Pumpkin Patch

We always head out to The Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island in October to get our pumpkins. This is one of my favorite things about Oregon. You can drive for 20 minutes from downtown Portland and be in beautiful farmland. We hopped on the tractor and headed out to the field to get our pumpkins. You can't tell, but there was a nice little drizzle that day, but we are true Oregonians and that doesn't dampen our spirits.

Trunk-or-Treat

This year I had to help plan and execute the ward Halloween party. We have always had a carnival and trick or treating indoors and this year we decided to spice things up with a chili cook off and trunk or treating outdoors. It was definitely a risk, but I think it turned out great and we had fabulous weather. I should have taken a picture of all the great decorations because the gym looked great. 

The three Harry Potter's showed up and it was so fun to see little Lukey in his costume. This was seriously a  dream come true for us. We always go all out at Halloween and it was so fun to share this wonderful holiday with our little one. I can't believe that only a year ago I was just barely starting to get a tiny baby bump and now I have a giant 19 pound, 6 month old little boy!

This is my new favorite picture of Luke! I seriously would have named him Harry Daniel Lujan, but his Daddy thought we would get made fun of and he is probably right. 

Let the trunk-or-treating begin!!! I have never been to a trunk or treat before and let me just say that is was great! We couldn't have asked for better weather and we had a great turn out.

 Nana and Poppy manned our trunk so we could walk around with Luke.

It was funny when people let Luke choose the candy because he usually ended up grabbing like three pieces and they went right to his mouth!

 My Potter boys!

Here is our friend Miles! He is one of the cutest little people I know!! 

We had such a fun day and I am so grateful to my mom who helped do so much at the party and to everyone who helped make it great! 

Punkin Carving

I have carved a pumpkin every year since I can remember. The past few years we have congregated at the Poytress place for our pumpkin carving. It was a little bittersweet to me because this will be our last Halloween with the Poy's and that makes my heart sad, but we were extra lucky this year and had Nana and Poppy visiting so they got in on the pumpkin carving action. 

Luke pretty much just wanted to eat everything, as usual!

I have been known to make fun of Dan for doing a "boring" pumpkin face with the triangle eyes and toothy grin so this year he worked for a long time at carving a more exciting face.

Finally found something legal for Luke to suck on.

Carving pumpkins can be very serious business.

Here we are with the finished products!! 

Luke In The Leaves and My Adventures in Photography

I used to be very passionate about photography. I took AP photography in high school and I was originally going to major in art and be a photographer. Well, when I started in the art program at the University of Utah I changed majors within a week!! I had to draw and paint and sculpt and that was not in my realm of comfort. During this time photography was transitioning from film to digital and I kind of fell of the photography wagon. I just had a point and shoot digital camera for many years. Two Christmases ago Dan gave me a nice digital camera and I have really wanted to learn more and take great pictures. So, now that I am a mom and I have an adorable baby I am going to do it!! I finally got up the courage to put the camera on manual and fool around with the ISO, aperture and shutter speed! I feel very proud that I took these pictures. I think Luke looks so amazing and I just love the fall leaves all around him. I'm excited to learn more about my camera, lightroom and maybe get another lens for my camera.

Tree City Chiropractic

On September 1st Dan (and I) are the proud co-owners of Tree City Chiropractic in Tualatin, Oregon!! It has been in the works for quite some time and now everything is official and Dan and Josh are now the owners. Josh's Dad is retiring and it was the perfect opportunity for Josh and Dan to buy the practice together.

Dan has worked SO hard the past year and a half to build up his practice. He has been very successful and it was a tough decision to leave his shared space and Lujan Chiropractic, but we know it was the right decision and Tree City is a great opportunity for us. It is a very nice, well established practice with a great patient base in a very nice community. We are still living in Gresham and plan on moving to Tualatin after Christmas. It is such a nice community and we can't wait to move there. (Dan is commuting about 45-60 minutes one way, depending on traffic) It is really exciting to have our own practice and I know Dan and Josh are going to be so successful and we feel very blessed to have this great opportunity. I can't tell you how good it feels for Dan to have a "real" job, I am working as a full time mom and we finally have a "real" life!! It was such a great opportunity for me to work at Head Start the past five years and there are things about student life that I will miss, but we were ready to move on and now I am excited to enjoy this next phase of life. The phase with children, jobs, a house and the mini-van!!

I really have to say that I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing us so much. Things just seem to work out for our family and I know it is God's hand blessing our lives. We definitely still have our trials and struggles, but the big things seem to fall in to place and I am so so so grateful.

Dan is a great Chiropractor and I am so proud of him. In Chiropractic school they teach you NOTHING about business, but most Chiropractors end up being small business owners and many of them end up failing. Dan has learned so much the past year and a half and I am so proud of him. He is amazing! He is such a hard worker and he is so resilient. There have been some stressful times the past couple months, but he has come through with flying colors and it is so nice to see Dr. Lujan's name up on the door all official like! I am so lucky to have him as my best friend, husband and Daddy to Lukey! Congratulations Daniel! You have come a long way! I love you forever and for always!