Halloweeeeeeeeen and AUTUMN

Last Saturday me and some friendlies went out to breakfast. As we were driving home, we realized that it was a beautiful Autumn day and the leaves on the trees were GORGeous. So we took a little drive up the canyon and naturally took some pictures. These are pictures from my friend Sarah's camera- thanks for letting me steal them! :)

Halloween = fun for everyone. I have carved a plethora of pumpkins this month, here is one such instance well documented: 

Spencer and Alicia invited us all to there home for a FHE pumpkin carving night- it was so fun! Thanks guys :)

Court and Kaden:

The whole group and our fabulous pumpkins:

Kevin and I won for the best pumpkin. We won a can of soup. Yesssssssssss

Here is our group at the corn maze, another Halloween time must. I love corn mazes, but I will only do one a year, that's my limit. 

This weekend is The Howl- Its pretty fun I guess....I don't know why its so famous- Its really not THAT cool. just sayin.

And last but not least, The Sometimes Annual Martin Halloween party was last night! Oh, how I love getting together with my fam. Emily and Caytee have already blogged about it, so I won't go into detail- but it was super fun! My favorite costumes were the Star Wars family.

Before the party, we met up with Caytee and baby Carl at the Gardner Village. It was super fun because it was all decked out for Halloween.  Its always decorated so fun. Christmastime is awesome there!  Its a fun little place with all sorts of great shops.  

baby Carl and I-- look at that face- he is so cute!

Not something you see everyday:

There were fun decorated witches everywhere!

Until next time! 

xoxoxo

MAdi

USU Homecoming Week Crazies

Last week was Homecoming week at Utah State and it was so fun! 

The weather was beautiful and there were always so many fun things going on. 

Monday night was the paint dance. It was out on the HPER field, and there was paint EVERYWHERE. Also going on at the same time was the painting of the street on the main road on campus for all clubs and organizations. It was a lot of fun!

 I didn't get pictures of it all, but other activities were Wednesday night was Mr. USU. It was hilarious. Thursday night there was a Luau with free food! (what college student doesn't like that, right?) 

Friday night was the dance and True Aggie Night (nope, didn't do it) and Saturday was the football game. We got killed. Brutally beaten. But hey, we beat BYU this year right?? :) It was raining so hard at the game that most everyone left at halftime- I was soaked!  Later that night I had my Saturday night meeting for stake conference, then went to the Volleyball game, then went to the hypnotist, which was hilarious! It was a fun, action packed week!

Before it started raining: 

After it started raining:

So Lately I've Heard..

a lot of opposition against the church. There has been a lot of opposition to this talk. And sometimes its hard to hear something I love so much so brutally attacked. I think I've shared this before, but I wanted to show it again. Its a quote from 30 years ago, It gave me chills just now as a I read it: 

Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church 

even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'

This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.... Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted... This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. 

Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened....Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do.

We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "Meeting the Challenges of Today,"

BYU Devotional October 10, 1978

For the record: I do not hate gay people. I have a couple friends that are gay. I love them! I don't agree with it, but it doesn't mean that I treat them any differently.

So here's the deal..

Lately, I feel pretty grateful for A LOT of things. 

So maybe its a little cliche, but I'm going to tell you what I'm grateful for:

1. The places that I've been able to go and the opportunities I have been given. They have all put me completely out of my comfort zone, but they have given me priceless experience that has changed me forever and I will never be able to forget. These pictures just show a handful of them.  

Torreon, Mexico: 

Cuenca, Ecuador:

Tijuana, Mexico:

Being a Youth Leader at LTC:

Being an EFY Counselor:

2. Fall is upon us, aka Autumn! This is most definitely my favorite season of them all. I wish that it lasted longer! I love the leaves changing colors. I love the change in the weather. Not quite cold enough for a big coat, but just right for sweaters and scarves. I'm trying to write some more to explain and express how much I love fall but I can't even begin to put it into words. I LOVE FALL. 

(taken while hiking the Wellsvilles)

3. I have the best friends in the entire world! No doubt about it, I would not be who I am today without my amazing friends. With help from them I have been able to get through hard times. I couldn't be more grateful for good friends and fun times together. 

4. My Faith. The knowledge that God knows me personally and I am his daughter. The knowledge that He will direct every choice I make in my life, as long as I have faith. The experiences I've had where I've been prompted on what to do or what not to do. I am who I am because of my faith. 

5. My Family. I know that I blog about them a lot... and it probably gets annoying. 

But here it is, I love them and I don't know how I got so lucky as to have them. 

I am so thankful for my 3 best friends in the entire world, Hillary, Austin, and Brandon. I don't think I realized how blessed I am for them until Hillary moved away and we all won't be together again till December. We have so much fun together, and I can't lie, we are pretty hilarious. Our parents just sit there and laugh at how ridiculous we can be. For example, look at this picture to prove my point:

6. Disneyland. I. Love. Disneyland. Maybe you're laughing right now. Maybe its because of the serious nature of the other things I'm grateful for, and then there's this. Well I don't care I LOVE DISNEYLAND. I personally think that Disneyland is a little bit of heaven on earth. When you walk in that place, all of your troubles and worries melt away. I haven't been there for two years, but Elder Uchtdorf tells me to be patientt, so I can hold out a little longer. 

7. My Dog. I love her. If you have met my dog, you'd understand. Oh, Sheba...

8. My childhood. I have recently realized how grateful I am for the childhood that I had. 

9. I'm so thankful to live in such a beautiful place. I see things like this on the daily and I couldn't love it more:

10. The Rain. I'm starting to notice after this post that the weather really affects my mood...

so yes, here are some things I am thankful for. I could keep going and going and going, but I think I'll keep it to myself before you wonder why you ever started reading this post!

That's what I'm talkin about

Okay. So maybe this is old news, like a week and a half old, but give a girl a break, its been a crazy week with school. 

I don't know if you heard but....

USU beat BYU!

It was epic. Such a fun game, it was so fun to take out BYU. Mainly because, lets be honest, Utah State's football team doesn't have the best record in years past. If we were talking basketball it would be another story though. 

Here is Tessa, Sarah and I at the game:

It was so fun because Emily and Paul came for for the game and brought their cute family! Even though they were cheering for the wrong team, I'm so glad they came :)

Andrew thought it was so funny to take pictures of me taking a picture of him. This kid cracks me up:

Storming the field at the end of the game was so exciting. The student section for this game was UMazing!

Utah State 31 BYU 16, That's what I'm talkin about!

The morning after the game, I added some more football to my weekend and watched Brandon in his game. This guy is so good at football- I'm so proud of my bro!

These lil guys came with us to Brandon's game. I just love them all- Emily and Paul, you did good! 

My Uncle Mark

This is my Uncle Mark. He is so great, I love my uncle. 

He could really use your prayers right now.