Dear Kris,

Thanks for the e-mail! Thanks for the reminder of why I blog...to update my family. Sometimes I get in a blog funk and I get tired of writing about our everyday lives. How much poop, fighting, and cleaning do you really want to hear about??? I will do better about informing you from now on. :-)

We survived another conference weekend. I love conference, too! The kids did really well this time around. They had occasional bouts of restlessness, but overall they were quiet and did a lot of coloring/drawing. They really enjoyed the children's choir yesterday afternoon. It was sweet to hear Kate sing with them. We stayed home and watched conference on the internet, which was very nice. It was a little too relaxing though as I kept falling asleep!

We had soccer before conference yesterday as well. No rain here, but it was chilly. I had Noah bundled up in his snowsuit. Matt stayed home with Eleanor, Zach, and Kate. Emily had practice at 9:00 and then Zoe had a game at 10:15. Zoe's team played a great game and they won by 1 point. It's fun routing for Zoe's team which has 2 Zoe's and Hailey, Shaylee, Kaylee, and twins who I can never tell apart!

Oh yes, the self-employment woes. Here's our latest. Matt sent in a voucher to the government and they finally sent us a check last week. The check was for $4000 less than expected. Not good. Matt deposits the check and we pay our health insurance which is due to be cancelled the next day if payment is not received. At least that is paid. A few days later, we receive a letter from the bank saying the check is not good. What?! We are back to no money, the check we paid the health insurance with is going to bounce, and we are wondering what is going on! Matt finds out Friday that the government messed up cutting our check by $4000, so they cancelled the check they sent us, and they will send us a new one for the full amount. That is good news, but we hope they send it quick!

Going through self-employment famines has helped me to realize the importance of food storage. We have done more baking from scratch, which we also enjoy doing. The past few weeks I have baked cookies and brownies with the kids, which has been fun...and frustrating at times, too. Here is Kate helping out for the first time on Friday.


Did you notice that Kate doesn't have any pants on? She REFUSED to let me put overalls on her and I was too lazy to get her a different pair of pants. Or maybe it was the fact that she has pants issues. She hates to have the waist of her pants up on her belly, so she wears them under her big belly. She whines every time I put pants on her, so it is very tempting to put her in dresses, but then she would have to wear tights and we'd probably still have issues.

It is looking to be a very busy week. Eleanor has cheerleading/Tumbling class after school today and then we meet with her teacher for Parent/Teacher Conferences. We're meeting with Emily's teacher tomorrow afternoon and then with Zoe's teacher Wednesday afternoon. Zoe has soccer practice after we meet with her teacher. Thursday afternoon, Zoe needs to be at the high school at 3:30 to register to sing and perform with the Young Americans. She is so excited to participate in this program! She'll have 3 days of workshops, classes, and a big show Saturday night. We'll pick her up at 9pm and then she'll be dropped off at the high school Friday morning at 8am and stay until 8pm. Emily and Zoe have soccer Saturday morning and then a Halloween party from 1-3pm, and then Zoe needs to be at the high school at 4pm for Dress Rehearsal and then the big show starts at 7:30pm. I hope it's a great experience for Zoe.

I am trying hard to enjoy this stage of life. I enjoyed President Monson's talk about that yesterday. I do find myself wishing Noah was older at times, but I should enjoy this baby stage one last time. I should take advantage of the excuse I have to sit, cuddle, read, and watch the other kids play while I can. It can be a challenge though when I'm in the mood to be productive around the house.

It was fun to hear about your family. I'm glad you are all doing well. Zoe and Savannah sound like their going through a similar phase of only wanting to do what they want to do. :-) Take care!

Joey