Rain!

Well, today is a rainy day. It's nice but sad because our Trunk-or-Treat will have to be in the church tonight instead of outside. Other than that the weather has been really nice. We actually have gotten down into the 30's at night a few times-setting records for the 'cold' temperature. The leaves are finally starting to turn colors; I began to think it wasn't going to happen! But it is, of course.

This week has been crazy because Karen and I have hardly seen Joe. Tuesday he was at Cub Scouts, Wednesday was Home Teaching, Thursday and Friday he's been at a conferene for School (in the city, but gone all evening). And now tonight's Trunk-or-Treat, which should be fun. We'll take pics of Karen in her cute outfit and put them up next Friday.

As nothing is 'official' about our trip to Utah in December, you didn't hear any of this from me. However, we are tentatively planning on flying into SLC on the 19th or so and being around for a couple of days before going on to Portland. When it's official and plane tickets are purchased, I'll say more... but it will be nice to see the mountains again if it all works out, not to mention all the friends and family! None of y'all out there have even met Karen yet!

Hope everyone has a good Halloween weekend and all that!

Update

This week has been fast but slow...I've been 'reading' a book on CD this week that's way long (as in 20 CD's) and it has taken forever, but I have to finish it so I can take it back to the library. However, the book is pretty good and as a result I have been not-so-good at multitasking. So, I have spent a lot of time sitting by the computer with Karen listening to the book. While the book is good I haven't gotten much else done this week, so it's felt crazy even though it really hasn't been. Also this week we've been working on our travel plans for the holidays. Originally we were going to be spending Thanksgiving here in Charlotte, but now we're going to Indiana with Joe's family because we want to meet Kathleen, Danny's girlfriend (and maybe more?). So in addition to the Thanksgiving trip we may also be stopping in Utah thanks to said cute Kathleen person, as well as going to Portland around Christmas time. We'll see how all of that works out; nothing in December is final yet.

Midterms continue at UNCC, and Joe is doing well but going nuts. The midterms are all stretched out over 2-3 weeks, which is nuts but any closer together and I think the students might all die. Several of them have pulled all-nighters multiple times this week. Also going on this weekend: we're having a family over to make Halloween cookies on Saturday. It's the Larson family that we spent Conference Sunday with; their two little girls are so cute! That should be really fun. Next Friday is Trunk-or-Treat and Karen is going as a flower. Her costume is way cute, I'll be sure to put pictures up in the next couple of weeks. That's about all for this week. Hope all is going well in the fall for ya'll!

This picture is for Danny. It's Karen's first time eating Sweet Potatoes. She thought they were okay. This is Joe's favorite one of Karen's bibs!

Update

This week has been slow and crazy at the same time. I think that's mostly because I've been listening to a book on CD that was forever long, and pretty much just vegging out while I was listening. Maybe I've just lost some of my multitasking abilities or something. Anyway, some developments have occured in our holiday plans. We were going to be staying here for Thanksgiving, but instead we're going to Indiana to be with Joe's family and meet Kathleen, Danny's girlfriend (and maybe more than that). Also, because of said cute-girl Kathleen, we may be making an unexpected stop in Utah sometime in December either before or after Christmas, instead of just going to Portland with my fam. None of that is close to being final yet, but I would love to come "home" for a day or two in any case.

Other than that, we're continuing the whole midterm thing-Joe has one more test and a 25 pg. paper still to finish. It's not fun how they drag it out, but I don't know if he could handle it if it was scrunched together any more. Let's see... oh yes. Tomorrow we're having a family in the ward come over and make Halloween cookies with us. It's the Larsen's that we spent Conference Sunday with, and their two little girls are adorable. It should be fun. Next Friday is Trunk-or-Treat, and we got a cute costume for Karen-she's going to be a flower. It's way cute and I'll be sure to put pics up next week or the week after. Other than that, things are just going. Hope everyone's having a good fall time!
Just for Danny, here's a picture of Karen eating Sweet Potatoes for the first time about a week and a half ago. I was supposed to put it up last week but I forgot. The bib she's wearing is Joe's favorite, of course!

Huge Baby!

Well, since Joe was on Fall Break on Monday and Tuesday we decided to go shopping. Monday we went to the mall and looked at lots of things that we didn't buy-we seem to do that a lot. On Tuesday we went to Target and bought a new bathroom scale, since ours died in the move. Not that I really wanted to know how much I weigh, you understand. It's just that Karen hasn't been weighed since just after the 4th of July, and we really wanted to know how much she weighs. Well, it turns out that the kid weighs 17 1/2 lbs., which is really a lot for someone only 4 1/2 months old. As you can see from the pictures we took this week, she's not really fat or anything though. She's also 25 3/4 in. long. Since birth Karen has gained about 10 pounds and gotten almost 6 inches longer. She is a big cutie, and no mistake!

The rest of the week was fairly boring. There's a NASCAR race this weekend (actually one tonight and one tomorrow) and a big Country concert on Sunday, so we're trying to keep a low profile with the tons of extra people in town. Joe is doing midterm stuff and is really busy with school in general, of course. He also got called to be in the Cub Scouts (webelos), which will keep him even more busy. I finally got a Visiting Teaching list this week, so I can do that now too!

Thanks to all who check out our blog, and especially Nancy who always comments!

Karen Plays

This last week Karen has started really playing with things; anything from toys to diapers to hair, or anything she can get her hands on. It can be cute but also a pain since her 'playing' is really just putting anything within reach into her mouth. Her food this week is peaches, which she seems to like less than the peas and the pears which she had before. She always makes a face like "whoa, what's going on here?" but then eats lots of them anyway.

Conference last week was really good; we watched/heard the sessions in different places each time. Sat. Morning we went to a church, where it was basically us and the missionaries (like 10 of them). Sat. afternoon we went to Seth and Kirsten Higginson's (and baby Autumn). Sun. morning we went to Gary and Mindy Larson (and Maggie and Sophie), after which we went for a nice walk and I got really bad blisters on my feet because I was wearing bad sandals. Sun. afternoon we didn't get to see because Karen was tired of being away from home, so we just went home and sat around. It turned out to be a good thing though because she pooped all over the place just at the time the session was getting over, so it was good to be at home for that.

Other than that... this weekend is Fall Break, which is nice. After BYU we're not used to having any breaks during the semester. This is only Monday and Tuesday, but it'll be nice to have a couple days where we can catch up on sleep a bit and Karen can have some extra Daddy time.

Last thing of note: we get to be back in our 'normal' building for church starting Sunday. It's supposedly the regular building for our ward, but we've never been inside it. So, if any of you are planning to call us ever, we will now be in church from 11-2 Eastern Standard Time. To end, here are some cute Karen pics.