Our (attempted) photo shoot

I tried taking some pictures of the boys this afternoon. HA-HA! Getting a good picture of them seperate was impossible, and trying to get a good picture of the 2 of them together - not happening..... Here are some of the out-takes.

Have a great weekend.

Kids say the darndest things!

I know you all enjoy hearing the little things that Gabe says (or maybe you're just humoring me....?) So here's the latest installment. Having this blog really helps me to record the little things he says - otherwise I know there's no way I'd remember any of them. There are actually dozens more, these are just the ones I remember to write down!

· When we were leaving to drive up to see family this weekend we stopped to say a prayer before we left. I suggested a prayer and Gabe announced that he wanted to say it. So he started right out and said, "Dear Hefenly Faver". Then without any hesitation at all he confidently and sincerely said, "I love you". It was one of those moments that brought tears to my eyes immediately. I felt so grateful that Gabe felt he could tell his Heavenly Father that he loved Him. I felt so wonderful that Gabe does love his Heavenly Father, and I prayed at that instant that Gabe would always feel that way. I hope and pray that Gabe remembers to love his Heavenly Father and that he can start every day out thanking our Heavenly Father for all he's given us.

· We had told Gabe he could go swimming at the hotel swimming pool after his dinner but were encouraging him to eat his dinner. Someone at dinner said something about swimming and Gabe responded with, "You can't go swimming until you eat 2 bites of macaroni and cheese!"

· I was changing Gabe's diaper and I said, "I will be so excited when you wear big boy underwear all the time and don't need diapers! Are you excited about that?" He responded with a strong, "Yes!" I asked, "So Gabe – when do you think that will happen? When do you think you'll get potty-trained?" He thought for a minute and said, "Hmmm….I think in 2 minutes!" (don't I wish….)

· "Oh look mom – our mushkin is sleeping" (I had no idea what he was saying until I realized that he was talking about Hunter – and calling him a "munchkin")

· "I can't member" (Gabe says this all the time. Whether he can't remember where he put his toys, the words to a song, or someone's name)

· I asked Gabe where he got his new socks. He said, "Old Lady" – (Old Navy)

· I asked Gabe if he was spoiled. He said, "No, I'm not – but daddy and I like to eat spoiled eggs" (he meant hard BOILED eggs)

Hunter - growing so fast!

I have been really hit lately at how fast Hunter is growing up. I think part of it was that last week was FULL of milestones, and it just kind of freaked me out. Some of the things that happened this past week:

• Hunter started eating much better. He tried (and enjoyed) squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, pear and carrots! He also wanted to eat when we were out to eat with Cory's family on Saturday and we fed him some baked potato. He did really well with it - better than Gabe does with potatoes at 2 1/2!
• Sitting up - and he enjoys sitting up a lot now! Playing with toys and everything has a new perspective when sitting up. He's also enjoying sitting in his high-chair when I'm cooking, or getting things around the kitchen done.
• Moved to a "big boy" car seat. He's still rear-facing, but he is in a bucket car seat rather that those darn carriers. We're trying it out for now, and we'll see if we revert to the carrier - but for now it's working well.
• Rolling EVERYWHERE - He is getting all over the place lately - rolling. He gets himself into the funniest and most uncomfortable positions when he rolls.
• Getting his haircut for the first time on Friday (March 7th).
• BOOKS. One thing that's kept him very happy is board-books. He kind of likes reading them with me - but mostly he loves eating them. That's why I have a HUGE supply of board books for him to enjoy.

My mind is a bit blank, but it seems like there were a few other things too...I'll have to think about it.

Oh - I remember - Hunter is also the grabbiest baby on the planet! He grabs EVERYTHING, and has made life tricky. The one that drives me nuts is how he grabs my hair. I constantly have to wear my hair in a ponytail (which it's kind of too short for....) and he STILL pulls it. He pulls it out of the ponytail but worse than that he pulls the little hairs at the base of my neck. And he pulls at them so that there is NO way he's letting go. He's brought me to tears more than once. My hair looks horrible 99% of the time anymore because he just messes it all up. He also grabs my face, pinches me when I'm nursing him, and gets really frantic grabbing at whatever he can get his hands on when he's hungry.

But here are a few pictures I snapped of him after dinner. I found a spot in my kitchen with some good lighting. I didn't have time to play around with camera settings much, but I think I will try to set up a little 'photo shoot' later this week and try to get some pictures of both of my boys. Hunter was so serious when I was taking his picture today - I could NOT get a smile out of the kiddo.

