Halloween

This year for Halloween, Nicole decided she wanted to be a ballerina. Lisa got to work right away on some ballerina slippers. She has been attending a weekly knitting group and made these awesome slippers for Nicole.

Here are some of Nicoli's poses.

Vanessa decided to be "Rapunzel, but not with blonde hair, with brown hair". Lisa braided a super long yarn extension, which Vanessa had to wear over her shoulder. She was pretty excited about her hair. She was mistaken for Princess Leia more than once throughout the night.

Here are the girls right before going trick-or-treating.

This was one of the first houses we came upon. Trick-or-treating didn't seem as fun to the girls after this. We had to pump them up again for the next few houses.

We also came across this beauty. I don't know if you can see very well, but that is a huge smoker on the back. Sweet ride!

The girls were also pleasantly surprised this Saturday when I brought this home. We're still debating whether we are going to leave them as bunkbeds or separate them into two twin beds (Lisa is really nervous).

Fall has been awesome this year. Here is a shot of our favorite tree on the street.

And last, but not least, here are a few quotes from the girls:

During our family home evening this week...

We were singing "Choose The Right", and when we got to the chorus, this is what we heard.

Vanessa: Choose the right, not the left.

On our way home from church...

Vanessa was touting her unselfishness by telling us that she enjoys giving presents more than opening them herself. This was Nicole's response.

Nicole: No, I like to open presents..I open it, and look, it's a diamond! You want to see it?

Cast Not Away Thy Confidence

I heard a talk about 4 years ago by Elder Holland titled Cast Not Away Thy Confidence. It was applicable then, but seems even more applicable now. When we were trying to decide what schools to apply to we were praying about it and attending the temple to seek guidance. I attended the national conference for marriage and family therapists and met with faculty from various MFT programs in order to narrow down my decision. At that time, Texas Tech wasn't really even on my radar, but I felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity and calmness when I met with their faculty and students. I took this as an indication that I needed to apply here.

After applications and interviews, we were extended two offers (here and University of Georgia). Again we prayed and deliberated and felt that Tech would be the best place for us. Since then, we have had that answer confirmed in many ways, but also challenged in other ways (mainly with regard to Nicole's needs). There have been many times when getting things set up for her medically seemed to be and uphill battle. At those times, it was hard not to question some of the impressions we felt about moving here.

However, today we learned once again that the Lord continues to lead us to where we need to be. We met with an orthopedic surgeon to assess Nicole's knees and feet. As some of you may know, we deeply trust and respect the doctor who operated on Nicole's feet in Utah (Dr. Stotts). When we left Utah, he suggested that we perform a more cutting edge, less invasive, procedure on Nicole's knees. This procedure was developed at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake, and Dr. Stotts said we might have difficulty finding a surgeon who believed in this procedure.

As it turns out, the surgeon we met with today is a friend of Dr. Stotts, and considers himself a "disciple" of this new procedure. He has already performed it on many kids about Nicole's age, some of whom also have dwarfism. He also has a lot of experience with club feet and will be able to perform some key follow up procedures on her feet. Even more importantly, we both felt very comfortable with his approach and trust his recommendations.

I know that even after our prayers are confirmed, we can experience trials which may tempt us to cast away the confidence we have in the decisions we make. I'm thankful that we have been blessed to have the strength to get past those trials and have our testimonies strengthened as a result.

Oh, and here are some pictures of us painting our pumpkins:

Drive-In and Arts & Garden Festival

Friday night we decided to check out the local drive-in. I guess I'd never been to a real drive-in before, so I was surpised that it included a diner and playground! The girls had a blast playing around on the toys while the sun set (which was an awesome site). Then, we opened up the back of the van, got our snacks ready, and were treated to a contraception commercial as part of the previews. I thought that was kinda weird. Anyway, then we watched...

It was a great movie and I highly recommend it!

Here's a before the movie shot. The girls got more excited than they look here.

Today we decided to go to the arboretum, and again were pleasantly surprised to find out that they were having the annual arts and garden festival. There were a lot of local art/crafts type venders showing off their stuff as well as some awesome food. We ate some true pumpkin pie and got to watch some local dancers doing ballet and tap. The girls loved that part! Some students from Tech were also there doing a lot of free stuff for the kids. They took this picture of us and were amazingly successful at getting Nicole to not only look at the camera, but also smile!

My Visit with Angelene

As a Mother's Day/birthday present this year, Matt took one of my vocalized dreams and turned it into a reality. He bought me a plane ticket to visit my sister, Angelene, in Maryland, while he took care of our girls for a week. I was pleasantly overwhelmed with the thought that I could spend a whole week, one-on-one with one of my sisters, in a truly fascinating, historical, and wonderful area of the country. I think Angelene enjoyed it a little, too!

In the following posts I shared our daily excursions, which don't quite do the trip justice, but give you some idea what we were up to. Each night after our adventures, we would come back and enjoy delicious fruits and vegetables, eauropean chocolate, and would stay up until our eyelids begged for mercy as we chatted about anything and everything sisters talk about!

Thursday: Washington, D.C. Temple

Angelene's stake (Church district over several wards or congregations) has an annual temple day where members try to attend as much of the day as possible in the temple, doing temple work. Since I came out the week of this event, Matt and Angelene arranged it so I could attend that day with her. My sister, Jeanette, even provided some family names for us to do to make the day personally special.


This is our greeting view first thing in the morning.


And this was our view at the end of the day. Such a beautiful temple! It's hard to put into words, but truly an amazing experience!

Friday: C & O Canal/Silver Spring

With travel on Wednesday and temple work Thursday, we took Friday at a leisurely pace.

We went to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal to see the restored canal boat pulled by mules,
walk alongside the lift locks that helped the canal boats move along the canal,



And see the beautiful Great Falls.

Later that day we went out to dinner with friends in Silver Spring, Maryland. While we waited for our seats at the Maccaroni Grill, we were entertained by the local outside musical performances and the children playing in the water fountain. It was such a perfect day for relaxing and chatting.

Saturday--Inner Harbor, Baltimore

Saturday we set out for Baltimore and Fort McHenry.

Fort McHenry is the site of the famous battle that inspired Francis Scott Key's poetic anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." We got to help hold a modern replica of that banner as part of a special event day at the fort. Included in the event was the shooting of the cannons and actors in period costume showing the daily life in the fort.

They've preserved the set-up of the fort as much as possible by adding period clothing, belongings. It is amazing how much has been retained, considering that this fort was also utilized in the Civil War and 1st World War.

The soldiers' view...

The flag gracing the fort

Next we toured the U.S.S. Constellation, a civil war ship that fought against slave-ship practices. We even helped "hoist the mast."

After wandering around the outside sights of Inner Harbor, we caught this view.