Family Home Evening

This last week for Family Home Evening (FHE) - a night that Joel and I set aside to do something as a family and have a spiritual message - it was my turn to prepare the message and the activity. I came across a talk about how to build a more positive, uplifting marriage. The talk was wonderful and it gave seven ideas of how to make a marriage more positive and loving. I think that Joel and I have a great marriage, but we can all use some enlightment and reminding from time-to-time. It talked about how you should ask yourself questions before being critical towards a spouse (ie, Are they ready to hear the critism, are you talking out of frustrations with things in your own personal life, ect...). It also talked about always having romance in your marriage. And several other tips. It was great to read the suggestions, and to talk about ways we can improve our marriage and personal lives.
Then after our discussion, we wrote 12 reasons we love the other person. I recently made an advent calendar for the month of December, and instead of putting candy or treats in the slots, we decided to write reasons we love each other.


(This is what the sheets looked like. I made one red and one green, and we cut them into 12 strips and wrote reasons we love each other on them.



Then we folded them up and placed them in the slots on the calendar. Joel is the odd days and I am the even. I am actually excited for December to come, so that I can start reading my notes from Joel.



Here is the finished project with all the notes inside. I made the calendar out of a 24-count muffin tin and then put magnets on the back of the dated paper.

All in all...I am just so thankful that Joel and I take time to do activities like this together, and have spiritual messages that we each get to prepare for our family. I am so thankful that I married Joel. He is a great husband and an amazing best friend.

Gold and Green Ball

Our church has an annual dance for adult couples called the "Gold and Green Ball". This year the ball was on November 15, 2008, and we decided to go out to dinner with some friends of ours before hand - to make it a complete date night.

Here is a picture of everyone at dinner. Steph and Brett, Kim and Ben, and Joel and I went to Rock City Grill for dinner. We all always have such a great time together, and really enjoy each others company.

(The girls...at the dance.)

Honestly...church dances are not always tons of fun, and they can be pretty interesting as well. But we all had a great time together, and made the event a great one. I am so grateful for the group of friends that we have here in Spokane, and the memories that we make together.

Lazy Fridays...

I get bored on Fridays from time-to-time. The job that I have right now allows me to make my own schedule, so I decided that for the rest of 2008, I would work Monday-Thursday and have Fridays off. I did this schedule for two reasons: 1) For the three day weekends, and 2) Because of the holiday season this year - Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all land on Thursdays - which will give me four-day paid holiday weekends.

Trust me...I am not complaining...it is just that sometimes I get bored on Fridays, because everyone else is usually working. So this last Friday, I decided to make a fall craft for the house. I used all scrap wood that Joel had laying around the garage, and some random scrapbooking paper, and made this Thanksgiving sign for our front table. Joel came home at lunch on Friday to help me cut the wood blocks to the appropriate sizes - What a great husband I have!!

My mom let me borrow her cricut cutter for a few weeks, so I made the letters out of black paper. (Thanks Mom!) Joel liked the sign before I put the leaves on it, but I still think that it looks cute.

Another Fun Filled Weekend...

(The Anderson Family that was in attendance at the wedding)

Joel's sister Jenny got married this last weekend on November 1, 2008. She married Eric Nelson in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. Joel really enjoyed having a lot of his siblings and their families around for the weekend. His family is so big - it is hard to get everyone together.

(The bride and groom - Jenny and Eric Nelson)

(Joel with his brother Justin and his niece Erica)

(Erica and I waiting for the pictures to begin)

(Joel and I after the wedding)

The parks in Coeur D'Alene are beautiful, especially in the fall.

Halloween 2008!

Erica dressed as a witch this year, and her brother Andrew was a boyscout.

Little Gage was a skeleton, and Cole was a Tiger.

Joel's niece and nephews came to our neighborhood this year to trick-or-treat. It was fun to see them all dressed up. Erica was the winner for getting the most candy.

(These are our neighbors - Benson was a monkey and Raegan was a cat. They are so cute.)