Luci is going through a phase where she says exactly what is on her mind. Here are a few recent examples:

Last Thursday Luci had an accident and was complaining that her pee pee hurt. Just as we were finished changing her clothes, the missionaries arrived for dinner. Luci immediately went up to the one of the missionaries and informed her that she had a sore pee pee. The missionary just looked at her confused, and Luci continued to repeat herself even louder. Luckily Kirk was close by and ended the conversation by saying "but it's getting better."

On Saturday I was at Walmart with Luci, when an African American man walked by. Luci pointed right at him and loudly stated "That boy has black skin." Luckily he didn't seem upset about it but just awkwardly laughed as he walked off.

On Sunday Kirk was putting a tie on for church and Luci asked, "Is that the tie we gave you?". Kirk, thinking she was talking about the one we gave him for Father's day, said "No, but I'll go get that one." As he was walking back to our room Luci shouted, "No, it's under the tree." She then proceeded to get his wrapped tie and give it to him. So, Kirk got a Christmas present early.

I have found that Luci is not very shy, which is quite a contrast to me. She will talk to adults and tell them exactly what she wants or what is on her mind. About a month or two ago we went out to dinner as a family. The waitress asked Kirk and I what we would like to drink and we both replied that we'll just have a water. Immediately after Luci looked straight at the waitress and said, "and I'll just have a milk".

Luci is very smart and good with her letters. She has known how to spell her name for quite a while and is starting to write the letters. Because we spell her name with an i, it is often misspelled by others. In nursery on Sunday her teacher wrote her name on her picture spelling it with a y. Luci quickly informed her that she spells it with an i and the teacher made the change.

I love being a mom and watching Luci grow and learn new things everyday. Motherhood brings many joys and is well worth the hardships of it (she is asleep right now). I am so excited to have another baby! Our failed attempts to add to our family in the past have caused me to really appreciate the gift of procreation. I feel so blessed to have Luci and to have made it this far into my pregnancy. I look forward to meeting the next member of our family.

Thanksgiving and DC

We had a really nice Thanksgiving Break. Kirk had the week off, so we thought it would be a great time to head down to the Temple (The DC temple is our Temple). We left Monday morning and arrived in the afternoon. Luci did surprisingly well on the drive. She slept most of the way, but was up until midnight as a result. When we got there we headed down to the metro and road that to the Mall. There is so much to see in DC and a ton of museums that are all free. We decided to go to the Museum of Natural History. For those of you who have seen the second Night at the Museum, that's the one. Luci had a lot of fun running around and seeing the different displays they have. The place is huge, they everything from butterflies to rare gems and ocean life. After we got out it was raining and dark and rush hour. Riding the metro back was not as pleasant as riding it there. We were soaking wet and had to stand the whole way. The metro isn't as patient as Trax is. I went to get on and the doors slammed shut right on me. For those of you planning to ride it sometime in the future, just know that they don't reopen after they slam shut on you. So I had to push them open enough to squeeze my way back out. Uhg!
The next day we headed off to the Temple. The DC temple is big and beautiful. It reminds me a lot of the San Diego Temple because it just pops out in front of you as you are driving down the free way. We spent most of the day at the Temple. Kirk and I each took turns watching Luci while the other one went in. By the time we were both done, it took about five and a half hours. Luckily they have a really nice visitors center and Luci was really good. Our drive home was crazy. We had my Dad's GPS, and decided to have it lead us on the shortest distance home. It ended up taking us off the freeway and onto windy death roads. To add to the danger it was dark, raining, and extremely foggy. It took us five hours, but we finally made it home safely.

Thanksgiving day was also very nice. A family from our ward invited us over to their house for dinner. They also had another family from our ward come who brought 2 friends, and the missionaries who brought two investigators. It turned out to be a good sized crowd. Luci only at a roll and then ran off to play. Not surprisingly, when the deserts were brought out, she sampled a slice of every pie!

There are so many nice people out here that have welcomed us into their homes and treated us like family. It has made living far away from family easier. (Don't worry family, we still love and miss you guys a ton!)


