{fall fun}

Last weekend I went to our Stake Women's Day where I went to classes, did crafts and ate lunch! Travis had an accounting conference and went shooting after with some classmates and professors. He loved it and did great as usual!

This past Friday night we took a pizza to the park and Jake enjoyed swinging. 

Jake and his friend Everlie at our favorite place---Chick-fil-A! We got an awesome Clifford board book in the kids meal, so I may just have to go back to get the full set! Whoops.

And game over. We have a stander! He is so fast and will pull himself on everything and just walk along all of the furniture in the house. He also can stand up in his crib. I have a feeling he'll be walking on his own pretty soon. He's growing up too fast! 

We went to such a fun corn maze this weekend at Phillips Farm! SO much to do and the corn maze was actually kind of tricky, but we made it out without having to raise our big red flag for help. The guys of the group were determined! This place is definitely a hit and we'll be coming back every fall from here on out! The weather was perfect and I'm so happy it's starting to feel like fall.

Trav and I rolled around in this thing until we were dizzy.

Jake scrunches his nose like me when he smiles; I love it! 

{cooler temps, donuts, & the 9 month mark}

Walking to the business school to visit daddy at lunch is the best. Grateful it's just 5 minutes away! 

Pirate day at Krispy Kreme is one of the best days of the year. We walked in dressed like Pirates and walked out with 2 dozen donuts for free. Jake the Pirate will just have to share his dozen with dad.

Jake & Lelia take the funniest pictures. Usually Lelia is the one smiling and Jake's upset, but today Jake was pretty pleased with his ability to grab her bead necklaces from her neck to suck on, but she wasn't a fan of that.

We took this picture after a few other friends have left, but it was great to have so many pirate friends around!

Snuggles with this kid are the best.

We went to a campfire at the lake this past weekend with a lot of friends. So much fun! 

Jake loves to ride on all the bikes that are at the park next door to us.

 It's been in the 70's temperature wise here the last bit. AMAZING! We've played a lot outside and lots of grass and rocks have been eaten. 

We have a 9 month old. I can't even believe it! It's crazy to picture the 9 months pregnant with him and these past 9 months---the same length of time but it was so different. I feel like "time" is so crazy! 

{how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses my life}

This past Monday night my Grandma Marlene's battle with cancer came to an end as she passed away. This was my grandpa's second wife, but they were married for more than half my life. That next day {yesterday} I went on a tour of our church building {of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints} with the missionaries and a lady who was not a member of our church. The question the missionaries had me ponder in preparation for this tour was, "how has the gospel of Jesus Christ blessed my life."

As we were walking those quiet halls {with Jake jabbering away} and stopped at each picture to talk about it, the sweetest feeling was felt. The only real word to sum up the myriad of emotions I felt of joy, peace, light, happiness, and humility that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings into my life would be gratitude. How grateful I am to know what I know! I couldn't even gather my thoughts as I was walking those halls to come up with one solid answer as to how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses my life. It is my life. Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that every day---whether easy or hard---can be made better because of Him. Everything I do and everything I am is because I am a member of His church {mormon.org}.

This woman who we were giving a tour to mentioned how when growing up, her family was caught up in the day-to-day things. Just getting through each day was their goal, nothing more. This made me think of those I went to high school with who didn't know of an eternal plan and purpose to our being here on earth. I remember so clearly one of my friends saying during class how she was going to go to college, get a job, retire someday, and then die, all without really understanding the point of being here at all.

The gospel of Jesus Christ gives purpose to every single day. Because of the knowledge we have, it helps us to become better. It helps us to someday return to be in God's presence. It influences all of our relationships---how I treat Travis and what priorities I set in life. It encourages us to build strong families, set goals, serve our next door neighbor, turn the other cheek, follow Christ's example, strengthen our communities, and to have a perspective that brings peace during hard times. His church has structures set in place in which we are able to take care of each other, to help each other. As one simple example, as a sisterhood in the gospel of Jesus Christ we have what's called visiting teaching---where every single woman is paired with another woman and they are assigned to look out for specific sisters in our congregations, to visit with them every month, to make sure they have the help they need in their lives and to be a friend {and this is the exact reason I didn't have to cook a single meal for weeks and weeks after I delivered each of my babies!!}. Is that not one of the most amazing things? Each congregation or ward you attend of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be the same teachings, the same system, the same structure. It doesn't vary based on who is the leader, or what public opinion is. The full truth has been restored, and so everything will be the same across our church buildings across the world {and when you walk into one of these church buildings, you instantly have a new family, a whole new support system}. This amazes me when I think about it. It's all the same because God's the leader, and speaks through a living prophet that's on the earth today.

My grandma has just slipped from this life into the next. Not only does the gospel of Jesus Christ give perspective and joy for day-to-day things, but it also brings peace as we know what happens when we die---it brings perspective to the big things too. Because of Jesus Christ and the restored knowledge we have of him as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know that this life is not the end. We know exactly where we came from before we were born, why we're here and where we are going. And that is priceless knowledge.

This woman who we gave a tour to said how she believes in God and has seen Him very clearly in her life. He is there; He is with us all. But I know for a fact, that God's full truth---His church---was restored again to the earth in 1820 by the prophet Joseph Smith, and I am now a proud member of it {mormon.org}. We have a prophet today, Thomas S. Monson, just like there were prophets in Biblical times. God's priesthood and church and full truth is on the earth and has been restored to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And because of it we can find happiness each day, in the best or worst of times.

{end of summer}

School is back in full swing, we have quite the army crawler, and a clapper! All of these little milestones are so much fun to watch. Jake can pull himself up on a few things around the house and walk holding onto them and onto our hands. We made a last minute trip to the beach this weekend to Topsail Island with a whole bunch of friends and it was perfect! Perfect weather, a great crew, and Jake did great. He started randomly clapping at one point and wouldn't stop! It of course ended with Chick-fil-A. I've been busy with lots of girls nights, play dates, and chasing around a mobile baby! Travis' class at Duke is in full swing now too and he is doing great staying on top of everything as much as possible. Every day seems so busy but so fun!