Our friend’s little girl was turning one and we got to help with the party. Jessie did some more face painting, and had a blast, and I got to make the cake. But instead of cake we made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate, so I was in charge of that table and boy was it the hoppin’ place to be! In fact Abbie had so much fun decorating (plus the fact that she only got 1 cookie when some of the other kids had 3 or 4) that she decided that she wanted sugar cookies for her birthday too.
And that was great with me because sugar cookies are the easiest things to make, and only take one hour from start to totally done with the oven off. And because Abbie loves rainbows I made Ramona’s rainbow jello for her too, as a surprise. Now that on the other hand took me all day.
Abbie started off her birthday with orange pancakes. David and Lisa came down to celebrate with us for dinner. Abbie’s choice was White Chicken Chili. I made it in the crockpot this time and added some quinoa to it. Delicious! After dinner Jessie went to mutual, but the rest of us played Rain Dance. It took at little convincing for Lisa to join in, but I think she had fun too.
Next was presents.
And then the cookie decorating.
Neil used his finger to lick the frosting off his cookie first, then he ate it.
Here was the banner I made for Abbie. These are so fun!
Neil loves to play on/by the computer even though he is constantly told, “Not for babies!” Mark caught him this time.
He also loves playing with the kids.
And they love playing with him. Jessie’s new Neil trick was teaching him to scrunch up his nose and make a cheesy face when she says, “Neil, show us your face.” 
Neil has also learned “blak!” complete with the tongue going out and a disgusted look on his face. Mostly he reserves this title for flies and other gross things, but the other night he didn’t like the Sausage, Beans and Rice we were having for dinner and pushed his plate away announcing that the food was “blak!” He had the same appreciation for the cranberries in the muffins we had yesterday morning picking them out and announcing them “blak!”
The 6th of October brought our first snow this year. Actually it was a mixture of rain, sleet, hail and snow and lasted for the better part of the day. Luckily for us this last week has been beautiful again up in the 70’s. I think it was a little reminder to appreciate the warmer days of fall.
Since it was snowing I stayed inside and finished decorating the left over cookies from Abbie’s birthday. That was a fun treat.
Friday night we did some more celebrating and Ken’s family came over and Rachel came down too. There were balloons and presents and general silliness all around.
Neil was so excited for the cake. Grandpa brought it in from the kitchen all glowing and set it on Abbie’s lap and Neil leaned over and blew all the candles out. Luckily even Abbie thought this was funny. So Grandpa returned to the kitchen, lit the candles again and brought it back for take two.
And this time she got to blow them out herself. :-) Time for presents.
On the table in the kitchen Mark designed a domino thing for Abbie to knock down.
After the party it was time for work. And work we did. Two cases of delicious smelling pears. Rachel stayed and helped (thank goodness). Here are our peelers. Doesn’t Rachel look like the perfect chef!
Our bottle stuffer.
And our lids preparers.
The kids were fabulous helpers and I think they were glad to be staying up a little bit late too. Abbie and Jessie wandered off to bed first and Mark followed a bit later. Rachel stuck it out with us, but decided about midnight that she’s probably just sleep here instead of going all the way back home. Two o’clock was the final end to our night. And this is a beautiful sight, 45 quarts.
Ken and I were totally ecstatic when Neil slept in until 8:45 the next morning. What a blessing! Then we were up and going getting everything finished up for Abbie’s baptism. The service was really nice. Ken’s dad gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. He explained how the Holy Ghost is a gift and just like any gift we have a choice to take the gift or refuse the gift. He also talked about how it is the Holy Ghost that actually does the cleansing as we repent and take advantage of Christ’s atonement. Thank you everyone who came and joined us on this special day. We are so proud of you Abbie.
We had taco salad for lunch after the service with all the family and then went to take pictures for David and Lisa’s announcement. This one is my favorite.
