This Week at Our House #13

1.  John is very thoroughly enjoying his unemployment vacation. As long as it doesn't last too long, I am sure he will look back on it as a happy time with the family. He had a job interview that went really well. We will see if it turns into anything. We stayed in Provo at John's parent's house for the conference weekend. I know that John really enjoyed with time playing late night games with his brother and chatting with his parents.
2. I LOVE General Conference, almost as much as Christmas! I came in with some questions and left having them all answered. I intend to spend some time writing my thoughts on some of the talks. My favorites were Boyd K Packer, L Tom Perry, Elaine S Dalton, Jeffery R Holland, and President Monson's arson story. It always amazes me how bold and kind the apostles can be in just a few statements. 
3. Ruth had spring break. She slept a lot and hung out with Kate a lot. Ruth payed close attention and took careful notes all through conference. She has grown up since those first few years struggling to get her to sit through any of conference. Friday morning, Ruth pretended to be a "weeping angel" from Dr. Who, held her hand out toward the light and ordered the lights to go off just as our electricity went out. That was a fun way to lose our electricity. Apparently, the whole west side of our area was without electricity for about 4 hours.
4. Kate LOVED having Ruth all week. She spent every moment she could hanging out with Ruth. 
5. Nothing interesting happened for Johnny this week. He took spring break off from home school and just hung out. Johnny is just a good kid and fairly easy to please.
6. Adam had a pretty good week too. He had a lot of fun at Rachel's birthday party-- a little too much fun. I had to keep telling him to settle down. Because Adam and Rachel are just a grade apart, they know each other's friends well. Adam listened to all 4 sessions of conference, albeit very wiggly.
7. Rachel turned 7! She had an awesome week filled with Easter stuff, birthday stuff, cousins, and sleeping over at Grandma's.
8. Anya had a ton of fun at Rachel's birthday party too. During the day, Anya hangs out with Joseph, and during the evening Anya hangs out with either Adam or Rachel. Adam seems to quite like Anya and is always asking her to play with him. Things like that just melt my heart. I love watching my kids play together.
9. I am trying with Joseph, and Joseph is "trying". This week, Joseph drew all over the walls and laughed about it. He punched me and told me that he was going to break all of my things, he pooped his pants and laughed that John had to clean up the mess. I hope that we can survive this stage. I am trying to clap and get real excited every time Joseph obeys me. I think he needs more attention. He doesn't respond much to punishment. He's a tough kid right now. He doesn't throw fits, he just terrorizes property.
10. Josh is just adorable. He makes us laugh and smile everyday! He loves his cars, and trucks, and trains, he loves to look at books and draw, he loves to cuddle and be held. I'll miss these sweet days with little Josh.
11. I cannot get Arwen to eat much solid food. I am not sure if it is taste or texture issues. She will eat small pieces of bread, but nothing else. I tried giving her some banana and avocado and she just gagged and spat it out. I know she can swallow fine because she eats bread and paper. I think I will just set her with safe finger foods and let her figure this out by herself.

This Week's Pictures

Josh watching Grandpa's trains