Haircut

Last week we got Hunter's haircut for the first time. He did really well. He was wiggly - as was to be expected - but he didn't cry even once, and we got a pretty good first haircut. It was reassuring when she broke out the clippers and he didn't scream. Gabe still cries and gets upset when we try to use clippers. His hair isn't nearly as thick as Gabe's was at this age, but it has just as many cowlicks and is still super fine. I also think it has a bit more red to it (I LOVE red hair!)

So here's our little guy - growing up right before our eyes. I think the haircut really makes him look a bit older.

layouts

Here's a couple of layouts I've worked on lately. As always - nothing too exciting, but feels good to have them done :)

A good day

Do you ever have those moments when you just think to yourself - this is a good day? You're productive, you have fun, you don't break down and cry because your boys are too much to handle, you don't have to take a Tylenol or Advil for the whole day, you're productive and get cleaning projects done, and you just feel HAPPY? Well that was today for me. As I was putting Hunter down tonight I just found that I was full of a really GOOD, happy energy. With out tired I've been lately from being sick and all - having this energy is something that almost feels foreign to me. But good foreign :) I hope it can keep up and we can have lots more great days like this. So here are a few things that have made me happy today:

• To start out with Hunter learned a new trick today! He started yesterday with Cory - but he really perfected it today. LOOK - NO HANDS! He is sitting up all on his own, and does it really well! Sure, he gets a little tipsy - but for the most part he can sit up all on his own and has fun playing with toys. He's sat on all kinds of surfaces and I'm so proud of him! This is a milestone that has been a bit slow in coming, and it's a relief for it to happen. Pretty exciting!


• Hunter also ate like a champ today. He ate 2 servings (a total of one large container) of Squash - and did SO good with it! He was opening his mouth for it - I didn't have to force-feed him, and he actually kept some of it in his mouth. YAY!
• Gabe and I had a fun day together. We had fun playing more than normal. You know how some days are just smoother, and more fun than others? We played super heroes, we played super heroes who were also ghosts (tricky aren't we?), super hero photographers (that is what he's doing in the picture - taking pictures with his Diego camera book), legos, waffle blocks, read stories, Gabe even ate well today (another amazing accomplishment!) and we just generally got along really well. There were several moments when I just had to give him a great big HUGE hug and remember how grateful I am for him (for both of the boys! I am so darn lucky!)
• 
  
• Clean floors, bathrooms, rugs, mirrors, (some) windows - it all feels GREAT! I love the feeling of tackling a bunch of cleaning projects. Gabe kept wanting to "help" - but for the most part I managed to keep him busy and out of the way.
• I went to a new book-store today. It's not actually a NEW store - but they moved to a new location. Man - I love bookstores (especially LDS bookstores - they are my favorite)! And I picked up a couple pictures of the Savior with children to frame for the boy's rooms, a fun YW book, a neat looking board book about Easter for Gabe and Hunter, and a neat thought book from "Time Out for Women". There is something very relaxing and rejuvinating about walking into a bookstore - I love it, and could literally spend 100's of dollars in bookstores!
• I got to go to Roberts this afternoon too! (Cory came on some errands with me and sat in the car with the boys who were napping. Yeah - I got naps AND got to run some errands by myself - it was marvelous!) I was trying to find some Easter decorations because I really don't have anything. They weren't too helpful - but I did make a couple of bunny decorations and bought a couple of pre-made things...maybe I'll take pictures of them later. I am so lucky to have a Roberts Craft - it's a great store!
• Sunshine - the weather today was really pretty. It was a bit deceiving - and was colder than it looked outside - but it was still pretty enough to open the screen-door while I was cleaning and running around. I love the smell and feel of Spring!
• Knowing that I have an appointment to have Hunter's hair cut tomorrow - yipee! I haven't cut his hair yet, because he doesn't really have a ton of hair - but it has gotten long, shaggy, and he looks a bit like an orphan - especially after some time in his car-seat. So tomorrow at 1:00 - we're trimming it up. I think he's going to look a lot more grown up - I'm a bit scared....
• Miniature Cadbury Creme Eggs - EVIL. Ok, I have always loved the big Cadbury Creme Eggs that come out at Easter. But have you seen these? YUMMO! They are so delicious, and because they are smaller - they don't seem as rich. They are really perfect. I wish I had never tried them....they are too good!
  

