October in full swing

This week was a packed one with a lot happening.

Monday: for FHE we planted seeds that Grandma Volk gave the kids last week during our Come Follow Me lesson about sewing and reaping. 

We had a few warm days and since I knew the colder days would hit later in the week, we spent lots of time outside. 

Eleanor looked so cute in her dress that I found on the clearance rack at Walmart. We've been given so many hand-me downs, which I love, so surprisingly I haven't bought her too many clothes. 

Wednesday: Austin had a dentist appointment where he had 3 cavities filled and then we played at the park with our church friends. 

This is a picture I snapped during dinner prep time. Eleanor was laughing so much and kept saying "again, again" for the boys to pull her around the house in a blanket. 

Thursday: Our ward has a monthly babysitting temple swap and when I heard all the details, I was excited to participate. Last month I signed up to babysit. Babysitting went fine and it's so convenient that our church shares a parking lot with the temple. This month, it was my turn to attend the temple so I loaded my kids in the car at 8:45 a.m., dropped them off at the church at 8:50 a.m. and walked across the street. As I arrived in the dressing room at 9:05 a.m., I started bawling! I couldn't believe how quickly and easily it worked out for me to be in the temple that morning. Growing up, we lived so far from a temple that our trips would take 8 hrs to get to Dallas. Then when the Oklahoma City temple opened, we were excited to be 3 hrs from a temple. Since being a mother the past 6.5 years, I've had to plan in advance to make arrangements to get a babysitter and then drive an hour to get to the nearest temple in D.C. and Denver. Now, here I am, living minutes from the temple and friends watching my kids at the church. I felt so much gratitude to be here at this time in this place. 

Aaron and I have been praying for confirmation that this is the right house for us - I worry that we spent too much money with Aaron taking a pay cut. Being in the temple that day reconfirmed to me that this is exactly where we're supposed to be. 

The sessions continued to be full of tender mercies for me and it was one of the best endowment sessions I've been to.

After the temple, I took Eleanor and Austin on a lunch date. Oh how I love these two by my side. How will I ever survive when they're all in school. SAD!! Austin then helped me mop the floor.

Eli hopped off the bus on Thursday and was thrilled to show us he lost his first tooth!! 

Thursday evening Eli had a little music concert all about bugs. He sang his heart out.

Per a tradition of mine growing up, we went and got an ice cream treat after Eli's concert. The boys were the photographers for these pics! 

Austin's little hand cracked me up.

So many treats. Friday morning was donuts with dear ones. We loved driving Eli to school and enjoying a donut in the cafeteria before the bell rang.

After running some errands, we got a message from a friend asking if we wanted to go to a gymnastics open gym. It's where Austin takes gymnastics so Eleanor finally got a turn trying everything out! 

Saturday: I ran 6 miles and then came home for some water and a protein bar before finishing up the last 3 miles. I decided to grab Eleanor and toss her in the stroller and head to the temple. It's so beautiful! 

Saturday morning was General Conference - it's like a holiday around here! Everyone was excited and ready to listen to the talks. Our kind friends delivered this huge piece of coloring paper. I'm grateful for my mother who made General Conference a priority in my young life, even when it wasn't so easily accessible. We'd drive to the church for all the sessions and then a family in our ward got BYU TV so we'd watch conference with them until we got access to the sessions ourselves. How grateful I am now that we get to listen to General Conference together in our own home. 

On Sunday morning, I insisted everyone get dress and we go on a little nature walk. I'm so glad we did! It was so peaceful being outside and getting some exercise in preparation for General Conference.

Aaron suggested we climb to the middle of the rocks to get a picture with the waterfall. And I'm so glad we did! As he helped the kids across, I took videos and pictures and told the kids that a primary song came into my mind as I observed all of this: "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him someday."

Aaron and I are striving to teach our children the importance of clinging to the iron rod and making sure they each have a testimony built on faith and desire to follow God's commandments. 

Oh how we love General Conference and spending time together learning and growing and receiving personal revelation on what we can do to improve our lives.

So many of the talks discussed distraction and Satan's deceptions. I started feeling a little overwhelmed as I thought about what I should stop doing each day to be less distracted and deceived. I'm grateful for the spirit that inspired me to change my focus and think about what I can do better in my life that I'm already trying to do - for example, attend the temple. How blessed we are that the temple is literally 3 miles from our house (I run there!) and I feel like I can make a better effort to attend weekly as my evening schedule currently allows me to that I do that. I also have worked a little bit on family history and I had this prompting to work on it more. As I shared this experience with a friend, she said that as I focus on doing better on these personal things in my life, the distractions and deceptions will naturally fall to the wayside. I loved her insight!