Another catch up

It is fall in Illinois, and it is beautiful outside. Most of the trees are bright yellow, but every now and again we spot a fire red one, and those are my favorite! I love this time of year so much! The weather, the colors, the football, and the anticipation of the coming holidays make this time of year my favorite! A lot has taken place since the last time I posted, and I'm glad to finally find some time to get it all down so that I don't forget some of my favorite parts of this fall. Where to be begin? I'll start from the most recent events and work my way back from there.

Every Sunday on our way to church we pass a really cute farm, and every week Devin talks about the farm and points out things he likes, "Look at how cool that farm house is!"..."Oh man I love looking at those rows of corn."..."I really want to just knock on their door and see if I can help them on the farm one day." DEVIN LOVES THIS FARM! His grandpa has a farm in Payson, Utah and all growing up he helped his grandpa work on the farm, so it's in his blood. Well today, I happen to have the camera, so on the way home from church we pulled off the road, I got the camera set, and Devin ran out to make a quick pose.

Last night we went to the Chicago Temple. It was our ward temple night for October, and it was beautiful outside. The temple is one of the few places that have fire red trees right now, so I had to break out the camera.


Saturday afternoon was our last day of flag football :( We have loved playing every Saturday, and are sad to not have a football game to look forward to, but we did have a good time closing out the season. We played 2 games back to back. We won our first game, and barely lost our second game. It was the playoffs, andif we would have won the 2nd game we would have played next week. Not to brag, BUT, I scored 9 of our 14 points in the 2nd game. I got open in the end zone a few times and our quarterback listened to me yelling his name. It felt so good to catch that ball and have the whole team cheering!! It was definitely my highlight of our season! So even though we lost, it was the perfect way for me to go out!

Here's a pic of the team. The little kids were there every week and we the best cheerleaders!

The girls

Devin in action

It rained for about 3 days last week, so this is what the field looked like. GROSS! Our shoes are still drying outside our apartment.

Friday night was the ward Halloween party. It was so cute to see all the little kids in their costumes! It was also a chili cook off, so I was in heaven! I LOVE chili, and there were 16 different crock pots for me to choose from. YUM! This is the little baby in church that I stare at the whole time. Every one at church loves her and lines up to be able to hold her for an hour. I have gotten to hold her twice. Her name is Nora, and she is so stinkin cute, that I had to get a picture with her and Melissa (her mother who probably thinks I weird for loving her baby so much!)

These are the girls I work with in Young Women's at church. They are so cute!
I was the leader and all the kids were lined up behind me and we danced around the gym to halloween songs before they had their trunk or treat. They were loving it!

donut eating contest

We loved this Mr. Potato Head costume!

This is the bishop and his family. I liked the family theme.

I made homemade chocolate cup cakes for the cake walk...I was pretty proud of myself for making them from scratch!

This is a picture of down town Lake Bluff with its fall colors in full bloom. SO PRETTY

Mom and Dad Tranter, this one if for you...we went to Costco, and stocked up on all of our favorites. Thank you for providing a full fridge and pantry!!

After we unloaded all the groceries, I opened our enormous bag of cheese so I could have a plate of melted cheese! I love that stuff! Devin thought I was gross for eating that, not to mention wasteful of the cheese, but it was so good!

We were able to go on a youth trip with the kids at church, and it was awesome! The kids are so funny and fun to be around, and we got to see some really touching/interesting church history sites. This is Adam-Ondi-Ahmon in Missouri. That was my favorite place. So peaceful and so cool to think what took place there and what is to come there.

We went to Far West, where a temple will be built

And we went to Liberty Jail. Again, amazing to learn and feel what took place there in that jail for Joseph Smith, and the scripture that came from his experience there.

Isn't this a weird looking temple? Maybe weird is the wrong word...but I have never seen a building quite like this one. This is the Temple of the Community of Christ church, or what used ot be known as the Re-organized church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They branched off from the Mormons when Joseph Smith died.

The kids in the visitor's center in Independence, Missouri.

Rob and Sarah...this one is for you. Since Devin and I never were able to use the cool cast iron sandwich maker for the camp fire, we decided to heat up our stove, and use it there. It produced a really good sandy!! THANKS!

Over the summer Devin and I went shopping, and he found these horrible jean shorts that he just had to have. I tried hard to talk him out of it, and I make fun of him whenever he wears them, but he loves, and is proud of them. Here they are in all their glory!

About a month ago, I signed up to help TJ with his eagle scout project. He organized a big project to paint the play ground of an under privileged elementary school. It was fun to help, and brought back cheerleading days of making run-throughs and signs. I loved it.

And lastly, this is where I lived for the first 2 months here in Illinois....the Lake Bluff public library. Many a hour, and many a day were spent here looking for a job. While I loved coming to the cute little downtown Lake Bluff area, I'm glad to be done with this phase of looking for a job. I feel very blessed ot have a job now!