And lastly - some Gabe funnies to keep you smiling:

• At dinner tonight Cory was making a comment about something (I can't remember what....) and said the phrase, "What the?" and paused. Gabe chimed in loudly with, "HECK?" We cracked up. We were relieved that he chimed in with "Heck" and not another alternative.... :)
• Tonight Gabe helped me to make muffins to go with our dinner. I always sing the song "Do you know the muffin man?" - so as we were making our muffins I said, "Hey Gabe - you're the muffin man now!" He sat and thought about it for a few minutes. Then he said, "Mom, I can't be the muffin man tonight - I'm just a BOY!" So we decided that it's been changed to "Do you know the muffin boy?" I love how observant he can be and the funny things he says.
• We washed the car today - I love a clean car! Before we went to wash it we headed to the convenience store for some treats (I have a weakness for Maverik convenience store...) When I got back in the car and was getting ready to pull out this older man in a cowboy hat walked by our car. Gabe got so excited and yelled, "Oh mom - I found THE cowboy!" He was so excited and so proud that he had spotted THE one and only cowboy we have in Cedar City.
• A few weeks ago I was making a comment about how I wasn't loosing weight and because of that I had a big behind and tummy. Gabe looked at me so seriously, tipped his head to the side and said, "Yeah, you really do need to go get on that treadmill downstairs - huh?" Once again - incredibly observant - and VERY smart!!!
• This morning I was working on some cleaning projects and I noticed that Gabe had climbed up on our bed and buried himself in the pillows on the bed. I said, "Where did Gabe go?" He giggled and said, "I'm hiding!" I asked, "What are you doing while you're hiding?" He popped out his head and said, "I'm reading." So I said, "But Gabe - you can't read when you're hiding - you don't have a book!" He came out from under the pile of pillows and said, "Yes I do - I am reading my Book of Mormon stories" - and held out his hands in the action from the song. DUH Mom!
• In relation to the last one - the other day Gabe was eating a treat and his hands got all sticky. He said, "Uh-oh mom - my Book of Mormon stories are all dirty!"
  

The pictures

So here are a few pictures of our last few days.

• Hunter and Gabe - darn those two are cute! While they definetly look like brothers - I think they both have their own look too. I actually have a matching shirt for Hunter - I need to get them both in their twinner shirts to take pictures!
• Sweet-Potatoes 101 - Tonight Hunter actually ate better than he has been. Or at least he managed to smear food all over his face better than he has been - I can't really decide which. He had a blast making a mess though, and I'm hoping it leaves him wanting to eat more!
• Gabe loved making funny faces for the camera - I don't know if he likes the silly pictures, or if he just likes the attention....
• Gabe wanted to have a "mustache" - on his nose. I think he was just jealous that Hunter got to rub his dinner all over his body and had to join in.
• Here are the boys with Gramma Rhien (or Princess Orlene - which ever you'd prefer). They loved having her here (as did I). We're all looking forward to meeting up with Gramma and Grampa Rhien, and Aunt Julia at Disneyland in a couple of weeks. Should be lots of fun!
• Hunter officially turned 7 months old on Sunday (WOW!) For some reason odd # months always make a baby sound so much older - 7 months sounds a lot older than 6....He still doesn't want to sit up on his own for longer than a few seconds (though he's getting better...), he's finally starting to eat a bit better with solid foods, he has become the world's best hair-puller (which I have yet to find amusing - especially when he pulls it OUT of my pony-tail, and pulls the little whispy hairs at the base of my neck - OUCH!), he's pretty good at scratching faces too - loves to grab our faces, and he's a terrible sleeper. In fact - he's become the first 7 month old baby I know that has given up naps completely (other than when I feed him and he falls asleep in my arms - which he wakes up immediately when I try to lay him down). He is exhausting me - but he's darn cute - which is a darn good thing or we might have to put him up for sale!

Checking in

I keep avoiding blogging because I haven't written for so long, and have lots that I want to cover. But since I've been feeling better I haven't had time to just sit down and post a bunch. So I figure I should check in and at least tell everyone we're alive :)

My mom ended up coming to stay with us last week to help us get back on our feet. I just felt so run down and crummy - and so did the rest of the family. Hunter wasn't sleeping (I mean like 2 hours a night!) He only wanted to be held and felt really sick. Gabe started feeling miserable too and would just SCREAM and SCREAM, "My nose and tears" at even the slightest feeling of his nose running. He had a really hard time figuring out how to blow his nose and that didn't help things too much.

