10 Months

Busy, busy boy! He climbs up on everything lately which leads to lots of bonks and falls—growing pains :( He also likes to stand up in his crib before sleeping time but he doesn't know how to get back down yet—means I have to go in and adjust him at least once before naps/bedtime. I think it's actually pretty funny when he's so mad that he's standing up but just wants to be sleeping—he's so happy when I lay him down again and give him his soft blankie.

At this age Luke adores stairs, my hair and earrings, iPhones, and basically anything that is not one of his toys. And food of all kinds. He will sit in his high chair for almost an hour if I keep giving him new things to nibble on. It's the perfect way to keep him contained and entertained when I need to get things done.

Luke also thinks his siblings are the coolest people on the earth. They can get him giggling and so hyper—even as they carry him around like a sack of potatoes. I honestly don't know how the brother and sisters even do that—he is a heavy little guy and looks huge compared to them. But Luke loves the attention and playtime he gets from the kids. They are very helpful with him too which is a lifesaver for me—sometimes I just need to change the laundry or do the dishes or blow-dry my hair without worrying about what Luke might get into while I do so!

 

 First time swinging during our SG getaway this past weekend

The busy stair climbing babe

New Calling

Oh my goodness, life has pulled a big change on me. Last month I was called as the Young Women's President in my ward. I knew a change was coming as I was already serving as the 2nd counselor when our president told us she was moving. But I was really surprised and so humbled to get called as the president...really? me? I was in tears at the bishop's office to be given that calling, mostly because my heart suddenly felt like it would burst with the love I felt for my young women. I have been serving with them for almost 3 years now and I know them all so well. We are a small ward (after a split that happened in January) and I only have 11 girls, but they are amazing.

So far it has been such an incredible experience. I have never, ever prayed like I've prayed in the past 6 weeks. Calling counselors and organizing the leadership was totally new for me and I felt so much help from Heavenly Father. I have the most wonderful women serving with me and one of my counselors I had never even met before—but I knew I needed her as her name just kept coming to me again and again. And she has been the best help for me thus far too—so reliable and such a good, good person, and so excited and willing.

I love the other women I serve with too. The day we were all set apart together in the bishop's office was one of my favorites. The spirit was so strong and the blessings offered so beautiful and personal. A few of my leaders are experiencing rough trials right now and our bishopric was so sensitive to their righteous desires in the prayers they offered. It felt like the perfect beginning to our journey together.

I truly feel so much responsibility for the beautiful girls I get to serve. I keep thinking that one more prayer in their behalf has to help somehow, that one more visit when they are feeling low, one more cheerleader at their swim meet or dance performance will be good for them even if it's in the smallest way. My young women are strong and talented and smart. But they have real struggles and really hard things in their lives too. I worry for them so much and my heart hurts for them too. I am realizing how powerful prayer can be lately and I am so grateful I can call on my Father so often and that I am learning more and more how to rely on His help. I cannot solve the things that are hard for these girls but I can pray like crazy for them and ask Heavenly Father how I can be a force for good in their lives. And I'm armed with 6 other women who are eager and willing to do the same. Wow, did I ever have any idea what my Young Women leaders did in my behalf? The answer is not in the least! But I am seeing now...hindsight huh?

(5 of my amazing young women at youth conference this past weekend)

I attended my first ward council yesterday morning, have held 2 presidency meetings, attended a few extracurricular events for my YW, held youth conference this past Friday and Saturday, and attended the regular Wednesday activities like always. Coming up we have stake training next Tuesday night and Young Women in Excellence to prepare for in November. This calling is quite a busy one. Plus, every time I open my computer I have emails to send, reminders to give the girls, notes for my presidency and calendaring items to figure out. I think I'm going to carve out a 30 minute period every morning to get all that YW business dealt with each day, and then not worry about it again until the next day's allotted time. Hopefully that will help me stay on top of everything (quarterly reports! annual budgets! calling a camp director! new class presidencies!) but not overwhelm me. I still have this crazy gig as a mommy of 4 which needs most of my effort as it is.

I think this lovely blog is going to feel rather neglected in the future but I don't want to lose it as our family journal/album. It may just be a more sparse record than I'd like! Even now I am making Olivia watch a Barbie movie just so I can get this post done while Luke sleeps. No matter that I have been wanting to write this post for more than a month!

Conference Quotes

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. 

To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,” we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world.

—Elder Holland, The First Great Commandment

A testimony is spiritual knowledge of truth obtained by the power of the Holy Ghost. Continuing conversion is constant devotion to the revealed truth we have received—with a heart that is willing and for righteous reasons. Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion. We should know the gospel is true and be true to the gospel.

