Birthday Weekend

It was a crazy week last week. Daniel's been sick with a slight cold this week, as have Jack and Camille. They've all been either snotty or coughing, or both. Brooke and I have inexplicably escaped this one, so far.

On Tuesday, I volunteered in Brooke's class for a couple of hours, which is always fun. Those kindergarteners are so cute, and Brooke really loves it when I come. After school, I took Brooke to get some new dresses in a bigger size. Her dresses are all a little short for her. The problem is, though, that the next size up is a little big for her, but the dresses are all still short. It's hard to find any knee length dresses for little girls.

Wednesday is our shopping and errand day, which I did with Jack and Camille while Brooke was at school. But after the little people had gone to bed, I took Brooke to Target to get Camille's main birthday present: a scooter. Ever since Brooke got her scooter from Mom for her birthday, Camille's been obsessing about it, trying to steal it and ride it whenever she can. So we thought it would be fun to get her her own scooter for her birthday, right when they are both into scootering.

Daniel and I took the littles to Brooke's school Friday morning. They have a flag ceremony every month where they salute the flag, sing the national anthem, sing the school fight song, and give out "Character Counts" awards. So, this time, Brooke got the award for fairness (the value they focused on this month). We were invited to the flag ceremony to watch Brooke receive her award, which was really fun.

That afternoon was the school Monster Mash Carnival. I took the kids while Daniel stayed home to work. The girls had a great time! (Jack, not so much) We dressed them up in their kitty costumes, and they ran around the schoolyard playing the carnival games and getting all kinds of candy, fake tattoos, stickers, spider rings and the like. After a while, they went to the big playground and played with some of Brooke's friends. Jack didn't love it. He kept wanting to play with the balls that they were using for games, and he was mad that I didn't let him do what he wanted. And at the end, he was really fading and looked like he might fall asleep. We made it home just in time for him to go to bed.

We had a girl from our ward, Nora Quiros, come babysit for us that night. After we put the little ones to bed and cleaned up the house a bit, I picked her up and Daniel and I went to an 80s themed party. Daniel had bought this costume kit with a mullet wig in it, and he looked so good! It was fun to see all our friends dressed up in crazy costumes and wigs. They had good food, crazy music, karaoke, guitar hero (a video game that I know nothing about), and we had a really good time.

Saturday was Camille's birthday. We decided to go to a pumpkin patch as part of our celebrations. We went to Gilchrist farms, where they are all decked out for fall. They had a petting zoo, pony rides, a hay bale maze, and other activities, aside from the actual pumpkin patch. The girls got to pick one activity to do, and they chose the pony ride. They loved that! Camille especially loved riding the pony. She had this big delighted smile on her face as she was going around on her pony. I wished I'd gotten a picture of that big smile. It was so cute!

After walking around, petting the horses and doing our pony ride, we went to pick out our pumpkins. The girls ran around looking at all the pumpkins and wanting to take them all home. Jack just waddled around, trying to pick up pumpkins or sit on pumpkins. He had a pretty good time. We got some pretty good pumpkins and came home.

The rest of the day was spent playing with friends. Elliot and Olive came over to give Camille some little presents, and they stayed and played for most of the afternoon. We had rice and beans for dinner (yes, that was Camille's own request), and then did cake and ice cream. She asked for a strawberry giant cupcake with sprinkles on top. And we'd opened most of her presents throughout the day, so she only had one left to open at the end of the day. She got the scooter, a series of early chapter books, 2 stuffed mice (from Mom), and a set of shopkins (from Mom Holbrook). I think she had a pretty good day.

To top it off, we had a movie night after Jack went to bed. We watched Ratatouille, and I set up a cheese and cracker platter to eat while we watched (because you can't watch Ratatouille without eating cheese. It just can't be done), and they actually really loved the cheese and crackers, and they really got into the movie. The story line is a little over their heads, but they loved the little rats and got really invested in their welfare. We figured, since Millie has been in this mouse phase for so long, that she would really like watching that movie. And she really did. It was cute to watch.

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a really nice day! Since it was Sunday, we did all our normal Sunday stuff: Choir practice, getting ready for church and going to church. My friend Heather gave me a loaf of pumpkin bread at church, which was so sweet. And people kept coming up to me to wish me a happy birthday. When we came home, I took a little nap, talked to my siblings and parents, and played with Jack. Daniel spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen making the cake I requested and dinner. We had turkey burgers and fries, and pumpkin spice cake. It was all really good, but I think by that time, I was pretty sugared and junk-fooded out.

