I am so blessed. I have had such a good month. I just posted about my miscarriage which I am so bummed about and still have a lot of raw emotions. But ultimately I have 7 healthy children and haven’t had to deal with loss at a greater scale than early miscarriage and losing elderly grandparents so I AM BLESSED. Overall I can’t help but feel thankful for all that I have.

My mom and Tracie have been in town from the 5th until the 17th. When they are here I get to see them and Joel and Megan and Kelsey and even Sean and Shannon and Grandma and my aunts, and cousins and … It’s just a family time when mom is here and I LOVE IT. It was a blessing to be surrounded by them and by all of my Netty family during the miscarriage.

This last weekend Nathaniel set up a birthday trip for Erica to go to Las Vegas with a few of us friends. It was perfect timing for me to get away from the daily chores and stresses of motherhood.  I could easily see how great my life is. I had fun being carefree and middle aged and reconnecting with high school friends. I got 2 whole days of only worrying about myself!! I don’t think that has happened in the last decade. I felt blessed to be able to have that time and it was healing to get away.

Life is good. I have so much.

at the beginning of the month we watched general conference. Shannon and Tommi came and spent the day with us! Shannon is always fun and she loves to color as much as I do.

Rick and Kris went to Wisconsin for a few weeks and when they got back they brought Rose a birthday present and played with the kids! My inlaws are awesome. I got a present also and couldn’t hold off 🙂

 

Tiago brings a smile to my face daily and sometimes hourly 🙂 He loves to “play” the arcades and he thought he should use a piece of the kitchen cabinet to play hockey with! He is so happy.

  

Dagny Robertson was born October 3rd! I got to go see her and the awesome parents. Dagny is adorable and Joel and Megan are so fun. I love having them close by.

We had a tooth fairy visit and I got my monthly trip to the temple in early this month!

 

Tracie and her 3 kids came to play with us on the evening of wednesday the 5th! I love having Tracie here. We chat and let the kids be crazy. We play Nertz and try to get a project done or a problem solved. Cedar, Bren and Hadley are the same ages as Ray, Millie and Tiago so they all have fun. (Tracie had to chase Bren and the Mini Cooper all over while she taught him how to drive :))

 

Millie is still full of SASS. I wanted a picture for Grandma and this is what I got! Later that day after she had peed her pants I caught her out on the 4 wheeler!!

 

Look at this fun Friday night! Family Date Night. Benji babysat 🙂 And the next night we got in some family gaming!

 

Sunday we got to have Mom and Grandma and Shaelyn, Sean, Kel, Tracie and Joel!

Tracie doesn’t let me be too lazy. Rose learned how to ride a bike since Cedar was learning 🙂 and we went to the park a bunch.

PUMPKINS from our garden!!

And STORY TIME for FHE!

and we finished the evening with coloring and baseball on in the background.

October 12 is Tracie’s birthday so we had to celebrate! Shakes and Donuts and the park! Siblings and Mother Dear.

Tracie’s turn to read the bedtime stories!

and then we let Benji babysit again so that we could go to cousin Colby’s birthday Dinner!

On Thursday the 13th we all went to say Hi to Diane and Susan. Susan is healing from knee surgery. Diane is the best Color-er of all 🙂

Friday was Dads and Donuts! and what an awesome Sun Rise!

Friday morning I left on my get away with LaNell. We met Erica at the Airport and got to Vegas at 1:45. We met up with Angelee and – Katie came and picked us all up!

We went shopping and then ate Thai food and hung out at Katie’s house.

 

 

On Saturday we shopped some more and went and saw “Sully”. We ate Mediterranean food. Tons of food and tried lots of new stuff.

That night we went to the Boyz II Men concert at the Mirage. It was a fun concert. Lots of good laughs and fun songs to sing along with. To bad we forgot our spoons!

  

After the concert we headed out to find a Knob Hill Chill and then we called it a night.

  

Sunday morning we got up and headed home. It was such a fun trip and break from being mommy. It was short and sweet and I loved it.

EVERYONE survived without me for those 2 days: I left Saturday instructions for Kelsey to come help Ben get all the soccer games done right 🙂 and I did come home to 3 toilet paper rolls that needed my specialties for replacing them! and LOTS of empty boxes in the pantry…

  

Millie did cut her hair minutes after getting home from church! argggh! I think she missed me the most but…

Sunday night we had all of my family over for Sunday dinner again! John was here too. And C-way. And Kel, Tracie, Mom and I got to finish the night and their vacation with some NERTZ.

 

Needless to say – I was exhausted on Monday morning when our house guests left and kids went to school and Ben to work. Luckily moms have the best job for days like that. We cleaned and snuggled and RESTED. And that night we made caramel apples for FHE.

SO SO BLESSED!