Come What May and Love it: It's been a while...

It's been way too long. Life has been busy - soccer, Relief Society, my history class and 5 kiddos have really eaten up my time. But today I vow to update, and use this as an excuse to post our new family pictures. These are not necessarily in chronological order...

Halloween came and went. We had Reyoldo (the soccer player), but to make it less like what Jake looks like everyday in his soccer gear, we made him a zombie. We also had Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games. I must say that Abby's costume was the best to put together. Hannah was Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, but her costume didn't turn out quite how we wanted, but she was still awesome. Annie was a little princess and sassy at that. And finally we had our traditional baby pumpkin. Claire hated the costume so bad that we didn't even get a pic with her little hat on. Oh well. The kids trick or treated hard and brought in quite a load.

We went to Slide Rock during October break ( a few days after General Conference). We wanted to see something we haven't gotten a chance to see or do before. They kids swore that they'd go in the water and not be sissies. And, lo and behold, they touched the water and were immediately turned off. They were all good sports and went down the slide at least once, some even went twice, except Claire and I. We held down the fort and stayed warm and dry.

On our hike out there was an older man struggling to hike out. His daughter was helping him, but it was still too hard going up those rocks and steps. Jeremy took notice and immediately started helping this woman help her dad out. When the kids and I got out, Jake asked where Dad was and I told him what he was doing. Jake's response, "Dad observed then served!" It melted my heart. I was so proud that Jake had payed attention to the conference talks enough to quote one and proud that his dad is a living example of service to his kids. Way to go boys!

Jeremy aced his Grand Canyon hike - day 1. His cruised south to north. He had enough in the tank to trek across that big hole the next day. Plans changed for day 2 as he, Matt and my dad decided to extend the hike a bit due to the full moon and perfect weather (oh and my dad's dehydration issues). They spent an extra night at the bottom of the Canyon admiring the gorgeous moon light reflecting off the canyon walls. My dad got rehydrated and flown out and Jeremy and Matt finished the hike Sunday morning. Really though, we're grateful that my dad is okay and very grateful for the priesthood power that Jeremy and Matt honor.

I have been cruising along quite busy. My history class is a lot more time intensive than I thought. But the work has been paying off as I'm currently getting a 98% in the class. And my new calling as RS pres is very busy at times and not so much at others. I hear that once I finally get the hang of it I'll get released, so I'm trying really hard to figure things out.

Abby has become quite the little soccer player. She is very technical and an great defender. In fact she got to play goalie toward the end of the season and was so aggressive and reacted well. I think only a few goals got scored on her. She was selected to the All-star team for an end of the season game and now wants to play Select like her big brother Jake. We'll have to think about that time committment before we decide. She is also cruising through her reading levels and I'm so proud of her.

A few Sundays ago, Hannah was asking me questions "How do yous spell Jesus? How do you spell church?" Stuff like that. I didn't think much of it until she showed me what she had written. I'm so glad I took a picture of it because for the life of me, I can't find it in any of the notebooks kicking around the house. I'm proud of her little testimony and I hope I can be so bold as to proclaim my love of Christ to those around me.

After a few years of not growing, we finally got Annie diagnosed. She has hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's. Her poor little thyroid was just not working right. Her levels that should have been around the 1-5 range were about 1000. Her other number should have been around 4 and it was at 1.6. One is the T4 the other is TSH, and I can't remember which is which. She is now on a little pill for the rest of her life and she should start growing again. Her endocrinologist said that as far as autoimmune diseases, that is the one you want. We'll take it and get her better now! It's funny because I always tell my kids that they can't grow or get any older and that they have to stay little. I take that back. I'll give anything to see her get bigger!

Sweet little Claire is growing way too fast (though I don't want her to stop, I just want time to freeze for a while). I swear I just had her. She is the joy of our entire family. She has begun to crawl and nothing is safe anymore, especially since everything goes straight to her mouth. She has also learned to pull up on things and gets herself up and is stuck because she hasn't quite learned how to get down. Ironically, we can't get her to sit for anything. She stiffens up and either lays down or stands up. She simply doesn't want to sit. She is the busiest little girl I have ever seen. She is a little obsessed with her hands. We tease her that she's either milking cows or conducting music all the time. The kids all fight over who gets to hold her and I don't blame them. Sometimes I throw around my motherly authority and take her for myself.