountain air, see the pretty views and get some exercise. I really enjoyed the hike. It was so pretty when we got to the bottom with all the green, big trees and running water. The water fall was great. The water was freezing though. We did get in the water but not much swimming went on for us. There was quite the crowd of people that kept us entertained.  So we spend a few hours at the bottom and then headed back UP the mountain.  UP took us (Barry) a little longer.  He has a bad knee and 100 extra pounds still even after drinking a lot of water. So I carried up a 10 pack of Gateraid, which is not that light after 1 mile or two, to help ease his burden. After a lot of sweating and breaks Barry make it out alive and I was proud of him. When we got to the top all he could say was where  is the truck, lets get to the truck and then once we were in the truck he said "lets not do that again fore a while!!" We hit up Arby's for some beef and cheddar's and went home. I like it a lot and would do it again soon. Barry needs a new knee and then we can go more often, so he says.