Proposition 8 Passsed!!!!

I was born and raised in California and my family all lives there. Caleb and I are still registered to vote in California mainly so that we could help vote on Proposition 8. We have been following it really close and shocked to hear some of the outrageous and aggressive behavior the supporters of proposition 8 faced. We are so glad that it passed again!! I was living in California when Prop 22 was on the ballot and went around door to door then. The public voted and it won with an overwhelming 61%. Then only 4 of the Supreme court judges of California reversed it, which is unbelievable that they would be able to override the voice of the people. Both times this issue was on the ballot the Church came out strongly against it. They have made it very clear that they will never tell their members who to vote for, but that this is not a political issue it is moral. I attached some of the broadcast that the church did to the members of California regarding the issue, I thought it was excellent. I also attached a commercial that the no on Prop 8 was showing in California. It made me so angry but shows what the members of California have had to go through to stand for their moral beliefs. We must stand strong and as morality lessons more and more we will often stand alone.
Preserving Traditional Marriage and Strengthening Families

In March 2000 California voters overwhelmingly approved a state law providing that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The California Supreme Court recently reversed this vote of the people. On November 4, 2 008, Californians will vote on a proposed amendment to the California state constitution that will now restore the March 2000 definition of marriage approved by the voters.

The Church’s teachings and position on this moral issue are unequivocal. Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and the formation of families is central to the Creator’s plan for His children. Children are entitled to be born within this bond of marriage.

A broad-based coalition of churches and other organizations placed the proposed amendment on the ballot. The Church will participate with this coalition in seeking its passage. Local Church leaders will provide information about how you may become involved in this important cause.

We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman. Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.

http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/media/mediaplayer.swf?media=http://broadcast.lds.org/newsroom/video/flv/California_Broadcast_8Oct08.flv&type=FLV

Here is a link to the No on Prop 8 commercial that... it is so ridiculous and out of line. I love how they fail to mention the Catholic church and all the other thousands of supporters and contributors of Prop 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q28UwAyzUkE

Halloween

Joshua was a very cute lion for Halloween. He loved wearing his costume. His favorite part of Halloween was knocking on doors, he didn't care about candy or any of that he just thought it was so fun to walk up to a house and knock on the door. He also loved the pumpkins.

I dressed up like a clown and Caleb was going to be a lion tamer, so we would have been circus people. I couldn't figure out Caleb's costume without buying some stuff so he kind of ended looking like a clean cut Indiana Jones, oh well.

I love Fall!

Fall is my favorite season in Vermont. Unfortunately, it is also the shortest season. I thought I would do a picture post recapping our busy fall. We have had amazingly clear warm weather, but winter is in the air.

I took Joshua to the park by our house to capture some of the fall foliage. He honestly would not sit still for a minute. He is so active, today at church one of the women asked me if he ever settled down as we watched him walk around and around and around the piano, and then run and steal all the other kids snacks. I had to honestly answer no. He is always on the move even when he is asleep.

Playing in the fall leaves, they were gorgeous this year.

Joshua loved our cat Figaro. He is always wanting to hold her even though she is as big as he is. The other day I set her in his lap and he would not let her go...

even when he toppled over with her. He sat there for like 15 minutes laughing and giggling while the cat just purred away.

Caleb's mom came into town and we had so much fun with her. Joshua loved her and was excited to have another playmate. While she was here she taught me how to make and bottle apple sauce. We went apple picking and made 14 quarts of apple sauce, we also froze, juiced, and dried a ton more apples. I was so happy to finally learn how to bottle.

Joshua's new favorite pass time is cooking. We did a lot of cooking with Kathy and he loved standing on a chair and helping. Now anytime I am doing anything in the kitchen he starts pulling starts grunting and painting while he pulls a chair across the kitchen to the counter.

We also went to see the Barre granite quarry. It was really interesting to see. It is a gigantic pit of granite. At first it didn't look that deep but then we saw a guy working in the bottom and he was tiny.

Joshua has to read a pile of books every night before bed, and he only wants Daddy to read them. He loves Caleb, especially in the morning and at night when he doesn't want to go to bed. The other night he was saying night night and giving hugs to Grandma and Caleb and he actually started to say nigh- nigh. Now he says night nigh daden (daddy) pretty clear. He is starting to pick up quite a few little words.

We loved having Caleb's mom here. Joshua just really loved having her here, and it was great to be able to spend some time together.

Our friend Vanessa is an amazing photographer and was wonderful enough to take some family pictures of us. These are just a few of the unedited ones I will post the real ones when we get them. I thought they were great and the fall colors were amazing.





Joshua was squirmy and moving all over the place, as usual, so we tried to give him a break and let him play with this wheel barrel. He would not give it up. She ended up getting a ton of cute pictures of him with it.

On Friday we had a little community Halloween party. Joshua is a lion this year. Before I put him in the costume I used the lion as a puppet and was playing with him. Then I put it on him and showed him himself in the mirror and he got all excited. He left the hood and even the mittens on the entire party. Usually it is impossible to leave hoods or hats on him, but he liked being a lion.

At the party there were all sorts of cute crafts and activities. This one was to make spiders out of Oreos. He didn't really no what to do with it but enjoyed crumbling it to bits. I tried to give him a piece but he only like to pull it all apart.

When my mom was in town we went to the science center down by the lake. This is from one of the interactive exhibits. It's totally random, but I figured, where else to put this if not on the blog...

The Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the Pumpkin Festival at one of the local farms. They had a petting zoo, hay rides, and fun fall foods.
Here they are waiting for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch.

Riding to the pumpkin patch. Joshua loved the tractor, and kept pointing at it going vroom vroom.

Joshua loved the pumpkins and wanted to roll them like balls...

...and pick them up like balls. Luckily they were to heavy to throw.

Daddy and Joshua

Joshua loves animals especially horses. He thinks anything big with four legs is a horsey and will make his horsey noise.

Almost everyday we play on the play set across the street.

Joshua loves the slide and just barely learned to go down all my himself. He is always so proud of himself when he does.

His new thing he wants to conquer is the curved ladder. He is really good at it but we still spot him.

Meet Ducky... it is Joshua's favorite toy. He loves to roll it everywhere he goes, he also loves to pound it on the ground. Joshua's favorite thing to do is stand on my make-up box and watch all the buses and trucks go by out the window.

Fall has Come

The weather is changing and all the leaves are bursting out in bright colors. The whole month of September was pretty sunny and warm so everyday we have been spending as much time outside as possible. We have gone to Shelburne Farms a lot. The other day was the Fall Harvest festival, and we all went together. They had fall foods, crafts, and activities.

Joshua loves trucks and tractors, every time we go to the farm he has to ride on them. He also loves the chickens and will go ba-ba-ba to them.



At the harvest festival they had a Blue Grass band playing which Joshua loved. He loves to dance and loved the beat of the blue grass music.



Joshua's new favorite pass time is reading books. I think I have red him the Little Golden Book Tootle, The little Red Caboose, and The Fire Engine Book at least a hundred times. Anytime I sit down to do anything he comes running with a book to read.

New Pictures of Joshua

I have not taken pictures of Joshua since his 12 month pictures so I thought I need to take some updated ones. He is 15 months now and getting so big. The other day he was getting all Caleb's BBQ tools out. They are one of his favorite things to play with. He brought them all out on the back walk and was working really hard at it. Then he brought down Caleb's chimney, for starting coals. He set it down on the sidewalk and squatted next to. Then he started to blow in, just like he saw his daddy do a month ago when he was starting to get the coals going. It was really cute he kept doing it and working really hard trying to get a "fire" started.

Here are some of my favorite pictures that I just took of Joshua.