Primary fun

I got this sweet card from a little girl in Primary last week. It totally made my day!

Giraud is a hard last name and I love that you can tell she was trying her hardest to sound it out. Droid and Durad! So cute.

Another funny primary story: The music leader before me taught the children the song, "Nephi's Courage" by making up a lot of hand signs to help them remember the words. It worked well and the kids knew the whole song when I got in. As the program approached I didn't want to use all the actions as I thought it might be distracting, but the kids loved them so much so I kept a few for the chorus, which are as follows:

Nephi was courageous (PUT HANDS ON HIPS, LOOK COURAGEOUS) this was his reply,
I will GO I will DO (ON GO AND DO SWING ARMS IN FRONT OF YOU IN DETERMINED FASHION like a mini fist pump in front of your body)
The things the Lord commands...

It was cute and they did a great job looking righteous and determined. I didn't think too much about what they kids thought the actions meant, but realized my mistake later when Gavin related a conversation he had with one of the men in our ward who has a few kids in primary. One of his kids is a very energetic 5 year old boy, we'll call him Jason. Jason's dad told Gavin the following (paraphrased):

"Your wife does a great job in Primary, she taught the kids all these actions for the song and they know it really well (*sidenote, I didn't teach them...but apparently I'm taking the credit*). Jason thinks it means they are punching people in the face so he has an angry look on his face." I laughed so hard when Gavin told me that because Jason always is VERY enthusiastic about the actions, and he typically doesn't sing at all. But he puts his heart and soul...and his fists...into the chorus every time. Whatever it takes to get them excited I guess.

Little purple dress

Emery had on a very pretty dress today for church and Tiffany had me take some pictures of her in our front yard when we got home.  She is growing up so fast but Sundays are really good for me, I can spend the whole day with her.  I love it.

Craft night

We recently had our Relief Society craft night and I'm so excited that I actually finished a craft I started. Before you get too excited for me, know that I DIDN'T finish it that night, which would have really been impressive and deserving of applause, but I did finish within a week after craft night. I'm almost done with the wooden Christmas tree I signed up for too, just needs some hot glue here and there and I'll be done with it. 

I'm getting excited for Christmas. I usually try to keep the excitement reigned in until after Thanksgiving, but I've had to take a lot of trips to Hobby Lobby in the past few weeks and all that exposure to Christmas decorations has made it impossible to keep focused! Who can resist all the pretty, sparkly, reds and greens, and the intricate nativities? Not me!

Idaho girl

You can take the girl out of Idaho, but you can't take Idaho out of the girl.

Emery sucking on a raw potato.

No mom, it isn't weird to eat raw potatoes.

Pumpkin patch 2

I forgot to post these pictures when I posted about our pumpkin patch visit. For someone who doesn't like grass, Emery sure loved playing in the hay.

Halloween miracles

This year was the most fun I've had on Halloween in probably 10 years. The main reason was because I witnessed a miracle: Gavin dressed up for Halloween. Can you believe it?!?! Ever since we've been married he's always talking about how he doesn't like Halloween and he would balk at even the mention of costumes. I give the credit to Emery, that little girl can make anyone do anything. Here is a picture of us at our church's Trunk-or-Treat

The mad scientist, her adorable hunchbacked assistant Igor, and Frankenstein. What a good sport Gavin is! Doesn't he look AWESOME?! And Emery is making a good Igor face, caught her in a blink I think but it fits perfectly. You can't see her hunch very well in this picture, but it was there. 

Little Igor

Emery makes the cutest pouty faces these days. And yes, I do point and laugh every time she does them. 

Halloween was also amazing this year because I got to hand out candy from my own front door. I was so excited but failed to realize that we are the last street in our neighborhood and there is quite a bit of construction going on around us so we don't look very promising candy-wise. But we did have about 15 or so groups come around so I was happy. And we have left over Dubble-bubble so Gavin is also very happy (can you believe someone actually LIKES that nasty stuff?!). Here is a picture of us on Halloween night. Emery looks even cuter in this costume.

...And then I cried. Hard.

Gavin took the Texas State Bar at the end of July. We've been anxiously and nervously awaiting for grades to be posted, but we had to wait until this past Friday November 2nd. It's been a long three months.

Even though the Bar said they post grades on the 2nd, Gavin's coworkers said they usually post it earlier so you should start checking on Monday. I bookmarked the page and checked it often, my nerves increasing with each passing day. Monday, nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday, still nothing. Thursday early morning, nothing. Thursday around 1 pm, I check the home page and the link has changed from "grade release date" to "PASS LIST." At this point my stomach jumps to my throat and I am so nervous. Not that I don't have faith in Gavin, I ABSOLUTELY do, but it is a very hard test and a lot of talented, smart people don't pass on the first go, plus Gavin was at a disadvantage not having gone to a Texas law school so he didn't learn the state laws in school. I felt almost sick I was so nervous and contemplated just calling him and telling him to check it and tell me, but I can't stand suspense and knew I had to hurry up and look or I'd probably explode. I clicked the link, scrolled to find the G's, and then I cried. Hard. He passed! I sat there and sobbed for a few minutes, completely overwhelmed with gratitude, relief, and being so happy and proud of Gavin. His hard work and the fervent prayers of many paid off. What a blessing.

Kind of a dramatic post, but that's how it went down. :) It's ok if there's some drama as long as there's a happy ending, right?

I told Gavin that I was really, really happy for him and proud of him...but I'm also  really, really happy for me too because it's no fun having him study for the Bar and I didn't want to go through that again. :)

So three cheers to the best (and handsomest!) new attorney in Texas! Hip hip hooray!