Jennifer and Jessica's Baptism

We have been getting to know an investigator of our church named Jennifer for the past two months. She is a single mother of 4 and is in her forties. We've gone over with the missionaries and helped teach her, we've had her over for general conf., we've had her over for dinner, and family home evening. She is an amazing woman who has an incredible life story. We have been fortunate enough to become good friends with her and her family. Last night she and her daughter Jessica (17), got baptised! Jennifer asked our family if we would sing. So, I picked a song the whole family knew, "I Am A Child of God." The spirit was so strong through the whole baptism and there were a lot of people there to show support. While we sang the song, I couldn't help but get tearry eyed because of how strong the spirit was there. Porter sang so well! He knew every single word of each verse, which was good because by the end of the song when I was supposed to be doing a solo I couldn't sing. He chimmed in and sang through until the song was over. It was the most precious thing in the world. There was hardly a dry eye in the room. It was an incredible experience and we were so blessed to be able to participate in Jennifer and Jessica's special day.

Here are a couple of pictures of us during FHE.

Right to Left: Andrew, Jennifer, Peyton, Porter, Me, and Jessica

Porter, Me, and Jessica

The Beard Experiment

Fall break came around and I just didn't want to shave. So, naturally a little facial hair appeared on my face. It didn't go away and eventually it was fairly thick. I thought I'd trim and and see how it looked. I thought it didn't look too bad so I left it. At school I was pleasantly surprised with all the good reports I was getting. In fact the dean of the clinic came up to me and proceeded to tell me he thought it looked pretty nice and how his beard never looked good. Somehow, he then told me about his mustache he had in dental school that was thin and looked "awful." So, he colored it red to better match his hair and it actually stained his lip red for a couple of days. Anyway, it always surprises me the attention I get when I do things that are a little more extreme. It was fun, but now it's done. The scratchiness won out in the end. Maybe at Christmas I'll give it a try again.

Cheesers!!!

Do you see any resemblances? Porter and his dad look a lot alike don't they?

Great Fall Break

So far we've had two days of Fall Break from school. I think this is the first break in school that Erin and I haven't packed our suit cases and headed out somewhere. We were very close yesterday to doing so though. I looked at her and said "We should just head for home." She got all excited and actually started packing. Not too long after she did she came back into the living room where I was figuring out the time and gas it would take to head to Utah or Wisconsin and she let her more realistic self take over when she said "I don't think we should go." We both looked at each other and agreed that it would be really nice to see some family, but we also agreed that it probably wasn't the right thing for us to do this time. Our friends stopped by and visited for a while. I think that helped break our home sickness a little. They thought we should just go, in fact they said we should go early in the morning. We all laughed and thought it might be fun. They left when their little girl was starting to get fussy. Erin and I put in our movie (Iron Man) and finished out our day with that. No sooner was it done and Erin was asleep, as always when we stay up to watch a movie together, I heard Porter make some weird sounds in his room. I ran back and he told me he needed to throw up. I picked him up and ran to the bathroom where sure enough he unloaded in the toilet. He ended up throwing up several times that night. I think that Erin was inspired with her denying our adventure to somewhere. All that throw up would have been in our car and it would have made for a long horrible drive. So in retrospect we're glad we stayed here. We spent most of today cleaning up our house (carpets and couches) and letting Porter recover. By the way he's doing fine now.

I thought I would throw in a couple of college football predictions as well:
BSU 38 -- Southern Mississippi 24
BYU 46 -- New Mexico 24
(Both of which I believe to very achievable, possibly understatements it both BSU and BYU play at their potential)

Daddy's Birthday, big 28

Animal Olympics

Porter's Pre-K class had a family fun day last Thursday. Porter was so excited to have Peyton and I there in his class with him. We got to do a variety of activities that involved animals. We made the Olympic rings out of Nilla Waffers, read stories, counted animals, sorted animals, and colored a picture of an animal. Porter had fun and didn't want to leave, which suprised me because he claims to not like school. His teacher is so nice and I know that he enjoys her class even if he says he doesn't.

Porter and his teacher

Porter just took a cookie without asking and was running away.

Peyton loved exploring the classroom. Porter made sure that he didn't get into any trouble.

Porter coloring. Peyton eating the crayon.

Birthday Pictures

My birthday was a very relaxing one. I'm grateful to have been able to sleep in on Sunday morning. We went to stake conference and then came home and just hung out. Lynn made us a simple, but delicious lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I didn't eat that whole plate of sandwiches just so you know. Later that night we went to the Zech's and had cake and ice cream. It was a great day. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes and gifts.