Another day survived!

Wow! Time sure flies, unless you are sitting in a meeting at church with six kids crawling all over the place, fighting over who gets which book to look at, who is touching who, when we will get to go home, etc. This is a really, REALLY long list if I wanted to write it all out. Use your imagination.

We were on time today, but that translated to late anyway since there was a baby blessing today. We were able to find a whole bench open and available just for us. The problem was that it would have been better suited for a family with only five people, not our eight. So, amidst all our fun, Evan sent to the row behind us. I was very happy to find our friend sitting there, and I wondered who the other gentleman was that was so incredibly tolerant of crayons being thrown at him. I looked over to the other side of the room and caught the eye of some friends watching us. I smiled. They waved. I found out later that they watch us every Sunday, with a "vested interest". I think that was what he said. Come to find out, many people watch us "every week". No kidding! Probably ten or so people commented to me today about how nice it is to watch our kids. I think they are really just trying to make me feel better about their embarrassing 2 year old behavior!

Well, we are all friends here! We, (Steve and I) were discussing again how wonderful our area and friends are. We truly must be in the "true ward". In our church, one Sunday out of the month is for fasting and giving testimony. Anyone, everyone is invited to share their faith building experiences at the pulpit on this day. This is the day that babies usually are blessed. This was today. So, I was sitting there listening to a dear sister (all women in the church are sister, men are brother) I was listening to her tell how she loved our people helping her with her five kids, how prayers were answered, and so on. I got that funny feeling in my chest as I thought, "ME TOO!" I leaned over and whispered to Steve, "I'm going up." He said, "What?!" I repeated, "I'm going up." He said, "You're crazy!" I repeated again. He just rolled his eyes. He is the best husband!

I was brief, actually said "ditto" and a few other things, but I really was brief! Lily followed close behind, ended up being there with me. Brenden cried the whole time screaming, "Mommy! I want Mommy!" Repeatedly and when I got back to my seat, Marek was in the other row with Evan. Lily also decided it was really her turn to talk, and she jabbered right along with me. I don't know what she said but the bishop found me after and said he enjoyed both our testimonies. ha ha ha.

Today was especially exciting since we let all the kids walk with NO strollers. It is not very far, just around the block luckily, but an adventure just the same! I suggested to Brenden after a fall that he walk instead of me carrying him. He replied, "NO! RUN!" And he did. We also got compliments on what a sweet boy Stephen is turning into. Dallas is just crazy. I asked Steve if he was feeling all right. He had a headache named Dallas. I was very glad that he sat next to him, and I didn't!

Final thought for the day comes from President Uchtdorf's talk to the Relief Society yesterday. He said we should all be trying to be more like our Lord, who is a creating and compassionate God. Therefore, we should be creative. The word "create" means to make something that wasn't there before. There are many ways to be creative, for example, how many smiles can you create? We often don't give ourselves the credit we deserve. Find the happiness around you, if it isn't there, create some.