half dozen cuties

This Seat is Reserved

This may sound petty but I feel like our family has earned a reserved spot in the chapel. A couple of months ago our bishop gave a little pep talk during Relief Society about reverence and mentioned our family by name several times. Thanks to our 4 year old and two three year olds we aren't the most reverent family in the ward. I would have liked to hear the bishop say, look at the H. family, 6 kids under the age of 11 and there they are all lined up in a row, attentive and ready to learn. Instead in my head I was saying, "I challenge anyone in this ward to survive a sacrament meeting with these kids." Sacrament meeting is the longest hour of my week, but things are improving. I attribute it to the fact that as we thought about how to improve our reverence we decided to move to the two front benches on the right hand side of the chapel. We sit the three oldest kids on the front row and Jason and I sit behind them with the three youngest. We love sitting there and I would think that the whole ward would notice our vast improvement and realize that those seats are the reason for our success. Since we made our move we have arrived at church early enough to secure our spots. Unfortunately today, due to daylight savings time we had a false sense of security and were a little behind schedule. We were on time to church but not early enough to get our spot. Church starts at 11:45 and we pulled into the parking lot at 11:43. We had to take two cars because I had to visit another ward this afternoon and Jason was behind me. I literally drove 60 MPH the whole way to church. As I drove I instructed Jonah that he was to jump out of the car as soon as I put it in "park" and then run into the church to get our spot. We were just a second too late as I saw another family slip into our spot. We ended up sitting on the very front row in the center which isn't nearly as ideal. The little kids definitely need to be contained behind a bench.

Halloween Party

We really are lucky to have a good group of friends here in our ward. On Saturday Devin and Rebecca had a Halloween party and it was exactly what I needed to get over the blah week I've been having. My favorite costume was Jay's Jack Bauer from one of my favorite shows, 24. It was very original. We ate lots of good food and played mafia which was way fun. That game is so addicting. I could have played a few more rounds.

The kids are so excited for Halloween. They loved seeing Jason and I in our costumes and tomorrow I have to round up all the pieces to their costumes. They have all been wearing them for dress up and I hope everything is still intact. It seems like such a waste to not let them enjoy them before the big day.

Today was a long day with our extra hour but I loved having all the kids in bed by 7:00. We did FHE tonight and Jonah gave the lesson on the first vision. We then watched the Restoration DVD and I was amazed at how still the kids were while watching it. They all loved it, even Jack. Afterwards we watched America's Funniest Videos and Jason made Chocolate Banana Smoothies for the kids. Hopefully it's the start of a great week.