Birthday & mission reunion

We've had a great week!  Mostly because Camden and I spent a lot of time planning for our favorite guy's birthday!  Kyle's Birthday was on Saturday and we loved getting to spend the whole entire day as a family with him!  Kyle's genuinely the greatest person I've ever met!  I told him we could do anything for his birthday, and after thinking about it for a few minutes he replied he wanted to go out and fly kites.  How cute is that?  Saturday morning I woke up and decorated the house and told Kyle he couldn't come out of the bedroom until Camden has come and gotten him.  Camden woke up just a few minutes after I told Kyle and after convincing Camden it was a good idea to go get daddy and bring him to his own party, we put on our party hats and went and got daddy and invited him!  Camden's "party" sounds a lot like "potty" so there was much confusion throughout of the day of what he was saying.  Kyle came out, saw the decorations and the party began!  I told Kyle he should open presents, and he said he would wait a little bit, but then Camden started opening his presents and Kyle decided that it was time, and he and Camden opened presents.  Aiden just sits sweetly in his swing and observed it all. We then ate crepes for breakfast and watched the first session of general conference. After conference we hurried cleaned up a bit, got ready and went to Target to go and get the kites.  Kyle's sister Lyssa invited us to lunch at a restaurant named Tucanos.  It's a Brazilian restaurant with lots of different meats....SO YUMMY...then we went to the park and flew kites. The weather was actually really perfect for flying kites, Camden loved it, Aiden hated it.  Lyssa's kids had a great time too! I am pretty sure Kyle did more chasing of loose kites than actual flying, but that's the kind of guy he is.  After Flying kites, Kyle ran home and got ready togo to the priesthood session of General conference.  Before he could go his sisters Brooke and Lyssa wanted to give him their presents...which was the announcement of two more babies joining the family in November.  We're both very excited for the two of them.  Aiden is especially excited to have two cousins the same age as him.  When Kyle got home we had his requested carrot cake, (which I knocked out of the park....taste wise....and totally blew presentation wise!) and Ice cream.  Lyssa and her family went home and Kyle and I attempted to put the boys to bed, and to start a movie...by 10:00 we'd finally got the boys to bed, but had about 2% energy to watch a movie...so we were in bed shortly after the boys...such is parenthood.  I hope Kyle has a fantastic birthday, he really deserves the world!
  
 

Friday, I also go to go to my mission reunion.  March 30th marked 6 years since I've been home from LA.  My mission honestly seems like it was a dream, a great dream.  But sometimes I have to remind myself that I really left my family, and lived the crazy missionary life in the crazy city of LA for 18 months.  I had gone to one mission reunion before when I first got home.  IT was hosted by my first mission president, President Blackburn and his wife.  This one was hosted by President Baker and his wife.  Great to see them.  Iw as also able to see a few of the sister who I served with...Sisters Brinkerhoff, Ashby, Schumacher and Tittle...now all known as Bailee, Marilee Gaby and Elisa! Fun to catch up for a minute.  The experiences I'd experienced with a few of those sisters brought us together as old friends who hadn't missed a beat.  What a privilege it was to serve with so many remarkable women in faith.  I had a minute to talk with President Baker and he said a few things that I needed to hear, mainly he told me that it was impressive for him to arrive in the mission and see the older sisters who were serving and they knew why they were there, and they were focused.  I did know why I was serving, I knew who I was serving and I was focused.  I cried when I came home harder than the day I left for the mission field.  I needed to hear that because I don't think I can say the same about myself now.  I sometimes feel as if my life is together as a plate of scrambled eggs. I'm everywhere.  Right now, I'm serving a different kind of mission, I often forget why I'm here and what I should be doing, I try, really, I do. But I often feel as if I come up so short.  In my nightly prayers, I pray that Heavenly Father will bless me to be a kind, patient and encouraging wife and mother, daughter, sister, friend....etc Grateful for new days.


General Conference was this weekend as well!  I remember the days of getting to just sit and be a complete sponge and soak up every word that was being spoken, those days are long gone.  It was fun though as our leaders stood up to talk Camden would periodically point to the TV, and say "Mom, prophet!" in a very proud voice. As the prophet spoke Camden again, pointed out, "mom, Prophet!" the continued to complain the whole time the prophet was speaking that Aiden was hurting him and I need to use my magical kisses to make them all better.  Love that I have magical kisses, hate the I didn't get to listen our dear prophet as intently as I would have liked to.  The over all message I got from the past two days was....we live in an amazing time, we are so incredibly  rich in blessings, but one thing that is the same, is that faith, prayer and studying of God's words are a sure problem fixer.  No matter how unique our problems are, those basic church answers are what we need to fix them and to help answer our prayers.

Sunday, Aiden hit his two month mark.  He's growing & developing so quickly. Honestly much quicker than Camden did.  Aiden is frequently smiling, and holding his head up like a champ.  He doesn't love being swaddled or sleeping on your chest.  He eats every three hours, even through the night.  Which hopefully, soon we'll be able to wean him off of. I cannot wait for the day when I get to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time!!!!!