—Elder Bednar, Converted Unto the Lord

This is the exchange the Savior is asking of us: we are to give up all our sins, big or small, for the Father’s reward of eternal life. We are to forget self-justifying stories, excuses, rationalizations, defense mechanisms, procrastinations, appearances, personal pride, judgmental thoughts, and doing things our way. We are to separate ourselves from all worldliness and take upon us the image of God in our countenances. 

Brothers and sisters, remember that this charge is more than just not doing bad things. With an engaged enemy we must also act and not sit in “thoughtless stupor.” Taking upon the countenance of God means serving each other. There are sins of commission and sins of omission, and we are to rise above both.

—Elder Rober C. Gay, What Shall a Man Give in Exchange for His Soul? 

Parents, the days are long past when regular, active participation in Church meetings and programs, though essential, can fulfill your sacred responsibility to teach your children to live moral, righteous lives and walk uprightly before the Lord. With President Monson’s announcement this morning, it is essential that this be faithfully accomplished in homes which are places of refuge where kindness, forgiveness, truth, and righteousness prevail. Parents must have the courage to filter or monitor Internet access, television, movies, and music. Parents must have the courage to say no, defend truth, and bear powerful testimony. Your children need to know that you have faith in the Savior, love your Heavenly Father, and sustain the leaders of the Church. Spiritual maturity must flourish in our homes. My hope is that no one will leave this conference without understanding that the moral issues of our day must be addressed in the family. Bishops and priesthood and auxiliary leaders need to support families and make sure that spiritual principles are taught.

—Elder Quentin L. Cook, Can Ye Feel So Now?

50 Miles

To celebrate 13 years of marriage, I asked my hubby to ride 50 miles with me—my first 1/2 century. It's a goal I've had in the back of my head all summer and I've been training a lot to get ready. I aimed for 2-3 rides a week all around 16-20 miles with some longer "Saturdate" rides with Joseph closer to 30. It has been incredibly fun riding this summer, and with my favorite app (Strava) I can track all sorts of nerdy things about my rides. Since early July, when I started using Strava, I have ridden 497 miles, been on 26 rides, ridden for more than 35 hours, and climbed 20,325 ft in elevation...see what I mean?

Now 50 miles may not seem too hard—boy scouts whip those out like no big deal all the time! But I wanted to ride 50 miles and feel good through the whole thing. I didn't want to be pooping out during the last 10 miles or having jello legs when I needed to make it back up to my house in the foothills. And I wanted to be in the right shape to enjoy the journey with my hubby who is turning into quite the strong cyclist. So train I did.

A few weeks ago we rode Emigration with our friends the Hayes. It was a stunning fall day but with our busy families and trying to fit in a last minute double date we could only do it right at noon on a 90 degree day. It was not my finest ride (I was slow) but it was awesome to chat with Heather while we rode—the time flew by and suddenly we were done! It was 7 miles of climbing but only about 1.5 of them are steep. It was sweaty and hot but beautiful with fall in her glory up there. And of course we made time for some Ruth's Diner on the way back down :)

 

 

 the beautiful (and very fulfilling descent!)

Another date ride from our house over to Butterfield Canyon and up about 3.5 miles for some more fall colors (about a 20 mile ride altogether). There are definitely advantages to living in the country—this road is usually pretty empty during the weekdays and feels so quiet and secluded.

Heather came out to ride with me last Wednesday and we had a great time...and a minor crash! But only because I cut her off and we both lost balance—whoops! I jammed my wrist pretty hard but it healed up quickly Thursday and Friday...ice, compression, elevation, repeat. And some leftover prescription ibuprofen from Luke's birth :)

And then it was Saturday—our day to ride. My big sis had my 3 oldest for a sleepover the night before and Nanny had Luke overnight with her so we got an excellent sleep and were on our way by 8:30 in the morning.

Glorious! It was a huge success. I think we just did everything right for that ride. We ate homemade Corner Bakery cold oatmeal for breakfast and made it 20 miles before stopping at the Ranches on the way to Eagle Mountain to refill water bottles and buy another Gatorade. Then we rode just a few miles back into Saratoga Springs and had a calorie filling breakfast sandwich at McDonalds :) It seemed weird to only be about half way done at that point but I still felt great and knew the way home had a lovely, long, downhill stretch that we'd climbed earlier in the morning—and that's always fun! We took a long way home detouring around Daybreak lake to add some extra miles and then we came home—51 miles total.

The crazy thing is that after 45 miles, on a stretch Joseph and I ride all the time, I rode it faster than I ever have and Joseph got his 2nd best time. It seems silly that we hadn't done better there in the past but I was thrilled to see that 50 miles hadn't done me in and that we'd found a really good pace to maintain for the tail end of our ride. And of course Joseph was feeling fine and dandy—he rode a 100 miler about a month before so 50 felt about perfect to him.

And then it was back to our kids and a busy Saturday and living the crazy, beautiful life we have created together over the last 13 years.

