Roar!

I've always thought it was kind of weird when people take their babies trick-or-treating when, clearly, the child will not be the one eating the candy. We did find a cute little costume, however, and took Sam over to visit our neighbors and then to my sisters house.

Here's our little lion on the prowl.

(Please forgive my loud voice!)

Almost there!

We are getting so close! We should be ready to move in, on schedule, in a couple of weeks. It's going to seem like an early Christmas morning when we get all of our belongings that have been in storage for 15 months now. It will be fun to remember just what we actually do own!

Since we're finally going to be in a permanent place now, we decided to change our blog to private. I'll be sending out an invitation to be able to view it with a username and password (it's really not too annoying to sign in), but if I don't have your email address or you don't get an invitation, email me at whitaker.karen@yahoo.com and I'll send you one!

Special Trip

I feel like we have been on the road every weekend for the past couple of months! This time was an especially exciting trip. Bill left work a few hours early on Friday and we drove to Salt Lake and stayed at my parents house. Dan, Zibbey, Noah and Sloane are there for a few more weeks while they do some remodeling to their new house, so it was so fun to spend time with them. Those kids are so darn cute!

Saturday morning, Bill and I left Sam with my parents and drove to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in Daybreak, Utah. I had not been out there yet and was excited to see yet another beautiful temple in the Salt Lake Valley. It is gorgeous!

The first special occasion was to see Bill's sister, Carrie and her husband Troy sealed to each other and their youngest daughter, Isabelle. It was a beautiful ceremony and made me so grateful for my knowledge of eternal families.

Afterward, we picked up Sam and went to Carrie and Troy's house for a little lunch and visiting and then to see the blessing of our newest Whitaker nephew. Bill's other sister, Melinda and her family came down from Rexburg and blessed Seth Whitaker Ollerton who was born on August 28th. He is such a sweet little baby with tons of black hair!

Sam was having a ball while his cousin, Leah, bounced him on the trampoline. We had dinner with my family that night and then drove back home Sunday morning. We knew we were back in Idaho when we were stopped at a traffic light behind this:

We're proud to be Idahoans!

Fall

Sam and I met my sister, Ann and her boys to go on a walk on a beautiful autumn day. We walked from our new house to my sister, Becky's house which took about 30 minutes. (That will be convenient!) We took the boys out of their strollers and realized their clothes coordinated with each other and that we had to have a photo shoot. Becky, as luck would have it, had four big pumpkins on her doorstep, so they served as our props.

The Three Musketeers: Whit, Sam & Cael

Sam with Daddy at the Boise Depot

And this is Sam's latest trick. If we say, "Do funny face", this is what we get. He sure has got a cute little personality!

Countdown!

So far, it looks like the builders are right on schedule and we're looking at just a month to go! We'll see if it stays that way! The exterior paint is almost finished. They put the wrong color on the sides and back. When it is finished, they will be the darker brown.

Sam has discovered the door stop by the front door. It makes a very captivating noise and provides several minutes of entertainment and then he's off to find something else to explore.

"Hey! There's that lawnmower guy again!

"What are you looking at?"

Ten months!

The months just keep flying by! This little guy is all over the place now. Changing his diaper has become a major drama. The minute I turn to grab a diaper, he flips himself over to his hands and knees and is off like a shot. Even strapping him into his stroller can sometimes be tricky. He's been battling a cold for the last week, but is still as happy as ever! We just love him!