It was a super-busy week, but also so fun with everything that went on!

Jack has been obsessing over garbage trucks this past week. He calls all trucks and buses "garbage trucks", and every time he hears a truck backing up, he asks excitedly, "GARBAGE TRUCK???" It's about the cutest thing ever. I heard the garbage trucks coming this morning right when I was first waking up (Monday is garbage day), and I had to jump out of bed and rush to Jack's room so that we could look at the garbage truck out the window. We barely made it in time to see it going down the street. We caught the second truck and watched it come up our street and go around the neighborhood a bit. He LOVED watching it. This is such a fun stage with him. His "boyness" is really coming out now, with him obsessing over all things automotive and also balls. It's so cute and fun!

Halloween Feast 2018

This has been a somewhat busy week. It seemed I was all over the place doing things. We went to the park on Monday, around lunchtime, with our friends. And later that afternoon, after Brooke came home from school, her little friend Violet came over to play and told us that her little brother, Elliot, died. Elliot was premature, born a couple of years ago, but only a couple of months ago had come home from the hospital to live with his family. We went over to meet him the day he came home, and his care looked really complicated. He had a feeding tube and a ventilator, and it was clear that he had some developmental and health problems. He got sick last weekend, and due to some complications in transporting him to the hospital, he died early Monday morning. I went over to visit Violet's mom, Sara, and see what I could do. Daniel and I were both a little shocked and sad for them. It's always a little hard for me, in situations like this, though, because I'm not always sure what I can do or say to help.

Tuesday we did our family home evening and had a lesson on the plan of salvation. And for our activity, we had the girls draw cards and we wrote in them, to take over to Violet and August. I made dinner for them Wednesday evening, and the girls helped me take food over, and they brought their cards as well. It's so sad, but they seem to be handling it well. They are fairly religious, and I think that is helping.

Wednesday we did our shopping early, and bought things to get ready for our Halloween Feast!! I did a grocery pickup at Walmart, and as the lady was helping me bag the groceries, she said, "Wow, you've got a lot of candy there." It made me laugh, and I tried to explain that we do this fun little Halloween dinner. But really. It was a lot of candy, and I was already a little apprehensive of the sugar overload coming.

Friday, Brooke had a birthday party for her friend, Blake Faucette, at Chuck E. Cheese's. Camille, Jack and I went on an errand to get him a birthday present and a few things for our feast. And then after school, I took her and Elliot Erdmann over there for the party. And spent the rest of the day preparing our feast!

It was a good year for feasting! We had bones (breadsticks), witches wands (asparagus), pumpkin pasta (in a pumpkin alfredo sauce), graveyard dip (bean dip), and eyeballs (deviled eggs). And for our candy bar werewolf fangs, tadpoles, rat droppings, lizard eyeballs, poison, and dragon guts (candy corn, dum-dums, chocolate covered raisins, gobstoppers, m&ms, and snicker bites). Oh, and also Monster Candy. The girls were so excited about the feast, they wanted to do all they could to help. They helped me stir the pasta sauce and set the table. They helped set out the food and put out the candy. It was a lot of fun. We lit candles and put them on the table, we wore witches hats ... I love our Halloween Feast!

After dinner, we put Jacky Boy to bed and sat down to watch Hotel Transylvania together, complete with A LOT of movie candy. The girls loved it!

Saturday was an off day for me. I was tired and lazy and impatient with the kids. Daniel was gone a lot of the day, which I sadly resented a bit. And I was a little tired of doing the same things all the time with no break, which is how it almost always is. And usually I'm totally fine with it. I love being a stay-at-home mom, and I feel very blessed that I get to be and that I don't have to work. But every once in a while, I want to be selfish and do my own thing. Anyway, I'm working on not having those days. And I'm working on being less selfish and resentful. But nevertheless, I had a bad day yesterday. And, of course, we had Stake Conference this weekend, and so Daniel pushed me out the door for the Saturday night session (he'd gone to the earlier leadership session in the afternoon and thought it fair for me to go in the evening. If I'd been in a better mood, I would've appreciated that more, but as it was, I didn't really want to go). I feel like every time Stake Conference rolls around, I'm having an especially off day, and then I, quite unwillingly, go to Saturday evening conference, and feel the Spirit in abundance and learn all kinds of things, and make startling realizations about how I can do better and I end up feeling so glad that I went.

