Every Day I Wake Up Lovin' You

Well, it's been 2, maybe even 3 weeks since the last time I blogged, but I have David down for bed, Caleb is settled in watching part of How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Byron is at a Boy Scout council (counsel?) meeting, so I thought I'd try to put something up.



David:  He is my darling little love.  He loves to hold my phone out in front of himself and pretend he's taking pictures of himself.  (Thanks to Alyssa for teaching him how to take selfies!) He is growing so fast, and picks up on things so quickly.  In just 3 short months, he'll get to go into nursery so Byron will get to pay attention in Sunday school and priesthood again.  He is incredibly snuggly in the mornings, and loves to be read to.

Caleb:  He is all boy all the time.  He loves burping and blowing rasberries and all things superman.  He learned on Friday how important it is to work on his "strong muscles" from his cousin Carson, and  loves the new Planes and "Toothless" (How to Train Your Dragon 2) movies.  I lent his Planes movie to a friend of mine who has a son a few months older than Caleb and he physically deflated when he found out.  It was funny to watch, but I think it was good for him, learning to share good things with his friends.  I can't believe he'll be a sunbeam in less than 2 months, and I'm trying to teach him some basic principles that will help him sit still and be reverent in case they move me up with my class like they did for the teachers last year.

Byron:  Tuesday he had the day off for Veterans Day.  He went to the Y with me that morning so I could get my workout in, then stayed longer to play pickleball.  When he got done he took the boys home for lunch and naps, and I got to go spend some time with my mom.  It was fun and definitely made it feel like a Saturday, which kind of threw off the rest of my week, but we had a good time.  He's started using Myfitnesspal with me, and he's doing a bit better than I am, but it's also kind of fun to work on it together.

Arielle:  I've been keeping myself busy.  Our weekly play groups have been much more involved the past few weeks since you have to get things done before you go, but it's been worth it. Caleb has a good time. This past week was a "busy bag" swap.  Each mom had to make 12 bags of the same kind of activity (one for each child), then we traded and each got an activity from the other moms.  There were some really fun ones that I'm looking forward to doing with Caleb, but they were also all pretty involved and I was hoping for things that Caleb could use on his own to keep him...busy...while I got things done. Haha, oh well.

Friday I got to go up to Brookville and spend some time with my cousin.  She taught me how to make cauliflower pizza (super good by the way, in case anyone was wondering) and I got to make chocolate chocolate chip pomegranate cookies with her.  They were pretty good, and she had fun clear christmas ball decorations that we got to decorate with mod podge and glitter.

Primary was a little challenging today.  One of the newer children in my Sunbeam class is very emotional, has a very hard time sitting still, thinks everyone should talk to them all the time, and frequently acts as though it is perfectly okay to get up and try to walk out of singing time or sharing time.  This week, as I was standing in the hall with them during an emotional fit, I definitely felt the Heavenly Father's power and the love He has for this little spirit as I tried to explain why it was important for us to be reverent and participate during sharing time.  I am so grateful that part of being called into a calling, we receive a blessing to set us apart and give us guidance and help for the trials we may face.

I've been working a lot the past few weeks cleaning, organizing and re-decorating various parts of the house.  Yesterday was a surprisingly successful day since I finally had a free Saturday where Byron could help me get things cleaned up in my "craft corner".  There is an area in the basement where I keep all of my craft supplies and Byron keeps all of his electronics.  It has been growing and growing for almost a year now, but yesterday we took it one section at a time and managed to make it so that both desks are functional and I can find everything in my closet under the stairs.  It's such a relief walking down the stairs and not feeling accosted by the amount of junk that was accumulating.

In General:  This week has been really fun overall.  Monday night we had our regular family home evening, and Byron prepared another fun lesson.  I am always so amazed by the fun things he comes up with to entertain and teach Caleb.  I'm so blessed to have such an incredibly eternal companion that constantly inspires me to be the best I can be in all that I do.

Thursday night was kind of awesome.  The couple in our ward that we have been doing temple swaps with had family move into the ward over the summer, so that night we took all 6 of the children from the 2 couples, which meant we had 8 children under the age of 6 and 3 of them were under 18 months, and managed to keep them clean, safe, healthy, entertained, fed, and put to bed without any mishaps.  It made me feel kind of awesome, not going to lie.  It also made me crave copious amounts of ice cream. hahaha

Last night after working hard to clean, and organize a good portion of the basement and an area upstairs, we called some friends of ours and invited them over for games.  It was last minute so I wasn't sure they would be able to come, but they did and we had a good time.  They brought 4 of their 6 children and it was really amusing watching them razz each other.  Kind of like hanging out with Byron's side of the family. It made me miss everyone and I'm really looking forward to our family reunion next summer!!!

Well, I think that's all the news I have to share. I hope everyone is doing well and having a marvelous life.  We're thinking of you and love you all.

David loves having pictures taken of him

We re-decorated our bedroom.  There are drawers everywhere and I kind of love it! haha

My darling love

I finally hung some frames in the boys room that I put together almost a year ago.
It has their names and what they mean printed on the glass.

David insisting on another picture.  Gotta love that face!

Byron using some cardboard supports from the floor transition
(that I still need to put in the boys room) to race balls with Caleb and David