Naked!!!

Tonight I asked the kids to go upstairs and get undressed and ready for their showers. I stayed downstairs for a minute to finish cleaning up and I put on the camp rock 2 soundtrack. They love this movie and all the music right now and sing it all day long. When Cayden heard the music on he ran downstairs just as I was going upstairs to help the girls. He had already taken his clothes off and was completely naked. He begged me to stay downstairs and dance to just this one song, "It's On," so I told him after the song to come right up to get in the shower. Well we have a little window next to our front door so anyone stading at the door can see everything in the family room. Of coarse one of the woman in the ward decided to drop by right at that moment to bring me something. As she walked up to ring my doorbell all she saw was my sweet little boy dancing naked on the ottoman. I should feel embarrassed, but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to feel it. At least he is a cute little dancer!

Wedding sneak peak!

Becca's wedding was so beautiful. I don't have enough time to post all my pictures today, but I wanted to put up just a couple of the wedding day. The ceremony was wonderful and they were sealed by Gerald Lund, who is a friend of my parents. Becca and Quin were so happy.

Becca's dress was amazing. The entire thing was covered with french lace.

Chuck and I.

Bridesmaids.

HOME

I am so glad to be home. It was so nice to go out to Utah and visit family, but I realized while we were there that it was not home anymore. I am so grateful that we all feel that Bloomington has become our home and that we all love it here so much. Cayden said to me as soon as we walked into our house last night, "Mom, it is so good to be home, I love our house." I do to.

Steve and Vanessa's engagements

I was able to do Vanessa and Steve's engagments pictuers while I am out here for Becca's wedding. This is Chuck's baby brother and we are so excited for them. Vanessa is perfect for Steve and makes him so happy, we couldn't love her any more if she was our real sister. She is amazing, and kind, and always doing things for others. Plus they are both gorgeous and very photogenic so the pictures turned out so good. Vanessa really wanted to do something different so we got to do lots of fun different things. Sorry I'm posting so many, but all the fam wants to see them!

These next two are serisously my favorites. I love the lighting of the sun, it is so romantic!

Silly Emma

This morning for devotional I was reteaching the kids about the restoration, and how Joseph Smith restored the gospel. I was describing what the earth was like before the gospel was restored. I was telling them. "There were many people who were trying to do what was right and wanted to follow Jesus, but they didn't know the right things to do. The people didn't have the important things that they needed to learn how to come back to Heavenly Father." Emma then raised her hand and asked me "Mom, did they have stores back then?" Thinking she was getting off subject I replied, "Yes Emma, they had stores back then, but we need to try and stay focused on what were learning about OK." She then told me "Well mom, why didn't they just go to the store." Confused I asked "What do you mean honey." She then replied "Mom, you said they didn't have the things that they needed, why didn't they just go to the store and get it?"

If only it was that easy!

All by Myself!

I am going home to Utah this Weekend for my sister Becca's wedding. I am so excited to see my family and friends, but am not excited to go on the plane with all 3 of my kids by myself. I am going out a week early by myself, and Chuck will come and meet me the weekend of the wedding. Grace is at that really hard phase right now, where she is a total busy body. She wants to be into everything all the time, and can not sit still. Wish me luck!! Hopefully we will all survive without loosing one of the children in the airport, having any meltdowns on the airlplane, or getting yelled at by a granny on the plane who has forgoten what it was like to have children and babies of her own.

Update!

We have had a lot of firsts and first day's since we got here.

Chuck had his first day of law school. He is doing great, and really enjoying it. He is up every night until about 1:00 am reading, and we don't get to see him very much. Me and the kids miss him, but I am so proud of him for working so hard. We are all hoping that it will get less intense once he has adjusted to the reading and how to write his briefs, etc... His professors all love him and he has really gotten involved with the IP society. He really likes a lot of the elders in our ward and has made a few friends that he really likes. He is always overwhelmed, but always happy!

Cayden started 1st grade. He was so excited to ride the bus and get to have lunch at school. I am homeschooling him half day, and he goes to school in the afternoon. He has had a harder adjustment than the other kids. All the kids at his school already had friends from last year, and I think boys are less warm to new kids than little girls are. The first couple of days at school he couldn't find anyone to play with him at recess. He had a boy tell him this week that he was going to beat him up the next day at recess. I asked him if he wanted to stay home that day, and he told me "no mom, I have to learn how to deal with this stuff, I bet he will forget anyway." I was more worried to send him to school that day than he was to go. My heart was breaking for him as he cried and worried about it. I feel sick that he is having a hard time. Things are getting better though and he is starting to make friends. He has made a few friends in our neighborhood that are also in our ward, so that helps for him to have people to play with when he gets home from school. And these kids have tried really hard to include him and make him feel welcome. He also started soccer, which he is really good at and he loves. But there is a boy on the team that has singled Cayden out and has been picking on him. Cayden is new on the team and the rest of them played together last year, so when Cayden was doing better than this boy it made him mad. Anyway, he punched Cayden in the nose at practice on Saturday. It was really upsetting to Cayden, he has never had anyone ever be rude to him, let alone get violent with him, until we moved here. Anyway, I am so proud of how brave he has been. He keeps trying everyday, but I know he is having a hard time. Keep him in your prayers! I can't believe how hard it is for me to see him having a hard time. I literally feel like my heart is being ripped out every time something happens and he is sad. I have prayed a lot about it and I know we are in the right place. I know that he will become stronger and better at making new friends. His prayers have become more heartfelt as he begs Heavenly Father to help him make friends and to be with him as he goes to school. I know it will get better and that he will be happy here. It is already starting to get better.

