Journaling

- Noah said, "I love Jack more than my Ee-oh."  It was as if he had thought and pondered on this idea for a while before.  And he said it very profoundly.  Loved it :)  10-17-12

- Nate brought Evan home with him on Wednesday to have a sleepover with Bradley.  They had a lot of fun.  I'm noticing a lot lately that my kids need to work on their hosting skills, or maybe that I would just like to re-emphasize our hospitality skills.  They're just kids, so I don't expect them to be perfect at it.  Especially since there are not a LOT of opportunities for it around here.  But it was fun to have Evan here, he's a sweet kid.  Really fun for the littles.  He spent quite a bit of time playing with just Erika!  He's a real sweetheart.  10-17-12

- On Thursday, since it was Fall Break, we wanted to do something fun.  But nothing was really coming to me until afternoonish.  By then Evan was anxious to go home, so we made the plan to take Evan home and then go see a movie.  Yep, just the kids and I!  I got to sit and talk with Nancy and Nate's parents for a few minutes when I dropped Evan off, and then we went to see Hotel Transylvania.  It was a lot of fun!  Surprisingly!  I had concocted all kinds of crazy things that could go wrong, but none of them happened!  I was relieved.  It was a cute movie, the kids all sat in their seats, relatively quietly.  We had popcorn and a drink and they both made their way around pretty well.  Jack was awake through the whole thing which had worried me, but turned out to be just fine since Erika was enjoying the movie so much, sitting by Kelly.  Jack just nursed the whole time.  It was actually a very pleasant outing!  I couldn't have been happier.  It didn't hurt that the theater was near empty.  Less people to annoy means less stress for me :)  It was a good time.  10-18-12

- Saturday we went out to Jarom's birthday party.  We dropped off Sierra, Kelly, and Noah for first part of the party.  While Charity, Bradley, Erika, Jack and I went to McD's for some ice cream and fries.  I really hadn't wanted to be in the way at the party.  For some reason, my big kids turn into little stinkers when we go to the birthday parties.  They think they need to play all the games and win stuff and be part of the party, which I'm sure is fine, I just like to give the little one who was invited their space.  They need those things to be for them. At least I think they do.  It was a really fun party, the last half hour, we were there.  Meg always does such fun games and has such cute ideas.  She loaded us up with candy and balloons, cupcakes and then we were on our way!  When we got home, Nate thought it'd be fun to end our Fall Break with some WIngers!  Unfortunately the place is under new management and the food just isn't as good.  It was slightly disappointing.  But we all had a good time.  Kelly, Luke and Erika couldn't get enough of the mirrors ;).  Jack slept the whole time.  Good boy.  And I enjoyed watching everyone get along for a change :).  Good times.  10-20-12

- Noah gave his first talk this Sunday!  He had wanted to talk about Jesus.  So we went through the picture book and found some pictures from his life and told that.  He was so cute when I was rehearsing it with him.  We got to the line that says, "Jesus felt all my sadness and mistakes so that I can repent."  Noah looks at me inquisitively and says, "He did?"  What a cutie.  Then we talked about that a little. Noah's always a little skeptical, but he believed me in the end.  Then the next line was, "Jesus died for us so that we can live with our Heavenly Father again." and he did the same thing, "He did?"  How this hasn't sunk in before now is beyond me, but I'm glad to know it did this time :).  He was very concerned about this one, and we talked about it for a long time.  I was proud of him for asking questions, and I loved the opportunity.  He actually memorized that second line and was able to repeat it himself without prompting when he gave his talk.  Must have had a huge impact.  Which speaking of, I completely missed his talk!  I had sent it with him to primary and was planning on going down there to watch him give it after RS, but I was too late!  Thankfully, Charity had been in there (the Jr. and Sr. Primaries were combined) and she got up and helped him with it.  I was so proud of my kids when I heard that the show went on.  But that doesn't take away how disappointed I am that I missed his first talk.  He doesn't seem to bothered that I wasn't there, but it had meant a lot to me.  Next time I guess :).  10-21-12