November 7th-13th

7th: Today's stake conference was a broadcast for the state of Oregon.  It was fabulous.  All the talks were great, but my favorite by far, was by Sister Elaine Dalton.  She said so many things that spoke to me, but the one thing that hit me like a brick wall was the scripture in 1 Samuel 2:30 that says in effect:

I felt in my heart that I needed to work on a few things and start honoring God more and that He would then fulfill & honor me.  He does so much already-believe me when I say I see & acknowledge my blessings-but I know I can do more on my end.  So powerful.  The stories she shared were incredible.  She also talked about visualization and how on the night before she and her husband ran the Boston marathon, they went and ran the last mile.  They crossed the finish line and celebrated as if they'd just won the race.  She said the next day when she was running, if she got tired or felt like she couldn't go on, she'd visualize herself crossing that finish life and cheering and she was given strength.  I am a huge visualizer, but sometimes forget to do it, so I was grateful for the reminder.
8th: I was tested on what I'd learned at stake conference today.  Zac and I have been each using the elliptical in the garage each morning.  Every other morning we trade on who goes our first & who stays in to get the boys up and going for the day.  We've been listening to conference talks while we exercise and then chatting about the talks we listen to in the evenings.  It's been rewarding to hear what each other are learning and amazingly enough, my workouts have been great with conference talks rather than music as well.  Well this morning I was super tempted to read a book I've been trying to get through (the third book in the hunger game series), and thought I'd just skip out on listening to conference for a day.  Then the scripture "those who honor God, God will honor," just popped into my mind and I knew that if I listened to conference, I'd find time later in the day to read (which honestly never happens).  Sure enough, later that afternoon, I'd miraculously done everything I was obligated to do and both boys were resting/napping.  I got a solid hour of reading for pleasure in during the day!  I was again grateful for that scripture to remind me of whom to put first.
-We had Ella come play for a few hours this morning & that was fun.  She loves the boys and called me mama the whole time.  Love that baby girl.  Her mama brought me a diet soda when she came to get Ella too which is always a nice treat.  So glad the boys have fun friends to grow up with.
-For Family Home Evening we talked about the fact that all our blessings come from Heavenly Father.  I've been using this site to get all my ideas, by the way.  She is fantastic & so generous to share, huh?  Grayson loved the water activity and was so awesome at coming up with blessings we have from Heavenly Father.  For instance: Grandpa's, Grandma's, combines, roads, stop signs, cars, cement trucks, friends, nursery, music, bob the builder, baby brother, Jaeger, mommy & daddy, temples, and cousins.  We helped him think of some others, but those he did on his own. Then he got to string cheerios on a necklace while he told us his blessings.  We helped with this as he kept saying, "hmmm....let me think about it."  We could see that the necklace might take a while at that rate!  After Gray's bath he had some cuddle time with daddy and when I looked at the picture I had to laugh at the fireplace glass.  Grayson always "cleans" it with baby wipes...obviously it needs a little less toddler love!  Beckham fell asleep in this funny position on Zac's lap before bed.  Such a cutie.

9th: Spent the morning deep cleaning the house.  Grayson is a seriously good cleaning helper.  He loves to be busy and will wipe down windows, doors, appliances, "fold" clothes, vaccum, etc.  I love it.  He loves to do whatever Zac or I are doing at any given time and I love to let him.  Who knows how long that will last, right?  The boys went to hang at Grami's for a while in the evening so I could have a client support night at the house.  Zac was in Boise working so he went to my mom's afterward to be with the boys & bring them home  at the end.  I seriously love being a health coach.  My clients are totally awe-inspiring.  They teach me so much and I'm so proud of the progress they are making.  They are awesome.  Great meeting and when the boys got home we watched the end of biggest loser, said prayers, and got to bed.

10th: Pretty laid back day at home.  I had a meeting in the evening so Zac had a dad's night with the boys and a friend and I rode over together.  It was at our friend Tony & Brenda's house and I just love them and their family.  They are such a gift in our lives.  After the informative and good meeting, Kay and I ran to Costco.  My pictures weren't done yet, so we wandered and visited which was so nice.  We headed back and the boys were having a great time with their dad & Uncle Talon who were playing Xbox together.  Gray went right to bed and Bex just adores Talon-they both do-and Taylor and I visited and read.  She spent the night.  I acknowledged again what a blessing all three of my boys-and our extended family-are in my life.

11th: Today we headed to McCall for a Peterson Family fun time.  We took Taylor & Talon with us and that was fun.  The boys slept on the ride there and we ate dinner, chilled, and played games when we got there.  We also watched Toy Story 3 before bed which we loved.  I totally teared up toward the end and said, "That is way too tender!"  Then mom & Doll both started crying and everyone started laughing at us and we were laughing...totally typical of the three of us, though.  Great movie & Grayson has since been saying, "you saved our lives.  we are eternally grateful. the claw!"  Then he reminds us that "the aliens say that on toy story."  We all shared a room downstairs and the boys did pretty well.

{notice in the pictures of Grayson above in the blue shirt that his dad dressed him and he is wearing Beckham's shirt.  Totally cracked me up!}

12th: Today was a super laidback & good day.  Taylor & Talon and Zac and I ran to town to pick up a few groceries and drop Doll & the other McKall off at the ice skating rink.  While we waited we went to Moxie java and got steamers & hot chocolate-yum!  That evening Gwen & Jeremy and their family came over for dinner and to watch the BSU game, which of course they dominated.  Bailey is so awesome with Grayson & played and wrestled with him for a long time.  Everyone hot tubbed after the kids were in bed which is always a fun time.  Grateful again to be here with family. (:

 

13th: This morning Dad, Mom, Lance and I went into the stake center for the worldwide church training. It was nice that they were broadcasting it the same time there so we didn't have to race home to watch it.  It was good even though I was super tired & cold the whole time.  Later Mom, Grayson and I went into town and visited a few craft stores which was fun.  I love looking at all the cute ideas.  Grayson got a snow shovel that is just his size which he was ecstatic about.  Now he just needs enough snow to do something with it.  That night we all went out for dinner to sushi.  It was my dad's first time and he was skeptical, but ended up liking it a lot.  I knew he would. (:  It's good stuff.  Talon-who is deathly allergic to eggs-took one tiny bite of his beef/rice bowl and could tell there were eggs in it.  Sure enough, there was mayo in the sauce!  Crazy, huh?  Thankful that he can tell so quickly so he doesn't get sick.  When we got back home we all watched UFC & chilled till bedtime.  It was a good last day.