I love autumn!

I gotta say, I LOVE this time of year: all the leaves changing colors, the air turning cooler, the anticipation of all the holidays coming up. I'm so looking forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Joshua's birthday (holy cows, I'm going to have a 2-year-old! That's crazy!), Christmas, New Years...what's not to love?

Okay, I'll admit, I'm not really liking the idea of the 30-degree drop we're going to have from Tuesday to Wednesday this week, but I think I'll get over it. Plus, as much as it annoys me after awhile, I do think snow is beautiful. And I can't wait to watch Joshua play in it. For now, though, I think I'll just sit back and enjoy our view of the beautiful reds and oranges all over Timp. =)

*I should mention that no, I didn't take that picture...but it does very much remind me of the view from our kitchen window.

America is full of pedophiles...

...or so certain people would have us think. Why, you ask? I came across an article on a news website that totally floored me. The basic gist of the story: about a year ago, a couple from Arizona took their photos to Walmart to be printed. While processing the photos, a Walmart employee felt that some of the pictures of the couple's three children (girls ages 5, 4, and 18 months), which were taken at bathtime, constituted child pornography. They turned the photos over to the police, who then went to the couple's home and searched it, while Child Protection Services seized their children and put them in foster care. They got them back after a month, but not before both mom and dad were labeled as sex offenders and mom was suspended for a year from her job. There is now a legal battle going on between the parents and the state, the city, and Walmart for the pain and suffering caused this poor family.

Someone help me out here. Who DOESN'T have pictures of their kids, or even pictures of themselves from when they were little, taken during bathtime? I can think of several pictures we have of Joshua's little bum (he has a very cute one, I have to admit). Would this be considered child pornography? Why does nudity automatically mean pornography? Okay, I admit, not all of the photos have been released, and the police claim that the ones that have not been made public include "provocative poses" by the girls, who they claim could have been "sexually exploited." But that does NOT justify doing what they did to this family!

I don't understand America. Sometimes I think our society is waaaay too loose with its morals, way too immodest in its dress, and pornography is much too accessible. But then I see a story like this, and I think...um, wow. Now they're being much too uptight, much too overprotective. Were the photos pornographic? Maybe to one or two people, but I think most out there would agree that naked bathtime photos of small children are found in almost every household in America, and that this small piece of "evidence" of "child exploitation" was not nearly enough to justify what took place. It scares me that someone's perception of what I am doing with my child could allow government officials to come to my home and take him away. I don't like it, plain and simple.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Welcome, Baby Kaitlyn!!!

I wrote awhile back about my soon-to-be born niece Kaitlyn and the surgery she and her mother went through to help with the spina bifida. Well, I'm happy to report that Kaitlyn arrived this morning, just 6 weeks early! She was 5 lbs 1 oz, and is just as cute as can be. I thought about posting a picture, but then I decided it's the parents' privilege to distribute pictures as they see fit. There are a couple of pictures on Facebook that you can see if you're friends with Shelly, and here is a link to their blog (they haven't yet updated it as of this post, but you can check back and maybe they'll post pictures there too). I'm so excited to meet her someday. For now, we just pray that Shelly recovers quickly, that Kaitlyn is active and gets to the point where she can leave the NICU soon, and that the whole family enjoys their time together. We love you!

Happy Birthday, My Love!!! (one day late)

Cody's birthday was yesterday...to say that I was too busy celebrating to wish him a happy birthday on this blog would be an overstatement, but it was a great day nonetheless. It was pretty quiet. The night before, my sisters and brother-in-law came over Friday night and we played Munchkin, so that was fun. I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast yesterday morning, then he went to class, then we watched the BYU game (we're now ranked #7--go Cougars!), and then had Tucanos for dinner (oh, so good). We spent the evening playing games, just the two of us. I'm pretty sure he had a fun day, so I'm happy.

We also took the chance to do some laundry while the game was on, and Joshua really took a liking to his laundry hamper. He actually started to throw a fit if we took it off of his head. He probably walked around like this for a good 20 minutes, even following his daddy down the hallway a few times. He had to have his water cup inside the hamper with him, too. He's very particular. Probably his favorite part about it was running into the couch and enjoying how the hamper would bounce him backwards.

RAWR!

We spent a few hours at the Hogle Zoo in SLC today...it was pretty fun! Pretty crowded too, but it was still enjoyable. Joshua loved all the animals, especially the elephant, the bear, and some of the monkeys. He did some of the animal sounds he knows, too, including the elephant noise (it's kinda hard to type out what it sounds like, but suffice it to say he also moves his arm up and down like a trunk) and the "RAWR" which is for a lot of different things, like bears and lions. He also really enjoyed the turkeys that were wandering around and even walked up to the rattlesnake pen (while his daddy stayed safely a few paces away =P). There were a lot of baby animals there...I guess the zoo has been pretty busy this summer. All in all, it was a great day!

We are the worst picture takers...but here are a couple that we managed to take. Sorry none of them have actual animals in them.

Vacation in the desert...

Life has been super busy lately, so sorry about not posting in awhile! It seems like, as soon as we got back from our trip, we just got thrown into all this back-to-school stuff (literally for Cody, and for me as well since I work at BYU) and have barely had time for anything. But before I talk about any of that fun stuff, let's go over our trip!

We said goodbye to Joshua before putting him to bed on Wednesday night (Aug 19th) and then drove down to St. George, arriving around midnight. Our room was nice and quite spacious--on the third floor, vaulted ceilings, full kitchen and front room, private deck, king-size bed, the works. The "jetted tub" was kind of a disappointment (picture a regular-sized tub with four little jets...there was barely enough room for Cody, let alone the two of us), but that's okay.

Thursday, we slept in, then decided to go exploring and get some food for our stay. We ended up at the St. George Temple, first of all, and toured the visitor's center there and spoke with the missionaries, which is always fun. Of course, we forgot our camera at home so we were limited to my cell phone camera (thank heaven for those!):
After leaving the temple, we got some groceries and returned to the resort, where we ate dinner and went swimming, then finished up the night with a movie, The Dark Knight.

Friday, we slept in again (hey, we had to take advantage of not having Joshua, the human early morning wakeup call) and then ventured out to the movie theater, where we saw G.I. Joe. Decent flick, I thought. Then we brought In N Out back to the resort and lounged around. We attempted to Skype with my mom and Joshua back in Orem, but something was wrong with her camera, so we couldn't see him, but apparently he got a huge smile on his face when he saw us :) Then we watched Wall-E and went swimming before bed.

Saturday we had planned to go to Zion's, but after learning the pricetag of even a trip up Kolob Canyon, we opted for the much less pricey Snow Canyon. It was super hot and we realized just how out of shape we are and how silly we were for not bringing water with us, but it was still fun. It's a beautiful area down there!
We made it home in time to avoid the huge rainstorm that came through late that afternoon (seriously, wind blowing sheets of rain all over, chairs almost blowing off our balcony, 3-foot-wide gutters), but it calmed down enough for us to go to the temple again, where we saw the Joseph Smith movie. Such a good one. And I love this temple at night! Isn't it gorgeous?
We drove back early Sunday morning and arrived just in time to see Joshua before his naptime...it was so good to see him. We missed him tons. But it was definitely good to spend time with just the two of us--we've been married for three years now, can you believe it? Thanks, Mom, for being willing to come up and stay with Joshua. I'm sure you enjoyed it immensely...he's an adorable kid. And to my dearest Cody, I love you! Here's to another three years, and hopefully many, many more!