It was nice to have my mom here to help with the boys, help with meals, watch the boys while Cory and went out a couple of times (the movie Vantage Point is really good!) and be around so I could rest some in the mornings. I also love having her around to chat with. My mom is really probably my best friend, and it makes me sad that we don't live closer. In a dream world we'd live on the same street as most of our family so we could enjoy each other's company whenever we wanted instead of quick trips occasionaly. It would be so great to have Grandma's around to help with the boys when we needed - and the boys would love it too. People who have family that live close to them have no idea what it's like to be so far from family....it stinks.

Anyway, we're feeling mostly better. I wouldn't say we're 100% - and Hunter is still having sleeping issues - but we're back in the land of the living and hopefully will be back to 100% soon.

For now I'm just running around trying to get stuff done for our Young Women's New Beginnings Program on Wednesday. I will be SO glad when everything is finished for that. Thursday morning will be a great time at our house - I'm planning a bubble bath with an ice cold Diet DP and a deep breath.

And lastly - a quick Gabe funny. Yesterday we were getting ready for church and I said, "Gabe - guess where we're going today?" He answered, "Hmmm...I don't member (remember)". I told him we were going to church and going to nursery. He got all excited and then he said, "Yeah, and then I'm going to go on a mission, and then I'm going to marry a princess!" I'm glad he has it figured out - and that he knows a mission needs to happen BEFORE he gets married :)

A few nights before he was watching the movie "Anastasia" with my mom. He told her he was going to marry a princess - Princess "Orlene" (he was trying to say Earlene - my mom's name). So cute.

Gabe funny

Last night Cory was getting Gabe ready for bed after his bath. He got out some Baby Vicks Vapo Rub and put it on Gabe's chest because he was coughing. He told Gabe it was medicine to go on his chest. Gabe responded with, "So now will I get HAIR?!?"

Dear Gabe - I sure hope not - I've been using that stuff all week long....

Some New Rules

Just wanted to inform you of some new rules that we have decided to institute at our house. I'm sure you will want to join in.

1. If any of the children in the household are sick - the parents MUST feel 100%. Kids and parents are NOT allowed to be sick at the same time - no matter what!
2. All calories consumed while sick do NOT count. If you feel like crap - you should be able to eat like crap and not have it count against you.
3. If you get a nasty bug you should have a MINIMUM of one month to recover before being subjected to another evil bug. You should have time to recover and get your house back in order before you return to the world of sniffles, freight-train like headaches and body shaking chills.
4. If one parent is sick - the other should not be allowed to feel ANY symptoms of sickness until the first one is completely better.
5. If both parents happen to be sick at the same time (which should not happen - see rule #4) - NO kids are allowed to be sick under any circumstances.
6. If everyone in the house has been sick for 3 week - JUST GIVE UP.

The SICKIES are back

Yup - we're sick all over again. I never quite kicked the last bug we had, but we have something new now. I've been coughing non-stop, Gabe's started coughing, and Cory and I both have yucky body-aches, a headache, Gabe has a fever - all the good stuff. Cory even stayed home from work - the whole day - so I know he must be feeling pretty awful. We were trying to figure out how long it's been since our whole house has been 100% healthy - and I'm pretty sure it's been almost since the first of the year. It's frustrating because I can really say we're generally pretty healthy people. The people I think we got sick from also had really bad diahrea and stomache flu in addition to the crud we have - so let's pray those symptoms skip over us.

Here is a layout I did last week as I was starting to feel better...The journaling reads:

"This picture cracks me up. Here you are sitting down to open your Valentine present...on the toilet. This just kind of captures a slice of our life. We were in the bathroom bathing Hunter, Gabe wanted to open Valentine's presents - so here we did it. I like where our life is right now though; two kids, craziness, and still in love - that sounds like a perfect Valentine's Day to me! Love you sweetheart! (February 14th, 2008)"

And at the risk of some of you thinking I'm actually caught up to Valentine's Day 2008 - not even CLOSE! :) Sometimes it motivates me to jump at current pictures - then I work on the others later...at least that's the plan someday.....

Happy Birthday Little Brother!

Today is my little brother Paul's birthday. Wish we could be in New Mexico celebrating with you guys - but hope you know we love you and hope your birthday is fantastic! I have loved to see Paul as he's become a dad. He is so sweet with Taylor and it will be exciting to see him with her as she grows up and changes.

Love all of you guys and hope your birthday is awesome!

