While we spent a lot of time just relaxing this past fall, we did do some things, so here's a picture summary of autumn! [No baby stuff here - I'm preparing to post one big baby blogpost soon!]
Anyone who has been in Provo during the fall knows just how beautiful it gets here when the leaves and weather start to change. We like to go up Provo Canyon a few times when all the leaves are changing so that we can enjoy the unique beauty of Utah.
 |
| My lovely friend Ashley who was visiting! |
Halloween! To celebrate Halloween this year we went to our ward Halloween party (where we were the runner up's for best costume - maybe didn't look so good, but I think it was a great idea ;) ), and we went to a corn maze! I hadn't been to a corn maze in forever and we had a really good time at this corn maze. They had a clue-style mystery you could solve while going through the maze - you would look for clues in the maze to solve the mystery - by the end of the maze we had found all the clues except one, so Philip ran back through to find the last clue, and alas the mystery was solved!
 |
| I'm a gumball machine and Philip is a quarter. Put a quarter in and get a little baby Roberts out! |
Some random things from this past fall......
 |
| There is this GINORMOUS outdoors/sports store in Sandy called Scheels and we went there with some friends to explore.... they have a ferris wheel inside the store! |
 |
| The amazing Tanya Mills had her book 'A Night on Moon Hill' published this year and we went to a book signing she had here in Utah. Look her book up! It gives you a great perspective on how life might be for someone dealing with autism. |
Philip wanted to earn extra credit for one of his classes and so he made a special kind of jam.... the extra credit was to make a food item from one of the plants they discussed in class... and so Philip decided to make Pyracantha jam.... That name may not sound familiar to you, but I guarantee you have seen the bush before, especially if you have ever visited BYU, its everywhere! And surprisingly (actually not to surprising when you consider how much sugar the jam has in it), the jam was pretty dang good!
 |
| Pyracantha berries on the bush |
 |
| Sorting through the berries and getting rid of the yucky ones |
 |
| Washing the berries |
 |
| Making the jam |
 |
| Voila! |
Philip had to do a bug collection for one of his classes this fall..... that means we had dead bugs hanging out in our freezer and sitting in jars of alcohol for weeks.... I was glad when that finally got turned in!
We got another niece!!!! Philip's sister Charlotte and her husband Lowell welcomed baby Natalie into the world a month early. Her stomach and intestines were not connected when born, but thanks to modern day medicine they were able to operate and correct the problem and today she is doing just great!
 |
| In NICU... so tiny! |
 |
| At Christmastime.... still so tiny! |
Thanksgiving! This year for Thanksgiving we drove to Washington and spent it with my family. I hadn't had Thanksgiving with my family since my senior year of high school, so it was wonderful to get to share it with them! Even if it was a short trip! While there Opal threw me a baby shower, and I am so grateful to her for all the work she did to put it together, to others who brought things to make the shower a success, and to all those people who were able to come, I appreciate the love and support so much!
 |
| Spoiler alert! We're naming our son Enok! Not going to super officially announce it till he is born though =) |
 |
| The wonderful ladies at Enok's shower! |
I completed my student teaching this fall! Yay! I was at a Jr. High and taught 8th and 9th grade math.... I really enjoyed it! I had an awesome university supervisor, cooperating teacher, and an extra awesome student teaching partner. My favorite story from the semester is probably when a week before student teaching ended a student approached my student teaching partner and asked her if I was pregnant..... where had he been the last 3 1/2 months????? Oh 8th grade boys, at least he asked someone else instead of just asking me in case I wasn't! When I told my students I was pregnant I had been teaching them for a few weeks and they all said, "That makes so much sense, we thought you were, but we didn't want to ask!" More common sense than I would normally attribute to Jr. High kids...... A student gave me the following picture on my last day..... the funny part about it is that neither Emily nor I were sure which stick figure at the bottom was who.... neither of us has bangs.... and one of those stick figures definitely does...... lol.... but I think I'm supposed to be the one with bangs.....
So one night I was sitting at home watching something on netflix (probably white collar) and the dryer is running and suddenly I hear this pop and start smelling a burning smell.... Philip wasn't home, so I kind of freaked out, but I just went and turned the dryer off.... Well Philip was too busy with school to get to fixing the dryer for 2 months..... luckily when we lived in Russia I got used to living without a dryer, so we were able to survive.... but he did finally get it fixed. When he opened it up there was a bunch of burnt dryer lint on the bottom - so glad it didn't set fire to anything else! [Check your dryer and clean the lint out!] It turned the exhaust pipe had gotten disconnected inside of the dryer and so all the extra lint was piling up on the bottom of the dryer and the hot air was getting blown on it instead of exiting properly through the exhaust pipe.... Took some cleaning up, and a small clip had to be replaced so the drum wouldn't squeek, but Philip got it fixed! I was proud of him for taking initiative and taking apart the dryer and getting it fixed even though he is no expert on appliances, but now he has some dryer experience!
 |
| This was our kitchen for two days..... |
After finals and before Christmas Philip and I took a quick trip to visit my grandpa Burch in Idaho Falls. It was really great to get to visit my grandpa and have him share experiences with us that are dear to him. While there I also saw my cousin Cryshel, who is my only cousin that is my age, and who happened to pregnant too!
 |
| Me and Cryshel, she was due like the next week! |
 |
| Me and Grandpa Burch, I have so much love and respect for him! |
Well those are the highlights of autumn for us! Actually, the real highlights involve the cute squiggly baby boy growing in my tummy, but he'll get his own dedicated post soon!
