A Christmas thought

I LOVE this! Today, in three separate situations, I was reminded of how much I've been blessed and that I can give a gift to the Savior this Christmas. But what gift can I possibly give to Him? The answer is love and service. "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me." Matthew 25:40

I think it is such a wondrous thing to have a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ who ask that we share our love for Them through loving and serving others. I think it would be so cool if we all did something nice for someone this season...let's do it together!

Christmas concerts!

The MN Mormon Chorale is performing several of our concert pieces at the annual "Faces of the Nativity" Creche display in Crystal this Saturday at 7 pm. Our full concert is Friday, Dec. 10th at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brooklyn Park at 7:30 pm. Would love to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Matt's mom and Cheryl Baker....the best cooks!

Playing with cousins

Chowing down on yummy food

My attempt at being "crafty"! I get all my ideas from others!

Matt's Turkey Coma

Hey Moose Head!

Concert this Friday!

Please join us at a special Thanksgiving Collaboration Concert and Food Drive hosted by the Minnesota Mormon Chorale:

"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

Friday, November 12th at 7:30 PM

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

(100 Silver Lake Rd, New Brighton - Corner of 694 and Cty. Rd. E)

The concert features over 100 talented musicians from four different choirs:

Caritas Vocal Ensemble, Global Harmony Community Chorus, Minnesota Mormon Chorale, South Metro Chorale Vagabonds, and it includes a performance by Minnesota Blue, a local bluegrass group. The concert will also feature a stunning combined choir performance of the beautiful hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" arr. by Mack Wilberg.

These talented musicians are coming together as volunteers at this event to benefit Second Harvest by asking attendees to donate non-perishable food items for concert admission. We believe this will be a powerful and uplifting musical experience for the community and something that will make a real difference to those in need. I hope that you will come and be part of it. Feel free to bring your family and friends and let us all express our gratitude for our "Fount of many blessings".

Warmest regards, Erin

Ellie's First Day of School

Ok, so I'm really behind in posting...sorry about that. Ellie and I go to an ECFE class every week (since beg. of September) and she's having lots of fun. We play, do art, sing songs, dance, etc. It has been really good for us to get more involved with the school system.

Ellie's Travels

We went to the Children's Museum with Niki and cousins and had a blast! Ellie "visited" Japan but her favorite experience of the day was playing IN the water exhibits (yes, I say IN the water because she doesn't know how to be around water without getting completely soaked...hehe...next time, I'm bringing extra clothes!). Her second favorite part was eating popcorn with her cousins. I couldn't believe she ate it since I had let her taste it before and she spit it out....she's definitely getting better with different food textures and it's so exciting!

I knew this day would come...

I can't believe how proud I was when I saw this! I heard some water swashing around so I ran into the bathroom and there she was, playing in the toilet, making her mommy so proud! Yes, she was thoroughly washed immediately after. :)

As a side note: I remember when my little brother did this as a baby and it sure wasn't as gross to me then...those were the days. :)

More steps! Ellie's funny laugh :)

Ellie is now taking at least 10 steps between Matt and me...she could probably keep going but she lunges forward as soon as she's close to us. Here's a video that was taken today in nursery. She has the funniest fake laugh...it starts out real but as soon as she gets a reaction, she goes nuts "laughing"! We love her nursery leaders...they're the best!

First Steps!!!

Ellie has been taking a few steps at a time and she's so proud of herself! She walked around the yard for a long time today while I just held one of her hands. So proud!

Corn Maze

We went to the Twin Cities Corn Maze today with Mike, Niki and family! The maze was the shape of the Twins Baseball Team logo. We went around and found a bunch of clues having to do with the Twins and then Mike used my Blackberry to match the clues with the right player in hopes of winning season tickets. Mike gives us a 1 in 500 chance. We also enjoyed blue grass music and picked out some great pumpkins. Lots of fun!

Fall 2010 Choir Photo

Another season has begun and I'm so excited! I wish I could express how much I love the people in the choir...it's so much fun being together each week!

I'm so behind!!! Here's a pic to prove we were there!!

Greece

My Big Fat Greek Vacation - Trip Part 5

We made it to Greece! Matt wanted to see if we could just do "carry on" for all these trips and it's been awesome for all the plane hopping we're doing...however, it was painful making the decision of what NOT to bring. I always over pack...just to be safe. :) Anyways, we bought a duffel bag tonight so we can fit all the things we've acquired on vacation...oh well! We tried! We'll be sure to bring home some yummy European chocolate. No? You don't want any?....hmmm, I guess we'll eat it all then. :) And the gelato too! (I had it twice today!)

