General Conference

General Conference is inspiring. It is uplifting. It is humbling. It is powerful. It is spiritual. When I was a little girl, I dreaded conference weekend. It was hard to sit and listen to eight hours of talks. (Two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday). And now, that time just flies by and I find myself wanting more!! Not only do I want more, I NEED more! I found myself really tuning into the following talks. 

Elder Rasband, who spoke on prayer and faith. Sister Reeves, who spoke on morality and purity. Elder Zwick, who spoke on communication and love. President Uchtdorf, spoke on gratitude. It was SUPERB!!! President Monson spoke on the importance of kindness, especially to those who do not believe as we do. I feel so blessed to hear from our church leaders every six months. I'm so grateful that my children are growing up listening, just as I did and tuning in to what the prophet has to say to us. I make it a little more enjoyable for them to watch and listen than it was for me when I was a child.

Fruit Loop necklaces

They also did conference packets where they listened for certain words, or could color pictures, and do cross word puzzles. 

Caught Joe folding his arms for the prayer. 

 Traditional Conference Scones!

Joe liked them too!

During the last session, Nathan and Joe were out back getting some wiggles out. I happened to look out to see Nathan being so sweet to his younger brother. Something about listening to good things, and then seeing your kids doing good things make me teary happy! 

Life is good!

*Late last night, my dad called to tell me that my sweet Grandma passed away. She was a month shy of her 101st birthday! I'll have to write a post all about her. She was remarkable! Although normally death brings feelings of great sadness, I couldn't be very sad. I just keep thinking of her tremendous reunion with her beloved Preston and her parents and siblings. She was the last to go of her family and has been without grandpa for 40 years. I am the lucky one to have called her Grandma!

Hospital Stay

I've learned recently, that I have really taken health for granted. I LOVE learning about health and diet, and really enjoy teaching my children the importance of eating well and the benefits that come when we don't indulge in too much sugar! (That said, we still have a ways to improve). It's no secret that I will look to natural methods when we are sick, before I grab for over the counter drugs.

Holland started to get sick a week and a half ago. Joe had been sick and he just LOVES to kiss and hug her. I tried hard to stop it from happening, but there were a couple of times he snuck it in. I started to apply the essential oils and nursing her more regularly, but she consistently had a fever and wasn't showing any signs of getting better. I asked Aaron to give her a blessing and decided I would take her into see the doctor the following morning if there was no improvement through the night. He called our Home Teacher to assist him in the blessing. Our home teacher happens to also be a Physicians Assistant, and offered to check her ears and do a small checkup on her stats. After the blessing, our friend checked Holland. Her ears were good (I thought for sure she had an ear infection and that's why she was getting the fever), but when he checked her oxygen level, it registered at 87. NOT GOOD! He said I needed to take her to the instacare right away. It was 8:30 already, so I got her in the car and we went. I was only in there for 10 minutes and they said I needed to take her to the ER right away. What? Really? I could tell she was sick, but I had NO IDEA it was so bad.

Long story short, little Miss has RSV.  Two days in the hospital proved that I am truly thankful for hospitals. (Secretly, I hate them, but they sure have their place and I am beyond thankful we were there). Oxygen and suction treatments have been my best friend this past week. For Holland, not so much!

Two days ago, Holland got the go ahead to only have oxygen at night. Phew! because I don't think she could handle that in her nose all day long, for one more day! Between that in her nose, and her monitor going off in the night when she dipped below 88, I think we are both done with this! Good riddance! Well, good riddance as soon as we are totally done with it.