It's only going to speed up from here

Richie and I keep having these talks lately that motivate us to get over the next hurdle, so to speak. "Once canning is done, things will slow down a little." "Once we are both done with these side jobs, things will ease up." "After the Holidays, maybe we'll get to see each other a little bit." The funny thing is that it hasn't slowed down, and it's not going to slow down or ease up any time soon. We're predicting that life will consistently increase it's speed from here on out. Would you say that's an adequate prediction all you more experienced people? We're having a baby in March, Richie will hopefully be starting his Masters program in July, and then homeschooling begins in earnest. Pretty soon our kids will be in the stages that "require" us to drive them to music lessons and sports games and get braces. Our money reserve will have a constant leak in it from now until....eternity? Yup, eternity sounds about right. I laugh when I look back at my college days and how busy I thought I was. Of course I was busy, it was the busiest I had ever been, but compare to having a baby, to having 2 babies, to etc etc etc. Ha! I'll take my college days back any day I'm feeling overwhelmed with what's on my plate. This is where it gets tricky. Everything on my plate is good, so it now becomes a matter of choosing the best.

I think playing in the leaves is pretty important, so it stayed on my plate the other day. Before raking them into a pile, I tried to make it into a maze. It was cool for about 2 minutes. We bought the kids their own little rakes and have them help us rake leaves sometimes. At first they thought it was a great idea, now they think it's a good idea for again, 2 minutes. One day when they're big enough to really work, I'm going to make them rake all the leaves while I sit inside on the couch and eat nutella off a spoon.


I'm in charge of joy school this month and we're talking about Thanksgiving and Dinosaurs. Today we had our monthly field trip to Thanksgiving point to go to the dinosaur museum. Such a cool place! Especially when you don't go on $2 Tuesday and have to shove your way around all the other warm bodies in the building. Yes, we paid full price, but it was so worth it being able to breathe and run around. Miles and Gwen ran from exhibit to exhibit shouting "Look mom! Look!" I bought the kids some glow in the dark stars, and Miles bought himself this ugly dinosaur chomper thing that will probably break tomorrow, that he thinks is the coolest. He didn't even wince as I yanked $5 of his hard earned money from his bank.



I don't have any pictures of the primary program, but Miles participated in his very first this past Sunday and I wanted to document it. I always hoped I'd be down in the audience watching for his first program, but I teach in the primary, so I watched the back of his head. :) He's been so excited to say his part. "My name is Miles and I am a child of God." He loves getting up to talk in sacrament meeting. In fact, we have to hold him back every fast Sunday so that he doesn't become "that" kid that everyone thinks is cute the first couple of times and then they roll their eyes whenever he gets up there. :) This last fast Sunday he insisted on doing it all by himself, he wouldn't even let Richie or I come up to help him. He just talked and talked all about how he was sick, and he's been to the dentist etc etc. Luckily he managed to get in a few gospel principles, and I'll admit, it was pretty dang cute. This past Sunday however, he whined and cried almost the entire primary program, except when he gave his line. The reason? He had overheard Richie and I talking about Sister Gardner in the ward and how she wants Miles to marry her little girl Presley. We laughed and thought it was cute. Presley is in Miles primary class. They got all settled up on the stand, Miles asked Presley to marry him and she said no. He was heartbroken the rest of the meeting. Cutest reason to sulk on stage ever. I found out later that another girl in his primary class also got her feelings hurt that Miles asked Presley to marry him and not her. :) Are we really starting that this young??

One more picture for good measure. Like I said, we're running on max speed these days. Sometimes just getting the kids in bed is a huge feat. We got the kids in bed, I was headed for the gym, and Richie crashed on the bed. Right before I left, Gwen asked if she could snuggle dad for a little while. He said "Ok, but only for 2 minutes and then you're back in bed." Miles made his way into the bed not much later, and when I came home this is what I found. :)