October!

It's funny because each Sunday when I organize my pictures, I'm surprised how much we got done in a week. 

Monday: Eleanor gives the best cuddles.

Our new friends invited us over for a cookie decorating party! We love cookies and friends and fall.

I was asked to prepare a meal for a family in our ward and as I was feeling overwhelmed about it all, a friend from the ward asked if she could drop off some homemade bread. It was delicious and made my day. I'm grateful for her thoughtfulness and I texted her that it brought a smile to my face as I tried to balance everything I had on my to-do list for the day. 

And little miss loves the stairs.

On Tuesday, Eli had his first little field trip. All the kindergarteners had to be there at 8:15 a.m. so after dropping Eli off at school, Eleanor, Austin and I bought some groceries for the week and then headed to the library for story time. The theme for the day was MONSTERS!!

On Wednesday, the weather was so warm (the high was 80!!) and since I was positive it was our last warm day, we decided to eat our pancake breakfast outside. It was lovely and warm!

I had JUST put the water table away the day before, but the boys begged to drag it out again. We filled it up with water and they had a blast. Then we walked around the neighborhood and admired the (small) trees showing off their fall colors.

Eli looks so cute in a uniform! 

On Thursday, I ran to Eli's parent teacher conference and then he didn't have school so we met up with friends in Castle Rock and hiked this mini-incline - 200 steps! It was a great hike with kids. Then we played at the playground for hours.

Thursday night I was able to run to our ward temple night. My kind friend Teigan kept the kids for 30 minutes until Aaron could get home from work and take them home. Teigan sent me this pictures and said her daughters adore Eleanor. :) I loved being at the temple and received personal revelation for our family. I made it a goal to attend the temple each time with specific questions on my mind.

On Friday the weather warmed up and we decided to head to the pumpkin patch with friends! Everyone loved being outside and celebrating FALL!!

It's been a while since we've all been able to hang out together!

17 kids!! It was a party!

After a warm day of playing outside, we decided to grab an ice cream cone. The weather this coming week is cold and rainy and we agreed that ending a warm day outside with an ice cream cone sounded right!

And little Eleanor. Austin put part of his Halloween costume on her! haha ooo speaking of Halloween, we found costumes at the Dollar Store. All of our Halloween dreams came true for 10 bucks.

 

Saturday: Austin came into our room at 7:00 a.m. with his General Conference notebook and said, "Today is General Conference!!!" He was so excited. Earlier this week, we went to the Dollar Store and picked out some sugary treats. They were excited to play bingo and color and have snacks close by. I love watching them love General Conference so much!

During Conference, Eleanor was trying out her new tricks! She gets the happiest smile on her face when she pulls herself half-way up. Aaron was working all day yesterday at the football game so I planned to watch the Women's Session of conference at home. My ministering partner, Lisa, had reached out to a lady we minister to that isn't completely active and she agreed to go to the Stake Center to watch the session with Lisa. I was grateful Lisa's husband was willing to have my boys over at his house so I could go to the church with Lisa and Racheal. Eleanor came along too and she was the cutest little girl there.

I loved this picture that was shared during the Women's session. And more pictures from conference today!

It was a spirit filled weekend and I have so many take aways. Our prophet invited us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year - that's 3 chapters a day. In Jan 2019, our church meetings will be 2 hours instead of 3. The focus is to have more home-based learning and church supported learning. Aaron and I are looking forward to studying the New Testament as a family next year. We were also asked to make a better effort to refer to the church as - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And 12 new temples were announced today! The work is moving on and it's inspiring to see how much it's growing. 

I found these pictures today that other moms posted in the kindergarten webpage of the field trip last week. I was sad to miss it, but with other children at home, it wasn't possible for me to attend. I loved seeing Eli in these pictures! At his parent teacher conference on Thursday, his teacher talked about how well he's doing in the class room. She said he's hard on himself at times and to encourage him to keep doing his best!