So, last night's conference session was incredible. Elder Klebinglat from the 70 came with a companion area 70, and they spoke for a little bit, each of them, and then opened up the rest of the meeting for questions. He spoke about keeping ourselves sexually clean and pure, even and especially in our minds, and about the steps he's taken to insure that he remains clean. He told us that he travels a lot by himself because of his calling, and his wife often stays home. They still have kids at home (he's quite young for a GA), and so she can't always go with him. And he has certain things that he does so that he can stay far away from any temptation of that kind. When they opened up the meeting for questions, there were a lot of questions and comments about the new Sunday meeting schedule that they announced last weekend at General Conference. And also about this time that we are living in and how we can teach and protect our families. It was a very interesting meeting, and I had a number of takeaways:

1) The people who will be in the best spiritual shape and enjoy the best spiritual protection are the people who not only GO to the temple but who LOVE the temple and feel drawn to it. They go because they love it, not because they are fulfilling some obligation. They go for themselves, to learn and grow and gain insight. They go with questions and after much prayer. They go prepared.

2) We are solidly in the last days. The Lord is hastening His work in many new ways that we've not seen before (or at least in different ways than we've seen before). He's preparing us for His coming, and we need to do better and be better. The world is getting worse and worse, and we need to be more and more spiritually strong.

3) My scripture study and prayer is distressingly lacking. I've felt for many months that I really need to do better with studying the scriptures. I'm pretty good about reading every day, but I haven't dived into the scriptures and looked for answers in a long time. And every conference, I recognize that the leaders of the church are very well versed in scripture. They have scriptures memorized and they can quote and pull up scriptures at the drop of a hat when they need to. I have always envied that, but I don't take the time and effort to have that knowledge.

4) Not related to conference at all, but I've been thinking, this year especially, and perhaps it's been the Spirit whispering to me, that it is very important that I draw my children close to me in every way I can. That it's going to be increasingly important for us to be close as a family, for me to teach my children, for us to have fun together, and to have our own identity as a family. Also, that we need to stay connected with our extended family as much as possible.

It's been a good couple of weekends for me. The 2 conferences back to back were really inspiring and wonderful. I just hope that I can make the necessary changes in my own life and in my family's life that will help us prepare better.

To Remember:

• Camille has taken to calling Daniel "Waddy" (*shrugs shoulders*)

October Arrives

We are in full Halloween swing here! We decorated for Halloween a couple of weekends ago, because I just couldn't wait anymore. The girls were so excited when we pulled out the Halloween boxes. They rummaged through all the costumes and took out all the decorations so carefully. They helped decorate our Halloween tree, and they looked through all our Halloween books and planned out when they would watch all the Halloween movies. It was a fun day! We all loved it.

The girls have Halloween costumes all picked out and ready as well. They both want to wear the costumes they wore last year: black cats, both of them. Fortunately, that's actually going to work. Sure, Camille's black cat costume is quite tight, and Brooke's is far too short in the legs. But we'll make it work so I don't have to figure out whole new costumes for both of them this year. I lucked out another year! Someday, I won't be so lucky, and I'll have to make costumes for everyone.

Jack and I are dressing up as Mrs. Parr and Jack-Jack from the Incredibles. And Daniel, I think, wants to be Miguel from Coco and paint his face like Day of the Dead masks.

Since the day we got all decorated for Halloween, life has been kind of same-old-same-old. Brooke had a couple of days off for "Fall Break" (the school schedule here is so weird). And we hung out with friends for both of those days, which was kinda fun. Daniel has been applying and interviewing for jobs, some of which haven't panned out, and others which are still in the works. We'll see what happens, but poor guy is so done with his current job, he's pretty anxious to be good and done. I hope he finds something good soon, for his sake more than for any of the rest of us. I've been reading a lot, cleaning up my eating (which has been feeling so good on my body, really), working out as much as I can, and taking care of my clan. We're still adjusting to having Brooke in school. It's not been an easy adjustment. I've also been recently called to be the choir pianist in our ward, which brings my calling tally up to 4, haha! I can't complain -- they're all relatively easy callings and don't require that much outside preparation for them: ward organist 2x a month, primary pianist, Relief Society activities committee member, and now, ward choir pianist. I actually love playing for choir, so it's been really nice preparing the pieces and going to choir practices.

