Visitors

Our week was filled with grandparent time. Duane works from home now so he was able to work this week at our house and pop down from the guest bedroom to say hello during the day and walk Eli to and from the bus. He bought ice cream for dessert one evening. Check out Eleanor's hair after she pulled out her pigtails. Her evening hair styles crack us up.

Austin turned into a bat at gymnastics. His teacher said this is not easy to do. He's gotten stronger and stronger each class!

Tuesday night it worked out for Aaron and I to attend the temple together. This is the first time we've gone together since we moved here. We've gone to the temple separately, but this time was the best since we could attend together. 

Wednesday morning LeeAnn flew in and we went and picked her up from the airport and spent the day together. 

Thursday morning we went to story time at the library. Eleanor kept saying, "Story time!" 

After our library stop, we decided to explore a new park. There are sooo many parks around us and we haven't even seen them all yet!

I had a coupon for a free sandwich at Chick-fil-a so we stopped for lunch. I tear up thinking about Austin growing up so quickly. I say this every journal entry, but I cherish the time we get to spend together. He's a kind friend to Eleanor. 

These two were all smiles as they came down the slide together. 

And here are some pictures of Austin's chalk art. He wrote MOM on top of the pink one!

Grandma Volk taught the boys how to play garbage with cards and the boys played it together each day after school. I love that they have each other as brothers and friends. 

Friday evening we made a quick run to Wal-mart and Eleanor looked like this - no shoes, her hair tie broke and her hair was all over the place. She wanted to dance for a quick second so I got her out of the cart and obviously had to take a picture. 

Our hearts were happy to have grandparents in our home for a week! Eleanor kept saying, "Grandpa" and would run to the guest bedroom and interrupt him during his work hours. They each taught a lesson during the week for our Come Follow Me study and the kids loved hearing them share their testimonies. The final lesson was on "Sowing and Reaping" and Grandma gave them each a John Deere hat as well as a garden kit. They were thrilled!! We gave them lots and lots of hugs as they left Saturday morning. Aaron and I had a nice conversation with Duane and LeeAnn about raising children. I was in tears as they reminded us that the small efforts we make each day to pray together, read our scriptures, have gospel discussions, attend church and the temple, will bless our children's life and help them be prepared for their future. 

Aaron ran 12 miles on Saturday and I ran 11. We're three weeks away from our half marathon and we're getting excited and ready for the big run!! Aaron and I went to the adult session of Stake Conference on Saturday evening. The best part was being together! The talks were focused on missionary work and we both felt inspired to do our part to openly talk about our faith with others. One of the best things about living in our neighborhood is that when we talk to neighbors about where we go to church, we can point over by the temple and let them know we attend church so close!

Stake Conference was today and even though it's a long two hours with our little ones, we survived and enjoyed sustaining our stake leaders. Our stake president was called as the stake president just 6 months after moving to this area. The visiting area 70 talked about how our stake president is called of God. 

We're all excited for General Conference next weekend! 

New habits

As we've been working on our Come Follow Me study this year, we've tried many study schedules along the way.  A few weeks ago, I kept having the thought that we needed to start our study in the morning instead of in the evening when the kids are literally jumping off the couch and extremely exhausted after a long day. Aaron had the same thoughts. Eli gets on the bus at 7:15 a.m. so we've really focused on going to bed earlier (at 7 p.m.) so we can have our gospel discussion at 6:30 a.m. before Aaron leaves for work. This was our first morning. Haha. It's gotten better and better each day!

Austin drew this cute pic. I love seeing how he draws people.

And Austin is thriving in gymnastics. It's a great fit for him. 

Eleanor found my cleaning gloves and made me laugh as she walked around the kitchen with this on. Eli loves playing around on my guitar.

Here are more pics from scripture study. Eleanor says, "read." 

Preschool with these two is always a good time.

On Wednesday we have our play group with friends from the ward. This particular day was extremely hot, but it still a blast. I couldn't find Eleanor for a few minutes and then she popped up on the top of this high rock and said, "Hi mom!"

The sister missionaries joined us for dinner and taught a lesson about being spiritually fit. They had the boys do pushups and had each hand and foot represent an action we do to stay spiritual fit - pray, read the scriptures, attend church, serve, etc - then they asked the boys to do pushups with only one hand and one foot. It was impossible. The sisters taught us all about how it's important to keep spiritually strong. And here is Eli on picture day. He's loving school. 

Other random memories from the day: Eleanor is going to be a puppy for Halloween. I love Halloween and creative costumes. We have several costumes in our toy room and I don't really want to spend money, so these costumes will be fine. ;)

The boys had dentist appointments last week and then we stopped by the party store. Eleanor loves this little crown. 

On Thursday, Eli got out of school early. We went to the Science City museum together. It was practically empty and we loved it. 

I love exploring with my kids all together. 

On Friday morning, we decided to try a new hike. Everything was green and it always feels so great being outside.

I love Eleanor's little hand on Austin's leg and I love how these three are little friends most of the time.

Saturday morning I woke up to run 10 miles. There are several Colorado type street names and I still feel homesick. 

Duane arrived Saturday evening and we were excited to have him here because Sunday was the primary program! 

Austin's part: "Even if we are imperfect, and make big mistakes, Christ will still love us and wants us to reach out to him and repent." 

Eli's part: "Jesus was kind. He healed the sick and loved everyone. We can be like Jesus and love everyone."

Saturday afternoon we went up to Duane and LeeAnn's property. Their home construction is getting closer and closer. It's exciting! We stopped by Adam-ondi-ahman for a sandwich dinner. It had been raining and as we walked around Adam-ondi-ahman, the weather cleared up and the sun appeared. It was so beautiful, I cried. 

I'm so grateful for the day to day moments I get to experience in this life.