Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving! We are visiting Matt's family in southern California and Abby is off at Knott's Berry Farm with Grandma and Grandpa to ride a steam engine. She was so excited when she left! Since she is gone I thought I would quickly post some pictures on the blog.

We've been quite busy since our last post. Abby and I went to Tempe for a quick visit, Matt's parents and my parents came for a Veteran's Day visit, I played for vocal juries at Cal State University Bakersfield, and we've been getting to know our new ward.
First for the Tempe visit:
Abby and I hit up our favorite mall with lots of good deals to buy some Christmas presents and Abby had to ride the carousel. This time she chose the zebra. We also grabbed a kids Subway sandwich to share.Abby tried out a scooter for the first time with her friend Lucy.We went to say hello to our friend Jennifer Addison and ask her a medical question. Abby apparently stuck some napkin up her nose on the drive to Tempe and sneezed our a large wad the next day. I was afraid there was more, so we went and asked nurse Jenny. Abby was okay and in the process acquired a very cute little rocking chair to take home. The Addison's are so kind to us!Natalie and Abby saying a sad farewell.In preparation for the grandparents visit Abby and I cleaned the house from top to bottom. I am not use to cleaning a big house! It took a long time. Abby loved the vacuum attachment, so she had fun with the stairs.We loved having both sets of grandparents with us for a few days. Abby was in heaven!
My Dad tuned my piano and we played duets on the two pianos. We also played an organ piano duet in church and everyone loved it. They all want him to move to Bakersfield too!
At one point Matt went outside to do some work on the backyard and my Dad said "Where's Matt?" When I told him he was outside he jumped right up and joined him. He cannot stand to see someone outside working unless he joins them!We had a yummy ham dinner at our home complete with china plates and the nice glasses. We had to push everything away from Abby because she get s little bit grabby.We also celebrated my Mom's birthday at a Mexican restaurant close to our home. They sang a very loud, fun rendition of happy birthday to her!We all went to Hart Park and fed the ducks (which ended up being "coots" not ducks), ate a picnic lunch and played on the toys.Grandma Karen with Abby.Grandpa Mark, Grandma Karen and Abby.

Many members of our ward have known each other for a long time--many grew up together. So we really appreciate them opening up their circle of friends to include us. Last weekend we went to a mystery dinner party on Friday set in the 1920's where Matt was a golfer named "Eddie" and I was a jazz singer named "Torchie." Neither of us was the murderer.
Saturday we ate another ward members house with a few families and Abby loved playing with the kids. At one point the hostess came to me and said, "Abby is naked in the bathroom and wants to take a bath." Apparently she had gone to the bathroom (a good thing), stripped naked, played in the toilet and then wanted to take a bath. I was a little embarrassed but grateful it was only urine! We laughed and cleaned up. Fortunately Abby did not get her clothes wet, so she was dressed the rest of the night! What a funny girl she is!
Sunday we invited over a family from our ward. I teach their boys piano lessons and we really enjoyed having them over for dinner.
I will post some pics from Thanksgiving later on. It took us almost 4 hours to get here last night due to traffic, but we are here! Time to help make dinner!

Happy Halloween and More

Happy Halloween! We had a great Halloween--party at the Church on Saturday and a dinner party at our new Bishop's house on Sunday. We were happy to be invited to the Bishop's and get to make some new friends. Our Ward is very friendly and were very complimentary of the talks that Matt and I gave yesterday in Church. Matt spoke on Elder Uchtdorf's conference talk about slowing down and I spoke on the Role of Music in the Church. I struggled to keep my talk to 15 minutes because there are so many stories! I decided I would just save some of them for my new ward choir. Yes, I am the Ward Choir Director and the Ward Music Chairman. Is anyone surprised? I didn't think so. It's what I love to do, so I am a happy camper. Before I show you Halloween pictures, let's back up a bit!

On October 22 I began the adventure of potty training Abby. We've been using the toilet and things like that for a while, but we got intense on Friday! The night before Matt and I covered all the carpet with cardboard and a tarp for the playroom. We also placed all the pillows on the couch so that she could not climb on the couch and placed the love seat in hallway to block off the rest of the house. That we we could keep things in one central location and avoid ruining any new carpet! It worked pretty well. Here is a picture.Until 5 p.m it was pretty frustrating and I tried to stay very, very positive. Just when I thought this might not have been the way to go about this she suddenly ran over to her little potty chair, and went to the bathroom. I was so excited! We all did the happy dance and Abby got a new train book as a reward. We did the same thing on Saturday and she even did her other business in the toilet. Since then she has done pretty well, but I don't think we are quite ready to brave to much time in public. We did go on quite a long walk today and she handled herself very well. I am very proud of her efforts and know that she is trying!

Matt has been working hard on the backyard and the sprinkler and drainage system is almost in place. We are nearly ready for cement! Here are some pictures.
Hope you do not mind a sort of naked picture of our cute Abby. She wanted to play in the mud with Dad while I practiced the piano for a recital at Cal State Bakersfield, so I sent her out naked! She found the mudiest place she could find and had a blast!
Check out the grasshopper on our screen. I do not want to meet up with this thing outside!Monday, the 25th Abby and I went to a pumpkin patch and picked out a pumpkin.
That night for Family Home Evening we carved the pumpkins. She surprisingly did not want to reach in and clean out the slimy mess. Below you can see our jack-o-lanterns in front of the house!
Thursday the 28th we had our first dinner party at our new home. The Ward does a dinner club rotation and we were asked to host. We found a great deal on a kitchen table and it got here that day! Since we won't get a nice dining table for a while, we put it in the dining room for now. The dinner was a lot of fun and we hope to have many more parties at our new home!
Picture of the kitchen. Now we have bar stools--picture the chairs above pushed up to the bar.Before we had the party Abby and I tried Grandma Barbara's famous pumpkin bread recipe (Matt loves it). We had quite an adventure since we did the big batch and it overflowed the Kitchen Aid. I learned I do not have a bowl big enough in my kitchen for this recipe! While I dumped some into multiple bowls and tried to mix in the rest of the flour, Abby had a great time making a mess with the flour. We made it through and the bread was a hit. We even cooked it all at the same time and it worked!Now on to Halloween! Here is the sunrise the morning of Halloween. I realize it's nothing compared to the sunrises Brent and Nicole are seeing in Hawaii, but I still thought it was worth remembering.Abby received a complete Minnie Mouse costume for her 2nd birthday from her birth Dad's family. Thank you again! I picked up some shoes at the Disney store and then she was set. She loved being Minnie Mouse and everyone thought she was adorable. Here she is at our house before the Ward party.
Abby with Levi and Spencer. Spencer is one of my piano students and Levi loves to come over and play with Abby when his brothers have lessons.Daddy and Abby trick-or-treating at the Church. Can you tell what Matt is? He was Tom Hanks in the movie the Castaway. He kept asking if people if they'd seen Wilson!
All three of us!The past Bishop and his wife. He kept eating his hot dogs on his hook. They are very fun and sing in the choir too!Grandma Karen has been needing a video, so here is a video of Abby at the Ward party. She likes to watch teh Mickey Mouse Club and you can hear here singing their song, "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog." She also says the magic words, "Miska Mouska, Mickey Mouse!"