I'm having trouble uploading my pics tonight of us at the Acropolis in Athens and the Greek Island of Santorini. Bummer. I'll post them when I can. Tomorrow, we're heading back to Budapest for a night where we're going to explore more of the "Buda" side of Budapest...apparently there is an old cave under the city with a labyrinth inside and it's best to go through at night...I'm excited! After Budapest, we're heading back to good 'ol U.S. of A!!!

Vacation Part 4 - More of the Olympics and Budapest

We went and watched Matt's friend, Marty, run the 5K. He didn't get a medal but he did really well considering it was boiling hot outside!

Tonight on the "Buda" side of Budapest.

Matt and Dave riding the escalator a long way up after the metro (subway).

Go #7!

So many AMAZING buildings here!

Vacation Part 3 - We got ROBBED

No, not pick-pocketed but ROBBED on the volleyball court today! It's a long story but the US team played really well and should have beat the top 2 teams (Italy & Germany) - they beat them both in a couple matches but then lost the others by 1-2 points. Wahhhh! The real problem is that they put the 3 best teams (USA, Italy, Germany) in the same pool of 4 so our guys got eliminated along with France who we easily stuffed. There were real tears coming out of the eyes of grown men. No joke! If the people running the show had distributed the talent evenly as it should have been, our team would have gotten a medal because Italy and Germany totally smashed the other teams from the other pools. Wahhhhh! Wahhhhh! Ok, I'm done sulking. Seriously, the US team totally ROCKED out there and we're all super proud of them. The games were really fun to watch and even though tears flowed, they were great sports.

Way to go team USA! :)

Nice shoes guys!

Me and my man!

Matt trading shirts with Germany

Budapest is famous for its bath houses. There are lots of pools of water at various temperatures (inside and outside). The best part was sitting in a H.O.T. steam room and then running over and jumping into FaaReezing water! Ice cold! I was worried that people wouldn't be clothed since it's Europe but bathing suits are required here! :)

Had to take this shot of the beautiful sky coming out of the bath house.

Vacation Part 2

The Buffalo Jump Museum (this guy got a little too familiar with snowmobiles so they "transferred" him from Yellowstone to this museum...as you can see, that's not all they did. :)

Here's a cliff that Native Americans would funnel the buffalo off of during a stampede to provide food and skins for the tribe for up to a year.

At this point, the buffalo would start to slow down but the momentum from others behind them would force them off the cliff.

Flying to Europe - Matt trying to make his body believe it was nighttime to help him get adjusted to the 8 hour time difference. :)

Walking through the streets of Budapest....on a H.O.T. day...we came across this fountain where many kids were playing. Most were playing in their regular clothes or underwear for some relief from the heat. This little boy was so cute.

Another sideways picture. I still haven't figured out how to rotate pictures using the new photo storage software I have. Sorry! It's of Matt and me at the Budapest Parliament.

Guess we're glad we didn't take the bus. :)

The U.S. Team had dinner on the Blue Danube. It was a fun and beautiful evening.

GO U.S.A.!!!!!!
Bring home the gold!

Budapest at night...it's way better than this picture but this gives a general idea.

Ellie's first day being babysat by my amazing sister-in-law. Elizabeth sent me this picture to assure me she's in good hands. :) She labeled this with a disclaimer: "No children were injured in the making of this photo." :) Thanks for the good laugh, Elizabeth, and for taking such good care of our sweetie!

Vacation Part 1 - Wide Open Spaces

Yikes! We've been in Montana and haven't had a chance to update and now I'm getting ready to board the plane for Europe. My bro who works at the airport just came by and said hey. That was really cool. We've had lots of fun with him and his family.

Here are some pics of our camping trip to Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Hiking with Ellie (sleeping). We saw a big moose (or a big brown spot) across the valley!

A sideways waterfall...the only place in the world that has one.

Wide Open Spaces

Ellie playing with her cousin.

Summer Fun!

This is a pic of Ellie at Elm Creek Park Reserve. It's a really cool man made lake with filtered water (my favorite part!).

We usually go with my sister-in-law and her kids. They had a good time with bubbles!

Speaking of bubbles, Ellie LOVES them! They are used in Ellie's speech therapy but I think they're just good old fashion fun!

One morning I woke up and walked into Ellie's room and found her doing this! I was soooo excited and you can tell she was pretty thrilled about it too!

Ellie's 4th of July dress

Last weekend, we ran in the Time to Fly 5K/10K at Harriet Island in St. Paul. It was really fun! And SUPER HUMID! All I can say is that the portapotties were so not fun! But the rest was awesome. Great way to start the day!