General Conference

I missed the first General Conference session on Saturday, along with most of the second session. I wish I had watched it then because it is so hard to watch it any other time. We were spending family time at the corn maze instead. We love going to the corn maze every year. It has become one tradition that we all enjoy. It gets our fall and winter celebrations started. We don't usually do a lot for any of the other holidays, including Christmas, but we have our autumn celebrations at the corn maze. Because of that, we missed most of Saturday's General Conference and I wish I hadn't because they all seemed to be talking about keeping the family strong and I needed to hear that. My family can always use a reminder about togetherness and staying strong as a family. But when I say it that way and remember what we were doing, I think that instead of listening to the word, we were practicing the word. And that is always a good thing to do.
I did get to listen to Sunday's sessions on serving others. I have been contemplating how I need to serve others more. I have never been really good at serving others, but the desire has been there. So this last month I have been trying to make an effort to serve at least one person each day and have been making some progress. President Monson's comments about never ignoring or postponing a prompting from the Holy Ghost was also something I needed to hear. Listening to the Holy Ghost needs to be more of a priority. Along with spending time and energy on my family more. Going to school has taken my focus away from my family and placed it on achieving the best grades in school. Something I read today reminded me that my family is more important than anything in this world, so I need to place more of my time and effort on them instead of on other things. Managing my time better, serving others, listening to the Holy Ghost, and investing more of my time toward my family are all goals that I will be working on. I sure hope I am up to the challenge.

It's amazing what I find on my camera sometimes.

The things that really matter. Curious George and Pretzels.

And then you can't beat the self portraits.

My Babies

....what else can I say. They are so cute and precious.

A Trip To The Park,

After that huge snowstorm and freeze, we got 70-80 degree weather. So we decided to enjoy the weather and go to the park. No one else was there and it was great because the kids could go on the swings-the favorite of all. And as you can see, there was still a little bit of snow left over, but it was so warm we didn't care.

Alex Turns 34

Pinewood Derby

I know, I haven't posted in a while. But with being sick and trying to get my priorities straight, the blog has been on the back-burner. So, I am going to try and make an effort to post a few things that we have been doing lately. But for today, I am sick again and don't really feel like doing much. I don't know why, but just downloading pictures is such an effort. A few things to note is that we finished our taxes a month ago and got our refund. Wow! It was a lot, so we paid off our new van. Now we just have one more loan that needs paid off before we will be completely debt free! That will probably have to wait until next year. But when that day comes, you can bet that I will be dancing the happy dance!
As for the kids...Michael is progressing well with his school work and is about to get his Weblos badge in Cub Scouts. Last night, he was in a little skit that they scouts put on for the Blue and Gold Banquet. He did so great! I am so proud of him! I think he was the only one that remembered his lines too.
Alexis is showing us how smart she is. She has decided that she will learn to read and is progressing very well. She is also catching on to her math very quickly and is about to progress to the next level. She is also very good at helping me take care of the little ones. She is thrilled at the idea of babysitting when she gets older. (Personally I think it is the fact that she can boss everyone around that she is excited about. :))
James is starting to enjoy his school work. He is so cute, but it drives me crazy when he keeps jumping on the furniture. And Julie loves to play with him! So now we have the two of them getting in to mischief all the time now and destroying things. :) I still love them to pieces though.
Let's see....Abigail is a lot more understandable and growing up so quickly. Benjamin is just as cute as ever and makes us all laugh. And Sarah doesn't like laying down all the time and being left out. So she tries to crawl, but whenever we put her on the floor, she just gets doggy-piled from all the 'loves' everyone wants to give her.
Alex is working like crazy. It is hard to see him so exhausted all the time. But it pays the bills. And now, I think I will go try to rest to get over this cold.