Edited to add: A few weeks ago I said to Gabe, "Tell your little brother goodnight". He said, "Good-night little butt-fur." He knows how to say brother - so Cory and I really cracked up when he called Hunter his little 'butt-fur'. So I guess I should have said "Happy birthday little butt-fur" :)

a couple more layouts

Hunter's rash

When we got up this morning Hunter's rash is almost 100% gone! I am thinking that maybe the dr was wrong and he didn't have HSP, but a more mild reaction to the fever...but I don't know for sure. We'll still watch for the side-effects, but I'm feeling like we're a closer to being out of the woods. So here are a few pictures of what his rash looked like. They're not great pictures, but you can see how it was bright red, and also had purple marks. I hope it doesn't come back - but at least for now we'll be grateful that he's doing a bit better.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

So I had hoped to post this earlier - so I could be wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day, but that just didn't happen. So Happy (kind of belated) Valentine's Day!

Here are some pictures of our day. In the morning the boys got to open their Valentine's from grandparents and Cory and I. Gabe was really excited about the Valentine he had picked out for Cory, and surprisingly even kept the Spiderman chocolates a surprise. Gabe got a Geotrax toy for his trains and Hunter got a peek-a-boo book (he LOVES playing peek-a-boo!)

Then we went out to lunch with Cory. I asked Gabe what he wanted for lunch and he said, "I want lunch with Daddy. I want to go to the lunch-store with him!" So we met at our favorite hamburger joint (Brad's Food Hut - YUM!) before heading to the doctor for Hunter.

Poor, poor Hunter. As I posted I thought he was getting better. That is until yesterday morning when he woke up covered with a rash all over his poor little body. His fever was down, and he seemed to be doing better, but the rash got worse. So we headed to the dr for the second time this week. He has what is called HSP or Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. It is basically a reaction to the virus his body has been fighting - kind of an allergic reaction to the virus. It can have dangerous complications, but the Dr said it is likely that it will go away on it's own. However, the rash can last up to several weeks - like 4-6 weeks. It could also go away in 2-3 days....so we'll see. Keep the little guy in your prayers - I don't think he's very comfortable. If I get around to it I might post some other pictures of it later....but they might just gross you out.

Then we came home and read some fun Valentine's stories, delivered some Valentine's to some of Gabe's friends, and called it a night. I did give the boys some fun Valentine's Pajamas. I had bought them around Thanksgiving time online at the Gap and I was so excited to put them on them after baths tonight. They looked so cute!

Oh one more thing - have to record the cute thing Gabe said today. I was telling him that when we took our Valentine's around (he picked out Cars Valentines with Cars pencils to give out to friends) that he needed to say, "Will you be my Valentine?" I said, "Now what do you say when you give the girls their cards?" He thought for a minute and yelled, "Will you be my PARTNER?" I don't know where he got that one - but it made me laugh :)

Well everyone - I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day and that your sweethearts surprised you with something sweet and romantic!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Joanna

This picture cracked me up. Hunter was falling over as I was trying to get a cute picture of the boys together and Gabe started screaming, "HELP! HUNTER'S FALLING!!!!!" But as you can see - Gabe wasn't doing much to help him up :)

on the mend and a couple other layouts

Well, we're on the mend here. I'm still fighting a cough and exhaustion - but I'm getting better. Now it's just getting Hunter back to 100%, and praying Gabe never gets it. Hunter woke up pretty sick Sunday in the EARLY morning hours. He felt rotten all day Sunday and yesterday - but he seems to be doing a lot better today. I did take him into the dr this morning and he seemed MUCH better (does that happen to any other moms - you make the dr appointment and suddenly the child gets better on their own?) The dr said it's a virus (which I suspected, but wanted to be sure) and to keep an eye on him. His fever is down quite a bit today and he's much happier - so that's a good sign. He has been up ALL NIGHT LONG for the last several nights and is just a mess unless we hold him. So I haven't gotten much sleep for like 5 nights now and it's really starting to wear me out. But that's life I guess.

Here are a few digital pages I made a while back, but hadn't added the photos. It was nice to just take a few minutes this afternoon while Gabe ate lunch and finish them up. I have a few others I need to add pictures to as well - so keep watching, I'll post them when they're done.

A few people have asked if I do digital scrapbooking only now. I am still planning on paper scrapbooking....someday....It's just a lot easier to deal with digital stuff than to get out the messes with paper scrapping. Especially since my office right now is a disaster - I wouldn't know where to even start to create a paper layout! And though I have yet to print out any of the pages I do, I did get a nice large format printer from Cory for Christmas, so I will eventually start printing them. I also want to try out Shutterfly's photo books.

