Hunting Week!

I have had so much fun this week!  I just love it when we get to come home for the weekend and spend time with my family.  We went to visit on Thursday afternoon which meant a lot of getting things done before we left.

Logan and I somehow got on the ward Christmas party committee again and ended up being in charge of the program again.  I spent a lot of time this week working on the script and running it by Logan for various drafts.  He has been really busy lately with his startup so I promised him if we were doing the program I would help out a lot.  It is all written now but we need to get people to agree to be in the program now... which is in like 2 weeks...

Logan and I spend a lot of time on the floor with our kids.  Tom just loves crawling all over us.  He has been particularly interested in my teeth as of late and loves to try and fit all his fingers into my mouth.   Yesterday he finally cut his first tooth, which he has been working on for quite some time.  He has spent the day with his tongue half out so he can feel it. He also has been pulling all my hair out.  Luckily I have a hair cut scheduled for this week because if I didn't I might consider shaving my head.  It hurts quite a lot as he has an iron grip.

On Wednesday we had Activity Days.  Last year I helped teach a pie cooking class for a Relief Society activity and we each made our own pie-in-a-jar.  It was so fun and tasty, and so incredibly easy, I thought we could do it with the activity day girls in preparation for Thanksgiving.  We talked with them about gratitude and then had them trace their hands on some cute scrapbook paper.  They wrote the things they were grateful for on the fingers and then we each made our own pie-in-a-jar.  I made a tone of pie crust and spent the day making an apple pie and my first pumpkin pie for the dessert that evening.  To make a pie jar you simply make it the same way you would a regular pie, only in an 8 oz jar.  And cook it for maybe 5-10 minutes less.  Super tasty and just the right size for one.

It has rained and rained and rained and rained! where we live.  It has really been quite depressing for me.  I was so happy when I got a letter in the mail from my family.  They had drawn a bunch of suns for us with a note that said something like "here is some sun to brighten your rainy days".  We promptly hung the sunshine in our kitchen.

On Tuesday there was a mighty storm.  Strong winds accompanied the pounding and pouring rain.  Our power went out around 2:30, as did most of the power in our area.  It was fine until it started to get dark.  I pulled out our flashlights (which we didn't have a whole lot of) and we waited patiently for Logan to come home to turn on the generator.  I let Elsy play on the iPad which made her super happy and then I handed Tom a red headlamp light to play with.  Tom was a little nervous about the dark.  Logan got stuck in terrible traffic and said he watched a tree blow over into the opposite lane.  I was so glad when he got safely home.  As he was making his way to the garage the power came on!  Yay!  I teased Logan that he didn't have to experience any of the outage but we were so grateful it came back.  Many people in the area didn't have power for quite a while and we were only out of it for three hours.

The next day was bright and clear in the morning.  By the time we went out for our walk the clouds had rolled back in but we still enjoyed ourselves.

We saw a woodpecker and a dog and lots of other birds.  Elsy is so hilarious and I love spending down time with her.  Thomas was content to chew on his sunglasses the whole time and hardly made a peep.

Elsy got sick again this week.  The poor girl always seems to catch the bugs.  It was a slight cold with a runny nose.  The worst part though was her cough.  She was up several nights in a row just coughing and coughing for hours.  So sad.

I stayed up really late on Wednesday night cleaning our house before we left.  The son of the people whose house we are sitting was coming to stay at the house while we were out of town.  They told us we didn't need to do any extra cleaning... but really, would you leave your house messy or would you clean it?  I totally cleaned it! ;)  Logan came home late from a meeting and was like, why are you vacuuming at 11pm? Its not that big a deal to come home to a clean house from vacation.  But then I reminded him who was coming and he was like "Oh yes, clean!" and then he cleaned his office... aka he pushed everything on his desk into one side instead of all over. :P

We hit the road a little after lunch time.  The kids are always so good for us in the car, we have been so blessed that way.

On Friday morning my dad took Logan and I out hunting.  I had a special late season buck permit in the Hooper area.  I didn't get a monster by any means but I had so much fun.  I have shot lots of does but this is my second buck.

It was fun having Logan there.  He had never been there when I actually shot something.  He brought his camera and took video.  He said something to the effect of he wanted to shoot something too haha.  Here is the video he pieced together that tells about our hunt.  

I love love love hunting, not just for the actual hunting sport but just being out in the beauty of the earth is just always so breathtaking.  We got up at 4:30am so we were able to watch the sunrise.  We saw so many does and lots of little bucks.  Deer are one of my favorite animals because they are just so majestic to me.  I love how dainty they are but also so big and strong looking at the same time.  I also love the time to hang out with my dad.  He probably gets tired of listening to me talk but I always enjoy it because he has so much wisdom and its always a good time to hear it.

This year I forgot my hunting pants and ended up having to wear my skinny jeans with my big hiking boots... as well as my little brothers hunting sweatshirt which was a little short.  It was quite the fashion statement.  Perfect for our first hunting video. 

Logan helped my dad skin and de-bone the deer.  It was so freezing outside!  We got a little lost on the way home because my dad wanted to drive through another hunting area that had just opened for the season and it was really foggy.  Even though I shot my buck at 7:15am we got home at 11.  My mom was so kind to watch the kids for us and they were so good.

We had a wonderful weekend at my parents house.  Elsy loves playing with her cousin Ezra.  Here they are sitting in some sleeping bags.  Ezra chases Elsy constantly and I just love hearing them hold conversations.  I really don't know how they understand each other.

It was nice to get to go to Sunday School and Relief Society this week.  I usually am playing piano in Primary so I don't usually go to the other adult classes for church.  I have a lot of fun playing in primary but it is nice sometimes to get some adult content. ;)  

This week I read a General Conference talk titled "What Lack I Yet?" by Elder Larry R. Lawrence.  He said "If we are humble and teachable, the Holy Ghost will prompt us to improve and lead us home, but we need to ask the Lord for directions along the way."  I had recently asked the Lord about what I needed to work on and I was surprised when my thoughts were directed to selfishness and how I needed to be less selfish.  I hadn't thought that I am a very selfish person, but the more I thought about it the more I realized the little ways in my life that I was being selfish and I saw how I needed to improve.  For example, I always am in a hurry and am constantly telling myself to slow down.  But I started wondering why was I always in a hurry?  And I realized it was because I have things that I would rather be doing for me and I therefore make my children rush and when they don't rush I often get cranky.  Another way I have been being selfish is in my love of talking.  Anybody knows I love to talk.  I could talk allllllll day. Haha!  But I have been realizing lately that in my love for talking I have been neglecting other peoples needs to share their opinions or experiences.  By being selfish in this way I have been neglecting opportunities to become a better friend.  There are many other areas of my life that I have realized where I have been selfish and that I need to improve.  I loved church today because I felt like I was able to be reminded to put others first.  My favorite was a scripture that was shared.  I decided I would try and memorize it this week and make it an attribute to work on: "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James 1:19-20  If I am slowing down to listen to Logan, my friends, and even my children I will be able to hear and understand them better.  I will be able to learn to love them even more.  I am excited to work on this, but also a little nervous to fail.  I feel like I have worked on this before and while I often do good for a while, I end up back where I started.  But its like good ole Daniel Tiger says, "Keep trying!  And you'll get be-e-tter!!" ;)