This is about the only picture we took on Thanksgiving. Well, Kirk did take one of me wearing a chef hat and cooking, but I didn't want to put that one on here :). These are all of the kids watching a movie after the dinner.

The DC Temple

At the museum we watched a short video on evolution (mainly because I needed to sit down really bad and that was the only spot). Luci had fun sitting by one of her "prehistoric ancestors".

On the Metro. Luci loved it!

Here is the most updated picture of my pregnancy, 23 weeks. Luci loves pretending that she has a baby in her belly and wanted hers in the picture too.

Saturday we spent the day in Pittsburgh. Our main intention in going there was to get new tires for Kirk's bike at the REI (his were stolen about 2 months ago). Since we had made the three hour trip, we wanted to make it worth the drive. So, after getting the tires we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed off to find the Children's Museum. Luckily we still have my Dad's GPS and it wasn't hard finding the general location. The hard part was finding parking and then figuring out how to get there from where we parked. We eventually had to ask someone how to get there.
The Children's Museum was a fun place with lots of little areas for Luci to play in. The ridiculous part was that they charged Kirk, Luci and I full price ($11 a person). To add to the excitement Luci pooped and we didn't have any spare diapers with us. Because the museum was going to close in a half hour we didn't want to waste any of our precious time and continued dragging her around, fumes and all. All in all in was fun, we just wished we had more than an hour to explore. It might have actually been worth the price.

A Giant Lite Bright!
Kirk was enjoying it more than Luci.

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

Luci had no idea what everything was and didn't like this area as much.

Making Paper

Sand Art
Luci could do this for hours.

Every Halloween I try to make a fun Halloween themed dinner. It isn't usually much, you just need to use your imagination. This year we had monster fingers that could be dipped in blood (breadsticks with slivered almond fingernails and pizza sauce) headless hens (just that . . . obviously they have no head), mashed mummy brains (mashed potatoes) and the scariest of all (at least for Luci) a really healthy salad topped with heart halves (sliced tomatoes). It turned out fun, but I think it will probably be funner as our family grows and gets more excited about it. Luci actually thought I was serious about what I was serving and was a little scared to eat it. So I had to spoil the fun and tell her what they really were.




Luci had two Halloween costumes this year. On Thursday we went trick or treating at the mall and she was a garden fairy. I even made her a wand out of a wooden spoon, but she didn't want to carry it. On Saturday we were cleaning out her closet and found a Cinderella dress and she decided she wanted to be that for trick or treating. It's fun getting her all dressed up, but a lot of work.

It is, of course, tradition that we carve pumpkins for Halloween. I would probably feel like I missed out on the Halloween spirit if I didn't. However, I realized that I made a mistake by getting three pumpkins. I thought that it would be fun to let Luci have her own pumpkin. I guess I didn't take into consideration that I would be gutting and carving both hers and mine. I also made the mistake of using one of those paper stencils of a witch on Luci's pumpkin. It took me a half hour just to punch out the stencil and another ten minutes to trace it onto the pumpkin. Then, as I began to carve it, the marker started smearing everywhere. Apparently it was a washable marker . . . why would they include a washable marker in the kit if they knew that pumpkins are wet and gooey? (not to mention your hand rubs all over the pumpkin while you are carving) So, needless to say, I was free handing after the first minute. By the time I finished Luci's I did not feel like carving mine at all. But, since I had already spent five dollars on it, I figured I better not waste it. Hopefully I created a nice childhood memory for Luci, otherwise I am not sure it was worth it. Next year, I am not getting a pumpkin for me :)

So this picture might have just made it all worth it. I told Luci to make a witch face and this is what she did.



These are our finished pumpkins. It's not the greatest picture, so it's hard to see all the fine lines and details I carved in Luci's. Leave it to Kirk to have the most perfect looking pumpkin.

Kirk's Haunted House



My Haunted House


Luci's Haunted House




For a festive family activity we made edible haunted houses. I decided that this is a lot less stressful than making gingerbread houses . . . . they can be jagged and ugly and still look like haunted houses. Plus, we used good frosting and yummy candy, making them truly edible. When we finished we took a picture then ate them all up.