What Did We Do?

Although it was a beautiful week, weather wise, we spent most of our time indoors (of course!).  So what did we do all week?

We helped Jessica put up her Christmas decorations?

(A little early...heck, no!  They had Thanksgiving a long time ago in Canada!)

We made curtains for Porter's room and we finished the binding

on the quilt that Jessica made for his crib.

Brent painted Porter's room...changing it from pink and purple to

brown and green.  We're pretty sure he wouldn't have cared, but we did!

The boys took naps.

and more naps!

We had to run a few errands.

We attended a nice shower thrown by some of the dental students' wives.

After Porter's check up at the doctor,

we took him for show and tell at Jordan's school!

Jordan took us on a tour of his dental school.

We spent every second we could snuggling our cute new Porter!

We bathed, dressed, fed, burped, changed, rocked and held

our first new grandchild...what an amazing week!

We made curtains for Jessica's front room.  We used $10 worth of

burlap that Jordan and Brent found at Home Depot.  We folded down

the top of the burlap two times, attached an ID badge clip and then

hung them on the rod with big rings.  (No sewing required!)

Beautiful Canada Coastline

We took a drive over to Peggy's Cove.  It's beautiful!  Usually I picture beautiful, sandy beaches when I think of the ocean and coast line...but Peggy's Cove was completely different and completely amazing! 

Checking Off the Bucket List: Cranberry Picking

We saw a special on TV earlier in the week about the cranberry harvest.  Brent mentioned that while he was serving his mission in New England, he had always wanted to see how cranberries were harvested.  Today, Jordan drove us out to a cranberry farm near Lunenburg.  Brent, Jordan and I went out into the bog and picked a bucket of cranberries.  We also learned how the cranberries are harvested by flooding the bog, allowing the berries to float to the surface of the water.  The berries are then "vacuumed" up and washed before being packaged.  It didn't take too long for us to pick a pail full of cranberries. 

Go Aggies, Go Aggies, Hey, Hey, Hey!

Here's our newest Aggie all decked out for the big basketball game against BYU!  We stayed up late with Jessica and Jordan and watched the game.  It was definitely worth staying up late for...USU won...always a good thing when they win...but even better when they win BYU! 

Woo-hoo!! He's Here!!

Porter Jordan Argyle arrived safely into this world today!  We'll be taking a flight later on this afternoon to spend the week with Jessica, Jordan and PORTER in Nova Scotia.  We're so excited!  We're glad to have this new little "maple leaf" on our family tree.  Welcome, Porter!  (and thanks for making us grandparents!!)

Traditions

I love traditions.  I love holidays.  I love celebrations.  It's been interesting to see how we've had to adapt and change traditions along the way as our family has grown.  However, one holiday, that we can't ever seem to let slip past without a bit of fun is Halloween.  Throughout the years, we've had marvelous family Halloween parties!  This year we held our 11th annual pumpkin carving party with the Shaffer Family.  We enjoyed a yummy meal together and then spent some time carving pumpkins to welcome all (16 give or take) trick-or-treaters. 

It's a Small, Small World!

At least, that's what I keep telling myself.  However, this past week, I've been reminded a few times that we're all closer than we think.  At about 6:30 last Thursday morning, our telephone rang.  Generally, someone calling that early in the morning is calling to tell us that the cows are out.  But, to my surprise, it was Sister Weed (Bailey's mission president's wife) calling.  She said, "This is Sister Weed from West Africa."  I got a nervous feeling and immediately wondered what was wrong.  She said not to worry...she just needed Bailey's social security number (What 20 year old doesn't remember his social security number?) so they could go the the US embassy and get some more pages added to his passport.  Talking to her made it seem like Africa was just around the corner.

Matt, our brother-in-law, works at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake.  Last week, he spotted Elder Sitati, the area seventy over the Benin Cotonou Mission and other African missions.  Elder Sitati had just visited Bailey's mission a couple of weeks ago.  Matt went up and introduced himself and visited with Elder Sitati about Bailey.  Where Bailey is serving as an assistant to the president, he had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Elder Sitati, so he was able to talk to Matt a little bit about Bailey.  We were grateful Matt had taken the time to go up and speak to him.  (Plus...Matt's a suck-up...we all know it...right, Matt?)

And, last, but not least, we skyped Jess and Jordan for our traditional Conference Sunday Brunch of omelets and crepes.  It was almost like they were right here with us.  I'm so glad for technology that allows us to stay better connected.  What a blessing.