What’s better than a free hug?

A hug forced upon you!!!

Mickey Mouse’s Magical Powers

Saturday, we got to see the Mickey Mouse use powers that I did not know even existed.

Mickey was at the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival, a parade where Mickey Mouse uses his powers to light all the christmas lights on all the trees on the Magnificent Mile.

There were other visitors at the parade too!

And the back side of frosty the magical snowman:

And a man was smiling at Betsy:

Before the magical ceremony, we also went to Navy Pier. We went to the stain glass museum and then rode on the magical Ferris Wheel.

This is us before getting on the Ferris Wheel.

The next few pictures are as the Ferris Wheel went higher and higher:

 

 

Getting a little too high for me…

But the view was great.

We also got to walk around the city and go across the river of Chicago:

And I got to see my favorite painting:

 

It was a magical day!!!

Need a wig?

I just might be able to help you.

This is how much hair I had.

This is how much I have now.

the drama.

A huge thanks to Chelsey!

The end. Sorry for the narcissism folks.

Halloween times.

For some reason I have been super creative as of late. I made roses out of maple leaves…

And for this year’s pumpkin I did Thomas S. Monson.

Our costumes won “Best Couple” award at our ward Halloween party.

We had a lot of fun. Also, this week we went to my new favorite place in Chicago, The Museum of Science and Industry.

They already have some Christmas decorations up! This was a Bolivian themed tree.

A miniature room from the fairy castle!!!

The coal mine!!!

It was a good Halloween. Hope ya’ll had a good one too. Yar.

Pumpkin Patch.

I for one have never been in a pumpkin patch. You might say I missed out on having a childhood. And I’d say you’re right!

A real live pumpkin.

Happy.

Contemplate the worth of a pumpkin.

Even a real tractor ride.

I must say you’d be silly not to love the fall. It was worth a trip down to Indiana to find some of the best pumpkins around for only 25 cents a pound. They also had the most amazing Golden Delicious apples. It’s not very often I get to taste a bit of fruit right off the tree. These are the simple joys in life you cannot do without.

 

Another first: Dinner at Steak & Shake. Some of the best burger I’ve ever had.

The following Sunday I made Ukrainian Borshch.

Twas good.

We are strange people.

Nothing really new going on here…just school school school, work work work. But we keep ourselves entertained.

Micah models my latest knitting project.

 

General conference is a wonderful time to harness artistic abilities:

Good enough for an entry to The Friend, eh? Micah’s depiction of Tad R. Callister.

D. Todd Christopherson

 

Niel L. Anderson

 

Pres. Monson himself!

 

I promise I will have some real artwork up here sometime soon! hehe.

Something amazing you should see.

When I was on my mission in Ukraine, I saw a lot of accordion played in the streets and on subway trains.  I found a video of a kid playing accordion on my cousin’s facebook and was amazed.  When I looked up his channel on YouTube I found out that he is Ukrainian. Boo yeah. His repertoire ranges from Tchaikovsky to Vivaldi to Bach. If you need help translating any of the Russian let me know…he’s got quite a few pieces posted on his site. But here is a sampling.

Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” Summer

 

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto

 

Makes you not hate the accordion so much, eh? I always kind of liked it, but now I’m a little obsessed!