I loved watching the choir at women's session in General Conference: those pure, young girls! I loved Sister Reeves’s 8 different “powers.” As she spoke I visualized super heroes with the power of prayer, scriptures, temple, covenants, repentance, virtue, Sabbath day, and prophet power. I hope our family can have those super powers. President Uchtdorf is always so tender and yet straight forward. I love our leaders. What a perfect way to begin General Conference. I’m excited about our new apostles and about the good men who have gone to their next assignment. I will really miss Elder Scott. I’ve listened to almost every talk he’s given. I love his connection with his wife. I love his perspective and ability to share spiritual experiences. He has taught me so much. I love him. I’m so excited for next weekend!

My body kind of crumpled this week. I hate when that happens. Most days I was a mess to look at, but decided to try in other ways. I prayed that we would be able to serve others. A new family moved into the area: the boys helped make dinner for them and deliver it. We shared dinner with the missionaries and the kids were polite. I finished All the Light We Cannot See (on the life favorites list) and loved it so much I had to e-mail the author—which I could do through his agent and publisher. Surprisingly, he and his publisher both responded! What generosity. I’m glad we could encourage each other. So: despite not being as put together as I prefer, I’m humbled that Heavenly Father will allow us to do small things to serve Him and His children.

An older woman has been sitting outside of the library asking people to sign a petition to get something on the ballot in November. I usually try to avoid her because it’s near a parking lot, I’m chasing four little kids, and usually have about 60 books in my arms as we go in and out of the building. I finally talked with her. When I told her I’d sign but not give my contact information, she yelled and cursed and scratched out things on her papers. We thanked her for her time and efforts then left. The boys brimmed with questions. Lincoln wanted to re-enact it. Keller wanted me to tell him all the bad words. When I told them that she had taken the Lord’s name in vain, Lincoln said, “But that’s a commandment!” and Levi quoted, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” So we laughed and hoped the lady doesn’t feel bad at the end of the day.

Levi started attending a second grade math class this week. He loves it. His teacher gave him the end of the year first grade math assessment and he zipped through it; bless her for encouraging him and helping provide a means of further growth. Kids from the second grade class have talked to him as we go home. Yay! We met with his teacher, the principal, and the GT teacher on Tuesday. Lincoln and Keller voted to come with us instead of meeting with a friend at a park. Bless that teacher again for letting them build with Legos and explore her classroom. They built robots and tools. Levi tried to help contain them. I’m so impressed at his desire to do and be good. He’s been self-directed and emotionally controlled (he even reminds me about my penny jar!). He even made a Cinderella slipper out of paper! Last week in Primary, his class discussed reverence. On his own, he chose to bring his scriptures and other things to help him be reverent in sacrament meeting today.

Lincoln loves to be home. He loves to build and destroy. He loves to create super-hero costumes and weapons and robots. Whenever we read a book he really likes, he takes it down to the art table, studies it, and starts to draw things out of the book and plot how to build them. We read a library book on Michelangelo and his creation of David in Florence. Lincoln loved the book, loved the sculpting. Both he and Keller were fascinated by David’s lack of clothing.  When Lincoln took it downstairs I was a little concerned about what he would bring back up as drawings. Instead Keller dashed up yelling, “He drew in the library book!” So he had: right over the one picture that showed David’s entire body—strategic drawings over his chest and pelvis. When I asked Lincoln about it he responded, “Well! Our boy parts are sacred, so I covered him up!” I’m glad he heard that message, even if we need to repair a library book.

Keller wants to live in his underpants. He told me he was swimming, stripped, and then chased squirrels and planted seeds he found with Lincoln. The boys disappeared when the missionaries were here—we found them in underpants building forts. Once I came upstairs to his room to find him in nothing but nine pairs of underpants. I don’t know how he got them all on top of each other! He has read, snuggled, and sang a lot this week. He constantly brings things to Venice and tries to comfort her.

Venice wants to climb and live her own life without interference. We traded her binkies for another soft blanket of her choice. She witnessed/helped me throw her binkies into the outside garbage without any fussing. She’s done okay at night, but naps are a struggle. Then she got a fever. She’s over it now, but it was a long weekend. Our friends gave us a ton of clothes they’d outgrown for her. She loves the poofy dresses and shiny shoes. She walks around showing everyone her “shoes!”

In between, we went on a little hike, played outside, invented dinners, and (drum roll!) Wes has officially switched to a full employee. This has been in process for months and we’re really grateful to have it solidified before the end of the fiscal year (just for stability). He sweeps in every evening and saves the day—playing with the kids, running out their energy, teaching them new games, teaching me to use a drill, and being so patient and kind with all of us. What an amazing man. I’m honored to be his wife and lead our little family together.

Cole Crew