The Best Shower Gift Ever

One of the coolest baby shower gifts I received last February was a free photo shoot of Aspen.
We cashed in on it last weekend on a beautiful crisp, fall day. Aspen loved playing in the leaves in Lexington where the photos were taken.
Maybe one day we'll have a yard with our own leaves, but for now I guess parks and other people's yards will have to do.
Seeing her play in the leaves reminded me of all those years in Oregon my siblings and I would do the same. We also grew huge pumpkins in our garden; ones so big we could climb inside. Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me such wonderful memories!

And thank you Ellen for the beautiful photos!

I'm a geek

Mitt Romney attends church in the same building that we do. The entire time that we've lived out in Arlington I've wondered if we'd ever catch even a small glimpse of him. You know, maybe eating a piece of cake at some ward function, or signing autographs for small children after church, (that's a joke) or just leaving the chapel (we have church at different times). Well, every now and then I would realize that I hadn't spotted him, and that I probably never would (tear). He was most likely traveling across the country on some important business, political or otherwise. Now I am being a little facetious here. I mean, we all know that famous people are still people, whether you see them on t.v. or in real life. However, today as we left church Mr. Romney and his wife were walking across the parking lot to their car. He glanced in our direction as Eric drove through the lot, and Mr. Romney and I made eye contact. Just like that. It was all so sudden! What could I do? I did what any normal, nice person would have done: I waved, and he nodded back. Well now, I do have to admit that I was star-struck, and wondered if Mitt (that's right, we've progressed to first-name status here) thought I was waving to Mitt the celebrity or Mitt the fellow church goer. Either way, I now know that if we leave Arlington, I can finally be at peace in this regard.

The Crawler

Well, my baby can finally crawl. It happened! She is sticking her little tushie in the air and somehow moving about, although I'm not exactly sure how she's doing it.
She'd rather be on her feet than on her knees, so she gets on those toes and then falls to a crawl. Sort of.
She'll get frustrated after a minute or two, but throw something tempting on the floor.....like, an unused diaper.....and bingo! She's off again.
After a while I have to pick her up because I miss holding her. Who wouldn't with that face?

Last year at Hahvahd

Where'd the time go? How is it already Eric's third year at law school? And how is it already the middle of October? And how am I turning 30 in a matter of months? Yikes! Speaking of birthdays, Eric's was yesterday, and it's weird to think that this is his 5th birthday we've celebrated together. Time goes by so fast! I'm really proud of Eric and all his hard work that he's put into the last several years out here. Anyway, we're still unsure of where we'll be after graduation, but I'll post it as soon as we know! Hahvahd's been very good to us.

Visitors

I love this picture of my sisters Demri and Sasha. It was taken in the driveway of the house we grew up in before my dad sold it last year. They had just gone on a grocery run. When I was growing up we lived 20 miles outside of town, and so whenever we went to the store, etc, we would always say "I'm going into town...." This continued when I started college and was actually living in town. My roommates always made fun of me because it took me 5 minutes to get to the store but I would always say, "i'm running into town to go get some groceries....." Some habits never die!
Sasha and Demri are coming to visit in a couple of weeks and I can't wait!

New member of the family

This little beauty isn't mine, but she is my little niece. Ian and Tia have a new little one! They named her Kimber, and I can't wait to meet her (hopefully over Christmas!).

Glacier Time

We spent some time in Glacier National Park in August before coming out to Boston. Eric and I had always wanted to go and we ended up taking a trip with Eric's family. What a beautiful place! Here are some photos from our time there.



I love this hat and I can't remember who made it for Aspen.....

I don't like the basement

The house that we live in is really old, like this guy down here. Don't ask me who he is, I just found his picture online and boy does he look old.
Our basement is dark and damp, and our washer and dryer are down there. It's a trek every time, and when I'm throwing the clothes into the washer I won't look anywhere but at the washer! I'm sure there's rats running wild having a party fest. The light is located at the top of the stairs, and it has a timer on it. One time last year Eric and I were doing laundry and we didn't put enough time on the timer and pop! The light went off and there we were, stuck in the clammy abyss that was the basement. I'm sure I stifled a scream, while Eric felt along the walls to the stairs (ick, a thousand times ick!). We eventually made it up the stairs and to the safety of our apartment, thank goodness!
I learned a lot from that experience. Mainly to set the timer at 60 minutes just for the sake of being on the safe side (like I'm really going to just decided to "hang out" down there....). I also learned that when necessary, you can get through any kind of trial. Most importantly, I learned that your life can flash in front of your eyes even in the dark. Alright I'm being ridiculous, but c'mon! I can't go through something like that and not tell about it!