My handsome man, I love him so much!

Me and my baby!

Emma also started school. She is going to a Christian preschool across the street and I love it, so does she. She has the best teacher and a little girl in our neighborhood and ward are in her class. I think little girls are a lot more accepting, and she has made 4 little friends that are all her age, in our neighborhood, and in the ward. They are all really cute, sweet, and kind little girls and I am so grateful that she loves them all so much, and that they have all been so sweet and included her. She is so happy and loves it here. She still misses her friends at home, and she misses Grandma and her Auntie's. But I am so happy that she is adjusting so well. I think she has a little bit of a hard time in the mornings when I am teaching Cayden, cause I can't pay attention to her, but I try to make up for it in the afternoon while he is at school. Emma also started Gymnastics, and she starts dance next week. They have so many poor college students here that they have scholarships for everything. Which is so nice cause then I can still put my kids in lessons and activities.

Emma and Jenna.

Gracie has started running all over the place, Started teething (YEY), and has been a lot more vocal since we got here. She is so cute and fun, but really feisty and independent. She definitely lets me know if I make her upset. She also gets really mad when she wants something and I can't figure out what she wants. She is getting a lot better at communicating her needs to me and keeps picking up new words all the time. She has been so good to play with Emma while I teach Cayden in the morning. Her and Emma play so well, and Emma is so good with her. I can't believe how fast she is growing up, I am really enjoying her so much. She is so loving and affectionate to all of us.

Her favorite thing is to lay on Cayden and Emma's lap and cuddle them.

I am doing good too. I have felt super overwhelmed at doing Cayden's school. It has taken a lot more time and effort than I thought it would to prepare my lesson plans. I really feel like the spirit is helping and guiding me though. And of course we have the constant struggle of trying to get Cayden to stay focused and keep a good attitude. Kids don't have tantrums when their teachers try to give them a spelling test, but they do when mom does. I know it is the right thing for me to do and I have already seen growth in him, especially spiritually. I love being able to incorporate the gospel and the scriptures into every thing I am teaching him. I think maybe it's good that I am so busy with it, cause then I have to prepare my lessons at night instead of just missing Chuck, being sad he can't spend time with me and watching TV all night. It's good that I have something productive to do while he is studying. I am learning so much and I love that my mind is expanding. It feels good to use that part of my brain again, and to be challenged. My afternoons are filled with baking, laundry, cleaning, and most importantly reading and playing with my girls. I haven't had a lot of free time, so sometimes I feel like I am going to go crazy if I can't just watch one TV show and turn my brain off for a minute. I am happy though. I really love it here, and have met a couple really good friends, and lots of really nice woman. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming to us.

1500 miles

On our drive out to Indiana we saw an awful lot of this...

And even more of this...(corn fields)

Driving through the Midwest is super flat and just a lot of farm land to look at. We did see a really pretty rainbow though.

When it really started to get pretty was when we got to the Mississippi. This was the first river boat I had ever seen.

The Mississippi river was AMAZING. I was blown away by how beautiful and how HUGE it was.

We stopped in Nauvoo on our way out here and spent a day seeing the sights.

Here are the kids at the temple

The temple was so beautiful, and the spirit was so strong there!

I loved the statue of Joseph and Hyrum that they had in front of the temple!

Carthage jail was amazing as well. I was surprised at how strong the spirit was there. Even Cayden was getting choked up as we walked through the jail and sat in the room where Joseph was murdered.

This was the cell room. this is the room where they stayed for one night before the martyrdom.

This was the room that Joseph was shot in, and the window that he fell out of.

The front of the jail.

The second story window above us is the one that Joseph fell out of.

This is the mansion house, where Joseph and Emma lived.

Chuck and the kids at the gravesight of Joseph, Emma, Hyrum, Joseph Sr, and Lucy. Nauvoo was amazing. It was so cool to see the temple and some of the places that they lived. I loved going to Carthage and sharing in the spirit that was there. I am so grateful that we took the time to go there and to share that with the kids.

We finally reached Indiana on our third day of driving.