A Week in the Life {12/2-12/9}

As the days of the year grow fewer and our weeks get busier these posts may be scanter.

Last week was a weird week for me. You know how when you are really supposed to be preparing for something spiritually and Satan is really trying to get you down? That was me last week. I spent the first half of the week in lala land being really down trodden, as I was preparing to teach my lesson in Relief Society (it happened to me last time too, I hope it doesn't happen every month).

Monday I found out Duchess Kate is pregnant and has HG (the same type of acute morning sickness that I get when I'm pregnant). I am excited for the couple and feel for her with the sickness.

Tuesday Hannah had preschool and I was preparing a lot for my lesson. I also went to a new book club for a book called Unwind by Neal Shuesterman. I read all day and night to complete the book and it was fantastic. The book club was interesting. There are a lot of people who home school in our new ward, and it turned into a public school vs home school debate. You know I got in on that one. Later on I was approached by two ladies who wanted to make sure I wasn't turned off by the "fairly ferocious debate" as one put it. It was interesting to be sure but it's always refreshing to meet passionate, intelligent people so I'm going to try for round 2 in January.

Speaking of books, I've been reading like a mad woman to finish reading the 50 books I set a goal to do. I am at 48 books. My plan is to finish D&C and Les Miserables which will bring me to 50 books. Wish me luck (for Les Mis. I'm almost finished with D&C).

Paige is such an adorable baby. If I didn't already have a kid I might say she is the cutest baby of all time. She is certainly tied for first place with Hannah though. Many people saw on Facebook that she took a spill out of the shopping cart on Friday. Hannah was in the front in the seat and Paige was in the back basket. It never occurred to me that she would be tall enough to get over the top of the basket. I'd say the terror I felt was right up there to when Hannah got into the pool gate and locked herself in alone with the pool at Rhodes Ranch. I bawled all the way home (long after Paige stopped crying).

Hannah is becoming more and more responsible. I asked her to be my babysitter while I did the laundry and she did an excellent job taking care of her sister. She liked it so much she's been asking me for more opportunities to babysit. She's been feeling apprehensive about nursery. She told me that instead of going to primary, maybe she could just pass out snacks and teach the kids about Jesus. In other words, she has called herself to Nursery Leader. She's going to do fantastic. Hannah called snow "Christmas Sand" which was hilarious to me. I guess that's what you get when you grow up in the desert. We got a Christmas card from my family and Hannah said "That is all of our parents!" Meaning her Grandma and Grandpa, uncle and aunts. Too cute. Also, in a rare moment I yelled at Adam in front of our kids. I NEVER do that. In fact, I have a strict policy against it. I think it had something to do with what I mentioned earlier, having a hard time keeping the spirit with me this week. Hannah said "Mommy, stop yelling at Daddy, I'm in charge now!" Obviously she felt I'd lost it and she wanted to set things straight. She also asked me if my mommy ever yelled at my daddy when I was a little girl. I think she was pretty traumatized. I told her that we still loved each other and mommy just lost her temper. She seemed okay with that.

Adam's big news is that the banner he designed is now hanging up at the school. Actually there were three banners. It looks really great! We drove past them to check them out and the girls clapped and cheered for Daddy. I am so proud of his hard work! He is great!

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday. I went down in the morning to help set up and at about 3:00pm (the party was at 5:00) they called to ask Adam to be Santa. I was a little annoyed at first (all alone at a giant Christmas party with my kids) but he did a fantastic job. Obviously they were pretty desperate. Who ever heard of a skinny Santa? When I set the girls on his lap Paige freaked out and Hannah was super shy, then suddenly Adam started talking and they both turned to give him the most incredulous look (they didn't know before hand). All the kids who knew Adam from school also thought it was pretty awesome. It will probably be a highlight of our season. We also did a gingerbread house as a family. Chippy was up to some funny antics this week, asside from a day on strike for whinny kids, he decorated our house with snowflakes, sat among all of Hannah's toy story friends, got out all Hannah's books and hung upside down (a highlight).

Our lessons both went well. Adam and I both taught on Forgiveness. I felt like my lesson had a lot of great insight and input from ladies in the ward and I was grateful for their participation, in a sort of tough lesson.

Here are some pictures of our week :) Enjoy