My sister Carrie had her baby on Friday, still officially un-named, but probably going to be named Karen Abigail Pinkleman. Such a beauty queen! A week after Sarah had open heart surgery, a new baby. WOW! Anyway, everyone seems to be doing fine. Sarah is kind of in denial about the whole thing, she practically sits on the baby when she wants to sit on Carrie's lap, I think it will take a while for her to realize that the world does not in fact revolve around her. Abby was born with 2 teethbuds, they're going to pull them out so that she doesn't choke on them when they fall out (or bite off the nipple that feeds her.) I guess it's more common than you'd think, but it's pretty funny looking. 
Mom & Dad this picture is for you, see how Sarah's feet aren't purple? Yeah, that's how good her surgery went! Yeah!!
So, San Diego was Sawyer's real birthday present, but we just had to do a little blow the candles out kinda thing, and Grandma Susie bought her some things, so we have more pictures to post.
Over Sawyer's birthday we went to San Diego and to SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. We planned her birth really well because it's always close to Veteran's Day and so Matt has a long weekend. Anyway, it was super fun, she loved seeing all the animals and the beach was also very fun, her first time in the ocean. I think my favorite part of all though, and I'm so mad that I didn't get good pictures of it, was at SeaWorld, they had these Bat Rays in a shallow pool so that you could pet them and even feed them. They were sooo cool!! They reminded me of dogs because it was obvious that they loved being stroked and all the attention. They were a little freaky to feed though, you had to hold this little sardine vertically in between your fingers becaue their mouths are on their undersides, so they'd swim over your hand and kinda nibble that fish right out of your fingers!!! ewww! Plus, they felt like raw wet meat, but in a cool way. I want one for my own. :)Sawyer really liked the starfish, 
but I was surprised that she didn't dig the petting zoo, she's so used to Charlie, but the goats & sheep made her scream her head off. The night we got there was her birthday, and we went straight to dinner at Fred's in Old Town San Diego, which we all loved. Sawyer got a birthday brownie mousse (that mom pretty much ate all on her own)
and a really cool balloon octopus. 
Sunday morning we caught a quick sacrament meeting and then a freaking yummy brunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then a quick jaunt to Mission Beach. 
It was too cold to really enjoy the ocean, but I just had to take Sawyer to the beach for her first time. She seemed to really enjoy it until she got too cold and wet, then we changed and went on some rides. 
Anyway, to sum it all up, it was really, really fun. Sawyer did really good for never having any naps, and it was really nice to get home. We did ALOT of stuff in 3 days and it's nice to get back into our little daily routines.
So yesterday in relief society the lesson was about strengthening our friendship with the Savior, really inviting him into our lives. The teacher was awesome and the spirit was so strong. She asked what kind of traits we expect in friends, and it got me thinking about my friends, particularly Kirsten. One nice thing about her is that she is an amazing photographer, and all the special moments of my recent life have been captured by her talented eye. I swear I will never let anyone else take our families pictures, it's just a joke to see the difference in quality that her knowing me & my family so well makes. Does that make sense? Even including all my modeling photoshoots, none make me look as beautiful as when Kirsten takes my picture. She knows me inside & out and all the good and all the bad, and she seems to still like me, and that is reflected in the photography that she does somehow. 
But that made me think about how that's kind of what the Savior does for us, he knows us so well, the good and the bad, but more importantly, he knows our potential, and he takes us and filters us through the lens of how much he loves us and through the divine atonement and that is what he presents to the Father to plead our case. So somehow, we look just as beautiful as it is possible for us to. What a miracle. I am so thankful for the plan of salvation & for the fact that I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ is my Savior & brother. I love him with all my heart.
Okay, first things first... on Halloween afternoon Sawyer did her very first poop in the potty!!! I seriously just about took a picture of it to post here, I was so proud! But I decided that most people might not enjoy that as much as I would. She just was playing in her room while I was doing my hair in the bathroom across the hall and she just walked in and said "poop? potty?" I didn't even think she very was aware of her bodily functions yet. I think I'll wait until after we get back from San Diego next weekend to really try to potty train, maybe even later than that, it could have been a fluke. Anyway, enough about feces, right?
Moving on.
Halloween was awesome. Grandmas Susie threw a wild and crazy party of course, which I naturally forgot to take pictures at. (I am really sucking it up at that lately.) Kierstin invited us to a very fun Halloween party at her house, I loved it. We don't get together nearly enough with our families. We are going to start doing a family night once a month, let's make it happen ladies, maybe after the holidays, it's gonna start getting crazy sooner than you think. 
We carved pumpkins on Sunday night, and Sawyer really loved going out every evening this week with Daddy to light her pumpkins and look at them. 
She wore her octopus costume to the gym day care and they did a little parade around the gym with all the kids, that was really fun to see, you could tell that she was having a lot of fun, holding hands with all the other kids walking around, I wish I would have had my camera with me. 
I am a little obsessed with the Stephenie Meyer books right now, so here is my vampire homage pumpkin, I loved how it turned out.
Last month I heard about the Wedding Cake Contest that the annual Utah Chocolate Show does (unfortunately I didn't hear about it in time to enter) and got a cute little sitter and took the afternoon off to go indulge myself in my passion. I took a class on ganauche and wandered around the expo center in a haze of chocolate delight. It was awesome to say the least. However the judging of the contest was an absolute joke. I know a thing or two about the skill level that goes into these cakes and I cannot for the life of me figure out on what grounds they decided that the cake that won was superior. It's the white one with the pink flowers. Granted the flowers look very lifelike, but the whole theme of the contest was to glorify chocolate, and that cake doesn't even make me think of chocolate. I'll be entering this competition next year, but I'm glad I saw the judging this year so that I don't put much stock in it next year. Unless of course they choose my cake, in which case I'll agree completely with their decision. :)