Sick and some layouts

This has been a crummy week at the Ellis house. I came down with the cruddy cold that's been going around and have been sick for the last several days. Yesterday I felt SO awful - I honestly don't know when I've been so sick (aside from pregnancy). We're talking fever, chills, body aches, a sore-throat like no other, headache, cough, stuffy everything. YUCK! But I feel remarkably better today after a reasonbly good night sleep. Hopefully the worst of it is over...



Well today I luckily feel well enough to sit and do some digital scrapbooking. Cory's taken Gabe with him to get the truck washed and other Saturday errands. Hunter's asleep - so I'm getting some scrapping done. Nothing strenuous, and it's even fun :)



Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

(EDITED TO ADD: YIKES! I realized later that in the SPLASH layout that I didn't specify why I looked like a beached whale. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with Hunter. Sadly the pictures don't look like that - but look more like I ATE an 8 1/2 month pregnant ELEPHANT!)

And the winners are.....

Are you ready?

Just a second, hold your horses! First I wanted to thank you all for the comments you made. I loved hearing what you all want to leave as your legacy and what you want others to think of when they think of you and your life. I loved the simple things - like wanting to be known as being the fastest cookie eater (although I think Dad definetly has you beat Jed!) and I also loved ones like being a good missionary, a good friend, a great problem solver, or being dedicated. The list goes on and on - I think you all have fabulous goals to work towards - and many of you are mastering those (at least from where I can see!)

And secondly I wanted to say thank you for all of the kind comments that so many of you made. I hadn't written my original post to boost my confidence - and I wasn't trying to throw myself a pitty party about being known as a stressed out person. It was simply an observation I had made, and a feeling I had after some recent comments from some people. Anyway - I really appreciated all of the comments - many brought a tear to my eye, and helped me to see myself in some nice ways. Thank you guys - it meant a lot to me. (more than you'll know!)

So now the reason you're reading this post - you want to know if you won the movie - right? We had 16 people respond to my question. So I wrote down 1-16 on slips of paper and had Gabe draw the winners. The winners were:

#3 - Jed

#11 - Mom

And for fun - #12 - Kristi

So Jed - you get to choose first which DVD you'd like.

Then Mom will get the movie that Jed doesn't choose.

And Kristi - I'll pick something fun to send you because I love sending fun mail out! (almost as much as I love getting fun surprise mail!)

New First Presidency

What a neat thing to have happen today - the appointment of a new First Presidency for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I have always had a special place in my heart for President Monson - since I was a little girl. Even ast a small child I loved hearing his calming voice, his stories, and his love of service and of the gospel. In fact, when I was in 4th grade he was speaking at the hospital my dad worked at. I begged to be taken out of school because I wanted to be there to hear him. My parents checked me out of school (which they honestly didn't do for anything short of death!) and I attended his talk at the hospital. He came out to the hall afterwards when I was getting a drink and he gave me a big hug. I remember feeling (and still do) so special that he took the time to do that. My mom reminded me today that I also was surprised at how tall and big he was :).

I know that no matter who had been called as the First Presidency would have done amazing work, but I look forward to the experiences these wonderful men will bring to the church. I love their passion for the gospel, their love of the Savior, and the way that they can speak and really touch my spirit.

I am so grateful for a church that has a seemingly seamless change in leadership - as opposed to the way the world chooses leaders (example - the current election 'mess' we deal with every day). The peace that is evident in this change is so different from the contention we are faced with as we watch the news as our country works to choose our next government leaders.

I am also grateful for the chance to teach Gabe tonight about the new First Presidency. A few months ago when we go the November issue of The Ensign we got out the pictures of the new apostles and talked to Gabe about the new member of the First Presidency. We worked on the names of the apostles, and he really caught on quickly - it was neat. So tonight we talked about how we needed a new prophet since President Hinckley has passed away (Gabe tells us that President Hinckley died - and that means he went to live with Heavenly Father). But by the time we were going to bed Gabe kept saying the names of the 1st Presidency over and over and over again - and was begging to see a picture of them in the 'magazine'. I know he doesn't totally get who these men are, or what they do - but I would like to think he has a little glimpse of their importance.

And if nothing else - for now I love how he points to his eyes when he says, "President EYE-ring" (the way we taught him to remember President Eyring's name).

Chilly