Here’s the fuzzy rundown: We rearranged the boys’ bedrooms a little and put up some pictures. They wanted Helaman’s army and the Sacred Grove. They enjoy memorizing so we bought one of the huge Articles of Faith posters for their room as well. They love it. They spent countless minutes and minutes staring at a superhero book from the library. We met some friends, the Wyeths and Klewenos, at the park. They have little boys, also. All of the little boys except for the babies piled down the slide together, on top of each other, in a mangled mess. Over and over and over. We hosted preschool and talked about maps and water. We pretended the bathtub was an ocean and we built islands with buckets, then made lakes, rivers, and streams. We made dinner for a family. Yesterday we went to the temple. I attended a session—which means we left around 9:45 a.m. and returned about 6 p.m. The boys made up songs in the back seat primarily revolving around the number 20. Pretty hilarious. Then Levi decided that Lincoln should only sing about 26. Lincoln grinned until his face almost popped and loudly sang out, “TWENTTTTTTYYY!” Goofballs.

Friday night we hosted our annual pumpkin carving party with Wesley’s research groupies. We only ended up with five people, so I had to bring some of our homemade doughnuts and carrot bread to the neighbors. The boys loved stabbing the pumpkin with the tiny, child-friendly, pumpkin carving kit. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Two of them had never carved a pumpkin before. Amazingly, our pumpkin isn’t even molding yet! We may make it past the 48 hour threshold. Happy October!

Today was Levi’s first Primary Program. He proudly walked to his seat, repeated his part without any help, and reverently walked back to our pew. My favorite part was his expression that said, in essence, “I already know what to do. Man, I’m cool!” And he is. He diligently practices his tennis skills—he hit a ball from the end of our yard across to our neighbor’s car. Impressive. He might give David a challenge in a few years. We re-discovered our alphabet foam pads; Levi runs in a specific pattern (unknown to the rest of us) back and forth back and forth. We’ve had a great time playing games with the alphabet on the floor (“Save Keller! He’s taking the S!”). I missed my morning workout on Wednesday, so I biked in the evening. The next morning I just wore the same clothes (nasty, I know) to exercise. When Levi saw me biking he looked at my shirt and said, “Mom! You biked all night? You must be so tired!” Haha! We have more handprints across the van windshield. How do you convince a child—or anyone—to obey? Or how to properly fall? Levi crashed on the ramp at the temple yesterday and conked his forehead. He and Lincoln have both crashed recently without catching themselves with their hands. Do we really need to practice this? I guess so. Oh, the things I take for granted…

After the late pumpkin carving night we heard Lincoln yelling in the middle of the night. I was worried until I woke up enough to hear what he was shouting: “MOM! I NEED NEW SHORTS! I NEED NEW SHORTS!” It took some convincing that the pajama shorts he wore were sufficient. During rest time he has built trains, airplanes, and other vehicles out of pillows and blankets. He informs me he’s going to Grandma’s house. “I’m eating dinner there.” Be prepared, Grandma! Here’s a little guy with expectations. We found a book on screws at the library. Screws = joy. Need I say more? At nursery he found a toy wrench and screwdriver at the bottom of the bin. His eyes sparkled, his sweet voice choked up, “A wrench! A screwdriver!” He wants a tool belt for Christmas. Until then, he uses his shorts, his underpants, his hands. Tools rain off of him. “I can fix it!”

Wesley takes Keller on walks around the house while sing-saying, “Da-da-Da-da-da-Da…” Keller often climbs up my legs and repeats the sounds. He wants Dad and he wants to run. I helped him hold on to his little walker (it’s a lion). Did he take a tentative step forward? No. He ran across the kitchen until he face planted. Why walk when running is an option? He did take three steps on his own and he spends a lot of time balancing on the walls. We’re hoping he’ll take to walking (simply standing may never be an option) when we go camping in two weeks. He dances, giggles, and communicates—loudly—nonstop. He sang, loudly!, along with the primary kids today. He’s thankful for a prophet! He knows he’s a child of God! I don’t worry about him raising his voice to say what needs to be said, ever. It’s a gift.

Wesley is giving a presentation (webinar—seminar over the web) to the BYU graduate students and search committee (i.e., the faculty hiring committee) on Thursday. A few months ago, his collaborator-friend asked him to give just a small webinar. He e-mailed this week to expand it since BYU has open positions and Wesley has applied. So this will be like a pre-screening. Texas Tech (in Lubbock) also expressed interest this week; one of their representatives will be at Wesley’s talk at AIChE in a couple of weeks. Wesley spent a couple days going to a water/energy workshop, and trying to figure out his concluding research project for his dissertation. It’s weird to think that in a year we probably won’t be here anymore. In January we set goals for 2013 as our “preparation year”—gearing up for this exciting process. Here we are—a little blurry and breathless, but excited—in the final stages of preparation.

I love the current visiting teaching focus on the mission of the Savior. After I visited one of my sisters this week I left thinking, “This is what visiting teaching is supposed to be!” We talked of the reality of Christ, of His love for us, and of the Plan of Salvation. We discussed our gratitude for His creations—including our bodies (and trials associated with them—like being tired), our families. We bore testimony of His role and of the way He mentors us to be creators now and in the eternities. I don’t know this sister very well, but we shared such a special spirit and unity. Truly, “we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”