To start things off, we have to rewind all the way back to last Sunday. I got the blog done pretty early in the day, so we still have half a day to cover!! I wrote that post right after we got back from church. A short while later people started congregating at Gram and Pop's house again.
Everyone had a lot of fun together, and I even set up my Switch because Jack and Sam really wanted to play it with me. Also, in the fray of the action I got this pretty cool picture of Brooke darting away!
Winry was an exceptionally messy eater and had a full berry goatee. She also looked super cute and just look at those HUGE eyes!
Brooke and Audrey had matching dresses to wear to church! Just look at those cuties! Brooke even went to nursery with Audrey and had a blast!
That night we headed to a park to get some family pictures since everyone was out there. I got this gif of some pictures I took of Winry sitting in the grass!
And here's Brooke holding Winry for a shot of all the kids with Gram and Pop. So cute together!
Brooke really wanted Gram while they were taking a couples shot. The photographer didn't say anything, so I assume Brooke didn't end up in the shot.
And here's Gram with the kids, because we never remember to get a picture of Gram with the kids.
And when pictures stopped being fun Brooke and Audrey took off together for the mountains.
Sunday night while we were putting the kids to bed the power went out, so we had to go get flashlights and lanterns to see. Fortunately all our noise makers have batteries in them, but we did have to leave flashlights on all night in everyone's room in case the kids woke up. Once the kids were in bed I headed up to see if anyone wanted to play the oddly appropriate board game I brought. It's called Shadows in the Forest, and one player is a lantern trying to find the shadow spirits in the forest. You have to play the game with the lights out, and the lantern is the only light you use so that the lantern player can't see the shadows hiding behind the trees.
The next morning the power still wasn't on (it didn't come on until about 4pm, 20 hours without power!) but we made breakfast, packed up, and headed to the airport to come home. The trip was a lot of fun, and when we got back I got a recap video from Google Photos.
The next morning I took Brooke and Mr. Bear AND Pikachu running! Brooke just really loves to be in the double stroller.
We had to be quick because Tuesday was Brooke's first day of preschool. Monica and some of her friends are doing a preschool where they rotate houses and teaching lessons. The first week was Monica, so we had all the kids over for preschool! I was just leaving for work when everyone got here, so I grabbed a picture before I left.
There was also a group picture of everyone on their first day, except Eden didn't want to be in the picture.
That's okay, Brooke tracked her down and they got a first day picture together tucked away in a corner!
This week Monica and I started the Fast Metabolism Diet. It's been pretty good so far. The basic premise is that you restrict certain foods certain days and by constantly switching things up you boost your metabolism back up. A guy at work was talking to me about it, and I got interested because he said he got a lot more energy and in general felt a lot better, so I'm really hoping to get an energy boost for running. Well, phase 2 of the diet is the protein phase, and you can basically only eat lean protein and like 5 vegetables which include peppers (ate a lot), onions (ate a lot), celery (don't like), salad greens, and jicama (there's really more than that, but...) so Thursday I took the kids to the grocery store to look for jicama to see if it was good and could help me get through the day (authors warning: it was not good, and did not help me get through the day, and I threw it away). That's a lot of back story for a picture, but here they are co-piloting the cart!
So Brooke randomly one morning when we were eating pancakes said "pancake machine!" We don't know where she got it, but she says it whenever she's eating something and two pieces stick together, so the piece on her fork also lifts another piece off her plate. It's really funny but really hard to get a video of because as soon as she says it she eats the machine... Well, this past week I tried, but the video just isn't as good as when it happens naturally.
This past week has mostly just been consumed with trying to figure out if we're doing this diet right. We've done a lot of prepping meals a head of time (you have to eat within 30 minute of waking up) and lots and lots of dishes.
On Saturday morning we headed to Costco to get things for the next week, and while we were there Winry at some point threw her moosey pacifier out of the cart. We didn't notice until we got back to the car, so I went back in the store and walked the same route we had gone when getting our groceries and saw nothing... I checked at the lost and found and they said they hadn't heard anything, but to check back in a little. A little after we got home Brooke got her phone and "called" Costco to see if they found moosey, so I actually called Costco to check, and while I was on the phone with them one of the employees found it! So we went back and got it, brought it home and threw it in the washer because it was VERY dirty! Winry was extremely relieved to have her companion back!
On Saturday we also got our pack and play back. The Bentleys came into town and were borrowing it, and Monica brought it inside and Brooke immediately wanted it set up to take a nap in. Monica started setting it up, but then Winry cried so she went up to check on her and came back to this! Thanks for the help Jelly.
Brooke has had a great time with the pack and play the last few days. She hasn't actually slept in it, but she loves to go in and lay down and.... well... that's about it. I'm not sure why that's better than doing puzzles, or reading books, or playing with blocks, but I won't complain about it either.
Sunday was Stake Conference and it was SOO good! I'll talk a little bit more about it at the end. When we got home though we were cleaning up the kitchen and trying to get ready to head to Monica's friends 30th birthday when Brooke brought in a chair and a picture of Jesus getting baptized and said "Dad, I'm going to give you the lesson." She sat on her chair showed me the picture and told me about what was going on. I assume this is what happened in preschool as well, because it felt like she was trying to copy that. It was soo cute! I'm also so proud of her for knowing so much about Jesus and being able to tell me about what's happening in these pictures. That was an FHE lesson from months ago!
Shaylee, one of Monica's friends, came over to put Brooke to bed and watch her while we went to the party. We took Winry because she still needed to nurse. The party was a huge surprise for Katie, and when she walked in she got so overwhelmed she had to come hold a baby to help her calm down! It was a lot of fun and it was Year of the Dragon themed. We had sushi for dinner, and there were origami instructional videos playing and some other fun things. Winry liked sitting on the table and playing with the fortune cookies and finger traps!
We took a group picture with sparklers, and Winry really liked to watch the sparklers. It's hard to tell, but she is mesmerized in this picture.
We also grabbed a picture at the picture station before we left. And to quote Katie, "these hats have acoustics!"
So back to that stake conference talk. Our stake president talked about the creation in his talk on Sunday. One point he made was that everything was created spiritually first, and then temporally. We need to do the same in our lives. We need to create our lives spiritually first. We should plan our spiritual lives first, and then fit other things in as time permits. It's easy to try to squeeze in scripture study and prayers when we can, but we should be planning those activities first, and letting everything else fit around it. He also talked about God resting on the 7th day of the creation, and how prideful it is when we don't rest on the Sabbath. God is all powerful and took a day of rest, and when we choose not to rest we are being prideful by showing that we believe we don't need a day of rest. It was a great talk, and one big takeaway for me was that I need to spend more time pondering the things I read in the scriptures. Nothing talked about was something I hadn't read before, but there were definitely many new ideas and lessons to be learned! I am grateful for the scriptures, and their availability that facilitates daily study. I know the Book of Mormon is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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