Just this past weekend, we had General Conference, and it was so incredible! Daniel and I didn't get to focus on too much of it, because, ... kids. And we had a birthday party to go to as well, of a kid in our ward, so we missed most of the afternoon session of Saturday. But so many big changes have been happening/are coming soon, it feels as if the Lord is moving His church and making changes rapidly to prepare for His coming! Last conference, they announced that the men would all be meeting together, instead of breaking up into Elder's Quorum and High Priests. And they also changed Visiting and Home Teaching to just Ministering. They are also dropping the Boy Scouting program at the end of 2019. And this last weekend, they announced that starting in January 2019, we are moving to a 2 hour block schedule of church and emphasizing more gospel teaching in the home! What?! That's gonna be so crazy and strange, at first, but probably so good in the end. It goes right in harmony with what my patriarchal blessing says: that I need to really make sure I'm teaching my children the gospel in my home because the world is getting worse and worse by the day. I just hope that I'm up for the challenge.

This conference, more than ones in the past several years, has shown me that I really need to up my game. I have a lot that I need to improve on and change in myself and how I run my house if I want to be successful in raising up good, stalwart kids. And myself, too. If I want to remain strong in the face of temptation and all the bad in the world, I need to do better and be better. Mostly I'm thinking of my personal scripture study and Family Home Evenings. I could make those more effective, and I think that'd make a big difference. Problem is, where do I even start? It feels overwhelming, but it probably doesn't need to.

Life is good. I feel grateful every day for the life I get to live. A lot of hard things are happening to people I love, and it makes me feel so sad for them, and also wonder that, thus far, I've been spared from those trials. My cousin, Jennifer, lost her oldest son to alcohol poisoning recently. And my friend Jen Tavelli just had her baby girl 16 weeks early! She's survived, so far, but it's touch and go when they come that early. And of course, my sister Julie is still in the midst of great struggle, and my sister, Mary, is so confused by the world, she seems to be turning every which way to find  meaning in her life. I continue to pray for my people. But it still makes me sad for them.

Also on Sunday, we went to Aunt Liz and Uncle Bob's house for dinner. We love getting together with them. They're such good people, I love being with them. And, of course, Brooke and Camille love playing with Ava and Elle. Brooke and Ava put on a little trampoline show for us after dinner, which was funny and cute. And as we were leaving, we saw a rocket being launched a ways off into the sky. It was so incredible to watch!

The Extras:

• Jack sings "Let it Go" all the time and "Try Everything" by Shakira. He's really latched onto certain songs and sings them all the time.
• Camille's been drawing more and more, and her little drawings are so cute. That's been one of my favorite things about parenthood so far, is watching their little drawing skills emerge. Little primary drawings are some of my favorite things ever!
• I have also loved hearing Brooke talk about school or come home singing a new song she learned. Her teacher sends home these diagrams that Brooke draws on, outlining a story they read in school. She asks that Brooke come home and use the pictures she drew to tell us the story they read. Last night I had Brooke do one of these for me, and I just loved watching her and hearing her tell me about it. She got so into telling me the story, laughing at the funny parts and telling me all the pieces of the story. It's been pretty fun watching her learn so much.
• Jack sucks his left thumb, and over the past few weeks, I've noticed his thumb starting to get red and swollen and the skin starting to peel. It's so sad, and I'm not sure what to do about it. It's his comfort solution, to suck his thumb when he's tired and such.
• We have these singing and dancing Halloween toys that Mom has given to us, and Jack really loves dancing to the music of those and playing with them, just like the girls did at his age. 
• Camille has started becoming this little angry person. She's been blaming me for almost everything that goes wrong for her, even if I literally had nothing to do with it. And up until recently, she's started saying that she hates me all the time and that I'm stupid. "You're stupid, mom!" Which I just ignore. But about a week or so ago, we had a family meeting about using kind words and helping others to feel good, and that behavior has gone down significantly. She still gets really super mad about stuff, but she's been more kind in her language which is good. Just don't get on that girl's bad side!!!