It has been a busy month. My calling as Primary Counselor has kept me really busy. There have been weeks where I have had meetings of some kind everynight. I am sure Grant has felt like a single parent as I am off fulfilling my calling. I am enjoying some quiet time in regards to my calling. It has been nice to eat dinner with the family instead of making dinner and patting everyone on the head as I leave out the door. I have been doing lots of sewing as I have set a goal to make all three kids quilts for their beds by Christmas time. I didn't want to do just an ordinary tie quilt, but I wanted to adventure out into unknown territory and make one of those fancy quilts with all the fancy quilting stiches included. It has been a learning process as well as relaxing as I sit at the sewing machine pondering about life and such. A nice way to slow down.
Anthony and Madeline love school. Anthony loves all the science experiements that he gets to do on a weekly basis. He is making the grades and we are so proud of him. Madeline has come along way in her speach and getting more confident in herself. The other day at school Madeline got up by herself in front of the class and did a show n tell with a nice loud big girl voice. That is just amazing. Last Sunday she said the prayer in Primary and marched up their by herself with no prompting and gave the prayer with no help in a nice loud voice. Last year we couldn't get her to speak up and it was hard to hear her at all. You can tell she is getting confident by the day. She walks with more confidence in herself and in her ability to do things. This is all rewarding to me as a mother to see my children go out in the world with confidence and the knowledge of knowing who they are.
Conference weekend was great and it was neat to sit as a family listening to conference and to be able to as a family sustain the prophet and other General Authorities. Anthony and Madeline absolutely love when conference comes around. I try to make it a celebration all weekend long starting with homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, to special conference baskets with goodies to enjoy, to enjoying the food from our 72 hour kits as we trade out the old for the new, to even eating pizza while daddy is at Priesthood session. The kids love to ask Grant what he learned about during Priesthood Session. This year Anthony was able to pick out what they were talking about, he was so excited to learn that he could really understand them. Now for me it is off planning FHE lessons based on the conference talks to teach to the children for the next six months.
Spencer is on the verge of walking, he has taken a couple of steps but still prefers to walk on his knees. He is absouletely every where and into everything. Completely different than the other two. He definitely keeps me hopping and he makes sure that you know that he exists and he is really good at leaving his mark all over the house. He loves to talk to you and carry on a conversation, but you need to use your imagination as to what he is saying. He can only say two words, bye bye and stinky. He can say sounds, but not really any words yet.
I haven't been able to do my pioneer party. I had things planned and then one by one we all got sick, Madeline had surgery, and then we got swamped with life. I have things still planed and put together and hopefully when we go camping this weekend we can enjoy a little pioneer celebration. I figure we might not celebrate when the first pioneers came into the valley but there were probably pioneers arriving still at this time.
Enough with talking time for pictures.
On Satudays Anthony has been working with his daddy on building a tree house. Anthony will be out there working for hours on it. Good thing the weather has been decient. Anthony is enjoying working side by side with his daddy, and I know Grant is having memories of building his own tree house when he was Anthony's age.
Madeline received the citizenship award at school for the first six weeks. Madeline was able to enjoy a breakfast with the other students being honored. Each of the teachers wrote something about their student using the letters in their name. This is what Madeline's teacher wrote about Madeline. Makes us smile, Always follows the rules, Demonstrates determination, Engaged participant, Love learning, Irrepressible spirit, Never gives up, Excellent scholar. Way to go Madeline!
