Wow....it's already December!

I can not believe that December is in full swing and before we know it Christmas will be over! Every year I want to just enjoy this time of year...but that is just not going to happen. There are always so many other things going on. I am enjoying the season, but I also feel like time is running out and I can not seem to cross anything off my list. I just wish I had more of my shopping done and those gifts that I put off to the end every year (because they are for the people who have everything and if they don't have it, they can just go and get it!!) It always comes together in the end so I'm trying not to panic so I don't ruin these last few weeks!

It goes without saying that we are managing to stay busy here at our house. Zach is playing on the Sophomore Basketball team with practice every day and a couple games a week. It is actually nice for him to have something to do every day so he can't get too bored! ha Tanner's hockey is in full swing as well with Wednesday and Saturday practices/games. Kaden is also playing basketball on Saturdays with practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays (are you seeing the busy pattern here??).

Greg has been painting Kaden's room for the last couple of weeks. It turned out to be a MAJOR project. He didn't just paint it one color--he put some cool stripes on the walls. It turned out really cool and Kaden is pretty happy with it (it is a CUBS room--go figure!).

I was able to travel to DC in November for 6 days. I had such a great time and would love to travel back with the family. There is just so much to see and do. We were there for a conference--and that was great, too! I did get to attend the majority of the conference, go on a Monuments at Night tour, see the Washington DC Temple, the American History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the Holocaust Museum and Arlington Cemetery. I would have loved to have spent more time in each--but since we didn't have more time, it seemed like everything was in fast forward!

Our Thanksgiving was a little interesting this year---we had planned to spend the day with my parents and my sister and her family. On Thursday morning we awoke to a phone call that my nephew had been sick all night. I am just not a fan of the stomach bug and with my job visiting little ones who have low immune systems anyway--decided to stay home and figure something else out. It's funny the different things I thought of---run to the store and whip up our own turkey dinner (ha ha), call a neighbor who has a lot of cars and see if they happen to have some extra food for a family of 6, mom offered for us to drive over and get some food to take home which was so nice---but we chose to go out for dinner! We tried a local restaurant that was taking donations and thought we'd try that---it was packed so we ended up at Golden Corral. We were so surprised how many people go out to eat on Thanksgiving. It was so crowded we actually had to wait to be seated. The food was great and all the kids got to eat whatever they wanted (Greg and I stuck with the traditional turkey dinner).

Sunday we had the opportunity to attend the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional in the Conference Center. We had great seats down on the floor right where all the General Authorities enter. We were right on the end and in the front. We saw Elder Packer, Elder Oaks, Elder Ballard, Elder Nelson, Elder Christofferson, Elder Anderson, Elder Bednar, Elder Perry and Elder Hales and of course the First Presidency. It was so fun to see them with their families. At the end as they all were leaving--a bunch of them (Elder Nelson, Elder Hales, Elder Oaks--made eye contact with most of us and especially Brynn--she got a wink from them!). As Elder Christofferson walked out Greg waved him over. He was my Bishop in Maryland when I was baptized. He asked my name, shook all of our hands and then I told him how I named Brynn after his daughter Brynn. She was there with him and we got to talk to her, too. It was SO cool and something we will always remember.

I'm still very very behind on our blog and hope to play catch up over the next few weeks. My jobs keep me so busy and since I work from home for one of them--my "free" time has turned into lesson planning, filing, and paperwork so I rarely catch a minute to update my blog.