We did manage to have a pretty awesome Friday night date night too with the Eberhardts, Los Hermanos, and Cougar football. The weekend as a whole was one of my favorites. 

 

13 Years

A lot of changes come in the course of 13 years—it's crazy how we've grown into a full family:

This marriage has been a good ride, a really really good ride. I feel incredibly blessed to be married to such a worthy, loving, and hard-working man. The older I get the more rare those qualities seem to become in the world and I know I ended up with one of the best. But I also feel so lucky that Joseph and I are so happy together. Somehow we just get each other which makes everything easier, especially when it comes to parenting and what we want to teach and experience with our children, how we want to love and cherish them, and how we discipline and help them too. It truly is a team effort which I thrive on having 4 littles who need us so much. I am sure the 20 year old version of me had no idea what I needed in the future father of my children but my husband has definitely stepped up to the plate.

I truly love him like no other and he's my perfect match, enough said :)

9 Months

9 Month Stats:

Height: 29.5 in

Weight: 22.4 lbs

And a post infused with lots of Instagrams of my baby boy. Krista—you need to be on Instagram already! How can I get you using it? Hmmm...

Luke has become the most busy boy this past month: crawling everywhere, touching/eating everything at ground level, searching for kids down the hall, getting stuck in rooms as he accidentally closes the door, and even falling out of the crib! Just yesterday he pulled himself up to his knees on the side of his crib after his 2nd nap. I was surprised to see him up like that and realized we needed to lower his bed pronto (like in the next few days...) We put him to bed after a busy night of errands and ballet carpool and he promptly climbed right up the side of his crib and fell to the floor! Poor, crazy guy! He was luckily unscathed just super stunned and probably a little freaked out. We postponed bedtime by 20 minutes or so and lowered that crib right away :)

Luke loves to eat and wants to try anything any of us are eating. He gets fussy when he sees a sibling eating a snack in the car that he doesn't have or sees me having lunch without him. He is still so excited about any and all food so I am trying to keep lots of pureed veggies in him while I can.

I just quit nursing him about 3 weeks ago and felt surprisingly fine about it. We were down to 3 feedings a day (the rest were formula bottles) but he was getting so wiggly and curious that feeding time was getting hard. Luke has always been an awesome nurser—very efficient and done in 20 minutes but I think we were both ready for the swift 5 minutes of an entire bottle. There is just too much for this boy to see and do!   And he is a great bottle drinker so he transitioned well. I kind of, sort of miss those snuggly, quiet mornings feeding him while all the others were still and sleeping, but I am a happier mama knowing Joseph can get up with him in the mornings and feed him now too. I love so much that I have been able to nurse all 4 of my babies, but I am also happy to be done. I think I was really ready for my body to be mine again after nearly 18 months (pregnancy + nursing).

My tiny guy seems to insist on growing up quickly. He had his first tooth way before any of my other babies and at 9 months proudly displays 8. He was in full motion at 8 months while most my others weren't crawling until 9 or 10 months. He is starting to hate riding backwards in his car seat if he can't see any kids to entertain him, and he twists around to try and see me while I drive! Such a funny, active, happy, happy, happy boy. He is still mostly bald but has some deliciously soft fluff here and there. It's impossible not to kiss his head and perfectly full baby cheeks all the day long—such a sweet indulgence in my life. I love my Lukey Bear!

Donut Falls

Our Saturday was a busy day this past weekend: long biking date, Cares riding with no training wheels, buying Caroline some new, bigger ballet shoes and finally, a little hike up to Donut falls (per the kids' request...we must be teaching them right :)

 

 

The sweet baby bear was not the happy boy he usually is. He had been running a fever since Friday and was very needy most of the day. Who knew he was rocking a double ear infection? Poor guy. When his fever was still raging on Monday I knew something was not right and we paid a visit to the doctor. Luke was such a good boy through it all. He is such an easy baby that it was hard to tell he was in so much pain—he mainly just wanted to be held a lot and didn't crawl around and explore like he normally does. I love that sweet little babe so much! And thankfully he was back to his busy little self after only 24 hours of antibiotics—that stuff is amazing.

 More glimpses of fall in Big Cottonwood canyon...so pretty

Sidenotes of the day:

1) We ran into Pat Richards on the hike, and old friend of mine from HS days. Haven't seen him in probably 14 years but he looks just the same! Funny. And is a dad of 4 out hiking with his wife and all the littles.

2) Bentley suddenly had a major headache on our way down the canyon and about 1 mile from our house threw up in the backseat. Poor Bentley, and poor Highlander. If you know any tricks for permanently removing that lingering barf smell from the car I am definitely interested...

3) I had Zupas for the very first time right before we hiked. A chocolate covered strawberry with every meal? It's amazing I haven't been before! Yummy Tuscan soup and summer salad too.