Time Out for Women

A few weeks ago I had the chance to have my mom and sister Emily come out for a few days. We headed down to Cincinnati to participate in the Time Out for Women conference that they had (or "three cheers for women" as my uncle called it!). We met up with my aunt Aleta, my aunt Jaimee, and my Grandma Despain. It was so much fun to spend the weekend together and hear some uplifting talks and music! It was Emily's 18th birthday and she was able to have Michael McLean sing to her! :)
The weekend went way to fast and it was hard to say goodbye's but I am glad that we were able to spend a few days together! Thanks everyone for coming out so we could spend a few days with each other!

Our Weekend

We had a very  fun and exciting weekend.
It started on Friday with a Murder Mystery Party at a friends house. The theme was "Murder under the big top." Darrin was assigned  to be Robert Flyer- a trapeze catcher and I was assigned to be Edna Extravagant- a circus performer (I was the fortune teller). We enjoyed dinner and mingling with our "circus friends" at one last party before the circus headed to another state. While at the party there was a murder so it was left to us to figure out what happened and who did it. It was an enjoyable evening. We are so grateful to have so many wonderful friends and neighbors out here! (I don't have a picture of all the men in the group but their costumes were great also!)












Saturday morning was spent with some ward members doing a service project that was sponsored by our city. We were able to help stuff trauma dolls for the local hospitals to give to children who come in and are hurt. The children are able to color the dolls and take the dolls with them to get X-Rays, etc.

We then headed to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins for Halloween. We went out to Young's Dairy where we took a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch and walked through hundreds of pumpkins to find the right ones. We found our pumpkins, hopped back on the wagon and headed over the dairy to enjoy some of their famous ice cream and shakes.

Family Night Dinner

 Darrin and I have a date night jar where we pick an activity to do for our date nights. They are usually free or very inexpensive dates (perfect for a law student budget!) and some are very random! We sometimes pick from the jar for family night activities if our weekends are full. This happens to be a weekend where we have other things planned so for family night we chose an activity.

The little paper said: "Put garbage sacks on the floor and eat spaghetti dinner with your hands"
So...that is exactly what we did tonight!  It was entertaining and a little messy but it was sure fun!

What we have been up to!

Our life the last few weeks:

• Camping- Darrin has been camping for the last 2 weekends and is going again this weekend. He has had a ward campout with his scouts and this weekend has a stake campout. Last weekend we were able to enjoy camping with our friends. We had a great time talking and laughing around the campfire!

 (Yes this is our tent...it sleeps 9 and comes with a porch....we set it up inside our apartment when we got       back to let it dry out-it took up our living and dining room...)

• Crafting- I have been able to do lots of fun crafts and start a scrapbook for our little one since I only work in the mornings (some of my crafts were done while I was at work waiting for my little students to show up in the early hours of the morning!)
  

• We have also enjoyed walks around the park here. The leaves are starting to turn colors and the temperature has been perfect! 
• And of course we are staying busy with work and school. Darrin is staying busy with reading for all of his classes. He is almost half way done with law school!! 
• We are also looking forward to the arrival of our little one soon! Only 8 weeks left!!!

Family Night Activity

So, for our family night activity Darrin and I had an airplane making and flying contest. We each picked a model to make and then we flew them down the hallway in our apartment. (Too bad it was raining, we needed more room to fly them!)

The first model we made was "The Dart." We struggled with this one. It wouldn't fly very far. It usually just ended up going in spirals.

The second model we made was "The Moth." This was by far the best airplane! It flew the longest distance!



(The Dart is on the left, The Moth is on the right)

                                                 "The Moth" Airplane!

Crib!

We finally ordered a crib (after looking for months and waiting for good deals)! With the crib here it was finally time to unpack boxes from the second bedroom and get the room ready for a little baby! We spent Friday cleaning and organizing the room and putting the crib together. The room is still coming along but the crib looks so good! It is still a little crazy to think that we have a crib in our house and soon a baby will be here as well but we are excited!

Raspberry Picking and Jam Making!

Darrin and I went to a Raspberry Patch on Friday to pick some fresh raspberries! We picked 4 pints of raspberries in the nice Ohio heat and humidity. We enjoyed picking them, eating them, and making raspberry jam! I think we will go back for some more to make raspberry ice cream!




Picking the Raspberries

                                             Making delicious Raspberry Jam!