Dear Children, this week flew by! You had fun with your Dad and his family. I am so glad. You only had one night of the most heartbreaking tears. You are stronger than you realize. Dear Avary, you are 8. You are baptized! You are such a sweet girl. Your baptism went so well and I felt the spirit so strongly. I know you are such a special girl with an important mission here on this earth. Dear Dentist, we gave Avary some meds, let us snuggle in a chair until we both fell asleep. It wasn't nearly long enough to count as a nap I'm sure. You finished her work and waited for her to come around. Well it Knocked her OUT! She finally opened her eyes after she had been tucked in bed awhile at Grandmas and had no idea how she got there. I think we may have a "lightweight" on our hands. Medicine does not affect me that way, I guess that makes me a heavyweight? Dear Hailey, your orchestra concert was great, you are doing so well. Dear Kade, your tummy was hurting. You told me "I think I'm going to varmint". You are so funny. Dear D +L, I enjoyed spending the evening with you getting to know you better. We will have to do it again. Jammies on Thanksgiving I think. Ha! Dear Family, it was so great to get to be with you. The only problem is that the time went by way too fast. I love and miss you. Dear E, I really loved watching you play in your game. You are amazingly talented! Seeing you get hurt made my Auntie heart hurt. I can't imagine how your Mom must have felt. You are in my prayers. Dear Awkward, or funny. We passed a skunk in the car and there where some "ewws" Kade says "I smell something good..is that thritos (fritos)" We laugh. "What?" the girls say it was a skunk. Kade "oh now I smell it...wait was Will the skunk...did he...?" Laughing, Will gets blamed for the skunk smell. Kade "wait..I'm sure I smell thritos". Hahaha there was an open bag of Fritos, but how do you smell that over skunk? Dear Halloween, we survived. I even got Will to dress up. It was really cold and my head hurt, but it was still fun. Now to deal with candy crazed children. Dear Big Brother, Happy Birthday tomorrow. Are you really turning 45?! OOOLLLDDD Man. Dear Will, you know, it seems like every day there is at least one moment when I am overcome with such gratitude that the Lord sent you to me. When we were reading "Watch and Learn" and knowing that we have the same goals, the same desires, the same amount of love and respect for each other, and the same willingness to put in the effort required to have a happy successful family I felt like the luckiest person in the world. You serve and sacrifice in our home, you held my babies while they cried themselves to sleep and then reassured me that it would all be ok. You make me happy when life sucks and I am sad, how does that work? I love you so much more than you could ever know. Dear Self, I'm grateful. Even though I have wanted to cry almost every day this week I have also been so grateful. I will remember that moment in the temple this week when I felt so deeply what a privilege it is to have a body and our responsibility to use it for good. Even when it doesn't work the best or causes so much physical pain. I can do things in this life that so many have been waiting, it seems like forever, to receive on the other side. How unbelievably blessed we are.
